Once he started the treadmill up, Ryan soon moved up in speed to a sprint as the digital clock on the treadmill counted down. After the minute was over, it automatically went down to the jogging speed he had set for himself, and in two minutes, it would go back up to the sprint speed. It would continue like this until Ryan turned the machine off.

  “You alright?” Yanna asked, currently still sprinting on her treadmill. Despite that, she was casually talking and not even breathing that heavily. Yanna innately had both the stamina and agility stats, so not only was she sprinting at twice the speed that Ryan was but she could also keep this up for hours. She was actually wearing a weighted vest to make it harder on herself and even then looked nothing but bored.

  Ryan slowly nodded, already breathing heavily. “Yeah, I’m good. I should be able to keep this up for a while.”

  “Good, just keep going for as long as you can, but don’t push yourself. Getting injured will set you back a good bit,” Yanna pointed out, and Ryan hesitated for a few moments.

  “Actually, my uncle hired a healer for me … We’re going to a dungeon soon so we can let Maximus level up.”

  “Seriously? A healer?”

  “I know, I know, it’s kind of crazy,” Ryan replied. “He’s also remodeling the rooftop so we can expand Gaia’s garden. Since I planted all the stuff in the garden right now, she hasn’t had the chance to level up yet.”

  “Urgh; rich people.” Yanna sighed, and Ryan let out a laugh.

  “You know your family is pretty well off too, right? You own a four-story townhouse in the middle of Oldtown.”

  “Well … shut up.” With a groan, Yanna glanced over toward him. “But we’re not old-money rich. Like, we can’t just hire a healer. And you also said something about Runar finding spirit cores for you?”

  “Ah, yeah. So, some of the Aglecards’ charities do a lot of work in stuff like … artifact collection, preservation, and restoration, and came across dormant spirit cores that can’t form their own bodies. They look like gemstones, so they can be confused for those sometimes,” Ryan explained. “And then they started safekeeping them. With my class, it’s better for them to be with me so I can try to wake them up.”

  “How does that work, though? Do you just … take them? Do they have a choice?”

  “Of course they do; I’m not forcing anyone here,” he responded immediately, almost defensively. Ryan stared at the minotaur. “Maximus wanted me to build his body first before joining me, and Gaia’s core was broken before I found her, so she was just grateful to have been found. No clue what requests the others will have for me, but that’s just part of the deal.”

  Yanna stayed silent for a while, as though she was thinking about something. Ryan wasn’t sure what she was going to ask about next, but he was certainly grateful for the chance to not need to talk while sprinting. When he went back down to a jog, Yanna asked her question.

  “So, do you know why some spirits can’t form their own bodies?”

  “Nope,” Ryan replied immediately. “I guess it’s just an ability that some of them do, and some of them don’t? I have no clue, really. But what I have learned is that the ones that can’t seem to have more unique concepts. Like Maximus’s Knight and Gaia’s Garden Golem concepts.”

  “Do you think other spirits know?” Yanna wondered, and Ryan raised an eyebrow.

  “I mean … maybe? That … might be something worth looking into.”

  “Yeah, you should! There are a bunch of places with spirits bound to them in New Riverside. Some of them are apparently powerful enough that they can talk, so you might be able to get some info from them. I mean … if you get them to talk to you, I guess.”

  After Yanna’s suggestion, Ryan immediately looked inward at Maximus and Gaia, trying to gauge what they were thinking. It seemed as though they were curious about meeting other spirits as well, so he figured that it at the very least, wouldn’t hurt.

  “Alright, I’ll go look up the spirits of New Riverside soon, then.”

  Surrounded by trees, a massive old tower reached up into the sky. It was one of the oldest buildings in New Riverside despite being so far on the outskirts that it was hard to get public transport there. The only other buildings nearby were ones that were more recently constructed as extensions of the Magic Tower’s central structure.

  And there Modak was, standing in front of the large old door, looking for either a doorbell or even a handle, anything at all that he could use to get in. He had already tried pushing against the door, but there was nothing there, though it was clearly the main entrance.

  Pulling out his phone in confusion, he checked the instructions. He was sent an email about an introductory tour of the Magic Tower and was told to come inside and ask for the guide at the reception, but Modak couldn’t even get that far.

  “The hell? Is nobody here? At … two p.m. on a Wednesday?” he muttered to himself, then suddenly, some patterns on the door lit up as it was pulled open automatically. Modak was taken aback, and the man who stepped outside looked at him.

  “Oh, you … you are Mr. Stonebreaker, correct?” the man asked.

  Startled, Modak quickly nodded, reaching out. “Yes! Modak Stonebreaker; it’s a pleasure to meet you!”

  The man nodded. “Likewise. I’m going to be guiding you through the Magic Tower today. Why didn’t you come inside? Was there some issue?” he asked, concerned.

  “Ah, well … the door wouldn’t open, and I guess I didn’t find the button to open it?”

  Confused, the man looked around at the door. “It doesn’t have a button; it should be sensing anyone that’s approaching and opening automatically. It looks like something is wrong with the array, then. My apologies.”

  “Oh … no, it’s not your fault,” Modak replied, shaking his head. If it was supposed to sense mana in people to open up, of course it wouldn’t open for him. He didn’t have any, after all. Luckily, most places chose not to use mana-based sensors because they were pretty expensive, but Modak had been faced with things like this a fair amount of times in places like banks or museums.

  “Either way, let’s get inside now,” the guide said with a light smile, bringing Modak into the building. And once he was inside, though he had seen this place in pictures before, the young orc’s breath was immediately taken away. The walls were covered in beautiful paintings and maps, at least the parts that weren’t covered in bookshelves. Platforms were magically floating up and down, and basically every surface was giving off a bit of that soft glow that magic circles had.

  It was a beautiful sight, and if he didn’t know it was impossible for him, Modak would have sworn that he felt the ambient magic pass through and fill him with energy.

  And this was only the first stop, too. The guide showed Modak around all the big, famous sights of the Magic Tower as well as the spaces that usually you weren’t allowed to see. People were using spells that he had never seen before and using magic tools in ways that he didn’t even know were possible.

  The more they walked around the building, the more excited he felt. He would end up working there soon? This was beyond unbelievable. Sure, his main work was going to be in another building with more-modern facilities to accommodate the magical engineers in whatever they needed, but he would still have full access to all the facilities that the Magic Tower had to offer. It was like a dream come true.

  Before long, they came by a group of three mages taking a break, and the guide figured it was a good opportunity to introduce the orc.

  “Perfect timing. Looks like you three are no longer the newest hires,” the guide said with a smile. “This here is Modak Stonebreaker, he will be working with the new Magic Engineering team.”

  Immediately, the three mages raised their eyebrows and happily greeted Modak.

  “So, you’re the one that was scouted by Miss Boreard herself?” one of them asked curiously, and Modak nervously nodded.

  “Yes, that’s me. I was working on a personal project that she was quite interested in, so she invited me to continue developing it under the Magic Tower’s guidance,” Modak explained, seeing that this only piqued their curiosity even more.

  “What sort of project?”

  Not sure if he was allowed to say, Modak turned his head toward the guide, who quickly nodded. With a slight breath of relief, Modak continued to explain. “Inspired by cassette tapes, I was trying to place mana on some crystal bands for audio storage. Miss Boreard was interested in the idea since it seemed possible to use it as assistance for spellcasting as a medium to carry mana-imbued audio akin to chants.”

  “Oh! That is quite interesting … How exactly does it work?” one of them wondered, and Modak immediately delved deeper into the methods that his project used to properly engrave mana on the bands, and even his theories for expanding it into a way to truly carry spellcasting potential.

  “Looks like the Magic Engineering team is going to work on a couple of pretty interesting projects. So, how about it; do you have the Magic Engineer class? Or some sort of information-related mage class?”

  Modak tensed up, slowly shaking his head. “Oh, no, I’m … I’m not an Awakened.”

  One of the mages raised an eyebrow. “Right, got it. That’s even more impressive! So, you’re skilled enough to use magic without even awakening? Sounds like we’ve got quite the prodigy here.”

  Even more, Modak could feel his throat tighten as he shook his head. “Uhm … no, I can’t actually use magic. Rather, I feel like considering where we are, I should be straightforward about this, but I have mana rejection disorder. I don’t even have enough mana for the tower’s main entrance to recognize me.” He tried to laugh it off, but the expressions of the mages in front of Modak immediately fell. Even the guide seemed confused, apparently not having heard about this beforehand.

  Modak didn’t know exactly what those mages were thinking right now. It was something that he hadn’t seen before, like a mixture of disgust and curiosity.

  “You have … no mana at all?” one of them asked, and Modak slowly nodded.

  “I-I don’t, yeah.”

  “How interesting, and you can function normally like that? I had assumed that mana was necessary for higher function,” one of them said as the curiosity seemed to take over, leaning forward and moving in a bit too close for Modak’s comfort. “Have you been told if this has some sort of effect on your life expectancy? And have you had any IQ tests done in the past? Oh, and of course, your motor skills are—”

  “Hey, hey, back off!” One mage pulled the third away, and Modak was quite grateful. That was, until she opened her mouth. “Be careful; we don’t know what effects heightened stress may have on individuals without mana for the regulation of mental stability.”

  Modak felt sick to his stomach as he stared at the three mages in front of him. Sure, he had been looked at with pity plenty of times before. But this was the first time that he had been treated like some kind of wild animal or even worse … something like a test subject.

  Chapter Ten

  The Garden

  With a soured mood, Modak was led through the Magic Tower. That encounter with those mages wasn’t particularly fun in any sense of the word. It had started out all right, but the moment they heard that Modak didn’t have any mana, they started treating him like a biological marvel—something that shouldn’t even exist. They acted as if the absence of mana inside of him made him some sort of animal, if not lesser than that.

  And it wasn’t just those three mages, either. The guide himself became cold and began to cut his explanations down to the lowest possible degree.

  “Here we have the central library. You may come here whenever you need to look up anything for your research. You are also allowed to use it privately,” the guide said without even looking at the young orc. At the very least, Modak was able to ignore it this time. This place was an absolute marvel, a monumental hall filled with hundreds of thousands if not millions of books. It was by far the largest single library he had ever seen before; the university’s library couldn’t even compare to something like this.

  “Now, let’s get to our last stop.”

  Not giving Modak the opportunity to let the sight sink in, the guide turned around and headed straight back to the large door that had led them into this hall. A bit dejected, Modak followed the guide, and they made their way through the tower back to its main entrance. But on the way, Modak could feel that the atmosphere had changed considerably.

  At first, he thought that it was nothing and that he was imagining it, but before long, it was obvious that people were staring at him. Whispering. And he could overhear some of those whispers, or at least one word that came up again and again. Mana. So, everybody knew about it now?

  Well, fuck me, Modak thought to himself, following the guide out of the main tower. Silently, he was brought to one of the nearby buildings; it was one of the most modern ones, and Modak could guess what this building was for. It was the building for the Magic Engineers, so he would most likely be spending most of his time there.

  The guide led him inside, quickly bringing him to one of the labs. It was a small one in the corner of the building, but there was a small sign on the right side of the door.

  Modak Stonebreaker—Magic-Based Audio Storage Research

  Just seeing that on there was making Modak’s heart skip a beat. He turned to the man next to him, confused.

  “Why is my name on there?”

  The guide glanced at him with an expression that said he felt bothered he even needed to answer something so obvious. “You’re the lead of this project, aren’t you? Of course your name will be on there.”

  “No, no, I was told I was allowed to use the resources of the tower to do my work but not that I would be getting my own … Alicia didn’t tell me about this at all, I—”

  “Alicia? What, do you believe yourself to be on a first-name basis with the Mistress?” the guide asked, and Modak flinched back slightly. He was so used to Runar and Ryan speaking about her with her first name that he had maybe gotten a bit too used to it.

  “That’s not the point; I—”

  “There were clear instructions that you are to be given your own laboratory to do your work without interference. A research assistant has been assigned to you as well.”

  Being told that confused Modak even more. “Research assistant? I only just finished my first semester at uni; I’m eighteen years old! What do you mean, ‘research assistant’?”

  “Clearly, Miss Boreard has some high expectations for you. You better not betray them,” the guide said, already turning back around. “The tour is over. Feel free to ask your assistant about any other questions you may have.”

  Modak watched as the man disappeared without another word. With a click of his tongue, the orc pushed open the door to the lab with his name at the front, swiftly stepping inside. It was a relatively small space, but even at a glance, he could tell that it was well equipped with tools leagues above the university’s magic-engineering tools. They were so dazzling that Modak almost passed over the more than three-meter-tall cyclops sitting in the center of the room, currently reading a book.

  The moment she saw him step inside, she jumped up from her seat. “Oh! You must be Mr. Stonebreaker, right? I’m Margaret Latch; feel free to call me Marge! I’ll be your assistant on this project!”

  A bit taken aback, Modak looked up at her. She was at least thirty years older than him, and she was supposed to be his assistant?

  “Please, no, call me Modak. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said, stretching out his hand to shake Marge’s, and she soon did the same.

  “In that case, don’t mind if I do.” With a smile, Marge placed her book onto the table next to her. “So, you came up with that wonderful idea for mana-based cassettes?”

  Slowly, Modak nodded. “Yeah … but it’s nothing all that special, really. I feel like this whole thing is a bit overblown—”

  With a laugh, Marge shook her head. “Who knows what sort of practical benefits this could have? I’m sure Miss Boreard had her reasons for hiring you and making you the lead of a project like this. And speaking of …”

  The cyclops hurried over to one of the tables that had a computer setup. On the screen were all the notes that Modak had taken and sent to Alicia in advance.

  “The detail that you put into this is impressive. The way you wrote this made me think you were going to be twice your age. But turns out you’re younger than my kids, huh?”

  Modak’s heart anxiously skipped a beat. “I-If you’re not comfortable working with me on this project because of my age, I can—”

  “No, no, that’s not what I meant.” Marge laughed. “As I said, it’s impressive! It makes me just that much more excited to work on this. Actually, I already had a couple of ideas that could help us improve the base data-storage cassettes.”

  With a sigh of relief, Modak took off the jacket of the suit that he had borrowed from his dad. It looked like he would be there for a while longer than he thought he would be, so he might as well get comfortable.

  “Ah-ah-ah, hold on! Hold on!” Ryan said, staring at the face of the stone wyvern in front of him. The elemental opened her mouth slightly, as if anxiously waiting for something. The flames behind her brick fangs were waving back and forth.

  And then, Ryan threw the piece of metal in his hand into the air, and the Forge elemental immediately jumped at it, catching it in her mouth. Immediately, as though she was excited, she looked over at Ryan, who was already closing in. With a grin, he rubbed the underside of her chin with a wire brush.

  “Good job, girl!” he said in an excited voice, as the elemental leaned into his brushing.