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Though Ves occasionally paid attention to Joshua, he never really talked to the kid very often. A single one-on-one exchange therefore accomplished considerably more than he initially thought.
Joshua was like a boat that had gone lost in an endless ocean. Though the boat was clearly capable of traveling somewhere, it lacked a direction.
Now that Ves provided Joshua with a more concrete goal and destination to work towards, the expert candidate gained a strong motivation to grow stronger.
As Joshua's force of will evolved and grew a little more solid, Ves remained observant throughout the process.
This was not the first time he studied an expert candidate. He had a decent idea of what Joshua needed to do to catch up to the other expert candidates in the clan. As for taking his first true step to godhood, that was an opportunity that he needed to obtain by himself.