Ryan sat down on a rock in the titan's skull-garden, staring at the open door. Runar had given him a bit of time to sort out his thoughts about what he had just been told.

  The Administrator, a being considered to stand even above the gods... was killed. And now, the remnants of the violent cult that was formed around the Administrator were an even more dangerously violent cult, just that they possessed powerful abilities of undeath. And they were given those abilities presumably because the Administrator was now slowly being resurrected as an undead being, and gave them an alternate version of the system.

  Of course, it all made sense.

  "Total, total sense," Ryan placed his face into his hands, groaning loudly. It was one thing to try and take the trial of the normal administrator, but knowing that he had to take the trial of the undead administrator? Absolutely fuck that.

  Though, on the other hand, Ryan had no choice. Well, technically he did. It was just a choice between direct annihilation at the hands of the Administrator, or a potential slow, gruesome death in whatever that fucked up Administrator would give to him as a trial. Obviously, Ryan intended to head in there, and though it was maybe a little reckless, it seemed like the right choice. Hell, it still seemed like the right choice. In his gut, he knew that he had to do this, that this was the only choice he could make. And not just because not doing so would mean certain doom for him.

  "Runar?" he asked. His uncle had been waiting a distance away, to give Ryan a bit of space while he was thinking. But the moment his name was said, he came over and looked at the young man sitting on that rock.

  "Yes?" he asked, though there was some clear hesitance and worry in his voice. It was obvious why - Runar didn't want his nephew to go through something like that trial either.

  "What do you think I should do?"

  Runar stared down at him, "... I think you should go. No, I think you need to go."

  "Really? But... why? Isn't it far too dangerous for me to just head in there?"

  As he thought about it for a few moments, Runar scratched his chin, "So, yes, and no. The trials are always dangerous when combat-focused classes are involved. And since most of your spirits have a combat focus, there's no way the trials won't have something to do with that. And we don't know how distorted the trials could be now, with the administrator the way they are."

  "... That all sounded like 'yes' to me so far."

  "Right, but... the Administrator is an extremely fair being. At the end of the day, it literally cannot be unfair. Every trial is capable of being beaten at the current level of the person in question. That is an irrevocable act," Runar explained. "And yes, while it may be possible that things changed with the new life the Administrator has, it's not like the folk I fought were strong to a surreal degree. I think it's just that their strengths were amplified, but so were their weaknesses."

  Ryan raised a brow. "Higher peaks, deeper valleys?"

  "Exactly. So, while I believe that the trials might be a little more... extreme, at the end of the day, the fact that they can always be beaten will not change, I am positive of that. I would even bet my life on it," Runar pointed out, and Ryan just looked back surprised.

  "You're that certain?"

  His uncle nodded.

  "In that case, I guess I'll go? I really don't have any other choice at this point, do I?" Ryan stood up from the rock and walked up closer to the door, "But how does this work? Can I bring things? Is this going to take a while? Or is it something that can be resolved in a few hours."

  Runar looked into the doorway, "Honestly? Since you came back out the first time you were in there, it's pretty certain that going in is not the point of no return. If I were you, I would go in, see what happens, and then come back out. At least in the past, it was always possible to abandon a trial, but..."

  Ryan frowned, "But what?"

  "You would lose a few levels, and the corresponding stats."

  "Oh, shit, okay... Uhm... so what do you think is going to happen with the undead Administrator now? Would I still just lose a few levels?"

  As he had no answer to that question, Runar just stared into that black void, "I don't know. Listen, I am extremely worried about this. Either way, don't go in there without a few items. Grab your backpack upstairs, put on one of your spirit outfits or whatever you called them, and then head inside. There's no deadline on the note, but I wouldn't risk waiting until tomorrow. I'll stay here and wait for you, okay?"

  Ryan carefully nodded. His face was pale, and his hand was shaking. He was clearly nervous beyond belief. Scared, even, since it felt like he might be about to walk into his own death. But even though he saw that, Runar couldn't do anything. He just stood there, watching as Ryan left.

  Almost the moment that Runar was sure the elevator was moving upward, he rushed into one of the nearby bushes and vomited. It was a mixture of breakfast him and Yamada picked up on the way, blood, and some kind of necrotic black threads.

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  Runar grabbed onto the threads that were still hanging from the corners of his mouth, coughing and choking as he pulled some kind of growth out of his stomach. A lump of necrotic flesh was uprooted from inside of him. The moment it was out, Runar vomited once more, and slowly wiped his mouth with a nearby leaf.

  He stood back up, sitting down on the rock that Ryan sat on just a moment ago, and pulled up the right leg of his trousers. His skin was already a dark grey, with black threads flowing through it and spreading across his body. The threads were focused around a pitch black cut around five centimetres in length.

  "Shit," Runar groaned, getting out his pen. He placed the tip against his skin and started writing runes onto himself to try and restrict the spread of this magical ailment. But whenever he placed the rune, the magic that made it up was practically 'killed' be magic of undeath. It was impossible to keep it up like this.

  Runar took a few deep breaths. He placed the nib of his pen against his skin, and slowly pushed it in. The pen was made from materials that were almost unbreakable. It was a gift from his mentor, Alicia, and at the time it felt like a bit of a gimmick. Why would he need an unbreakable pen? Runar wrote into the air most of the time anyway.

  But it was moments like these where Runar understood. The flesh of anyone at level 99 could only be pierced by something sturdy. Weapons protected by attack skills, powerful magic, or an unbreakable pen nib, for example.

  Runar carved the runes into his skin, filling the wounds with as much mana as he could to the point where his blood started crystalizing slightly. That way, the wounds wouldn't heal quite as fast as they usually would with his body. But it was fine. Totally, absolutely fine. Runar continued on and on, until soon, the right patterns were carved around the wound. Now, he just had to run his mana through these new prepared channels.

  Once he did, the black, necromantic threads were pulled back from throughout his leg. The pain was unimaginable, and almost seemed to circumvent the resistance stat's pain resistance.

  The threads slowly pushed out through that small open cut, and Runar grabbed onto them with a hand. This almost living thing was wriggling in his hand. Runar pulled them out like tearing roots from the ground, and soon held onto them. But the cut wasn't healing. It was still festering, trying to spawn new roots from it.

  For a while, Runar had to hold it back like this, and then figure out what he could do. This wasn't a curse, it wasn't corruption, it was just a direct attack. A rare type of attack skill. It wasn't magic or aura. It was similar, but something far more disgusting. It was just pure death.

  Runar slowly pulled his pant-leg down again and took a few breaths. He stood back up and walked over to where he had just vomited. The entire patch of grass and the few plants growing around here were already dying. Quickly, Runar grabbed his bloodied pen and drew runes into the air to not just clean up all of this, compressing it into a small ball, but also try and regrow some of what had withered here just now.

  By the time he was done, the elevator had already come down again, and Ryan soon stepped back into the skull.

  "You're alone." Runar looked behind his nephew, figuring that someone else was going to come join Ryan and see him off. But Ryan just looked at him and nodded.

  "I know, I just... it feels a lot more serious now all of a sudden. I didn't want to worry them for now. I did say bye, and I told them what I was doing, but I said they shouldn't come down here with me," Ryan explained, looking at the door. He was wearing a big backpack, the one that Gaia was usually wearing, and had put on the outfit that seemed to correspond to Maximus.

  "Okay. Are you ready?"

  Ryan nodded his head. He slowly pulled out the ring that was in the envelope, and put it on. The moment that Runar saw it, his eyes widened. "Hold on! What is that?"

  "Hm? Oh, yeah, sorry... it was in the envelope. I figured it was some kind of key? That I have to be wearing this when I go in?"

  Runar took a closer look, and immediately started to laugh, "Oh man, I guess we've been worrying for nothing. I mean, I guess it might still be a bit worse in there, and things could be a little different, but... That ring is supposed to track progress of the person that goes in. What you're about to face is a 'stage trial'. You can challenge a stage, beat it, and then come back out afterward," he explained, "Seriously, why didn't you show me that earlier? That would have calmed me down a ton, you know?"

  Seeing his uncle visibly relax, Ryan also calmed down a bit. If that was the case, then maybe it wouldn't be too bad in there. Ryan hugged his uncle for a moment, and then stepped into the door.

  As he turned back around, he could see Runar there, waving at him as time slowed down. Ryan walked deeper into the black space.

  For the first little while, everything seemed totally normal. Until there was something in the distance. It was a tent.

  In front of that tent was a small campfire, though it was currently not lit, and a wooden log that was supposed to be used as a seat.

  As Ryan looked around, he was startled as he saw a message appear before him. It felt weirder than usual.

  [User -Ryan Aglecard- is undertaking the -Administrator's Trial-]

  [This trial is a gift to they who provide the service of guiding the -Heroic Spirits-]

  [The Administrator thanks -Ryan Aglecard-, this generation's Spirit Keeper for their service]

  Ryan stared at the messages confused. Didn't Runar say that the Administrator was undead now? Why would it be thanking- no, why would it give Ryan a gift.

  "Wait, Heroic Spirits? What does that..?"

  [Synchronisation with the user's Vessel has been initiated]

  The moment this message popped up in front of Ryan, the biggest headache assaulted him. It was worse than anything he had ever felt, even what happened earlier when his mana rose so much. But this time, he wasn't given something, something was being pulled from him.

  From his feet, the black void began to turn white, spreading out in a familiar fashion. The ground shifted and water began to spring from the ground. A tree began to grow rapidly.

  But that wasn't all. A distance away, an old shed and a training dummy was seen. In the other direction, a bit further away from here, some kind of warehouse sprouted up, but half of it seemed as though it was torn away. There was a bright circus tent, a large pond with person-sized lilypads on it as well as a small island in its centre, and a bit further away, a thin tower was reaching up into the sky. A flower-covered hill with an ancient tree grew in the distance as well.

  These were the spirits' domains. They were... different. They were roughly the size as they were in Ryan's mind so far, but not perfectly cut off in that cube, but spreading out just a bit more, like they were supposed to really be part of the world now.

  "What's going on? Guys, can you-" Ryan didn't even have to finish speaking. Instead, Maximus was the first out of his domain. But he wasn't the small, twenty-odd centimetre tall Maximus. He was the same as he was when Ryan visited him in his domain, standing a good bit above two metres.

  [The -Spirit Domain- Skill has been linked with the -Administrator's Trial- and has been chosen as the form of the user's Camp]

  [Once you are ready for the first trial, please approach the campfire]