Anything Worth Looking At?

“...This won’t do.”

Inside the nest, where mana cultivation was in full swing, Haring muttered under her breath while holding her lotus position and trying to keep her focus. Other users sat around her, training just the same — and her progress was the slowest of them all. She had somehow managed to sense mana, but she still hadn’t properly grasped a real cultivation method.

I was the fastest one…!

Haring had been the first to discover Lea. She was the one who had opened the curtain on the Great Dragon Era. For now, only FroGal regulars and a handful of users were coming and going from the dragon’s nest — but once the high-level raids wrapped up, people would pour in for certain. Until then, she needed to push as far ahead on the quests as she could and lock down good gear and titles.

My weapon is a total bust… and I still haven’t cleared Fire Dragon’s Training 2 either…

The dragon sword she’d thought was a hidden-class weapon had turned out to be nothing more and nothing less than an epic. The quest wouldn’t clear no matter how many thousands of times she swung her blade, so it probably required destroying a golem — or creating a “star.” She still had the most progress of anyone, but if someone else made a star first, she could lose the lead.

The bigger problem was that her attention level itself kept dropping. One look at Lea moving ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠among the users made that painfully clear.

“How is it?”

“I think I’m catching something like a grain…”

“That’s it. Try gradually expanding its size. Keep circulating while you do.”

“Hehehe. How about me? Am I not perfect?”

“You focus more on the rotation. Too slow.”

“......”

Lea only paid attention to Nya-nya and Ka-zen, the ones who showed real potential. She didn’t so much as glance at Haring. At first, Haring had been so loud that Lea checked on her often — but as time passed and she realized the girl had no talent, she’d simply lost interest. She still looked in on the other users about once every two hours. Haring, she hadn’t checked on in six.

Look over here too!

Haring considered yelling the way she used to, then shook her head. Any more of that would backfire. She’d already talked plenty, and if she kept looping the same nonsense she might get kicked out. Getting kicked out meant her attention level would drop — and a drop in attention meant the quest would cancel.

This won’t do.

A flash of resolve. Haring raised her hand.

“Lea!”

“Hm?”

“Please look at me for a bit.”

“Is there something to look at?”

“......”

Too much. That was too harsh. She wished Lea would say something that actually matched that cute face of hers. For someone called the Fire Dragon, she was way too cold. Thinking that, Haring hung her head with a thoroughly dejected look.

After about a minute of sitting there looking miserable, Lea padded over with soft little steps and came to her side.

“What is it. Did you succeed or something?”

“No. It’s hard, so if you could teach me a bit…”

“I already told you. So the circulation of mana…”

Lea once again walked Haring through the principles of mana cultivation in careful detail. The theory was perfect, and Haring knew it — but grasping it with her own body was an overwhelmingly distant task. Lea stayed by her side for about ten minutes, then left as abruptly as she’d come, with a look that said this ought to be enough.

Haring’s progress was exactly the same as before Lea had arrived.

“Haa…”

Maybe she should check the gallery.

Historic boom times, huh.

Still holding her lotus position, Haring scrolled through the noisy FroGal feed. A few days earlier, some anonymous user of unknown identity had leaked Lea’s mana cultivation method. It was supposed to be a hidden quest, so having the method dumped out like that left Haring and the dragon advance party a little bitter — but it hadn’t been the real method anyway. The explanation had a lot of holes, and the breathing technique and circulation structure were subtly off. Probably one of the five people who hadn’t cleared the first quest had snuck a look ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and posted it, not one of the six actually cultivating.

Doesn’t look like much progress either way.

Even with Lea’s personal coaching it was this hard. How much good could teaching from a rough glance at a distance possibly do? Not a chance…

“Except I have the real thing and I still can’t do it.”

Haring sank even deeper into gloom.

Every single breathing method is wrong.

Looking at this, it was obvious the leak had come from somewhere other than the six people sitting here. Haring kept up the proper breathing technique and moved on to the next post.

FroGal’s idol is Lea-chan, obviously.

Sometimes she was so annoying Haring wanted to smack her — but that cute face never went anywhere. If she ever got a chance to hug her just once, that would be nice.

Suaaah…

“Huu…”

Haring steadied her breathing and shifted her eyes to the next post. Honestly, she didn’t care about the raids. If anything, thinking about the flood of people that would pour in once they ended, it was better for Haring if the raids dragged on as long as possible.

Beyond that, the analysis post on mana cultivation had been written by Evan and was fairly interesting — but it still wasn’t the real thing. As the third-ranked player he had knowledge and experience of his own, but the proper cultivation method had never been leaked.

Still, this is pretty useful, isn’t it?

“‘Mana is like a flowing river… don’t try to stop it, let it flow’?”

A pretty interesting idea. Lea had said something similar, and at first Haring had tried to pin the mana to her heart and force it out from there ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— gathering it forcibly in the heart, blocking the flow, then releasing it little by little. Once she realized that was wrong, she’d stopped blocking it and tried to let it move as naturally as possible.

Not that there’s been any real progress either way.

“Should I write a post too?”

The gallery was at historic peak traffic and heat right now, so…

“Pffft…”

Funny. Haring grinned and kept posting bait after bait, and every single one got an enthusiastic response. As the person who’d started this whole situation and the one furthest ahead on the dragon quests (even if she’d been overtaken), her so-called “named power” was sitting pretty high. She could write absolute garbage and still cruise into the popular posts on upvotes alone.

On top of that, Haring wasn’t normally a heavy poster. When she decided to go all-in on bait, the popular feed started filling up with her posts. On a normal day the head mod would have brought the hammer down and told her to cut it out — but the head mod was currently away. The sub-mods only stepped in for vote manipulation, excessive slurs, or gore, so Haring’s posts kept filling the popular board without a hitch.

After about three hours of gleeful gallery-diving, Haring felt something change.

“Huh…?”

The speed of her mana circulation had increased.