He's just like Elda and Jarvis.

I asked a few servants for Leo's location and was informed he was in his workshop, tinkering away on something.

I suppose it's because of his curiosity that he's attained a level three skill in reverse engineering at such a young age. Perhaps Elda and Jarvis have skills matching their hobbies in gardening and explosions?

“Hah… hah…” I rested against one of the stone walls of the spiraling staircase and gazed out of one of the small windows of the tower. I had a decent view of the Frey Manor grounds, as well as a picturesque view of the capital city as the day was coming to an end.

The unfortunate part was that the workshop was at the top of one of the two towers of the manor. The other tower held our messenger birds, and this one, until recently, had been merely a place for storage but was converted for use by Sarka Jarbez and had, more recently, become Leo's haven of invention as well.

"Peep!"

There are only two more floors to go!

Leona chirped in encouragement.

I did not reply and saved my breath, focusing on regaining control of my breathing. I pushed away from the cool stone wall and willed my legs to carry me onward.

I really ought to improve my stamina and leg strength.

As I approached the workshop's entrance, I caught my breath once more and, when ready, pushed open the wooden door.

"Luca?" Leo glanced up from his workbench, the tinkering and clanking of his various contraptions momentarily silenced. "You didn't attend the banquet at the palace?"

"No," I replied and readied myself for a stream of questions to flow from Leona into my mind. However, to my surprise, she didn't begin complaining that I hadn't taken her to the feast.

Perhaps she has grown up a little bit?

Leo took off a pair of magnifying spectacles and hopped off his stool, wandering over to meet me at the entrance. His golden curls were secured away from his face with a headband. His attire was a practical grey jumpsuit and gloves embedded with black mana stones. While the inventions worked on in this tower were not of the explosive kind like Elda's, they were likely dangerous in their own unique ways.

"What brings you up here, then? Is it regarding my mother's mini portal or the Wobbly Pebble you had me examine?" Leo guessed correctly.

I nodded, gazing about the workshop. "Yes, the rock. Did you find out anything interesting about it?"

Although now that he mentioned it, I am also curious about the mini-portal. It should have been completed by now as well.

However, I didn't see anything resembling it in the workshop. Strange metal inventions and tools were strewn about haphazardly. Shelves lined with unfamiliar devices, gears, and mechanical parts dominated one corner. While in the center, a table held half-finished projects, each more intricate and peculiar than the last. The room smelled of oil, metal, and something else I couldn't quite pinpoint.

Just what else are they working on in here?

I turned my attention back to Leo and saw a large grin spilling over his face, making him appear like the child he was.

"I found out lots of interesting things, actually." He motioned me to follow him to one of the stations. He opened one of the cabinet drawers and produced the Wobbly Pebble I had given him.

It was grey, misshapen, and small enough to fit in one's hand. By all means, it hardly looked in any way remarkable. Despite whatever examinations he had run on it, it looked exactly the same as when I gave it to him.

"When you first showed me how it flies in a random direction when thrown, I wondered if it really was random, so I did a series of tests," Leo said.

"Is it not at random then?" I asked, taking a seat on one of the workstation stools. My legs and feet thanked me for the break.

"Oh no, it is entirely random! However, with two exceptions." Leo lifted up two fingers.

"What's the exception"? I asked.

"The direction in which it is tossed, or rather, the opposite direction from which force is applied, it never goes in that direction," Leo said. "Nor from which the force was applied."

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I nodded. However, this much I already knew from the item description and playing around with it on my own.

"You don't seem impressed by this insight," Leo noted. "But it is actually incredibly unusual and interesting. I investigated why that is and uncovered some fascinating aspects about it."

I perked up.

"What did you discover?" I asked.

Leo set down the Wobbly Pebble on the table and hopped on a stool beside me. He pulled out a parchment of paper and a pen.

"First of all, the material on his rock is unlike anything else that is currently known about in our world. It's the first of its kind. It has the ability to bounce back upon impact. Yet, the surface area feels hard, like your average pebble, rather than being rubberlike."

Leo drew a misshapen circle on the parchment paper with black ink, a representation of the Wobbly Pebble.

"Moreover, the material is tougher than you might expect," Leo continued. "Breaking it open was impossible, but even when I tried scraping its surface, I had no luck."

"Even with black mana stone-enforced tools?" I asked.

Leo nodded seriously. "Nothing worked. I might need Ridley's help. Perhaps a powerful mage such as him can crack this thing open."

I raised a brow, taking in the Wobbly Pebble with a newfound sense of respect.

I didn't expect it to be so hardy.

"However, I did have another way of looking inside to understand its structure." Leo proceeded to draw another misshapen circle within the circle. "It appears what we see on the outside is a misshapen layer surrounding a jelly-like substance."

He drew a line from the outside, coming inside, moving through the jelly, and stopping at the opposite inner wall. "When something hits it, the impact goes in, hits one of these misshapen walls, and then moves in the direction of the wall's surface." He moved his pen and drew the line going out in a random direction.

"The most exciting part is that the Wobbly Pebbly then moves in this random direction," Leo explained.

I leaned over the drawing and frowned.

"But if I toss it lightly like so." I took the Wobbly Pebble and gently tossed it in the air. "It generally goes in the expected direction until it reaches the top, and then it moves in a random direction, but also, not one that's too unexpected."

I stretched my arm out, catching the Wobbly Pebble as it pivoted slightly to the left while going up and another slight angle when making its descent down.

I looked over towards Leo and saw him smiling at me. His golden eyes twinkled.

"That's the most interesting part," he said. "It appears that when more force is applied, the jelly itself moves, causing a wobble to the impact, causing additional unpredictable behavior."

He drew a wavy line going from the outside and inside the circle, hitting one of the curved walls at a seemingly boomerang angle and then moving out in that direction, back out of the circle.

"Ah." I nodded in understanding. "That makes sense."

The diagrams helped me significantly.

Leo began laughing. "Makes sense? Not at all! If I took a piece of jelly, enclosed it in some hard, misshapen container, and hurled it forward, perhaps it might have a slight issue in its trajectory. However, it'll still go forward ten out of ten times."

He tapped the inner part of the drawn circle, indicating the jelly. "I don't know what this is, but it completely defies how physics works. Something about this thing causes the Wobbly Pebble to move in an irregular pattern."

"How does it work then?" I asked, now completely confused about what Leo had uncovered.

"The best way that I can explain it is that it's like when you toss a ball against a wall, and it bounces back, except the wall is inside the rock itself," Leo said. "The only way that I can explain how it can move the way it does is that an invisible barrier outside the Wobbly Pebble appears that only it can feel, which causes it to move in a random direction instantaneously. The barrier has a shape similar to what is found on the inside."

I rubbed my temples as I looked over Leo's drawings.

I didn't understand the barrier and what practical use it might serve, especially given how it was invisible and untouchable to us. However, what I did learn was that this thing was indestructible. Or, at the very least, even black mana stone couldn't put a dent on whatever this Wobbly Pebble was made of. And that was plenty of information to find a use for this strange item.

"Thanks for all your research into it," I told Leo.

"Oh, I'm hardly done—if you don't mind, I'd like to dissect it more," Leo said. "But I can return it, given how rare it is."

"No, go ahead," I replied.

I had plenty where this Wobbly Pebble came from, selling at a meager cost of 1 Nexus coin.

I brought forward the Game store and examined the items on sale, just in case.

My eyes landed on the slew of grey Wobbly Pebbles in the Game Store up for sale. Each misshapen and unremarkable in appearance. Like every other day I checked, they were still just 1 Nexus coin each, and an absurd amount of them were available.

Tch.

I frowned, noting, however, that the cost of glimmersteel weapons had gone all the way up to 3 Nexus coins. It was still next to nothing for the rusted and broken blueish-tinted weapons, especially compared to everything else in the Game Store. Nevertheless, that was three times the price of what I had initially been able to buy them for.

Supply and demand, huh. I might need to adjust my strategy in the future.

My eyes wandered over to my own storefront. Of the items I had put up, most had sold, except for the blocks of dirt and stone. Those remained untouched at 1 Nexus coin each, and I had a feeling they would continue sitting in the Game Store for eternity.

"Ah, Elda and Jarvis are back!" Leo called out.

I pushed away the Game Store screen and saw Leo leaning against one of the windows, looking out. I joined him and gazed down into our courtyard. A black carriage had pulled in. Elda, with her usual unruly mop of red hair, was walking toward the manor's entrance. Jarvis, meanwhile, was chatting with one of the guards beside the carriage.

"I guess they didn't go to the banquet either," I murmured.

Or, at the very least, they left early.

That was surprising, but perhaps they were tired. They were still children, after all. Elda, in particular, had been working with staff members since the wee morning hours to have the fireworks set up correctly.

"Peep!"

Dinner?

Leona chirped expectantly.

"Yes, let's go down and have dinner with everyone," I said.

Before moving down the steps after Leo, I pulled the card from Orla Rex out of my pocket. The last time I checked, it was just before I began climbing the tower, and it was the same as always.

However, this time, the red ink had shifted. Instead of Orla's name, the card now had a message.