MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

Chapter 1840: Full Circle (1)

”...So we’re good, then?”

”...”

”You’ve made sure that the article would be published exactly a month into our vacation, right?”

”...”

”Trust me. None of you want it to be published the moment we go on our vacation. Reporters and Scholars would hound us at every place we go to if we do.”

”...”

”Don’t think about it too much. The moment you scheduled the release of the article, the remaining part is now my responsibility. Now go take a rest. Enjoy your well-needed break.”

Beep.

Reclaiming the ether that she had put into her phone, a faint smile appeared on Veradine’s face as she briefly went over the call she just had.

”Although the article is set to be released to the public a month from now, it’s more accurate to say that it’s already in the hands of the governing body,” she said to herself, thinking out loud as she sat on her couch.

”With that being said, delaying the release of the article is pretty much just a stopgap solution. Sooner or later, they would find everyone else and ask them more about the article.”

”...Though, it would be for the best if all of them were to ask me about it instead.”

As those words left her mouth, Veradine could not help but let out a slightly exasperated sigh.

”At least I’d still have a month to myself if that were to happen.”

Shrugging her shoulders at the thought, she soon closed her eyes as she focused her senses inward, directing her attention towards the ether inside her body.

But unlike before where she cycled the ether with her Ether Gathering Technique, she instead stared at the ether for a bit after she willed all of them to gather below her navel.

’...Almost 130 million strands,’ she thought to herself, roughly counting the number of ether strands she had amassed over the years.

’Compared to the amount needed for me to ascend to the 1st Lower Boundary, I’ve already surpassed that figure by almost 30 million.’

Recalling the Grand Sage’s verdict at that moment, especially the part where it said it would take her 60 years to become a Sage, an amused smile gradually appeared on her face.

However, it did not take long for that expression to be replaced with its previous calm.

’Don’t let it get to your head, Veradine,’ she reminded herself, taking a few deep breaths to compose herself. ’Although you have the ability to become a Sage at any time, remember that the Grand Sage dissuaded you from the path for a reason.’

’If he ever finds out how much ether you currently have, there’s no doubt in his head that he’d kill you.’

’...’

’...Although I don’t think he’d go that far, it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious.’

Letting out a soft exhale as she pushed the thought aside, Veradine began to move the ether according to the latest Ether Gathering Technique she had created.

’By utilizing the principles of the Ether Siphon Art, the Ether Ocean Gathering Method, and the False Ether Core Creation Art in that order, I’m able to achieve a semblance of the feedback loop that I was looking for back then.’

’Of course, since the feedback loop in the technique isn’t a full feedback loop, its advantage over the optimized versions of the three Ether Gathering Techniques isn’t really that much.’

’But then again, the difference between a Peak-grade Class A and a Pseudo-Class S technique is still quite substantial.’

After figuring out what element she was still missing from the Ether Gathering Technique she wanted, she spent three years within the past half decade finding the key that would allow her to take that next step forward.

Of course, those three years weren’t entirely spent on just the techniques. If anything, the time she spent was similar to past, where she would allocate a month of her time every year to focus on it.

Fortunately, with the information she had accumulated while working on her next articles, as well as the information she gathered while continuing to make use of her optimized Ether Gathering Techniques, she was able to make a breakthrough just shy of her eighth year as a Sage.

’Although I used to think of their methods as an anchor point for gathering ether, it would be more apt to say that the reason why these techniques are a cut above the rest is due to their intentional addition of compression.’

’By compressing ether within the body, it forms a localized hot spot that attracts more ether from the surroundings, which is exactly the anchor point that I had noticed from these techniques back then.’

’Now that I’ve combined these principles of these three techniques in compressing ether, I’m able to form a stronger anchor point for the ether to latch onto, which is why I’ve decided to call it the Triple Compression Ether Gathering Technique.’

After brushing herself up on the thought process that led to the creation of her latest Ether Gathering Technique, Veradine soon fell into a state of utter calm as she began making progress towards the final element of her own Ether Gathering Technique.

The true feedback loop.

Spending around half of the day gathering ether from the surroundings, Veradine kept this routine up for a week in the hopes that she would finally gain insight into the final element.

Unfortunately, aside from increasing the number of ether strands in her body, she could not even find the path she needed to take to even get closer towards it.

But although she saw little to no progress throughout the entire week, she continued to keep the routine up, confident that there would eventually come a time where everything would click in her head once more.

After all, that’s how she figured out the element she was missing in her ideal Ether Gathering Technique over five years.

And thus, another week passed.

And another.

And then another.

By the time around a month and a half had passed, a great number of things had happened.

However, none of it was related to her pursuit of the true feedback loop.

Instead, it was all related to the reaction to their next article, which immediately set off waves throughout the entire planet the moment it was released.

After people found out that the article included what was basically a free Low-grade Class D Ether Gathering Technique, a great number of people headed to the governing body in a frenzy, hoping to be the first to claim a copy of the article for themselves.

But as luck would have it, the governing body had only released a certain number of copies of the article that day, prompting those who hadn’t gotten their hands on it to come up with other means.

Some chose to wait the next day to get their hands on a copy, while others chose to ask those that got their hands on one if they could share it with them.

There were also those that chose more egregious means to get their hands on it, such as stealing and killing those that got a copy of the article before them. Fortunately, they were only the extreme minority.

The majority of those that did not go with the first two methods instead chose a more shameless method of obtaining a copy...

Which was to ask the ones behind the article if they could get a copy of it for free.