With my new revelations, I stare at the pile of mud at my feet that once was a floating ball of mud.

"So, you figured out mana typing projection," a voice rings out from behind me. I swing around suddenly to find Thomas just holding his hands up. "Hey, hey, hey. Calm yourself. I'm pretty sure you have Danger Sense and I didn't set it off." I release a sigh. "Thomas, what are you doing here?"

He wags his finger. "Ah, ah, ah. Is that the question you should be asking?" I don't know you're the one that took the armor you made and said would give it back later. My unimpressed stare meets his frozen, comical-looking, smile which causes him to relent. "Okay, fine. Yes, your armor is ready, but you should ask: how is it that a famous scientist can just show up in a crowded park and not cause a commotion?" I look around. "Doesn't look that crowded, and you might be like, what was that guy? He was the skateboarder like a century and a little back." Thomas sighs, "Tony Hawk, and no, I'm not like him. Why can't you just play along? You have no humor."

"No, I had humor, but I've forgotten how to be happy for more than five minutes since middle school." Thomas sucks in air through his teeth, "Oh. So, regular stress of life, huh? Perhaps a vacation could do you some good, or maybe something else? No matter, that's a future us problem. Anyway, the answer to my question is a constant use of mind manipulation skills, presence obscuring skills, and a lot of magi-tech."

"Okay," I say. "Oh wow. I thought you would ask questions about that." I shrug my shoulders. "Seems interesting, but I don't really have a use for it. Can I see my armor?" Thomas once again wags his finger. "No, no, no. You really need to work on critical thinking. You just learned that you can project the effects of mana onto another to merge effects, but not type, so my lack-of-attention magic should be an example of mana and skill projection." He flicks my forehead. It kinda hurts. I think his hand is made of metal. Makes sense since he's a Cyborg.

"So, take a look at your skills sometime and think of ways to combine them. Not just mana and mana or mana and skills, but skills and skills too. There's more to them than meets the eye. Now," he claps his hands and a portal opens behind him, "let's go see your new armor."

We walk into the Mariana Trench base. We're in a room that seems like a mix between an engineering workshop and a tailor's workshop. Standing in the middle of the combination workshop are two wooden mannequins. One has my old armor with the carbon fiber motorcycle outfit and kevlar mask.

The other mannequin seems to have an outfit of similar style, but this one has some dark metal plates covering vital organs, metal gauntlets with claws, and braces all over the limbs. Also, unlike my white mask with glass eyeholes that still show my eyes, this one is made of the same metal plates as the body with silver paint.

"Alright, so this outfit is a little heavier than the old one. You can still use the old one for everyday uses, that is until I can finish the blueprints to fuse the two of them, but I digress. Anyway, as the last outfit was snug-fit with carbon fiber fabric, this one has aluminum alloy plating. It also has aerogel underneath for impact protection and insulation. This combination should protect against most heavy hits."

Thomas walks up to the armor and unlatches one of the plates to reveal a similar motorcycle suit underneath, but this time there's blue glowing circuits in the fabric. "So, the fabric is the same carbon fiber as last time, but this time there are mithril threads, a mana-infused silver, that run around the suit. They allow for mana to be conducted around the suit which add all sorts of features and adds some magic attack resistance as well. Now, I could use a substitute for the mithril, with a mana-rich solution and mercury, but while that's cheaper it's also less effective."

Thomas replaces the plate and holds up the gauntlet that upon closer inspection seems to have a faint bronze color. "These gauntlets should enhance your swipes, but will make it harder to grab things. They also allow you to use a electricity mana attack: Lightning Bolt. This does draw on your own mana though."

Thomas picks up the mask. "Not much changed with the mask as it's really hard to put a lot of stuff in a small space without using Spatial Magic, so I just replaced the metal and gave it some paint."

Thomas turns to face me. "So, I'll step out for a little while you change into this and then we can go over some details."

I strip down to my underwear and quickly put the new armor on. I might call this my magi-tech armor. I call out, "Thomas, you can come back in now!" The door slides open as he walks in. "Ah, wonderful. It fits."

"Now, if you would, open up your status," Thomas requests.

[ Name: Alice Windshaw

Species: Lunares Wolf Beast-human

Age: 24

Level: 11

Experience: 410/850

Titles: Rank F Adventurer, Hero's Disciple

Effects: Normal

Health: 500/500

Magic: 51/51

Mana Regen: 1.8/hr

Power: 175 (+20)

Endurance: 144 (+20)

Intelligence: 153

Wisdom: 137

Agility: 130 (-5)

Dexterity: 97 (-15)

Skills: Enhanced Senses(Maximum, Passive)

Minor Physical Regeneration(Medium, Passive)

Observe(Medium, Passive)

Transcription(Passive)

Mapping(Passive)

Danger Sense(Medium, Passive)

Presence Detection(Minimum, Passive)

Inspect(Active)

Sharp Teeth(Major, Passive)

Powerful Jaw(Major, Passive)

Beast Transformation(Active, Hereditary)

Bite(Active)

Jump(Minor, Passive)

Night Vision(Passive)

Sleep Immunity(Passive)

Poison Resistance(Medium, Passive)

Mental Resistance(Medium, Passive)

Radiation Resistance(Medium, Passive)

Alcohol Resistance(Major, Passive)

Soul Resistance(Minor, Passive)

Lunar Power(Passive)

Telepathy(Active, Hereditary)

Meditation(Minimum, Active)

Mana Vision(Passive)

Mana Sense(Passive)

Mana Circulation(Minimum, Active)

Earth Magic II(Minimum, Base)

Water Magic I(Minimum, Base)

Radiation Magic I(Minimum, Base)

Non-Elemental Magic III(Minimum, Base)

Rock Hand(Minimum, Active)

Earth Bone Enhancement(Minimum, Active)

Summon Water Sphere(Minimum, Active)

Summon Mud Sphere(Minimum, Active)

Lightning Bolt(Medium, Active, Equipment) ]

[ Lightning Bolt - Allows the user to project a lightning bolt at a desired location. Voltage is correspondent with skill rank. Cost: 20mp per cast ]

"Okay, Thomas, there's a few numbers next to my stats, and a new skill with the Equipment tag. Umm, can you explain?" Thomas nods, "Yes, so armor with enough strength and mana in them can be identified as parts of your status. There's actually a skill to get the details of objects called Appraisal, but it's a pain to get. Basically you have to go to business school to figure out the approximate values of objects."

"The numbers with a plus add onto your main stats to the left while a minus subtracts. So, if a stat reads 150 then the armor adds 20 the true value is 170 and vise versa," Thomas continues explaining, "Then the skill with the Equipment tag will disappear when the gauntlets are taken off."

I move my joints around and walk circles around the workshop to get a feel for the new suit. Meanwhile, Thomas sits down at a bench and gives a deep sigh. I wonder what's worrying him? "Thomas, are you alright?" I ask, worried for his health. He waves me off, "Yeah, just…various things. Like I'm a scientist and my subject of study breaks so many scientific laws, or the fact that summer is ending soon with the beginning of the school year and going shopping with Nora."

Okay, so work life and parent life are tiring him. I can't help with the parental thing as I don't have the best role models, but I can listen. "What do you mean that magic breaks laws of science? I thought mana is used to simulate the effects." Thomas looks at me with an pointed glare. "I know what you're doing and it will absolutely work. Right, so Alchemical Magic. You've met Midas, right? Right, so when he shifts all of an objects atoms into gold, you would expect that the mana particles would just add to the atom, but this wouldn't work. Gold is dense, like really dense. So, replacing all of the atoms in an enclosed space would cause the object to explode."

He sighs again, "So, basically the object is replaced with an identical object with the same volume, but made entirely out of gold. Where does the object come from? Magic. That's the answer. The original objects cease to exist while the soul of a living being is stored on the person who casted the spell, which makes organic transformations so much more difficult. Then…" Thomas continues his ranting.

He might have forgotten I'm here, but he's helped me so much. The least I can do is listen.