After I finished a light-sparing session with Vanye, I left for my room, where I placed my armor on an armor stand before heading for the workshop. The workshop was filled with a variety of mana spheres, boxes, and mirrors; it was the work Jasmine, Lazuli, and I had been collaborating on.
Well, collaborating is a bit of a stretch; Jasmine and Lazuli were doing most of the heavy lifting, and I was sort of like the manager.
Our progress has been slow so far. I initially tried to create a video, but that proved too ambitious, so I scaled it back to simply storing pictures in the mana crystal and playing them in the correct order, like a storage system. However, even that proved difficult, as saving colored images in the mana crystal took too much storage. I shifted it to store only black-and-white pictures, allowing us to store nearly one thousand, which, compared to the original one hundred, was a considerable upgrade.
'I wish Soom were here, he would've helped with this project.' Leaning against the desk, I folded my arms while closing my eyes, trying to ponder what we could do to improve the television. However, while deep in thought, I felt a familiar, massive hand rest on my shoulders, causing me to wryly smile.
"So, can I ask why you're mimicking Yuki?" Opening an eye, I glanced up at Yuki, who continued to silently stare at me, causing me to raise an eyebrow. "Not going to respond?" Following my question, Yuki tuned into liquid metal as her large frame slowly shrank until Lazuli was standing beside me.
"How'd you know it was me?" "A few reasons. One, I don't think Yuki knows where this room is. Two, even if she knew where this room was, I don't think she'd ever visit out of her own accord. Thirdly, there was no strength behind your arm; it felt like a limp noodle." Pushing off the desk, I poked Lazuli three times on the nose, causing her to hum before nodding.
"Noted. Good luck next time." As I wryly smiled, Lazuli walked past me to one of the desks, where she proceeded to sit down and fiddle around with the mana crystal. "Hey, can you play the video?" Approaching Lazuli, I picked her up and sat her down on my lap while I took her seat, though she didn't mind and placed her hand atop the mana crystal.
As she infused her mana into it, the crystal gently shone, projecting a black-and-white image onto the wall that showed Lazuli, Jasmine, and me performing various poses. The video displayed images ten times a second, which was something that needed improvement, but that would be addressed next.
It took only about one hundred seconds before the video finished, causing my faint smile to transform into a frown. "100 seconds. Barely over half a minute, that's not enough for plays, just enough for commercials." "What's a commercial?" "Just an ad. Anyway, have you figured out any way to increase the storage, Lazuli?"
Glancing at Lazuli, she shook her head. "Other than getting a bigger mana crystal, it's impossible." This was our main problem; every image used mana, that mana was stored in the crystal, and it could only hold a certain amount of mana.
"If we wanted to contain enough images to last for 90 minutes, how big a mana crystal would we require?" Rubbing my chin, Lazuli spread her arms, causing me to wince. "One this big." "What if we wanted the images to be played 60 times per second?" Lazuli proceeded to get up from my lap and extend her arm to the other desk, causing my expression to freeze.
"60 times per second while retaining the 90-minute timer. We'd need a mana crystal this big." "That's nearly as big as the one Master had. Fuck, well that idea is out." I thought perhaps we could broadcast the play from one large lacrima to all the other TVs, but if we needed a lacrima that massive, it would be unrealistic.
"Lazuli, Lacrima's are solidified atmospheric mana, correct?" "Yes. If you're thinking of creating artificial mana crystals, it will not work." I looked at Lazuli in surprise. "It won't? How do you know?" "Do you think you're the first one to create an artificial mana crystal? My Father did so, and several others have as well. I've read books on their findings. Atmospheric mana and your mana are different. Atmospheric mana has no will."
I just furrowed my brows in confusion. "No will?" "That was how my Father described it. The mana in our bodies follows our will, while atmospheric mana has no will whatsoever." Now I was even more confused. "Then, shouldn't I be able to create an artificial mana crystal?" "I merely shared my own knowledge; you're more than welcome to try." "No, I believe you, just confusing."
"If they have no will, shouldn't it be easy to use a spell to converge the atmospheric mana to a certain point and then create an artificial mana crystal?" "No. Atmospheric mana that comes into contact with our mana becomes contaminated; it's only for a short time, but during that time, the contamination will affect the process, and it will fail."
If I was confused before, I was entirely lost now. 'Contaminated? C'mon, man, who made this world? I have so many problems; I just want to create a television.' I hadn't given up, but damn, had the process to complete our goal become much more complicated.
"Well, let's put this on hold for today. We can come back to it tomorrow." Standing up, I stretched slightly and headed toward the door, though just as I grabbed the handle, Lazuli called me. "Alex." "Hmm?" Turning around with the door mid-open, I glanced at Lazuli, who had just dropped her panties on the ground, before bending over the desk, causing me to close and lock the door.
"Or we can come back to it today." Quickly dropping my pants, I approached Lazuli, standing behind her as I sheathed myself inside her. "L-Lazuli, I think I'm going to pull an all-nighter." "I'll accompany you then."
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Having spent a few hours with Lazuli, we left the workshop and headed off to enjoy the rest of the day in our own way. However, I couldn't get the idea of artificial mana crystals out of my mind; if we could make artificial mana crystals, then the whole television wouldn't just be a concept, but a legitimate idea coming to life.
Of course, we'd still need to deal with obtaining colored images, as well as increasing the video frame rate from ten to sixty images per second; however, those were easier to address, as we just needed to be innovative.
"Mhm, you seem distracted, dear." Rolling onto my side, Michelle rested her head on my chest, causing me to kiss her cheek. "I do?" "Yeah, usually, when Mom begs for more, you leave her as a twitching mess." Lying on the opposite side of me was Chloe, who, like Michelle, rested her head on my chest. "Why do you always have to comment on people's embarrassing moments?" "Hehe, sorry, Mom."
"Anyway, is there anything we can do to help? Other than being your stress relievers." Raising an eyebrow, Chloe reached down, gently stroking my manhood while Michelle promptly joined her, causing me to knead their butts to my heart's content. "I mean, I suppose you could relieve more of my stress." "Fufu, we'll gladly." With a smile, Michelle lowered herself to my crotch, licking my manhood while Chloe did the same.
While immensely enjoying being serviced by Chloe and Michelle, my thoughts quickly shifted back to the concept of an artificial crystal. 'Will. Hmm, I have will. No, even if I gathered a lot of atmospheric mana through my will, I wouldn't be able to forcefully compress it. Wait, could Dragon tongue work? If I command the gathered mana-'
My thoughts were basically a wishful hail marry, but theoretically, it should work; my skill [Heroes Will] and dragon tongue don't use mana, so I wouldn't be contaminating the atmospheric mana. As my mind practically worked in overdrive, creating a rough idea of how the experiment would proceed, I was broken from my thoughts when I reached climax, causing me to spew my seed all over their faces, neck, shoulders, and chest.
"Mhm, I love this." "Eh, Mom, don't hog it all to yourself!" While Michelle and Chloe were practically fighting for my seed, I quickly sat upright and forced them onto each other. "Thanks to the cross-generational blowjob you two gave me, I got an idea." "Huh, what idea?" "Muu, this is so embarrassing."
"An idea that'll make us filthy rich. But don't think about it. Just focus on not dying, okay." Grinning, I slapped Chloe's butt as she was on top while positioning my cock before Michelle's entrance. "W-What do you mean by thaAAAAAAHHHHH!" Thrusting my entire length inside Michelle, her eyes rolled into the back of her head. "That's what I mean."