March 28, 2026 — 1:35 am

After departing the clearing earlier that morning, Rain had confirmed that just leaving his detection aura on constantly wasn’t an option. The mana drain was just too fast. Instead, he had decided to use it in quick one-second pulses as he walked. He had even started making a pinging noise each time he activated the aura, imagining himself as a submarine sonar operator. He had set the target of his search as metal, not specifying a particular type. He had confirmed that this was a valid target back in the clearing by testing it on the various remaining scraps.

Even with this technique, his mana had been draining quickly. The range was too small for him to proceed at a full walking pace if he wanted to be thorough in his search. He had gotten bored of just using his detection aura over and over again, so he had decided to take the opportunity to build up some information about how all his various modifiers interacted. To this end, he started experimenting as he walked, testing different combinations. He was interested in finding the most efficient configuration to maximize the speed at which he could scan the forest.

Eventually, he had stopped to rest and draw up a table of all the possibilities in his notebook. It would have taken him way too long to calculate all of the parameters, so he decided to just fill in the table as he searched the forest. For each row of the table, he would walk around ten meters, then pause and activate the skill with the specified combination of modifiers. In the case of channel mastery, he tested three cases: off, maximum boost, and maximum restraint. With his skills window open, he was able to see the combined effect of the modifiers, but only for the second that the skill was active. He would quickly memorize the numbers long enough to write them down in his notebook before repeating the process.

It had taken him all morning, but he had finally filled in every last row of the table. He had to repeat a few rows several times to make sure that he had them correct. He wasn’t in a hurry, though, so he didn’t stress about it. It helped him to keep his mind off the fact that he hadn’t detected any metal other than that which he carried with him. He’d stopped to have lunch and copy over the table, fixing all of his crossed out mistakes. Pencils were a thing in this world, but erasers weren’t. He reviewed the table and massaged his jaw as he gnawed on a ration bar.

Amp.	Ext.	Fcs.	Chnl.	Resolution (m)	Range (m)	Cost (mp/s)
			–	0.64	5	4.5
				0.6	5	5
			+	0.56	5	5.5
		+	–	0.57	6	5.4
		+		0.52	6	6
		+	+	0.47	6	6.6
	+		–	0.64	11	9.9
	+			0.6	11	11
	+		+	0.56	11	12.1
	+	+	–	0.57	13.2	11.88
	+	+		0.52	13.2	13.2
	+	+	+	0.47	13.2	14.52
+			–	0.42	5	9.9
+				0.36	5	11
+ Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.			+	0.3	5	12.1
+		+	–	0.31	6	11.88
+		+		0.23	6	13.2
+		+	+	0.16	6	14.52
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