Author's Note: Just some crafting in this chapter, so you can skip it to those that don't like that.

----------

Let's go back to just before the battle started between Emmanuel and Winford. Null starts laying out the details of his plan to Aldan to see if his plan is feasible.

“So you're saying use the depleted mana stones along with the mana stones along with a material conductive to mana. Am I hearing this correctly Null?” Aldan asks.

“Correct. What do you think? You've been the only person besides Winford trying to make mana based technology, so you are the best person to ask.”

Aldan's eyes start to shine. He starts to shiver.

“Aldan?” Null asks. 'Was the idea that bad, and he's trying to stop himself from laughing?' Null ponders.

“BRILLLIAAAANT!” Aldan yells out with a smile while jumping up and down.

'Oh.' Null thinks.

Everything that was so cloudy before had suddenly come to light in Aldan's eyes. While he is jumping up and down, Null just looks on with no emotion. Null now knows that he is on the right track.

“I've never even thought of that! Now that I think about it, depleted mana stones don't do any good to anything.” Aldan now calms down and starts thinking seriously.

He paces back and forth with a frown, repeatedly shaking his head and nodding from time to time.

Aldan then says while pacing, “Even if what you said worked, there are many problems. Depleted mana stones are called an environmental hazard for a reason. They will take in and spit out mana erratically. How will you deal with that? Even if you do manage to make a circuit, the depleted mana stone will still pose a problem. That depleted mana stone will even interfere with the circuit that it itself helped create.”

“For now, I do not know, but I do have intermediate in alchemy and blacksmith, so I'll probably figure something out in the long run. I want you to find suitable material for a mana conductor and an optimal configuration for it. Think you do it?” Null asks Aldan.

Aldan nods with a smile and says, “I knew that there was something special about you when I saw you. Let's do this!”

“That's because you're an NPC and I triggered an event by coming here.” Null says under his breath.

“What?”

“Nothing. Let's get started.”

Null then faces the others in the room and says, “You guys go and try to rescue as many people as you can without me. You won't be any help here. Your top priority is your own lives. Don't be a sacrificial hero.”

A voice then interrupts Null. Ferron runs towards Null and says, “Wait. I want in on this.”

“Why? With your meager abilities, you would only get in the way.” Aldan says bluntly to Ferron trying to incite him.

Ferron ignores Aldan's remark and says to Null, “If you're looking for materials, I am a good smelter, and I have loads of materials in my shop. Maybe, I can help.”

“My smelting is at intermediate. Your help is not needed.” Null says to Ferron apathetically.

“We don't have time! You need to find someway to stop the negative effects of the depleted mana stones. How will you do that and smelt at the same time? We need to finish before Winford finds out about this project!”

Null sighs. He knows Ferron is right, but he just wants to deal with as little people as possible if he has to. However, Null knows right now he doesn't have that luxury.

“Fine. Let's get started. Ferron, Aldan, you stay here. Everyone else...”

Null starts assigning people to various jobs. Two assassins are in charge of periodically telling Null what's happening on the outside world. One assassin is left with Null for surveillance. A single warrior is also left with Null. Everyone else goes out to try and rescue more stragglers, so in all, there are a total of five people including Null himself.

“Okay, let's get started. In order for us to figure this out, Winford's robots hold the key. Aldan, first tell me everything you know about Winford's robots.”

Aldan holds his chin in thought and says, “Well... First off, they are pretty much immune to lightning attacks.”

Null thinks about this. 'Immune to lightning attacks? That's odd. Usually electronic equipment is very fragile when hit by large pulses of electricity. Either the robots have sufficient protection against lightning attacks, or the robots do not run on electricity at all. This wouldn't make sense to just make the robots be super immune to electric attacks, because lightning mages in this city are relatively rare.'

Null nods. “Okay. Continue.”

“Hmmm... Oh! What you mentioned before about robots dropping mana stones and depleted stones.”

“Anything else?”

“That's all I can remember.” Aldan says.

“Ferron, what about you?”

“Barely know anything about em'. That's outta my field of expertise.” Ferron says.

“I always thought they had dropped depleted mana stones due to bad luck. Everybody else assumed so too. No one knows how to stop their horrible effects so we just buried them deep inside the earth where their damage could be minimized.

If what you say is true and they do need the depleted mana stones, how are the robots not affected by the depleted mana stones? Too bad the robots disappear when you kill them. I would love to study them.” Aldan says.

“Alright. I'm about to start the experiment. Aldan, bring out the depleted mana stone.” Null tells him.

“Okay.”

Aldan puts on a suit reminiscent of old hazmat suits worn during the 30's. Those suits are currently the best thing capable of minimizing the effects of the depleted mana stones, but even they do not work that well against them. However, it's good enough to the point where the suits can barely handle the stones.

Aldan goes to a storage area and picks up a miniature depleted mana stone with tongs. The miniature depleted mana stones are far easier to deal with than a full sized one, so they will use these for their experiments. Next, Null places a miniature mana stone on the floor, far away from the depleted mana stone so that they have very little interference with each other.

“Okay, first test. I will use the mana from my ink hand to see if it works.” Null tells Aldan.

“Ah! Right! Ink from the Ink Hand technique is a great conductor for mana!” Aldan thinks excited.

Null places a finger on the mana stone. An ink line emerges from Null's finger. The ink line travels across the floor until it connects to the depleted mana stone. Null then quickly steps back in order to see what kind of effect this will have.

What happens after Null moves happens near instantaneously. The mana is drawn out of the mana stone towards the depleted mana stone using the ink line as the path the mana is pulled through. The originally black line starts glowing light blue.

At first it looks like a success, but problems soon start arising. So much mana is being pulled out, that the vast majority of the mana starts leaking out of the ink line. It looks as if a glowing blue mist is growing out that ink line. Shortly afterwards, the ink line stops growing. The mana was pulled out of that mana stone, and while it hasn't turned into a depleted mana stone yet, it's very close to being one.

'So it didn't work.' Null thinks.

To Null, this had looked like a failure, but to Aldan, his reaction was completely different. He was smiling from ear to ear and running around excited.

“You were right Null! A circuit can be made with a mana stone and a depleted mana stone! This is a huge first step!” Aldan yells out with joy.

“Alright. Now that we confirmed it, I'll find a way to deal with the depleted mana stones. Aldan, you find a suitable material for the circuits. Ferron, smelt different materials for us to use.”

“Okay!” Aldan says with a determined expression.

“This is gonna be fun.” Ferron comments with a smile.

They soon get to work. Null wears the hazmat that protects somewhat against the depleted mana stones. He keeps using the skill Potion Creation to find a way to deal with the depleted mana stones, but he kept ending up short. Every once in a while, Null has to take a break from the depleted mana stone in order for his mana to not all be sucked out.

Ferron was busy refining and purifying different ores that he had stored in his workshop and brought with him. He mixes different metals into differing ratios, trying to make a compound that could hold the mana without it leaking out. Compounds that do better are kept and experimented on. Compounds that do worse are discarded.

Soon, a knock in a specific sequence was heard. Only Null's group knows about this knock sequence. Null did this to differentiate his people from anybody else. If you were one of Null's people, he will let you in. If you weren't he would not, no matter who you were. What they were working on is supposed to be top secret. If Winford found out, he would not hesitate to kill them all.

“Come in.” Null says.

Who greets him is one of the assassins that was sent to tell Null what was going on.

“What's the situation outside?” Null asks the assassin.

The assassin takes a deep breath and then sighs. He then says with melancholy, “Emmanuel... Lost.”

This makes everyone stop what they are doing at look to the assassin in shock. Aldan had dropped his tongs. Ferron's mouth opens wide while he spills a mixture he was working on on the floor. Null has no change in expression.

“You sure that this wasn't someone that looked like Emmanuel?” Ferron asks in astonishment.

“No, it was him.” That assassin says.

“But, this is impossible! How could he lose!? He is the most powerful person in this city!” Aldan says in shock.

“No way that he lost.” Ferron also expresses doubt. “That man has the Transmutation Creation ability. His powers are only limited by his imagination. He also has the largest mana capacity I've ever seen in anyone. Are you telling me he lost?”

The assassin speaks. “Of course, Emmanuel had Winford on the run at first. Winford could barely do anything to him, but once Winford's robots came into play, Emmanuel kept on fighting until his mana was exhausted.”

“So he was mobbed. Of course.” Ferron says with a hint of frustration. “I'll be honest. This is a huge shock to me. I honestly do not know what we are going to do. Do you all think we can do something Emmanuel himself couldn't do?”

Everyone is silent on this question. Just when Null was about to go back to what he was doing, another knock is heard. When Null let's the person in, he finds that it's the other assassin. He's with the other people Null sent out to help other people.

“Null, I have a report.”

“Is it about that librarian guy losing? If so, I've already heard it.” Null says.

“No, it's not that. Winford is starting his campaign. He's taking over Gnosia! He's sending his robots to take over Gnosia one building at a time.”

“Huh.” Null says.

“I have more to report.”

“Oh? What?” Null asks.

“The civilians are forced to swear allegiance to Winford and denounce the librarian founder. If they took part in the war, then they are imprisoned. Once the person is imprisoned, shackles with depleted mana stones are put on them so that their mana will stay drained. Also, the ministers with Claris along with her team have holed themselves in the defense system. They haven't been captured, but they are effectively trapped.”

Null thinks about what to do next. 'They're just imprisoning them? Well, that's fine. If that's the case, we can just hide and take our time with this project. There's no rush. Claris? I don't even know who that is. The ministers? Who cares?'

Anyone who is not a threat to Null or hasn't contributed to his various traumas is almost always instantly forgotten about.

“There's one other thing.” The assassin says.

“Still more? What?” Null asks.

“Emmanuel is scheduled to be executed in two weeks.”

“What!?” Everyone there except Null gasps.

“Oh. Well, that's not our problem.” Null says.

They all look at Null in shock.

“What are you saying!?” Aldan says yelling at Null.

“What? You think of me a saint that has to rescue every random person? Many people have died because of Winford's coup d'etat. You think just because that librarian guy is a bit more powerful than them that he's special to me? All people are the same in my eyes. I won't give that guy any special treatment just because he's powerful.” Null says bluntly.

Everyone is speechless listening to Null's words. Ferron then responds to Null.

“If Emmanuel dies without a librarian inheriting his will, the library that's the foundation of this city will disappear!”

“Hmmm. That does sound like a problem. Maybe we should rescue him. Well, nothing we can do right now.” Null responds with a shrug.

“Null, for thousands of years, the existence of the library from the founder has been tied to the library. We actually don't know what will happen. If Emmanuel dies, that library would probably choose a new guardian. It may even be you. If that were to happen, you would never be able to leave Gnosia again.” Aldan says.

“We have to rescue that librarian by any means necessary!” Null yells out.

'This guy is so easy to figure out.' Aldan, Ferron, and everyone else thinks deadpanned.

Aldan had said a lie, but he has pretty much figured out Null out by now.

'Two weeks huh? Tomorrow's a Friday. One day in the real world is five days in New Reality. I've lucked out this time.'

“Are all foreigners like you?” Ferron asks looking at Null with pity.

“I wouldn't know. I don't hang around with any of them. Well, except for that horrifying month I spent with Cici.”

“Oh? Cici? Is that a girl?” Aldan asks curious.

“Yeah. What of it?”

“And it was just the two of you?” Aldan nosily asks.

“This conversation ends now.” Null says staring at Aldan as if daring him to say something else.

“I have another report.” The assassin says.

“There's no end to this is there? Are we going to be here a while? What?” Null asks.

“Any resistance that is found, is swarmed like robots just like how Emmanuel was swarmed. We cannot be found no matter what. If Emmanuel himself couldn't deal with that, what could we possibly do?”

'That does sound like a problem.' Null thinks to himself.

“I have more to report.” The assassin says.

“Okay. Enough of this shtick. Could you just tell me whats need to be said and be done with this?” Null asks exasperated.

The assassin nods.

“Do you really mean it this time?” Null asks.

The assassin nods again.

Null does a sigh of relief and asks, “Okay. What is it?”

“The scouting robots are on their way here.”

“...You could've mentioned that first!” Null yells out in frustration.

They hear the buzzing of the flying robot drones as soon as Null yells this out. They are the scouting robots Null had defeated before from the people who were following him. The robots are weak, but they can summon other robots to their location even if destroyed.

'Dammit.' Null thinks looking at that assassin with daggers in his eyes.

The robots fly to where Null and the others are hiding. It looks around and scan the room. When it doesn't find anything, it soon leaves.

The sound of a technique being dropped is heard. Null and the others start reappearing in a corner of the room. They were blurry until their images started to solidify. All the assassins had done a group stealth technique to make themselves not able to be seen. It was a close call. Any later and they would've been discovered.

Null wipes his forehead that was covered in sweat. He then makes a decision.

“Everyone.” Null says.

Everyone looks at Null and prepares to listen to what he's about to say.

“Gnosia is no longer safe. There's no way we can finish our project on time to rescue everyone if we constantly have to split our attention on the project and the robots. We're leaving Gnosia.”

“Leave? Gnosia?”

“We're not allowed to leave Gnosia.”

“The only way we can leave is with permission.”

“Permission from whom?” Null asks. “The people who have already been captured in prison? We have three choices. It's either leave Gnosia to develop the technology to help rescue that librarian, stay here and get discovered by Winford and be swarmed by his robots the librarian guy himself couldn't beat, or do a suicide rush to find where the prisoners are being held while being surrounded by hundreds of robots and eventually killed. I won't even help you if you decide on the last one. It's your choice. Choose.”

After a long silence, everyone there nods, agreeing with Null's first choice.

“Good. We'll have to sneak out without being seen.” Says Null.

“Leave that to us Null. Stealth is what we specialize in.” An assassin tells Null.

They soon leave the building that they're in, careful as to not alert anyone to their location. It took a while for them to escape, having to take long routes round to avoid detection. There were some close calls while trying to leave.

One of the robots even found them. Null swiftly destroyed the robot before it could alert any others. They left the area quickly due to the robot signal disappearing, alerting other robots that something was wrong. Soon, they reached the edge of the wall where now, Winford's underlings were guarding. They bypass them and soon leave out of Gnosia.

They look out at the vast expanse of land in awe. Most of them had only known buildings their entire lives.

“I've never left Gnosia before.” Aldan says nervously.

“Haha, you tinkerers are so soft. I've left Gnosia many times.” Ferron says laughing and bragging.

Null then leaves with the others follow him. While they left, they went through Gnosia's farmland located outside the city. They gathered food from here and quickly left. They then start looking for a suitable shelter to hide out in. After a few hours of walking, it was then that Null noticed that something in his inventory was pulsating and vibrating.

'What the? Oh god Ptah if this is one of your practical jokes...' Null thinks with slight anger showing on his face.

He looks in his inventory and sees the mystery book vibrating and glowing.

'Oh thank god!' Null breathes a sigh of relief. 'But wait. What could cause this book to react like this?'

He does Transmutation Circle Activation on the circle on the mystery book, but it still points to Gnosia. He figures that something set the book off, but he'll have to search himself to find it. They were out looking for several hours when Null found something strange when his mana bounced off of something.

'Something that absorbed most of my mana?' Null thinks.

When he makes it to that location that had absorbed his mana, he sees a cave. Null goes into the cave with the others following him. The cave appeared ordinary, with no distinguishing features. Soon however, the cave path turned into something akin to a hallway. It was clear that this was a man made structure.

“Rooooar!”

Ferron is surprised when he sees the kinds of monsters that are located here.

“This is the Red Furred Rhinoceros! Even the lowest leveled one is in the level 400's! It should be in the Dread Forest! What's it doing here, much less in a cave!?” Ferron yells out shivering and slowly stepping back.

The rhinos start charging towards the intruders. One of the assassins thought he could dodge, but he ended up being skewered by a rhinoceros's horn. It was like an infant going against a bulldozer. He had no chance. People were yelling out in panic. Another person is quickly killed in front of someone.

“We have to get out of here! We'll all be killed!” Someone yells out.

They try to run, but they can do nothing against these rhinos. Even the assassins who specialize in speed look like snails in comparison to the rhinos. Everyone sees their allies fall one by one. Almost everyone starts to panic.

Null however was not perturbed in the slightest, not even flinching at the massacre occuring before him. He walks a leisurely stroll, closing his eyes from the sights around him. While everyone is panicking trying to escape, Null stabs his gauntlets into a section of the wall. A shattering sound is heard.

All the rhinoceros that were killing everyone start to vanish. Null had stabbed into a section of wall that was responsible for the illusions. The people quickly return to their senses. People look around dazed, surprised to see people they had thought died walking around fine.

“I thought you died!”

“I thought you were dead!”

“I saw you being impaled with my own eyes! How do you have no wounds?!”

“Does that mean what we saw wasn't real?”

While everyone confirms with one another that they're alright, Null walks further into the cave. What he sees surprises him. There's a transmutation circle on a door, although it's much simpler than the transmutation circle on the mystery book Null has with him.

It's just a circle with a square inscribed in it. The door the circle is on looks like it has been frozen in time. It's made from a material Null is not familiar with.

“Oh? A transmutation circle?” Aldan asks.

“Even if one of us could bond with it, it would take a while for that to happen.” A warrior says.

“Lemme try bringing the door down.” Ferron says taking out his hammer.

He raises up his hammer and swings down at the door with all his might. Dust flies in the air in the aftermath. When the dust cloud clears, everyone sees that not even a small dent had been made.

“Wow. Such a sucky blacksmith if I do say so myself.” Aldan says chuckling.

“Like you could do any better you pathetic tinkerer!” Ferron yells back at Aldan.

“Let us try.” A warriors says readying his own weapon.

They do the same thing Ferron attempted and had attacked the door at the same time. Even though the warriors were stronger, and there were more of them, their results were the same as Ferron.

The few mages there also try, but their results weren't any better.

Null waits there patiently for them to finish, not in any kind of rush. When they're done, he walks to the door and places his hand on the circle.

“Transmutation Circle Activation!” Null yells out.

The circle on the door starts glowing a light blue. The door that the circle is on then starts raising up. This causes surprise among everyone.

'Wow. The concentration of mana in this room is far higher than outside. This feels so refreshing. Wonder what caused this.' Null thinks.

“Huh? You know the transmutation circle skills?” Ferron asks surprised.

“Oh? You didn't know? Why were you following me in the first place then?” Null asks.

“Because you're fairly powerful! Wow. We have a second Emmanuel among us!” Ferron says in awe.

“I only followed you because of orders. I wasn't that impressed with you before, what with your cold attitude, but you're really starting to win me over.” A warrior says to Null.

'Like I care.' Thought Null.

People to sigh in praise and give Null his accolades, but all of this causes Null to frown. He's not used to people praising him. It makes him feel feelings that are too unfamiliar to him.

Null soon walks on ahead, trying to avoid their praises. When he makes it inside the door, his book starts to glow. Transmutation circles all around the room start to glow. The lights from the circles gather upon Null's bag. Null then pulls out the mystery book, as he believes this is what the transmutation circles are signaling to him. A message is written down on the book.

When the message is complete, it says,

“Greetings to whom it may concern. If you're reading this, congratulations! You're on the right track! This is something I consider just a lowly supply closet. This is my lowest ranked one! I have many scattered throughout the world. Compared to other things I have, what is here is considered nothing. Do try and find my other hiding places. I'm sure you'll like what you find.”

Null finishes reading the message. It's then that he looks around. Different expensive looking ores, alchemy ingredients, and even mana stones among other things are found all throughout this huge room. Everyone starts looking around amazed.

'Looks like we no longer have to worry about supplies for the project.' Null thinks to himself.

“Null, you're amazing!”

“It's too bad Null couldn't stay with us. We'd be rich within a month.”

Null ignores everyone and looks at everything with his Identify.

'Most of the alchemy ingredients have expired. I'll hold on to them for now. There's still a few I can use. The ores all look very good. Okay. I can work with this.'

“We'll stay here until the day before Emmanuel's scheduled execution.” Null says to everyone.

“At first I thought it was hopeless, and we would be needlessly running to our deaths, but now you fill me with hope.”

'I'm sure that most of you will still probably die.' Null thinks in his mind.

They soon start on their respective projects. Aldan still works on finding a suitable circuit, Ferron smelts the ores in the room, and Null uses different materials for the depleted mana stone and tests what works.

“There's some really good stuff in these ores.” Ferron says. “There's some mithril, some dafernite, some mana rich iron, and other things. We really hit the jackpot!”

Like this, they work ceaselessly, only stopping for rest. Around one week later, Aldan makes a huge breakthrough in finding a suitable material for mana circuitry.

“Okay. Now starting test #427. Compound that's 4 parts mithril, 2 parts black iron, 1 part dolomite. Other miscellaneous chemicals. Starting now.”

Once the wire connected the two parts, something incredible happens. During this week of testing, Alford was used to seeing similar things happening: The circuit would glow, but then huge amounts of mana would leak out. This time, something different was happening.

The mana glowed inside the circuit just as before. The mana tried to leak out, but it was being kept at bay. This would be around the time when the mana would start to leak out, but it strangely didn't this time. Aldan had successfully found the compound to contain mana. Just as when he was about to celebrate, the mana starts to act strangely.

Since there was so much mana trying to fit inside such a tiny wire, and none of the mana could escape, something had to give. All the mana condensed and changed form.

A buzzing sound is heard The mana had turned electric like, although it wasn't true electricity. Aldan had rediscovered mana electricity.

This time, there was no celebrations from Aldan. He looked at the mana electricity and tears were streaming down his eyes. All those years of being called a crackpot due to Winford, all those years of being mocked, and now he had finally succeeded. However, that silence didn't last long.

“NULL! NUUULLLLLLL!”

“What?” Null responds annoyed.

Aldan excitedly points at what he created.

“Huh.” Null says simply.

'Looks like we're making progress. Good.' Null thinks to himself.

Null then went back to what he was doing.

“NUUULLLL! NUUUULLLLLLLL!”

“What?” Null responds clearly irritated.

“The mana electricity doesn't shock at all! Look! I can touch it and it won't affect me! Maybe since the robots are immune to electricity, we're immune to mana electricity! This mana electricity could be their weakness! So intriguing!”

“Huh.” Null says, happy that Aldan discovered what he had always wanted to discover, but annoyed at his antics.

Aldan does more tests on the mana electricity. He coils the wire into a spiral shape and connects the mana stones to each end. What Aldan is trying to see is if a magnet can be generated by going through wire just like normal electricity.

Aldan holds up a piece of iron next to the coiled wire. Nothing happens when he places the iron next to the wire. However, when he places the new metal he invented that holds mana next to the wire, the coiled wire attracts it. Aldan nods and writes down his results.

A few days pass from when Aldan had discovered mana electricity. Null furrows his brows contemplating something. The Potion Creation skill tells him that this is the closest he can make it to the true potion for the depleted mana crystals.

He has mixed hundreds of potions, but they had all ended in failure. He's so close, yet still can't figure out what's missing. Even the Ingredient Finder technique just does nothing when he activates the technique.

'What am I missing?'

Null does the Ingredient Finder skill again. It was then that he noticed. The transmutation circles along the walls and ceilings start to glow.

'That doesn't make any sense. The Ingredient Finder skill shouldn't work on circles or arrays. Why does it keep doing that? Those circles should just be for passing on a message right?'

It was then that it all came to Null.

'Oooh!'

Null places his finger inside the incomplete potion.

“Ink Hand!”

The mixture in the bowl starts to react. The mixture in the bowl starts to float in the air and starts revolving around Null. The ink then enters Null's body.

'What was that?' Null thinks kind of afraid.

Null looks on his body. Not a speck of ink could be seen. Null gets a hunch. He places a finger on the depleted mana stone.

“Ink Hand!”

Ink covers the mana stone. What surprises Null is that the mana that was being sucked from him had stopped. Null eyes open wide. He had done something not even Emmanuel had been able to do.

'Huh. So now I can change the property of my ink to conduct mana or block it. Neat.'

When Null tells the others about what he has done, Aldan gets excited. He has been testing the properties of his mana electricity and further refining the circuit to be more efficient, but if you can't find a way to deal with the depleted mana stone, it will all be for naught.

They soon move onto the next stage. When they connected the covered depleted mana stone with the wire Ferron had developed, the circuit was working fine, delivering the mana electricity as intended, but a problem soon arises. The depleted mana stone that was covered with the mana inhibiting ink had exploded.

'Hmmm. Needs some sort of opening while the stones are being connected.' Null thinks to himself.

They try again. With the small opening in the depleted mana stone, the mana flows out smoothly from the depleted mana stone.

Time passes on as Aldan, Null, and Ferron take care of all the kinks present in the design. It took a long time, but the final configuration was completed. Aldan had found the most optimal circuit design, Ferron had developed the best wire, and Null had developed a way to deal with the depleted mana stone. They then build a complete circuit.

For recreating the technology that the librarian founder discovered, +100 knowledge.

“We did it!” Aldan says jumping up and down.

Null nods. “Now the hard part is done. Now we need to make weapons. Lot's of weapons. Aldan, you're in charge of this.”

Ferron says, “Haha my favorite part! I'll make the base, Aldan will do the wiring. This will be fun!”

“I'll help do the smelting somewhere else. I'll bring the smelted materials over here. I'll also mark the depleted mana stones. Unless there's an emergency, don't bother me.” Null says as he walks away.

He had already reached his tolerance level on being around others long ago. He only stuck around because he had to be there to help. Now that Null was no longer needed, he quickly left.

“That guy has issues.” Ferron said out loud as soon as Null left.

The others all nod in agreement. Time quickly passed. They rushed quickly making as many weapons as they possibly could. Soon, it was the day before Emmanuel's scheduled execution. Null comes out of hiding and walks towards the others. Aldan sees Null and walks towards him with things in hand.

“Null, I made these for you. I couldn't add all the other trinkets in time like your crossbow or needle launchers, but the extendable blades are here. I also made you custom made armor with the same tech. It's extremely crude compared to Winford's tech, and it probably won't last very long, but it will have to do.” Aldan says to Null.

Aldan also gives Null electric mana bombs and other things. “This should help clear out any obstacles in your way.”

Null nods and puts on his armor. He then turns the armor on. The wires on the armor and gauntlets start to glow blue. Null opens a little opening in the depleted mana stone with his improved Ink Hand. Null asked Aldan to put on a switch because he didn't want to waste the mana crystal by leaving it on all the time. When he turns it on, he is surprised.

'I can turn my mana into stats faster than ever before! Thanks to the mana stones, I have 200% more mana too!' Null thinks excited.

Null then turns to everyone.

“Let's go.” Null says to the others.

They all nod and follow him. Well, they all try to follow him, but his new speed is far faster. Null feels it. The mana that he vibrates for dexterity is being aided by the electric mana by exciting his own mana.

The others can't even hope to catch up. He moves so fast, that he can barely see in front of him. He tumbles down and falls. While on the ground, Null soon realizes he'll have to get used to how powerful this armor makes him.

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Author's Note: Next Chapter, Null and the gang return to Gnosia.