Bond, James Bond.

"Yo, Gideon! How are you doing here? Adapted to the new environment I see." Valnyk entered his new facility on the floating city of Xyrus with the loud slam.

His loud shout was heard in the whole building, of course, it wasn't unheard by Gideon.

"Hah, brat you're here!" Gideon soon was seen running towards the entrance.

"Damn, you look fresher than on our first meeting. Himes, you really did force him to bathe didn't you?" Valnyk jokingly said upon noticing the calmly approaching butler, who he hired himself for Gideon.

Rehmer who came with Valnyk nodded towards Himes as a greeting, Himes nodded back too. Assistants, both alike.

"Meh, I bathe when required." Gideon just waved, avoiding eye contact with grinning Val. The young brat definitely was playing with him.

They together proceed to the meeting room of this facility. Already in the meeting room, while sitting on the comfortable couch, Valnyk questioned, "By the way, any new inventions?"

"Hm, I have many ideas, however, I can't seem to find time for all of them." Valnyk just put his hand on his chin and started wondering.

"What if we hire more workers?" But this would only work if Gideon can manage other people.

"I don't recommend doing this, my lord. They can pose a potential threat leaking our inventions." Rehmer stated.

"Hmm, yeah, that may be a problem. I wouldn't want my inventions to get in a snotty noble's hand." Gideon agreed with Rehmer.

'That's technically true, but can they replicate what we are doing?' Valnyk pondered. It was actually too hard to predict anything yet, he knew that their inventions might not be imitable for at least for 5 years, however, who knows what will happen afterwards.

It's just that currently, nobody cares about the progress of non-magical technology. After seeing the efficiency, many will change their opinion and later they will definitely try copying, including the Royal Family.

"So you will be doing everything alone? Just look at your stick figure, if not Himes you would die just from overworking." Val shook his head, it was essential to hire at least a few trustworthy workers.

"Do whatever you want." Gideon reluctantly agreed, not that he couldn't do it alone HMPH!

"Rehmer, you can arrange it, right?" Rehmer just nodded in response and immediately left the building.

"Eh, what a hardworking bunch of subordinates I have, hehe." Val proudly stared at Rehmer's back and joked.

"I'm not your subordinate brat, we are just cooperating." Gideon retorted back. He was too prideful to be called a little boy's subordinate.

"Whatever lets you sleep at night. But I've come here not to joke around." Valnyk's cheerful demeanor switched with the serious one, the same happened with Gideon.

"I'm listening." Gideon straightened himself.

"I require something that can store mana and later could be used again." said Val.

"Meh, I thought you wanted something serious. It could be done, I actually already made something similar, but nobody could test it properly." Instantly Gideon relaxed, while Val was surprised.

"Impressive, but why wasn't it properly tested?" he then asked.

"Those mages just weren't able to control their internal mana, even those conjurers in the Guild. Most of their mana wasn't even inserted into the crystal and after taking it out, they complained about its waste." explained Gideon. Valnyk hummed, unlike others he has great control over mana. It was another treat from the lizard eyes he got.

"Perfect, bring it out. I'll be one to test it."

"Alright, Himes it should be in my belongings, bring it for us." Gideon lazily gave the command to Himes, as the butler excused himself and left.

After a few minutes of waiting, Himes returned. His quick steps were clearly heard in the whole facility, obviously, Gideon's description of the item's location wasn't very informative, so he probably turned over the whole storage.

"Finally, you are here." Gideon announced and hastily took the item from Himes.

"Brat, just try to will your mana into this crustal." Finally, Valnyk could view what this item was all about.

Bracelet with a small black crystal attached to it. No other stylish part, only metallic corpus, and crystal.

"I'll try." The white-haired boy took the bracelet and gently put it on his wrist.

"I like the design. Now let's see if it can withstand the instant transfer of my mana." He rapidly forced his eternal mana to flow into the crystal. The crystal itself started changing its colors from black.

"Woah, it's changing colors finally!" Gideon exclaimed upon seeing the crystal switching colors at a rapid pace.

From the usual black color, it changed its color to light orange, just like Valnyk's mana-core lever.

"Damn, you gotta have perfect mana control. Even the A-Class adventurer wasn't able to change its color much, just a purple hue emerged." Gideon's praise was unheard by Val.

'It took all my core stages.' Val had a smug smile on his face, this crystal was indeed an interesting thing.

It had the function of a mana-core, of course, normal adventurers won't be able to even fill a percentage of its actual storage. Humans, dwarves, and elves, all alike, won't be able to fill this crystal, since they can't transfer internal mana from the mana-core itself and they don't have perfect control over their own mana either.

In this case, it took Valnyk's 100% to fill this crystal to the level of the light orange stage.

"Can you make more of those?" he then excitedly asked Gideon.

"No. I thought those crystals were useless so I threw them away." Valnyk just facepalmed at Gideon.

"Ah, well that's better than nothing."

"Why do you need them anyway?" Gideon questioned.

"Additional reserves of mana, just in case I'm out of it." Valnyk gave an honest answer, Gideon nodded understanding his reasoning.

"By the way, do you have any ideas which I can use? We will need financing in the future right, I'm scheduling big projects."

"Hmm, create some portable watches which people can wear on their wrists. Later you may even add jewelry and sell them for a bigger price."

"We will spend more than we will earn. Besides, I don't think people would want their watches to die after a few days of usage." Gideon objected.

'Oh right, everything in this world is mostly empowered by magic.' Valnyk remembered.

"Use spring steel instead of beast-cores." Valnyk proposed casually.

"How's that?" asked confused Gideon.

"Spring steel's main function is returning to its original shape, despite significant deflection or twistin-" However, someone didn't let him finish the explanation.

"Shame on me! How could I not think of this?!" exclaimed Gideon, slamming his hand into the face in the process.

A simple clock which was powered by a beast-core was already installed in major cities. Its mechanism was fairly easy to replicate too, but the problem is they need constant change with energy sources. Mana in the beast-core ends quickly, so fresh ones are installed regularly.

This was the reason for having only a few large clocks in the city, for people to see. Yet, now it will change.

With one charge of coiled spring steel, the mechanism, if properly built, will continue functioning for a day or more and recharging it will be simple for normal people.

"Heh, we will make all those efforts of the Royals go to waste." Gideon creepily laughed.

"By the way, I just recalled something. The Royal family invited me to a party. They said the prince has a birthday." Valnyk blurted. If Valnyk was to admit, he would tell Gideon that he threw the invitation in the trash can, but he got a little idea.

Valnyk just wasn't sure if that was to lure them out of the castle or to apologize.

"Are you going?"

"Yeah, got the idea."

_________________________________________________________________________

"Sis, how do I look like?" Val flexed a little in front of his sister, who blankly stared at him.

"You look normal." she just commented and continued doing her things… which was basically doing nothing.

Valnyk was wearing a fully white suit and the same was with Varay, who was wearing a beautiful white-dress made out of silk. Both of their clothes greatly merged with their hair colors. At this rate, they could be called Albinos.

"Oh, my children have grown up!" Vanessa entered the room, squealing from happiness.

"Yeah, already going to parties." Varlam followed in after his wife, still a little skeptical about the whole party thing.

"Oh, Var. This dress suits you so much." Mother continued squealing, observing Varay's dress from every angle.

"You look simply badass." The father complimented his son and bumped his shoulder.

"Heh, that's not everything." Valnyk smirked and took out something from his pocket.

It was just black sunglasses. He then put it on and hid his purple eyes, before again, tilting them forward, showing the same purple shining eyes. His father smirked back in response. (My guy is turning into Gojo Satoru.*Idk man, even the guy on the cover looks like Gojo, but he isn't.*)

"Heh, what should I expect from my own son, who surpassed me even in style."

Valnyk was still a kid compared to his sister, who was 17-years old. She had a great trained figure, she was a perfect woman for many. But her expressionless face and cold demeanor lowered her chances of getting a husband in the future.

Then there is the overprotective family, Valnyk and Varlam, both great mages, ready to beat any potential candidate to a pulp.

"Anyway, don't make a scene in the castle. Be careful, Blaine is quite an idiot. but knowing you, you'll manage it somehow."

"Yeah, stop worrying over me. Live a life, just rest and take care of mom. I'll manage everything, I promise." In response to his son's promise, Varlam just smiled and ruffled his hair.

"Then I'll be counting on you," both father and son fist-bumped.

_________________________________________________________________________

The ride on the carriage wasn't long, it barely took two hours to arrive in front of the Royal Castle. Teleportation gates made it possible to travel across massive amounts of land, just in seconds.

"I have never been in Etistin before, this city is just like Xyrus, nothing special." commented Valnyk, looking through the window of the carriage, seeing almost the same view as in Xyrus.

"Nah, Xyrus is at least floating," he soon changed his mind, while Varay was quietly sitting in front of him.

She has already been in this city, unlike her brother.

"My lord, we have arrived at the destination." The driver opened the carriage for them, revealing the grand castle of the Royal Family.

"The Glayder family didn't hold back huh?" Valnyk chuckled and stepped out of the carriage, followed by Varay.

"Welp, let's get going." After putting his hands in the pockets, the brother and sister stepped forward.

Walking straight up on massive staircases, they were greeted by two Royal Guards standing in front of them with some list. They were here to just authorize people from the list, but two of them were too… nervous for some reason.

"S-State your name." Looking at the Royal Guard, Valnyk slowly removed his sunglasses in a stylish manner, revealing his purple eyes which reflected the stars themselves.

Subsequently, his lips moved, opening his mouth, he stated.

"Aurae, Valnyk Aurae."