"I... said I absorbed..." Elliot's voice was barely above a whisper, his words hanging in the air like a confession.
Charles's eyes widened, his expression a mixture of shock and disbelief. "I heard you clearly!" he nearly shouted, his voice echoing through the room. "But why on earth would you do that?!"
Elliot flinched at the intensity of Charles's reaction but tried to explain himself. "It's a long story, but... I absorbed it because I wasn't able to understand anything in the book you gave me. None of it made sense. No matter how hard I tried, the words just jumbled together. It felt like I was reading another language." He took a shaky breath, his shoulders slumping in defeat. "I got frustrated. I felt stuck, useless... and then I saw the ancient crystal. I thought... maybe if I absorbed the raw mana directly, it would help me understand."