Chapter 97: Research!

And with that, the training among the Awakeners commenced, and the secret competition between the veterans heated up.

Everyone wanted to grow stronger, to show that they weren’t just items to be protected, but that they too could protect others.

A situation which Ethan was more than happy to see; in fact, he had already anticipated that such a drive would naturally surface.

At the same time, while everyone was in the full midst of training, Ethan was currently doing something he had put off for a long time.

Deep within the Smith Underground Air Bunker, inside a room specially configured for experiments, he held a handful of monster cores, his Mana Sense carefully examining them.

"Now then, let’s see if what Darius said is correct. If it is, then our strengths will take a qualitative leap!"

Recalling what the veteran had proposed during their last meeting, Ethan’s eyes shone with anticipation.

.....

[Smith Underground Bunker, Research Room]

"Back during the meeting, Darius raised several hypotheses."

"First, he asked: What if, just like we extract mana from the atmosphere, we could absorb it from the crystals to strengthen and increase our mana capacity?"

"The other thing he asked was: If we could indeed extract it, could we store it like a power bank to use for later, potentially letting us cast spells and attacks far exceeding our current capacity?"

Back then, after a quick mental deduction using his Max-Level Comprehension, Ethan had concluded that it was indeed possible.

However, the primary hurdle had always been the extraction process itself.

According to Ethan’s analysis, the cores were completely condensed masses of mana; any attempt to forcefully rip the energy out from the outside would simply cause the crystal to destabilize and dissipate into the air.

"This is also why Awakeners swallow them directly, so that when the energy disperses, it happens entirely inside the body. Even then, there’s still a lot of wastage, which is why several crystals are needed just to advance a single rank."

Staring down at the handful of cores, Ethan had to be careful.

Right now, there were exactly one hundred and ten crystals in total.

If he accidentally destroyed any in his experiments, he wouldn’t have enough to award the winners of the upcoming competition.

Especially when he was already ten crystals short since he chose twelve winners for his competition.

If that happened, he’d be forced to rush out on a quick monster hunt before the trials began.

"Fortunately, it’s not a lost cause. According to my tests, if I channel my own mana into the crystal at the same moment I try to draw its energy out, I can extract and absorb it."

"However, that sort of defeats the purpose, because the mana I expend just to hold the crystal stable consumes most of what I pull out, rendering the net gain negligible."

Sighing slightly, Ethan began to brainstorm.

To successfully absorb the energy without wasting it, he needed to either prevent the crystal from shattering prematurely or catch the dispersing mana particles before they dissolved into the atmosphere, funneling them straight into his body.

Closing his eyes, he let his mind drift inward.

Within the vast expanse of his consciousness, all kinds of sparks began to fly.

His accumulated understanding of mana, gathered from teaching dozens of mages, combined with his own past-life knowledge, was put to full use.

In a state of deep trance, complex ideas began to form, morph, dismantle, and rearrange themselves right before his mind’s eye.

Concepts that had previously confused him suddenly cleared up.

Hidden variables he hadn’t considered materialized and were instantly answered.

After standing perfectly still for an unknown amount of time, his inner consciousness lit up brilliantly as a workable solution finally popped into his head.

"That’s it! If I do that, it should actually work!"

Not wasting a single second, he looked down at the handful of crystals in his palm.

There were twenty of them right here, coincidentally, the exact amount he would need to upgrade both of his own abilities to E-rank if he chose to use them on himself.

Without hesitation, willing to risk needing to hunt more monsters later, he began to execute the technique.

Concentrating his mind entirely on the crystals, he replicated the mental rhythm he used when drawing ambient mana from the atmosphere, locking his focus onto the dense energy trapped inside the stones.

At the same time, his mind flickered back to what he had observed during Lucy’s breakthrough: her body had naturally pulsed with a specific frequency that resonated with the surrounding environmental mana, drawing it toward her like a magnet.

While his own physical body didn’t possess that exact innate pull, by consciously imitating that oscillation, he could successfully coax the escaping mana particles from the broken crystals straight into his frame.

Thinking it, he acted.

Crack!

Under his precise mental control, all twenty crystals shattered simultaneously in his palm without him even squeezing them.

The moment they broke, the dense mana that escaped flared up like a glowing blue cloud, rushing eagerly toward his skin under the guidance of his Mana Sense.

Now, while he could easily absorb the energy right now to test if it would upgrade his abilities, Ethan wanted to solve the secondary question first:

Could this extracted energy be absorbed directly by a mage’s magic circles to rapidly increase their mana capacity?

With this thought guiding him, he carefully steered the incoming stream of mana inward, directing it straight into his active magic circles and letting it merge into the core structure.

"Incredible! It actually works!"

Feeling the immediate, steady expansion of his internal reserves, Ethan knew he had succeeded.

He had officially solved the greatest bottleneck of the Mage System, the traditionally slow process of gathering ambient mana.

Now, as long as mages consumed enough refined crystal energy, they could rapidly push themselves to the absolute peak of their current rank, bounded only by their personal comprehension of principles when attempting a breakthrough.

Realizing the massive implications of this discovery, a broad smile spread across his face.

"Alright then. That brings us to the next problem: how do we store it?"

"Fortunately, given the principles I just uncovered, solving that shouldn’t be too difficult either."

Picking up a fragment of a shattered crystal, Ethan poured a small fraction of his isolated mana into it.

Sure enough, the energy remained trapped inside the mineral structure, refusing to dissipate.

"Just as I thought. By resonating that specific frequency with a material that naturally absorbs mana, like these monster cores, I can draw ambient energy and lock it inside."

"In that case, to build that ’powerbank’ device, I’ll need to manufacture a larger container crafted entirely out of materials with high mana-absorption properties."

Muttering to himself, Ethan’s thoughts drifted back to the massive pile of spoils they had brought back from the expedition.

Perhaps the answer to their storage problem was hidden somewhere right inside that mountain of monster skin, bone, and crystal.

.......

Note: Thanks, everyone for buying the privilege this month. Again, sorry for the slow uploads i’m still in the hospital, 15 more Chapters till the 30 privilege is filled, after which the upload schedule will go back to three a day except when various goals are reached

And all 15 Chapters will be uploaded by this time tomorrow, once again thank you for reading