Just like what Mia told them, Rean and Roan didn't go out of the sect. They focused on their cultivation and their side-occupations. When they needed to fight to gain experience, they would challenge those above themselves in the Inner Sect.
Three months after the twins came back, they finally reached the Middle Stage of the Core Formation Realm. They had been in the Initial Stage for over a year and a half, so they were close to the peak of the stage, to begin with.
As one could imagine, Kentucky followed right behind the two since its own cultivation was limited by the twins' cultivation. He was now a Middle Stage Three Demon beast. To compensate for that limitation, Elder Reliance often gave it some other tasks so it could continue to grow stronger.
Of course, between their group, Calina was the first one to reach the middle stage. By the time the twins came back from the Capital, she was already in the Middle Stage. That was to be expected since her cultivation was higher than Rean and Roan to start with.
Another thing that Roan told Calina was for her to be careful about Havek and Qia. After all, they were from the same Imperial Family. Nevertheless, Calina wasn't worried about that. She said that the Imperial Family had way too many members. She had seen Qia and Havek before, but it was not like they talked or anything like that. Calina was even curious whether Havek and Qia would identify her if she hadn't changed her appearance. That's just to show how little interaction she had with them before.
Of course, Calina still made sure to keep far away from them.
As for Malaka, she had only recently entered the Core Formation Realm. She was more than a year behind Rean and Roan, let alone Calina. That being said, it would take quite some time for her before she could enter the Middle Stage.
And just like that, time began to pass even faster as everyone was occupied with their own issues. Rean and Roan began to finally obtain payment for all the financial and technical support they gave to Calina, especially Malaka. Both of them regularly sent the two girls out to gather some materials, do some missions, etc. Each of those requests was usually filled with danger as well.
At some point, Roan concluded his research on a new Medicinal Paste, much to Rean and the others' despair. Everyone was forced to take another hellish bath inside Roan's cauldron. Due to their cultivation and sturdy foundation, the paste didn't make that much of a difference. Nonetheless, it was already great to have their bodies improving, even if only by a small amount.
One year later, Rean, Havek, and Qia finished creating the very first prototype of a Circuitry Formation... that broke the moment it was turned on. The first formation they tried to make was a communication circuitry formation. The advantages were obvious, starting by its size that was ridiculously small compared to their best normal ones. Well, Rean knew very well why that happened.
'Unlike Earth, there is no such thing as high-precision machines here. I guess it's a good result that we could even finish a prototype by hand.'
One must remember that Rean's Electrical Formation Repository can only simulate the tests. It can't fabricate the pieces that it showed in its illusions. Whether Rean liked it or not, he would need to create them with Qia and Havek in the outside world.
Havek narrowed his eyes as he looked at the smoke coming from the Circuitry Formation.
"The SPU broke down. I told you, the spiritual transistors are too small."
Rean shook his head as he said.
"It has to be like this. In fact, the spiritual transistors are ridiculously big already. For it to make the calculations necessary for the Spiritual and Lightning Currents, it would need to be at least this big."
Droman pondered for a bit before saying.
"Both of you are right. It's already too big for what we want to achieve. But at the same time, it's too small for us to create them manually."
Qia agreed with Droman.
"I'm already impressed that it even turned on for a second. I think we should change our focus here."
Havek and Rean knew what Qia was talking about.
"It seems like that's the only way. Unlike normal formations, there is a limit of what a person can do with their own hands in Circuitry Formations."
Havek nodded.
"Well, we at least tried it out. Now we can tell what we exactly need when we start this next phase."
"Very well. It's time to create the machines that will do the fine-tuned work for us. Obviously, they will also be Circuitry Formation-based machines."
That was the biggest issue that Rean discussed with everyone so far. The fact that humans were just too imprecise. The spiritual transistors used in the SPUs were just too tiny for them to work with their hands. Let alone the runes necessary for each one of them to work. The only reason they reached this far with handicraft was that Droman was a Heaven Level Formations Master. After tens of thousands of errors, he succeeded in building a few of those necessary pieces. However, they ended up being uneven when put together. This test showed that they needed something that can create both the physical and rune parts of the spiritual transistors identically.
"But, how will we do this?"
Rean nodded before saying.
"I already have a few ideas. However, it will be done in multiple phases."
"Multiple phases?"
Rean then explained.
"I don't think we can come up with something to create the spiritual transistors of that size straight away. We will need to start with big ones, which are obviously not good enough."
"However, these first ones will also be able to create the other parts we need for new machines that can create smaller ones. We will need to go smaller bit by bit until we finally build one capable of making a spiritual transistor small enough."
Droman, Qia, and Havek understood just how hard that would be. However, instead of being dejected, their eyes lit up.
"Alright! Then let's make its blueprint straight away."
In the end, they were all formation maniacs.
