"The lab? So you mean we need to go down there with all those undead?" Silvia nervously held her hand in front of her chest. Ryan glanced up at her, standing up from his squat.

  "No, we don't need to go down there," he started, before his eyes flashed in four different colours of mana for a moment, "We will. You guys will stay up here."

  "What? You're going to go down there on your own?"

  "I'm sorry, but what are you guys going to be able to do to help?"

  Though the two of them didn't want to admit it, Modak and Silvia knew that they would just get in the way if they went down there together with Ryan. Silvia was a production class, and Modak was never in a proper fight before. And sure, his body was starting to adjust to the massive amount of aura inside of him, but he still didn't manage to actually manipulate it himself yet. He wouldn't be useful in a fight directly, and the synthesized attack magic wasn't tested yet. It was just too risky.

  The orc let out a long sigh, "Fine, but then what are we supposed to do up here while you head down?"

  Ryan thought about it for a moment, "Preferably, just stay in one of the gift shops. It's not out in the open, and the only 'monster' there is the clown. Just keep an eye on a map, and the moment you see the dungeon change back, run to the entrance and call Runar, Yamada, or maybe even Anders if you can't reach the others."

  Silvia frowned lightly, "What, you want us to just run away?"

  "Yes. Yes, that's what I want you to do," Ryan said in a clear voice. This was a ridiculously dangerous situation. They knew what Richard was capable of, so they had to understand. Even so, Ryan knew that this was stressful for both of them, so he didn't just want them to feel like they were useless either, "Listen, no matter how far away the core room is down there, even if it's right at the bottom of the ladder, it's going to take me a while to get back up. You're going to be able to reach the entrance way faster than me. We have no shot at all if we end up facing Richie and his robots directly. They even managed to beat Anders half to death. So, the moment you get out, run to the car, drive away, and call Runar. I'm going to follow right behind."

  "... Okay. Yeah, we can do that," Silvia slowly nodded her head, looking over at Modak, "Right?"

  "Of course. Uhm... I actually should have a spell that could help," the orc quickly started looking through the screen installed on his sleeve, looking through different options, "It's like a mirage, basically a spell to hide people. It even blocks out its own sound and everything that happens in there, so we should be safe if I just set this up inside one of the gift shops."

  "Perfect," Ryan patted his friend on the shoulder, "Let's head there first, then. I'll need a few moments, too."

  "What? You're not just heading straight down there?" Silvia wondered as Ryan started leading the way.

  "Not right away, not without any sort of preparation. I'm going to build Maximus' paladin helmet and the new hammer first. It would be great if Gregor could try to build the wall-mounted platform as well so we can test out if Gaia could become a walking fortress or something," he explained, already mentally checking with the spirits to see if they were ready for this. Gregor, for example, was showing Ryan the list of materials that were needed for that platform. Luckily, it was extremely cheap and could be built with just some scrap wood. Hopefully, they could reuse the old tables and chairs from the gift shop for this.

  The moment they arrived, everyone got to work. Modak was setting up his speaker, trying to slowly play the right 'spell track'. Ryan sat down at one of the tables and got out the two expansion kits for Maximus as well as his small toolbox.

  Ryan cracked his knuckles and activated his Spirit Construction skill. He could feel his fingers feel lighter and more nimble immediately. Taking a deep breath, he removed all the pieces from their frames and began to click them together. Luckily, they were extremely simple kits. Neither the helmet nor the hammer were made of particularly many pieces, so he was able to finish both quite fast. Immediately, he swapped out Maximus' helmet.

  Compared to when other pieces were swapped out, it seemed to take the knight a bit longer to adjust to this quite sudden change. For a moment, Ryan was worried if swapping the helmet would change Maximus' personality, just how swapping out masks changed Jester's personality slightly, but that didn't seem to be the case. His personality was the same, but the way that he carried himself was just a little different. Like he pushed his chest out a bit more, somehow. Maybe it was like a 'Paladin' filter was now applied to Maximus' regular habits, but that was all.

  "Okay, so this is done now," Ryan took a deep breath. He was a bit nervous about having to go down below the food court, but he had no other choice at this point. Looking over to the side, it seemed like Gregor finished building the 'wall-mounted connector' blueprint by taking apart the furniture in the room. Looking at the three machine boxes that were attached to the backpack, they were all still perfectly functional, so Ryan couldn't help himself but breathe out a sigh of relief.

  That did mean that auxiliary things like this didn't count as a 'machine' within Gregor's skills, so that was perfect. Well, it would have surprised Ryan, anyway. There really wasn't a lot here. There was just a wooden platform with some bolts at its base that were supposed to be pushed into a wall to keep the whole thing vertical. The wooden base had a few slots carved into them that seemed to align with the machine cubes so that they could be properly locked in place.

  "Gaia, are you sure you're okay with this being attached to you?" Ryan asked the golem, who immediately responded with a nod. He could push those bolts into her rocky body later, but it would most likely count as 'damage'. Ryan could repair that damage later without worry, so that wasn't his concern, but this still meant that they basically had to injure Gaia. It upset Ryan a little, but Gaia was so enthusiastic that he felt weird being the one to say 'no' now.

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  They would attach it later when they were downstairs, so for now, Ryan just got himself ready. He had to consider exactly what the best choice here was. Urban Knight, or Urban Harlequin. With the former, he would be able to synergize with Maximus more easily, while with the latter, he could synergize with Jester more easily instead. One was better for fighting, while the latter was a better supportive role. Plus, in an emergency, he would be able to just unsummon the spirits and run away really easily. If he could just-

  "Ryan," Silvia touched her friend's shoulder, "Calm down, you're hurting yourself."

  A bit taken aback, Ryan looked at her. He noticed that he was biting his nails pretty intensely, and was even bleeding a little.

  "Right... sorry."

  "Seriously, why are you so nervous? Do you have some kind of bad premonition about that place?"

  Ryan shook his head. That wasn't it at all, "No, no, it's not that, I just..." he didn't know how to say it. It sounded pretty insane, even in his own head, "I'm just worried about what's going to happen down there, that's all."

  "But you were never that anxious going into this kind of thing. Shit, you looked straight into the barrel of a gun not even a month ago," Modak pointed out. He was getting pretty nervous as well.

  "I know, and it's not that, I'm not directly scared to get hurt, I just..."

  Silvia's eyes widened as she looked at her friend scurry around the real answer, "Wait, are you worried about what's going to happen if you do go all out?"

  "Huh?" Modak raised a brow, "What do you mean?"

  Ryan silently looked back at Silvia. He figured she was on the right track, so he might as well just come out with it, "If I go all out, I know I'm gonna end up getting hurt again. And I don't want that."

  Modak sighed, "Okay, that's even more confusing, you just said you're not scared to get hurt. What's going on, man?"

  Seeing Ryan's glances at the shop, and at Maximus who was standing on the table next to him, Silvia put all the last pieces together, "Ryan, are you scared about what's going to happen to the spirits if you get hurt?"

  "Of course I am, how couldn't I be? It's not just them, either, it's... everybody down in the hidden village. It's Kindly and the Forge and Penny, and... and it's Liam. You guys weren't there when I spoke to him, you didn't see how terrified he was of losing people again. Plus, if I die now, the spirits will be trapped again until someone else can come and rebuild their bodies for them from scratch. I just... there's so much at stake now that I can't just be that reckless guy anymore," Ryan groaned loudly, but Silvia and Modak looked at each other for a moment.

  "Well, are the spirits scared?"

  "What?" Ryan looked at Silvia.

  "Are the spirits scared? They go all out in fights. They're clearly excited to go down there, knowing the risks. I doubt that being forced into a gem for years and years on end is a pleasant thing, so they probably want to avoid death anyway. But they're all just doing what the want to do, right?"

  Ryan looked at Maximus, who stood there with his hands pressed onto his hips. That was true. At the end of the day, they always looked the most alive when they were doing what they were 'made' for. Gaia when she was in her garden, and the rest of them when they were in combat. Though, even Gaia seemed to enjoy being a member of the 'party' as well.

  Modak added, "You said that every Spirit Keeper is 'picked', right? They're always someone that can be trusted with the spirits. So you were picked for a reason, and you are who you are. So just... I don't know, be yourself? Sorry, I'm not as great at pep-talks as you two are..."

  Letting out a slight laugh, Ryan nodded. Frankly, this none of this helped. He was still nervous. He was still scared. But most of all... he was excited. Ryan didn't like to admit it, but he liked fighting. It was fun.

  "Just go, alright? Be careful, obviously, don't get yourself killed or anything. But just stop holding back so much. It's not you," Silvia added.

  Again, this didn't alleviate his anxieties, but it did seem to give him permission to just push them to the back of his mind for a little mind. Like he was suddenly allowed to just be himself.

  "Alright," he took a deep breath, "Then I'll get going."

  Ryan turned around, though he quickly heard the slight jingling of the bells at the top of his head. He wasn't quite used to this yet. For a moment, he was, again, thinking about whether or not to change into the Urban Knight outfit. If he could synergise better with Maximus, then that meant they could fight better together.

  But... instead, he somehow felt drawn to this outfit. He could move freely, and somehow, something in the back of his head was pulling him toward giving this a try. Ryan unsummoned the spirits and put on the backpack. He couldn't have Gaia wear it right now, since he was about to run.

  "Modak, do I have the latest version of the translator app?"

  "You should, yes. If it doesn't work perfectly, just try using it a few more times. You should be able to get everything you need for the code," Modak explained, and Ryan quickly nodded.

  "Perfect. See you guys later."

  He put the white mask onto his face and pulled the hood over his head. Stretching lightly, he stepped out of the door, and then just started running. It was time to get serious.

  It only took Ryan a few minutes to get to the nearest food court area. Looking around, he soon found the right stall with the hatch inside.

  The translator was a bit whacky, but Ryan was able to snap a picture of the menu and quickly got the different viable menu items.

  Placing three coins onto the counter, he started.

  "Three separate orders. First order. One orange-banana-pickle smoothie with ketchup on the side. Second order. Large fries with extra pepper and deep fried belladonna. Third order. Hand-shaped pumpkin-pie donuts and a serving of leftover turkey."

  Quickly, the three coins disappeared, and were instead replaced with small scraps of paper with particular symbols on them. Ryan quickly jumped over the counter and grabbed the combination lock, quickly inputting the right combination. With a click, the lock opened. Ryan took a deep breath and summoned Maximus, who quickly climbed onto his shoulder while holding onto Cailleach. Those were largely skeletal monsters down there, so shattering their bones with a hammer would be easier and more effective than cutting through their rotten flesh. Because clearly, that wasn't a weak point for them.

  Undead Skeletons were held together by some kind of magic rather than anatomical logic, at least most of the time. That was why they tended to be rather fragile. But since this was a dungeon, that couldn't be completely relied on. Plus, those weird symbiote-like carvings in their bones were making Ryan quite nervous as well.

  By the time Ryan got to the bottom of the ladder, he had also summoned Jester. Due to the help of of the Urban Harlequin outfit, he was able to have a slight, passive link to him already, which supplied him with a bit of supplementary information of the surrounding when seen through Jester. Since the harlequin didn't have any eyes, darkness didn't affect his senses the same way, so this basically just helped him adjust to the darkness more easily.

  Though, luckily, the dim, red emergency lights set up almost everywhere were supplying enough light for him to be able to navigate well enough already. Ryan grabbed the horn of shapeless water and instinctively turned it into a baseball bat as he looked around the hallway. The corpses that were strewn around were slowly starting to move.

  "Let's get this started."

  A massive grin was plastered on Ryan's face, hidden by the mask.

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