"Okay, that sounds great, but how do we create these mana veins?" Fabian Bingen asked, his intrigue clear in his voice. "I would imagine that they are pretty expensive to create, considering that all the ones we currently have were created by you, and those are not even the real deal." As a member of the Bingen family, Fabian was particularly interested in this knowledge, especially since his family had been involved in consulting on projects related to the creation of mana veins. It was a subject that had occupied researchers and government officials ever since the first mana stones had been discovered, and he was eager to learn whether their years of work had brought them any closer to a genuine breakthrough.
In fact, the creation of mana veins had been one of the more unusual research projects undertaken by governments around the world. Every government had established a task force dedicated to reading through humanity's fantasy literature, with a particular focus on online novels, in search of ideas that might prove useful. At first glance, the idea of employing people to read fictional stories might have seemed ridiculous, but the discovery of mana had changed how governments viewed such material. Humanity had spent decades imagining supernatural worlds, magical creatures, and fantastical systems of power, and millions of stories had explored possibilities that scientists and officials could no longer afford to dismiss outright.
Of course, the researchers did not believe that every idea found in a novel could be recreated in the real world. Instead, they treated the stories as a source of inspiration and, more importantly, as a warning about what might eventually become possible. Even when a fictional scenario was inaccurate, it could still provide a useful starting point for considering threats that humanity had not previously imagined. By examining the different abilities, creatures, and systems described in these stories, the task forces could identify potential dangers and begin preparing countermeasures before such possibilities became reality. It was an unconventional approach, but one that had already proven useful in helping governments broaden their understanding of the world that humanity might soon have to face.
The work had consequently become one of the most desirable positions offered by the government. The pay was excellent, and employees were essentially permitted to read novels throughout the day while receiving a salary for their efforts. Naturally, the opportunity attracted plenty of applicants, particularly among people who had already spent years reading fantasy literature for their own enjoyment. However, the job was not quite as simple as leisurely reading stories and discussing their favourite characters, since the researchers were expected to analyse the material carefully and identify ideas that could be applied to real-world problems. Nevertheless, compared with many other government positions, it was difficult to imagine a more appealing combination of good pay and interesting work.
Among the concepts that repeatedly appeared in fantasy literature were spirit veins, which often served as the foundation for cultivation and the circulation of supernatural energy. Although the energy described in those stories did not necessarily match the mana that had appeared in the real world, the underlying principle seemed plausible enough to investigate. A system that allowed mana to accumulate and circulate through the ground could potentially explain how certain locations became richer in energy than others. Consequently, the researchers had placed the concept near the top of their list of ideas to test, hoping that fictional descriptions might provide clues about how genuine mana veins could be created.
Unfortunately, their initial enthusiasm had quickly encountered a practical obstacle. They lacked a crucial component that might allow them to turn their theories into reality: mana stones. Even if the researchers could determine how a mana vein should be structured, they still needed something capable of initiating the process and providing the necessary energy. Without that starting point, their proposed methods remained little more than interesting theories that could not be properly tested. When mana stone mines were discovered more than a year earlier, however, the possibility of revisiting those experiments finally returned to the table.
The discovery had not solved all their problems, though, because mana stones were expensive to mine and remained relatively scarce. The task force could not simply request a large supply and begin experimenting without considering the consequences, especially when every stone had considerable economic value. Officials from the Treasury Department were particularly interested in selling as many mana stones as possible, since doing so would provide the government with an immediate source of income. From their perspective, storing valuable resources for experiments that might never succeed was an unnecessary financial burden, whereas selling them would produce tangible benefits that could be measured and reported.
The researchers naturally disagreed with that assessment. They needed as many mana stones as they could obtain if they wanted a reasonable chance of making their experiments successful, and every stone sold represented another opportunity they might lose. Worse still, they knew that their position within the government was far from secure, as their entire task force depended on demonstrating that its work had practical value. They had only one real opportunity to prove themselves, because a failed project would almost certainly lead to their disbandment, regardless of how much money their activities might otherwise earn for the government. The possibility of losing their jobs was therefore not merely an inconvenience but a constant pressure that influenced every decision they made.
The only reason the task force had survived the Treasury Department's attempts to restrict its resources was the support of the military, particularly Marshal Herman. His influence had kept the treasury officials at bay long enough for the researchers to continue their work, giving them an opportunity that they might otherwise have lost. Even so, military support could not guarantee that they would receive unlimited funding or materials, and the researchers understood that they could not rely on Herman to protect them indefinitely. They had to demonstrate progress before their protection disappeared, which made finding a workable approach more urgent than ever.
With direct experimentation limited by their lack of resources, the task force had decided to pursue every possible source of inspiration. The researchers consulted specialists, gathered information from people with relevant expertise, and explored ideas that might reveal how mana veins could be constructed. Their investigations had even brought them to the Bingen family, where they asked questions about the structure of the human pulse and nervous system. They hoped that understanding how the body circulated energy and transmitted signals might offer clues about how mana could be guided through a larger structure. Although the human body and a mana vein were obviously not identical, the researchers believed that studying an intricate natural system could help them identify principles that would otherwise remain hidden.
Unfortunately, gathering knowledge was not the same as being able to put it into practice. Many of the ideas they collected were interesting, but without sufficient mana stones, they could not properly test whether those ideas would work. They were consequently forced to spend much of their time analysing theories and refining possible approaches while hoping that their work would eventually lead to a breakthrough. Nevertheless, they continued because doing nothing would have guaranteed their failure, whereas even limited progress might convince their superiors to grant them more time and resources. It was a difficult position to be in, but they had little choice except to keep searching for an answer.
"Yes, I know that quite a few humans have shown interest in creating mana veins, especially since the mana stones were discovered," Gaia said, her expression remaining neutral. "However, I can tell you that you are all still a long way from actually making them. That is hardly surprising, considering how little you currently understand about the underlying principles. And let me make one thing clear from the beginning: even with this book, you will not be able to create mana veins without my help, at least not at this point in time."
Her explanation made it clear that the researchers' efforts, while understandable, had not brought them as close to success as they might have hoped. Humanity had gathered information, studied fictional accounts, and explored numerous possibilities, but it was still missing knowledge that could not easily be obtained through ordinary research. Gaia, on the other hand, possessed a far broader understanding of the world and its underlying systems. She could recognise the difference between an idea that sounded plausible and a method that could actually function, which meant that even the most promising human theories could remain useless without her assistance.
At present, there were no naturally occurring items available that could generate genuine mana veins. Gaia knew that such things were possible partly because she had also read through humanity's novels and experimented with recreating some of the items described in them. Through those attempts, she had discovered that she possessed the capability to produce certain objects that humans could only imagine. However, being capable of creating something did not mean that doing so was necessarily practical, particularly when the required resources and effort were taken into account. The items she could reproduce would be quite costly, and the same problem applied to the items whose creation methods had been provided to her by the universe.
In other words, simply knowing how to make something did not solve the problem of producing it efficiently. Gaia could use her abilities to create items that might help humanity advance, but doing so would consume resources that could be better spent elsewhere. More importantly, she did not believe that the world should depend entirely on her to manufacture every useful treasure it needed. Ideally, such items would eventually emerge through natural processes, allowing humanity to discover and use them without requiring her direct intervention. Unfortunately, she did not expect that to happen anytime soon, at least not under the world's current conditions.
Indeed, Gaia estimated that it might take a thousand years or more before the necessary treasures appeared naturally. There was, however, one possible exception: the next time Earth expanded. Such an event would introduce and absorb a considerable amount of mana into the atmosphere, fundamentally changing the conditions under which life and natural resources developed. The resulting transformation could produce numerous treasures that would otherwise take an extraordinary amount of time to emerge. From Gaia's perspective, the next expansion represented the most realistic opportunity for the world to develop many of the resources that humanity currently lacked.
The animals appearing around the world already offered a useful example of what such changes could produce. Quite a few creatures had undergone mutations that transformed them into genuine spirit beasts, making them fundamentally different from the ordinary animals that humans had known throughout history. A normal cow, for example, might become stronger after absorbing mana, but that alone did not make it a true spirit beast. The animals Gaia was referring to possessed specific traits that made them special, giving them qualities and benefits that ordinary creatures could not provide simply by becoming more powerful. Their existence demonstrated that the world's changing conditions could produce entirely new forms of life rather than merely strengthening what had already existed.
The appearance of these creatures was connected to Gaia's efforts to absorb land from other planets. When she incorporated territory obtained from the goblin planet and other worlds that she hoped to absorb in the future, she could not always integrate every part of the acquired land directly into Earth. Some portions were incompatible with her planet, while others contained regions or structures that she could not properly control. Rather than allowing those unsuitable areas to remain as useless additions, she had to recycle them into energy. That process, in turn, helped create the conditions that made the appearance of unusual animals and other treasures possible.
Naturally, Gaia could have chosen to approach the matter differently and attempted to integrate every single piece of land into herself. However, doing so would have required an enormous amount of time and effort, making it an inefficient use of her resources. She also recognised that the process of recycling unsuitable land could produce valuable results, including the development of spirit beasts and other natural treasures that would benefit the world. Consequently, she saw little reason to insist on perfect integration when the alternative offered advantages of its own. From her perspective, the entire arrangement was beneficial: she could continue expanding Earth, dispose of land that did not fit, and allow the resulting energy to contribute to the emergence of resources that humanity might eventually learn to use.