Fifty years passed in the blink of an eye amid focused research.
Inside the laboratory, Benjamin gently set down the scalpel stained with traces of biological tissue fluid.
On the operating table before him, a specimen of a "Wind-Howling Wing Beast" from the Void Plane—its structure as exquisite as a natural flying machine—had been completely dissected and analyzed.
His expression remained calm and unruffled, as though he had merely finished an everyday assignment. Only his fingertips moved swiftly across the nearby light screen, recording and archiving the final batch of data regarding the coupling structure between its nerve cords and energy vesicles.
Once the final entry had been recorded, he expertly activated the cleansing Magic Array.
A gentle glow swept across the room. The operating table and every tool instantly became spotless as new, while all biological residue was broken down into fundamental particles.
After removing his heavy multifunctional protective suit, Benjamin walked to the observation window and gazed at the eternally unchanging crimson sky of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane, letting out a helpless sigh.
For fifty years, he had buried himself in the laboratory, systematically studying the samples brought back from the Void Plane according to the progression of biological structures from simple to complex.
Yet the progress had been far from ideal.
Over the full fifty years, he had completed only one-fifth of the planned research.
"The speed of research can never keep up with the desire to collect." Benjamin rubbed his brow.
Dissection, analysis, recording, deduction—every step required time.
Especially when dealing with rare organisms with intricate structures and unique law-based powers, he had to proceed with the utmost caution.
By his rough estimate, thoroughly researching every sample collected from the Void Plane would require at least another three hundred years of continuous effort.
And that was