"Okay, so, am I understanding it right? That wardrobe you were trying to show me was actually an animal?" Mary whispered toward Ryan, who nodded with a smile on his face.

  "Yep, that was Kindly, he's a mimic. Technically it wasn't the wardrobe itself; Mimics live inside of objects. I don't know why he was so shy yesterday, though, usually he's pretty outgoing," Ryan explained with a slight laugh, "But then again, he's only recently been around people again."

  "Oh, really? What happened?"

  "He was infected with corruption. I only cured him the other day, using the copper flowers."

  "The copper flowers that... were grown in the dungeon you went to, because a fragment of Gaia was in there?"

  "Right. I believe that the White Shadow Society tried to infect Gaia's fragment as well, but she was able to fight against it while she was turning into a dungeon."

  Mary placed her hand onto her cheek in thought, trying to take it all in. Though in the end, she just let out a long sigh and shook her head, "I don't think I fully understand, but it was lovely to meet all of them, anyway. Especially that cute little pixie. Penny, was it?"

  Sitting in the front of the car, on the passenger seat, Runar let out a long sigh, "Do you really have to discuss all of that right now? We're nearly there," he pointed out. Ryan rolled his eyes in the seat behind him, glancing over to Yamada. He was pretty jealous that she didn't have to hear Runar's complaining the whole way to the Channel.

  "Well, why are you complaining?" Mary scoffed, slightly tapping Yamada's shoulder from behind, "Your friend here hasn't said anything about it, so it can't be too bad, right?"

  Runar groaned, "It's not like she knows about it anyway."

  Confused, Mary looked over at Ryan, who quickly explained, "Yamada is deaf, she didn't hear anything we said the whole way".

  "Oh?" Mary widened her eyes surprised, leaning forward to get a better look at the demon while raising her voice and patting Yamada's shoulder, "I'm sorry, honey, I didn't know."

  Yamada glanced around a bit confused, not sure what to think. She looked at Ryan through the mirror, and he let out a slight sigh, "My mother apologized for not knowing you're deaf," he explained, signing to her as much as he could. Yamada laughed slightly and shook her head, signing with one hand.

  "She's saying not to worry about it," Ryan quickly translated as he pulled out his phone. His mother looked at him surprised.

  "You know sign language?"

  Ryan shrugged, "Yeah, a little bit, I guess. I study with this app on my phone, it's pretty good for it."

  Before the conversation could continue, while Mary was still quite surprised to learn so many new things about her son, the car came to a halt. By now, the celebrations for the day of Kars already started. Kars, the spirit of technology, was celebrated by showing the big technological advancements that had been made in the past year. Basically, it was a massive science-fair. Kars' day was also generally used by companies to launch new products and to advertise those new products to the masses, so it was no wonder that more than half the stalls belonged to established tech companies just trying to sell the newest, slightly changed, version of what they were showing off last year.

  However, there were a few exceptions to that. Taking advantage of the nature of Kars' day, the Magic Tower tended to show some new research as well, even if it didn't technically fall under the umbrella of 'Technology' a lot of the time. New standard spells that could change the way we lived our everyday lives, old spells used in an innovative way or with improved efficiency, or the part that Ryan was most excited about; the new discoveries.

  While the Magic Tower had some of the flashiest things to show off during Kars' day, a lot of the time, their new discoveries were just shown through boring presentations; theoretical situations presented in a way that seemed like they were the next big thing. Ryan figured that Modak's presentation was going to be similar to that, but since it was his best friend showing off something he worked hard on, Ryan wanted to show his support the best way he could; by being extremely excited about something he understood nothing about.

  "I'll get out here and try to find Modak already," Ryan said, tapping on his phone to text the orc, while Mary smiled at him broadly.

  "Alright, honey, we'll catch up soon," she responded. Ryan quickly got out of the car and went on his way, while Mary turned toward Runar, staring at him intensely, "And you- You will explain to me everything about Hayden that I don't know yet, right now."

  While Runar was getting ready to be grilled, Ryan made his way through the crowds of the Channel. He pushed past the random salesmen that tried to come up to him, skilfully ignoring them, and headed toward the area designated for the Magic Tower. Most of the stands looked pretty boring, with who Ryan assumed to be just other mages or professionals standing in front of them, but deeper in, you got to the part that people were most curious about.

  The practical displays. People were watching the butterflies made of light, and toy trains riding on floating tracks; things that caught the eye of almost anyone. But as Ryan continued walking, he got to the end of the row, and stood right next to a wall was a stand that wasn't ready to go yet. Modak's stand.

  Ryan pulled away the tarp and peeked inside, though he was quickly stopped by a large hand holding onto his collar from behind, "Sorry, that's off-limits. We should finish setting up soon, though."

  The middle-aged cyclops looked at Ryan with an apologetic, kind smile, and he quickly shook his head, "Oh, no, I'm sorry, I'm just looking for Modak right now. He told me to meet him here?"

  The cyclops raised her brows, "In that case, I'll call him right out. Just wait here for a second, okay?"

  "Yes, of course, no worries," Ryan quickly nodded and stepped to the side, as the cyclops walked into the small tent. Just a few moments later, Modak practically tore the tarp to the side and quickly pulled Ryan into the tent.

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  "Perfect, you're here!"

  Ryan looked at Modak nervously, "Is everything alright? Did something happen?" he glanced around and leaned toward the orc, whispering, "Is it the shadows doing some weird stuff again?"

  With a nervous scoff, Modak shook his head. His eyes were darting around the room nervously and his breathing was heavy, "No, no, it's nothing like that, I'm just- I think I'm having a panic attack?"

  "Okay, shit, that's not good, uhm..." Ryan pulled his bag from his back and quickly looked for something inside, soon pulling out a small notebook, "Silvia drew this last night. It's just a sketch made with pencil, but it apparently still has a small effect."

  The page that Ryan was holding out was a drawing of a mountain with the morning sun's rays shooting past the trees' crowns. Just looking at it seemed to calm down Modak's breathing as he closed his eyes, "That... really did help a little. I think," Modak let out a long breath as he continued to take in the magical calmness of the sketch in front of him, "Sorry, I've just been really nervous about making sure that everything works out later. We've been fine-tuning the last few things all morning, but I'm still not sure if it's actually all perfect yet."

  With a scoff, Ryan pushed the notebook with the sketch onto Modak's chest, "It doesn't need to be perfect. You've been working on this for a few weeks, the fact you have something to show in the first place is an absolute miracle."

  "... The tech itself is really pretty simple," the orc pointed out.

  "If you can explain to me how it works and I understand it, I'll give that one to you, but I honestly doubt it," Ryan placed a hand onto his friend's shoulder, "Just do your best. What's the worst that can go wrong?"

  Modak grimaced slightly, "I mean... A mass of toy bricks could be hurled at onlookers."

  Taking a step back with a confused expression, Ryan furrowed his brows, "Uh... What?"

  "How much did I tell you about what I'm working on?"

  "Not much at all, you've been sneaky about it the whole time."

  Modak rubbed his neck as he started thinking about how to best explain things, "So... Actually, let me just..." the orc turned around toward the cyclops that had stopped Ryan earlier, "Marge, is everything set up and ready to go?"

  The cyclops nodded her head and held a thumbs-up toward Modak, who quickly pushed Ryan toward the front of the tent, "Okay, great. Wait outside for a second, we'll fold up the tent real quick."

  Curious, and more confused than ever, Ryan stepped out and waited in front of the tent. There were a few other people walking around, curious about what this still unveiled project was about. And then, a moment later, the tarps of the magical tent rolled up with a snapping sound. The bars holding the whole thing up folded down, and the tent that was keeping the whole project covered quickly disappeared into a wooden box. And what was visible there instead were a number of speakers lined up in a semi-circle in front of a large cube made entirely of small plastic bricks.

  In front of Ryan was a tablet on a small stand, displaying a playlist. Each song was titled something like Castle, Plane, Robot, or the like. Different things that you would usually build from these kinds of bricks.

  "Alright, so... While we have been graciously given a spot for a final showcase later on at the central stage, for now, we would like the visitors of the fair to experience the basics first-hand," Modak explained, smiling anxiously. He was clutching the notebook that Ryan had given to him earlier tightly, "I think, without further ado, just... play one of the songs that catches your eye."

  Not having to be told twice, Ryan looked through the songs. In the end, he picked the 'Robot' song, and before he knew it, the speakers started up with a rhythmic pattern that sounded a lot like the beeps and bops that Ryan instinctively connected with something like a server or control room. Something sci-fi.

  He watched as the cube of bricks was slowly pulled apart, piece by piece. The small plastic bricks sorted themselves, and as Ryan looked over to Modak confused, he just saw the orc grow more anxious as more parts of the song came in. The bricks quickly flew around the area encircled by the speakers, constructing a robot as tall as the cyclops standing next to Modak. As the song continued, the bricks repositioned themselves, making the robot take on different poses while doing different basic movements that reminded Ryan of what you would see from cartoons or comics.

  By the time the electronic song ended, the bricks had rearranged themselves back into that cube from before. And, Ryan noticed a crowd that had formed behind him, that were curiously trying to see what was going on.

  Modak cleared his throat as he was pushed forward by Marge and began to speak to the crowd, "Our project is, the, uhm... Synthetic Chant System, or SCS in short. Reminiscent of the instrument-based magic of bardic mages, we use the rhythmic nature of music to cast a precise levitation spell," Modak explained, looking over to Marge, who just had the biggest, excited grin on her face, "However, what is to note is that the source does not come from a magic user. I created all the tracks you will hear here today by myself, on simple computer software. The music is then written on a crystal tape as a mana wavelength, which is then again split off the tape and transformed into the final spell you see in front of you."

  Slowly but surely, the people in the crowd began to understand what Modak was trying to say. Some of them even seemed to be mages of the Magic Tower themselves, and were just staring at him in disbelief, as Modak finished the introduction to his project, "Using this system as a base, I believe it is possible to create a myriad of new ways to cast spells; ways that even regular people can use. I myself have a disorder where my body rejects all mana, and yet I was able to create this. Right now, it is only used to play with toy bricks, but imagine if you could use any spells that have been almost impossible to reproduce through technology, just with a press of a button. If you allow me to be so blunt..." Modak took a long, deep breath, "I believe that this is the way that we can put true magic into the hands of every single person in this world."

  Ryan just stared at his friend as the crowd behind him began to clap impressed. He stepped to the side, letting the next person approach the tablet. While Ryan was still just silent, someone played the 'Castle' song, and a medieval melody started to play as the bricks rearranged themselves into the form of a castle, with small toy figures walking around inside of it, making it lively and exciting. Particularly kids were quickly crowding around, dragging their parents along. And before anyone knew it, this stall had drawn the largest crowd in the area. Even people from other stalls abandoned their post to come take a look, discussing what they were seeing and the impact that this could have.

  "Modak..." Ryan stared at his friend, though Modak seemed nothing but relieved right now. He was sitting down on a chair at the side of his lot and was laughing nervously.

  "That went better than I thought," he said with a broad smile, proudly showing off his tusks, "What do you think?"

  "What do I- Dude, you figured out how to synthesize magic! What do you think I think?!"

  "I guess that means you think it's pretty cool?"

  Ryan let out a loud laugh and held out his hand. Modak, his smile still not letting up, took the hand and stood up, as Ryan congratulated his friend, "You've done something absolutely crazy just there, man."

  Modak laughed as he felt Ryan's encouraging voice, "Thanks. I just hope that the tower's mages think the same. I know that Alicia liked the idea, otherwise she wouldn't have given me a spot during the main event later, but you never know what kind of complaints those old farts could have."

  The orc glanced back nervously at Marge, who chuckled lightly, "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone you said that."

  "Either way, man, I can't believe you were able to do something like that," Ryan pointed out, looking over to the bricks that were still actively re-arranging themselves, "You'll be able to do so much good with this technology."

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