A few days after he returned from his quest, Ben starts a new project. The demon lacrima that he got from the black Shark Leviathan gave him an idea.
"That black Shark Leviathan wasn't a demon, so why was there a demon lacrima in its body?" asks Mira confusedly.
"Well, I don't know for certain, but I think that it ate a demon's corpse or the lacrima itself. If that was the case, then it will explain its mutation into a new variant with a stronger power than the normal Shark Leviathan. As you know, magic can be extracted from any creature that uses magic including human mages. So a normal shark getting strong magic by eating a demon corpse is also possible," says Ben.
"Hmm, that sure is possible. The demon must also be quite powerful when they were still alive because their magic power formed into a lacrima crystal even after being eaten by the shark," says Mira.
"Maybe, but don't hope too much though. We still don't know for sure the requirement for creatures' magic power to become a lacrima crystal naturally. Even powerful magical creatures like Dragons or Gods didn't always form lacrima crystals. Whatever though, this thing will be very useful for us," says Ben.
"What will you use it for? Turning someone into a Devil Slayer like you?" asks Mira.
"That is good too, but a small demon lacrima such as this won't be enough to make a strong devil slayer. Even that Shark Leviathan only grows that much and can't use powerful demon spells," says Ben.
"So what's your plan?" asks Mira.
Ben grins and says, "I will upgrade this thing into a bigger & stronger demon lacrima."
"Is it possible?" asks Mira.
"Of course, and it will also help my big plan, the Anima plan. I planned to go to Magic Library first before starting this plan but now it changed after I have this lacrima. It gives me a good idea that will save us much trouble and give us more benefits. I'll still go to the Magic Library later though because I need to find a way to dispel the magic on Tenrou Island. Anyway, let's start the big project right away," says Ben excitedly while getting out of his office.
Ben has planned everything in the last few days with AI Chip's help. Now he just needs to execute his plan and starts this project. The first thing he does is collect lacrima crystal balls that haven't been installed with any magic.
He collects the lacrima crystals from the guild's treasury and by purchasing them. He collects a lot of them until their number reaches almost 500. The clueless guild members are confused about what he'll do with so many lacrima crystals but they still help him to collect those.
After he has the necessary amount of lacrima crystal ball, Ben starts his work. He writes runes and inserts them into the lacrima crystal balls. He makes clones to help him do this in his personal workshop that he just made in the guild's underground room.
No one in the guild can help him so he only has his clones to help. If Freed & Levy are here, then they can surely help him. But it doesn't matter though because he has often worked by himself since he was in Cait Shelter.
It takes a week for Ben & his clones to finish their work. He has passed the guild's official works to Macao so he could concentrate on this. But it still takes longer than he thought because he used some complex rune formations.
The preparation hasn't finished though. He still needs to modify the runes that he installed around the guild building. The guild building will be the center of the whole project, so it needs to be prepared thoroughly.
It takes just a day for Ben to complete the modification. He could finish faster if he doesn't add too many additions. But those additions are necessary for his plan so he couldn't leave even one of them.
"Preparation complete. Now, let's start for real," says Ben as he goes to the underground room alone.
Ben goes to a hidden underground room, just outside where Mavis's body is located. Mavis's room has a protection system that prevents magic power to leak outside. It's not suitable for his plan that will increase the ethernano density in Magnolia.
So he modified this underground room outside of Mavis's room for his plan. He has built all the necessary things in this room since he made the Anima plan. Mavis's room is not that important for him so he never enters it again after he upgraded its defense.
After checking that everything is ready, Ben takes out a small stamp. He pours his magic power into the stamp and he starts to stamp the floor. The marks created by the stamp start to release magic power slowly.
Yes, these marks are Anima and the stamp is a tool to create the Anima. Ben's plan is to take the magic power from that universe with abundant magic power. But he needs to be careful so he makes small Animas take a small amount of magic power each.
This Anima stamp was made after very careful research by him & AI Chip. The marks in the underground room won't move but the targeted locations in the targeted universe will constantly move to random spots. This way, the residents of that universe will have a hard time discovering the Animas.
These Animas also just absorb a small amount of magic power at a time so the targeted universe's residents won't realize it soon. They will also spread all over the world so finding them will be as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.
However, even if each Anima only absorbs a small amount of magic power, the accumulated amount will be massive. Not to mention, Ben can make thousands of these small Animas in this underground room.
The magic power that he gathers after finishing all the Animas installation is quite satisfying. It's still not enough to make the entire town becomes dense with Ethernano. But at least this underground room is already very full of Ethernano.
"This density is similar to a lacrima crystal mine. If things go well, we will even have a lacrima mine under our building in a year or two. But well, it's not our priority now. AI Chip, when will we release the lacrima crystal balls?" asks Ben.
[With the current magic power absorption by the Animas, I have calculated that we will have enough power for the lacrima balls to be released in 4 days. We need to raise the Ethernano density in the guild building first before releasing the lacrima crystal balls.]
"Alright, 4 days aren't that long. Let's prepare the new thing that we've planned," says Ben as he leaves the room.
4 days later, Ben releases the lacrima crystal balls as he planned. The lacrima crystal balls hover on top of Fairy Tail before they spread all over the town. They spread randomly inside the town but the ones outside the town create a big circle that surrounds the town.
These lacrima balls will control the Ethernano inside the town. The ones outside create a big dome to prevent leakage. But all these lacrima will also function as defensive tools to protect Magnolia from magic attacks, preventing something like Phantom Lord's attack.
Then after the lacrima balls get released, Ben installed a small altar in the center of the Anima room. This altar is a magic item that he made to collect the excess magic power that the Animas absorb even after spreading it all over the town.
On top of this altar is the demon lacrima that he found. He plans to increase its power using the excess magic power. It won't be a fast process but at least the excess magic power won't be wasted.
Ben grins as he watches the excess magic power flows into the demon lacrima, "I can't wait to make other types of magic lacrima."
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