Chapter 472: Liquid Mana

The very second he did that, Serena instantly fainted.

She just collapsed directly onto the bamboo floor.

Adrian panicked. He rushed over, scooped her up off the ground, and quickly brought her back up to the bed. He pressed two fingers firmly against her wrist to check her pulse.

Her heart was beating totally normally, so with a slight sigh, he sent a thin strand of his own mana inside her body to check upon her internal condition. He could clearly see that every single one of her mana veins was completely dried out. The sudden pull had drained her to zero.

Seeing this, he couldn’t help but let out a massive sigh of relief.

"She just exhausted all of her mana in a single instant."

He bit his lower lip and frowned.

’Wait. The monster was already pretty lightweight. I also fully gave my consent to her using it. I think the issue here is the distance penalty. But I am sitting right here.’

He opened the interface again.

’System, can you tell me what is going on right now? I am literally right beside her, but she drained all her mana trying to summon a single slime. I am pretty sure it is a distance issue.’

[Affirmative. It is a severe distance penalty.]

[The System connects you directly to the Dungeon and acts entirely as a middleman, giving you access to multiple extra features. The Dungeon Link does not connect the Dungeon itself to the outside world. It is directly connected only to you. You are not a door or a pathway, You can only open a portal.]

Adrian nodded in realization.

"Right. Then unless I literally have a portal open right near her, she can’t really summon anything. Because if I don’t open the door, the dungeon is technically in a completely different dimension. The distance is basically infinite."

He thought about it for a few seconds.

’Well, why don’t you just make me a magical item? Like a ring, a pendant, or a pair of earrings. Something that, with just a tiny bit of mana injection, can safely open up a very thin, one-way portal to the dungeon. It just needs to open up a tiny bit of space so that the distance feels entirely non-existent for her summoning spell.’

[Affirmative. Manufacturing the spatial item would consume 2,000 mana.]

’Just use it. Not a big deal.’ he thought and then, continued. ’Also, set up a decent-sized, completely isolated room inside the dungeon. Put the slime inside that room. Only connect the earrings directly to that specific room so that she can only summon the creatures that are inside that area. I don’t want her accidentally trying to summon an huge monster and actually dying from the mana drain.’

[Affirmative.]

A moment later, a pair of dark metallic earrings fell directly onto Adrian’s open palms. He placed them on the bed next to her.

He placed his hand on Serena’s chest to put a little bit more of his own mana into her body to check how she was doing, only to realize something frustrating.

She wasn’t recovering any mana at all.

He let out another sigh. "Right. I forgot there is zero atmospheric mana on this entire continent."

"Well, it is not that big of a deal." he muttered as he stood up and walked out of the hut into the rain. He quickly grabbed one of the massive Orichalcum-Granite containers that was already partially filled with the rainwater.

He directly sent the container into his dungeon. ’Analyze this water completely. Tell me if you can replicate it.’

[Analyzing Material...]

[This specific liquid does not follow the established laws of this world. Due to its nature, artificially creating this liquid would consume exactly 2 Mana to infuse a single droplet of water with 1 Mana.]

Hearing this terrible exchange rate, Adrian frowned.

’So it is pretty much a dumb thing to do. I will be spending double the energy just to get what I usually get, just so it can be in a liquid form.’

He asked another question.

’How much energy will it take for you to extract the mana out from these droplets?’

[The cost of removing the mana from the water is: None. These water droplets are unstable and are held together due to mystical forces that cannot be explained through normal means.]

Adrian nodded.

’So this is basically just completely free, highly unstable liquid mana.’

He rubbed his chin.

’Okay, tell me exactly how much mana is inside this thing. Look into it and tell me the exact ratio.’

[Affirmative. But if you want accurate data, it would be advised to provide much more samples.]

’Sure.’

Adrian casually walked all over the tribal camp under the rain. He just casually touched every single one of the massive containers the tribesmen had set up, sending all of them straight into his dungeon.

The system instantly got to work.

[Water collected directly from the rain has an exact ratio of 1 Mana per 10 Milliliters. Therefore, 1 Liter of this liquid contains exactly 100 Mana. This makes a single Liter entirely equivalent to the energy output of one standard Mana Crystal.]

Seeing this calculation, Adrian frowned.

’So it is not really a great way to store mana, is it? The volume and space needed to store this water will be much higher when compared to just hoarding compact mana crystals.’

He shook his head and walked back into his hut.

’Oh well, whatever. Right now, I just need to find out how this liquid works with the mana veins.’ he thoght as he sat back down on the bed.

’Wait. To safely use standard mana crystals, you need specific breathing methods. You can’t directly absorb the raw mana safely unless you use incredibly specific runic arrays. Even if you do directly absorb mana from the crystals, regular absorption methods are extremely wasteful. So I am just wondering... how good will this water actually be when it comes to recovering a mage’s mana?’