Ryan stared at the system messages in front of his eyes.

  Shop. It said that the tree now had a 'shop function'.

  'What the actual fu-' Ryan opened his eyes underwater and pushed himself up, shooting out of the pool. He pushed himself up the side, jumped onto his feet, and started pacing around.

  "Are you fucking shitting me?!" he looked down at his hands. They were shaking. With each of his heartbeats, he could feel more mana pulsing throughout his body. At the same time, everything was just so loud and so clear, and it felt like every single one of his steps was just so intense and stuck out to him. None of his stats had ever increased in such a single burst like that.

  Ryan took a few deep breaths, feeling his chest quivering slightly. It hurt just to breathe. He was reminded of the feeling of keeping his mana stuck inside of his body, specifically that tension that came as his mana regenerated, forcing itself into his already filled-up vessel.

  "You're fine, it's okay, it's okay..." Ryan's breathing sped up a bit as he put his hand to his chest, "Wait, am I having a- Holy fucking shit I'm having a panic attack, aren't I? Oh, I hate this feeling, I hate it so much- Fucking Tree of Blessing, aren't you supposed to help my mentality out?!"

  Ryan began to ramble to himself, still pacing around back and forth in front of the pool. But he was soon stopped, when Gaia appeared in front of him, stepping out of her domain. He just ran into her on accident, pulling back nervously.

  "Sorry, not now, my head is just so- Oh gods, my head hurts so much," Ryan squeezed his eyes shut and breathed heavily. He dropped down into a squat and held his hands onto his head, immediately trying to get his mana under control. Despite being colour- and texture-less, Ryan's mana still had substance. It was still a forceful energy, more than capable of messing him up. Mana was the energy of thought and connected directly to your mind. If your thoughts were in disarray, so was your mana, and if your mana was in disarray, your mind would be equally scrambled. It was why mana could go on a rampage in the first place when one's mental state broke down, since the user would then lose control of their mana, and everything would get worse and worse and worse until the rampage started.

  "Ryan?" Modak stepped out of the living room into the garden, only seeing Ryan on the ground, using Gaia to keep himself up at least a little bit. He rushed over and placed his hand onto Ryan's back, "What's going on? Are you okay? Is it the spell?"

  "No, it's.... It's not the spell, or I don't know, maybe it is? I..." Ryan squeezed his eyes shut and kept trying to breathe properly. Inwardly, he stared at the tree in the middle of his mind, "I absorbed the... the seed from the, uhm..."

  "The seed from the amusement park dungeon?"

  Ryan quickly nodded, "Mhm..."

  "Is this some kind of curse? Was there some corruption stuck in it after all?"

  "No, no, it... the opposite, the seed of blessing grew, and my mana is really... it's acting off, I..." Ryan tried to take a few breaths, "And I think I'm starting to panic, and my head is so full, and-"

  "Calm down, okay? Everything is fine. Just breathe. Don't try to control your mana, just let it be for a moment. Let it settle on its own."

  Ryan nodded his head, breathing slowly. Instead of trying to grab onto his mana and force it down, he just let it be. He tried to clear his mind, and just not think about anything at all.

  Of course, that wasn't an immediate fix, but his mind slowly seemed to calm down, as did his mana. Ryan took a deep breath, and then pushed out air through tightened lips, "Okay... I think, I... I'm calming down, maybe... it's still uncomfortable, but my mana is settling down..."

  "Alright, so what actually happened? Why did you freak out so much?"

  "It's not that I was freaking out exactly," Ryan shook his head, "My mana stat increased by .43, and my intuition by .21, and my spirituality by .29. It was just... a lot."

  "Uh, yeah it's a lot, what do you mean it increased like that? Just out of nowhere? Did you level up?"

  "No, no... The seed entered the next stage of its lifecycle, and gave me its 'blessing'." Ryan slowly calmed down, properly sitting down on the ground for a moment, when he realised that there was something way more important to talk about, "But listen, there was an ability in the seed! The one from the dungeon, it... I think the kid, the... the core, I connected to him back then, he showed me what actually happened there, and then... I think the kid gave me a gift?"

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "... Okay? And what does that mean?" Modak asked, trying to get some clarification as he walked over to waterproof box next to the pool. There were some towels in there. Modak quickly brought it over to Ryan, letting him dry off.

  "Apparently the tree has the shop function now."

  Modak froze.

  "Shop function? You mean... like the gift shop? That kind of 'shop function'?"

  "I think so! I mean, I have no idea what I would pay with... maybe I would just give it my mana? Something like that? Hold on, I should give it a shot, I'll-"

  "No, you're going to take a break," Modak sighed, "Let your mana rest for a while, or else you're going to give your vessel scars."

  "... What?"

  "Like... stretch marks. The system lets your mana grow way faster and protects your vessel in the process. But when there's a sudden increase beyond the usual confines of the system, like a damned instant increase of 0.43... with your stats, that'd be a... 10 point MP increase?" Modak thought for a moment, "Anyway, your vessel can't keep up right now. If you don't let your mana rest and your vessel recover from that stress, you can severely impact future growth. You know how serious injuries hinder physical stat growth, right? It works the same way."

  Ryan slowly nodded his head. He really didn't think about it like that, but that totally made sense. Even so, that didn't mean he could just... not do it, right? He had to figure out what the hell the 'shop' function referred to. How the fuck was it possible for him to inherit a dungeon's ability?

  After a few more moments of rest, Gaia and Modak helped Ryan up and brought him up to his room using the outside staircase. He got changed into new clothes and came back downstairs, dropping down onto the couch.

  "... Everything okay?" Yanna asked, and Ryan just shrugged.

  "Not really. Everything's just so goddamn fucked, seriously."

  "Hah, tell me about it," the minotaur scoffed, "You want to talk about it?"

  "If I knew what to say, I would," Ryan replied.

  "That's very valid."

  Modak came over from the kitchen with a glass of water for Ryan, "Just chill for a bit, okay? Everything is fine for now."

  "Everything is fine? We have a door into the gaping abyss under our house, a mind-altering ritualistic chapel in our garden, and I have a fucking tree in my head, so..."

  "... To be fair, the last one is kind of your fault."

  "Yeah, I know. I'm stupid. I do stupid shit," Ryan took a sip of the water, "Listen, I just... need to figure out any part of this right now, okay? You set up the cameras downstairs, right?"

  Modak slowly nodded his head. He grabbed his laptop and sat down next to Ryan, "I did. They're recording the door from literally six different angles. We have mana filters that Runar made, and some of the generally most effective security equipment we could ever have access to."

  "... So, did that effective security equipment happen to record anything?"

  "Not yet. But if there were anything to record, it would pick it up."

  "Well, did it pick up how the note got there?"

  "What-"

  Modak jumped up and got behind Ryan, staring at the screen. There was a small piece of paper laying right in front of the door, just like every day. The orc narrowed his eyes and stared at the screen, "Oh, come on! Whatever, I'm going down there!"

  The orc groaned, looking for something in his pocket. It was the coin that acted as the elevator's key.

  "Uhm... do you want me to come with you or something?" with a concerned expression, Yanna looked at her boyfriend's back as he rushed to the elevator.

  "No, it's fine, I'll figure it out. Thanks, though. Just keep watching the camera. If something happens..."

  "Yeah, yeah, if something happens, we'll see it," Ryan waved Modak off, just continuing to stare at the screen. Frankly, that door seemed to be mostly safe, despite the fact that something had apparently come and put a note in front of it without anyone being able to notice it. And despite the fact that it was a deep, glaring abyss without any end. And despite the fact that it was a space that belonged to a god-like being that was supposed to be either lost or dead.

  While Ryan was probably a bit too relaxed about Modak going downstairs alone, the orc himself was determined. He just stood there in the middle of the elevator, his arms crossed as he descended down onto the hidden shrine.

  The moment the elevator's doors opened, Modak stepped out and rushed toward the skull. When he was down here earlier to install the cameras, everything was perfectly, totally fine. There was no note in front of the door, and there was nobody inside of the skull or the rest of the cave either, he had done as many checks as he physically could to make sure everything was safe.

  Even the most powerful, albeit basic, of security measures that he could think of, a little bit of tape hidden at the bottom of the doors leading into the skull to see if the doors were opened, was, in fact, still perfectly intact until Modak stepped through.

  There were no footsteps, no broken branches, not even a crushed bug, that could ever hint at the idea that anyone had come down here since Modak was last here.

  It was infuriating. Especially once Modak actually approached the door. The note was just laying there, mocking him.

  He leaned down and picked it up, quickly looking it over to see what kind of mark was left on there this time, but... he didn't pick up a note. Usually, it was just a piece of paper. But this time, it was an envelope. An envelope with a wax seal. He quickly walked over and held it toward one of the cameras, trying to show it to Ryan, and then just broke through the wax seal.

  Or, that was the plan. The seal wouldn't break or bend, no matter what Modak did. Not even the paper envelope itself seemed to rip.

  But soon, Modak's phone rang. Runar had installed a similar signal-extended here that was in the hidden village under café runic, which was also the only reason why the cameras could even be viewed from upstairs. They should have set these up earlier, but Modak had been procrastinating it for far too long. If he hadn't, they might have caught that antlered spirit woman coming down here and opening the door.

  "Bring that up here, I think Morgana recognises it. She analysed the whole pattern in the shed already," Ryan told him on the phone, and Modak sighed.

  "You sure? It could be dangerous to bring upstairs, I'd just put it with the others for now."

  "Morgana says it's fine. Just bring it up. I think..." Ryan hesitated, "I think Morgana knows who's been writing these notes."