End of the Magic Era - Chapter 1235

Chapter 1235: Bottleneck

With the huge changes to the Natural Demiplane, Lin Yun saw a way to rapidly evolve it.

After all, mana was no longer the main thing shackling the progress of Heaven Rank powerhouses. What truly hindered them was their law comprehension.

And the Demiplane established by a Heaven Mage was a tool to contain and use laws. If they could perceive some laws but weren’t able to make these laws manifest in the Demiplane, then the laws would never be able to become part of their fighting strength. They could perhaps only use them for alchemy theories.

This was the simplest part of getting good alchemy results.

The development of a Demiplane became more important as they grew stronger. Too many Heaven Mages would be hindered by the development of their Demiplane. Many Heaven Mages with a lot of potential wouldn’t make any progress for centuries or even a millennium. That inevitably was due to their Demiplane’s development hindering them.

And now, the fifty truth runes he had comprehended made the Demiplane complete its first essence evolution. If other truth runes were carved into the Demiplane, if all the 108,000 truth runes were carved into the Demiplane, just how powerful would it become?

Just thinking about it, Lin Yun started breathing heavily, and he couldn’t calm down.

A mage’s Demiplane was closely related to the mage himself. The Demiplane could shackle a mage, and a mage could also shackle a Demiplane. Even if another mage somehow comprehended 108,000 truth runes and carved them onto the Demiplane, the development of the Demiplane wouldn’t be that exaggerated.

But the Natural Demiplane was different. As suggested by the word, “Natural”, a Natural Demiplane didn’t shackle the mage. As long as Lin Yun had enough resources and opportunities, it might develop into a true world by the time he reached the 4th or 5th Rank.

Of course, these were only theoretical calculations. Actually reaching that outcome ought to be impossible.

But if the Natural Demiplane kept progressing, this kind of outcome would naturally appear. It would, in return, make up for Lin Yun’s flaws and increase his law comprehension. After all, the comprehension of the laws here would definitely be a lot more efficient than in Noscent since this Natural Demiplane had completely fallen under Lin Yun’s control.

As he thought of this, Lin Yun felt somewhat impatient. He thought of the truth rune he had yet to finish the comprehension of and wanted to carve it onto the peak. But he couldn’t use the same method, because he hadn’t comprehended that truth rune and hadn’t reconstructed it through mana.

He tried to condense the secrets within the truth rune, but even if he condensed the part he hadn’t researched, it didn’t have that mysterious aura. That truth rune was useless.

Lin Yun sat on top of the peak while frowning. If he couldn’t condense the truth rune, he couldn’t carve it onto the pillar.

‘Do I really need to fully comprehend them before I can carve them?

‘I comprehended fifty truth runes in ten days… That speed is extremely fast, but the comprehension speed will slow down as I progress. Being able to comprehend five hundred truth runes within half a year would be considered very fast.’

Only comprehending five hundred truth runes after having tasted that sweetness… Lin Yun was unwilling to wait ten years before he could comprehend more, especially since these things could develop his Natural Demiplane. This might be his only opportunity for a very long time, and it was also his best opportunity.

He tried several times in a row, and even condensed an incomplete truth rune onto the peak, but with no effect.

Lin Yun’s heart suddenly twitched. When directly studying the truth runes on the Whisper Crystal, he could only use the Magic Array. The Magic Array also temporarily decomposed the truth runes into a huge amount of data, which he could then research.

That kind of decomposition could be considered a temporary copy of the truth rune. Although the copy occupied a large part of the Magic Array’s capacity, it was still considered a copy!

The truth runes couldn’t be copied because they would lose their original mysteries during the process. Copying a complete truth rune was impossible, and the copy would end up being worthless.

Just by comprehending fifty truth runes, Lin Yun felt that his alchemy skills had greatly progressed. Did that future genius truly comprehend the 108,000 truth runes?

This was uncertain. It was only recorded that the genius produced a magic book including all the truth runes. That was the only intact copy of the truth runes.

‘What if that talented genius didn’t comprehend all 108,000 truth runes? What if he used some other method when producing that magic book?’

As he thought about this, Lin Yun suddenly felt that this method was doable. He would use his Magic Array to temporarily copy, or it might be better to say, to turn the huge secrets contained within the truth rune into data before carving the data onto the Demiplane. That way, he might be able to inscribe the truth runes he hadn’t fully comprehended onto the Demiplane.

After thinking about it, Lin Yun pressed one hand against the peak, and the huge amount of data stored in the Magic Array turned into a flood. Using mana as a medium, Lin Yun poured them into the peak under his feet.

The data looked disordered, and as Lin Yun opened his hand, the dense data spread across several hundred meters. By the time that data completely left the Magic Array, the Magic Array no longer possessed any data regarding that truth rune.

Lin Yun raised his hand and looked at the several-hundred-meter-wide flood of data. This was already the data’s simplest form. It couldn’t be simplified further while keeping the mysteries of the truth rune intact.

Suddenly, the data, using Lin Yun’s mana as a medium, started converging towards the center before rapidly condensing into the carved inscription of a complete truth rune on the peak.

Lin Yun tried to research that truth rune, and the mystery contained within it was completely the same as the Whisper Crystal’s truth rune. In other words, he had perfectly copied the truth rune onto the peak.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be a barrier between that truth rune and the peak… It couldn’t completely merge with the peak. In other words, this truth rune was carved onto the Demiplane, but the Demiplane didn’t get any benefit from it.

Lin Yun tried researching that truth rune thoroughly, when suddenly, the truth rune disappeared inside the peak.

Lin Yun instantly understood. The truth runes would only merge with the peak when he comprehended them. They wouldn’t affect the Demiplane’s development if he only copied them without comprehending them.

Although he was somewhat regretful, Lin Yun was already very satisfied, because as long as he could copy them, these truth runes would inevitably be fully comprehended one day. The only thing he lacked was time, and now, he bought enough time for himself.

It would be very easy to copy all 108,000 truth runes in half a year. After copying the runes, he would only need to comprehend the truth runes on the pillar.

Lin Yun was in a really good mood now that he could get a hold of all 108,000 truth runes. At midnight, he left his resting space to copy the Whisper Crystal’s runes.

More than half of the Artisans were still researching the truth runes in the middle of the night. In fact, there would be Artisans that wouldn’t leave their spot for half a year during these gatherings. All of their time would be used to research truth runes.

Those who returned to rest either exhausted too much of their mind power studying a truth rune or thought of some key application and returned to their room to slowly research it.

After all, the truth runes contained many secrets. But none of them were real alchemy results, as they were only data. Moreover, none of the Artisans would accept having their alchemy results being copied.

Most of the Artisans had their own specialties or some things only they were able to make. This was their foundation, and aside from their own disciples, the Artisans absolutely wouldn’t let others know. Some of them were willing to write down their inheritance for the future generations, while others let their unique alchemy techniques be buried alongside them.

Lin Yun arrived at the Whisper Crystal’s location in the middle of the night, and there were still many Artisans focused on studying there. He took a crystal table and immediately started copying.

With the help of the Magic Array, it actually didn’t take much time. The three layers of mysteries turned into a flood of data in seconds.

This was just turning a very difficult problem into a multitude of simpler problems, only that the answer wasn’t revealed.

After turning a truth rune into a flood of data temporarily stored in the Magic Array, Lin Yun directly opened a very small Planar Path within his body. That Planar Path was connected to the Demiplane.

The flood of data within the Magic Array followed that small passage and, unbeknownst to all, poured into that peak. Just like before, the flood of data was carried by Lin Yun’s mana and rapidly spread on the surface of the peak before transforming into a swath of pure data.

By the time all the data was transmitted, the mana carrying the data was absorbed into the peak. The data started shrinking until it condensed into a carving of a truth rune on the surface of the peak.

It took less than a minute for a truth rune to be perfectly copied there.

Lin Yun sat in front of the crystal desk, motionless. He was firmly watching the Whisper Crystal. The shortcoming of truth runes changing frequently had now become an advantage.

It took fifteen minutes for the truth runes to change, which was just enough time for Lin Yun to the truth runes of all eighteen faces. If he was researching, he would only be able to see one truth rune in fifteen minutes, but this met Lin Yun’s requirement.

Lin Yun was only copying, not researching. Fifteen minutes later, the Whisper Crystal’s truth runes all changed.

Lin Yun kept sitting there without moving for ten days straight. He didn’t research the truth runes, since he only had half a year to copy them. Moreover, once they were completely copied onto the Demiplane, he could study them at any time.

Ten days later, Lin Yun stood up to exercise. His Magic Array had revolved at full capacity for ten days straight, which was his limit. If he continued, the Magic Array would be unable to complete the copy of a truth rune’s mysteries.

He decisively chose to rest for a day before resuming the copying.

…

Three months passed. For the past three months, Lin Yun had sat next to the Whisper Crystal and blankly stared at it, not writing any data on his sheet of paper. This caught the Artisans of the Starry Sky College off-guard.

Lin Yun would sit motionlessly for periods of ten days before punctually returning to his resting place. They couldn’t guess how many truth runes Lin Yun had researched.

Many of the clues they had figured out earlier could no longer be used.

In fact, during the past three months, Lin Yun only comprehended these fifty truth runes. He spent most of his time copying the runes without fully comprehending them.

In that room, Zeith frowned as he looked at the scene recorded within the crystal ball.

“Can you see what’s going on? How many truth runes did Mafa Merlin research during these three months?”

The Artisans looked at each other in dismay. No one said anything because they couldn’t make sense of what they were looking at. Lin Yun was no longer using the same comprehension method. He was only sitting there and staring blankly, his expression unchanging. No one knew how much he comprehended during that period of time.

Many of the Artisans around the Whisper Crystal had noticed what had been going on with Lin Yun during the past three months. At the start, everyone saw that Lin Yun was doing his utmost to comprehend the truth runes, even using support spells while recording some important data.

But after the 10th day, Lin Yun no longer recorded any data, and he also no longer used support spells. It looked like he was just lost in thought.

A few Artisans noticed Lin Yun recovering from his state once again and silently leaving, especially Layford, who didn’t even hide his sneer.

“Really, the Andlusan country bumpkin wanted to come here to research these runes, but I didn’t expect that although he was relatively fast at the beginning, his potential would be exhausted after ten days. I’m afraid he hasn’t even researched ten runes during the past eighty days…”

Layford was ridiculing Lin Yun, but the latter simply couldn’t be bothered. He had to rest and slowly research in the Demiplane.

Many people watched Lin Yun silently leaving in a hurry. Doubt flashed in Raphael’s eyes, as he couldn’t understand.

‘Sir Mafa is even stronger than me in alchemy. How could he be unable to research the runes any more after ten days? Is he using another research method?’

Not far away, Watby Hardward was smirking.

‘How could that foolish Mafa Merlin be stronger than me in the field of alchemy? The research of truth runes is a true test of potential. Those with greater potential meet a bottleneck later on. He has reached a bottleneck after just ten days. His future accomplishments will only be so-so…’

The Mosh Family’s two Artisans threw a disdainful glance at Lin Yun’s back before throwing the same glance at Layford.

‘Just inferior Artisans with no potential. There is no need to spare a second glance to know that these guys are a waste of time…’

Gurrig swept a glance before softly shaking his head and continuing his research.

‘Another Artisan with no potential. He might have already reached his limit. That kind of Artisan can be respected in the Andlusa Kingdom, but in the Odin Kingdom, he could at most become a teacher of the Starry Sky College and teach basic knowledge for the young alchemists.’

After that thought flashed in his head, Gurrig no longer paid attention, or it would be better to say that he didn’t think it was worth his attention.

As for Albert, who was holding his crystal ball, he frowned when he heard Layford’s mockery, annoyed at him for making noise here. And Albert simply didn’t even spare Lin Yun a glance. To him, it was all a huge waste of time.

The group of Artisans had their attention attracted by Layford’s mockery, and all of their expressions changed. Disdain could be seen in their eyes. Lin Yun’s name and appearance alone were enough to rouse their disdain. Some of the prouder ones didn’t bother to hide it, feeling that Lin Yun’s participation in the gathering was a mistake.

After all, they all knew about Lin Yun being in a daze for periods of ten days. His performance was completely different from the frantic research he had been performing at the very start. Everyone felt that he had reached a bottleneck.

In fact, those that reached a bottleneck during the study of truth runes were all like that.