Chapter 375: Old Posts (1/2)

Chapter 375: Old Posts

Translator: Strivon

Luo Nan's mind went blank. It was in this moment that a small drop of water, the size of a fingernail, came out from nothing, forming from thin air. It hovered quietly before his eyes, moving slightly and refracting the sunlight that came shining through the window. Colors of every variety could be seen. It was beautiful.

Luo Nan's mind was flooded with a sense of satisfaction. He grinned, relaxing his psychic intent, and only then did he feel weary....

Weary?

Oh, I see. The technique requires little soul strength, but forming the Condensation Ring involves mental energy, focus, and even the physical foundation of the nervous system. It was impossible to use all of these indefinitely.

Luo Nan fell back, his arms spread out on his bed. Cool water vapor hit his face directly. A few drops of water fell on his cheeks, forehead, and some even sprinkled on his arm and collar. It was very refreshing. He moaned in comfort.

Huh? Luo Nan suddenly opened his eyes. He saw a mist of water drift down before his eyes, instantly wetting his body and everything in his surroundings.

F***K!

Luo Nan leapt to his feet, but he was too late. The spray of mist had ended with the sheets of the bed meeting calamity. It was damp, dripping wet. It felt utterly uncomfortable. The two notebooks were on the bed. They were covered completely in droplets of water. Fortunately, the covers were made of leather. They were fine after some wiping.

As for the sheets, Luo Nan would have to move them to the balcony to dry.

What the heck happened? Was there a resource crisis with the humidifier as well?

Luo Nan touched the wet parts of his face. His first reaction was to turn the humidifier off. He looked at the device, be it seemed to be operating normally. Luo Nan then released his mental senses. He observed the air humidity as well as the changes on the mental plane.

From this, Luo Nan was able to discover clues.

The residual fluctuations of interference between the mental and material planes were surprisingly intense. The sources were different, and the numbers were plenty. But the degree of fluctuations stayed largely the same. They clearly affected the moisture in the air. Luo Nan formed a ballpark guess from all of this.

The sculpted structures of the Condensation Ring had become quite reliable during the latter half of his training. The Condensation Ring's capability continued to increase, and after a certain quantity of water had accumulated, the water bead state naturally appeared.

Luo Nan put his full focus on pondering the Condensation Ring structure. He wholeheartedly immersed himself in training. Only the very initial parts of his training remained as an impression. The beads of water lasted longer and longer, while the speed at which they dissipated grew slower and slower, gradually increasing the scale. In the end, several hundred water beads hovered in the room. This lasted until Luo Nan's mind relaxed, releasing his control all of a sudden. The structures descended into disorder, practically exploding all at the same time, turning into a dense mist of water.

This was probably what happened. Luo Nan shook his head and sighed. He tidied up a bit and moved his bed sheets to the balcony. He walked two steps before he saw water glimmering from the corners of his eyes. It was a recently manifested water bead.

Oh, this one was interesting.

Luo Nan stared at the water bead as he held the bed sheets. He was able to confirm that all of the water drops had exploded into nothing. This was certainly true. However, according to his mental senses, this bead of water had just recently coalesced. Its source was none other than the result of Luo Nan's last instance of training.

Luo Nan could perceive it. This last Condensation Ring structure that Luo Nan sculpted was the most perfect one in terms of shape. Its precision had reached a certain level. A wave of turbulence had caused all the gathered moisture to scatter, but the fundamental structure of this Condensation Ring was unlike the others. It didn't burst. Instead, it tenaciously remained there. As time passed, it gathered moisture once more to form a water bead.

This gave off the sense of endless growth.

Luo Nan's attention was completely focused on the water bead. His perception grew all the sharper, and he discovered that the Condensation Ring in the core of the water bead maintained an exceptionally close connection with him. It constantly consumed his soul strength.

The consumption wasn't large. It was mainly a trickle, but it was endless.

Perhaps other mentally enhanced ability users would feel some pressure as they maintained the Condensation Ring for long periods of time, but Luo Nan's soul strength was affected by the high output of the Format Pyramid's production line. The income every second was severalfold greater than the quantity consumed by this single Condensation Ring. It didn't hurt. It didn't even tickle.

Large amounts of soul strength was produced, yet only small amounts were removed. If this was called 'consumption,’ then Luo Nan's entire world was in an economic crisis.

Luo Nan’s lips pulled into a wry smile. Since such a situation was involved, Luo Nan instinctively observed himself internally with clairvoyance to look at the state of the God Gear. His thoughts instantly froze the moment his psychic intent cut through.

...It dropped?

The scene was completely different from what he expected. What had once been an overflowing vast ocean iceberg actually dropped a bit. It was lower than yesterday's normal position. This drop was astonishing. No wonder Luo Nan had felt exhausted.

Luo Nan was a little stupefied. It didn't make sense. The consumption of the Condensation Ring had to be multiplied by a thousand, by ten thousand times in order to reach this result.... Huh?

Luo Nan subconsciously hugged his bed sheets even tighter to his chest. The moistness of his sheets made him recall the mist of water sprayed in the room.

Well, just think about it. A simple Condensation Ring didn't require a lot of energy consumption, but if there were several hundred of them existing simultaneously, several thousand being produced one after another, the amount of consumption was not something that one could stare idly at as this process continued.

Multi-tasking was particularly resource-intensive. This was very normal. It was possible for this amount of consumption to be able to exceed the output of the Format Pyramid within a certain period of time.

In other words, as the several hundred beads of water exploded apart, Luo Nan's large volume of training truly turned into a method of disposal of milk. He had dumped his surplus of soul strength, stock and barrel, into the river.

No, there were consequences for disposing milk. But what did any of it matter? Forming mist? Evaporation? Sublimation?

Luo Nan started from a wry smile, but it later turned into a bellow of laughter. He even tossed his wet bed sheets up into the air in celebration.

Even if the input and output were not entirely proportional, and the effects could not be said to be a radical cure, it was a pleasant delight to be able to resolve this threat. During times when symptoms often recurred, Luo Nan had never imagined that this matter would be resolved this easily. This was a rather effective contingency method he had reaped.

Luo Nan's stress was immediately dispelled to nothing. The sense of freedom he now had was far too refreshing!

Luo Nan's mood became great. He cast his gaze at the water bead. At this moment, it was as if he was staring at a pearl.

The Condensation Ring gathered water vapor. There should be a limit as to how much it could gather. The volume for the growth of the water bead had already stagnated, ultimately stopping at the size of the tip of a pinky finger. It was around a centimeter in diameter. It couldn't be described as conspicuous, but it was rather eye-catching when it refracted light.

Luo Nan thought for a while. He decided not to disperse the water bead for now. He wanted to see how long it could last. He wanted to see how much soul strength it could consume in total. Later, he would certainly test out the five auxiliary structures, with the core of the Condensation Ring acting as the foundation.

With the bed sheets already hanging over the balcony, Luo Nan headed downstairs to eat.

The water bead orbited around his body in a rather lively manner. This was done without him needing to apply the reinforcement of the Heart of the Ape Technique. Luo Nan's soul strength was inseparably close with the water bead. The water bead was an extension of his body, and it was displaying more and more astonishing functions with the passage of time, with the power of habit.

Once something became habit, one would subconsciously forget about it.

Luo Nan forgot about the water bead next to his body as he engaged in a battle of human nutrition with the AI housekeeper. There was nothing else on the table. His ability to stuff his stomach full was as sound as usual. Luo Nan kept himself occupied as he gulped down his food in large bites. He wanted to flip through the teaching materials and notes that Papercut had sent him. But he thought about it, and he continued to flip through the mission announcement page.