Chapter 10 – From One Thing to Another
09-10 From One Thing to Another
After returning from Kunlun Island to Hourai Island, Jin was thinking about Fritz.
"Master, the prototype Magi Jammer is complete."
Then Ann came along to inform him. Jin changed his focus.
"Alright, let’s test it at once. Let’s see. Reiko, sorry but could you be the test subject?"
"Yes, gladly."
And so they tried pointing the Magi Jammer at Reiko and activating it.
Its shape was roughly that of a cube, with one of the sides having a sort of a parabolic generator device attached to it.
"How is it?"
"I do not feel anything in particular."
As it interfered only with casting, Automata like Reiko or golems like the SP weren’t affected movementwise.
"Alright, in that case try using some magic please. I suppose something like a [Light Ball] would do."
He chose a magic with no attack component, namely the [Light Ball].
"Yes. …[Light Ball]. …Father, I cannot cast it."
"Alright, it’s a success!"
Despite reciting the chant, the accompanying Trigger’s Magic Energy completely vanished like mist. Therefore no magical phenomenon got cast.
Jin and Reiko together with Ann examined the effective range.
They found that apparently the effectiveness rapidly decreased with distance. The effectiveness was approximately inversely proportional to the cube of the distance.
They wanted to increase the current output by 50 times to make it useful for practical use.
"Hmm, I wonder if it’s the effect of the Ether in the atmosphere? It’s difficult to make a large-scale one…"
Because the jammer would be useless if it wasn’t active continuously, its Magic Energy consumption was also large. The effect of the prototype cube with edges about 30 centimeters long had a maximum range of ten meters at a 60-degree angle.
"Seems like the range would be too low even if loaded onto a Falcon or something and used from the air."
If it flew 10 meters above ground it would work fine, but that would cause many other problems.
"What’s the next step…"
Jin was thinking.
"Even if it was used intermittently…"
Suddenly he realized it.
"That’s it! Intermittently!"
"Father?"
"Reiko, Ann, please give me the prototype."
Jin rewrote a part of Control Core that managed the generator device. Simultaneously he thoroughly re-examined the Magi Formula and attempted optimizations.
"Alright, let’s try testing it now."
And the test’s results. The effective range became two times larger than just now.
"It works!"
"Father, what did you do? I understood that you optimized the Magi Formula, but…"
Reiko asked, and Jin explained.
"Yeah. I made it run ‘intermittently’ and I used the Magic Energy saved doing that to increase the output. It seems to have a synergistic effect."
Basically, it was made to run for 0.2 seconds and then rest for 0.4 seconds so the consumption was be reduced to a third. And that portion was used to increase the output when it was running.
0.2 seconds was plenty enough for the jammer to work, and the stop time of 0.4 seconds wasn’t enough for anyone to completely finish a chant, that’s gist of it.
In addition, inserting pause times allowed for increasing the running output. You could maybe compare it to electric current which can momentarily surpass the rated value of a resistor.
"As expected of Father."
"Master, that’s amazing!"
Reiko and Ann praised Jin highly.
"Alright, with this the prototype Magi Jammer is alright. Let’s entrust the development of this thing too to Laojin and the Smiths. They can determine the optimal intermittent timing."
As he had built the Smiths, Jin’s responsibilities were substantially reduced. Accordingly Jin could devote himself to research. Right now time was precious.
"Alright, now let’s think of methods to dispel spells like [Hypno] and [Seduce]."
Jin thought that this was the most important thing right now. Supposing that Elsa’s elder brother Fritz was affected by [Seduce].