[You have found a Fragment of Violette (3/5)]

  "What the fuck?!" Ryan looked at the small, jagged gemstone in his hand. This was a fragment? Of Violette? How was this- How could- "What's going on?"

  Staring at the clown, he tried to get some kind of answer for what was happening right now, "I swear to the gods, if you don't open your stupid fucking clown mouth right now, I'm going to beat the absolute shit out of you!"

  But the clown that was manning the gift shop wasn't responding, just standing still like a statue as he always did. And Ryan couldn't actually fight him either, because that would get him banned from the gift shop, and especially now that he knew that this place had spirit fragments, there was no way he could ever do anything to jeopardize what was going on.

  "Think, Ryan, think!" he muttered quietly, closing his eyes as he started pacing around the room, "So, either, someone gave the fragment to this dungeon for some reason. If so, that means that they would have deep knowledge of how this place works, and also knew that I would do something crazy like trying to go for a perfect completion of one of the areas, on top of being able to control who gets what items as a reward," Ryan said to himself, taking a deep breath. It seemed possible, certainly, but who would do something like this?

  This dungeon was under Runar's direct control, and no matter how much he annoyed Ryan recently, and no matter how much Ryan doubted him sometimes, he did trust him in regard to at least a certain amount of matters. For one, it was how powerful he was. Two, that he truly wants to help Ryan find more spirits and undo the damage that Ryan's dad did in the past. Hiding a fragment, or allowing a fragment to be hidden, would be the last thing that he would let happen.

  No, it just didn't feel right. It had to be something else, "In the first place, what even is this gift shop?"

  Runar mentioned that when he went through all this, he got his hands on some ancient, lost runes. Something that neither him nor the magic tower were able to get their hands on. So maybe... this dungeon had an ability to bring lost objects here. It didn't duplicate them or anything, it summoned whatever the user needed.

  Ryan stared at the clown again. Seriously, this would be way easier if he could just beat an answer out of this annoying-ass clown.

  "Okay, okay, calm down, Ryan," trying to centre himself, Ryan took a few breaths and closed his eyes. Whatever the case, this meant that Ryan had a new goal; another reason to come back to this dungeon beyond just training. He had to complete each area's hidden requirements for that perfect clear thing. And since his name was literally on the certificate, he doubted that it would be possible to get the help of someone stronger. Runar couldn't just come and do it for him; Ryan had to do it himself.

  "This is fine, I can do this. I'll get stronger in the process as well, so it's alright," calming down a bit, Ryan looked back down at the gemstone. He pulled it into the domain-space, and inwardly watched as the fragment fused with the other two. For now, there was nothing else he could do, though. It seemed as though the magic tower, or rather Alicia herself, wasn't going to help with that same 'light of guidance' spell thing that she did last time. Apparently it was a one-time favour. Plus, after the whole thing at the expo, she was extremely busy herself.

  "What a farce..." Ryan clicked his tongue as he looked at the items at the wall in front of him, trying to decide on what else to pick, "The magic tower couldn't even sense something like corruption on their own? Don't make me laugh. All that stupid crap about being 'impartial' when they're clearly in the pocket of the shadows..."

  A deep groan involuntarily left Ryan's mouth, "No, that's not fair either, Alicia is supposed to be Runar's teacher, so they can't be fully corrupt... I hope."

  Maximus and Gaia looked at Ryan as he was talking to himself. His 'sociability' loosened his tongue quite a bit, so he tended to do this a bit more. Also because he was constantly with someone now, the wall to just thinking out loud was solidly torn down.

  "Don't look at me like that. I know that this is all kind of scary and really dangerous, but what else can I do? I can't just sit here and watch while all of this goes to shit. At least with Kim's help, I have another perspective of the family and should be able to push my way into a position with more power. Most importantly, I need a way to get information outside of what Runar tells me, because he clearly doesn't tell me as much as he claims he does. Especially about this dungeon, there's obviously more to it than he explained to me," while Ryan was rambling, he bought one more of each of Jester's vouchers, as well as another blueprint voucher for Gregor and an armour voucher for Maximus. Now, one of each voucher type was left in the shop.

  "I'll make sure to buy you the seed and sapling vouchers next time, alright?" Ryan smiled at Gaia, who excitedly nodded her head, seemingly fine with being 'left out' for now.

  Without further ado, Ryan ripped the first few vouchers.

  [Two Random Mask Vouchers have been redeemed - Two Random Masks have been awarded]

  -[Comedy Mask]

  -[Tragedy Mask]

  [Two Random Suit Vouchers have been redeemed - Six Random Suit Pieces have been awarded]

  -[Humour Model - Torso, Left Leg]

  -[Joy Model - Right Arm]

  -[Madness Model - Torso, Left Arm ]

  -[Sadness Model - Hood]

  "Alright..." Ryan looked inward into the domains and could see some of the packaging for the new additions. He would have to take his time with the suit pieces, since Ryan figured they worked like Maximus' armour pieces, but the masks were something else. He quickly pulled the two small baggies with the masks out of the domain, as Jester stepped out onto the nearby table as well.

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  Ryan opened the two small bags, emptying them out onto his palm. They were mostly the same as the mask that Jester was wearing right now. But one of them had a smiling face drawn onto it, while the other a frowning face with a small tear under the eye.

  Ryan gave both of them to Jester, and he excited grabbed them. They disappeared in his domain for a moment, and Jester quickly waved a hand in front of his face. As he did, the mask he was wearing was swapped out for the 'Comedy' mask. Immediately, the way that the harlequin was carrying himself had changed. His back was straighter and his shoulders were pulled back, and every movement had a slight shake of laughter added to it.

  "So, what does it do?" Ryan asked. Nothing had changed about Jester's status. If it was like Maximus' weapons, then it probably just changed the way that Jester could actively use his skills, like some sort of conduit. Jester's magic was mostly focused around buffs, de-buffs, and other assisting magic that either helped the people on his side or hindered those going against him.

  "Does it... strengthen particular kinds of magic?"

  Jester immediately nodded his head, throwing forward two thumbs-up. He then twisted around 360 degrees, and by the time he faced Ryan again, the comedy mask was swapped out for the tragedy one. Now, Jester was slouching and clearly moved a bit more sluggishly, as he held forward two thumbs-down. If Ryan understood right, then, "Comedy is for better buffs, and tragedy for better de-buffs?"

  The spirit again nodded repeatedly. If that was the case, then this was more than just great. It opened up the way for more effective or streamlined strategies. He would have to check what the new suit parts did. Clearly, they would slightly adjust Jester's stats, but it also seemed like they could have other special effects. Like... with Maximus' 'Cybernetic' armour last time. It was clearly set up to allow fast-paced movement beyond just what the basic stats accounted for. Or his 'Paladin' armour that infused some of his actions with holy energy. Maybe these emotion-based suits for Jester could have similar changes or effects on the magic that he was casting.

  But now, it was time to check out the other vouchers.

  [Random Blueprint Voucher has been redeemed - One Random Blueprint has been awarded]

  -[Mechanical Trebuchet Blueprint]

  [Random Armour Voucher has been redeemed - Three Random Armour Pieces have been awarded]

  -[Crusader Model - Torso]

  -[Cybernetic Model - Right Leg]

  -[Paladin model - Right Arm]

  Though Ryan wasn't sure what a 'mechanical trebuchet' was supposed to be, Gregor seemed quite excited, immediately grabbing the blueprint to analyse it. Just a moment later, the notification that the blueprint was registered popped up in front of Ryan as well.

  As for Maximus' new armour pieces... this actually was a bit surprising. And actually, just showed again that this dungeon could access things in an unusual way. The 'crusader' model was the same one that came out of the expansion kits for the quest Maximus gave to Ryan or that they were given when Maximus reached level 10. With this, they now had three parts of that model; the torso and both arms. But more importantly, it meant that this dungeon could access the same 'space' as Maximus' abilities. If that was the case, then the cybernetic, paladin, and dullahan models were very likely to be models that they could get their hands on in other ways too, once Maximus levelled up more. Though, Ryan should have already guessed so with Ripper and Granfell coming out of the vouchers.

  What exactly did the dungeon do? The vouchers... did they actually summon the thing on their own, or did they just trigger some baseline ability that the user already had?

  "Or... potential abilities," Ryan muttered. People got new skills every 10 levels. Excluding the rare case where someone could awaken to a new skill on their own, that meant that someone who achieved max level, which was incredibly rare in itself, would have 13 skills. The person with the most skills ever had 21 skills, though most of them stayed low-level. However... most of the common classes had dozens of skills known for them.

  The 'Brawler' class, for example, had 63 different skills registered to it. The 'Spirit Keeper' class apparently only had 15 of its skills known so far. If this dungeon could access skills or abilities at a deeper level... then maybe it could access abilities that weren't directly registered as skills yet. Like, the extra parts or saplings acted as milestone rewards. They were things that the spirits could access while making requests for their summoner, Ryan, as well.

  "In that case... it might be possible for me to summon spirit stones directly..." though he said it out loud, he wasn't quite sure if it was reasonable to assume this. But if it was, and his gut did tell him so, then maybe he could at some point, whether through levelling up or otherwise, awaken to the ability to do just that.

  "Okay, so, the list is... two bedrooms, preferably a guest bedroom, a gym, a workroom, an empty room that can be altered for the spirits, a garden that's big enough for plenty of farm plots, a pool- Wait, a pool? When did you add that to the list?" Silvia looked at Modak and Ryan across the table. They looked at each other for a moment and then back at Silvia.

  "I mean... this whole place is being paid for by a billionaire secret society, so why wouldn't we just ask for a pool?" Modak pointed out.

  "... Fair enough," Silvia shrugged, continuing to type on her laptop, "But do you guys really need all of this?"

  "Oh, definitely not," Ryan shook his head immediately, "This is just the 'dream house' we were thinking of. The only things we really need are the bedrooms, some kind of office that Modak can work in, a kitchen and living room, and a garden for Gaia. But it would be great to have some extra space in case there's another spirit like Gaia at some point, that needs some kind of permanent physical space to use their abilities."

  Silvia nodded, continuing to type. She then hit enter and started to scroll down, "Hm... There's not a ton here."

  Modak and Ryan scooted over and looked at the screen. There were a few apartments, some houses... all extremely expensive and pretty far away, "If possible, it would be great to get a place on the main island," Ryan pointed out. It would be great to be nearby so that he could come to the hidden village whenever he wanted. Being close to university sounded good as well.

  "Eastbanks would be fine, right? The Magic Tower is in that direction, and the amusement park dungeon as well," Modak suggested, and Ryan slowly nodded.

  "True, and traffic from Eastbanks isn't the worst either... I mean, they do have a lot more space."

  "Bigger gardens."

  "... More pools?"

  Modak and Ryan looked at each other and nodded, both agreeing to look at more places in Eastbanks.

  "Cool, cool," Silvia nodded, scrolling up and changing some filters on the website. While she was looking at some of the pictures, Modak and Ryan looked at each other. They were shooting glances at Silvia and then locked eyes again, mouthing things in a way that the elf wouldn't notice.

  Finally, Modak sighed and looked at Silvia, "You know, uhm... we were talking, and we figured... since we're already getting a pretty big place either way, it shouldn't be hard to find a place with another bedroom and space for an... atelier."

  The elf froze up, hesitating. She pulled back, looking back and forth between her friends excitedly, as if she was hoping for this for a while, "Are you asking me if I want to move in as well?"

  "Well... if you want to," Ryan responded, "If you don't, then-"

  "Oh hell no, I absolutely want to! I actually got a little sad when you didn't ask me... Trust me, Fae got so sick of hearing me whine about this!"

  Modak smiled awkwardly, "Yeah, sorry... I think Ryan and I were just so sick of living at home that we wanted to get out, and didn't even think about asking you. With how close you are to your family, I figured you wouldn't really want to leave."

  "Well, sure, maybe, but that doesn't mean I can't move out, right? Plus, I would have completely designed the interior of your place anyway, so after doing all that work, I better get a spot!"

  "That is a great point," Ryan smiled, reaching over to change the search settings to account for one more person, though as he did, a particular building caught his eye. It was pretty big, more than large enough to fit in everything that they could ever want, it had a massive property connected to it, was in a part of Eastbanks that was surrounded by the woods, so there was plenty of privacy... the only downside was that it seemed rather old and could need quite some repairs to be done to it.

  But really, the main reason why this place caught Ryan's eye was because his gut was telling him to take a closer look.

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