He lay on the floor for twenty-two minutes. Just breathing. Watching the system interface dim and brighten in the dark. Then he sat up again.
His hands were warm. Not hot. Just charged. Like his mana hadn't quite cooled down after the last cast thread settled.
The room was dead quiet.
The kind of quiet you only got when the world forgot you were awake.
He stared at the corner of his desk where old spell drafts were half-scorched into the wood.
Then whispered, "One more."
The system didn't prompt this time.
It just opened.
[Design Thread – Manual Initiation Detected]
[Warning: Mana cost exceeds 40. Core strain likely.]
Lucen didn't flinch.
He wasn't building this one for efficiency. He was building it to ask a question.
How big. How much. How far.
He pulled out a piece of silver-trace chalk from a plastic vial by the mattress.
Started sketching. No grid. No ruler. Just instinct and control and muscle memory traced over sleepless nights and drift runs.
