Chapter 59: The Outer Layer

'Why can't I do it?'

Zeldryn continued trying to force several mana particles together, but every time two of them met, they simply passed through each other without changing. Nothing formed, nothing merged, and yet he knew those same particles could be made to explode if he imagined them colliding in the right way.

He stopped the particles for a moment and narrowed his eyes.

'Wait. Is this all about the concept?'

The thought immediately reminded him of Kera's explanation about the Mana Hole. At first, Zeldryn had not understood how to open or close it either, but once he understood the concept of a gate, the process suddenly became possible.

Maybe the problem here was similar.

Zeldryn wanted the mana particles to form a rectangle, but simply wanting a rectangle to exist was too vague. If he ordered the particles to gather, they gathered. If he told them to move closer, they moved closer. He had never actually given them a clear concept for how separate particles were supposed to become one object.

'If I want them to stick together, then I need something that binds them.'

Zeldryn thought for a few moments until an almost embarrassingly simple idea appeared in his mind.

'Glue?'

The idea sounded stupid at first, but there was no reason not to try it. If two ordinary objects needed to stick together, then glue was one of the simplest concepts he knew.

“Let's just try it.”

Rather than using all twenty-one particles, Zeldryn released most of them and maintained control over only ten.

'Ten should be enough.'

He arranged the particles into the rough outline of a small rectangle, then focused on two particles positioned beside each other. Zeldryn slowly moved them closer while imagining something between them, not a wall or a force pushing them apart, but the exact opposite.

He imagined an invisible glue pulling them together and holding them in place.

The two particles moved closer.

Then they stopped.

Zeldryn leaned forward slightly.

'They're stuck?'

He shifted one particle sideways, and the second particle moved with it as though the two were connected.

“Damn...”

A grin immediately appeared on his face.

'It actually works!'

Without wasting time, Zeldryn repeated the process with the remaining particles. He gradually bound a third particle to the first two, then a fourth, a fifth, and continued until all ten particles were connected using the same concept.

For a moment, Zeldryn stared at the result with excitement.

Then his smile slowly faded.

'What the hell is this?'

The particles were connected, but the shape was a complete mess. He had wanted a rectangle, yet what floated in front of him looked more like an uneven cluster of mana particles forced together in an abstract arrangement.

It was not smooth, not solid, and definitely not a rectangle.

Zeldryn tilted his head slightly.

'Not like this.'

Even so, he did not consider the experiment a failure. If anything, the result made him even more interested.

Earlier, the particles had simply passed through each other. Now he had successfully made them remain connected, which strongly suggested that his earlier suspicion was correct.

The concept mattered.

'If the concept of glue only makes them stick together, then what concept could make them truly become one?'

Zeldryn began searching through his memories of the modern world, thinking about separate materials that could be turned into a single object. After a few seconds, one example came to mind.

'Iron.'

More specifically, melted metal.

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Several separate pieces of metal could be melted down, combined, and reshaped into a new form. If he could somehow do the same thing with mana, perhaps he could merge multiple particles and then shape the result into the rectangle he wanted.

The idea sounded reasonable until Zeldryn considered the obvious problem.

'Can mana even be melted?'

Mana could not truly be touched, and particles could pass straight through one another if he was not using a specific concept to stop them. Zeldryn played with two particles, moving them together, letting them pass through each other, then separating them again.

'If I force them together, they just pass through. But what if I melt them at the exact moment they're overlapping?'

He almost attempted it immediately, but another memory suddenly surfaced.

That morning, while observing mana from extremely close range, Zeldryn had noticed something inside the particles. What appeared to be a single complete particle actually contained much smaller components within it.

His eyes narrowed.

'Then why should I melt the entire thing immediately?'

A different possibility began taking shape.

What if he dismantled the particle first?

He could separate the outer section while leaving the smaller components inside intact, combine the inner components from two different particles, and then wrap them again afterward.

A smile gradually returned to Zeldryn's face.

'That actually makes more sense.'

He released the ten particles he had been controlling, allowing them to return to their natural movements, then selected only two.

'Focus.'

The two particles slowly moved toward each other while Zeldryn concentrated on what existed inside them. He did not rush. He carefully watched their structure as the distance between them shrank.

When they were almost touching, Zeldryn focused on the outermost portion of both particles.

'Now.'

He imagined those outer layers opening without damaging the smaller components contained inside.

Nothing happened.

The two particles remained completely unchanged.

Zeldryn frowned and tried again, concentrating harder on the same intention.

'Open.'

Still nothing.

For several seconds, he stared at the particles before another realization struck him.

'The concept again.'

He understood what he wanted to happen, but he had not imagined how it was supposed to happen. Was the outer layer meant to open by itself? Split apart? Tear? Simply separate without any cause?

'I'm not even imagining the process.'

Zeldryn thought carefully about what tool would make sense if he wanted to open something without damaging whatever was inside it.

A knife.

Not a large blade that would split the entire particle in half, but something extremely thin and precise, just enough to cut through the outermost layer.

Zeldryn focused on one of the particles and imagined a tiny knife resting against its surface.

'Slowly.'

In his mind, the blade began moving along the outside of the particle, cutting through only the outer layer. Zeldryn maintained his concentration carefully, making sure the imagined blade did not go too deep.

'Only the outer layer. Don't touch anything inside.'

The knife continued following the particle's surface until Zeldryn repeated the same process with the second particle. He kept both images steady, refining the imagined cuts little by little.

Then the outer layer of the first particle began to split.

Zeldryn's eyes widened.

“Damn...!”

He immediately forced himself to stay focused.

The cut continued until the outer section slowly separated and shifted aside, while the smaller parts that had been contained within remained intact. Zeldryn then repeated the process with the second particle, carefully separating its outer layer as well.

It worked.

Excitement surged through him so strongly that his concentration almost slipped.

'Wait, don't celebrate yet. The experiment isn't finished.'

The smaller components from both particles were now exposed.

Zeldryn moved them toward each other and discovered that, unlike the complete particles, he could place the inner parts beside one another without them simply passing through.

He held them there.

'There. Now I just need to wrap them again.'

Zeldryn moved one of the outer layers back toward the combined inner components, then immediately stopped.

He stared at the two inner sections positioned together and then at the outer layer that had originally surrounded only one of them.

'Of course they won't fucking fit, idiot.'

There were now twice as many contents occupying the same area, while the outer layer remained exactly the same size. Forcing it around both would make no sense.

Zeldryn rubbed his chin without allowing his concentration to collapse.

'Then I need a larger outer layer.'

The obvious solution was to combine the two separated outer layers, but simply using the glue concept again would only make them stick together as two distinct pieces. That would not create one larger shell.

After several moments of thought, his earlier idea returned.

'Melting.'

Zeldryn felt as though the path forward had suddenly become visible again.

'So the melting idea wasn't completely wrong. I just wanted to melt the wrong part.'

He did not need to melt the inner components.

He needed to melt the outer layers.

If he could fuse those two layers into a single larger layer, he might be able to reshape it and wrap it around the combined inner parts.

Zeldryn became increasingly absorbed in the experiment as he mentally organized the process.

'Melt the outer layers, combine them into one, reshape the result into something larger, then use it to wrap the inner parts.'

He was already preparing to attempt the next step when his body suddenly jerked forward.

“COUGGH!”

His concentration collapsed instantly.

The mana particles he had been controlling slipped free and returned to their natural movements as Zeldryn hurriedly covered his mouth. Something warm struck his palm.

When he looked down, he saw blood.

“Huh...?”

His breathing became heavy almost immediately.

“Hah... hah...”

Only after his concentration had broken did Zeldryn notice how badly his Mana Hole was fluctuating. The area beneath his navel felt violently unstable, while the familiar sensations of emptiness, dryness, and thirst had returned far more intensely than before.

It felt as though nearly all the mana inside his Mana Hole had been drained without him noticing.

Zeldryn grabbed his lower abdomen while trying to understand what had happened.

He had only been controlling two particles.

Just two.

However, controlling their positions had not been the only thing he was doing. He had been dismantling the outer layers, maintaining the exposed inner components, separating multiple structures, and continuously forcing those altered forms to remain stable while experimenting with new concepts.

Throughout the entire process, he had barely paid attention to the condition of his Mana Hole.

Zeldryn looked at the blood on his palm, then toward the mana particles floating around him. The answer suddenly became disturbingly obvious.

“Don't tell me...”

His grip tightened slightly over his lower abdomen.

“Did I run out of mana?!”