CH277 Win – Loss Cycle of Life

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Life was a cycle. You win some, you lose some.

Alex was all too familiar with this principle, and he knew how to accept and make the most of it.

He took the wins and made the most of the progress he gained from them. As for the losses—well, he accepted them, endured the sting, and pushed forward nonetheless.

Progress meant moving forward, no matter the obstacles.

Case in point: #Omega_Parasite.

The Contingency Plan designed to cripple the Kellerman family in the unlikely event of defeat. Yet, because of the fateful intervention of a mysterious Legend, that desperate plan—meant only for the worst-case scenario—had been triggered anyway, costing the Kellermans one of their lifelines.

And in the process, granting Alex a bank vault's worth of Mana, all waiting to be converted into Spatial Energy.

That was the win.

But, as always, the cycle demanded balance.

The Rune-Tattooed Voidheart Core had absorbed an entire middle-grade Mana mine, and yet Alex didn't have a single mana stone to show for it. The only way he could make use of the absorbed mana was by converting the resource directly into Spatial Energy—a limited potential compared to what the mine might have provided.

Given his current time constraints, the loss of such a versatile resource was a heavy blow. At least, in retrospect.

Alex let the regret run its course, then—as always—cast it aside.

But the cycle of life wasn't done with him yet.

Since confirming the return of the Voidheart Core to the Sanctuary Pocket Dimension—specifically, its placement at the crown of the Bonsai Tree—Alex hadn't actually taken the time to inspect it.

He had been too giddy about the sheer prospect of possessing such a vast reservoir of Spatial Energy. In that state, working on a precision-demanding project with such a priceless resource would have been reckless.

So, after confirming that the Voidheart Core was stable following interspatial travel, he had left it untouched.

But now, with his decision to craft an interspatial artefact, there was no avoiding it. He had to retrieve the Voidheart Core.

"What…?"

Let's just say Alex was caught completely off guard. What he saw was far outside his expectations.

His eyebrows furrowed deeply.

Looking into the Spatial Loop Storage Formation Space—which Alex had renamed Spatial Energy Confinement Space (SECS)—he was shocked to find only a single strand of Spatial Energy.

He wasn't sure how many motes of Spatial Energy made up one strand, but what he could tell—from the intensity of the energy form's glow under Spirit Sight—was that this lone strand could not possibly represent the output of an entire mana mine.

"Did the interspatial transfer from the secondary to the primary nodes consume everything?" he muttered, unable to help himself.

Then an idea struck him.

His gaze shifted from the Voidheart Core's left ventricle—where the golden hexagonal form of the SECS fused with the crystalline heart—up to its left atrium. There lay the Rune Tattoo housing both the energy-gathering formation and the splinter of the AetherKindle.

Alex connected to the Rune with his Spiritual Force—and was stunned all over again.

The temporary storage space he had inscribed into the Rune Tattoo—the pocket meant to hold absorbed mana until the AetherKindle splinter could refine and purify it—had expanded severalfold. What was once the size of a small room now stretched into a vast, cavernous domain whose end Alex could not even see.

Not only had the space expanded, it was completely filled with energy.

At the centre floated the AetherKindle splinter, straining under the torrent. It burned desperately, working without pause, barely managing to refine mana at a trickle compared to the storm surrounding it. It looked almost fragile, like a tiny flame lashed by a hurricane determined to extinguish it.

And yet, perilous as it seemed, the splinter of the primal origin flame was relentless. By its very nature, it clung stubbornly to its duty. To Alex's Spirit Sight, its fierce struggle almost resembled… excitement.

"I should have considered this…" Alex groaned, resisting the urge to smack his own face.

In trying to improve the Voidheart Core's production efficiency, he had overlooked a crucial factor: the purification rate of the mana that would eventually be converted into Spatial Energy.

In his defence, all his calculations had been based on scenarios where the Core absorbed ambient mana from a rich environment. He had never expected to suddenly devour the entire contents of a middle-grade mana mine.

The AetherKindle splinter simply couldn't keep up. Even if he brought in the complete AetherKindle seated in his Mana Heart, the bottleneck wouldn't vanish—there would still be a massive backlog, one that would take months at the very least to completely digest.

And that wasn't even counting the tiny but crucial detail: the Voidheart Core and its energy-gathering Rune were still passively drawing in more ambient mana every moment.

"I never thought I'd regret improving the heart's mana absorption rate," Alex muttered with a wry shake of his head. "Well, on the plus side, the formations that generate the space can autonomously absorb the Spatial Energy produced by the heart itself, strengthening and expanding as needed.

"Which means I just have to remember to always leave some Spatial Energy in the SECS. If the TESS ever bloats beyond capacity without energy to fuel expansion…"

Alex grimaced. The image of a balloon bursting flashed in his mind. Only this balloon was stuffed with volatile energy.

"If contained mana were ever released explosively…" He shuddered and cut the thought short. Best not to even think about it.

"Well, although I've discovered the problem, there's little I can do beyond letting the process run its course."

He accepted the temporary loss and consoled himself with the truth—it would eventually become a win once the AetherKindle processed everything.

"The real question now," Alex frowned, "is whether this single Spatial Energy strand is enough to craft an Interspatial Storage Artefact."

A pause. Then he chuckled and shook his head.

"No point wondering. There's only one way to find out…"

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