Ryan looked at the symbol of the box on the leaf. It really did look eerily similar to the box that had his dad's stuff in it. What was that about? Was it supposed to be tools? But Ryan had basically all the tools he could need already anyway.

  Unless there were some other things... the tools that Ryan was using right now were made by Runar, but it was possible that there were other, class-specific items that could have different or better effects. Though Ryan didn't really know what would be 'better' than the tools he was already using, anyway.

  Either way, it cost 5000 of his coins, so it was something that would take a while to figure out. Any hints about potential heroic spirit cores took priority over something that could be nothing useful at all.

  "But with that price, wouldn't I be a little stupid not to do this?" Ryan thought to himself. With everything else, it seemed like the price correlated to the power of the items in some way. Either, the cores were something lesser than what he was hoping for, or that box was something *really* good.

  Whichever the case, Ryan would buy one of those core ones first. Ryan had a little more than 90 MP right now, and he should be able to recover enough from nothing in around two to three hours, as long as he wasn't doing anything too strenuous during that time. Each of his MP was worth one coin, so he would be able to buy that in about two to three days. Of constantly, persistently letting his mana flow into his tree.

  "Well, Morgana, that's going to be a good opportunity to do that thing you wanted to try out," Ryan sighed, already not looking forward to tonight. Or rather, tomorrow. Or the rest of the week. He looked over at the witch's domain, and she was waving happily over at him, smiling. "Yeah, yeah..."

  Ryan stepped out of his mind and stood back up from his chair, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He glanced at his phone on the table, and slowly picked it up.

  Now that *this* was taken care of, there was one more thing Ryan had to churn through. He picked up his phone, dialled a number, and put the call on speaker. Nobody picked up for a while. So, Ryan just called again. And again, and again. It took ten minutes for Runar to finally pick up.

  "What?" he asked, annoyed.

  "We need to talk."

  Runar let out a long, dragged-out sigh. "I'm a little busy right now, Ryan."

  "Don't care. Let's talk. Dreadseeker to Dreadseeker."

  The other end of the call was silent for a little while. Ryan could hear his uncle say something, and then heard another voice in the background as well—Chantora's, from the sound of it—before Runar groaned and seemed to walk out of the room.

  He waited for a few more moments in silence, and then sighed. "Where did you hear that word?"

  "Dude, does it matter? I just said that to get you off your ass anyway. I need to know about the Church of the Dead God."

  Immediately, Runar began to laugh. Ryan knew that he'd be shaking his head right now. "No. No way."

  Ryan closed his eyes and bit his lips to keep his mouth shut as well. He thought, and then sighed. "You already told me about them a few weeks ago, why not now?"

  "A few weeks? That was just the other day."

  "To you, maybe."

  Runar hesitated to respond. "Right. Either way, I'm not telling you because I know why you're asking. The only reason why I told you about them was because I needed you to be aware of what they are. That they *exist* in the first place. But now, you're asking because you're planning something, and I'm not going to let you get involved with them."

  "Why, because they beat the shit out of even you?"

  "Yes!" Runar yelled out, without a moment's hesitation. "Yes, you little shit! I'm not going to let you get involved with them, you have no fucking idea what you're dealing with! Hell, *I* don't know what we're dealing with yet! I have no idea what–"

  "My dad was investigating them."

  "... What?" Startled and confused, Runar stood there in the hallway or kitchen, in that soundproof bubble that he had created around himself so that nobody else could listen in. "What are you talking about?"

  Ryan sighed. "Since I want you to be more honest with *me*, I'll be a little more honest with you. I met a friend of my dad's today. Well, his aide, technically."

  Runar was quiet for a few more moments, connecting all the dots. "You went to the Rapids?"

  "Mm-hm."

  "I never... There are no records of an investigation against them led by your father."

  "There also aren't any records of my dad trying to get rid of his fucking class, are there? Just stop this. You don't know *everything*. I just need to know about this. They're connected to all of it. My dad, the creation of the corruption, Anders' disappearance, and I wouldn't be shocked if they were the ones that spurned on Christopher, too."

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  There was a bit more silence, before Runar spoke back up. "Fine. What do you want to know?"

  Ryan let out a relieved breath. That was a lot easier than he thought.

  "How about we start with... you telling me what happened back then? Well, a couple days ago, I guess. How did you, the strongest person I know, get beaten up like that?"

  "Urgh, alright, fine. We had been tracking Anders' movement over the past few months, and noticed that he went to a place outside of town regularly. It acted as some kind of drop-off point. We investigated further, and found out about this Townhouse out in the middle of nowhere. And when we got there..." Runar sighed loudly, as if he was annoyed to even think about it. "We met this freak Hargrave. He was 'wrong'. Physically, I mean. Like someone took a man and stretched him out."

  "And this Hargrave guy beat you up?"

  "Hm? Oh, fuck no. He was just a bit creepy. I turned his place into a dollhouse and trapped him inside. We used him to trace down the location of the cult's main site. Met another 'wrong' thing, a wyvern that was stretched out just the same."

  Ryan just got more and more confused. "I have no idea what you mean with 'stretched out', dude."

  "Just ignore that for now, I'll show you later. We stored the wyvern's body to research it. You can come by and take a look. It's got freaky curses all over it. It's like a branch of corruption. We're guessing that they've used a form of corruption to prepare their bodies for 'Enlightenment'."

  "What the hell is 'Enlightenment' supposed to be?"

  Runar spat out a laugh. "You know, that's exactly what I said when we got to the cult's base and beat their 'gatekeeper'."

  "So, what the hell is 'Enlightenment' supposed to be?" Runar was squatting in front of that man, that starved corpse that had come at them with both mana and aura, just to be subdued in the end. Runar even managed to sample both of those forces so that they could analyse it later, but since they were already here, it was *much* more efficient to just ask the guy. "Is it a specific class you have? 'Enlightened'?"

  The man spoke, in that same strained voice. Just that this time, it was a little more strained because of the runes that were placed on him, which basically locked him into space like a statue.

  "Enlightenment is the blessing of true death."

  Runar rolled his eyes and turned to Yamada annoyed. He looked back at the man as he responded. "You keep saying that, but what does that mean? What exactly is the 'blessing of true death'? Are you in some sort of undead state? Did you undergo a process similar to the original ghoulification?"

  As if disgusted by the very idea, the man ground his rotten teeth together. The veins on his neck, which should be filled with nothing but dust by the look of this guy, popped in anger. "We are **not** ones like those that disgustingly attempted to step closer to true death on their own. *We* have been chosen by the lord of rot!"

  A little satisfied, Runar grinned. "Alright, we're getting somewhere. The 'Lord of Rot', what's that supposed to be? Is that the name of your god?"

  "Our god has many names. The Lord of Rot, the Forgotten One, the Death of All. He is who was once known as the Administrator."

  "Huh, getting chatty, are we?"

  "Now that it has come to this, why hide the truth? If there is any chance in converting a man such as you to our cause, it must be taken."

  "Uh-huh, sure, let's just keep at it with that. I'm a new sheep ready to be added to the flock. What now? Do I eat something? Drink something? Do I have to kill myself to become part of your group, or what?"

  The man began to laugh, though it grated Runar's ears. "Do not mock me. Once you hear the truth, you will *beg* to become a blessed one. Though you have already fallen victim to the lies of the world, if you are lucky, you may be able to be cleansed in the blood of our lord."

  Runar rolled his eyes. "'Cleansed', 'lies of the world', 'blessed one'... Is there some kind of cult buzzword lexicon that I don't know about? Whatever, just spit it out already. What is the process of getting blessed?"

  "If one wishes to be blessed, all they have to do is cleanse their sins. Their bodies have to be stripped of life, before being able to contain the true death."

  Runar frowned, confused. "So people are killed? Actually? Is that why you all look so.. weird?" he took a closer look at him. "No, it's not real 'death'. You're covered in the trace of curses. Many curses leave 'holes' or 'gaps' in the soul, which can then be filled in by something else. That's why a lot of necromancy is done through, or at least assisted by, cursed arts."

  "What you call curses, we see as blessings. They set us free from the shackles of the world and show us the truth of the infinite."

  Runar leaned onto his hand. "Hm. Alright, sure. So, do you know the exact details of the curses? What is their source? Is someone placing them onto you, or are they sort of environmental?"

  The man opened his mouth, grinning as if excited to answer, before stopping himself. He quivered confused, shaking his head. "Why am I answering your stupid questions?"

  Runar dropped his head back annoyed. "Already? What kind of mental resistance do you have, man?" He waved his hand over the man, checking on one of the additional runes that he placed. It was a rune contained in the concept of 'truth'. This particular one made the one affected by it incredibly enthusiastic in sharing anything the people around them were curious about.

  However, the caveat was that it only worked as long as they weren't aware that they were being compelled. The more mental strength they had, the faster they would realise that something was off.

  "Well, that's fine. We got most of what we need out of you. Just tell us how to activate the 'gateway' and we can move on," Runar sighed, standing up again. The man was furious, however.

  "How dare you! This mind is one blessed by the lord of rot! No man, no *being* shall ever influence this mind!"

  "Mm-hmm. So you've got, what, the intuition stat, and think that it means you're smarter than others?" Runar sighed, starting to turn away. "Just tell us, we'll figure it out sooner or later anyway. I'd just prefer it to be sooner."

  "I refuse to let sinners such as you enter the palace!"

  "Oh? A palace, huh?" Runar asked, smiling. He turned to Yamada immediately, starting to sign to her. "Have someone look for any sort of ruins connected to the Church of the Greatest God in the past. And just in case, add any other ruins in mountainous places, something that's accessible to wyverns."

  Yamada immediately nodded her head, pulling out her phone to get to it right away.

  "No! No, you will not! You will-"

  The man wasn't able to even finish the sentence. Instead, his head blew up and splattered black ichor all over the place. Runar managed to react and block it before it touched either him or Yamada, but it was all pretty messy nonetheless.

  "Huh. That was a little... unexpected."