The human in one of the two middle mirrors leaned back in his chair, interlocking his fingers. “So then what is this about? I assume it’s not to chat and report on your new kid’s achievements.”

  “Hah, when have I ever reported anything to you guys?” Runar scoffed, shaking his head instantly. “No, this is something else. As some of you might be aware, my nephew has been living with me for a while now.”

  “… Against our wishes, yes. What Hayden has done was nothing less than a betrayal of everything our family stands for,” the human elder pointed out, and Runar couldn’t really say anything against that. It was true; it was to the point where some factions within the Aglecard family even advocated to imprison Hayden, but Runar’s father decided that he would be completely “banished” and blocked from any contact with the family. When Runar himself then became head, he could circumvent that without anyone being able to say anything, and even lifted the inherited banishment on Ryan.

  “Yes, but that was Hayden, not his son. Is our family not about openness and acceptance? Why try to push out a boy who was not even a concept when his father betrayed us,” the lizardman in one of the mirrors, with scarred, matted scales all over the exposed parts of his skin, pointed out. Runar smiled lightly at him, but before he could speak, the cyclops responded.

  “Blood means something! The kid of someone that could commit such a sin is capable of the same, if not worse!”

  “Blood does not carry morals, words do. And Hayden’s words were never able to reach the boy. Hayden died long before any memories could be formed.”

  “Then what about his mother? Someone that’d get with a heinous criminal like Hayden can’t be any better! A broad like her—”

  “Shut your mouth, Orion.” Runar’s voice carried a weight that startled all the elders. He was usually a calm-minded man and didn’t often raise his voice, after all. “Mary is a good, kind, and loving woman. She raised Ryan into a man of upstanding character, who doesn’t hesitate to help those in need. When’s the last time you took a bullet and threatened to jump to your death, just to—”

  Realizing that he was talking about things that none of these people knew about yet, Runar stopped himself. First and foremost, he had to explain one thing.

  “Ryan was chosen as the Spirit Keeper.”

  The six elders grew silent, but their expressions spoke volumes. There were only a few things that could really be passing through their minds right now, and Runar quickly continued, “He came into contact with two spirits already. The first was Maximus, the Knight Spirit. Later, while exploring a dungeon, he destroyed a dungeon heart and found a fragment of one of the spirits that was lost back then, Gaia the Garden Golem Spirit.”

  “Wait, hold on.” The mustiar leaned forward. “A dungeon? Why was a spirit’s fragment in a dungeon?”

  Runar closed his eyes with a long sigh. “Well, why do you think? It’s ’cause of the White Shadow Society.”

  “Of course it’s them,” the human elder scoffed, annoyed. “Have you found other fragments?”

  “We found all the fragments. Ryan is currently constructing Gaia’s body. However, each one of the fragments was being used for a very clear reason. The first was in a low-level dungeon with an easy-to-find core room and acted as the trigger of the dungeon being born. The second was placed inside of some kind of small robot, and later on was corrupted to cause the robot to go berserk. And the third was apparently being used for some kind of experiment. I’m sure you all heard about the giant in the Channel the other day.”

  Orion, the cyclops, crossed his arms. “So they’re trying to tap into the spirits’ powers? What for?”

  “… From my point of view, there only seems to be a single good reason,” the lizardman pointed out. “Those were clearly all very obvious cases. Too obvious for how the White Shadow Society usually operates. Are they aiming for the spirits themselves this time?”

  “That’s what it looks like, yeah. If they can turn the tide of public opinion against spirits … then other magically influenced species will follow pretty quickly.” Runar tiredly pushed his hand through his hair, trying to get it out of his face. “We’re keeping an eye on them right now, but for the time being, it looks like they won’t be able to abuse spirits like that anymore. But we should still be careful. Bruno, please tighten the search for the lost spirits. We’ll send over some of the data we’ve gathered from the lab where they were doing the experiments; that should help you out.”

  Bruno, the rottweiler canir who had been keeping quiet this whole time, slowly nodded his head. “Got it. That reminds me, I was wondering why you requested the cores we had collected so far.”

  “I figured it made sense to keep them safe with Ryan. He’s doing a pretty good job, and he’s ridiculously protective over them. Even after just finding a single fragment, helping out Gaia was his top priority. Plus, the more spirits are with him, the faster he can level up. Bluesky is after him right now. Ryan … registered.”

  “Excuse me?” the human let out. “How the hell did you let that happen?”

  “… I was on a trip the day after he awakened. Dealing with that kobold hole that popped up a bit ago, remember? And it looks like Maximus, the Knight Spirit, found out that there was a trace of another spirit somewhere. Ryan immediately registered so he could go into that dungeon,” Runar explained. “I’ve dealt with the guys going after him for now, but I want to push him above level 10 as soon as possible so that the Bluesky guys can’t try to steal the class anymore.”

  The last of the elders, the old gnome woman who had kept silent this whole time, finally spoke up, “… Is there anything different about the class? It was inactive for twenty-five years, that in itself is abnormal. Is it safe? Are the skills the same?”

  Runar thought about it for a while, but in the end decided that it was best to just fill them in for now. It seemed like the elders were generally receptive enough. Plus, they would find out sooner or later anyway. “Mostly everything seems the same, with two exceptions. One, because his flesh was infected with corruption, I brought him to the nearby symbiote nest. There, he bonded with a variant called a ruby symbiote. Tiar, the symbiote, seemed to have connected to the system somehow, giving Ryan a skill that allows him to recreate parts of the spirits’ bodies as armor for himself. I hadn’t seen that skill in any other records, so it seems to be a unique case through Tiar’s assistance.”

  “A symbiote, eh?” Orion let out, clearly a bit annoyed. “A lucky fellow, ain’t he?”

  “… Yeah, maybe. In some ways,” Runar sighed awkwardly. “But I think the most important part is the form that his ‘construction’ type took. It’s the same as his father’s, that model-building method. He found Hayden’s old tools and they respond to his ability perfectly fine.”

  “Did the class get stuck on that method, or was Ryan also an active model-builder?” the gnome asked.

  “The latter. Actually, he seems more hard-core about it than Hayden ever was. But that’s not why I’m bringing it up. Hayden’s version was plastic; very, very strong plastic, but all of our analyses said that it was the same material as any other model-building kit. But in Ryan’s case, the models are constructed with metal, leather, fabric, and even wood. Gaia’s body that he’s constructing right now is made of actual stone. And I don’t know why either. It’s not like he’s ever built models that use those materials, only those classic plastic ones.”

  The gnome cupped her chin curiously. “So either it is a unique sort of adaption, or the class did undergo some changes over the past two decades.”

  Runar looked at the gnome hesitantly. “Actually, it does look like there was a change that we can tell for sure. I always kept a line to that Spirit Keeper–seeking spell. It didn’t respond, even though we know for a fact that the Spirit Keeper is back,” he explained, and though the others weren’t sure exactly where Runar was going, the gnome did seem to understand.

  “You don’t mean …”

  Runar nodded his head. “Yes. I think it’s possible that there was another Spirit Keeper between Hayden and Ryan.”

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Gaia

  With anxiety running through his veins, Ryan pushed the green gemstone into its place inside of the center of Gaia’s body. It fit in perfectly and was solidly held in place by the rock around it. Once Ryan felt confident in pulling back without the gem falling back out, he grabbed the last plate of stones that he had laying next to him. It was about a dozen of the rocks, already fully put together, so that he only had to do this one last thing.

  He pushed the stones onto Gaia’s chest as the green glow of her mana lit up the stone around her. All of the small individual rocks that Ryan had pushed together to form Gaia’s body were starting to grind against each other as a wave of spasms flowed through the spirit’s new body. Her thick fingers were pushed to their furthest angles and her stout legs bent in unnatural ways. If her body weren’t made of a bunch of stones, this would look incredibly uncomfortable, just as it did with Maximus before.

  However, it didn’t take long until Gaia’s body went completely limp. The rocks were still properly attached to each other, but Ryan almost felt worried that they were about to fall apart as the gap between each small rock was “widening,” as if they were only held together by a thin, invisible thread. Really, he had no idea how their bodies were held together. He was just happy that they were.

  “Gaia?” Ryan asked, as the golem’s body slowly came to life. She took control and slowly sat up, pushing up against the rug below her. Since there wasn’t a ton of space on Ryan’s desk, he was only using it for the individual parts, and was instead putting Gaia’s body together on the ground. She was pretty big, after all, about a meter tall when standing up properly.

  The spirit carefully got up onto her legs. For a few moments, she was incredibly unsteady, but before long, as her magic continued spreading through her body, she was able to properly move her body. Without hesitation, she nodded her head toward Ryan. Truly, he didn’t fully understand why she even had a head, considering that she didn’t have eyes or a mouth, just a mass of rocks coming together like the rest of her body. But he appreciated it, anyway.

  Before anything else could happen, Maximus stepped up in front of Gaia. The two looked at each other for a moment, before Gaia moved down onto her knees, leaning toward the knight. Maximus pressed his forehead against the golem’s. They stayed like this for a few moments, until Maximus pulled back to turn toward Ryan. He bowed with a grateful demeanor, happy to have his friend returned to him.

  “Don’t worry, I’m glad that it all worked out in the end.” Ryan smiled, looking at the large model golem in front of him. “But that means at your ‘regular’ size, you should be ten meters tall? If the packaging is to be trusted, at least … I guess you should fit into your domain properly, but will you be okay? You wouldn’t be able to move a lot, if at all.”

  Gaia seemed to look up at Ryan, before taking a step toward him. As she did, her body broke apart into green threads that were quickly pulled into his arm, traveling up his veins, through his heart and into his head. Inside of her domain, Gaia’s body now reformed. She was kneeling on the ground, staying still like a statue. The grass around her was waving around happily, as if excited to see her.

  As Ryan thought, her body took up most of the domain. Ryan didn’t even know if she would be able to stand here properly, considering that the dirt below her feet took up about a bit of space as well. Though, she didn’t seem to mind all too much, simply sitting there happy and serene. But even so, she still quickly came back out of the domain, having just gone in there to show Ryan that it was fine.

  With a smile, Ryan watched her body come back together, and a system message appeared next to him.

  [The -Spirit Domain- Skill has leveled up]

  Maximus’s and Gaia’s domains expanded slightly into all directions, though not particularly much, after the skill reached level 6. But more importantly, this message did remind Ryan of something else. He had to take a look at Gaia’s status window. It hadn’t been available until now, but it should be ready for him to access at this point.

  Just as he thought so, a deep green system window popped up in front of his eyes.

  [Gaia]

  [Garden Golem | Level - 1]

  [MP - 30.5]

  [Stats]

  -[Intuition - 0.71]

  -[Mana - 0.81]

  -[Naturalism - 0.76]

  -[Sociability - 0.64]

  -[Spirituality - 0.83]

  [Skills]

  -[Garden Golem’s Division | Level - 1]

  -[Garden Golem’s Eye | Level - 1]

  -[Golem’s Garden | Level - 1]

  Ryan looked through the information in front of him. The first thing he noticed was how high Gaia’s MP was—it was higher than both Ryan’s own MP or even Maximus’s AP, and this was just her state at level 1. But then, the next surprising part was that Gaia had no physical stats at all. Actually, most of them, besides one, were the exact same as the ones that Ryan had, so the Garden Golem was a magical class.

  But there was also the naturalism stat, an incredibly rare one that appeared only in a specific type of known classes. It referred to how close one was to nature and how well the world around you reacted to your presence. It was thought that it related to the concept of the “green thumb,” and that those with a higher naturalism stat could raise healthier plants more easily.

  That being the case, Ryan was more interested in those three skills right now, and he pulled up the first in the list.

  [Garden Golem’s Division]

  [Level - 1] [Proficiency – 0%]

  [Allows the user to split off parts of their body

  to act independently to a degree.]

  [Effect – Create up to two sub-Golems]

  “Huh … this is a passive skill? That …” Ryan looked over at Gaia, a bit surprised. “Could you show me what that means?”

  Gaia didn’t hesitate for even a moment, as some of the rocks on her torso started rumbling and moving around. Two lumps of rock fell off her body onto the rug and, before Ryan knew it, stood up. The lumps shaped themselves into smaller versions of Gaia. Though, they were a bit thinner and had proportionally longer arms and legs, even if not by much. And each of them was just a little shorter than Maximus was. Looking at Gaia, she now had two lumps missing from her body, but considering her size, it didn’t seem to make all too much of a difference right now.

  With a light smile on his face, Ryan moved closer to the two “sub-golems” as they were just standing there. They were almost cute standing next to Gaia and Maximus liked that. Curiously, as the two sub-golems climbed back onto Gaia’s body, Ryan looked at the skill window.

  Considering that the Effect section specified the word two, it was possible that this would increase as the skill’s level went up. But either way, that was something that they would have to see in the future, and for now, Ryan pulled up the info of the next skill.

  [Garden Golem’s Eye]

  [Level - 1] [Proficiency – 0%]

  [Allows the user to see the information of applicable plants]

  [Effect – Gardener’s Eye]

  [Cost – 2 MP] [Cooldown – 1 Minute]

  This one seemed more straightforward. It was an appraisal-type skill. At this level, it wouldn’t be able to show much information, but then again, Ryan had never seen this specific skill before, and appraisal skills were pretty rare so, ironically, there wasn’t a ton of specific data about them. Either way, it was exciting and fun, so Ryan couldn’t wait to ask Gaia to try it out on the balcony later. But before then, he had to figure out what the last skill did.

  [Golem’s Garden]

  [Level - 1] [Proficiency – 0%]

  [After establishing a space as the user’s Garden,

  it will receive benefits according to this skill. At the same time,

  the user’s body will be affected by what is grown in said garden.]

  [Effect – +5% Growth Speed]

  “Oh!” Ryan wasn’t able to hold back his surprise and curiosity. This one was a caretaker-type skill! After specifying and choosing a valid space, people with this type of skill could exert some kind of control. The exact type of control was different depending on the class and exact skill, but usually, like in this case, the space would receive a number of benefits based on the user, and the user would receive benefits in return.

  And before he was able to make the suggestion, Gaia reacted first and a window appeared in front of Ryan.

  [You have received a new Quest!]

  [Gaia’s Garden]

  [Gaia needs a Garden in order to use her abilities to the fullest.

  Please find her an adequate space.]

  [Conditions – Find a Garden that Gaia is satisfied with]

  [On Success – Random Selection of Seeds for the Garden]

  [On Failure – Gaia’s Disappointment]

  With a smile on his face, excited to see the quest, Ryan got up from the ground. He looked at Maximus and Gaia, smiling at them both.

  “Well, in that case, let’s check out the balcony first.”

  Richie walked through the roads of the Channel, pearls of sweat dripping down his forehead. He was called here by the company he got a job offer from for some sort of orientation meeting. Being an Awakened, and a Technomancer at that, probably meant that they wanted to put him to work as soon as they could. Though, of course, he didn’t really mind. That just meant he could get paid sooner.

  But the annoying part was that a ton of the roads around the building were locked down. During that villain attack last weekend, there was so much damage done that it messed up basically all public transport. There would be construction going on here for months. The fact it was so hot right now really wasn’t helping either.