Ortan frowned "So you're saying they saw you?" He asked one of the two flawless two star Caster guards in front of him. One Male, and one female.

"I don't know head butler, but they definitely sped up when I got close." The male guard said.

Ortan sighed and turned to the female guard, "What about Lapsa, did anything happen there?"

"The cloud jumping squirrel didn't notice anything, the bird on the other hand, kept making sounds at me." She said.

"Bird?"

"There was a big black bird, with some silver feathers the size of a hawk. The servants were terrified." The female guard laughed thinking about it.

Ortan shook his head,

That bird was supposed to watch Cayden, I guess it's a good thing I took matters into my own hands.

...

Cronix hasn't spoken a word for hours as he mindlessly worked on the teleportation array, neither Cayden nor Lapsa knew what to say, and even the crow was silent, but she had her own reasons.

Cronix worked on the eighth primary line; these next few primary lines were going to be the most important part of the whole formation.

Not only because they were the core of the formation, but also because if he drew these lines correctly, they would connect to the formation in Party Mansion.

Lapsa was practicing his own mental energy refinement, he still wasn't given permission by Cronix to use his mental energy, he also didn't know how.

Cayden was silently absorbing the magic energy in the air, this was way less efficient than using the energy from the earth, but it was something.

Cronix put the information tablet on his forehead for the fifth time,

I need a way to keep this memory inside my mind longer.

Cronix sighed, and continued working on the eighth primary line.

"Cronix," Lapsa quietly called him, "When can I release my mental energy?"

"When you don't have to force it." Cronix responded without looking up.

Lapsa was about to ask more, but Cayden stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder. When Lapsa looked up at him, he put a finger to his lips and motioned at Cronix.

Cronix's eyebrows were tilted as he measured the next line with his finger.

Lapsa nodded at Cayden, he understood now was not the time to disturb Cronix, so he went back to performing cognitive gathering.

After thirty minutes the line was complete, and there was sweat on Cronix's forehead, and he somehow felt drained, despite only doing one line.

"You okay Cronix?"

Cronix waved Cayden's question away, and only laid his back onto the ground, "I'm exhausted."

"Take a break, maybe teach Lapsa how to use his mental energy."

Cronix nodded his head, and Cayden tapped on Lapsa's shoulder. Lapsa opened his eyes, and looked at Cayden with a confused expression.

Cayden only nudged his head in Cronix's direction, Lapsa turned to look at Cronix, who was staring at the formation book.

"Come here Lapsa, I'll teach you how to practice your mental energy."

Lapsa's eyes lit up, he got on his knees and approached Cronix. When he arrived in front of him, he sat cross-legged and waited like a student.

Cronix's lip slightly curled as a little gleam appeared in his eyes. Cayden smiled at the scene before laying back down on his bed.

A few days went by, Lapsa was making progress on his mental energy. Cronix on the other hand, was forced to take a break from the teleportation array by Cayden.

There were only two weeks left until the birthday party, and so very little time to work on the teleportation array.

"Good job Lapsa, you managed to create an energy sensing array in three days, that's faster than I could." Cronix said, looking over Lapsa's newly created formation.

"Wait, if Lapsa could do it better than you, doesn't that mean he's more talented than you?" Cayden asked with a smile.

Lapsa shook his head, "No, I only got this far because Cronix was helping me out, while he didn't have anyone help when he first started."

Cronix nodded his head.

"Suck up." Cayden muttered.

Lapsa glared at him, but he didn't say anything.

"Oh, we should activate the formation, I want to see if it works." Cayden reached for the energy sensing array, but Cronix held the formation back.

"No need, this is going to explode for sure." Cronix tossed the formation to Lapsa, "Keep that, use it to study your mistakes."

Cayden frowned, "Wait, if we want the formations to explode why does he have to practice perfecting the formation?"

Cronix smiled, "That's because the better the formation the bigger the explosion."

Lapsa looked at the makeshift instructions Cronix gave him, and compared it to his own.

Cronix sighed, "We only have two weeks left, and I only have 27 secondary lines and eight primary lines. My break is over."

Cayden nodded, "That's fair."

While those two were talking the crow landed on Lapsa's shoulder and pecked his ear.

"Ow, what was that for?" Lapsa looked at the crow, who only responded by plucking her feathers, then pecking at his ear again.

Surprisingly, Lapsa understood what she was trying to say, but he just waved her off, "I gave you more than 100 names in the past week, and all you do is bite my ear. I'll be lucky if my ears aren't gone before we get out of here."

The bird pecked at Lapsa's hair, Lapsa glanced at the crow, "Give me some time, okay? And you should stop pretending you care about your name, I bet you only want lettuce."

The crow didn't acknowledge what Lapsa said, and only continued to peck on his hair.

Cronix suddenly looked up at Cayden, "Did Riley manage to get our body doubles?"

Cayden nodded, "Pretty much everything is all ready, well all except the teleportation array and the formations around the manor."

"Good, Lapsa, we'll be working on that for the next two weeks."

Lapsa looked over at Cronix, "Wait, I can't do that, I can't even create an energy sensing array in one sitting!"

"It'll be fine, you have both me as your teacher, and the cognitive gathering technique, everything will work out." Cronix actually sounded confident in his words, which kinda reassured Lapsa.

Cayden sat down on Cronix's bed, he made himself comfortable, before absorbing the magic energy into his stars.

In the morning of the following day, after the roll call, the two got working. Lapsa focused his work on the kitchen, and used the cognitive gathering technique whenever he could.

At the end of the first day, Lapsa drew seven lines in an energy sensing array with a pencil on the wall filling it with mental energy.

The marks were out of view, in a location where no one would find unless they were deliberately trying to look for it.

Cronix on the other hand, created more than nine sets of nine lines of the teleportation array around the manor without the use of any utensil, he only stopped to save mental energy for the real teleportation array.

The second day was more of the same, Lapsa continued to work on his energy sensing array, with Cronix creating more sets of teleportation arrays hidden through the residence.

"How much more do you..." Cayden suddenly went silent with his question.

Cronix looked at Cayden, his eyebrows were beginning to tilt, but it only took a moment for him to understand.

After finishing his formation, the two moved on to work on their actual work.

The air moved when the two walked a few feet forward. The male guard from earlier approached the wall Cronix was creating the teleportation array on.

But once he got close, he felt a weird sensation surrounding him, there was a slight feeling of danger around his body.

Cronix smiled as he glanced at the wall, then to Cayden "I got the idiot."

The male guard looked away from the wall after he couldn't find anything, but the weird feeling he got never went away, and he quietly followed the two boys.

When the day was finished for the three boys, Cronix wasn't fully aware when he was walking back to their quarters, instead he focused on another part of him, going to an unknown place.

"Report your findings." The head butler ordered.

The two guards looked at each other, "We apologize head butler, but we found nothing."

Ortan sighed and said, "Fine, get out of here."

But once the male guard turned around, Ortan frowned, and in one quick motion, he appeared behind the male guard and grasped a formless, colorless energy, before clenching his fist destroying it.

Cronix gasped, and turned to Cayden, "My mental energy was discovered."

Cayden frowned, and asked, "Do you at least know where the guard went."

Cronix nodded and pointed back at the manor, in a room on the first floor.

Cayden's frown deepened, and he cursed under his breath, "That's Ortan's room."

"The head butler? Oh, crap." Cronix shook his head, "He shouldn't know it was me, at most he'll recognize it as the mental energy from the day Lapsa broke in."

"Let's just hurry and create the teleportation array." Cayden muttered.

Cronix frowned, and said, "You say it like you're helping me."

Cayden ignored Cronix, and continued walking, but a bitter expression flashed on his face, before it disappeared completely.

Lapsa fed the crow some lettuce, as he dragged his body to the room, his constant use of his mental energy left him drained.

When he finally made it to the room, he collapsed on the nearest bed which was Cayden's. Cayden didn't mind since he was on Cronix's bed.

The crow flew up and landed on the drawer.

"Lapsa, you okay?" Cayden asked.

Lapsa only hummed in response.

Cronix sighed, "Does that mean you can't work on the energy sensing array?"

Cayden gave Cronix a weird look, but Lapsa groaned and stood up, and carried his body in front of Cronix, "I can still work."

Cayden shook his head, "I don't think that's a good idea." But the other two boys ignored him, and Lapsa grabbed his already completed energy sensing array, and the array Cronix gave him to compare.

"I don't think he's in the right condition to work." Cayden told Cronix.

Cronix shrugged, "It's okay, he's only studying, nothing too bad."

Unfortunately Lapsa really wasn't in any condition to be working, and his body was slowly failing him, and as he felt himself losing all energy to hold himself up, he gathered mental energy throughout his body trying to support himself.

However, if he asked Cronix about this, he would've learned this wasn't a good idea, as he wasn't strong enough to support himself, nor did he have enough control over his mental energy to stop it from interacting with anything else.

And once he collapsed, his mental energy infused with his energy sensing array and it exploded launching him back.

Cronix bursted out laughing and Cayden looked at Lapsa with eyes full of worry.