Of course I was pissed.
I was so close, yet…
The moment I could no longer feel my connection with my mana core, my eyes snapped open, blazing with anger and annoyance at whatever had been the cause.
The moment I opened my eyes, I saw my sister and I couldn't help but glare at her the more I stared at her face.
"First of all…you stink and if you have any hopes of sleeping on your bed tonight instead of the floor, I would suggest you change your blanket and dry your bed," Was the first thing I heard her say, which of course directed my attention to my bed, shocked to see the part I knelt on completely soaked in sweat.
Quickly without responding I got on my feet packing the blanket with me, as I quickly ran to the bathroom with the intention of watching it along with the clothes I wore right before taking a bath.
Of course, I was still pissed but I was more impatient to get back to doing and gathering more blue specks than to sit there squibbling with her.
The moment I was done washing the blanket and taking my bath, I came out of the bathroom, with a completely pissed off expression on my face only for me to suddenly freeze when I caught sight of the window to the room.
"It's dark?" I yelled in slight shock, looking outside through the window and noting how dark it already was.
"How many hours have gone by? It was still morning when I began…" I muttered in a low voice to myself completely ignoring my sister who looked directly at me like I was stupid.
"I can back early and imagine my surprise when I discovered that you were actually cultivating," She said as she stood close to her bed arranging her clothes while shaking her head at me, with an expression that bordered on pity.
"With an F-aptitude, it would't even bother me if you spent the whole day simply trying to find your mana core," she continued with a strange and superior look on her face, right before she began to change her clothes not at all caring that I was there, watching her.
Even as I watched her take down every single piece of clothing on her body with a hint of readiness and want in my eyes, I still continued to heavily glare at her.
"You know nothing Nami. For all you know, My aptitude has increased and so has my cultivation speed,"
"Really? So you were able to cultivate mana right, how much?"
"Well…I was getting there and I would have if you had't interrupted me,"
"Really…cause I don't think so. If you took you more than ten hours just to find your mana core and sense your environment then how long do you think it would take you to to….separate the bits of mana, …suck in the most suitable one through the pores of your body, …circulate it through your veins all the way back to your mana core for each speck of mana,"
"Look, I get it. Our family is poor and we desperately need money but why do you think you gave up cultivating in the first instance. Even I only do it on weekends and still it, for an entire day, I merely get about 30bronze coins worth of Mana," Nami sighed with a slightly frustrated look on her face as she jumped into bed and used her blanket to cover her body, leaving me staring at the empty space in front of me as I thought over her words.
"Well…that might be true but what if I actually have a better aptitude, like an A aptitude or a B aptitude…" I thought to myself, " Then wouldn't it be be such a waste to let my magnificent undiscovered talent die,"
In a split second, I instantly made up my mind to continue cultivating regardless of how long it took, coming to the conclusion that the more I practiced the better I would get at it.
My anger slowly eased away and my confidence was back.
Seeing how dark it was, in relation to the fact that my sister was covered under her blankets almost like she was preparing to sleep, I couldn't help but wonder why.
"Why are you sleeping now? Aren't you going to wait for dinner?"
"It's already past the tenth hour dufus…dinner's over!" she mumbled right back before rolling over to the other back, turning her back to me.
"Wha…what? Then why didn't you call me…" I asked shocked how how much time had gone by since I merely thought night fell only about a few minutes ago.
"I did, but you obviously didn't hear me…" she replied in an obviously sleepy tone.
"Also stop talking to me…I'm off to sleep,"
I also couldn't be bothered to talk to her any longer, as I simply left the room and got to the dinning/kitchen only to see that everything had been completely cleared out without their being any leftovers.
I was staving but I also understood that unlike the modern world there were no refrigerators to keep food from spoiling and the last thing I wanted to do was act like a spoiled brat which was why I went back to my room.
Instead of going to sleep, this time around I sat down on the ground and decided to begin cultivating again, intent on slowly amassing as much mana as ai could into my body no matter how many days it took.
I was back in the correct position only for me to discover how difficult it was trying to simply find my mana core all over again.
It took a frustratingly long amount of time to through all the processes but finally I succeeded.
I sensed the mana in the air and I quickly began to look for the blue ones which weren't all that rare to sense, apart from the fact that I had to separate them from the rest before drawing them into my mana core, which was agonizing as even after what I was sure felt like an hour, I had only been able to take in about five specks of blue mana.
Staring at my mana core, I wasn't particularly sure if it made a huge difference but I hoped I did even as I slowly continued.