The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 112

Chapter 112 – Breakthrough

While I would have preferred to fly directly to the Kerguelen Islands, and start on the next seal, there were some very practical reasons not to do so, such as my need to recover my strength before dealing with whatever guardian the Seal of Light might have. Rushing to the seal would do no good if I was still too weak to defeat the guardian, or conduct the ritual afterwards. The seals weren’t going to become critical in the next week or two, so I had some time to rest and recover, even if I didn’t wish to sit idle.

Of course, just because we were spending a couple days in Lisbon, as my bones and armor healed themselves, didn’t mean I couldn’t work on projects. Lisbon was eight hours behind Tokyo time, and a Lich did not need sleep. So, while everyone was resting, I teleported back to Japan, and took care of some business.

The most important piece of business was the siphons I needed to design for Phantomline. Talking with Dr. Oesau, I laid out the basic design for a magical siphon that would draw in Death mana, and convert it to Untyped mana. He was suitably impressed with the possibilities of such a device, especially when I suggested that a variant could be made to clean up hazardous sites, purifying the local environment. However, while I’d initially been thinking about things like oil spills, or toxic waste leaks, his first thought was something that could be inserted into industrial buildings, purifying particulates from the smoke before it could become smog, and much more economically than the current technology was able to perform.

That was a perfect example of why I didn’t try to do everything myself. Well, not with the Phantomline business, at any rate. Having different points of view and different experiences meant that other people could come at a problem from a different direction, or could see uses for something that I would not necessarily consider. Diversity of thought could cause conflict, but it was essential for breaking through stagnation and discovering new possibilities.

“Ah, Akagawa, before you go, I have something that I would love your opinion on!”

“Oh?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as I did so. I was still in the wheelchair, since my bones were still mending and spending the power to float everywhere was the kind of vanity that got people in trouble. I did, however, have on my mortalform glamour, since it helped put people at ease, instead of having to see my true form.

Oesau just smiled, and waved one of his assistants into the room. The assistant was smiling, as well, as he wheeled a cart in front of him, with a cloth draped over something, hiding it from view. I could sense a twinge of magic from beneath the cloth. Looking back to Oesau, the scientist chuckled. “Yes, we’ve had something of a breakthrough for the project to make functional CADs for magical beings, thanks to some work we’ve been doing with one of the national labs, and a friend of yours, there.”

Ah, he must mean Onedeirth, the elder dragon that masqueraded as Akaryu Kiba when he helped in the creation of the first CADs, back when the Awakening first happened. He was also the one who confirmed to me that the Wellsprings of mana in this world were sealed. I’d gone to view the Seal of Shadow, in China, and found that the seal over the Prime Wellspring was cracked, and failing. Without Onedeirth’s information, I would have never found out about it until it was too late to prevent catastrophe.

I shook my head softly, speaking half to myself. “Hmph. I still can’t believe that he actually chose Akaryu as his alias. ‘Red Dragon’? A bit on the nose, there.” I sighed, and focused back on the two scientists. “Well, this should be interesting, at the least. What do you have, gentlemen?”

“Well, with Lord Onedeirth’s help, we were able to find and target the magical signals that a thaumaturge gives off in the process of casting. This, combined new scanning procedures designed to account for a creature’s innate magical interference, gave us the idea of finding a way to calibrate a CAD using just the user’s magical signature, instead of tapping into brain waves.”

“Interesting. That could potentially solve the problem of reading the target’s intentions, but what about the other side? Your typical CAD has to interface with the user’s mind so that they can ‘read’ the variables it has for them, to complete the spellwork, right?”

Oesau chuckled. “Ah, that is how most people think, so I understand why you’ve not been corrected in that misconception before. No, the CAD doesn’t actually need to give back any direct variables. The spellwork is more like a basic computer program, with IF/THEN logic as its base. It primarily relies on user skill and training to read the inputs as the user thinks them, rather than ‘conversing’ about the variables. The user, on the other hand, experiences feedback through their magical field. Much like how someone riding a bike does not need input from the bike itself to keep things in motion, but they feel the terrain change under them as they go from the street to the dirt and grass on the side of the road.”

“I see. So, people train their brains to respond accordingly, just like how an adult does not need to think about the mechanics of walking unless something terrible has happened to them.”

“Just so,” Doctor Oesau nodded. “Now, applied to the CAD, this means that the major bottleneck before, especially in your case, was due to the machine not being able to properly read magical creatures, due to magical interference, and some creatures no longer utilizing a flesh-and-blood brain to think. However, with the deeper scanning process, and refinements to the software side of things, we’ve been able to do a rough calibration with just magical impulses.”

“How rough?”

“Initial accuracy was roughly thirty-five percent,” the doctor admitted. “Not what we would like, obviously, but the accuracy rate on an uncalibrated CAD is only five percent, which is the best that we would have been able to do without the brain scanning before now. However, it does serve as a proof of concept. While Lord Onedeirth and his team worked on the software, to better implement the scans, we were able to do a bit of iteration on the hardware side, based on the initial tests we did with you when you first came in. The current prototype has a fifty percent accuracy rating for a general-purpose CAD. However, when we restrict it to a specialized CAD, one designed having only a single ‘spell’, like the specialized Shield focus, we were able to get that rating up to ninety-seven percent accuracy!”

Now, that was interesting. Sure, specialized CADs were basically the same as specialized foci, but there were different uses they could be put to, and they could actually be mass-produced fairly easily. Still, a three percent failure rate was unacceptable for something you’d literally be betting your life on. “What is the accuracy of a production CAD, both general and specialized?”

Oesau didn’t even hesitate. No doubt, he knew these numbers off the top of his head, or at least had reviewed them before this meeting, so he could show off a bit. But I didn’t trust any researcher that didn’t like receiving appreciation for their discoveries. “Total inaccuracy rate for a specialized CAD is 0.9%, but that includes all inaccuracies. Major inaccuracies, which could compromise the spell form, are just 0.02% of total cases. With a general CAD, inaccuracies are typically 2%, with major flaws being 0.1%. All these numbers decrease when the thaumaturge takes an extra 500 milliseconds to cast the spell, allowing in-built error checking to catch up. However, as you are doubtlessly aware, every fraction of a second counts in combat, which is why most combat thaumaturges rely on specialized CADs for their primary attack or defense spells while under fire.”

“Impressive, Doctor. Most impressive. Managing to get the specialized CAD to near production numbers, despite not using one of the basic functions that ensure accuracy? In so short a time? Truly remarkable.”

The Doctor was all smiles, as was his assistant. “Thank you, Akagawa, but now, I would like your opinion on this!” On cue, the assistant pulled back the cloth, revealing a slender bracelet-style CAD underneath, done all in black. “This is the experimental CAD we’ve designed for use by supernatural creatures. This specialized CAD is set with a ‘Sunblock’ spell originally designed to help beachgoers avoid sunburns. However, tests with Vampires have found that it can give them some tolerance to direct sunlight.”

“Some tolerance? How much?”

“Enough that they aren’t bursting into flame, or any of the normal reactions that one of their kind might have. They still complain about being weaker, and it is possible for them to get a sunburn, but it is only as damaging as it would be to a normal human, and their healing kicks in once they’re out of the sun again.”

“So, a weaker version of the Daywalker enchantment, but something that can be put into mass production. I know quite a few vampires who would dearly love to have something like this, if only so they could spend a bit of time pretending to be mortal again. Any downsides to the technique?”

“A few, though they’re mostly inconveniences. The spell is an active toggle type, meaning that you have to consciously turn it on, and it will remain on until either it is turned off, or the user runs out of magicules to power the device, which will have it automatically shut off. There is some interference when objects intersect the field, which extends approximately 0.25 millimeters above the user’s clothing. This increases the power draw by 25% for the duration of the intersection. However, pushing the field out results in it becoming a visible aura around the wearer, while pulling it closer means that even the user’s body hair starts to cause interference. Under normal circumstances, the only visual indication of the spell’s being in effect is a glistening or sparkling of the skin while under sunlight or UV lamps.”

“Hmm. So, definitely an inferior version. But, one that some vampires might embrace, for the chance to see the sun once more.”

“Yes, I’m told that the spell’s visual effect has some kind of uncomfortable connotations for the vampire community. Something about a movie series?”

I chuckled, and nodded. “Yes, a movie series, based on a series of books, where one of the defining characteristics was that vampires sparkled in the sunlight. People lambasted the movies and the main actress for the bland, uninspired writing and a wooden performance, but it was one of those regrettable situations where the actress was still more animated and believable than the character she portrayed in the books, to the point where more than a few people say that, not only were the movies better than the books, but the erotic fanfiction of it that got turned into another terrible book and film were also better than the source material.”

“Hmm,” the doctor said, trying not to laugh. “I guess I can see where they might take issue with the spell’s effects, then. I certainly wouldn’t want to use a spell that made me look like some mad scientist.” His eyes glistened playfully as he looked at me. “Not all of us can just embrace our pulp fiction stereotypes, Frau Lich Queen.”

I smiled back at him. “Yes, well, that is a burden that I must bear. Heavy as it is, there’s no one better for the job. It also helps that, if I wish to escape that burden for a while, I have means to do so. Now, if you would accept a few suggestions, I have some spells that would be quite useful for this device. Especially if they were to be given to a lich such as myself.”

Oesau’s smile grew so wide that one might think his head would split. “I’m all ears, Frau Akagawa.”