Elio leaned against the carbon wall he had just created, his mind working at full speed. Wide Guard stood nearby, its trunk swaying gently as if sensing its summoner's intense concentration.
The magnitude of the project was simply too large for one man, even one with his new level.
"But I'm already here, so I might as well make use of the time... For the next immersion, I'll have to enter the book again and overcome level 7," he murmured.
Using every available hour and mana point could make the difference between expanding the city in time or having to agree with Fathoran and Cassandra.
His attention turned to the most immediate problem: keeping the tunnel free of cores.
Every time he opened a space, the cores rushed in, threatening to bury him. Being surrounded by cores was a natural barrier against the Locus, yes, but also a formidable obstacle to his progress.
A question began to form in his mind: What would a monster do if it found itself next to the tunnel without the separation of the cores?
The answer could change everything.
Would it leave it be or try to destroy it? The uncertainty gnawed at him.
"If they tried to destroy it," Elio reflected, "I'd be back to square one. I can't absorb all the cores yet, they're a natural barrier and I don't have 100 years so they're not inexhaustible."
First, I must prevent the cores from entering everywhere. I must be able to work without having to absorb them all the time or they'll run out either way...
♢♢♢♢
Elio began to experiment with different configurations.
He opened a hole in one side of the tunnel... his chamber filled with cores again.
Then at the bottom...
It filled up again.
♢♢♢♢
The process of building the tunnel turned out to be more complex and challenging than Elio had initially anticipated. Each day became a test of ingenuity and endurance, forcing him to constantly adapt his strategy.
Elio began each day by opening the top of the tunnel, a task that required precision and speed.
The cores immediately rushed in, threatening to flood the space faster than he could position his book.
With agile and calculated movements, Elio manipulated the carbon to extend the tunnel upwards, while simultaneously absorbing with his book the falling cores.
"Damn it," he growled on more than one occasion, when doing 2 things at once caused him to make mistakes...
But Elio was nothing if not persistent.
A stubborn guy.
The need to make the wall climbable presented another challenge.
Conventional stairs, like those on the inner part of the city wall, would consume too much mana. After several frustrated attempts, Elio came up with an elegant solution: small hollows in the tunnel walls, large enough for his hands and feet.
Even saved him some small mana.
"This should work," he muttered, testing his creation. His system-strengthened body made holding on a relatively easy task, although the constant need to open and close the roof remained a problem.
Elio established a routine. Each day, he strived to build 13 meters of tunnel as quickly as possible. Once this goal was reached, he closed the top, sealing the tunnel and protecting himself from the constant avalanche of cores.
This also saved cores, which could end up being the only way to advance hidden from the Locus if the tunnel became the target of their attacks.
If the Locus destroyed his tunnel, all his effort would go down the drain...
He could cry.