[MP - 42(+3.5)]

  [Stats]

  -[Intuition - 0.89(+0.06)]

  -[Mana - 1.05(+0.08)]

  -[Naturalism - 1.04(+0.09)]

  -[Sociability - 0.88(+0.07)]

  -[Spirituality - 1.04(+0.08)]

  [Skills]

  -[Garden Golem’s Division | Level - 4]

  -[Garden Golem’s Eye | Level - 2]

  -[Golem’s Garden | Level - 4]

  With a smile, Ryan pulled out his phone and opened the notes app, jotting down the stat increases. He was noting down all the changes whenever the spirits leveled up themselves or one of their skills.

  “Another point three eight total increase … your stat growth is pretty high,” Ryan pointed out with a smile on his face, then someone started walking up the stairs from the balcony.

  Runar’s head peeked out from behind the edge of the rooftop. “Ryan, they’re here.”

  “They as in … the cores?” he replied, and Runar immediately responded with a nod. Immediately, Ryan rushed over to the steps. “Gaia, come on! Let’s go see the other spirits!”

  Gaia looked around, calling the two sub-golems back over to her, before they promptly combined back into her body. The spirit soon rushed up to Ryan, falling apart into green threads that flowed into his body.

  “Let me go get Maximus as well; he should be reading in my room,” Ryan explained, and Runar let out a long sigh.

  “Sorry about that; I should have brought everything upstairs. I keep forgetting you can’t be all that far away from them yet.”

  “Wait, ‘yet’?” Ryan repeated, following his uncle down the steps and back inside of the flat. Runar nodded.

  “One of the Spirit Keeper’s skills allows the spirits to act independently for a certain period of time. I asked for some books to be delivered together with the cores, so take a look at them later. They should have some info about skills you might get in the future, as well as info about the past Spirit Keepers,” Runar explained, heading over to the flat’s door while Ryan went over to his bedroom, grabbing a small piece of candy from the kitchen on the way.

  Maximus was deeply engrossed in his new favorite story, so Ryan felt a bit bad about tearing him away from that. But the moment when Ryan mentioned that the spirit cores had arrived, Maximus jumped up from his improvised seat and rushed into his domain so that they could get moving. Ryan found that level of excitement almost cute. Maximus acted almost childlike sometimes.

  Runar then led Ryan downstairs below the basement. He waved at the people walking around, those who worked or lived there.

  By now, Ryan was down there basically every day, and he had been introduced to pretty much everyone. They knew him, and he knew them. He even felt like he was able to communicate with some of the species that couldn’t actively speak, like the sprites, dryads, and geodes. Of course, he couldn’t actively speak with them, but maybe through a combination of his intuition and sociability stats, he was able to understand their intentions well enough.

  Runar pushed open the door to his office, and the pair stepped inside. The first thing Ryan noticed was the large wooden crate in the center of the space. The second thing he noticed was the small pixie that immediately rushed toward him, nuzzling against his cheek happily.

  “Well, hello there, Penny.” Ryan chuckled quietly. “How’s your day been?”

  Penny chirped excitedly as she fluttered away from Ryan’s face. She rushed over to her nest standing in the corner of the room and came back out just a moment later. Penny stopped in front of Ryan, shyly holding a strawberry toward him. With a smile, he held out his hand, and Penny dropped the strawberry into his palm as Ryan held forward the candy with his other hand.

  Immediately, the pixie grabbed the piece of candy and pulled it tightly to her body, excitedly staring at Ryan. With a smile, he took a bite of the strawberry.

  “It’s very tasty, thank you,” he said, and Penny chirped happily as she fluttered back to her nest.

  “That girl really likes you, huh?” Runar laughed, and Ryan just shrugged.

  “Because I give her some candy every time I’m here.”

  “Mm-hmm, I’m sure that’s all.” With a smile, Runar approached the wooden crate standing in front of the two. With a swift motion, he pulled open the top, revealing that it was completely filled with books.

  “… Do you want me to read all of those?” Ryan asked with a wry smile, but Runar just scoffed.

  “No, those aren’t all for you. Rather, they’re not all books, anyway. Some are, obviously: documents and records that I needed that I asked for already. Others have a bit more to them than that.” Runar started pulling one of the books out of the large crate.

  The cover had some kind of patterns engraved into it, and Runar quickly tapped certain symbols in a specific order, making them light up. After every part of the pattern was giving off a soft glow, Runar opened the book in the middle, revealing that it was hollowed out. Inside of it was a small, golden whistle.

  Ryan raised an eyebrow. “Uh … so what’s that?”

  “It’s a whistle.”

  “Well, I can see that, but why is there a whistle in the book?”

  “It’s a whistle that, when blown, can disturb nearby mana. We’re dealing with a lot of corruption recently, and this whistle should be able to stop its spread for at least a few moments. Though it’s also going to stop any sort of spell or mana-based skill from being used, but that’s useful in its own sense, anyway,” Runar explained, carefully placing the whistle back inside the book. Looking through the rest of the books in the crate, Runar pulled out four different ones. The patterns on the covers of these ones were much more complex. It took a whole minute for Runar to open each of them up.

  But one after another, he did, and placed them on the small coffee table. Each of them held spirit cores: two of them whole, and two of them broken. Of the broken ones, one seemed to make up half a core, shimmering in a golden yellow, while the other one had two fragments that, when counted together, could only account for a little less than half of a deep royal purple stone.

  Of the whole cores, only one was giving off a soft light, glowing in different shades of blue that flickered like flames. The one in the second book looked, at first glance, to be a piece of steel in the shape of a spirit core, but Ryan could somehow tell that it was still a spirit in there.

  Ryan held his hand forward, pulling Gaia and Maximus out of their domains. The two spirits looked at the cores, clearly reacting to them quite intensely. They knew the spirits these cores belonged to, that much was clear. Though, of course, they probably didn’t remember them at all. But when they looked over at the fragmented cores, they grew solemn, and their excitement soon faded.

  “Don’t worry,” Ryan said, sitting down on the couch right in front of the books as he patted the Garden Golem’s back. “We’ll find the rest of their fragments in time, just like we did with you, Gaia.”

  “One step at a time, alright?” Runar pointed out as he continued to unpack the crate. “For now, just try to speak to the spirits whose cores are whole. I doubt they’ll be as easy to please as Maximus.”

  The knight immediately turned his head toward Runar, staring at him intensely. Runar scoffed. “Don’t look at me like that. The only thing that Ryan needed to do to gain your trust was to build you your body. Usually, spirits tend to have a few more conditions.”

  “Gaia didn’t have any,” Ryan pointed out, and Runar just let out a long sigh.

  “You saved her from a dungeon and a corrupted robot all on your own; I think that should be enough to prove that you’re trustworthy.”

  “… Fair enough. Well, alright, let’s get started,” Ryan replied, staring at the spirit cores in front of him. He felt almost anxious as he reached out to the first one, the blue core that was letting off that intense glow. His fingertips were dyed in the core’s blue light. The moment he touched the gem’s smooth surface, a message appeared in front of Ryan’s eyes.

  [The Harlequin Spirit Jester is glad to meet you. Until his requirements have been fulfilled, he will stay and watch you closely]

  [A temporary domain has become available]

  [You have received a new Quest!]

  [Jester’s Excitement]

  [Jester, a Spirit of the most curious kind, has been drowning in utter boredom. Find a way to excite him, and he may just join your side]

  [Conditions—Excite Jester]

  [On Success—Jester’s Favor]

  [On Failure—Jester’s Disdain]

  Ryan read the messages one after another. “Uh, so, this is Jester, a Harlequin Spirit. And he wants me to … excite him?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Yeah, I don’t … I don’t know, either,” Ryan responded, thinking about it for a few moments. “A harlequin is something like a clown, right? So, maybe he wants me to show him some tricks?”

  “Maybe, but … who knows? There might be some info on him in the notes.”

  While Runar looked back at the pile of books that he had pulled out from the crate, Ryan watched as Jester’s core disappeared into his fingertips. The gem fell apart into flame-like mana that flowed up his veins. Ryan quickly understood what “temporary domain” was supposed to mean: instead of being a full space that the core was housed in like with Gaia and Maximus’s, the core was simply floating in the empty space between the domains, much like Gaia’s seeds and Maximus’s replacement arm had.

  He didn’t need to figure out what Jester meant with “excitement”; Ryan was sure he would come up with something sooner or later. For now, he needed to at least try to wake up the second core.

  Slowly, Ryan reached out to it, holding the weirdly-metallic gemstone in his hand. It even felt heavier than the others, to the point where Ryan turned toward his uncle with some confusion.

  “Are you sure this is the real deal? Is it possible that they swapped the core out with a … pretty obvious fake before sending it to us?” Ryan asked, and Runar glanced over toward him for a moment.

  “Oh, gods, I sure hope not.” Runar scoffed, turning away from the books before walking over to Ryan to take a quick look at the core. “They already did everything they could to delay the delivery of the cores in the first place, so if they dared to do something like that on top of that … I don’t even know at this point.”

  “Huh? Wait, they delayed the delivery?”

  “Of course. Do you think it takes this long for us to deliver anything anywhere? After I officially told them about you, the elders kept on trying to make a fuss, since you’re Hayden’s son and all that.”

  “… And I doubt that the cores being here means that I’m suddenly on good terms with the elders.”

  “You are definitely not, no. Sorry.” Patting his nephew’s back, Runar turned back around. “Either way, just … for now, try to commune with the core somehow.”

  “Easier said than done.” With a groan, Ryan ran his fingers over the metallic spirit core. The more he touched it, the weirder it felt. It definitely felt metallic, but it also felt like a gemstone, like all the other cores, at the same time.

  “Come on; I know you’re in there. You don’t need to talk to me, and you don’t need to accept me, but at least wake up,” Ryan whispered to the core. He stretched out his consciousness toward it, almost like when he had pulled Maximus or Gaia into their domains. Ryan didn’t want to force the spirit into some kind of domain, but he figured that maybe it could act as some kind of trigger.

  The moment Ryan’s mana touched the core, it fell apart into metallic tubes. They burrowed right into Ryan’s fingertips, branching off each other and moving in straight lines and right angles like a complex network of pipes or wires.

  But he definitely hadn’t tried to pull the core into himself; it had just happened completely on its own.

  [You are temporarily housing the dormant Artillerist Spirit Gregor]

  [A temporary domain has become available]

  Ryan raised his eyebrows. “Oh. Uh … the core is still dormant, but apparently, it’s an Artillerist Spirit called Gregor.”

  Runar turned his head around immediately. “Wait, Gregor?”

  “You know this one?”

  “Yeah, I …” Runar responded, almost shuddering. “He built some turrets as a security system around where Hayden and I used to live, so I’ve seen him a few times … I didn’t expect it to be him.”

  “Is there something wrong with him?”

  “No, no, that’s not why I’m surprised … You know how I’m bad with tech?”

  “… Yes?”

  “That includes any sort of machine,” he explained, then groaned loudly. “And Gregor just so happens to be a type of technology spirit … he’s a robot.”

  With a scoff, Ryan looked back down at the core. “Well, I’m sure you’ll get along somehow. If we get him to wake up in the first place. Since you remember him, do you have any tips?”

  Runar thought about it for a few moments. “Just … be close to machines? Maybe go visit Modak; his dad owns some auto shop. And the amusement-park dungeon does have an area that might fit Gregor pretty well …”

  “Sounds like a plan; let’s go there later, then.” Ryan grinned lightly before reaching out to the fragments of the two other spirit cores. The moment he touched them, they were pulled into his body through his fingertips like he was using a vacuum to suck them up. For a few moments, he wondered if these spirits would feel ready to join him just because he found their fragments like Gaia did, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.

  [You have found a Fragment of Morgana (1/2)]

  [A temporary domain has become available]

  [You have found two Fragments of Violette (2/5)]

  [A temporary domain has become available]

  Just like with Jester and Gregor, these two spirits were only with him for what was essentially safekeeping right now. But at least these fragments acknowledged Ryan’s existence easily enough. Maybe they would still let Ryan become their keeper once he found the rest of their fragments.

  But before he could think about that further or question Runar about who Morgana and Violette could be, even more system messages appeared before Ryan’s eyes.

  [The -Spirit Domain- Skill has leveled up]

  [You have leveled up!]

  Chapter Fourteen

  Area Boss

  [Maximus has leveled up!]

  Ryan glanced at the system message as the body of the mascot in front of him finished falling apart.

  “Oh! Congrats, man, just one level away from getting you to 10,” he said with a grin, squatting as he held his fist toward the small knight. With a satisfied nod, Maximus fist-bumped Ryan.

  He himself had already reached level 8, and Gaia was now already level 6. The speed at which they leveled up was almost ridiculous. It hadn’t been even a week since they first came into the dungeon, and they’d made this much progress already.

  Though of course, after Ryan’s first day at a dungeon a few weeks earlier, when he had leveled up three times, this was still painfully slow. The first five levels were by far the fastest, and after that, things slowed down considerably.

  But things had been going pretty well overall compared to the usual speed that people tended to level up, though that was mostly because he could spend all of his time on it. And even when he was doing something else, since Gaia would often do some work in the garden while Ryan was taking care of unrelated matters, he could still slowly gain experience through that. Not that there were many times that Ryan didn’t help Gaia out.

  The past week had had a very specific cycle that Ryan was going through every single day without a proper break. In the mornings, he would go to work out with Yanna. With the help of specialized salves that helped with recovery, a clever workout plan, and obviously Tiar’s influence, he recovered practically overnight. Ryan had already bulked up a little bit since he started, and because Tiar still sucked out all the calories he ate, he looked like some kind of professional athlete or a movie superhero. It was kind of weird; he really wasn’t used to it.

  Starting around noon and up until early evening, before the sun even properly started going down, Ryan was inside of the dungeon. He wasn’t accompanied by Runar every single time, though that was because Ryan insisted he should actually keep the café open more regularly. That was why, like today, he was accompanied by Anders, his uncle’s dwarven aide. He wasn’t quite out of sight the same way that Runar was, but he was still an experienced and powerful combatant, so he was able to follow Ryan without jeopardizing the Dungeon Dive.

  And then, later on, when they left the dungeon, Ryan would go back home and do some work in the garden with Gaia before it got dark out. Though today, Silvia and Modak were supposed to come, so Ryan wanted to take a bit of a break. It was getting exhausting, doing nothing but this all the time. Just as Ryan thought that, he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He quickly picked up the plastic coin that the mascot dropped and turned toward Maximus.

  “Another monster is coming,” Ryan warned, squatting underneath the broken window of the shop they were inside of right now. The Spirit Link skill was on cooldown, so Ryan wasn’t able to use Gaia and her sub-golems to scout out the area and had to rely a bit more on his own senses. Though, with his intuition stat at 1.7, his instincts did a pretty good job at warning him that something was coming. That stat’s growth was the highest out of all of Ryan’s stats, and he couldn’t really complain about it, either. It felt weird at times, but overall, it was like he was more in the moment. Like he could really tell what was going on around him at all times. It grounded him in a way that he couldn’t really describe with words.

  But those same instincts told him something else, that this mascot was a big deal. It was different from the other ones. He had seen this one around a couple of times and completely avoided it, since it was most likely the area boss.

  In dungeons that were split up into different areas like this, there was usually one monster that was stronger than all the others. It was something like a protector of the area and was generally more powerful than other monsters, appearing different as well. When Ryan had seen it for the first time, Runar told him that beating the area boss was the requirement for letting him move on to one of the next areas, though that was just a requirement that Runar set for him pretty arbitrarily.