Everyone complied.
They retreated to the far side of the room or upstairs and left Lucas alone in his circle of materials.
Lucas closed his eyes and focused inward.
The core in his lower dantian was a disaster.
He could see it clearly now with his newly formed mana sense: a sphere of compressed energy riddled with cracks, fragments spinning off, the whole structure threatening to explode at any moment.
Okay. Okay, if I remember correctly then in order to stabilize the core I...
Another wave of pain came from his dantian disrupting his thoughts.
[Core stability at 13%.]
Focus! First step: slow the degradation. The Moonbell petals should help with that.
Lucas reached out with his mana sense and sank in the Mana into the petals around him.
They responded immediately. Their natural properties began drawing in ambient mana and creating a stabilizing field.
The degradation slowed. Not by much but it was a start.
[Core stability at 13%. Degradation rate reduced.]
Good. Now, second step: repair the cracks.
This was the hard part.
In the game, you just selected the repair option and waited for a progress bar to fill up but here in reality, he would have to carefully channel mana into each crack and use it like glue to hold the fractured pieces together.
Lucas decided to start with the largest crack. It was a jagged line running halfway around the core's surface.
The secret technique recorded in the [Basic Core Formation Technique] appeared in his head and he began attempting to control his Mana and circulated according to the special method in the [Basic Core Formation Technique].
However, things did not go as he wished.
There was an extremely great quantity of Mana stored in the Core. Now that it had cracked open, the powerful Mana immediately broke out and lost control as he struggled to put under control.
In this situation, Lucas felt cold at heart.
The power of the soul in his Mana Sense surged out at full power and soon formed a powerful pressure in his body that forcefully suppressed the out-of-control Mana.
With the suppression from the Mana Sense, the Mana gradually settled down and slowly fell back into Lucas' control.
He slowly guided his mana into the crack and let it flow into the gap until it was filled. Then compressed the Mana until it hardened into a seal.
One crack down. About fifty more to go.
I can do this.
Time lost meaning. Lucas's entire world narrowed to his core and to fixing the cracks.
Each sealed crack made the core slightly more stable.
[Core stability at 14%.]
[Core stability at 16%.]
[Core stability at 19%.]
But it was exhausting work.
Using mana to repair the core while the core itself was unstable created a feedback loop of strain which caused his head to begin pounding andbBlood to trickle from his nose.
But he kept going.
Twenty-seven cracks sealed. Twenty-eight. Twenty-nine.
Somewhere in the background, he could hear voices.
"...losing too much blood..."
"...been almost an hour..."
"...is he going to make it..."
Lucas just tuned them out. Right now, nothing mattered except the core.
Thirty-five cracks. Thirty-six.
The mana crystals around him were dimming as their power was being drawn into him to stabilize his core. The Moonbell petals had withered to brown husks.
Forty-one cracks. Forty-two.
[Core stability at 47%.]
Halfway there. Just need to get past fifty percent and the core should stabilize on its own.
But Lucas was running on fumes. His mana reserves were nearly depleted and the crystals were almost spent.
Come on. Come on. Just a little more.
Forty-six cracks. Forty-seven.
His mana began to thin out. The next crack refused to seal properly.
No. No, I'm so close!
[Core stability at 49%.]
Lucas tried to squeeze out more mana but it simply did not exist.
As a result, nothing happened.
That's when he felt it. A hand on his shoulder that sent foreign mana into his body.
Lucas opened his eyes.
Celeste knelt beside him with one hand on his shoulder and her own mana began flowing into him through the contact point.
"Don't... stop now," she said. "Take what you need."
"Celeste, if you give me too much..."
"I'm Iron rank. I have reserves to spare." She said. "Now finish it."
Lucas didn't argue. He accepted her mana and channeled it into the remaining cracks.
Forty-eight. Forty-nine.
Fifty.
[Core stability at 52%.]
The difference was immediate. The core's rotation smoothed out. The cracks stopped spreading and the whole structure began to reinforce itself naturally.
Lucas opened his eyes fully. Blood stained his shirt from out of his nose but he was alive.
[Estimated time to full stability: 24 hours with rest.]
"Is it done?" Celeste asked.
"It's done," Lucas said. "Thank you. If you hadn't..."
"Don't." She cut him off. "You would have done the same."
Would I have? I honestly don't think so.
Lucas tried to stand and immediately discovered his legs had turned to jelly. He would have fallen if Celeste hadn't caught him.
"Easy," she said. "Your body needs rest. You just survived core formation AND stabilization in the span of two hours. That's... I don't even know if that's ever been done before."
The others came back now that Lucas was in a better condition.
Marie and Lydia rushed over with water and clean cloths and Raymond stood nearby, looking worried.
Damion and Zacard had both been bandaged up and Charlotte was now awake and was sitting up on the couch with a blanket around her shoulders.
"You scared us," Marie said as she wiped blood from Lucas's face. "You were sitting there for over an hour, barely breathing, bleeding from your nose and ears..."
"Ears too?" Lucas said reaching up to his ears and sure enough, his fingers came away bloody.
"Core stabilization is dangerous," Zacard said from across the room. "Most people do it in safe environments with healers standing by. What you did was the opposite. That was..."
"Insane," Damion said. "Incredibly, stupidly insane." He shook his head. "But also kind of amazing."
"Yeah, well. Desperate times call for desperate measures." Lucas said.
"Speaking of desperate," Lydia said. "We need to talk about what just happened. The Legion, Veronica, the attempted assassination of the king..."
"Later," Celeste said. "Everyone is injured and exhausted. We need rest, proper medical attention, and time to process. Discussing strategy can wait until we're all abit better."
"She's right," Marie agreed. "My family's healers will be here soon. I sent a message as soon as we got inside. They'll be able to properly treat everyone's wounds and check for lingering issues."
"What about the academy?" Raymond asked. "Won't they be looking for us?"
"The whole city is in lockdown," Zacard said. " By the time they organize a proper headcount, it'll be tomorrow at the earliest."