[Greyson – 11 years]

Xander isn't coming to my birthday party. He's apparently booked for the weekend, which might be so that he has an excuse not to come. Then again, I don't blame him for not coming, since there will be people he's not familiar with here and we're going to swim.

As disappointed as I am, though, I'm not going to let it get me too down, as he apparently dropped off a present for me on Thursday! The box stands taller than my waist in height and it's wider than that and even longer still, so it must be something big.

Before it's time to open that, however, we're waiting for the pizza to arrive. Pizza first, then the presents, then potentially games, then the griffin ride, then ice cream. Snacks throughout.

"How much longer until the Cals return?" I ask.

The Cals are the ones who went to pick up the pizza after it was ordered and it feels like they're taking forever to return. It hasn't actually been that long, but I've managed to finish the calculations for a change to my mega-computer in the time since they left.

Changes I'm making because of some adjustments and then testing I did earlier. I went to the base this morning to work on it some more while Cody and Finn went sightseeing in the area with their parents.

I wanted to go swimming while we waited for lunch, but Dad and Papa nixed that. They allowed us to yesterday because it wasn't too cold, but then we were all cold when we got out and needed hot chocolate to warm us back up.

It's honestly amazing they let us get in the pool yesterday in the first place, but I guess that was mostly because the Cals, Travis, and I were in it without actually getting permission. Cal doesn't need it and he's allowed to give permission to us younger boys as long as he supervises.

And he did even though it was cold.

So instead of swimming while we wait for my brother and his boyfriend to return, we're just waiting in the living room, where it's warm. Cody, Finn, and I are playing Go Fish, though we just finished another game of it, so I got up to ask Dad about lunch.

"It shouldn't be too much longer," Dad tells me. "They left about eight minutes ago."

"Eight minutes and thirty-seven seconds."

"And how long does it take to get here from there if traffic is clear?"

"Eleven minutes and seventeen seconds."

I splat myself onto the floor.

"It'll be hours before they return."

"I've never seen you so dramatic before," Cody says.

"Eh," Travis says. "It varies based on his mood. He's actually usually really patient, but I guess having friends over changed that. You missed his dramatic response to Xander figuring out how to make pocket spaces from a tiny fragment of information that Greyson had when Greyson couldn't with more info."

Let's not bring that up! There are more important things here!

"I just wanna get to the presents," I say. "It's my first time having so many!"

Cody brought one, Finn brought one, the Cals each brought me two, my dads each got me one, Travis got me something, and even Henry got me something! The staff from the Wolf's Dragon also got me something, then there's Xander's present.

It took me awhile to realize it, but he put obfuscation magic on the packaging. Like… I can sense magic to a degree and that allows me to tell what type of spell someone or something is going to use, but it's mostly inference beyond that. Other objects being between me and the item also act as an obstruction.

And there's wrapping paper around the box. That's two layers of things to prevent me from telling what's inside. Not that I'd be able to tell what it is even if I had Xander's godly senses, anyway. He puts obfuscation enchantments on his creations in the first place.

Even the ones he makes while streaming. I'm not entirely sure the reason behind that and no matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn't figure out the reason.

I tried replicating that pouch (the academy has a supplies shop which carries pocket hare leather sometimes) and wow is he so much better at that than me. Well, it makes sense when considering that he's a god, but still. A pouch like that will take me a lot of practice to make properly even if I stick to his exact design.

"Don't forget that you have to share present time," Dad tells me. "It's not just your birthday."

"Yeah, but I'm the one with friends here."

Henry doesn't have any friends, so he doesn't have any guests for the party.

"Keep that up," Papa says. "And you'll have to wait until after Henry finishes his presents."

"Keep what up?" I ask. "All I did was state that he doesn't have any guests he'd keep waiting. And besides, he has fewer presents, anyway, so it's fine if he goes first. That way, he can start playing with his stuff while I open my more numerous presents."

Dad and Papa both sigh for some reason. They feel both frustrated and resigned and I'm not sure why. Letting Henry not be bored while waiting for me is the better option, even if I'll be bored during his presents.

One of us has a longer present-opening time than the other so they should go last.

The Cals finally return with the pizzas and other stuff, and we all start eating. Pizza, breadsticks, cheesy breadsticks, mozzarella sticks, wings, soda, water, tea, and lemonade. That's what our lunch consists of, and I eat an entire pizza and a half by myself.

Not that my friends or siblings eat little, when considering their own mana levels and the fact that they're all using mana regularly now as well. Also the fact that they're all in puberty, too, so their appetites have grown. Kale eats a lot, too, even if not as much as Cal does.

Once we're done, I let Henry open his presents first so that he can start playing with his stuff while I open mine. Dad and Papa bought him some new clothes and a video game, the Cals got him a new shirt and a hoodie, Travis got him chocolate, and I got him socks.

I didn't want to get him anything, but Dad told me that if I didn't, my birthday presents would get canceled. And it had to be something proper, not just something to pass it. Henry uses socks all the time, so it makes sense to get him socks. He doesn't really have hobbies and I'm not going to buy him a video game.

"Why is there a banana in here?" Henry stares at the banana.

"Greyson?" Dad asks.

"Yes?"

"Is that your breakfast banana?"

"I had two oranges before you woke up," I say. "I didn't need a banana, too."

He sighs, feeling exasperated.

"Okay, time for my presents."

Dad got me clothes, Papa also got me clothes, Henry got me a shirt with a griffin on it, and Travis got me a wallet with a griffin on it and he drew me a picture of a griffin, too! The staff from the Wolf's Dragon got me a new sewing kit with a lot of different thread colors.

That won't be just for putting their names on their aprons. They don't even ask me to do it all that often.

Cal bought me a new jacket, and Kale baked me chocolate muffins with chocolate chunks in them. The two of them each also got me griffin plushies, with Cal getting me a regular one and Kale getting me an arctic griffin one.

Cody and Finn apparently worked together to make friendship bracelets for us and mine is in the bag from Finn, so I slip it onto my left wrist, and they do the same with their own. Since theirs weren't presents, they had them hiding in their pockets.

"I know you don't like jerky," Finn says as I pull out the package of meat sticks from his present. "But that's not jerky. It's mindwave cattle meat sticks, so you can snack on them at any time."

"Meat sticks are okay," I say. "But it being mindwave cattle makes it better. Oh! And you got it in three flavors, too! My allowance isn't anywhere near enough to get these as often as I like, so this is great!"

"Greyson," Dad says. "You're earning money through your work through Xanson Technologies, and some of that money is going into the checking account your debit card is for. We've upped the daily cap for you up to $110 a day."

That's a weird number. Did they decide on $10 per year of my life?

"Oh!" I say. "I didn't even think about that! Thanks! But this is still a good preset, Finn! I love it!"

It's time for Cody's present next. He was on a budget similar to my family's individual ones, even if he has a mana capacity similar to Finn. One who has that much mana doesn't necessarily come from a family with a lot of money. Cody comes from an ordinary family and it's honestly impressive how he's boosted his mana capacity up so high.

Which means he really trained himself to get high up.

I was indecisive on what to get him for his birthday earlier this month because of that. Something that I thought he'd like but which cost a lot? Or something which he'd like but would be more into his normal budget.

In the end, I went with chocolate and a video game. The video game was something I figured not only would he like, but would be something in the budget of someone from his family or normal friend group type (if he weren't at the academy with us). As for the chocolate… I made it myself!

When I remove the tissue paper from the bag from him… I find something whose smell was hidden due to it always being around in this house.

Chocolate! But it's not in a store package. Instead, it's in some brown paper boxes and it smells really good.

Tastes good, too!

"I got help from one of the professors," Cody tells me. "Since I've never made chocolate before. Some of those are just plain chocolates, but some of them have fillings in them."

"They're super good!" I say after finishing the one I'd popped into my mouth.

It's nowhere near as good as I can make them, but that doesn't matter. Cody made me chocolate for my birthday! Nobody else got me chocolate! Well, except for Kale, but those were muffins so that's different.

"There's more in there," Cody says.

"So much chocolate!"

"No!" He laughs. "I mean other than chocolate!"

"Oh!" I realize there's something wedged between the boxes and the side of the bag. "Stickers! Of griffins eating or playing with chocolate! These are awesome!"

That makes some of the others laugh, Cody included. I'm not sure what they're finding funny, but I'm finding the presents awesome.

"Now," I fix my gaze on the present from Xander. "For the biggest one! I bet it's just a giant plushie. He really likes them. Like, I'm fairly certain he has over a hundred… but I can't be sure because he warded his room so that I can't peek in anymore. I guess I accidentally teleported in suckers one too many times…"

"Suckers?" Finn asks.

"Yeah," I shrug. "I make suckers all the time."

"We know," he giggles. "You share them with us all the time! How do you accidentally teleport them into someone's room, though?"

"I want to share them with people I like!" I say. "And obviously, I like Xander! He's awesome and a god and is super amazing with everything! So I like giving him gifts, too! But I keep forgetting that he doesn't like suckers for some reason. It's not like he hates them, like chocolate, so it's easy to forget."

I move over to the giant box and unwrap it, finding a cardboard box underneath it. One with no visible breaks in the material. It's completely sealed that way.

"Huh."

Never seen a box like this before. He must've used magic to seal it up. I try to cut open the box at one of its edges and… nothing. My magic doesn't cut into it.

"…what?"

I try again. And again. And again. I try several different things.

"Oh. My. Gosh!" I squeal. "It's a puzzle! Xander made me a giant puzzle for my birthday!"

Despite knowing the box is a puzzle, it still takes me a few minutes to figure out how to actually work the puzzle. I have to imbue mana into it in certain patterns based on very subtle variations in the color of the cardboard.

The fact that it takes me three minutes to realize that it spells out "Happy Birthday Greyson" in Zrebzialan is embarrassing and I hope nobody noticed.

"THERE'S MORE?" I exclaim when I finally finish the puzzle and find the inside of the box packed full of tissue paper and packing peanuts.

The first thing I find in the box is a puzzle cube and I really want to try and solve it, but I need to find out what else is inside… and it seems to be something metal. Metal and large.

I reach into the packing peanuts and grab the object, then lift it up.

"Jeez," I say. "This weighs, like, two hundred… pounds…"

I almost drop it upon it breaking free from the packing peanuts. It's a massive metal griffin! I set it down and start squealing and jumping up and down. This is awesome! This is awesome! This is awesome! This is awesome!

"Uh…" Finn looks at my dads. "What's going on?"

"Greyson's excited," Cal says. "He can sometimes lose the ability to talk when he gets excited, just like when he gets overwhelmed, though he'll also jump and flap his hands when he's excited like this, too. I've never seen him this excited, though… it might last a few minutes."

Once I'm able to calm down enough to play with the toy, I try to turn on the griffin, but can't figure out how. There's no way Xander made a giant metal griffin just as a sculpture, especially since he knows I like puzzles and remote-controlled things and robots. This has to be a robot of some sort.

One without any power button. I even try pressing its topaz-like eyes, but nothing.

"Greyson," Cal clears his throat, and I look at him. "When Xander dropped it off, he said there were three things in the box."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Three?" I look at the box, then at the griffin. "But I want to figure out how to turn this one first."

"Maybe the third is a controller?" He suggests.

"Oh," I smack myself in the head. "Duh! A remote-controlled griffin would need a controller!"

I go through the box until I find… a necklace with a three-quarter-inch sphere made of the same type of crystal as the eyes of the griffin. The rest of it is just some orichalcum to fasten that on and to act as a clasp for the brown leather cord.

Even if I'm not really a jewelry kind of boy, I pull it on because Xander made it. Friendship bracelets from my first real friends and a necklace from Xander are okay.

Back to figuring out how to make the griffin work. After a few more minutes… I finally realize what it is.

"I bet he purposely didn't give me directions so that I could have fun figuring it out!" I say as the griffin extends its wings. "Whoa. It's such a big wingspan."

"Maybe take it outside," Dad suggests. "That thing is large and a lot heavier than the box suggested, so don't play with it inside, okay?"

"Xander probably put a weight-lightening enchantment on the box," I say. "But okay! Come on, guys! Get your jackets on!"

I hurry and get my sneakers and jacket on while Cody and Finn do the same. Everyone else is a little bit slower at this but once we're out back, I make the griffin extend its wings, then start flying. Is this actual flight tech, or just a modified version of Xander's hover tech?

"Whoa," I say as the griffin flies up. "This can actually fly! That's awesome!"

"How are you controlling it?" Cody asks. "You're not holding a controller or anything."

"The crystal!" I hold it up. "See how it's glowing in the middle? The crystal's the controller! I have to put mana into it in certain patterns, so I'm still testing-oh, it's crashing."

The griffin crash lands, and the five that are flying down to join us look unamused. Hm. It seems I mistimed things, as they're here closer to the presents than I realized. That means no games before the griffin rides.

"Sorry!" I say. "Still learning how to control him! Xander made him for me!"

"Why are there five griffins here?" Papa asks.

"For the griffin rides!" I answer. "One for you and Dad, one for the Cals, one for Travis, one for Henry, and one for me and my friends!"

"We never agreed to griffin rides," Dad says.

"It's safer than a roller coaster… aw… I can't make him salute!"

The robot griffin's wings won't bend right for that.

It takes some negotiating, but I manage to convince my dads to allow us to do the griffin rides. Cody's dad and Finn's mom have to be called to get permission, and they take some convincing as well. The fact that their sons already get to ride griffins at school anyway probably helps us out.

Lots of presents, a robot griffin from Xander, chocolate, and getting to ride griffins with my friends and family. This is the best birthday I've ever had!

[Xander – 13 years]

Hey, boys," Emily greets us as we enter the Wolf's Dragon. "How're you today?"

My friends walked with me around the mage district with me today, and now we're finishing our hangout over here by visiting the Wolf's Dragon. Once we're done, we're riding back to my place and going to the fitness room to record Sig's next video, which we spent a good part of the morning setting up for.

"I'm doing alright," I answer. "We would like to eat in, please."

"You can sit at your usual table," she tells me. "Let me grab menus for you."

We go to the table and Emily brings us menus and silverware rolls. I order a lemonade, while the rest of them order either tea or tea mixed with lemonade. Since we're going to be doing more exercising after we leave here, they all decide not to drink soda.

Apparently, they don't want to hear some scolding from the dads over that. The dads don't like it when they drink soda and eat certain foods before doing heavy fitness stuff. Walking to a pond and then swimming is fine, and so is running around at the park while playing with others, but not for something which could count as a workout.

Which the others seem to think the stuff for the video might count as.

It doesn't stop them from ordering apple pie slices with scoops of ice cream while I order my cheesecake slices and some mozzarella sticks and onion rings, though. I guess it's just soda which they don't want to consume right now.

"I'm surprised," Emily says when she drops off our food. "I would've thought you'd be at Greyson's birthday party."

"That's right now?" Sig asks. "Why didn't you say? We would've been fine rescheduling so you can go!"

"He's got friends over and can be hyper enough on his own," I state. "I didn't want to be there, especially once they started eating sugar. They might be fewer in number than you four, but I don't want to know what it would be like to be around them when they're hyper together. And I made sure to give him a gift I was sure he'd enjoy, to make up for it."

Sig and his friends feed into each other's energies, but Greyson is a whole different level of hyper than these guys are. He squeals a lot, for starters, and also has a tendency to sing songs about his favorite cartoon. Both of his friends also watch it, he told me.

"What was it?" Sig asks. "You didn't say before because you were worried he might find out early. Or is it better to wait still?"

"Cal texted me a picture of Greyson with the present," I say. "He really loves it. Oh, also, if you see a news report of some people flying on griffins, that's just another part of Greyson's birthday celebrations."

Sam chokes on his drink from his attempt at not laughing.

"Your cousin is insane," Isaac snickers.

"He can be a bit crazy at times," I nod. "And to answer the question of what I got him, it was a few different things. There was an updated puzzle cube, a robot griffin controlled using a necklace, and the box itself was a puzzle for him to solve to unlock it."

According to Cal, it took Greyson several minutes to solve the puzzle. He asked me what it was, but I told him he should ask Greyson for that since I don't know if Greyson wants others to know.

Especially not since it took him a few minutes to figure out. Sig probably would've solved it a lot faster. My second-cousin is a lot smarter than him, but Sig is better at patterns and puzzles.

That's just weird.

"Yes?" Sig asks.

"Hm?"

"You were giving me a look like you wanted to do something," he says.

"Oh," I say. "It's not important. Greyson took a bit to solve the puzzle that was the box, so I was wondering how fast you'd do it. You seem to figure out puzzles a lot faster than him, even though he's smarter than you. So I was thinking you'd still manage it even faster."

"He's smarter than me?" Sig seems a little upset.

I think I offended him.

"He's only eleven today," I say. "But has enough knowledge in his head to get a PhD. But comparing yourself to Greyson in terms of smarts would be like comparing yourself to me in terms of magical ability. He's an entirely different league on his own. But like I said, you're better at solving puzzles than him. You have no idea how much he complains about that…"

It's a lot, and he really wants to try to get his puzzle-solving times down to beat Sig's. I don't think he'll ever manage that… for very long. Sig would probably just go and solve them even faster.

"Ah!" Connor exclaims, and I look at him.

"Huh?"

"Oh!" He says. "It's just, that's the first time I've heard you actually compliment yourself!"

"I… complimented myself?" I ask. "But I do that every morning. Dad said I should say three bad things about myself, then three good things about me, every day. To acknowledge that there's bad and to remind myself of the good. It can sometimes be hard to think of things."

"Nononono!" Connor says. "Like, you get shy when people compliment you and we only ever hear you put yourself down if you talk about yourself. But you just said you're in a league all your own when it comes to magic!"

Did I really do that? Oh. I did. He probably thinks I'm bad for saying good stuff about me.

"S-sorry," I look down.

"Hey, Xander," Emily says. "It's okay, there's nothing to be sorry about. As you were telling S.G., everyone's got their strengths and weaknesses. It's not bad to acknowledge your own. Just don't get a big head, alright?"

"But it's gonna get bigger as I grow?"

"Not your physical head!" She laughs. "Your ego. It's okay to acknowledge your skills, as long as you don't flaunt it to lord it over people unnecessarily. Anyway, I'll be checking on that other table. You boys enjoy your food, alright?"

The others say they will and I say I'll try, then Emily goes to check on the other customers. It's the usual pair of older boys who are here when I visit. They're definitely dating. I can feel their feelings for each other from here and they come here to eat just the two of them very often.

Though I think the slightly-leaner one might be cheating on the slightly-more muscular one. He's got bad vibes with his interest in the other boy. Why I feel like he's cheating, I'm not sure, but it might be my psychic powers.

He shouldn't cheat. I plan on never doing that because it's Very Bad. It's lying and being unfaithful to the guy you're with. No one should ever do that.

After we finish eating, we pay and the others get on their bikes while I get on my hoverboard. It takes us a little while to get back to my place but once we do, we head to the fitness center, where the stuff for today's video is set up.

Today won't be flips like that last one. That was Sig teaching us how to do flips and since we know, it's not like he can teach us again. He'd just be re-teaching us, and that's not necessary.

Instead, Sig wanted to do an obstacle course. Frank and Quinn helped us design it, then we spent a couple of hours setting it up with just the five of us. The bleachers are up against the walls so that we have more space for the course, and Trenton is sitting on top of them to supervise.

To make things fair, we're all going to wear the strength-limiting bracelets so that it puts us all on an even playing field (Sig's words, not mine).

I don't like wearing it, but it's designed to allow someone to use their full strength if necessary – like if they get attacked. I made absolutely certain it only affects strength for things like competing and playing and stuff, not for other things.

Just in case, I also know how to ignore its limiting effect. That also makes me a lot more comfortable. Grandpa Adrain says that's something I shouldn't reveal to others, too.

We head into the changing rooms to change for the video, the rest of them switching to athletic shorts, while I stick to my usual outfit of athletic pants and an athletic shirt, this one purple. Both of them are from MountainStorm Gear because it's a good brand for this and the clothes are comfortable.

Once our shoes are back on, we head into the gymnasium again and Sig sets up his streamer orb. It's his own, which he bought using his money after convincing his aunt he didn't need to put half of his nearly $6,000 into savings.

Sig says he told her that spending a lot of it now is an investment into future earnings, which I agree with. As long as some of it is put aside for fun stuff, food, and clothes, spending the rest to try to build up his income is a good idea. He'll definitely make a lot from streaming games because he's talented at them so he'll definitely earn it back with next month's paycheck. At the same time, investing into stuff for his athletic videos means that it'll be easier for those to get made. The easier it is for that, the more money he can earn from them.

The orb costs $2,000, which is the same amount as my magitech glasses do. The tech for the glasses required a lot more work to create since the glasses still need to look like normal sports sunglasses. The orb, on the other hand, is mostly just a shell around the tech, so the sensors and other parts only really needed to have their own preferences factored in rather than the shape's.

So it's mostly cheaper than the magitech glasses, especially since it doesn't have some of their functionality, such as being able to let someone play a VR game. The omnidirectional sensors and the storage capabilities did increase their price a little, which is why they cost the same as the glasses rather than less.

Sig said he wants to try doing recordings with the orb and if it works out, he might buy a second one next month so that he can get the views from two different areas or track multiple people at the same time. That will give him even more things he can do for the videos, and it's given me some ideas about updates to the orb.

If I change the sensors a little, that probably wouldn't be an issue. I might be able to set them up so that they aren't just sensing outwards, but sensing everything within their range, even stuff that's not in the direct line of sight of them. That would make it so the orb can sit in one spot but view the other side of a person in its line of sight, or something on the other side of a wall.

Something to work on for the next version of the orb.

Once Sig has the orb set up and his magitech glasses on, I put in my earplugs. At least I don't have to use magic so I don't hear what he's saying this time, now that I've enchanted them to block out sounds from my better hearing.

He's probably saying something he knows I'll want to object to while he's doing the recording, and I don't want to ruin his video. At one point, he shows the orb his strength-dampening bracelet, so I think he's telling them about them and how they work.

I hope he makes sure to tell them about how it only affects when playing or competing, not for other stuff. That if someone wearing them gets attacked, they'll be able to use their full strength to defend themselves.

It's important that everyone feels comfortable with us wearing them, not just us. Knowing that we're not restricted if we're attacked means they'll be more comfortable.

"Alright!" Sig says after I put away my earplugs once he lets me know I can pull them out. "You guys ready for this?"

"I am!" Connor answers.

"Yep!" Sam answers at the same time.

"Ready to go!" Isaac also says at the same time.

"No," I shake my head once they all answer. "But I'll try it with y'all anyway."

"Awesome!" He pumps his fists up into the air. "Okay, everyone! So the deal is that we'll each run the course! The folks who helped design it said it shouldn't take more than five to ten minutes if we do our best, so that should be about half an hour to an hour of time for each of us to do one lap. We'll try to do two laps each and use the better time to see where we rank! If we've got time, we'll do three!"

We could do two people at once on the course if he agreed to use one of my orbs, but he said he doesn't want to use freebies for the course. He also said that $5 an hour for renting them is way too cheap and he doesn't want to spend more than he already has so that he's still got money for magic lessons and food and stuff.

Since we're still a few weeks away from the next payout from XansonTV, wanting to save is understandable. Not wanting to pay $5 an hour for renting a camera just seems weird to me, though. That seems like a fair rental price to me, and four hundred hours would pay off the full cost of one which can be bought at a store.

Maybe I should have said $10 an hour? Or $20?

I'll look up normal camera rental prices later.

"Since it's for my video," Sig says. "I'll go first!" He looks at the orb. "The orb has a stopwatch built in, so the timer you see on the screen is from the live tracking of how long it takes! This line here is where we start, and the ending line is that one there! The moment I cross over the line, the stopwatch begins! And ends when I cross over that one!"

Sig pumps himself up a little with a little bit of bouncing, then takes off running.

[Sig – 13 years]

The first part of the obstacle course is a series of blocks I have to jump over, then a bar I have to duck under. Some thick, padded rings similar to car tires are set up for me to cross, and I have to step into each one as I go.

Past that is a series of blocks I have to ascend, leading up to monkey bars over a foam pit. On and on, the obstacles change, challenging me with pretty much every set of muscles. I sometimes have to climb, sometimes have to duck. I have to jump, I have to weave, and I have to react fast. I fall on my butt a few times and my face once, but it's fun.

"Seven minutes, nineteen seconds!" I pump my fists into the air upon completing it and seeing my time. "YEAH! Alright! Xander, you wanna go next?"

It's only fair for him to go next since it's his place, even if I told the camera that it's "the same secure facility guarded by two thousand gummy bear mages as last time". Xander didn't tell me not to do that again so I think it's fine, even if he doesn't like it.

He's definitely changed enough these past few weeks that he would tell me not to say that if he really didn't want me to.

"Um… okay," he answers in his preferred fashion of avoiding saying that he doesn't but he'll do it.

"You sure?" I ask.

"I'll do it," he confirms my suspicions about not wanting to go before the others.

Xander does his best for the path, and manages it in seven minutes, twenty-eight seconds. Not too much longer than I took for my practice run.

Connor, Sam, and Isaac all take longer than eight minutes to run it, but it's also their first time so it's understandable. Xander and I are more athletic and putting the amount of strength we can output down to the same as if we had the same amount of mana as those three doesn't change that. Better reflexes and denser muscles with another layer or two is simply superior when the strength output is the same.

So really, it's Xander and me competing against each other, and Connor, Sam, and Isaac competing against each other.

"Okay!" I tell the camera. "That's our practice runs down! Now that we've all tried the course and got a feel for it, it's time to run it more seriously and beat our original times! We'll be running it in the same order as before, so that everyone gets roughly equal rest times! That means I'm up first!"

I run the course again and manage it in 5:49, which is definitely an improvement. Not needing to get back up after falling as many times as before probably helped a lot, too.

When Xander finishes, his time is 5:47, or two seconds faster!

"Awesome!" I hold out a fist for him. "Great job, Xander!"

"T-thanks," he blushes a little as he bumps my first with one of his own.

That's exactly what we were talking about earlier and why it surprised all of us – not just Connor – when he said that he was in a league of his own when it came to magic. I'm just happy he took my compliment this time.

Connor runs his next, then Sam, then Isaac. They each manage to improve their times by about thirty seconds, and we have enough time for us to run this again so we do. I finish in 5:37, while Xander finishes at 5:53 and seems a little disappointed by that.

"I bet if we ran this five or six times," Sam says once we've all done our third round. "We'd all have even better times. Just three times wasn't enough to get used to it to do real improvements."

"Yup!" I say. "But it was still fun! If we had more time, I'd definitely have run it at least two or three more times, to try and get that down under five minutes! Oh! Actually, we still have time! Xander, mind if I run it one more time, just to see what my time is when I can put out my real strength? It'll make me even faster!"

"Um…" he looks hesitant here.

He doesn't want people to know that we're training at his place.

"I'll cut me asking you this out of the final video," I tell him. "Not doing that would make people realize it's at your place or something you got us into and I want to make sure they know I'm renting out the space, not getting it free. And I know you want that as well and don't want people know it's yours."

"Oh," he looks a little more relaxed now. "Alright."

"Okay!" I look at the orb. "Okay, everyone! I'm going to run this one more time…" I pull off the bracelet. "But at full power! Let's see what I can manage! Even though I've now more than doubled the amount of mana factored into how much strength I can put out, my time probably won't be half! The increases to one's strength aren't a one-to-one ratio, after all. So let's see what I can do!"

I hand Xander the bracelet, then move to the line and bounce a couple of times before taking off.

"Three minutes, thirty-two seconds!" I pump my fists up into the air! "That's awesome! Okay, everyone! So it looks like between Xander and me for the normal runs, we're about even in times, though I came ahead at the end to take first! Between Connor, Sam, and Isaac… Connor wins!

"Thanks for watching, everyone!" I say. "Lemme know what you thought in the comments, and lemme know if you have any suggestions for the next athletics video I do! Byeeee!"

I end the recording.

"Thanks for letting me rent this out again," I tell Xander. "Running the course was fun!"

"Y-you're welcome," he says. "I liked it, too. Thanks for letting me participate."

"It's your place!" I say. "Of course I'd be fine with it! Would even if you weren't one of my friends! Alright! Let's get everything put away, then food!"

We're all spending the night here again, in Xander's rec room. The dads made sure we brought some snacks to this hangout so that we're not relying on just Xander's family's stuff for that, just as they do for the other hangouts and sleepovers.

"Mom's probably starting on dinner," Xander says. "Or already working on it. It should be ready when we get to the dining room after putting everything away and then showering. So we'll eat dinner for food, not just get snacks. Okay?"

"Okay!" I say. "Let's clean up and get dinner!"

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