For days, Nero ticulously refined the theoretical aspects of his technique.
Every spare mont was spent pouring over his research notes, adjusting formulas, and practicing the individual components that would make up the final spell.
He worked through every layer: stabilizing the barrier frawork, reinforcing the Shikigami's magical lattice, and fine-tuning the filtering chanism that would allow smooth knowledge transfer upon reintegration.
His mind buzzed with calculations and adjustnts.
By the ti he had perfected the individual components, it was no longer just a theory.
It was ti for real testing.
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The dojo, nestled within Mu and Zen's estate, was a place of tranquility, but tonight, it would serve as a laboratory for Nero's greatest experint yet.
He had prepared everything.
Enchanted parchnt, layered barrier inscriptions, and a reinforced space that would act as the sealed domain for his Shikigami.
He knelt at the center of the room, exhaling slowly as he pressed his palm to the ground.
His magic pulsed outward, activating the barrier formation he had ticulously devised and refined again and again over the past few days.
A shimring do of invisible force settled around the dojo's interior, his first self-sustaining sealed domain.
"This is it," he murmured.
He took a fresh parchnt talisman, tracing careful symbols onto its surface.
With a practiced flick of his fingers, the paper twisted and folded itself into a human form, his Shikigami, an exact replica of himself.
The construct stood motionless before him, awaiting its purpose.
Nero reached forward, pressing two fingers to its forehead.
A thin, translucent thread of magic connected them, a spiritual tether.
"Initiate independent function," he said softly, severing the constant ntal connection.
The clone stepped back, blinking once, and started taking independent action.
At first, everything seed stable.
The barrier held, and the clone functioned as intended, standing within the storage space without abnormality.
But five minutes in, sothing felt wrong.
A sudden pull on his magic made Nero inhale sharply.
His connection to the barrier fluctuated. The shimring runes flickered.
The clone staggered, its edges distorting like ink bleeding through wet parchnt.
No, no, no! Nero rushed forward, imdiately severing the experint before the magic collapsed entirely.
The clone dissolved into scraps of parchnt, and the barrier fizzled out as if gasping for air.
Nero clenched his fists.
"The magic drain is too much," he muttered.
"Even with the storage function, I'm losing too much energy maintaining the tether."
He hadn't accounted for this. The passive drain on his reserves, even after severing direct control.
The barrier might have been stable in theory, but in practice, it was still demanding too much of his energy to keep the clone intact.
He spent the next two hours recalibrating the barrier, modifying its energy efficiency.
Instead of keeping an active link to his magic, he adjusted the runes to draw from the environnt, allowing the barrier to sustain itself independently for longer.
The lattice was reinforced, dispersing energy more evenly to prevent fluctuations.
Once he was satisfied, he prepared for the second attempt.
Again, he created a Shikigami, carefully placed it inside the storage barrier, and let go.
This ti, it remained stable.
The clone moved fluidly within the barrier, executing a simple task Nero had assigned it, copying passages from a book onto blank parchnt.
It continued working for a full hour before Nero finally retrieved it.
He dissolved the clone and absorbed the returning knowledge.
Nero's eyes fluttered as the mories flooded back to him.
He braced himself, expecting a seamless reintegration.
Instead... there were gaps.
The text the clone had copied was clear in his mind, but so sections felt blurred, almost incomplete.
Certain sentences had altered phrasing, and a few paragraphs were entirely missing.
Nero frowned. "The knowledge transfer is imperfect."
He reviewed his research notes, running through possible causes:
The Shikigami's mory structure might degrade over ti.
The knowledge might need more structured reinforcent before reintegration.
There could still be interference in the barrier affecting information clarity.
It was a step forward, he had succeeded in making the barrier function, but he wasn't done.
If even small details were lost, this thod was unreliable.
He sighed, staring at the parchnt still littering the dojo floor.
'This is going to take longer than I thought. Still this is fun.'
Despite the imperfections, this was a breakthrough.
The clone had functioned for a full hour inside the barrier, and the knowledge transfer, though flawed, had worked.
He had proved the fundantal concept was viable, now he needed to refine it.
He would experint with longer storage durations.
He would fine-tune the mory structure of the clones.
He would further optimize the energy cost of maintaining the barrier.
Nero sat back, exhaling. He had accomplished a lot in one night, but he wasn't satisfied.
He wasn't looking for sothing that worked just well enough,he was looking for perfection.
Picking up a fresh talisman, he prepared for another test.
'Small steps.'
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50 Chapters ahead on Patreon (Suiijin): Chapter 179: The Weight of Ti
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