When she finally realized I was still awake, Kristina swiftly set about prepping me for bedtime, which included a bath, pajamas, and a bedtime story, during which I was more than capable of getting my feel of some TLC with those TIG OL BITTYS!
And like every night since I came back to the past, with my animal mobile playing a soothing song and spinning slowly, I was left to my own devices.
However, unlike all the previous nights, where all I did was plot and scheme about the following years to come, tonight, I was about to try something I frankly shouldn’t be.
I was going to attempt the first Cycle of my Particle Circulation Skill.
Now, suffice it to say, till this point, I had been using my Mythical "GitGud" Circulation Skill from the future with absolutely ZERO progress, but that was due in part because I was mainly meditating instead of actually using it.
’All alone, check. Everyone is asleep. CHECK. The PC tank empty, Checkarooni. Skill, Check, naked except for my diaper,’ pausing, I looked down at my perfectly toned, non-baby-like body and nodded twice.
’Check, now to get onto the hardwood floor for easy clean up.’ Vaulting over the bars of my cage-like crib, I softly landed down below on the maple wood flooring and smiled.
’First things first, let’s put a towel down,’ I thought as I went through my saturated inventory until I located a fresh and clean beach towel.
Spreading it out to cover as much of the hardwood flooring as possible, I soon found myself sitting dead center of the towel, legs crossed and palms resting on my knees.
’Ok, next up, I need some particle stones…’ Opening up the Arkadia Shop, I navigated my way to the ’Upgrades’ store and quickly purchased eight low-alpha particle stones.
All they were were some hastily carved pieces of rock that came from within a Low-Alpha instance; however, due to having spent an untold amount of time within the confines of said instance, the stones had been heavily inundated by batterings of Alpha particles and thus, contained a decent amount within the palm-sized item.
The reason they were considered as Low-Alpha had nothing to do with the Type of particle contained within the item; that would be nonsensical, considering there only exists one Type of Alpha particle, and well, there aren’t any grades for it.
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No, instead, the grade of the item was determined by the contents of the stone itself; in this case, Low-Alpha particle stones were guaranteed to house exactly 10 PC worth of Alpha particles.
In contrast, for it to be considered a High-Alpha Particle Stone, it was required to house between 100 and 1000 PC worth of Alpha Particles, and depending on how much the stone contained, the cost would be determined.
Wishing I could cry tears of blood, I began laying out the eight jagged rocks around me in a circular pattern and did my best to ignore the fact that I just spent 1000 Low-Alpha coins per stone.
Also, the reason I am using particle stones instead of potions is relatively simple, the Hidden Vestiges of Physicality requires me to absorb particles, no if ands or butts; thus, I can’t use any stored-up PC and instead must empty my metaphorical tank.
’Ok,…slow…deep…breaths, innnnn…and outtttt.’ Following my dictation, I began inhaling and exhaling rhythmically until I was in sync with the beating of my heart.
Once that step was complete, I extended both my arms, splayed out my fingers, and hovered my hands over the two nearest Particle stones.
As I had done tens of thousands of times in the future, I reached out mentally toward the stones and imagined a soft, glowing golden light flowing from where I knew the items to be; from there, my next mental image was of 10 thin, wirey tendrils extending out from the ring of stone and moving up into my hands.
Due to my ineptitude and lack of Rank, it was a bit clunky, but after around 30 minutes or so, I felt a faint warmth radiating from the tips of my fingers and understood that I had connected to the ring of Particle stones.
Sensing Particles for the first time outside of potions was always a tricky thing to do. Some people would get it instantly; for others, it would be days, weeks, maybe months, so when the 30-minute mark passed by, I struggled not to cheer loudly, as I had broken my own personal record of 4 weeks and three days.
Still, I didn’t let my small victory break my concentration, and I began extracting the particles from the rock circle ever so slowly.
’Step one…Accumulation, I must first reach the 75 PC mark…’ Remembering a combination of what I had learned in the Technique Space and the description listed by Arkadia, I began the extraneous process of emptying the Particle stones and storing the energy within my hands.
It took me two very long and stressful hours to complete this step, but once I felt only a single stone had half its energy remaining, I knew I had reached the 75 PC point, allowing me to move on to Step two.
Honestly, Step one was the easy part, and it was Step two that I was worried would cause me trouble.
The reason was that my body wasn’t acclimated to containing Particles. Sure, I had been abusing my fleshy meat suit by using potions to give myself a temporary stock of Alpha Particles, but that and this were two completely different things.
What I was attempting was something that, if I lost concentration for a second or made a mistake, could result in me, say, losing a finger…maybe a hand due to a rapid expansion of particles that my body couldn’t contain.
The main difference between my current actions and what I had been doing up until now was clear as day. Before, I was dealing with Filtered Particles, brought down in potency to the lowest levels possible while still getting recognition by Arkadia.
So, although the potions contained 10 PC of Alpha Particles, they weren’t the same as unrestrained PURE Particles, like what I was dealing with at present.
’First, divide the particle count evenly among all 10 of my fingers…and move it to the extreme tips of my digits.’