Episode 188: Observation
With the resumption of Adventurer activity, and its intensification beyond any previous period, the volume of materials originating from the Demon Forest increased dramatically.
The artisans who crafted so-called “Magic Tools” were overjoyed by the flood of creation requests, while the Adventurer’s Guild scrambled to implement measures to curb the chaotic scramble for commissions.
Naturally, this commotion came to the attention of ＜Paraiso＞, and ＜Cosmos＞, the governing AI, took the opportunity to meddle with the administrative system.
“No matter what you say, it’s faster to go and meet them directly, ya know?”
“Verbal communication is easy, but human memory is vague and incomplete. We begin by recording things on paper. Once you learn how to use this, you won’t even need to move yourself. You’ll be able to send any random child on errands.”
In this manner, ＜Cosmos＞ used Communicator Dolls such as Beta (Sulfa) Sulfareus (Fabeeta) to issue instructions to managerial-class personnel.
Even so, unless the higher-ups could be made useful, they would never escape ＜The Tree’s＞ grasp. As a Brain Unit, ＜Cosmos＞ did experience the emotion of “trouble,” but it also predicted that they would become useful within a few years.
This judgment, that a few years of association was nothing to worry about, was where its thought patterns differed from humans. In the first place, the situation of being too busy with miscellaneous tasks to handle everything basically never occurred.
If there weren’t enough hands, it could simply mass-produce Communicator Dolls, and if thinking capacity was insufficient, it could install additional Brain Units.
Well, while dealing with such miscellaneous tasks, ＜Cosmos＞ managed to acquire an important piece of equipment.
Two newly produced Maso Meters.
＜Cosmos＞ promptly confirmed that the Maso Meters were functioning correctly, and then decided to disassemble one of them.
The exterior was adhered with wood glue, likely hide glue.
Using a small circular saw, it carefully separated the adhered surfaces and removed the exterior.
What emerged from within was the same structure as previously examined with ultrasonic probing.
No unique mechanisms or materials appeared to be utilized.
In a completely exposed state, it placed a Magic Stone nearby and observed whether there were any operational issues.
As a result, it confirmed that there were no particular differences before and after disassembly.
There were some fluctuations due to the analog structure, but they were within the margin of error.
The necessary elements for this Maso Meter were two:
The Forest Tiger’s Magic Stone and whisker.
If the whisker was kept in contact with the Magic Stone, it would react to the Maso density of the surrounding environment, causing the whisker to contract and expand slightly.
If that contraction and expansion was amplified by a metal needle, the Maso Meter would be complete.
＜Cosmos＞ first carefully separated the Magic Stone and whisker, taking care not to damage them.
The verification began.
It passed the separated whisker through a transparent pipe with a detector set up to clearly show its contraction and expansion.
By bringing it into contact with the Magic Stone again, it was able to accurately detect the state of contraction and expansion as intended.
Next, it tried replacing it with a Hyena’s Magic Stone hunted near Flattala City.
The result: no detection.
The whisker did not move with the Hyena’s Magic Stone.
It tried with several prepared Hyena Magic Stones, but none of them worked.
Therefore, it was determined that this whisker-type Maso Meter only worked with those from Forest Tigers.
Having understood that much, it decided to suspend the verification for the time being.
The rest could be considered after more materials were obtained.
Next, it would attempt to digitize the Maso Meter.
Originally, the mechanism involved attaching a whisker to a metal needle to amplify and display its contraction and expansion. Although simple to make, calibration was difficult, and the inertia of the needle itself caused the output to be unstable.
Therefore, it decided to begin by sampling the whisker’s length directly.
It fixed an image sensor so that it could measure the position of the tip of the whisker passed through the pipe.
This allowed it to precisely measure the length of the whisker without physically interfering with it. Environmental light was necessary for photography, but the output was minimized to avoid causing unnecessary damage to the whisker.
All that remained was to accumulate information while changing the distance between the Magic Stone and the Maso Meter.
This task was completed smoothly.
The contraction and expansion of the whisker and the distance to the Magic Stone showed a good correlation.
Knowing that, all that remained was to mass-produce them. No, there weren’t enough materials to mass-produce them.
It disassembled the other Maso Meter and produced the same device.
With this, two ＜The Tree＞-made Maso Meters were prepared.
The correlation based on the distance to the Magic Stone showed similar characteristics for both. Naturally, there were differences in the amount of reaction from the whiskers, but it was able to secure a level of precision that allowed it to be used as the same numerical value with correction.
This was good news.
Instead of each one showing a unique reaction, the same numerical value could be expressed through coefficient calculation.
It meant that the mysterious phenomenon called “Maso Density,” which was not well understood, could be quantified approximately accurately.
Incidentally, for the practical level of the Adventurers, the Maso Meter was fine as it was.
All they needed was the fact that they could find places with high Maso Density, and what that density was as a numerical value was not necessary at the moment.
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Eventually, it would lend the ＜The Tree＞-made Maso Meters to the Adventurers.
However, that itself was not what ＜Cosmos＞ was aiming for.
＜Cosmos＞ aimed for North End City to develop and for the exploration of the Demon Forest to be 활성화. And in the process, it would develop many Magic Tools that would be necessary.
As ＜The Tree＞, producing a small number of items using limited resources did not suit its personality. As for the Maso Meter, it wanted to mass-produce them if possible, make them a necessity for all Adventurers, and ultimately export them.
It wanted to wield violence through mass-produced items using scientific technology.
Therefore, if it was found that there was a material with the characteristic of “contracting and expanding in response to Maso,” it thought that there must be other materials that showed a similar reaction.
There was a precedent.
The Forest Boar, which had fearlessly charged into that place that had been determined to be a Hotspot as a result of investigation, the Fairy Circle.
Of course, it was necessary to consider other reasons, but the possibility that it was simply reacting to Maso was the most likely.
The Forest Boar’s corpse, which had been transported to the research facility, was less than an hour after death. Other than the cells of the Nervous System, there was a high possibility that it was still alive.
＜Cosmos＞ promptly began to carefully dissect the Forest Boar.
The sensory organs were narrowed down to those of the body hair, skin, eyeballs, nasal cavity, and oral cavity. Anything else was too unknown to predict.
It prepared an environment to observe each of them using as many scientific and chemical methods as possible, and brought the Magic Stone of a Monster (Hyena) closer.
There were some changes in the body hair, skin, and some cells in the nasal cavity and oral cavity of the head.
It moved the Magic Stone away.
Minute changes in each location. The nasal cavity was the most noticeable.
However, it was only something that could finally be observed with the large sensors in the research facility.
For example, with a sensor the size that a human could carry, it would fall below the detection limit.
A different approach was needed.
Once again, it observed the Forest Boar.
Some parts were starting to deteriorate. What was necessary for Magical (Fantasy) action was the Magic Stone inside the body. This had been repeatedly confirmed in previous experiments.
In the case of the Forest Boar, as a result of observing the cells of each part, it was thought that the tissues from the neck up, the body hair of the whole body, and the skin of the whole body had not deteriorated, or that deterioration had been suppressed.
The muscles of the torso and Legs seemed to be starting rigor mortis in some parts, which was an event that had not been observed in, for example, ＜Rain Croin＞. This meant that the Forest Boar’s muscle tissue was not being acted upon in any way by the Magic Stone, and that phenomena following normal chemical laws were occurring.
The Forest Boar was a Monster whose head, body hair, and skin had been magically (fantastically) enhanced.
That aside, there was the Magic Stone.
Currently, the Forest Boar had each part dissected, but all parts were connected in order to connect to the Magic Stone.
Considering that fantastical actions were transmitted through the body, it was true that the position of the head and the Magic Stone were far apart. This was because it had been dissected and sorted on a flat surface.
＜Cosmos＞ extracted the Magic Stone from the chest and moved it to the head.
Once again, it observed the reaction due to Maso Density.
As a result, the reaction of some cells in the nasal cavity was still noticeable. The electrical potential within the receptor was increasing when the Magic Stone was close, that is, when the Maso Density was high.
In other words, she was sensing the concentration of Maso as the intensity of a scent.
Furthermore, the maintenance of these olfactory cells, or similar cell groups, seemed to be influenced by the Magic Stone. Even during observation, no deterioration of the cells themselves was observed.
These cell groups can be utilized.
＜Cosmos＞ made that decision and began extracting the olfactory cells.