"You're lonely?" Ryan asked, looking around. He was trying to find some kind of button, or something that he could use to answer, but there was nothing of the sort nearby. Ryan was growing more and more confused and nervous; he didn't want to make a mistake and accidentally leave and ruin his best shot at getting a perfect completion.

  He looked back at the door that he had just come through, "I guess it's time to backtrack a little..."

  Quickly, Ryan pulled open the door and made his way back down the steps to the floor below. Though... for some reason, they were normal steps. They weren't moving anymore. Well, they were more normal than before, at least. They were still crooked, warped and dirty, but Ryan could walk down them without having to be worried that he was about to fall to his death.

  The same was the case with the rest of the funhouse. All the obstacle courses were frozen in place as well. This gave him a pretty good opportunity to look around the dungeon and see if there's something hidden. And so, he backtracked all the way, checking out all the routes that he hadn't looked through yet to see if there was any button around, or anything else similar, that seemed like it could be useful for him right now. But no, there wasn't anything. In the end, Ryan got back to the very beginning of the funhouse. As he pushed his way over the first obstacle that he encountered here, he stepped out of the building.

  But... even here, something was different. Things felt too eerily silent. Of course, the dungeon was eerie anyway, but Ryan should at the very least be able to see the smoke rising from the mascot plaza that Richard had burnt down.

  "What the hell..?"

  Ryan looked down at the map in his hand. It was still overflowing onto the edges. Was this a fake space created by the dungeon? Was he still in the funhouse?

  "..." he was hesitant, looking around. Carefully, he started going. This might be a long shot, but if he was right, he could get that perfect completion certificate after all. The dungeon said it was lonely. So, he had to try and show that he wanted to help it out and be there for it. And there was just one way to do that.

  Ryan made his way to the closest food court. Peeking inside, he saw that the hatch wasn't locked. With this, he already knew he was right. He climbed inside and down the ladder. Ryan was about to summon the spirits, but there wasn't anything down here. There were no undead nearby. This was the final proof he needed that this was still just a big puzzle.

  He made his way through the lab, actually taking a moment to take a closer look at some parts of this place without the threat of the monsters roaming around down here. It was a good opportunity to see if there was any further clues, maybe something that would help Ryan figure out exactly what the dungeon core looked like. He had some ideas, but anything could help. He didn't spend too much time on it, though. Ryan wanted to finish this as fast as he possibly could.

  With no threat of monsters, it was actually pretty easy. The massive door stood in front of him again, though it was open. Inside of what was usually the boss room, Ryan was worried he would find some kind of boss after all, but no. This place was empty. Except for the entrance to a slide on the other side of the room.

  "Is this... it?" Ryan wondered. He approached the slide, peaking inside. There wasn't anything in here that he could push either, no other instance of those symbols. Though, that wasn't really needed. Something told him that he just had to head out. Ryan sat down on the slide and pushed himself forward. It spiralled around, and ended much quicker than he thought.

  As he got out at the bottom, though, he was met with some confetti.

  "That... huh? Did the dungeon try to lead me to the core room..? But why would it..?" he wondered. The dungeon said it was lonely, and the 'perfect completion', the best possible result for the dungeoneer, was to find the core. A dungeon's ultimate goal was to protect its core. That was the whole reason why there was a boss room in front of it.

  Ryan grabbed the certificate floating in front of him, putting it into his backpack. Now, he just had to clear the haunted house, hope that Modak and Silvia managed to get the arcade's certificate, and then head back to the gift shop. All the whilst avoiding the murderous psychos wandering around this place. Luckily, there was a haunted house already in sight.

  He ran forward to the plot that the house stood on. It really did the whole thing, with graves in the front and even an open coffin in the yard. Crows and spiders, which had actually come to life through the dungeon, and cobwebs that seemed like they would be able to hold onto a grown man.

  And so, standing in front of the door, Ryan summoned Maximus and Gregor. This was a combat-focused area. It was a boss-rush; there were a ton of rooms in this house, and each one had a single powerful enemy in them. You had to get into the attic to get the statue. That being the case, to get the 'perfect completion' certificate, you needed to actually clear every single room.

  The worst part about this place was that you had to do it all on your own, but Ryan was lucky. The spirits counted as Ryan's own ability, so he could basically be carried by them through to the end.

  "Don't worry, dungeon core. I'll get to you soon," Ryan pushed open the large double doors in the front and stepped into the foyer. In here, there was already the first enemy.

  A man stood in the centre of the room, wearing a tuxedo and carrying a silver platter. He was pale and had deep black hair. This was the bastardized image of a vampire that you could see in fiction. Luckily Liam couldn't see this guy.

  The doors behind Ryan slammed shut, and the fight began immediately. Maximus was at the front, running toward the vampiric butler with Granfell in hand after declaring the enemy as his nemesis to boost his attack damage. Meanwhile, Gregor quickly set up his sniper so that he could shoot the enemy. It would take a few moments, but it would be immensely useful for the last part of each boss fight.

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  Ryan didn't want to take the risk of summoning Gaia, a non-combatant, or Jester, who still couldn't use any skills due to a severe lack of mana, so the three of them were on their own. While Maximus jumped at the vampire, Ryan also ran forward. But the monster quickly and almost too easily defended against Maximus' attack using the silver platter as some sort of shield. A moment later, it also used it to slash at the knight. The edges of the platter were clearly incredibly sharp, like this was some sort of round sword.

  And even when Ryan or Maximus did manage to get some hits in, they didn't do much damage. To Ryan, as usual when facing such a tough enemy, it felt like he was hitting some kind of boulder. And even Maximus, who managed to cut into the vampire's flesh, didn't do much damage. It was a complete misconception, but people believed that vampires were a sort of undead, and clearly, this dungeon took on that misconception as well. The vampire, despite being cut, did not bleed. Maximus' sword didn't do as much damage as it could right now.

  "Crap," Ryan groaned, moving around the monster, trying to somehow pin it down or at least distract it in a way where Maximus would be able to get a good blow in, but nothing seemed to work. Instead, Ryan was just pushed around the room like he was some kind of weightless puppet.

  But at the same time, the vampire didn't move much. Like it was trying to keep up some kind of weird decorum, it tried to stay in the centre of the room at all times. When engaged, it would fight back, but otherwise, it would just keep standing there. So, maybe Ryan had to try what he could to make it go a bit wild.

  He turned the horn of shapeless water into a small knife. He would need a good amount, so he pulled up his sleeve, of course the one where Tiar wasn't, and cut into the back of his arm. Blood flowed down onto his fingers, and Ryan quickly splashed it at the vampire. The moment it was hit, the monster turned its head 180 degrees, staring right at him. Its stoic expression turned into a broad, manic grin, and it started to run across to foyer to get to Ryan.

  He immediately turned the horn into a sword, holding it in front of him, and the manic vampire impaled itself without further ado. It was actually killing itself, just trying to get to the bit of blood flowing from Ryan's arm.

  He was standing against the wall, and the sword he made was big enough that the vampire couldn't get to him; he even added spikes that would stop it from pushing through, so it was just barely out of reach while continuing to tear through itself. With a loud groan, Ryan pulled the sword to the side. It was tough to stab its skin, but now that he already stabbed it with the vampire's own help, Ryan dragged the sword to the side and tore its body in half.

  Its upper body fell to the ground, hanging off threads of muscle fibres. Before the vampire could do anything, Maximus came in and cut through those last remaining fibres, and the moment the vampire hit the ground, a sniper bullet shot through the massive cut's surface, tearing up its insides and travelling all the way into its head, finishing it off.

  [You have killed a Level 19 -Vampiric Butler-]

  Confetti rained down from in front of Modak and Silvia. The screen of the arcade game right next to them was flashing a 'congratulations' message.

  Modak reached out to the certificate, taking a closer look. There was a line in the middle that looked familiar, and Ryan had shown it to them before in the form of one of the other certificates.

  "Awarded to [Blank] for the Perfect Completion of the Arcade Game Gauntlet," the orc read out loud, smiling broadly, "It's blank! I'm sure that Ryan will be able to add this into his card and make it count as his own!"

  Silvia curiously leaned over, holding out her hand, "Ooh, let me take a look!"

  "Nope!" Modak pulled back his arm, quickly stashing away the certificate, "Who knows, if you grab it, it might replace the 'Blank' with your name. And I'm not doing all of this again, alright?"

  "Awe, fine..." Silvia sighed, a bit disappointed, "Well, should we get back to the gift shop?"

  "Yeah... let's do it. Let's get back and hide out until Ryan gets back. He said we're meeting after two hours, right? There's still... twenty minutes left. Who knows, maybe he's already back."

  "Oh, that would be great!" Silvia agreed, hooking her arm into Modak's. The orc was clearly quite exhausted and not steady on his feet. He was incredibly resistant to the shocking magic that he kept being hit with, but it still affected his muscles. Silvia knew that he wouldn't admit it, but she could tell that he strained his arm and upper body quite a lot. Hell, he started bleeding out of his nose earlier. Clearly it still affected him quite a bit. With how hard those games were, they nearly ran out of their multiple dozens of coins, and each coin bought at least three or four attempts.

  Modak earned the right to relax now, seriously. Hopefully, they could get back to the gift shop, and then later the dungeon's entrance, without interference.

  "Are you alright?" Silvia asked. Modak was breathing really heavily, nodding. It was actually getting a bit worrying. He was even limping a bit. While the orc concentrated on just moving forward with his friend's support, Silvia kept looking around to make sure they weren't going to be spotted. They had brought those stealth-cloaks they brought last time and were wearing them to move from A to B in here right now.

  There wasn't anyone around. Neither Richard, nor any of his robots. No, they were safe from that. But the more they walked, and the closer they got to the gift shop, the more Silvia was growing concerned for Modak. He was getting worse, "Don't worry, we'll be there soon!" she said, trying not to freak out. That wouldn't help Modak right now either, "Is- Is it a panic attack again?"

  She felt bad thinking it, but she really hoped it was a panic attack. At least it would be better than something else. They had basic first aid stuff with them, but there wasn't a lot that would help Modak if he broke down right now. He couldn't use potions or most medicines, and they weren't even able to call for help or get him to a hospital, "Please, y-you'll be okay, alright?"

  Silvia soon got the two of them to the closest gift shop, the same one they were in before, and helped Modak sit down. But instead of just taking a breather like Silvia hoped... Modak turned to his side and vomited on the ground. Blood was mixed into it.

  "Oh shit, oh shit, please just-" Silvia tried her best to help Modak. She helped him lay down on the ground in that safe recovery position she learned in the first-aid class while getting her driver's license. She also grabbed a bottle of water and helped him drink something. Basically, she was just trying to do whatever she could to make him push through.

  "I'm... I'm okay..." the orc finally mumbled, closing his eyes, "This isn't... isn't what you think..."

  "Wh-What?"

  "I'm not... hurt..." Modak coughed, convulsing and flinching as he did, pulling his hand to his rib. He was starting to sweat quite a lot. And actually... he was starting to smell pretty intensely. There was some kind of oil on his skin, it was even more startling and worrying than the blood or vomit, "Help me... sit up again..."

  Worried, Silvia nodded and did as asked. The orc carefully crossed his legs and closed his eyes, trying to take some deep breaths that were interrupted by intense coughs.

  "What's happening?"

  "I... my..." Modak started explaining, "I think it's my aura..."

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