Untalented Genius

In a secret basement, 50 meters underground, inside a presently cramped but spacious room, an extremely calm and collected young man with a sharp and serious look in his eyes sat on his office chair strapped with many technological devices on his body. These devices were in the form of black bands of differing sizes. However, on a careful look, one could tell that they weren't normal bands as all the bands flickered with light intermittently from time to time.

The technological devices on the young man were actually body measuring and other data collecting devices. They were located on his head, neck, arms, waist, thighs, and legs, respectively.

Behind him were projected screens of varying sizes and purposes, along with many intricate gadgets with their respective functions. The majority of these gadgets were mechanical devices. As for the minority, they were electrical appliances. But they all had one thing in common, and that was the runic symbols engraved on them.

Essentially, this young man had both his body and room equipped with a variety of intricate and advanced technologies with distinct functions.

Anyone who saw this scene of the room would be very likely to identify the room as some sort of secret military research facility hidden underground. However, that didn't seem to be the case, as it was simply the laboratory of this calm and collected young man.

With a cursory glance at the room, based on the many mechanical parts and electronics strewn on the floor, it would appear as though it was mainly a mechanical and electrical engineering laboratory, but in fact, there were more than just mechanical and electrical inventions in this young man's laboratory.

In front of the calm and collected young man was a very realistic mannequin that was created using special synthetic fibers and tissues. This mannequin emulated the bodily functions of the human body, such as body temperature, muscle contraction, organ function, and many other vital functions of the human body.

On the body of this realistic mannequin were various profound, complex, and intricate runic symbols engraved that occasionally glowed with this pale golden light. This made the realistic mannequin appear as though it was clad in a faint golden aura, seeming quite mystifying and entrancing with just a glance.

However, that was not the most meaningful function of this realistic mannequin as it was currently serving as a test subject for this young man. All this time, the young man had fixed his eyes on the realistic mannequin with a firm and intense gaze.

At this moment, if someone were to look at his dignified facial expression, they would see a clear determination and an expectant look on his face.

The young man maintained a distinct posture as he sat there with a serious expression.

If one were to observe him right now, they would think that he was someone who was extremely desperate and that he was even willing to risk his life to achieve his goals, based on the profound gaze he was giving the realistic mannequin in front of him.

And they wouldn't be exaggerating too much about their assumption as that was very close to the truth, except not in the way that they would think.

As the young man calmly looked at the realistic mannequin, he could see changes in the mannequin's inscribed runic symbols. It started to glow with vivid light, and it would only continue to grow brighter as time passed.

Almost as though the realistic mannequin had suddenly come to life, its entire body glowed intensely in a faint golden light for a brief moment, its countenance slightly animated. Followed by an extremely cute and childlike voice that seemed to belong to that of a young girl.

This cute and childlike voice echoed throughout the room in an electronic tone shortly after the realistic mannequin stopped glowing in its intense faint golden light. The origin of this electronic tone of voice that sounded strangely cute and childlike seemed to come from the realistic mannequin that was being stared at by the young man.

This electronic voice sounded almost like it was the voice of a slightly intelligent robot with installed Artificial Intelligence. However, that did not seem to be the case, as this voice announced statement after statement in a coherent tone, completely unlike that of an incoherent robotic tone. It almost sounds human in terms of its enunciation of words alone.

[Synchronization with all parts of the artificial biological life form complete]

[As of this moment, Simulation Test No.999 will now commence]

[Simulation's Target Agenda: Engraving and imprinting of 'Mini Super Weapon Runic Constructs' onto the Pseudo Soul Vessel generated, ensuring the success of imprinted Runic Constructs, and finalizing the Runic Constructs to function as a Runic Path of the artificial biological life form]

[Simulation's Anticipated Success Target: Between 99% and 100% completion with negligible errors. This would only be considered passable by the established standard and would need further testing and possible argumentation]

[Simulation's Ultimate Success Target: 100% completion without any notable errors. This would qualify as Perfect results, no further testing shall be needed]

Without pausing, the cute and childlike voice continued to state other prerequisites, criteria, and other conditions of the experiment one after another with a weird intonation. It sounded as if the voice was reciting some mantra or preaching the holy scripture.

Although the voice sounded very cute and childlike, it was very solemn and dedicated in its speech. Its voice echoed through the entire room, enough for the calm and the now slightly anxious young man to hear clearly.

The young man, however, did not say anything despite the moderate change in his emotions. Instead, his expression remained unchanged as he listened to the sequence of reports stated by the cute and childlike voice. Furthermore, his intense gaze only intensified as he listened to the reports.

He seemed to have cleared all distractions— all his previous miscellaneous thoughts and the noise in the background disappeared as he only focused on the cute and childlike voice's announcement, almost as though that was the only thing that mattered to him.

[All rudimentary operational systems online and fully functional]

[Beginning extraction and replication of projected runes]

[Inspecting the Runic Constructs for any possible errors that could potentially hinder the experiment]

[...]

[...]

[...]

[No notable errors found. Proceeding…]

[Verifying the main framework, structures, and other miscellaneous functions of the interconnected Runic Constructs]

[...]

[...]

[...]

[No anomaly found in all respective functions. Proceeding…]

[Preparing to initiate the assimilation sequence of the Runic Constructs with the generated Pseudo Soul Vessel]

[Projection of the Pseudo Soul Vessel's Runic Circuits and Pathways]

[Attempting alignment of Runic Constructs onto the projected Runic Circuit in the Pseudo Soul Vessel]

[...]

[...]

[Alignment procedure success. Proceeding to the next step]

[Applying internal Runic Force to stabilize the interconnected Runic Constructs onto the Pseudo Soul Vessel]

[...]

[Application appeared to be successful. Now proceeding to the final step]

[Attempting to permanently engrave and imprint the Runic Constructs on the Pseudo Soul Vessel]

[As commanded, the Pseudo Soul Vessel would emulate the Soul Force Limit of 999 units to ensure accurate results]

[Now attempting imprint of the coined Runic Path, 'Mini Super Weapon Runic Constructs' with the aid of the Soul Force generated by the Pseudo Soul Vessel]

[Attempt proceeding stably…]

[...]

[...]

[...]

[Error! Error!]

"What happened?! Simulation Report!" The young man couldn't help but ask in a heavy tone when he heard this. He then positioned himself forward as he waited for an answer that came shortly after.

[All Attempts in this session of the simulation have failed!]

[Conclusion: Simulation Test attempt No.999 has failed]

[Reason: Failure to imprint the Runic Constructs onto the Pseudo Soul Vessel due to instability in the Soul Vessel's Runic Circuits]

"Damn it! Why?! Just why did this happen again?! Why does it always happen at the final step! Just why?!" The seemingly calm and collected young man lost his cool the moment he heard the simulation report.

'Calm down!' As expected of someone with his caliber of self-control, he was able to hold back his frustration in time. After all, he had yet to find out the reason for the simulation's failure.

"Nini! Give it to me straight! What was the cause this time?! Certainly, it wasn't the same cause as last time, right? The young man was impassive as he spoke, but deep down, he was hoping that it wasn't what he was thinking.

[Master, Nini is afraid to tell you that it was because of the lack of Soul Force necessary for the imprinting process. Nini is worried that it would affect Master's emotional state of mind once again…]

She realized too late once she spoke that she had unknowingly already revealed the truth to him.

"What?! It really was because of that accursed Soul Force again!" The young man couldn't help but shout loudly with gritted teeth as he smashed his fist at one of the armrests of his chair in an outburst of anger. He easily broke the armrest off, feeling a sharp pain in his knuckle. Fortunately for him, this armrest wasn't made out of metal. Otherwise, he would have broken his finger bones, or possibly even the bones in his wrist.

"Why do I have such vast intelligence, but I am considered untalented because of my Soul Force?"

"Are the gods or perhaps the world looking down on me for being a mortal with an unnecessarily high Intelligence Quotient?"

"Do they want to mock me by giving me a low Soul Force Limit to restrain me?! How unreasonable and unacceptable!"

He couldn't accept it, no matter what. He couldn't understand why he was given a peerless talent for comprehending all runes, but the most significant talent and pivotal power source widely used in the world paled in comparison.

From what he knew of the world's standard of measurement, his Soul Force was only considered average. Therefore, the only thing he could think of was that he was somehow cursed with his current Soul Force Limit.

If not, why else would he get such an odd Soul Force Limit of 999 units? Why not 1,000 units to even things out? Why 999 units specifically?

"Nini. I want you to give it to me straight one more time, and this time don't you dare try to lie to me. You're not very good at it, so don't even bother. Tell me, what is the definite cause of the failure this time? How many required units of Soul Force did you extrapolate from the simulation results? 1,000 units?" The young man asked moments later.

Nini reported: [Based on the complexity of the Mini Super Weapon Runic Constructs, although it was mainly composed of basic runic constructs, Master still required at the very least 3,000 Soul Force units for the imprint to be successful. Otherwise, Master would suffer an unknown consequence if Master forcefully attempted the procedure on himself]

Upon hearing this report, the young man's eyebrows furrowed deeply without saying anything in response.

A moment later, he paced around the room with his head down as he mumbled in contemplation: "As expected, it was the same cause. This had always been the reason for my previous failures. Instead of the required Soul Force decreasing, it increased. Why does this keep happening? Why is everything turning out wrong no matter how many times I fix these damn constructs? I am going crazy right now!"

In order to lessen the Soul Force requirement, he thought he had to reduce the number of complex runic characters and symbols. In addition, he thought he had to maximize the effects of the remaining encoded runes in this simulation attempt as that was only logical to secure better results. And yet, it still failed because his Soul Force requirement increased instead? How does that make sense?

'Why the hell do I keep failing?! Can anyone tell me what I did wrong in my carefully calculated experiment?!'

The young man found all his failures thus far so absurd that he couldn't even comprehend the cause nor could he understand the implication of the cause. It didn't matter what he did, whether it was his precise and careful calculations or his meticulous and flawless modification of the Runic Constructs, none of them helped. Because of that, he hadn't been able to succeed in all of his experiments and tests so far, making him feel subtle despair at times.

The thought of having to start all over again immediately caused him an intense headache. He wanted to smash everything in the room out of sheer frustration, but he managed to calm his emotions down in time to restrain his sudden impulse.