Chapter 84 - Pieced Together

[Storage Capacity: 48%]

[Essence Storage: 67/1500]

Earlier during their dinner, Aldrin had already expanded the Essence Storage using the full 1000 Essences it accumulated.

And as he had guessed, the increment of 100 every expansion changed to 500. It's a huge relief on his shoulder and somehow abated the urgency to always check the Essence Storage.

Furthermore, along with its expansion, new notifications arose, informing him of unlocked upgrades that he could purchase at the 'Essence Upgrade' tab.

Being their table turned a bit rowdy from Clark and the questions of his groupmates, he also set aside checking on those unlocked upgrades for this moment.

That's another of his purposes for entering the Idle Storage. To check if the upgrades were of any benefit to him.

Recovering the sixth piece of the battlesuit and the Winterthorn sword could be considered secondary.

As for his main purpose…

Aldrin recalled the current time and began using his brain to calculate.

"Three hours before midnight. 720 Essences per hour will result in 2160 Essences and will cost me 1500 IDLE points. Setting aside 1100 Essences for the summoning of the Guardian Ant, I can still make at least 10 Essence Grenades."

"On average, I can now earn 5000 IDLE Points in one run and there are the 660 IDLE points for the Level 2 multipliers. I will still be able to take away close to 3000 even if I failed to conquer a Dungeon. Mhm… I am still in the green."

Truthfully, he already did that calculation earlier but he had to confirm it again just in case he miscalculated something. Following that, he saved it in one corner of his mind like a memo.

Although the variables in it would change as time passed, it's like his recorded statistics on how much he'd grown ever since acquiring IDLE Database.

After accounting for everything and finalizing his plan as soon as the reset happened, Aldrin swiftly moved.

He tested the prowess of Essence Grenade inside the Dungeon and… he's extremely satisfied with the damage it could deal against the insects. He even thought that if he had those grenades during the survival phase, his chances of surviving with all his limbs intact against those champions would be higher by a few percent.

And along with that line of thought, he remembered that also possessed the Allcure Elixir. Unfortunately, with how pressed he was at dodging those overpowered insects, he had no chance to pop it in the Dimensional Clones' mouth.

Being both products of IDLE Database, Aldrin was more or less assured that the elixir would work on his Dimensional Clones.

He had suspicions that its effect might be close or even better than the elixirs provided by the Association.

He's currently at a Training Camp so there's no chance to try its effects in real life or the IDLE Database terms, in his current Dimensional Plane.

After reading those different terms every passing day, Aldrin already had the gist of what's their equivalent in the World of Energy Refiners' terms.

To confirm it, he had to buy a book that costs 5000 IDLE Points that had the title of 'Understanding Dimensions'. It was hinted by the IDLE Database itself when he somehow showed frustrations from being clueless to it.

At the moment, as the knowledge about it is not as urgent, he's holding off on buying it. Besides, he could slowly study the topic of Dimension by himself through his observations. It won't be too late to buy it later.

"IDLE Database is clearly utilizing the power of Dimensions. Well, that's the most obvious trait of it considering it could bypass almost anything and continue to operate on my phone. Whoever created it must be some Supreme Being that as someone born as a normal civilian, I had no access to that kind of knowledge."

After thinking all of that, Aldrin soon sighed in defeat before slapping himself again to turn his focus back on what he set out to do.

-

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[Confirm converting 10000 IDLE Points to Dimensional Energy?]

[Choice Acknowledged. Please prepare yourself.]

As soon as the clock hit midnight and the Small Merchants' income was credited to him, Aldrin rounded his total points and converted half of it.

At the moment, he had already taken off his shirt and any article of clothing on his body except his underwear as he sat down on the floor in a lotus sitting position.

The phone that he put down in front of him that had just been showing the IDLE Database interface glowed brightly, illuminating his room with intense light.

This already happened for a few days and he hadn't been caught yet or anyone noticing the unusual bright light in his room.

Aldrin attributed that to the IDLE Database that was probably preventing anyone from witnessing the conversion of IDLE Points to a mass of Dimensional Energy that naturally gets absorbed in Aldrin's body even if he's not doing anything special.

In less than a second, Aldrin found himself being engulfed by it as the Dimensional Energy settled first into his Energy Quintessence to be converted to refined energy before swimming through his Energy Channels, unclogging and expanding them to allow the easier flow of refined energy in his body.

If someone was watching him, he would immediately notice Aldrin's sweat trickling from his body along with some impurities that were in his Energy Channels.

Although he looked like he's just sitting there as if he's just bathing beneath the scorching summer sun, his whole body was actually getting strengthened as his refined energy flowed through his widened Energy Channels.

Around two minutes later, the light subsided and Aldrin, drenched in sweat as if he had just taken a shower, opened his eyes.

[Total IDLE Points converted: 54690]

"That's another 10,000. I already passed 50,000 converted IDLE Points. Looking at it on my side, my progress is about to leave the other trainees in the dust. But I can't be too complacent. The expansion of my Energy Channels only reached the part before my neck and limbs. It's far from perfect yet."

Aldrin exhaled and picked up the towel he prepared as well as his phone before going to the bathroom to take a shower.

Once he's done cleaning himself, he returned to his bed and prepared for the 1st run of Idle Adventure.

After checking the Winterthorn, the Essence Grenades and the sufficient Essences to summon the Guardian Ant, he closed his eyes.

He then began recalling the events before their dinner. The man in the corner. The eerie familiarity he felt from him and the dangerous sensation that was enough to make the hairs on his skin stand up.

"I remember. Apart from the Ant Champions, I only felt extreme terror from a handful of Energy Refiners. For Janet, it's more of awe rather than terror itself but for that man… it's enough to bring my mind back to the disaster in the Southern District. That Energy Refiner responsible for opening the Dimensional Rift!"

Aldrin suddenly opened his eyes as he finally reached the conclusion to what's bugging him ever since seeing that man.

"But, is it really him? Why is he here? Is it because of me? Is my identity as the whistleblower exposed?"

As questions filled his head, Aldrin soon filtered them to reach an answer.

"… I'm not sure yet but if it's really him, he's either here for me or he's about to repeat the same thing he did at the Southern District. Should I report this to Janet? But what can I say? And what if I'm wrong with my assumption? I need proof! But how?"

Unfortunately, even after coming up with possible answers, new sets of questions arose.