allowing the skilled use of a large variety of weapons.]

  [Effect – Increased proficiency with all weapons]

  “Yeah, these are just regular skills. If he weren’t tiny, there’d be nothing hinting at Maximus being a spirit,” Ryan pointed out, and Silvia placed her chin onto the desk, taking a closer look at Maximus.

  “So he’s literally a spirit of Knighthood?”

  Ryan slowly nodded his head. “I guess so. I mean, are those a thing?”

  “Well,” Modak started, contemplating it for a moment, “I haven’t heard of that before, but Kars and Mila are the Great Spirits of Technology and Agriculture, so a concept like ‘Knighthood’ doesn’t seem impossible.”

  “I guess it doesn’t matter, really. He seems pretty cool either way,” Ryan pointed out, a smile on his face. “I’ll have to figure out a way to see what he can actually do, though. And test out my other skills a bit.”

  As if remembering something, Modak raised a brow. “Right, speaking of things you’ve got to do … Are you going to register soon?”

  “I mean, I have to. It’s not like I can just be an unregistered Awakened. I don’t plan on keeping it a secret either, so I don’t want to deal with any fines or anything,” Ryan pointed out, looking over at Silvia. “Though, do you think I could maybe talk to your sister about some stuff? Dealing with all that bureaucracy on my own sounds … rough.”

  “Huh? Oh, yeah, I’ll ask her. But Yanna’s been pretty busy since she awakened, so don’t count on it too much,” Silvia pointed out, her eyes deeply focused on Maximus as if she was looking for something.

  “Is everything alright?” Modak asked, and Silvia slowly nodded. She raised her head and pointed at the screen where Ryan had written down the skill information.

  “Yeah, just like … the skills say a lot about weapons here, right?”

  “Yeah?” Ryan replied, not sure where she was going with that. “What about it?”

  Silvia looked back down at Maximus, and pointed something out that Ryan himself hadn’t realized until now.

  “He doesn’t have any weapons.”

  Ryan was left alone in his room with Maximus. Silvia and Modak headed home for the time being, since it was getting a bit too late. Of course, they would meet up again soon; they practically hung out every night anyway. But for now, Ryan had a lot of things to think about on his own.

  Maximus stood on the desk and looked up at Ryan, who was tapping his finger on the tabletop. “Okay, so … Why don’t you have any weapons?” he wondered out loud. “You’re a knight, and what’s a knight without a sword?”

  Seeing Ryan’s confusion, Maximus tilted his head to the side.

  With a slight laugh, Ryan shook his head and scooted closer to his desk, then quickly turned toward his monitor, navigating to his browser that was still opened to the Awakened wiki, and quickly opened a new tab. In the top bar, Ryan typed out a name.

  “Hayden Aglecard.” His father’s name. The first few results were social media profiles of people named something similar to “Aglecard,” or other people named “Hayden.” Though, there didn’t seem to be a lot of people actually called “Aglecard.”

  However, after the social media sites came some news sites, and the headlines surprised him.

  - Aglecard Charity Auction Raises 50,000,000 Gild

  - 20,000 Homes Built Throughout Riveria by the Aglecard Charity

  - Aglecard Charity Donates Ancient Artefacts to the

  Riverian National History Museum

  - Thousands of Centurean Refugees Find Employment

  Through the Aglecard Charity

  - The Aglecard Charity …

  - …

  Ryan stared at the screen, a little taken aback. Literally every single article mentioning the name “Aglecard” talked about some kind of massive charity. If it was like that, then he wouldn’t be able to find a lot about his father through the internet. Everything would be drowned out by things related to this charity instead, so talking to Runar in the morning would be a lot easier.

  But even so, since he was already at it, Ryan decided to look up some things about spirits. While he would have much preferred a physical class, now that he awakened as this Spirit Keeper class, he had to make this work. Of course, there were ways to get a different class; it was vastly expensive and incredibly exploitative, but there was a company that dealt with the trading of classes. Not that Ryan was interested in that; he had way too many questions about this class to just get another one.

  While Ryan was distracted, looking up a lot of different things on the internet, Maximus had started searching the desk, pushing things around as if trying to look for something. By the time Ryan noticed that something was going on, Maximus had already picked up the X-Acto knife and removed the safety cap.

  “This is so weird,” Ryan muttered with an awkward smile, and as he finished speaking, Maximus began to swing the knife around. It was almost too fast for Ryan to see, until Maximus suddenly stopped. And then, he began to stab the knife forward a few times. Overall, it really just seemed like he was trying to get used to it.

  “Damn. If I need you to fight a cardboard monster for me, I’ll let you know, bud.” Ryan stood up and walked toward his door. It was pretty late, so he figured he should just get ready for bed right now. Then an idea popped up in Ryan’s head. “Hold on … does that actually count as, like, a weapon for you? It just said ‘weapon,’ but … I guess that’s kind of a spear for you … so … Do you want to try to use your … uhm, Knight’s Attack skill?”

  As though waiting for that suggestion, Maximus slammed the flat bottom of the improvised X-Acto spear onto the desk. And that exact moment, a wave of red light streamed through the roots covering Maximus’s armor, flowing right into the knife. The edge of the blade was soon covered in a glowing red edge as Maximus’s aura strengthened it.

  “No fucking way …” A smile formed on Ryan’s face, and he rushed over to his shelf, where an empty energy drink can was waiting to be recycled. Immediately, Ryan placed it onto the desk, which was just a little shorter than Maximus himself, and clearly the small Knight understood why the can was there.

  Maximus swung the X-Acto spear to the side, moving it in sharp angles. At the last motion, Maximus stabbed it forward and pierced the side of the can, pulling the upper half off, leaving it stuck to the blade. But the part where the can was connected up until a few moments ago now had sharp triangles sticking out, each the exact same size as every other one. It took Maximus just a second to do this.

  “… Huh.” A broad grin formed on Ryan’s face. If Maximus could use something like an X-Acto knife as a proper weapon, then maybe he could also use other things. Either way … there were a lot of things to try out. But at this point, Ryan was seriously just exhausted. The adrenaline from awakening was all used up, and he was ready to crash into bed. But before then, there was one more thing Ryan had to try out.

  Ever since one of the system messages he got earlier, he could feel something in the back of his mind. Something like a mental image that was trying to push itself to the front. Ryan was pretty sure that it was related to one of his skills; the Spirit Domain.

  [Spirit Domain]

  [Level - 1] [Proficiency – 0%]

  [Allows the Spirits to enter a space of their own,

  where they can live, train, and keep their belongings.]

  [Effect – Grants access to the Spirits’ domain]

  It was a skill without any sort of cost or cooldown connected to it; a passive skill. So it was constantly active.

  Ryan looked at Maximus curiously. “Can you get into your domain?” he asked, and without hesitation, Maximus nodded his head.

  He placed the safety cap back onto the X-Acto knife and placed it down on the cutting mat. The knight bowed down slightly in front of Ryan, and his body fell apart into those red wisps of light that were starting to become so familiar. However, instead of disappearing into thin air, they flowed toward Ryan as if carried by some nonexistent wind, clinging to his skin.

  After the wisps of light disappeared in Ryan’s body, that mental image in the back of his mind became more clear. Ryan was able to see a space. A cube. Ten, by ten, by ten meters. At the base of that cube was a meter’s worth of dirt and gravel. In the corner was a small wooden hut, though most of it seemed to be cut off by the cube’s planes. The only thing inside was a single bed, and there really wasn’t enough space for anything else. If the door opened inward, it wouldn’t be able to open fully either.

  But most of the space in the cube was taken up by that patch of dirt and gravel outside, with a single straw training dummy propped up on an old wooden stick. As Ryan could feel the warmth of the red light flow through his body, that light began to gather in the center of the cube, coming together to form Maximus.

  The late-night subway car was mostly empty, just a few drunken, midweek partygoers sitting around and feeling the train’s deep buzz travel through their bodies. At one end of that car sat a young orc with thick headphones pulled over his ears.

  Modak glanced down at his phone, checking the time as he slowly sat up with a tired groan. He caught himself on one of the vertical metal bars as the train came to a halt. As the train pulled away from him again, Modak slowed down for a moment and turned around. Instead of leaving through the exit right by his place, he would take the one on the other end, taking the opportunity to check something. And the moment that his head peeked out over the stairs leading up to the street, Modak let out a deep sigh, seeing the lit windows of the nearby building. There was a large sign at the front. brog’s garage.

  “Not again …” he muttered to himself as he approached the door next to the main garage. The smell of dust and oil immediately attacked Modak’s nose, and even through his headphones, the loud, twenty-year-old rock music drowned out every other sound. Without a moment’s hesitation, Modak grabbed the phone laying in between the speakers and paused the music.

  And immediately, a large head with half-gray hair peeked out from behind the car standing in the center of the garage. “What the—” the man, Brog, said with an annoyed expression, before seeing who it was.

  “Modak! What’re you doin’ here?”

  “No, Dad, what are you doing here? It’s like 1 a.m., you promised not to do this anymore.”

  “Oh come on, now.” Modak’s father shook his head with a loud groan, then wiped the black oil from his hands as he moved around the car to take a look at the clock. “Huh, I guess you’re right …”

  “What is it this time? Why are you still working?” Modak asked, not in the mood to play around right now. His father turned back toward the car; an older model, but in pretty decent condition overall.

  “Well, the owner’s comin’ tomorrow, I’ve gotta get this done. Not like I can just give ’im back a broken car!”

  “That car’s been here for a week, Dad. Wasn’t Paul supposed to work on that one?”

  “Paul … he’s been a bit busy recently, so he …”

  “Just fire him already. He’s been slacking off for months, Dad,” Modak sighed, but Brog shook his head immediately.

  “No, no, I can’t do that to ’im. He’s about to have a kid.” Brog looked at his son with a somewhat awkward expression. Modak wasn’t particularly happy with that excuse, but he didn’t want to tell his father what to do either. It was his business, so it was his responsibility.

  With a click of his tongue, Modak put his bag on the ground and took off his jacket, which he then carefully hung on the rusty hook near the door.

  Confused, Brog looked at him. “What are you doing?”

  Modak walked over to the edge of the car lift, hitting the button to make the hydraulics raise it up a bit more so he could take a closer look at it from underneath.

  “Not like we can give back a broken car, right?”

  Lying in bed, Ryan looked up at his ceiling. Today was an interesting day, to say the least. He wanted to deny it, but there had to be something up with his father; why else would he have a spirit in a random toolbox? There were some rare cases where classes could be inherited, but those were all things established hundreds of years ago at the dawn of the system.

  “He was … an accountant,” Ryan muttered quietly, holding his hands to his face with a loud groan. He was still far too awake to actually sleep right now. Even Maximus, in his domain, was still awake, just seated on the edge of his bed.

  Ryan grabbed the phone laying on the corner of his bed. It probably wouldn’t help him fall asleep, but he might as well scroll through his Loop feed for a bit. The app opened up with an excited young woman pointing at the green-screened image behind her: “Ten must-go places in New Riverside during Spirit Week this year!”

  “Oh, right …” Ryan raised a brow. It was going to be his first Spirit Week here in the city soon. It was already a big deal in his small hometown, but he heard that everything was at a whole other level here in New Riverside. For now, Ryan saved the video and kept scrolling.

  “New suspected dungeon formation in—” Ryan instinctively scrolled past the video. New dungeons popped up every week or so.

  “An animal disappeared from New Riverside Zoo!” As Ryan kept scrolling, he noticed something off, though. Not right in front of him, but in the back of his mind, Maximus suddenly stood up within his domain, staring Ryan down.

  “Uhm … are you alright, dude?” he asked, concerned, and Maximus quickly shook his head, and then started pointing up. Not sure if he understood correctly, Ryan slowly scrolled back up to the video he just interrupted.

  “New suspected dungeon formation in an abandoned factory in Copperbeach! After this copper foundry first went out of use more than a decade ago, it has been locked off from public entry. But when some urban explorers found themselves exploring the premises, they noticed the telltale signs of a new dungeon and quickly reported it to the authorities. It has been classified as a Low danger level and—” Ryan watched through the video, a bit bored. These never showed what the actual dungeon was or revealed any useful info, so he preferred watching longer deep-dive videos on Klicks instead.

  However, Maximus seemed to be more than just curious. As Ryan looked inward into the domain, he noticed the Knight standing in the center of the space. Ryan could tell that Maximus wasn’t looking at him right now, but past him, as if watching the world through his eyes. And Ryan didn’t know why he could tell; it was just like a gut feeling, considering that Maximus stood there as he always did. He didn’t even have a face that could be expressive. But Ryan could tell that Maximus was … angry. As if that realization triggered something, a message popped up in front of him.

  [You have received a new Quest!]

  Chapter Five

  Awakened Registration

  Modak woke up to the incessant ringing of his phone. The sunlight was shining through the cracks between his blinds, and an involuntary groan escaped his mouth. Modak grabbed his phone and turned off the alarm, before swinging his feet over the edge of his bed. His body felt heavy, but he still had to get up.

  He moved his hair out of his eyes and sluggishly walked past his desk, still covered in tiny screws, pieces of plastic, wires, and circuit boards. They’d been laying there for a week now, gathering dust. But Modak hadn’t really had the time and nerve to keep working on them. For now, he made his way to the small bathroom across the hallway to brush his teeth. As Modak did that boring, rhythmic motion, his green-brown fingers stuck out to him. He had stood here for fifteen minutes last night trying to scrub off as much of the motor oil as he could, but it just stained his skin like hell, so he couldn’t get any more off. At least it should be enough not to taste it if he accidentally touched his lip, so it could be worse. By the time Modak moved on to brushing his tusks, he noticed how quiet it was in the flat. The only thing that he could hear was the sizzling of oil coming from the kitchen.

  Modak rinsed off his tusks, trying to ignore the deep, dark circles under his eyes, and then took a turn to the left as he stepped out of the bathroom. He pushed open the next door, seeing two young boys still dead-asleep in their beds. Rolling his eyes, he scooped up one of the backpacks off the ground with his foot and kicked it onto the closest bed. With a startled yelp, the young boy shot up.

  “Huh, what?!”

  “Get up already,” Modak said, watching his other brother slowly rise from his bed as well.

  “Oh come on … just five more minutes …”

  “Zigg, don’t make me pull you out of bed again.” Tapping his foot on the ground, Modak looked straight into the tired boy’s eyes.

  Groaning loudly, the boy pulled back and responded, “I’m not Zigg, I’m Mogh …”

  “No, you’re not. Now get up already.”

  “How would you know?”

  Modak left the room and shook his head, annoyed, yelling toward the boys as he walked down the hallway, “For the last time, you’re fraternal!”

  As Modak entered the combined kitchen and living room, he saw his mother put down a plate of eggs and sausages on the table.

  “Morning, honey,” she said, smiling lightly. “Thanks for taking the boys to school today.”

  “Of course,” Modak yawned. “Their school’s on my way to the store anyway.”

  As he sat down at the table, he quickly started to eat. Before long, his siblings streamed into the kitchen, sitting down at the table as well. Even Zigg and Mogh managed to roll out of bed. Once Modak was done with his food, he glanced over to one of his brothers, seeing massive cracks on the screen of his phone. “Oh come on, Pock, what happened?”

  “What? Nothing,” Pock replied defensively, pushing his phone under the table to hide it.

  “He fell off a skateboard while trying to impress his girlfriend,” Gilik, another one of Modak’s brothers, said with a broad, teasing grin on his face.

  As his face quickly turned a dark green, Pock stuttered out, “She—She’s not my girlfriend!”

  Gilik grinned at his older brother and was about to make another retort, but his mother quickly gave him a light, playful tap to the back of the head. “Stop messing with your brother.”