I dug out a lot, but still hadn’t reached the spellstone. To be honest, I was getting a little concerned. I didn’t want to hit an underground reservoir or something.
Eventually, the rocks began to change in consistency. Some of them were sparkling, so I stopped my digging and moved closer to check. I found small, reddish jewels mixed in with the stone and dirt. I wondered if they were spellstone shards. That probably meant I was close.
Guess I’m getting there... I’ll be a little more careful from here...
I began digging more slowly, until eventually... I unearthed a big red gemstone!
Is this it? I didn’t want to damage it, so I carefully began to peel away the earth and stone around it. Little by little, the buried spellstone was freed completely from its rocky confines. It wasn’t too big, all-in-all. I’d designated my search to cover anything with a diameter larger than thirty centimeters, so it could’ve been any kind of size above that. Still, it was better that it wasn’t too massive, otherwise it would’ve been harder to get out.
I took out the fire spellstone using [Levitation]. It was actually sizable. My initial appraisal was wrong. It was over fifty centimeters in diameter. It held the glimmer and beauty of an amazing gemstone.
Wait... couldn’t I make a ton of money by digging out precious materials like this? I reconsidered immediately. I’d remembered what Kousaka had told me about not relying on my own overpowered abilities to bring in money for my country.
It wasn’t something I wanted to think about, but when I eventually died, the country would fall into disrepair if it solely relied on me. It’d be better to avoid making large profits related to my specific set of skills, lest the populace become dependent.
The development of the nation was going just fine, anyhow.
Maybe I can use this method to find the raw materials for a Frame Gear, though... Ah, but I can hardly complete the entire process of getting the metal from the ore.
Selling this would still make us a ton of cash, though... I quickly dispelled such a thought from my mind: the Frame Gear’s power was my priority, first and foremost. I couldn’t be selfish, and we needed the spellstone to get the job done. With that, I filled the hole back in and went home.
“Wowsers, that’s pretty big, you see...” I brought the spellstone back to the alchemy lab, and Flora was quite surprised. I ended up using [Modeling] to split it in half, since there was no reason to use the whole thing. I decided the other half could be kept as a spare in case we messed up somehow.
Flora said it’d take about a month to complete. After that, I made my way back to the hangar.
I headed toward the garage with the knight-like Frame Gear, and I noticed that the shutter was still open. The button was broken. I knew it...
I entered the garage, and the gray knight was standing right where I left him.
“Ten-hut! It’s Master!”
“Hm? Master?” I turned on my heel in response to the voice behind me. Rosetta and Monica were there. Rosetta was wearing her usual work jumpsuit, but Monica had changed into a camo uniform. It wasn’t exactly the right size, either.
That beret on her head made her look like a special forces soldier... As usual, the logic behind a Gynoid’s mind was alien to me.
“What’s up, you two?”
“It’s been five thousand years, sir! Therefore, I thought it prudent to run some routine maintenance, sir! There’s spells applied to the hangar so nothing would rust or deteriorate, but dirt, rubbish, and other such dust tends to pile up, sir!”
“How very rude of you... Just where is this alleged dust? I like, totally maintain the hangar just fine, got it?” Monica did a little pout in response to Rosetta’s comment. I watched you smash open a shutter with a pipe wrench... Are you really maintaining this place just fine?
Rosetta mulled around the Frame Gear for a bit, and then suddenly called me over.
“We can’t activate this, sir! But would you like to sit in the cockpit anyway?”
“Yeah, I think I’d like to try.” As soon as I replied, Rosetta clambered up the Frame Gear. She climbed from the foot to the knees, then to a foothold on the side. After she arrived at the chest, she pushed a small panel. A whooshing sound echoed out, and a chest hatch suddenly opened up. Ooh!
I copied Rosetta’s movements and clambered up toward the cockpit. Monica was already standing at eye-level with me, having made use of a platform loader nearby. If you had that, why didn’t you use it to begin with?
I looked inside. There was a comfy-looking leather seat in the middle, with one control stick to either side of it. There were some gauges I didn’t quite understand, some panels, and a ton of switches and pulleys. The design looked pretty retro to me, so I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
I clambered inside and sat down. It was actually quite comfy. There were pedals beneath my feet, which I thought might be for making it walk.
“Once you understand the basics, you should be able to make it move, sir! After that, you’ll simply learn through experience. Drop and give me twenty minutes of your attention! The unit itself will scan your brainwaves and adjust accordingly, sir! Even a baby can do it, sir!”
“Yeah like, uhm, so basically the pilot’s own thoughts and experiences will impact how well it can do, get it? If the pilot isn’t like, a totally experienced fighter or whatever, it’s not gonna do much more than move, okay?” That made sense. So even if the pilot became skilled at handling the robot, it would be limited by their own experiences. In that case, the best pilots would be soldiers or knights. I asked Rosetta about it, and she said it depended on the Frame Gear. Apparently there were units that responded better to mages, and so on. It seemed that I’d have to pick the pilot based on their individual characteristics in relation to the unit.
“I hope I can get it moving soon. It’ll take some time to get used to it, but I want to learn the ropes as soon as possible.” I hopped out of the Frame Gear’s cockpit and walked over to Rosetta. She had a cheeky grin on her face.
“I was hoping you’d say that, sir! I happened to make something in secret for you!” Rosetta suddenly struck a pose. I had no idea what she was doing. I suddenly wondered if this secret was the reason she’d been cooped up in the workshop so much lately. Rosetta guided us to the workshop. Inside, we found two strange objects that kind of looked like egg-shaped orbs. They were about the size of a small car. They looked like white eggs, but they were clearly mechanical in design.
“If you’d take a minute to hear me out, sir! This is a state-of-the-art Frame Gear simulation, sir! I call it the Frame Unit!” With a bit of fanfare, Rosetta explained her creation to me.
Frame Unit? So wait, this is a simulator? That means I can replicate the experience of controlling a Frame Gear?
Rosetta tapped the side of one of the egg orbs, and the front of it opened downward. What I saw inside was pretty much identical to the Frame Gear cockpit back in the hangar’s garage.
“And this thing works?”
“Yessir! It’s not powered by Ether Liquid! It runs on your magical energy, because it doesn’t have to physically move!” Welp, guess that makes sense.
Apparently the Ether Liquid inside a Frame Gear synchronized the magical power in the fluid with the magical power in the pilot. It made it so that the machine would move in tandem with the pilot’s thoughts. I guess that made the pilot the brain of the mech, and the Ether Liquid was like the nerves.
It didn’t stop there, either. The liquid was some kind of catalyst for incredible magical reactions that operated the machine’s central reactor, too. Rosetta and Flora had explained it all to me, but it went over my head. I wasn’t very scientifically inclined. It was best to just say “a wizard did it,” and carry on with my day.
According to the girls, my magic power was vast to the point where it may have even been possible for me to move a Frame Gear without Ether Liquid, but in order to test that out they’d need to build a unique model from scratch. There actually w
as a Frame Gear with that exact specification, but the blueprints were... you guessed it, in the storehouse. Still, the prospect of building my own Frame Gear that worked off my magic alone was alluring.
Alright, let’s try out this simulation.
I poked my head inside and, sure enough, it was identical to the Frame Gear’s cockpit. Rosetta closed the hatch, and a dim green light filled the area.
“Do you copy, sir?”
“Rosetta? I read you loud and clear.”
“First thing’s first, sir! Fire her up! Touch the central panel node right in front of you.” In front of me... This thing? I touched a small panel around the size of a B5 notepad, and several gauges began to come to life. There were three large monitors. One was in front of me, and two were to my left and right respectively. They all began lighting up as well. I was pretty impressed by the fact that it was touchscreen-operated. The retro aesthetic had thrown me off.
The simulation displayed me at a considerable height. I wondered if Frame Gears would actually have me being this tall. I looked around and saw a vast plain, with what looked like a woodland in the distance.
“Did you design this space yourself?”
“No, sir! What you are seeing is a simulated area based on visual information taken from around this country!” Aha, I was wondering why it looks so familiar. Despite the fact that it was simply an image on a screen, it felt so real.
“Let’s begin with walking, ten-hut! Press your foot down slowly on the right pedal. Alternate that motion with a press on the left pedal. Walking should come to you just fine after that, sir!” I did as I was told, and the unit began to slowly move forwards. Whoa, it’s shaking and everything!
“If you wish to move, just shift your center of mass. The Frame Gear will move left or right based on your own motions. If you wish to move backward, then ease up on the gas. If you wish to dash, then put the pedal to the metal, sir!” Oho? Oh my... This is interesting... I walked, turned around, and took a few steps back. It reacted seamlessly, as if responding to my whims. I wondered if it was already reading my thoughts in order to move more easily.
Gradually, under Rosetta’s careful guidance, I figured out crouching, jumping, and strafing. I then started figuring out how to move the upper body with the control sticks. Moving the arms up and down, waving them around, turning around, and so on.
After some time, it felt almost like a second body. If I wanted to turn the Frame Gear’s neck, or move its fingers, or just turn around a little bit, it was all done by simply willing it. If a person became accustomed to their Frame Gear, it’d surely move just as easily as their own body. Looks like they weren’t wrong when they said anyone would be able to pilot it.
As I was getting used to the Frame Gear, to the point where I was doing a hop, skip, and a jump on one leg, another mech suddenly appeared in front of me.
“Huh? What the heck?” It looked much like the mass-produced gray Frame Gear I’d seen back in the hangar’s garage.
“You like, totally seem used to it now, huh? Shall we swiftly proceed to the next phase?”
“Huh? Monica?” The voice I heard definitely belonged to her. That must’ve meant she was the one in the Frame Gear. There were two orbs, after all. She must’ve gone inside the other.
Two plain, gray swords suddenly dropped in front of myself and Monica respectively.
“Now we’ll try a demonstration of actual combat.” I see... So the real reason there were two orbs was for multiplayer, huh?
I reached out to the sword and firmly grasped it.
Alright, let’s do it! Despite the fact it was more of a game-like VR setting, it felt like I was inside a real Frame Gear. It really was the ideal training tool.
This just made me all the more anxious to try the real thing...
Chapter II: The Two Princes
I used the workshop to make a few copies of the Frame Gear training device, and made sure to have the others train with it in their free time.
I made eight of them in total, lining them up along a far wall in my game room. The setup was a little bit reminiscent of an arcade. Though it was a little more serious than a mere game.
I was surprised to find that the ones who took to it best were Yumina and Linze. But it made sense, given that they were the most adept at magic. But, as far as adapting to the movement went, Yae and Elze were the fastest to actually develop and improve.
I cast [Program] on the Frame Units to make them project their displays on the outside as the person on the inside piloted. Rosetta made use of that further and developed the program to the point where it consolidated multiple image feeds from the various units and created a much clearer image of the battlefield. We could then watch as a third party to see the failings and successes of the individual pilots. I briefly considered that it’d probably be effective to imbue a Frame Gear with a program that allowed it to fight autonomously.
But the amount of programming I’d have to do would be obscene, not to mention the amount of magical power that would have to go into it. Plus, it took two hundred years for Leen to program Paula to a standard level of response. I was sure it would take even longer to create a combat drone. I certainly didn’t have that much time on my hands.
“Aagh, I losssst!” One of the units to the right of me popped open, and out jumped a wolf beastman. Specifically, Vice-Commander Norn. From another unit came a fox beastman, Vice-Commander Nikola.
“Come, Norn. You must remember that a Frame Gear is not your own body. It has different proportions. Even if you feel as though you might have dodged, it could still be a hit.”
“Guh... Hey, you calling me fat?” Norn had received a fatal strike from Nikola’s halberd on the Frame Gear’s flank. She’d likely tried to dodge just by a hair’s breadth, but her own physique was different to that of the unit’s, causing a critical mistake.
The game room was opened for any members of the Knight Order that were done with their daily training. I decided it would be fine, since they needed to have relaxation time now and then. And a happy knight is a hard-working knight. In a sense you could consider it a perk of working for me, too.
The simulators had become another attraction. The knights saw a toy they’d never played with before, and thus had to have it. They were regularly competing against each other to try and score the highest.
But, even though they used the training tools, I didn’t tell them about the Frame Gears themselves. For now it was fine for everyone to treat it as a game. They’d likely be concerned if they knew they were being trained for such a monstrously powerful weapon. I didn’t mind secretly grooming them that way. If anything it was preferable for them to play the simulation as a game, since it would mean they’d be proficient when the time came for them to put their lives on the line in a real Frame Gear.
As I was mulling over such ideas, Commander Lain strolled into the game room. She had slowly adapted and gotten used to her position as commander.
“Ah, Lainy-wainy! Let’s fight, ’kay?!”
“Norn. You are to address the commander as commander.” Norn gave a big over-exaggerated wave to Lain. I was somewhat amused to see Nikola interject with his usual deadpan expression.
Lain gave a small smile to the two, then walked over to me.
“My liege. Tradesman Olba has stopped by and requests your audience.”
“Oh? Neat.” Wonder if he brought me the metals I asked for... Hope so, mass-producing the Frame Gears is gonna be a pain. I can only create one per day, and that’s at a constant pace. It’ll take me a whole three months just to produce enough for the Duchy’s knights, so I’d like to get on that really fast.
I headed off to meet with Olba. He immediately attempted to rise to his feet, but I waved him off and sat down on a couch opposite him.
“I’ve brought the metals, as per our arrangement. The itinerary is right here, all should be in order! For now, I’ve five carts of the stuff, but I’ll continue to supply you as I find more.” Olba passed
me the paper and I gave it a brief look over. There was a considerable amount of steel, copper and silver, but a slightly lower amount of gold, mithril, orichalcum, and hihi’irokane. I was quite pleased, to say the least.
“You’ve really brought this much? I’m impressed.”
“Only the best for my most financially bountiful client. Every last nation I have peddled your wares in has eaten them up like good, vapid little consumers. To show my appreciation for your most wonderful mind, I have put my top men in charge of acquiring the goods you seek.” Wow, the kitschy junk I pitched sold that well? Merchants sure are formidable, huh... I guess I’ve lit a fuse that I can’t put out.
“I did run into a small issue of competitors producing similar goods to ours and selling them at lower prices... But our goods were produced first, and we have the proper branding. Thus, we win.” Guess that makes sense... Hula hoops and spinning tops can be imitated pretty easily, but the guy who introduces it to the marketplace in the first place probably stands to gain the most.
“I must say, this is an exceptional amount of metal. Might I ask your intent? Are you going to build a great iron fortress?”
“Mm... I’ll keep that a secret for the time being. Ah, right. Zanac, the clothing merchant, wants to have a little talk with you about baseball clothing. He said he had an idea about baseball uniforms, baseball caps, and miscellaneous baseball merchandise being produced and sold on a large scale.”
“Ohoho. How very interesting. Baseball merchandise is indeed a hot topic right now.” Olba went off to meet Zanac on business, while I headed to the training field to pick up my metal shipment.
The trading representative was waiting off in a corner of the field, so as to not disturb the practicing knights. I walked over and signed his receipt, and then moved all the metal from the carts to the workshop.
I’d already moved the Mass Production Model Frame Gear to the Workshop, so all Rosetta needed to do now was start the process off.
Incidentally, Mass Production Model Frame Gear was a bit of a mouthful, so I asked Rosetta if they had an official designation.
In Another World With My Smartphone_Volume 6 Page 3