Project:Angela - Introduction - Vessel and Body - Satou's Role - Mana Stone Conversion Methods

Project:Angela, a project that Philip has been thinking and planning ever since he came to the mansion. He thought of this project with the safety and protection of people that he will meet in the long run and into the future in mind

Of course, in addition to that, he just wanted to try and imitate certain procedure and methods in specific novels and manga, where certain individuals or characters create their own puppets to do their bidding, as a companion, a protector of their dungeon, or a weapon of mass destruction

Philip wanted to do that, but of course, he won't consider Angela as a tool or weapon, but a person with individuality and personality, as well as a potential companion that will fight against dangers on the same level of Philip

In order for that to happen, Angela has to gain common sense, intelligence, and knowledge for her to reach her full potential. With that, Philip already has a plan for that and he has what he needs

"Project:Angela is a creation of a doll, a puppet, a robot, whatever you want to call it... But, I'll be strict about this... I don't want Angela to be called as such. She will be an ordinary girl, a special one, but very loved and cared for..."

"Yes, I understand one hundred percent"

"..."

Philip started the introductions, to which Satou replied with enthusiasm. Rue remained silent though

"In creating and building Angela, there will be four phases to this project..."

"..."

"..."

Satou and Rue then grabbed their notepads and pens the moment there is a methodical approach to the project. They showed that they are diligent scientist and researchers and that they are very passionate in this field of work

Their passion bloomed when Philip revealed the methodology to Project:Angela

"Phase 1 will be the schematics, structure, and the blueprint of the body"

"I guess Vanessa will take care of the body?"

Satou asked

"Kinda? She will create the perfect vessel using the highest form of alchemy with the help of the Philosopher's Stone"

"Philosopher's Stone?!!!"

"...!"

Satou exclaimed in utter shock. Rue was plenty surprised as well

"Yes, with her power and knowledge of alchemy and science, she will be able to almost do anything"

"I know what the Philosopher's Stone can do... I couldn't believe that it exists! My blood is pumping!"

"The stone could only exist because of me and Vanessa's ability"

"Yes!"

"So, how is Vanessa going to create the vessel? Is it an ordinary shell similar to human and dolls, or something else entirely?"

Rue asked in curiosity. Though, there seems to be a fluctuation in her voice, considering that she knows the full personality of Vanessa as being slightly insane and unstable, as she heard from the reports from the military base. She's curious as to what Philip tasked her to do

"Have you guys heard of homunculus?"

"!!!"

"...!"

Satou and Rue couldn't reply from surprise

"I tasked her to create a Magic Homunculus specifically. In this way, Angela will become versatile and flexible on her own body, in terms of capability and power"

"Can you explain further?"

Satou asked just to make sure

"A Magic Homunculus will resonate to magic and mana. Instead of a soul powering the body, a magic core can power the body itself and it can push its capabilities to its maximum, more than what an ordinary soul can do. In addition to that, Magic Homunculus will be able to harness mana to create magic, unlike ordinary homunculus that could only use extensions and tools"

"Ah! So, it's going to be more humanoid rather than ordinary homunculus depicted in fiction and ancient times?"

"Correct. That's where my ability of Puppet Maker will take place"

"You have an ability called Puppet Maker?"

Rue asked in suspicion

"Yes. Don't worry though, I don't think this ability allows me to make anyone a puppet, but, as the name suggests, create puppets from something, whether its an inanimate object or simply everyday objects. Though, I haven't used it once and I don't know how those objects will become a puppet"

"I see..."

"I understand! Making a puppet and controlling a puppet are two different things. For a puppet to work, you have to control them through a medium and creating a puppet requires providing commands, like coding in computers"

Satou voiced in admiration

"Exactly... Using Puppet Maker on a Magic Homunculus will yield us a more powerful vessel of body, complete with the basic body parts of a humanoid"

"I see... I understand now"

Satou nodded his head

"Me and Rue have a job in the first phase"

"What is that?"

Rue asked in interest

"Satou, I want you to create a schematic, a blueprint of the body. Basically, you will design the anatomy of Angela and what goes into her body. You can design it as an ordinary human anatomy, an anatomy of gears and axles, or something even more complex"

"..."

Satou's heart was thumping very loud, but he kept his composure because he knows Philip is not done yet

"There's something more, isn't there?"

"There is... As you may have read my research papers, it is possible to create magic artifacts, weapons, armors, and items from the Mana Stones gathered from the Mana Hotspots. They are not just magic batteries for mana, but they could also conduct the energy of mana linearly without the need for a cycle, as per Magic Circuit Engineering and Mana Electronics..."

"..."

"..."

Satou kept quiet and listened intently to Philip. It's very honoring to listen to the author of the research papers rather than reading it. Rue's passion is also burning as her ears are all to Philip

Philip saw this and continued his explanation

"I have a supply of Mana Cores in my room and I have the complete collection"

"You do?! So, that means..."

"Yes, almost an unlimited amount of Mana Stones to be used as Mana Dusts and create Mana Fibers as a medium"

"Are you going to lend us your Mana Cores?"

Rue asked in anticipation

"Yes, of course, there's no other choice"

"What do you want us to do with it?"

Satou asked even though he already knows the answer to it, based on what Philip said earlier

"After Angela's body and vessel has been created from the byproduct of Magic Homunculus Creation and Puppet Maker... I want both of you to apply Magic Circuit Engineering and Mana Electronics to her body, of course with the Magic Circulation Theory and Magic Resonance Theory in mind"

"..."

"..."

Both Satou and Rue can't speak as their hearts were beating fast due to genuine excitement. It's as if they're feeling butterflies in their stomachs

"So, how are both of you going to get the Mana Dusts from the Mana Stones and convert those Mana Cores into other tiers of kinds and types of Mana Stones?"

"..."

"..."

"Firstly, gathering the Mana Dusts is very difficult unless you have two methods in doing so..."

*Ruffle ruffle*

Satou and Rue turned their notebooks into another page for this specific field

"First is to obtain the equivalent Mana Stars and wait for a billion years for them to produce one gram of Mana Dust. The second method is to have my ability of Fate Control or be loved by mana so that you can freely manipulate the mana itself from the Mana Stones"

"..."

"..."

Both Satou and Rue didn't write anything on their notepads as they just looked at Philip with empty eyes with their mouth opened from Philip's words

"I'm not kidding when I said that... Because I could control fates, the Mana Stones seem to have considered it as a tool or force for them to be reshapen and reformed. I also don't have any access to any Mana Stars for Mana Dust to be produced"

"Then, how are we going to be able to obtain these Mana Dust?!"

"I can think of two methods..."

Philip showed two fingers and both Satou and Rue prepared to write down notes

"First method is to create an entirely new technology that will support this procedure. The creation of Mana Stone Duster, Crusher, or whatever we can call it to produce dust. But there are problems to this method"

"..."

"One problem is that Mana Stones are fairly durable and hard. Not to mention, each tiers of types of Mana Stones have different hardness and durability, based on the stored energy and mana inside. For all we know, they might be harder than diamond. So, creating a new machine to make dust out of the Mana Stones will become extremely difficult, considering we might need diamonds, or something harder, to produce dust"

"Then, what about the ol' method of scratching itself to damage itself?"

Satou gave a suggestion

"That's the idea... If no other minerals can scratch diamond, then only diamonds can scratch diamonds. We can apply that logic to the Mana Stones"

"So, that's going to be the second method?"

Rue caught up with the conversation

"Yes. We will be devolving towards the Stone Age, but in a modern and mystical setting. We bash Mana Stones together to create the lower tiers of kinds... Take note, only kinds, not types. Just by bashing Mana Stones together, we can't convert a Mystical Stone to Spirit Stones"

"That's understandable..."

Rue nodded

"Sounds easy enough"

Satou also nodded

"This is where the part of how I turn the Spirit Dust into Spirit Strings and then into Spirit Fibers, as stated in my research papers... But there are information that I intentionally left out of the research for the capable individuals to discover it..."

"..."

"Do you know what I'm talking about, Satou?"

"Uh, if I remember correctly... You pounded the Spirit Dust with a carved Mystical Stone to shape it into strings?"

"Yes... In doing so, the fine particles of Spirit Dust gets melded together to create a mesh of strings that's now microscopic in width, since it was generally compressed and stretched. I then pulled these strings apart and intertwined it, like a rope, to make Spirit Fibers, the same width as the ones that could be found in the Skeletal System"

"Yes, I understand that part... But how do we get these carved Mystical Stone or whatever? Do we just bash and scratch each stone to achieve the desired shape?"

"No... I only used the terminology "carved" because I want to be vague as possible, even though this is a groundbreaking research paper..."

"Wow, that's a taboo..."

"Haha, I know... But the carved Mystical Stone is actually a Mystical Scalpel..."

"Ah! It makes sense now!"

"Of course, I made it using Fate Control and manipulation of mana..."

"Ah, of course..."

"But don't worry! You, yourselves, can also do it. Though, bashing it with the same type of Mana Stone is not enough as these Mana Stones follow specific rules"

"..."

"..."

Satou and Rue were writing notes like there's no tomorrow. Philip continued the explanation

"Each kind of Mana Stones can only be carved by higher tier of type of the same kind of Mana Stone, with the exception of the Divine tier, since there nothing higher than that... Example of this... I was able to make the Spirit Scalpel from a Spirit Stone by using a Mystical Stone, but I can't do that if I used a Mystical Gem or higher. It is also the same for a Spirit Scalpel made from a Spirit Gem by a Mystical Gem and not by a Mystical Crystal or Mystical Stone"

"..."

"What's the difference of the different kinds of Mana Scalpels?"

Rue asked in pure interest

"It's only a matter of convenience... If you have a Spirit Crystal and you have no way to turn it into Spirit Gems or Spirit Stones, you can use a Mystical Scalpel made from Mystical Crystal, carved by an Energy Crystal"

"I see..."

"Wait, then what is the use of Spirit Scalpels if it won't do anything to the Spirit Stones?"

Satou asked in confusion. He was certain of Philip's answer, but it doesn't hurt to ask as he's afraid of making a mistake, just to be sure

"Nothing... Spirit Tools are useless against other Spirit Items. They're only the best at other materials... You could say better than steel or probably better than diamond. You can replace axes with Spirit Blades for one motion of chop to fully cut down a tree"

"That's... Incredible"

"...and scary"

"Yeah... So, before we move on to your tasks, we'll discuss on how you'll be able to convert the Mana Stones into other kinds and types"

"Yes!"

"Mhm..."

"The truth is... You can't"

"What?!"

"..."

Both Satou and Rue looked at Philip once again, but this time, Satou is in disbelief and Rue is slightly annoyed

"You can... But you can't"

"Can you explain further??"

"Another rule for Mana Stones is the conversion... In simpler terms, it's all about separation and combination. Without a powerful machine, you won't be able to convert Mana Stones upwards and forwards. That's why we will be in the modern Stone Age"

"..."

"With the help of the scalpels, you can carve and chip out a small portion of mass from the Mana Cores. In doing so, you will be able convert it down to Mana Crystals. That's the separation rule. Just remember that in one Mana Core, there are 1000 Mana Crystals. So, chipping a very small amount can yield you a few Mana Stones"

*Scribble scribble*

"..."

"..."

"However, without an advanced powerful machine, you won't be able to convert them into a lower tier of type... Using the scalpels won't allow you to turn Atomic Stones into Soul Stones, down to Spirit Stones. There is just no way"

"Then, what do you suggest us to do? One billion Spirit Stones sounds a lot from a single Spirit Core, but eventually the supply would dwindle, right? Unless we could obtain one million Spirit Stones from a single Mystical Stone?"

"The only way to achieve conversion without my help is a powerful machine, contraption, or technology that allows these Mana Stones to transform and be converted. I don't know if similar concepts has been achieved, but it's the only way..."

"..."

"..."

Satou and Rue began to rack their brains to think of an alternative

"Don't worry though, at this point, you don't need to convert the Mana Stones down tiers of its types"

"Hm... Are machines actually required for the conversion of the Mana Stones? What if a mystical user were able to do it, the ones that could manipulate mana?"

Satou asked in curiosity as his brain is working to its maximum degree. This is the point where his true ability truly shines

"Heh~"

Philip smirked and chuckled at Satou's question. It's as if he's expecting Satou to ask that question and point out the fact

He then turned towards Rue and she widened her eyes in curiosity