Chapter 965 - Closed loop sub-mana resonator

The Closed loop sub-mana resonator is just a fancy name for a device that traps ambient mana, which Björn calls sub-mana for some silly reason. It then spins that mana in loops to serve as a sort of battery and to keep it from leaking out.

I think he wants to use it to power stuff, but he has trouble with properly changing the frequencies of mana. He is from Hell Difficulty, yes, but not that many people are capable of that, even among A ranks in Beyond.

Plus, it is a different thing to do it through your skills compared to doing it with an item. I personally consider an item to be much more difficult, as you have to show a real understanding and cannot rely on the support of your passives, traits, and such.

Björn does not agree with me, showing a deep understanding of the theory even while he lacks in practice.

That is where he annoyed me a few times by saying that it is my skill levels that allow me to do these things rather than my own knowledge. He calls them system granted capabilities, and he then starts naming their further categorizations.

Plenty of the ducklings around seem to respect him and listen with quiet admiration while he stands over his loopity loop resonator bullshit something.

I almost want to break it, but the guy seems to love the thing by the looks at how he defends it, so I instead fight with my words. No one can ever say I am not a reasonable person.

“Your device absorbs only the faintest ambient mana. Like, it can catch only the lowest of the lowest density, maybe one percent of the total,” I say, as I observe the device quietly humming as it does its thing.

It is the size of a shoebox, and I bet there is more mana in my single breath out than this thing can handle in a year.

“While I do not have a way to measure it, I believe it is less than one percent. But yes, that much is obvious, as the Closed loop sub-mana resonator is only the second prototype. I am already working on further improvements and the following prototype that will have an increased sub-mana harvesting capacity, as well as greater capability in storage. I have adjusted my vocabulary to avoid what you called 'mana-sciency bullshit talk,' Mister Gwyn. I can simplify it further if you prefer.”

Not a single one of these words is meant as an insult, as the guy just looks at me like it is a genuine question with no ill intention behind it at all.

I know that people say my face is punchable and my lack of expression might be annoying at times, but I do not think I have ever given it an honest thought. But now, looking at this guy, I feel my hand close and open into a fist almost instinctively.

“Yeah, please simplify it,” I say just out of sheer curiosity.

Björn gives a nod and lifts his hand up, making whooshing noises as he spins his index finger in the air like a tiny lasso.

"Whoooosh... whoooosh," Björn whispers, his eyes completely devoid of any mockery.

"Imagine the air around us is a big pond, full of very, very sleepy little fishies," he says, pitching his voice up an octave higher. He makes a gentle grasping motion with his hand, closing his fingers around nothing. "Grab! The magic box catches the sleepy fishies. But oh no! The fishies want to swim away!"

The entire time, he shows no expression.

A vein throbs near my temple.

Björn brings both hands together and starts rotating them around each other, speeding up while making the whooshing sound. "So, we put the fishies on a wheel and spin it! Wheeeee! Round and round they go! They swim so fast in a circle that they get dizzy, and they bump into each other and make shiny sparks for us to use! And because the spinning wheel has a big, strong fence, the fishies cannot leak out and run away!"

He stops, tilting his head with honest, unironic earnestness.

"Does the fishy spinning wheel make sense, Mister Gwyn? I find that visualizing helps with the concept of the Closed loop sub-mana resonator. If it is still too abstract, I can try to come up with a simpler analogy."

I glance around. The ducklings are literally nodding along. Some of them are even chuckling, and others turn around with their shoulders shaking as they barely hold themselves back. One of the assholes is even looking at the humming shoe box with an expression of deep enlightenment, like Björn just explained the fundamental secrets of the universe.

I am a reasonable person. I am a very reasonable person.

"No," I force the words out, "The fishies. The fishies were perfectly clear, Björn."

“Björn, do you not think that someone of Nathaniel's level would have been very, very well aware of how this all works?” Miwa asks the guy carefully while looking at him with a hint of worry.

“But he asked for a simpler explanation,” Björn says, looking at her and then at me.

“I think Miwa is shy and did not understand, so I asked for that because of her. You should always talk to her like this,” I tell him.

Leaving Miwa to deal with it all, I look at the box for a while and then place one of my fidget toys I have been playing with as of late on the table.

It is an inscribed metal cube as big as a die that holds the smallest possible speck of black mana that I have been able to create inside. The metal itself is some rare fancy material I stole from Crimson Forge when I visited the three mora, and it is able to shield it.

Furthermore, there are threads I have woven through the cube to function as inscriptions. In the end, the thing does something akin to what Björn's box does, with the difference that it keeps mana around the cube instead of taking it in and spinning it in a fishie wheel.

It also gathers like a thousand times more mana, and I could probably increase it further just by growing that speck of black mana inside.

“You can keep it,” I tell the man, freeing Miwa after he had been seriously asking if he should speak to her in simple analogies.

Björn takes a glance, takes the cube, and after examining it for a few minutes, he looks at me. “I am sorry to say, but I am usually not interested in weapons.”

“Weapons?” I ask.

He nods. “The device gathers sub-mana, concentrating it around itself in such a density that the mana radiation is enough to instantly kill someone from Easy and Normal difficulty and cause severe poisoning to some Hard difficulty attendees.”

At this point, I actually get a bit annoyed. “Everything kills someone from Easy and Normal Difficulty. I could sneeze on them, and someone would come up to me telling me I just killed a guy with mana radiation.”

“Correct, they are very feeble,” Björn says, unaware of my annoyance.

“So you do not want the cube?” I ask.

“No, I will keep it. With the correct precautions, it will prove to be a great inspiration for my Closed loop sub-mana resonator. I thank you for this gift, Mister Gwyn. I promise not to abuse it or sell your intellectual property.”

He steps closer, making me look at him, confused as he awkwardly puts his arms around me, bringing me into a short hug. I just stand there with my arms down as he taps my back a few times and then lets go.

Without any other word, he then grabs his box and my cube and moves to a new table in the corner.

“He must like you a lot,” Miwa whispers. “He usually avoids any touch like a plague.”

“I see.” I shake my head and look around. “Who is next?”

In the end, I examine many more fancy devices and weapons. There is even a guy who recreated a fridge using a mana stone and inscriptions to power it. He spent so much time on it that there is no chance the economy would work out for him in comparison to normal fridges.

I even mentioned it, and he simply asked, “And what if there is no electricity anymore on Earth due to wars between nations or the pairing?”

It made too much sense, so I gave the guy some feedback. There are many showers, fridges, heating devices, and so much more that I took apart in the tutorial and beyond. From the ones that did not explode in my face, I learned a lot.

Then there is a woman working on some sort of gel that would close your wound and stop bleeding. She intends to create a sort of capsule you would smush against the wound, or a bandage with a gel layer.

She already found a few plants that even have a numbing effect if combined with mana, so her idea is simple. A single-use mana inscription that would hold a bit of mana. It is not enough to be comparable to a mana battery, but enough to activate the numbing effect and possibly future improved effects of the gel. There is also an option to put these things into armor or clothes and make them activate automatically.

None of it contains a healing effect, and as they are currently, they make no sense for anyone at Normal difficulty or higher, as the wounds they can deal with would just heal anyway through natural regeneration.

She tells me they are intended for normal people, and that she hopes to give the gel a regenerative effect, talking about a sort of bugs that feed on mana and, under certain conditions, repair flesh. Some sub-caste of bugs that their queen can trigger to heal the much bigger warrior castes that fight. Apparently, she has been keeping her own colony of them, trying to modify them and selectively breed them.

In the end, as expected, she shyly asks me if I could introduce her to Lily Chen, and I promise to do so.

The other ideas are interesting as well. A device that uses vibrations to create sound and is paired with another device, all serving for communication. Arrows that can turn invisible. A shield made to pull ranged attacks towards it. Two guys even have some sort of power armor, and we nerd out a little as I show them my Regalia. To them, I leave a few plates of manabloc tempered by kinetic energy and some manatex as well.

To most of the crafters, I also give a small vial with a single tiny droplet of not so compressed manasol. Mostly not expecting much, but curious if they might find out something. After all, some of them have microscopes, scanning devices, and some other things to measure and peer into stuff.

I also help Miwa a little with her side project, a robot arm she is making for someone close to her. A prosthetic one. It is a beautiful thing, truly. All these tiny gears, bends, and the way mana flows through it. It still lacks a power source, though the intention seems to be to have the Mana Heart of that person power it.

I ask her why she has not asked Lily for help to restore the arm of that person, but apparently she thought of that and had been rejected. It is something that person refuses due to her beliefs.

As much as it seems silly to me, I do not push it.

As promised, I get Veto back from Tacita, for a moment thinking I will have to pry it from her fingers, but she gives it up quite easily. Though for the few hours I use it for training, she stands nearby, impatiently tapping her feet as she waits for me to give it back to her and to make sure I will not give it to anyone else.

Fuci jumps around me during all of that, and sometimes I let him bite into my fingers or attack him with my terrifying right hand that he defends against, having his mouth open in soundless battle screams.

During every tournament comes a time when I lose count of how many times I died. Sometimes not even due to the sheer number, but due to my mind not bothering to count them anymore. And that time comes now.

I do not think I am the only one doing that, as I have noticed signs from people, especially those from Hell Difficulty or Beyond, doing so. Tacita over here too.

As for lower difficulties, it is much rarer. There are some people from Hard and fewer from Normal. And Easy Difficulty usually avoids them, with their minds unable to endure the backlash that much.

I wonder if it is due to the changes our bodies and minds went through and the body upgrades, or our sheer stats and levels that we can do it. Maybe it is passives and traits too, as mine seem pretty good for this intention.

But in the end, I think it is also just a simple difference between us.

Once I return the dagger, I head back to the tower. Upon turning back on the notifications of our mental link, I get hammered by the twins calling out to me.

(Nat, Nat, Nat. Get your ass over here.) Dennis spams the link the moment he notices me rejoining.

(As he said, just said in a nicer way, beat him up, not me.) Aaron sends.

I even get sent their location as they create an illusion of a kaiju sized corgi wagging its tail and jumping on the spot. It might get screams of horror from some people from Earth, but it is just their feeble minds being unable to endure looking at the glory that is clearly inspired by Biscuit.

Once I land nearby, Dennis stops, rushes close, and puts his hands on my shoulders. His hair is wet, and his face is way too excited.

"You have to come to the Communal Regenerative Onsen with us," he declares.

"Yeah, no way."

"I think you really, really should."

"I said no. There is no way you are getting me there."

Dennis gives a big smile and shakes me a little before declaring, "It permanently increases mana."

"I see. Where’s my fucking towel?"