Chương 341: Chapter 8-339 – Playing the Numbers Games

(Author Note: If you don't like math and numbers, these chapters are probably going to be boring. You can probably skip this one as 'Fae speeds up her Syzygy Capacity') I was not going to fucking waste time NOT pulling in new Mana, however. That was just dipshit insane. My application speed had just increased by a factor of nine. However, I was now moving Mana I'd already drawn in, not gathering new Mana, which was also wasting some time.

Pointedly, I wanted those bundles of 36x, 360x, and 3600xMana ready to apply every time, all the time! I opened my eyes and focused on the three Soul Star Diamond Pearls in front of me. Yeah, they were storehouses for unbelievable amounts of Typeless Mana... but, oddly enough, not enough to actually satisfy my eventual Mana needs. However, it was all Right There. I reached over to the head of Noble and grasped the Orb there. The bond to my Staff's noquar cap opened up, and the Orb came off in my hand.

This was also a High Emperor Shade's Soul Crystal, but unlike these, the Mana had been drained from it before I received it, and it had lost the ability to store such. I had used it as a Legendary-Class Orb, able to use the Enhancement bonus of my Staff to increase the range and area of my spells. It also served as the focus for Disruption for my Staff. Despite all that, it was still modular. I hadn't known if I might have another Orb I might want to swap in, and now I did indeed have three more of them.

"Such a goddamn idiot. Designing quantum-wave balancing five-dimensional 3600-point hedrons, and I can't optimize my own gods-damned Mana progression," I swore under my breath. I hissed a spell, the massive boulder-sized second Soul Star Diamond Pearl shrank down to the size of my fist, and I popped it onto Noble.

I suddenly had a very intimate knowledge of just how much Typeless Mana was stored inside of it, the single Truepoint of Mana there, and how much I could put into it, as well as other Enchantments I could place upon it. My eyes were definitely glittering as certain thoughtstreams kicked into overdrives of calculation, and new ideas began to percolate in my head. The second Truepoint began to condense in the new Orb as I tasked another thoughtstream to that specific duty...

and yet another one to making sure ALL of my unused Mana Draw was going to pour into either this Orb, or one of the other two. I pulled out a length of Deepwater Jade and Shaped it into a Rod as I Cast at the other two massive Soul Crystals and shrank them down so they would fit on the ends for easy swapping in and out. Then I paused, slumped my shoulders, and sighed again.

"YOU ONLY DO THAT WHEN YOU DISCOVER SOMETHING NEW," Flowing Silver pointed out helpfully.

"USUALLY BY OVERLOOKING THE OBVIOUS," He added cheerfully.

"Greed and Pride this time, Your Majesty," I said softly, lifting up the first Soul Crystal and putting my hand on it. One by one, the Lowpoints of Imperial Mana inside were drawn out and applied, leaving the sparkling thing empty of Compressed Mana and just a capacitor. I tossed it to the side into my Pocket, and simultaneously pulled out a Low Emperor Soul Jewel, which I also compressed down to the right size.

A few seconds of concentration later, and a Lowpoint glittered within it, stirring up the Typeless Mana within in a standing wave of crystalline fractals. I pulled in a hundred Mana, ignited it, and sent it into the Orb there without incident. The unwhitish Mana turned more blue-white at the introduction of more Arcane energy. I could use it to constantly continue bringing in the maximum amount of Mana possible, as I was going to need a LOT of it.

"AH. YOU DO NOT NEED THE HIGHEST QUALITY STONE TO STORE THAT LEVEL OF MANA," Flowing Silver observed sagely.

"If I may, I would like to touch one of His Majesty's fangs," I requested softly. That surprised Him a little, but He just opened His massive jaws slightly, and I drifted over to lay my hand on His right lower canine, sparkling with Vivic Eternal Flames there. Yeah...

"Pwah!" I exclaimed as a tongue several times bigger than I was suddenly gave me a mischievous lick, coating me in Fox slobber. He chortled as I glared at Him, but Prestidigitation got rid of it quickly enough. I pulled a discarded scale torn free of The Sea Emperor in the fighting, hundreds of which I possessed, and held it as I murmured a Harden at basically XIX over Noble. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Increase to base Hardness equal to Caster Level, even if that Caster Level is fucking insane... and then Impervious and Invulnerable both increased it. My Staff was now harder than Flowing Silver's fang, which could gnaw on diamonds like cheese, as was this new Orb sitting on top of it. I held up Noble, and Cast the slow form of Plant Growth. With 40xMana. Amounts of Mana no human had ever wielded before gathered to Noble's new Orb, and Flowing Silver sprang right to His feet as He felt it.

The magic of Plants, magnified with Druidic power tied to Arcane and my insane Caster Level, exploded out in every direction with a Chorus of the Sublime Chord, feeding into the still-growing forest and plant life all around with irrepressible, continuous vim and vigor. It extended for a forty-mile radius, and would last a full year. It was an incredible amount of territory to benefit from what was basically a combined Plant/Blessing spell cast with Rapid Ritual.

Nine Tails swirled in the air, brimming with power and anticipation.

"YOU HAVE CAST AS A LOW EMPEROR," Flowing Silver stated with absolute certainty. His pale blue eyes turned down towards me with delight, trepidation, appreciation, and consideration.

"THE SOUL CRYSTAL FROM A LOW EMPEROR ALLOWED YOU TO DO SO..."

"And?" I prodded Him, not moving from my floating position and shaking my head softly. It had been so freaking obvious. How could I miss it?

"YOU STRENGTHENED YOUR STAFF..." He went on.

"WHY?"

"Because Human bodies are not those of Beasts. We can neither store nor channel that level of Mana in our bodies without burning out quickly.

"All of our Mana is held in an inner universe, and the strength of our bodies is only tested when we break through to a new Tier, shattering our own inner limits. But all of our Mana is dependent on that inner space.

"But wizards try not to use the body to channel Mana at all." I lifted Noble again, the Tokens from it winking with the attention of multiple Emperors who'd felt that spell go off.

"Wizards use Implements, because Implements are far more durable than our bodies. Noble can channel that level of Mana without a problem, and the Soul Crystal of a Low Emperor can focus it." 96, 040 Mana gone with one spell. It had left me in a rush, but Noble had shouldered the whole burden of it. The first Human to Cast an Imperial Spell in history. I looked at my Assay, and the instant changes that had happened.

I had been the communication center and organizer, if not the true Warlord, of Noble and Imperial Great Beasts. I had led the effort to slaughter millions of Aquatics, from the least Servants to raging True Emperors, all Tainted with Dark Mana, expunging them from the world. I had seen forces of Netherworlders millions strong die at my command to the forces I'd Blessed and Buffed, including High Emperors.

I had Sealed multiple Death Zones and forever denied them to the Netherworld, unless they came at the Pyramids from this world, even defying what I knew had been an attempt by a Netherlord to intervene at the end. It was a metric arseload of Karma, literally world-changing stuff I'd been involved in. But it was a simple innovation like USING MY DAMN STAFF CORRECTLY that had broken me through to Human/25 and Exemplar True.

Two new Titles gleamed in my Array as things cascaded in my mind, and the energies of perfection spread through my body, moving it even further beyond what would be considered Human. Syzygy Explorer and Low Imperial Sage. Both were Lord Titles, for being the first to accomplish something. I closed my eyes and sighed, even as I swapped out this Low Emperor Soul Orb for a True Emperor one. The lower Manapoints were slow because there was little choice but to grab and apply at the same time.

But if I could Draw/Burn and then Compress separately from Apply... that meant I was working concurrently, in parallel, rather than in series. This was the kind of shit that multiple thoughtstreams were made for, and I'd just made True Exemplar and popped my Intellect to a god-level functioning 62. My Cold-powered superconducting Intellect stretched the bounds of sanity, it didn't want to be limited by my skull.

I needed to give it stuff to do or I was going to literally have to start shutting off parts of my brain to stay sane. 45 Wisdom and Charisma could not keep control of this many smarts. I still wasn't an inspirational genius (probably a Talent I couldn't take), but by all the gods the hyperanalytical, predictive, tracking, pattern-recognition, multitasking, speed, computation, and recall aspects of my head were off the gods-damned charts.

There was a major reorganization of duties in my head as I started giving thoughtstreams marching orders. I had Karma to apply and points to assign all over the place, levers to tick over and bonuses to further inflate. I had two teams of three thoughtstreams split between working on my Channeling False Starry Heavens, still inside the Arcane Pool, and my Soul Essence, which I was able to work with just fine outside said Pool.

The Bomb group was effectively reassigning Mana from the other Arcane Pool factors to my Alchemy Bomb uses, effectively depowering them and going to kick them out of the Pool until I needed them. However, due to the resonance imbalance, this meant that I couldn't draw that Mana out for any reason, which meant a short-term loss of literally months of work. Fine, fine. Get the shuffling done, then start increasing the quality level inside the Pool, as well as outside!

Outside the Pool, I was drawing in 36 Mana at a time, and then Burning and Compressing it with great speed, actually faster than I could apply it, 18 or so seconds required vs 24. That meant I was actually getting AHEAD of my production, and could make extra 36xMana slowly and surely, which I could then store in the Orb on my Staff for whenever I started on the next set, which would be Alchemy Bombs.

But then I had the NEXT stage, because I had to get the multiplier to higher than x10 so I was Burning and Compressing faster than I was applying, and thus racing ahead of the process. And I could do the Mana Draw, Burn, and Compress, I just couldn't Apply. That was the job of Group Three: making 360xMana Points to turn into Truepoints when the time was right, as well as maintaining a full Mana Draw at all times, the excess Mana to be stored into one of these Soul Orbs.

One of my more emotional thoughtstreams, who normally concerned herself with broad Allegiance/Markspace assessment, rapped her knuckles on the side of my thoughts and reminded me that I had three other constant Mana Draw streams...