Ryan stepped out through the gates of the amusement park. Silvia's car was gone, and only his bike was still standing at the edge of the overgrown parking lot. He leaned his backpack against the side and just stood there for a moment. First, he texted his group chat with Silvia and Modak to tell them he was fine, and that they should just head back home for now.

  There was almost an immediate response, but Ryan couldn't focus on that, because he almost immediately dialled his uncle's number.

  It rang for a few moments, before the call was answered with a click.

  "Ryan! Are you okay? I just got off the phone with Modak, I-"

  "I'm fine, don't worry. Well, not really, actually. Just come to the dungeon, yeah? There's a lot I need to talk to you about and show you. Oh, and bring a truck that we can put my bike on. And some potions. And other first-aid shit. And hurry because there's probably still a murderous cyborg maniac running around," he explained, not leaving a moment for his uncle to ask what he was talking about.

  "What happened?"

  "... I closed the dungeon."

  Runar was completely quiet for a few moments.

  "We'll be right there."

  He hung up instantly, and Ryan took a moment to sit down on the ground and just rest. Now that he had the time to relax a bit, he could really feel the aftereffects of everything he went through. His eyes were burning, and he could feel his heartbeat in his ankle and finger. His broken finger in particular had taken on a dark purple by now. While leaning back, he could feel the coagulated stab-wound on his back tear back open, too. His throat was still coated in the taste of that disgusting tank water, too.

  It took around fifteen minutes for another car to pull into the parking lot. It barely came to a stop when Runar jumped out of the passenger seat and ran over to Ryan.

  "My gods..." Runar looked him up and down, "What happened to you? I told you not to go in there without telling anyone."

  Ryan stared up at him, "Dude, I'm not a kid. I know what I'm doing."

  "And what you're doing is apparently bringing two non-combatants, one of which isn't even an Awakened, into a dungeon."

  Hearing the judgement, Ryan rolled his eyes, "You should actually be glad. Without them, I'd be dead right around now."

  Runar turned his head and looked at the dungeon. Or at least, what used to be the dungeon, "Seriously, what happened in there?"

  And so, Ryan filled him in. This time, he didn't leave anything out. He explained how they found the secret entrance to the labs, and how they figured out an exploit in the shop. How the dungeon was invaded by Richard and then went on lockdown. And of course, how Ryan solved every puzzle of the dungeon, some of which Runar didn't even know were a thing. At last, he also told his uncle the truth about corruption, and the history of the dungeon that Ryan had seen through the boy.

  Not just Runar, but Yamada, who had been reading Ryan's lips, stood there completely stunned.

  "What do you mean, 'corruption is actually a sort of symbiote'? That doesn't make any sense."

  "In the simplest terms, I guess you could call corruption 'undead symbiotes'. But they're like... half undead? It's complicated, I don't really get it either. But it's the truth. I mean, think about it. Why else would a symbiote be able to 'cure' corruption? The fake bond that corruption tries to create is superseded by a real bond," Ryan explained, getting up onto his feet with his uncle's help.

  "I... I'm not sure I get it, but... You're sure the White Shadow Society was involved?"

  "Well, Bluesky was. I'm guessing that the shadows were a front group for the shadows back then as well."

  Runar sighed, "This is ridiculous, I'm sorry. There's no way."

  "What, do you think I'm lying?"

  "No, no, I don't think you're lying. There must have been some misunderstanding, or a trick, or-"

  "Holy fucking shit you stuck-up son of a bitch," Ryan yelled out, "I am telling you that this is the case. The fucking dungeon itself told me. And don't go 'that is not possible', because it is. How do you think I managed to close a dungeon? It wanted to die. It was forcibly created by us, okay?"

  "No, we wouldn't do that kind of thing. We're not insane enough to-"

  "We're not insane enough? Are you hearing yourself right now? Yeah, the Aglecards are definitely not insane enough to create a dungeon. We only monopolise them, manipulate them, and keep them up for decades while developing them into a training ground."

  Runar shook his head, "It's not the-"

  "Oh, and don't forget about the fact that we keep hundreds of people trapped in literal fucking caves instead of helping them out to somehow live an actual life! Runar, at this point we're not the good guys, we're just the slightly less bad guys!" Ryan started pacing around, groaning loudly while Runar was trying to figure out what to say in response.

  "That's not... that's not fair, and you know that."

  "Seriously, just..." Ryan rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Tall demon guy. Red-purple complexion, goatish horns. A tail with the end torn off. Walks with a cane and a massive limp in his left leg."

  Runar turned his head around and stared at Yamada, who seemed similarly startled to him, "How do you know about him?"

  "He's the guy that came here and supervised the birth of the dungeon. Sound familiar?"

  Runar signed something to Yamada for a few moments, and she nodded and quickly pulled out her phone. After looking for a few moments, she turned the screen around toward Ryan. That was the man that he had seen.

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  "Uh... why does she have a picture of him on her phone?"

  Runar tapped his foot on the ground in thought, "That's... That's Yamada's dad. My father's aide. He hasn't been in Riveria in probably fifteen years? And I know for a fact you couldn't have... Okay, are you serious? You're certain this is what happened?"

  He nodded immediately, "Yes. Extremely certain, man. Now please, can you do your level 99 mumbo-jumbo, investigate this bullshit, and give me the fucking potions you brought!" he held forward his hand, and Runar slightly pulled back and gave him one of the bottles out of his pocket. Ryan immediately downed it and could quickly feel some pain relief. That's what potions were the best for; healing damage all over. Later at home, he would apply some proper salves and actually prepare to heal from all this.

  "Alright, we'll... get you home. Is there anything else I need to know?"

  Ryan thought about it for a moment as he walked up to the truck while Yamada loaded the bike onto the back.

  "Well... I've got Violette and Morgana with me now," he explained, "Got their fragments through the perfect completion rewards."

  "Oh! That's great!" Runar opened the car door for Ryan, and he sat down in the back seat.

  "Yeah. I'm very glad about it. Just... sad that I didn't get the opportunity to keep using that exploit."

  "Right, 'exploit' you said that before, what do you mean with that?" Runar asked, turning around from the front seat.

  Ryan rolled his eyes slightly. He could tell that his uncle was just trying to change the topic. Then again, he was basically trying to do the same. He was pretty harsh just now.

  "Uhm... 'Exploit' as in... like a game or program or something. I guess you don't know much about that, but it's basically when you use an error in the program for some kind of benefit. In games it's like duplicating items or dealing really strong damage to a single enemy. That kind of thing."

  "Okay, and was this 'exploit' thing in regard to the dungeon?"

  "Well... the gift shop. It works by scanning whoever rings that bell, looks at their class, and then gives them a selection of items. And the system is connected to our mana, right? Well, Modak doesn't have any mana," Ryan explained, and Runar slowly connected the dots.

  "So you were trying to trick the dungeon by having it scan Modak?"

  "Yes. And we didn't just 'try', it worked. It basically let us create a bug in the dungeon. For example, I was able to buy 'blank' vouchers for each of the spirits. Gave me a massive selection of basically every item I could have gotten through the random vouchers. For you... it probably would have given you a selection of runestones or something," Ryan explained while Yamada started driving, and Runar was just stunned for a while.

  "And you didn't tell us?" he asked, and Ryan shrugged.

  "I was going to, at some point. I just... I don't know, it's not important. I'll tell you later."

  Though his uncle grumbled, Ryan just leaned back in his seat. It was already growing painfully silent in here. But at that point, Ryan remembered one more bombshell that he had to drop.

  "I hate to just say it like this, but Richard knew a lot more about the dungeon than he should. He knew clearing methods, he knew about the gift shop and the different areas, and all that."

  "Huh? Well, he's a clever guy, right? That's why he was such a threat."

  "No, that's not... Runar, we've got a spy in the family that leaked the information to the shadows," Ryan closed his eyes. Now, the silence was absolutely suffocating. But Ryan didn't care anymore. He just needed to take a nap.

  Ryan woke back up in front of his home when the door to the car was ripped open. He was startled and almost tried to push back whoever leaned into the car, but he quickly realised who it was. It was Silvia, leaning in to give Ryan a hug of relief.

  "You're okay!"

  "H-Huh?" startled and still half-asleep, he looked at his friend, "Right, yeah. Sorry, I forgot to text you guys back. I just kind of fell asleep."

  Ryan carefully climbed out of the car, and was quickly hugged by Modak as well. Though, as the two of them hugged, both flinched in pain.

  "Dude, are you okay?" Ryan asked with a slight laugh, and Modak shook his head and held his ribs.

  "Not really, no. I think I woke up my aura, and it's sort of messing me up a bit. I feel bruised all over."

  "Hold it, what did you just say?" Runar stepped out of the car, "You said you woke up your aura? But you can't awaken."

  Modak nodded, "Yes, uhm... But I've sort of learned to control my aura without that."

  Scoffing slightly at the idea, Runar shook his head, "No, I'm sorry, but unawakened people don't have enough aura in the first place. It can't be substantive enough otherwise."

  Ryan and Modak locked eyes for a moment and then turned to Runar.

  "Just take a look, man," Ryan sighed, and his uncle quickly stepped forward. He was about to press his hand onto Modak's shoulder, but stopped himself just then.

  "Oh, uh, do you mind?"

  "Knock yourself out."

  As Runar made contact with Modak, he almost instantly pulled back in confusion, "Holy mother of- How do you have this much aura in you all of a sudden? This is genuinely comparable to an Awakened person. Rather... this is at least a 2.5. Maybe even 2.6... How?"

  Though he was surprised to hear that he really had this much aura, it did make him quite happy, "The hypothesis is that while I have a complete absence of mana within me, my constitution is better for aura. Plus, due to that absence of mana, there is simply more 'space' inside of me for aura. Doctors don't test for aura so we never realised, but when I'm back at the tower I'll get it measured."

  Runar stared at the orc confused, and then slowly turned to Ryan, "Seriously, how did you find this guy? All three of you are ridiculous," he sighed and turned back to the car, "We'll get you some stuff for aura training and development. Just stay here for today and rest. I'll also send someone over that can help you guys with treatment, but I would much prefer it if you didn't go out too much until we have the situation under control."

  And with that, Runar and Yamada went on their way, while Ryan, Silvia and Modak went into their home. They almost immediately collapsed onto the deep couch, though once again, Ryan and Modak flinched for a moment.

  Silvia looked at her friends with a slight laugh, "Is it that bad, you guys? Want me to get you some ice?"

  "No, no, it's all good... Just uh... Maximus or Jester, do you think one of you could go upstairs and grab the first-aid kit out of my room? I don't think I want to move for a few hours," Ryan closed his eyes again as he felt not one, but both of the spirits jump out of their domains. And while they were gone, he decided to fill his friends in on what happened inside the dungeon after they split up. They, as well, told Ryan what happened when he was gone.

  In the end, they all just sat there silently.

  "So... Richard is dead?" Modak asked.

  "I don't know... Maybe? Probably? I didn't have much of a choice, I'm sorry."

  "No, no, I don't blame you at all, just... it's kind of crazy to think about," the orc sighed, leaning forward a bit. He was hit pretty hard by this. Silvia placed her hand onto Modak's back and then looked over to Ryan.

  "So that stuff at the end there was the dungeon closing? Like... fully?"

  "Mhm. The dungeon was created artificially. It didn't want to be a dungeon, it was just suffering and in pain and wanted to go. So, when I gave it the cure, and its core passed on, it was able to make the whole dungeon close," Ryan explained.

  Again, they were just sitting there in silence for a while until Maximus and Jester came back with the first aid stuff. Silvia immediately jumped up and started helping out Ryan and Modak take care of their wounds. When Modak was done, he stood up and walked over to the kitchen.

  "... You guys want a beer?"

  "Like... a trillion, if you'd be so kind," Ryan tiredly waved at his friend.

  "Uh... we've just got a couple of crates."

  "That works too."

  The orc grabbed a bottle for himself, Silvia, and Ryan and brought them over. The three sat around the coffee table and had a drink.

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