After having lunch and taking a break, Orisa and Kanai went into the last room of the tunnel to prepare for the experiment.

"Satoru, are you absolutely sure it's safe?"

"First of all, there is no such thing as a completely safe test. Second, and I wanted to discuss it with you, as the issue of names. I don't think we should get used to calling each other by our real names since it would only bring more troubles later on."

"Well, there is that, but... You are right, of course. It's just that when I call you by your name, I feel like my old self, too."

They exchanged gloomy looks and let out a long sigh in unison.

"Honestly, love, I understand it all too well. Do whatever is better for you, just don't get too hung up on this, alright? It would be beyond awkward and frustrating to explain our situation to everyone, and I'm not even talking about tons of complications it would cause," Orisa said sympathetically.

"Yeah, you won't be able to peek at young girls anymore. No showering, no sleeping together with them. I understand, don't worry. Yes, it's perfectly clear, my dear. The complications you are speaking of are indeed fearsome."

"Glad you understand," Orisa nodded with a serious expression.

Orisa occupied the usual spot on her sleeping bag and took out an unevolved Mana core. She tapped a spot by to her right, inviting Kanai to sit by her side. He carefully landed there, and Orisa moved closer. Together, they sat shoulder to shoulder for several minutes in complete silence, quietly enjoying the company. Finally, Orisa took Kanai's hand, squeezed it lightly, and began:

"Before we move forward with the test, let's discuss the whole list of tasks."

"Wao, I'm having workplace flashbacks now. You sure can set up a mood for another suicidal activity."

"Yes-yes, thank you. Aside from testing the core, we'll need to fix and improve the tunnel for a better performance next time."

"Next time? There will be next time?!" Kanai shuddered from the thought of being pinned down by a horde of Beasts again.

"Of course, how else are we going to power level and grind more resources?"

"Oh god, please..."

"Anyway, fixing and upgrading the tunnel comes with another task - more blood ink, and we know how to farm it. That aside, to properly utilize the tunnel, we'd need to do something about my sensitive soul."

"You mean to come up with a solution to your barfing spree?"

"Remind me, why I'm in love with you again?" Orisa angrily pinched Kanai's thigh.

"Because I'm cute, smart, witty, and your living dream of a girl?"

"Uh, yeah, right... I remember that dream of having a girlfriend with a dick bigger than mine..." muttered Orisa.

"You are just jealous, admit it," Kanai snorted with a laugh.

"Absolutely disgusting, just as I like it. Okay, so once more - upgrade the tunnel, gather blood ink, do something about my Siri reaction. That's one big and complex task to tackle, but there are more. I don't know about you, but I found another issue I'd like to fix."

"You mean your attitude?"

"Okay, Mirai, I love you three thousand, but let's focus on the business for now."

"Aye-aye, boss. Ready to serve. Zag-zag!"

Orisa couldn't contain laughter and fell on Kanai's lap, still squirming and giggling. He smiled as well, then proceeded to pat her head. They had spent several more minutes in this tranquility before Kanai tapped on Orisa's shoulder and whispered:

"Back to business?"

"Uh-huh. I noticed one thing while managing the blood ink network in the tunnel that affects quite a number of things. What I found was a limit to how fast I can emit Mana," Orisa began explanation without leaving the warmth of Kanai's lap. "It's like a drain that can let only that much water pass through at a given time."

"Um, sounds complicated. You mean you can push out only a certain amount of Mana per second? What's wrong with that?"

"Yes, right! Mana per second, let's call it that. For most spells, it was unimportant, that's why I didn't notice. But when I operated the tunnel, I felt how much time I took me to charge all Seals. It also places a limit on how fast I can operate complex spells or use Mana in general."

"Well, uh, right. And..?" Kanai mumbled in confusion.

"Just sharing my problems with my mate."

"Oh, okay, sure. What's our plan for now?"

"Experimentation time!" Orisa got up from Kanai's lap and grabbed the core. "I told you once that the Concentration potion is made from the cores, right? So I thought about exploring its effects and analyzing its mechanics to create a more direct method. And that's what we are going to test today."

"So, I'm here to collect your lost limbs?"

"Among other things, yes. However, first of all, you should be ready to dispel. I don't know yet how to draw the core's properties, the only thing I understand so far is the end result and parts of its mechanism."

"Sounds risky, but there is no point in saying that to you."

Orisa nodded and stood up. She took several steps back from Kanai and placed a Force Wall in front of him to block any possible blast waves. Before drawing the core's Mana, Orisa also activated her Thickness barrier.

And with that, the experiment began. Orisa surrounded the core with her Mana and squeezed it to break the shell. It cracked after ten seconds of pressure, but despite her expectations and plans, the Mana contained in the core didn't follow Orisa's instructions and simply discharged outside. While the explosion itself wasn't as dangerous, the sudden surge of concentrated energy did a number on Orisa through her Mana-sensing Seal. She slumped on the floor, wriggling and groaning under the sensory overload. Luckily for her, the backlash was noticeably weaker than from the Siri.

"Why was I expecting anything else?" nagged Kanai while also patting her back.

"This shit is called an experiment for a reason," Orisa argued back, still feeling horrible.

"Any other ideas on how to make it work?"

"Of course. I just need a moment..."

Five identically unsuccessful attempts and broken cores later, a sweaty and puffing Orisa lay on the sleeping bag groaning in frustration.

"Maybe you should try it in your concentrated state?" Kanai asked, not knowing how to help the case.

"Nay, how am I supposed to turn the concentration state if it's already on, then?"

"Right... Okay, let's do it the old way - tell me what exactly you are doing, step by step."

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"Oh! Rubber duck debugging? Sure!" Orisa instantly perked up and got back on her feet. "So basically, I'm trying to send an intent into the crystal's Mana, which is supposed to produce effects similar to the Concentration potion. The issue here is that I don't know how to connect to-. Oh, wait!"

"Yes-yes, I'm waiting," Kanai let out a content smile.

Orisa swiftly grabbed another crystal while Kanai went behind the barrier. This time, she took one of her Mana layers and connected it to the core. At least, that was her plan, but Orisa encountered an unexpected problem: 'How do I put it in?' The situation was akin to two kids eager to have sex but not knowing how to do it. There was a goal in front of Orisa and within her reach, but how could she grab it?

Probing the core with her stretched Mana layer, Orisa was staring at it absentmindedly. The first idea that came to her mind was to crash the crystal again and try to seize its contents, but five previous attempts had taught her that it was unwise. Some tiny thought was circling in her head on the edge of consciousness, eluding her attempts to catch it. She raised her eyes from the crystal and looked at Kanai helplessly, and a vivid image appeared in her head - Kanai sitting by the campfire and crushing crystals into a thin powder with a special alchemical pestle.

While her forehead was burning from a self-inflicted slap, Orisa rummaged through the Potion Brewer toolkit. The item in question, the pestle, was found to contain not only the Splitting Seal but also several effects imbued into its body. It took her another hour to practice merging these two effects into one spell.

During all this time, Kanai had been reading the book on magic while also giving Orisa comments on her attempts. It was his idea to add an Enrage effect to the final spell so that Orisa would only need one incantation to get the entire pack. By the end of the evening and after wasting more than half of their crystal stock, she learned the spell completely.

"So, how does it feel compared to the potion?" Kanai asked Orisa lazily.

"Well, mostly the same, I think. I'm probably a bit faster now, and the effect is instant, which is great. A side effect of using the crystal as the spell's base is that it's undispellable, too."

"Sounds nice, I guess?" said Kanai with uncertainty in his voice, not sure about the whole idea of having undispellable effects.

"Let's call it a day and cook something?" Orisa yawned tiredly.

"You are saying it as if you will actually be the one to cook."

"Hey, don't underestimate my moral support!"

"Oral support would have been much more appreciated..." chuckled Kanai under his breath.

"You know I can hear you?" Orisa grumbled.

"Already hearing things, my dear? Looks like you are too tired to think properly," Kanai grinned and went to the surface.

Using crystal cores' explosions as a testing tool, Orisa found a workaround for her Mana-sensing problem the next morning - she used the Sealing bracelet to reduce her Mana flow and thus weaken the backlash from Siri's activation. Together with Kanai, they also strengthened the walls of their cave to be able to sustain more damage.

The pair's grinding routine started on the next day: farm the blood ink, repair the tunnel, gather and kill the Beasts. During the breaks that occurred naturally after rounding all available enemies, they experimented on various new skills. On one of these days, Kanai accidentally helped Orisa discover another peculiar thing she didn't think of herself:

"I like casting through your Seals, dude. No, not that, I really love it!" Kanai almost jumped in excitement after obliterating another Beast with a single Decay spell. "The spell's power grows at least twice, or maybe even thrice, I think. Amazing, yay!"

"Well, I certainly appreciate your words, but you are exaggerating too much," chuckled Orisa.

"No, I'm telling you!"

"That's absolutely not how it works for me, Mirai. If I were to guess, I'd say something around thirty or forty percent at best."

"Stop being Hermione and trust me for once, would you?" Kanai pouted and crossed his arms.

"I trust you, but how am I supposed to ignore my own results?"

"God, you are so fucking annoying, Satoru!" Kanai groaned and grabbed Orisa's arm. "Okay, let's do a field test, then."

The usual test with several Force Blocks stacked as a target dummy revealed that Kanai was right - a full set of Orisa's Seals made his spells thrice stronger while having a much lesser effect on her own magic.

"I don't understand..." she muttered slowly, absolutely lost. "It's like this world is fucking me up just to make me look miserable or something."

"Oh, don't be like that, my hero," Kanai patted Orisa's head with a sympathetic smile. "It's too soon to give up, let's think about the reason instead. What's the difference between you and me?"

"Stats, gender, our opinion on Rem being the best girl."

"Oh, don't even start on this blatant waifu bait, please," Kanai groaned and rolled his eyes. "Let's think about stats. If we consider-."

"Nah, I got the answer," Orisa interrupted him and stood up. "I recalled Rita noting numbers similar to mine as well. And her stats were way higher than ours, obviously. This fact leaves only one thing, one point being different - we are incorporating Seals directly into spells while you use them as external modifiers. The way I cast them for you is also different from adding the Seals into spells' structure."

"See? How nice I am, right?"

"That you are, indeed."

This dialogue marked another line of experiments and discoveries, leading to a new way Orisa began to use Seals - instead of building spells with them built-in, she learned a number of skills to conjure external Seals:

"Attack Seal!"

"Utility Seal!"

"Support Seal!"

"Raging Fist!"

Three magic circles glowing with different colors were stacked one after another, and Orisa rammed her fist through them to cast the last skill. An enormous wave of fire burst out and burned away a patch of grass in front of them, leaving a twenty meters long area of charred ground. After experimenting with the new way of spellcasting, Orisa found the true reason behind such a growth of power - she could pack much more Mana into external Seals, making their effects that more potent.

"Mirai," a beaming Orisa turned to her soul mate, "I forgot to say how much I love you! You are the best!"

"Well, I'm clearly not Rem or Kuroneko, but oh well. By the way, I also love you. Just saying."

Orisa hugged her partner tightly and went to experiment more on this next stage of Sealcasting. Not willing to be left behind, Kanai also practiced and dived deeper into the book on magic. Among other things, he also asked Orisa to let him carry the Lantern in hopes of increasing his Mana pool from constant usage of Mana.

Three weeks had passed in such a manner. While it was hard to measure their growth, Orisa and Kanai both felt noticeably stronger after such intense fighting. One of the clearer proofs of their efforts was the fact that Orisa could use six Mana layers under her new Fury effect.

Things didn't go smoothly all the time despite their best efforts. The burrowers made it into their room twice, making them abandon this part of the cave. There were several ambushes from evolved Beasts by the exit of the tunnel, leading to intense combat with their lives at stake.

One of the toughest ordeals they had to deal with was an evolved toad with a high affinity to ice and water magic. First, it poured tons of conjured water into their tunnel, and then rapidly lowered the temperature inside. Orisa and Kanai barely escaped the lower parts of the cave and avoided freezing to death.

There were two reasons for their decision to end this phase of Orisa's grand plan. The first was due to the tunnel wearing down more and more after each fight, making it harder to fix the blood circuits. Three cave-ins occurred one after another, and burrowers added numerous holes as well. Another reason came from the number of Beasts thinning down considerably. The time between Waves shortened even further with them occurring every two and a half days now, but the number of Beasts rushing to the tunnel almost halved.

"This was the last time, I suppose," Orisa said tiredly.

"It was fun while it lasted," a sinister smile crossed Kanai's dirty face. "What's the next stage?"

"For now, let's gather the loot and process it. It would be nice to catch a short breath somewhere, but I'm not sure we could find a nice and cozy village or town without a wanted board."

"I sooo want to take a hot bath and eat something not made of Beast meat," Kanai started whining.

The pair looked extremely shabby and worn out. Despite their best efforts, most of their clothes had turned into rags after numerous battles, and no repairs could bring them back to even the most modest standards. On top of that, the soap had ran out long ago, leaving them with boiled water and disinfection spells try to stay clean.

"Besides, I don't think anyone would recognize you like that," he chuckled while tossing the Lantern in his right hand.

Orisa and Kanai slowly crawled through the corpses filling the tunnel and took a step outside. The sun was going down, and twilight began to conquer the surroundings, spawning numerous shadows between the trees. Kanai yawned and stepped forward to stretch his limbs:

"I'm so tired, Satoru. Let's leave the loot for tomorr-."

"Watch out!"

Orisa rushed to him after sensing a sudden Mana spike behind them, but it was too late. A ray of condensed lightning flew at Kanai, melting his right hand, part of his shoulder, and the Lantern that he had been carrying at the moment. His body spun twice before slumping to the ground as he immediately lost consciousness from immense pain. A smell of charred flesh filled the air.

Orisa's reflexes sprang into action, and she jumped towards her love, shielding them both with a barrier. Kanai looked horrible. His skin was white as chalk, and Orisa's legs gave out as she looked at his burned right side. While tears were streaming from her eyes, she didn't stop for a single moment and took a green crystal with a black circle around it out of Kanai's breast pocket. She pressed it against his wound and activated it, observing a familiar green circle develop around Kanai's shoulder.

Another surge of Mana was followed by a loud crack and a bright explosion as the second lightning strike struck the barrier, eating a quarter of Orisa's Mana pool to support the defense. After a green silhouette of a hand appeared, signaling that the crystal had begun to work, Orisa kissed Kanai's forehead and whispered:

"Rest well, my love. I'm not losing you again."

With that, she stood up to face a Beast that stood on top of the hill. Its slits were staring at her, burning with red. Recognizing the color and its meaning, Orisa gulped but steeled herself. She couldn't lose, not while protecting her one and only beloved Mirai. Not even the lack of the Lantern could stop her now.

A reckless grin appeared on Orisa's face as she resolved herself to a showdown with a twice-evolved panther.