Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1794.01.26]

The time was flying by fast.

It was close to the first day-cycle of the next morning when he finally finished with his initial measurements. Changing the settings of the compression chamber took most of that time – the higher the setting level, the longer it took for the chamber to accommodate. Not only because of the decreasing efficiency of the Mana-resistant plating of the room but also because the equipment and materials took longer to equalize their internal Mana density.

Using that spare time, he visited Ghrughah regularly to discuss his issues. After absorbing more wisdom from the old blacksmith, he started to understand why enchantments and materials from higher strata were so valuable and rare.

Saturating a material with Mana of a higher density would change its properties only if its microstructure supported that – namely, the necessary step was to form the material within a higher Mana density in the first place. He knew that all along. But he never thought about the secondary consequences – this stratum wasn’t geared to create such materials with any serviceable efficiency. Not only because people couldn’t work for prolonged time in a high-Mana-density environment without suffering from Mana poisoning, but also because the compression chambers couldn’t support densities above certain thresholds – it was a physically impassable limit, it seemed.

The Mana-resistant materials weren’t flawless. After reaching critical Mana density, the leaking would outpace any Mana input. Not to mention, the material degradation was horrendous.

The higher the density, the worse the efficiency and the damage.

As such, it was simply not doable to create anything truly worth the investment. And even if the materials were imported from higher strata, the person in possession of a tool made from such materials would have to keep it saturated. Arguably, only people with Advanced Mana Manipulation could achieve good results with that, which left only Manacasters nearing level 100 as potential clients. The only exception would be equipment powered by Manasolids, like the defensive systems of the cities, but it wasn’t a sustainable solution for individuals. No matter how wealthy they were.

The equipment presented during the Tournament was an interesting deviation from that rule – one of the reasons for the high number of spectators. It was a spectacle, after all.

Of course, some materials could still be created. Not the most impactful ones, but one could specialize to compensate – saturation with Ambient Mana was different than saturation using certain, carefully selected Magicules compatible with the material – as was the case with Zeph’s armor. The market for those was vast and it was one of Ghrughah’s specializations.

Or, like in the case of Zeph’s spear, trace amounts of imported materials could be incorporated within a stable structure. Here, the ingenuity of the artisan dictated the effectiveness of the tool. Although, it would restrain the choice of possible enchantments to some degree.

Besides complaining about the irrationally long charging time of the chamber, Zeph was also cursing the ‘level system’ describing the Mana density inside. The definition wasn’t really static or clear. A level-60 compression didn’t have anything to do with people with an overall level of 60. No, it was a subjective number derived from Mana density at certain heights – places where level 60 people statistically started to feel uncomfortable.

It stayed in stark contrast to the meticulously constructed definition of ‘Mana generation’ amounts. The ‘optimized, standard, pre-evolution Manacaster’s output at a given level’ was quite easy to understand and calculate. Mana concentration in a chamber... not so much.

But maybe those were simply consequences of the existing technology. Zeph didn’t know how they measured the Mana density in a chamber, so it was entirely possible that this unit of measurement was more intuitive and usable for the engineers.

As for the dangers of X-ray light, Zeph was no longer worried about the giant’s safety.

He asked beforehand and was met with incomprehension – it seemed that cancer wasn’t a thing on Corora. He tried to describe it using simple descriptions as well as technical terms in the old Rui, but neither Ghrughah nor P’pfel heard about such a phenomenon except for ‘magical’ experiments.

The worst they were expecting from the radiation was slight burns.

Worse yet, he had visited the Guild’s hospital to make sure and received the same dose of skeptical comments. Pavail wasn’t aware of that kind of ‘disease’, nor was any other Doctor. He had wasted almost two hours by trying to describe the issue on examples and, as a result, he have learned that even the lightest manifestations of cancer weren’t present on Corora – not even harmless neoplasms or warts.

DNA damage was possible, it seemed, but not a permanent cell mutation. The Regeneration Passive Enhancement was playing a role here, for sure, but that wasn’t all. It seemed that even if evolution was still possible, the organisms on Corora got rid of the problematic side-effect long ago.

It wasn’t just a superstition, too. The Doctor gave him enough examples to reconsider how the radiation could influence living organisms on Corora.

And, evidently, it couldn’t do much.

In retrospect, that made sense. Mana, as he noticed, was quite a good conductor of light, and radiation was just another flavor of it. And, if the evolution of organisms on Corora was following the rule of adaptation, he could see how the DNA damage became irrelevant after some time, at least regarding tumors.

Heck, he wouldn’t be that surprised if the radiation from the sun was being transferred to the planet’s surface. He and his team didn’t find any noticeable radiation after they entered Corora, but they were checking for things like gamma radiation at the time, not X-ray or other less dangerous variations.

This is confusing, he thought, shaking his head while strolling leisurely to the compression chamber occupied by Ghrughah. It’s not an absolutely alien topic for them. Tissue Manipulation techniques could – supposedly – result in something eerily similar to a tumor. How does that work, then?

The more he thought about it, the more fascinated he was becoming. The differences between the Terrien and local lifeforms were reaching deep. The whole mechanism of gene expression was probably entirely different.

If only I could recreate a modern laboratory’s instruments…he sighed internally.

He may have salivated at that thought a little.

Using a series of doors separating the corridor from the chamber, he slowly took control of his Veil, compressing it near his body, away from the floor and walls. With each small room he passed, the Ambient Mana density was decreasing. He would have to be very careful to not release too much from his control.

In the chamber, Ghrughah was already testing the electric engine in action. He was spinning the engine using a handle at the back of the gizmo while looking intently at the P’pfel’s collector set before the X-ray tube. The Gremling was absent – without Advanced Mana Manipulation he would release too much Mana-0 to the environment. Even having him and Ghrughah in the room was pushing it – their Mana was still dispersing because of the contact with the air, and forcing it out afterwards wasn’t exactly a fast process. The pumps and absorbers could only do that much.

As quickly as possible, Zeph moved to the outlet pipe near the setup and pushed all his Veil into it. He didn’t stop until all of what he could control was behind a valve hidden deep below, going as far as to deplete his internal resources to have a buffer – his Veil wasn’t going to reform until he saturated his internal capacity, even if some scraps were still going to escape his body.

Then, he quickly fell into a familiar rhythm of gathering Mana in his hand in preparation for another ejection. Repeating that a few times to get comfortable, he turned to the giant.

“How’s it going?”

“We have finally found a working reagent. It’s just a question of calibration at this point,” the man said, not taking his eyes from the collector. The black dot at the center was very slowly spreading out.

Zeph sighed with relief. It was a surprisingly challenging venture for P’pfel – the Gremling struggled so much that he even asked Zeph for some clues. The problem wasn’t so much about a material absorbing X-rays as about ones that could change color after doing that.

His suggestion was to use additional materials that could oxidize slowly in normal atmospheric conditions. The free radicals and high-energy-state electrons should be able to speed up that process tremendously. He was happy to hear that his suggestion brought results.

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“Good,” he nodded. “Did you start testing the integrity?” he asked, glancing at the row of compression boxes isolated from the Manaless environment by a thick glass-like wall. They were connected to the Mana pipes hidden in the low ceiling of their built-in shelf.

“Not yet. What about your tests?”

“I will wait till morning before calling others for inspection. The density difference, you already know about. Need a hand?”

“A second Veil covering will be necessary. Too much Ambient Mana is being produced when I am keeping the Manasolids stable.”

Zeph nodded. “Sure. Do you have a secondary outlet in there?” he asked, indicating the metal framework set around a pedestal that would keep the Manasolids in place. Because the ‘crystals’ were almost frictionless for other solid matter, many small mechanical finger-like appendages were affixed to the top, resembling a brass-colored underside of a bug. Each tip was shaped slightly differently, all that to hold different ‘crystals’ better in place.

“Secondary and tertiary. Follow the pipes with slightly red and blue intakes.”

After confirming, Zeph waited for the giant to finish calibrating and calculating. From what he could see, the giant was normalizing the output to make sure even the weakest concentrations of the light would be visible, yet without the biggest ones causing too much discoloration overall. Contrast was important for photo-imagining.

He could easily read the symbols and understand them, but it took him a while to piece together what they meant. The fact that he knew the numbers and operator didn’t mean much when the giant was using the duodecimal system. And even if it was in decimals, it would take time for him to adjust to the new language. He was still calculating things using words and symbols used on Earth – it was a hard habit to break. An unexpected difficulty.

Shortly after the giant was ready, they started the integrity tests. They have chosen the smallest of the Manasolids for that. It was of a relatively high-density stability point, but the amount and purity of Mana it kept set it as the least valuable.

As it turned out, the maximum intensity that they would be using wasn’t even close to destabilizing it. Ghrughah doubled it to make sure, but nothing happened. The long-exposure method worked best for catching all details, so the energies weren’t that high in the first place. They didn’t want to find the destabilization point, either, so it played right into their hand.

The destabilization point would certainly be an interesting finding, but to reach any meaningful conclusions they would have to destroy at least tens of Manasolids. That was, of course, out of the question. It would be a truly disappointing ending to die at the hands of a befriended Hannyajin princess.

Happy with what they had, they started the mass production of images.

They not only made two shots at each sample but rotated the Manasolids to catch the images from all angles. The number of collectors in their possession would allow for 50 double shots for each of the 9 samples. Naturally, it took a lot of time and a few repetitions, as Ghrughah was still making mistakes when assessing the intensity required. The Manasolids were reacting differently to the X-rays, though, so it was understandable. Thankfully, they left some spare collectors for such occasions.

Theoretically, they didn’t need that many shots of each sample, but Zeph wanted to have some materials for future study. Who knew if he could find that many Manasolids to examine in the future? Besides, it was hard to tell if the method worked as intended if he didn’t check at least this much.

From what they have found while working, the Manasolids were indeed behaving like typical crystals. The images they left were exactly what Zeph would expect. The best part was that those were stable Manasolids. Their internal structure was as uniform as physically possible. They didn’t find any imperfections that could haze the images because there simply weren’t any – the images were crisp and unambiguous.

After hours of work, it was finally time for Gru’s creation.

They set it on the pedestal and Ghrughah started to slowly rotate the engine.

Because they already knew that it was somehow different from a normal Manasolid, they decided to start from the lowest intensity possible, before slowly cranking it up.

Ten shots later, they found the best settings and made sure the Manasolid wasn’t going to be dissipating any time soon. But even before they finished that step, something unexpected already showed up on the images.

An entirely white line was crossing every one of them. Normally, there should be black dots or short lines arranged in geometrical shapes on a grayed-out background. But that wasn’t the case at all.

Zeph frowned while examining the latest collector.

“Should we move the Manasolid to the side? It seems to go right through the center,” the giant proposed, scratching his beard.

“No, we can try that later… How many collectors are left?”

Ghrughah glanced at the small collection set nearby before answering. “A hundred and three.”

Zeph grimaced. “Let’s do one shot per angle from now on. I want shots from near the edges as well…”

It was a good decision. The line started thinning when rotating the ‘crystal’ in one direction.

Zeph quickly caught up to what was happening. He oriented the Manasolid so the line was mostly vertical, then rotated it almost 90 degrees to the left. Ghrughah understood his intentions immediately, without receiving even a word.

The next image came out almost completely empty. Very weak marks, arranged in long lines, were all they could discern; the image was almost as white as before they powered the X-ray tube.

They exchanged glances; the situation was clear.

Zeph rotated the ‘crystal’ back and Ghrughah started rotating the engine slowly while touching the metal part of the pedestal with his other hand.

As the first shapes started to emerge on the canvas, the ‘fingers’ holding the Manasolid started moving as the giant tried to find the exact center.

It took three repetitions, but after Ghrughah zeroed on the angle the last image came out without a white line. It was still very different from what Zeph would expect – it looked more like markings of meandering diffraction lines rather than a crystallography image.

In other words, the image was being distorted by macroscopic structures that weren’t in a crystalline structure. Those were still regular enough to not draw a totally chaotic picture.

“So, we have an entirely straight, physical wall going right through the center…” the giant said, scratching his beard.

Zeph sighed. “We can’t continue like this. Do you have any idea what can it be?”

“Maybe… let’s discuss this with P’pfel,” Ghrughah decided immediately, standing up.

Zeph didn’t argue. After securing the ‘egg’ and collecting all images made of it, they left the chamber with hastened steps.

P’pfel was still working at his temporary station in Ghrughah’s workshop. It seemed that the Gremling have gotten some inspiration from this collective project, as he has been tinkering with the photoreactive reagents even after the demand for new collectors was satisfied.

Because he could hear them coming long before they ascended the internal staircase, he was already waiting for them instead of continuing with his experimentation.

“A problem?” the professor asked, arms crossed.

“You can call it that, yes. See this,” Ghrughah said, placing the pile of collectors on the table they were using previously during the meeting.

As he started spreading them on the surface, the professor quickly moved closer to take a look.

He jumped on his seat to be able to see. His eyebrows shoot upright almost instantly.

Instead of sharing his idea right away, he spent a few minutes examining the images.

Zeph’s patience was dissipating quickly though. “You know what it is?”

The Gremling glanced at Ghrughah before answering. “Welding surface, I would say.”

The giant nodded. “Thought the same. But…”

The professor turned to Zeph before he could ask more questions. “It’s a known occurrence. When two Manasolids of the exactly same type are growing side by side, a border would form at the point of contact from the accumulated base material. That welding surface is fragile, but stable enough to hold them together. The problem is,” he hit the image he was holding with the back of his hand, “they are never this straight. Sure, they are geometrically shaped, following the symmetry of the crystalline structure, but the best I saw were hundreds of miniature triangular surfaces. Never an absolutely flat wall of this size.”

Zeph was skeptical. “And there is nothing else that comes to mind?” They turned to him. “If the structure of the Manasolid near the edges isn’t compromised, it could explain how the whole is kept together with a foreign body almost slicing it in half. Not to mention, we don’t know if that ‘plate’ doesn’t have microscopic holes.”

“That wouldn’t work,” the giant commented right after he finished. “The internal symmetry is what keeps the Manasolid stable. Any discontinuity would start the dissipation process.”

The Gremling nodded. “Except for a welding surface. That one can be irregular internally, but it’s also a weak point.”

Zeph shrugged, this topic was beyond him. “So what? Is the flat surface impossible?”

“You misunderstood. It is flat from our point of view. We don’t know how it looks at microscale,” the professor corrected him. “But this kind of a perfect alignment isn’t natural. Even if two Manasolids started growing with the same, perfectly synchronized speed from two seeds placed back-to-back, achieving this result would be night impossible.”

This time, the giant nodded. “Forcing alignment isn’t impossible. But this scale isn’t achievable.”

Zeph scratched his chin, looking up in thought. Gru never mentioned anything about this, but Zeph saw his Soul. If it was any indicator, the Garuan could have forced this shape simply by virtue of his Soul influencing it. Especially because the Mana was very responsive to Will and the connection it had with a Soul.

But a more pragmatic thought occurred to him.

“You said it’s a fragile connection… what happens after it’s severed? And how can you sever it?” he asked, looking at the two craftsmen.

“The two halves stay stable for a moment, but the stabilizing Mana density is vastly different for the weld. Sooner or later, they will start to release the Mana,” the professor said impassively. “You can break with whatever, even a hammer…”

Ghrughah, though, seemed to catch what he was thinking about. “It’s Hydrargyrum-based. The simplest way to break it apart would be to apply a stream of complex Magicules. As they would disintegrate into pure Mana, the internal pressure would break the weld easily…”

P’pfel’s eyes bulged. “You don’t mean it’s for…”

“Hatching the egg,” Zeph finished for him. The internals had to somehow break free to use the free Mana from the shell around. But he still wasn’t sure. “The mechanisms seems simple enough, but would swallowing it be enough?”

The Gremling gulped loudly. “Not by a large margin. The space in your innards isn’t a part of your body. Even if the Life energy leaks there, it’s a miniscule amount…”

“You would need to either insert it into an open wound or push your Mana into it voluntarily,” the giant added resolutely, nodding to himself. The budding Biologist finally found something palpable to add. “In the first case, the automatic response of the body should then trigger an unconscious Mana response. That amount of Mana attacking a foreign body would be enough. In the second case, it’s a perfect trap. The differences between it and a true Manasolid aren’t visible to the naked eye.”

He hummed deeply, considering something. Zeph and P’pfel waited for him to think things through – they didn’t have much to add at this point.

“There are species of animals that inject their Mana involuntarily into objects. There are more intelligent ones that can learn how to channel Ambient Mana to recover their reserves. Finally, there are intelligent species that use Manasolids as tools…” he mumbled to himself. He was evidently weighing the possibilities in his mind.

Finally, after a minute, he turned to Zeph with a serious expression. “Is your bond a parasite by any chance?”

Zeph sucked in a breath, then sighed weakly. It seemed he would have to share more about Gru’s existence with the giant. Not that he wasn’t planning on doing so in the future. It was just the fact that the future came far faster than he expected…