After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World novel Chapter 1790

Chapter 1790: Althea Drawing on the Ground (Part 2)

If the kids found her here, they would definitely make a mess of things.

And so, with everything settled, she sat down seiza on one of the pillows and began drawing.

She used a specialized bottle with a tiny nozzle so that small but uniform lines of the liquid would leave the bottle.

It also didn’t matter what angle she used; the thickness would remain consistent. As she drew, she also activated the aether in the liquid, though admittedly it was more difficult than she thought because it was mostly made of fire.

She could use any potion with aether on it, but she reckoned using a fire potion would be more effective and would have higher chances of success, simply because aether itself could be unpredictable, and who knew what element it would attract more, ultimately rendering the array useless.

The potion was infused with dense fire elements that the fire elements in the air would—theoretically—be attracted to. She also raised a bit of earth around her to make sure not much wind would interfere.

She started the outer circle first to contain everything, the outline of her ’spell’. It would encapsulate the main concept, much like how an outline in a story would be.

She would then draw it layer by layer and add the details as she went. Like in writing a story, she’d create a draft of the Chapter in her mind, polish it, and then add more and more details as she went.

Her reference was primarily Melissa’s heating tool, but also a few others. For example, the lighting tools found in system buildings, the more advanced of which were like those in the Center and Training Hall, which had built-in lighting in them.

For the heating tool, she studied the temperature control and radiation functions. She had studied the arrays she could see and, after cross-referencing with other tools with similar functions, she had isolated the arrays she needed by process of elimination.

The lighting tool had very similar functions. But there was a very palpable difference between heat and light despite technically emitting the same type of energy: Wavelength.

Heat had a larger wavelength than light, and it reflected in the array, with certain lines bent and denser than others.

Soon, she entered the part of the circle that she and her team theorized was what controlled the temperature.

She modified it a bit to lower the temperature, so instead of fire like in the heating tool, it would be more on the warm side. It should still be hot, of course, considering what they’d be up against.

Garan observed everything. He wanted to feed her or wipe her sweat, but he did not, knowing it would work against her when she was doing something as sensitive as this.

At the same time, there were plenty of others sneaking peeks now. He could see Harold and Ansel, carrying his baby. Even his own children were about to toddle in this direction, but were promptly swept away by a few adults and taken straight to the park to play.

Garan smiled and shook his head, putting his attention back to his wife. Althea was already sweating profusely even when she hadn’t even done a tenth of the drawing, but...she had a smile on her face, and her eyes were bright.

Garan knew his wife was having fun, and that was most of what mattered to him.

Every element she added, even if it was just a dot, then another portion—a dot (or ten) —would react, and she had to use her energy to keep things stable.

The feeling was like holding several magnets, making sure they didn’t either attract or repel each other and ruin the entire string they were attached to.

It took her about a few hours to complete the 1-meter-radius circle, and now that she was done, she could see how detailed it was. She hovered her hands over it to feel if everything was in place, before gathering the aether in the area.

She only needed the fire element at this time, but since she didn’t have affinity to it, she needed a huge amount of aether in order to make up for the amount she needed.

It was like taking salt water and needing only the salt, so she had to pour in more saltwater to make up for the lack of it per volume.

She and Garan watched as the entire circle glowed upon her application. It flickered a bit before it stopped, like a broken light that failed to properly power up.

Her shoulders slumped, thinking it failed, but it started lighting up again, flickering continuously, before it stabilized after a few seconds. This was followed by a familiar ding in her head.

[Successfully Created: Minor Heating Circle. Increases the temperature by 30 degrees Celsius. The energy can last 76:21:12. Regeneration rate varies.]

[Hidden Profession Obtained: Array Master!]