Wu Yao scooped up Xuanmiao and spun around on the bed, passionately describing to the kitten how persistent, relentless, and unyielding she had been, and how she had overcome the challenge through her sheer quick-wittedness.
Xuanmiao was cooperative enough to keep meowing in response, though it was hard to tell if she understood and was happy for her, or if she was simply protesting the rough treatment.
“Theory cleared! Next is the practical application!” Wu Yao set Xuanmiao down and headed straight for the workshop with her notebook.
Laying out all the materials in front of her according to the checklist, her next task was to turn the blueprint into reality.
The first step was to refine the base using Moon-Silver Wood. She opened the Workbench, and a prompt immediately popped up in front of her.
【The Workbench meets the requirements for an upgrade.】
【Upgrade Materials: Any Ore ×100, Any Wood ×100】
Without batting an eye, Wu Yao upgraded it immediately.
The Workbench began to transform before her eyes. The entire process lasted about ten seconds, but the sheer scale of the change made Wu Yao reflexively take half a step back.
The Workbench, which was originally only the size of a writing desk, expanded to nearly twice its size. Lower side tables extended from both sides. Embedded in the left side table were several circular slots of various sizes, seemingly meant to hold tools like mortars and crucibles.
The right side table was a flat iron panel covered in an extremely thin, silvery-white plating, with several small sliding drawers along the edges.
Floating in the space above the tabletop was a translucent, light blue cube, which sat directly above a recessed processing slot in the center of the surface. Beneath the Workbench were two rows of drawers with sliding rails, neatly packed with brand-new tools.
【Workbench upgrade complete!】
【Workbench (Lv.2) Current Functions: Basic Processing, Equipment Repair, Facility Synthesis】
【Upgrade Requirements: Territory Level ≥ 3, Uses ≥ 1,000】
【Basic Processing: Perform operations such as rune engraving, barrier array construction, and equipment enchanting.】
【Facility Synthesis: Craft finished buildings or synthesize structures on the Workbench, then submit them to the Territory Management interface for use.】
【New Alchemy Auxiliary System added, supporting custom manufacturing and batch manufacturing operations.】
Workbench Version 2.0 had officially arrived!
Still focused on her Mana Storage Array, Wu Yao only briefly studied the functions before quickly finding the array base crafting template in the Basic Processing interface.
【Would you like to invest mana to perform automated processing?】
Wu Yao clicked confirm and placed the Moon-Silver Wood into the processing slot.
A light blue glow lit up on the Workbench. The Moon-Silver Wood reshaped within the light, ultimately turning into a silvery-white wooden board with a surface as smooth as a mirror.
The moment the base was formed, Wu Yao clearly felt the mana particles in the surrounding air drift toward it, as if drawn by some invisible gravitational pull.
Next was drawing the mithril wire. While there wasn't a dedicated template for drawing mithril wire on the Workbench, there was a metal wire processing function. It simply required her to manually input mana during the operation, which was no difficult task for her.
Soon, the mithril ore began to heat up slowly in the light blue glow. Mithril's melting point was much higher than that of ordinary metals; she had to turn her mana output almost to the Workbench's upper limit before the ore finally pooled into a glowing, silvery-white liquid at the bottom of the slot.
The next step was the Workbench's job. She set the diameter and length parameters for the wire, and the Workbench began to operate automatically.
The mithril solution in the processing slot was siphoned to the die, slowly cooling in the air to condense into straight, uniform silver wires.
【Successfully crafted Mithril Wire ×3】
Three strands of mithril wire lay neatly on the Workbench, each gleaming with the same soft, silvery-white luster.
Everything was ready.
Wu Yao laid the Moon-Silver Wood base flat on the Workbench, wrapped the three strands of mithril wire around her wrist for easy access, and placed the five Niveya's Stones and the Starfall Crystal within arm's reach.
She spread open her notebook to the page with the Mana Storage Array. Although she had already committed the entire blueprint to memory, she still glanced at it out of habit.
Time to start!
First step: establish the array core on the base. The surface of the Moon-Silver Wood base was smooth. Wu Yao lightly tapped the board with her Mental Strength, and a silver point of light appeared right in the center. She had practiced this step dozens of times on paper; she couldn't get it crooked even with her eyes closed.
However, the process of constructing the barrier array on the base was even simpler than she had anticipated.
When viewed in three-dimensional space, the lines she had drawn countless times on paper became incredibly clear at every turn.
The spiral arcs that had been flattened on the two-dimensional diagram became three-dimensional curves, their trajectories clear at a glance.
Lines that required repeated identification on a flat map required no second thought in three-dimensional space. Wherever her eyes looked, her hand knew exactly where the line should go.
The spatial visualization skills she had honed during her years in her college major did not fail her after all.
Or perhaps it was purely because she was already so familiar with these dozens of modules that she could do them in her sleep.
Wu Yao picked up a strand of mithril wire and released a bit of mana to secure it to the base. Under her control, the mithril wire seemed to come alive, bending, twisting, and positioning itself, tracing the outline of the hexagram array core stroke by stroke.
The five Niveya's Stones were embedded into the five pre-carved slots around the array core.
The Starfall Crystal was finally embedded right in the center of the array core.
The barrier array lit up.
A soft, even silver glow spread outward from the center of the array core, flowing along the main conduction lines and into the secondary circuits.
The entire barrier array looked like a lit-up star chart, with hundreds of nodes simultaneously emitting a steady, silvery-white shimmer that flowed across the Moon-Silver Wood base.
The system prompts popped up almost simultaneously.
【Congratulations! You have independently completed the Mid-Tier array: Mana Storage Array!】
【Congratulations! You have unlocked the achievement: Barrier Array: A Glimpse into the Threshold.】
【For completing a basic barrier array for the first time, your first stroke did not just land on the notes of the Great Witch of the Starry Night.】
【Rewards Obtained: Free Stat Point +1, Clue for Fragmented Notebook on Barrier Arrays of the Great Witch of the Starry Night (2)】
【Congratulations! You have unlocked the achievement: Self-Taught.】
【Independently complete the entire disassembly and reconstruction of a Mid-Tier or higher barrier array without any guidance. Your teacher was a fragmented notebook, and a heart that refused to back down.】
【Rewards Obtained: Free Stat Points +3, Title [Self-Taught], Permanent Buff [Focus]】
【Congratulations! You have mastered the Barrier Array (Lv.4) skill!】
【Congratulations! You have obtained the Title: Self-Taught】
【Self-Taught (Epic): In the absence of guidance from a mentor, skill proficiency acquisition speed is increased by 5%.】
The newly obtained title automatically hovered beside her character name, and a new icon appeared in her status bar.
【Focus: During activities requiring precise operation, Mental Strength consumption is reduced by 15%, and operation precision is increased by 5%.】
Only then did Wu Yao notice that her 120 Mental Strength was down to a tiny sliver.
Fortunately, she had invested points into Willpower earlier. Otherwise, if she had failed to complete the array because she ran out of Mental Strength, she would have coughed up blood from sheer frustration.
Wu Yao immediately dumped her four free stat points into Willpower; the higher her Mental Strength, the better, of course.
Rate on N.U.
