The difference this time was his intent—to accomplish the process using only his eye. And for a moment, Noah contemplated whether it was even possible, but almost immediately, his thoughts vanished.
"It is possible," he told himself, running calculations in his mind, weighing the chances of success against the potential cost.
In the end, he decided to try it regardless. Even if he became blind in the process of realizing his laser concept, it was a risk he could afford to take. With advanced medical Artificial Intelligence available, coupled with the regenerative serum at his disposal, the danger was more of a calculated gamble than a true threat.
"Fuck it, I'll try," Noah decided. Dropping the experiment now when the concept was already within reach wasn't an option. Once his mind was made up, he rose from where he'd been resting and activated his bioluminescence ability—this time channeling the energy directly through his eyes.
A sharp sting rippled through his optic nerves, followed by the unmistakable surge of chemical activity. The reaction spread rapidly, exciting the atoms in his eyes until they began to emit light.
In the next instant, his eyes flared with an intense yellow glow. His sense of sight disappeared completely, replaced by an overwhelming brightness that almost made him stumble off his feet. Still, he didn't panic—he'd anticipated this. His earlier tests had already proven he wasn't immune to the effects of his own light.
He proceeded onward, pushing to the absolute limit. The longer he maintained the output, the more data he could gather.
With direct application of his bioluminescence ability, the first three stages were already breezed through. However, the final stage, involving coherence and amplification, was the true heart of the problem. It was what separated ordinary light from a focused beam—a laser.
The first stage was simple enough: excite atoms to produce light. The second stage involved multiplying those excited atoms exponentially.
By the third stage, these excited atoms began releasing photons. When those photons collided with other excited atoms, they triggered even more emissions, creating a chain reaction that multiplied rapidly.
The issue, however, was that the photons were scattered and incoherent—wild, disorganized energy instead of a unified beam.
While he didn't doubt his ability to solve the issue with enough technological assistance—especially given his expertise in energy and laser technology—he refused to rely on external tools as a crutch. Not when he knew it was possible to achieve the process purely through his own effort.
But if he did manage to achieve a perfect laser using only his body, then merging it with his technology later would push the limits of what was currently possible. Until that moment came, he would press on alone.
Several seconds slipped by with Noah taking constant doses of nutrient solution to stave off the creeping energy drain.
The drain was staggering but much more manageable than when he used his palms. The only problem now was the strain constantly pressing on his optic nerves.
It only continued to intensify when suddenly Noah clenched his eyelids reflexively in pain, his eyelids scrunched, his fists clenched, and he couldn't help but let out a muffled groan.
For several agonizing seconds, all he could do was endure until the burning gradually dulled. He knew this could happen, but he hadn't expected the damage to suddenly intensify to such a point. The optic nerves were delicate—he knew as much—but his recklessness was the determining factor.
He tried to open his eyelids again; the agony returned sharply, and the world around him turned white. In the brief second his eye had opened, he couldn't make out any detail—all he could see was white.
It didn't take a genius to realize what had happened. His optic nerves were severely damaged by his recklessness. But his actions were not without thought—he had the regeneration serum as a backup, and because of it, there was no need to worry much.
It took no more than thirty minutes for the issue to be resolved, with the emergency protocol automatically triggered at the first sign of trouble.
Noah was quickly transferred onto a recliner, where his machines, with basic and essential knowledge and functions, operated with mechanical accuracy. Diluted regeneration serum was directly injected into the optic nerve.
The blinding white he saw dimmed in under a minute, and the pain vanished entirely afterward. The entire process lasted no more than five minutes before he could open his eye anew.
He didn't linger around to rest. The moment his vision returned, he sprang to his feet. This time, however, he didn't continue to test the ability—he already had enough data at this point.
After dressing out of the sensory outfit, he now sat behind a row of monitors and holographic displays. He began to review the results of the test, and he had to say his findings were better than he'd originally anticipated.
The first of his findings was the manipulation of frequency and wavelength of light as long as it was within the range of the visible spectrum. At least he was sure that was the current limit.
He played the video of utilizing his ability in slow motion, and he could clearly see the light he emitted cycling through red and orange before settling into bright yellow. The only reason he hadn't seen it before was because the process had been too fast to notice.
This discovery also came with an exciting bonus. The photons he emitted were not bound by the normal limits of bioluminescence. In fact, now that he had completed testing, the only correlation it had with natural bioluminescence was chemicals being used as fuel and the incoherency of the light.
The photons emitted were substantial enough to turn into a weapon, but only if he could somehow deal with the coherence problem. With the little test he ran, he was sure of one thing—achieving coherence was a possible task, but it would be hard to achieve.
However, utilizing his eyes as natural lenses was a different matter entirely. From the brief and excruciating test, one thing was sure: his optic nerves and eyes in general were incapable of handling the massive energy concentration and dispersion. Simply, they weren't built to handle such a task.
However, even though using the eye as a medium would cause damage, it could definitely serve as a form of natural coherence. On camera, he could see how the spread and radius of the light shortened when he squinted or tensed his eyebrows.
The concentration was able to reach temperatures of up to 80 degrees Celsius—just twenty degrees short of the melting point of water—and that was just him reaching the limit at the yellow spectrum.
When using his palms, the temperature reached a staggering two hundred degrees Celsius, strong enough to cause combustion in plastic. And this was achieved without coherence.
The basic and obvious observation he made was his increased heat resistance. To put it into perspective, the human skin and eye burn or melt at just over forty degrees Celsius. Now his skin could safely handle two hundred degrees, and his eyes eighty degrees Celsius, despite being very fragile.
The most important observation of all was the rate at which his energy was converted into fuel to power the ability. It was largely unscientific and seemed to follow no particular rule.
To be more precise, the human body only needs over two thousand calories a day to operate—anything more is basically an excess and would most likely go unprocessed.
Using that limited reserve in bioluminescence, he should only be able to produce small flashes of light before running out of energy, yet he could unleash blinding light, even if it was in short bursts, without constant replenishment.
That only meant one thing: his ability followed no natural principles. Instead, his natural reserves were, in some mysterious way, multiplied in the process of conversion.
Overall, the tests had made one thing clear—realizing his laser concept would be impossible without a healing factor and enhanced physique to heal eye damage when practicing or using his eye as a medium, or to handle the heat he could unleash.
This meant direct training would be impossible without the lizard serum. In the meanwhile, he would insert it in the auto-train slot after hypermotility leveled up by the end of the day.
But for now, telekinesis was his priority. The rest of the day would be dedicated to training it. But before that, he called up the system interface.
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[Name: Noah Silver]
[Age: 17]
[Gender: Male]
[Height: 185 cm / 6'1"]
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[Abilities]
— Bioluminescence — Lv.1
→ Status: Awakened | 24% XP to Lv.2
— Hypermotility — Lv.1
→ Status: Awakened | 83% XP to Lv.2
— Telekinesis — Lv.2
→ Status: Novice | 26% XP to Lv.2
— Genius Intellect — Lv.6
→ Status: Master | 79% XP to Lv.7
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The rest of the day was spent training telekinesis, trying to realize his endeavors—telekinetic barriers and senses—and even though he barely made any progress, he refused to yield. After all, results are not gotten by effort alone but by constant perseverance.