Kaden was able to finish optimizing his internal formation within the next few days.

"This is already extremely good", Kaden thought as he inspected his work. "Once I advance to peak of Formation stage, it probably won't become more complex. It will likely only grow along these paths that I have now created. I'm probably extremely close or even possibly on the theoretical limit. In fact, I wonder if the advancement will happen spontaenously."

Only reason Kaden didn't do it immediately was that he wanted to have his core at similar state. This was more difficult matter to determine. Internal formation was something one could observe, but core was just a core. Its internal structure was far more difficult to look at. Yet, his core seemed to be more ... lustrous? Even if it was quite perfect shape before, perhaps one could say there were less inperfections?

There wasn't even any feeling of limit, but Kaden couldn't say whether it was simply due to some perfection state as his internal formation or that he simply had not reached that limit.

"I will go out and collect mana crystals with right types of mana just in case", Kaden decided. "I will ensure my core is ready to go to or be at peak before I advance my internal formation. Whatever crystals I will have left, I can store for near future when I advance to Condensation stage and core to what Lower Cari have."

Kaden was concentrating on his cultivation. He had no had any luck with the mana research, but he didn't feel dismayed or anything. This was treading on grounds that people perhaps shouldn't, but this only made Kaden feel greater desire to discover something.

The outside, as usual, had changed again. Mana storms altered everything at all times. Kaden expected the mana crystals to stay relatively unaltered, though, unless something hit them directly.

Kaden made some more observations too. He actually ran into a surviving beast. He believed it had been possibly a bear originally, but it had changed into something else. Rather than fur, it had scales, it had growing spikes on it and some of them appeared to be similarly spiked tentacles. It also seemed quite insane as it was attacking basically anything in its reach. Be it animate or inanimate.

"It is probably something that could survive creation of a core", Kaden thought to himself. "Yet, for the similar reason why I don't want to evolve or advance to Condensation stage, it probably couldn't handle its own evolutions."

In fact, Kaden expected most surviving beasts that had not found some shelter where they could survive had quite large chance to be mutated into something unusual. The current environment wasn't good for major changes such as evolution.

"The still sane beasts are probably below Dire Beast stage, at least mostly", Kaden surmised. "Beasts, as far as I know history, came a bit behind humans. Just like humans aren't able to cultivate, the beasts that are able to gather mana and survive, aren't able to maintain their minds and die out."

The mutated bear was at Dire Beast stage, if that classificition could be applied to it. Despite the cultivation difference, it was extremely tough, but not difficult to kill. It had basically no control of its actions and only the extreme mana made it durable.

Kaden took the time to examine its remains. Its body was structurally a mess, not to mention the state of its mana. The beast would likely have died very soon, even if Kaden had not killed it. Its every moment of living was likely torment. It was a mess if living matter. For similar reasons Kaden decided no part of it was usable or useful in any way.

"I'm probably one of the most powerful being around here", Kaden assumed. "Nothing living can cultivate too far and grow healthily here. What I have to look out for are mana creatures."

Kaden recalled how he had decided to run from that one during his earlier trip. Catalysm was likely the best possible time for them to be born and grow.

Leaving behind the corpse, Kaden continued on his original mission to collect mana crystals he could use for his advancement to peak of his current stage. As noted earlier, any further would be unhealthy to say the very least.

It was truly a shame.

Kaden returned back to the shelter with the crystals he needed. It had been good to pick them up now than later since some mana creatures had started to form around them.

Everything was ready to reach the peak with both his internal formation and the core! He already had the next step ready with Weil's flesh ready. In normal case, he would likely have waited a bit for the peak to stabilize, but having optimized everything in the cataclysm, this would be unneccessary. There was nothing left to optimize.

"I will advance to Condensation stage once I'm out of this place and the great remnant", Kaden decided. "Then I will be strong enough to hunt down those who need to die. After that... "

Kaden wasn't sure. He wasn't strong enough yet to pay back the kindness Anuu had shown him. Perhaps it was time to start undermining the empires and churches? He even had some ideas for that, but it required other things to work out first.

Speaking of which, as Kaden spent time again to balance his mana after being outside, he observed Emina and the people of the shelter to build more and more stuff around the time rift. Kaden was pretty sure not all of that was neccessary at all to determine when or if it would open again. It seemed they were intending to study it in closer detail now that they could get some readings from it. Emina was happy absorbing information from them.

This was likely what Emina hoped to gain. Kaden for sure hadn't seen her attempt to discover method of cultivating in the cataclysm even after he brought it up before.

To not waste any time, Kaden went to the armory once again. This time no one tried to stop him. It was time to start putting together parts of his plan.

Emina did come again, though. Some of the ancients were with her again too.

"Care to explain?" She questioned Kaden who was measuring one of the battle armors.

"I want to increase my chances of getting out and surviving afterwards", Kaden explained. "I ... no... we will take two of these armors."

"As if we are letting you just take them", said one of the ancients. It was the higher officer, Damian.

"You again?" Kaden said. "Do I have to explain to you again that you cannot stop me?"

"You would require activation codes to start them up", Damian replied.

"Your security systems are of no concern to me", Kaden said and continued measuring the battle armor. "I happen to have some knowledge of something similar in the future. I intended to build one at some point, but I never had the chance. I can just bypass your control systems, power supply... everything. Then replace it with my own. The stucture is enough. Weak materials as they are, I can only strengthen them a bit to an acceptable level, but it will serve its purpose.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"Which is?" Emina asked once Damian didn't have anything to reply.

Kaden pulled out the crystal he had collected for his research. Now it would serve another purpose after failing its original one.

"If we are able to enter the rift again, I will have formation to regulate mana around us. Remember those blasts we experienced in there? I expect we have to go against them", Kaden told to Emina. "If you want to go, I suggest you go find a crystal from out there yourself. It isn't too hard. Your presence is useful in my plans so I will be modifying two armors."

Emina didn't say anything and seemed to consider Kaden's words. There was truth in them.

Damian was going to object once more, but Alexander had appeared from somewhere and quietly said something to him that made him grit his teeth, but it was enough to cause him to refrain from any further complaints. Kaden approved. The ancients had learned quickly and he didn't need to deal with them every time.

The entire modifying process wasn't exactly as easy as Kaden had made it out to be. Structurally the armors were different from what they would have been in the future, but they did indeed functionally do the same thing. Luckily Kaden had seen the schematics for battle armors back during his trip in Sacronan.

Still, Kaden spent about a day working nonstop and he managed to create functional solutions. The battle armors would work. For a time, at least. That would be enough.

"I'm certain I can make it work at acceptable level", Kaden muttered to himself. "It will only have to work until I get out of the remnant. If I wanted to keep using it afterwards, I'd have to get proper materials and basically break everything and rebuild. I might as well start from scratch."

Kaden made some formations according to his plans. It would take some work to modify armor completely, but he was pretty sure the plans he had were going to be enough. He was at least able to create a partially working armor as a proof of concept. It would be possible to complete everything later much quicker now that he knew problems and had solutions for them.

He planned to cultivate before that. Once he advanced to peak, Emina would be able to tell he was able to do so. It didn't matter. Kaden had plans for that. If Emina's worth didn't rise, she would be good cannon fodder. That was one of the reasons Kaden wanted to bring her along and was even willing to arrange a battle armor for her. Once her usefulness ran out, Kaden was planning on killing her.

To be honest, Kaden had noticed he had been unusually indecisive regarding that. At one point he would allow Emina to live and then a bit later he would decide to kill her and then let her live again. He would go back and forth on that decision. The woman was useful, but she had seen much. Kaden still couldn't decide for sure. Due to this he expected his mind change again.

Kaden left for upper levels. He sat down to cultivate, but before doing so he decided to try some things regarding his research.

As always, nothing seemed to work at all.

"Damn it!" Kaden cursed. His continuous failures were finally starting to take its toll. "Is it truly something beyond my reach and understanding?"

Technically it wasn't absolutely critical, but this was likely, the only, the single chance to that anyone ever had to understand this mana. It had to have some significance since that mana didn't seem to exist or at least none could sense it in the future. Probably begging gods for the information wouldn't help, since their influence likely had something to do with it. At least thats what Kaden believed.

"Hmmm... begging?" Kaden wondered for a moment. "Praying that is... I haven't tried that. There are no gods here so I guess I can attempt it."

It was long time since Kaden last did anything resembling praying. He prefered to occassionally curse at the gods, but that was hardly praying.

Kaden quietly uttered something that could be considered a pathetic little prayer, but still a prayer.

That mana part that had elluded every other action suddenly seemed to slightly move.

Kaden frowned.

"Do I have to pray to a damn god to make this work?" Kaden though to himself with some dismay. "Is this some portion of mana collection that simply happens automatically in the future when gods are around? Is this some ... divine mana?"

Kaden refused to believe this. He thought for a while. What is a prayer? Some kind of request to gods? Gods are embodiments of concepts?

"Do I need an actual god?" Kaden wondered for a moment. Then he attempted ... 'pseudo praying'. Rather than pray to a god, instead simply express your desires to some general idea of mana concept.

As it happens, this seemed to work, but the resulting extra mana just came to Kaden, passed through him, but was not collected. It was also a mess of mana types. If Kaden had been able to absorb it, it would not have a been a problem since he usually absorbed chaotic mana, but similar problems would result for everyone else as usual with chaotic mana.

"I'm missing something", Kaden understood. "I'm on the right path, though. I'm getting it to finally do something." He wondered for a moment. "Praying is usually directed to someone, that is a god. I didn't direct it to anyone. Perhaps I should 'worship' myself?"

Indeed, this time the mana came to Kaden again and also stayed for a while, but then dispersed. This time Kaden also noted it wasn't very large amount of mana that he was able to attract.

Kaden frowned again. He assumed the low amount was simply due to that he didn't understand the idea completely, which he believed could be optimized. That wasn't the problem. What was the problem was that the mana still didn't stay in him.

Continuing with his previous line of thought. He understood the theory of mana systems very well so he could think of ways to progress. He had been making his own after all. The efficiency was likely related to the actual mana system function. The part where mana is sent to gods with prayer at least with normal mana systems.

That would be the spot where Kaden was. What do gods do with the mana? They purify it? How would one do that? If people could do that they wouldn't need gods to do so for them? There also didn't seem to be any portion disapearing to some godly realm, but instead the mana was refined into useful form in observable manner and what could not be used was discarded.

"It must be the this special mana", Kaden realized. "It still exists in the future! It must be what makes mana systems work that rely on gods."

That special part of the mana was part of the normal mana. It just didn't get absorbed by usual means. In fact, the means that Kaden was now using to affect it didn't even really resemble what could be called a 'mana system' yet, if one could absorb the mana it pulled in, it would achieve the same effect.

He had already forgotten about cultivating now that he had made these new discoveries. This particular part was proving to be a problem. Still, like with the previous parts, he refused to believe a god would be required do accomplish it. He was already treading on what would usually be considered their domain.

"Gods are embodiments of their concepts", Kaden started a thought process. "It would make sense they understand their concept well. Yet, since they are extremely powerful it would be doubtfull their understanding is limited to their own concept. Understanding of concept."

Usually one just pulled in mana they needed. Understanding came when you tried to use it, but that was more about using it rather than what it is. Like a painter can use paints to paint an image, but beyond certain point does painter understand what the colors are. Why are the colors what they are? Why is, say, blue, blue?

Kaden pondered for a moment and tried to understand some familiar mana types, such as fire mana. What is fire?

After spending some time gathering that idea and trying different methods, once he sort of added that part to the 'pseudo prayer', not as words, but as an idea in mind what fire was, something did eventually happen.

Kaden found himself to absorb a small amount of fire mana, but not only that special part, along with it came the more common type.

"They are linked", Kaden realized. "Hmmm, this doesn't happen in the future. Perhaps that part, lets call it signature part or ID, will merely order the mana based on understanding then it goes to the one who understood it while leaving the normal one behind. God gets all of that mana. Could it be that they are skimming mana on top of everyones hard work? Leeches."

Even worse, Kaden realized after a while. If this ID mana was undetectable in the future, one would only notice it, if they perfectly performed this process with several steps without failure. One that didn't even really resemble mana systems aside from that its result gathers mana for you. There was very little reason for anyone to even suspect anything far enough to try.

In fact, it was only easy in the time of cataclysm where one could see each step if you succeeded. In the future, there wouldn't even be reason to think you are doing something useful. There would be no sign of anything happening until you reached the last part where you suddenly absorb mana.

"No wonder no one has discovered this before", Kaden realized. "Gods are harvesting mana from the world. Is it simply to grow powerful? Do they need it for something? Well... I don't care... I think I'll rather refine this idea a bit and derail gods plans."

This method of absorbing mana seemed more general application compared to normal mana systems. You only had understand mana a bit more. This method probably even allowed things that normal mana system wouldn't. Most importantly it allowed one to gain that extra portion of mana that would otherwise be out of reach.

Kaden actually started to quietly laugh to himself as he used his new understanding to refine something out of it.