The reaction speed test proceeded smoothly.
"Bib #5, 'Lotte Type 53'... 0.06 seconds!"
(Oh, that's quite a good number.)
Since this "Whack-a-Mole" style testing method was surprisingly effective, Jin thought it might be worth adopting himself.
"Bib #6, 'Jupitera'... Begin!"
(Hmm, that movement shows not only heavy armor, but low processing capability in the control core as well.)
It was supposed to strike right at the point of light, but its aim was subtly off.
"Bib #6, 0.1 seconds!"
"Urgh..."
A group of spectators groaned in frustration.
"Bib #7, 'Aria'... 0.09 seconds!"
(It broke below 0.1 seconds. They're doing quite well.)
The Craft Queen Workshop's creation showed promising room for future growth.
"Bib #8, Great Rock... Begin!"
(Ah, that's a bit... disappointing.)
Its movements were visibly sluggish, and its aim at the point of light was somewhat off.
"Bib #8, 0.14 seconds!"
With this, the reaction speed test for all eight units came to an end.
(Hmm, the current technological standard really has dropped, after all. I hope this lecture serves as a catalyst for improvement...)
Jin sincerely wished for the advancement of magi-craft.
"Next, we will proceed to the precision movement test. This will be measured across two parts: moving 5 mm steel balls into this dish within a set time, and determining how small each can write characters."
The dish had one hundred indentations carved into it that fit the steel balls perfectly.
(I see, interesting. If the material were more brittle than steel balls, you could also test their pinching force regulation... Also, if possible, I'd like to test the overall precision of their full-body movements... like how fast they could navigate a narrow, winding corridor... Ah, but that varies with body size, so it wouldn't work right away. In that case...)
While Jin was lost in thought, the announcer spoke up.
"First, we will begin with transferring the steel balls into the dish."
In front of the eight units, a dish piled high with steel balls and a dish with one hundred indentations were placed on tables.
The height of each table was adjusted to match the waist level of each respective golem.
"The time limit is one minute. Ready... Begin!"
"Oh! This is..."
"H-How fast!"
The eight units nimbly pinched the steel balls and transferred them into their dishes.
Even so, differences emerged; some easily finished transferring all one hundred balls within a minute, while others ran out of time.
"Time's up!...Bib #1, Avalon general-purpose golem: 51 seconds!"
Finishing one hundred balls in 51 seconds meant a pace of roughly two balls per second, which was likely faster than a human.
"Bib #2, Avalon combat golem: 56 seconds!"
It was slower than Bib #1, but for a combat golem, this level of precision deserved praise, Jin thought.
"Bib #3, 'Prototype 8': 43 seconds!"
(Oh, Eira and the others worked hard with that model.)
Jin was impressed that it could achieve such a score with a "ball-joint style."
"Bib #4, 'Storm': 25 seconds!"
The venue buzzed with excitement.
(Yeah, four per second. That's a great result. Freddie and the others did fine work.)
"Bib #5, 'Lotte Type 53': 41 seconds!"
(Oh, Ernest's team showed some real grit, too.)
"Bib #6, 'Jupitera': 89 balls in one minute!"
Here came the first entry unable to transfer all one hundred balls.
(It dropped quite a few around itself...)
Dozens of steel balls that Bib #6 had failed to grasp lay scattered around its feet.
"Bib #7, 'Aria': 59 seconds!"
(Oh, just barely made it, but they pulled it off. The Craft Queen Workshop has a bright future ahead.)
"Bib #8, 'Great Rock': 89 balls in one minute!"
(Same as Bib #6, huh. The Klein Kingdom National Magi-Engineering Laboratory has some work to do going forward...)
"...This concludes the comparative test for the steel ball transfer. Next, we will have them write small characters. The characters will be the numerals from 0 to 9."
In place of the steel balls and dishes, pens and paper were set down.
"The time limit is one minute. You may write as many times as you like within that period."
(I see. The strategy would be to write progressively smaller characters.)
Jin recalled craftsmen who wrote sutras on grains of rice with a brush—inscribing Buddhist chants and prayers in miniature script.
From what he could see, the paper had a very smooth surface. It looked more like western-style paper rather than washi.
It seemed the surface had been coated and passed through calenders or supercalenders (machines used to give paper smoothness, gloss, and other qualities).
"Now, begin!"
The hands of the golems were projected onto the magi-screen.
(Oh, that's remarkably fine.)
One could gauge the size of the characters by comparing them to the pen tip.
(As expected, the combat golem... struggles with this.)
The Avalon combat golem, Bib #2, seemed incapable of writing small characters.
"Time's up!"
The minute passed, and everyone set down their pens. Staff members prepared transparent sheets etched with grid lines, seemingly to overlay and measure the writing for comparison.
"Bib #1: approximately 1 mm."
Numerals roughly 1 mm in height were written on the page.
"Bib #2: approximately 3 mm."
Any smaller characters were crushed or distorted beyond recognition.
(No surprise for a combat golem.)
"Bib #3: approximately 1 mm."
(Hmm, with ball joints, there's a bit of mechanical play, so this might be the limit.)
Indeed, the "ball-joint style" inherently required joint clearance, leading to slight deviations—though well under a millimeter.
Incidentally, while the "Adriana-style" also had slight joint clearance, joint covers serving as "ligaments" compensated for it, resulting in virtually no wobbling.
Furthermore, the "magic-frame style" had no mechanical joints due to its structure, eliminating this type of looseness entirely.
The rest came down to the control system.
"Bib #4: 0.5 mm!"
Cries of awe rose from the spectator stands.
"Bib #5: approximately 1 mm."
(That's probably the limit of the ball-joint style...) Jin thought.
"Bib #6: approximately 4 mm."
"Tch, this test is pointless!"
"Yeah, exactly!"
A portion of the spectators voiced their dissatisfaction.
"Bib #7: approximately 2 mm."
(I suppose they never anticipated this sort of delicate task. Still, for a general-purpose model, it should be able to handle at least this much.)
Jin evaluated it somewhat critically.
"Bib #8: approximately 4 mm."
(Well, looking at it another way, managing this much for a combat golem might actually deserve credit.)
By the way, since this was not a competition, no official rankings were assigned.
Even so, the differences in capability were abundantly clear to the audience.
"Thank you very much. Now, we shall move on to the final comparison."
At last came the final event: the intelligence test.