As soon as the Arcor left Corwyn's palm and entered the stone, it began to spread out, pouring through every fiber of the material. Corwyn's consciousness gradually left his body and became one with the Arcor, focusing entirely on the composition of the material in contact with his hand.
As soon as the Arcor finished channeling through the stone, Corwyn could already feel that the substance he was affiliated with at the moment wasn't simple. The outer parts consisted of common white stone, with no special components whatsoever. However, deep within the stone, there were other, smaller components included. Those had to be the key to the special properties of the material. He guided his Arcor towards those small parts. The second he tried to connect with them, he felt a strong force going against him, rejecting him.
Corwyn tried again, pressing harder this time, but he still got pushed away. His Arcor left the stone abruptly, making him fall backward and landing on his back.
"What happened?"
Everyone around Corwyn shouted in sync, surprised at him falling over suddenly. Corwyn needed a moment to bring his mind back in order before he stood up again.
"I know now why this material is so special. Most of it is just ordinary white stone, but it has other tiny parts inside of it I have no knowledge of. Those parts possess a strong rejecting power, and have pushed me out. They are most likely also the reason that the juggernaut stays away from it and that no one was able to break it."
"What do you mean by "they possess a strong rejecting power"? What exactly were you doing, anyway?"
It was Rogar who asked the questions. Corwyn turned towards him and replied:
"I was inspecting the material's inner parts with Arcor. I am an ability user with the power to analyze any metal's properties and recreate it with Arcor."
Those who didn't have known this before had their jaws drop. Corwyn was able to create any kind of metal out of Arcor? Even extremely rare ones? Wasn't that ability a little too outstanding?
Corwyn quickly waved his hands in denial.
"Please don't misunderstand! It's extremely tiring to create even one weapon this way. Also, I need to know the properties of the metal first before I can recreate it, which takes a considerable amount of time and effort as well. And I still have a long way to go in perfecting the creation process. So it is far from being an overwhelming ability!"
Hearing his words, most of them slowly calmed down again, but they were still astonished, even Rogar. Who would have thought that this young person who caught his eye recently was an ability user? But they were getting off-topic, so Rogar briefly coughed and addressed the matter at hand again.
"So, you inspected the material with that ability of yours, in hope that the special components you were talking about earlier were some kind of metal. You would then be able to analyze and recreate that metal, and by doing that, giving us a means to escape from this place. Did I get it right?"
"Yes, you are absolutely correct. The concentration of Arcor is sparse here, but if I truly could recreate it, making simple things like a clump of metal should be doable."
Rogar nodded in agreement. If Corwyn was successful, then getting past the juggernaut should indeed be possible.
"And? Is it some kind of metal you can recreate?"
This time, it was Lonren who asked the question, his excitement clearly showing in his voice. For so long, they wanted to be able to leave the city, and now, a chance might be within their reach.
"I'm afraid I still don't know. As I explained before, as I tried to inspect it closer with Arcor, I got pushed out by it. So I still can't say if it is a metal or something else entirely. First, I have to find a way to bypass that rejecting force, which could take a while."
Corwyn's answer made them feel disappointed, but they knew they couldn't ask for anything better. Just the possibility of finding a means to escape was a huge boost to their morale, so letting Corwyn do his own thing was what they should do for now. Lonren showed him a smile and said:
"In that case, I'll let you focus now and go back to the city hall. I can't abandon my duties as the mayor for long anyway, so I'll excuse myself here."
He quickly gave instructions to the guards standing by not to disrupt Corwyn with his work, then turned around and left with his entourage. Rogar too quickly excused himself and headed back to their lodgings. Only Corwyn, Teo, Hanaan and Dalios remained.
"You don't have to stay here with me. Better use this time to train! It'll probably take me several days until I figure out how to handle this material, so remaining here is a waste of time for you."
At Corwyn's prompt, the three nodded in understanding and soon left as well. Now that he was alone, Corwyn returned his attention back to the wall in front of him and resumed his work. Though, even after spending multiple hours on the task, he didn't find a way to get through the power of the material that kept on rejecting him. It was when the sun slowly started to set that Corwyn gave up for the day and returned to the lodgings where Teo and the others were waiting for him. He told them of his repetitive failure, and that he couldn't do anything else but try again the next day.
After eating dinner, everyone quickly went to bed, but Corwyn was still up and took a stroll outside. He was still brooding over the strange parts of the substance and how he could get through to them. No matter how much force he used, in the end, he was always pushed out. There must be some way to push through that rejecting force, or to bypass it.
He continued to ponder over the problem, as an idea gradually manifested itself within his mind. What if he was constantly pushed back because the force of his Arcor was weaker than the force of the material? If he could somehow raise the power of the Arcor he drew in, would he be able to push through?
The more he thought about his theory, the more plausible it sounded. Not only humans, but animals and monsters as well could possess the ability to sense and utilize Arcor. For example, some saurians used Arcor instinctively to move through the sand more easily, or monsters existed that had the ability to breathe fire. However, unlike humans, they didn't possess deep intelligence and therefore could only utilize Arcor in simple ways, and didn't have many ways to increase the quantity they could take in at once.
Arcor was a powerful energy. Drawing it into your body could greatly increase your power, but taking in too much at once would spell the destruction of your body. Therefore, when humans used Arcor for their abilities, they only took in a safe amount and quickly transformed it into something else or depleted it through manipulating something. Most humans only trained their efficiency in drawing in Arcor and transforming it quickly, but few bothered to actually increase the amount they could take in, as well as training in its other uses.
Corwyn's ability was different from those who create water or fire with Arcor, since in order to properly produce different kinds of metal, he was required to have a deep understanding of their structure. He was able to understand the structure of a metal by inserting Arcor into it. That task needed delicate control over Arcor. Also, since he couldn't divert his attention from the creation process of weapons too much, drawing in Arcor at the same time was very difficult and inefficient. So he trained the capacity of his body, slowly but surely, over the years.
But there was one more characteristic of Arcor even fewer people were aware of: While being inside your body, it enhanced your physical capabilities, and emitted a strange kind of energy, a force pushing the same kind of energy away, like with magnetism.
Corwyn's guess was that the material inside the white stone somehow possessed the ability to absorb Arcor, and keep it inside. The amount it could keep this way must be pretty large, if it could keep Corwyn's Arcor away from it. No wonder the juggernaut wouldn't attack the city, its Arcor force was probably lower than the one emitted from the material, making it unable to break the city walls or get near them.
In that case, there was only one thing Corwyn could do: He had to somehow raise the amount of Arcor he could keep in his body, to the point where the force he emitted would overwhelm the rejecting force of the stone. Although, there wasn't any need in raising it up to that point, since it would take forever. Compared to monsters and the material, he had much finer control over Arcor, so he could focus his force more and achieve a breakthrough that way.
The only catch was that raising the amount of Arcor he could draw in quickly was extremely risky. If he absorbed too much by accident, his body wouldn't be able to handle it and explode. That was the reason why he had practiced slow and steadily over the years.
Luckily, training here in Konen was considerably less risky than in Quorin or Sunahara, because there was a lot less Arcor in the air, reducing the risk of drawing in too much at once. All he had to do was not to be too greedy and it would work out fine. Having decided so, Corwyn also went to bed, his mental fatigue evident.
For the next few days, Corwyn followed a simple routine. In the morning, he practiced sword fighting with Teo, Hanaan, and Dalios. After a quick lunch, he focused on practicing his Arcor control and slowly increased his Arcor capacity. In the few hours before sunset, he further analyzed the rejecting force. Once sunset had arrived, he returned to the lodgings, had dinner with his squad, and went to bed shortly after. Three weeks quickly went by this way, and Corwyn had improvided considerably in that short amount of time.
On this day as well, Corwyn sat in front of the wall and kept on practicing, feeling that the time where he could break through the rejecting force would soon arrive. He had decided to give it another shot in the evening, but couldn't say yet if he would succeed or not. Corwyn desperately hoped that the material was indeed some kind of metal he would be able to recreate. If it was not, all his efforts would have been in vain. He just had to hope that fate would smile upon him.
He was about to return his concentration back to his training, but a voice coming from behind him gained his attention before he could do so.
"Hey Corwyn, the old lady from the market has given me some tasty bananas! You want to take a break and have some?"
Who else but Teo would interrupt his practice for a reason like that? He felt a bit hungry though, so it wasn't an unwelcome interruption. Teo sat down next to him and handed him two bananas. They were bigger than the ones Corwyn knew from Quorin, and after taking a bite, he also noticed that they tasted better too. He quickly took the next bite.
Just like that, they were sitting next to each other, eating their bananas and talking.
"How far have you gotten with the analysis?"
"It shouldn't be much longer now. I will give it a try later after I have practiced some more."
"I see. I hope it goes well."
"Believe me, you are not the only one who hopes so!"
After they had finished eating, Corwyn returned back to practice, while Teo leaned against a nearby tree and watched him doing so for a short while, until he eventually fell asleep. When Corwyn saw him lying around like that during a break, he couldn't help but laugh. Teo would probably never change, super serious about swords, but concerning everything else, he wasn't serious at all!
Dusk eventually approached, and Corwyn felt like he was ready to give it another shot. He pressed his hand against the city wall, like he had done the past few weeks, and once again focused his consciousness at the Arcor around him.