MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

Chapter 1834: Experimentation

"Three years..." she muttered to herself.

"If I chose to focus on optimizing the Basic Ether Gathering Technique for three months straight instead of having those months spaced out over three years..."

"Would I have reached the limit?"

As the question first came to mind, Veradine immediately thought that she would have probably reached the technique’s limit even if she were to do the former.

Though, as she gave the question a bit more thought, her thoughts slowly began to head in the opposite direction.

’I’d probably be close to the limit, but I still wouldn’t really be there,’ she thought, thinking about how the information the lab shared with her about the Basic Ether Gathering Technique gave her timely inspiration during those months.

Of course, even if she were given the opportunity to go back in time and choose between the two options, she would still choose to space out the months even without the information from the lab.

Why?

Because during those months, she had also begun to form the basic framework for what she felt would eventually turn into her own brand new Ether Gathering Technique.

"By the end of the first year, I was able to successfully push the technique’s boost to 200%, firmly making it a Low-grade Class B technique," she said as she began to think back to her progress.

"After that, I decided that I would swap to the technique I optimized by the end of every year even if its boost didn’t go up."

"Thankfully, my ability as a Scholar didn’t let me down."

As those words left her mouth, a faint smile appeared on her face as she thought about the progress she made during the next couple of years.

Surprisingly, the increments were similar to the first year, with the Basic Ether Gathering Technique giving a 240% boost by the end of the second year.

Though, once she had gotten to this point, she felt like she had squeezed out most of the potential of the technique with her current ability.

Yet, on a whim, she decided to try and optimize the technique one last time before the third year ended.

And now that she looked back at it, she felt glad that she had gone through with that spur of the moment decision.

That’s because the technique went up by another 40% in terms of its boost to efficacy, effectively transforming the Basic Ether Gathering Technique into a technique that was only one grade away from being considered a true Class A Ether Gathering Technique.

"Speaking of which, now’s a good opportunity to see if I can squeeze a bit more out of the technique before really giving up on it."

With that in mind, Veradine closed her eyes as she began to operate the Basic Ether Gathering Technique.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

To no surprise, the technique was now able to gather far more ether from the environment compared to how the technique was three years ago.

In fact, the current Basic Ether Gathering Technique now gave her ability to gather over one ether strand every second, which was a great improvement from how it was before.

Then again, even though this improvement had brought Veradine great joy in the past, she did not have time to think about it and appreciate it.

After all, she was on the hunt for any remaining flaws in the technique that she could fix and optimize.

Sadly, even after spending an entire week on the endeavor, Veradine could not fix any flaw in the technique whatsoever.

Or at least, her abilities as a Scholar and Sage were currently low to see the remaining flaws that still plagued the Basic Ether Gathering Technique.

"I guess pushing it to a Pseudo-Class A technique is my current limit, then."

Though a hint of dissatisfaction could be heard as she said those words, Veradine had already somewhat accepted the fact that she could not improve the technique in her current state.

But of course, whether that remained true in the future was still unknown.

Taking note of the time as she updated herself with the happenings within the research lab, the silver-haired woman took the opportunity to grab a quick bite before adjusting her body and mind for what she would do next.

"Since I’ve basically perfected the Basic Ether Gathering Technique for the meantime, it seems that now is the perfect opportunity to try my hand at making my very own Ether Gathering Technique."

Whoosh!

Closing her eyes once more, she went ahead and activated the Basic Ether Gathering Technique, willing the ether in her body to move according to its instructions.

Focusing her attention on how the technique was capturing and storing ether within her body, a few lines of thought began to appear in Veradine’s mind as she pondered over a better way to do it.

Naturally, she brought up the information she had gathered on other Ether Gathering Techniques at that very moment, referencing the points that allowed those techniques to stand above the Basic Ether Gathering Technique in efficacy.

Then, one by one, she replaced the Basic Ether Gathering Technique’s methodology with the methodology of the other techniques, making sure that the flaws she had fixed on the Basic Ether Gathering Technique wouldn’t come undone in the process.

At first, her attempts at incorporating her fixes on other techniques caused the efficacy of those techniques to reduce.

However, even though the great reduction in the techniques’ efficacies would demoralize any other person from continuing to attempt it, Veradine continued to proceed with her experiments with utter calmness.

’It’s just the first attempt,’ she muttered to herself. ’There’s bound to be some mistakes here and there.’

’I just have to make sure that I keep those mistakes in mind and stop them from happening in the future.’

With that mindset, Veradine’s proficiency with merging the various Ether Gathering Techniques slowly began to improve.

By the time another week had passed, she had reached a point where the boost that the techniques gave were similar to their levels from before.

Taking that outcome as a sign that she was heading in the right direction, she continued to refine the fusion between the methodologies, as well as the improvements she had originally made to the Basic Ether Gathering Technique.

Eventually, thanks to her unwavering spirit and her ability as a Scholar, she was finally able to make the first Ether Gathering Technique that combined the best of both worlds.

A technique that gave a boost of 300% to one’s ether gathering rate.

But of course, Veradine wasn’t satisfied within that outcome.

After all, she had just made her first breakthrough past the limit that plagued the Basic Ether Gathering Technique.

Considering how she had only swapped one methodology for another so far, she still had a long way to go.

And so, she continued to experiment.

And experiment.

And experiment some more.

At this point, two months had passed ever since Veradine came home from the year-end event, causing the messages she had received from her lab to pile up.

Yet, she ignored all of that as she activated the new Ether Gathering Technique she had just made.

Whoosh!

Feeling the ether gather within her body at a rate far faster than what the Basic Ether Gathering Technique could achieve, Veradine faintly nodded in satisfaction.

"A 400% boost to efficacy," she murmured as she assessed the technique. "It’s definitely better than the ’perfected’ Basic Ether Gathering Technique..."

"...But it’s still not enough."