Chapter 102: VOL 2 Chapter 47: This thing is quite ugly.
The scouting spheres were one of the many experiments Erik undertook to better understand Artificery. They were born from the idea of creating something similar to tactical drones, but cheap and easy to produce. Although there were things somewhat akin to what he wanted in existence, they were quite expensive and complex, and not as specialized in exploration or support as he desired. But the best he managed to achieve were these spheres, which could only be considered a half-success.
While the spheres themselves were exactly what he wanted—cheap and easy to produce, consisting only of a not-too-complex rune matrix carved onto "true copper"—their control system posed a problem.
The true copper was the cheapest material with which one could craft a magical artifact, boasting impressive mechanical properties, high resistance to heat, oxidation, corrosion, and more, along with mana conductivity superior to normal copper. It was composed of copper with a minuscule amount of what was known as falamite slag, a mining byproduct.
However, the same could not be said for the crystal tablet he used to control them, which was made from the same material as his student card. This material was known as maximum-purity Chantinolite Crystals, a very rare and expensive mineral with incredible properties, including the ability to transmit information instantly at a planetary scale.
Although there were lower-purity versions that were cheaper, they offered a far more limited transmission range and a drastically reduced number of runes that could be engraved—this was the true limitation. The way he intended to make the scouting spheres work was a bit different from how similar artifacts functioned. Those relied on wisdom runes that did all the work locally, very similar to artificial intelligence. But such runes required enormous amounts of mana to function, and thus needed a material capable of withstanding it.
Not all artifacts worked this way, since that would make them unaffordable for most people. There was another method: using runes as if they were some type of analog computation—in other words, designing rune matrices so that they modeled physical, mathematical, and even social processes. This not only introduced a certain margin of error, but also made it impossible to create something with general-purpose use; every design served extremely specific functions.
Because of this great limitation, every detail had to be carefully considered when creating a magical artifact, as each function had to be painstakingly carved into the artifact itself through runes. This process was not only complicated, but that margin of error—while it might not matter much on a large scale—could be fatal in tasks like mapping an area from the air. A single millimeter of error could lead to erroneous propositions or result in completely nonsensical, useless maps, just to give one example.
To overcome this limitation, Erik spent a great deal of time trying to create something that would far surpass analog computation: digital technology with logic gates. However, he had little success. Even though he could design a transistor chip thanks to his decades of experience as an engineer in his past life. However, none of the materials, runes, or even magical circles he tried could function in a manner even remotely similar to a semiconductor, which is the initial step to creating a logic gate.
Because of that, Erik simply attempted to make a processor with basic materials, as he had done in his previous life. With some effort, he managed to do it, although it was an enormous prototype that, at best, worked like a very limited calculator. But shortly after finishing it, he realized several drawbacks.