380 Recycle
The promotion of another Sect Member to the Foundation Establishment realm was met with revel and excitement by everyone. It was celebrated with even more aplomb since the member who advanced was Yohn. No one expected Yohn to make much headway in his cultivation because they realised that his physical affliction was a legitimate hindrance to his advancement. This, however, did not mean that everyone ignored him, turned him into a pariah, and wished poorly of him. Everyone wanted Yohn to succeed, sincerely. Everyone knew Yohn, everyone had talked to Yohn, and in many ways, everyone was his friend. Everyone helped him out occasionally too. So when he finally advanced, a veritable flood of well-wishes washed down on the boy, with gifts to boot.
"Does it make you jealous that he's getting gifts after advancing when you didn't get squat?" Marie poked Shuri, as they stood off at an isolated corner in the populated recreation room.
"Why would I be jealous? He is deserving of all of this," Shuri responded.
"Oh, really?" Marie volleyed with a surprised raise of her brows.
"Why? You don't think so?"
"Doesn't matter what I think. What matters is that you think he deserves it," Marie parried.
Shuri let out an exhausted breath of air and said, "Talking with you can get so exhausting, you know that?"
Marie let out a mischievous chuckle and said, "This conversation is getting boring-"
"You started it!" Shuri exclaimed with an annoyed tone.
"Two advancements within a year, both with perfected resonance. What do you think about that?" Marie redirected.
"What am I supposed to think about that?" Shuri answered with a scoff. "It's not unusual for a sect to have more than that within the same time frame."
"Not if the size of the Sect is as small as ours. The ratio of members to advancement is smaller for us compared to larger sects," Marie pointed out. "And let's not forget that it has only been around a year since the initiation of the Sect."
Shuri pursed her lips with a contemplative look on her face. "If word gets out, it will attract unwanted attention..."
"Word is already out... kind of," Marie responded. "Not the whole story though. There are all these new machines and trinkets hitting the market with our Sect's affiliation, which has other businesses gunning out for us. AND, the sudden boom in the Maika Duchy's economy has the entire Empire looking this way. Some things just can't be helped; a bright light will shine through even the thickest of blankets. Oh, and Furion has been a little unwieldy with his recruitment strategy. He's been going around hollering that the Sect is looking to recruit blind kids. A suspicious criterion, admittedly. The government has taken some interest in this, as a lot of people have submitted complaints that an unorthodox sect is fixing to abduct their already unfortunate children."
"What's Furion thinking?" Shuri exclaimed in shock. "Y-You have to be more subtle! And how did you even hear about this?"
"Jean has been writing to me," Marie said with a shrug. "Furion and her paths crossed very recently. It seems that Furion is just going through the motions with this one, his usual enthusiasm and finesse is lacking. He believes the task to be below his pay grade."
"Won't this put him at odds with the Sect Leader?" Shuri probed.
"As long as it doesn't disadvantage the Sect, I don't think Mister Larks will mind," Marie said in an assuaging manner. "Even though the government has an eye out, it won't go much further since other sects have done much worse. If anything, the Sect Alliance needs to step in, but this sort of weird recruiting strategy isn't something unheard of."
"So in the end, there is no large-scale impact of Yohn's advancement," Shuri summarised. "So what was the point of this entire conversation?"
"I don't know," Marie said while tilting her head backwards. "I was bored and needed someone to talk to."
Marie then snapped back and asked, "Want to bet on who will advance next?"
Shuri looked at the girl suspiciously, "Now, why would I make a bet on how an event will transpire with a seer?"
"I'm a crippled seer, technically," Marie corrected. "Can't see the future until Master lets me."
Shuri narrowed her eyes, presenting her growing suspicion.
"My money's on that one," Marie said while pointing at Revian, who was stuffing a slice of cake into Yohn's already overflowing mouth.
"I'm placing my bet on him too," Shuri said.
"You can't do that!" Marie snapped back with a high-pitched exclamation. "T-That messes up the odds."
"Then find someone else to even it up. Not my problem," Shuri dismissed while standing up to leave. "Whatever amount you're betting, I'm watching it."
Marie watched on in disbelief as Shuri picked up a plate with a cake slice and walked out of the recreation room.
____
Revian returned to his room well past the usual bedtime after the elongated celebration of Yohn's advancement. By this time, he would be fast asleep. But he wasn't feeling sleepy, or even tired for that matter. Instead, there was a burning sensation bubbling up from within, and it wasn't heartburn. It was the fire of motivation and competitiveness urging him onwards!
'If Yohn can do it! So can I!' He said to himself as he plopped down on his bed and beheld the elaborate web hanging in front of him. There were paper clippings with writings stuck to the wall and strings connecting them together in a way that made sense only to him. He had turned his entire room into his research board.
For all intents and purposes, his research was complete. All that was left was application and experimentation, however, Revian was hesitant. The hesitation stemmed from his fear of failure. He was afraid that all of this work would be for nought if it failed. But after seeing Yohn succeed in advancing, the fire that burned in him when he started was reignited.
"Tomorrow!" Revian promised himself before tucking himself in and forcefully closing his eyes. He had to sleep now so that tomorrow would come sooner.
____
Unfortunately, sleep evaded him the entire night - his excitement did not let him enter sleep's sweet embrace. No matter, tomorrow had arrived even if it was later than he expected. Revian leapt from the bed and went through the daily hygiene steps before rushing towards where Yohn usually hung out, which was the library.
As he reached Yohn's usual desk, he saw the boy sitting amidst a mountain of books, with eyes that glowed vibrantly with all the shades of the rainbow.
"Yohn!" Revian greeted with a silent whisper.
"Revian! What's up?" Yohn returned the greeting with a wide smile.
Revian decided to cut to the chase and said, "I need your help. I need to borrow you for a few hours. Are you free?"
"Of course!" Yohn agreed. "What do you need?"
domain, volatile mana can't. Generally, volatile mana is considered a waste as it is thoroughly useless.
22:34
However, Revian was capturing this waste mana as it escaped from the beaker and channelling it "Can you meet me in the mana sink in an hour?" Revian responded. "I need some assistance in an experiment I'm doing."
After receiving Yohn's nod of approval, Revian immediately rushed towards his new destination, to set up the experiment.
____
By the time Yohn finally arrived at the mana sink, Revian had prepared all the equipment and was standing before a table filled with a myriad of items. It looked completely out of place in the bustling meadow around him, with the eerie tree at its centre.
"Do you have approval from the Sect for this experiment?" Yohn inquired.
"Don't worry, I've cleared it through Senior Brother Markus. I am not planning to exhaust my mana or anything dangerous like that," Revian dismissed with a wave of his hands while handing a file to Yohn with the experiment's details.
"So, what do you need me to do?" Yohn asked while quickly scanning through the file.
"I heard that you can observe the head being radiated out of objects?" Revian replied. "I'm going to be working with a lot of hot objects very soon, I need you to help make sure that I am safe. The Fire Protect-Core has already been installed here, but it only responds to flames and smoke. I also need you to help observe and clarify what happens during some thermal interactions."
Yohn flashed a thumbs-up before taking a seat. His eyes suddenly switched. Instead of the periodically oscillating rainbow, it became a mesmerising, slow spectral feature with shades ranging from red to blue. "I'm ready."
Revian nodded affirmatively and placed three equally sized glass beakers filled to the same level.
"Test 1. Cooling 100ml of distilled water at a temperature of... 25.5 degrees Celsius," Revian narrated. He placed his hand under the beaker and a spell circle formed at its centre.
Revian slowly channelled his mana into the spell circle.
"Temperature dropping to 20 degrees Celsius" he narrated. Yohn observed the process carefully. Even though there wasn't anything dangerously hot in use, he had to do his task diligently for safety. And good thing too, because just at that moment, Revian raised his other hand and covered the top of the beaker.
Yohn didn't understand what was happening at first, but then a shift of his mana sense made him realise just what Revian was attempting.
"Are you crazy?!"
Mana exists in nature in raw form. It enters the body and gets processed by the core, making it mouldable for spell use. After mana is used for spells, it gets dissipated back into nature, but not in its raw form. The by-product mana from a spell is highly volatile. It loses its volatile property over a period of time, which is hastened when it is amongst a large quantity of raw mana. Neither raw nor volatile mana can be used for casting spells. While raw mana can be controlled through the mana domain, volatile mana can't. Generally, volatile mana is considered a waste as it is thoroughly useless.
However, Revian was capturing this waste mana as it escaped from the beaker and channelling it back into his body.
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