After a few moments of silence, impressed applause sounded out. Michael was almost startled out of his concentration, looking around as a broad smile formed on his face. He nervously glanced at Ryan, who had joined the applause, and then looked over at Alicia, who was watching curiously.

  And right then, something in Ryan’s pocket buzzed, and he had a weird feeling about it. He pulled out his phone and took a quick look, seeing that Silvia had texted him. She should be on her date with Fae right now; did something go wrong?

  At the same time, within the barrier, the water ball above Michael was forming ripples that grew stronger rapidly. They waved around, and droplets of water fell on Michael. Anxiously, Michael looked up at the water ball, and as if that was the trigger, the water ball fell apart. The massive amount of water dropped down onto Michael with a crashing sound that startled everyone in the room, but Ryan’s eyes were glued to his phone as he read Silvia’s message.

  “This is wrong!” Hearing the girl’s yell, both Silvia and Fae flinched. They were taken aback, and other people in the restaurant looked over and stared. Feeling the eyes on her, Fae pulled back a bit, but Silvia wouldn’t have it.

  “Excuse me? What, you’ve never seen two girls on a date before?” Silvia asked with an angry glare.

  The girl shook her head, and the glass flowers on her antlers clattered together. “No, no, not that! That’s not … You, you’re just … It’s all wrong, messed up!”

  Silvia could feel her stomach drop. “Th-That … What do you want from us? Just … leave!”

  “No! You need to come with me; I need to fix this!” The girl reached out and grabbed Silvia’s wrist, trying to pull her away from her seat. Startled by the ridiculous strength in this girl’s body, Silvia tried to hold on to her chair and the table, but the girl was much stronger than her.

  “Wh-What are you— Don’t, I—” Silvia looked over at Fae in fear, but the changeling had already jumped up. She tried to tear the antlered girl away from Silvia, but the girl just slapped her away.

  “I’m trying to help! You’re all messed up as well but not as much as her! The threads are all tangled up, with this, this …” The girl slowly reached above Silvia’s head. Silvia couldn’t see what was going on, but she could feel that something was happening. Like some kind of deep dread.

  “No! Stop it; get back!” Silvia yelled out, trying to push the girl away. With an angry stare, the girl practically growled.

  “I’m trying to help you! What can’t you understand?!”

  Silvia stared into the girl’s eyes. She seemed almost scared, when she was the one who was assaulting Silvia. It didn’t take long for other customers and workers of the restaurant to step in, pulling the girl away from Silvia.

  “Let go of me! I need to fix this; I need to—” Kicking and screaming, the girl threw her arms around and hit the people who were holding her, but Silvia just dropped back down onto her seat, confused and shaking.

  Fae immediately came and held her, trying to block Silvia from having to look at that clearly insane girl. Silvia pulled her in closer, burying her face in Fae’s dress.

  The girl was taken out of their sight, and Fae slowly squatted down in front of Silvia. “Are you okay? Did she hurt you?”

  Slowly, Silvia looked down at her wrist. It felt sore and hurt a lot, and was already growing red, “A little bit … but it’s not that bad.”

  “Should we go? I’ll bring you home,” Fae immediately suggested, as tears welled up in Silvia’s eyes.

  “I just wanted to have a good time with you today—”

  “I know, I know … But that was really scary, right? I get it if you want to rest for now.”

  Silvia slowly shook her head as Fae carefully patted the elf’s tears dry, trying not to mess up her makeup too much. “Could I … could I still come to your place? I don’t want to keep locking myself in my room …”

  “If that’s what you want, obviously, we can. Come, I’ll pay and then we can go. I’ll call us a taxi,” Fae suggested, and Silvia slowly nodded her head.

  “O-Okay … I’ll go to the restroom first, if that’s okay …”

  “Of course; I’ll come with you and—”

  Silvia immediately interrupted Fae and shook her head, “No, I … I just need a moment, okay?”

  Hesitant to leave Silvia alone right now, Fae looked at the elf’s face. Seeing that she was serious, Fae nodded and agreed, and Silvia was promptly led to the restroom by one of the waiters. The employees were all apologizing vehemently, but Silvia couldn’t really focus on any of that right now.

  She made her way into the restroom and beelined straight for one of the stalls. Without a moment’s hesitation, she dropped onto her knees and vomited up the dinner that she and Fae had just shared. Whatever that girl had done made Silvia nauseated like nothing else Silvia had ever experienced before. It was like motion sickness dialed up to a thousand percent, and she couldn’t help but be a bit scared.

  That girl was strong … so, maybe she was an Awakened? Maybe she used some kind of weird skill on Silvia, or at least tried to. It didn’t seem like she had been able to finish what she was trying to do.

  After a little while, Silvia stepped back out of the stall. She still felt sick, but it was a little better now. Slowly, the elf stepped up to the mirrors but was confused by what she was seeing.

  Her eyeliner and mascara were completely smudged and had created long streaks of black down her cheek. Silvia’s hair was messy, and her lipstick was almost completely gone. She looked like a mess, but that wasn’t what she was focusing on.

  Instead, she looked at her eyes, which were glowing in intertwining shades of blue and pink and red, as she felt a sharp stinging as if someone had stuck a needle into her eye, but it wasn’t painful. It was exactly how Ryan had described.

  A glowing, translucent window flickered into Silvia’s view.

  Silvia had awakened.

  Chapter Six

  Straight to Voicemail

  Ryan stood outside the building, tapping his foot, anxiously waiting for Silvia to pick up. Soon, he could hear crackling on the other side, and Silvia’s quiet voice sounded out.

  “Hey …”

  “Hey! You awakened?” he asked excitedly. Having Silvia awaken as well definitely wasn’t something that he expected, but now that it had happened, he couldn’t be more excited. Someone like Silvia would definitely get an amazing class. But from Silvia’s voice, it seemed that she wasn’t nearly as excited as even Ryan was.

  “I … I don’t know what’s going on, but … Can you come over? I’m really confused about this all,” she explained, and Ryan was almost taken aback.

  “Yeah, of course! Are you okay? Did something else happen?” he asked, concerned for his friend. “Is Fae still with you?”

  “Yeah, she’s still here; we’re on our way to my place right now. My parents aren’t home right now, but Yanna should be.” Silvia explained, though for some reason, she seemed to be almost distracted. “Could you try to reach out to Modak for me? I haven’t been able to reach him, and I really don’t have the mind to take care of that right now.”

  “Of course; leave it to me. Just take it easy, alright?”

  “Yeah, thanks. I’ll see you in a bit …”

  “See you in a bit,” Ryan replied before hanging up.

  He immediately went to text Yamada to ask her to pick him up and bring him to Silvia’s place instead of his own. Yamada replied almost immediately, saying that she would be there in ten minutes, so Ryan still had some time to go back inside and say goodbye instead of just disappearing without telling anyone.

  Ryan stepped back into the Awakened Center, quickly making his way to the main hall again. In there, he walked up to Aurora and some groups of people that he had spoken to tonight.

  “Alright, guys, have a good rest of your night,” he said with a smile, waving at them as he approached Alicia, one of the last people he wanted to talk to.

  “Ryan! It looks like you’re leaving already?” she asked, and Ryan nodded, though he couldn’t help but feel a bit uneasy about the way she looked at him.

  “Yeah, something came up,” Ryan responded, looking at the elven woman intensely. Since he didn’t know when he was going to see her next, he figured he should just ask about it now. “What’s your play?”

  “Pardon?”

  “Like, what’s your deal? Why did you have everyone do this whole skill-showcase thing? And why are you even here? I don’t … I don’t get it.”

  Despite Ryan’s clear intent to get a proper response, Alicia simply brushed him off. “Now, now, don’t be so paranoid all of a sudden,” she responded, the smile on her face never having dropped even once the whole night.

  Even though he was clearly eager to know, Alicia wasn’t going to tell Ryan anything. With a click of his tongue, he looked away.

  “Whatever. Have you seen Michael? What happened after … that?” Ryan asked, glancing around the room. There was no trace of any sort of water left anywhere, but Michael wasn’t around, either. Alicia swiftly responded.

  “I helped him dry off with a quick spell, and then he was dragged off by who I assume to be his brother.”

  Ryan groaned lightly, already having a pretty good image of how that conversation was going. He felt like he shouldn’t intrude on family matters, though, so he figured he would just text Michael and apologize for not saying goodbye. But Silvia was more important right now.

  Not paying any mind to Alicia’s penetrating gaze, Ryan made his way back outside and dialed Modak’s number. It rang a few times but then just went to voicemail.

  “Come on, man,” Ryan groaned, stepping back outside the building as he tried to call again. After being sent to voicemail two more times, he decided to text Modak, telling the orc to call him back. Ryan would try calling him again on the way to Silvia’s place, but for now, Yamada had arrived.

  Ryan pulled the door open and quickly sat down with a slight groan, feeling the social exhaustion come over him. Yamada greeted him, and he did the same as she pulled out onto the road, but after that, the car was soon filled with silence. And Ryan was incredibly happy about that silence for the time being.

  After showing Gaia and Maximus to people on top of his new Spirit Armament skill, lots of the other new Awakened had come up to him throughout the evening to talk to him. Of course, Ryan didn’t turn them down and tried to make conversation, but after about three hours of either talking or eating without break, Ryan’s jaw felt incredibly sore, and so did his mind. It was that sort of exhaustion that made him want to not talk for the next week. Though, considering where he was headed, he would probably be pretty busy for the next couple of hours anyway.

  After letting out a slight breath, Ryan pulled out his phone, pulling up his “Hodgepodge” feed, seeing some pictures and posts of the people that he had just followed pop up. All of them were the newly Awakened people from the party.

  Some of these people seemed to be living some pretty interesting lives, but then again, he knew you probably shouldn’t trust these pictures too much. He looked through the people he had just followed and found Michael’s account.

  You

  Hey, man, I ended up having to leave because of an emergency

  Hope you have a good time for the rest of the night

  That “Water Ball” was fucking awesome

  Ryan pulled back out of the app and dialed Modak’s number again, but just like before, Modak didn’t answer the call.

  A quiet whistle filled the air as a man walked along a local park’s main path. The scenery was illuminated by the evening light. There were quite a few people walking around, working to set up decoration for Spirit Week later this month. It was a massive event, so things like this were usually set up well in advance to make sure that everything was prepared in time all across the city.

  Particularly, all the lights that would keep the city lit up and acted as the main attraction for the sixth day of Spirit Week needed to be properly linked together and set up safely so that nobody could interfere with them. And that was exactly what this man was there for.

  “How do you do? I’m Richard Snappertie, I’m here to assist you today.” With a smile on his face, Richard approached the workers in front of him currently taking a break.

  “Ah, that’s you, huh? The Technomancer or whatever?”

  “Yup, that’s me,” Richard replied, straightening his tie with a smile on his face. After the orientation meeting the other day, Richard had been introduced to some higher-ups. The Snappertie family did have some connections within this industry, so they were very happy to meet with him. And amongst those people was an individual who had made a quite intriguing offer to Richard that he couldn’t let up. And that led to him starting work early. Only on a sort of part-time basis right now so that he could finish his studies without interference, but it was still work nonetheless.

  And as the new guy, Richard was sent out to do some dirty work, though he would have volunteered to do this anyway, even if that hadn’t been the case. Richard approached the central control system for all the lights and decorations that were running on electricity or magic there in the park. It was one of the central locations of where Spirit Week’s sixth day would be celebrated, so it was more than important to keep everything safe.

  Richard got out his gloves, a new pair that had been custom-made for him by his new “friend,” and opened the suitcase by his side. Inside of it were a number of tools that he was going to need for this.

  With some swift motions, Richard opened up the central control system and looked inside, almost instantly adjusting certain values with a spark of his magic.

  “So, ya can fix it? It’s some magic issue, right?” one of the workers asked, and Richard slowly nodded.

  “Yes, there was a mana overflow in one of the—”

  “I don’t care what it is, as long as you can fix it,” the man interrupted, turning away with a loud yawn.

  Richard’s smile disappeared and he clicked his tongue. Doing repair work like this was usually far, far below his skill level, so that man should be thankful he was there to take care of everything so fast. He was already finished fixing it after a few minutes, after all. It would have taken most others maybe some hours to even figure out what the issue even was.

  But that being the case, Richard had the time to do what he was there for in the first place. Looking around the interior, he was searching for the central mana source. It was hooked up directly to the mana currents around there. He nearly had to climb inside the machine to get to it, but before long, he did get his hands on the refined crystal without issue. With just a quick touch of his fingertip, a spark of his mana flowed inside, and with it, a black thread was carried along, burying itself inside the crystal without a trace.

  “Perfect.” Richard smiled, pulling back out of the control system before closing it back up. He snapped his fingers and activated the part of the system that he had just repaired; it was a deep protection against outside interference. Basically, a high-powered barrier was placed around this small object, combined with a security system that would give a warning to a person in charge that someone was trying to mess with it.

  The gnome walked up to the workers with a smile on his face. “It’s all set up. As long as you have your key cards, you should be able to—”

  “Mm-hmm, thanks, kid.” One of the workers, the same one that was so rude before, simply waved what Richard was saying off. He approached the central control system and quickly turned it on. All the lights and decorations flashed on for a moment but were soon turned back off. This was just supposed to be a quick test to make sure that everything still worked properly. Richard was a little bothered by that, as if the man thought that the gnome might have messed the control system up in the process of fixing the security system, but in the end, it was fine.

  It gave Richard the chance to see that his own plan had worked out pretty well too. A flood of black threads that only Richard was able to see was flowing through the lamps and cables and illusion stones, and everything else that was set up there. Before long, they had spread throughout the whole area. Since those threads were deeply connected with Richard’s magic, he could control them pretty well too.

  He flicked his wrist, making sure that the threads were hiding themselves properly. Like this, the corruption couldn’t be seen properly even with detection abilities and could lay dormant until Richard needed to use this space.

  Glad that everything had worked out, Richard glanced over at the worker. He was ready to finally leave now that everything had been fixed, and packed up his van together with the other workers. Without further ado, they left, not even glancing at Richard as they did.

  “Well, that has me quite peeved,” Richard muttered to himself, pointing at the van as it drove away. A spark of his mana flowed toward it and embedded itself inside the vehicle’s machinery, though once he had done so, Richard hesitated. “I guess only one of them really bothered me … Oh, well.”

  He waited and waited, sitting down on a nearby bench. Before long, the sound of an ambulance’s siren filled his ears, and a smile formed on Richard’s face.

  Almost simultaneously, two cars arrived in front of the Redhorns’ home. One was a sleek, private car, the other an old and rusty taxi.

  Ryan stepped out of the car, showing Yamada the note he had taken on his phone to tell her not to wait for him, that he had already told Runar he would be late, and whatever else she needed to know.

  At the same time, Silvia and Fae stepped out of the taxi. A bit confused, Fae looked at Ryan. “Wait, weren’t you in the Channel? How did you get here at the same time as us?”

  “Uhm, my uncle’s friend is a pretty good driver, I guess,” Ryan replied, not wanting to get too deep into it. His stomach was still turning from the quick turns, speeding, alleys, and even the plenty of times that Yamada actively drove on the wrong side of the road for a bit because it would be quicker. Ryan had no idea how she still had a license, but at least it came in useful.