Alternating in the order he extended Ether into his arms yet still failing, Ren noticed that the arm he reached second was always the one failing first.
But fully focusing on a task for hours was wearing his mind down, so Ren decided to rest a little while pondering what the reason he kept failing was.
Getting up from the ground, he stretched a bit, then felt his stomach rumble.
He stood there feeling a little awkward for a few seconds, then looked up at the camera and asked:
"Um... Where am I supposed to uh take care of my business?"
A familiar sounding static sounded, then Ren heard the same voice as last time say in a professional tone:
"Don't worry, this is a very common concern newly attuned have. Due to security concerns with leaving any element openly available in the waiting room, the only available alternative was... the bucket"
Ren's embarrassment faded as an astonished look adorned his face.
"T-the bucket?!"
Ren had already noticed the bucket sitting idly in the same corner as the camera. He wondered why it was there but didn't really give it much thought.
The truth, however, left him speechless.
"I-is there no alternative? I mean I'm not even a water attuned!"
The static sounded again and Ren could've sworn he heard a faint snicker.
"Well, the only other alternative is being escorted to the toilet by the assigned striker. Since Mr. Cain asked to be responsible for your room, do you want me to call him over?"
Ren barely considered the option for a moment before shaking his head vigorously.
"No no no no. The bucket's fine. Great, even!"
Just imagining the look on Cain's face if he came for such a reason had Ren almost beet red from embarrassment.
'A bucket is a hundred times better than suffering such humiliation.'
Ren took a few steps toward the bucket.
However, Just before reaching it, his eyes widened and he looked up at the camera.
"Y-you won't be watching this... right?"
Ren waited a bit but didn't hear any reply.
"Right?!"
Ren stayed looking at the camera until the operator finally replied in a slightly unstable voice.
"No... it's positioned in a way we can only see your head."
Ren heaved a sigh of relief as the sentence played back in his head again.
'Thank God, wait, was he laughing? Is that why the reply took longer this time? And did he say... We?!'
Ren glared at the camera for a little longer, until he finally couldn't take it and went to the bucket.
He opened the lid and sat down awkwardly.
He quickly took care of his upset bowels and briefly looked for a tap before remembering he was on a bucket.
This was Ren's first time truly appreciating the marvel that was the toilet.
'How am I supposed to clean up without a bidet, or at least some toilet paper'
Ren gritted his teeth and asked the question plaguing his mind... and bottom.
A few moments of enduring the uncomfortable seat later, he heard the static and a deep exhale in the background.
"There's... Ehem. There's a roll of toilet paper behind the bucket."
'He was laughing again! Goddamn it, Cain couldn't you have told me about this before leaving?!'
Ren reached behind the bucket and took out the lid, which was covering the roll and also took it out. He finished cleaning up, pulled up his pants, and closed the bucket again.
He gave the camera a spiteful glance, then he sighed and took a sip of the water Cain had left him.
'Just you wait till I get out...'
After cursing out the operator in his head and resting a little more, Ren continued trying to spread his Ether to both arms.
After trying more than thirty times, Ren could now reach the first arm with relative ease, yet the second one still eluded him.
Now focusing on analysing the differences between the first tendril and the second one, he finally saw the problem.
When Ren was reaching for the first arm, he just focused on the tendril reaching there, and keeping it in place to aid in his arm's healing process. He also did the same for when he tried reaching for the second arm, completely ignoring the amount of Ether in both cases.
So, he was basically pouring all his Ether into the first arm, and trying to reach the second with too little. Resulting in the Ether being insufficient and retreating to the core when it reached the limit.
Realizing his mistake, Ren now focused on portioning his Ether equally between both arms, lessening the Ether he sent to the first arm, and therefore increasing the amount sent to the second one.
Ren was gradually getting closer to equally splitting his Ether between both arms. Luckily, after he began to portion his Ether, the process of reaching both arms was much quicker and required less focus. After a few more failures, he finally managed to reach both arms at once.
He kept focusing on keeping the Ether spread out as he checked out the effects.
'I finally did it, but the healing effect is less than when I was only focusing on one arm.'
However, Ren's main goal wasn't to heal his arms, that was only a fortunate side effect, his true goal is to master controlling his Ether over his whole body so he could be let out of the waiting room.
After staying in the same state while keeping his ether spread out for a while, Ren let it return to the core.
He took a deep breath... and a tendril of Ether started reaching for his leg.