While Joel dedicated those months to the delicate and dangerous business of buying slaves, life inside the refuge didn't stop for a moment. Just as in the outside world, profound and silent changes began to manifest there as well, accumulating until they completely transformed the dynamics of the place.

  Both the adults and the children ended up mastering the pseudo-Greek of Dirmistan without much difficulty. Their prior experience of learning English gave them an unexpected advantage. For all of them, it was now the third language they mastered, and each new language seemed to require less effort than the last. Over time, many began to speak it daily within the refuge, not out of immediate necessity, but as a conscious practice, preparing themselves for the day they would have to face the outside world.

  Liam was, without a doubt, the one who most encouraged this habit. He made no attempt to hide his enthusiasm or his desire to accompany Joel on his travels. Every well-pronounced sentence, every correction accepted without complaint, was for him a step closer to that goal.

  However, the most important phenomenon that began to develop within the shelter was not related to language, but to the prolonged isolation to which everyone had been subjected for years.

  Joel had never fully considered the consequences of keeping so many people—for clearly justifiable reasons—confined in a relatively small space for so long. But what ultimately marked a turning point wasn't the confinement itself, but the immense amount of information and entertainment that he, almost without thinking, began to share with them, drawing on his memories of Earth.

  Video games, movies, board games, books of all kinds, and countless other modern conveniences completely transformed that generation of young people and children. Bombarded by an extraordinarily advanced culture, far surpassing anything known on Gaea or the Four Worlds, they ceased to be ordinary people. Even Connor, in his status as a prisoner with freedoms, gradually began to integrate into the new routine of the shelter, even attending the small, makeshift cinema that screened films once a week without fail.

  No one really understood where all that technology came from, and Joel wasn't able to explain it well either. They were all just beginning to explore what science was, but none of them could yet envision how to get to such artifacts, which seemed more magical than any other logical explanation. In the end, all of this only reinforced the image of him as a deity that they all held.

  Aware of the risk of confusing them too much—especially the children—Joel chose to limit the content he brought back from his dreams. He favored fantasy stories, tales of swords, heroes, and legends, far removed, at least on the surface, from modernity. Films like The Lord of the Rings, Robin Hood, Excalibur, and many others began to form part of the refuge's collection.

  Even so, what ultimately won everyone over were the animated films.

  That didn't mean the live-action movies went unnoticed. Quite the contrary, The Lord of the Rings trilogy left a profound impression. For months, the children relived the epic battles in endless games, assigning roles, recreating scenes, and discussing the story as if it had been real. For them, those films were indistinguishable from reality and were considered a window to another world.

  But it was the animated classics that touched something much deeper. The old American animated films and the extraordinary Japanese animations ended up stealing the hearts of the entire shelter.

  The scene that most marked Joel occurred during the screening of Bambi. Seeing everyone silent, with tears streaming down their faces, was something he never could have anticipated. Liam, hiding his face so no one would notice his tears, and Connor, not even bothering to conceal his reddened eyes, were etched in his memories.

  That constant exposure to such diverse stories, such intense emotions, and ideas so foreign to the world of Gaea ended up changing them all. Many began to see life with different eyes, developing new ambitions, bigger dreams, and a genuine desire to grow, learn, and aspire to something more.

  Some of the children at the shelter were nearing twelve years old, and thanks to Nana's potions, they all possessed the potential to become mages. More than one was on the verge of magical awakening, at that fragile point where mana began to respond, albeit erratically, to their will.

  However, reality hadn't been as kind as Joel had hoped regarding the possibility of cultivating dimensional walkers. Abigail was the only one who had successfully absorbed dimensional affinity during Nana's experiments. That affinity, extracted from Connor's cells, proved to be extraordinarily unstable. Withstanding it required more than youth or physical strength; it demanded a compatibility that none of the other children possessed. All subsequent attempts ended the same way: cellular rejection.

  It was clear that dimensional affinity wasn't something that could be forced.

  Meanwhile, progress with the adults continued apace. Liam and Ariel were about to reach level three, and Alicia had already safely settled into level two some time ago. They were all progressing by leaps and bounds thanks to Nana's potions, but it was Liam who trained with the greatest obstinacy. His determination bordered on stubbornness; every session, every exercise, was driven by a single goal: to one day catch up with Joel and live his own adventures in the outside world.

  He asked his master to let him accompany him on his travels on several occasions, to allow him to prove himself in the outside world. But he always received the same answer.

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  Joel moved too quickly between provinces, traversing dangerous territories and unpredictable situations. Many times he had to literally carry unconscious slaves on his shoulders, in addition to keeping his identity hidden and his power sealed. There was no room for a companion, much less for an apprentice who couldn't yet fend for himself.

  More importantly, Joel couldn't afford the risk of Liam being revealed as a mage.

  The second medallion created by Ashoka still existed, and in theory, it could conceal his magic. But that would mean Liam would have to pass as an ordinary civilian, completely dependent on Joel's protection. Without access to magic, the young man wouldn't stand a chance, even against mystical apprentices. And revealing the existence of modern firearms wasn't an option; that secret had to remain buried for as long as possible.

  Even so, Liam didn't give up. If his master wasn't willing to listen, there was only one entity left in the entire shelter capable of helping him: Nana.

  For the living statue, time was always insufficient given the number of projects that absorbed her attention. During the months Joel was immersed in his "business," Nana dedicated most of her energy to studying mystical artifacts and optimizing crystal production. She didn't need to sleep or rest; she worked tirelessly, without pauses, without exhaustion, progressing at a speed impossible for any living being.

  Her research into creating crystals higher than level one had reached a critical point. Theoretically, the method was complete. All that was lacking was time… and pressure. A lot of pressure.

  Had it been up to her alone, the first experiments would have been carried out directly under extreme conditions. But Joel had categorically forbidden it. He wasn't willing to risk an accident for the sake of hasty progress. The tests had to be slow, controlled, with the pressure increasing gradually.

  That caution proved more accurate than even Joel had imagined. On numerous occasions, Nana had to completely modify the energy containers. Structural flaws appeared without warning, theoretical limits were unexpectedly broken, and variables she hadn't been able to foresee jeopardized the integrity of the new laboratory. Each correction involved complete redesigns, new materials, and delicate adjustments to the energy flow.

  As for the mystical artifacts, surprises soon followed, though not exactly in the way Joel had imagined. Far from being impossible marvels, most of the objects he had acquired turned out to be… disappointing. At least at first glance. Their effects were limited, their applications specific, and, in many cases, frankly mediocre for the price they fetched on the black market.

  That, however, did not discourage Nana, who studied them one by one with an almost obsessive level of meticulousness. She disassembled them, opened them, and pushed them beyond their limits. The vast majority ended up destroyed in the process, reduced to inert fragments of metal, stone, or glass. But each ruined artifact was a lesson learned, another piece of the puzzle.

  It soon became clear that, despite the enormous variety of effects, almost all of them operated under the same general principle: the manipulation of energy. Not in just one way, but in many. Too many.

  Some used engraved lines; others employed entire words in archaic languages; there were also symbols, seals, strange runes carved, painted, or embedded directly into the artifact's material. Nana even found objects that fulfilled the exact same function, but whose internal systems of energy manipulation were completely different from one another.

  It was as if different cultures, eras, or individuals had arrived at the same solutions… by radically different paths.

  The puzzle was monumental. But Nana didn't give up. And only after destroying hundreds of artifacts, and mentally reconstructing their structures again and again, was she able to identify a common characteristic that they all shared, without exception: the energy behaved in a disturbingly familiar way. It behaved like electricity.

  At first, that discovery didn't seem particularly groundbreaking. The analogy was vague, almost superficial. But everything changed when Nana turned to the physics books Joel had conjured up, especially those dedicated to electromagnetism and applied electronics.

  That's when the real discovery occurred.

  The statue's eyes widened as it recognized patterns impossible to ignore. The internal structures of many mystical languages ??presented alarming similarities to electrical circuits. Not symbolically, but functionally. Nana was able to identify mechanisms equivalent to capacitors, resistors, and even processes analogous to electromagnetic induction.

  And she didn't stop there. By comparing the logic of the circuits in the artifacts with the electrical equations in the books, she discovered that several of them could be applied—with slight adaptations—to the flows of mystical energy. It wasn't a perfect translation, but the correlations were too similar to be a coincidence. That changed everything.

  Of course, a vast amount of research still lay ahead. Trials, errors, constant corrections, models that would likely fail before they worked. But Nana knew with absolute certainty: she was on the verge of something extraordinary.

  It was at that moment that Liam appeared with his request, as direct on the surface as it was ambiguous at its core. He didn't explicitly ask for permission or make an open plea; he simply sought Nana's help, hoping she could find a way to convince Joel to let him accompany him on his travels into the outside world.

  Nana simply listened in silence. Her loyalty to Joel was absolute, and she was also bound by very clear orders: no one was to leave the refuge or the surrounding area under her control. It didn't matter who they were, or what their motives were. She was even authorized to use force if necessary. Something she, fortunately, had never had to do.

  Therefore, at first, Nana showed no interest in getting involved. In her eyes, this was a personal matter that would likely resolve itself without requiring her direct intervention. Her time was valuable, and there were far more important investigations demanding her attention.

  But everything changed when Liam added an unexpected detail. He asserted, with a determination bordering on desperation, that he was willing to participate in any kind of experiment she deemed necessary to achieve her goal.

  Nana's interest was immediately piqued. With the recent advances in her understanding of the mystical artifacts and their virtually limitless possibilities, an idea began to take shape in her mind. If energy could be manipulated in so many different ways, then it must be possible to create artifacts capable not only of concealing Liam's magical aura—one of the main reasons Joel refused to take him along—but also of allowing him to defend himself. Perhaps even something quite ambitious, like a mystical suit of armor.

  Of course, Nana had no intention of overstepping the moral boundaries Joel had so firmly established: never touch the shelter's inhabitants without a valid and well-justified reason. So, instead of acting on her own, she decided to discreetly inform him of everything, presenting her ideas as a real and practical possibility.

  To Nana's surprise, Joel's reaction was quite positive. Not only did he not object, but he seemed genuinely interested. He even began contributing his own ideas about how a combat suit should work. His references, however, came from rather peculiar sources: superhero images, Japanese animation, and exaggerated concepts that blended aesthetics with functionality in unorthodox ways. Even so, many of these ideas proved… surprisingly useful.

  It was clear that a project of this magnitude couldn't be completed in the short term. It would require research, failed prototypes, and a huge amount of tweaking. But it was also clear that, if it were to materialize, it could become something extremely valuable for the shelter's future.

  And, perhaps most importantly of all… It would keep Liam busy.