Josh wasn't sure whether Howard would deserve it in the future, but he was certain that the man had indeed waited long enough. By the time Josh arrived at the temple with his group, Howard had nearly leapt to his feet and started cursing. Of course, he didn't. Instead, he greeted them with a smile.
Because he didn't have the nerve. He truly was furious; in his worldview, wasting time meant wasting life. Although he understood that extraordinary beings like Josh had long lives—two or three hundred years was already plenty long—but he didn't. He was only a mortal.
And Howard was no idiot. Anyone who could hang around Josh while dressed so strangely had to be, by his reckoning, either extraordinary beings like Josh or people Josh had approved to become extraordinary beings. Naturally, he wouldn't dare lose his temper recklessly.
He knew Josh had taken an interest in him solely because of his talent. Whether he could become an extraordinary being like them was still uncertain. But Howard had confidence in himself. His talent certainly wouldn't be a problem. Even if, in the worst-case scenario, he truly couldn't understand magic, couldn't he develop drugs to improve his physical abilities?
"According to Josh, practicing magic is essentially about increasing one's strength and raising one's level of life. If that's the case, then I refuse to believe I can't produce results by researching along those lines!"
Fine, Howard did have both the ability and the confidence. But the key issue was this: where was he supposed to get those special elements? Even Captain America's successful experiment had become a one-of-a-kind case. There had been some later examples that resembled success, but who could compare to the original Captain America?
The Muya Continent certainly had plenty of those special elements, but