There were several things with his idea of shrinking the string of mana that failed or dissatisfied Toz. The first was the effort it took. Not only shaping the mana into a string, to begin with but also how much he had to strain himself to make it thin enough to make a difference. But that wasn't so bad, really. If he improved and got more used to it, it wouldn't take so much time and wouldn't be so exhausting.
What made his idea a total failure was that it didn't work. At all. Instead of decreasing the speed at which he absorbed the mana around him, it increased the speed. His body drew in and absorbed the string so quickly that the rate at which he absorbed the surrounding mana was unchanged from before.
He got the same overall result, despite putting in more effort and taking more time to do it. Feeling disappointed at such a failure was nothing unusual, but it at least pointed out the wrong direction to Toz, so he quickly shook off the negative feelings and began thinking.
