Capítulo 15: Chapter 25: R&D II: Problems Strike Back
It took me a week after Lux's fiasco to learnt of Mana nature and trained in its secret.
It took a week and a half for the rest of us to gain the power and actually produced result
We had accomplished many things in half a month but alas the research had not always yield success.
Like the following.
...
Project 3: Best method for Mana Strengthening--Meridian.
Hypothesis: There are a better method than mana resist.
Let start with a simple question.
How do stats actually work?
I really didn't like the answer.
"Let me get this straight. Through training with mana, your stats increase but you don't know why it's increasing or how mana caused it's to increase?" I said. Next to me Lux slapped her face in exasperation.
"To be fair we managed to maximize the system. Legendary heroes like Arthur and Hercules ascended to Phantasia as spirit due to their raw stats!" Cy argued.
"Yes, you succeed, " I nodded sarcastically. "Just like how spell-crafting 'succeed' until we broke the rule of magic with ME a few days ago. So now told me how it works. In fact, now that we get here, who is in charge of Phantasia's technological and magical development? How could you guys suck so much that it only took a teenager coming from another reality to bring every rule you set up down!?"
"Fine!"Scathach threw her point down in indignation. "Here is how it work! The Isle of Knowledge was responsible for outputting 85% of new discoveries and researches of Phantasia. The rest was from private sector. They are the best in the business, trusted by both Emma Enterprises and the Grand Empire and much more factions I can think of. And in most case they did their job perfectly but..."
"They are mercenaries in nature," Cy couldn't look at me in the face from shame. "They only license their technological prowess when someone pay for it or when it directly benefited them. They also had an in-office politic and power struggled to worry about. The board on the Isle of Knowledge wouldn't spend much time on anything that they already judge a money loser like, you know, the true nature of mana."
"In fact, given that they had lucrative investment in spell research, plus a newest nuclear mana reactor they are marketing, they would be the first to discredit your Mana Engineering and lobby against it." Scathach said. "As for subject like body strengthening. They sold magical mech suit, robotic organ and short burst steroid as merchandise. Why would they bother researching the way to make people stronger when their product counted on people being weak enough to need augmentation? Everything we are doing now is basically their worse nightmare in term of asset and power."
"So they benefited from the current status quo," I face-palmed. "So benefit from it they are basically killing discoveries."
"Something that everyone, even me, is fine with until you come along," Scathach said. "But this is how it work."
Scathach drew a table in front of me
Rank Minimum Stat point
E 0 Easy glide
D 100
C 200
B 300
A 500 True hell
S 2500
SS 15000 Theoretical
SSS 150000
Ex ???? Unknown
"This is how the stat worked. From E to B is the easy glide where you can gain stat point easily and the threshold to next rank only required 100 Stat. E is your baseline human and D is Phantasia citizen with minimal training with mana. That stat point will be gain easily until you hit rank B which is Phantasia's citizen with advance training.
Scathach breathed.
"From Rank B to A is where things got hard. We called it the warm up phase. 'A' mean excellent and you require a total of 500 stat point to graduate to that status and after this is where the real gate of hell could be seen. Five time the amount of what you had at A is require to get to S and the multiplier only increase after that. By the point one of your stat point growth hit 'A', your point gain rate slow down tremendously to the point that Rank SS and SSS is a myth. So far in the history of Phantasia, no one knew what it took to reach Ex-rank."
"To tell you how hard it is. My master who was the Empress of Heaven and her stat is high S level. My senior sister Tie Hua was called combat genius who would be offered elite position in any organisation and her strongest her stats is only at a 1700. The average grunt in any faction is mid B except the vampire who somehow reach A rank pretty easily." Cy added
I looked at the board and frowned.
How did this happen? What the point of all this?
This was two main question but its route on the same logic problem. Why did mana worked in this manner? What did the living energy who relied on existence to keep itself going gained from implementing this system?
"Lux, any idea?"
Lux pondered in thought.
"You are wondering too right," Lux finally said. "Why did the Status ID gave the rank divide and why did mana set the rule like this?"
"Wait, mana suppose to get stronger with the continual existence of the universe and they actively promoted its right?" Cy said getting bit disturb. "Could this mean the stat increase indicated that our existence become stronger."
Scathach snorted even she could not take that idea seriously.
"That was one of the most ridiculous idea ever," she laughed. "You are saying that stats increase was a response to you getting more real. How did that even work? And if so why did stat growth slow down? Are you planning to tell me being real have a limit?"
No... there was one case of a possible Ex-rank I know about.
"What about Satholia?" I told them the one figure coming to my mind. "She said that she was so powerful her existence broke the balance of the universe. What if getting more real meant transcending our existence to be closer to her level?"
"You are claiming that mana was trying to bring us closer to her? To become like her? Isn't she a living concept who was a manifestation of all good in the universe." Cy said.
It clicked. What she said clicked...
"Satholia was once a human," I said in a trance. "Hey Cy, you are a goddess so what is your starting stats? And are there any creature that didn't started off at E or have some advantage over other?"
"D," Cy said. "God are already born above human level. An Elf like Luxina also have higher stat in the beginning. Some creature like Dragon or Vampire also reach high C at childhood and outright S rank when they put in some effort. Some ancient bloodline from god reach A pretty easily."
"That is it?" I said. The puzzles clicked all over the place. "So that was why the Stat slow down and that rank exist."
Everyone starred at me.
"Cy was right..." I started.
"What?" said one disbelief Badger.
"Uh...I am," Cy said blinking and Lux just look plain confuse.
"The stat represent our growth in transcendental being. God like Nuwa and Zues was at level S because they are, well, gods. They are superhuman beings but even they couldn't reach pass SS because even god have limit. As you approach that limit your growth slow down. The initial growth was quick because mana help unlock our potential and move our existence up the pole of transcendence but no matter who you are, you will hit a limiter. And at Ex-rank, your power got so banana that the system outright broke, just like when Satholia come to play."
No one argued. The theory was pretty solid.
"So how do we increase the limit and stop the slowing growth," Lux asked earnestly.
"My guess is you become a new existence?" I said. "In this case use mana and body modelling to improve your ability closer to that of a god."
"But you still got a catch! Even god have limit." Cy suggested. "You can't just, I don't know, rebuild yourself with mana?"
"The ore," something flashed in my mind. "Remember the Ore Lux got after beating the Paracyst?"
"Yeah," Scathach said. "What about...oh."
Scathach gulped.
"What?" Lux and Cy looked between me and the badger.
"This will change everything?" Scathach looked as pale as a badger can get. "But the Isle of Knowledge already tried something like that... wait they didn't knew about the mana's will. Oh my god."
"Anyone care explaining?" Cy said.
"What did Cy's ore made out of?" I asked guiding them toward the conclusion.
"Condensed mana from Satholia, the forest's mana and part of the Paracyst?" Cy answered, then realization hit. "Oh hell... you meant that the highest quality ore Scathach ever seen was created from mana and organic material. This mean that..."
"This mean that our body can be made into something like that ore, " Lux finished what Cy was implying, realization bringing her up on the same page.
"And given that it was a natural product create by your body and keyed with your mana, there will be no rejection or side effect, " Scathach said. "The main issue Isle of Knowledge fail to solve despite using cloning technology."
"So how do we do that, " Lux said.
"Testing, " Cy suggested taking some leftover bone from the snapper. "Lot of testing.
Result: By mixing mana with the grounded Ravine Earth Snapper bone. We managed to consolidate a substance that was harder and stronger than the original sample, proving our theory correct. However, the process required high amount of energy. Plus the complexity of human biology and lack of proper simulation machine meant we couldn't
develop a truly advance technique.
Moreover, judging from Scathach's description of how previous body-modification attempt by the Isle of Knowledge went, this did not improve our courage at all. Cy excused herself to spill out her lunches while I and Lux may start getting chronic nightmare. After discussion, while we decided that while creating a permanent framework to gain a faster and stronger power growth would be ideal, the price would not be worth it if we had to tore its down later and crippling ourselves in the process. So we compromised by building a prototype framework of mana system in our body. The framework was design to improve bone and muscle structure with minimum alteration on the biology. Moreover, it could be took down with no effect on the user. However, because it was only temporary it's took time to maintain and energy to stabilized while being disrupted pretty easily.
For now project Meridian was shelved in until we actually work out the head or tail of how not to screw like Isle of Knowledge. Reliable simulator and modeling machine was now on high tier priority.
Right after money.
...
And speaking of Money.
...
Project 4: Mana and Alchemy--Mana Added Alchemy (MAA)
Lux was briefing us with her newest research into pills. Mana was flowing around the room at high density as our goddess worked her magic.
"I am proud to announce. With the breakthrough in mana, I had finally created new formula for cosmetic pills." The goddess said setting up a cauldron.
"Don't you need fire?" Scathach looked incredulously.
"Please Scathach I grew out of that phase."
"Nu Wa would be silently crying right now." Scathach muttered.
"After leaving the Ravine Earth Snapper bond to aged in sacred water for a week, the impurity was almost gone." She held up a clean Ivory bone. "The we had to powdered the bone. This could be done with force and heat but I develop a new method."
She casted strange looking [Photon Ring], adjusted it power and tossed in the bone that instantly powderise.
"Using [Mana Perception] I detect the natural mana frequency inside the bone and adjusted the frequency of the force release by a modified [Photon Ring], which I call to [Photon Ring (Grind)], to break it down by resonating the ring energy with object natural mana vibration."
She tossed in the rest of the bone that was quickly grounded to dust. I see she used the same principle superposition of the natural frequency and resonance to ground the bone. But instead of vibration, she used energy from the modified [Photon Ring]. It technically could be used for combat application but won't be as effective as classical [Photon Ring] due to the fact that slowly grinding opponent wouldn't be as quick as blasting them in the face.
"No hush, no fuss, no material loss, " Cy dropped the last bone into the grinder. "Unlike incense that work as a chemical trigger, Pill worked by using the enhanced nutrient and magic in the raw material to reinforce the body. This meant that process was a lot more complicated. Especially, now that I decided to invent a new formula."
Cy listed the ingredient.
"Ravine Earth Snapper blood purified under sunlight have high revitalization properties. Secondly is a bit of mint in from my personal storage." Cyfrowned. "Speaking of which, I think we should start making herb garden because my medicinal plant stock would last only up to only a year."
"We will get that going if we can find better base than this Van, " Scathach said. "Now the pill please."
"Right! Now some bit of exotic flowers. I will stick with Northern Bloom Uncle Avar restocked for me, Honey Tulip, Indigo Vine and finally 3 Kg of pure Heaven Crystal...geez this thing was way too popular."
Cy clicked her fingers and the mana around her leap up in a cyclone picking up all the ingredient. The green energy also formed taking a shape of a sphere.
"The ability [Divine Center Authority (S)] Satholia gave me allowed me to directly called on both surrounding mana and granted me a high-level authority over natural energy in the area. Using this ability, I am basically unrivaled when it came to nutrient extraction. By creating Spherical Nature Energy Field (SNFE) I can perform higher Alchemy than without usage of cauldron."
"Wait, you still need cauldron for consolidating the pill, mixing ingredient and protecting it from overheating?" Scathach called out. "Even S-Rank alchemist needed it."
"I already experiment with it. Although my control was not as good as master who can already do Cauldronless alchemy. I can say my understanding of mana help compensated a lot for that, " Cy said. "Now let begin firstly, is the mixed the powdered bone with the blood until they become the same phase. Phase manipulation could help with that."
Using Mana cyclone, she mixed the blood and the powder into a dull red soup. Through a single hand gesture, she wrapped the soup around the heaven crystal using nothing but Mana control.
"To minimise energy lost from the crystal breakdown, its is better to wrapped the paste around the crystal and breach it with natural energy rather than breaking it right away. Finally time for medicinal herb."
The soup dissolve the crystal and begun to glitter. Mint, a purple color vine and the tulip was quenched for it juice which was drain into the paste.
"Indigo Vine and Honey Tulip juice help blood flow and contained vitality enhancement properties. It mixture also help smoothed wrinkles and help enhance the beautifying effect of the pill. The mint act as a buffer for them to mix and finally Avar's Northern Bloom."
The bright blue cabbage-like plant with pink trimmed was dropped into the paste.
"It help enhanced the test. Legend said that if it was process collector under minimal heat and high concentration natural energy it would gave anyone who are it a beauty rivaling the celestial."
Cy divided the paste into thirty portions. With a flick of her finger, the green energy spun the paste and compressed all thirty portions into pills.
"Although using flame might be easier," Cy said grabbing the pill. "Given the ingredient used I think compress and dried is the greatest method to maintain quality."
Result: Lux insisted that Cy's Northern Flower Pill was as delicious as her cake and I happily agreed. Even Scathach took one. As for its beautifying effect, according to Scathach, this is one of the highest ranking cosmetic pill ever created by Cy which was even more impressive due to lack of damage to quality of ingredient and ability to pull out 99% of all the potential inside the herb. Hell, it even gave a passive skill.
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder