Arelion spent his morning further progressing his techniques. There was only one technique that was giving him any real trouble, and there wasn't much that he could do about it. From what he read, everything and anything involving concepts was always nebulous in nature. However, more often than not, the issue with understanding concepts and then using them to create techniques was the creator's mind.

  Much as Arelion was experiencing at the moment, sometimes someone could understand that something could and should work, but their mind would refuse to accept it. These were mental blocks that one had to overcome, either through study or by simply accepting them as a truth, which, of course, was easier said than done. And of course, even if his Innate Magic allowed him greater ease in accomplishing the creation of certain techniques. Or even the understanding of certain concepts, some of which were second nature to him. Sometimes, mind and magic worked in mysterious ways, serving as barriers that kept someone from achieving greatness.

  Again, it was one of the things that Arelion was currently experiencing as he had access to Innate Gravity Magic, possibly due to the involvement of the World Crystal. Yet what he was trying to accomplish with reverse gravity was something that was not part of what he understood as gravity magic; therefore, he was blocked from easily using it. Thankfully, with all the work and practice he was doing, the idea of it was slowly coming to him, and it would only be a matter of time before he had access to the technique.

  Time passed quickly as Arelion lost himself in reading and in refining the techniques he was working on, as well as gaining a deeper understanding of his use of gravity. Eventually, he knew it was time to head toward the temple, and he quickly put on some simple black clothing before making his way over.

  Arriving at the temple, the very subtle presence of two goddesses washed over Arelion. The feeling of their divinity was one they easily recognized as they themselves were celestial in nature. However, the presence of the two goddesses did not bring any sense of tranquility or reverence to the twins, and if it weren't for the fact that they had the contract with Alyx, the two wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near the place. The twins did not doubt that it was relatively easy for gods to notice other celestials in their presence, which meant that entering their domains would likely expose them.

  That said, the twins were aware that the gods had rules, one of which was to keep to their own affairs. Even so, they also knew that these rules could be bent and broken, especially when it involved another god's celestial entities. Thankfully, the twins were relatively safe when inside this temple, and at the very least, inside those temples unaligned with the Novarian Pantheon or the darker gods.

  Inside the temple, they quickly spoke with the cleric working the front desk, and it wasn't long before Alyx appeared.

  Alyx received the message that the twins were there and began making his way to the front. The gnome had been resting after he had finished contemplating the results of Tesilim’s rituals, as well as helping with the clean-up process. Heck, he had even had time to double-check he had all the required creatures for what was to come.

  “Hey Arelion, good to see you!” Alyx called out as he saw the twin perusing through a book. Arelion, hearing him, snapped his head up, gave him a quick nod of greeting, and Alyx continued speaking, “Just follow me; everything is ready, but it will still take a bit of time.”

  Following after Alyx, Arelion wasn't really interested in anything that was going on within. The temple was decorated in the blue colors of the two goddesses, and numerous books were on display. Additionally, as one might expect, there were specially augmented rooms, though many were empty, considering the day was coming to an end. Finally, after a few minutes of walking, Alyx walked into a room, and Arelion followed suit.

  Unlike a few of the other rooms that Arelion had seen in the temple or the ritual room his sister had been in, the one they walked into was bare. Nevertheless, like the rest of the rooms he had seen in the temple, the room they found themselves in still had grooves to allow easy repositioning for certain rituals. Not that any of this mattered to him, as he wasn’t even remotely knowledgeable about rituals, and the only thing that was of any importance to him was that the room was empty of people.

  “Alright, ready to begin?” Alyx said, closing the door and bringing Arelion out of his thoughts.

  “Yes, what do you need me to do first?” Arelion stated his voice measured.

  “Let's start with the basic stuff, here, this one is already damaged,” Alyx told the twin as a reptile monster appeared in the room, some of its blood staining the floor from the gashes on its body.

  Seeing the monster, Arelion didn't hesitate before he extended his Presence, compressing it and letting his dark mana out. He and his sister had been practicing the ability ever since they found out they could do it.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Meanwhile, Alyx watched as Arelion extended his Presence and activated his ability. As always, the mana invaded the monster's body, being used as a medium to enter the soul. This process often used the brain and heart, which, along with the soul damage, was the cause of death for the victim. Expectedly, the mana did as it always did, and ripped out the victim's mana and returned it to the twins.

  “Seems like that is going much more smoothly. I am assuming that you guys have been practicing, or does your higher attunement help?”

  “Both. Jasmine and I have been practicing whenever possible, but since I am more in line with the dark mana, it's easier for me,” Arelion replied.

  Hearing the twins' answer, Alyx wrote down the information, as it was no longer an assumption. Then, having completed the base test to ensure that there had been no starting deviations, which had technically occurred as the twins improved, Alyx decided it was time to move on.

  After testing out that the ability worked as it should, the next step was to test just how powerful a creature had to be to resist the ability or if it even worked on an uninjured creature. So, knowing already that Arelion would be fine with it, Alyx summoned a squirrel from one of his rings. For Arelion’s part, the twin stared at the squirrel for a second as an unexpected smirk momentarily flashed on his face, causing the gnome to question why the half-elf found the squirrel amusing.

  Of course, what Alyx didn't know was that the moment the squirrel appeared, Jasmine had stopped watching and listening as she told Arelion off with a “You better not share this with me later,” full of indignation, which had caused Arelion to smirk in amusement. His sister had been trying to convince him not to go through with the squirrel test, but he had chosen to do so. And considering that they had a “Your body, your choice” agreement at least for the most part, there was not much that she could do to stop him.

  Continuing with the experiments, Alyx was happy to learn that having to injure the target was not a requirement to take their mana. However, there were restrictions as the target had to be weak enough for the ability to take effect, and considering the squirrel barely gave the twins any mana, it was not worth using the ability on every creature they came across.

  After the squirrel came a multitude of normal animals, all of them increasing in size and power. It began with a fox, then a pig, a boar, followed by a stag, then a panther, and finally a bear. Each of these creatures was of normal rank, which was also why Alyx wasn’t surprised when they put up as much resistance as the squirrel. Granted, this resistance did increase slightly with the last three test subjects, but not by much.

  Moving on from the normal creatures, Alyx began to bring out a variety of D Rank creatures. These were elemental beasts that had managed to evolve due to consuming some natural treasure, being exposed to residual magic, absorbing small amounts of Realm Mana, or thanks to the guidance from other monsters or even the adventurers.

  Of the three stages Alyx had prepared, this one would take the longest. Mainly because Alyx had a variety of Low, Mid, and High D Rank creatures, each of them varying in qualitative power. For example, Alyx tried to have the twins use their ability on two different squirrels. The difference was that one managed to advance by consuming a relatively weak natural treasure, while the other had absorbed a little too much Lush Realm Mana; it hadn’t been enough to turn it, but only barely. Now, these two squirrels were Low D Rank, but one could maybe, if a bear was injured, defeat it, while the other would only struggle slightly against a fully capable bear.

  Obviously, the weak treasure squirrel was the weakest, while the Realm Mana one was the strongest. However, even then, the weak squirrel put up a stronger resistance than a normal bear, while the other squirrel was better than its weaker counterpart, even without access to Lush Mana.

  Continuing with the experiment, it was obvious to Alyx—and also made sense—that creatures with higher qualitative power could resist to a greater degree. From what the gnome gathered, the twins could even absorb the mana of High D Rank monsters as long as their quality wasn’t too high. However, even then, the time to accomplish such a task wasn’t worth it, and it was better if they fought the monster instead.

  Moving on from the much more normal monsters, Alyx began to bring out the monsters whose levels of power were at the highest one could usually find. These were full-on Realm Monsters that he bought rather cheaply, considering they were all from the Lush Realm, and those types were readily available on the island. Now, even if they were high-tier creatures, there were still hierarchies, and Alyx had to make sure he had plenty to test.

  Primarily, there were two groups: one group had those who could transform mana into their Realm Mana, and the second was those who couldn’t, but in exchange had access to more power. Then, even within those two groups, their strength varied based on their purity of mana and the types of abilities they had, which placed them in a certain balance, as some could counter others.

  As the experiment continued and Arelion began attempting to absorb their mana, Alyx quickly realized a few things. One, the Realm Mana itself acted as a barrier to the twins' advances. This meant that not only did they need to pierce the body and enter the soul, but the Realm Mana itself was making their advance much harder.

  So, in the end, the twins could only really pierce the weakest of Realm Creatures without weakening them first. This extended to both groups and only up to Low D Rank, as anything past that was just as bad, if not worse, than a High D Rank creature from those they had previously tested. However, Alyx had to remember that the moons empowered the twins, so it could be a different story if it were New Moon.

  Finally, the last and most important revelation was what Alyx had found when the dark mana interacted with the Realm Mana. What he had witnessed was so shocking that it had taken everything he had not to go crazy, especially since the twins clearly didn’t notice. It had been such an insane thing that even his patrons had momentarily stopped by, something that Alyx was thankful Arelion hadn’t noticed, as the half-elf had been too busy absorbing mana. Honestly, it was such a fantastic thing that Alyx would keep quiet and secretly test the twins before revealing his findings.