“We really need some better naming conventions for the tracks, huh?” Marge pointed out, and Modak chuckled with a nod.

  “Maybe, but we’re still just testing, so it’s fine,” he replied, watching as the bricks, which were now all lined up in a grid, sorted themselves by color. With the next track, they sorted themselves by size, all while keeping up that grid setup. They moved around each other smoothly, almost algorithmically.

  A few moments later, though, Modak pulled up the next set of tracks to play along with them. “Beginning construction sequence, track 8Zg1,” Modak said, almost giddy as he ramped up the track’s volume. As the track continued and Modak adjusted different values like pitch or playback speed, the bricks didn’t just sort themselves anymore. Instead, they were clicking together, carefully constructing a small toy cube. As Modak reversed the track, the bricks took themselves apart again, returning to the grid setup.

  As Modak went through different tracks, the bricks were arranged into new shapes. It still worked even when new bricks were added to the mix or some were taken away. Before long, the final part of this test was done, and Modak carefully stopped all of the tracks. The bricks fell to the ground, and Marge turned off the cameras and sensors.

  “It just … worked perfectly,” Modak said with a broad grin on his face. “It’s simpler and cheaper than most other processes … Modak, you have no idea what you invented with this; it’s … incredible. If we can upscale this properly, then this would absolutely revolutionize construction or maybe even rescue operations!”

  “Well, it would take quite a lot of mana to make it work at that scale, but if we can properly increase the efficiency, it won’t be long until we can do some field tests,” he replied, leaning back in his chair. “But I’m glad that the showcase tracks for this Thursday are working without issue. I’ll tweak them a bit more here and there, and then they should be perfect to show what we can do!”

  Marge looked at the orc for a few moments, hesitating. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to show it so soon? Wouldn’t it be better to do a few more tests? Maybe make sure it’s fully safe?”

  “I mean … there’s nothing here that’s actually unsafe, and we tried anything that could realistically happen already. Glitches in the tracks, issues with the tape, inscriber, or reader, and even issues with the speakers. And otherwise, the spell just has no capacity to be harmful to anyone. The total max weight it can hold is about two kilos,” Modak pointed out. “Plus, there’s no mana leakage, and the level of mana expended is already less than the average Awakened’s spell.”

  The cyclops was still clearly hesitant. It hadn’t been long since they started working on this project, and they had already made this level of progress, largely because Modak was working at a speed she could barely keep up with.

  “Let’s just be doubly sure and run a few more safety tests,” Marge suggested, and Modak simply agreed.

  “Sure, just in case,” he said, glancing over at his screen. This test “song” was working incredibly well already, and Modak couldn’t wait until he could take this principle and apply it to the next song he was in the middle of working out.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Goria’s Day

  You’re sure you can’t join? We could get someone to go pick you up,” Ryan pointed out as he was talking to Modak on the phone.

  But the orc immediately responded, “Sorry, I can’t. I’m still too busy working out the last bits and pieces and figuring out a good ‘playlist’ for tomorrow,” he explained, and though Ryan found it a bit disappointing that he couldn’t get to hang out with one of his best friends today, he also understood why. Tomorrow was a lot more important to Modak, after all.

  “Fine, I getcha. But if what you’re showing off tomorrow sucks, you’re gonna get it, alright?”

  “Yeah, yeah, don’t worry. It’s going to be amazing,” Modak replied with an audible grin, and Ryan chuckled lightly.

  “It better be. Anyway, you get back to work; the others are waiting for me right now, anyway.”

  “You’re going to Lakeview, right?”

  “Mm-hmm. Runar got us into some kind of exclusive part of the beach, so we’ll be spending the day there,” he said excitedly. “I think Silvia said she was bringing her parents as well, so it’s going to be basically a joint Aglecard-Redhorn day.”

  Modak let out a loud groan. “Okay, now I do slightly regret not going. I don’t want Yanna’s parents to think I’d prioritize work over her.”

  Ryan scoffed immediately. “No, dude, they get it! Tomorrow is a massive opportunity for you. Plus, it’s not like this is the last Spirit Week, so I’m sure they understand that you want to take this one to do something special like … whatever it is you’re working on.”

  “What I’m working on is pretty sick, too, so … yeah,” Modak replied.

  “There you go! Now stop stalling; at this point, you won’t get any work done, anyway.”

  “Yeah, yeah … Alright, talk to you later. Take some pictures!”

  Again, Ryan scoffed. “If you want to see your girlfriend in a swimsuit, just ask her.”

  With a click of his tongue, Modak replied, “… Fine. Talk to you later, man.”

  “See ya.”

  The phone call disconnected, and Ryan put his phone into his pocket and then grabbed his backpack filled with whatever he needed today, including a few items in case of … emergency. Of course, those were kept a secret from his mom and Runar, though the only real reason he kept it a secret from Runar was because he still didn’t particularly feel like talking to him right now. Either way, it was time to head downstairs. Locking the door behind him, Ryan made his way over to the car, where his mother, Runar, and Liam were already waiting.

  “Sorry it took so long; I just forgot something upstairs,” Ryan said apologetically, quickly pulling the door shut. His mother turned around from the driver’s seat and smiled at him.

  “No worries. Do you have everything?” she asked, and Ryan nodded, pulling a protein bar from his bag. That was probably half of what he was carrying with him, honestly. These were actually special-made orc protein bars. Since orcs had a higher metabolic rate than humans did, a lot of foods marketed toward them were pretty calorie-dense. Plus, they tasted pretty good and were cheap to boot.

  Mary looked at her son with a raised eyebrow. “You eat a lot of those … How much are you working out?”

  Ryan shrugged. “Not all too much, honestly,” he replied. “I’m taking a little break now that I awakened my strength and stamina stats.”

  “Hm …” Mary narrowed her eyes somewhat suspiciously, but she didn’t say much more about it. Obviously, she probably knew best exactly how much Ryan usually ate. She had made almost all the food he ate growing up, after all. So, suddenly seeing him eat almost double that was probably rather jarring, though he was able to luckily push most of the blame for that onto awakening, saying that he needed to consume extra energy for the spirits. Of course, the real reason was really just Tiar.

  Ever since the two of them bonded, Ryan’s body had been needing a massively higher amount of food. Luckily, he was able to actually afford to eat that much now, but it still felt pretty weird sometimes. He was basically always eating at this point, and it was getting annoying at times. Considering that Runar said this should only last for about a week at the beginning made this a bit more worrying, but since Ryan’s body temperature, which had been raised considerably for a while after bonding to the symbiote, had gone back down, they figured that the vastly increased metabolic rate was just a side effect of bonding with a ruby symbiote.

  Once Mary started driving, Ryan started scrolling through social media, though his attention was soon drawn by the young boy sitting next to him there in the back seat. He was playing something on a handheld gaming console but was clearly struggling a bit.

  “You need any help?” Ryan asked, and Liam looked over at him, startled.

  “N-No! I can manage; worry not!” he responded immediately, practically pulling the console away from Ryan to avoid letting him see. Ryan laughed slightly, focusing back on what he had been doing at a moment before.

  In the front of the car, his mom and Runar were talking while Runar navigated Mary around the city. “How did you get us to this exclusive, private beach anyway?” Mary asked curiously, and Runar slightly laughed.

  “It’s not that exclusive, really. And I just happen to know a few people that are going to be there today,” he explained, and Ryan glanced up from his phone. He wasn’t sure what kind of people were going to be there today, but considering that Runar literally had no private life, he knew they were most likely going to be part of the hidden underworld. Ryan had no idea why Runar decided to invite not just his mother there but even Silvia’s parents. He honestly just hoped that he was wrong and Runar was just hiding another secret life where he happened to have some friends.

  “How do you of all people know the high society like that?” Mary wondered, and Ryan almost choked on his protein bar, trying not to be too bothered by what she was saying. Runar didn’t just know the high society; he was basically at its peak. Or, rather, he should be. He didn’t really act like it most of the time.

  “Just got lucky, I guess. Met the right people at the right times.” After Runar’s explanation, Ryan couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Wouldn’t it be fine to, at the very least, tell Mary about the fact that Runar was part of the Aglecard family? As in the Aglecard family as it appeared publicly: a family coming from old money that currently ran a number of high-profile charities all over the world.

  Ryan looked out the car window. They were passing by crowds of people playing with water, either by throwing water balloons at each other or by engaging in water-gun wars. Either way, Goria’s day didn’t tend to be one where you could get home fully dry. It being the literal peak of summer, climbing up to the summer solstice, definitely made that a generally fun experience.

  Though, as he sat there, looking at the kids, he realized something. He snapped his head over to Liam. “Wait, do you have a parasol or something? Is your sunscreen waterproof?”

  Liam glanced up from his game, scrunching up his nose. “We ensured that I would be safe; do not worry for me too much on such a joyous day.”

  Breathing out a sigh of relief, Ryan looked back down at his phone. The car was pretty silent by now, excluding Runar’s navigations. The city was as busy as always, but they soon made their way to Lakeview. There, the celebrations were even more intense than anywhere else. Lakeview had the largest number of species that either partially or mainly lived in water in all of New Riverside. Particularly the part of town submerged within the river-lake itself was apparently extremely busy on Goria’s day every year, though this time around, the group chose to stay at the beach above and enjoy the day in the sun. Especially because in the evening, there was supposed to be a rain show that they wanted to see, and Lakeview’s beaches were the best place for that.

  Before long, they ended up at the parking lot by the private beach. It was sectioned off, and they could only get into the parking lot with a ticket. Ryan had already sent the digital version to Silvia so that she and her family could get in as well, and they had seemingly arrived first. Mary parked the car and Ryan quickly got out. He looked around, trying to find the spot that Silvia texted him about, and he didn’t have to search for long. Dimos, Silvia and Yanna’s father, was very obvious and rather hard to miss. Not to mention the other two extremely tall minotaurs standing next to him. They seemed to have been waiting, and soon came over once Ryan got their attention with some exaggerated waving.

  Once they came over, Ryan greeted Silvia and Yanna with a hug, and their parents with a handshake each. “Mom, Runar, these are Dimos and Athina Redhorn, Silvia and Yanna’s parents.”

  “It is wonderful to meet you,” Dimos said with a broad, gentle smile on his face. He happily greeted Mary and Runar. “You two have a wonderful son.”

  Runar almost flinched at that, but Mary just laughed and shook her head. “Oh, no, Runar is my brother-in-law! But I do also think my son is quite wonderful,” Mary said with a smile, bumping her son’s side. “I do have to say the same about your daughters, though. I can tell they are quite the good influence on my Ryan.”

  As they were talking, Liam was continuously hiding behind Ryan. Meeting Yanna the other day was one thing, but being in front of three massive minotaurs seemed to be pretty intimidating to the young boy. Ryan ended up just smiling at Liam, carefully pulling him forward. “And this is Liam, my cousin, Runar’s … son,” he explained. It still felt weird to call him that in public. It was technically the case, at least in a legal sense, but frankly, Runar didn’t act particularly fatherly, nor did he seem to have much of an interest in trying. Ryan kept trying to push him toward that role a bit more, but it just wouldn’t work. Liam deserved to have a proper family, and while Ryan could play the big-brother role and did so extremely happily, he refused to take on the role of a father, especially when Runar was the one who should do it.

  “Oh! I’m sorry; I wasn’t aware that …” Dimos said nervously, looking at his wife, who let out a long sigh. She was probably already aware of Ryan’s family situation, and Ryan was pretty sure that Silvia or Yanna had spoken to Dimos about it as well, but he might have just forgotten. Either way, that wasn’t really important. Dimos and Athina slowly turned toward the young boy.

  Athina quickly said, “It’s nice to meet you, Liam.”

  “The pleasure is all mine,” Liam replied, even bowing slightly in an extremely courteous, and somewhat embarrassing, manner. Dimos glanced over at Ryan, who just shrugged with a smile, knowing exactly what Dimos was probably thinking.

  Either way, it was time to get down to the actual beach. Ryan opened the trunk and got out everything they had packed. Or, at least, as much as he could carry. The others helped as well, of course, so before long, the group was able to haul everything over to the beach. It was fenced off and only had one entrance, and just for today, there were even bouncers standing in front of it. They were let inside without any trouble and tried to find an empty spot. Luckily, that was extremely easy.

  This part of the beach was sectioned off by cliff walls to the left and right, blocking them off from surrounding parts of the beach. It was also on the smaller side, but it wasn’t too bad, as there weren’t actually that many people there, though the ones who were there appeared high-profile. Just the air they were exuding felt … extremely filthy rich. Knowing that they were Runar’s acquaintances, that was probably not too far off from the truth, either.

  The group set up their things, including a large beach umbrella, some blankets, coolers with some drinks and snacks, and whatever else they could need. Looking out at the lake, Ryan could already tell that this was going to be a fun day. The beach wasn’t fully sand, parts of gravel mixed in here and there, and sections along the beach seemed to be entirely made of gravel in the first place. Though, as he looked at the water, Ryan could feel something else. Tiar was waving around on his arm, and to Ryan, it felt like someone was actively scratching him.

  “Is this the lake you’re from?”

  >෴<

  “I’ll take that as a no … But is there something in there? One of your friends from the tank? Are you still worried about them?”

  (⁄ ̀ )⁄

  “Not just worried, but … you’re mad at them? Or for them?” Ryan wondered.

  ┌(̊ω̊)=👉

  “So … you’re mad about … well, something. What, exactly? That they’re still stuck down there?”

  The symbiote ended up not responding to that question. Instead, the small blank space on the back of Ryan’s hand stayed blank, as if Tiar didn’t know what to say. Though Ryan felt like he had hit the nail right on the head.

  “You know it’s not that simple. There’s a reason why you were brought there; it’s to protect you all,” Ryan pointed out, and Tiar swirled up on his arm. Ryan sighed lightly. It wasn’t like he didn’t understand where Tiar was coming from. While, sure, the Aglecard family was doing their best to protect the hidden folk, the way they did that seemed pretty similar to keeping them in some kind of cage. At least species like vampires were able to somewhat hide amongst people until now, but the species that were more different from others than them were forced into a position where they either had to risk losing their lives or give up their freedom, at least temporarily. And the issue was that the symbiotes didn’t even really have much of a choice. Without being bonded to someone, they didn’t really have a particularly grand cognitive ability, but they were also utterly defenseless. You could maybe call it the lesser of two evils, but it still didn’t always sit right with Ryan.

  “Don’t worry … we’ll figure out a way to get your friends out from there,” he whispered as he ran his hand over his arm, trying to calm Tiar down.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Forget

  Pushing the large beach umbrella into the ground, Ryan finished setting everything up, then looked over at Liam. The young vampire quickly moved under the umbrella and relaxed a bit, still playing on his gaming console.

  “Stay under here for a bit longer, okay? The sun is really, really bad right now,” Ryan pointed out, and Liam glanced up at him.

  “Not to worry; I understand.”

  “… You could also try to keep on your jacket and just join us at the shallow part until the clouds move in a bit more. Just cool down your feet a bit,” Ryan suggested, squatting in front of the boy, but Liam slowly shook his head.

  He paused his game and locked eyes with Ryan. “I shall join when the sun weakens. Until then, I do have some foes to strike down, so worry not.”

  With a slight smile, Ryan ruffled Liam’s hair and then stood back up straight. As he turned around, he noticed Silvia and Yanna’s parents looking over, a bit concerned, and Ryan saw them whispering to each other. Figuring that they weren’t filled in yet, he walked over to them. “He’s not great with sun, so he’ll come join at the water when it’s not glaring quite as much.”