Researching Quaternary Insects was very difficult.
Not only because they were an entirely new species, but because they came from another plane, with no references to be found on this plane.
More importantly, their greatest trait was that they rendered all spells ineffective by breaking mana fluctuations down into discrete string states, making all the most commonly used research methods here unusable.
On the Mainland Plane, scientific research and magic had never been separate. Even researchers without spellcasting ability used experimental equipment that relied on magic to function.
This was not unusual. Some noble children with no spellcasting ability but a deep interest in research would buy all kinds of expensive equipment and conduct whatever research they wished, under absolutely no pressure to produce results.
It truly was the state many researchers dreamed of.
In short, magical tools had permeated every aspect of scientific research.
Yet in researching Quaternary Insects, almost all of those tools were useless.
Although Rune Stones could protect magic within a certain range from being nullified.
That range was difficult to control. Unless everything involved in the experiment was fixed in place, the distances tested beforehand, and then kept permanently unchanged, only then could some spells be used to study Quaternary Insects.
It was extremely arduous.
That was also why, even now, no one had fully figured out which part of the Quaternary Insect produced the mana fluctuation separation effect.
There were two theories within the team alone. Neither side could convince the other, because neither had particularly solid evidence.
One theory held that the mana-separating effect was produced by a specific organ within the Quaternary Insect.
The other held that the effect was produced by the Quaternary Insect as a whole.
The latter theory was based on the fact that damaging any part of a