I Became a Genius Mechanic at the Academy

---

Power is like a living creature.

To survive, it constantly hunts and devours its prey, growing larger, while digesting and excreting what is unnecessary.

In ‘El Pandor Runtera’, there are hundreds of families consumed by power.

A notable example is the ‘Bentingk’ family, which rose to prominence following the Great War seven years ago.

The Bentingk family has been famous for their abundant wheat farming since ancient times. During times of food surplus, they were merely a baron family, but when the war-induced famine accelerated, their status quickly ascended.

The Emperor promised a substantial reward and bought the Bentingk family’s wheat at a high price.

Moreover, the rival Trocen family suffered a great defeat in battle, earning the Emperor’s wrath, leading to the Bentingk family absorbing even the Trocen family as a result.

A rural baron family transformed into a powerful count family in an instant.

From that moment, the Bentingk family became a hot topic in high society.

Everyone wanted to forge marriage alliances with the still unmarried youngest of the Bentingk family.

At that time, the Bentingk family was a rising star, noted even by the great Grand Duke families.

– Behead the criminal Andersen Bentingk.

But who could have known?

That the brilliantly shining Bentingk family would fall in an instant.

The true culprit was the youngest son of the Bentingk family.

Numerous individuals competed to introduce their daughters to that foolish boy, leading him down the path of luxury and indulgence.

As a result, he crossed a line he shouldn’t have.

Believing that every woman in the world was his, intoxicated by alcohol and drugs, he committed the atrocity of hugging and groping Isabella, who was attending a social gathering.

In that instant, Isabella felt an unbearable shame, and her eyes turned pitch black.

She cast a superior curse upon him.

As a result, he went mad, grasping the knife he was using to slice steak and wreaked havoc, stabbing the daughter of a count.

That too, in the belly of a pregnant woman.

Luckily, thanks to Isabella coming to her senses just in time and healing her, the woman was saved, but ultimately the child was miscarried.

No matter how great the healing, unless it’s top-tier healing like Elena, perfect restoration is impossible.

From that point on, the Bentingk family walked down the path of decline, and eventually, the youngest son was beheaded, and the family retreated into the mountains, leaving behind their titles and positions.

After that, no one knew of their whereabouts.

“Digested trash.”

However, I, well-versed in all the TMI of the game, knew that the Bentingk family had become a casualty of power.

Several families that looked down on the Bentingk family plotted to corrupt the youngest son and lead him into indulgence.

Of course, they never imagined that Andersen Bentingk would assault Isabella.

They only wanted to tarnish the Bentingk family’s honor a little, never dreaming of such a huge stroke of luck.

But regardless of their intentions, it turned out to be a jackpot, and the Bentingk family merely became prey for the nobility.

A rising star had turned into excrement.

In that sense, I find myself at the center of power.

I already had Ilreya visit me, and in a week, people from the Grand Duke family will come to assess me under the pretense of a equipment demonstration.

Not only that, but the faculty representing various noble families, also sponsored by the Princess and Elena, will attend the equipment demonstration to evaluate me.

Seven years ago, it was the Bentingk family; this year, it’s Edgar Fix that has caught the eye of power.

But I am not an easy target like the Bentingk family.

I have been playing this world for a long time and know all the TMI of the game.

Thus, the prey will not be me but those who wish to hunt me down.

Currently, I am curled up in wait for an opportunity, but someday I will devour all those who wish to harm me and rise above.

For that, I first need…

“An air conditioner.”

I must create an air conditioner.

Now it’s time to become the god of summer.

***

It was Thursday again.

A time when I could develop to my heart’s content.

So I immediately dove into the laboratory.

With the equipment demonstration scheduled for Monday, I had to develop the air conditioner within that time.

– Pah!

First, let’s figure out the structure of the air conditioner.

Utilizing the hologram, an auxiliary skill obtained when my ‘engineering thought’ reached level 3.

Just like how I got Fix when my manual skill level reached 3, this hologram is one of the game-breaking skills.

I could see the structure of the air conditioner that I had yet to create so clearly.

“Hmm… Seems I’ve got it roughly right.”

But this hologram isn’t omnipotent.

At the very least, I had to understand the principles or structure of the subject I imagined.

That’s how I could examine it closely like this.

In that sense, I already knew the basic principles of the air conditioner.

Divided into indoor and outdoor units, the indoor unit expels cold air, while the outdoor unit expels hot air.

In other words, it takes the heat from the room and expels it outside.

So, how can we take the heat from inside the room?

The answer was “refrigerant.”

The refrigerant flowing through the ‘L’ shaped pipe inside the air conditioner’s indoor unit.

This refrigerant absorbs the heat from inside the room and transforms it into cold air.

Just like the sweat that flows through our bodies.

Sweat.

Our bodies expel sweat when our body temperature rises.

Sweat absorbs the heat from the skin and evaporates, thus lowering body temperature; this process is defined as ‘latent heat of vaporization’.

In other words, our bodies utilize the phenomenon of latent heat of vaporization, where a liquid absorbs heat to become a gas.

That’s why water sprinkled on asphalt in summer disappears if left alone.

It has absorbed the surrounding heat and evaporated into gas.

For this reason, the refrigerant flowing through the pipe is a liquid with high latent heat of vaporization.

It steals heat from the room like crazy.

Thus, the air that has had heat taken from it by the refrigerant cools down, and when this air is expelled outside through a fan, cool air comes out of the air conditioner.

“Alright, shall I make it?”

Understanding the principle of the indoor unit, I immediately got to work.

I created the ‘L’ shaped pipe where the refrigerant would flow and made the fan to expel the cooled air outside.

“I guess I need to create the outdoor unit too.”

The outdoor unit compresses the refrigerant and gradually cools it down.

In other words, the outdoor unit processes the refrigerant to make it reusable.

Therefore, I made a compressor for the outdoor unit and a fan to cool down the heated refrigerant.

With that, 70% of the air conditioner was complete.

“Now I just need to make a temperature sensor?”

The temperature sensor.

To control the temperature inside the room, a temperature sensor is essential.

If I want to lower the room’s temperature, I need to send more refrigerant to the indoor unit, and if I want to raise the room’s temperature, I need to send less refrigerant, which requires a means to measure the room’s temperature.

I solved this with mana stones.

By inscribing the ‘heat conservation’ spell on the mana stone, it will remember a specific temperature.

Thus, I created fifteen mana stones that remember each temperature from 18 to 32 degrees.

Then, I designed and applied mechanical designs to the air conditioner so that pressing the button would allow for temperature control from 18 to 32 degrees.

With that, I created a temperature-controllable air conditioner.

“Phew! Fix, you did well!”

“Woooow~!”

And so, on Saturday morning.

I managed to complete the air conditioner in just three days.

I accomplished state-of-the-art equipment encompassing fluid dynamics, mechanical engineering, thermodynamics, and mana dynamics in just three days.

Now it’s time to inject mana into the core magical stone and confirm whether the air conditioner operates normally.

Without hesitation, I immediately turned on the air conditioner.

– Shuaaaaaaa…

As a result, it worked.

The stifling laboratory quickly became cool.

It was transforming from hell to paradise.

“This is life.”

Those uncivilized medieval folks.

This is the greatness of Willis Haviland Carrier.

I leaned back in my chair and savored that greatness.

***

It was Monday again.

Today is the day of the equipment evaluation.

As a special admission student in the technology section, it’s a day to validate my skills.

However, I asked to reschedule the equipment demonstration from 11 PM to 1 PM.

To truly experience the performance of the air conditioner, 1 PM, when it’s hottest, is the perfect time, and since the next class starts at 2 PM, 1 PM is the most suitable time.

Fortunately, under Elena’s leadership, I was able to change the time without any issues.

The three evaluators dispatched from the Duke family and all the faculty would attend the equipment demonstration at 1 PM.

“Shall we begin?”

Now all that’s left is the setup.

After finishing the first period and quickly resolving a meal, I began setting up the air conditioner in the VIP room where the demonstration would be held.

I placed the indoor unit against the outer wall and, with Fix’s help, set the outdoor unit outside.

Fortunately, since the equipment evaluation is taking place on the 1st floor VIP room, setting up the outdoor unit wasn’t difficult.

– Beep.

As I finished setting up the air conditioner.

I immediately tried turning on the air conditioner.

The hot and stuffy air inside the lecture hall began to circulate.

A miracle was occurring as the room’s temperature gradually cooled down.

“The testing is problem-free.”

After finishing the test, I closed the curtains and set the lighting.

Since we’re doing this demonstration, I wanted to prepare it properly.

People easily get swayed by a decent atmosphere.

That’s why aesthetic cafes and aesthetic phones sell well.

Now there are just 20 minutes remaining until the evaluators and faculty members arrive.

Soon, an innovation that rivals a smartphone would be presented.

***

Three evaluators sent from the Empire’s Duke family.

They were all major figures holding high-ranking posts within the Duke family.

Having heard the rumors about Ed, the Grand Dukes of the Duke family sent trusted individuals to ascertain Ed’s caliber.

“Hmph, a mere commoner is arbitrarily adjusting the time like this. I must reconsider Edgar Fix.”

“Indeed, that’s right.”

However, they displayed a strong sense of displeasure.

A commoner, no matter how backed by Professor Elena and Her Highness the Princess, should not be able to arbitrarily change the schedule a day before the demonstration.

Moreover, it wasn’t even the middle of the day.

To cram the respected professors of the academy and the main retainers of the Duke family into one room in such hot weather, if they had any common sense, that treatment wouldn’t be possible.

It was common sense that demonstrations or events in this sweltering heat should be held at night.

“Strange. According to the lady, this guy doesn’t seem that foolish.”

Thus, the head butler of the Graham Grand Duke family, ‘Bilson’, held some questions.

According to Miss Isabella, Edgar Fix was said to be a genius who appears once in a millennium.

But it was impossible to understand how such a genius could make such a foolish choice.

In this hot weather, inviting evaluators to view one’s goods, would they really give good evaluations?

No, no matter how excellent the item was, it would still be hard to receive good scores.

What the evaluators are looking to assess is Edgar’s abilities, not his products.

“Miss, I’m afraid it won’t be easy to give good scores at this time.”

And so, Bilson shook his head and moved on.

Although Miss Isabella insisted he grant full marks, he had come here as a representative of the Graham Grand Duke and had to be careful and stern in his assessment.

There could be no exceptions.

“Ha, is that the item in question?”

While moving with disappointment, one professor pointed at a strange item.

It was the outdoor unit of the air conditioner made by Edgar.

“Unbelievable. Do you see hot air coming out of this?”

“Ha, are you really going to introduce such an item?”

“It certainly seems different from what I’d heard. It looks like a pretty insignificant thing.”

The outdoor unit was blowing out air far hotter than the average temperature.

The evaluators and faculty frowned and hurried away.

It’s stifling hot as it is, they didn’t want to endure even more heat from the outdoor unit.

As they stepped inside the building, standing at the door to the VIP room, they thought:

“I need to finish this quickly.”
“There’s nothing else to see.”
“I want to drink some refreshing ice water.”

As the evaluators and faculty intended to wrap things up, they opened the door to the VIP room.

If they had prepared a white hunk of scrap metal that spewed hot air, they would have turned around immediately.

“……?”

But the moment they opened the door.

Heavenly air touched their skin.

The quality of air here was entirely different from the outside.

Life existed in this place.

“Thank you for coming all this way. I am Edgar Fix, S-Class 37, from the Empire Academy.”

At the podium in the VIP room, a handsome boy with black hair introduced himself.

He introduced himself with perfect noble etiquette and gestured to the table and comfortable chairs in front of him.

“Before the presentation, I have prepared refreshing beer and comfortable chairs for you all. Please feel free to sit and enjoy the presentation while quenching your thirst.”

Cool air from the air conditioner + refreshing beer + comfy chairs that make you drowsy + gentle lighting.

The evaluators and faculty members had expressions as if they were hypnotized in unison, each moving towards the refreshing beer.

Edgar smiled at that sight.

‘Looks like I passed.’