[Sig – 13 years]

  The final stream for Xander's game and augmented reality kit was freaking amazing! New things were added in that we hadn't seen before, including minor teleport points to move "supply drops" in. Those were actual devices set up around the playing field which could be used to teleport small objects.

  There were "grenades", "healing kits", and more dropped in, and we actually got some small snacks from time to time, if we got lucky with finding a drop point. Those snacks were our recovery items and we actually had to eat and drink them before the game would register and restore our HP and MP.

  The full scenario that we played was that the twelve of us were a team sent to exterminate the Zombie King, and we were given access to most of the Dream Best Entertainment Live Gaming Zone.

  Something we made full use of during the two hours of the scenario.

  From what Xander's told us, it was deliberately designed so that the Zombie King wouldn't show up until the last half hour of the session, that it's a two-hour scenario with a failure if we hit that mark without killing the king and making it out.

  Spending two hours pretending to be an elite unit taking on zombies wore all of us out, but it was still the most fun I've had in a game in a long while. Xander really exceeded expectations, and they were already high. There were regular mobs, elite mobs, mini-bosses, strategic supply drops, "random" item finds, and more.

  The barbecue to celebrate it is taking place outside the center rather than back at Carter's family's ranch. Those of us from out of the area are returning to Dragon Falls and Lakeview today rather than tomorrow. With school resuming in two days, our parents (and my aunt) don't want us traveling the day before. Lunch was pretty good and we're all starting to have energy again, though I don't think we'll be allowed to play before leaving. Not with parents likely wanting everyone home in time to order dinner.

  Xander's now gathered us all up, and he has large boxes set out on a long table behind him. Eleven boxes each with a large gift bag and three of his cookie/treat boxes sitting in front of them. I saw him setting them up and figured they'd be for us testers. If Xander's gifting us all something then it's going to be good.

  Though I'm betting it also only for the people who were here for this last one, so Parker and Russell won't get anything.

  "Thank you all for helping me with the beta tests," Xander flaps his hands a little for a moment. "And for doing the final stream for the pre-release. I hope y'all enjoyed the game and the big scenario for it. As I said during the conclusion for the stream, that's one of several scenarios that can be set up for the game, and some of the locations can be randomized so that it's not the exact same every time. The system with the small teleport plates for added supplies and drops, as I said during the stream's introduction and conclusion, are a special system here. That's not going to be available normally as the teleport plates and the system to have things teleport in automatically is kind of expensive to make and maintain. So that'll mostly be for purposes like at a gaming center like here. They'll have the funds to commission them and the space to have the send-in system set up."

  Xander shakes his head.

  "But this isn't about that, stupid Xander," he mutters just barely loud enough that we can hear it. "Okay. So. Thank you all for helping with the tests and participating in the streams. You'll see boxes and bags behind me. The gift bags are things I forgot the name I was given but they're as thank-yous for participating. They're gifts, not pay. Xanson Technologies provided some of it, but a few companies sent things for them as well. That includes gift cards from MountainStorm Gear. If you don't know what they are, they're a company which produces a lot of clothes and other gear for outdoor, fitness, and athletic use. They're a really awesome brand, I love them. I'm even wearing their stuff right now."

  And looking good in it, too! It's just a regular long sleeve rather than an athletic long sleeve, but he's still cute. He's always cute.

  "There's no alcohol," Xander adds. "But there are bottles of fizzy drinks in them. I'll let y'all learn what the rest of the stuff in the gift bags are. But they're thank-yous from Xanson Technologies and gifts from some other companies.

  "In the big boxes," Xander says. "Is a bonus for helping out with the beta tests and streams, and participating in the big reveal of the major scenarios for the game. Your gifts are the ones with the bags that have your name on it. That includes the smaller boxes and the big box.

  "In the big boxes," Xander says. "You'll find the augmented reality glasses that you've been using for the betas. They are yours to keep. As an added bonus, there are two more, one in each of the other two colors used here. So you get a blue one, a green one, and a purple one. They can do more than play games, so you can use them for a variety of things.

  "In addition to glasses," he continues. "You each get a console for my AR gaming systemand a copy of each of the games releasing with it. You each also get your own pair of AR guns, one big and one small. I'm too tired to remember their proper names."

  The earns snickers from the rest of us. He's so honest about not remembering something and says it so bluntly.

  "And finally," he says. "In the smaller boxes, y'all get sweets from me. I had a lot of extras and realized I had enough I could just gift them all to you. Everyone gets one box of fudge, one box of three baker's dozen cookies, and one box of donuts. Cake donuts, not the big squishy ones. Don't try putting your finger through their holes 'cause that'll make them break."

  We all snicker again. Xander definitely tried sticking his finger into their holes for some reason. None of the cake donuts I've ever seen even really had holes, their centers were too small for that.

  "Okay," Xander says. "Thank you all for the participation, you can get your gifts now."

  We all hurry over to the tables, and I look in the gift bag with "Sig" written on it in black marker. It's a green gift bag, and there really is a lot of stuff in it. Two bottles of sparkling grape juice – one white and one red – two MountainStorm Gear water bottles, a pair of sunglasses and a cap from them, a $250 gift card for them, a $100 gift card to a burger joint in Dragon Falls, a $50 gift card for a pizza chain there, some fidget toys, a new puzzle sphere from Xanson Technologies, a bag of candy, and a small first-aid kit.

  At the very bottom of the bag is a black leather bracelet with a silver clasp. Hammered into the bracelet is a zombie pattern with a pair of glasses etched into the clasp. I'd be willing to bet my left lung that Xander made this for us.

  That's a lot more than I was expecting, and so much in gift cards, too! I think the logo on the candy bag is from the shop in the mage district that really likes Xander, too. He might have asked about donating, or they may have offered on their own.

  Either way, this is a lot of stuff, and that's not including the even more expensive things in the massive box.

  I check the treat boxes and find that I have blueberry cake donuts, stained glass cookies, and white fudge with strawberry swirls. Those are all my favorites from him! Either he specially-picked mine for me, or he tried to make sure everyone got ones they liked.

  "This is really good," I say.

  "Thanks," Xander startles me from behind, and I turn to face him. "I'm going back home now."

  "Teleporting?" I ask.

  "Yeah," he answers. "Dad and I came out that way, so that's how we're going back. I'm really tired and want a nap."

  "Alright," I say. "Hug?"

  "Yeah," Xander holds his arms up a little, and I give him a hug and he wraps his arms around me. "Bye, Sig."

  Him and his uncertain farewells. I know why he doesn't say stuff like "see you later", but I wish he would. It makes it seem like he's not planning on seeing me again instead of him being scared of me thinking he's lying if we end up not seeing each other later.

  Since I'm one of his friends and he can tell when people are lying, I might be able to help him with that. Him not worrying about being seen as a liar over something like that will probably make him less stressed, too.

  "Xander?"

  "Yes, Sig?"

  "It's not lying if you think you'll see me again but end up not," I say. "The world ending or something else coming up after you say something isn't going to make you a liar. So see ya, Xander!"

  "S-see ya."

  I release him and we each take a step back, then I remember something.

  "Oh!" I exclaim. "Xander! Before you teleport back home, I've got some stuff for you. Lemme grab my backpack."

  We head over to where my backpack is and I pull out the jars I bought from Jack. It's been almost a week and I keep forgetting to give them to him when I see him. Aunt Rachel made sure I remembered to bring them.

  "I meant to give them to you Tuesday," I tell him. "But forgot them at home, and you didn't come over after bowling. I met a farmer who sells stuff like this on Sunday and wanted to buy some for you since I figured you'd like them. Then I mentioned your name and he realized he knew you, said you used to go to the farmers' market in Lakeview. He recommended these ones for you!"

  "You go to a farmers' market?" Mr. Caldwell asks, having joined us as I spoke.

  "S-sometimes," Xander starts trembling a little and looks down at his shoes. "B-but not since m-moving in w-with y-you."

  "You're not in trouble," Mr. Caldwell tells him. "I'm just surprised. They didn't mention it to me."

  "M-Ms. J-Johnson?" Xander's still trembling.

  Should I offer him another hug? Or would that only make it worse instead of make him feel better? He likes hugs but dislikes touching people and I don't know how to deal with that, not when he's feeling really stressed like he clearly is right now.

  "Yeah," Mr. Caldwell says.

  "S-she d-didn't kn-know."

  His stutter's getting worse. It's been so good lately, too. Did he do something really bad?

  "Did you do something illegal with the farmers' markets?" Mr. Caldwell asks.

  "N-no."

  "Did you steal from them?"

  But he just said he didn't do anything illegal, and he doesn't lie? Asking if he's stolen from them is just being redundant with your questions.

  "N-no."

  "Did you do something immoral relating to them?"

  "I-I d-don't kn-know."

  That means that his anxiety comes from something he did that he's not sure if it was good or bad. It's probably the reason he hid visiting the farmers' market from others.

  "Alright," Mr. Caldwell says. "Take a deep breath, Xander… good, let it out… again… again… alright. What do you think you did that's immoral?"

  "Um…" Xander fidgets and is practically vibrating from how much he's shaking. "I sometimes find money on the ground when going to the shops on Saturdays. And I'd pick it up and buy stuff at the farmers' market. And-and I know it's not stealing because it's just sitting on the ground on the sidewalk and no one's around, b-but m-maybe I should've tried to find w-whoever d-dropped i-it. B-but the f-farmers' m-market-"

  "Deep breaths, Xander," Mr. Caldwell says, and Xander does it again. "Whether that's immoral or not differs from person to person. And if there was no one around to claim it, then it would be hard to find who dropped it, wouldn't it? Was it ever a large amount of money?"

  "N-no," Xander answers. "Usually five or ten dollars. Maybe twenty if it was a really lucky day. B-but I hid f-from Ms. Johnson and t-the others at t-the h-home that I was doing that and b-buying stuff and e-eating all of-of it. I-I know that's bad and I'm sorry and-"

  "You're not in trouble," Mr. Caldwell interrupts before he can go into a full meltdown. "I'm sure they'd understand why you didn't if they knew. Why don't you take the jars from S.G., then we can go home and you can go to the farmers' market before your nap? It's on Saturdays, right?"

  "Um…" Xander says. "It starts every-other Saturday in March, up until the end of April. That's from nine AM to noon. Then it's every Saturday until the end of October, and is from eight AM to noon. S-so it's closed for the day already."

  "Oh," Mr. Caldwell says. "Well, you can go on Saturdays if you like and are able to go out and do your things. I don't have an issue with that."

  "O-okay," Xander fidgets a little, then accepts the jars from me. They all disappear, but he's not holding his backpack. "T-thanks, Sig."

  "You're welcome!" I grab the jug of apple cider out of my backpack. "And this, too!"

  "He makes really good apple cider," Xander says. "When it gets cooler out, he even does what he calls 'mulled cider' at the farmers' market. You can buy a cup of it for a dollar each. I like it."

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  "I like mulled cider, too!" I tell him. "The dads make some in autumn, too! And there's one last thing. Aunt Rachel said that if I'm using your stuff to shoot a video for my channel, I should pay you as if I'm renting the space. That it only makes it fair. Otherwise, it'd be the same as taking advantage of you. And I really don't want to do that. We spent about three hours setting up and doing the stuff, and I looked up the local rate for renting out indoor basketball courts. That's fifty dollars an hour."

  I pull cash out of my wallet.

  "Here," I tell him. "And I'll make sure to pay you for any future videos you and your dad let me shoot in there, too."

  "Um…" Xander looks confused. "But I said it was fine and we were just hanging out with you recording it…"

  "Yeah," I say. "While we were just hanging out, I was also making a video. While it doesn't make me money now, it might in the future. My gaming and magic training progress VODs are doing great so I might get monetized. And since one of the things I want out of the uploads channel is monetization, it'd be unfair if I didn't pay you for letting me use your space to film my stuff there. That sort of thing's normal. I looked it up."

  "O-okay," Xander mumbles as he accepts the cash, and it quickly vanishes.

  "Oh, and one last thing," I say. "I looked up the price for your standard enchantments set… it's worth more than ten bucks, Xander. A lot more."

  Thousands. The enchantments Xander treats as just a normal set of enchantments for things to wear is worth thousands of dollars.

  "Not to me!" He huffs.

  "I just feel weird having something worth that much… especially as a bracelet or lanyard," I tell him. "Especially if I'm just gifted it or paid so little for it."

  "It takes me less than five minutes to enchant," Xander huffs again. "I told you that before. And the amount of mana required is really small to me. I only recover half a percent of my capacity in an hour. And the amount needed to set those enchantments is less than half of that. If someone else has an issue with you wearing those, they can choke on a fucking toothpick!"

  I might have upset him. Whoops. That wasn't my intention, I just don't feel comfortable accepting something like that for so cheap. I can't really afford to pay for it, but that's not what matters.

  But if Xander really doesn't want to charge that much, I guess I can try to accept that. The fact that he can even hold that much mana is already pretty incredible, so him recovering more than the enchanting cost in half an hour probably makes him value it differently.

  Though the skill level required is still absurd. To think that he even made a device to help him improve that… sheesh.

  He really is amazing.

  "That sounds really painful," I decide on saying, as I'm not really sure how to respond to his annoyance.

  "I bet it is!"

  "Um… alright," I say. "Sorry for upsetting you, I just feel weird, is all. But if you really don't think it should be worth that much… I'll try to accept that. Alright?"

  "Thanks," Xander mumbles.

  "Have a good rest of your day, Xander."

  "You, too," he mumbles.

  I'm not sure what's got him mumbling now. Was it my apology?

  "Can I hug you again before you go?" I ask, and he lets me. "See you."

  "Bye," he responds, then we separate and he and his dad vanish.

  That was a fast departure.

  "Yo, S.G.!" Tate calls out, and I head over to him and Carter, who are talking with my other friends. "You and Xander hugged?"

  "Y-yeah," I feel my face heat up for some reason. "We started dating on Monday, and I think he's a hugger. Not that I blame him, his hugs are amazing."

  "Oh, cool!" Tate grins. "He seems pretty cool!"

  "He is," I nod.

  "When I gave him that pep talk 'bout not putting himself second," Carter says. "I didn't expect him to go for it two days later."

  So I have Carter to thank for Xander asking me out? That's pretty cool, though I kind of want to know how that conversation happened. Carter definitely had to have been the one to broach the subject.

  "He can be brave when he tries," I tell him. "And I think my aunt wants us to get going rather than play, so I should get my gifts to the car."

  Aunt Rachel's waving toward me to get my attention, and I hold up a hand and nod to let her know I'm on my way over. I wish we could play some more before we go, but it seems I was right about the parents wanting everyone to get going in time for us to order dinner.

  "Alright," Tate holds out a fist, and I bump it with one of my own. "See you 'round, S.G."

  "See ya!" I say.

  "Wait!" Carter says. "Before you go, was Xander using a pocket space?"

  "A what?"

  "When he accepted the stuff from you," Carter says. "It vanished. I noticed he had black leather bracelets on. That's from the pocket hares, right? He said he wanted to make spatial pocket enchantments with their hide. If he had them done, I wanted to ask if I could buy one."

  That makes a lot more sense than my thought that Xander was just teleporting stuff in and out of his hands. If he's using a bracelet with its own little pocket space, then he's just pulling them out of there and putting them back in. Doing that no doubt costs a lot less mana.

  Though my original thought was cooler.

  "Uh…" I look at my other friends, who shrug. "I honestly don't know? I just thought he was teleporting them into his backpack. I know he does that a lot. Anyway, Aunt Rachel really looks like she wants to get going. I'll let him know you were asking 'bout it. Bye, Carter, Tate!"

  They bid farewell and the rest of us head over to the dads.

  "There's a storm coming in," Aunt Rachel tells me. "It's supposed to hit Dragon Falls in about three and a half hours and continue this way. If we don't leave soon, we'll get caught in it. Let's get your stuff in the car."

  There wasn't one in the forecast, which means it's probably an unexpected magical occurrence.

  "Awww!" I complain. "How come the weather has to make us leave? I want to play with everyone for a bit."

  "I know," Aunt Rachel ruffles my hair. "But there'll be other times. For now, we need to get going."

  "Same for the rest of you," Mr. Michaels says. "We need to get going so we can miss the storm."

  We hurry to get our things in the cars, then start the trip home. Once Aunt Rachel's pulling out, I pull out my phone so I can text Xander to see if he knows about the storm. There's a text from him, direct to me.

  [Xander]: Home.

  [Sig]: Cool! Hey! Do you know about the storm that's coming? It wasn't in the forecast.

  [Xander]: Yeah. My nap should be over by then so I'll go to one of the rooms that block out sound. Maybe watch a documentary. I can't hear thunder at all from the theater.

  [Sig]: That's cool!

  [Sig]: Just curious, but do you know why there's a sudden storm? Elementals?

  [Xander]: Dunno. Lots of storm magic in the air, though. Am sleepy. Hard to focus. Gonna nap now.

  [Sig]: Alright! Enjoy your nap!

  [Xander]: I'll try.

  [Sig]: Let the dream dragons eat all the bad dreams!

  Xander doesn't respond to that, but it does pop up showing that he read it. I hope it made him smile a little, especially since he was feeling a lot of anxiety a little before he left.

  "Aunt Rachel?" I look at my aunt.

  "Yes?"

  "I just remembered something."

  It's a completely random thought I had with nothing to do with anything I've talked about in awhile. That happens sometimes, though, where I randomly remember things.

  "What's that?"

  "I still haven't opened the package from the World of Myst devs."

  She starts laughing.

  "The box is in full view of the camera when you're streaming!" She tells me. "I've been thinking of saying something when we're streaming it on Thursdays but decided to let you figure it out on your own."

  [Luke – 13 years]

  Dad and I just got home a couple of minutes ago, and now I need to figure out what I'm doing for the rest of the day. The options don't seem all that high right now, which is disappointing.

  Gabe apparently left for something after Dad and I went out to Autumn Hills yesterday, and Mom doesn't know when he'll be back. That means my options for what to do for the rest of the day is either play video games, train by myself, or do some work. Dad needed to head to the office and Mom has some works she's doing from home.

  I'd really like to hang out with Parker again, but just thinking about how much attitude he's had lately stops me. Especially since Tyler might be coming over to hang out. I also really need to stick to what I told Parker and not bother with him again until he chills out.

  It's still difficult, though. We spent so much time close to each other and hanging out.

  Hm?

  As I try to figure out what to do with the rest of my day, Xander approaches the house. At least, I'm fairly certain that's his electric signal. It seems like Tyler's with him as well, though I don't think they actually arrived together. It's just good timing.

  I head down to the front doors to greet them rather than wait for them to reach me.

  "Hi, guys!" I say. "Glad you could come, Tyler! Did your dad say you could spend the night?"

  "Yeah," Tyler answers. "But we're going back out to the true wilderness tomorrow, so he'll pick me up around noon. The spot we're going to is a little bit far so he wants to leave early. Should be back by Friday evening, though."

  "Cool!" I say. "If you're going south, just be wary of the mega-wyvern."

  "Mega-wyvern?" Xander asks with a tilt of his head.

  "Yeah!" I say. "There's a giant, ancient wyvern made of wood and stone."

  Xander really looks like he wants to say something but is unsure of it.

  "His name's Akrolnomak," Tyler tells him. "He's really dangerous. And we never go that way, Luke. It's too risky. But Dad heard a report from another hunter that he'd spotted this boar species with a pretty tough hide. They're hard to catch but Dad wants to try for it. That alone will more than pay for the trip and extras if we can manage it."

  "Good luck!" I tell him. "Whatcha doing, Xander? Want to hang out?"

  That's awesome! It means he's liking me now!

  "No," oh. "I made something for you and Tyler. Forgot to give it to you earlier."

  "Made something for us?" I ask.

  "Yeah," Xander holds out his left hand and a pair of identical bracelets appear in it.

  The bracelets are made out of a pair of small, dark brown leather braids that look tightly-bound. A cylindrical silver piece with two black stripes running around its circumference acts as the clasp for it, to hold things in place. There are also two bold red metal beads that are beside each other at the middle of the bracelet, opposite of the clasp.

  "These are inhibitors," Xander tells me. "You wear them on your left ankle, and move the beads so that they're to either side of the clasp bead. They can't slide without it being done deliberately by the person wearing it. Once they're by that part, they'll prevent you from being able to put out more physical strength than what your muscles would have if you had the same mana amount as the average person you're playing with."

  They do what now? I have never heard of anything even remotely similar to those.

  "Hold up, they do what?" I ask.

  "Prevent you from using more physical strength than what your muscles would have if you had the same mana amount as the average person you're playing with at the time," Xander answers. "It doesn't affect anything else, I already tested them with Greyson. So this means you can play with other kids at the same level as them… sort of. If you've got more-toned or more-developed muscles, you'll still be stronger even with the averaging. It makes your muscles act like you have that level of mana, after all. And two people with different muscle amounts and densities but the same mana capacity will have two different levels of strength."

  "That's… really cool!" I say. "And they can tell the average for those I'm playing with?"

  "Yeah," Xander answers. "And it can tell who you're playing with on its own, no mistakes. I had to make sure it worked right for that part, else it might include other people, or not include everyone."

  If he says they can do that, then he knows for sure they can. He'd want to avoid being seen as a liar if he's wrong. Which means they really can do that.

  And that means I can actually play with normal kids, if they let me join in on their games.

  "That's awesome!" I exclaim. "Thank you so much!"

  I try to give him a hug, but he suddenly appears a few feet to the side. Oops. Impulsive hugging is not something he can handle!

  "Sorry!" I tell him, then accept one of the anklets from him as Tyler accepts the other. "You said the ankle, right? But I can wear it on my wrist, too, right? That's just 'cause you don't want four on your wrists, isn't it? I know you don't like the number four."

  "No," Xander says. "It's to make it obvious if someone is changing the setting. They can't be moved with magic, it has to be the person wearing them. Also, if two people with different mana levels are wearing them and they're on, it'll base it on the mana level of the lower of the two."

  "That makes it sound like it's going to be sold," I say. "If it's designed to be obvious if someone is changing the setting."

  "That wasn't in the plan for it," Xander tells me. "I did that because of testing it with Greyson. He kept sneakily turning it off while playing with his brothers and his oldest brother's boyfriend. So now it's obvious. And when it's on, the moving beads go with the connecting beads. They're only red if it's off. Which makes it more obvious that it got changed."

  "That's neat!" I say. "And you made them so I could play with others?"

  "No," Xander answers. "I was just making them. But then I decided to make you one so that your classmates wouldn't have to hear you complaining about not being able to participate in games in PE when school begins. Anyway, I only came over to give you one and Tyler one, so I'm gonna go back home now. Bye."

  Xander turns and walks back towards the gate as Tyler bursts into laughter.

  "That was brutal!" Tyler laughs again once Xander's reached the gate, and I give him a light shove. "Sorry, Luke, but it was! I love how blunt he is about his reasons for stuff! Gonna miss hanging out with him now that the testings are over."

  "So am I," I admit. "He really doesn't like me, but he's still really cool. Besides! Even if he only made it so I don't annoy others, he still made me something! Which means we might still become friends one day!"

  As long as I think about it like that, I should be able to handle Xander's friendship rejection. It doesn't always work, but I'll still try to view it that way, anyway.

  "I'd say let's go to the park to see if anyone'll let us play," I tell Tyler. "Since the bracelets mean we won't have an unfair advantage over normal kids, but the storm should be starting really soon. I can feel the lightning in the air. So the park is probably empty, or will be empty by the time we get there. What do you wanna do? We've got an indoor pool here, so we can race!"

  "Don't you like playing out back when there's lightning?" Tyler asks as I let him into the house. "And didn't you mention catching lightning that goes for the peach trees on Xander's property?"

  "I got told not to do that again," I tell him. "And Xander added some anti-lightning rods to the property."

  "I think they're just called 'lightning rods'," he says. "And wouldn't it have been Mr. Caldwell who had them installed?"

  "No, it was Xander," I say. "And they're anti-lightning rods. They just straight-up prevent lightning from being able to form on the property, which is just insane."

  "That sounds… experimental," Tyler says. "His dad really let him put those in?"

  "He let Xander get a whole fitness center built there," I snort. "And I do mean Xander. And I do mean a whole fitness center. Indoor basketball court, workout room, martial arts room, pool, changing rooms, storage rooms, the whole works. They actually use one of our generators to power it. A little bit bigger version of my new one and designed to handle more power usage, for such a facility. I built it myself!"

  I puff up my chest a little. Xander wanted it to have a smaller mana crystal slot for some reason, he said it only needed to be able to hold one the size of the one he held up. That was only 1" in diameter and definitely isn't enough to power the whole building on its own so I made sure it had a second crystal slot… and a third, because Xander did not like it having two.

  But having more than one slot is important so that there's no outage when the crystal runs out of mana. He was insistent that wasn't a problem, but I don't seen how enchanting a crystal (the lines were visible) would change that. So three slots, it was!

  Them needing to be spherical is probably because he makes the crystals himself and they come out that way… oooh! He probably makes them immensely full of mana, just compacted down! That would definitely explain why the one he showed me was such a deep blue. I hadn't thought about that when he showed it to me.

  Well, the generator still needs to have more than one slot for when a crystal runs out or needs swapping regardless of how long that might take.

  "That's cool," Tyler snorts. "Dad's talked about buying one of the new ones you came out with. We use magitech generators while we're out and a smaller one that's still efficient would save us space. When traveling with just the truck and maybe a trailer, every little bit of space counts."

  "Yeah," I nod. "Oh! So can you tell me more about your trip? I wanna hear about the beast you're planning on hunting!"

  Tyler and I move to the theater room as we talk about his upcoming hunt. It sounds really dangerous so I'm not sure I think it's a good idea for him to go, but I know I don't get a say in that. If I were there, he'd be in no danger at all!

  After all, I can take on even mid-level demons on my own. What's a super-tough boar in comparison to that?

  "But we want the boar mostly intact!" Tyler laughs when I tell him that. "Selling its meat, hide, and tusks is how we'll earn money from it! If you tried, you'd just fry it to a crisp!"

  "Hey!" I tackle him, the two of us going down to the ground. "I can hold back, just watch me! I'll put you into a headlock without frying you!"

  "Help!" He laughs as he calls out. "I'm being fried extra-crispy!"