"Text me when you're home," Ryan said with a smile as he sent Silvia off. Yamada pulled out of the parking lot and started driving Silvia home.

  Ryan turned back around and made his way back inside the flat. As he walked into the hallway, Runar was busy carrying around and sorting through books, bringing them into Ryan's bedroom.

  "Uh... what are you doing?"

  "Hm? Just bringing you the stuff that you need to get into magic theory, as we spoke about," Runar replied as if it were obvious. Ryan just watched the stack of books grow as his uncle sorted through the books to decide which ones were more and which were less important for him, "Read this stack first, this is all the baseline stuff, and then you can choose the order between this stack and this stack, but you have to finish all the others before even getting started with the last one. Alright?"

  Ryan let out a long sigh, "Yeah, yeah, sure. I'll get to it soon, don't worry," he said, walking over to his bed, "Just get out of my room now, I told Maximus I'd join him in his domain again in a bit. And I want to see Gregor's and Gaia's as well."

  "Didn't you say Gaia's domain was just an empty field of grass?"

  "Well, yeah, so? I still want to see what it's like when she's just sitting there," Ryan replied. Runar just stood there for a few moments, until Ryan picked up his pillow and threw it at his uncle, "Dude, stop staring, I'm fine."

  Runar caught the pillow and tossed it back, "Right, sorry. Just let me know if you need anything. And try to get through these books before your mom gets here, and I don't want her to read anything she shouldn't."

  Startled, Ryan looked at the probably two dozen books on his desk, "She's arriving tomorrow."

  "... So?"

  "I can't read that-" Ryan protested, but just ended up sighing, "You know what, whatever, sure, I guess so. I'll get to it after I hung out with the others for a bit."

  Runar slowly nodded and finally left Ryan's bedroom, pulling the door shut behind him. With a long sigh, already getting exhausted and bored at the idea of having to read that much, not even mentioning reading it as fast as Runar wanted him to, Ryan laid down on his bed. He moved into a position where he was safe and steady and couldn't get hurt, and then carefully concentrated on the flow of his mana again.

  It was so much easier than it was before. Maybe it was because of that 'epiphany' that Runar mentioned. Either way, Ryan slowly took hold of his mana and made it flow back into his mind, as if he were pulling one of the spirits into their domain, and soon found himself in the space around the domains again. Looking around, he saw the three spirits in their respective domains, doing what they usually did when they were in there. But now that he was looking around a bit, Ryan noticed some other things as well. Right next to Maximus' domain, all of his new body parts were solidly floating in space, right next to the weapons Granfell and Ripper.

  Ryan carefully approached them, trying to take a closer look. He grabbed Ripper's handle, and could soon feel the weapon's weight in his palm. As he let go of the handle again, Ripper moved into its original position on its own. Maybe this was a good place for Ryan to practice getting used to these in the case of an emergency. Though, either way, it was still a bit weird to see everything at full scale. He was always somewhat aware of them to a degree, but he was never looking at them like he was right now.

  Looking around, Ryan noticed something else as well, something that he didn't notice when he was in here earlier. The other spirit cores were floating around a bit of a distance away. They were just there in their own little space, giving off the light of their magic. None of them had full 'domains' right now, but it was still like they were contained in their own little bubbles.

  Jester's core was giving off the most light right now, obviously. Morgana and Violette's were still fractured, and Ryan would have to venture out to try and find their remaining core-pieces as soon as he could, but he had to find some clues for that first and foremost. With Gaia, he at least had Maximus' gut-feeling that there was something in the dungeon he randomly stumbled upon on 'Loop', but nothing like that has happened since. At least Runar was looking into it.

  But for now, Ryan just stepped back up to Maximus' domain, pushing through the outer barrier. The knight quickly rushed up to him again the moment he noticed he was here. It seemed like the spirits weren't able to look outside of their own domains like Ryan was. Though, Maximus could probably perceive his own parts and the weapons. And of course, Ryan already knew that they could basically see what Ryan was seeing when they were in here. He was as bit curious about what that was like, but that wasn't important right now.

  "Sorry about disappearing out of nowhere earlier, this whole thing came a bit unexpected," Ryan laughed awkwardly, "But, y'know... want to show me around a bit? I know there's not a lot here, but-"

  Before Ryan could even finish the sentence, Maximus stepped up next to Ryan and practically hit his back, pushing him forward. The first stop seemed to be the training dummy. Maximus picked up the wooden sword on the ground and pushed it into Ryan's hand, looking at him expectantly. Figuring that Maximus would be satisfied if Ryan just gave it a good whack, he pulled back his arm and swung the wooden sword at the dummy. The moment the impact came, however, something new happened. The dummy came to life, spinning around and jumping toward Ryan.

  Startled, he pulled back, but the dummy quickly closed the distance, trying to swing its stick arms at Ryan. He retaliated with another swing of the wooden sword, hitting it in the head.

  A loud crack sounded out, and the dummy fell to the ground. Just a moment later, it disappeared from the ground and was reformed back in its original position.

  "What the actual hell is- Dude, really?" Ryan let out, looking over at Maximus, "This thing is alive?"

  Maximus practically flinched before hurriedly shaking his head.

  "Okay, so... it's not alive, but it moves? Why have I never seen it move before?"

  For a few moments, Maximus seemed to try and think about the best way to explain it, and then walked over to the dummy. He carefully flicked its head, and the dummy came to life. But before it could move any substantial amount, Maximus swung his fist at the dummy. It was an audible, loud impact, and the dummy immediately reformed back at its original position. Ryan quickly understood.

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  "Okay so... I think I got it," Ryan said, "So, when you attack it, the dummy comes to life, but it basically has a damage threshold at which point it 'resets'."

  The knight immediately pointed at Ryan, showing him that he was right. Curiously, Ryan took a closer look, "Really, now...? So does that mean you just do much damage with every attack that it doesn't have the chance to respond? Is that function even helpful to you?"

  Maximus awkwardly scratched the back of his helmet. Clearly it wasn't particularly useful, but even with just the 'reset' function that basically made sure that Maximus could go all out with every attack without worry, it was still better than using a regular dummy.

  "Hm..." Ryan approached the dummy, and an idea popped into his mind. He squatted down and grabbed the bottom of the wooden post propping the dummy up, quickly lifting it, "Just wait for a bit, I'll try something."

  Carrying the dummy, Ryan approached the wall of the knight's domain, pushing through with it in tow. In a straight line, he approached Gregor's domain, stepping into the old, dusty workshop. The air was completely different to how it was in Maximus' domain, and the smell of oil and alcohol permeated throughout.

  Gregor, who was standing in front of his workbench, putting together different small parts while taking notes and sketching a blueprint. He turned around surprised, glancing at the dummy that Ryan was carrying.

  "Uh, hey, how's it going?" Ryan asked, and Gregor simply gave him a quick nod as a greeting. He was about to turn back around and continue working when Ryan held forward the dummy, "I don't know if that's something you even can do, but do you think you can upgrade this? Basically so it can just take a bit more damage."

  Gregor thought about it for a moment and approached Ryan and the dummy. He quickly grabbed it with two of his arms, using his two remaining main arms to touch and tug at it in different spots. Of the two arms that were floating right beside him, the 'Precision Assembly' arm quickly reached out and grabbed something from the table next to him; a small needle that he used to pierce through different parts of the dummy, before looking at Ryan with a quick nod.

  Without a moment's hesitation, Gregor took out some more tools and removed the dummy's main body from the simple frame holding it up, and then cut into its seams with a knife, carefully cutting through the stitches without damaging the dummy's rough burlap. He carefully placed it all to the side and quickly grabbed some wooden boards and scrap metal plates. Just as he would when he prepared the parts for the cannons, Gregor cut the materials apart and prepared everything he needed within a matter of a few moments. Before Ryan even knew it, Gregor had basically replicated the dummy's body using metal and wood, and then carefully pulled the burlap back over it.

  After everything was solidly in place, and the dummy appeared outwardly indistinguishable from what it looked like before, but when Gregor pushed it back into Ryan's arms, it was much heavier than it was when Ryan brought it in, to the point where it was actually a little unhandy.

  "Awesome, thank you so much. I'll come back in a bit, I'll just bring this to Maximus and then-"

  Interrupting Ryan, Gregor just waved him off and returned back to the work he was doing before.

  "... Or maybe I'll just leave you be. Let me know if you want me to drop by later, and I will."

  Gregor slowly nodded, and Ryan stepped out of the domain. He carried the 'upgraded' dummy to back to Maximus' domain and quickly pushed it back into its original place. Maximus had been waiting curiously, and was standing there with a wooden sword in his hand.

  "Give it a shot," Ryan suggested, and Maximus didn't need to be told it twice. He didn't hesitate to swing his sword at the dummy, and seemingly for the first time, he wasn't able to 'kill' it in one single go. The dummy sprung to life and threw itself at Maximus, and he quickly engaged in a short fight. Even so, the dummy was killed in just a couple more swings, soon being reconstructed in its original spot. Ryan quickly took a look and pressed down onto its body to make sure that the wood and metal were now a proper part of the dummy, and that luckily seemed to be the case.

  As he turned around, Maximus was standing there, clearly excited. Though, frankly, he was actually just standing there, but somehow the air around him was energetic and happy. That contrast took Ryan aback quite often, but he was still glad that he could understand Maximus this well despite the fact he couldn't speak.

  That being the case, it did seem like Maximus was excited to start training with the upgraded dummy, so Ryan figured it was a good time to check up on Gaia for a bit. He stepped out of the domain and soon reached Gaia's. Once he did, he could immediately feel the wind on his face, blowing his hair into his eyes. Ryan had no idea where that wind came from, but that wasn't particularly important right now. What he was more focused on right now was the absolutely massive golem sitting next to him.

  This version of Gaia was a little more than 10 metres tall. Of course, she was sitting down right now, but that didn't change that she was the size of a building. The moss and roots growing all over her body didn't really seem that significant when she was this big.

  Excitedly, Gaia looked down at Ryan, reaching out to him. When she got close, she pulled back, not wanting to hurt him.

  "Are you alright in this place? It's not too cramped for you?" Ryan asked, looking around. Even more so when he looked at her from this angle, compared to when he viewed Gaia's domain from outside, she really seemed to have no space at all. Though, the space was already a lot bigger than it had been when Ryan first awakened, since it grew about a metre on each axis whenever it levelled up.

  Gaia quickly shook her head. Rather, she seemed to feel rather comfortable like this. Maybe to a golem, this was much nicer. Plus, Gaia had a garden to take care of, so maybe being able to rest in a space where she only had herself to worry about was a nice change of pace.

  Frankly, this space was probably the most peaceful and relaxing out of all the ones that were currently here. It was warm and calm, and the wind really did feel wonderful. Maybe Ryan would come back here later and take a nap here. Maybe it would be like sleeping somewhere else beside his own bed. He might as well give it a shot for a few days while he slept on the livingroom couch.

  "Mind if I come back in a little bit?" Ryan asked, and Gaia nodded without hesitation. With a smile, he patted the golem's knee for a moment before turning back around, stepping out of the domain again. There was one last thing that he wanted to give a try now that he was in here.

  Ryan immediately approached Jester's spirit core, soon standing underneath it.

  "I think it's time for us to talk. What the hell do you want me to do, huh?" Ryan asked, staring at the soft blue glow of Jester's core. It seemed to become a bit brighter for a moment, but nothing else happened.

  "Yes, I know you can't actually answer me, but come on, now. You can hear me, and you can do that glow thing. One pulse for 'yes', two for 'no'. Easy, right?"

  Jester's core lit up brighter once. Figuring that it was good enough, Ryan got started.

  "Okay, great. You've become clearly more responsive since we've been fighting in the dungeon. Like you're more ready to actually come with me. But is that really what you want? To watch us fight?"

  Jester's glow started pulsating, but instead of once or twice... it pulsated three times.

  "Oh, come on- Fine, so... I guess that means it's more complicated than that?"

  Just one pulse this time.

  "Then... is fighting just one of the things you would find exciting?"

  One pulse, again.

  "What about games? Music? Films? I've tried showing you stuff, but you haven't reacted to anything at all. Have you seen anything beside fighting that made you interested in really letting me be your keeper?"

  Surprisingly, Jester pulsed one time. Ryan raised his brows, curiously, "Okay, uh..." he sighed to himself. It seemed like this might end up being a little more complicated than he had hoped.

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