Chapter: 201
In a quiet office of the adventurer association, a man converses with a cube.
“What? You sense mana? Yes! Great!” Viladore was with his talking cube in his office.
“Yes, master. I sensed mana. Out of 1,847 iterations, I felt it 3 times, successfully drawing it into my reserve. Stored power increased by 0.74 percent.”
“Oh… well good, it’s not much but it’s a start! Keep it up and-”
“Mana has not been sensed since.” the cube interrupted.
“…” Viladore stared at the cube.
“…” The cube remained silent, staring back through its tiny crystal eyes.
“…what do you mean ‘not been sensed since’?”
“Since exactly 49 minutes and 21 seconds ago, master. That was the last time. The first time was 44 minutes and 37 second ago.”
“… So you only grasped it three times within those times?”
“Yes, master.”
“What was different about those times?”
“…”
“Hmm?” Viladore poked its eye back down into the cube.
“…Unknown.”
“Dammit, shit. I mean, you did a good job, but damn…” Viladore then channelled some mana into the cube, raising it’s stored mana back to one hundred percent.
“Keep doing the exercises.”
“Yes, master.”
He sat down at his desk as he pondered “What happened forty-four minutes ago… what was different…” he furrowed his brows in thought “If only I was here.”
Viladore was puzzled and slightly bitter, he missed out on the opportunity to be here and was doing a lesson with a student at the time so he couldn’t know what caused the change. It frustrated him to no end as he could have easily sensed the changes in the ambient mana of the room if he was here.
With a sigh, he sat down, feeling a little defeated before encouraging himself.
“It’s fine… It’s only been a few days. We can wait for another breakthrough; I now know that I’m on the right track anyway, so that’s a victory.” he lightly smiled “Yes, this is a victory. It’s progress..” he walked around the room.
“..And when I find whatever it was that helped it sense mana, whatever it was that happened. I’ll make it happen again, and replicate the results.”
Viladore had renewed determination; he was betting everything on this, and felt like he was getting to the point where he would do anything to finish this project.