Allen stood before the massive cutter head of the Pioneer tunnel boring machine, his face a little pale.
He raised his right hand, a silvery glow of Spiritual Power pulsing at the tip of his index finger.
As the final, complex Rune Circuit was completed, a faint blue halo instantly spread along the engravings, covering the entire twenty-five-ter-long steel behemoth.
"Finally, it’s done." Allen lowered his hand and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
Two straight days of high-intensity work, engraving complete AT Field arrays onto five custom-made Mining Golems and one heavy-duty tunnel boring machine, had nearly drained his Spiritual Power.
It was an extrely precise task. The position, angle, and depth of every single Rune had to be exact. The slightest deviation could cause the entire Force Field to collapse.
Fortunately, Allen’s Spiritual Power and control were far greater than they used to be.
"Jarvis, take over control. Run the final test," Allen commanded. "Activate the AT Fields. Full power for ten minutes."
The six Engineering Golems activated simultaneously.
Translucent Force Field shields unfurled around them, encasing their entire fras.
The data on the Magic Power fluctuation detector began to flicker.
"Power consumption stable. Rune Arrays operating normally. Force Field strength has reached the expected value," Jarvis reported. "Test passed."
Allen took two steps back, gazing at the treasures before him that would soon bring him wealth.
He gave the order: "Depart."
The treads on the Pioneer tunnel boring machine began to turn with a deafening screech of grinding steel as it slowly entered the underground passage. The five custom-made Mining Golems followed close behind, disappearing into the darkness in single file.
This was Allen’s first mining team, sent to conduct a trial excavation using the AT Field technology and, in the process, collect data to calculate mining costs.
"Based on the current geological hardness, estimated ti to reach the periphery of the crystallized vein is one hundred seventy-two hours. The first batch of raw ore will be transported back to the workshop in seven days," Jarvis reported on their progress.
The vault to a twenty-million-Magic-Stone fortune had just been pried open.
Allen didn’t pay too much attention to the excavation progress. He turned and walked toward his newly built underground laboratory.
Within a day, the equipnt in this fully sealed laboratory had already been installed and calibrated.
Three layers of high-density, magic-resistant armor completely isolated it from the outside world. The inner walls were covered in defensive Runes, and a dedicated line supplied power to the large indoor AT Field.
Allen stood behind a sheet of thick, specialized glass.
"Initiate isolation sequence."
The heavy door locked shut. A soft white light illuminated the laboratory’s interior, and a pale blue AT Field instantly filled the designated space, creating a safe observation area.
On the test bench on the other side of the blast-proof glass rested a special alchemical cabinet.
"Engage chanical arms." Allen put on his enhancent goggles and crossed his arms as he gave the command.
Inside the glass-walled chamber, two chanical arms engraved with AT Fields extended and opened the alchemical cabinet.
Three fist-sized, translucent, multifaceted Crystal Stones were exposed to the air. A colorful, misty light swirled slowly within them, exuding a deadly beauty.
These were the Crystallization Seeds he had brought back.
"Begin the first test: Force Field reaction gradient," Allen said, his voice calm.
The chanical arms pushed three different samples into the radiation range of the Crystallization Seeds: a piece of Black-Patterned Demonic Iron, a section of ordinary pinewood, and a live Rock Lizard.
The stopwatch started.
"Record the data."
The instant the Rock Lizard ca into contact with the radiation, it let out a sharp cry. It struggled frantically, but its movents quickly grew stiff.
Three minutes.
The Rock Lizard’s scales lost their luster as a layer of tiny, translucent crystals ford on its surface.
"Designate this Stage One Crystallization," Allen said, staring at the microscopic image transmitted by his goggles. "Brief exposure. A microcrystalline layer has ford on the target’s surface. Jarvis, test the hardness."
A probe jabbed at the lizard’s scales.
"Hardness increased by two hundred percent. Brittleness has increased."
Thirty minutes.
The Rock Lizard stopped struggling. Its eyeballs had completely turned into glass-like crystals, and its internal organs had ceased to function.
"Stage Two Crystallization. dium exposure ti," Allen continued to docunt. "The material’s internal structure is beginning to form a crystal lattice. Vital signs have disappeared."
He shifted his gaze to the Black-Patterned Demonic Iron next to it.
On the originally dense tal surface, crystalline, frost-like patterns had appeared.
"Test the tal’s Magic Conductivity."
"Conductivity has dropped by eighty percent. Surface Runes have failed. The material has begun to lose its toughness. Preliminary judgnt: the tal is now extrely prone to fracturing under impact," Jarvis announced.
An hour later.
The Rock Lizard on the test bench had beco a lifelike white crystal statue. Even the outlines of its internal organs were clearly visible, having been completely transford into lifeless crystal.
"Stage Three Crystallization. Prolonged exposure." Allen ordered the chanical arm to touch the "crystal lizard."
The crystal lizard just wobbled; it didn’t shatter.
He then ordered the chanical arm to strike it hard.
CRACK.
The crisp sound of shattering was jarring in the silent laboratory. The crystal lizard instantly disintegrated, turning into a pile of fine white crystalline powder that settled on the test bench.
Under prolonged exposure, living creatures and tals retained their original shape but were completely converted into a crystalline structure, losing all toughness and becoming both high-strength and brittle.
Allen watched this unfold, his expression impassive.
’A forced rearrangent of molecular structure. This isn’t simple petrification at all. It’s an absurdly domineering interference with the rules of reality.’
’So this is what my ntor ant by a forced conversion to the "most stable crystalline state"... It’s unreasonably tyrannical.’
He looked at the piece of pinewood again.
The change in the wood was the most peculiar. It didn’t shatter under force like the Rock Lizard; instead, the wood fibers and crystals had ford so kind of special structure.
The chanical arm applied greater pressure.
The pine crystal remained hard and retained a certain degree of toughness.
"Under the Crystallization Field, the plant fibers have ford Iron Crystal Wood." A glint flashed in Allen’s eyes. "It’s as hard as steel, but not particularly brittle. This is an excellent replacent material for Low-Tier Golems. A sha wood is so scarce on this plane."
With the first phase of tests complete, Allen proceeded to conduct several more rounds, varying the distance and changing the test subjects, while cross-referencing the data with what had been collected from the Crystallization Seed vein.
Wood, ordinary iron chunks, Black-Patterned Demonic Iron, Magical Beast bones, plant fibers, crystals, soil, living plants, Magic Crystals, and even a small flake of dead skin he scraped off himself.
Through this series of experints, he finally gained a direct understanding of the crystallization phenonon.
[Data Analysis: The crystallization effect is strongest on materials with an ’ordered structure’ and weakest on materials with a ’disordered structure’.]
[tals, due to their highly ordered structural arrangent, are most easily forced into a rearranged crystalline lattice.]
[Soil, due to its complex composition and loose structure, is less affected.]
[Biological tissue, due to its high water content, crystallizes at a rate between the two.]
Allen was lost in thought.
’In other words,’ he mused, ’the more orderly a structure appears, the more easily it’s converted into a crystal.’
"Jarvis, establish safe operating procedures based on the experintal data. Instruct all equipnt and Golems that co into contact with the raw ore that their exposure ti must not exceed thirty seconds without the protection of an AT Field."
[Acknowledged.]
Next up was a deep-level energy analysis.
Allen activated several of the most expensive detection instrunts in the lab. A web of various rays and Magic Power bands enveloped one of the Crystallization Seeds.
A waterfall of data stread down the screen.
"This reality-interfering wave is, in essence, a high-frequency oscillating Magic Power radiation," Allen said, looking at the screen. "It’s forcibly assimilating its surrounding environnt and materials."
’If this ore could be made into a bomb or a weapon...’
Several weaponization scenarios instantly flashed through Allen’s mind.
An armor-piercing shell hits an enemy Golem, instantly unleashing a Crystallization Field that turns its armor into brittle glass, allowing subsequent firepower to destroy it directly.
It would be the absolute bane of heavily armored units.
’But the prerequisite,’ he thought, ’is that I have to be able to control it.’
For the next few days, Allen barely left the laboratory.
He tested the crystallization effect’s range of action, its intensity decay curve, and its performance variations in different environnts.
He tried to "neutralize" the Crystallization Field with varying intensities of Magic Power, recording the data from each failure.
[Experint No.: CRY-047. Conclusion: A simple Magic Power barrier cannot block the crystallization effect.]
[Experint No.: CRY-051. Conclusion: High-frequency Magic Power oscillation can temporarily slow the crystallization process but cannot reverse it.]
[Experint No.: CRY-063. Conclusion: The AT Field has a 91.7% efficiency in neutralizing the crystallization effect, making it the only effective ans of protection at present.]
The AT Field can resist both physical and magical attacks, but its consumption is imnse. If a new Rune Array could be designed based on the AT Field to directly interfere with and cancel out the crystallization radiation, mining costs would plumt.
Allen stared at the data. "Jarvis, the AT Field provides an excellent research direction. Create a reverse-engineering model. Help try to design a new Rune Array."
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