Aging Research Completed.

"Is this the place?" – a youth of about eight to nine years old garbed in all white stood on the edge of a protruding ice cliff while looking below. He stepped closer, leaning forward to take a better look. Soft leather boots went up to his knees, effectively shielding the front part of a shin with refined bone leg guard as sturdy as the best steel. One wouldn't even link opaque yet smooth material with organic nature.

A coat reached his knees and danced with the wind, separating in several coattails. He stretched a bit, showing the only lower part of the very handsome face below the deep hood that was a continuation of his outerwear.

"So, they stayed here for two days and never went deeper? Are they leaving?" – crossing arms in front of his chest, youth put gauntlets together. They were thin, but had the same arm guards reaching cubits, however, the real eye-catcher would be a sword behind the back. It was just to bizarre for a spiritual master to wield one.

= They shouldn't be, master. They are hunting for rings here and seemed to be from an academy.

"Oh." – Aiden regarded people below lazily, clearly not very interested.

= You don't want to enter civilized areas?

"Maybe I want, but I'm just four. I believe that at least before the age of awakening I shouldn't do it. Too many questions will be asked, and most of them – rudely. You know I don't like rude people. To tell the truth, I don't want Spirit Hall on my tail." – Aiden shrugged. – "After all, we don't know the affiliation of that group below. In short, let it be."

= You are already here. Let's at least take a look.

"Why so insistent?" – Aiden frowned for real now. That's so out of character.

= Master, we can complete the aging development program and construct spirit crucible if a scan rings of this party. We just need to follow them.

Realization dawned on him this time.

Indeed, research on the true aging process was troublesome, to say the least. Crucible is a riddle on its own. Making even Nexus perplexed. It's just too complicated and seems to have a semi-spirit semi-material structure resembling both forged devices and a spirit ring. But the crucial point is lack of different spirit rings and precisely black ones, that are 10000 years old and more in his scanned database.

"Still, they are academy people here to hunt for spirit rings. If it's on the North Pole they should search for ice and water attribute. And all of them are girls. It should be Skywater Academy that only accepts girls. Well, safe zone here, I think, no poaching of lovely me. But I heard a name from you, spying petty thing. And that is Liu Erlong. I do not understand why she is here, but that woman can be very troublesome if we assume her character is like a novel described it. I wonder, what is she doing with them. She should be a headmaster of another academy."

= What's wrong with her?

"Aside from being a woman shaped tyrannosaur with sadistic tendencies and love for torture? Nothing. She is a cutie." – remarked Aiden, watching how their group created some movements. They apparently found a target. – "They all are surprisingly beautiful."

= Spring came?

"Are you kidding? I'm just a bit older than four!" – Aiden nearly screamed in exasperation. Where did that stinky Nexus learn all this? – "Let's go. We will keep a distance."

It didn't take long before the group found a bunch of spirit beasts. The North Pole was a no man's land.

It was a domain of spirit beasts, and it's very dangerous to stay here for a prolonged time. At least as a group. Individuals were less eye-catchy and strong spirit beasts didn't give a damn about a single weak human, but this bunch of pretty ladies is different, especially with Liu Erlong on board. That violent woman is a fricking Spirit Douluo.

Eight rings are no joke.

"Trying to flank Four-Armed Yeti group? Damn, they are really itching for a beating." – scoffed Aiden critically and set himself on the edge while chewing bear meat jerky. If not for high-level teachers out there, students would be doomed for real. – "See, I told you no? She is really a tyrannosaur! See! Can you imagine that? She just took those two tons of meat by the leg and used it as a club. Oh, damn, now she is slamming it left and right... hell… that must hurt... oh my god! Oh, that move is brilliant, took note of it if I need to torture someone in the future... Nexus, quick, scan the rings, and let's retreat in English way."

= Scanning in progress. Aiden, black rings are really useful.

"Less talk, more action, my friend."

= Yes, Master.

He just sighed in response.

The fight ended fast and one girl killed Yeti. She sat by the side while the yellow ring floated up. It was a decent one, about the limit of age for second rings. That is if you are not a freak like Aiden. The absorption process was dull as hell and took several hours.

But Aiden never thought it was boring because Liu Erlong sparred with another teacher in a group. Well, that was real trashing, but teachers went through it stoically. It's difficult to say no to a Spirit Doulou, especially when this Douluo name is Liu Erlong.

= I'm done and results are out. That is an amazing discovery.

"Say it on the road." – he shifted and disappeared from the cliff, running to his base.

= Master, we must connect this crown to special nodes on the spirit ring and the energy you need to supply is the one from which rings are created, namely the same we harvested throughout this year in Lonzaik. The amazing thing is that crucible will do the rest. It already has all the sequences of aging inside itself. It took me nearly half a year to crack it and confirm with another research, that's why I needed a black ring scan.

"Are you saying that we technically wasted time on nothing?" – eyebrows of Aiden cringed.

= Not at all. They are complimentary! The point is, with this you can help others to age their rings. The creation of a crucible is a very problematic process… it requires origin energy and some unique bloodline essence. Both you can't find on Soul Land Continent. Luckily you used that demon for supply, but resources are only enough for one. It's good for you alone, we can connect crucible to over one ring at once, but if you want it extracted and passed to another person, you better think twice. The process might kill you. On the contrary, with my research, you can guide aging energy to the rings of other people, but the crucible is still needed as a conduit.

= Anyway lets synthesize the crucible. I will send a piece of blueprint information now. Be ready, that thing is out of this world in terms of complexity.

Aiden just nodded seriously and was right to prepare himself. After a mountain of knowledge poured in, he even unleashed the first ring and used Tranquility to better comprehend the creation process.

"You were right, Nexus…" - he said in a hoarse voice. – "That thing is a marvel. How did they even create it? Pardon me, but that demon really looked anything but highly intelligent creature."

= That can be a misconception on your part, or it can be another tribe of demons. They have many species, just like spirit beasts.

"So, they really are not that different." – sighed Aiden, unbeknown to himself he took that invasion problem to heart and regarded it his problem. Well, how could he not if these creatures might destroy Douluo Dalu for good? He is living here.

Creation of crucible was a complicated, arduous, and time-consuming process of several months with several mistakes and corrections made right during construction, but eventually, he seated himself in front of a hovering crown, happy like there is no tomorrow with achievement ahead of the era.

Crucible then was connected with both rings, but all aging energy went inside the first one. Throughout this year and a half, he just hit five years old age and killed hundreds of beasts, harvesting their spirit rings and bodies and processing them into a huge amount of aging energy, that was condensed in crystals by Krondan for storage and left in special space inside Lonzaik.

That helped to thoroughly preserve every bit of effectiveness.

The next several days crucible worked without stopping and Nexus scanned through the entire process, gaining much more info. The result astonished them both. First, Aiden felt lucky to not attempt aging without crucible, because Nexus found many problems with his mathematical model.

Secondly – Nexus implied that without crucible effectiveness of the procedure will be at best halved. But after additional calculations, the conclusion was even less inspiring. The output won't exceed a third.

After a week renewed but tired, Aiden dragged his body to the corner of the cave where ice bed was and fell asleep under the shine of two purple rings disappearing in thin air.