“Ah…”
“…Yeah.”
When I finished describing the contraption, both mages locked eyes, nodded, then looked at me like they were trying to figure out how to break the bad news.
“Judging by your faces…lemme guess. This idea’s already been researched to death? And the results weren’t great?”
“That’s the long and short of it, yeah. Most folks eventually arrive at the idea of drawing in the inexhaustible mana from the atmosphere and converting it into usable od.”
“Mana? Od?” I asked, prompting the girls to explain things to me in simple terms.
Ira explained, “Magic energy in the atmosphere without a fixed quality or wavelength is called mana. The refined magic energy circulating inside the human body that can be used to cast spells is called od. But most people just refer to both as ‘magic energy.’”
“I see… It tracks that folks would’ve tapped the atmosphere. Inexhaustible magic energy right above your head? Anyone would want that.”
“Mm, people studied it many years ago,” Ifriita said. “For instance, the staffs that mages use are basically a form of mana trap. People tend to direct their attention more on the focus tool that gathers a caster’s own energy and fires it, or the amplifier that boosts a caster’s magic energy upon being fired, but staffs also draw a bit of energy from the atmosphere to help replenish the caster’s magic energy.”
“The problem is efficiency. It’s like waving a piece of cloth through the mist hoping to catch water. Drain magic tools have been researched endlessly as a way to draw mana into a usable form. But drain magic spells burn more energy than they can ever recover.”
“I see. Can you give me more detail?”
Judging by how Ifriita was talking, it kinda seemed like energy from magic energy pools and vein hollows could be freely used. The assumption that magic energy in the atmosphere couldn’t be used fell apart.
Ifriita nodded. “The density of the energy is different. Mana in the atmosphere is inexhaustible, yes, but it’s very thin. Imagine putting a drop of sweet honey into a cup of water—you wouldn’t be able to taste it. But magic energy pools and vein hollows are like pure honey. Even if the quality isn’t consistent, it’s so dense that it’s ready to use.”
“Got it. So it’s a density issue, then… Hmm.”
That gave me a hint of where to direct my research. Drawing energy straight from thin air wouldn’t cut it. But if I could try to condense the atmospheric energy in one spot, build something like a magic pool, a proper mana trap might work.
“Okay, in that case, could you give me a breakdown of how staffs actually perform? Which staffs work best, and what materials lead to better results?”
“I’m not a specialist, so I might make some mistakes.”
“That’s fine. I just need a baseline to help guide me, then I can do some experiments and collect data myself.”
“Mm. All right.”
I listened carefully as the girls gave me a rundown of how magic staffs worked. Generally, longer and larger staffs made from materials with high magic energy conductivity drew atmospheric energy better. What caught my attention was learning that staffs with only heads made of pure mithril were much worse at collecting energy than the ones where the entire body was mixed with silver alloy and even small amounts of mithril in it—or were made from sacred trees that conducted magic energy well.
“So, in theory, a long staff made of pure mithril should be optimal.”
“If you could actually make one, sure.” Ifriita said with a laugh. “But that’s a huge if.”
“I totally can.”
“Yes. Kousuke can,” Ira interjected flatly.
“Right, I forgot who we were talking about here! Still, something like that would be too expensive to make available for mass use.”
“Yeah…true.” I admitted.
I want everyone to be able to use magic or magic tools cheaply. If I just pump these full of expensive mithril, I’ve already lost the point.
“Pure mithril might be overkill,” I mused, “so I should probably look into using mithril alloy. Adding a little bit of mithril to the equation boosts magic energy conduction significantly, right?”
“Mm. Mithril alloy is excellent. And mithril silver alloy is even better,” Ira confirmed.
“A little is fine, but you need to keep your eye on the price-performance ratio,” Ifriita warned. “Especially if you intend on making this sort of thing available to the commoners.”
“I’ll do my best.”
A sword made of pure mithril was valuable enough to become a national treasure, so making mass-produced tools from the same material would be absurdly out of reach of the common man. I wanted to make magic tools and magic energy use accessible to everyone.
Still…for me, mithril cost nothing. I could dig up more whenever I wanted.
“You’re not going to hold back, are you?” Ifriita narrowed her eyes.
“I feel like I’ve finally figured out how you think.” Ira said, nodding.
What? Impossible. How could they have seen through my poker face?
Okay, it wasn’t really much of a poker face. In fact, maybe I wasn’t even trying to hide it.
“All right, all right. For now, I’ve got a direction to work in. Could I get more deets?”
“Mm.”
“Sure.”
As I pressed them for specifics, I picked up a few more important details about the staffs and their ability to collect magic energy.
First, they did nothing unless you had them equipped.
Yeah, you heard me. I wasn’t joking. If the staff wasn’t in your hands, on your shoulders, or otherwise touching your body, it didn’t draw a single drop of atmospheric energy. That left me with two working theories: First: The energy collected by the staff couldn’t be transmitted unless there was a “magic conductor” of sorts connected to it. Second: Maybe living bodies in this world had something about them that inherently pulled in magic energy. After all, people naturally recovered the magic energy they used up over time. If that was in fact true, it was safe to say that the human body itself was going to be the bottleneck.
Thinking about it now, it made perfect sense. If any old matter with lots of magic energy conductivity could constantly suck in mana, then any magic tool in existence would be misfiring nonstop. The first mission, then, would be to artificially replicate the human body’s ability to draw in magic energy.
“Okay, I know what I need to work on. I’m gonna get started.”
“I can’t wait to see what you come up with.”
“What’s first?”
“As far as I can tell, the two things that matter the most for a primitive mana trap are magic energy conductivity and surface area.”
“Surface area…?”
Both Ira and Ifriita tilted their heads in unison.
Yeah, as I expected. I’m gonna make a bunch of stuff. It’ll be faster if you just see for yourself.
Ifriita’s room had become our temporary classroom, and I pulled my golem workbench out of my inventory, set it up, then after a few minutes of tinkering, a little trial and error…
“Boom. Prototype No. 1,” I said, presenting the first mana trap prototype from the workbench to the girls.
“What…is this thing?”
“A metal sphere…? With netting…?”
I grinned. The first prototype was a mithril-silver alloy sphere made entirely out of fine wire latticework. Both the surface and its internals were made of thin netting—there was latticework strung up through the entire thing. The outside frame was the only section where the wires were thicker and tougher, and the wires on the inside were much thinner. Despite how intricate it all looked, the entire thing was integrally molded. I suspected that even back in my old world, fabricating something like this would’ve been nearly impossible.
All hail my crafting skills!
“In order to maximize surface area with the materials I had on hand, I went with a complex design. Here, try holding it like you would a powerful staff.”
“I’ll do it.”
Ira stretched her small hand toward me, so I placed the new mana trap onto her palm. She narrowed her large eye at the webbed core inside, her fascination obvious.
“It’s so compact. Nobody but you could make something like this.”
“That’s not going to work.”
“Of course not. Which is why I’ve made Prototype No. 2.”
I pulled the next version: a square-framed contraption packed with thin, curved mithril-silver alloy plates. It almost looked like a car radiator to someone in the know.
“This one’s yours,” I said, handing it to Ifriita.
“This does look easier to manufacture,” she remarked, staring intently at the radiator-style Prototype No. 2.
She wasn’t wrong. Unlike the first prototype, this one didn’t need to be integrally molded. As long as the two conducting bodies were in contact, seams didn’t matter. In that sense, Prototype No. 2 was far more suited toward mass production.
“So? Are you collecting energy?”
“Hold on,” Ira murmured.
“We can’t know right away. Let us focus.”
The pair then closed their eyes, holding the mana traps as if they were meditating.
“Mm. This is definitely collecting magic energy. It’s quite effective.”
“Especially for its size.”
They swapped devices and repeated the test several more times, meditating each time.
“Pretty good. Especially for something portable.”
“It’s genuinely incredible that its energy collection rivals that of large staffs.”
“Mm, agreed. It’s nice and useful.”
“Gotcha. Then let’s keep at it.”
This time, I made a mana trap big enough to fill both arms and set it down on the table with a solid thunk. I didn’t hand it directly to either of the girls—it was made of a whole bunch of metals, so it was pretty damn heavy. Not unmanageable, though.
“Um, wait…”