"Zein, I need you to do something for me," before they left the Chairman's office, Radia gave the guide homework. "Can you find out how many shards there are in the Deathzone?"
"I'll try," Zein nodded, feeling that it was time that he conversed with the shard again.
And so, rather than returning to the guild, Zein and Bassena headed to the basement research lab. It had been a while since he last saw the team there, with how busy he was, so the welcome was rather boisterous. It wasn't just the researchers; a device attached to the glass that separated them from the shard also beeped repeatedly, and the screen on top of it flashed the word MISS repeatedly.
"The interpreter can do it in real-time, now?" Bassena whistled at the device.
"Of course! We keep increasing the capability so we can converse smoothly with the shards," Eugene said proudly. "There's still a second or two delay, but that's almost nothing, right?"
