173

A red eye, a test that worked through the night, an experiment contrived with nothing but the genius of my mind. I rubbed at the side of my eye, careful to never touch the actual eye nor even the eyelid.

It hurt and forced me to blink hundreds of times in mere seconds. But I could not sleep, not now. I was so close to a breakthrough. It had been what, ten hours, maybe more. And in all of that time I had not eaten, nor had I taken a break.

I had run experiment after experiment on mana. On blood and even just plants. Each and every one of them ended up in abject failure. But that was only on the surface as with every experiment I got closer and closer to my ultimate goal.

I even had to move myself to one of the artificial leylines I had made, where mana was abundant, I also even had to take from one of the soldiers that I had caught.