Ryan stood outside the building, tapping his foot on the ground, almost anxiously waiting for Silvia to pick up. Soon, he could hear crackling on the other side, and Silvia's quiet voice sounded out.
"Hey..."
"Hey! You awakened?" He asked excitedly. Having Silvia awaken as well definitely wasn't something that he expected, but now that it happened, he couldn't be more excited. Someone like Silvia would definitely get an amazing class. But from Silvia's voice, it seemed that she wasn't even nearly as excited as Ryan was.
"I... I don't know what's going on, but... Can you come over? I'm really confused about this all," she explained, and Ryan was almost taken aback.
"Yeah, of course! Are you okay? Did something else happen?" he asked, concerned for his friend, "Is Fae still with you?"
"Yeah, she's still here, we're on our way to my place right now... my parents aren't home right now, but Yanna should be." Silvia explained, though for some reason, she seemed to be almost distracted, "Could you try to reach out to Modak for me? I haven't been able to reach him and I really don't have the mind to take care of that right now."
"Of course, leave it to me. Just take it easy, alright?"
"Yeah, thanks. I'll see you in a bit..."
"See you in a bit," Ryan replied before hanging up.
He immediately went to text Yamada to ask her to pick him up, already asking her to bring him to Silvia's place instead of his own. Yamada replied almost immediately, saying that she would be there in ten minutes, so Ryan still had some time to go back inside and say goodbye, instead of just disappearing without telling anyone.
Ryan stepped back into the Awakened Centre, quickly making his way to the main hall again. In there, he quickly walked up to Aurora or some groups of people that he had spoken to tonight.
"Alright guys, have a good rest of your night," he said with a smile, waving at them as he approached Alicia, one of the last people he wanted to talk to.
"Ryan! It looks like you're leaving already?" she asked, and Ryan nodded, though he couldn't help himself but feel a bit uneasy about the way she looked at him.
"Yeah, something came up," Ryan responded, looking at the elven woman intensely. Since he didn't know when he was going to see her next, he figured he should just ask about it now, "What's your play?"
"Pardon?"
"Like, what's your deal? Why did you have everyone do this whole skill showcase thing? And why are you even here? I don't... I don't get it," despite Ryan's clear intent to get a proper response, Alicia simply brushed him off.
"Now, now, don't be so paranoid all of a sudden," she responded, the smile on her face never having dropped even once the whole night.
Even though he wanted to know what her deal was, clearly, Alicia wasn't going to tell Ryan anything. With a click of his tongue, he looked away.
"Whatever. Have you seen Michael? What happened after... that?" Ryan asked, glancing around the room. There was no trace of any sort of water left anywhere, but Michael wasn't around either. Alicia quickly responded.
"I helped him dry off with a quick spell, and then he was dragged off by who I assume to be his brother."
Ryan groaned lightly, already having a pretty good image of how that conversation was going. He felt like he shouldn't intrude on family matters, though, so he figured he would just text Michael and apologize for not saying goodbye. But Silvia was more important right now.
Not paying any mind to Alicia's penetrating gaze, Ryan made his way back outside and quickly dialled Modak's number. It rang a few times, but then just went to voice mail.
"Come on, man," Ryan groaned, stepping back outside the building as he tried to call again. After being sent to voice mail two more times, he decided to text Modak, telling the orc to call him back. Ryan would try calling him again on the way to Silvia's place, but for now, Yamada had arrived.
Ryan pulled open the door and quickly sat down with a slight groan, feeling the social exhaustion come over him. Yamada quickly greeted him, and he did the same, as she pulled out onto the road, but after that, the car was quickly filled with silence. And Ryan was incredibly happy about that silence for the time being.
After showing Gaia and Maximus to people on top of his new 'Spirit Armament' skill, lots of the other new Awakened came up to him throughout the evening to talk to him. Of course, Ryan didn't turn them down and tried to make conversation, but after about three hours of either talking or eating without break, Ryan's jaw felt incredibly sore, and so did his mind. It was that sort of exhaustion that made him want to not talk for the next week. Though, considering where he was headed, he would probably be pretty busy for the next couple of hours anyway.
After letting out a slight breath, Ryan pulled out his phone, pulling up his 'Hotchpotch' feed, seeing some pictures and posts of the people that he just followed pop up. All of them were the newly Awakened people from the party.
Some of these people seemed to be living some pretty interesting lives, but then again, you probably shouldn't trust these pictures too much. He looked through the people he just followed and quickly found Michael's account.
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You
Hey man, I ended up having to leave because of an emergency
Hope you have a good time for the rest of the night
That 'Water Ball' was fucking awesome
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Ryan pulled back out of the app and went to dial Modak's number again, but just like before, he didn't answer the call.
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Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
A quiet whistle filled the air as a man walked along a local park's main path. The scenery was illuminated by the evening light. There were quite a few people walking around, working to set up decoration for Spirit Week later this month. It was a massive event, so things like this were usually set up well in advance to make sure that everything was prepared in time all across the city.
Particularly all the lights that would keep the city lit up and acted as the main attraction for the sixth day of Spirit Week needed to be properly linked together and set up safely so that nobody could intervene with them. And that was exactly what this man was here for.
"How do you do? I'm Richard Snappertie, I'm here to assist you today," with a smile on his face, Richard approached the workers in front of him currently taking a break.
"Ah, that's you, huh? The Technomancer or whatever?"
"Yup, that's me," Richard replied, straightening his tie with a smile on his face. After that orientation meeting the other day, Richard had been introduced to some higher-ups. The Snappertie family did have some connections within this industry, so they were very happy to meet with him. And amongst those people was an individual that made a quite intriguing offer to Richard that he couldn't let up. And that led to him starting work early. Only on a sort of part-time basis right now so that he could finish his studies without interference, but it was still work nonetheless.
And as the 'new guy', Richard was sent out to do some dirty work, though he would have volunteered to do this anyway, even if that hadn't been the case. Richard approached the central control system for all the lights and decoration that was running on electricity or magic that was set up here in the park. It was one of the central locations of where Spirit Week's sixth day would be celebrated, so it was more than important to keep everything safe.
Richard got out his gloves, a new pair that had been custom-made for him by his new 'friend', and opened the suitcase by his side. Inside of it were a number of tools that he was going to need for this.
Quickly, with some swift motions, Richard opened up central control system and looked inside, quickly adjusting certain values with a spark of his magic.
"So, ya can fix it? It's some magic issue, right?" one of the workers asked, and Richard quickly nodded his head.
"Yes, there was a mana overflow in one of the-"
"I don't care what it is, as long as you can fix it," the man interrupted, turning away with a loud yawn.
Richard's smile disappeared and he clicked his tongue. Doing repair work like this was usually far, far below his skill level, so that man should be thankful he was here to take care of everything so quickly. He was already finished fixing it after a few minutes, after all. It would have taken most others maybe some hours to even figure out what the issue even was.
But that being the case, Richard had the time to do what he was here for in the first place. Looking around the interior, he was looking for the central mana source. It was hooked up directly to the mana currents around here. He nearly had to climb inside the machine to get to it, but before long, he did get his hands on the refined crystal without issue. With just a quick touch of his fingertip, a spark of his mana flowed inside, and with it, a black thread was carried along, burying itself inside of the crystal without a trace.
"Perfect," Richard smiled, pulling back out of the control system before closing it back up. He snapped quickly and activated the part of the system that he just repaired; it was a deep protection against outside interference. Basically, a high-powered barrier placed around this small object, combined with a security system that would give a warning to a person in charge that someone was trying to mess with it.
The gnome walked up to the workers with a smile on his face, "It's all set up. As long as you have your key-cards you should be able to-"
"Mhm, thanks, kid," one of the workers, the same one that was so rude before, simply waved what Richard was saying off. He approached the central control system and quickly turned it on. All the lights and decoration quickly flashed on for a moment, but were quickly turned back off. This was just supposed to be a quick test to make sure that everything still worked properly. Richard was a little bothered by that, as if the man thought that the gnome might have messed the control system up in the process of fixing the security system, but in the end, it was fine.
It gave Richard the chance to view that his own plan had worked out pretty well too. A flood of black threads that only Richard was able to see was flowing through the lamps and cables and illusion stones, and everything else that was set up here. Before long, they had spread throughout the whole area. Since those threads were deeply connected with Richard's magic, he could control them pretty well too.
He flicked his wrist, quickly making sure that the threads were hiding themselves properly. Like this, the corruption couldn't be seen properly even with detection abilities, and could lay dormant until Richard needed to use this space.
Glad that everything worked out, Richard glanced over at the worker. He was ready to finally leave, now that everything had been fixed, and packed up his van together with the other workers. Without further ado, they left, not even glancing at Richard as they did.
"Well, that has me quite peeved," Richard muttered to himself, pointing at the van as it drove away. A spark of his mana flowed toward it and embedded itself inside of the vehicle's machinery, though once he had done so, Richard hesitated, "I guess only one of them really bothered me... Oh, well."
He waited and waited, sitting down on a nearby bench. Before long, the sound of an ambulance's siren filled his ears, and a smile formed on Richard's face.
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Almost simultaneously, two cars arrived in front of the Redhorns' home. One was a sleek, private car, the other an old and rusty taxi.
Ryan stepped out of the car, showing Yamada note he took on his phone to tell her not to wait for her, that he had already told Runar he would be late, and whatever else she needed to know.
At the same time, Silvia and Fae stepped out of the taxi. A bit confused, Fae looked at Ryan, "Wait, weren't you in the Channel? How did you get here at the same time as us…?"
"Uhm, my uncle's friend is a pretty good driver, I guess," Ryan replied, not wanting to get too deep into it. His stomach was still turning from the quick turns, speeding, alleys, and even the plenty of times that Yamada actively drove on the wrong side of the road for a bit because it would be quicker. Ryan had no idea how she still had a licence, but at least it came in useful.
Either way, Ryan quickly approached Silvia, giving her a quick hug. The elf pulled him in closer and the two stood there for a moment.
"Thanks for coming so quickly..." Silvia said as she finally let go, waving at Yamada as she pulled back out onto the road.
"Of course, you came sprinting for me when I awakened. Plus... something else happened, right?"
"... Right," Silvia nodded. Seeing both her and Fae's expressions, Ryan didn't really know what to expect, but it didn't seem great.
Fae, wanting to break the nervous air, quickly looked at Ryan, "Were you able to reach Modak?"
He quickly shook his head, "Nope, but I'm still trying. He might be busy preparing for work stuff?"
Silvia slowly nodded her head, "Right, yeah... that's fine, he's busy, don't worry."
The three quickly made their way up the stairs to the front door, and Silvia unlocked it. There was music playing upstairs, so it sounded like Yanna was home.
"Let's go to my room, it's in the attic. I'll go grab Yanna on the way," Silvia suggested, and neither Ryan nor Fae had a reason to decline. Once they got to the floor where Yanna's room was, Ryan quickly swerved to the side.
"I'll go take a leak first," Ryan quickly said, but Silvia just scrunched her nose up.
"Ew, don't say it like that..."
"Oh sorry, I didn't know you were so high-class now that you awakened, M'Lady," Ryan scoffed, as the elf girl sighed and knocked on the door to her sister's room, quickly pushing it open afterward as she always did.
At the same time, Ryan pushed open the bathroom door, but before he could, the door opened in front of him. And who stood there was Yanna, wearing a bathrobe after taking a shower. But instead of greeting him, she looked across the hall, and stared into her bedroom nervously.
"G-Guys, I can explain, I-" she stuttered out, as Ryan turned around confused. He saw a stunned Silvia grinning from ear to ear while Fae was trying to hide her embarrassment.
What, or rather who could be seen inside of Yanna's bedroom was a half-naked Modak, trying to cover up with Yanna's blanket.
"Uh... hi? You're back early..."