The gaggle of giggles walked in with him, all of whom straightened up and cleared their throats the mont they saw the group of detectives staring back at them.
"I got a better one though- Oh, hey, finally," Ben noticed them and approached. He gestured behind himself, "These guys are fun."
One of the GAS agents cleared his throat, "The Scorching Inferno requested to be guided towards Detective Kazuo Namora, sir."
"And that required ten of your personnel?" lcer voiced with a raised brow.
...
"Sir," the GAS agent gave a bow and left the room in a hurry, followed by the other nine.
"Sothing happen?" Kazuo crossed his arms.
Ben’s helt shook, "No sir, just that your daughter’s sick I think. I just ca from the cafeteria, which by the way, is massive," he gestured a large gap with his hands.
Kazuo tilted his head to the side, "I’m aware. I figured she was already coming down with a cold yesterday. Thanks for letting know. lcer, you’ll get your wish. Just send it to Peter once it’s done."
"You’re leaving?" lcer asked.
"I’ll get the kid ho. But given the ti," Kazuo checked the clock in the lab. "Lady Pinberry would be done with her conversation, I think. I don’t think anyone else has any business here."
"Ahem," Fuko sounded.
"Talk all you need kid, I’ll see you back at ho," Kazuo bade farewell to his friend and left abruptly.
"This so cool shit my guy," Ben’s began to wander over the inventions and devices.
"Right, Inferno. Vogel; Sir lcer Vogel. Don’t touch anything," he blocked the armoured figure’s view. "Where was I- MIDs, right. It’s actually an acronym for Magic Instilled Device; we usually use it to classify general magical items and the lot.
For instance," he picked up and brandished Kazuo’s pistol. "This is a Class 7-Type 3 M.I.D. The classes range from 1 to 10; they’re the asurent of how powerful or dangerous an MID is.
Type ones are utilitarian devices such as magic lamps, type twos are security or defensive devices such as affinity locks and types threes are weapons or offensives. An affinity lock would be a Class 3-Type 2 M.I.D. for example."
"Who’s classifying them based on what scale?" Ben grew curious.
"Well, when an MID cos into possession of an officer or a GAS agent, it usually cos under our purview and after so experintation we classify it based on results," the scientist replied.
"So like, based on vibes...?" Ben shrugged and gave a not so confident chuckle. "Okay man."
Fuko unsheathed her dagger and flipped it onto the workbench, where it stabbed lightly onto the surface and landed on the tip, hissing as it did. "I’m wondering, what you’d classify this as."
"Kid, don’t throw weapons in here," a disappointed Morgana stated.
"More of a toss really."
"What in the world is," lcer leaned down and adjusted his glasses. He imdiately took a seat and rolled his chair forward to examine. "Is this, mana-dust? No it’s in tal? Is it reactive? Where did you get this?" he turned to look at her.
Fuko crossed her arms, "I can’t give you scientific specifics. It’s a dagger that can cut through anything—even spells and magic. All a person needs to do is apply enough force.
The purified mana dust is on a base of spring steel and has tiny particles that are always moving. It eats away at anything like termites to wood. As for where I got it, it was made by a madman in a tent in the desert around Hartamat."
"T-this, could be a Class 8, or 9," lcer was already furiously jotting down everything she said in handwriting only he would be able to even read.
From the lights in the lab, it glead differently from every angle he eyed it from. Every wisp and gloss of the magenta hue snaking through the tal like glittering sand in an hourglass was another note he wrote. "How was this made?"
"I don’t know," Fuko shrugged. "The guy who made it was a Trailonian professor that killed himself in the dungeons of Tamara Palace by choking himself out. He also made the ti device that caused the issues in Hartamat."
"Uh, I-I think I rember reading about that," he finally took his gaze off of the dagger. "This is, groundbreaking technology," he shuddered. "To get mana dust in such a purified state and be able to implent a spell-breaking effect into it.
I-I don’t know how this was achieved. Anything, anything you have on this that would help, what was he using, did you co across the thod, the purification process?"
Fuko’s face scrunched, "Eh... He was dripping what I assu to be liquid mana dust onto the dagger. That’s about all I know and I don’t know if you should be recreating the work of a psychopath."
"You wouldn’t understand, this could be," lcer took a deep breath. "I an, this thing is too powerful to just be in the hands of soone with no jurisdiction, it’d be illegal."
"Woosh." Captured in purplish-black shadows, the dagger was warped into the short-haired brunette’s hand, at which point she tucked it into her sheath. "Then it never existed and everything I said was a lie," she glared.
"You," lcer pointed his finger at her. He sighed, "You’re lucky magic’s permitted in here."
Rose quietly gave a proud giggle. "MIDs darling," she changed the topic by pointing at the gun still on the workstation.
"Well, I don’t have to say anything," lcer threw his hands up and focused back on Kazuo’s pistol. "Clearly information doesn’t have to exchange freely," he muttered.
"If you’re gonna be petty," Morgana said and then looked to Fuko. "In simple terms, our pistols are fuelled by mana dust. They’re to deal with more magical threats, like the cult lot. They’re custom-made, no two are a pair.
It’s got two trigger plates and a lever on the side to switch between em’," Morgana took out a similar pistol, except in dark silver hue. She displayed the dial on the side of the pistol while pointing the barrel to the floor. "The trigger plates are enchanted.
One makes mana dust into mage-piercer-like ammunition, a bit on the weaker side, but just as effective and better than normal bullets.
The other plate," she switched the dial, causing the pistol to make a few chanical whirrs as gears within shifted the plates within the gun’s chamber. "Makes a smoke bullet, which makes a cloud of smoke if you couldn’t guess, but that’s mine.
Your dad’s secondary plate makes a stunning bullet—self-explanatory, doesn’t do all that much harm to the target. The magic only triggers when the trigger’s pulled," Morgana showed the circular chamber next to the gun’s hamr, that had a fully-loaded purple glow.
"Was all that necessary information? The cultists don’t have that as far as I’m aware," the bitter lcer was disassembling Kazuo’s pistol as he added.
"Who knows what information would help where," Morgana replied and holstered her gun.
"All that and you guys still use round bullets," Ben remarked while rolling one of the mage-piercer rounds.
"I said don’t touch anything," lcer had his hand out, into which Ben promptly dropped the bullet so he could place it back on his workspace. "And why would anyone use anything other than a spherical bullet?
We’ve tried and tested multiple shapes and sizes, the best distance and accuracy in relation to shape is not sothing we need to be rediscovering."
"That’s cause this world hasn’t polished out breechloading guns yet. I an, makes sense. With magical weapons all over the place, gun advancent makes no sense. It’s weird to have this tech and not the in between stages though," Ben spoke in passing comnts as he alluded to Kazuo’s pistol.
"Breechloading? Mind you, I know those principles, but to have them in common firearms, hmm," he swivelled his head to glance at the red-armoured figure. "It’s been experinted before, but magical ammunition seed to be the way forward.
With new processes of refining mana dust and the abundance of it after the fires, seems imprudent to focus on a more physical outco, wouldn’t you say?"
"Well yeah, but I don’t see why both can’t be done," Ben shrugged. "Breechloading guns are wayyy better, cause you can reload pretty quick. I don’t know too much of the logistics; Kaleb would know all about guns and weapons."
"Fascinating. Reloading properties are the general concern, yes. But it seed inefficient to work on, but you say it’s possible? You’ve seen it happen?" lcer continued to probe.
"Plenty of tis- Oh crap," Ben shook his head and took a step back. "Sorry, I don’t accidentally wanna ss with the historical tiline of this world and cause massive problems. I don’t wanna be Oppenheir," he put his gauntlets up.
"Best to keep your mouth shut then," Fuko’s eyes glazed over.
"This world? Sorry, Scorching Inferno, correct?" lcer got up and gave his hand to shake.
Ben shook his hand back, "Yeah, oh you’ve heard of ?"
"Heard, sure," lcer shook his armoured hand for longer than needed, to a point where Ben had to retract awkwardly. "Any information you might be able to add to mana dust purification processes? As it stands, it’s highly inefficient."
"Uh huh..." Ben gave a nod, knowing why he was chummy all of a sudden. "Look, I don’t really know too much about the whole mana dust thing. Magic, sure, but I know more about objects and affinities than anything.
How do you even purify it? Like do you use a solvent? How does it chemically react?"
"Mostly we use water to filter through before moving it through a vinegar bath and treat it in saltwater solution before ammonium hydroxide. The impurities on mana dust is taxing to clean off."
"Well that’s a lot of, hm... What even is mana dust? From a chemical standpoint? Cause maybe heavy water could be more useful."
"Heavy water you say? You an seawater as in hard water?" lcer narrowed his eyes, a bit perplexed.
"No, heavy water. As in with deuterium instead of normal hydrogen. I don’t know for sure, but it’s worth a shot, at least for the kinetic isotope effects if nothing else," Ben went deeper into thought.
"Do tell the intricacies," lcer was ready to write down. "Deuterium’s not an elent I’m familiar with. And what would be the desired results of a kinetic iso-toep, effect?"
Ben placed a hand on his head, "Damn, you guys haven’t even figured out isotopes yet. Okay, I gotta go, I think I hear Jotou calling, uhm, nice to et you, I’ll see myself out, bye," he continued to speak as he walked out the door. "Thank hell I didn’t ntion how cool synthetic fibres are..."
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