[Greyson – 10 years]

And when the muffins shoot dead, all the ugly monsters, the baby muffins sleep in peace at night. And when the baby muffins, sleep in peace at night, they dream of bigger muffins loading up their guns.

"Oh! Hi, Xander!" I wave to Xander upon spotting him in my workshop. "Didn't you go home earlier?"

"I returned to the house for lunch," Xander looks over, wearing a pair of black-framed sports sunglasses with green-tinted lenses. "Took a nap, then spent some time with Luke. Mr. Trey said it was okay to come back here. Did you spend the entire day bug-hunting?"

I'm back in my bug-hunting gear and am holding a bug cage with mithrilhorn beetles in it. It's not just their horns which are made of mithril, they have it in place of chitin as well, but the horns are what they were named after. It gives them a silvery-blue look and is the reason I wanted them as the metal is pretty useful in a lot of different weapons and magitech. Grandfather Adrian is being too strict on some of the materials and wouldn't give me mithril.

So I hunted some mithrilhorn beetles after introducing the Cals to the wonderful taste of mindwave beef. The little bit of the metal in these beetles is all I should need right now.

"I did," I tell him. "With lunch at home. Oh, but I met your friend S.G. I've seen him around before but he looked bored this time, so I talked to him."

"Yeah," Xander pulls off the sunglasses and puts on his normal glasses. "He told me you gave him one of the spheres. Did I put two on your desk, or did you give him the only one you had?"

"You did," I tell him. "So I've got a second one."

"Okay," Xander says. "So I don't need to make another, then… I got mixed up and put two on your desk and one in my backpack."

Silly Xander and his need to make things in threes if he wants a copy for himself and one for me.

"I bet it'll take him months to solve it," I say.

"About nine minutes."

"That's not fair!"

"I made another one," Xander looks around for a moment, then gets up and grabs a sphere from a shelf. "Here. I gave one to Luke and he says he likes it. He's apparently been playing with it a lot."

I teleport the container of mithrilhorn beetles back into my backpack, then approach Xander and reach out to accept the sphere from him.

"Please be careful with it," Xander says. "It's made of cheaper materials since I didn't want it to cost more than $50."

Why would he be concerned about that? He's never concerned about money when it comes to what he's tinkering with here, since the stuff in his zone is his. I even convinced Grandfather Adrian to put some stuff in there for Xander with a note that it's from him and Xander can use it however he wants.

I accept the sphere from him and he teaches me how to turn it on, then I start fiddling with the triangles as I try to solve it.

"This one's easy," I tell him after a few minutes, the sphere back to its neutral state. "I like the last one better. How come it's so easy?"

"Because it's meant to be on the easier side."

"But why?" I ask. "Oh! Did you make it as a fidget sphere for yourself? But that'll be bad once you start really building strength, now that your mana's able to recover properly. You'll probably end up even stronger than me."

"It's not for me," Xander's cheeks turn pink and I can feel the shyness over whatever the reason is emanating out of him.

Probably best not to push it, he gets even quieter if I do when he's embarrassed or shy about something. That's disappointing because I really want to know why he made the sphere of inferior materials this time. But if he's shy enough about the cause that it's emanating out of him, he might get upset if I push things and I don't want him yelling at me.

Nobody likes getting yelled at.

"Does it change its algorithm every time?" I ask.

"No," Xander answers. "I designed it to always have specific reactions, but to randomize the pieces when it resets. Once you figure out how to solve it, you'll always know how. So I guess it's kind of like a fidget sphere? But still a puzzle. Normal puzzles have a set way to do them each time, too."

That's fair.

"Cool," I say. "Those are some neat sunglasses. What are you enchanting them with?"

Xander always obfuscates his enchantments, so I can't tell at all what he's doing with them.

"They're not really sunglasses," Xander tells me. "I borrowed your lens-making machine, sorry."

"I've told you before," I tell him. "You can use any of my machines. But if they're not sunglasses, how come they're tinted?"

"Here," Xander picks up the not-sunglasses and hands them to me.

I give him back the puzzle sphere as I accept the not-sunglasses and pull them on, the world surprisingly clear despite the lenses' green tint. There's some sort of indicator in my vision, a blinking icon which stays in a fixed location when I look at it, in the upper-right of my field of vision when I look straight ahead. Only when I try to smack it do I realize that it's from the glasses.

The moment I tap on the icon in my vision, it disappears and several others appear. Some of them come with text, some of them don't. One of them is a line going from Xander with "Non-Player" at the other end.

"You're not a player?" I ask. "Wait! Didn't you make goggles yesterday, not glasses?"

"I wanted to try making them as glasses," Xander tells me. "That's why I came back. I was checking the game program when you got here, but I also made it so it can go into a pause setting when you take them off. That's what the indicator was for."

He must have adapted the enchantment and magitech for a smaller system so that there aren't thick goggles that he'd be wearing as he plays with them. That's really not that hard to do, I could manage it as well once I have the basic enchantments and magitech down. It probably took him less than an hour to reduce the size.

"There aren't any zombies," I look around. "Weren't you asking about zombie stuff?"

"The game isn't on," Xander tells me. "I was just trying to make sure it loaded. There's still a lot to do to make them ready."

"Can I play?" I ask. "It sounds fun!"

"All you know is that there are zombies…"

"Can I? Can I? Can I?"

Xander grabs a gun-looking toy from his desk and holds it out.

"This is synced to the glasses," he tells me. "The game's zombies only take damage from shots from the right things, like this. But there really aren't any features for the game yet other than shooting zombies and them dying. I was trying to make sure I didn't mess anything up when I changed it from big goggles to the glasses. Took me almost two hours today…"

Two hours? Not one? I guess he was being extra careful.

"That's fine!" I take the gun. "I promise I won't break things! I'm really good at controlling my strength, which is why I can wrestle with Kale and not hurt him."

"Kale?" Xander frowns. "Did you mean Cal?"

"Yeah, but the other Cal," I tell him. "Cal's boyfriend's name is also Cal, so I call him Kale and other stuff. Sometimes, if he shows up and Cal isn't around, he'll wrestle with me. He doesn't care that he can't win against me, too, so I don't have to pretend to lose, either!"

Xander suddenly looks scared.

"You wrestle with an older boy?"

Oh. He must be thinking of what his former foster-brother did.

"He's not like that," I tell him. "He's like a big brother to me and it's brotherly wrestling. I've heard plenty of guy friends roughhouse as well, though I wouldn't know."

Mostly because I don't have any friends other than Xander and he's very non-physical. Wrestling with Kale is fun, though, because he doesn't get upset even though he knows I'm way stronger than him so he has no chance. He's even let me peek into his mind so I know he's not got any bad motives.

Though we aren't telling Cal about that. Cal would probably freak out if he knew I went into other people's minds, especially his boyfriend's. It's not like I was looking at his memories, just his intentions. Kale thinks of me like a little brother and that's it.

I doubt there would be anything sensitive in Kale's mind, anyway. He's an ordinary sixteen-year-old, it's not like he and Cal are trying to change the world like I'm attempting. There won't be any secrets in there, just memories of the two of them snuggling on the couch while watching TV, or going out for dinner, or to the park.

Would Kale let me peek at his memories if I asked? He probably would, he seems pretty cool.

"I can guarantee that Kale is fine," I tell Xander, who still looks uncertain. "I'm gonna play now!"

"Okay," Xander says. "I might do some updates for the game while you play."

I turn around and navigate the menu to find out how to turn on the game, and Xander moves one of his laptops in front of him to start doing something on there. For some reason, he's got two of the magitech programming laptops I made for him open on his workbench. Only one is the norm for him, but I guess the game program requires two for some reason.

Hopefully, the updates are ready soon enough for me to get to play with it. It's not like scientech dev where there's a lot more effort required for even smaller updates. Magitech games can be updated pretty fast once you know what you're doing.

Zombies begin appearing in my vision, coming out from behind shelves or the mega computer or crates or other stuff. They all have a line with "Game Zombie" attached to them, probably Xander's way of "avoiding lying" with the game.

I shoot at one of the virtual zombies but miss, the visual laser bullet slamming into the wall and vanishing. He must not have added in stuff like damage to the environment yet.

It takes me a minute to get used to firing the fake gun and once I do, I'm able to hit the visual zombies once out of every three shots. This is so different than I was expecting, but it's probably just my shooting skills. A mage such as myself has no need of a gun as we can create and fire bullets with magic alone.

"Whoops?" I giggle a little after a bullet I create with my magic slams into a wall of the building with a loud bang!

Fortunately, I've enchanted the entire building for extra durability so the bullet didn't do any damage. Xander let out a startled shout, though, so I turn to look at him… and he immediately jerks back and falls out of his seat.

"Oh my gosh!" I teleport over. "Sorry, Xander! I didn't mean to scare you! I just wanted to see what would happen if I shot them with a real bullet and forgot I was inside!"

Xander's clutching his chest and breathing really hard. He fell out of the chair after I turned around, but it's not like he could see what the glasses are showing me, which is him being chewed on by zombies. It looks soooo funny, but I better not say it as he's already startled enough as it is.

What caused him to jerk backwards and fall, though?

"Are you okay?"

"J-just give me a moment to calm down, please," Xander says. "And, um… can you take off the glasses?"

"Sure!" I take them off. "I really didn't mean to scare you, that was pretty loud. I should've tried it outside."

That would've been the logical thing to do even if no one else was around. For being one of the smartest people in the world, I sure can be dumb at times.

Xander gets up after a few more moments and I offer him the glasses.

"You can keep playing if you want," Xander tells me. "I'm just trying to do some updates for the game until Mr. Trey lets me know it's times to come home for dinner. He's running late but I wanted to eat with him, so Ms. Katie's delaying dinner until he's home."

"Oh, okay," I say.

It's not like he's holding off eating, though. While I can't see any cantaloupe, I could smell it a minute ago. Could hear the container opening and closing, too. Even hear him chewing due to how good my hearing is, but I try not to pay attention to stuff like that.

Sometimes, it's a curse, but it's one I try to work on.

"I'll go outside and play!" I tell him. "You should make it so real attacks work on the zombies, too. That'd be so much fun!"

I teleport outside, put the glasses back on, unpause the game, and start shooting the zombies which come out of the forest. After a few minutes, the amount of zombies appearing septuples and nearly overwhelms me, but that only lasts two minutes and I'm able to take them all out before the increase stops and it reduces down to a little bit less than the spawn rate from before the sudden increase.

That must have been a bonus stage! Xander even put those in? That's so cool! Shame there's not a point system yet, I bet I would've gotten a ton of points for my speed!

About ten minutes after the bonus stage ends, the zombies suddenly get health bars. They're red and start at 50/50, and my bullets do 1 HP's worth of damage at that point. Too little! Too little! Why did I suddenly get nerfed?

The gun won't shoot fast enough! The gun won't shoot fast enough! The gun won't-

Oh, now they're doing 20 HP's worth of damage per hit.

This is so weird. I guess I hit a new stage of the game and Xander did something weird with the magics. Over the next four minutes, the damage values seem to change but be consistent – the bullets all do one amount of damage until the next hit. At one point, they start doing 50 damage with each shot.

That only lasts four minutes until I hit the next stage, when the bullets do between 1 and 20 HP's worth of damage per hit. It seems random at first, but I figure out after about ten minutes that it depends on where I hit the zombies. It didn't seem that way to start with but I guess I just wasn't paying enough attention.

"Ooh!"

A new stage! The zombies now have varying amounts of HP, from 45-55! It's not a big range, but after about ten minutes, there starts to be a difference in HP from zombie type to zombie type.

Xander's game uses three of the zombie model groups I had in my database: ordinary person, beefcake, and soldier. When I reach the stage where there are varying HP levels between types, the ordinary zombies have 40-60 HP, the soldiers have 80-100, and beefcakes have 190-210.

"Now we're talking!" I exclaim.

With the beefcakes having so much HP, I have to move around a lot to avoid them as I take them and the others down. This makes it way more fun and I'm glad I played until I got to this stage!

Dodge! Roll! Jump! Backflip! Shoot while doing a triple backflip! Shoot the-

"Aah!" I shout in surprise when I realize I just aimed the gun at Xander.

I was so into this game that I didn't even register that the person I noticed behind me wasn't part of the game… which doesn't give feelings of things coming up behind me.

"Sorry, Xander!" I say. "Though I guess shooting you doesn't earn points."

"You don't get points for shooting anything yet…"

"Fair," I say.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"And you shouldn't get points for shooting me," Xander says. "Mr. Trey said he's home now and dinner's going to be soon, so I need to get going. Can I have the glasses back, please?"

"Awww!" I whine. "I wanted to play with the updates you were going to do!"

"I did them while you were playing," Xander tells me. "Grandpa Adrian told me this morning that I shouldn't have the game on the goggles but on another thing, uploaded to the goggles or accessed by the goggles. It was on my laptop, and that let me update it while you were playing."

"So those weren't stages?" I ask. "That was you updating it?"

"Yeah," Xander nods. "Sorry for boosting the spawn rates, that was an accident. I was trying to decrease it a little for the bigger zombies and accidentally boosted the rate for all of them, then reduced them all. Figuring out how to alter the runic matrices for that is going to take me a little bit longer. I think I figured it out after adjusting the HP values. And I still need to finish the AR system, too, but that's in the goggles and glasses so I actually need them in front of me to work on them. Did you like the game stuff so far?"

"Yeah!" I nod. "Wait! I just realized, but the glasses didn't fall off while I was doing flips and stuff!"

"I wanted to make sure they wouldn't fall off by accident," Xander says. "Since there's not a strap around the back like my sports sunglasses have, so I enchanted them to stay on unless purposely removed."

"That's really cool!" I hand him the glasses. "Oh! I wanted to let you know, but I won't be here next week or the one after."

"You won't?"

"Nah," I say. "I'm too smart for regular schools and now that Grandfather Adrian is in my life, he wants me to go to this special school for gifted kids. Sunday, Papa's going to drive me to it for its testing. All students go through a week of testing in July to determine what classes are best for them to take. New students have to do two weeks of testing since the academy don't already have a baseline knowledge of where we're at. I was assured that there would be plenty of fun stuff in addition to the testing, so I probably won't get too bored when not in a test. I'll probably come back home next weekend just for fun, or come here via teleport in the evenings, but I don't know for sure."

"Okay," Xander says. "Good luck."

"Thanks!" I tell him. "Grandfather Adrian said some of it will definitely be a challenge for me, so I'm looking forward to it!"

"Okay," Xander says. "I'm going to get going now. Bye, Greyson."

I follow him inside so I can get to work on processing the insects I collected today for their parts. For some weird reason, Xander leaves the workshop through the front door after he pulls on his backpack, then he teleports away.

Is there bad juju for teleporting around inside the workshop? I can't think of another reason for why he wouldn't teleport from within, so there might be. I'll need to investigate to make sure nothing is affecting things and if there is, then I'll need to eliminate it.

That comes before processing the insects for sure.

----------------------------------------

[Luke – 13 years] → starts during Greyson's PoV

The classroom I enter is filled with boys and girls between ten and seventeen years of age, who give me an "oh, just another guest" look when I enter. Most of them do, at any rate.

"Aren't you Lucas Gates?" One of the girls a few years older than me asks. "You sit in on these?"

This is a class the local college is hosting, an evening lesson on magitech and enchanting for adolescents interested in learning about it. The collage hosts workshops like this regularly to give kids a chance to see if it's something they're interested in, or to learn more about things which they are.

This classroom is used specifically for some of those so we aren't repurposing a professor's classroom. Each student is at a lab desk-style table, with two stools for seats at each. The tables are empty right now, but only because the instructor is supposed to supply the materials for this lesson.

"No," I answer as I walk over to the instructor's desk, then pull off the duffel bag I had slung across my body from my left shoulder. "My dad was the one who was going to teach it, but he asked if I wanted to tonight instead."

"You?" Another girl a few years older than me asks. "But you're, like, ten."

Condescending much? I look my age for sure so saying I look ten isn't from being a bad judge of age unless you're absolutely shitty at it. Her tone comes off as condescending, too.

It's a tone and expression I'm too familiar with.

"I'm thirteen and will be entering the eighth grade next month," I say. "I'm also the son of Tristan and Melody Gates, the owners of Gatewood Energy. Just this morning, I was working on one of our upcoming products. I've taught more than a dozen classes on magitech basics in the last year and a half and actually have a product I designed and built myself coming to market by the time school starts. There are numerous articles written about my magitech genius."

I snap and the door to the classroom closes, startling a few of the students here. The snap and telekinesis wasn't really necessary but it's easy to tell most of these kids aren't really mages in the first place. Showing a basic use of telekinesis in such a casual manner as that will get their attention a little bit more than what I said.

As will the duffel bag as I use it due to its nature, which is enchanted with security measures to ensure no one steals it as there is the chance someone will try after they learn what type of bag it is. The law allows for up to a certain degree of protective and anti-theft enchantments for certain types of magical items, and ones with spatial expansion enchantments are among those.

"Today's lesson is for making a magitech lamp," I open up my bag and pull out two cubes. "And the difference between that and a magic lamp."

Each cube is four inches on each side with a white shell. One of them has four stubby little feet while the other lacks any feet. I set both on the desk.

"Who here can tell me the difference between a magic item and a magitech item?" I ask.

There are forty others in here, every single table taken up. Most of them raise their hands, so I'm hopeful that someone can give me a proper answer.

"You," I point at the girl who recognized me.

"Magic items cast spells and magitech items are tech that use magical energy for power," she answers.

"Anyone have a different answer?" I ask, and only two hands go up this time. I point at a boy who looks about ten. "You?"

"Magitech has moving parts and magic items don't!"

"Alright," I say. "Anyone else?"

No one does.

"Either you've had bad instructors or you're all new to this," I say. "Magic items are items that are imbued with enchantments. You can power them directly, with a mana battery, or with a magic crystal. They're fairly simple in concept and often in execution, and generally-speaking, they can only come in two types: those that are always on, or those which can turn on or off. That latter part can be through some sort of trigger, such as the detection of another magic or by pushing a button. They're the ones which require an active power source.

"Not all magic items do," I reach into the bag and pull out a four-inch sphere which is glowing with a yellow light. "You can put an enchantment on an item and never give it a power source. Those are generally enchantment spells, but not always. This sphere is one example of an always-on spell without a power source. The enchantment itself makes it glow. There's no fuel going into it, no active mana or energy source for it. It simply glows."

"How?" A boy about my age asks. "Doesn't it need power?"

"It's magic," I say. "Not science. Things can happen which don't need a logical explanation. I enchanted this sphere to glow, so it'll glow until the enchantment itself wears out or is broken by something."

I set the sphere down and it stays without rolling. That's because of another enchantment that's on the sphere, which I placed on it after the first time I used it for one of these lessons. Or rather, during the lesson, since it was fairly quick and easy to put on.

Next, I pull a small stand out of the bag and set it down. This stand resembles a one-inch holder for a tapered candle, which is what the item I pull out of my bag next looks like. It lacks a wick and has a waxy white color to it, but it's made of a cheap enchanting materials.

"This, on the other hand," I imbue some mana into the tapered rod and it begins to glow with a faint yellow color. "Requires an active mana source. Right now, I'm directly giving it mana through my hand. It's designed to be able to receive said mana at the base like this. And the stand I put down?"

I cut my flow of mana and the glow stops, but returns when I socket the rod into the stand.

"There's a small mana battery inside," I say. "Which will last about forty hours with how little mana the rod requires. Useful in a power outage, on the rare chance that will happen, or if you're out camping."

All of the other kids in here are looking at the rod with interest now.

"My preference is this cube," I tap the one without legs twice and it begins to glow. Several pairs of eyes widen. "It might seem like magitech at first, but it's actually a magic item. The enchantment's trigger is simply the cube getting tapped twice by a person. In other words, it's an 'on or off' enchantment.

"Though this one's actually a bit more sophisticated than that," I chuckle, then touch and hold on the side facing the students for three seconds, and only that face turns off. "It has conditions which allow you to turn off specific sides, and it won't have on any side that's covered or blocked."

I touch and hold the front of it for three seconds and the light comes back on. Then, I slide a finger along one of the edges, and the entire thing dims. I slide my finger in the opposite direction and it brightens.

"It's also designed to let you adjust how strong the glow is," I say. "By doing that, it'll use less magic and last longer. Same with turning off sides or having it so any side that's covered is off. In the end, however, the entire thing is just a piece of really sophisticated enchanting."

"Isn't that magitech?" One of the girls about my age asks.

"No," I answer. "Because it's purely enchantments at work here. This is one of the more sophisticated pieces of magic items in some regards, but it's still just a magic item. There's a singular enchantment on this cube which determines everything: which faces glow, how to know when to be on or off, how to know how bright to be, and so on."

From my bag, I pull out a wooden cube that's four inches on each side, the faces all polished.

"This is just a solid block of wood," I toss it to one of the kids. "Pass it around. Examine it. Don't try to break it, but see if you can open it up."

The kids pass it around for a few minutes, and when it returns to me, I pull out an inscribing pen and begin drawing on the surface of the cube. As I do, the pen leaves behind silver markings which show the runes and connections I leave in place. Since I want this part to be a little bit fast, I use some of my more real level of speed to draw. At this higher speed, it takes me about three minutes to finish the enchantment, which spreads across all six faces of the cube.

Upon completion, the enchantment vanishes.

"And now," I set the cube down and tap it twice. The cube begins to glow with a green light. "I've made a magic item. It's the exact same enchantment as on the other cube, except with green light instead of yellow. If I don't set the color, it would be pure white. Yes?"

The younger boy who'd raised his hand puts it down.

"So you can make it any color?" He asks.

"Yup!" I answer. "As long as you know the runes which can tailor it, at least. Yes?"

"Why did the enchantment disappear?" The older girl I called on asks.

"Habit on my part," I answer. "A lot of beginners don't know how to make their enchantments not visible, but it adds an extra layer of protection to the secrecy of the enchantment, if you want such a thing. This doesn't need it and you can actually get the enchanting formula for the cube off the internet. I add in an obfuscation aspect as well so that scanners can't just pick up what the enchantment is."

I move both of the glowing cubes to the side and center the final item on the desk.

"This last item," I say. "Is a piece of magitech. Magitech is tech that uses magic. Essentially, an attempt at replicating scientific processes via magic, drawing on the magical laws rather than the scientific ones to operate."

An important distinction, since the magic laws can seem scientific at first until magic decides it doesn't actually want to follow them and do its own thing for some reason – such as a magitech lamp suddenly changing colors for eighty-seven seconds for no reason.

Though now I have a question for Xander, if he's willing to answer. That's for another time and I should focus on the lesson.

From my bag, I pull another cube with four stubby legs, identical to the first, and set it down.

"This is not," I say, then I pick them up and show the bottoms to the group. "You can see the button on each, yes?"

The kids all confirm they can.

"Well," I set the cubes down. "One of these, the trigger for activation or deactivation is being touched in a specific spot. This one," I tap the second one. "Is that one. The button simply acts as the source of that touch – you press the button and it touches the designated part of the cube."

I turn it on, then scoot it to the side and touch the final one.

"This one is magitech," I say. "There's actual technology involved, but it's tech made with magic. In this case, there are moving parts as well, but that's not an always thing. Some magitech doesn't need moving parts, like a screen for a computer or in virtual reality goggles.

"For this cube," I say. "The five non-bottom walls are made of a material which, when imbued with mana, makes them glow. On the bottom here," I lift it up. "You'll see the button. It triggers the 'on'. If you look closely – I'll pass it around in a sec – you'll note a plus sign of squares. The center one represents the top, and the other four represent the sides they're pointing toward. Underneath is a rectangle. If you tap one of those five twice in a row, it'll turn that side off. If you tap it once and then slide your finger along the rectangle, it'll adjust the brightness of that one. If you tap and hold one, it'll reset the face to its default lighting.

"How this works," I toss the cube to one of the kids so they can examine it. "Is by magitech. While that seems simple and not much different as the glow cubes, it's more like a lamp than that. It's drawing on a power source – a mana battery inside – and you adjust how much mana is flowing from it into the different faces, and it's done through different aspects and materials."

"Does that mean that if you took the light rod and mana battery and made them a single item," one of the older boys asks. "It'd be magitech?"

Dad probably wants me to teach things like this more often because it's good at helping me hide my aggravation at certain things. Questions like that are frustrating because the lines between things can get blurred and deeper questions can result in more confusion than answers.

Magic is as magic wants, after all.

"Sometimes, yes," I answer. "Depending on how it's done. But honestly? That would often be considered pseudo-magitech, where it's technically not but can be seen as such. The term is generally for more complex processes beyond just fueling an enchantment. Magitech can be viewed, in simple terms, as technology which results from interacting magical processes rather than just happening, with or without fuel."

Just don't ever try to give that as an absolute answer to any proper magitech engineer, as it's not fully correct even if it's mostly correct. Magitech isn't something which can be fully defined simply because magic itself can't be.

"Once you're done looking at the lamps," I say. "I'll show you how to make one."

I give the class three more of the magitech lamps so that they can each look at one more quickly. The desks are in rows of four, so the lamp cubes just go backwards rather than fully around the room. When they return to me, I turn them all on to their default settings, then set them to the side and start pulling more items out of the bag.

One of them is a projector which will project a much larger version of what it's reading into the air above. This is different from a projection table as it's more like a magnifying glass than a three-dimensional screen and is technically a magic item rather than a piece of magitech. Another is a box which contains everything I need to build a magitech lamp cube.

Which draws everyone's attention because the box is taller than the bag it was in and just as wide, so it wouldn't have fit in the bag without magic doing something. This isn't a bag I'm allowed to use often, but I'm allowed to for stuff like this class.

The other kids watch as I walk them through how to build one of the magic lamps, including explaining what each item and tool I use does. This project is a simple one with a low cost as most of it is already prepared for construction – just like if they were to buy a kit for making their own lamp at a store.

Only maybe with a few more steps, since we have to make sure that not just the parts are connected, but the actual magics are connected as well. That uses a type of inscribing pen suited for the job and is the closest to actually setting enchantments as this comes. All of the magitech lamps in the kits I have will be identical apart from having a choice between three colors, but kits can come with varying colors and sizes.

"Alright," I say once I finish, then turn it on and the cube begins to glow blue. "And now I'm done. As you can see, each of its functions work as described."

I demonstrate the various settings, then return it to its default state and set it to the side, then pack the remaining items into the box, which I place into the bag.

"I went more slowly because I was explaining things," I say. "But as long as you follow the directions, it should take you about twenty to thirty minutes at the most. I'll be here to help you if you need it, but the kits do have directions as well. Starting at the table in the front to my left, going across the room, then back and across again, repeating, everyone come up and get a kit."

When the other kids reach me and choose between yellow, green, or blue lights, I pull their boxes out of the duffel bag and hand them over, and the students return to their seats to begin working. I walk between the tables as they work to check what they're doing and offer advice if anyone needs it.

"Just focus on doing the cube," I tell one boy, who wants to make it a hexagonal prism instead. He's about a year older than me, I think. "The control pad is designed for that so a hexagon will have sides which won't turn on unless you link them to others."

"So if I did an octagon," he says. "And linked two sides to each part, that'd work?"

"That would take extra work," I tell him. "Since the control panel is designed for the side squares to be relating to the faces they're for. You'd have to add in extra parts to get around that and while there's a little bit extra, there's not enough and you don't have a proper cutter for the sides or base. If you want to do octagons, I do know of a couple of stores which sell kits for those. For a basic kit, I'd recommend Gina's Magitech Hobby Store in Dragon Falls. She's got good prices for beginners."

"This class costs three hundred," he shakes his head. "There's no way I can afford that for more kits, I'd have to spend all the money I earn mowing lawns for, like, three months just to buy one."

That's probably how he afforded this class, then.

"That's not just for the lamp," I tell him. "That's for getting a lesson from a professional, but also because you get to keep the tools used. There are only a few of them and they're all super basic ones, but they cost about $200 together."

I'm getting paid for teaching this class, $25 per student. The college keeps $25 per, and the other $50 is for the parts for the lamp. The actual lamp parts in the kit are on the higher end of the basic ones, so he won't have to worry too much about the cost.

"Basic kits are anywhere between $35 and $50," I tell him. "Still a little expensive, but not insanely. The lamps last a pretty long time, too."

"Oh, okay," he says. "So I get to keep the tools?"

"Yup!" I answer, then raise my voice. "Though people who set things on fire not only don't get to keep the tools or the lamp, but they get banned from participating in future youth workshops here."

The boy who was attempting to set the directions on fire quickly stops.

"Alright," I tell this attendee. "Get back to work. And remember: it's Gina's Magitech Hobby Store in Dragon Falls, if you're looking for a good place with beginner kits."

Dragon Falls is central to all of the towns in the area so I use that as a recommendation when doing these workshops so I don't have to ask someone where they live. If they can't get to it, they'll probably look up something more local. They're not allowed to actually say where they live, mostly to protect the younger members of the class.

Sure, some of them probably know each other, but it's still the rules.

I resume walking around and talking with the students as they talk and once everyone is done, I pull out the puzzle sphere Xander gave me earlier.

"If any of you decide to work on magitech as a hobby or even go into a career for it," I say. "There are some pretty amazing things you can do. My family makes generators and runs a power supply company that's all magitech, there are magitech cars and computers, and there are things like this."

I twist the two halves to activate the puzzle, then start twisting, pulling, and pushing triangles.

"It's a magitech puzzle," I tell the kids as I use a faster speed to solve it while being mindful of its weaker materials. "You have to get all of the triangles to fit together in the middle position like this!"

With my higher speed, I'm able to solve it just while I talk, and present it to the class once I'm done.

"A friend of mine made it," I say. "And I've seen other types of magitech puzzles. My dad made some for me to play with when I was little as a way of challenging me. You can also make things like this."

I put the puzzles sphere away and pull out the robot I built this week, setting it on the table. Then, I pull out the controller and begin manipulating the robot, making it draw its sword and do some moves.

"My dad and I actually dueled with this and one he built," I say. "I lost every time, but it's super fun! One day, Dad won't be able to predict what I'm going to put into my robots…"

That earns some laughs from the class, and I flash them all a grin.

"So yeah," I tell them. "Magitech isn't limited to just things like computers or lamps, but even fun things like puzzles and robots! And that concludes this class, everyone! Make sure to clean up your trash and take your kits and lamps with you!"

Some of them stay back to ask questions while the others leave, and once they're all gone, I pack my things up and leave to meet with Dad, who's speaking with a magitech professor from the college.

"All done?" Dad asks.

"Yeah," I answer. "I'm exhausted! Can we get ice cream on the way home?"

"Sure," Dad snorts. "Did you make sure the room was cleaned and the lights were off?"

"Yup!" I answer. "It was pretty fun! Thanks for letting me do it instead!"

"No problem," Dad ruffles my hair. "Glad you had fun. Have a good night, John."

"Have a good one," he tells Dad. "And you as well, Lucas."

"It's Luke now!" I wave to him. "Bye!" I look at Dad as we begin walking down the hall. "Can we get magic ice cream this time? With a lightning affinity?"

"Sure," he chuckles. "But not enough that you'll stay up half the night."

"Awwwwwwww!"