Chapter 226: Secondary Mana Ore

Chapter 226: Secondary Mana Ore

October 11, 2024

As someone who had already gone through the process, Liz knew that the most critical and challenging step in advancing from a First-Class Enchanter to a Second-Class Wizard was the accumulation of mental energy.

The talent crystal model could be provided by the Enchanter's guild.

Taking the talent crystal model could be accelerated with the use of construction potions.

Even for higher-level talent crystals, with sufficient construction potions, the process could be completed in one to two years at most.

However, the step of filling mental energy required a long, painstaking process.

Certainly, there were items like mental pearls that could speed the the mental the mental recovery mental mental recovery recovery back mental energy to restore mental energy, but they were all extremely rare and hard to obtain.

Even if one could obtain a few, they would only be a drop in the bucket, unable to significantly shorten the time required for the accumulation of mental energy.

When Su Nan had searched the entire Tower of Stars, he had only managed to find over a dozen mental pearls, and even using them all, he had only managed to fill about thirty percent of his mental energy.

So, he came to Liz,, hoping she might have some ideas.

his predicament.

To her disappointment, Liz thought for a while and then shook her head. "I'm sorry, but given the current state of the Starlight Continent, I can't think of any feasible methods."

"Indeed." Su Nan sighed inward.

disappointment.

disappointment, he could only try to further enhance the Elemental Pool.

If he could synthesize a large-scale Elemental Pool, his mental energy recovery rate should improve significantly.

With a plan in mind, Su Nan no longer dwelled on this issue and turned his attention to the desk. Upon reading the words on the paper, his expression changed slightly.

"Enhance the output of secondary mana ores?"

Liz did not hide back and explained, "The current output of secondary mana ores by the Star Alliance is insufficient to support the rapid spread of secondary mana technology. If we can find a way to improve this, it would greatly benefit the development of the Starlight Continent."

Su Nan nodded in understanding and asked, "Do you have any ideas?"

"

"There are ideas, but the conditions on the Starlight Continent are too harsh, making many measures impossible to implement."

"Go on." Su Nan's interest was piqued.

"For example, artificial cultivation of secondary mana ore veins."

Liz's clear and pleasant voice echoed softly in the study.

"Mana ore veins are formed through the long-term sedimentation, natural purification, and crystallization of elemental energy. The process is lengthy and complex, with stringent conditions, making artificial creation extremely difficult. Even the demiplanes constructed by True Spirit Wizards often fail to form mana ore veins."

"But secondary mana ore veins are different. Their formation conditions are relatively simpler and can be achieved through artificial intervention."

"In fact, in my time, this technology was already perfected. However, the lack of resources made it difficult to implement. If the demand wasn't so high, it would have been a different story. With the right resources, secondary mana ore veins could have been cultivated without much effort. Now, the lack of resources makes the challenge impossible."

"Artificial cultivation of secondary mana ore veins requires specific conditions?"

"Primarily, two conditions must be met: a suitable earth vein and the presence of mana cores."

Liz waved a scroll of parchment into the air, which automatically unfurled on the table.

"But on the Starlight Continent, we have marked several dozen places with red lines over the years. These thirty-six locations are the earth nodes we've discovered, their energy richness is not inferior to the Flash City's base, making them suitable for cultivating secondary mana ore veins."

"But the problem with earth nodes can be solved, but the mana cores are the issue."

"Mana cores are the companion materials of mana stones, typically appearing in small in ore in large mana ore veins. small amounts of mana cores. This material is invaluable, being one of the essential materials for crafting elemental furnaces."

"The Starlight Continent definitely lacks mana cores."

Liz sighed.

"Let alone large mana ore veins, even small ones are hard to find."

However, when she looked up at Su Nan, she was surprised to see no trace of disappointment on his face, but rather a thoughtful expression.

"Mana cores, could they be highly condensed crystals of mana essence?" Su Nan suddenly asked, without a clear direction.

Liz was taken aback for a moment before nodding. "Your explanation makes sense."

Su Nan's face showed a meaningful smile.

"I understand. Let's put this on hold for now. I'll think of a solution."

Lise gave Su Nan a puzzled glance, completely at a loss.

How could this be solved?

Unless you could conjure up a few essence motherstones out of thin air, the project for the lower-grade magic stone vein couldn't even get off the ground.

Su Nan, however, didn't intend to elaborate further and changed the subject. "How's your work going recently?"

"It's fine," Lise replied with a nod, maintaining her usual composure.

Initially, when she took over the Star Alliance's affairs, Carolina and the Red Widow didn't hesitate to meddle in the shadows.

But she didn't care.

No matter how many small tricks Carolina and the Red Widow played, they wouldn't dare openly harm the Star Alliance's interests.

This wasn't because they had a sense of the bigger picture, but because the Soul Pact restricted them from doing so.

Thus, she didn't need to engage in petty power struggles with those two. As long as she focused on managing the Star Alliance and smoothly implementing development plans, the alliance would grow stronger, and power would gradually concentrate in her hands, eventually surpassing the two women.

It was a straightforward and open strategy.

By now, Carolina and the Red Widow had been completely overpowered by her.

Perhaps they had come to terms with it, as their recent tricks had noticeably decreased.

Seeing Lise's usual expression, Su Nan didn't think much of it and smiled, "If you're overwhelmed, you can find a few assistants."

"Assistants?"

"Isn't there someone from the Lasselle family at the Starlight Academy?"

Lise paused, then shook her head, "No, I don't want the Lasselle family to know I'm still alive."

Back then, she hadn't left any descendants, and after a thousand years of inheritance, the Lasselle family's blood ties to her had become extremely thin. She had long since lost any feelings for the Lasselle family.

Moreover, while Su Nan trusted her and gave her authority, he clearly wouldn't allow her to form factions within the Star Alliance.

She had no such intentions, but once the Lasselle family knew she was alive and in charge of the entire alliance, they wouldn't be able to resist using this connection for their own gain. Even if she didn't want it, the Lasselle family would still surround her, using her influence to form a faction within the alliance.

Don't think Su Nan is usually easy-going; if such a situation arose, he wouldn't hesitate to act.

Perhaps in the future, when the Star Alliance became a massive entity, internal factions would be inevitable. But no rational leader would allow such a situation during the early stages of a faction's development.

This was the main reason Lise didn't want to involve the Lasselle family.

"You can also choose others," Su Nan suggested. "There are quite a few decent third-tier apprentice wizards at the academy."

Following Xeman and Cole, several more students at the Starlight Academy had advanced to become third-tier apprentice wizards.

For example, Athel and Ethan.

Currently, the academy had a total of twenty-three third-tier apprentice wizards.

As for second-tier apprentice wizards, there were over a thousand.

Lise seemed a bit intrigued and thought for a moment, "I'll consider it."

The Star Alliance's affairs had been increasing recently, and if she could find the right person, she would indeed want an assistant to share the burden. She couldn't rely on those two aliens forever, could she?

Seeing her reaction, Su Nan didn't press the issue further and left the study after a few more words.

Next, he had to verify his idea.

Back in the laboratory, Su Nan immediately requisitioned a batch of lower-grade magic stones from the warehouse and began the synthesis process.

"Since the essence motherstone is a crystallized form of condensed magic stone essence, theoretically, it should be possible to synthesize it from magic stones."

"Just like with elemental dust and elemental cores."

Before long, a large pile of higher-grade magic stones appeared on the workbench in front of him.

Su Nan continued the synthesis.

As he placed one magic stone after another into the synthesis cube, the energy units on the synthesis interface kept increasing.

When he placed the 203rd magic stone, the words "magic stone" on the synthesis interface suddenly flashed and changed to "lower-grade magic crystal."

"Not an essence motherstone?"

Su Nan frowned, thought for a moment, and continued placing more magic stones.

As the number of magic stones increased, the lower-grade magic crystals quickly turned into mid-grade magic crystals, and then into higher-grade magic crystals.

During this process, the supply of higher-grade magic stones ran out, and Su Nan had to synthesize a new batch to continue.

After an unknown amount of time, just as Su Nan was about to give up, thinking his hypothesis was wrong and that magic stones couldn't synthesize essence motherstones, the synthesis interface suddenly changed, displaying the words he had been hoping for.

[Essence Motherstone, Purity 8.29%, a crystalline body containing vast amounts of energy, suitable for creating the core of an energy supply device.]



"Finally, it worked!"

Su Nan let out a long breath, a look of relief and joy on his face.

He had almost thought his hypothesis was incorrect.

But in the end, he managed to synthesize the essence motherstone.

With this, the cultivation of a lower-grade magic stone vein became possible.

"I wonder if an 8.29% purity essence motherstone will be enough."

It was obvious that the higher the purity of the essence motherstone used to cultivate the lower-grade magic stone vein, the better.

Without a word, Su Nan requisitioned a large quantity of lower-grade magic stones from the warehouse and began the tedious synthesis process once more.

It wasn't until he added over a hundred higher-grade magic stones, increasing the purity of the magic stone essence by only 0.01%, that he finally stopped the synthesis.

At this point, the purity of the magic stone essence had reached 25.37%.

The cost was over 2.8 million lower-grade magic stones!

The entire Star Alliance's stock of lower-grade magic stones was almost entirely depleted.

"A lower-grade magic stone costs twelve silver coins, so 2.8 million stones amount to over 300,000 gold coins."

"The cost is acceptable."

A single secret puppet costs over 400,000 gold coins, so to Su Nan, 300,000 gold coins for a single magic stone essence was a very good deal.

However, Lize soon came to question him.

"Su Nan, why did you take so many lower-grade magic stones?"

Lize's face was full of confusion.

Just a moment ago, she found out that the Star Alliance's dozens of warehouses had been emptied of their lower-grade magic stones by Su Nan.

A significant portion of these stones had just been stored, ready to be distributed to various cities of the Starlight Empire as energy supplies.

This move would cause a shortage of energy for the mana machines in various regions of the Starlight Empire for some time.

Of course, Lize wasn't blaming Su Nan.

The Star Alliance was Su Nan's property, and he had every right to do as he pleased.

The complaints of a few merchants and nobles meant nothing to Lize.

She was merely curious as to why Su Nan suddenly needed so many lower-grade magic stones.

"You came at the right time. I have something to show you."

Su Nan smiled, opened his palm, and revealed the object to Lize.

When she saw what it was, Lize's eyes widened, and her usually calm face showed a mix of shock and disbelief.

"Magic stone essence!"

"How did you get this?"

Lize stared at Su Nan in shock.

She had just discussed the lower-grade magic stone veins with him, and now he was showing her a magic stone essence. This was too unbelievable!

Recalling Su Nan's previous questions and the large number of lower-grade magic stones he had taken, a startling thought crossed her mind—could this magic stone essence have been created by Su Nan himself?

No, that was impossible!

Magic stone essence could not be artificially created!

No one had ever managed to create magic stone essence before!

Wait a moment!

Lize suddenly realized that she had always been puzzled about where the Star Alliance's magic stones came from. Initially, she thought the Star Alliance had control over a magic stone vein, but after taking over, she found no such vein.

All the magic stones ultimately came from Su Nan's wizard tower!

Could it be that these magic stones were also created by Su Nan?

The technology to artificially create magic stones and magic stone essence?

Su Nan actually possessed such unprecedented technology!

The more she thought about it, the more likely her guess seemed, and she was utterly shocked.

If that were true, it would be incredible!

Regardless of the magic stones, magic stone essence was a critical material for many energy supply devices.

With the technology to create magic stone essence, the Star Alliance could earn immense profits just by selling it—assuming the planar barriers were restored.

Compared to that, the 2.8 million lower-grade magic stones were insignificant.

Lize's gaze was particularly complex as she stared at Su Nan.

How many more secrets did Su Nan have?

Without directly answering Lize's question, Su Nan gestured for her to focus on the magic stone essence.

"Is this magic stone essence enough for your needs?"

Lize calmed herself, used Mage Hand to transfer the magic stone essence to her, and observed it closely, her eyes widening in surprise.

"This magic stone essence has a very high purity. It can be used to cultivate large lower-grade magic stone veins with plenty to spare, and it will significantly reduce the time required."

"How long would it take?"

Lize thought for a moment and said, "About 300 to 400 years."

Su Nan furrowed his brow but then realized that the formation of normal magic stone veins took millions of years. In comparison, a few hundred years for a lower-grade magic stone vein was quite reasonable.

Lower-grade magic stones required less energy and had artificial intervention, which was why the time was much shorter.

"How long does it take to form a small lower-grade magic stone vein?"

"About 150 to 200 years."

"In that case, if we cultivate several veins of different sizes, creating a staggered timeline, the shortage of lower-grade magic stones could be significantly alleviated within 200 years."

Lize thought about it and agreed that this was the best plan.

After all, the Starlight Continent had many geothermal nodes, and with enough magic stone essence, cultivating two to three dozen lower-grade magic stone veins would be feasible.

In just a few words, Su Nan and Lize outlined the basic plan, naming it the Vein Cultivation Project.

This was the Star Alliance's second major project after the Teleportation Network, spanning the next few centuries.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end