Chapter 112: 111 Research on Mana and Free Energy Elements

Looking at Gro’s consciousness that seemed dead, Richard quickly recalled the content from the “Monroe Chapter” and found no record of a consciousness dying after being pulled out.He looked down at Gro’s physical body again and saw that the heart and breathing had no noticeable changes, maintaining an ordinary state, which puzzled Richard.

Logically, Gro’s current condition should be normal.

After all, when he himself was in the forest, his consciousness had been attacked by the Crystal Skull, and his physical heart had almost exploded with the rapid beating, nothing like Gro’s current smooth rhythm.

Could it be… this was Gro’s normal state when projecting out of body?

Richard couldn’t help but speculate, and then he realized that this seemed to be the only explanation.

But why would this be?

Richard looked towards Gro’s consciousness and saw that it was like a kite at that moment, floating around the room around Gro’s physical body, bound by an invisible string at the neck, being drawn back after drifting a certain distance, the length of the transparent string seemed fixed, unable to stretch or retract.

During this process, various colored light points flew in from outside, entering Gro’s consciousness like fireflies, then coursing through the transparent string into the physical body and dissipating.

Gro was continuously engaging in this process, constantly absorbing light points, constantly losing light points, obviously meditating. This illustrated that Gro was consciously controlling it, just unable to sense the outside world, unable to move freely.

Was this because Gro’s wizard talent was too low, leading to this special situation? Could it be that due to his low talent, Gro’s perception of the external world through his consciousness was greatly limited, and aside from absorbing free energy elements, he could do nothing else?

This was indeed… well, unexpected.

Richard thought.

Originally, he had prepared to greet Gro’s consciousness, but now it seemed unnecessary. In the future, it would be best not to mention this matter either. Otherwise, letting Gro know that his wizard talent was poor to such an extent, who knew what he would think.

Shaking his head slightly, Richard controlled his consciousness to swiftly leave Gro’s bedroom, leave the Palace, and ascend further into the sky.

One hundred meters, two hundred meters, three hundred meters, five hundred meters…

Eventually, Richard ascended nearly a thousand meters into the sky, with Cuijin City below turning into a dim shadow, surrounded by a blanket of silence.

Richard prepared to begin the real task, which was also the main purpose of projecting from the body tonight—studying the true nature of mana.

Looking up, the starry sky was brilliant, with countless stars twinkling like searchlights affixed to the backdrop of the universe, seemingly within reach yet actually unattainable. Richard knew that what was seen was not the stars themselves, but the light they emitted—light that had traveled for tens of thousands, or millions of years.

Floating around were numerous light points of various colors, like swarms of fireflies or seas of light. These were free energy elements, the same as those Gro was absorbing in the palace. Richard thought.

The difference was that Gro’s consciousness was trapped around his physical body, first needing to find a way to draw energy elements from afar to his spiritual body before absorbing them. Richard, on the other hand, could control his consciousness to directly reach densely packed areas of light, quickly absorbing them.

These energy elements were obviously very important, only by successfully absorbing these energy elements into one’s body, storing and melting them into mana within the Magic Origin, could they be used to cast spells, unleashing astonishing destructive power.

And now, Richard wanted to understand what exactly mana was, what the energy elements that could be melted into mana were.

Like many novels that describe “Magic Elements” and “Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi,” or the rumored “True Qi” and “Inner Strength,” they all have high-energy reactions and tremendous power. But how is that actually achieved?

We must know that energy is conserved.

Energy neither comes from nothing nor disappears into nothing, it can only be transferred from one object to another, and one form of energy can be transformed into another.

This is the law concluded from the lifetime research of scientists such as Mayer, Joule, and Helmholtz. If someone were to say that this is meaningless and can easily be overturned, they would definitely be slapped to death by the coffins of these scientists.

Energy conservation cannot be violated, at least not under the existing scientific system. If “Energy Elements” and “Mana” can burst forth with great power, that means they must already possess this energy—the power of spells isn’t generated from nothing but is released in some way through the existing power.

Just as explosives can unleash a powerful force due to their special structure containing a strong internal energy released rapidly when ignited.

Then what about “Energy Elements” and “Mana”? Are they another kind of explosive?

Richard pondered these thoughts as he spread his “Consciousness” in the sky, drawing in large amounts of “Free Energy Elements,” letting them pass through the transparent strip behind his neck into his body, and storing them in the “Magic Origin.”

During this process, Richard seriously felt the changes in the “Energy Elements,” experiencing the reactions within his body. Moments later, Richard looked around at the environment. As he absorbed a large number of “Free Energy Elements,” his surroundings were a bit empty. However, the “Free Energy Elements” from afar were slowly moving over to replenish them. Occasionally in the void, various colored specks of light would emerge from thin air to replace the taken “Free Energy Elements.”

Richard raised his head to gaze at the many brilliant stars in the starry sky, wondering if it was an illusion that, as the light points formed, the stars seemed to flicker.

In that case…

The night was still deep.

In a yard somewhere in Cuijin City, it was exceptionally quiet.

Inside the bedroom of the yard, Richard sat cross-legged on the bed and opened his eyes. Then he stood up and walked out of the room.

In the living room outside, Pandora was leaning against a wooden chair, with her eyes half-closed, not knowing whether she was sleeping or daydreaming.

Richard’s eyes sparkled, and he couldn’t help but think that according to biological taxonomy, “Giant Dragons” should be closely related to lizards, belonging to the reptile class. Reptile activities generally can be categorized into diurnal, nocturnal, and crepuscular.

However, Pandora’s behavior didn’t fit with reptiles at all, more like a mammal. Hmm, not a human among mammals, but… a cat among mammals.

Most of the time in a day, Pandora would quietly daydream or sleep, not causing any disturbances, which was quite convenient for Richard.

Even though Pandora had considerable combat power, if she acted like a haughty young lady, Richard would really have to find a way to send her away. He initially didn’t want to take her with him, due to this concern, but later, because of Gregory’s death, he ended up taking her along.

Now, it seemed that she was very well-behaved and caused no trouble at all.

Should he buy her a nicer set of bedding or animal skins, to make her more comfortable while she daydreamed or slept?

Richard pondered and decided to note this down for the time being and to implement it when the opportunity arose. Then he tiptoed into the study next to the bedroom.