༺ The First Innate Magic ༻
If I had to choose the greatest 20th century invention of humanity, it would be the transistor.
The transistor was the epitome of a semiconductor. Every existing electrical device contained this component, and that was all that needed to be said to explain its status.
Did this book know that as well? The hardcover in my inner robe pocket vibrated minutely, as if it was declaring that this was the puzzle piece needed to go back to my original world.
[Unclassified Magic : 0/148]
This was what it must be related to. There was no way that this would be elemental magic.
I didn’t think for long. After taking a breath, I opened my mouth.
“Then I’ll take ten batches first…….”
“We’ll take it all.”
Professor Hasfeldt became dumbfounded by my spontaneous behavior.
“That isn’t for you to decide.”
The fury in her voice stung my ears. Yet that didn’t stop me.
“If you don’t buy this now, you’ll regret it later. Owner, how much is it per piece?”
“O-one batch is one gold. There’s about a hundred batches in stock.”
It would be a hundred gold to buy all of it. One could buy two slaves and have change left over.
“That’s fine. We’ll buy them all.”
There were vessels popping in Professor Hasfeldt’s eyes. It was a signal that she was about to blow. I had to beat her to it before she could start.
“Stop this nonsense and stay…….”
“I won’t disappoint you, Professor.”
I cut her off at the perfect time. Considering my status, it was rude enough that I could easily be beaten and tossed into the back mountains for it.
But I didn’t avoid it. I boldly faced the glare of the empire’s highest-ranking noble.
I focused on Hasfeldt’s burning gaze. Irises the color of a red spider lily and the irises of a calm sulfurous yellow clashed in midair.
“This is a stone that will change the world. There’s no time to hesitate over a single gold.”
I intentionally changed my speech pattern and words to let her know that I was sincerely advising her as a fellow researcher rather than a slave.
Hasfeldt pulled out her pipe as if frustrated.
Fuuu. White smoke like cotton candy floated into the air. This was a positive sign. It meant that she was contemplating.
Hasfeldt was likely torn by the fact that someone who had always been respectful ran the risk of being rude to say this. If I had been casual with her all this time, she might not have reacted the same.
“The Golden-Eyed…. knows what this is, then?”
The fact that she was asking this was good. I nodded in response.
Hasfeldt’s throat shifted. With her chin in hand, she let out a short groan.
It didn’t take long after that for my sincerity to be acknowledged.
**
The people of this world weren’t stupid. If they had been, they wouldn’t have been able to build the Academy in a 20th-century Bauhaus style. I’d sometimes mistake myself as being in the Belle Époque era whenever I looked around at the wonderful machine aesthetics of the architecture.
The development of civilization was proportionate to the accumulation of knowledge. The people of this world had also built a strong learning in their own way. They had dozens of geniuses, and thousands and millions of gifted, brilliant minds have been changing the world in increments. That change was still in progress.
Ultimately, I couldn’t think that my knowledge of the other world made me superior to anyone else. Those who didn’t continue making the effort tended to be left behind, after all.
Simply put, someone else besides me could soon discover the worth of a transistor. We had to stock up on these in any way possible before that happened.
To make profit? Not at all. It’d be a loss no matter what price it was sold at.
The price was bound to skyrocket within a month. Even if I didn’t do it, someone else will.
I received five bags from Professor Hasfeldt for now. About 500 top-grade mana stones came into my possession.
The market price of these stones amounted to five pieces of gold. Opportunity makes a thief, they say; it was a value that any other slave would have sold off immediately. Looking at it this way, Hasfeldt had lent an exorbitant amount of money to a mere slave.
When we returned from the market, it was late into the night. It was the hour in which all the professors including Hasfeldt had retired for the day and the students were asleep in their respective dorms or inns. I was the only one left in the Fire Magic research wing.
I headed towards Testing Room 3 with the key that the professor had given me.
[Testing Room 3 ─ Mana Amplification Element Research Lab]
It was the equivalent of a place where research on semiconductor fabrication happened in the university of my original world. Simultaneously, it was where maximum output could be tested as well. Anyhow, I was able to use this place freely because it was within Professor Hasfeldt’s jurisdiction.
Click.
“Alright.”
I took out the hardcover that I now couldn’t be without.
[Unclassified Magic is a special magic that can be used without an Elemental’s blessings or scrolls. It is called ‘Innate Magic’ in mainstream academia.]
[Although the exact number of Innate Magic is unknown, there are 148 recorded in the latest books.]
I turned the pages one by one. I had to check all the pages to see what magic was related to the transistor.
Then I found something near the end.
[Innate Magic(Unclassified Rank) ─ Current Switching]
“Here it is.”
I could sense it from the name alone.
There were two main functions of the transistor.
The first was manipulating a small current into a larger current. Amplification, as it was called.
The second was cutting off or turning on a current. What experts commonly called ‘switching’.
The main point of these two functions was ‘control’. With the introduction of the transistor, humanity was able to control electricity as they wished.
One could ask what the big deal was to be able to control electricity, but well, it’d be ironic for them to be asking that while using a computer or smartphone.
A computer, hm. This era did have a calculator run by a scroll. It should be possible to build one with the help of magic engineers.
But that would be difficult to achieve for the moment; the only thing currently possible was a simple operation or test.
According to my experiences until now, the magic elements of this world tended to correspond to the electrical elements of the other world. This mana stone should be the same.
Good. That was reasonable.
I’d probably be able to use expert magic with a single sip of mana grass. Millions of scrolls could be activated with minimal magic elements. That way, the mages on the northern battlefront would get some relief.
That wasn’t all. This mana stone could save the orphanage children from freezing in the winter for a low cost in the same way that 1 g of uranium gave power to 23 million electric heaters in low-class family homes back in my world. Basically it could be used to support everyday life as well as combat.
And most importantly, it could help me return home.
“Three birds, one stone.”
Let’s see what prerequisite knowledge was needed to learn this.
Description: [Any magic that amplifies or cuts off the mana flowing through a circuit or circle. It is known to be used by the Demon King that once threatened the Ahrens Continent]
[Upon casting, the user may have complete control over their own magic or the surrounding magic depending on the user’s capacity. The calculation required for control is greatly influenced by the caster’s mathematical abilities.]
[▷ This magic has not been mastered. Upon learning, the number of obtained ‘Unclassified Magic’ will change for the first time.]
[▶ Knowledge required for magic comprehension]
[■ Required]
[Law of Magic Element Preservation(Wanderer bonus : Consideration possible)]
[Theory of Mana Waves(Wanderer bonus : Consideration possible)]
[Kirchhoff’s Current Law(Condition met)]
[Basic Theory of Semiconductors(Condition met)]
[Altered Maxwell’s Electromagnetic Equations(Condition met)]
[□ Optional]
[Fermi-Dirac Distribution(Condition met)] — Required for handling fire and water elements
[Bose-Einstein Distribution(Condition met)] — Required for handling of earth and air elements
[Shockley-Read-Hall Recombination Theory(Condition met)] — Required for trap fabrication
[Boolean Algebra(Condition met)] — Required for logic circuit fabrication << Relevant theory : Computer hardware processing >>
There was nothing to be concerned about. The relevant knowledge had all been obtained long ago during my undergraduate.
I pulled out a magic paper. It was a fortified Light Arrow scroll.
I was sitting here in Testing Room 3 because there was a magic device that measured the intensity of mana. When I put the Light Arrow scroll to the device, the relative figures of the elements appeared.
[Measure Target : Light Arrow]
[Class : Fire Magic / Scroll fabricated]
[Maximum output : 45 microsieverts]
[Average output : 23 microsieverts]
This was what it was normally. 20 microsieverts was enough force to destroy a mid-level Magic Beast like an Iron Drake.
I took back the paper and after placing a few transistors in the appropriate positions, I remeasured it.
[Maximum output : 275 sieverts]
[Average output : 241 sieverts]
“Oooh.”
Micro was a prefix to indicate one millionth. Tens of microsieverts becoming hundreds of sieverts meant that the output was amplified by 100 million times.
This outcome alone was something remarkable. Like going to bed after investing 100-won into stocks and waking up the next day to find that it had bloated to 10 billion…. as if that would actually happen.
This kind of unnatural phenomenon could be explained by the concept of magic elements. Since the Elementals provided the elements, although it might seem like conservation of charge wasn’t happening, it actually made sense physics-wise.
I was able to gather useful data from repetitive testing. It was interesting and fun. This was a time I could truly be immersed in. By the time I snapped out of it, it was already dawn.
Someone else might think that this was enough and stop here.
I wasn’t that someone. With that thought, I took a stick of mana grass.
“Fabricate, Sagnac interferometer.”
Description: [A device that uses the interference properties of a wave to amplify or offset its amplitude. Due to its sensitivity to the environment, it cannot be applied to a regular scroll.]
Wave, the flow in which energy traveled. And in those waves, the physical quantity of phases existed.
When 2 waves with the same phase met, the intensity grew exponentially. Waves with opposing phases offset each other and settled as if nothing happened.
Then let’s think about it. What if tens of waves with the same phase traveled together as a group?
[Maximum output : 66.1 kilosieverts]
[Average output : 34.9 kilosieverts]
The output was amplified by each one.
Kilo. A unit of a thousand. I didn’t even want to think about the change in ratio.
It was probably multiplied by about 10 billion. It should be possible to go further than this.
“… I’ll play with it a bit more.”
**
[Current Switching has been obtained.]
[‘Element Operation’ has been derived from ‘Current Switching’ due to independent research.]
[This will be registered as Identifier ‘Aether’s’ Innate Magic.]
[Expert Innate Magic ─ Element Operation]
[Progress change : 0 Innate Magic(Out of 148 total) → 2 (Out of 149 total)]
“Ah.”
I stayed up the night again.
“It’s fine, I’ll sleep when I die.”
I told that to myself as I stepped outside. Any graduate student would have made this kind of rationalization at least once.
One fortunate thing was that Professor Hasfeldt had said yesterday that I didn’t need to clean anymore. There would be no master to nag at me even if I holed myself up in the lab.
But my life would be miserable if I only stayed in the lab. Should get some fresh air at least once a day.
Haaa, that was some nice air.
Taking this brief walk was truly heavenly.
Then as I was walking slowly along the school grounds.
“Excuse me! Senior!”
