Chapter 100: Manacle Theory

Monica’s eyes abruptly opened as her consciousness was violently pushed back into her body, and she immediately coughed several times while struggling to catch her breath.

"Fucking hell! What did you do?" she cursed aloud, her voice hoarse from the sudden return.

She turned her head to the right and found Stella and Elias standing just outside the room.

He had one arm around Stella while his other hand gently patted her back, and he brushed his fingers through her crimson hair with an assuring smile as the woman clung to him like a frightened child.

Monica frowned at the sight, and her confusion only deepened when she noticed the way Stella was behaving.

"What is this?" she mumbled, narrowing her eyes. "Why is she acting like a child...?"

Elias continued reassuring Stella for a few moments before finally convincing her to leave the place, and only after she disappeared down the corridor did he step back inside and close the door behind him.

"It has been a bit more than two hours, so I had no choice but to send her away," Elias explained.

Monica narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she looked at him. "What about you?"

"What about me?" Elias asked, feigning ignorance despite clearly understanding what she meant.

Monica gave him a deadpan stare.

"If she was affected by my poison and had to be sent away, why are you still here?" she pressed.

Elias remained silent for a moment, knowing that the look in her eyes meant she would keep questioning him until she received an answer.

"Would you trust me if I told you that I have a strange entity... or thing inside me which has made me immune to your poison?" he asked cautiously.

He was obviously talking about the system.

However, his words matched exactly what Monica had witnessed while examining him through her Mind’s Eye, and the coincidence immediately caught her attention.

’So even he does not know what that thing is?’ she wondered.

Monica studied him for several seconds before eventually nodding.

"I would."

Elias blinked in surprise. "You would?"

"Yes," she answered. "I am a mage, you know. I have read about various things that go beyond what people consider normal."

"Is that so?" Elias mumbled, his expression becoming slightly thoughtful.

Monica looked away as her thoughts returned to what she had seen inside him.

’It does not seem like I can create a cure by studying the supernatural within him...’

She had finally gained some hope, as well as a possible clue, but the strange entity inside Elias appeared to exist beyond the limits of ordinary magic.

"So?" Elias asked curiously. "Did you manage to look inside the Auracle?"

"I did," Monica nodded, and an excited and awed expression gradually appeared on her face. "It was beautiful and incredibly complicated. I understood only about one hundredth of it."

Elias’s expression immediately brightened.

"I told you."

Monica glanced at him before giving a small nod. "Yeah..."

If Elias had not asked her to investigate Stella’s Auracle, she would never have attempted to penetrate it herself. Whatever understanding she had gained was therefore ultimately because of him.

However, Monica had no intention of praising him too much.

She turned her head away and said, "Well, as thanks, you can massage me for longer today."

Elias stared at her with a deadpan expression.

"How generous," he muttered.

"That I am," Monica added with a small smile.

He shook his head, but before he could say anything else, Monica’s curiosity returned to the matter that had brought her into Stella’s Auracle in the first place.

"Anyway, why did you ask me to check the Auracle in the first place?" she asked.

"Because I want you to make it."

Monica immediately turned her head toward him, her brows furrowing.

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

Elias slightly raised his palm.

"Calm down. What I mean is that I need you to make a variant of Auracle."

He paused briefly, seemingly considering the name.

"Hmm... it is going to be for mana, so it would be proper to call it a Manacle instead."

Monica’s expression remained skeptical as she studied him.

"What is it that you want?"

"Just like an Auracle, I want to store mana inside a person’s body," Elias explained, his expression becoming serious.

"However, that mana would not belong to the person using it. It would come from someone else, allowing them to possess more mana than their natural limit and call upon that stored mana whenever they need it."

Monica frowned deeply.

"Auracle is not simple," she explained.

"It does not merely store Aura. It continuously moves it so that the Aura does not lose its potency, and it does so without causing any trouble to the swordsman’s body. In a way, it is an artificial Aura Core, although it cannot regenerate Aura on its own."

Elias’s expression hardened as he listened.

"We do not need it to be that complex and sturdy," he said. "I just want it to succeed at its main task."

Monica’s eyes narrowed.

"And what is its main task?"

Elias looked directly into her eyes, and his answer came without hesitation.

"Help a Pathless mage regain his path."

"What?" She muttered, her eyes wide in disbelief.

"Are you serious?"

"I am." He nodded seriously. "Just think about it: if we manage to create this Manacle, the Pathless mages who are unable to break through the wall because of the lack of mana would be able to do so with the help of other mages."

She fell silent. Of course she could understand and agree to the theory, but making it true was far more difficult and could be dangerous to the person it was used on.

She shook her head. "It is not possible, and it is not just about understanding; we will also require a material that has the property of storing and flowing mana within it without any resistance at all."

He blinked and asked, "What about Riftstone...?"