Chapter 2803: One Percent Escape Rate

Xia Duo did not delve into this phenomenon; to do so would inevitably require treating these high-level Mages as experimental subjects, which is clearly difficult to achieve.

It is enough to confirm that this phenomenon exists; in fact, as long as one Researcher perceives the Magic Net's warning, it means the Mist Region is indeed much more complex than they imagined.

Having a few more Researchers perceive it only serves to further prove this point.

To prove something exists, a single example is sufficient; conversely, to prove it does not exist, one must argue for its non-existence as comprehensively as possible, and if using examples to argue, one would need to exhaust every single case.

For now, although Xia Duo will not treat these high-level Mages as experimental subjects, it is impossible to instantly forget the consciousness information already collected.

That portion of the Magic Net warning perceived by a few Researchers can, in a sense, be considered a form of Primitive Sorcery; Xia Duo will retain these, perhaps to find a more complete understanding of the Mist Region from the perspective of the Magic Net.

……

Next, Xia Duo will probe the Mist Region alone, considering that the previous volunteers never came out after entering, and the second volunteer even disappeared while carrying a tether.

Thus, Xia Duo decided to simulate this process once more, only this time he does not intend to use volunteers, but rather to use a mixture of Adamantine and gold to manufacture a rod over fifteen meters long.

Both Adamantine and gold are metals with extremely stable physical properties; gold is more stable but its texture is soft, and mixing it with Adamantine allows for the acquisition of both their attributes.

Xia Duo does not need to provide these materials; when the previous meeting decided to establish a defense line on the periphery of the Mist Region, the Northland Alliance Headquarters, which has been closely monitoring this area, had already begun to mobilize various materials.

Coupled with the fact that the Temporary Camp already had a surplus of materials, Xia Duo saw no need to save for the Northland Alliance and took the materials directly from the camp.

When he arrived at the cordon outside the Mist Region again carrying the metal rod, he immediately attracted many gazes, and Dika, who had just been walking with him, walked straight over and asked Xia Duo:

"Consultant Xia Duo, what are you doing? Haven't volunteers already gone in before?"

"Volunteers have indeed gone in, but the useful information they left behind is very scarce. The point where the tether broke looks like it was severed by an external force, and also like it broke only after being stretched to its limit. Most importantly, the Magic Effect information preserved at the break is very little."

In fact, veteran Adventurers from Evereska and Siluwende had already judged before that the tether carried by the second volunteer was most likely pulled apart.

It is just that the other end of the tether outside did not feel any extra pulling force at the time; at least, the pulling force felt outside was far from enough to snap the rope.

Therefore, Xia Duo is more inclined to believe it is some kind of Magic Effect, so he is using the Adamantine-Gold Alloy, which is more stable and less susceptible to Magic, for the experiment.

If it really is some kind of Magic Effect, then it will be preserved longer when acting on the physically more stable Adamantine-Gold Alloy, and it will not be like the previous tether, where not even a trace of Magic could be detected upon its return.

Xia Duo briefly explained his thoughts, then held the rod and slowly extended it into the interior of the cordon. Although he was holding it manually, when the front end of the rod crossed just over ten meters into the cordon, he could still clearly feel that the rod seemed to be tugged by something.

The force was very light, but it definitely existed. In addition, another more obvious perception was that the weight became slightly lighter, as if the part extended into the Mist Region had suddenly disappeared.

Perceiving this situation, Xia Duo immediately retracted the rod, and then he saw a surprising scene—

The rod pulled out of the Mist Region was neither broken nor intact as it was, but rather a thin, long metal wire, and there was a transition from the rod body to the thin wire that shrank rapidly but very smoothly.

"This—"

Metal does indeed have ductility, but to say a metal rod could be directly stretched into a thin filament is still somewhat exaggerated. In the current situation, it can basically be judged that there is a component of pulling.

But Xia Duo judged that pulling should not be the main factor; there should be more subtle effects occurring inside the rod body. If it were just simple pulling, he should have felt a more obvious tugging sensation.

Pulling is not the main factor, and squeezing is naturally not the main factor either; it should not be simple deformation!

……

Next, Xia Duo continued to pull back the rod, but the metal filament at the front end became thinner and thinner, yet he could see no end to it. In the end, he pulled the rod back for nearly five minutes.

In this situation, it was of course impossible to retract it manually, so he used Magic for assistance. Not only that, Xia Duo also had Dika help stabilize the Flow of air near the metal rod, especially near the front end close to the Mist Region.

Because after five minutes of retreating, the metal filament at the front of the rod could no longer be seen with the naked eye; any tiny, turbulent air Flow could potentially "blow it apart."

Xia Duo wanted to see just how far this metal filament could be stretched.

The result was a pity; at nearly five minutes, the metal filament at the front still broke, and no more could be pulled out from the Mist Region.

If all the metal filaments pulled out from the Mist Region were added together, they would be far less than the part of the rod body Xia Duo extended into the Mist Region; the ratio is about one percent.

That is to say, the part of the rod extended into the Mist Region remained there almost entirely, with only one percent "escaping" in the state of a thin filament.

Looking at it this way, if the previous volunteers had wanted to escape, perhaps all that would have returned would be a pile of residue.

Of course, the metal rod cannot move on its own, and both entering and retreating can only be operated by Xia Duo, but volunteers can move on their own and actively come out from the inside; perhaps that is easier than being pulled out, but it could also be the opposite.

After all, no one knows what the situation inside the Mist Region is right now; one can only indirectly infer it through various phenomena.

……

Since the rod had been retracted and had brought out nearly one percent of "Mist-escaped material," Xia Duo was not in a hurry to conduct other probes, but instead preserved the front end of the rod, especially those thin metal filaments.

Then, he conducted a preliminary inspection in front of the other six Researchers. Manual Spellcasting has limited precision and is not as good as the professional instruments in the Laboratory, but compared to established instruments, the flexibility of manual Spellcasting is higher.

At this moment, what Xia Duo used was a Combined Detection Method, which amplifies the detection effect by connecting multiple conventional detection methods in series; it is generally used for qualitative detection.

If quantitative detection is needed, it is generally more accurate to test them separately.

As the Spell was completed, the result was obtained almost instantly—

"The metal filament contains traces of Magic and possesses characteristics never seen before!"

This is enough to rule out the traces of Magic left during the manufacturing process of the metal rod. Of course, in order to quickly detect the results, Xia Duo's Spell inevitably contaminated this sample of the metal filament.