Slapping his cheeks with both of his hands to try and wake himself up, Ryan stood in front of the start of the obstacle course. This part was going to be a little rough for him. There were cushioned pillars moving around in circles, spinning and twisting, and ready to slam down whoever entered this place. Of course, they weren't that dangerous, but they weren't safe either. Being hit by these could definitely lead to some broken bones if you weren't careful.

  And worst of all, Ryan couldn't even link up with Jester right now to help him through this, as was initially his plan. With how much mana the 'attack rejection' from earlier cost the spirit, it would take until tomorrow for him to actually recover enough mana. After all, the 'spirit link' skill established a constant link of mana between Ryan and the spirits, but since Jester didn't have any mana to spare at the moment, even if the skill weren't on cooldown, it wouldn't be possible to activate the skill with the harlequin.

  That being the case, though, Ryan should be able to somehow make it through here, even without Jester's direct help through that skill. To hype himself up, Ryan started jumping up and down, "Alright man, you got this! You're the man! This obstacle course ain't shit!"

  And with that, trying to push through the exhaustion, Ryan ran forward. The first obstacle were fast, horizontally moving pillars. One moving by the ground and one by the ceiling. Ryan leapt through both of them, reaching the other side without issue. It was a bit awkward to do while wearing the backpack, but he simply had to wear it right now. He couldn't just put it down somewhere else right now, that would be far too risky.

  After landing, Ryan let one of the backpack's straps slip to hold it on his right while squeezing through two vertical pillars that were spinning like some kind of meat grinder, just trying to keep him out. There was one lucky part about all of this, though. Ryan was on the taller end for a human, sure, but he was thin, especially with his insane metabolism now that he was bonded with Tiar. While this part very clearly wasn't accessible for larger species like minotaurs, cyclopes or giants, most places like this were built to at the very least accommodate orcs, who tended to be much larger than humans and elves. Hence why the gaps between all these pillars were actually surprisingly easy for him to deal with now that he was in here.

  Squatting down, jumping up, squeezing through, leaping over; of course, this was just the first section, but it was still shockingly easy to get through. Hopefully it would stay like this. The next section was another obstacle course. The floor was cut up into circular sections that were spinning rapidly in different directions. Some of them even periodically changed the directions they moved in, and others weren't just spinning on a horizontal level but were even shaking back and forth.

  "Here we go," Ryan jumped onto the first circle, and could almost feel his legs being pulled away. But instead of letting that happen, Ryan leaned forward and jumped up again, using the extra momentum from the spinning circle to throw him forward toward the next part. He had aligned himself properly so that he would be able to jump from circle to circle in ways that he could keep going along with the spinning directions.

  Then, however, he was thrown over to one of the parts of the floor that kept changing directions. If he hit it at the wrong time, he was going to end up slamming into the ground the way his feet would be torn away under him. He was mid-jump, staring at the rotating circle. Ryan pushed out his legs to try and get there before it changed directions. It practically happened in slow-motion as the adrenaline flowed into Ryan's head, but it started spinning the other way a literal split-second before Ryan's boot touched the ground.

  His upper body was still moving forward, but his boots, which had ridiculously good grip on the ground, were bulled backward. Instinctively, Ryan still tried to jump forward, which resulted in him flipping over two and a half times, hitting the next circle in front of him with his back. This circle was one of the ones that were shaking back and forth and up and down, and he hit it at the right angle and timing to be just catapulted forward over all the rest of the spinning circles.

  On the other side of the room, he was thrown against the door leading to the next space, "... Ouch."

  At least it was less of a wild ride than the rollercoasters. Ryan carefully pushed himself up, patting himself down. He was pretty damn lucky that he wasn't thrown all the way back, or worse even, potentially ejected from the funhouse altogether. He would have had to redo this again.

  With a groan, Ryan pushed open the door. This room was pretty dark, and didn't have a view to the outside like most of the other parts of the funhouse. The door fell shut and locked with a click as he stepped in there. As he stood there for a few moments, he could slowly see different symbols appear on the walls, slowly starting to glow; the same type that were all over the dungeon. Ryan really had no idea what this was all about.

  Ryan carefully placed his fingers onto one of the symbols. It was on a button. Presumably, so were all the other symbols. There were hundreds of them in here, covering every part of the walls. Except, of course, the door that he was supposed to leave through. On there, there were only five symbols, written on the door and not on buttons, "I guess I have to match them..?"

  He sighed as he looked around the room. He literally couldn't see anything else but those glowing symbols. The only good part about this was that there didn't seem to be a time-limit, so he could take his time trying to figure it out.

  "You guys have any ideas?" Ryan asked, trying to ask the spirits for their thoughts. But it didn't seem like any of them had any direct idea what the solution could be, so Ryan was just left on his own. This was even something that the other Aglecards struggled with, and there were plenty of people there that were much, much smarter than Ryan.

  "It looks a little familiar, though," he tapped his foot on the ground, glancing at his left arm. It was too dark to see Tiar properly, so he didn't know why his eyes were lingering on them. And then, a flash of an idea got into the back of his head. The symbols didn't make any sense. They were just random swirls and shapes. But looking closely at a small section of his arm right now, the same could be said for Tiar's patterns.

  Of course, the ruby symbiote's patterns looked quite different, but he couldn't help himself but be reminded of the briar-like patterns on the bones of the monsters downstairs in the lab. Maybe these symbols were zoomed-in cut outs of those fake symbiote patterns.

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  "If that's the case... this must mean something," Ryan whispered. While Tiar's red swirls looked random, they were basically the equivalent to their subconscious shown in a physical way. Just looking at his arm, Ryan could usually tell how Tiar was feeling and sometimes even what they were thinking.

  If these symbols weren't just random, but actually meant something, then maybe he could figure that out. If there was any intention behind the things he was trying to figure out, Ryan tended to have an easier time of letting his gut take the reigns.

  Looking around, there were some that appeared sharper, and some that were smoother. It sounded dumb, but at this point, Ryan was just trying to 'vibe it out'. He glanced on the symbols on the door. When he didn't think much about specific words connected to them, he could feel... sadness. Anger. Some kind of frustration. It felt like... something unfair happened to someone. If he had to match it with something on the walls, he already had a pretty good idea.

  Ryan's fingers nearly pressed down on the symbol, one that seemed similarly frustrated, when he stopped himself. For some reason, he had to think of Liam. How would Ryan react if Liam showed him that frustration? He wouldn't match his feelings. No, though he would acknowledge the frustration, Ryan would try to... encourage him. Try to make him feel better.

  Looking around the room again, he tried to find symbols that actually matched the emotion he wanted to 'respond' with.

  Maybe it was a long shot, but Ryan slowly pressed down on one of the buttons that felt like... well, 'loving encouragement'. The moment he did, the symbols on the door lit up and it opened with a click.

  Stepping through, a bit confused, Ryan found himself in front of another obstacle course. Looking at the pillars that were twisting around, he couldn't help himself but laugh a bit.

  "Are you serious?" he let out, "No wonder Runar wasn't able to figure this place out. He's terrible with kids."

  This funhouse wasn't just filled with random puzzles. This dungeon had made it come to life. And clearly, being a 'fun' house, the dungeon connected it with the concept of emotions. The obstacle courses were basically the funhouse lashing out, trying to push the 'intruder' away, while the the puzzles were moments where said intruder had the opportunity to actively engage with the funhouse's child-like emotions.

  To get through this place, Ryan had to play therapist.

  "Yes! Let's go!" Modak grinned broadly as he looked at the final score displayed on the screen, and the option he was given to enter his three-letter nickname into the game's first place slot. MRS, just like before.

  As he did, the screen went black and soon lit up again, showing that the screen itself was gone. Beyond where it should be was now a small golden plastic statue, "Third one."

  Modak pulled black and shook his hand a bit. It was starting to feel a little numb after all those electroshocks. But he should be able to make it through the next two games. Modak didn't want to brag, but he was pretty great at rhythm games, and 'Ghost hunter' was a game that was really just about pattern analysis and planning, which he was pretty good at as well.

  "Want to take a break for a moment?" Silvia asked with a clearly concerned tone of voice, placing her hand onto the orc's back. He turned around a bit confused.

  "Hm? Why? I'm still doing quite well."

  "... Are you sure?" she quickly gave him a paper tissue from her bag, pointing at her own nose. A bit confused, Modak held his fingers to his nose. He could feel something went. Startled, he pulled his finger back. He had a nosebleed.

  "Oh... Uh, yeah, I guess I better take a break," Modak admitted, taking the tissue with an awkward smile while holding it against his nose to block out some of the bleeding. He quickly tried to look up to stop the blood from flowing out, but Silvia quickly stopped him.

  "Wait, no, you're not supposed to do that! You should just let it all flow out."

  "Urgh, are you sure?"

  "That's what my mom told me whenever I used to get nosebleeds, at least."

  Modak raised a brow, "Did you use to get a lot of nosebleeds?"

  "Hm... not all the time, but sometimes. I've got some blood pressure issues, and then when Yanna and I used to play when we were kids, things would get pretty intense, so that didn't help."

  The orc laughed, nodding, "Yeah, Yanna's energy levels are ridiculous. They must have been insane even before she awakened."

  "You can say that again," Silvia scoffed, taking out her phone, "Did I show you the pictures I have of her twelfth birthday party? We went out to this climbing thing somewhere in Eastbanks. You know that thing where you climb on ropes and planks hanging between trees?"

  "Oh, I think I was at that kind of place once before on a field trip in elementary school. I can still remember reaching the end and then going down on a zipline over all of my friends' heads. I was always super scared to go to the higher levels, though."

  "Same! I used to be a little scared of heights... My dad actually got pretty bummed out because I would freak every time he tried to pick me up for a cuddle," Silvia laughed, "Anyway, as you know, Yanna basically isn't scared of anything! Even as a kid, she just ran ahead of everyone, and at this climbing thing she actually went to the hardest level, and then forgot to connect the carabiner that you're always supposed to have set up for safety, and basically sprinted through the whole course. My dad chewed her out sooo much, but she was just grinning and said she wanted to go again."

  "That does sound a lot like her," Modak smiled, looking at the picture that Silvia was trying to show him. Her hand was shaking.

  The orc glanced over at her. She was painfully staring at the screen, trying to distract herself. And of course she did. Clearly, Silvia was terrified. So was Modak, of course, but he had his hands full with the arcade games so he didn't think about this situation all too much. He smiled lightly, wrapping his arm around the elf, "Don't worry, we're going to get out of here. We're going to finish the last two games, and Ryan is going to collect the certificates from the other places. We've got this."

  Silvia glanced up at Modak, "I know, I just... feel so stupid. Ryan warned us that this was dangerous, and now all of a sudden I'm scared at the slightest hassle..."

  "The slightest hassle? Silvia, Richie is running around this place, this is pretty scary."

  "... I guess," she grumbled, "Even so, I feel stupid. And... useless."

  "How are you useless?"

  "I mean, I can't do anything but sit here and cheer you on."

  "Didn't Ryan tell you earlier how useful the clothes you made him were in the labs?"

  Silvia smiled lightly, nodding, "Yeah... I don't know," she looked over at Modak, who wasn't holding the tissue to his nose anymore, "Oh, hey, the bleeding stopped! Should we... or, well, you keep going?" she asked awkwardly.

  Modak nodded. He didn't want Silvia to feel like this, but right now wasn't really the best time to talk about it. It was time for the rhythm game.

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