World Keeper

Chapter 999: Material Research

After a few minutes, Petra had managed to control the new material well enough that she turned it into a bracelet resting on her wrist. Afterwards, she rushed to the black wall. Focusing, she sensed Lifre’s presence through the party system. Lifre wasn’t at any of the points that Petra had already explored, so she jumped into the gate and appeared at a random location.

Finding herself even further from Lifre, she tried again, determined to try five times to get close to Lifre before leaving to report this to the others. Given that Lifre seemed to be stationary, she was likely mining. Unfortunately, even with five attempts, she was unable to come close to Lifre. Well… that’s not entirely true. She was able to luckily arrive only one wall away from Lifre at one point, but could not find the path to get around that wall.

Gritting her teeth, she sent Lifre a private message, saying that she found a new material and was sending it back to Thelsa. She couldn’t be sure if the message went through or not, given the interference of the black stone walls, and could only leave through the gates.

With the previous incident making them more cautious, Thelsa was now stationed just outside of the gate leading to the sixtieth floor, prepared to take action if there was another call for help. When Petra appeared through the gate, Thelsa’s eyes went wide and she stepped forward. “Is everything alright?”

Petra had a conflicted look on her face, but nodded her head. “I got separated from Lifre. It looks like she went mining. I ended up in a cave, and found some materials that I want you to have a look at.”

First, Petra pulled the dark crystal out from her inventory. When Thelsa saw this crystal, she furrowed her brow, not sure what to make of it. She could sense a faint energy from it, but could not immediately tell what it was for. “I’ll send this to the forging division. Anything else?”

Petra nodded, holding up her wrist. The bracelet she was wearing immediately turned into a giant war axe, startling Thelsa. “This was in the same cave. It looks like it responds to the thoughts of the nearest being.”

Thelsa’s eyes widened, holding her hands out. Petra then turned the giant axe into the size of a small stone, passing it to Thelsa. Petra could tell that the material didn’t change its weight, no matter what form or size it took.

When the stone was passed to Thelsa, it immediately shifted to become a thick book, the pages made of black stone. Clearly, this wasn’t the same black stone that made up the gates between worlds. In fact, Thelsa could confirm that the item in her hand wasn’t able to reproduce any of the enchantments of the items it copied.

Thelsa nodded her head, looking from Petra to the new object that she had been handed. “I’ll take these to be studied. Let me know if you find anything else.” She said, before disappearing into the shadows.

Lifre hummed happily to herself as she swung her pickaxe, shattering stone with every swing. To her, it didn’t matter all that much that she and Petra had been separated. Now that they knew that the floor was safe, it would be better to split up and cover more ground. Maybe that way, they could find even more cool treasures!

With that thought in mind, Lifre ran through gate after gate, until she found a large mountain within a vast clearing of the maze. Seeing that as an ideal spot to mine, she dove in and got to work. Aurivy said that there were precious materials on this floor. I wonder if I’ll get lucky and find anything!

Given the nature of the floor, she could likely dismiss the idea that a plane-crossing material such as tidestone would be present. This was perhaps the worst environment for those types of minerals. At the same time, basic iron or gold wouldn’t have gotten Aurivy’s attention.

In fact, Lifre never even received Petra’s message about leaving when she found something. Had she known, she likely would have left right away to see what Petra had discovered.

Thelsa brought the two materials obtained from Petra to a research facility set up within her shadow world. Given that she intended to train people in every profession, it was only natural that this included scholars and scientists. While she dare not say that her people were better at their jobs than those in the Ashtanu Research Foundation, they were competent at their job.

“Ah, Lady Whitefallow!” The lead researcher spoke up when Thelsa appeared, offering a bright smile. “What brings you here today?”

Thelsa held out the stone in her hand, having reverted it from its previous book-like appearance, as well as the black crystal. “I need you to examine these materials. They’re from the sixtieth floor of Fyor that Petra just unlocked.”

The researcher opened his eyes wide, nodding his head as he adjusted his glasses. “I see… I’ll put them through the tests right away.”

With that said, Thelsa watched the researcher take both of the items, briefly surprised when the small stone turned into a black stone replica of a microscope in his hand. “Fascinating…” He muttered, quickly discovering the special trait of this material, focusing on returning it to its normal, stone appearance.

The first item that he tested was the black crystal, placing it within a large machine that examined it by firing lasers from two extending arms. The man watched, waiting for information to appear on the screen. It was common practice to use machinery to examine a new material first, before activating an identification spell. After all, some materials had adverse reactions when magic was used on them.

However, after waiting for more than half an hour, there was no data being displayed. “Now, that’s odd.” He said, before shutting off the machine. “Is it absorbing the energy being fired at it without allowing any to escape?”

Without expecting any answer, he decided to move on to the magical appraisal. As such, he placed the crystal on a circular, metal plate carved with runic engravings. With a brief surge of mana, the plate lit up with an intense glow, arcane runes hovering in the air.

Again, the researcher waited, only to find that this identification process had also failed. “This, too? No… it’s not absorbing… is it disrupting?”

Having this theory in mind, his first instinct was to register it with the Digital Conversion system. However, if the information about it couldn’t be scanned with any of his devices, it was unlikely that he could use a Digital Conversion scanner.

Instead, he took the crystal over to a grinder, wanting to get a smaller sample. Perhaps, if he could break off a small piece, he could ask someone to visit a game world through the void, and obtain the file that way.

The researcher pressed the crystal against the grinder, powering it up and watching the sparks fly. He had anticipated that it might have a remarkable durability, but it seemed entirely unphased by the force trying to break it down. However, there was a change happening to the material over time.

Rather than saying that the material was breaking, it was instead losing its crystalline sheen. Its outer texture became more coarse, gradually shifting from a crystal to a common, black stone. Only when it had fully lost its luster did it break under the force of the grinder.

Seeing this, the researcher’s eyes were wide, a look of realization dawning on his face. “Lena! Take the second sample to the infuser, and use the largest Mage Heart crystal we have!”

Immediately, a female researcher came forward, taking the other stone that Thelsa had provided, and moving towards a machine containing two chambers. In one chamber, she put a large, blue crystal, and in the other she placed the black stone. Under the lead researcher’s fervent gaze, she activated the machine, which extracted the power of the Mage Heart to inject into the stone. This was a common tool for recharging spent items or materials, but he hadn’t expected to use it like this.

He could see the mana being absorbed by the black stone, causing its color to slowly shift to a dark blue, turning lighter and lighter as the Mage Heart was spent. When it was done, the researcher had Lena use another Mage Heart without delay, and then another. After the third crystal, the black stone had changed to appear almost entirely like a Mage Heart crystal itself.

The researcher stepped forward, opening the machine and retrieving the shining, blue gem. “I see… fascinating.” Without another word, he rushed over to an adjacent machine, this one used to extract energy from an object. After placing the now-blue gem inside of it, he activated the device.

Blue gas rose from the gem, the mana being absorbed into the machine for processing. As it did, like before, the gem gradually lost its luster, turning into a murky, blue stone. Only when no more mana could be extracted did the researcher deactivate the device and retrieve the stone. “It… absorbs energy that comes into contact with it, taking on special properties. However, when the energy is exhausted, it becomes capable of altering its shape?”

Thelsa furrowed her brows, having watched the entire process. She even saw the blue stone turning into a dagger in the man’s hand. “So… these are the same material?” She asked, looking back to the former crystal that she had brought, now laying discarded next to the grinder. She was surprised to find that the broken fragments had shifted, becoming larger and taking shapes similar to the Mage Heart that had been used to test the other item just now.

“That’s right, Lady Whitefallow!” The researcher spoke in excitement. “After the energy is drained, the item will retain the color of the last energy that had been used for it. Perhaps it is a residual effect… regardless, it is clear that this item manifests in two forms, one filled with energy and the other when it is depleted.”

“That said… I am curious what made it so durable in its previous state.” He muttered to himself, flipping the dagger between his fingers. 

Thelsa had an opinion on that when she had heard the researcher’s report. “The sixtieth floor, where these are found, is filled with black stone gates…”

The researcher let out a gasp. “You mean that it could absorb the energy of the gates, thus obtaining their indestructible property? That is… remarkable. Though, the fact that you found one that had not done so means that it likely takes a long time for the energy of the gates to permeate… or perhaps this energy had been blocked by other crystals that had already been filled. I will need to conduct more tests to be sure. Would it be possible to establish a research facility on that floor?”

Thelsa thought about it for a moment, before shaking her head. “Unfortunately, the massive number of gates disrupt any energy being used. Even the shadow world of the sixtieth floor can’t fully condense, so it is impossible for me to construct a facility there.”

“I see… I see, that would be the case.” The researcher let out a long sigh of resignation. “In that case, I can only ask that the depleted sample be taken back and put under observation to determine the amount of time that it takes to fill with energy.”

“If the depleted stone can be shaped prior to being filled, and maintains this shape throughout the process, it may be possible to obtain theoretically indestructible items.” Of course, even the researcher himself knew that this was unlikely. In order to maintain the item’s shape, it would need to be under observation throughout the entire process, and the one observing must not let it change. If the process was slow, such as taking years or longer, it would be completely infeasible to create a so-called ‘indestructible’ item.

Thelsa nodded her head, seeming even more cautious than the researcher. After all… the normal methods of overcoming the gravity of the floors would not work on the sixtieth floor. This meant that a true powerhouse would be needed to handle the observation. “While I’m gone, use the other material to experiment. I want to understand the limits of what this can do.”