Before noon the next day, the 24th, Jin D submitted a written report summarizing his findings on the bandit group to Duke Blue.
"Ho... So one of their hideouts is halfway up Mount Bilbo? Is this information reliable?"
The data hadn’t been retrieved from a control core; it was the result of Laojun’s real-time tracking via Peeping Telescopes, making its reliability absolute. However, Jin could hardly reveal that.
"I see, I see. There are four in the gang total. The three who appeared last night, plus one who remained at the hideout. They only have two golems, one of which we’ve secured... I see, I see."
The other documents contained technical details on the golems, starting with their internal structure. Not being an expert, Duke Blue merely skimmed those pages.
Had she read them thoroughly, however, capturing the bandits might have been a much smoother affair.
"The first priority is capturing the scoundrels....Jin-dono, thank you for uncovering this information....What do you plan to do now?"
After issuing orders to mobilize the soldiers, Duke Blue expressed her gratitude and asked about Jin's next steps.
"I don't have any particular plans, but I'm quite tired after staying up all night. I think I'll head back to the inn to rest," Jin D replied.
If this had been the real Jin, he might have accidentally mentioned returning to Hourai Island. However, since the unit was being operated by Laojun, no such slip of the tongue occurred.
"I see, that makes sense. I managed to take a nap myself, but you have yet to sleep, have you, Jin-dono? My apologies for the oversight....Please, I insist you rest here at my mansion."
Since the Duke went so far as to bow her head, Jin D couldn't very well refuse. He agreed to accept her hospitality and stay at the estate.
Of course, since it was a Doppel, "resting" simply meant taking a bath and then pretending to sleep in a guest bed. The real Jin was already back on Hourai Island and had enjoyed a proper night's sleep, so there were no physical consequences.
＊ ＊ ＊
The real Jin was currently deep in thought, analyzing the data from the captured golem.
"I think the core concept is actually quite good. In essence, they've simplified the expensive hardware as much as possible and compensated for it with software that can be easily mass-produced through copying."
"It is exactly as you say, My Lord. It is a system entirely distinct from that of Adriana Barbora Tsetse," Laojun agreed.
"Yeah."
Jin was primarily a mechanical engineer, a hardware devotee who loved working with metals and materials. Regarding computer programming, he had only dabbled in BASIC and FORTRAN during his time at night high school, influenced by a friend.
However, he had been blessed with an excellent teacher, leaving him with a solid grasp of flowcharts and logic routines. This foundation had been immensely helpful whenever he needed to create new magic or write control systems for golems after arriving on Planet Ars.
Furthermore, Jin possessed a craftsman-like nature, which gave him a natural affinity for the engineering style of the Predecessor Magi Craft Meister, Adriana Barbora Tsetse. That might have been one of the reasons he was chosen as her Successor in the first place.
But to return to the matter at hand.
"This system has its own strengths."
Personally, Jin felt it might even be superior to the ball-joint style.
"The ball-joint style is... well, it’s a bit of a compromise. Half-baked, in a way."
Because of that, Jin was considering whether he could refine and improve upon this new direction. And then, a thought struck him.
"I wonder... what if I combined it with a Fluid Form Drive?"
A Fluid Form Drive utilized an exterior that served as an exoskeleton, which was then filled with a liquid magical metal—something like mercury. This liquid metal would be manipulated using Forming-type magic to generate movement.
However, he realized almost immediately that there was a flaw in that idea. As the name implied, a Fluid Form Drive was an exoskeleton system; it wasn't really suited for an internal skeleton.
"It’s tricky. But that’s what makes it interesting..."
Jin cherished moments like these.
"If I move the entire body using Forming magic, I’m just going back to basics—it would basically be a primitive golem..."
Indeed, the very first Stone Golems were made by carving mana-reactive magi-stones into humanoid shapes and animating them with Forming magic. Since their entire bodies were solid stone, they were heavy and their movements were inevitably sluggish.
"But wait..."
The primary drawback of a Stone Golem was its massive weight. However, it had distinct advantages: it was perfectly suited for simple, repetitive labor, and as long as it didn't run out of free ether, it could move almost perpetually. Even now, the golems mining mineral resources deep beneath Hourai Island were of this type.
"If there were a lightweight magi-material with a specific gravity of one... wouldn't that be interesting?"
What sprang to Jin's mind was magi-polyethylene, the magi-engineering plastic developed by Saki.
Its specific gravity was roughly 0.94. Jin calculated that if he added auxiliary components like a control core, the total specific gravity would likely land right around one.
"Alternatively, I could use Ground Spider resin."
However, GSP had a specific gravity of about two—"about" because biological materials always had some inherent variation. Incidentally, standard magi-resin had a similar weight, with values close to those of fluororesins.
"Let's try it with magi-polyethylene first."
He started with a transparent sample. Using Forming magic, he shaped it into a humanoid and embedded a control core into the chest.
For this first prototype, he decided on a remote type. He simply lacked the necessary movement data to make it operate autonomously yet.
"Laojun, give this a try."
"As you wish, My Lord."
Laojun had accumulated vast amounts of data from operating various remote-controlled units, from the Doppels to Titan 3. Jin’s plan was to use that as a foundation and build up new control data from there.
"Commencing movement."
Following Laojun's declaration, control commands were sent to the trial golem. The construct slowly began to stand up...
"This is quite challenging."
"In what way?"
"The precision of fixing the coordinates for the movement points is insufficient, My Lord. At this level of accuracy, a standard control core would expend almost all its resources just on basic movement control, leaving only the barest minimum for autonomous thought."
"I see. That explains why those bandit golems could only give canned responses."
Even so, the trial golem managed to get to its feet and began to walk slowly across the workshop floor. Its gait, however, was reminiscent of a large infant.
True to its capabilities, Laojun managed to make the movements considerably smoother in less than a minute—though "smoother" was a relative term compared to how it had started.
After observing for about three minutes, Jin called a halt.
"Alright, that’s enough. I’ve thought of something."
Jin laid the trial golem on a workbench and prepared several small magi-crystals. He embedded them into the golem at points corresponding to the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, ankles, waist, and neck.
"I’ve added these as markers to make the control coordinates easier to identify. How about now?"
Laojun attempted to move the trial golem once more.
"My Lord, this is an excellent solution. The computational load for control has dropped significantly."
With the resources previously used to calculate coordinates now freed up, the movements became much more fluid. The golem’s walking evolved from that of an infant to a toddler, and then to a young child.
"It’s much better....Laojun, are there still areas that feel sluggish?"
"Yes, My Lord. The response time is still somewhat dull. It may be that the mana conductivity of the material is subpar."
"I see..."
He could have installed magi-circuits made of mithril throughout the body, but that would defeat the purpose of this low-cost system. Jin fell back into thought.
"...In the end, it really does come down to the material."
With that in mind, Jin created another trial golem of the same model, this time using Ground Spider resin. While it would be twice as heavy, the mana conductivity and physical strength would be vastly superior.
"What do you think, Laojun?"
"Let us see."
Trial Golem 2 began to move.
"Oh, this looks much better, doesn't it?"
Compared to No. 1, the movements were remarkably improved.
"Yes, My Lord. With this, it should be easy to replicate human-level movement with ease."
"I see. So the material really is the key..."
While magi-polyethylene was easy to produce, Ground Spider resin was a specialized material, meaning this version wouldn't necessarily lead to a reduction in mass-production costs.
Nevertheless, having confirmed that this approach was viable, Jin decided to push further in his quest for improvement.