"No! You can't do this!"
aluneth shrieked in agony, struggling and resisting without end. But it was all in vain; Arcane Absorption forcibly plundered Arcane Energy, completely disregarding its owner's consent.
The best way to prevent it was to use other energies to block the absorption path. Unfortunately, aluneth was an Arcane elemental creature and could not use other energies; it couldn't even convert the four elements.
The space they lived in contained only endless Arcane Energy. The density of this Arcane Energy was astonishing; although not comparable to the Well of Eternity's water, it absolutely surpassed Arcane Essence.
This Arcane Energy continuously surged into the underground cave through the portal, like a gust of wind, forming an air current within the cave.
Gale looked thoughtful. He took out the inner lining of the eternal holy grail and absorbed this Arcane Energy into it. The artificial well water at the bottom of the cup accumulated rapidly, its growth rate surprisingly no weaker than the holy grail's transmission speed.
"Mortal! You have angered me!"
aluneth roared in fury, Arcane Energy flashing on its body, and a massive Arcane ray shot towards Metri.
Metri calmly raised his staff. The Arcane ray struck the staff, like a stone sinking into the sea, causing not the slightest ripple.
"This—impossible!"
aluneth was utterly terrified. It had never seen such a troublesome enemy.
Metri used the connection of the ray to increase the extraction speed, and aluneth quickly couldn't hold on. When the last surge of Arcane Energy was absorbed, its soul was also absorbed by the staff.
"No—you won't imprison me!"
Metri ignored its shouts and stopped maintaining the magic circle. Just as the spatial gate was about to close, a crystal flew in.
Metri turned around, and just as he was about to speak, he saw the staff in his hand burst into brilliant light. He quickly stabilized the staff, allowing the light to recede.
He had seen artifacts gain the world's recognition many times, so it was not surprising. However, he still loved the artifact staff he had created immensely.
Only, now he had a question.
"My Lord, what is this?"
That crystal was thrown into the portal by Gale. "I suddenly had a good idea."
Metri looked at Gale, puzzled. What good idea was throwing in a crystal?
Gale took out the eternal holy grail and explained the matter of the holy grail and its inner lining to Metri. Then he changed the coordinates connected by the transmission runes within the holy grail. A massive surge of Arcane Energy formed a vortex inside the holy grail, and the artificial well water quickly filled up.
"That crystal is a beacon crystal, which can provide a transmission target for the eternal holy grail. This way, the holy grail won't need the Well of Eternity to condense well water."
Metri wondered, "Why go to such extra trouble? We have the Well of Eternity!"
"It won't exist forever!"
"What do you mean by that?"
Gale said, "Nothing lasts forever. Life is like this, and things are the same. The energy of the Well of Eternity seems endless, but it will eventually run dry one day."
"Uh... that's true in principle." Metri still didn't quite understand. "But we have been using the Well of Eternity for thousands of years, and it shows no signs of drying up. It should be fine for another few millennia."
Gale: "With the current prosperity of the Kaldorei and the speed of population growth, in a thousand years, the population will at least multiply by a thousand times."
Metri fell silent. The Kaldorei Empire's population now exceeded one million; a thousand times that would be a billion. Just thinking about this number made Metri shiver. A billion Kaldorei, not to mention the Well of Eternity's energy, could the continent of Kalimdor even accommodate so many people?
"Moreover, Mages use the Well of Eternity's energy without restraint. The Well of Eternity will be lucky to last a thousand years."
Hearing Gale's sarcasm, Metri's mouth twitched involuntarily. Both he and Gale were among the Mages who used the Well of Eternity's energy without restraint. For Gale to say this, wasn't he also scolding himself?
Gale turned his gaze to the eternal holy grail, then used Arcane to merge the holy grail and its inner lining into one. Thus, the complete version of the holy grail was finished.
Instantly, Arcane radiance burst forth, attempting to break through the underground cave.
But Gale raised a hand to block it, stopping the Arcane radiance. At this moment, he felt the holy grail's energy was a bit too active, so he probed into the inner cup and discovered it was a drawback of energy compression. Fortunately, the inner lining was sturdy enough to maintain the pressure continuously.
It was precisely this pressure that stopped the energy-absorbing runes from working; otherwise, if the energy-absorbing runes kept running, the inner lining would definitely burst. As long as the pressure weakened, the energy-absorbing runes would continue to work, even allowing the user to use the holy grail after it dried up. At that time, however, the density of Arcane Energy would decrease, though it would still be denser than Arcane Essence.
This was also why the eternal holy grail was promoted to legendary status; simply as a storage device, it wouldn't reach the artifact level. Only by continuously providing energy did it meet the standard for an artifact.
Metri looked at the staff in his hand, the joy of having just obtained an artifact somewhat diluted.
Gale put away the eternal holy grail and also looked at Metri's staff. "Have you named it yet?"
Metri nodded, "aluneth, Staff of the Guardian."
"That's quite good." Gale feigned admiration, having already guessed the name from the staff's appearance.
Metri was even more speechless. Couldn't he act a little more sincerely?
Gale opened the portal. "Let's go! The commotion here was a bit too big, and I expect someone will come to investigate soon."
Metri followed Gale through the portal.
Indeed, not long after, a team of Suramar guards entered the underground cave. They felt the powerful residual Arcane Energy within the cave, their expressions unusually serious.
"It seems a Mage conducted an experiment here."
"We need to report to the Grand Magister as soon as possible."
The guards felt the matter was significant and quickly returned to Suramar to report.
In the aluneth plane, the crystal stopped absorbing Arcane and returned to calm. However, the fluctuations it emitted attracted a tall aluneth, who picked up the crystal and curiously examined it.
It scratched its head in confusion. In this plane, there were only arcane crystals. It was the first time it had seen a yellow crystal and thought it was some magical treasure.
It looked around, found no other aluneth, and quickly swallowed the crystal.
Then, it left with its head held high and chest puffed out.
It had no idea how tragic its fate would be next.
Whenever Gale used the eternal holy grail, the crystal would absorb the Arcane Energy within its body, and it would be unable to stop it. Once the eternal holy grail drained its body of Arcane Energy, it would be left with only its soul, just like the aluneth Metri had drained.
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