Comiak
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Chapter 177: Logic of Layers
🕑 Added 2022-05-21 06:16:00 +0000 UTCThe rock I sent to a different layer slowly starts disappearing, or, at least, from what [Sense Space] is telling me so is its already tiny gravitational pull. I observe the rock for an hour, and in that time, the rock lost a quarter of its mass; however, according to the shadow the mana casts on the normal layer, it has not decreased but increased.
I teleport the rock and its mana back to closely examine the damage, and that is when, for a split second, I noticed some of the mana had taken forms I had never seen before.
Ting! Sense Magic has met requirements for a breakthrough and will continue leveling past level 900!
45th Breakthrough: You have seen unstable mana; this will help you understand this elusive and alien mana.
My tails tich in excitement, and I can’t help but grin as I welcome this new turn of events.
Is this the case for all the layers? Or is it just for that particular layer? There’s only one way to find out!
I teleport several rocks to different layers, but because I can only observe one layer at a time with [Sense Space], and [Sense Magic] can only see the shadow of the mana, I have to observe them one at a time.
Every layer behaves differently and every one in unexpected ways. Sometimes matter will collapse into a singularity, others will slowly fade into nothing, and some slowly shift back to the normal layer – still deadly since it tears the rock apart. The laws which govern each layer is different, but the common thing is that matter can’t exist long term in them.
There are a few relatively safe layers I found, some where the degradation of matter is so slow that prolonged exposure is safe. Some strange ones, like the first I tested, allows for different stable mana that is unstable in the normal layer.
So far, I have found seventeen normally unstable mana, and I am starting to think there are theoretically an infinite number of them; but this is very early in this research, but I think I am starting to understand the true nature of mana.
So far, from what I have observed, mana seems to be something like the manifestation of logic and information of this realm or reality. The layers all run on a different logic which explains why the breakthrough for seeing into other layers stated that it will ‘help me understand the possibilities of space’. Some have gravitational forces so strong matter can’t reasonably exist, other have it so weak nothing larger than atoms can exist. Of course, this is all just one hypothesis to explain what I am seeing; I don’t know for sure if that is really the case.
No matter what I try, I can’t keep the mana stable in the normal layer to properly study them, and I am not entirely sure if it is safe to do so. What will happen if I try to bring a paradoxical logic into this layer? At least it’s only paradoxical to this layer.
That doesn’t mean I can’t study what happens if I bring that mana to other layers; at least then the normal layer won’t, or shouldn’t, be affected by anything disastrous.
The layers are a minefield, a dangerous place to go without already extensive knowledge on which ones are safe. The Phase Rovlat must have some sort of intuitive knowledge skill on which os is safe, a skill to protect it, or some other skill or skills which makes navigating and surviving the layers safely.
After spending a few days exploring the layers with probes… I mean rocks; I find that only one percent of the layers are moderately safe, ones that I can probably survive a few hours in. The very safe ones are one in one thousand, the ones that the rocks are still surviving in, and by the estimation of their decay, they range from days to months to yet to be determined.
Of the ones that have an effect on mana, void and essence seem to be the most stable; in fact, they are the most stable mana in most layers. It just makes sense; they all need that ‘logic’ in order to exist. The problem arises wherein not even those mana can exist for long; how those layers even exist, I don’t know, but they must run on some sort of logic so extreme or alien I can’t even comprehend them right now.
If I were to describe what spatial layers are, I would use the analogy of a blueprint. You have several papers; one might show where the frame of the house is supposed to be. The others are the plumbing and electricity. The normal layer shows the house, to rooms, where the doors are, and what everything is made of; but it doesn’t show things like the plumbing and wiring. A house doesn’t need those to be a house, whereas those layers need the house to mean anything, but they don’t have that. Line all those layers up, and you get the full picture, all of this realm.
So for the ‘blueprint’ that shows the ‘plumbing’, the lumber used for the framing of the house has no use; therefore, it has no reason to exist. This is why some things can or can’t exist in different layers. It’s not a perfect analogy, but it should suffice.
I finally decide that my skill is high enough level to get another shared breakthrough; in fact, I am a little over-leveled for it but, whatever, at least it will be much easier to get and level.
Ting! Sense Space has met requirements for a breakthrough and will continue leveling past level 80!
8th Breakthrough: You've learned how to sense space in two different locations; this will help you see more.
With my study into spatial layers extensive enough for eight levels, I move on to another subject of research, the dungeon entrance. The reason why I didn’t study it before spatial layers is because it seems like something much harder to study, and I need the levels to make it easier. However, now that [Sense Space] is level seventy-six, I hope it’s at least possible to study
I go to Temple Island and pass by several groups of priestesses in training, each of them working on a dedication to Myrou. It seems to be something the priestess elders are encouraging a lot since I never noticed the priestess’ doing that before Papuyo attempted takeover.
I arrive at the dungeon entrance and closely observe it. It seems like the space ends, like a hole in the fabric of space. I cross the entrance and look at it from the other end, which shows the same end of space phenomenon.
This should be another breakthrough, but since I’m not getting it, that means I am not seeing something fundamental what is it I am missing? No matter how long I look, I can’t figure it out; I don’t even know where to start! It’s just a hole in space!
I take a deep breath to release my frustrations and still my aggravated tail movements. Clearly, I need another breakthrough to get this one. Instead of bashing my head against something, hoping to learn something, I set this subject aside and move on to my next task.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Uloru sits cross-legged, meditating.
“Focus on your life, Uloru,” Kadona says, teaching her student. “There’s more to one's life essence than vitality. Vitality is the glue that keeps our soul to our body, but it is not what defines life.”
Uloru breaths in deeply, then out slowly, focusing on her life essence; not the mana, but the fundamental… energy, for lack of better words, called life.
Her master has recently made a new breakthrough in [Sense Life], an important breakthrough that reveals a new aspect of life.
“There are four parts to what we call ‘life’” Kadona continues. “The body, the life in the material. Vitality, Life in mana. Soul, Life in identity. And Anima, life in concept. Without these four, we can’t live, at least as far as I am aware.”
“Isn’t identity and concept the same thing?” Uloru asks.
“No,” Kadona shakes her head, her long brown hair swaying. “The soul is the identity of you anima is the concept of life itself. Anima is needed to bring the concept of life to the soul, to your mana, and to your body.”
Uloru nods and goes back to meditation, armed with more knowledge to get the breakthrough.
This has been part of her training for a few days, and she feels like she is close to getting it. She needs to feel her own life, her own Anima.
First, she focuses on her own bodily life, the first breakthrough. Her pumping heart, the blood running through her veins. Material life does so much. It allows her to see and hear and generally interact with the world; without it, how would she know she was alive? How would she know others were? How would she do things? It brings meaning and purpose to life.
Once she has fully grasped her own material life, she focuses on her vitality. This is what animates her, it keeps her alive when her body is broken; it ties her identity to her body so she can experience life.
Her soul, or, rather, the life in her soul, is a lot harder to pin down, as it’s another recent breakthrough, but from what she can feel, it’s unique to everyone. The longer one has lived, the more they have experienced in life, the more it grows. It’s almost like the breadth of experience one has but somehow, more than that; it’s hard for her to explain.
After grasping her soul life, Uloru concentrates on the very concept of life itself, feeling for it. A faint pressure pushes back against her perception, barely noticeable. Seizing this chance, Uloru focuses her full attention on the pressure, mentally grasping at it, feeling what it is.
Several chimes ring her mind as a new color of life fills her perception, glowing brightly and vibrantly.
“I got it!” Uloru shouts, celebrating her successful breakthrough.
“I knew you would,” Kadona says with a proud smile that only a master could have for their protege.
Uloru examines her surroundings seeing all the life around her in new ways. Everything is brimming with anima; it fills the soul and body, bearly contained.
“Let's go back home and celebrate; it’s been so long since we’ve been back in the Nexus,” Kadona says, leading the way out of their home in the dungeon and toward the dungeon entrance.
However, Kadona stops Uloru as they go around a corner of a building. It quickly becomes obvious why. Alysara is standing near the dungeon entrance, observing it. Her long beautiful and lustrous hair blowing in the breeze, her tails dancing around gracefully but… somehow irritated?
It is the real Alysara, not a clone, the presence of her Bond caressing her like a gentle blanket but tugging on her attention like it wants her to admire the perfect specimen of beauty that is Alysara.
Uloru quickly snaps out of it however when she finally comprehends what she is seeing with her [Sense Life]. Her vitality and body is normal and perfectly healthy; however, the life in her soul is so vast she feels completely lost in the infinite expanse of her soul’s life.
Where’s her anima?
Uloru can’t see it, is it so overshadowed by her soul? No, that can’t be the case; she can still see her vitality and body life. Why can’t she see her anima? Does she not have anima? She has to have it, right?
That is when she notices it, a faint trail of color that represents anima swirling inside her, so faint she almost didn’t notice it.
Why is her anima so low?
Comments
Dragonkinn
which os is safe>>which ones
Dragonkinn
tich in excitement>>twitch
Jemini
I think the reason her "anima" is low should be pretty clear. We've just gone through several chapters that offer the answer a little while ago, after all. Myrou made a comment about Aly's soul being "unmarred by the mark of repeated reincarnations." It seems likely that by "unmarred," the "mark" that's left on a soul due to a reincarnation is probably anima. This would mean that the reason her anima is so low is because she only has 1 reincarnation worth of anima, while everyone else has hundreds or thousands.
Comiak
sense space, and sense matter are two different skills. space can't see matter but it can see the spatial warpings from the gravitational fields produced by matter.
Pawzom Lz
Sense Sound(Echolocation) and Tremors(Vibrations through Earth) would probably just be weaker versions of Sense Vibrations, which would be a weaker version of Sense Space(all matter vibrate at certain frequencys, I'm no expert though so look this up if you want to know more).
Pawzom Lz
Thats kind of what I am thinking and why I dont think it has a sight breakthrough, its just we have not seen anything to suggest yet that Sense skills can also be used through their normal olfactory senses. While it makes sense that Aly would not notice it, she has been teaching her family/students/friends Sense Mana and as far as I am aware they have not had sudden issues with seeing too many things at once like Aly did when she got certain breakthroughs with her Sense Mana/Magic and the information overwhelmed her and interfered with her normal life for a while since she did not have another way to see. I mean, at the very least if this was the case we should have had a short mention of it as those she live with suddenly have a hard time moving around?
Pawzom Lz
She has only made a couple of magic items with inscriptions, she has however made many enchanted items with inscriptions(power armor being the one she has made most off) and a significant amount of test samples, which probably does not require the same amount of anima as magic items which drain a significant portion upon creation, but quantity can probably be just as dangerous, if not more so since it might not be noticeable?
epoeck
Bruh, how? Every time I read a chapter to try and answer the questions that are running through my head they are not answered and even more questions appear. Aargh! It's a great sensation though. Keep it up!
Nematrec
Comiak has stated there's other sensing skills, like sense vibrations or sense sound, sense tremors, etc, which are all required for true sense.
Collateral_ink
Hmmm, the obvious is probably as people have said: making magic items through Inscription probably takes Anima from the maker as part of the process. However, if this is the case, it seems odd that she would be this low already. I mean, she has only made 3-4 magic items with inscriptions. If that is all it takes to nearly kill someone, then it's a good thing she didn't pick Inscription as the core of her trial because this new craft is doomed to failure.
Tjark
I don't get the sight breakthrough? Why would there be one. If can sense it around you, it's not really a 'breakthrough' to sense it in just one direction. It shouldn't appear any different whether you sense it through sight or the sense.
Tjark
Yeah True Sight can only evolve into True Sense like how her immaculate appearance turned into immaculate translocation. Having existing sense skills will probably help with that and can fuse into the evolution but a direct advancement with a legendary point like sense mana -> sense magic is not possible. I'm not even sure if True Sight/Sense has an advancement?
Pawzom Lz
If there is an eye sight breakthrough it should be possible for all Sense skills to get them, not just the upgraded versions, which is why I believe it affecting eyes should just be a basic thing that comes with it being a superior version of an eye skill. After all, it cant be considered a common breakthrough if only some of them can learn it. This would also explain why we dont know of it since Aly is ''blind''. Also, I forgot to reply to the question of Sense Space above. While Sense Space represents reality, it also represents physical matter, which the body is mostly made from. Essentially, if my guess is correct, then Body is mostly Matter(Space), which is its most basic building block, it then takes some aspects from Mana(Lightning/Metal which is nerves/blood), Life and Mana(which is Vitality) which binds the Soul and Mind to the Body? Mind does not have matter, but is connected to a Mind Layer/Mindspace(?) which is what Space represents for it, from Mana it maybe taps into Lightning due to neurons and stuff. Through Life/Vitality it gains Anima? Soul has the Soul Layer which is where it taps into Space, which is all I got as I am basically just guessing here.
Mugsy
I don't think it's the clones thing primarily because I thought that was like mana patterns and such specific. Nematrac's theory makes sense to me, Anima is not really something that's been talked about as far as I can remember, certainly not by her and since she mainly studies on her own she wouldn't really know about it, and most of the time the people who have sense life interact with her clones so they wouldn't have Anima to look at. It feel like something is being ripped away from her and it is apparently literally "life" whatever that means. Though if that was the case it would seem that making magic items gives them "life" in some way. Though it could just be her Primordial Soul being a Primordial Soul which might mean she needs to balance things out as the story tends to bring up her doing multiple things at once but also needing to maintain balance in various aspects.
SpaceGoddess76
That makes sense. However we know Sense Mana didn’t have an eye sight breakthrough because even Kayafe didn’t mention anything. Sense Magic might. This also probably means only the upgraded versions “might” have a sight breakthrough. The Toph references would be fun, I always enjoyed her as a character.
Pawzom Lz
There are most certainly more than 5 Sensing skills in that mix. As an example we got heat(or fire, cant remember which) and metal, both of which our bodies have but they are also lesser versions that go under Sense Mana/Magic. The 5 I am guessing it is are the 5 major ones that are the combination of all the lesser ones, and then the 5 major ones becomes True Sense, which would probably be an Ultimate Skill. Right now only 1 knows if there are more or less and I seriously doubt Comiak will spoil it for us :P I am however very curious if the Sensing skills all have an eye sight breakthrough, would make sense if there is one and we dont know about it cause it is something the current Aly just cant figure out and if there is not I would love some clarification if sensing skills can see through eyes normally or not. Would be fun if someone else figures out the eye sight breakthrough, tells Alysara about it and without thinking about it asks how come she didnt figure it out with how simple it is only for us to get a Toph moment where she waves her hand in front of her own eyes in annoyance. A few Toph references would be perfect since something she and Aly have in common is that they are both so highly skilled that people around them keeps forgetting they are blind.
SpaceGoddess76
Does this mean Alysara needs the Sense Life skill? And possibly a Sense Mind or Anima skill? Everyone is saying Sense Space is the “body” but isn’t sense space the makeup of reality? And maybe just 1 part of reality. Perhaps it’s unrelated to body/mind/soul/concept. Or perhaps Kadona & Uloru haven’t discovered there is another part and so we are all trying to guess there are only 4 skills when actually there are 5 or more? So either we are all trying to guess the 4 skills that make up a person, when there are more or perhaps True Sense requires a combo of skills that sense both a Person & Reality. Or perhaps True Sense isn’t even the final skill merge and we being completely mislead. So instead of just the 4 skills there are at least 3 other skills related to reality? I’m guessing Sense Magic is related to both from what we’ve learned so far, if this is true it means there are 3+ that make a Person, 3+ that make Reality, & 1+ that combines both.
Pawzom Lz
@Gwendolyn Simmons-LaRose If my understanding of how skills here work is correct, then Alysara cant advance True Sight into True Sense. If she wants to get the stronger version of True Sight, I think she first needs to get all the Sensory skills required for True Sense, fuse them into True Sense then True Sight will probably come along and add its progress into it? Normally I would have said it could be possible that she can have both True Sense and True Sight since the 2 are different sensory skills. One she can move around as she pleases and the other alters her eyesight. But since we know that both dragons and humans got Mana Sight due to too many of them getting Sense Mana, I'm not so sure if that would work. Is it possible to use Sense Magic and other Sense skills with eye sight? Since Sense Mana can be degraded into Mana Sight, it kinda implies it is a superior version of Mana Sight, so it feels like it should be able to do what Mana Sight can do also? Since Alysara is ''blind'' I dont think we actually know this yet? It would be quite weird if Aly manages to cure True Sight and fuse it into True Sense, only for her eyes to then become useless since they cant hope to compete with True Sense. Maybe all Sense skills have another common breakthrough that applies to eyesight when they want it to?
Gwendolyn Simmons-LaRose
True sense, the advancement of true sight
Pawzom Lz
Maybe it does exist and is the 6th sensing skill for True Sense? Or maybe Sense Qi have been split into Sense Life and Sense Soul? Qi in novels is often heavily associated with those 2. Or maybe there are no such thing as a skill for it. The only thing we know for sure of the Age of Cultivation is that it at least got announcements of important events through the system. For all we know there were no classes and skills back then.
Tjark
What about Sense Qi?
Tjark
Likely at some point. Right now it might be too dangerous though. Probably needs some skill to protect herself.
Tjark
Wasn't it said she also lacks a few aspects of the soul. Because she existed before the age where that or in this case Anima was introduced? I guess she didn't get the new things from new ages in her soul form and some things take longer to come since she's 'alive' again.
Pawzom Lz
Ok, so taken from this chapter we know Sense Life can tap into 4 others: ''The body, the life in the material''(Sense Space) ''Vitality, Life in mana''(Sense Mana/Magic) ''Soul, Life in identity''(Soul) ''And Anima, life in concept''(Mind) Life is able to tap into all 4 of those, which means if we count with life then it should be 5 sensing skills, all of which should have a breakthrough allowing them to tap into each other? Sense Mana/Magic can tap into 4 also(space, life through vitality, mind and soul through different breakthroughs. Though it means what I wrote above about Sense Life becoming Sense Anima is wrong.
Pawzom Lz
Does not Manipulate Mana/Magic just dip into soul a little(and life through vitality), kind of like Sense Life also seems to dip into mana through vitality? Maybe the sensing skills required to get True Sense is Sense Space, Mana, Life and Soul. Sense Space becomes Dimensional? Sense Mana becomes Magic. Sense Life becomes Anima? Sense Soul becomes Ectoplasm? All 4 of these might have a breakthrough that allows them to dip into each other, which might also be why they can possibly be fused? Maybe Sense Mind should be in here also?
Azur Kris
I think it's because her soul is XXX years old and is XXY times older than Alysara. Her Soul overshadows the existance and experience of Alysara. It's probably going to take quite a few ages to make up for the deficit...
Ninetails
I wonder if the last general skill for her will be Sense Anima. If we take space as the bodily thing, then she would have access to all those 4 types of sensing, physical, mana, soul and anima, which might then potential enable her to merge them into True sensing.
Pawzom Lz
Doubtful as it was Myrou that helped her soul reincarnate, and she wants Alysara to remain alive.
Aegis OT Void
It might be because she wasn’t originally from this realm and she is only barely connected to the realm’s concept of life due to Myrou reincarnating her,
Illiterate Scholar
Or is it that the gods only gave her 20 years to live, meaning that there is no concept of life after that point? Like a countdown timer...
Nematrec
or because it's being stolen by that pain whenever she makes a magic item that has formations
ShotoGun
So, can Alysara hide in different layers while her clones kill things for her?
Maury
the reason that it's low because she has some kind of defect she isn't aware of, or is it a result of that one breakthrough that makes her clones more indistinguishable from the original
Captdeth
17s
