SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100 Chapter 694: What Waits Beyond the Gate

Chapter 694: What Waits Beyond the Gate

For two days after their return, Seraphine occupied the small preparation chamber beside the inner garden.

Leon found her there on the second evening, sitting before the dawnspar with a sheet of observations balanced on her knee.

The crystal rested in a preservation array assembled by Vyra from the Palace’s instructions. Loriel had helped establish the conditions around the stone, and Seraphine had set the final energy balance herself.

"How is it?" Leon asked.

"Exactly how I brought it back."

"That sounds less exciting than you look."

"I’ve checked it after resting, after sword practice, and after a full circulation." She tapped her notes. "It still responds the way I need."

He crouched beside her to examine the gold within the violet branches.

"What remains?"

"A stabilizer suitable for condensation, and trials with the materials together. I need to know how they behave under compression."

"So no surprise breakthrough tomorrow?"

Seraphine looked at him. "You’re asking me that?"

"An entirely reasonable question."

She smiled and moved the sheet so he could read it.

The dawnspar would support the interaction at the centre of her future Core. She had made progress, and she understood what to examine next. Leon liked that more than a promise that one fortunate trip had settled everything.

Outside, Ira was arguing with Vyra about whether a heat-testing chamber’s damaged floor counted as part of the test.

Loriel passed the open door carrying two small pots.

"Was it?" Leon asked her.

"I wasn’t there."

"A very careful answer."

"She asked whether the floor was reinforced before she started," Loriel said, and continued toward the garden.

Seraphine laughed under her breath.

Leon stayed with her until she finished the next set of observations. When she finally put the sheet aside, he persuaded her to come and eat before Ira’s explanation grew any longer.

He reviewed his own part in the expedition the following morning.

The spatial hold beneath the breaking slab had demanded sustained control, followed by the sudden movement of three people and a block of stone. His native circulation had accommodated both without pulling his attention from the work.

He recorded that result beside the earlier trials.

One field test added evidence. It did not tell him how the method would behave under every pressure he might eventually face.

The sealed reservoir stood beside his desk. Leon checked its storage seal and left it untouched. Further advancement would have its turn; he wanted the new foundation settled before deciding how best to use what remained.

Ji summoned him on the fourth day.

He arrived to find a map spread across her table, with a report placed beside it. The outline of Ashen Rain Basin was familiar. New marks surrounded the entrance complex they had repaired.

"Your household returned with what it wanted?" Ji asked.

"A suitable dawnspar specimen for Seraphine."

"Han Suwen’s report mentioned that you left the guardian alive."

"It contributes to the crystal beds. We may want to harvest there again."

Ji nodded. "Sensible."

She moved the report toward him.

"Ruan has something you’ll find interesting."

Leon sat down.

Since the Palace secured the basin, Ruan had been measuring the energy reaching the repaired nexus from the forming realm. The work required no entry beyond the threshold, and Ji made clear that none had taken place.

"Storm activity, spatial fluctuations, and temporal irregularities," she said. "Those were expected. There are also traces she believes may indicate heat-rich regions and living growth."

"Believes?"

"The readings pass through an entrance complex with its own effects. She is careful about attributing everything she detects to the interior."

Leon looked at the first page. Several observations were repeated across successive measurements, with uncertain results marked separately.

"What changed?"

"She has enough repetitions to compare the relationships. Look here."

Ji indicated two lines that rose together.

One represented a surge associated with storm energy. The other recorded a spatial response. The same sequence appeared farther down the page, then again on the next.

"They arrive together?" Leon asked.

"Within the resolution of her measurements. More interestingly, the interference is much lower than her models predicted."

He leaned forward.

"How much lower?"

"Consistently enough that she checked the instruments and repeated the measurements through another part of the nexus."

"And obtained the same result."

"Close enough to justify further study," Ji said. "That is what she has established. The explanation remains open."

Leon turned the page.

Ruan had listed several possibilities. An arrangement within the realm might allow these energies to coexist with relatively little disturbance. The entrance itself might be separating or regulating what reached her instruments. The effect might belong to one narrow region rather than the entire Grotto-Heaven.

He appreciated the alternatives, though he knew which one he wanted to be true.

For months, he had worked on a circulation that adjusted when unlike affinities changed their demands. Here was evidence that might let him observe a related problem in an environment far larger than his own body.

Or he might arrive and discover that the entrance was doing something ordinary which explained the whole report.

He wanted to see it either way.

Ji watched him return to the first page.

"What would you examine?" she asked.

"Whether the low interference persists when the proportions change. These repetitions look similar. I’d want to know what happens when the storm activity is stronger and the spatial response isn’t."

"Ruan asked much the same question. She is waiting for a sufficiently different event."

"Can I receive those readings when she has them?"

"I’ll have a copy sent."

Leon smiled before remembering how eager he probably looked.

Ji noticed, of course.

"Your circulation?"

"I’ve been working on how it responds when demand changes between affinities. A stable arrangement at one distribution can become troublesome at another."

"And you hope the realm will offer an example."

"Possibly. I’d need to understand what I was observing before trying to apply it."

"Good," Ji said. "A formation can rely on conditions your body cannot reproduce."

He nodded. The caution was useful. An environment could distribute strain across mountains and rivers. He had meridians, a Qi Sea, and considerably less room for mistakes.

Ji let him finish reading before taking back the report.

"The opening estimate remains the original three to six months from the initial assessment. Ruan has not supplied a revised date."

"I wasn’t going to ask you to hurry it."

"You were looking at the threshold on the map."

"I’m allowed to look."

"Certainly."

There was amusement in her voice now.

His allocation remained as agreed. The new findings promised no particular treasure, and they gave him no claim over the realm’s structure. What Ji could offer immediately was access to further observations relevant to his work.

Leon accepted.

On the walk home, he considered which questions he wanted included with the next measurements. For the first time, the wait offered him something useful to do besides count the days until entry.

He could prepare comparisons. Seraphine could continue testing her material. The others had their own requirements to pursue.

When he reached the residence, Vyra looked up from the table.

"Another assignment?"

"No," Leon said. "Something I want to study."

He pulled a clean sheet toward him and began writing before he forgot the questions.