"Want a candy?" Shry asked innocently.
After saying that, Shry casually unwrapped a grape-flavored candy and put it in his mouth, excited about the new brand of candy he came across.
After tasting it, though, his face slowly scrunched up as an unappetizing sour tang rubbed off the candy onto Shry's taste buds along with an oddly bitter aftertaste.
"Don't pick grape" Shry warned with an uncharacteristic frown on his face.
"Give me mango." Hytile responded and freed one of his hands to accept Shry's gift, continuing to fidget with the experimental apparatus with the other.
"Good luck..." Shry said and handed the mango-flavored candy hesitantly, given the terrible impression the grape flavor had left Shry with.
(Now what do I do with the rest of the grapes...) As Shry's thoughts continued, a devious smile slowly began to show on his face.
(Tiy, Sile, Cydel, Yuwwe, and Cal, I'm sorry), Shry deviously thought, cackling quietly at the unfortunate fate awaiting his friends.
"This actually tastes pretty good... Also, I'm almost done, so get ready to leave the Resonance Hall" Hytile complimented and announced in the same breath.
(Oh shoot, I forgot to ask Mr. Luftra about natural Node!) Shry thought, starting to panic as he immediately started to think of questions to ask his mentor.
"Mr. Luftra, What is Natural Node?" Shry tried to ask quickly, his voice twitching a little whenever the candy got in the way.
Hytile had been expecting this question ever since he had planned this experiment, so he prepared and memorized his explanation for today so he could give Shry a proper explanation, giving him the absolute facts about the subject so Shry wouldn't spiral into a misconception.
"There are three known states of Node. The first state is what you know as Natural Node. The second state, known as the transitioning state, is when Node is absorbed into a human or some other creature. Finally, the last state is Activated Node. This is the state Node takes after being expunged from a human or creature."
Hytile stopped for a moment to take a breath as well as tinker with the boxy gadget, taking care of a more intricate part while he was at it.
"Out of all these states, Natural Node is the most unpredictable and the most unknown to us all, as it is what makes up all naturally formed matter like trees, stones, dirt, air, and us, human beings. Old science is the best grasp we have over natural Node, even though we know full well it is still Node that composes all matter, but no matter how hard we try, we are still unable to completely utilize it. There are some exceptions... But let's not get into that today; I'll teach you about that some other day."
As Hytile ended his lecture, he simultaneously finished the final touches of the experimental apparatus.
"Alright, I think we should be ready for the experiment." Hytile said as he stood up and headed toward Shry.
"I have a question..." Shry's voice wandered.
"Couldn't we do this outside, since from what I gather from looking at the box thing we're using, we are testing if natural Node can be contained by one of the materials that made up its layers?" Shry questioned curiously.
"Well... it's because we need a controlled environment that can rappel Natural Node, and the Resonance Hall is perfect for that." Hytile explained
After saying that, Hytile stood up from his squatting position and made his way out of the Resonance Hall with Shry in front of him.
(That's definitely going to take a while to recalibrate) Hytile exhaled through his nose, feeling slightly dissatisfied.
As Hytile exited the Resonance Hall, he pulled out a small white cuboid from his right pocket.
The white cuboid was about the same size as a smartphone, maybe slightly bigger. All around it, spreading through all the corners, were dozens of intricate engravings, similar to the ones on the outside walls of the Resonance Hall.
...
"Let's go to the canopy, it's gonna take a while for the Resonance Hall to recalibrate" Hytile casually said as he passed the white cuboid from his right hand to his left.
With practiced ease, Hytile flared up his Node, purposefully making only his index finger glow light green, and using that finger, he slid the tip of it around the cuboid in a pattern, leaving a glowing blue line wherever the tip of his finger touched.
*Beep* the cuboid sounded.
Following that, the lights in the Resonance Hall blipped away, drowning the hall in its familiar unrelenting darkness, while revealing the true function of the small monolith-like item Hytile is holding onto to be a remote control.
This isn't the first time Shry was seeing this device in action, so he wasn't as eager and curious as the first time he saw it.
With that done, Hytile turned around and started to make his way to the canopy he mentioned.
Within a short walk away was a small canopy, lying out of place on the usually empty land around the Resonance Hall.
Under the canopy were two finely crafted white chairs that follow the patterns of the Resonance Hall, along with a table that isn't too different in design, as most of its body is composed of clear glass.
"While we wait, do you have anything you want to know or learn?" Hytile casually as he pulled out his chair
Hearing Hytile's offer, Shry didn't answer immediately. In his mind the thoughts about this experiment kept on repeating... Unable to think of anything else other than that.
"Rather than a question, I'd like to know... Am I really needed for all these experiments?" Shry unexpectedly asked as his face turned slightly disgruntled.
Hytile was also about to sit down, but when he heard what Shry said, he inadvertently froze for a moment, but in less than a second, he snapped out of it and fully sat down before responding to Shry.
"You're actually the most important piece to all these experiments. You may not know it, but you're actually famous among us overseers." Hytile said as a small smile grew on his face, warmly reassuring Shry.
During the past 6 months, Hytile had been getting a feeling that Shry was feeling guilty for taking so much of his time.
Upon catching on to Shry's growing unease, Hytile had been thinking about confronting him about it, but he never found a good time to bring it up. That was... until now.
"You are far more useful than any musician I know... You mentioned earlier that it's impossible to contain natural Node, but yet your ability goes against that impossibility. You don't even know how many of us would kill to have that," Hytile elaborated but got a bit carried away as he fell into awe at Shry's ability.
After hearing all of that, Shry didn't know how to feel; he felt flattered, but yet a tiny pang of guilt still lingered.
"Mr. Luftra, I'm very happy to hear you say that, but is there more I can do? You're practically paying me, so I feel like I should do more!" Shry enunciated his words with his usual enthusiasm, figuring out what the problem he had was.
"Is that what you're worried about? ... If so, don't. I have more money than I know what to do with, so I'd rather pay you than leave it to catch dust." Hytile replied, trying to extinguish Shry's guilt.
"Plus, you increased the funding for my Resonance Hall by almost 3 times, so it's really you that's taking the losses" Hytile mentioned, shrugging his shoulder as he did so.
"Haaah... Okay." Shry reluctantly accepted, his eyes drifting to the side.
(I need the money to buy more presents, so I can't really… I don't need it...) Shry jabbed at himself internally, and finding humor in that, he chuckled.
"Hehhe"
After laughing, Shry was back to his normal self; it was then he remembered something very important he should've asked about.
"I should've asked earlier, but... what are the minerals we're using to try to capture natural Node?" Shry questioned, scratching the top of his lip as he fell into thought.
Slightly surprised with how fast Shry's mood had flipped, it took a moment for Hytile to gather his thoughts.
"Today we're focusing mainly on different types of naturally occurring copper-related minerals... Like chalcopyrite, malachite, azurite, bornite, and other minor variations of copper, including the normal copper most people are familiar with. Tomorrow we'll study Node copper and Node tempered coppers." Hytile listed out most of the minerals.
"Are those really copper?... Isn't malachite a gemstone!?" Hearing a familiar-sounding mineral, Shry took a moment to dig through his memories, and when he finally remembered what it was, he couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
"Most gemstones share quite a few properties with the common minerals we know, and because there are so many different types of gemstones, I decided to use the periodic table to sort them into their most related element" Hytile explained, casually leaning back on his chair.
As Hytile got comfortable, he further elaborated on how each of these coppers functions and their relation to the copper we all know, making sure he paced his words in a digestible manner.
With all that information suddenly thrust onto him, Shry could barely keep up. He quickly pulled out a notebook and a pencil case from his marine blue bag and began jotting down the information while it was still fresh in his mind.
As Shry kept on writing down the points he remembered, he wasn't just copying and pasting what he had heard; he grabbed the key points of each copper and simplified them to what he understood from Hytile's explanations, and as he continued writing, revelation after revelation kept on coming, pushing him to include additional notes to what he already knew: theories, ideas, and assumptions written to the side of the main information like speech bubbles.
While Shry was doing that, Hytile didn't want to interrupt him, so he took this time to relax and clear his head.
Looking into the sky, Hytile embraced the weather. Brushing by his skin, the air was windy, with low humidity, so, even as the usually cooling breezes hit them, there's still this inherent heat that came from the low humidity.
(I should buy a tea set soon; the table is feeling empty... I don't really know what kind to buy. Do I have a friend that knows about tea?) Hytile's mind wandered as his eyes gazed at the empty table.
As Hytile daydreamed, he felt a small sensation from his pocket, signalling the successful recalibration of the Resonance Hall. However, even though he clearly noticed it right away, he didn't react; he just sat there, enjoying his time with no rush while occasionally glancing at Shry's work.
...
After 10 minutes, Shry slowly began to finish up, though he was still a bit unsure about the accuracy of his notes.
Slightly winded and dazed from his deep immersion, Shry's vision blurred for a moment as he took a deep breath.
"Haaahh huuu"
As the fresh air enters and exits Shry's lung, a burst of refreshment hits him all at once, as a cool sensation spreads throughout his body, like drinking a cup of cold water on a hot day.
"I'll take a look at your notes later... Rest up for a bit; we're going to start the experiment in 2 minutes." Hytile stated in a relaxed voice.
As Hytile told Shry about the impending start of their experiment, he took the liberty to prepare the cameras and other equipment to capture everything they can during the experiment since he can't be in there when it's in progress.
(I've been gathering these components for months now... I really hope that we'll be able to gather sufficient data from this) Hytile thought, feeling slightly pessimistic.
Looking around the canopy, Hytile located a couple dozen cases near the left corner of the canopy and walked to it as soon as he saw it.
First, Hytile separated the cases on the ground, and after squatting down, he immediately began opening each of those cases, revealing that each of them contained numerous high-end cameras and sensors.
Before walking over to Shry, Hytile cleared one of the cases of its contents, and in the next moment, he carefully handled the other cameras and sensors and placed them all into that singular case so it would be easier to transport.
"Sometimes I wish they would put all of these in their individual cases... It is pretty troublesome to gather all of them like this" Hytile muttered to himself.
Finally making his way to Shry, he began strapping on cameras and sensors, mainly on Shry's upper body. On his head was a medium-sized camera for his perspective, as well as two others on both of his arms; along with that, 4 sensors were spread evenly across both of his arms. As a precaution to the potential data that they may get, there were two sensors on his legs as well, but they were more to cover the tiny gap that may allow some potential data to escape.
"Tell me if any of these are uncomfortable, because you'll be wearing it every time we perform this experiment," Hytile asked sympathetically.