“Do you know why I am calling, Oliver?” Ayano’s voice was audible through the radio.

“Because I got materials from your secret material stash.” Oliver replied.

“No, wait, you know where my secret material stash is, and you stole from it!? We’ll deal with that later.” Ayano responded. “The mission has been called off. Tell me what happened at the lab.”

“I was kicked out by Shido Ito. We have only been here for 3 days, and they have already canceled the mission.” Oliver responded. “Although, thanks to the Pure Magical Energy Crystals, I was able to make a better Elemental Gun that doesn’t need any energy from the user.”

“I’m sorry, Oliver. My feud with Professor Su seems to have affected you.” Ayano apologized. “So, you gave them a name, I like it. But how can you do that if according to what Ito found, the crystals are just Magic Stones with more energy on them and can’t figure out how to use that energy?”

“You don’t have to apologize, Mrs. Hashimoto. So, he didn’t figure out they recharge their energy. But then, how come when I started reading the energy levels of the shards, they went up a bit? Of course, by the time they reached him they would have been full once again.” Oliver was confused. “And he can’t use their energy, did they attack the shards with a Pure Magical Energy Attack? What am I saying? Of course not, they are researchers not fighters, they can’t use them.”

“You figured out they are rechargeable, then that means they are extremely valuable. But the mission was canceled because the capital is going by what Ito found, so they see them as useless.” Ayano said. “I should say I am lucky because Kenta ordered Nicole to bring a few large crystals back with her. They will be a key component of the Inter-World Spaceship. Why do you think they couldn't use the energy, but you could?”

“I believe that the Magical Amplifier I built helped. I hypothesize that the energy in the Pure Magical Energy Crystal needs to be processed like the one in the environment and that is the main function of the Magic Amplifier.” Oliver replied.

“Makes sense. When you come back, we’ll focus on building and fine-tuning Magic Amplifiers” Ayano said. “I mean the one you made is still a prototype. And since you made your Elemental Gun work, this will also improve your personal project.”

“Yeah, we can do that. There is an overheating issue with the Elemental Gun, and I still can't figure out what’s causing it since I let Jin-Woo borrow it to kill monsters.” Oliver said. “There is an anomaly we encountered. Some of the Magic Stones we pulled out of the corpses of monsters seemed to have no energy and when I inspected them, their energy readings were extremely low or zero. I can’t make sense of it; they look fine with no visible damage.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“That shouldn’t be possible. It could happen if they were damaged when killing the monster, but you said they were intact.” Ayano pondered. “Bring them back with you, I will take a second look at them. Is Aria fine? She hasn’t answered any of my messages. She might be 27 years old, but she is still my daughter.”

“She is fine, she is just busy killing the monsters.” Oliver replied. “Are we getting paid the same amount for the mission?”

“Since you guys didn’t fail the mission, you get the full pay as if the mission was successful.” Ayano answered. “What are your plans when you come back?”

“Going out with Nicole. I have a couple spots I want to take her.” Oliver replied.

“I guess you’re going to have to deal with Kenta, I mean he loves his daughter. Hahaha!” Ayano replied. “And I will have to tend to my heartbroken daughter. I told her to make her move, but she didn’t listen.”

“I must get going. I must pack.” Oliver said as he turned off the radio. “I wonder what Hajin has been doing. I hope he didn’t slack off at school because I am not there.”

Oliver began to put the tools and materials he had on the ground inside his backpack. Once he had packed everything, he looked at the view in the plains of Muna and began to walk towards the spaceship.

“I hope they don’t find out about the rechargeability anytime soon and just let me and Mrs. Hashimoto work in peace. Good thing I patented the Magic Amplifier. Although they might be able to do something similar, they can’t steal credit from me.” Oliver said. “

“Oliver, were you informed the mission was canceled?” Jin-Woo asked as he joined Oliver.

“Yeah, Mrs. Hashimoto told me.” Oliver replied. “How much of the cave did you guys clear?”

“Roger estimated with explored about two thirds. We wiped out the monsters in 4 floors and we believe we had 2 more floors left.” Jin-Woo explained. “Thanks to your Elemental Gun, killing stronger monsters was easier.”

“I am glad my invention was of help.” Oliver responded.

“It feels amazing to finally be able to use Magic attacks. Even if I must use a weapon to do them.” Jin-Woo said with a smile. “We still found more Magic Stones with no energy; do you think this a phenomenon exclusive to Muna?”

“I can’t say for sure, but this is the only place I have seen it happen and only inside the cave.” Oliver replied. “It just seems as if the energy was used up before we took it out from the monster’s corpse.”

“Oliver … I … never mind.” Jin-Woo said, scratching his head. “I need to get a truck to transport the crystals we got out of the cave.”

“How big are they?” Oliver asked.

“They are about the size of a wolf, and they are heavy.” Jin-Woo replied, gesturing with his hands the size. “We got five of them. I hope you and Mrs. Hashimoto make good use of them back at Sol City.”

“You bet and I might be able to make an Elemental Gun for you once we start doing more research because we are going to have to do so many prototypes, so I can just repurpose some of them in Elemental Guns.” Oliver said.

“Awesome, I can’t wait! Here you go.” Jin-Woo handed back the Elemental Gun to Oliver. “I won’t be needing it since they are waiting for me at the entrance. Thanks for letting me borrow it.”

“No worries, I am glad you made good use of it.” Oliver said. “Then, I’ll wait for you guys back at the spaceship.”

“I’ll see you in a bit!” Jin-Woo said before parting ways with Oliver.

As soon as Oliver got back to the spaceship, he headed to his room and put down his backpack. He took out some clothes from his luggage and headed straight to the shower. Oliver's thoughts were filled with his time at Muna and everything he experienced. He smiled as he thought about going back home and being able to relax.