As soon as Ning reached the Tower, he immediately went to find Waxil, the head of this city's tower.
"Oh Terran, you're back," Waxil said. "I hope your 2 days off were useful."
"Yes, brother Waxil. You have no idea," Ning told him. "I have come to consult something with you, do you have some time?"
"Uh, I'm free for the hour. What is it?" Waxil asked.
Ning took out a small bead of glass and placed it on the table in front of Waxil. The bead was about the size of 2 centimeters in diameter and was completely transparent.
Waxil looked at the glass bead for a few seconds with questions on his head. "What's this?" he asked.
"Just wait a minute, brother Waxil," Ning said and sat on the chair to wait for the minute to pass.
Waxil was curious as to what the genius of his tower was making him look at.
'Did he bring back a souvenir from wherever he went in the last 2 days?' he wondered.
As he watched, the bead slowly changed color to reveal that it wasn't completely transparent, nor was it fully made of glass.
The bead was hollow with the glass only making about a quarter of a centimeter in thickness, leaving the inside hollow to be a centimeter and a half in diameter.
And the color it was changing to… was purple. Waxil's eyes narrowed and he got closer to look at the bead, while simultaneously staying so far away that he didn't accidentally nudge it and disrupt whatever it was going.
"You can touch it," Ning said and picked the bead up before tossing it towards Waxil.
Waxil caught the bead and looked at it closely with wide eyes. "This looks like…" he couldn't bring him to say it. There was no way that was possible at all.
Ning, however, knew it was possible and decided to finish his words, "yes. That is Aether. The purest form of it."
Ning saw no need to make the distinction between the liquid and the energy yet the people of this world had come to assume the liquid itself as the energy.
"You found this?" Waxil asked.
"Better," Ning said. "I made this."
Waxil's eyes went wide. Someone had actually made Aether. "Are you sure you're not lying?" Waxil asked.
Ning chuckled a little. "I would let you break that to prove that it's real, but there is another method," Ning said. "You have an absorption technique too, right brother Waxil?" he asked.
Waxil nodded. As a Head of the tower, he had received an absorption technique the day he took over the position about 20 years ago.
"Use it," Ning said.
Waxil nodded and used the technique, but suddenly he realized that he couldn't absorb any Aether at all.
"What… what's going on?" Waxil looked surprised.
"To explain what is happening, I will have to explain what Aether is," Ning said. Waxil stayed quiet and listened.
In just a matter of a minute, Waxil felt his whole world had turned upside down, and everything he had learned until now had been a lie.
His mouth hung wide open in shock as he asked, "Then what we are collecting is not Aether?"
"No, it is Aether, but the Aether needs a vessel to stay in your body. Also, when you have to use Aether, you may have noticed that your Aether boils, this loosens the bond between the water and the mineral, and makes the Aether in them easier to use."
"You can go on thinking that Aether liquid is just Aether and nothing will change. However, if you were to want to start making these, then you better understand the theory behind it," Ning said.
Waxil's eyes moved around aimlessly as he was less focused on looking at things and more focused on thinking.
"So, here's the main reason I made this for," Ning started explaining. He explained how this would help keep Aether users from drawing in more Aether while they are in a public location.
This could also be used to removed Aether from people whose rank was lower than Aether King.
A different Aether concentration would have to be used for ones that were strong than that, but making such changes was easy.
"So? What should I do?" Ning asked. "How should I mass-produce it? Should I even mass-produce it? Do I reveal this piece of information to the world? Is such a thing may be a bad idea? Can it be misused? Should I be earning money from it?"
Ning asked a lot of questions in his mind that he wasn't confident he could come up with the right solution himself.
Waxil thought for a moment and said, "I don't think I have the knowledge, capability, or even authority to give you suggestions on what to do."
"Oh, then what should I do?" Ning asked.
"Keep this thing hidden. Don't let anyone know it exists for now. I will contact the headquarters and tell them about this. I'm sure they will send someone with more ability in this in just a few days," Waxil said.
Ning thought to himself and nodded. "Let's do that. For now, I will go and set up this bead in the jail downstairs. Hopefully, the range won't hamper the officers upstairs," he said.
Waxil nodded and let Ning go. Then, he picked up the phone and called the headquarters.
Ning left the room and took the stairs to the underground prison. The prison wasn't very large, but there were many people in there. Some of them were going to die very soon as well.
Ning walked to the center of the room and already noticed a massive lack of Aether from the surrounding. Just having the Aether liquid out for a considerable amount of time had already drawn out the Aether in this place.
He flew up to the ceiling, hidden from the prisoners, and placed the bead in a small hole he quickly carved out.
Once the bead was there, he left.
