Arthur exhaled slowly, the weave dissolving as he stood there, chest rising and falling. He could already hear distant voices now, boots and echoes drawing closer.
Time to wrap it up.
He knelt and worked quickly, movements practiced, careful not to damage the cores. A clean cut here, a twist there. The storage device pulsed faintly as he fed mana into it, swallowing the cores whole without adding any extra weight on him.
Arthur straightened and flexed his fingers, feeling the ease of it.
"Worth every yen," he murmured.
The voices were closer now.
He wiped his blade, and slid the dagger back into place, and took one last look at the empty corridor ahead. His heart was steady, his mind clear, and beneath it all was a quiet satisfaction.
This was working.
The weave. The flow. The control.
And next time, he wouldn't just be testing.
With that, Arthur kept moving.
