Over the next twenty days, Leo entered Castle Bravo again and again.
Every morning, just after the priest vanished into the main tower, he slipped through the same breach in the wall, and made his way across the courtyard and towards the teleportation gate.
Once within the Castle Walls, he did not so much as breathe too loud, as if the sound of oxygen entering his lungs might draw death toward him.
However, no matter how many times he returned to the Castle, the pressure he felt within never faded, as everyday he felt the same ancient corrupted mana coil against his skin like wet ropes….. making his body inevitably sweat buckets, and his knees to turn into jello.
However, despite the pressure, he did manage to creep across the courtyard everyday, moving past the collapsed arches until he reached that weathered ring of stone and glyphs that was his new work station.
Each session, Leo gave himself precisely one hour.
Sixty minutes and not a second more.
