Bethany guided Neo to a building close to the outskirts of the dome, he could even see the fish swim around, where he saw a warehouse. Bethany jumped ahead of him and said, "Welcome to the Workshop. Where the greatest inventors are born and trained."

Knocking on the huge doors, they could hear it echoing throughout the building. As they waited, Neo heard loud steps that cause the door to vibrate. The impressive doors creakily slid open and from the shadows appeared a giant figure of a man. At least eleven feet tall, it had big black shaggy hair, a full but scruffy beard, and deep, sad brown eyes.

A deep extended voice burst out of the thing’s face "Haha, Bethany! How’s my favourite student?"

The figure scooped up Bethany into a bear hug. She disappeared from Neo’s view, but thankfully he could still hear Bethany squeaking out, "Ok Bryn, thank you for the warm welcome, but could you let me down so that I can breathe?" Bryn let up a little and Bethany continued, "Sadly I'm not here to catch up, I'm here to do business I heard about some of your latest inventions that you and your wonderful students have created?"

He released Bethany, putting her down onto the ground before replying, "Mm, ow at least tell me how's our baby? What have you heard about that interests you so much?"

'Baby?' Neo thought, getting a little jealous and angry. A thread of unpleasant thought started filtering through his mind, but before they could grow any further than threads Neo recognised the ideas and squished them down.

Neo had never seen Bethany so delighted and relaxed. He pushed down another swell of unpleasant thoughts and waited to hear what Bethany said, "Well my armour is fine, too, thank you, and you only had a little input on it, so it isn't your baby, it's mine."

Bryn grinned and in a booming laugh, "Ahahah… you keep saying that, but I did have some input so am at least a godfather. I am glad you're taking care of it, though. So, what was the reason for you coming to me?"

Bethany smiled holding up her hand with the gold diamond, and Bryn's eyes nearly . "Aha, where'd you get that!?" he asked while kneeling down to get a closer look. "Hmm, seems like it's made a bond already. Do you know who it is? It's pretty much useless without the bonded one?"

Bethany smiling nodded towards Neo, "Yeah, he’s the bonded one."

Bryn's focused changed from Bethany onto Neo, overshadowing him as Bryn inspected him, "This small boy is a bonded one?He doesn't look special, and he looks smaller and weaker than you, Bethany. You should just kill him and take something that special."

Neo looked at Bethany seeing her short stature and then looked back confused wondering what Bryn was talking about. Bethany replied, "I think he has plenty of potential and he is my fiancé so I wouldn't harm my own family, would I?"

This got Bryn’s attention, who was now just staring fiercely at Neo. Neo returned it just as defiantly. 'Got a problem with this?' Neo thought in a challenge, but a grin spread over Bryn’s face "Hahaha… At least he has some fire in him."

Turning back to Bethany, Bryn spoke,"So what do you think I can help with, maybe some suggestions, equipment, or tools?"

"Actually, we're looking for some ."

Bryn went silent for a few moments before he spoke again, "Ow, that could be a good idea.You want to see if it can become a semi-living being?"

Neo replied, "Mm yeah, I was told that gold diamonds were said to be sentient, so I asked Bethany if there was a way for it to communicate through an attachment and she suggested living metal. Whatever that is?"

Bryn seemed to contemplate the issue and Neo could see him going back and forth in his mindwith the things that he might discover and explore. Finally, coming to a decision, Bryn spoke. "Very well, here's what we're going to do. I will give you a small portion of living metal if you allow me to study the possible effects that may come of using it for a while. And, if nothing happens, then well…" He finished with a shrug, "You get the diamond, and I keep the metal, simple. But this will have to be tomorrow, come back after your classes and we'll see what I can do."

Bethany thanked and hugged Bryn. Once she had finished catching up, Neo and her headed back to their rooms to sleep.

It was a quick night as Neo’s exhaustion caught up with him. The next morning hehad mana training, magical biology and control training for the rest of the day.

Mana training taught Neo that there was a special tax that mages had to pay. They paid this tax by coalescing their mana into a bowl in the form of either a liquid or a solid, otherwise known as mana fuel or mana stones. They were used to power equipment and generators. The students were given some examples of mana-powered machines as the teacher pulled out a chainsaw, poured a vial of red mana fuel into a hole, and then pulled out another vial with blue fuel into a separate hole saying a few words and that saw started buzzing. Then, pulling out a mini steam generator, he placed small red stones into it and then poured in some blue fuel. Again, he spoke and the pistons started moving.

But, before the class came to an end. So instead he asked Bethany how it all worked as they walked towards a greenhouse like domed building. " Like the chainsaw uses fire mana, and what are characteristics of fire? Heat, movement, and combustion. From just that you should be able to make the connections."

Neo did, 'So the blue liquid might have been used as a cooling lubricant. Cool but only if directed and used properly.'

As they entered the domed building, the temperature rose, along with the humidity. They eventually found themselves in the middle of atropical garden. The class and desks were situated there, where they were surrounded by marvels of magic and sparkling dust flew past and around them. The sparkling dust turned out to be insects, which he discovered when he saw a long-tailed, crystal bird fly past, snapping some of the sparkling dust out of the air before getting stuck in a net of webbing. The web brought the bird to the ground where a toxic looking spider crept out of the undergrowth. Neo shivered, 'Damn I don't want to be in here anymore.'

It was unusual, as Neo looked over the available desks he saw one that had a sign withhis name written on it on it. Curiously, there was also a note on the desktop. Taking a seat, he opened and read through it, thankfully it was good news. Jane had to finish her analyses, and noted that she believed that Neo wasn’t infected, but he would require more observation.

He glanced back at the spider,thankfully it seemed as if they couldn't get on to the path or near the desks, but before he could go search for the best insect repellent in the world, a tall women walked out onto the stage. Jane greeted the class, "Hello, everyone please take a seat."

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She started her class talking about disease, which went right over everyone’s head, she seemed obsessed with it. Neo took a closer look at Jane, finding that her previously perfect imagine had degraded. There were stray hairs, and she had lost some of her composure when she was speaking about the differences between plant and beast biology.

It was then that Conway stepped up to the stage and walked over to speak into Jane’s ear. Whatever he said seemed to make Jane uncomfortable and she looked at the confused class, "I'll be travelling to the Atlantean bubble to investigate where the dragon madness came from, so I'll no longer be teaching these classes." Jane whispered as she left the stage "I’ve got to go back to that cesspit!"

Conway guided her away, discussing something Neo couldn't hear, but they were talking adamantly as they moved along the path Neo had just recently walked through. Once Jane had moved out of view the class became chaotic as everyone who was silent started discussing what had just happened.

"Elisa, do you know what that was about?"

stepped back, shaking her head. "Not a clue, she always had a clean and professional appearance, I don't know what is up with her, but I have heard that she's been a bit stressed with her work."

"Ow, what sort of work is that?"

"She's the head of the research department for diseases, and it's quite busy with your stuff and this crop-killing disease that's going around, so maybe she’s letting the pressure get to her."

'Mm, guess that could be it,' Neo thought. He thanked Elisa, who seemed surprised that he wasn't going to annoy her. But honestly, Neo had part of his awareness pulled by the retreating figures.

Neo left the creepy, insect-ridden building for the much cooler outdoors, as he definitely had no reason to stay there. Meeting Bethany outside she asked, "What happened? I saw Jane leave looking very agitated… What did you do?"

Neo stood back in and shock and a little angry, "What do you mean, why would you accuse me? I haven't done anything."

Bethany gave Neo a piercing look before she apologised, "Sorry, you just haven't been quite yourself."

"I don't think that's the issue right now, and on that point,after what I'vebeen put through how can I be the same?" Neo asked a little angrily.

The awkward silence persisted, taking a deep breath to calm himself he looked towards Bethany. Catching each other's glance, both of them apologised at the same time, then stared at each other for a while before they started laughing.

“Sorry, Neo. I shouldn’t assume that you’re at fault, that’s a fault of my own, assuming everything I see as fact, but I can’t help but believe what I see, sorry.” Bethany finished almost in tears.

‘What is she seeing in me,’ Neo wondered.“That’s when you rely on something to tell you who someone else is, I guess you learned to rely on it. I have been feeling a lot more…” he flunghis hand around to express himself before deciding on, “emotional.”

Bethany stood there awkwardly before jumping forward to hug him around his neck. Neo returned the hug then noticed Gie standing a little out of the way. He opened his arms to Gie who stood motionlessly, “You sure?You look like you need a hug Gie.” Gie didn’t respond.‘Ok, I’ll get one out of you eventually.’

Once they had released from their hug, Neo apologised for snapping at her. They walked back out to the training arena where Neo had a bit of a wait before his next class, so he decidedto practise his white magic.

Reaching into himself he cupped the abundant thread pouring them into a sphere. Opening his eyes, he saw with satisfaction that it had been formed as the orb was floating in front of him. He then thought of making a stone, and with that thought, plain rocks started falling out of the sphere and landing on the floor. Neo got a little flustered as his mana started rapidly depleting, “Stop!” He said aloud. Thankfully the sphere stopped its production, and his mana stopped draining,too. Neo pondered what had just happened, ‘How do I only make one and how would I contain the stone within it.’

Neo pondered this for a while before coming to a theory that the thread and pearl could be manoeuvred in such a way that it could contain anything. As for the numbers, he just used the systematic elimination of ideas.

"Right, sort out a stoning problem first then learn how to improve ability," Neo said aloud.

Neo zoned out the rest of the world, and focus on one stone. 'Make one stone.' Neo thought to observe everything in the sphere as Neo saw and felt many grains of the stone that was about to form he shouted in his mind 'stop!' as he didn’t need more stones. ‘OK maybe it gets my thoughts,but I added too much power thus causing it to overflow and produce more than ordered. ’Seeing as he didn't control the amount of mana, he guessed that it was automatic, so he just had to control the amount of energy he fed it.

Neo tried again, this time pulling back with a lot of control he slowed the mana to but a trickle while also trying to observe the stone that was forming. This time there was just one grain,and it was growing slowly. Neo smiled at his accomplishment as a perfectly smooth stone fell out of the sphere.

'Now, how do I contain it?' He thought.Looking into the sphere itself and messing with the threads he found that he could move them around. With a bit of practise Neo managed to move them so that they covered the entire inner area of the sphere, and when he produced a stone, instead of it falling out of the sphere it dropped to the bottom and didn't leave it.

'Cool,' Neo thought, 'So what do the pearls do?'

Poking some of the pearls just made them bounce around the sphere. Next, he tried squeezing them and found that the stone at the bottom of the space started floating toward the squashed bead.

Neo then did the opposite and stretched it. The rock reacted as Neo thought it would as it was pushed away from the pearl and into the floor of the sphere at a slight angle.

heated up the space inside and the air around himself since it wasn’t contained.

Then he created several spheres of rock and placed them in orbit of the sun, thanks to the motion of the pearl in the centre, caused them to revolve around his rudimentary sun. Then he added some other things, like water, on individual planets, and gas and bang he had his solar system.

Neo pulled himself back from his magic space to observe what he'd made, as he blinked away the dryness of his eyes, stretching his muscles, 'How long have I been sitting here?"

Looking around he found that he'd drawn a crowd that were all marvelling athis solar system. They looked at him and whispered in awe. It was then that he saw Dagles, who was standing beside Bethany. He spoke, "Well done Neo, but you must have one of the highest affinities I have ever seen. You just did one-half of the final exams for the year."

"Really?" He asked, looking at his basic solar system. "So, what's the other part of the finals?"

"The other part is a reversal of time, or more precisely you have to revert the atoms of an item to a previous atomical state."

"…Right, that might take a bit of practice and learning." Neo replied with a smile looking at Dagles.

Dagles replied with a weary expression on his face, "I'm sure you will be fine, in our next class we'll see if you comprehend it. Ow and next time you wish to practise or experiment with magic, please do so in the training room in those building over there. That way I won't have to be called out to watch you make a breakthrough, or kill someone with any stray magic, since this is only a place to practice abilities you have complete control of, understood?"

Neo looked in the direction he pointed, seeing a block of buildings. He nodded staring at Bethany, "You could have told me, or interrupted me to tell me. "

Her eyebrows rose, "It tends to be a bad idea to disrupt someone else's magic just incaseyou lose control, and you didn't ask before sitting down and practising."

Neo felt a spike of anger before realising that it's was everyone’s fault. And why did he feel angry? It was illogical. 'Breath…one, two, three…'He got his spike of anger under some sort of control, even if it was still just roiling underneath the surface.

And, through slightly gritted teeth, he apologised to everyone after putting them in danger from using his own magic.

Bethany tugged on his jacket, "Come on, we're already late."

Neo had no idea what the time was, but it was a good enough excuse to leave the small crowd of people who had formed up around him. They were going to ask questions but thanks to Bethany he could get away from them as he was a bit confused from all the attention.

They walked for a long while until Neo saw a boulder in the side of a vast cliff face that rose up into the lake. Bethany and Gie separated to each side of it, "In you go then." Bethany said gesturing towards the boulder.

Neo’s head tilted, "Umm … How?"

"Touch it, and you'll find out," Bethany replied.

Walking up to the boulder, he looked for a doorknob, then berated himself. He was in a world of magic, is wasn’t going to be that simple. Having another quick scan of the rock he couldn't see any magic looking engraving.

'Never mind,' he thought, slapping his hand onto the rock. Instantly Neo felt weakened. Looking inwards he saw his visible mana shrink to the size of a dot.

His legs weakened before he collapsed while breathing heavily.