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For that, I designed a new hammer. Its surface was covered with hexagons, gold and silver conductive patterns etched inside it like wires to not only carry the mana, but also distribute it in the same pattern as the Quake attack.

With this brand-new toy, I was able to create a weaker version of the quake effect. To test, I was once again at the mining pit, using the hammer to steadily destroy ore deposits, replenishing my reserves at the same time.

I tried to use it on the monsters. Unfortunately, the weapon proved too fragile, shattering upon impact. And, since I had a limited amount of gold, I couldn\'t make a dozen hammers to bring it with me.

But, since I needed to replenish my ore reserves in the first place, I just continued crushing ore and loading it to the main feeder for the conveyor belt. Occasionally, I went back to the forge to redesign the weapon.

Of course, from a single-attack perspective, there were not many benefits to actually creating a mana attack, as the vitality attack was already superior. Yet, I focused on mana attacks first despite that.

While the vitality attacks were strong, they were also costly.

Of course, mana attacks cost even more to achieve a similar effect. Combined with the fact that my mana reserves were much smaller, its utility was supposedly limited.

If it wasn\'t for one important fact: Cleansing Meditation allowed me to absorb mana far faster than I could replenish my Health. While my high Vitality allowed me to metabolize the food faster to replenish my Health, all but most concentrated extracts required several minutes to refill my reserves of Health. I just needed to stand still for five seconds to replenish my mana.

And then there was the fact that Health was a literal tool for survival… Armor could help to survive a lot of things, but it didn\'t make me impervious. Blunt force trauma, in particular, still required Health to recover from.

However, the biggest part was that I didn\'t have the research on vitality that I had on mana. I needed to once again experiment on many materials to understand how they worked when interacting with solid materials.

And, the recovery speed of Health meant that I couldn\'t easily replicate it.

Not without a large number of assistants.

With all those factors included, trying to develop a mana attack was the better path until I had the necessary manpower.

I swung my hammer again, this time crushing a shell into pieces, and used meditation to absorb it. Five seconds of standing still, and my mana was replenished once again. "Maybe I should try and see if I could figure a way to meditate while moving," I muttered even as I swung my hammer again, destroying another small section of the ore mine.

[Quake Hammer (Rare) 184 - 185]

So, I started trying to activate the meditation effect whenever I tried to move around, but it didn\'t work as well as I had hoped. Whenever I tried to move, the mana shape destabilized or stopped rotating, which made the process of figuring out how to Meditate while moving rather annoying.

I could maintain the existence of the orb, but without the movement, it didn\'t work.

However, repeated attempts failed to give a result. "Well, do I actually have to," I suddenly realized. After all, I had already realized that mana had been reacting to the shapes. Why not transform that orb into a different shape.

But first, I decided to finish improving Quake Hammer to its limit. As much as the idea of experimenting with Meditation had been tempting, I didn\'t want to do so immediately. Instead, I chose to focus on Quake Hammer.

It required two more trips to the forge to optimize the structure of the hammer based on trial and error before I could actually start delivering a decent facsimile of the first vitality attack, but it still depleted all my mana.

[-200 Mana]

[Quake Hammer (Rare) 199 - 200]

[Perk Options — Persistent Tremor / Shatter / Swift Dodge]

"What a tough choice," I muttered. Swift Dodge was easy to ignore, as I had long adapted to using Fleeting Step without using the spear art as a crutch thanks to repeatedly using it to move around. The choice between Persistent Tremor and Shatter, on the other hand, was harder to decide on.

I had a feeling that, with my combat style, Shatter would be more useful, but I still chose Persistent Tremor. The implication was that it would create a lasting effect, and the experimental value of such a thing was too important.

"Let\'s try," I said as I used it on a thick section of ore.

[-300 Health]

"Well, that\'s expensive," I muttered even as I examined the surface. Unlike Quake Hammer, the attack didn\'t disappear at once, but maintained its presence between the shattered pieces, throwing them around wildly.

It still had a mere two feet radius, but the devastation was incredible. It would work incredibly against a monster … or an armored human.

Though, I didn\'t want to imagine how the remains would look.

I first moved back to the forge and activated the crusher. Then, as the mana flowed around me, I activated the meditative orb, but I didn\'t rotate it, curious if it would absorb. It did, just very slowly despite the density around me.

I turned that into a hexagonal prism, and, even without moving, the effect of rejecting mana was displayed, but it was weak. It implied that, along with the shape, the movement was also important. Soon, I added a triangle to the intersection point, and it started channeling mana inside, once again with an absurd slowness, certainly not enough to make it worth it.

I added a triangle to every corner, but after a certain point, I was struggling to maintain the shape of the entity even without rotating it, as if I was trying to juggle a dozen balls in the air. Trying to maintain the shape of the orb was an interesting experience. I couldn\'t just do something and start ignoring it.

Every piece of construct required me to maintain it separately while rotating seemed to be using something completely different.

I reduced the number of triangles and started rotating, but it failed. While the sphere — which I was starting to realize was not exactly a smooth structure, but the surface details were a mystery — was able to function better the faster it rotated, the triangles lost their effectiveness.

The lack of stats, I realized. No wonder Intelligence was a critical requirement for every mage. The sheer focus necessary to maintain even half a dozen shapes was incredible.

I stayed like that for hours, repeating various methods to increase mana absorption, but the best I could get was one point of mana in twenty minutes. Hardly groundbreaking.

Maybe the research institutes were right in rejecting me —

"Nonsense," I growled even as I shook my head. It was absurd to feel depressed, especially after my string of successes. Absurd enough that I would have suspected that there was some kind of spell over me. But, an easier guess was in place.

It was the side effect of what I was doing with the meditation.

When I stood up, I felt tired and drained, like I had been lost in the deepest recesses of a dark depression, tired in a way I had never felt before. "Alright, that\'s enough experimentation for today," I muttered as I started tidying up everything.

It was the second time Meditation had caused some kind of trouble. Maybe I shouldn\'t play around with it without consulting Maria first.

While I was mentally drained, I felt fine physically. So, I chose to pick the cart and went back to the third floor. However, after a few attempts of removing the shell with a mana attack, I realized that trying to use Mana turned out to be much more difficult. So, I stopped that as well and instead relied on the ordinary spear and extractor combo to collect.

I was exhausted mentally, but I didn\'t feel like sleeping. Some pointless, mind-numbing physical activity might have been exactly what I needed.

And, if I could make more money in the process, even better.

Since I had been distracted by the latest set of experiments, I decided not to go up before collecting around four thousand shells, which would explain my longer-than-usual disappearance.

I could always say I took a trip to the third floor.

As I fought, I could feel that weird exhaustion disappear slowly. It wasn\'t completely gone, but the sudden listlessness had disappeared. Still, I didn\'t stop until I collected the target number of shells.

I went back to the fort, only to be greeted by smiling guards. "Good news, sir," one of them declared happily. "We have just received the news. The caravan will be here in just an hour."

"Excellent," I said as the guards rushed toward the cart, enthusiastic about processing it. My habit of leaving big tips was already doing wonders.

Hopefully, it would also help when it came to recruiting. My experiments needed help. Just a few people would be enough, but finding someone trustworthy seemed like a challenge. Instead, I could just hire a bunch of people to work in the dungeon, both to help me make money, and to allow me to identify trustworthy assistants.

I wanted nothing more than to rest, but with the arrival of the caravan, things wouldn\'t be as simple.

"So, does anyone have any interesting stories about the first days of this dungeon?" I asked, which was just an opportunity to question them.

Now that Eleanor and Maria had arrived, I needed to decide on a solution that was just innovative enough to help without being too suspicious.

I much preferred experimenting over killing monsters…