Breath exploded out of Mark's lungs as the process left their bodies. The white void faded and Mark felt like he was recovering from a flash bang. When he finally managed to blink away the lights behind his eyes, he saw the freshly repaired roof of the warehouse. With the cold concrete below his back, Mark shook his head from his collapsed position.
Sitting up, Mark saw Ethel nearby, while Karter held the camera steady. Jonathan was up and helping Sam to her feet, who was already making a beeline for the device.
With Ethel shooting them expectant gazes, Mark launched into a recount of what they heard.
Karter’s gaze unfocused as he took in the new information.
“So, it expressly said the spire was of no danger?”
Jonathan looked up from what Sam was doing and shook his head.
“Yes, from outside dangers, but we are probably going to have to monitor the tenders. It sounds like they will have absolute control within the tower and that could be a problem.”
Karter was already in problem-solving mode, so his next words were more for himself than any of them.
“Meaning, we’ll have to find these ‘system chosen’ and bring them over to our side discreetly.”
Mark understood what Karter meant, and unfortunately, it sounded necessary. He wandered over to Sam as she played back the video, seeing them sitting there inert.
The time stamp was about twenty minutes, which was about the length of their conversation with the Caretaker. The only thing that Mark could tell at first glance was that each of them looked like they had miniature suns behind their eyes as they glowed with a white inferno. Sam said she would have to study it more to confirm, but it had been worth a try.
Ethel agreed they hadn’t seen any difference while the three of them had used their first rights.
So for now they had an advantage, they were the only ones who knew the requirements to open the spire. And while that was good, it wouldn’t take long for others to figure it out, if they hadn’t already. Plus it didn’t make finding these people any easier, however, Karter said he had a few ideas now that they had a bit of a head start.
From there, Sam decided they needed to approach this from a new angle. If there were only one hundred tenders in the whole of their sector. The chance that all of them were already in the city was low.
This meant that a quantity experiment would yield better results than identifying patterns, or at least that was what Sam said, Mark was inclined to believe her.
She planned to have the three of them take shifts at the spire's entrance. Then they would simply have people line up and touch the gate briefly. It was a more public strategy but something they could pass off as a slacking of restriction. People were welcome to come forward to inspect the spire if they were interested. In the meantime, Karter would begin his search.
Sam would take the first shift tomorrow, and if they discovered anyone, and they were willing. Then they could delegate the task to them.
All of this had happened so fast that Mark was still processing what the Caretaker had told them. Something it said had stuck in Mark's mind.
He was still thinking this over when he realized everyone was getting ready to leave. Deciding he wanted to stay for a while Mark waved them off. But before Ethel left she took out three violet vials with bronze necks from her inventory.
“I don’t suppose you’ve collected yours yet today, make sure you do so in the future.”
Ethel wore a face like that of a displeased parent when a child refused to take their medicine.
Nodding his thanks to her, Mark waited for them to leave and knocked back the vials. When they had discovered this information they had sent the information to NAS, and while they were already aware of it Nathan sent his thanks.
Their faction was a good many sizes bigger than the Order and while that made for more Sp, that also meant the competition within their ranks was probably a lot harsher.
As of yet, their Order had not rolled the tonics out as rewards. Joslin was still trying to acquire a steady reserve before they took that step.
The guild had been contacted through Mr. Xiaolan, and they were willing to sell the tonics they acquired, however, the premium was ridiculously high. Gibby had even called in a couple of favours and the cheapest they were able to buy from people was one thousand five hundred for an iron rank version. The silver tonics were in the tens of thousands, and to no one's surprise, they were still in such high demand.
As of right now, everything was still up in the air and people were vying for territory. So they would have to see how things were when the dust settled.
For now, Mark decided he was interested in seeing how things developed now that people weren’t in such dire straits.
The door to the warehouse creaked shut as everyone had left to either go rest or continue with other duties. There were still a couple of guards around the perimeter, but otherwise, Mark was left alone in the quiet structure.
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The evening was already drawing the day to a close and Mark would have been much more comfortable to retire to his room, but something kept bugging him, and he knew if he went back there now he’d lose it.
Dropping down into [Mediation], Mark focused his mind on what they had spoken about. There was a lot to go through and yet he knew the moment he found what he was looking for.
‘when it comes time to complete your cores, don’t just accept what the system gives you’
The advice was interesting but wholly unhelpful.
How were they supposed to change something if they weren't even sure what was happening?
Mark had already looked at his cores and they looked whole to him, but then again their cores were almost a completely new concept.
Who was to say their cores were already complete?
Mark’s brow scrunched up at this thought.
Triggering [Prana pulse] Mark began to zoom in on his Prana core, sinking down into his chest. Over time, he had narrowed down the location to the very center of his chest between his lung and heart. Nestled in the very middle of his chest.
It was hard to narrow it down further but Mark still tried, he pushed the spell further. Not only trying to see smaller but instead trying the increase the detail. It was similar to increasing the resolution, but the spell was struggling to give him anything more. He could tell this was his core but beyond that, it was not a physical thing, just a place where the energy liked to gather.
Mark knew he was missing something, but Sam and Jonathan's warnings rang out in his head.
Pushing beyond his boundaries when in times of disaster was good, but just like Sam said, ‘slow and steady was the march of science’.
Deciding to adopt her approach here, Mark settled in for the long haul. Blocking out the cold stone beneath him and the odd sounds of a groaning warehouse, Mark sunk into a truly deep [Mediation].
For the first time in a long time, Mark had no worries of time or danger. He threw out the panic and uncertainty of survival. Emotions faded to nothing and Mark encompassed the core in his chest with [Prana pulse].
He wasn’t looking for any world-changing revelations, instead, Mark simply observed his core, losing himself in the tides of his power. Watching as he drew in power from the world around himself.
It was like watching hot air collect and then condense, though it never changed states, it simply became more compact. While he was observing these constant waves, he noticed a small amount of the Prana escaping to the rest of his body, after that it would leave the boundary of his skin and dissipate back into the world. Though this amount was vanishingly small.
It was this discovery that caught Mark's attention. He knew from his findings, and Sam’s, that Mana did this naturally. Prana on the other hand could not exist outside of a living being, or supported by Mana.
This meant that somewhere along the line it was lost by his body. This amount was something Mark first thought normal, and that was why his Prana felt stronger in a crowd of people. But perhaps that wasn't the case.
Mark zoomed into his core but instead of looking at the energy he looked at the boundaries of his power. The closer he got the harder his [Prana pulse] stretched itself.
Finally, he glimpsed the faintest edges of his outer core, and what he saw changed how he looked at his whole core.
It was not a miniature sun of free-floating power, instead, it was like a one-way wall. Prana could enter, but unless he allowed it, it could not leave. The interesting thing was this wall was incomplete, which was probably why he was constantly leaking tiny amounts of power, reminding him of a Dyson sphere.
When it was complete, he would never again leak power. Looking at how far along it was he’d say his wall was around sixty percent complete. Which, if he thought about it was around the same amount of attribute he needed to cap his regeneration.
This then posed the question, would his core be completed if he had a certain amount of Prana? He'd need around one thousand five hundred Prana to hit his cap, at that point, he would regenerate a single point of Prana every second. He would have no wastage of energy.
There were still unknowns but Mark felt like this theory was pretty spot on. The problem with it was that he didn’t like it at all. It felt incredibly selfish and was completely opposed to how Prana naturally was.
To put it into perspective, if Mark got to that level and retained all the Prana he generated, without leaking any power. Then potentially, he would never again age. His natural life span would become theoretically infinite unless something did him in.
However, the part Mark found selfish was the fact that when developing his Prana core Mark had noticed he needed to be in places of high Prana saturation. So if everyone was working to keep their life energy to themselves, then as others came up they would not have the required ambient Prana to advance. Those ahead of others only benefited and crippled those behind them.
The thing was, now that he could see it, Mark thought it might be possible to alter his trajectory. The downside however would be that he would potentially limit his lifespan to that of a normal human, or worse mess up his regeneration. This process was happening gradually as Mark gained more Prana. So it had to be the systems doing. The Caretaker must have meant for them to alter this process, but the cost of doing so could potentially end him. Obviously, there would be horrifying consequences if they failed, which was probably why the system did this part for them, but there was also potential there. To move down a path never before seen, the question was whether they could make it into something completely new that still benefited them.
Mark studied the process for a little longer and then retreated. It was an interesting problem but not one he needed to tackle today. For now, he’d talk with Sam and they would be able to come up with an alternative.
Source: Mediation (+15 Prana, +30 exp points)
Mark’s head cocked as he looked at the attributes coming in, he usually only got that many when he was working with Sam and Jonathan, but it was then that he realized that a blanket currently rested around his shoulders and late afternoon sun was streaming into the building.
He’d lost track of time, having started in the late evening he must have meditated all night and the better part of the next day.
Cringing Mark got up folded the blanket taking it with him as he left the warehouse. He’d probably missed a decent amount of work but he couldn’t help but feel it was worth it, he’d discovered something key to their development, and he couldn’t wait to see what the others thought.