I wished Haraldsson luck and made my way back to the entrance of the auditorium. I felt good. Although our time together was short, Liam Haraldsson had made a good impression on me. He was grateful for the chance to go on stage and looked calm enough to give a good presentation.

When I arrived at the entrance, the crowd had already entered. This time, there was no need for Salma to point a seat for me. After I entered the auditorium, I went straight to the front. As a guest of honor, I had a seat on the front row. There was a holographic banner on the stage, and I noticed the title of the presentation.

‘Mana: A New Form of Energy‘

It was a little bland, but I guess it got the job done. If everything goes as planned, this Conference of New Energy and Technology could go down in history as the conference where two history changing sciences were introduced. As I was getting myself comfortable, Liam Haraldsson took to the stage. He looked just impressive on stage as off. Liam took a moment to take in the crowd and began.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my presentation of ‘Mana: A New Form of Energy‘. My name is Liam Haraldsson. Now, most of you have never hear of me so let me briefly introduce myself. I am an energy researcher currently working at Molde Research Institute. We have a small team of researchers that mainly seek to find new forms of energy. Now, there are many people in the energy industry who believe this is an unnecessary field. Why should anyone spend money and resources on energy research when humans already have an abundance of energy sources at out fingertips?

In many ways, these people are right. Solar, Nuclear, Power Core; these are just some of the energy types that had been discovered and popularized in the last century. Do we need more? Most probably not.

However, at the Molde Research Institute, we believe that the tireless pursuit of science and knowledge is something that is both noble and valuable. In this, we found some like-minded allies in Waterfall Technology and The Fat Tinkerer. These two companies found something. To be more exact, they rediscovered something.

Many years ago, a biologist by the man of Wilson Snowmoon discovered a form of undiscovered energy in the human body. Snowmoon theorized that the energy was biological in natural and discovered that certain humans could shape the energy to produce miraculous effects. In his words, the energy is almost magical in nature.”

The audience stirred and I raised an eyebrow at this. The start of the of Haraldsson’s speech was surprising to say the least. I may have been the one who suggested that we disguised magic as a form of science, but I did not expect the councils to put magic front-and-center. Liam Haraldsson obviously disagreed.

“Wilson Snowmoon published his research and was largely ignored. Those who found his research laughed. We all know there’s no such thing as magic, right? They believed this was just a man desperate for some attention and validation. That’s what I thought as well when Waterfall Technology first approached me. However, Snowmoon did publish a formula for the energy he discovered and both Waterfall Technology and The Fat Tinkerer commissioned me to test the formula. Out of curiosity, and the money they were paying me,” some members ofthe audience chuckled at the joke, and Haraldsson gave them a big smile before continuing. “I tested the formula. I got this.”

Liam Haraldsson raised a finger to the crowd, and a small blue flame appeared at the tip of his finger. The audience stirred again, but Haraldsson wasn’t done. He opened his palm, and the flame turned into a ball. A small ball of fire that fits into Haraldsson’s hand.

The holographic projector showed an enlarged image of the fireball and I noticed the noise of the crowd. They were getting excited. Haraldsson closed his palm, and the fireball disappeared. Faint groans of frustration could be heard. This time, it was my turn to smile. Haraldsson got them.

I nodded my head in admiration. I understood what the councils were doing now. Despite the advances of science and technology, the mystery and attraction of magic had never waned. People loved magic, and the councils want to leverage that love into investments. Not only that, Liam Haraldsson just gave everyone a plausible explanation how an unknown researcher like him managed to make such a great discovery. Technically, it wasn’t even a discovery. Wilson Snowmoon was the one who discovered ‘Mana’. Liam Haraldsson is just the guy who brought it into the public eye.

Haraldsson waited for the crowd to settle before continuing.

“To my surprise, Wilson Snowmoon’s formula worked. I am not a biologist, but the fact that the human body could produce such a strange form of energy intrigued me. I spend decades researching energy and had never even heard of this. However, I knew we had to keep this thing secret. I did not want to make the same mistake Snowmoon did and published my research before I am ready. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now ready. Let me present to you ‘Mana: A New Form of Energy‘.”