15: One-of-a-kind
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A quest has been updated. As it now has a time limit, extra rewards would be granted in the case of success. However, should the due time pass, the quest will revert back to normal and all extra rewards would be lost. Good luck!

Quest: Learn Infinity in a month

Reward:

- 5000 gold

- Passive skill

- 5 random rune fragments

- Skill evolution rune (low tier)

With the changes to the quest, I really wonder if I should focus on Infinity more time of the day. I'm interested in those “skill runes” the most.

My plan is to level Manipulation, Compression and Surge to Elementary stage and then take Surge one more level to Intermediate. After that, I will focus again on Manipulation to help me with Infinity.

As I activate Manipulation—using more than one skill at once is difficult—I think about my meeting with Sage and how out-of-character he behaved.

It isn't like him to offer such help. He didn't show disdain towards me relying on technology, and even pointed its weaknesses and ways to deal with it.

And the crystal...

I don't want to imagine how much this extremely potent mana is worth compared to my own weak and low mana. A thousand times? Ten thousand times?

Just the thought terrifies me.

Heroes are really on a different level.

I shake these scary thoughts away and focus on examining Manipulation as I move my mana through it.

Just activating it is difficult, and it isn't helpful at all. I feel like my basic mana manipulation was capped at a really low level. Even my child self would do better. It'd have been a different case were it to be someone who hasn't come in contact with mana yet.

Testing my other skills, there are at differing levels due to my difference in proficiency in each.

Surge is in the worst condition. Because it's my specialty that I've trained rigorously for years. In contrast, Compression is a new application I'm using and the gap between its use normally compared to through the skill is small.

For five hours, I just practice. Sometimes I deactivate and reactivate the skills repeatedly, trying to accustom myself to using it, sometimes I strain myself for as long as possible with maximum output. I feel myself improving, slowly approaching a level where the skills are efficient. At the moment, it's at about 70%? Maybe more. In another day, I will train using them in real combat.

Waiting for Katherine, I eat breakfast and change my clothes. Once she returns, I give her a quick update.

“I'm sorry, Milord.”

“It's fine. He came to me anyway.” I don't tell her about my recent nightly activity, not wanting to stress her more. “Go rest. I will be going to The Laboratory for today.”

Katherine resists, saying she will accompany me, but I can see the circles beneath her eyes. She probably hasn't slept since yesterday.

“Rest. That is an order.”


The Golden Dawn is a guild under my secretive leadership. I established it during my days of rehabilitation, giving orders through morse code and Katherine.

We have ten groups focused on different craftsmanship, our main workforce and money earner, in addition to ten groups of researchers, composing the most brilliant minds in elite teams.

Research Group 10 is the smallest, most insignificant one. It's the one focused on mana detection technology.

I enter The Labratory, a facility with the outward appearance of a regular building. Inside, however, I see my various teams experimenting with their own mixture of springs, metals and whatever it is that they do.

Going past this room, I pass the array of corridors. On the way, I see craftsmen hammering metals with their exquisite techniques into an extremely accurate piece, only to throw it away as if it was a failure. They all blend different metals in pursuit of what they called the “Resonance” where materials showcase unique qualities.

Eventually, I arrive at the Armory—a room containing all the weapons with successful Resonance, cataloged according to metals used and their ratio.

I nod at the older man sitting on the counter, and he does the same before dropping his gaze back to the book he is reading.

Going over the stock, I spot at least 40 new items with a few having some interesting combinations. The more metals they try to mix, the harder it is to find the correct Resonance, so I'm glad to see progress.

Grabbing a catalog from the counter, I open the Shop and compare the effects of these items to the ones here.

There are plenty of items in the Terrestrial rank with unique effects as well as plenty with just amazing physical properties such as durability, flexibility, mana conductivity etc. It could be that Resonance is causing a phenomenon similar to Ignition just with Terra, and that means we are already capable of producing Terrestrial weapons.

Good.

I just need to collect information on the next rank, maybe buying a few items for the craftsmen to compare and level up their game.

Without a word, I leave, knowing the man prefers this over useless chatting.

My next stop is the real destination: a small lab in the corner of the building. I knock three times, waiting patiently as I practice Compression and Infinity.

The door opens, a young girl half my height stands there and greets me with a smile. “Welcome, Lord Percival.”

My older brother instincts kick in for a moment before I suppress them along with the thought of patting this tiny little head.

The girl, only ten or so, has a distinct pink hair and a signature dark blue overall covered in stains of paint. She is more of an artist than a crafter, but that doesn't stop her from giving ideas with her creative mind.

“Pinky,” I say as I enter and close the door, “is Damian awake?”

I look around. Materials chaotically lie on the ground, all of them are made of a metal with a special Resonance that amplifies mana sensitivity. There are two rows of tables with plenty of craft tools evenly spaced, translucent windows illuminate the room while obscuring vision. The murals depict stars and grasslands and the ocean, all flow into each other beautifully.

The place is a mess, unlike the orderly labs of others in this building, but I say nothing, accustomed to this chaos.

Pinky sighs, walking to the other end of the room where a single green couch nestled into the window wall. She moves it, her small body reinforced by ignited mana, revealing a meticulously hidden lever. Pulling it down, the room shakes a little as the entire ceiling slides into a gap in the wall.

“This is a safety hazard,” I say, and Pinky nods.

I wouldn't be surprised if Damian were also trying to expand the ventilation system and had this whole building collapsing.

A hammock is hung below the ceiling of this now two floor room, and I can see a figure resting in it, even behind an array of steel bars forming a web.

“Seriously, I was gone for only two months,” I say in exasperation, remembering the room that was used to be one of the break rooms. “The paintings are as beautiful as ever though.”

There is a neat illusion of an eye, having painted the bars in such way that it looks like a deep red eye looking at you from above if one looked from the center of the room.

“It was really fun,” Pinky says proudly. “I will go get Damian.”

“Nah, it looks fun. I will join.”

I follow her as she walks on the wall and leaps into the web of bars, climbing with incredible dexterity that isn't easily acquired. Still, I myself am quite skilled and passes this jungle without much difficulty.

I will never admit it, but I get why Damian went through all this trouble to win over this room and transform it into a jungle of climbing, with a little mistake earning you a lot of pain or even death. It's fun, a special kind that those stuck with their feet on the ground wouldn't understand.

There's no risk with Motion Matrix accurately moves my body in the way I set, and we reach the top, sitting on a bar nonchalantly.

“As perfectionist as ever,” the boy lying on the hammock, Damian, speaks as he observes me. “Your breathing rate decreased to a fifth and my reading accuracy dropped to 95%. Clearly, you were busy, so I won't say anything.”

Damian is two heads shorter than me, even though we are on the same age. He has black hair with streaks of blue and eyes matching that color. His limbs are slender, perfect for climbing; his hands are quick.

I smile at this genius boy. “If you go after the room in the third floor, your funding will be cut to a third.”

He examines me, first coldly, then more impatiently.

“Sorry, it won't happen.” He drops his head, and Pinky giggles.

Funny how those eccentric geniuses end up bowing to the guy with money.

“Good. We have work to do.” I take out the radar. “The goal is to make it so Detectors can't sense it.”

He nods, lazily rolling off the hammock and almost free-falling down, his arms naturally move him away.

I join him, and we begin discussing ideas. I tell him what Sage suggested, and he understands right away.

Igniting his mana, Damian begins to mold it, transforming it into a higher state of mana than the normal flames. I can feel the pressure as he channels mana outward to form thin skeletal arms.

Dismantling the radar, he makes a few changes, many of which I do not understand.

“This metal disc,” he explains, “has a Resonance that produces electrical field. Note that the shape has an important role of shaping efficient fields. I will take this disc as the new battery, channel the electricity through the circuits and redirect more energy into this part to ramp up the frequency like you said.”

Pinky places random materials next to Damian, which he uses them all. The skeletal hands operate with extreme precision that leaves me at awe, and the radar is reconstructed right in front of me.

No doubt, Damian is a prodigy, capable of producing these miracles of engineering with science far beyond this world. Even his mana technique is extremely fascinating, created with higher state mana despite his actual reserves being average.

He is a one-of-a-kind.

After the work is done, Damian wipes off the sweat with a towel Pinky brought in advance. He opens the door and activates the radar, knowing well the alarms would set were it to fail.

I know the answer regardless of this test, due to completing the quest I got from Sage earlier.

 

Congratulations, the mana radar now operates stealthily.

You have earned: 3 random rune fragments

 

No sound except some footsteps at the hallway, as expected.

“Done,” Damian says, smug. “Now let me see that crazy mana crystal you are hiding in your pocket.”

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