Absorbing the new system gave him a 1% boost, which brought the total system repair percentage to 29%. He was just 6% away from his goal, and with a little over ten months left to somehow complete it. He was feeling good about his odds, but that would depend on how much the resin still contributed.
The strange crystal had halted his tracks for a while, to the point where Lex even considered taking Jack Daniels help. But when Jack asked the Shadow talons if they knew about the crystal and could reach within it, they told him that while their plane encompassed the crystal as well, there was no way for them to exit the plane anywhere inside of it, not that they would want to anyway.