“Here you are, sir.” A young kitsune woman said as she guided Jas into the laboratory that they had set aside for him. Given the varied nature of his research, there was a wide array of different devices arranged for him. Everything was neat and new, and Jas couldn’t find a speck of dust in the entire room.
“Nice.” He smiled happily as he observed the lab. The devices were honestly a little bit below the standard he was used to in his world, as he had focused far more on technology. However, this was the first ti that soone else had prepared a lab for him. Usually, it would just be him ordering whatever equipnt he needed.
“If you require anything else, don’t hesitate to ask.” The kitsune guide smiled towards him, finding him far more agreeable than she at first expected.
“Research assistants.” Jas said with a firm nod, catching the woman by surprise.
“Are you sure, sir? I don’t believe that we have any researchers at a level where they would be able to provide you enough assistance in your fields…”
There was a rather difficult expression on the young woman’s face, but Jas shook his head. “Then I’ll just have to teach them. I don’t mind if they co from other worlds, as well. As long as they are passionate about learning.”
The kitsune woman chuckled slightly. “Sir, we are servants of Udona, the Goddess of Education. If I were to limit the criteria to simply being passionate about learning, this lab would surely not be large enough.”
Jas blinked slightly at that, holding his chin. “Okay… researchers that have personally made advancents in either genetic manipulation or energy configurations. That should narrow down the pool quite a lot. And, if there are still too many, ask them to bring samples of their work, and I’ll judge the best five to join . Race, age and gender don’t matter, so long as they are able to et the main criteria.”
“Understood. I’ll send the ssage through the Towers. The news should reach every world within two days, and you should have your applicants within a week.” After saying that, the woman offered a faint bow, turning to leave and carry out this task. In a way, she had been assigned to be Jas’ attendant, and given full authority to fulfill his requests so long as they were within the law.
“Hmm?” A certain female elf looked down at her communication crystal, seeing that she had an incoming call. Grasping the crystal firmly, she injected a bit of mana into it to activate it. “Yes, Bors? Is this important? I was just about to start a new experint.”
The man on the other end, an elderly elven male, chuckled dryly. “If I couldn’t call you when you were about to start an experint, I’m afraid we’d never be able to speak. But yes, this is quite important. I believe I’ve found a rare opportunity for you.”
“Did you get the dragon scales I asked for?” The elf’s eyes sparkled as she asked that, causing Bors to clear his throat.
“Ahem… no, not that. I assu you haven’t been watching the news lately?”
“Why would I?” She shrugged her shoulders, far less interested now that she knew he wasn’t calling about the items that she had requested previously.
“Well, there is a new figure that appeared within Deckan. He is looking for research assistants specializing in ‘energy configuration’. Apparently, his research is being directly aided by the crown.”
Though his words seed impressive, the elven woman still did not seem interested, looking at him passively before he added on… “This is also a direct acquaintance of the Keeper, confird by Lady Tsubaki herself. Furthermore, the report says that his theoretical knowledge should surpass that of this world by at least a hundred years.”
“Lead with that, next ti!” She said with a flustered tone, already leaving her office to rush towards her bedroom. “This is Deckan… should I pack for warm weather? Is he accepting elves, or do I need a disguise? Are there any special requirents I should know about?”
The fact that this man was directly associated with the Keeper ant that he would have access to whatever research materials he required, no matter how rare they were. Dragon scales? She could get the crystal fragnts of a living teor if she needed it! As for his theoretical knowledge… she would have to test that herself.
“He’s only accepting those that have made achievents for themselves already, and requires you to bring a sample of your work. You have three days to make it to Deckan, at which point he will judge the samples to select five assistants.”
“So I’ve gotta bring my best work, huh?” She glanced towards the crystal ball in the corner of her room, swirling with silver and yellow mist. This energy was her latest and greatest achievent in the field of energy configurations, and she was confident that nobody would have created sothing like it yet.
Within the beastkin lands, a small electronics store was being used as the base for a eting. Nurous beastkin of different races were idly chatting before a felyn with bright red hair jumped up onto the counter. “Alright, everyone, quiet down!”
When she shouted out, the murmur of the crowd stopped. Her eyes scanned seriously over the group before a smile spread over her face. “Good. Now, I assu everyone’s heard the news?”
Rather than answering out loud and causing another stir, everyone simply nodded their heads. “Good.” The felyn shopkeeper said again, her smiling becoming brighter. “Today, we’ll be selecting soone to send and join this research lab.”
Understanding the fundantal laws behind different energy systems had always been one of the core principles behind this group, so it was no wonder that they were jumping at this chance. “We’ll be conducting a vote on who to send. The elders within every city have arranged for the vote to be held online. Tonight, at midnight our ti, connect to the virtual forum. Everyone should be familiar with the process by now.”
“Eh? There were this many people?” A week had already passed since Jas put out his announcent, and he was led to a large conference room of over two dozen people. Among them were kitsune, humans, beastkin, even dwarves. At the far end was a single… robot? He had heard about the golem race, but never t one himself.
“How many of them are genetics experts?” Jas asked, looking towards the kitsune woman that had once again acted as his guide.
She cleared her throat in response, glancing away guiltily. “There are no published articles about genetic manipulation, so we didn’t include that criteria in the advertisent. Everyone here has co for the research on energy configurations.”
Jas’ shoulders slumped when he heard that, shaking his head sullenly. His dream of a nine-tailed fox race seed to be getting further and further away. “Okay… everyone, present your energy sample. If you have it stored internally, just circulate it. I’ll take care of the rest.”
As he said that, he spread his energy through the room, using it to detect the smallest details of his would-be assistants. Most of the gathered candidates retrieved items from their storage spaces, whether they were glass orbs, paper talismans, or even sealed jars. Others stood where they were, as strange lights and mists gathered along their bodies.
Like I thought, a lot of them overlap… He noticed that several of the energies had the sa identity, simply stored differently. There were three necromantic auras, and six people that were using a mix of ki, mana, and spiritual energy that felt like needles under his detection power.
These nine were directly eliminated, asked to leave first due to the fact that none of them brought sothing truly unique to the table. Of the ones left… Jas pointed to five of them. Two kitsune, an elf, the lone golem of the group, and a lycan. “You five pass.”
In truth, there were others that he wanted to recruit as well, but the lab would already be fairly cramped with seven people. Internally, Jas was already counting Chelsea as one of his research assistants, regardless of the fact that she had just been born.
Everyone else left with sullen expressions, complaining about a wasted trip. anwhile, it was the elf that passed who actually stepped forward with a curious gaze. “Sir, may I ask, what thod did you use to conduct this test? You didn’t seem to do anything more than give us each a passing glance.”
He didn’t expect the one to ask this sort of question to be one who he had already chosen to pass, but the pace of the rejected parties slowed down a bit to hear his answer. “Your energy is a mix of all four base types through a peculiar process. Where I’m from, it’s known as Transference Mist, and its primary ability is to copy and paste enchantnts from one item to another.”
“Unfortunately, you haven’t discovered the ans of storing the energy within the body yet, so you can only channel it through this crystal ball in your hands. This reduces the usability of the energy to less than ten percent, as it is difficult to wield such a thing in battle without causing mishaps.”
Then, he pointed to the golem. “You have quite the interesting energy. At first, it appeared to be purely mana, but I noticed a thin thread of spiritual energy inside of it. From its arrangent, it seed to be an energy with so awareness, but requires a high level of control to input directions.”
After that was the human. “Your mix of ki and natural energy reached the third layer, directly condensing the power of space as your elent. Although it seed to be the most ordinary of the group at first glance, it is actually one of the more complicated combinations. If I’m not wrong, you condensed and dispersed elental ki dozens of tis before you noticed this trace of energy being left behind in your pathways.”
Finally, he pointed to the two kitsune. “As for you two, your energies perfectly complint one another. You must have trained together. One of you condensed a light-based energy made of natural energy, mana, and ki, while the other condensed a darkness-based energy with a similar formula, only replacing the mana with spiritual energy. When the two of you work together, it should create what I know as the Destructive Balance energy.”
Jas accurately pointed out the characteristics of the five chosen energy types, even explaining the applications for those he did not have a na for. Seeing this, everyone was left dumbfounded. Those who had been dismissed already were left with no other ans to protest the decision, seeing that he clearly had been able to see through their characteristics as well.
The elf was the first to recover, a new glint in her eyes as she stared at Jas. With just his explanation, she had confird that his knowledge was on an entirely different level from theirs’. Even for her, if she analyzed a completed energy, she would need to spend weeks to theorize its uses without practical experintation. Yet he had done so with only a glance. She could already assu that he had so sort of detection ability that they weren’t able to sense, but that only made her more excited.
“No further questions, sir!” She called out with the widest grin she could ever recall. Internally, she was thanking her friend for telling her about this chance, as it was perhaps the greatest opportunity for her to pursue her passions.
Jas nodded, waiting for the rest to leave. “From now on, all of you drop the ‘sir’ talk. I’m Jas, and that’s it. We’ll be working together for a while, so let’s all do our best at getting along.”
In truth, Jas was quite pleased with his selection. The fact that one of the participants had an energy he had never seen was already enough to make him feel that this was worthwhile. Even though his worlds did not specialize in energy cultivation, the four fundantal energies did still exist. They were rely harvested and analyzed through scientific ans, so they very rarely grew to the sa level as a world focused on that field.
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