Chapter 3

Magi Craft Meister Volume 9 Chapter 03

09-03 Smith

“There is a report from Deneb-21 . ”
The next morning, Laozi conveyed Quinta’s first results .
The destination where Deneb-21 was dispatched was near the lake Azul .
Lake Azul was a huge lake located in the northern part of Celuroa Kingdom . It was a popular sightseeing spot that also importantly had the national border between Celuroa and Frantz Kingdom and aquatic resources .
Due north of the Celuroa Kingdom’s capital Esaia was the tourist city Rulasus . It was said that on its outskirts there were ruins from the times of the Great Magic War .
“It appears that the insides were partially destroyed, and no particularly important documents or Magi Tools were left behind . ”
The first results were as stated, although the details were lacking .

“There is a report from Regulus-15 . ”
“There is a report from Capella-21 . ”
That day, a total of three reports came, and the third report, namely Capella-4 said that he had found a box with a sealed [Core] of gigantes in it . The location was in the northern mountains of Egelia Kingdom .
“So there really were more . Just as Ann said, huh . ”
From the supposedly six remaining ones one of them had been found . Five remained .
The sealed box was a little troublesome, but Capella-4 decided to very carefully carry it to Hourai Island through the Warp Gate near Blue Land .
“Hmm, the advance bases, or rather the lodgements, or rather the network is still lacking, huh . ”
Jin muttered . But it hadn’t been more than five days since the completion of the Quinta . That was natural .

“Now then, I’ll, hmm . ”
After receiving the reports and giving instructions Jin decided to build a substitute puppet for himself due to Reinhardt telling him to ‘take care of himself’ the other day .
“Using same structure as with the Quinta…”


He would make it just like a human . What was essential was the internal [Mana Telecam] that could convey sounds and images to Jin on Hourai Island .
It would move according to Jin’s orders, basically half-autonomously .
He made its look exactly like Jin on the outside . …Or so he wanted, but it really was hard to make a puppet that was an exact copy of himself by himself, so he asked Reiko to make the finishing touches .
And thus Jin’s substitute puppet was completed .
“…Uncanny . ”
Seeing a puppet just like yourself would be uncanny, wouldn’t it .
“Is it not to Father’s satisfaction?”
Reiko said anxiously .
“No, I wasn’t criticizing it . On the contrary, it’s somehow too much like me, just a little . ”
Jin said and calmed Reiko down .

“Let’s try making it move as a test . ”
He immediately started a test run . Controlling it was done in one of the rooms in Hourai Island’s research laboratory .
There were five large monitor screens, each projecting what the substitute puppet was seeing, but the front screen was tuned to display what was about the same as a human’s field of vision, while the screens around it showed the rest around it .
The substitute puppet’s field of vision was much wider than a human’s . Normally just the front monitor ought to suffice .
From the room Jin sent simple instructions to the substitute puppet . As implementing remote controls seemed to be time-consuming, and development of control through brain waves also seemed to be time-consuming, this was a stopgap method adopted until then .
The plan was to have Reiko and the SP at his side most of the time giving him support .
Move, stop, walk, run . Basic commands worked fine, but as expected small motions were very uncomfortable .
No matter how you looked at it, it seemed clumsier than a human .
“Well, it’s a substitute for times when I’m going somewhere dangerous, so maybe this should do . ”
He had many complaints about it, but it was still a work-in-progress, so Jin decided that the substitute puppet was done for now .

“Now then, Laozi, what’s the state of progress with the aircraft carrier?”
Jin asked Laozi, and,
“My Lord, currently the material processing is 50 percent done . ”
“My Lord, currently the material processing is 50 percent done . ”
The same reply came from two directions at once .
This was because on one side was Laozi’s human terminal, and on the other there was Laozi’s brain .
“Ahh, having two Laozis is maybe too tangled . ”
Jin thought about it . How was it again in that book he once read? Then he remembered .
“…Alright, from now on let’s keep calling the humanoid side Laozi, and call the brain side ‘Laojun’ . They both have the same meaning so it’s fine, right?”
“Yes, My Lord . ”
“Understood, so I am now called Laojin . ”
The alias of Laozi in the land of the immortals was ‘Taishang Laojun’, and that’s where he got the name .
Jin then again received the report about the aircraft carrier .

“Hmm, it really does take a long time . ”
“Yes . That’s because we had to begin from building a dock on the beach to use for construction . ”
“Ah, that’s true . ”
Jin was the Magi Craft Meister . Just him being the leading Magi Craftsman didn’t mean he specialized in building gigantic things .
“Hmm, I suppose I’ll make factory worker golems . ”
Jin said, and he got support from Ann .
“I think that is a good idea . Leaving the parts only master can build out of it, by letting golems build the rest of the parts master’s workload becomes lighter and the production efficiency increases . ”
“That seems to be the case . ”


And so Jin decided to start mass-producing factory worker golems .
The material was steel . There wasn’t a particular need to use the valuable Light Silver or Adamantite .
However, the steel was an alloy with nickel and chromium mixed in so as to make it less susceptible to rust . In other words, stainless steel . In addition, it was 18/12 steel .
18 percent chromium, 12 percent nickel . The reason was that with large amounts of nickel the color would become blackish, giving it a solid feeling .
“The strength is fairly good as is, but if they can’t use Craft Magic well it’ll be troubling, huh . ”
As such Jin transcribed considerable portions of his knowledge to them, making them able to work on everything but the most precise formulas . Their physique was about the same as Jin’s . So that they could also work with small details .
He made 500 of them .
He first built five and activated them, and had them assist him in building a total of 50 . With the additional support of these 50 he built 500 .
Jin was finished in the middle of the morning .
“The efficiency really is different, huh . ”
“My Lord, the name . ”
Laozi and Laojun reminded Jin to name them as he became excited about how easy the work became .
“Hmm, let’s see, Smith . ”
This was the creation of the worker golems Smith-1 to Smith-500 .

＊　　　＊　　　＊

As usual, he went to have lunch with Elsa and Mine .
“Come on in, Jin-nii . ”
“Hello . ”
Today the weather was once again fine and it was warm, so they had lunch outside .
This time lunch was freshly-baked bread with thinly-sliced meat in between, vegetable salad, and Citran juice .
Jin noticed that the menu was a little scarcer than usual, but said nothing about it and picked up the bread .
“…”
“?”
While Jin did that, Elsa kept staring at him . Jin thought her unusual behavior was somewhat strange, yet didn’t stop his hand and ate the bread .
“?”
The second question mark of the day . The flavor was a little different from usual . The meat slice seemed to be thicker, but the flavor was somewhat weaker .
Although Jin was fundamentally not picky with his food, that didn’t mean he had no sense of taste . Rather, because he had cooked simple meals by himself, he thought he was as particular as anyone else . He just didn’t put it into words .
“…”
And then as he felt Elsa’s gaze as he was about to eat the vegetable salad, Jin suddenly came to a conclusion .
“Could it perhaps be that today’s lunch was made by Elsa?”
He said, and Elsa became visibly nervous .
“…Was it not good?”
She then timidly asked .
“No, the flavoring is a little different than what Mine uses, but it’s plenty tasty . So that was it, Elsa made the food, huh . ”
“Mm . Because it would be shameful if, as Jin-nii’s sister, I couldn’t do a lot of things . ”
Elsa said and slightly blushed .
“Mh-hm, thanks . ”
Jin said and finished eating all of the remaining bread and salad .
“That was good, Elsa . ”
Elsa and Mine both similarly finished eating, and for after-meal dessert Mine peeled some Pelshka .
Peeling Pelshka was probably still unreasonable for Elsa, at the very least in front of Jin while he was watching .
Jin remembered how Elsa’s aptitude with [Transfer Info] was greater than Reinhardt’s . If he had the spare time he might try teaching her some Craft Magic, he muttered to himself .