[The -Horn of Shapeless Water- can be used as a conduit for the -Spirit Armament- Skill]

  Ryan looked at the message with surprise. Is that what Goria meant? She said that Tiar would like the item a lot. And from what Ryan could tell, that seemed to be the case. The symbiote was practically shaking in excitement, wordlessly telling him to give it a try.

  With a slight sigh, he nodded his head, "Alright, sure. Which one do we want to give a shot? How about Granfell?"

  Feeling Tiar respond positively, Ryan took a deep breath. Maximus was training with Ripper right now anyway, so it was a good time. After all, when Ryan and Tiar used the Spirit Armament skill, whatever they were constructing out here couldn't be accessed within the domain.

  As the skill activated, Ryan watched Tiar's tendrils climb all over the drinking horn in his hand. Water flowed out from its opening, and the symbiote grabbed onto the small shards of ice that were being formed. Bit by bit, Tiar constructed the greatsword. As it laid in Ryan's hand, he slowly moved it around. For some reason, it was just as heavy as it should be when made of actual metal, like the ice that it was built from was deeply compressed. The horn acted as the sword's handle, which Ryan was pretty happy about. After all, he would prefer not to have to hold onto ice to use this item. Either way, this was perfect. It meant that they didn't have to carry around a bunch of rebar anymore. Rather, as long as Ryan kept this on himself, he was always armed. Plus, it could probably be turned into other weapons as well.

  Knives, swords, shields, bats, anything that he could need. That was when another message appeared.

  [By using the -Horn of Shapeless Water- as a conduit, the -Spirit Armament- Skill's activation duration has been extended indefinitely]

  Ryan looked at the message surprised, "Oh, shit, alright. So, basically, we just need the skill to actually form the items now?" he wondered, and Tiar seemed to respond quite excitedly. Though, Ryan actually wasn't quite that impressed, "I mean, it's useful, but couldn't I just create this in the first place?" he asked. Using the power of the horn, if it could turn into anything, it should be possible to create whatever was needed. He could recreate the item no matter what, so wasn't this just a waste of the skill?

  "Unless... does the skill also recreate the item effects?" Ryan wondered. If that was the case, then the greatsword should be able to strengthen elemental effects. Of course, that didn't help much considering that Ryan couldn't call forth any elemental powers in the first place, but if he managed to somehow learn Maximus' techniques, then maybe he would be able to make use of this. Though, being made of water, magical water at that, the sword was already dripping in the element of water. Figuratively, of course. The sword's ice might as well be made of glass, as it wasn't melting at all.

  Taking a deep breath, Ryan tried to lift the sword. It heavy and with how long it was, it was more than just difficult to actually get it upright. But even so, Ryan tried to swing the sword. It wouldn't be able to actually do much damage or be much use in a fight this way, but if Ryan was able to increase his Strength stat, he should be able to make use of this. But what was actually important here was that the greatsword gave off a small, minuscule ripple of water energy. If Ryan could control it properly, and more importantly, if he could actually swing this sword, then this could be something amazing in his arsenal.

  But for that, he had to get stronger, first and foremost.

  "Looks like I'll have to go back to the gym..." Ryan sighed, looking at the sword with a slight grin. With this, maybe he would be able to take a more active role when they went back to the dungeon. After all, Ryan really, really needed to get stronger. He couldn't just rely on the spirits all the time. He couldn't just sit down in the back and let them do all the hard work.

  Ryan pulled back the water that made up the greatsword. He should ask Silvia to make him something so that he could keep it on his belt or something, like a sheath so that he could grab it as quickly as he needed to.

  "Gaia, do you need me for anything right now?" Ryan asked, looking over toward the golem. Ryan had doubled her size so that she could work a bit more effectively, and right now she was standing inside of the greenhouse, preparing some new seedlings to plant. Gaia quickly shook her head. She seemed happy to be able to work tonight after all, though Ryan had thought they wouldn't get back in time.

  He quickly made his way back downstairs to the livingroom, grabbing his tools on the way. Tomorrow was Friday, the day of Mugir, the Great Spirit of the sky. Ryan doubted that they would cancel Mugir's celebration because of what happened today, but he knew, for a fact, that the White Shadow Society would do everything in their power to double down over the next few days. And as far as Ryan was concerned, the next few days had the most potential for chaos and destruction.

  Before Mugir's day, wild birds from all around town were gathered, and would be released at the same time around where they were collected. And it was well-known that during these moments, air spirits were often spotted, joining the flocks in their flight. If the shadows corrupted any spirits then, it could lead to chaos all over town.

  Saturday was the day of Porsa, the Great Spirit of Shadows. Large parts of town were darkened through tarps or large-scale magic meant to block out the sun for the day. And then, within the darkness, shadow and light plays were scattered around all over the place. Since there weren't that many species with innate dark vision, the darkness could be used quite easily to strike fear in people.

  And then there was Sunday, day of Angir, the Great Spirit of Flames. For obvious reasons, Ryan had to do anything he could to prevent the White Shadow Society from using fire to destroy this town. He definitely didn't believe that they were above doing something like that.

  Ryan had to do anything he could to get stronger. And for that, he first had to increase the amount of spirits that were actually with him. He held out his hand, and a flood of blue mana flowed from his fingertips. It was like blue flames climbing over themselves to reach their destination, forming the box that Ryan was trying to call on.

  After taking a picture of the image on the outside, which depicted a masked harlequin, Ryan quickly opened it up and got started. It seemed like Jester was largely made of cloth. However, there were also some wooden parts that seemed like they would come together into the form of a simple wooden mannequin. It looked like the small sort that Silvia had in her room to use as a reference.

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  Those were pretty quick to put together. In the small wooden figure's chest was the space for Jester's core, which Ryan would put there later. But that wooden base wasn't the hard part of this model.

  Rather, it seemed like he had to completely sew together the rest of Jester's body. Ryan had to look up a lot of different clothing patterns to reference for this, but it was actually a lot easier than he thought. Luckily, he didn't have to actually sew it together fully. As long as he used his needle to press through the two connecting parts of cloth, if they belonged together like this, they would fuse like any other piece would. Otherwise, he was able to just rip them apart again with just a small amount of force.

  He placed the clothes onto the wooden mannequin, including the shoes, gloves, hat, and every other small accessory that Jester was wearing. The last piece was the mask, which he just carefully pressed onto the wooden face, and it quickly fused into place. It was just a simple white, oval mask without anything drawn or carved onto it.

  Ryan pushed Jester's core into the hole in the wooden torso and quickly closed up the shirt with the needle, and watched as the harlequin's body began to twist and turn around itself. For a few moments, Ryan thought that it was just the same sort of distortion that happened with the others, but after a few moments, it was clear that this was not the case right now.

  Jester distorted his body on purpose, rolling around on the table. He jumped up into a handstand, putting his entire weight onto just a single finger, moving around as if he was completely weightless. He continued jumping around, doing somersaults, simply enjoying having a body.

  "Come here," Ryan said, looking at the spirit with a slightly annoyed sigh. Quickly, the harlequin did as asked, and jumped in front of Ryan. He quickly bowed to him as thanks, but Ryan didn't care much for it. He was still quite annoyed, "Just for the record, but if you just 'do your own thing' the whole time, we'll have problems. I need you to work together with us so that we can make sure all of you are safe, okay?"

  Jester tilted his head to the side for a moment, but soon quickly nodded his head. Though Ryan wasn't quite convinced just yet, he figured that it wouldn't help anyone to doubt Jester for no reason right now. With a slight sigh, he opened the harlequin's status.

  [Jester]

  [Harlequin | Level - 1]

  [MP - 35]

  [Stats]

  -[Mana - 0.68]

  -[Physicality - 1.07]

  -[Sociability - 1.05]

  -[Spirituality - 0.90]

  -[Stamina - 0.87]

  [Skills]

  -[Harlequin's Act | Level - 1]

  -[Harlequin's Excitement | Level - 1]

  -[Harlequin's Trick | Level - 1]

  Ryan raised a brow. Jester had both Spirituality and Physicality as a base? In the first place, was Harlequin supposed to be a class with mana? Ryan thought it was a class that would just help with physical performances, so Ryan was hoping to be able to use him to scout things or distract enemies, but this seemed much, much better.

  And as he looked at Jester's first skill, Ryan grew even more convinced that Jester would be a great addition.

  [Harlequin's Act]

  [Level - 1] [Proficiency - 0%]

  [Through the user's chosen act, a number of different spells can be cast]

  [Effect - Act Dependent]

  "It's a spellcasting skill!" Ryan exclaimed, jumping up from his chair. Though Ryan and Gaia were both technically 'magic users', neither of them could actually cast any spells. This was different, however. It seemed at the same level as Maximus' 'Martial Knowledge' skill, which allowed him to make use of different stances and weapons properly. As long as Harlequin somehow remembered which acts to use, then he could fill in a massive amount of gaps in the group's combat pattern right now.

  And the second skill made that even more clear.

  [Harlequin's Excitement]

  [Level - 1] [Proficiency - 0%]

  [Depending on the level of excitement experienced by the user, their entourage, or the audience, a number of buffs or debuffs will be cast]

  [Effect - Buffs to User and Entourage; Debuffs to Enemies]

  Ryan let out a long groan, rubbing the bridge of his nose, "Seriously, couldn't you have been convinced a bit earlier? These skills are... amazing, I don't even know what to say."

  It seemed as though Jester was turning out to be the absolutely perfect support. Of course, Ryan didn't know exactly what the buffs and debuffs would look like, but anything would be helpful. And he figured that the 'party' that Jester was fighting with made up the entourage mentioned in the skill. At least this all tracked with Jester's skill.

  Then, there was the last of the three skills. It was a much more powerful skill than what Ryan had seen with the spirits so far.

  "What the- Jester, this is basically an Ultimate Skill, how is this one of your starters?"

  [Harlequin's Trick]

  [Level] [Proficiency]

  [Allows the user to play off an attack as a trick, completely nullifying it]

  [Effect - Attack Rejection]

  [Cost - Scales with Nullified Attack] [Cooldown - 1 Hour]

  Ryan stared at the skill in disbelief. A skill that could absolutely nullify any attack? It didn't speak of any limits, so could Jester really 'play off' anything? And with just a 1 hour cooldown? They definitely had to test that out as soon as they could, though the skill's cost seemed a bit unclear. How much did it actually scale?

  "Might as well try it out..." Ryan muttered, waving the system windows away before looking at Jester, "What do you say?"

  Quickly, the Harlequin jumped a few steps backward, spreading out his arms as if he was ready to accept whatever Ryan was about to throw at him.

  With a slight grin, Ryan nodded his head. It's been a while since he properly punched something. Cracking his knuckles, almost by instinct, he approached the edge of the table. With a clean motion, Ryan swung at the small spirit, who was still standing there with both arms stretched out wide. And the moment impact was made, Ryan could basically feel his whole body stop, like all the energy just suddenly left him. It was quite jarring, actually, so it took him a few moments to mentally catch up to it.

  But when Ryan pulled back his hand, he saw Jester standing there with a small pillow in his hands which he had used to 'block' the attack. The harlequin quickly threw the pillow away, making it disappear in a slight puff of smoke, before he started silently pointing and laughing at Ryan in an exaggerated manner.

  This was more than just 'nullifying'. Ryan's eyes were on the spirit literally the whole time, so there was no way he could have pulled out a pillow. Plus, nothing had ever changed inside of Jester's domain, and the pillow was not part of what Ryan had built for him. Jester had basically completely rewritten the reality of what just happened.

  [Cost has been calculated as 29 MP]

  Ryan saw the window pop up briefly, disappearing before he even processed the text. 29 MP for a simple punch like that? Frankly, Ryan didn't even go at it with his whole strength. What if it was a more powerful or lethal attack, how much would it cost then?

  "Could it go into the negative?" Ryan wondered, muttering to himself. It was definitely possible; Ryan had heard of skills like that. Basically, if a skill ended up costing more mana than the user currently had, then it would go into the negative. Mana would recover at the regular speed, and it didn't actually cause any negative effects to the user.

  However, because any skill, even those of people with Aura instead of Mana, cost a minuscule amount of MP, something in the realm of 0.001, it would be impossible for a user with negative mana to use any skill whatsoever until their mana recovered above 0 again. Basically, if Jester used this skill on an attack stronger than Ryan's punch, he would immediately end up losing a massive part of his abilities and would have to rely on his raw physical abilities.

  "Even so... this could be an incomparable trump card."

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