SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100 Chapter 731: What Comes Back

"I want to know how much it can hold before it starts losing anything," Ira said.

Leon looked from her to the hearthseal. "Wouldn’t you have to damage it to find out?"

"Not this one." She drew the smaller specimen’s case toward her. "We kept pieces with cracked skins. I can compare those first. Find out where the heat gets through."

That was a better answer than pouring her flame into the best stone and seeing what survived. Leon opened his food packet and offered her half.

She took it without looking, still studying the specimen.

"The manual tells us how to preserve it," she said. "It doesn’t tell me how to make use of what it does."

"We can get more passages translated."

"Yes. But I’ll still have to test it with my own flame."

Across the court, Vyra and Loriel were discussing where to place the mineral cases when they returned. Seraphine had settled by the stair with her food. Their voices were low enough that Ira no longer needed to maintain the polite distance she used around outsiders.

She shifted closer, her shoulder resting against Leon’s.

"What do you want it to change?" he asked.

Ira considered the question while chewing. He waited instead of offering an answer for her.

"I can keep my flame contained now," she said. "You know that. But when I push it to the highest intensity, some of it escapes before I’m ready. Less than it used to. Still enough that I can feel the waste."

"Heat around the strike?"

"That, and what I lose carrying it." She held one hand out, fingers half closed. "I want more of it here. Packed close. If I form a Core that can support that density, I want the force to stay available until I choose where it goes."

Leon remembered fighting beside her. Ira liked committing to an attack, closing the distance and making the impact count. She had never needed someone to encourage her to hit harder.

It pleased him that she was thinking about what happened before the strike.

"Would you use the stone as a material for condensation," he asked, "or study it to change your circulation?"

"Possibly both." Ira looked down at the case. "I don’t know yet. I’m not going to put it into anything until I know how my fire behaves against it."

"That sounds sensible."

"You don’t have to look so surprised."

"I’m trying to remember the expression for later."

She bumped his shoulder, then leaned back against it. Leon put his arm around her and finished eating with one hand.

For a while, they watched people moving on the opposite courts. Someone had set up a cloth screen around a cultivation place. Farther up, two collectors were arguing over a broken basket while a third quietly gathered the spilled material.

Ira followed his gaze.

"We did well," she said.

"Yes."

"I like going out with just us."

"So do I." Leon glanced at the closed cases. "Especially when we come back with this much."

She laughed, warm against his side. He had spent enough time worrying about what everyone needed. Being pleased with what they had gained required no more explanation than that.

When they finished resting, Ira helped him secure the specimens in his ring. She made certain he knew which damaged pieces she wanted first when they next had space to experiment.

Leon then walked along the pale court, studying its currents before selecting a place to sit.

The strongest flow lay near the rear wall. He chose a gentler patch farther forward, where Earth predominated and Water passed through in a smaller, fluctuating supply. He could follow the changes without drawing them into himself at full intensity.

The women spread out around the approaches. To anyone watching from the next row, he would look like another cultivator making use of the opening. His public presence still carried the familiar weight of Peak Golden Core.

The native foundation he was developing beneath that remained at the middle stage.

He took out the small jar from the spring and examined the prepared mixture once more. Its known behavior would give him a comparison later. For now, he closed it and put it away. Adding fuel would only make it harder to identify which changes came from the court.

Leon settled his breathing and began the Scripture’s current circulation.

It held comfortably. He knew this arrangement well enough to recognize the ordinary variations without hunting for each one. The long work inside his dimensional world had earned him that familiarity, even if it had felt painfully repetitive at the time.

Then he admitted a measured amount of the surrounding energy.

He left the other branches supplied by the energy already in circulation. Drawing from the court was an addition, and he kept it small enough to trace. If he changed every source at once, he would have no useful comparison when something went wrong.

That restraint took more patience than accepting the energy required. The court offered far more than he was using, and he could sense richer patches only a few paces away. He understood why people settled here to cultivate. Later, with a method he trusted, he would enjoy doing the same. Today he wanted to know what happened to one change before adding another.

Earth entered steadily. Water followed in a thinner stream. He kept their intake well below what the court could supply and let the cycle settle before attempting anything new.

Several minutes passed. A cool draft crossed his face, and the Water supply diminished as Earth strengthened.

Leon responded in the familiar way. He eased the intake, adjusted the Earth branch, allowed the returns to settle, and brought the cycle back to its previous pace.

It worked. It also interrupted the smooth circulation he had established.

By the time he finished, the court had changed again.

He opened his eyes long enough to check the channels. The steam was moving steadily. Nobody nearby had begun packing or withdrawing, and Seraphine gave him a small nod from the stair.

He closed his eyes and began again.

This time he allowed a small increase through without immediately throttling the intake. His existing arrangement could bear that much. He followed the energy through Earth, watching how the increased demand affected the shared center and the neighboring branch.

The disturbance did not begin where he expected.

Earth accepted the fuller flow. The trouble appeared when it returned. Under this load, the branch took slightly longer to complete its passage, while Water reached the center at its earlier timing. Leon felt the uneven meeting before it developed into anything harmful and steadied the cycle.

He stayed still, tracing what had happened.

His first response had been to slow the incoming Earth until the old timing worked again. That made the arrangement comfortable by forcing it back toward a condition the surroundings had already left behind.

He had another option.

The Earth return was later. He could try adjusting Water to meet it, provided he did not disrupt everything else in the process.

Leon let the ordinary cycle settle and waited for the next change.

This time, his attention remained on what came back.