Chapter 587 - Ambition Welcomed By Pain

Compared to last time, the process of bottling went even easier. Even keeping all the mana bottled up didn't put much strain on his mind, and like last time it didn't appear like bottling it up had any consequences, luckily. 

Once his mana was all bottled up, Eldrian started reconstructing the pathways according to their new plan while Two took over the burden of keeping the mana bottled.

'First, test to see what would be effective storages. Once I start building the network the burden will increase on Two and wasting time will be too strenuous.'

Starting, Eldrian tested a few different forms to store mana. A sphere he found had too little direction, mana would bubble inside. While that accomplished the task of storage, Eldrian wanted more out of it. 

After playing around for a bit, he finally found a simple solution he liked maybe a tad too much.

Thinking back to how learning about physics had allowed him to make a leap in his understanding, he thought back to physics again.

Eldrian didn't know much about anything past atoms but he at least had a basic understanding of atoms. Again, he didn't have the greatest grasp, but he had an idea. 

As he started forming this idea, he mumbled about how he wished he could fill a library with all the knowledge on Earth and have Two go through it. 

'Hey! Hey! Heyyyy!' Two shouted mentally, Eldrian having completely ignored his 'physical' shouting. 'That's too fucking complex!'

'Its brilliant is what it is!' Eldrian countered as he shut the telepathic connection and continued. However, once he finished he had to agree with Two. 

"We won't add it to the network like this. Rather, let's simplify it for now." Eldrian said as he watched the 'atom'. 

His idea had started simple and turned complex quickly as he became fascinated with it. It could be summarized simply; why not model an atom?

What stood now randomly in their stomach was a mass of rapidly moving mana compressed into tiny balls (six in total), following paths of weaker mana, connected by smaller inner rings moving towards a null center.

This mana atom seemed to pulse with each rotation of a mana electron. When it did, the inner rings all shone brighter for a moment as they transferred excess mana to the null center. Where it slowly started forming a super-dense collection of mana. 

'If I can add some type of rune, or even spell module there...' Eldrian mumbled as he watched the center ball grow and grow. Until Two suddenly smacked him over the head and let the mana free. 

Only then did Eldrian realize how much mana had accumulated already. Their view of their body was suddenly blocked by the mass of mana returning to the room that had been drained. The shock of the absence and return of mana actually sent a shockwave throughout the room. 

Luckily, the arrays handled it quite well. But if Two hadn't stepped in...

"Sorry," Eldrian mumbled, slightly ashamed that he had been too awestruck to see the danger. 

Two simply grunted in reply. After a moment, Two asked if they were actually going to start and stop playing. Though, thanks to that little stunt the amount of mana they had was nearly exhausted. Making the strain on Two almost non-existent. 

"Yes," Eldrian replied and he worked quickly. Like the last time he had reconstructed his mana pathways, he pulled a tiny thin string of mana to 'draw' with.

It started quite simply, and almost awkwardly. To model the spine Eldrian needed a loop for each vertebra, when there were so many it was awkward to connect them. After a few redo's Eldrian decided to have a single path flowing through all the loops' center. Connected to the loops through thin threads of mana. 

The sight made him think of a railgun, and as his thoughts were about to wander Two's glare steered him back on track. 

Eldrian quickly moved on to the ribs, modeling the sternum in a similar way. At this point, he realized that depending on the size of the storage he might need to modify the rib's pathing. 

Feeling Two's glare again, he decided to not go overboard for now. Instead of making the same mana atom with six mana electrons, he opted for just one mana electron and even ignored the inner rings.

Super basic for now, but he could easily update it later. 

Doing the same for the other three mana storages, Eldrian paused and asked, "Two, how's the pressure?"

"Still bearable." Two replied, it was starting to get to him. But he felt he could hold out for a while still. The change in the number of mana electrons and the absence of the inner rings certainly made a massive difference. These single mana electron atoms also spun far slower than the one with six, decreasing the mana accumulations massively. 

Nodding, Eldrian moved quickly, understanding that they were starting to get to a point where it might be too hard to continue. 

Unlike the plan, he finished the head first, making it a double electron atom- still without the inner rings. It rotated a bit faster, but the accumulation was still at an acceptable speed. 

Moving on to the arms and legs, Eldrian kept their pressure on himself as he wanted to add storages to his wrists and the start of his feet. 

Doing the simple one-electron design, Eldrian handed a bit more of the load to Two as he quickly added the fingers and toes.

"Two, it's your call. Mana crystals now to fill the network, or adding organs with similar mana storages?"

"Crystals." Two said, not wanting any more of those strange unknown mana storages to be made. The amount of mana gathering to their body was already scarry. Two couldn't imagine what was going to happen once they actually filled them to their limit. 

Eldrian, not as cautious, wanted to push further. However, he saw the wisdom in Two's decision and told himself that he could always come and modify the network again. Though, it might be hard if the amount of mana was more than they could handle. Maybe even impossible to start over like this time.

"Alright, we'll end it here. I'm going back, so you'll have to handle the pressure for a few seconds alone." Eldrian said, and Two flinched before nodding. 

As Eldrian disappeared, Two nearly disappeared too. 

Eldrian on the other hand was welcomed by an insane amount of pain as he trashed on the ground. When Two threw the pressure of half of the network on his mind... It certainly didn't help. 

While regretting his greed, Eldrian fought tooth and nail to keep himself conscious and not lose focus. As his body started bleeding, it actually became easier as their pressure decreased. Or was his consciousness fading?

'Fuck, no! Can't let it end like this.' Grabbing the nearest mana crystal, Eldrian gritted his teeth so hard that they cracked as he focused on it with all his might. "Give me your goddam mana!"

Shouting naturally wouldn't do anything, but it did help him focus for a split second and form a connection. As soon as it was formed, Eldrian emptied the crystal completely. Before the dust could even fall, Eldrian had grabbed a new one. 

With each crystal, the pain and pressure decreased just a little more. 

After ten, Eldrian could finally breathe. After fifteen, the pressure of keeping the network finally started lifting. 

After another two, Eldrian felt full. 

With hopeful eyes he turned to his stats, hoping to see a mana capacity of a few ten thousand. 

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