"Look before you leap, lest the gator reaps." - Old folk saying.

After the talk with Nate about the past, Cal chatted with the champions present regarding their personal experiences as one. She quickly found out that the main reason Roban, Gerhard, and Nimvee were gathered together in Naht'anavriel's abode was because all three of them were people who mostly had research in mind and little else.

All three were all too eager to show off their latest result to Cal, a prototype enchanted object around the size of a human head, roughly the shape of a hollow dodecahedron with rounded corners, its every visible surface packed with tiny etched runes.

"Umm… I'm not exactly knowledgeable about enchantments, but what does this thing do?" asked Cal humbly. She had never learned subjects related to enchantments in her life, after all. She used them for convenience, but had little clue on what made them tick.

"This beauty," said Roban, now in a far more joyful mood than before, as she even cackled from time to time while she explained. "Is a universal mana converter. One designed for the purpose of handling every type of mana, regardless of quantity."

"She's probably not familiar with the term, Rob," interjected Nimvee from the side while munching on what looked like slices of raw fish. Cal had not bothered to ask how they got fresh raw fish in the middle of the forest, since there was probably the greatest space mage in living memory present. "Putting it in simpler terms… with this thing, anyone can recharge the mana crystals of enchanted items that needed them, regardless of the affinity needed."

"You are probably familiar with how things like… the cold boxes work, right? That it had a mana crystal installed that kept it functioning all year round?" asked the merfolk champion, to which Cal nodded. "Unlike enchanted items where you only need it activated when you use them, these items relied on those mana crystals, and not every affinity could fill every sort of mana crystal."

"It's easily noticeable even with those that could. Someone of the fire affinity trying to refill an ice affinity mana crystal would be more likely to break the crystal than fill it," chimed in Gerhard from the side. "Volatile affinities like our three, are particularly bad at this. Pretty much only works when we try to recharge a mana crystal of the same or closely related affinity."

"With this converter, we could input any kind of mana, and it would be converted to the desirable form, which could be adjusted by the setting!" said the goblin champion with evident enthusiasm. "This alone could revolutionize the enchantment industry… once we work out the kinks that remain."

"Kinks?" asked Cal, as she felt somewhat lost in the conversation. She was not to blame, as she did lack the technical background the other three champions clearly possess in abundance.

"It's not the most efficient yet," admitted the dwarf with a snort. He took a long swig from his bottle of strong-smelling liquor before he continued his words. "At the moment only about half of the input got processed properly. We need it to be at least four-fifths for it to be truly worthwhile."

"Not to mention reducing the cost of production, using cheaper materials in the construction, and reducing the expertise needed to make one," added Nimvee with a toothy smile. "It will still take much work to properly optimize this creation for efficiency to the point that it becomes a desirable tool, but it's a challenge we're relishing. I was planning to leave this world before these two got me interested in this… now I'm staying until this is perfected first."

"That's a mutual feeling, Nim. Was getting bored of living myself before Gerhard brought the idea over," said Roban with a smile, as one of her hands caressed the object before her like it was her lover. "Now I got me some new reason to live for!"

The three champions went on and talked about the ideas they had on how to optimize and prepare the invention for mass production, and Cal was almost immediately lost. The technical jargon used by the three might as well be gibberish to her, as she had no background in their field.

In the end, Kino came to her rescue as she gently pried Cal away from the three champions who talked excitedly, the three already immersed back into their own world. Cal thanked Kino as they walked away and joined the rest.

"Those three are always like that. They're the sort who literally lived to research and invent," said Kino apologetically as she poured herself a snifter of liquor that smelled sweet and sour. "Those three will probably be looking for replacements after this invention of theirs gets perfected to a point where they are satisfied."

"Yeah… they're very… driven," admitted Cal as she took a long swig from a nearby bottle herself, sighing loudly as she took a breath after. "Is it common for champions to be replaced that soon?"

"It is not uncommon, I'd say. We have exceptions, of course. But so far, most champions drop out by five centuries or so at most," replied Kino honestly. "Out of the current champions we have… those who had been one for over a thousand years are only those of Light, Death, Life, and Ice. The rest are far younger."

"Aideen and Naht'anavriel had only been one for around seven centuries or so, and they're already the next oldest," added the fox-eared woman as she took a sip of her drink. "Those in paradise are actually mostly old ones. Hogarth and Erycea has been Champions for over six centuries. Magnus for over five. This would be my fourth century as one myself."

"Ergan's new though," countered Cal, as she named the Champion of Wind.

"Wind always goes through its champions a lot. Most of them don't reach their second century. I don't think I recall any Champion of Wind that lasted three centuries or more," replied Kino with a shake of her head. "Their freewheeling nature meant that they got bored quickly, so most of them dropped out pretty quickly. I blame Aistrofuri for always picking champions on a whim, personally."