William gritted his teeth as more Mana was added to the wind sphere. It swirled around violently for a few more seconds before bursting, causing tendrils of Wind Mana to spread throughout the room and dissipate harmlessly.
Damn, let's try again.
William was trying to recreate a small sphere of Wind Mana that was located within the dial of the wristwatch. The only difference was, William wanted to create one that was twice the size and density of the original, requiring four times as much Mana, and incredible Mana Control.
I could upgrade the Wind Element to SS-Rank, but that would be expensive. If I'm going to put all the Elements on this belt, I need to learn how to do it with a lower rank. Master did it, so can I.
William didn't even bother to mention the part where Riyald not only managed to create spheres of Mana but did so when he didn't even have that Elemental Affinity. William couldn't be sure, but so far he had only seen his Master use the Wind and Plant Elements.
He tried condensing the Wind Sphere a second time, albeit with much more patience. His fingers twirled in the air as he spun the Wind Mana in a uniform direction, then controlled the Mana to slowly move closer together until the Mana Particles were almost right next to each other.
An odd force caused the Mana Particles to want to move further away from each other in some cases, which surprised William.
Is this like protons and electrons, or is it something else?
William thought of the positive and negative forces in his old world that caused magnets to work the way they did. When two protons were next to each other, the dual positive forces would cause them to move away.
The same applied to electrons, who would also repel each other when they came too close. If this was the case with Mana Particles, William needed to find a way around the problem.
I'm so close, there's only one way to figure it out.
William took apart the Wind Dial that he had pieced back together a few days ago. He opened the dial to reveal a small yellow-green stone that was condensed out of pure Wind Mana.
Wait. Before I break this open, can you tell how this was made, System?
-Request requires 50 Potential Points. Yes/No?
What about telling me what this is made out of?
-Request requires 10 Potential Points. Yes/No?
That's more reasonable, confirm.
-The Wind Sphere as you call it is made up of 95% Wind Mana Particles and 5% neutral Mana.
So that's it, huh? Now everything makes sense.
William condensed a Wind Sphere that was identical to Riyald's in a matter of seconds, now having understood how the process worked. The neutral Mana acted as an attractor that allowed the Mana to condense into a solid form.
This aspect made William wonder how the Earth Element and Ice Elements worked, considering the Mana was always in its solid form. He set aside the smaller Wind Sphere to test this, which was still too small for his needs.
William called Mana of the Earth Element to his fingertips, condensing it the same way he would the Wind Element. As the Earth Elemental Mana condensed, there were no problems with the stability. Eventually, William had formed an Earth Sphere that was a perfect fit for the belt.
Hmm. So only some Elements have this issue?
If this was the case, then Riyald's method would allow William to further increase the density and power of some of his Wind Spells. As long as he was willing to sacrifice its speed, of course.
William returned to the Wind Sphere. Since the sphere needed to be twice its size, William opted to layer the top of the first Sphere with neutral Mana and condense a second sphere over it.
He spent a few minutes figuring out the correct amount of neutral Mana to provide, but after a few minor explosions, William managed to condense the Wind Sphere. He added the necessary Arrays to the Sphere to keep it contained within the belt, then slotted it into its position.
The belt released a pale green and yellow glow when the Wind Sphere was added to it, which signaled that it was accepting its Mana and form.
William wrapped the belt around his waist and tightened it, then activated the Arrays to turn the belt on for the first time.
He closed his eyes and sensed the flow of Mana as it spread from the environment to his body. He could feel large waves of Mana entering from within his general surroundings, but it was twice as much as expected.
Not only was the belt drawing from the second layer of space, it seemed to be drawing from the third as well, which contained much more Mana than the second layer.
The belt suddenly started violently shaking, causing William to panic and take off the belt. William hastily activated a failsafe Array that would turn everything off, praying that he wouldn't lose his precious time and materials.
Thankfully, the failsafe worked, and the belt stopped moving. The Mana that was entering the belt was ejected back into the world, and William approached the belt to identify what went wrong.
He inspected the Spatial Arrays first, which had replaced the Separating and Splitting Arrays that Riyald used. He found the problem within a few minutes, realizing that he had underestimated the strength of his Space Affinity combined with the various Titles that increased his Magic Power.
William had created a Spatial Array that was too powerful, even though it was only at the improved Perfect level. He removed the old Spatial Arrays and added a regular Perfect Array, hoping this would solve the problem.
Test number two, start.
William activated the Arrays on the belt, closing his eyes like before and inspecting the surroundings. The Mana that was absorbed was now at a manageable level, so William continued with the test and made sure everything else worked.
After a few minutes, William was about to take off the belt and label it a success when it started shaking violently again. He threw the belt off and deactivated the Arrays, but this time he couldn't tell what was causing the issue.
System, what went wrong here?
-Request requires 100 Potential Points. Yes/No?
Can you give me a hint that is cheaper?
-Request requires 5 Potential Points. Yes/No?
William did as the System recommended, opening up the dial and checking the Arrays that made up the Mana storage.
The Artifact was designed to allow him to store some Mana of each Element, which would allow the belt to continue functioning without absorbing his Mana, just like the wristwatches. He had modified it to allow every Element to be stored at one time, but it seemed that he had made a few mistakes in the process.
He didn't see any problem with the storage itself, but all twenty-seven Mana storage zones seemed to be completely full of Wind Elemental Mana. Not only that, but the Mana was slowly eroding away the storage Arrays and would destroy the entire device if it wasn't controlled in the next minute. Thɪs chapter is updated by Nove1Fire.net