Magi Craft Meister

Magi Craft Meister 547

16　The Demons’ Mastermind Arc

16-26　Agricultural Reform

Seeing that Malikka wasn’t being very useful at the moment, Jin decided to give the newly created Golem some rudimentary Engineering Magic knowledge as well.

With it, the Golems should be able to perform maintenance on each other.

Then, Jin activated the first completed Golem.

Just like the one used in Kaina Village, the “Master Slave” spell that determined the chain of command would target an unspecified number of members of the Shinra clan.

This is a method that targets all clan members who have that knowledge, with Malikka as a representative. Whenever new members are added to the clan, they can be added to the chain of command using this system as well.

“L-Lord Jin?”

“…Stay still. I’m setting the chain of command for these Golems.”

“O-Okay.”

Malikka was still stuttering, but Jin paid no mind to it as he continued to use “Transinfo” and “Master Slave”.

“All done. ‘Start up’.”

“HELLO.”

The Golem stood up. It was 2 meters tall, and seemed to be quite rugged and powerful.

“Kyaah!”

“Wow.”

Malikka and the others were shocked to see a lying Golem stand up like that for the first time.

“Even though I’ve seen something like this before, it still amazes me every time.”

Radeus also seems to have been overpowered by its presence.

The Gospel clan had Golems, but the Shinra clan didn’t. Instead, they had servants like Lucas and Netros.

“This is a Golem that will focus on agriculture… Let’s name its model ‘Agri’.”

It seemed only natural to name its model after its intended purpose.

“You’ll be ‘Agri 1’.”

“YES. I AM ‘Agri 1’.”

“It speaks…”

“Yes, now we’ll finish making 19 more like this one. Agri 1, help us.”

“YES.”

That rudimentary knowledge of Engineering Magic Jin had given this Golem wasn’t just for show. Together, they managed to finish the next 4 Golems in a little less than an hour.

Then, together with Reiko and the 5 Agri, the remaining 15 Golems were completed in another hour. At that point, those who were watching had been rendered completely speechless.

“…”

“…”

Istalis and Shion were looking at it all with great interest, but seemed to have been completely taken aback by the realization of just what kind of person had been taking care of them all this time.

“A-A-Am… Amazing, Lord Jin…”

Malikka was still nervous, and couldn’t stop stuttering. Jin looked at her with warm eyes.

“Malikka, you’re still new to Engineering Magic. These ‘Agris’ have been given rudimentary Engineering Magic knowledge, so if you feel like it, you can learn a lot from them. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

“Y-Yeah. T-Thank you so much.”

But Malikka wouldn’t loosen up even after they were done. Jin would later learn that she was younger than Shion, so it was no wonder she was so rattled.

After finishing the 20 Agris and enjoying a little late lunch, Jin (‘s Substitute Doll) returned to work.

After all, since both the real Jin and Laojun took turns operating the Substitute Doll, they could basically work without taking a break.

It was finally time to make a greenhouse.

“…I wonder what I should use instead of glass.”

If they were in Kaina Village, they would be close to an area that produces muscovite, but there didn’t seem to be anything like that near the Shinra clan’s abode.

Instead, they would use transparent zirconia (zirconium dioxide), which they could easily mine in the area, andprocess it into window panes, cups, and so on.

“I’m sure the humans in the south would love to buy this…”

Jin was sure zirconia would make for a good target for trade as it was rarely obtained naturally in the Lauren continent where humans lived.

“I see… That would be truly great.”

There was no need to make glass out of it in order to sell it. It was good enough as a trading good as an inexpensive transparent material. Zirconia has a melting point of no less than 2700 degrees Celsius, and it’s rated 8 to 8.5 in Mohs hardness scale. Since it’s very tough, it can also be used to make cut glass.

But for the time being, their main goal was to build greenhouses with it.

Jin asked Lorona to choose a suitable place, and then created a light silver structural frame with the help of the Agris and the others.

Then, he attached zirconia plates to the framework.

“Oh, so these are greenhouses?”

Jin had built a total of three greenhouses with a size of 3 meters by 6.

Radeus and Lorona went inside one of the greenhouses, and were impressed with its warmth.

“It’s certainly warm now, but won’t it get cold at night?”

Lorona had a really good eye for choosing sites. While the houses of the Shinra clan’s members weren’t green houses, they seemed to have been strategically built in places that make the best use of sunlight to keep them warm. The Shinra clan must have accumulated a vast amount of experience in this regard.

“Yeah, that’s why we’re going to install heaters in them as well.”

“Heaters?”

Fortunately, as this region was rich in Ether, Jin would be able to make a highly efficient heater with a simple structure.

However, the problem lay in the thermostat (a temperature control mechanism).

“I’ve heard a bit about this from Istalis, but there’s a certain Magic Tool that could sense temperature, right?”

“Yes, a hot and cold indicator.”

Lorona replied and pointed to the wall of the workshop.

“We have one of those right here as well.”

There was a translucent board fitted in a round wooden frame that, at first glance, looked like a hand mirror of sorts. It would turn red when it’s hot and white when it’s cold.

“How does it work?”

Reiko took Jin (‘s Substitute Doll)’s place here. She was better at analyzing.

“Is this monster leather?”

“Close enough. This is skin from an ‘Icefield Lizard’, a creature common to these lands.”

According to Lorona, it would turn reddish brown in summer and white in winter so that the lizard could blend in with the environment and remain hidden from predators.

“Hmm, it seems to be difficult to use.”

Since Jin had deemed it too difficult to incorporate into a Magic Tool of his own, he ended up disregarding it as a potential candidate.

“… So we’ll have to make a temperature sensor after all…”

Besides a thermometer, there are many things that can be used to tell the temperature. Water freezes at 0 degrees Celsius and boils at 100 degrees Celsius (at an atmospheric pressure of 1), and metals have a fixed melting point (which is not very sensitive to atmospheric pressure).

In Reiko’s case, a highly pure Fire-attribute Magi Crystal was used to make her sensor.

Fire-attribute Magi Crystals constantly emit a weak magical power, and have the property that the amount of such emissions changes depending on the temperature, so reading those changes was a way to detect changes in temperature.

However, there was no way to establish a “zero” in degrees Celsius using fire-attribute Magi Stones, so there was a need to perform a calibration of sorts at the temperature of reference.

Furthermore, the less pure the Magi Stone was, the less accurate the temperature readings drawn from it would be.

Reiko had it set to remember four specific temperatures: the freezing point of water (0 degrees Celsius), the boiling point of water (100 degrees Celsius), the favorite temperature for Jin’s bath water (43 degrees Celsius; he liked it really hot), and the temperature at which tea was too hot for Jin (62 degrees Celsius; he wasn’t very good at taking hot meals and drinks).

Highly pure fire-attribute Magi Crystals were hard to come by, which made them a tough candidate as a material to produce regular thermometers.

“Well, we don’t need to make too many of them, and it also seems that the land of the demons has plenty of mineral resources.”

Jin took the three most pure of the fire-attribute Magi Crystals that had been placed on the workshop’s shelves.

“Alright, now… ‘Writing’.”

“What’s that, Jin?”

Shion asked as she looked into Jin’s hand.

“It’s a temperature sensor… I made it like this. ‘Writing’.”

Then, putting it together with the other Magi Crystal, Jin assembled the heater.

He then encased the heater with a light silver chassis.

“Ms. Lorona, this heater has the ability to generate heat when it gets cold, and it stops doing so when it gets warm.”

Jin tried to be as uncomplicated in his explanation as he could.

Lorona, Radeus, Malikka, Istalis and Shion all reacted with half amazement and half confusion, as if Jin was speaking of something completely impressive and outrageous at the same time.

“Ah, yes, yes! We should put these inside the green houses!”

“I see, with these, you’ve made it possible for us to grow crops even in winter, Mr. Jin.”

Still, Lorona and Radeus had understood Jin’s aim.

“This is only the beginning. If we were to add even more greenhouses…”

“Yes, we would be able to eat all the fresh vegetables we want, even in the middle of winter.”

“I’m really looking forward to it!”

Shion’s face had become very bright.

“Next, we’d have to increase the area of ​​arable land.”

It was only natural, since the addition of the Agris had increased the amount of workforce.

“Let’s meet again tomorrow and talk about cultivating new land.”