"Say, Emina, have you perhaps attempted to cultivate?" Kaden asked on the way to the storage room containing the time rift.

"I did", Emina gave a short answer.

"And? How was the mana?" Kaden continued. "Were you able to absorb any?"

"None", Emina sighed. "Gods are not here yet. I cannot take anything except chaotic mana and that would be harmful."

This fit within Kaden's predictions. His mana system and body structure were different. He could cultivate, but he still missed a portion where Emina missed all.

"So it is same for you", Kaden nodded, concealing the fact that he could cultivate. "We can use the mana, but not use it to cultivate."

"Can't be helped", Emina continued.

Kaden chuckled in his mind. Limits were meant to be broken. He had already done so and freed himself from the gods influence. Most people were merely used to such things and didn't think any further. Not him!

Once at the storage room where the time rift was still looking exactly the way it had since Kaden and Emina had come through it, Kaden questioned what was the deal with getting him there.

"What exactly are you planning to do with it?" Kaden questioned.

"We would place all sorts of a detector around it and take measures", Tony told Kaden. "Honestly, I'm surprised a rift like this can just exist here doing nothing. A tear in space? Its not a black hole for sure. Still, I refuse to believe there isn't anything to be detected."

"We tried some things when it first appeared, but that didn't really work out. We have new ideas by now, though ... like changes in this 'mana'", Ron continued. "Unfortunately we do not know much about it, but you do. Emina suggests you can convert mana to almost anything, including electricity, which we can easily measure with precision."

"That thing is probably mostly time mana", Kaden pointed out. "I cannot affect it ... at least not directly. The only reason we can even sense it here because its so ridiculously dense. Normally in our time, only those who exist at the limits of human existence can perhaps separate small strands for their own use. I cannot promise success, but I will still demand the knowledge you offered to me."

"There is no need to worry", Ron told Kaden.

Kaden snorted and turned his attention to the time rift. As he had said, there was no way to directly affect the time mana on his level, but as he said, indirect method could perhaps produce some effect considering there were very little of other kinds of mana to distort any effects he planned to use.

Such amount of mana that was present at the time rift, would affect other mana in its surroundings. Despite his dislike of the ancients, he had in fact planned to arrange something to monitor the rift at some point. Perhaps not like this, but if he was getting benefits for it, he would do it. The formation itself would be temporary and would disperse eventually. He wasn't planning on leaving anything tanglible for the future or letting anyone study it for long.

The actual formation was relatively simple, but Kaden made it intentionally more complex so that any attempts to study it would be more difficult. Still, in its function it was basically just a normal mana converter. In this case fluctuations in mana in it would generate lightning type mana or in other words electricity that the ancient's devices could measure.

"Haha, such a simple thing and I get to access information that would be far more valuable in the future", Kaden rejoiced in his mind.

Then he explained what the formation was doing so that the ancients could perform their measurements. They had watched the entire time, but Kaden expected them to not have learned much. Not that they could even attempt anything since they were not even at Channel Opening stage.

"I can roughly understand the idea of this ... construct", Fuller said as he examined Kaden's formation. "Its basically a program. I wish I could understand this mana better."

Kaden was about to start demanding his reward, but he didn't have to ask for anything as they handed him another tablet, similar to the one he had used to learn the language properly. The one in his hand had greater access. Also, it seemed, Emina had already seen it too, but that didn't surprised Kaden considering how much she had been dealing the the ancients. He felt his way was better. Emina had spent so much time being friends with the ancients, while Kaden could achieve the same with a cheap trade.

After finding a quiet corner on the higher levels where there were now only empty residences, if you ignored the skeleton thing floating about occassionally, Kaden perused the information carefully. He noted he would have to think about it for a bit further. The ancients had their own way of presenting information. It was equations and such where in the future information such as this was presented with terms related to mana. The ancients had built everything without mana. Kaden could not push aside that achievement.

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It seemed their science and understanding of physics had experienced a period of growth. They had managed to combine some sort of understanding at the base of their physics with the rest of it. Something called 'quantum gravity'.

With that, they could understand the structure of space and time beyond what they could previously. They had even managed to spread to the solar system due to some new propulsion system.

"Looks like they would have had a new age of prosperity had the cataclysm not started", Kaden though to himself. "The ancients really did achieve things that we in the future can't still do. A True Magus can travel outside of the planet, but since space is so empty, there is little mana in it. A True Magus would perish before reaching other planets. At most they can go to moon, if they prepare well for it. Not sure where limits of Archmagi are. I have only heard some stuff."

Then these ancients, without any mana, had managed to do what these immensely powerful people could not or perhaps would not.

"I wonder how much of their knowledge has been recovered over the years", Kaden wondered. "Why aren't we mixing mana with non magical things?"

There were a lot of applications, such as the communication devices that military used. Was anything further truly beyond understanding? Perhaps something significant was lost? Or perhaps it could be understood, but it was difficult to apply it? Surely there was knowledge of ancient devices to be imitated.

Kaden decided to ignore the matter for the time being. There were more interesting things to look at. The ancients truly had given him what he had asked, in fact, far more. It seemed to Kaden that the ancients felt knowledge should be spread and taught. This could be the reason why they had achieved so much and it seemed they applied this way even in their transaction with him.

What Kaden had in his hands was basically series of physics books that covered far more than the things he had asked, including applications, history and such. There was no way to quickly learn all of it let alone make use of it. Despite all of this, it was still considerably valuable knowledge.

"There are a lot of things to do", Kaden thought. "I must solve this problem with the mana. Memorize this information and then manage Emina and the ancients to arrange myself a way out."

All of this would take some time, but it would likely result in most benefits.

Kaden took this hands off approach. Over the next week he concentrated on learning and using the pure mana on the surface to optimize his internal formation. While that, he merely kept an eye on what Emina and the ancients were doing.

It seemed they had done exactly as they had said. Some device was measuring the changes of electricity based on his formation. The tear, which generally didn't seem to have much changes on it, seemed to fluctuate in the machines. Emina suggested that what they had believed earlier of it was correct.

The reason why the pathway was closed was because the path from the future simply didn't connect to the past. The past that Kaden and Emina were in, to be specific. Something had to be done that the past connects to the future. The interesting part was that the ancients noted was that they were measuring constant slow decrease in the electricity generated by Kaden function. Whether this meant that the correct future was moving away or whether it was coming closer was more difficult to say. That is, if neither of those actually meant anything. Only thing they could say that the effect seemed almost random.

Kaden didn't concern himself with this. Once this measure was going to get close, Kaden was going to be at stand by near the tear. If it did open, he would do his best to escape. If not, he would remain in the past and become strong. Then arrange the world in such a way that his enemies wouldn't ever exist and the things he prefered would.

He let the ancients and Emina build more stuff around while he continued his own plans. Yet, observing the ancients and Emina was not completely fruitless. Kaden had been very interested in how ancients made their machines to do what they did. They needed to be programmed that resembled formation building in some ways. He wasn't sure if he could increase the functionality of his formations with these methods, but it was somewhat different way to achieve things.

Another point of view.

This gave Kaden an idea to look at the elluding mana from another point of view. That is to go back to the begining and disregard his knowledge that didn't seem to help him at all. Start to think out of the box.

"I have to merely find something that affects that specific part of the mana, even if just slightly, and then build on it", Kaden thought. "To hell with the theory of mana systems. Its not helping. I have a bit of time to waste on experimenting. My internal formation is pretty well optimized. Cultivation here is easy for me. I will have to advance to peak of Formation stage soon and ensure my core follows."

Even if all kinds of mana was available and it wouldn't be hard to get correct types for his core, if he needed anything faster, it shouldn't be impossible to go out again and simply look for crystals. He still remembered some locations from before.

He also had the crystal from before. His experiments with it had been useless. Nor did its structure reveal anything. Still, perhaps something could be done with such a good piece of crystal, but that had to be for later. He even had some ideas.

He would need protection, if he was to enter the tear again. There was no way to directly affect the time mana, but since it was so densely present, he could use similar method as with his formation around the tear. Simply use the crystal to collect ambient mana, that being the mostly time mana and then release it as shield.

"It will leak out quickly, but perhaps some will remain in it", Kaden muttered to himself. "The small piece of crystal would become extremely valuable simply for that possibility. That is secondary, though. I need to get out first. I should make it a core of some contraption. Then I need to take things from the armory too."

Kaden planning was very rough, but it should be achievable. There was no telling, if it would change anything, but it would be better than nothing.