Cronix thought for a bit before putting the book down.

Is this a magic spell or a mental energy technique?

The ice wraith method was really peculiar, because although it used magic, it also used mental energy and he needed to transfer magic into the mental expanse.

Whatever it is, I won't know until I practice.

If there was one thing the ice wraith method taught, it was how to properly gather mental energy.

The technique was called Cognitive Gathering.

Cronix crossed his legs into a more comfortable position, and closed his eyes. He began to focus on his breathing and cleared his thoughts.

He had to inhale for five seconds and exhale for eight.

As he breathed in, he would have to be aware of what's happening in his body, and focus on the flow of his mental energy.

He followed the instructions focusing on nothing but his breathing, as he focused, he felt a strange sensation in certain areas of his body, he felt like there was something contained inside, but it wasn't physical.

Cronix knew what this was, he gathered the mental energy lying dormant inside his body, but while he felt this feeling throughout his body, he felt most of his mental energy inside his head.

He felt all his mental energy flowing out from that direction. Cronix couldn't pay too much attention, as he still had to focus on his breathing.

Slowly Cronix felt like his head started feeling clearer, he never noticed before, but it felt like there was a cloud of fog covering his mind before, and he only noticed now when it had disappeared.

It was a strange experience.

Eventually Cronix began controlling the direction of his mental energy like he had the first time he tried controlling his mental energy, but it was flowing through his body more fluently.

The mental energy all followed his command and gathered into his left palm. A stunned expression gradually rose up on his face, when all the his mental energy had gathered onto his left hand, he noticed the amount had increased significantly.

There's more than triple... I have more than triple the amount of mental energy compared to before!

To put it in simpler terms, before Cronix was able to draw nine lines of the teleportation array a day, but now he was confident in doing all nine lines at the same time.

But that wasn't the only change, the power itself of his mental energy became stronger too.

Is this because the technique is that good or is there something else?

Cronix still didn't know enough about mental energy to know the causes for mysterious things such as this, so he decided to leave this topic alone for now.

Should I try the Extraction Technique?

The extraction technique was a mental technique provided by the ice wraith method, it was the movement of mental energy to extract or move, energy or objects.

Cronix used the mental energy gathered into his left hand and extended it towards the lit candle in the broken lantern on his desk.

According to the technique, I just have to integrate the mental energy inside the target, or the flame in this case, to extract the energy.

Cronix gathered his mental energy and surrounded the candle, he pushed his mental energy inside the flame, but instead of integrating, the fire was extinguished.

Cronix frowned and mumbled, "This isn't as easy as I thought."

Cronix grabbed the candle and lit it up again with a match. He gathered his mental energy and surrounded the candle again, this time instead of covering the flame with his mental energy, he tried moving the flame.

This again resulted in the flame extinguishing, but the candle itself moved.

At least there's that...

Cronix sighed,

I'm getting distracted.

Cronix went back to the ice wraith method, there were many methods to convert water into ice, but for the ice wraith method, you would need to bring the water elements into the mental expanse.

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And according to the description for the ice wraith technique, to gather the water elements into the mental expanse you would have to do cognitive gathering backwards.

First Cronix gathered his mental energy that left his body to his left hand into a ball, he then used his right hand to manipulate the surrounding water elements into another ball.

Cronix brought both hands together, the mental energy in his left had made way for the magic in his right hand.

If another mental energy user was here and sensed Cronix's mental energy, the previous formless energy would now look like a mouth swallowing the magic elements.

Once the magic elements were contained inside the mental energy, He thinned down the balls of both energies, into a long thin line.

This way it would be easier for him to bring the mental energy back into his expanse.

Cronix again closed his eyes, and focused on his breathing like before, while he felt his internal mental energy, he put more of his attention to the external mental energy.

He again gathered his internal mental energy into his left hand, he let half the amount out, but still left it connected to the remaining ones inside.

The new mental energy surrounded the mental energy containing the magic, using the connection between the new external mental energy and the remaining internal mental energy, he brought all the external mental energy back into his body, his body also naturally absorbed the water elements.

Now that I think about it, mental energy is like blood, and the brain is like the heart.

And just like blood, it flowed in a route through his body, circulating like blood through veins, and going through the heart, or brain in this situation, to be pumped out.

I guess that makes magic like oxygen.

When the mental energy carrying the water elements went back to the mental expanse, it dropped off the water elements, and cycled back.

Cronix frowned after this process, "How does this result in water turning into ice?"

He grabbed the ice wraith method and read the first chapter again, there was still nothing,

Maybe this is how the method is incomplete? No, then how would Mr. Williams be able to create his ice?

Oh, I think we have to use the extraction technique to extract the fire elements inside the water, transforming it into ice.

But this thought only caused Cronix's frown to deepen, "Then what was the point of taking magic into the mental expanse?"

Forget it, although there is something familiar about this method, I shouldn't devote all my time to it, I still have to work on my formations.

Cronix put away the ice wraith technique in his magic bag, and took out paper. He drew more energy sensing arrays; he still needed a lot of crystals if he wanted to leave Alktarsha as soon as possible.

Of course because of his deal with Mr. Williams he still needed to wait at least six more months.

After the mysterious boost in power of Cronix's mental energy, the energy sensing array was a breeze to create.

Cronix was actually now confident that if he tried, he could make a perfect energy sensing array.

A perfect energy sensing array could last forever unless it was forcefully broken, or the energy inside the lines themselves dissipated. So an object like this would be fought for in the mines.

After close to an hour, about twenty defected formations were drawn, he put them in his magic bag and took out a silver collar.

There were faint pencil marks on the collar, Cronix looked over the marks and sighed, he could see all the mistakes he made.

Cronix shook his head and coated his fingers in mental energy, he no longer needed a pencil for directions on a formation like the energy sealing arrangement, he only needed his mental energy.

But he stilled used his finger like a pencil and drew multiple perfect energy sealing arrangements, and even when the whole collar was covered, he didn't stop, he simply drew over them.

When Cronix was finally done with the collar, it had over three layers of formations all overlapping with each other.

Cronix let out a tired smile, this was his current limit. But he still had the energy for a few more strands of mental energy.

He let one out and used it to activate the formation. There was no flicker to life, and there was no sign of any formation on the collar when it activated.

But this only made Cronix let out a sigh of relief, this was the sign that the arrangement worked, there was no sign of any energy.

Cronix left the room and approached a bird that was staring listlessly out a window. it was so still you'd think it was stuffed.

The bird's attention was drawn to Cronix as he approached with a collar in his hands. Cronix was well aware of how sad and lonely this bird was.

It must have been torture for the crow to stay inside all day with nothing to do for two years. He presented the collar to it, the crow's eyes finally held some life in them as it stared at the collar.

He wrapped the collar around its neck and saw how the crow's two star Caster stage aura vanished, making it seem like an ordinary bird.

Unless someone was at the Core Creation stage, they wouldn't be able to see through this formation.

"You can finally go outside again." He softly said as he opened the window. The bird flapped its wings and flew out. Cronix smiled at the scene.

Conix then turned away from the window and left the house. He walked through the forest and arrived at the mines.

The constant travel was quite inconvenient for Cronix. He hoped he could get the teleportation formation working soon or at least once without it exploding.

But for now he would have to continue with this back and forth travel. The moment Cronix entered the mines, he was crowded by miners.

It took him two hours for him to sell all his formations. Arthur and Williams didn't come to the mines much anymore, mostly because they already collected enough crystals to last them for a few weeks.

As for the part of the mine that was used for their competition, it was now a dead vein, just like the tunnel above it.

This event caused the miners to start expanding the mines, they begans creating a sixth level.

But none of these events interested Cronix, he was done with the mining in the mines, its only purpose now was to sell his formations.

And although Cronix got used to it, he never liked being in the mines and preferred to be in a place with more open space.

He simply left the mine after selling everything, but he didn't leave the general area, he went into the forest, he planned to work more on the teleportation array there.

When he approached the forest, a silver glint drew his attention. On a tree was a crow with a silver collar around their neck.

He smiled at the crow and waved, the crow shook its tail feathers, and flew away.