MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

Chapter 1835: The Answer

”...What am I missing?”

Opening her eyes as she stopped operating the current technique she was testing, a pensive expression appeared on Veradine’s face as the question came to mind.

For the past three months, she felt like she was on the cusp of finally obtaining the answer she sought, yet was still blocked by a thin curtain.

Because of that, during the first month, she began to approach the creation of her technique from other angles, utilizing either the intentional addition and omission of certain steps, or the fusion of multiple methodologies into the same technique.

Though these paths yielded some results that were better than the techniques she created after breaking through what she called the ’280% barrier’, she still felt like she hadn’t gotten any closer to the answer at all.

If anything, her attempts at creating a technique with those methods made her feel like the curtain blocking her from the answer had gotten thicker.

Realizing this, she had returned to the point she stopped at three months ago, which was the technique she had created that gave her a 400% boost to her ether gathering rate.

Whoosh!

Allowing the technique to operate within her body, Veradine brought up all the information she had gathered from experimenting with the technique.

’This technique is a fusion between the optimizations I made to the Basic Ether Gathering Technique and the ether gathering method of the Ether Ocean Gathering Technique,’ she thought as the gears in her head began to turn.

’Compared to the other Ether Gathering Techniques, the Ether Ocean Gathering Technique’s method of capturing and gathering ether focuses on the keyword ’Ocean’.’

’In short, the technique’s goal is to amass a great amount of ether just a bit below the navel before condensing it in the form of an ocean.’

’Then, utilizing the ocean made out of ether, the technique uses it as anchor point of sorts, making it easier for those practicing the technique to gather ether from the surroundings.’

’Considering that the ocean is the anchor point of the technique, it also makes sense that the efficacy of the technique increases the larger the ocean gets.’

’And with the optimizations I made added onto it, the speed at which this ocean forms becomes faster at the start, leading to the 400% boost that it currently has.’

Fwoosh!

Deactivating the technique after that, Veradine remained silent for a bit as she processed all of the information she had gathered while the technique was running.

Then, she went over the other techniques she had made over the past few months, noting the changes she had made to them, as well as their effects one by one.

Slowly but surely, a catalog of techniques stronger than the ’perfected’ Basic Ether Gathering Technique began to form in Veradine’s mind, with the weakest among them giving out a 300% boost to one’s ether gathering rate.

Of course, a technique with that level of boost was already considered an Ether Gathering Technique that was out of reach for most people.

Because of that, thoughts of spreading the technique for the public to practice had crossed her mind a couple of times.

After all, if she did that, then her reputation as a Scholar and a Sage would greatly soar through the ranks.

However, those thoughts swiftly died down after she imagined how the Grand Sage would react to such a move.

’Focus.’

Shaking off the unnecessary thoughts plaguing her mind, Veradine soon returned her attention to the catalog of techniques she made.

Specifically, the techniques she had made that gave out the highest boost to her ether gathering rate.

’Ether Ocean Gathering Method, False Ether Core Creation Art, and Ether Siphon Art.’

’These three Ether Gathering Techniques combined with the optimizations I made for the Basic Ether Gathering Technique yield a 400% boost to one’s ether gathering rate.’

As those words came to mind, Veradine briefly thought about the three techniques in detail.

’The Ether Ocean Gathering Method uses the ocean it forms as an anchor point, allowing one to gather more ether with it.’

’On the other hand, the False Ether Core Creation Art prompts the user to create the framework that would eventually become the hallmark of a true Sage, which is an Ether Core.’

’Though, unlike a true Ether Core, a False Ether Core only has the form of the core but not the might that comes along with it. Nevertheless, the form is more than enough for it to act as an anchor point for ether... which is similar to the Ether Ocean Gathering Method.’

’But when I think about the Ether Siphon Art, I feel like it achieves the same goal as the two other techniques.’

’Sure, the Ether Siphon Art needs one to cultivate something called ’Siphoning Force’, using that force to siphon ether from the surroundings.’

’But what makes ’Siphoning Force’ any different from the ether ocean or the False Ether Core?’

’All three of them are just anchor points for the ether to latch on anyway.’

As she came to this conclusion, Veradine briefly fell silent as she felt like she was on to something at that moment.

Not wanting to lose that feeling to time, she then proceeded to operate those three techniques one by one, hoping to figure out even a slight clue from them that would lead to the answer.

A week...

Two weeks...

Three weeks...

For an entire month, Veradine had spent most of her time operating her three greatest techniques, bringing the total time she had spent while making her own Ether Gathering Technique to half a year.

Though the fact that she had already spent this much time on the endeavor caused her to feel a bit of anxiety well up within her, she still focused most of her attention on the techniques, getting the feeling she was inching ever closer to the answer.

And then, on one fateful day, it all finally clicked in her head.

’So that’s why I felt like there was something missing to the techniques,’ she thought to herself.

’Though having an anchor point for the ether to latch on is the correct way to improve the technique’s ether gathering rate, the method at which the three techniques go about is wrong.’

’Well, it’s not really wrong, but rather missing a certain element.’

’A feedback loop.’

’Sure, the three techniques do increase in efficacy the more ether one gathers through the technique. After all, the techniques themselves rely on the form that’s being created.’

’However, during the operation of the technique itself, the efficacy remains stagnant rather than improving in response to the increased ether.’

’In other words, the technique that I want to make should incorporate the dynamic improvement of the technique’s efficacy in response to the amount of ether.’

’...’

’...But how would I even go about doing that in the first place?’