New Cultivation Technique...

"Obelisk? Mana space?" Aiden knew the meaning of those words, but the context was alien to him. He asked, "isn't this a virtual space?"

"What is virtual space?" Mraz's technological IQ was almost zero, but he explained what he knew, "it is mana space. It's inside of you."

"Inside me?" Mraz's words confused him more. "What am I? A dimensional beast? How can I have another space inside of me?"

"Huh!" Those words weren't something that Mraz had expected. With a tone of amusement, he said, "to think you know about those rare chaos beasts, you're not as primitive as I thought you were."

'Is there something like a dimensional beast?' Aiden read about it in a fantasy novel, but when Mraz confirmed their existence, Aiden was curious. However, he concentrated on the problem in his hand. He couldn't help asking, "is this space inside me?"

"Where else could it be?" Mraz couldn't help but look at Aiden in confusion. "Even if you know about those rare beasts, you don't even know about such basic knowledge? Is it because you are from a primitive species, or are you that dumb?"

The corner of his lips twitched a little, but Aiden ignored the little bird's insult. He asked, "Is that in my consciousness?"

"Of course. Where else could it be?" Mraz was getting a little irritated with those basic questions, so he explained, "Unlike your cultivation technique, the first step of our mana cultivation is to open up the mana space."

"Our?" Aiden wasn't sure what Mraz wanted to say.

"Our means my species, the Ent that you have seen in that primitive plane, even those Oglits. All of them in the higher planes have their own mana space."

"And what's with that pillar?"

"How can I tell if you continue to interrupt me?" Mraz growled as the frown appeared on his bird face.

'Wow! What the hell are you so angry about?' But Aiden chose not to say those words aloud. He waited for Mraz to explain himself.

"Everyone of us has our own mana space, but it is that obelisk that sets us apart." Mraz flew towards it as Aiden followed behind. "If I have to put it in your tongue, then it is your essence. And that thing is at the centre of your mana space."

"So big?" Looking at the 10 meters high obelisk in front of him, Aiden felt that it was too big compared to the tiny essence crystal that he had seen on Earth.

"Big!?" Aiden could feel the disdain in Mraz's voice, "It's puny."

"Said the bird with an essence crystal of the size of a human head." Aiden put forward the fact. Yet it was the laughter of Mraz that greeted him.

"Boy, let me tell you. If it doesn't reduce to powder when you take it out of your mana space, it won't be bigger than a single grain of rice."

'Rice?' Aiden had no intention of believing the words of the little bluebird, but he has no way to prove him wrong. Helplessly, he could only listen to Mraz's mumble.

"Even if I ignore the fact that a child of my species has an open mana space, even at the time of birth, the essence will still be 100 times greater than yours, if not more."

Looking at the ignorant human in front of him, Mraz couldn't hide his smile and said, "Even those puny green, pointed-nosed creatures of the lower plain have a bigger essence than yours."

Aiden could understand that Mraz had every intention of insulting him, but Aiden could not grasp the head or tail of it. To begin with, he had never seen the baby of a bluebird, much less the full extent of the power of it or Mraz.

And he didn't know what those puny, green, pointed-nosed creatures were. But he didn't dare to ask, feeling that they might be diverted from the main subject again.

"Okay, I understand." The only thing he could do is accept his defeat. He said, "I understand it is small, but what does it do?"

Looking at Aiden, Mraz snorted as he said, "it converts any type of mana into your mana, i.e. ice mana."

'What? Is it just a converter?' However, Aiden had chosen not to say it out loud. Seeing that Aiden couldn't understand what he was saying, Mraz explained.

"Unlike your primitive cultivation method, we don't store mana inside our body. But as long as there is mana around you, with the obelisk, you will have inexhaustible source mana."

'Oh! An endless source of mana?' It is too good to be true. His brow knotted together as Aiden asked, "If you had an endless supply of mana, how did you die at the hands of the creature of the primitive plane?"

Mraz stared dagger at him. Still, he explained, "My essence was destroyed before I reached the plane. And if it weren't for that, I wouldn't have died if millions of your primitive species would have attacked me."

"Even with the sky-piercing obelisk and the endless amount of mana, you still have your essence get destroyed?" Aiden's voice was laced with sarcasm, however, he was genuinely curious.

"You don't need to know that." Mraz had no intention of replying. Looking at the obelisk, he said, "What you have here is an empty canvas. And without a magic circle, you will be the same as those mana-less creatures of the primitive plane."

'Magic circle?' thinking about it, Aiden sighed in his heart. It was another term that he couldn't understand. He was already reaching the limit of his understanding.

Realizing that Aiden did not understand the so-called magic circle, Mraz said, "You need to derive a magic circle in the mana space using your essence. The magic spell that your magic circle is derived from will act as an innate spell."

"As long as your essence is intact, you can activate your innate spell without using any mana." Mraz turned towards Aiden and asked, "So do you have any knowledge of the magic circle?"

***************

While Aiden was learning about the cultivation techniques, Gen. Lucas was shaking his head.

"What is that little shit is up to? Why isn't he receiving the call?" His loud curse shocked his assistant.

"Sir, maybe he's sleeping."

"Huh!" Lucas slammed his fist on the table and shouted, "Get out!" And the assistant left the room without hesitation.

"Who would have thought they would call for another meeting, so soon?" Once again, Lucas put on the helmet.

As soon as he came out of the meeting with the director, he was notified that there will be another meeting about the project within half an hour. Lucas was trying his best to contact Aiden, yet there was no result.

He entered his authorization code with a big sigh and entered the meeting room. It wasn't much different from the last time. There were three rows in the room, and his seat was still beside Ivan. This time, however, Ivan did not greet him.

Not long after the same project head appeared in front of the giant screen. After greeting everyone, he started as the data behind the screen changed.

Yet new data put a frown on Lucas' face. 'Could it be the work of the director?' Lucas couldn't turn back to look at him, so he waited for the project head to tell them about it.

"As you can see, we have received the report of the project from captain Lyla. And it is confirmed that the other missions were completed by the first officer Aiden."

"And also we have confirmed that the death of Ex-second officer Levi was because of the attack from the beast called 'The devil'."

As he said it, the last moment of Levi was played on the screen. And after it, the picture of a beast appeared behind him, with a set of data.

"That is an A-graded beast, alright. But what with the element? Wasn't it darkness?" Someone from the director's row drew Lucas' attention towards it.

"Death?" Lucas mumbled. He was as confused as others. It was common knowledge that there were four elements: Wind, Fire, Water and Earth.

Although there are rumours about other types of mana, such as light and darkness, that information was not well known. But the element called 'Death': he was sure that he had never heard of it.

"It was previously recorded under the 'darkness' category, but…" the name of Aiden appeared on the screen as the host spoke. "The first officer Aiden had confirmed the new elements."

"What? Is it some kind of prank?" The voice of a certain director wasn't satisfied with the explanation. "Just because they're allowed to do that, they're not supposed to input anything they wanted. Is 'Death' even an element?"

"Director that is not the case." The host answered, "Unless ESS validates the facts, it will be impossible for the operative to change the database. So according to the logical inputs of the ESS, it's true."

"And Alex?" The voice came from the row of the councilmen.

"It was Aiden, as captain Lyla had reported." The host stopped for a moment, adding, "We could contact both the captain and the Vice-captain. So they are with us." As he spoke, two virtual bodies condensed in front of the screen.