"Sorry, I was caught up in something else and only just saw your message, so-" Runar rushed out from the café's back room, almost immediately bumping into the boulder stood in front of him.

  Confused, he looked around, squeezing by, and quickly realized that this was indeed Gaia who was now towering over him. Three sub-golems were walking around the café, serving the customers, while Ryan was actually making the drinks. And not just that, but the café seemed a lot fuller than normal.

  "Dude, finally, I texted you like an hour ago. I was getting worried," Ryan said, sighing loudly as he practically glared at his uncle.

  "... What's going on? Why are you having Gaia take orders?"

  Ryan shrugged, "I needed someone to watch the store while I went to check on Silvia upstairs, so I linked with Gaia so that the place wouldn't be abandoned. By the time I came back downstairs, some people posted about the 'Golem Café', and... well, more people showed up," he explained, "I told Gaia she didn't have to stick around after that, but she said she wanted to keep helping out. I think she likes this kind of thing."

  Runar tied his apron behind his back, "Isn't she busy upstairs?"

  "No, I mean, she already took care of everything. Since I unlocked both Stamina and Strength, I don't go to the gym for quite as long, and we're not worried about levelling up too much right now either, so... you know," Ryan explained, "The garden isn't big enough for her to have a ton to do."

  "Hm... fair enough. But what is this about Silvia? Is she okay?"

  "... We'll see. Anyway, for now, just come on and help out. Some tourist group stopped by after hearing about Gaia," Ryan explained, and Runar quickly nodded his head. He stepped up next to Gaia and started taking some orders. More people came into the café pretty soon, making this probably one of the busiest days in here in a good few weeks.

  But with the extra hands that Gaia provided, they were able to get through all the orders pretty quickly. Plus, it was a good way for Ryan to level up the 'Spirit Seal Recovery' skill. With just a single spirit affected, Ryan's passive mana recovery was higher than what the skill drained, so he could have it active for however long he wanted. Maybe he should have at least one spirit constantly 'unsealed' to help level the skill up as soon as he could.

  It also had a secondary effect. Until now, all of Ryan's skills drained the mana all at once in a fraction of a second to activate skills, but with this one, there was a constant flow of mana going from him to the spirits. It was like a slight tingling flowing through every cell of his body. It was a totally different sensation than before when Ryan awakened. Maybe because his Intuition stat was as high as it was now, it was like a whole other world. Now, if he could only control that mana... his Spirituality stat was there for a reason, and it was definitely at a point where he should be able to actually affect his mana with it.

  Ryan was pouring milk into the cup, seeing the small ripples and waves of the foam flow through the coffee. He felt the weight of the milk jug lighten, while the coffee cup grew heavier. Similarly, his mana began to ripple and flow through his veins. Lighter on one side, heavier on the other.

  Bit by bit, point by point, Ryan's mana flowed through his body, speeding it. From his toes and his fingertips, through his heart, up his spine, into his mind.

  The world around Ryan went white and he could feel his legs give in. Or rather, maybe that wasn't really the case. He just didn't feel the weight of his body on his legs anymore, so he was startled for a moment. But when he came to, Ryan wasn't in the café anymore. Everything was still just white, but it was different. Like this was an actual space. And then, he heard it. The sound of gravel being pushed around by heavy steps, as well as the sound of mechanical clicking.

  Ryan turned around, and saw three spaces unfold in front of him. One was basically empty; waving grass, some flowers here and there, and the edge of a tree coming into view. Another one was an old, dark workshop, with a six-armed figure clicking together some pieces of metal and wood. The third had an old, small hut, where a tall knight was swinging a massive sword at a training dummy. After every cut that practically tore it apart, the dummy simply repaired itself again before the next swing could come in.

  These were the domains, weren't they?

  Ryan carefully stepped forward, approaching the domain that was closest to him. It was Maximus' domain. His hand passed through the outer wall around the domain and simply passed through. It was like Ryan was pushing his hand through thin cobwebs, tickling his fingertips. The moment he stepped fully through, the sound of gravel being crushed stopped. Maximus saw Ryan suddenly stand inside the domain, and carefully approached him.

  For the first time, the tiny model knight appeared how he truly was; massive and towering. Ryan had no idea what species Maximus was supposed to be under that armour, but he definitely wasn't a human. He was well, well above two metres tall, and the air that he gave off like this was truly intimidating. The spirit dropped his sword beside him, and stood in front of Ryan. Of course, if he didn't know any better, Ryan would have been scared, but he knew exactly what Maximus was about to do.

  He spread out his arms and quickly swung his arms around Ryan, pulling him into a tight hug. The metal of Maximus' armour was cold, but the hug itself was incredibly warm.

  "Yeah, yeah, I'm glad to see you too, buddy," Ryan smiled, looking around, "I didn't know this was a thing. Did you?"

  Maximus immediately shook his head.

  "Do you remember anything now, like, did other Spirit Keepers do this kind of thing? Even if you don't remember specifics, as long as this feels familiar..."

  It seemed like Maximus started thinking for a few moments, like he wasn't particularly sure, and then just responded with a shrug.

  "Hm... Well, I don't think it matters that much anyway. But it's kind of neat that I can come visit you guys in here, huh? Maybe I can train with you at some point," Ryan suggested jokingly, but Maximus seemed incredibly excited at the idea. He picked up Granfell again and quickly pushed it into Ryan's hands. The sword was still far too heavy for Ryan to do anything with at all, but it seemed like the knight still wanted him to give it a try. Before Ryan could say anything about it, though, he could feel an echo shake through the domain.

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  "Ryan? Ryan, are you okay?"

  It was Runar's voice, and Ryan suddenly remembered the situation he was in when he came in here. He looked down at his hands, starting to feel a stinging pain surge through his left hand.

  "Oh, fu-"

  [Your Spirituality has increased by 0.04]

  The world around Ryan changed once again, and he was back in the café. The cup was overflowing and steaming hot coffee and steamed milk was dripping down his fingers. He quickly placed the cup down and wrapped his hand in the towel hanging over his shoulder. Runar and Gaia were both looking at him extremely concerned.

  "Sorry, I... got lost in thought, I guess," Ryan apologized with an awkward smile, but Runar just clicked his tongue.

  "Got lost in thought? Just go upstairs, we have some high-potency anti-burn salve in the kitchen cabinet now, where we keep the first aid kit," Runar said, "I'll come up in a second after I clean this up and help you out."

  "Nah, don't worry. I can probably ask Silvia for help. I'll... tell you about what just happened later."

  Runar frowned lightly, "Sure... Just call for me if you need my help. I'll have Kula come over later as well."

  "Thanks," Ryan replied, quickly making his way upstairs. His hand hurt like hell was deep red. Luckily it was his right hand, and he didn't accidentally pour the hot coffee over Tiar's marks. Tiar was completely freaking out right now, though. It didn't seem like they felt Ryan's pain directly, but they could feel when Ryan was in pain, "Don't worry, I'm alright. It's just some blisters, but we've dealt with worse, haven't we?"

  Tiar's patterns waved around anxiously as Ryan pushed open the door to the flat, his other hand still wrapped in the towel. He quickly rushed into the kitchen, where Silvia and Liam were sitting together. It seemed like Liam somehow managed to convince Silvia to do his homework for him.

  "... So much for not letting him push you around."

  "He can be very convincing," Silvia sighed, while Liam just sat there smugly, "What's up, what got you in such a hurry?"

  "Oh, I spilled some hot coffee on my hand. Mind helping me out in a second?" Ryan asked, and Silvia quickly jumped up.

  "Oh, shit, yeah alright. What do you need me to do?"

  "Just help me wrap my hand up with this," Ryan handed Silvia the tube with the anti-burn salve, and Silvia looked up at him.

  "Isn't this the highest strength salve you can get? Why do you have something like this?"

  Ryan glanced over at Liam, who was looking around confused and startled. So, Ryan whispered to Silvia, "We have this in case Liam gets hurt. If his sunblock stops working, we need this to make the burns go down until we can him to a healer."

  "Ah..." Silvia let out, "That makes sense. Alright, just show me your-"

  Ryan unwrapped his hand, showing that it was covered in giant blisters all over. Taken aback, she stared at her friend, "You call this 'spilling some coffee'?"

  With a smile, Ryan glanced over at Liam and nodded his head, "Mhm. It's nothing big, just a small blister. Right?"

  "R-Right... honestly, you're kind of overreacting, aren't you?" Silvia laughed awkwardly, trying to play along as she opened the tube and quickly squeezed it onto some gauzes, carefully pressing them onto the blisters until basically his whole hand was covered. Before Liam could come over and see what was going on, Silvia started wrapping Ryan's hand in thick bandages.

  The cooling and pain-relieving aspect of the salve quickly set in, and Ryan let out a relieved sigh, "Much better. Thanks."

  Silvia looked at him nervously, "No problem... So what happened?"

  "Are you okay? Does it hurt a lot?" Liam asked, and Ryan looked at him with a scoff.

  "This? Nay, it's just a scratch," he replied, trying to play into the 'Knight' act, but Liam didn't seem particularly convinced. Even so, it seemed to work a little bit. But seeing the ball of bandages that was now Ryan's hand, it was really rather hard to believe that this was nothing at all. After what happened in the Channel, Ryan tried whatever he could not to show Liam when he got hurt. With Kula waiting right outside the dungeon, that was a fairly simple matter, but this was something pretty unexpected.

  "Don't worry, Silvia is just really, really bad at wrapping bandages," Ryan pointed out, sitting down next to Liam, "So, what have you two been working on?"

  Together, Silvia and Ryan kept helping Liam out with his homework, and really just spoke and hung out a bit while the pain in Ryan's hand started subsiding.

  A little while later, Runar had closed down the café for the day, and Kula showed up. While Silvia kept distracting Liam, Ryan and Kula went into the living room while the white mage properly healed the burns on Ryan's hand. The salve had cooled his hand down properly, and it wasn't nearly as red anymore, but the blisters were still there and going strong.

  "Seriously, what was going on with you? You were just standing there, staring into space," Runar pointed out annoyed, "Are you okay? Is something happening with you that I should know about? You're not on drugs, are you?"

  Ryan sighed and shook his head, "No, I'm not on drugs. I, uh... kind of had an epiphany, I guess? In the dungeon, I was too nervous to pay attention to it, but earlier, I was able to tell the flow of mana between myself and Gaia properly. And I suddenly became so aware of my mana and the magic that was happening in me, and I... I don't know, just followed the flow of it and ended up inside of Maximus' domain. Like, I was standing in front of him, and he was full-sized, and then I heard your voice, and apparently my Spirituality shot up by 0.04 or something."

  Runar turned his head toward Kula, as if to confirm that he just heard right, and Kula silently nodded. But in the end, Runar seemed relieved, dropping down onto a chair, "Oh, thank the gods. Yeah, no, this is good, something like this actually would have happened sooner or later."

  "Huh? You knew I could go into the domains?"

  "What? No, that part is a little surprising, but it's probably just a different function of the Domain skill that you just didn't know about before," Runar explained, "But basically, you just grew aware of your own mana. It's a thing that every mage has to go through before they can use magic outside of the kind that is directly provided in the form of system skills."

  "Excuse me? So what, I can use magic now?"

  "I mean... yeah, I don't see why not. We'd have to see what kind of magic you have a general affinity with, and then you'll have to do a ton of studying and practice, but generally there was never anything stopping you from learning magic. It might actually be pretty useful, especially if it helps you unlock new functions of your skills," Runar explained, rubbing the bridge of his nose, "We'll figure things out for that later if you want, but for now, just make sure to rest your hand. Seriously, like... take better care of them, will you? Your hands are really, really important."

  "Yeah, yeah, I get it. But it's not a big deal, like, it hurt, but it's not the worst-"

  "Ryan, seriously, are you okay?" Runar interrupted his nephew, "I thought this before, but you have an absolutely surreal pain tolerance. The resistance stat can do that sometimes as a side-effect, but you don't even have that. Has this always been the case?"

  Ryan shrugged, "Well, kinda. I don't really remember anything hurting too much. Getting shot was pretty bad, though."

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