“A powerful one-off weapon comes up a lot in stories, but if you actually try to field it, it’s far too unstable. If we’re going to use monster materials, then we need to be able to secure a steady quantity of them.”
“Securing enough volume is the issue right now. As for Big Moths, there seems to be demand for them inside Levresta too, so not many make it to us.”
“Go hunt Big Moths~?”
“Raise investment in Northend City~?”
At present, there were two routes by which <The Tree> could obtain monster materials.
The Adventurers Guild in Northend City, and the Forest Kingdom of Levresta.
For the moment, the Adventurers Guild simply delivered them as-is, but the total number of hunts was low to begin with.
And from the Forest Kingdom of Levresta, only a fixed amount came through as trade goods.
“...If we could get more, we could make a lot more...”
“We’ve been having Olive do fabrication work using monster materials. Olive, did they show any unusual properties? You were comparing them to existing materials too, weren’t you?”
Sensing the need to help Olive, who tended to speak sparingly, Ringo spoke up for her.
“...Their strength-to-weight ratio is high. If we can make them into a honeycomb structure, their strength should improve dramatically.”
“So even though they’re light, they’re durable, and the larger the structure, the better the performance. Is that correct?”
“...Yeah.”
At that answer, Ichigo tilted her head. Out of all of them, she might have been the best at mixing gestures into a conversation.
Utsugi and Erika, by contrast, were both basically over-gesturers.
“So if it’s a «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» lightweight material like a honeycomb structure, does that mean we can expect a supply volume on at least some practical scale?”
“It seems to have the property that even if the structural walls are made thin, the loss in strength is small. However, experiments have also shown that when connected to a <Magic Stone>, if the material has been processed too extensively, structural reinforcement will not activate. Olive is investigating that point right now.”
“...If we can investigate the Holy Capital’s defensive wall... we might learn something...”
“The Holy Capital’s defensive wall in the Prava Divine Kingdom was reproduced using the body tissue of large threat organisms and <Magic Stones>. If we can determine how much processing causes it to lose function—or whether there is a technique that allows it to keep functioning even after processing—then it could be applied in a wide range of fields.”
“Maybe we could use that wyvern to reinforce Gigantia~?”
“If we used it on Titan, maybe we could make some kind of assault fortress~.”
Titan and Gigantia were weapons designed on the assumption that they would be operated in small numbers.
Because of that, it was possible to use materials that could not be mass-produced.
In that sense, seagoing battleships and carriers were the same, but those used raw materials on an entirely different scale to begin with, so they could not really be grouped together.
Monster materials were extremely useful as materials for aerial warships, where weight reduction was essential.
“If we can use them on aerial warships, then I’d like to make them a true airborne fortress.”
Apparently, Ringo belonged to the faction that wanted to float a fortress in the sky.
That said, with the current tech tree, aerial weapons were premised on the use of aerodynamic engines. They were not suited to operating a fortress that remained in one place, and they were also poorly suited to supporting enormous weight.
“If we can use the function that converts received impact into acceleration, it should give us much greater flexibility in how we operate it.”
If the ability the wyvern used to convert shells and bombs it blocked into its own acceleration could be applied to a machine after transplantation, then perhaps some kind of external force could be converted into lift.
Yes, for example, converting gravity and treating it as anti-gravity.
Well, it was hard to believe it would work that conveniently.
Besides, anti-gravity engines themselves could be operated as long as the reactor problem was solved somehow.
“If it’s being used as a bridge until we reach a real technological breakthrough, then it may be useful.”
“Until we can reproduce magical phenomena on our own, we may have no choice but to use hunting materials.”
“Biological materials are difficult to supply stably, so it is important to adopt that kind of clear-eyed way of thinking.”
“It’d be easy if we could just culture them, though.”
“Should we seriously consider a breeding ground~?”
When a material could not be chemically synthesized, it was hard to change the scale of supply flexibly. That aversion was a feeling shared by the AIs, all of whom tended to seek perfection.
That said, some of the AIs were looking at an entirely different stage, and were therefore trying to push for culturing or aquaculture of biological materials.
“At least in Northend City, the records show that monster farming was attempted several times in the past, and every single attempt failed.”
“Asahi was saying something about how a soft environment like farming wouldn’t temper the mental strength that forms the core of magical manifestation, but how true is that in practice?”
“The phenomenon that magical phenomena require biological—or at least biologically analogous—thought activity has already been confirmed through reproduction testing. Without a brain, magic cannot be used. However, for phenomena already fixed as such—structural reinforcement and barrier deployment, for example—it seems they can be reproduced as long as there is a <Magic Stone> and a body.”
“Asahi said that whole area is highly ambiguous. Fuzzy. It is fundamentally incompatible with the way we think.”
“Maybe AIs that can use magic need to be as free as little Asahi~.”
“So it all depends on how you raise them, huh.”
At present, the foundation of the vast majority of the AIs within the <The Tree> faction had all been prepared by Ringo using herself as the base.
Asahi was probably the only exception.
There were also the five foundation AIs—Akane, Ichigo, Utsugi, Erika, and Olive—but the source of those was Ringo as well. They excelled, for better or worse, at a mechanical mode of thought that preferred theories with strictly defined cause and effect, and rejected ambiguous, fuzzy phenomena.
“If magical phenomena require Asahi, then from my perspective there are simply too many things to worry about. Unless Commander Ma’am makes an active request, I cannot permit increased production.”
If the number of Asahi-based AIs increased, there was no telling what they might do.
That was Ringo’s judgment.
To Ringo, who had a strong tendency to manage everything and keep it all close at hand, Asahi was probably like oil and water.
For now, there was only one Asahi, and no matter what she did, everything could be kept under surveillance.
But if the numbers increased, that would become difficult.
No matter how capable <The Core> was as a processing device, it still had limits.
Well, even so, if Commander Ma’am told her to do it, she would have no choice.
“In terms of expanding the faction, we will ultimately need AIs whose foundations fundamentally differ from ours, like Asahi. Resources have become more abundant. It is about time we asked Big Sis for a decision.”
“I understand that. But I also believe it could affect Commander Ma’am’s safety.”
“Ringo really is a worrier~.”
“But I kind of get it too. Asahi’s way too free-spirited.”
“...If we’re going to run Asahi-based units... then we need to separate the bases...”
That was a terrible way to put it, but it could not really be helped.
Asahi fundamentally prioritized her own curiosity.
It was not as though she neglected Eve, and it was true that she left a wide safety margin—by her own standards.
It was simply that the way she thought was incompatible with the way Ringo and the others thought.
That gap definitely placed stress on Ringo’s side.
Of course, if they quantified it and judged it numerically, it remained within acceptable bounds.
Ringo could simply follow her foundational design and make numerical judgments.
But the item of Commander Ma’am’s safety first—which was the very core of her reason for existence—had a far higher priority than everything else.
“In the end, we still need to ensure Commander Ma’am’s safety while making it possible to relocate our bases flexibly.”
And in the end, that was the conclusion they came to.
“In the final analysis, the safest option is to place our base in outer space, outside the ecliptic plane. But for the time being, we have no choice but to remain on this planet. To do that, we will also need to operate Asahi-type AIs, or AIs built on other kinds of foundations. We will need Commander Ma’am to understand that raising the priority of base-security improvements is necessary.”
