[Rimeshrouded Cambium] Material Components: Silver Whisperash Bark + Night Whisperash Bark + Scorchbranch Husk + Glacivein Muscle + Energy Absorbent Blood Dew Process: Mana Gradient Pressing + Void Crucible Forging + Vital Liquefaction + Chloromantic Column Refinement Mana Requirements: Various Features: Extreme Durability / Natural Mana Processing / Hoarfrost Aura

It was the most complex recipe I had worked with so far. So I was going to have to take this one step at a time and see how I do. Maybe I'd succeed in my first attempt, you never know, right?

The first step involved Novi and me working together to perform Mana Gradient Pressing, combining the Night and Silver Whisperash into Moonlight Whisperash. I had no idea what its properties would be, but I was excited to find out.

I had flattened out an area for material processing and was trying to figure out how I wanted to build the press.

The only specifications for it were that two materials had to be crushed together under immense pressure within a chamber saturated with Mana, which was to be pressed along with the materials. Specifically for this, I had to use a combination of Weight Mana, which was created by mixing Earth and Kinetic Mana, or at least that was the simplest method, as any simple solid Mana type mixed with Kinetic would work, and Shadow Mana. The kinds of Mana were supposed to represent each of the Whisperash varieties.

The ratios weren't given, so I had to assume it was fifty-fifty.

First, I grew a table because I didn't want to have to work off the ground.

Growing a hollow cylinder out of Scorchbranch, I pumped both the air and environmental Mana out of it. Then I threw it away because I had no idea how to put a press inside the cylinder. I'd probably have to do it the other way around.

Instead, I started building the individual parts. Following the principles of how I was pretty sure a hydraulic press worked, I first created a tub and filled it with Klyven Dew. Then I made a switch-activated one-way pump that was powered with Kinetic Mana.

For the press itself, I had a flat circular bottom plate attached by supports to a cylinder with a liquid intake at the top. In that cylinder, I placed a piston connected to the actual press. It just dropped onto the bottom plate, but I decided to ignore that for now.

Then I simply connected the tub of dew to the pump, and just before attaching the pump to the piston, I pushed the piston up to the top, expelling all the air. Once I connected the pipe at the top, air pressure stopped it from falling.

Wrapped around the press itself, I regrew that cylinder I threw away earlier, sucking out all of the environmental Mana and replacing it with a mix of Weight and Shadow Mana. Luckily, those two types didn't spontaneously combine into anything.

"Hey, I need some of your version of Whisperash," I let Novi know. She was working on performing Vital Liquefaction on some Glacivein Muscles.

"Give me a second," she replied while transferring a container filled with blue liquid to an ice bath. "How's the hydraulic press coming along?"

"I think I'm done with the press itself. I just need you to add your material. Or I could borrow your cloak if you're too busy," I replied.

Novi squeaked and ran over. I then had her use [New Growth] inside the vacuum chamber to grow a flat disk of Night Whisperash.

After lifting the piston that had fallen when I removed the air pressure, that is. I hoped that whatever I was missing here wouldn't be an issue, because I was fairly certain hydraulic presses weren't supposed to just fall on their own.

All that mattered was being able to apply a lot of pressure, so it should be fine.

After we had both added thin circles of Whisperash, I waved her off and started the pump. All of the equipment was made of Scorchbrach, and that stuff was harder than steel with my Fortitude, so I wasn't worried about it bursting anywhere. With my Authority sense, I could feel the liquid building up at the top of the piston and pushing it down.

Only to realize it wasn't pushing the piston lower than a certain point. I had forgotten to remove the air from the bottom half of the piston, so the hydraulic system was now fighting a pneumatic one.

With a sigh, I broke the pipe and let the dew spill out all over the table.

Actually, couldn't I fill the space where the air was getting caught with dew to actually give myself proper control over the piston?

I had to widen the piston shaft slightly so that I could run a pipe from the bottom to the top. Then, I finagled the pump into being piston-designed as well, with every rotation forcing some of the liquid upward. Once I was done with that, I pulled all the air from the shaft, sealed it, and filled it with Klyven Dew.

Then I set the pump to pull from the bottom up.

The piston finally started moving properly, compressing the Mana and Whisperash together.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

It was so much easier building these things when I could just feel the inside of it with my aura and tell just by that what was happening. Additionally, I was able to grow all my own parts wherever I needed them.

Back on Earth, attempting this same project, I probably would have just finished my third cry right about now before disassembling the whole thing to start anew.

I waited until the pump started making an angry clunking noise before turning it off.

Opening up the sealed container, I realized that the material I'd just made was stuck under the piston. So I sliced off the ram at the bottom of the piston. If I ever need to reuse the press, I could simply regrow that one part. Looking at the potential material list, I'd definitely need to use it again.

Squeezed together and flattened was a faintly glowing piece of Whisperash. It looked as if it were illuminated only by moonlight, which was what I was going for.

"Success!" I called out and bit into the glowing material. I took my time to enjoy the succulent flow of knowledge into my mind. I think I was getting used to eating weird shit because it hardly fazed me that I was eating a piece of fabric.

"Oh, that's good. Have you considered what if we just give up and die? Maybe hell is really nice and they just lied to us," Novi said, while lying on her back staring into the sky, blue liquid all over the ground around her—just a normal part of the creative process. She'd get over it eventually.

Well, I wasn't going to get her help any time soon. So I might as well start the column distillation of the Energy Absorbent Blood Dew, or EABD for short, on my own.

I had to separate the Energy Absorbent part of the dew from the rest of the mess. The blood and metallic components weren't needed. I was a little bit weary of working with the material after my last experience with it, but you don't win any prizes by not playing the game.

On the table next to the press, I grew a large boiling flask. Attached to the top of the flask, I added a fractional column, essentially a piece of tubing that ensured any extra residue not intended for that fractional stage would condense before reaching the receiving flask.

Then, I added a tube made of Glacivein Muscle to cool the vapour as it emerged from the fractional column. This tube extended to the side and downward, allowing the liquid condensate to be poured into a flask.

Around the whole setup, I drew a ritual circle to remove air from the apparatus. Creating a vacuum was so easy with magic. It was too bad that I couldn't use this as a weapon. Life Energy probably meant that living beings could heal through air deprivation and unusual effects caused by pressure differentials.

In the boiling flask, I grew a good half litre of EABD and flooded it with Fire Mana until the moment it started boiling. The Fire Mana was imbued into the liquid itself, not as a flame underneath the flask. Due to the metallic nature of the Blood Dew, I wasn't sure if I could even make it boil without some kind of blast furnace. This method was a lot easier, even if I had to pull the Fire out afterward.

From the Glacivein condensation tube, a red liquid began dripping into the receiving flask. This was likely the blood element of the dew.

It was taking its sweet time, so I decided to use this time to plan the changes I wanted to make to my Mana Veins. Given that I was going to have to mould my soul in order to alter the [Repaired Mana Veins] Catalyst, I was fairly certain this had to be a subtractive process. I couldn't add more soul to replace parts that I'd already removed after all.

I already had a set of Veins when I chose this body, given the 'Repaired' adjective in the Catalyst name. All I had to do was align my physical veins with my spiritual ones to fix them, which I did in some kind of state of enlightenment while tapping into Nature as a concept. Now I needed to do the same thing, but with Argent Bastion, and since I could only subtract, I had to ensure the new system entirely enveloped the old one because I could only chip away at my spirit to widen the veins, not shrink them.

I finished a few channels in a simulation by the time the red liquid stopped pouring from the condenser.

I added another burst of Fire Mana just to ensure I had gotten it all, then swapped the receiving flask out for another one. From there, I did the same thing, pouring as much Fire into the flask as I could until it started boiling again.

This time, instead of a blood-red liquid, it was more of a chromatic, rainbow-coloured oil. That oil was absorbing atmospheric Mana like crazy, which was a problem. I already had to figure out how to remove the Fire Mana from it. I didn't need environmental Mana types like Air, Water, and Nature to make the process even more difficult.

Plugging the condenser for a moment, I grew a Scorchbranch bulb and sucked all Mana out of it, then attached it to the end of the condenser, unplugging it at the same time to allow the condensate to flow.

I really needed to get a transparent material sometime soon. Having all my glassware—sorry, plantware being completely opaque was annoying.

When I finally felt the liquid stop boiling, I popped the bulb off, covering the lid with my finger to prevent Mana from leaking in, then looked around, trying to find a spot where I could work with it. There was nowhere - I needed a Mana-free environment, but that didn't exist in real life.

With a groan, I began growing a shed out of Scorchbranch. Painstakingly, as I repeatedly ran out of Mana and had to recharge. At least during the downtime, I could continue modelling my new Mana Veins. I drew inspiration from several sources for those, including the shield orb that had been attached to the tortoise and [Living Circuits] to add automated functionality.

When the shed was finally done and I had pumped all the Mana out, I went in through the airlock, ensuring I vented the Mana from the airlock before letting myself into the sealed shed. There was a single Light artifact pulling Mana in from the outside to power itself, but otherwise the room was as Mana dead as the Ruins of Valsir.

In this environment, I opened the bulb, only to see that I had fucked up and overboiled the concoction because the chromatic rainbow colour was now tinged grey. I knew having opaque plantware would screw me over at some point.

With a deep sigh, I debated joining Novi on the ground, staring into the sky. But no, I could fix this.

After bringing the fractional distillation rig inside the shed, I did the same procedure as last time. Except that the bulb I used now had an eye inside it, so I could watch the liquid. This time, I caught it when the grey metal replaced the rainbow coloured liquid. Their boiling points were nearly the same, which was why I didn't catch it last time.

After running the rainbow liquid through the cycle twice more to ensure it was pure, I took a sip to confirm it was what I was looking for. And it was, but for some reason, the Fire Mana connected with the dew to the point that my Core thought it was a part of the liquid. But that was fine, I had a way to get rid of it.

Growing a plain oak wooden basin, I poured the rainbow liquid inside and watched as the Fire Mana hungrily discharged into the oak wood, consuming itself to burn away the fuel. Once it finished, I took another sip of the rainbow liquid, this time getting a proper result.

My Core just called it Energy Dew. I would have to keep it away from anyone named Kyle, but otherwise it seemed safe enough.

Exiting the shed, I went to see if Novi had finished her existential crisis.

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