29 - 50th birthday

The biggest issue as far as cultivating my void mana capacity was concerned was the cooldown on [Adrenal Moment], which I needed to use [Void Severance Slash], which I needed to break the void barrier, so that I could absorb void mana.

Actually, that was another problem. Even if I made a ship, the void rift wasn't large enough to fit it.

Ah, whatever. I'd deal with that when it got to that. One step at a time, right?

As for the void mana, I needed a strong item to withstand the void mana in order to absorb it, and using mythril items all the time was still too extravagant, since they'd be destroyed afterwards.

I ended up taking out a dragon bone from the dragon skeleton on the treasury's 2nd floor and using that.

Dragon bones were normally over a dozen times stronger than mythril, and this one in particular seemed even stronger than that.

I had stuck the dragon bone in the void rift and took it out, then devoured it with [Gluttonous Limb], but I couldn't digest the actual bone, so I just opened the extended stomach created by [Gluttonous Limb] and took the bone out after each use.

5 years passed like this.

In that time, I also became an array master.

I was already somewhat studied in runecraft, so I managed to reach 10th circle array master in this time.

My VP was currently 2. Make no mistake, this is because I kept on using it. The total amount of void mana I had absorbed was at around 200 VP.

Today was a special day.

I had had a lot of new ideas after learning about arrays.

As I've mentioned previously, using void mana in an array can keep it going strong for 1 teillion years. So, I had been experimenting with the small amount of void mana I had.

Actually, at a certain point, the dragon bones were only bringing back wisps of void mana but I wanted enough to get at least 1 VP every day, so I ended up using multiple dragon bones and having Ixtra cast spells to levitate them and send a bunch of dragon bones in and out of the void rift at once.

Thanks to this, the amount of void mana I was absorbing increased alongside my ability to absorb it.

Today, it was my 5th attempt at inscribing a novel 10th circle array. It was a precursor to an 11th circle array I had come up with.

The [Basic Void Severance Technique] book didn't outline the arrays needed to make a ship that could traverse the void. So, I had been trying to come up with some on my own.

After all, I was now a 10th circle array master. I was qualified to try and come up with my own 11th circle arrays.

However, the 11th circle really was no joke.

The mana cost for both higher circle spells and arrays just kept going up, as expected, but this meant an 11th circle spell or array took a ridiculous amount of void mana, relative to what I had now.

As I've mentioned before, [Void Hazmat] take 10,000 VP to cast. An array of a similar level costs about as much.

All the VP I had absorbed was a fraction of a fraction of that.

Not to mention it would most likely take multiple arrays to make a working ship.

So, that was all to say, since I didn't have the void mana to waste, I'd have to make sure I inscribed and used the array properly the 1st time.

There was no room for mistakes.

So, I had been practicing whenever I could on 10th circle versions of my ideas for 11th circle arrays.

However, this still wasn't enough, since I really just absorbed void mana too slowly. I was hoping I'd get a skill to absorb it fast after all this time, but that hadn't happened.

So, I had come up with a new plan.

And it all depended on this array.

Getting the large mythril plate with an array inscribed on it in place, I channeled my mana into it and activated it. Suddenly, the array let out a blinding light.

When it settled, nothing had happened.

'Alright, that's a good sign. It didn't explode.'

That's right, that was a test run, to see if it would explode just upon startup.

Now, for the real test.

This time, instead of just mana, I infused both my mana and my void mana into it.

Of course, not all of it. Just 0.1 VP.

It took me a while to collect even a small bit of void mana. I would inject just a small bit this time to see if the array worked as intended.

The array lit up again, but this time, it did something.

The small amount of void mana in the array channelled faster and faster, and I slowly started to feel my body become healthier and stronger.

When the array was fully active, my mana was almost fully exhausted just in the atartup time, so I drank a mana potion, but the void mana didn't need to be replaced.

My body was much stronger and lighter than before, even without aura or spells, and I felt vibrant. Slashing myself, I healed faster than before too, and I already healed quite fast in the first place.

With this, I tried using the [Void Severance Slash] while keeping the array active.

It didn't work.

As I thought, I couldn't focus on the compression while actively pumping mana into the array.

So, I took out another large mythril plate from the treasury and set it beside the first.

The arrays interconnected at the edges and the 2nd array fed into the first.

Stepping on top of the 2nd mythril plate amd injecting a bit of mana to start it, it began to automatically absorb my mana and conintunously activate both itself and the 1st mythril plate.

The plates were 1 meter length squares, by the way, like large floor tiles, which is why I was stepping on them.

I stepped off the 2nd mythril plate and back onto the first, but left a giant crate full of high quality mana potions inside on top of the 2nd.

The plate absorbed these on its own and fed the array I was standing on, leaving me with all my mana (after drinking a potion) and all of my focus to use on a [Void Severance Slash].

Slashing out, the void rift opened above me. That's right I slashed above me, so the rift faced the ground, or rather, the array, and the suction force was resisted by the array beneath me. Before the rift could close, the array at my feet started greedily sucking in void mana.

Of course, mythril plates couldn't handle this, but the array strengthed them so they could.

I couldn't do this before since I wasn't a high level array master, but now I could.

Both array plates became loaded with void mana before the rift finally closed.

The arrays on both plates broke and stopped working right as the rift began to close.

Picking up the plates afterwards, I ate them with [Gluttonous Limb] and began to absorb the void mana.

That's right, this was my big idea on how to absorb a lot of void mana. Of course, the dragon bones worked for a bit, but I could only fit about a dozen bones through the rift entrance. That was only enough for ~1 VP's worth.

Now, the two plates were filled with 10 VP worth of void mana, each.

Absorbing the void mana, for the first time in a while it wrecked my body from the inside.

Struggling in pain to absorb it, I was around halfway through the 20 VP of void mana when it suddenly got a lot easier.

Finally.

This was the main reason I prioritized this. Before with the dragon bones, at 1 VP, maybe 2, per day, it would decades to absorb enough VP for one 11th circle spell.

Multiple arrays' worth of void mana would be impossible to collect in my lifetime, even if my current lifespan was around 180 years. That's not to mention that [Void Hazmat] had to be continuously cast.

Now, I could not only gain large amounts of void mana in one day through the mythril plates, and I could always increase the speed past the current one by adding mofe plates, but I could also absorb it all in time, because of what had just happened.

I had finally obtained a skill for void mana absorption.

Since ehat I had previously was [Basic Chaotic Mana Absorption], I didn't know whether to call this the advanced version of that, or something like [Basic Void Mana Absorption].

Eating some compressed mana crystals, the speed was indeed faster than before, so I decided to go with the former.

[Advanced Chaotic Mana Absorption]

With this, I absorbed the rest of the void mana, 10 VP worth, very easily.

It didn't even take an hour.

I inscribed more arrays, used up more mythril plates, and later in the day did it all again.

This time I used 5 mythril plates for 50 VP.

The cost in mythril was ridiculous, but after my clam exploits a while back, I had a stockpile, and Jackal had left me a lot of mythril as well.

And hey, things are meant to be used, aren't they?

Over the next week, I managed to absorb 1000 VP.

It felt amazing.

As I did this, the miniature pocket dimensions inside my blood also continued to expand, allowing for more and more void mana to be absorbed.

After another week, the amount absorbed total had gone up to 3000.

After 2 months, my blood settled down at a staggering absorption rate of 500 VP/20 hours.

I had 25000 VP saved up by now.

That was another thing. Mana recovered naturally, but void mana had to be absorbed. So, once I used it, I would have to slowly build it up again by absorbing from the void.

It was around this time that a special time in my life approached.

On a certain day, my 50th birthday.

Wouldn't it be a perfect birthday present to become an 11th circle array master on your 50th birthday?

I had practiced a few times on the minor arrays inside it, so I was fairly confident.

The only issue was I was almost certaim the mythril plate could not withstand it.

Well, I guess I'd just have to see.

After the inscription was finished, I channeled my void mana into it, fully with not a speck of normal mana in sight.

Void mana was pitch black, and the array lit up with the same black color, like darkest night.

Suddenly, I felt a connection the the array in my mind.

Stepping onto it, I willed it to move, and it did.

I channeled my aura and cast defense spells of the highest circle I could right before it moved, and I only willed it to move slightly, but it still shot straight up at an incredible speed and left me falling onto its surface scrambling not to fall off.

At my fastest, I could break the sound barrier and then some, but this thing was maybe 100 times faster than that.

Getting the hang of the speed, I could just barely control it.

Amping up the speed while I tightly held onto it, I almost fell off once again.

Getting an idea, I slowed down, uncast my defense spells momentarily, and cast [Gluttonous Limb] and used it not to eat the plate, but to hold onto it.

Indeed, that worked wonders.

I held onto the plate above my head as it floated there and used my other hand to grab the other side of the plate.

Learning from the example of [Gluttonous Limb], I changed my aura into a claw shape and dug into the plate, allowing my grip to stay firm. I uncast [Gluttonous Limb] and used my aura to form a claw on the other hand too.

Finally, I recast my defensive magic and sped up the plate again, making sure to keep holding on.

The plate sped forth, and I held onto it desperately as it approached mach 200.

300.

500.

When it was at mach 1000, or 1 million km/hour, it finally stopped speeding up.

This was the power of a void mana array, also called a grand array.

I could use this to travel at mach 1000 for a trillion years, if I wanted, but I decided to stop for now.

For reference, that was a bit over 1 million km/h, or thereabouts.

This was stupid fast, but it wasn't enough to traverse the void.

The average distance between universes in the void was over a hundred trillion km.

I didn't know what lightyears were at this time, but as the narrator, I'll speak in lightyears now to make the numbers more manageable.

This was around a dozen lightyears.

It's important to remember that universes had a different spacetime inside and outside themselves. The actual "length" of a universe when looked at from the void could range from its real size, if it was small, to a maximum of 100,000 kilometers.

Larger than that, and there was a size dilation around the outside of the universe, making it only look so big from outside.

There were exceptions to this of course.

Anyhow, mach 1000 was ~0.1% the speed of light. It wasn't fast enough.

However, I was absolutely not confident in making the plate go any faster, or, uh...holding onto to it if it did.

I needed a way to cross an astronomical distance in a heartbeat. A teleportation of some kind, something that bent space. Something that warped space.

A warp....something.

Actually, the book described that too. It was called a warp drive. The book had no arrays to teach but taught me all about the extra details. It was pretty annoying.

I understood the basic premise of a warp drive, but I didn't have a clue as to how I would make one.

A ship needed:

-the speed, which I now had

-defense, which the plates had

-size, which was just a matter of more mythril plates inscribed with grand arrays

-storage, for which I had a kilometer of treasury space left so that wasn't an issue

-a crew, which I was enough for

-fuel, which the void mana would be enough for for a trillion years

-design, which was a trivial problem

-food and living supplies, which were also trivial problems

-any other minor, trivial problem.

-and the ability to reach the destination.

I just needed the last part. The warp drive. It was the missing piece. Everything else was not a problem.

I had worked hard and finally managed to solve the problem of not having enough void mana, and had become an 11th circle array master. It was even my 50th birthday.

I was so close, I could feel victory in my grasp.

I really wanted to see what other realms were like. Perhaps because I had lived a nomadic life for so long, I had become fond of travel and adventure. I wanted to go to new places and see what they had to show me.

Even just staying cooped up in this large courtyard and 3 story house I bought had become tiresome for me.

I had to get out there and experience more of life, as fast as possible.

One way or another, I had to get my hands on a warp drive.