[Greyson – 10 years]

"Dad?" Cal asks when Dad and I enter the house. "Why is Greyson wearing a cap and gown?"

They're both brown, and I'm wearing them over my normal clothes so that I can just take them off and go do other things once we finish up here. Since Dad and I just entered the house, that means it's almost time to take them off.

"I'm not entirely sure why he even has a cap and gown," Dad answers. "But he pulled it on when they gave him that thing he's carrying this morning. It's a diploma book. Greyson apparently has all of the knowledge and understanding needed to graduate high school."

"I purchased and then memorized all of the textbooks leading up through the end of twelfth grade for all of the elementary, middle, and high schools in the area," I state. "So as to allow me to focus on other things during the school year, when my time is more limited. As for understanding them, that was undeniably easy. Only ordinary people would struggle with doing such a thing, and we're all aware that I am beyond ordinary. The things which go beyond simple memorization – such as doing mathematical formulas – are all things I do on a daily basis."

"He has how much knowledge?" Cal asks. "I know they were going to test him to see where he sits… can they even teach him if he can graduate high school already? Wait, so there's an actual high school diploma in there? It's not just a diploma book?"

"They have classes on the college level in nigh every field," I state. "So there is still much for me to learn which they can teach. In fact, they said that by the time I return for the start of school, they'll include working on a PhD or two in my course. It's mostly just writing and publishing certain types of papers, as well as demonstrating a deeper understanding of my knowledge. I'm going to frame and hang up my diploma later, Dad. May I please go to the workshop now? The agreement was that I could go after we got home."

"After you put your suitcase back in your room," Dad tells me. "Then you can go to your workshop."

"Don't you work on your stuff away from the workshop?" Cal asks. "Or is it the bigger stuff like that mega-computer that you want to work on now? I guess you are pretty obsessed with it, aren't you?"

"It is for the betterment of the future of mankind," I state. "That is why I work on the mega-computer. And while I will work on it some while I'm there… I'm actually going there in order to see if Grandfather Adrian has already followed-up on his end of the deal and dropped off the items I requested in return for me agreeing to not leave the academy for the last two weeks. After that, I'll be going to Xander and seeing if I can join in on the test for his game."

"A deal?" Cal asks Dad.

"Yeah," Dad starts telling him about what happened as I take my suitcase to my room.

Once there, I pull off my cap and gown and hang them up, then place my diploma book in a secure box before teleporting to the workshop with my backpack.

"Yes!" I jump in excitement and teleport to the crates. "They're here!"

Before I start opening the first crate to see if the contents match the label, I notice two new mega mana batteries. One of them is a perfect sphere and has just as much mana as the one I've already got hooked up to my mega-computer.

The other one is mostly a sphere and roughly as large… but its surface is rough and uneven. Created by someone definitely not Grandfather Adrian, since it was definitely done by an amateur. It also gives me the same feel as the other two… but has a much larger capacity and output rate than the other two combined.

There's also a note stuck to it, written in Xander's handwriting.

This was axidint. Sorry.

He… accidentally made a mana crystal which contains around two million units of mana and generates up to that amount per day? I'm assuming that's its daily output, since it's apparently a Xander-style mana battery. And why did Grandfather Adrian put a note underneath Xander's?

You're not in trouble, Xander. Also, good job collecting the mana back and condensing it down into a crystal.

Greyson, if you abuse this, you will be punished. Make sure Xander sees the above message, too.

"Understood!" I salute, then spot something else.

There are two boxes with wrapping paper on them on one of my desks. My main one, where I do most of my programming and designs if I need a desk. That's new, but it's griffin wrapping paper so it's cool.

Who left these here and why?

Who could have? Only Xander and Grandfather Adrian can access this place as far as I can tell.

I teleport to my desk and open the smaller of the two packages… which contains a pair of brown-and-yellow glasses with a yellow-tinted lens. These are really cool and kind of remind me of sports sunglasses.

When I pull them on, I'm immediately greeted by a second HUD. I minimize some of the stuff on mine and confirm… wait!

"These are augmented reality glasses!" I exclaim.

Xander made me a pair of my own! This is so cool! Maybe the other things in the box are part of it? One of them looks sort of like a gaming console, and there are two guns and two grenades in it as well. Toy ones, disappointingly. A small case sits inside the box, too, though I'm not sure what could be in there.

When I reach for one of the other contents of the box, a message pops up in my vision informing me that I should open the other gift first.

Huh. Xander even designed it to give messages when I do certain things. That is awesome.

I open up the other present… which has a hoverboard inside of it.

"My own hoverboard!"

I still haven't figured out how Xander made them and when I try to break down the enchantments on this one so I can learn… a very powerful shock goes through my body.

Five minutes later, it ends. Jeez. Xander had to have done that on purpose because there's no way he'd give anyone else a shock if they tried to do that. Only because he knows it won't actually hurt me would he do that.

That just means it's a challenge for another time!

I grab the guns and grenades and fix them onto the waistband of my shorts, then take the hoverboard outside and hop onto it. Then I learn that I actually need to use the console to play the game, and the small case that was in the box contained the game card.

Once everything is set up, I start zooming through the woods on my hoverboard, shooting all of the zombies I come across.

Best. Day. EVER!

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

[Sig – 13 years]

"Samuel," Adrian King says from close by, and we look over.

It's almost time for the first demonstration for the second round of testing for Xander's AR system and game. Sam's been bummed out because he can't participate due to his arm, as it hasn't quite fully healed yet. I'm not sure why Xander asked Tate and Carter to invite two people this time, though. Russell's not here for whatever reason, so lacking Sam just evens things out.

Unless Xander wants us to be split evenly into three groups. That would be easier by not including someone this time, though.

I'm so confused by a lot of things, though. Xander gets moody if Russell gets mentioned ever since Wednesday so I'm assuming they're not longer friends. He's also been paranoid about getting into trouble a lot more than usual since Wednesday.

When the General showed up, Xander just straight-up squealed and vanished for a few minutes. When he returned, he spoke with the General behind some sort of sound-blocking barrier that he conjured.

I found out about the barrier because I ran into it trying to approach to see if he wanted to join us for a game of flag football while we waited.

"Hey, Mr. King?" I ask.

"Yes, S.G.?"

"Do you know why Xander's seemed extra-anxious today?" I ask. "Does he think something's going to go wrong?"

"No," he chuckles. "You know how Nine Springs had an issue on Wednesday?"

"How could we not?" I ask. "First Sam breaks his arm there, then after we get that mostly taken care of at the doctor's, there's military action. No one knows what happened."

"There are devices which can sense mana," Adrian King tells us. "However, the ones developed by magitech engineers can only detect it on a wider scale when there's an amount over a certain level, and only in a general area. Anytime there's a level that high, it's an indication of a Rift. Such a surge occurred on Wednesday, at levels indicative of quite the powerful Rift."

"But didn't they say that everything was clear?" I ask. "Rift power levels are based on the strength of the monsters which come out, right? Wouldn't that mean it should take a lot longer to contain the situation?"

"Normally, yes," he says. "But as it turns out, Xander leaking around two and a half million units of mana can also trigger the sensors, as that's significantly above the threshold."

"Xander can do what now?" Sam's eyes widen.

"He was casting a spell to ascertain the cause of your injury," Adrian King informs Sam. "Then informed me of his findings and asked if I would be willing to mend it so that you may participate in today's testing."

"So he doesn't dislike me?" Sam asks. "Huh."

"Don't get me wrong," Adrian King says. "Xander was very clear he doesn't think of you as a friend and that he very much has issue with you. But he was also clear he wanted your arm healed so you could participate in the testing today."

That makes no sense. If he doesn't like Sam – like we all suspected after I told them about what Collin said – then why would he want Sam to participate?

Adrian King points at Sam's injured arm and a golden light flows along my friend's skin, then seeps in. Sam's eyes widen and he takes off the sling and starts curling and uncurling his fingers, then moving his arm around.

"It's fully healed!" He says. "No more pain! Even the mage healer who did it free couldn't do that!"

"Very few mages can fully heal a broken bone," Adrian King informs us. "Greyson – one of Xander's cousins – can, so I'm sure Xander would've asked him if I declined."

"I didn't even imagine I could get my arm healed by magic," Sam tells him. "Thank you so much!" He looks at the rest of us. "I still wanna know who knew about it and paid a healer to do what he could."

Yeah, especially now that I know that the reason Xander was evading answering when I tried asking him privately was because he'd asked his great-grandfather to do it today. That means that it wasn't him who paid for the healer.

"That was a unicorn."

We all look at Adrian King.

"What?" Sam asks.

"A unicorn saw the break and followed you boys to town, then contacted a healer and offered him a strand of his mane hair in exchange for healing you," Adrian King answers. "And he was just feeling particularly bad as it was his spell trap you'd got caught in. He'd apparently set it up to try and catch something, not expecting children to come playing there."

Adrian King frowns in Xander's direction, then shrugs.

"Well, Xander not knowing that part did result in the Foundation getting deal with, so it-"

"WAIT!" Luke appears beside us, his body charged with lightning. "Xander is the reason you got involved with the Foundation?"

"Yes," Adrian King's lips twitch upward a little. "Xander somehow investigated the situation and came to the conclusion it was the Foundation due to Greyson's tales of how they target youth geniuses who make actual progress, so he contacted me. Them going after you was the first time they actually targeted a child genius, as far as I can tell, and that situation was handled fine due to their incompetence and inability to actually source materials which could create a threat to you. Because of that, I didn't bother then and felt that if things came down to it, the military's investigation would handle it. Then Xander told me about Greyson's paranoia and how he was pretty sure they were behind the trap, so I dealt with them."

"You dealt with them before investigating?" Luke asks. "Even though Xander could've been wrong?"

"He was scared."

That's… honestly scary. Adrian King went and eliminated something which could be a threat to Xander just because Xander was scared. I'm glad I'll never be in that situation, though I also want to maybe put a little bit of distance between myself and his great-grandfather right now.

"Oh!" I notice something. "I think Xander's getting ready to start! Thanks for finishing the healing for Sam, Mr. King!"

We all hurry over to where Xander's putting stuff out on a table. It's glasses like the ones from last week, and he triple-checks after putting down the guns and… are those toy grenades? They might be the same glasses, actually, since they each have a case with a name on it, and the colors match up with last week's. Well, except for Russell's is marked for Knox, the other friend that Tate and Carter invited at Xander's request for them to bring another.

It looks like he's muttering to himself as he goes over everything.

"-everything but maybe it's not lemme check again okay so we've got the eleven sets of AR glasses, the twelve bigger guns, the twelve handguns, and twenty-four… is that twenty-four? Yeah, twenty-four grenades. Is that everything? There's gotta be something I'm missing, right? Did I send the thing out with the supplies?"

Xander starts gesturing in front of his vision, probably doing something on his own AR glasses, since he's wearing them.

"Wrong menu. Wait. No. Right menu."

"Hey, Xander!" Luke waves to him, and Xander looks over. "How come there's no Russell this time? Was he not feeling good? Or did his parents not let him come this time?"

"Don't want to talk about it," Xander huffs, then returns to doing whatever it is he's doing through his menu.

"Ooooh," Luke says. "You two broke up? Do you need me to whup his butt? I can totally do that for you."

"I said I don't want to talk about it!" Xander snaps.

Broke up? Wait. They were dating? Aww… that sucks. Russell really seemed like a cool dude, even if not join-the-core-friend-group kind of cool. And Xander seems really upset by whatever happened, too.

Which Luke definitely picked up and is probably the reason he's offering to whup Russell's butt.

"So that's why you've been so upset the last couple of days?" Luke asks. "Damn. I really can whup his butt if you want."

"I. Said. I. Don't. Want. To. Talk. About. It." Xander glares at him.

"I still don't understand how two guys can like each other," Luke tells him. "Or two girls. You're the same sex, aren't you? Isn't it-"

"It's super easy!" Sam tells him, having removed his sling and put it… somewhere. "You just find boys attractive instead of girls! That's all it takes! That's just how your inclinations go, not a choice."

Stolen story; please report.

"But it still doesn't make sense," Luke says. "Isn't the point of attraction to find someone to make babies with once you're an adult?"

"What?" Sam asks. "No, it's not. And we're too young for that even if it were. Try to think about how you feel-"

"Don't bother," Xander mutters. "The only kids his age willing to actually hang out with him, he ends up crushing on, so he thinks it's just normal rather than a crush. Just watch how he interacts with Parker for longer than, like, five minutes and you'll see it. He's even got a crush on me, for some reason."

"It's natural to want to just hang out with cool people!" Luke says.

"Anyway," Xander decides to shift topics. "I'm ready to get started so I'm going to start in a minute. Can you guys step over there?"

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

[Xander – 12 years]

Carter approaches me from the side, his steps slow and silent. I think he's feeling… hesitant? Or cautious. Maybe both.

I reach up and swipe with my hand a little, changing one of the menus in my vision.

"Are you comfortable?" He asks.

I'm currently lying on the ground near the lake, where another barbecue and party is going on. Most of the other boys are playing in the lake right now while the adults are all talking in different groups. Today was exhausting so I'm taking a break and just lying on the ground, checking on stuff through the menus in my augmented reality glasses and also monitoring something else.

"Mostly," I answer as I tap on something. "Am thinking about getting my pillow out. My head would probably be more comfortable, then."

My neck is uncomfortable for sure. Lying like this for a long time isn't the same as when I do it on a thick, plus carpet. Even then, my neck still gets stiff after a bit.

"Can I sit next to you?"

"Sure."

He sits down.

"Was there anything you wanted to do?" He asks. "You've just been lying here most of the time since we got here. I know we're all roughhousing and stuff, but we can play something else if you want. Or just some of us. You don't have to sit out, and we're up for basically anything."

That's just like how S.G., Connor, Sam, and Isaac act with me. Maybe that's why S.G. was able to make friends with him, because they're already similar in that way.

Though Carter definitely has more of a divine blessing than S.G. does. I think that means the gods like him a lot more, too. If so, then that means he's an even better person than S.G., and S.G. is a really good person.

Carter's definitely more attractive than S.G., but I'm not crushing on him. We barely know each other. Since he's going to be entering high school next month, I'm sure he's already dated someone, and he probably had a good and happy relationship. One he's probably still in.

Unlike stupid, pathetic, dumbass me.

"S.G. is like that, too," I try to get my mind off of that. "And the others. I'm just exhausted. Today was exhausting. I don't want to take a nap, but I think I need to if I want more energy."

"No one'll mind if you do," he says. "The game's pretty fun to play, by the way. And you improved it a lot over last Saturday's version. Including grenades and even some items hidden throughout the field made it extra fun."

I feel happy about that, but I think I'm too exhausted to feel too happy right now.

"Thanks," I say. "Can I ask you something?"

"What's that?"

"Do you have an issue with empaths?"

"Nope," he answers. "Tate's one, actually. His whole family are natural mind mages, and they have passive empathy. Why?"

That's news to me, but I didn't look into Tate's family and no one mentioned it, so it makes sense I didn't know. They might be able to give me some tips, if I ask, but I won't because what if they get mad and think I'm trying to steal family secrets?

"Oh," I say. "I learned on Tuesday that I'm an empath, too. It's harder to feel something if it's not strong, focused on me, or something shared between the two people. I can feel love between you and Tate, but it's not the same kind of love I can feel between your parents. Or between his parents. It feels like the love between you and your big brother. And I was wondering about that. If that's okay."

"Sure!" He lies down beside me. "Tate's like a brother to me. We've known each other since we were really little and have basically always been close."

"But you're not brothers?"

"Not by blood or anything like that," he says. "But some families are ones you find rather than get born into. And yeah, with Tate, I care about him just as much as I do Collin. Does that make sense?"

"I guess so," I say.

We're both silent for a few more minutes, and I continue looking at stuff in my glasses' HUD, sometimes doing something with them.

"Carter?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever dated?"

"For a few months," he says. "Earlier this year. Mom wouldn't let me until I started eighth grade."

That might be normal, then. I'm about to enter the eighth grade and Trey was fine with it. Though he also said I should wait at least two weeks before asking anyone else out. Something about not rushing into things and just taking time to deal with my emotions now.

"For a few months?" I ask. "Is it okay to ask why it ended?"

"Sure," he says. "I just ended up realizing I didn't like him that much, so I ended things."

"Oh."

We're silent for a few more minutes.

"How did it feel?"

"Is this about you and Russell?"

"Maybe."

"Mine was a bit different," he snorts. "Like I said, I realized I didn't like him that much. It was just… more like 'okay, so it's time to end this' and that was it. And then I found out that he didn't really like me, so he didn't have any real attachment and wasn't heartbroken or anything like that. I'm guessing you really liked Russell?"

"Yeah… Trey says that I changed since he started crushing on me, and that's why Russell thought he still liked me only to realize that I made him feel bad about himself. Because he didn't get to know me again after I changed, so he didn't realize I was different."

"Because you're really good at some stuff?"

"Yeah."

"Well, he's just dumb," Carter says. "But yeah… I kind of get that. It makes me feel weird, hanging out with you. You're really insanely good at magic and magitech. That makes me feel kind of inferior to you. But then I remember that I can barrel race and you'd probably pass out if a horse went above a walk while you were on it. Dad's always on about how everyone has different strengths, different things they're good at. You can make insanely good magitech, I can barrel race, and Tate can ride a bull. I have to think about that to not feel bad about my own magitech skills… I don't even care about making magitech."

He doesn't say anything after that and I'm not sure how to respond, so I keep doing what I was doing before. At least, up until a question is too much for me to keep holding back. Several questions, not just one.

"Carter, may I please ask you some questions?"

"You don't need to ask me to ask questions," he snorts. "Just ask it, Xander. Always."

I'm not sure if it's really an "always" thing.

"How does barrel racing work?" I ask. "Do you push them down a hill and see whose barrel reaches the bottom first? How do you make sure they're starting from the same point, not slightly off? And aren't they kind of rounded on the sides in addition to around? How do you make sure they roll straight instead of going off to the side?"

"Not that kind of racing!" He laughs. "It's a form of horse riding competition. You ride a horse and get him to run around barrels. Three of them. You go to the first barrel and run around it, then across to the second barrel and go around it, then up to the third barrel and around it, then back to the start. It's a rodeo event."

"Okay. Can I ask another question?"

"I said you're free to ask any questions you want, didn't I?"

"Yeah."

"Then yup!"

"Okay," I say. "What's a rodeo?"

"It's a cowboy event involving horses and other livestock," he answers. "We get to show off our skills in it, such as barrel racing, bull riding, steer wrestling, and more."

"Oh, okay."

We go silent again for a few minutes.

"Carter? I have another question."

"What's up?"

"They sky."

"What's the question?" He snickers a little.

"Do you think your parents would mind if I invited one of my second-cousins to the barbecue?" I ask.

"No," he answers. "Is he nearby?"

"No, but he can teleport," I say. "He was gone the last two weeks because he was doing some testing in preparation for a special school he's going to for super geniuses, but he got back today. I knew he'd want to participate in the game test today, so I left some stuff at his workshop since I knew he'd stop by there first. It distracted him for the last, uh… he found them a little bit before ten this morning and it's now a little after five, so that's… about seven hours, I think? Maybe seven and a half. Either he just realized how long it's been or he's worn himself out, but he's stopped playing for now and is sitting down again. Either one, I know he's gonna want food, and we've got a lot of it."

According to the system I'm looking at, he'd been playing the game nonstop the entire time, too. No breaks. I don't think he ate while he played, but I do know he used the hoverboard for basically all of it. Also that he discovered it's anti-impact protections. This also says he figured out how to turn on its underlights and has them set to slowly shifting in a rainbow color pattern.

"Oh," I add. "Also, Greyson's stuff helped me with developing the game and system. That's why I was wondering if it was okay to invite him over. The zombies come from his database, and then I edited their information to add in stats and stuff and make them shootable in the game. And I used his database to learn some of the things I needed in order to make everything. And some of his tools to make things, too. Like the lenses for the glasses."

"So it's a two-man team?"

"We're both boys."

"A two-boy team?"

"Um… I'm not sure if I'd describe it that way?" I say. "I mean, he did help me test it out a little back when I first made it. But that was really just him playing it and me monitoring it and making updates while he did. I don't think he realized until after that I was using the data from his play to make changes, he was just having fun. And while I did use some of his stuff and some stuff from his database… he always says it's a shared thing for us? That I can use it at any time I want, for anything I want. So we didn't work on it together, I just used some of his stuff for it. The zombies will be changed once I manage to figure out how to make my own."

That's taking me awhile to do, and I think I'll need art skills for it so it's a good thing I decided to learn how to draw.

"I just didn't want him to participate in the test because he'd probably be a little too dorky for it," I add. "Like, he's a massive dork. But he gets even dorkier when he's playing pretend. And also mixes up reality with fantasy. And also wants real stuff to affect the game monsters. So I felt it'd be better if he wasn't participating in the game test. But since he's probably worn out a bit now, it should be fine for him to hang out."

Carter doesn't say anything after I finish talking. Did I mess up by trying to invite someone else to the barbecue?

"Dad says it's okay," he says after a minute.

"But you didn't ask him?"

"I grew up best friends with a mind mage and beside a ranch of mind magic-wielding cattle," he chuckles. "I learned telepathy awhile ago. Dad and I were just talking with it, and I told him that you wanted to invite someone else involved with the creation of the game to the barbecue, and he said sure."

"Alright," I swipe and then carefully type out a message, then send it. "There. He's invited. He'll probably teleport straight to me."

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

[Greyson – 10 years]

The moment I see Xander's message pop up while I'm resting after accidentally spending more than seven and a half hours shooting zombies from a hoverboard, I quickly change into just a pair of swim trunks and teleport to where Xander's at. Rather than teleporting straight to him, I teleport so that I'm a few feet above the lake the barbecue is taking place at, knees up to my chest and arms around my legs.

With a spell to enhance the splash surrounding me.

"Who are you?" Tate asks upon seeing me, moving in front of the others a little, especially S.G., for some reason.

I can also feel him readying some sort of offensive mind spell, as if that could affect me in the slightest. Well, it probably would if I were a normal boy, but I am me, a superior being who can snuff out his mind with barely a thought. But he doesn't know that, so I suppose he's just protective of S.G. and the other boys for some reason.

"Greyson?" S.G. asks. "What are you doing here?"

"Xander said that Carter said that his dad said he could invite me!" I answer.

"You know him?" Tate looks behind him.

"Yeah," S.G. says. "Well, sort of. I've only met him once, the day you guys came to Nine Springs before. That's Xander's second-cousin, the one who gave me the puzzle sphere Xander made."

"I still can't figure out how you managed to finish it so fast," I tell him. "My best time is still over twenty minutes. But no matter! Let's play the shark game!"

"What shark game?" Several of the boys ask.

"I pretend to be a shark," I say. "And you all pretend to be fish that try to get past me. If I tag you, you 'die' and have to go to the side and watch as the others try to slip past me. The last fish alive becomes the new shark and we begin again! Oh! And no using magic to your advantage! And you have to reduce your physical strength and speed down to a normal person's. So no using a mage's strength. I'm not going to, so it wouldn't be fair to the non-mages."

We all play this game for a few rounds, but I'm still tired from playing the game for seven hours so I stop after that. When I get out of the lake, I hurry over to the tables of food to get something to eat. I feel starved, after all of my playing today. Well, also because I forgot to eat lunch.

That game was really fun.

Wait. Hey! I forgot to stop and see about joining in on the test!

Wait a moment.

I look over at Xander, who's currently sitting up and looking toward the lake.

That was his plan, wasn't it? He used his divine powers to know that I'd go to the workshop first and that I'd open presents left for me. Armed with that knowledge, he laid a trap to prevent me from participating.

Maybe he did it so that the others would have a chance at victory?

Hold up.

Hold. The. Muffins. Up.

I hurry over to Xander, making sure to slow down before I'm too close so he doesn't flinch. Is that right? My HUD and my senses are both saying the same thing.

"Y-yes, Greyson?" Xander looks scared.

"Is the evil god who messed with your reincarnation around?"

"I'm not a god," Xander says. "And I'm not reincarnated. Why are you looking at me like that? Did I do something wrong? You feel really confused and startled. Is something wrong?"

"Just the inadequacy of my own power."

"You have over three million units on the standard scale," he says. "You're not inadequate in any way."

Says the boy who gained nearly 150,000 units of mana to his capacity in around two weeks. He's now up to 3,632,873 units. That's… really freaking absurd.

The average person who trains an average amount will be able to boost their capacity by about 5-10% over the course of a year. A person's capacity grows as they use mana and then recover either to full or mostly to full. This means that it's not like there are sudden increases, but a slow and steady one over time.

Sort of like when a balloon is blown up by sending a small but steady stream of air into it. There might be pauses at times, but it's also possible for it to just steadily increase. The fewer "pauses" there are, the higher that increase is.

Several things can boost a person's growth rate, such as a god's blessing or using higher magics. Those ones use a lot more mana, so the growth they can provide is a little bit more.

What that means is that it's possible for someone to gain more than 5-10% of their mana capacity in a year. I do, for example. Xander clearly does, though I'm not actually surprised by that.

However, everyone has an Absolute Gain Maximum. It is not possible to gain more mana than that over the course of a year, regardless of their percent. Nearly no one will ever reach that point because it's usually ridiculously high.

A very normal person might have an AGM of 50,000 or more. This is, of course, on the Lumaria Mana Level scale, not the Greyson Mana Scale. Gaining 50,000 units steadily throughout the course of the year is more than the actual capacity most people have, which is why it's rare for someone to ever reach it.

And that's a lower end of it.

My AGM is 500,000 on the Lumaria Mana Level Scale, or 5,000,000 on the Greyson Mana Scale. That means that in any given one-year period, the most mana I can gain throughout it is 500,000. Or in a given day, my capacity will increase by up to around 1,370 units, or in any given hour, by up to around 57 units, or a gain of up to just-under 1 per minute.

And it will never go higher than that, regardless of how much mana I use or how complex of a spell I weave.

Yet Xander… gained to his capacity around 9,300 points or so per day since I last saw him, or more than six times my absolute maximum.

He gains about 1% of Luke's capacity per hour. It's possible he's hit his maximum, but this suggests that his AGM is about 300,000 per month. And that's if he actually hit his maximum per-moment gain.

In other words, he can gain more in two months than I can in a year.

I sigh.

I really shouldn't be trying to catch up with him in terms of power. He's a god. Reaching his level is an impossibility. But it also means I can't fully play with him with magic, since he'll just always have to hold back.

"A-are you okay?" Xander asks.

"Yeah!" I answer. "Even if I'm inadequate in terms of magical ability, I'm still super adequate in the mind! I even got my high school diploma after the testing, I'm so smart! I'm gonna go get food now, want me to grab you some?"

"No," Xander quickly answers.

"Okay!" I say. "See you!"

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

[Xander – 12 years]

I should probably go get food, too. And help Greyson get some as well. He's spotted the desserts table and I think he'll forget to grab proper food to eat. He really needs to be told "dinnertime" when he's doing stuff outside of his normal schedules and their variations.

After getting up and stretching, I walk over to the tables where food is put out and start filling a pair of plates, using telekinesis to carry them while using it to hold Trenton on my shoulder. When I finish picking out dinner foods, I walk over to the spot on the ground where Greyson's digging into his plate of muffins, pie slices, cupcakes, cookies, brownies, and other desserts, then set down the plate I fixed up for him.

"Oh, right!" He says. "It's dinnertime! Thanks, Xander!"

"You're welcome," I tell him. "C-"

"Xander!" S.G. calls out, and I look over to find him waving at me from where he and our other friends and his other friends are sitting and eating. "I saved you a spot! Come sit with us!"

Saved me a spot? But they're just sitting in the grass, not on seats. How can he save a spot that way?

And everyone's shirtless, too, since they were swimming and haven't changed from that yet. I was going to ask Greyson if I could sit with him. He's in just his swim trunks, too, but at least he's one boy and not a lot of boys like over that.

But S.G. also said 'come sit with us', so I think that's an order. Friends shouldn't order friends to sit with them. They should ask.

I do want to sit with them, though. At least Luke is sitting away from them. He's eating and talking with Parker and Tyler.

"Xander," Greyson says, and I look down at him. "From my understanding after observing Cal, Travis, and others with their friends, 'come sit with us' is an invitation, not an order. You can decline if you want."

I don't think Greyson would lie about something like that.

"If you sit with me," he says. "I want to ask you about how you created the hover functionality for the hoverboard, so that I may replicate it for some of my own devices."

Better to pick the lesser of three evils. I'd rather sit with Luke than tell Greyson how to perform hover enchantments. The sort of things that he would do… I definitely need to ask Grandpa Adrian how much I'm allowed to share with Greyson about them.

"I'm going to go sit with S.G. and the others," I tell him.

Disappointment is clear on his face.

"Awww… okay!" He says. "Then when we're both at the workshop next! Have fun talking with your friends!"

I walk over to where S.G. and the others are sitting and sit in the spot beside S.G. that he'd "saved" for me.

"Hey, Xander," S.G. says. "We were talking and had a question, if you knew something."

"I know a lot of things," I say. "But I'm not that smart. You might have an easier time getting an answer from Greyson if it's something more than what I can answer."

"No!" He laughs as I take a bite of my food. "I mean about the payments. Last week, we were all paid $1,000 for participating in the demo and test. Today, everyone but Carter and I were paid that much – Carter and I were paid twice that. We wanted to ask your grandfather about it, but weren't really sure if that was okay…"

"Oh, that," I nod. "I know the answer. Grandpa Adrian must've forgotten to tell you. You two weren't just helping test the game. You're helping testing the augmented reality glasses' streaming capabilities. I do some on my own, when I stream using them, but I'm still making adjustments, and it's better to have data from multiple people than just one. So you were supposed to be paid fifteen hundred last week. Since that wasn't factored in by the guy who actually wrote the checks, Grandpa Adrian told him to make sure to pay the two of you the missing amount from last week in addition to the full for today."

"That's a lot of extra money just for testing streaming software," Carter tells me.

"I said the same thing and he gave me this big explanation that I've already forgotten," I tell him. "And it made my head spin trying to understand. Hey, Tate?"

"Yeah?" Tate asks.

"Do you think your mom would share with me her barbecue sauce recipe?" I look down at the piece of meat I'd taken a bite from, then look at him. "It tastes really good, even if it's really messy."

"You can ask her!" He laughs. "But it's actually my recipe, I mixed it up earlier! She's just handling doing the actual cooking. I'll write it down for you later."

Stupid me. I should've asked whose recipe it was.

"Oh," I say. "It's really good, Tate."