Jie Ming had long been pondering how to address the two major flaws of runic wizard tools.
The first was stability.
Traditional wizard tools were stable but limited in use, while runic wizard tools, theoretically reusable indefinitely, were highly susceptible to fluctuations in different planes’ laws, leading to failure.
His previous solution involved modular designs and battlefield quick-modifications, but this was still inefficient and relied on pre-prepared components.
The second was supply.
Crafting runic wizard tools was time- and resource-intensive. Stockpiling a few thousand for a war was the limit, and their numbers only dwindled as battles progressed, making sustained combat difficult.
Now, with this automated factory that could be stored in his internal space, everything was resolved!
He could mass-produce runic wizard tools within his internal space at any time.
Upon entering a new plane and determining its elemental parameters, he could adjust the production line in his internal space to create runic wizard tools perfectly adapted to the local environment!
In Jie Ming’s vision, as his internal space expanded further in the future, he might even move an entire cannon fodder production line inside.This would achieve a true “portable legion,” producing units while fighting.
If his cannon fodder designs were efficient enough in resource utilization, he could even create a perfect cycle of replenishing resources from the battlefield while fighting!
By then, he alone could be called a swarm!
But those were matters for the distant future.
Suppressing his excited aspirations, Jie Ming began studying the factory’s accompanying manual, delving into its operation methods, maintenance procedures, and the meanings of its core control runes.
After several days of grasping its basic functions, he took a deep breath and stood beneath the hovering factory.
His consciousness sank into his dantian, connecting with his Golden Core to channel the power of his internal space.
An invisible, immense suction force emanated from him, enveloping the factory above.
The factory’s protective arrays, sensing the pre-prepared sequence code on Jie Ming, did not resist. Instead, they glowed softly in response.
Soon, wrapped in the power of space, the massive factory began to blur and distort.
Finally, it transformed into a streak of light and was smoothly absorbed into Jie Ming’s vastly expanded internal space.
Next, he needed to find a suitable “home” for this behemoth within his internal space and conduct initial calibration and installation.
…
After successfully integrating the automated factory into his internal space and setting up its basic production programs, Jie Ming eagerly conducted several test productions.
Runic wizard tools flowed from the preset production line, undergoing shaping, rune inscription, and energy infusion with efficiency far surpassing manual crafting, leaving him deeply satisfied.
However, problems soon surfaced.
The most pressing was energy supply.
Relying on energy crystals or small portable elemental pools to power the factory resulted in unstable output, affecting the quality of high-precision components, and the consumption rate was alarmingly fast.
After producing just a few batches of runic wizard tools, his stockpile of high-purity crystals visibly dwindled.
At this rate, he’d need to carry an entire crystal mine to sustain continuous combat production.
“Energy is the lifeblood of industry, a truth that holds everywhere,” Jie Ming sighed, withdrawing his consciousness from the internal space and connecting to the magic network terminal.
He checked his current military merit balance. Though his earlier large purchases had taken a toll, the steady income from his “self-stabilizing field adjustment protocol” kept him confident.
Without much hesitation, he placed an order through Noren Workshop’s internal market for a fourth-grade large-scale elemental pool.
Unlike fifth-grade or higher elemental pools designed to power entire planes, fourth-grade pools were tailored for large war machines, high-energy research equipment, or small-to-medium production bases.
Compact enough for war machines, their size was manageable through precise spatial folding techniques, easily fitting into Jie Ming’s current internal space with room to spare.
Fourth-grade elemental pools were less complex to manufacture and had ample stock.
Soon after placing the order, the pool, radiating stable and powerful energy fluctuations, was delivered.
Jie Ming carefully placed it beside the automated factory and connected their energy interfaces.
As the elemental pool activated, a surge of pure, boundless energy flooded the factory’s energy network, elevating the stability and efficiency of all equipment to a new level.
By his calculations, this fourth-grade elemental pool could sustain the factory’s full-power operation for over a century without recharging!
This breakthrough in energy supply reignited Jie Ming’s imagination.
“If my internal space can house a factory, why not a mobile laboratory?” he mused, rubbing his chin, eyes gleaming.
While expedition command centers provided public laboratories, their generic functions and limited precision couldn’t compare to his carefully curated, familiar equipment.
His current internal space wasn’t large enough for a fully equipped large-scale laboratory, but prioritizing key, rare, or frequently used core instruments was entirely feasible.
The fourth-grade elemental pool’s energy was more than sufficient to power these precision devices.
“Hmm… I’ll also need to allocate a storage area for raw materials and to hold spoils, biological samples, and other loot collected during campaigns…” Jie Ming mentally planned his internal space’s layout while inventorying its contents.
The automated factory, fourth-grade elemental pool, spare energy crystals, common magic materials, and several dormant Black Giant cores… his consciousness scanned these items like a radar.
Suddenly, his consciousness halted as it passed over an unassuming sealed metal box in a corner!
A profound sense of unease surged within him.
He clearly remembered that this box contained his most valuable asset—those twenty-nine hard-earned strands of plane origin!
When he stored them, each vial had radiated dazzling, mesmerizing energy.
But now, through his perception, the vials in the box… seemed unnaturally “dim”?
Jie Ming’s heart sank. He immediately used his mind to open the metal box.
The sight before him made his pupils contract, his breath catching in his throat!
Inside the box, where twenty-nine radiant crystal vials should have been neatly arranged, twenty-eight were now completely transparent!
The liquid, halo-like origins within had vanished without a trace, as if they had never existed.
The lone remaining vial’s light was faint, like a candle flickering in the wind.
Its volume had shrunk by more than half and was still diminishing at a rate imperceptible to the naked eye but clear to Jie Ming’s senses!
“My… my origins?!”
Shock, confusion, and a touch of absurdity gripped Jie Ming.
He treasured these origins, planning to use them to trade for critical resources at pivotal moments. How could they vanish into thin air?!
This was his internal space, akin to gold bars disappearing from a vault!
His internal space was a fully controlled, independent domain. No other conscious entity capable of absorbing origins existed within it!
That left only one possibility…
Jie Ming’s consciousness sharply turned to the internal space itself, created through the Internal Circulation technique and anchored to his Golden Core.
Could it be… the space itself was “consuming” his origins?!
To test this hypothesis, he suppressed the storm of emotions in his heart and spent days intently observing the last strand of origin.
He clearly “saw” the faint light being absorbed, thread by thread, into the space’s “walls” and “ground,” until it finally vanished completely.
At the moment the last strand was fully absorbed, Jie Ming keenly sensed a subtle, almost indescribable change in the entire internal space.
Its boundaries seemed slightly more stable, the thin spiritual energy in the air marginally more active, and the texture of the spatial barriers faintly more “real.”
The change was so minute that, without his status as the space’s master and his focused attention, it would have gone unnoticed.
From a cost-benefit perspective, using such precious origins for this barely perceptible “foundation-strengthening” effect was an astronomical loss!
Rationally, the best course was to immediately halt this “waste” and tightly hold onto any future origins.
Jie Ming fell silent.
On one hand, tangible, precious resources.
On the other, the vague, uncertain potential for his internal space’s growth.
The decision didn’t require much deliberation.
Almost instantly, Jie Ming made up his mind: from now on, he would allocate a portion of his income to regularly purchase plane origins to “feed” this internal space with its peculiar “appetite”!
He didn’t know what this would ultimately yield, but he had a strong intuition—it was far from a bad thing.
“I’ll just live a bit more frugally, cutting back on unnecessary knowledge and research materials,” he reassured himself. “But if I skimp now and my internal space develops some congenital flaw or misses a critical evolutionary opportunity… that would be true regret!”