“I should awaken the strength stat soon, right? I like this level of bulk; I don’t want to be some kind of bodybuilder or something,” Ryan pointed out. Though, looking at Runar, who actually seemed pretty lanky at first glance, he figured he would be fine. “Either way, I feel like I’m looking pretty good. But you’re still sucking up all the calories I eat, so I’m not gaining any weight at all.”

  Glancing at the back of his palm, he saw Tiar reply with a simple smile: :)

  “Yeah, yeah, just stop looking at me like that.” Ryan scoffed. “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but now that I stopped feeling so hot all the time, not having any fat on me makes me freeze all the time instead.”

  (ᵕ•͜ •)

  “ … Where the hell did you pick that up all of a sudden?”

  ¯_(•_•)_/¯

  “Yeah, yeah, sure, you don’t know. Whatever.” Ryan stepped back out of the bathroom, making his way to the kitchen where he grabbed himself another snack. Looking at his phone, it seemed like the delivery of the new models was just a few stops away, so Ryan figured he would just wait for it up there. As he stood in the kitchen, Liam’s head poked inside.

  “Ryan?”

  “’Sup?” he replied, and Liam walked into the room with a notebook behind his back.

  “Could you help me with some homework? I don’t really understand some of this,” Liam asked, and Ryan didn’t even hesitate to nod.

  “Of course, come here,” he replied, pulling up a chair at the kitchen table. “Let me take a look.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  The Gift Shop

  Different paints filled the small plastic containers across the wall. Silvia had brought all of them after Runar showed her how to make them. She didn’t know if these were everything that she would need, but she picked out a few colors that seemed useful to her. Some basic colors and things that she always needed, as well as some that simply spoke to her artistic instincts. Runar told her to come back and pick out whatever she wanted if she needed any other paints. He had a truly massive selection of pigments stored away and even all the tools that were needed to turn it into either ink or paint.

  Truthfully, just seeing that room with all those colorful powders glistening in their glass jars made her excited to paint again, though she hadn’t stood in front of a canvas for quite a while. And even that canvas was more special than anything Silvia had used before, since it was made from some kind of magical fiber harvested from a specific type of cotton.

  Runar had fully decked her out with anything that she needed to make this a special painting. Even her brushes and painting knives were magic tools that were created just for her. It honestly put quite a bit of pressure on her, since Runar was clearly expecting a lot from her. The support was nice, and she certainly appreciated it, but it definitely didn’t make actually starting the painting any easier.

  She looked at the paints and thought about what to do with them. Silvia didn’t want to ruin this opportunity. Glancing over toward her window, she saw that the sun had barely risen, and she could spend all day locked up in there if she needed to. She had some snacks, plenty of water and juice, and whatever else she could ever need. Taking a deep breath, Silvia walked over to her desk, grabbing the cable connecting to her speakers, which she quickly plugged in to the cassette player that Modak had made for her.

  Walking over to her shelf, Silvia looked at the cassettes that she had here. She had basically turned a couple of her playlists and some favorite albums into different cassettes. Something about picking them out like this felt a bit more meaningful and ritualistic to her rather than just picking something out on her phone. After choosing a playlist that felt right to her, a simple, energetic jazz instrumental playlist that she could have running in the background as she brainstormed, Silvia put the cassette into the player.

  Soon, music filled the air, and she began to think, grabbing her sketchbook. She sat on a stool in front of the canvas, keeping her brushes and the different paints in sight at almost all times. Silvia glanced over toward the window a few times, seeing the sky stretch out above the buildings on the other side of the road as sunlight poured through the cracks between the more-distant skyscrapers.

  She jotted down a few things in her sketchbook, more and more going into a direction that excited her. It was already past noon by the time she decided on something, setting her sketchbook down. Silvia picked out a new cassette that would fit the vibe of the painting more, something fun and free and exciting, and swapped out the tape currently in the player. As the playlist started up, Silvia picked out the paints that she would need, placing them on a small cart that she pulled up beside the canvas together with all the necessary tools.

  And then, she got started, first painting the background. A deep, bright morning sky framed by dense white clouds. In the distance, far below the clouds, the skyscrapers of a city stretched upward, while in the center of the piece was the actual subject of the painting. The Forge elemental that lived its life deep below Café Runic, soaring through the sky. Whether or not it was even actually able to fly in the first place didn’t even really matter all too much. But the subject being a stone dragon flying through the sky felt sort of meaningful to Silvia.

  She continued to paint all day, until the light coming in through the window wasn’t enough for her to see anymore. Taking this as a sign, Silvia set her brushes down and stretched lightly, looking at the unfinished painting. She would have to keep working on this for a few days, but she had already made some good progress. Silvia walked over to the cassette player and turned it off, and someone knocked on her door.

  “Come in!” Silvia said, and the door opened up to show Modak.

  “How’s it going? Yanna said you were painting, so I figured I’d come take a look,” the orc explained, curiously peeking at the canvas.

  “What do you think?”

  “It looks great already. And you did this whole thing with your skill?”

  “Yup,” Silvia replied, an excited grin on her face as she looked at the painting. “I did have to take a few breaks here and there to let my mana recover a bit, but still, I was able to make great progress. I even finally leveled up to level 5!”

  “When do you think you’ll be able to finish?” Modak wondered, and Silvia thought about it for a moment.

  “In a couple days, probably. I’ve got a pretty good vision of where I want this to go, and I’ve got the time to just work on this and nothing else, so … not too long, really,” Silvia explained, looking over at Modak, “What about you? I doubt you came all the way to my place just to see how my painting was doing.”

  Modak’s cheek turned dark green as he slightly looked away. “Yeah, well, Yanna and I are watching a movie together in a bit. She said she’d go prep some snacks, so I figured I’d come take a look at how you’re doing.”

  “Aww, cute, what are you watching?”

  “It’s this old animated movie that Yanna said she really likes, but I don’t remember the name right now,” Modak explained, slowly walking over to the window. He leaned forward and glanced down at the sidewalk, his sight lingering on something down there.

  A bit confused, Silvia looked at him while she was cleaning up. “Are you okay? Is something happening down there?”

  Modak hesitated, but he still replied in the end. “I … When I got here earlier, there was this elven woman standing outside in front of your place, and she’s still there. Is that … you know …”

  Her smile slowly fading, Silvia nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably my birth mother. She’s been coming by a lot. My parents wanted to call the police on her, but I … I don’t want her to go to prison again. Is that weird?”

  Modak immediately shook his head. “It’s never ‘weird’ to not want someone to go to prison. But at the same time, if she keeps coming despite being told to leave, you might have to call the police on her at some point. Or at least someone else that could get her to leave you alone.”

  “… I just don’t know what to do at this point. Should I go talk to her?”

  “Only if that’s something you want to do. Frankly, I don’t think you owe her anything. While I don’t know what exactly happened, if meeting her just once made you shut yourself in your room like that for a full week … I can’t imagine that it’s the kind of thing that’s easy to forget.”

  Silvia looked over at the window, not sure how to respond. “I … I guess I just have to keep thinking about it, huh?”

  Ryan and his uncle were walking through the amusement park. Because Runar knew this place pretty well already, he managed to navigate through the dungeon in a way where they didn’t encounter any monsters despite his only glancing at the map once when they came in.

  “So, each of these areas has totally different monsters?” Ryan asked, looking around, and Runar nodded.

  “Yup. Though I guess some of them don’t have monsters you’re supposed to fight; they’re more like employees or set decoration, that kind of thing,” Runar explained, and Ryan was pretty surprised.

  “Seriously? Not all dungeon monsters are hostile?”

  “Very rarely, they’re not hostile but instead have some kind of other function. So, I’m just telling you this because that part of the park won’t help you or Maximus level up, anyway. But one area of the dungeon is basically a massive funhouse. But because it has a lot of moving parts and stuff, the dungeon basically thought that it’s alive and turned it into a monster. But you get the reward from that area from just making it through the funhouse instead of killing it, so, yeah. By the way, the roller coasters’ carts are also alive,” Runar explained, and Ryan stopped for a moment as he looked down at the map. The funhouse area was completely massive, and this whole thing was a single monster?

  “Man, what kind of dungeon even is this? Also, what happens if we do kill the funhouse monster?”

  “Uh …” Runar thought about it for a moment. “I don’t really know; I haven’t actually tried. If you feel like it, you can take a look and see then, but not yet. We basically use that area to help people get used to, and train, their heightened physicality stat. So, once you’ve unlocked that, maybe we can think about it. It’s still pretty dangerous if you don’t even have any physical stats.”

  “Well, I have dexterity.”

  “Which actually will help for part of the funhouse, but it’s only a small area. Anyway, we can talk about that later. We’re here,” Runar said, stopping in front of an old building standing in the middle of a relatively open area. Ryan didn’t understand what was so special about this place that it was given its own section in the dungeon, but he figured he might get it once they were inside.

  Runar pushed open the doors and Ryan swiftly followed him. It was mostly empty, and the parts that were there were completely broken down.

  “Are we in the right place?”

  “Yup. Just come on.” Runar waved his nephew over to an area next to the large counter on the other side of the room. It was an old wooden treasure chest, basically the perfect example of what you would think of when someone said “treasure chest.” Runar opened it up, “Alright, drop all the coins, plus the statue, in here.”

  Curious to see what was about to happen, Ryan grabbed the large bag that he was carrying all the coins in and emptied it out into the chest, nearly filling it to the brim. And then, Runar closed the chest, waited a few moments, and then opened it up again.

  All the coins were gone, and in their stead, a small card was left behind. It was the size of a credit card, and Ryan quickly picked it up from the bottom of the chest. It didn’t have much on it. The area that was supposed to have a picture of someone was blank, and the slot for the name had jumbled letters. Underneath, there was a line that read Points—487, and right underneath, there was a small symbol shaped like that gorilla’s head.

  “Is this what we buy things with?” Ryan asked, and Runar briefly nodded.

  “Yup.” As Runar replied, he knocked on that old counter. “By the way, don’t attack. This is another monster we shouldn’t kill. Whoever does can’t use any of the gift shops anymore.”

  Before Ryan could explain, something popped out from behind the counter. It was a humanoid figure wearing a large, over-the-top clown costume. While the clown didn’t talk, it did move in very exaggerated ways. The shelves behind it that were hidden by the darkness of the space until now were soon lit up, revealing a number of classic things you could buy in this type of place.

  Plush toys of the mascots that Ryan had been killing so far, random small toys that would probably break in a couple of days, and random merch with the park’s logo on it.

  “… That’s it? Are these good for anything?” Ryan asked, pretty disappointed by what he was seeing in front of him, but Runar shook his head.

  “Nope, these are totally, absolutely useless.”

  “So, why are we here? Just wasting our time?”

  “Be a bit more patient, man. Yeah, this is useless. But it won’t be in a second,” Runar pointed out, leaning on the counter. He pulled a coin out from his pocket, one of the plastic ones that Ryan had just exchanged for points, and threw it over to the clown, who excitedly caught it. After taking a closer look at it, the clown stretched out his hand toward Runar.

  “Shake it,” Runar said, and Ryan nervously did as told. He stepped up to the clown and shook its hand, and the bright smile on its face immediately disappeared, turning into a blank expression as the wall behind it changed.

  The toys and plushies fell onto a pile on the ground, revealing some other items in the background, as Runar began to explain.

  “So, this isn’t a well-known thing, since dungeons are usually destroyed very fast, but dungeons can develop special abilities as well. Something like skills. Sometimes, it’s through special conditions; other times, it’s because the area the dungeon transformed is so unique and it had the time to develop that skill. In this case, we think that because we’ve sent so many different Awakened here that the dungeon can now sense classes, adjusting what it sells based on what the class needs. It’s literally class-exclusive items. It used to sell just things like guns, drugs, knives, swords … pretty bad stuff, but the weapons did come in useful, and every once in a while, there was some kind of potion or something. And then, someday, it just fully changed to this kind of thing. The things that are sold will change completely based on whoever shakes the clown’s hand.”

  Ryan looked at the shelves. Not that many of them were filled, but the ones that were were pretty boring. Each slot on the wall was filled with a small ticket. A voucher. No items, weapons, or anything of the sort. Just tickets. But looking closer at the small text written underneath them, Ryan raised his eyebrows, surprised.

  Gaia—Random Seed Voucher—100 Points

  Gaia—Random Sapling Voucher—200 Points

  Maximus—Random Weapon Voucher—150 Points

  Maximus—Random Armor Voucher—200 Points

  “Excuse me? What the— How can the dungeon—” Ryan started, but Runar shook his head as he replied.

  “I have no clue. I got a small booklet containing info about literal lost runes before. I don’t know how the dungeon can do this, but it can. But there’s a caveat,” Runar pointed out. “This is it. You can buy these items, and then the store is just fully sold out to you. You can still get a ton of great stuff from here, but you get around five or six items, some more useful than others, and then you’re done. Though for you, it actually looks like each Maximus and Gaia count separately … and you don’t count at all. But, well, I guess we should come back here whenever you become a new spirit’s keeper …”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Elemental Greatsword Granfell

  The shelves behind the clown monster were illuminated well, and Ryan looked at the vouchers propped up on small stands. While he was a little disappointed that there weren’t any items for himself, he figured the only items that could be there for him were spirit cores, and Ryan doubted that the dungeon could simply create those from thin air. Either way, the fact that the dungeon could create items corresponding to any class was ridiculous.

  “I’ll have a Seed Voucher and a Weapon Voucher,” Ryan said, picking out the cheapest option for each Maximus and Gaia, and the clown held its hand out, as if waiting for something. Figuring it was waiting to be paid first, Ryan gave it the point card and then watched as the number was reduced from 487 down to 237. The clown returned the card and then turned around, grabbing the two items that Ryan asked for.

  “You’ve still got a lot of points. Just feel free to use them up,” Runar pointed out, and Ryan shrugged lightly in response.

  “I was going to keep them saved for when Jester properly joins us.”

  “By then, you’ll probably have more than enough coins to buy whatever else you want. The amount of points you get per monster you kill depends on their level, and you were in the lowest-level area so far.”

  “Sure, but most of the points came from the area boss,” Ryan pointed out, and Runar thought about it for a moment.

  “I guess so, but still, you’ll be fine. If need be, I’ll go grab a bunch of coins for you and we buy out the store.”

  “If that works, why aren’t we doing that in the first place?”

  “Well, it’s easier to progress if you’re working toward a goal, right? You’ve been doing pretty well here in the dungeon, so I figured it’s a good idea to have you keep coming here periodically. Especially since Gregor is also a combatant, you’ll need to train him up a bit as well to be at the same level as the rest of you.”

  Ryan slowly nodded and looked inwardly at Maximus and Gaia.

  ‘Which one of you wants another item?’ he asked inwardly, and Maximus slowly shook his head, as if he was saying that he didn’t need it right now. Or, rather, he probably wanted Gaia to have it. Looking at the items that were offered, Ryan turned over to his uncle. “Uh, are we allowed to grow a tree on the roof?”