Origin Seeker

[Using Alchemy, magic sequences, enchanting, and your skills, I've actually devised a potential way to affect flux and pass it on to another item.]

Sophia spoke to Dream as he stood in front of the demon corpses and their weapons. He nodded.

"Then let's test this little method out. To start, let's use a bone from the sword demon."

Dream manipulated the corpse and pulled out a shin bone.

"So how does this work?"

[The methods shown in the alchemy books and sequencing books have the object placed close together. They would connect them via mana and then pass the properties or flux across the channel. But obviously much was lost and the results weren't anything amazing. Since we're trying to pass the flux over to metal, which we can shape freely, we just need to capsule the object in the metal like we did with the sword.]

As she said that, the shin bone was cased in some grade 5 steel. 

[Now instead of exploding the item inside, which may not actually work with all materials, we need to create two separate mana environments for the metal and bone, then connect them through magic circuitry. After they're bound through hard mana channels and enchantments, we're actually going to merge the objects. And I mean on a semi-atomic scale, or at least to our fullest abilities. The metal will seep into the bone and spread itself evenly, creating one whole item, though all the particles of bone and metal will still have their individual mana environments. Once that's done, we will then drain the bone particles of their mana and properties and push it into the metal.]

"But just draining the mana won't move the flux."

[Which is why we will activate the sequence I've developed. When the bone is drained, the sequence will activate and begin to bombard the bone particles with mana streams. This bombardment will theoretically bind to the flux momentarily as the flux seeks to attract mana, and once we jerk the mana away, it should pull some flux with it, which will then bind to the steel. This will happen across the entire item, and hopefully it won't take very long.]

"...This sounds like it takes a lot of mana. Didn't the sequencing book say it took at least A level mana?"

[It did, but they didn't have the precision we do. The point of merging the materials is to transfer the flux on a small scale. It also allows us to divide the workload, easing the pressure on your soul.]

"Will we use Aegis?"

[Yes. In fact, I was planning on using his particle body to integrate along with the steel and assist.]

"Fun. Hear that Aegis?"

"Indeed my lord. I am happy to be of use."

Aegis came out from under his clothes and conglomerated into his humanoid form. He bowed to Dream like a butler.

"Then let's get started. I have today, and I don't plan to waste it. Begin the merge."

[Understood.]

Mana began streaming from both Dream and Aegis and filled the steel and the bone. As she said, two different environments were created and bound to the items. This served to assign the flux to the mana, which would help them when attempting to pull the flux from the bone.

Mana circuits were also made in the bone and steel. The circuits were bound to each item's environment. When that was done, the steel began to envelop the bone. The circuits were then attached to each other, allowing the environments to affect the other. Sophia then began to seep the metal into the shin bone. Aegis also began to seep in along with the steel. The bone soon became indiscernible as it was separated into particles and mixed. 

[Now, time for the sequence.]

The next moment, mana burst forth from Dream and Aegis. All around him, lines and webs were formed like spider silk and began to attach themselves to the bone-metal. Thousands of short strings were made and extended from the bone like an acupuncture patient. After, a layer of mana was made and coated the strings in a sphere. What was left was a globe made of strings and a bone within it. But that was just the start. 

Thousands of more strings were created and began to create their own globes outside of the main one. Once they were finished, they created a connection between them and the main globe as well as each other. They created a network, and each string held huge amounts of data.

This globe system worked just like the mana circle system, except 3-dimensional. Each string was like a rune and held bits of information, and the globe was what connected them all together. Altogether it made an extensive program. Just looking at it from the outside, it was like somebody stuffed a glass ball full of steel wool. It was messy and looked unorganized with all the knots and twists, but each string had their purpose, and everything was put together in a very specific way. 

But one globe wasn't enough to hold all the data Sophia needed to input, so she made several and connected them. It was a network of programs all connected to the central globe. Each globe also held large amounts of mana. 

After she had made 8 globes and connected them to the central globe around the bone, Sophia began to activate the sequence. Mana began to fluctuate and move between all the globes. And like a precision surgery, the strings began moving through the bone particles and remove its mana.

When the bone particles had their mana drained and taken over by the strings, they then began to bombard the particles. Millions of mana jabs happened across the bone particles, and Sophia watched them all closely.

<[Magic] has leveled up!>

[It's working! The jabs are pulling away the flux. Though I guess I should slow them down. That would probably be more effective.]

Notifications came in of multiple level-ups as Sophia changed things up during the bombardment, seeing which strategy worked best. She would slow the jabs, speed them up, make all of them jab at once, or maybe in constant succession. All these experiments were carried out across the bone, and she took her time since they were shooting for results right now. 

After nearly two hours of jabbing, they finally stopped.

[Flux transfer complete.]

The bone material was removed by the strings while the steel was fitted together. It was noticeably stronger than before, having reached grade 6.5. 

Dream looked at the steel.

"...I'm happy that we got results, but it cannot take this long. It's questionable whether we'd be able to get the bots to carry this out due to the precision needed. Which means we'd have to do it ourselves."

[I worked on perfecting the sequences during, and it definitely wouldn't take two hours next time. Though it still wouldn't be much faster than an hour. The flux just takes a while to detach from its original matter.]

"*sigh*"

Dream pulled out a chair and sat there in thought. 

"...Flux. Some mysterious substance that we can't see. Though we're able to detect it. Like magnetism. And now we're able to move it directly through mana....I get more and more confused about this stuff as we dig deeper."

Dream sat back, giving up on trying to understand it now. He brought up his hand and formed a globe filled with strings. 

"This on the other hand is very cool. Using it made the magic skill level up 8 times to level 53. It actually passed material magic that's level 51. Are we able to use it for things other than flux transfer?"

[We definitely can. At its basic level it's a system that combines magic, sequencing, and enchanting.]

"Like a universal system of magic. It fits to be the form that my magic skill takes on when being used."

[That's probably why the skill leveled up so much.]

"Probably. Anyway, we should work on getting this little globe system matched up with the magic skill."

[How do you propose we do that?]

"Make a globe that's built for all functions. Don't build it for any specific purpose like before. Basically, I want this skill to manifest itself in this globe."

[Should we use a core?]

"...No. For now, just make the mana globe."

[Something like that will put a lot of stress on your soul. There's nothing to bind the mana to and it'll be difficult maintaining the data formations in the mana.]

"Can we do it?"

[...Yes. We can.]

"Then let's do it."

Dream made it simple. If he could, he would. 

"This'll probably be a good way to level up the skill."

Dream walked over to a wide and empty space and suspended himself in the air. Aegis also came over and enveloped him like a liquid silver bath.

Dream and Sophia began exchanging loads of information. He stayed in the air for nearly an hour with his eyes closed before finally opening them back up.

"...Let's get started."

*Boom*

The next moment, mana began to surge from his body and encircle him like a hamster ball. Strings were formed by the thousand all around him and connected from his body to the globe. 

After several minutes, the central globe was made with him inside. The mana then moved outwards and began forming several dozen smaller globes outside of his hamster ball, all filled with their own strings.

<[Magic] has leveled up!>

<[Magic] has leveled up!>

<[Magic] has leveled up!>

...

Notifications streamed down his vision. He smiled, but the smile quickly turned into gritted teeth.

The huge amount of mana formations placed a heavy toll on his soul. Every time a new globe was formed, it felt like another small tear was made, and the pressure only increased with time as he had to maintain everything. 

"Ugh...damn. I'm definitely not going to be back by tonight."

[Hang in there. We've still got a bit to go.]

As she said that, a dozen more globes were made and connected to the network. At this point, there were already almost a hundred, and they all created a vast web around him. Information was constantly flooded out from his body and into the network, like he was some kind of CPU. 

Feeling the increased load, Dream let out a hot breath and hunkered down for a long ride.

..............

After two hours, Dream had a very ugly face as he floated within the storage area. The network had expanded dozens of times, and the pressure on his soul had begun to approach his breaking point.

Both of them knew this, but they continued as the system was almost completed, as per his determination. But suddenly as they were about to make a new batch of globes, something happened.

*Snap*

[Shit.]

A connection line was suddenly broken between the main globe and a secondary one. This had already happened a few times, but that was earlier when Dream didn't look like he was having a seizure. For it to happen now meant that they wouldn't have the strength to repair such a loaded connection. And therefore, the web, which had expanded to several thousand globes, began falling apart.

*boom* 

*Boom*

*BOOM*

[Aegis!]

"Understood."

Sophia sent a flurry of commands to Aegis as the network began falling apart. 

The amount of mana passing among the network was massive, several times more than Dream's total mana pool. And this network was developed to be the embodiment of Dream's Magic skill. At a fundamental level, the Magic skill was a skill that allowed them to affect the physical world with mana whether it was enchanting, matter manipulation, heating, or anything else Dream did. All of this was encoded in the globe system, but that very system now began to lose control.

Sophia wasn't exactly sure what the consequences of such a system wreaking havoc would entail, but it definitely wouldn't be pretty. And with Dream being so weak in the soul, she didn't want to take any risks, especially with an amount of mana that could definitely kill him. So she had Aegis fly Dream away as fast as possible.

Not only him, but the entire facility began to scramble. Any ships that were carrying materials turned tail and exited, all the robots doing their jobs stopped immediately and flew with the ships. And even the cores of the facility ejected themselves from the factory and flew themselves away.

*BOOM!!*

*BANG!*

Aegis was quick to fly out of the factory with Dream, and he quickly put several miles between them and the factory. But as he was flying into the void of space, it suddenly got very bright.

[...Uh oh.]

"...What?"

As Dream was still conscious he knew everything that happened. Aegis turned around as he was flying and let Dream look at the view.

A massive ball of fire was created where the factory used to be. Though it only lasteed several seconds before disappearing. Nothing was left behind.

"...Is that a nuclear explosion?"

[It is. Congratulations. We finally have proof that we can create nuclear explosions from your magic. Though it came at a huge mana cost and most of the materials we have, but it is proof nonetheless.]

"...Great. What about the radiation?"

[Well it's already passed through you, and I've carried out repairs. It's a good thing your body isn't organic or that could've ended much worse.]

"...*sigh* Wake me up when it's over."

With that, Dream passed out. He didn't feel like thinking about anything anymore.

.............

........

....

"..."

After an unknown amount of time, Dream opened his eyes again. The view that greeted him was the void of space.

"...How long?"

[4 days.]

Dream nodded. He was indeed feeling refreshed. Those four days of rest did him some good.

"So there was a nuclear explosion. What's the damage?"

Dream looked around and began remembering everything. He could already feel another headache coming on.

[Well, basically the entire factory was disintegrated. Luckily, the robots, transport ships, and cores were able to get enough distance before the explosion, so they weren't destroyed.]

"What about all the materials?"

[The robots grabbed as much steel or mithril as they could, which amounted to several hundred pounds. I also grabbed the most valuable materials on the way out, plus the fact that we always kept the best metals on us anyway. Everything else was lost, which amounted to a couple thousand tons overall.]

"...*sigh* At least we didn't lose the good stuff. How long will it take to rebuild?"

Dream just stopped thinking about the losses. He could always mine more.

[Operations have already begun with the bots. In fact, the majority has been rebuilt in these past four days. It'll be finished by the end of the day.]

"Oh, sweet. Where is it?"

Dream looked around and couldn't see anything.

"It'll come up soon. It's just in orbit."

Half an hour later, Dream did indeed see the factory. He could immediately tell how it looked different than before.

[I've modified several things to optimize it since we had to rebuild it from scratch. Needless to say that it'll now process things faster.]

He nodded as he checked out the factory. But before he flew over to enter it, he received a call from Riddick.