Walking into the army branch's war room, the two girls were greeted by several high-ranking military officials sitting around a semi-circular table.
At the front, there was a small podium and a large electronic screen behind it.
Feeling confused and curious eyes fall on them, they made their way to the podium.
Just as the two girls stepped behind it, they heard a deep, rugged voice ring out.
"So what exactly does the Royal Magitech Division want to show us? Since none of the details were told beforehand, many of us here are curious."
The person asking was none other than General Whitaker.
Mavis smiled and plopped the black briefcase on the podium.
"Ah, I'm sorry about that. We couldn't allow any information to leak accidentally or intentionally."
The General's eyes widened slightly.
"So you're telling me whatever is in that briefcase is important to deserve such a strict level of secrecy?"
Mavis nodded before pulling out her smart tablet and tapping it's screen.
The screen behind her suddenly hummed to life and lit up.
"Yes. The content of this case is nothing short of revolutionary. In fact, this could potentially save countless lives and better prepare the army."
Seeing the military officers' anticipation, Mavis unclasped the briefcase's locks, revealing its contents inside.
The briefcase was filled with 10 sets of devices that looked like tiny black metal boxes, no larger than a typical smartphone, with a small circular antenna attached to its front.
The rectangular box possessed two separate meters, each labelled from 0 to 9, one labelled 'rank/star' and the other 'class.'
Taking one of the devices out of the suitcase, Mavis showed it to the people around her.
"This is a prototype of a new invention currently being developed back in the royal capital. We haven't given it a proper name yet, but we simply call it the 'Power Scanner' right now. It sounds tacky, I know. The person who named it thought it sounded cool for some reason and refused to give it a better nickname."
Sitting to her right, the blue-haired girl threw Mavis a sharp glare.
Ignoring this, Mavis continued her explanation.
"As everyone knows, mana cores can be broken into several classes based on their colour and several ranks based on the number of core orbs for mana creatures and Unknowns, or stars for humans, that the core possesses. There are presumed to be nine separate classes, while no one knows how many ranks exist. Although many believe there are also nine for this since it matches the number of mana core classes."
Pressing a few buttons on her tablet, the screen behind Mavis changed into an illustrated diagram.
It showed nine separate coloured orbs and a classification name attached to each of them.
The black orb was labelled 'Imp'.
The violet orb was labelled 'Goblin'.
The Indigo orb was labelled 'Ogre.'
The blue orb was labelled 'Giant'.
The green orb was labelled 'Titan'.
The yellow orb was labelled 'Goliath'.
The orange orb was labelled 'Colossus'.
The red orb was labelled 'Behemoth'.
And finally, the white orb was labelled 'Leviathan.'
"Although this way of classification has existed since antiquity, this way of classification for cores hasn't been all too helpful when dealing with the creatures themselves. At best, it allowed us to know approximately how dangerous a creature of each tier is and approximately how much mana can be absorbed from a core of each tier at the same rank."
Mavis pointed at her device with a confident smile.
"However, our recent breakthrough aims to change that."
Realizing what the black-haired girl was insinuating, one of the nearby officers looked at Mavis with a shocked look.
"Are you saying… That your device can analyze a creature's core without killing it first?"
Mavis nodded her head.
"That's exactly it. The device can analyze the ambient mana given off by a living organism and categorizes the organism's rank and class based on that. It works for Magical Creatures, Unknowns, and even Humans. Although everyone knows that humans only possess Imp-class cores."
A clamour broke out amongst the officers as many looked at Mavis with surprise and disbelief.
Even General Whitaker looked a little fazed by Mavis's words.
"If that device really works as you say… We can much better prepare our men for combat. Before, we could only gauge the rank of Unknowns by the rank of the Tear they came out of, but this… This is revolutionary!"
Mavis took the briefcase and placed it in front of the General.
"While it already works to a certain extent, please remember it's only a prototype at the moment and is still technically in development. In fact… That's why I'm showing it to you all right now."
General Whitaker raised an eyebrow.
"Are you saying that there is something you need us to do?"
"Yes," Mavis affirmed, "we would like you all to run field trials with them. Just use them to scan targets, and let us know if there are any bugs or hiccups."
The General nodded his head.
"That can be arranged. Our regular soldiers can handle that if it's simply scanning a target."
He let out a short sigh and observed the so-called 'Power Scanner' with a serious gaze.
"I can understand now why this was kept under such tight secrecy. Not only would this preserve more lives and allow us to better focus our troops, but over time, this would allow us to significantly bolster our forces. The fewer people we lose, the more people we'll have."
Mavis nodded before tapping her tablet a couple of times to turn off the screen behind her.
"Anyways, now that we've taken care of our little tech showcase, I have some other tasks I need to get done. I've sent you the instruction manual for the… Power Scanners… I still can't get over that name. If there is anything else you need me for, I'll be in the tech wing."
Bidding farewell, Mavis and the blue-haired girl exited the war room, leaving the shocked military officers to their own devices.
Mavis flashed a smile to her companion.
"I'd say that went quite well, wouldn't you think?"
The blue-haired girl nodded.
"Yes, although I would have loved to say some things myself, given my current situation, I can't."
"So… How do you feel then?"
The blue-haired girl looked at her friend before a small smile formed on her lips.
"Validated… For once in my life. Finally, I managed to do something right."
sighed as she suddenly remembered something.
"Now, all that's left is… The other task."
"Ah, right, we need to go find your new personal bodyguard. I wonder where he could be."
Just as Mavis finished speaking, a certain auburn-haired boy slowly came into view.