Jas sat solemnly in his lab -- his research was stagnant, with no hope of a breakthrough.
And it's not like he lacked funds -- in fact, the academy funded him well. The only problem is that he lacked assistants and test subjects.
As Elliot said, his old labmates were dead, and the new apprentices failed to et his requirents, apart from Adam.
"It's no surprise that a genius of his level won't be interested in my research," he wailed.
He clung onto the black walls of his lab, glancing occasionally at the projections in the room: unfinished, untested, useless.
"I'm too old."
He was already in his seventies, and Death was waiting by his door. Realisation crept up onto him, and that realisation soon turned into dread and regret, "Why did I choose to research this field..."
"I can't do this anymore..."
Jas slumped against the wall and sighed. Suddenly, the door to his laboratory lit up: [Apprentice Adam wishes to enter.]
Jas' eyes lit up, and leapt from the ground, rushing to open the door.
Adam wandered around the academy trying to locate Jas' lab. He didn't know whether or not he was present, either, but he had no way of locating him.
The door swung open.
Jas stared at Adam with wide eyes, "So, you agree to be my assistant, right? Please!"
Adam was taken aback; he almost couldn't recognise Jas -- the once dashing young man was now a balding old man, "Yes, if I get sufficient pay, that is."
Jas grabbed Adam by the hand and dragged him into the lab, kicking the door close, "Wait for !" He rushed into his inner chambers and took out a paper contract and handed it to Adam.
Adam read the contract -- the responsibilities of both parties, precautions, confidentiality agreent.
Jas announced, "The academy funds with 2,000 energy stones per month -- I only need 800 to survive, so the rest is yours!"
Adam widened his eyes; 1,200 energy stones per month was undoubtedly a huge sum of money, and it was much more generous than the mission rewards at the Mission Hall.
Jas imdiately shook Adam back to reality, and announced, "However, we need to produce satisfactory results within the next three months, or they will shut my lab down -- the departnt has already lost patience with my project, and gave a strict deadline."
Adam nodded; three months ans that he will get 3,600 power stones, "Mr. Jas, what do you an by satisfactory results?"
"A complete set of ditation thods that apprentices can use," he replied. "I already have complete sets in my lab, but nobody is willing to verify it for . Besides, it isn't easy for to build a set of runes either."
Adam smiled. This project requires massive calculations, and lucky for Jas, Adam is an artificial intelligence. Building a set of runes is a piece of cake for him.
Adam said, "Alright. If your research is successful, I want to have the right to use these runes."
Jas nodded hastily, "Of course, no problem at all."
After Adam received verbal consent, he added this clause to the contract, and wrote the amount of 1,000 power stones as his salary per month. Jas imdiately paid Adam and accepted the contract imdiately, and couldn't wait to pull Adam into his lab.
Jas said, still smiling, "From now on, you have free access to the lab, but do not take any of my data out of the lab."
...
Half a month soon passed, and Adam had disappeared from the public eye. The only tis he would re-erge was around two o' clock, where he travelled from his dorm to the lab every day. His als were eaten in the lab as well.
Adam found that Jas was a good person -- despite being an assistant and test subject, Jas treated Adam very well. He didn't allow Adam to test the unsafe and unstable runes, but guided him along the way. Adam built a basic ditation rune set under his guidance, rembering Jas' advice, "These basic ditation runes created by Protheus are the most stable runes to date, and can be used by any mage. No matter how much an apprentice experints with runes, they have a pillow to fall back on to shield them."
This was great to Adam. He had gained a lot of experience working under Jas. In less than half a month, they developed a basic ditation thod, and Adam could feel his weak soul being shielded by a layer of armour.
Jas was satisfied. Adam's talent once again exceeded his expectations -- to complete the initial ditation thod, at least a thousand pieces of runes were required, and an ordinary apprentice can only conjure three to five pieces a day.
Jas was also fascinated by Adam's ability to multitask, not knowing that Adam had computing powers. Jas could only build one rune at a ti, but Adam could construct multiple runes at the sa ti.
Half a month later, Jas made sure that Adam could withstand the experintal and unstable runes. He turned on the projector and said to Adam, "Now, try to build these sets of runes. If you feel that sothing is amiss, stop imdiately."
Adam looked at the set of new runes -- they still had a total of 9 runes, but the structure was much more complicated than Protheus' set of runes. However, based on his analysis, he could tell that the runes would fail -- they didn't show any clear and concise patterns within it.
However, he tested it anyway.
Jas added, nervous, "Compared to Protheus' runes, these runes enhance your ntal strength. If it is successful, then the mage 'armour' will be incredibly strong."
"Step by step, remove your original mage armour, and... wait, what?! Adam! Stop!"
Jas was horrified to find that Adam's ntal strength had scattered across the room, and the resulting force blew all of his research papers across the room.
Jas shielded himself and begged Adam to stop, but was confused upon seeing his calm face. Jas' face contorted into horror upon realising that since Adam is stripping his mage armour away, he would be vulnerable and could collapse into himself at any ti.
He panicked and ran towards him -- Adam was his last hope, and he couldn't let anything happen to him.
Adam announced, "As far as your runes are concerned -- yes, they are complex, but the structures within it are redundant and rough."
Jas froze, "Are you... alright?"
Adam nodded, "Do not worry about , worry about the experint -- this experint is too inefficient, I can probably..." in Adam's head, he thought of how to allocate his computing power to maximise efficiency, "...construct four different sets of runes at the sa ti."
"Four? Completely new structures?" Jas stuttered.
"Well, yes, but I am unfamiliar with runes, so I can only settle for four," Adam replied.
Jas widened his eyes in awe, "This must be the multitasking spell that you ntioned earlier!" Jas thought that multitasking was an inherent talent, and admired Adam for it.
"I guess," Adam replied.
Jas envied Adam. If only Adam was , he thought.
Adam built the runes as they spoke -- he discovered that a flaw in a rune does not necessarily affect the entire set, so they started to experint again.
Jas set up his optical projectors once again, filled with hope, "Maybe this ti, we can succeed."
...
They did not. Two months passed, and their experints demotivated them again and again. The two holed themselves up in the lab -- Jas left once a week to teach, and Adam remained in the lab 24/7.
However, they still couldn't develop a consistent and universal thod for ditation.
There were only ten days left before the deadline, and Jas' appearance drastically changed from when Adam first t him -- a bright, passionate young man to a depressed, unmotivated, balding old man.
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