Chapter 172: Magicalization Failure and Direct Copying
Flitwick saw Ryan's shock. "It's not the kind you're imagining. It's a very small, low-yield device. What Muggles would call a tactical weapon, not a strategic one."
"But that's still incredible," Ryan said.
"Let me put it this way." Flitwick could tell Ryan hadn't grasped the reality of his research. "First, I can only 'make it and detonate it.' I can't effectively store it or create a failsafe. Second, following the Muggles' method, the cost-performance ratio is terrible.
"Once I replace the Muggles' technological devices, electrical energy, thermal energy, and so on with magic, the magical power required from the wizard is horrifyingly high.
"Using their yield classifications, the most I can create on the spot is in the hundred-ton range. If I wanted to make something in the ten-kiloton range, it would probably require the combined magical power of Dumbledore and all the other professors just to fuel it. The cost-to-benefit ratio is abysmal."
Flitwick concluded, "Besides, I'm only researching this technology to strengthen the magical world. Muggles enjoy slaughtering other Muggles; we do not. Muggles enjoy polluting their own lands with their technology, causing massive casualties; we do not. Therefore, trying to replicate this weapon using the Muggle method is a dead end."
"Well, having it is better than not having it. It's a deterrent," Ryan said. Hearing Flitwick's explanation, he understood. It took the entire magical elite of Britain just to create a ten-kiloton weapon on the spot.
But in the modern nuclear arsenal, a ten-kiloton bomb was the runt of the litter. If it were at a banquet, it would be sitting at the kids' table.
As for the hundred-ton version Professor Flitwick could make by himself... it wouldn't even get a seat at the kids' table. It would be eating with the pets. Using magic normally was far more useful than building a nuclear weapon this way.
"If the goal is simply mass destruction to deter Muggles, magic can achieve that far more easily." Flitwick snorted. "Aren't there two people living in the Headmaster's office right now? One of them is very good at that sort of thing."
Ryan broke into a cold sweat. The professors clearly still had strong opinions about Gellert. Since Ryan hadn't lived through Grindelwald's war, he saw him with a certain respect—as a pioneer of magic and a revolutionary.
It was a classic case of different perspectives, different experiences, and different people reaching different conclusions. If he had been there at the time, his opinion of Grindelwald would probably be the same as the professors'. And if he couldn't use magic and lived in the Muggle world, he would have just seen Grindelwald as a lawless terrorist who treated human lives as disposable.
But he wasn't there, he could use magic, and he did want to spark another revolution... to make magic great again.
So, faced with Professor Flitwick's animosity, all he could do was offer a sheepish grin.
"Since the Muggle method is a dead end, I plan to research a strategic weapon using a purely wizarding approach," Flitwick said.
"Actually," Ryan suggested, "we could just directly copy the Muggles' nuclear weapon production. If we have the materials, we can use magic to build a factory and mass-produce them. When we need to use one, a wizard can just carry it, drop it from a high altitude, and then Apparate away."
Ryan, a firm believer in the power of these ultimate weapons, felt that if they couldn't find a magical shortcut, they could just use magic to build a Muggle-style factory. If Muggles could produce them, so could they.
"Fine," Flitwick said, clearly uninterested in such a brute-force approach. He handed over his notes. "Here's my research from this period. You see what you can do with it." Even if it was to strengthen the magical world, a traditional and proud Ravenclaw like him had no interest in plagiarism.
Ryan never imagined he was about to transition from tech mogul to arms dealer. Not that he would refuse. He was a Ravenclaw, but also a pragmatist. Whether it was magic or technology, if it worked, it worked. Especially since they could use magic to assist in production, lowering the equipment requirements and the barrier to entry.
"I will continue my own research," Flitwick said. He explained to Ryan that the manufacturing process required endless calculations and measurements for precision—it was meticulous, painstaking work, but it was logical. However, the interaction between magic and technology would require its own precise calibration, which would take a long time to perfect. He advised Ryan to find trustworthy people to help with the calculations.
He believed that the most decisive factor in the entire process was the mass-energy equation.
"In my personal opinion, that equation is the most marvelous theorem in Muggle physics, the most beautiful of symbols." He planned to start from that angle, to build an ultimate magical weapon that was wizarding from the ground up.
"Don't worry, Professor, I'll get it prepared." Ryan carefully tucked the notebook away. This thing was the equivalent of a divine-tier cultivation manual, powerful enough to destroy the world. Its only drawback was that it was difficult to learn, difficult to master, and difficult to perfect.
Then, he got to his real question. "I actually came here to ask you about emotion-based magic. You know me, Professor. I've always focused more on the magic itself and paid less attention to the wizard's emotions. That's why I never took Dumbledore's 'magic of love' theory very seriously. But I feel like I'm just one step away from the next level, and the little push I'm missing might be related to emotions."
Flitwick gave him a helpless look and shrugged. "Emotions are a product of psychology and physiology. To truly understand emotion-magic, you must study magic from both of those factors. Generally speaking, there are no shortcuts. You can only learn it through personal experience."
"Generally speaking?" Hearing that, Ryan relaxed. That qualifier meant that, in un-general cases, there was a shortcut.
"Professor Flitwick, if I recall correctly, from a physiological standpoint, emotions like joy, anger, and sorrow are all related to hormones in the human body. The cerebral cortex, the hypothalamus... they all regulate human emotions. And on a psychological level, emotions are a shock to a person's normal cognitive threshold. When something aligns with our cognition, we feel joy. When it violates our cognition, causing a strong internal conflict, we feel intense aversion—"
Ryan laid out the conditions. He wasn't worried that Flitwick wouldn't understand this basic knowledge. As the leader of the academic nerds, even if Professor Flitwick was currently absorbed in physics, he only needed to skim a biology textbook to grasp what Ryan was saying.
So Ryan didn't elaborate, but just asked: "In an un-general case, do you, Professor, happen to have a spell that can monitor both of those levels that you could teach me?"
Flitwick tore off a piece of parchment. A quill pen began to write furiously on its own. When it was finished, the parchment floated over to Ryan.
"A small charm for monitoring one's own condition," Flitwick said. "But this is just a trick. Your understanding of emotion-magic must still rely on your own cognition of emotions. The insights gained this way will be far inferior to those derived from genuine personal feelings."
Ryan quickly scanned the parchment. In essence, the charm used magic to create semi-ethereal threads to monitor his physiological and emotional state, providing real-time feedback and recording data.
"As long as it works, that's good enough. Otherwise, who knows how long I'd be stuck here," Ryan said. "Well, I won't disturb your research on the mass-energy equation any longer."
~~~
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