Chapter 45 - A decade of research

The decade that Liam thought would take a long time became another flash before his eyes.

He didn't think he got quite used to the notion of an infinite lifespan, but the departure of Talia and Blythe made everything less enjoyable in a way.

Liam learned to ignore time. Without Akand, he would have holed himself up in research for years.

A quote about learning to love the one thing you do every day for many years seemed to hold true.

Before, the thought of working and researching for years he would consider ridiculous, though now, he didn't have that confidence anymore.

Maybe his mind accepted it. The world around him and time became less significant than when he lived as a human.

It sure played a prominent role as it should. However, he didn't have a gun pointing at him, dictating whether he'd live for another decade or a thousand years.

The following decade also gave Liam many headaches. From short lived joys to big problems.

In his eyes, the things he worked on for so long should have others who grasped it in the outside world.

A mistake.

None, almost none, managed to grasp the power of a mana crystal.

They had strength, mana reserves, but something they lacked. He decided to see the rare elements.

Rather than elements, he found a concept as a better fitting term for the talents humans possessed.

Unlike elements. Some had weird abilities.

Even ice itself. He couldn't consider a pure element, but a mutation of one.

Others couldn't be associated with anything. Things like dreams, perceptive things or one of the rarest like telekinesis.

Elements in the atmosphere interacted with these as well. They adhered and had their strength and weaknesses.

Perceptive concepts like sound had better time converting wind mana than fire one.

Those blessed or cursed by concepts had their own quirks. He saw a few with great mental strength.

And others with weak ones. So weak that they would crumble if they came close to frontlines and saw the carnage there.

Liam then remembered his earlier days. His grasp over mana couldn't rival his current form at all, and many things he thought held true got created due to side effects of other things.

But one thing he might have nailed. Emotions and the bond they had with elements or concepts.

He had to know one crucial detail. If emotions got affected by said concepts or the other way around.

Humans born with gentle dispositions couldn't awaken elements like fire and the other way around.

One had a pretty wonderful insight behind it and the other a frightening realisation.

If the God had made humans and gave them a gift that controls them to a certain effect, then he wouldn't be able to trust that mysterious entity at all.

Who knew if Liam would become like them. Controlled in a certain way.

It gave him quite a bit of anxiety. Nevertheless, it belonged to a realm outside his control.

Rather than stress about things he can't control, he'd work so he could control.

And when he would gain the power to control or work towards it, then he wouldn't need to stress at all.

Over the years, the city welcomed a new generation. An inevitable phenomenon.

He himself saw a few people that wished to be blessed by him as a sign of good luck.

That's where another breakthrough came from. Babies didn't have a large gem in their foreheads.

Instead, a small like shining grain.

When he looked at it as best as he could. The grain seemed to be filled with an element.

Yet, he found a bit of space.

It struck him like a truck. The entire time, the truth laid before him, bare and ready to be seen.

Akand and others with concepts. They experienced something that shaped them.

All of that circled back to the way most people couldn't create the mana crystals.

And why the earth users had a much easier time doing so. Their born predisposition granted them higher mental strength.

It also made it harder for them to change, though. Another reason why it became almost impossible to see a dual element with a person that had an earth element.

Akand began to dig deeper into these things as well. He even left and looked at his family's archives to see if it held something useful.

His search got rewarded. Many years ago, the church itself held a secret testing ground for humans.

They exposed them to extreme conditions. In simple terms, it worked like a charm.

However, the effectiveness ended the report. No other mentions or people using it in the modern era.

He got engrossed with the mystery and dug deeper. All ends ended with a wall.

Elders and contacts he had either didn't know or told him that he'd know after he reached the awakened realm.

He told Liam most of it.

While the information didn't help him too much, he knew at least to never experiment with younger generations.

Lest he anger those on the top. Blocked, he chose to confirm his thoughts in other ways.

Rather than training them from a young when others could sculpt them.

He turned on the already mature generations. A lot of investigation later, Liam gained some elementary data from the city he owned.

Limited and maybe unreliable. It already represented the best he could work with.

The higher ups seemed way more strict with anything after the creation of the alien cult, which caused so much panic.

A bit annoyed. He kept looking at the data and thought about his own experiences with mental strength.

He never believed that mental strength, talent, and the elements they got born with or gained had nothing to do with mental talent.

The most glaring became one of the fastest rising talents. A legendary telekinesis user.

In overall power, people would usually consider them mid rank. One thing made a sizeable difference compared to a lot of other concepts.

Partial mental immunity. The greater the strength, the better it became.

A talent frowned upon in a certain way. Due to the still living example hiding somewhere...

Talia's brother.

That aside, other concept users that used their five senses had greater mental immunity as well.

In a certain way. It made sense, as they had to develop their brains in order to use their powers to a maximum degree.

Telekinesis which in a way. Became half mana and half mental strength. Power became the outlier.

Mental strength existed. An attribute not bound by mana or one that had any direct correlation with it.

A certain talent that would become the gatekeeper of the future occupation Liam worked on.

Fire users would never be able to travel far this path. Akand himself already struggled and got stuck on the last step.

His own ice element dragged him to that point.

Liam couldn't just hone the power mana to perfect it. He had to tap into the mental strength and perfect it, too.

Unless he wished to abandon his current path.

This discovery became another good news as it linked itself to the existence of the awakened realm.

People grew the fastest in adversities. Life and death battles and with it grew their wisdom and mental strength and endurance.

Puzzles piece by piece made more sense.

Liam used mana liquid to eventually from strong enough mental strength to further progress.

He cultivated it step by step. Humans, on the other hand, used much rougher and more dangerous means.

Understandable ones as well. If he didn't have his own unique discoveries, the talent which depended on his mental strength and the ability to see his inner self.

He might have never realised the existence of it. Something outside mana.

A field as large or perhaps larger than mana. Anticipation built up within him.

But also fear. The amount of things he had to learn about mana alone gave him headaches.

Additional field might be something he couldn't afford to do yet.

Liam decided on another course of action. His findings might give rise and explain a lot of things people didn't know about their gifts and the mysterious power.

Knowing about the existence of it alone could be all a genius needed.

So, a month later. Akand sent new to the headquarters, which shook the entire landscape of the magical world.

Power unique to living beings. A medium through which some things became possible when mana couldn't do the job.

Schools of thought and research sprouted up like mushrooms after heavy rain.

And Liam took another direct step in understanding of the awakened realm.

It took him just a decade to find out about these things.

Under the moonlight, Liam celebrated his achievements without Akand in peace and quiet.

Sometimes, he turned around and looked at a lily and a daisy. With a few pushes of nearby wind elements.

They bopped from side to side.

The world around him became more and more alive and as Liam watched the outside through the lenses of others.

Perhaps he too began his transformation...