The sun blasted down onto the black asphalt, its heat shifting the light above it. And on top of that asphalt, three pairs of footsteps were sounding out.

  "Can't you... slow down... a little..?" with heavy, strained breaths, an orc practically dragged his feet to follow behind his body.

  "You're the one that asked to join us," an elf, her washed out, dyed-purple hair tied up into a bun, laughed slightly while trying to encourage her friend.

  Next to her, a young man turned around and started running backward, which the orc saw to almost be an attempt to mock him. But of course, that was not at all what he wanted to do, "Let's just cut the run short. We can take a turn over there and get back to the house."

  "No!" the orc heaved out, shaking his head violently. His two friends glanced at each other hesitantly, coming to a silent understanding.

  "Well, if you say so, Modak," Ryan turned back around and smiled a bit, slowing down the pace as the orc had asked. Of course, they were already going slow enough that it might be more strenuous to 'run' like this than go faster, but they were here to help out their friend.

  Meanwhile, Silvia glanced down at Ryan's body. He was wearing a weighted vest, since running without one wasn't really helping him a lot anymore. And he didn't have the time to run a full marathon every day.

  "So... How much are you at right now?" she asked, raising her brow slightly.

  "Hm? Oh, ten kilos. Give or take five kilos. Well, give. Give five kilos.

  "So fifteen."

  "... Okay, it might be twenty," Ryan admitted, and Silvia let out a loud groan, shaking her head.

  "Seriously? Slow it down a bit, otherwise you're going to get hurt. Like Modak is about to."

  "Wait, what..?" the orc asked, not having fully paid attention until his name was spoken.

  Ryan smiled a bit and patted the orc on the back, "Don't listen to her, you're doing fine. And as for me, I'll be fine. Your sister is the one that made my workout plan, remember?"

  "Yeah but she's a minotaur and has a physical combat class, her physical stats grow at a different rate than yours," Silvia pointed out. At this point, though, she felt like a broken record. She had said this at least a dozen times by now, but Ryan didn't seem like he was taking that fact in.

  Modak nodded in agreement, "She also... has a physical... strengthening skill..."

  "Right, she has a physical strengthening- Wait, she has a physical strengthening skill? Since when?" Silvia asked, startled, turning her head around.

  "A few... weeks ago... right after her... debut fight... "

  "She didn't even tell me!" Silvia pointed out, not able to hide her disappointment for a moment.

  Ryan turned his head back. Just like Silvia, he hadn't heard about this. Then again, it's been hard to get time with Yanna recently. After her pro 'Awakened League' debut, she was so busy that when she did manage to get some free time, the last thing she felt like talking about was anything system-related.

  "By the way, is Yanna coming to the party?" he asked, and Modak slightly furrowed his brow. Though, Ryan wasn't quite sure if that was intentional or if he was just trying to stop the sweat from dripping down into his eye.

  "I think so? Maybe? She said... she wasn't sure," Modak responded, "What about... the others?"

  Silvia pulled out her phone and took a look at the group chat they made for the party, "Hm... Sandra cancelled, Oliver might show up later. Jack asked if he can bring his roommate, he just moved to the city and doesn't have a ton of friends yet apparently."

  "He said that in the group chat?" Ryan wondered, since he didn't remember reading anything like that, and Silvia quickly shook her head.

  "No, no, of course not, he DM'd me that part. But I think most people can come? It's a bit out of the way, but we have a decent connection to some good stations, so people should be able to get here without much trouble," Silvia looked at her screen, "Oh, the drink order is coming a bit early tomorrow, apparently!"

  "Okay that's perfect, that means we can properly chill them all beforehand," Ryan grinned excitedly, "Morgana learned this new spell, 'Blizzard Field', in the frost grimoire she got last time, that's absolutely perfect. It's this really cool, deployed spell that can last for up to 12 hours. I already spoke to her, and Morgana is more than happy to use her magic like this."

  "Wait, hold on, where exactly are you going to set this up? In the garden?"

  "One of the sheds is still vacant, I was thinking about using that as the place to keep all the drinks. It's big enough."

  Modak audibly swallowed the lumps in his dry mouth before starting to speak, "Isn't... that shed full... of stuff..?"

  Ryan shrugged, "We've still got a night to clean it up. I already recruited the sub-golems to help out. We haven't had the chance to sort through all that stuff anyway, and I was hoping that Gregor could use his new skill to salvage some materials for you guys."

  Surprised, Modak nodded, "Right... yeah, that... sounds good..."

  Silvia and Ryan glanced at each other again, and just sighed. Their initial plan had been to make today a slightly longer run to make up for the fact that the weren't going to get a lot of training in this weekend, but with Modak having joined them spontaneously, that was clearly not going to work out just as planned. And so, they wordlessly decided to simply move the run down a shortcut back to the house to not prolong Modak's suffering.

  Just a few minutes later, they arrived back at the driveway, and Ryan's heart almost skipped a beat when he looked at the gate out front - it was open. Ryan had definitely locked it, and the spirits were with him here. How far they could be away from him might increase a little every time he levelled up, but at this point it was just to the degree that they could comfortably move around the property no matter where Ryan was. With the exception of the titan skull downstairs, of course.

  But when he saw the black car parked in the driveway, he calmed down, though a few more questions popped up.

  "Runar," he approached his uncle with a slight frown, "What are you doing here? Is everything okay?"

  "Uh... yeah, everything's fine, but is Modak..?" Runar raised a brow, looking at the orc who had dropped down onto the steps before the front door while Silvia got out her keys.

  "I'm... fine..." Modak placed his head into his hands, trying to get his breathing to calm down.

  Ryan shrugged in agreement, "You heard him, he's fine. Now again, what's up? Why are you here?"

  Now, Runar seemed to look at Ryan a bit confused, "We're here to drop of Liam, remember?"

  Similarly confused, Ryan looked over at the car, where Liam was sitting under the protection of the dimmed windows, playing something on a handheld console, "No? Liam's coming here next weekend, not this weekend."

  "I'm pretty sure it was this weekend. The 17th to the 19th," Runar pointed out, and Ryan slowly shook his head.

  "We said he's staying over from the 24th to the 26th. Next weekend."

  Runar sighed, "No, I'm pretty sure it was the 17th."

  Ryan rubbed the bridge of his nose, "No, because I specifically remember talking to you about this, because Liam wanted to stay over this weekend, but we've been planning a party here basically since we moved in. Which is happening tomorrow night."

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  Not sure what to say, Runar looked over at Yamada, who simply shrugged, "I... guess we got something mixed up? Sorry, could you still take him?"

  "Did you not just hear me say that we're throwing a party? You know I love Liam, but that's not exactly the best place for a ten year-old. And we can't move the party last-second," getting a bit annoyed, Ryan crossed his arms.

  Runar leaned in slightly, "Listen, we have clues about where Anders disappeared to back then, okay? We have to leave town, right now."

  "Dude, seriously? The guy ran away two months ago, basically the moment he woke up in the hospital. We know there's a mole in the family. Why can't you put two and two together, already?"

  With a slight glare, Runar looked at his nephew, "Anders would never betray us. There is absolutely no way. Christopher went completely rogue, who says that he wasn't lying to Richard about where he got the info about the dungeon from? Either way, we've got to follow up on this. We can't push this back, or we might lose the lead."

  Groaning loudly, Ryan dropped his head into his neck and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to do mental calculations about how to still make this work, "Fine, I guess we'll figure something out. We'll soundproof his room so that he can sleep properly and keep an eye on him or something," Ryan looked back at the car, "But you didn't have to take him out of school for this. I could have picked him up. He loves riding on my bike with me anyway."

  "No, no, we didn't take him out of school, he was suspended," Runar explained, waving Ryan's comment off with a bit of relief that Liam was taken care of properly.

  "... Excuse me? He was suspended? What the fuck happened?"

  "... He bit a boy in his class."

  Scoffing, Ryan shook his head, "That's ridiculous. Sorry, but no, he wouldn't do that."

  "Except he did. He admitted to it. I... I know there's more to it, but he won't tell me about it, no matter what I do. I was hoping you would... maybe..."

  "Fine, I'll try talking to him," Ryan walked over to the car, "You're a terrible dad."

  "Hey, I'm trying my best! I've gotten a lot better."

  Ryan couldn't actually deny that. Runar had been putting in the work. While Ryan did take Liam off his uncle's hands and helped take care of him however he could, Runar was still stepping up more and more. One time, Ryan actually saw a stack of parenting books in the office, with tons of pages marked. Plus, there were some more big development because of this.

  "Do you have everything?"

  "Mhm, I do."

  "You sure? You forgot your favourite shirt last time, and Ryan had to drive all the way to oldtown and back to come get it. So tell us now, and we can bring you whatever you need."

  Liam furiously shook his head, "No, I'm alright!"

  "Alright," Runar ruffled Liam's hair, "Then be good this weekend, alright? And listen to your cousin."

  "Okay... Bye Yamada. Bye... dad," Liam waved at the two of them as they got into the car. Yamada pulled away, waving back at the boy.

  Ryan looked at Liam with a slight smile. It had only been around one or two weeks, but Liam had been starting to call Runar 'dad'. Liam didn't have a proper father-figure his entire life. He was still a toddler when he was brought into the care of the Aglecards after his clan was destroyed, and the elder that he lived with barely even showed his face. Apparently, the caretakers that Liam did have were swapped out regularly for one reason or another, so this was the first time the kid had any real stability in his life.

  Plus, he was adapting to life here incredibly fast. Now, he only ever fell back into his 'King' play when he was particularly stressed out. So maybe that was part of why Liam was trying so hard to call Runar 'dad'.

  "Come on, let's get you in the shade. I've got something to show you, but I'll let the spirits out first," Ryan smiled lightly, and Liam hurriedly jumped up the stairs with a nod. He high-fived Modak on the way up, though the orc was still recovering a bit.

  "So what.... we'll just have a kid running around the party?" Modak asked, glancing back inside to make sure that Liam couldn't hear him. But Ryan quickly shook his head.

  "Don't worry, I'll make sure he's not causing trouble. Sorry about this. But we can just proceed as normal, seriously."

  "Hm... if you say so," the orc sighed, "You sure it won't be too much for him?"

  "Again, I'll figure something out. Everyone's gonna have a great time, alright?"

  "If you say so," Modak slowly pushed himself off the steps to also get out of the glaring sun, "I'll take one of your energy drinks from the fridge."

  "... Fine. But don't take any of the cherry ones."

  "Yeah, yeah," Modak waved him off, and Ryan sighed a bit as he walked around into the garden. The first stop was one of the garden's newer additions, the pond. It was a secluded area in the corner of the garden, surrounded by shrubbery and trees. You couldn't actually see it all too well from most of the garden, which was also a benefit. It would just give Violette the peace of mind that she needed.

  Ryan held forward his hand and let Violette out. She appeared on one of the mossy rocks at the edge of the pond, and slightly waved at Ryan before jumping into the water. She spent most of her time either in here or in the pool, though she seemed to prefer the secluded and more 'natural' nature of the pond. Plus, it looked quite similar to her domain, so it was probably just her preferred environment.

  Next, Ryan made his way over to one of the old sheds. It had been turned into a fairly big lab space that Modak spent most of his time in. Ever since he quit his job at the Magic Tower, he needed a place to work on his projects himself. However, over the past two months, Modak and Gregor had grown pretty close and were working on some projects together. Mostly, it was Modak learning more about actual applied magic engineering from Gregor, while the spirit gathered ideas for new machines. So, the robot was let out right here, so that he could continue tinkering on some of his projects.

  There was also a separate room in this out-building where Kim could work on some potions whenever he needed to. Him and Morgana worked together in that way sometimes, since Morgana also had a skill that allowed her to make potions.

  Speaking of, as soon as she had a clear view, Morgana almost immediately made her way up into the attic, jumping out of her domain on her own. Once she reached level 10, she learned the 'Witch's Levitation' skill. Before then, she barely ever moved, either staying in her domain or having Ryan carry her around, as if her legs didn't quite work perfectly. But after she got that skill, she was able to float around all over the place, gleefully moving around to wherever she wanted to. And one of those places was the attic, which she had made her own, at least for the time being. Ryan was pretty sure that she just liked the secluded, slightly creepy, nature of it. She also used the space to experiment with her new magics, do research into her grimoires, and most importantly - read. He gave her an e-book reader so that she could read up on whatever Ryan could find for her on the internet.

  Different to Maximus, though both of them seemed to enjoy reading quite a bit, Morgana refused to browse the web herself. The Knight was let out by the garage, which had been turned into the home gym. It was a huge space, so there was enough to put whatever everyone needed, plus some things for Maximus so that he could practice attacks at different sizes. Next to the garage, there was also a small 'practice arena', where Ryan and the spirits could practice cooperative combat, and where the spirits could spar against each other for practice.

  Ryan was about to let Jester out by the set of stairs leading up to the bedroom, but apparently, the harlequin spirit had already snuck out before anyone knew it. He was probably preparing another random prank. They had grown more and more annoying over the past two months, but they were completely harmless and usually employed some kind of Jester's magic, so Ryan was forced to count it as training.

  And the last stop, for now, was the shed which would be turned into a walk-in freezer tomorrow. It wasn't too far away from the back door. For a while, Ryan, Silvia, and Modak were considering just tearing this place down, but there was so much stuff in there that they had decided to just leave it be for the time being until they had time to sort through it. And that was exactly what was going to happen right now.

  Gaia appeared in front of Ryan and looked up at him happily, "Are you sure you can manage on your own?"

  The garden golem immediately nodded her head. She had volunteered to do it when Ryan was brainstorming about what to do with the shed. Apparently, she was hoping to use it to train her sub-golems a bit more. Now that both of her gardens, the one up here and the one down below in the titan's skull, were properly established and mostly just needed some upkeep for the time being, she felt like her sub-golems didn't have a ton to do. And while they were a part of Gaia, she seemed to think of them as aspects of herself, each one deserving attention in its own right.

  "If you say so. Thanks again for the help," Ryan smiled, holding up both of his hands. On one, he held up two fingers, and on the other he held up three, "Okay, which one do you want? The others don't need any unsealing right now, so you've got free reign. Two or three?"

  Gaia thought about it for a moment, turning her head back and forth between Ryan's two hands, before finally pointed at the hand with three fingers up.

  "Three it is," Ryan smiled, taking a step back as he snapped his fingers.

  A pulse of clear magic flowed from Ryan over to the spirit, and the place where it impacted, Gaia's body seemed to fall apart into threads for a moment, spreading around her in a wave. In a blink of an eye, Gaia was just made of green threads, which whirled around each other and kept growing, until a three-metre tall mountain stood in front of Ryan.

  The threads tightened slightly and took on Gaia's shape once again. Ever since the 'Spirit Seal Recovery' skill reached level 10, Ryan was able to unseal each of the spirits to 3/10th their original size. It didn't come up a lot, but in situations like this, the extra strength was pretty useful.

  Though it did remind Ryan just how annoyed he was that things had been so peaceful ever since the incident in the Amusement Park Dungeon. He had been able to level up surprisingly well anyway, all things considered.

  [Ryan Aglecard] [Age - 19]

  [Spirit Keeper | Level - 16]

  [MP - 71.5]

  [Stats]

  -[Dexterity - 2.51]

  -[Intuition - 2.37]

  -[Mana - 1.63]

  -[Sociability - 2.10]

  -[Spirituality - 1.71]

  _

  -[Physicality - 1.48]

  -[Stamina - 1.45]

  -[Strength - 1.53]

  [Skills]

  -[Spirit Armament | Level - 14]

  -[Spirit Construction | Level - 11]

  -[Spirit Domain | Level - 12]

  -[Spirit Link | Level - 16]

  -[Spirit Seal Recovery | Level - 15]

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