"Wait... Wait, what are you talking about?" Ryan stared at the gnome, confused at what he just heard.

  Richard rolled his eyes, "I just said that-"

  "I heard what you fucking said, you psycho, I'm asking what you mean. How the hell was corruption made? Isn't it some kind of weird, natural force, like... curses, or something?"

  "No. I mean, yes, sort of. It's a sort of curse, certainly. Then again, I don't really know the details, nor do I care to. I'm just here to get a sample of the original, and then get the fuck out of here."

  Ryan stared at him. This was just completely and utterly confusing. Why and how could this place be connected to corruption of all things?

  A bad feeling came over him. A really, really bad feeling.

  "You said that your corruption isn't 'perfect'. I thought it was supposed to be," Ryan pointed out, and the gnome just glared up at him.

  "I never said it wasn't perfect."

  "You quite literally did."

  Richard rolled his eyes, "And why'd I do that?"

  "I don't know, you tell me."

  "How do you even know that we're here to look for- You know what, nevermind," he let out a long sigh, and Ryan was a bit taken aback. He could see a flash of black slide over Richard's eyes, like some kind of shadow being thrown onto him from the inside.

  "Holy shit. Your brain is melting. Maybe not literally, but... you're actually going insane," Ryan laughed a bit, though it was more of a confused laugh that just came out against his will. But as he said so, Richard's apathetic look turned into an angry glare. He snapped his fingers, and the soldier immediately held his gun at Ryan's face.

  "You want to say that again?"

  "Yes, sure, I would love to. Because you know that you can't kill me, otherwise you're not going to get into the core room."

  Confused, Richard scoffed, "Of course we can. I just need to get some of these weird 'perfect completion' rewards."

  "Except you can't. You pissed off the clerk of the gift shop. It's literally impossible for you to get all of them now, so you need me to get in there. And if I die, well, tough fucking luck," Ryan smiled, looking over at the soldier, "Has he been getting worse this entire time?"

  The soldier just looked back at him stoically, not showing any signs of even thinking about responding to that question. Because why would he? Not that Ryan needed to hear the answer anyway. It was obvious. Was this dungeon messing with him somehow? Maybe because this was the source of the corruption, whatever was inside of him was reacting badly. Though Ryan didn't feel an ounce of actual corruption in here. Maybe the dungeon didn't quite understand what it was, and the way that it was causing the 'corruption' to appear in this place wasn't something that Ryan could feel, since it wasn't technically 'real'. Then again, it wasn't like it really mattered right now. Ryan had to figure out how to stop them from just killing the dungeon. And it wasn't just because he didn't want to lose out on this place as a levelling zone, or because he wanted to get as much as he possibly could out of the gift shop.

  For one, Ryan would genuinely rather die than let the White Shadow Society just get their way. Who knew what they were going to try and do if they got their hands on the original strain of corruption? But there was another part to this. This dungeon was a lot more 'alive' than Ryan had thought.

  Maybe because it was restricted in how much it could grow and expand outwardly by the Aglecards' shielding, it instead grew 'mentally' to some degree. Though, it didn't really matter why it was like this. It was clear that the dungeon was trying to communicate with Ryan earlier, and that it had a unique relationship to its intruders compared to other dungeons.

  However, no matter how much Ryan wanted to protect this place, what was he supposed to do? He was completely beaten up, and he was barely able to beat one of the Roxie units earlier, not to mention four of them that were being actively controlled by Richard, on top of that psycho soldier.

  "What are you waiting for? Open the door already, then," Richard sighed, crossing his arms as he waited and waited. At this point, maybe Ryan just had to bite the bullet. It sucked, but closing this dungeon was much, much better than dying. Plus, the moment this dungeon was actually closed, someone in the family had to be alerted, right? Runar would come here immediately, and he would be able to deal with everyone else here.

  Ryan approached the large door.

  [Perfect Completion Awards (7/7)]

  The moment Ryan placed his hand onto the massive metal doorway, this message popped up in front of him. Clearly, he had done everything that he needed to. And just like that, the door began to open up. He had solved the last of the 'puzzles' in this dungeon, and could now be let inside.

  He walked into the room ahead of Richard, staring at that massive thing in front of him. This room was just another lab, like almost every other room in here. But what was important was the thing in the middle of the room. It was a large tank of water, filled with murky, dirty liquid. But the tank itself looked familiar. He had seen this when he went to meet Tiar.

  "Symbiotes..." Ryan sighed, squatting down as he tried to make sense of all of this, "They weren't trying to create symbiotes. They were trying to create something with symbiotes..."

  "Of course they were. What did you think corruption was this whole time?" Richard laughed loudly, like he was faced with the funniest joke ever told in the history of everything. He really stopped making sense a long time ago.

  And so, Ryan just ignored him, and instead focused on his arm. Was this why Tiar was acting so weird in this dungeon the whole time? It was like they were a bit too quiet until now. Even when faced with those 'fake' symbiote patterns, which... well, clearly they weren't fake.

  "So... corruption is just... some kind of cursed symbiote?" Ryan asked, staring at the tank of water in front of him. Richard turned toward him confused.

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  "What? What's a symbiote?"

  "Oh please, just shut the fuck up already," Ryan groaned loudly, "Can you just man up for one tiny second and concentrate, you stupid motherfucker?"

  Richard's eyes widened, and Ryan held his breath. This was a last-ditch attempt right now. The gnome snapped his fingers, and just like he thought, the soldier pressed his gun to the side of Ryan's head. Clearly, Richard had already forgotten that he said he was going to turn Ryan into a cyborg, though that worked out pretty well for him.

  "Since we used to be some sort of friends, got any last words? Maybe a message I can tell to your little friends before I kill them as well?" Richard asked, smiling broadly. Ryan shook his head, dropping to his knees. The soldier now held the gun to the back of his head, while Richard stood right in front of him. He rolled his eyes and snapped his finger, giving the 'kill' command.

  "Oh, actually, there is one thing. If your Roxies are so precious to you, I'd pay more attention to them," Ryan said, smiling lightly as his eyes flashed a metallic grey. A jolt of electrical energy sizzled from Ryan's backpack, dragging him to the side just a moment before the soldier pulled the trigger.

  And so, instead of shooting Ryan in the back of the head, the soldier shot Richard - right in the stomach. The gnome looked around confused, staring at the soldier that just shot him. Richard was confused, didn't know what was going on. Maybe he even forgot that Ryan was even there to begin with. And so, he acted on instinct.

  "Roxies, kill this dumbfuck!" he yelled out, and the four robots immediately ran at the soldier. Ryan, who had slid behind one of nearby tables, glanced through the large open doors at the remains of the Roxie unit sitting there. Which, while Ryan was checking out the puzzle that was the door to the core room, had two very important parts taken from it.

  One, the mana battery, and two, the energy transformer. Gregor was a genius when it came to this stuff - he took out all the important parts and figured out how they worked immediately, especially since Modak had already explained all the principles to him and Ryan a while ago. It wouldn't be enough to employ this in a full machine yet, but that wasn't necessary. Gregor just needed to make the energy transformer work for one last jolt of movement, right when Ryan signalled him to.

  It was a bit painful, since Ryan was injured anyway, but it worked out perfectly. He was able to hide out in the darkness, while the confused and manic Richard tried to take out his own weapons.

  Meanwhile, it was time for Ryan to figure out what the core was. His priority just had to be to get Silvia and Modak out of here. Hopefully they managed to figure out a way to get away from the robots by now.

  "Tiar," Ryan whispered, "Do you know what it could be? What are we dealing with?"

  He looked at the back of his hand, and Tiar had already turned into an arrow. This arrow was turning into a specific direction, no matter where Ryan moved. They were pointing at the tank of water.

  "Really? You're totally sure?"

  The arrow quickly turned into a checkmark, and Ryan clicked his tongue. Did he have to try and destroy the tank somehow? Or did he have to get inside the tank?

  Either way, the situation he was in was far too precarious right now. Ryan had hoped that he was dealing with something the size of where he found Gaia's first fragment; a small brooch, or maybe at most something the size of a football. But the tank? Or whatever was floating inside of that dirty, cloudy water? No way. He would just get himself shot at this rate.

  Rather, bullets were already flying around. After Richard was shot in the stomach, it seemed like the cyborg soldier and the robots were just all fighting each other indiscriminately, as if they were acting on instinct while the gnomish technomancer was trying to protect himself. As Ryan rushed around the large circular tank, he found a small ladder at its edge. Did he really have to get inside there..?

  "I'm not going to get a parasite, will I...? Tiar, you'll push it out if I do, right?"

  Though, the symbiote didn't reply. Because of course they didn't. Ryan dropped his backpack and unsummoned Gregor back into his domain, quickly climbing up the ladder. He stood at the top and looked inside the water. It seemed a little clearer from here, like the glass was just super dirty, but it still looked like Ryan would just catch something the moment he touched it. But if Tiar was right, then... he just had to do this.

  And so, Ryan dove into the water. With his earrings, he was fully protected and could breathe underwater, at least to some degree. In clean water, it was like he was breathing clean air, but in here, it was like he was in the middle of a dust storm or something. It was painful and straining, but it worked, and he could move quite easily too. Plus, his hearing wasn't blocked either.

  He carefully looked around. There was something whispering to him. Ryan could feel the water flowing just so slightly, like some wind flowing against his skin.

  "Please, I'm here to help," Ryan said. He could taste the water as he did. It was disgusting.

  But more importantly, if there was something in here, then maybe he could talk to it. Maybe he could just convince it to turn off the lockdown. That way, as long as Ryan could somehow pull Richard back out of the core room, everything would be great.

  Silvia and Modak could get out of here, the dungeon would stick around safely, and Richard wouldn't be able to get inside the core room again. It would be the perfect solution.

  He could see the outlines or something moving around him. Ryan expected some kind of black blob, but it wasn't that. It looked... like a person. Like a quite small person. He tried to reach out to them, and soon grabbed something; their arm. As he pulled the person closer, Ryan couldn't believe his eyes.

  It was some kind of piscette, a fish man. No... a fish boy. It was a kid, and Ryan was absolutely sure of it. The dungeon's heart was a child? The kid tore itself away from Ryan and continued swimming around.

  "Were you the one trying to talk to me through the funhouse? I got your message! I came here, I'm trying to help... " Ryan said, trying to talk to the boy. To convince him to at least hear him out, "I... I know you're lonely. I'm here now. You're not alone anymore."

  All of a sudden, the boy stopped swimming around Ryan. Instead, he approached him closely. It was like all the dirt and grime faded away for a moment to let Ryan see him fully, from head to toe. He was skinny beyond anything Ryan had ever seen. Like this boy had been starved for weeks on end. He had blemishes all over, and his scales were fully scratched up. His eyes looked dead and milky. And all over his body, he had deep black markings. They looked natural, like roots slinging around him, but they had spikes like those of a briar.

  "It's okay," Ryan reached out his hand, "You're scared, right? I can come back down here however often you want. You look around the age of my cousin. Maybe you two could get along. I could bring him here so you can meet. Just chat and play a bit?"

  The boy slowly reached out. He took Ryan's hand. It was weak. So, so weak. Ryan could barely contain himself. What kind of psycho did this to a child?

  "Are you... the start of the corruption? Are you patient zero?" he asked. The boy just tilted his head to the side. Ryan carefully ran his fingers over the black markings on the boy's arm, "This. Are you the first one that had these, back when this place wasn't a dungeon yet?"

  Clearly, the boy didn't understand what he was asking.

  "Don't worry, it's fine. We can figure this out in time, okay? For now, could you-" Ryan tried to, once again, ask him to stop the lockdown, but he couldn't finish his sentence.

  The sound of glass shattering interrupted Ryan, as he could feel himself being dragged out of the tank together with the rest of the water. Instinctively, Ryan pulled in the boy and held his head to protect him from shards of glass or some kind of fall. The two ended up outside of the tank together, laying on the ground.

  Ryan quickly sat up and looked the boy up and down. Not every piscette could survive out of water. Would the boy be fine?

  Though, right as he thought that, Ryan realized that it was the least of his worries.

  Richard stood next to him, holding the wound on his stomach, that a thick, black blood was flowing out of. He was holding a gun in his hand, which had just been used to shoot the tank. Behind him, the cyborg soldier just twitched, still being pummelled by the Roxies.

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