Deep breaths were pulled in, and were then pushed out. In and out, in and out. Modak's breathing became more and more stable as he managed to push through the pain that he was feeling. His broken ribs weren't really making all this easier, either, and in the beginning he fell into coughing fits a lot. But by now, he figured out the limits of his body the way it currently was and found a good niche to fit into.

  In this meditative rhythm, Modak tried to control his thoughts. Though, it wasn't that he wouldn't be thinking of anything at all; that was completely unrealistic for him. Instead, he focused on the actual things that were going on with his body. The breathing and the pressure of the ground pushing against his bottom, and of course the pain of his injuries. All this was constant and predictable, and by focusing on these things, Modak managed to get into a good spot.

  If those old orcish teachings were to be believed, then this should be the beginning of him becoming aware of his own natural aura. After all, just like mana, aura was a force that every being with a physical body possessed. It was just a matter of how much, what the quality of that aura was, and how aware of it you were. Some people that gained this awareness compared it to being able to feel the blood flow through your veins. Not feeling your heartbeat, but the actual flow of the blood. While it sounded a bit ridiculous, Modak was sure that it would be an accurate description.

  While mana flowed through the body along something called 'mana circuits', aura flowed along the blood vessels. So becoming aware of your aura was basically the same as becoming aware of your blood. And what better time was there to become aware of your own blood than when it was trying to leak out of every corner of your body?

  The pain of his injuries slowly guided Modak toward his own heartbeat. Modak tried to focus on his breathing as much as he did on his heart. At some point, it even started to feel like his heartbeat influenced the shaking of his breath. And just when Modak started to feel a bit of the heat at the centre of his heart, something woke him up.

  "Modak! What are you doing down there, get up!" an almost shrill voice called out to him, and he was immediately pulled out of his meditative state. A wave of pain flowed over him as everything that he had blocked out seemed to assault him all at once.

  His mother pulled on his arm, of course his uninjured one, to try and pull him onto his legs. Modak just looked at her with a frown, "What are you doing here? I thought you don't think I deserve the blood flowing through my veins."

  As he pulled his arm away, Modak slowly stood up, and his mother clicked her tongue, followed by a slight hit to his arm, "Don't talk to me that way! I'm still your mother!"

  "Mhm."

  Modak sat down on the edge of the hospital bed as his mother took one of the chairs right beside it. Completely naturally, she set herself up for the day.

  "So you don't have anything else to say?" he asked, and Modak's mother looked at him a bit baffled.

  "What are you talking about?"

  "You're not going to apologize? You're not even going to acknowledge what you said literally right before one of the most important moments of my life?"

  Modak's mother looked at him, clearly more upset at being spoken to like this than apologetic for her own behaviour, "You must have misunderstood me, I never said anything bad to you like that."

  "Are you-" Modak stopped himself, rubbing the bridge of his nose, "Listen, mom. I'm moving out."

  The only thing that came as a response was a loud laugh, "Right, of course, and with what money do you think you'll be paying for an apartment in New Riverside?"

  With a long sigh, Modak leaned against the stack of pillows behind him, "You know I work for the magic tower, right? I'm a team lead. I already quit my job at the store, as well," Modak explained. And of course, that wasn't even mentioning that he was apparently going to get paid for being Ryan's aide once everything went through on the Aglecard side of things. Incredibly well, at that. Modak couldn't just afford a small studio apartment, he could afford an actual, comfortable, large space with a bedroom, office, and whatever else he needed just for himself, in a building that was actually accessible for not just orcs, but also minotaurs. He could actually invite over his girlfriend without worry about her horns getting stuck on doorways or scraping against the ceiling.

  "Come on, now, stop being silly. Your younger brothers all need you around, or are you just going to leave them behind?"

  Modak frowned, "Don't say stuff like that, you know I would do anything for them. It's not like I'd live hours away. I'm happy to have them come over whenever they want, I can watch them after school and help them with their homework, as long as I don't have work or classes then. But I need to move out."

  "You don't need to do anything at all, you just want to leave!" his mother protested, and Modak rolled his eyes.

  "Yes, I do. I want to live on my own. I can afford it. So... I'm leaving. I'm looking for a new place as soon as I'm out of the hospital," he explained. He wouldn't be able to live his life while still living with his parents. Not only did he feel constant pressure from every side, but he had absolutely no privacy. It felt like every time he was home, he had to do something for his parents or siblings, and it wasn't that he hated doing things for them, but he just barely had any time for himself. And with what his parents said to him yesterday? Everything just boiled over.

  Upset, Modak's mother got all of her things together again, stuffing them into her bag. She rushed out of the hospital room, and just as she left, someone else stepped inside. Yanna.

  "Uh... is everything okay?" she asked Modak nervously, and he slowly nodded his head.

  "Yeah, it's fine. I just told her I'm moving out and... well, my mom can be a bit dramatic," he explained with an awkward smile.

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  Yanna was a bit taken aback, "Wait, really? Are you sure?"

  "Yeah, I... I think so. It'll be good for me."

  Though the minotaur was worried about him, she just silently nodded her head. If this was Modak's decision, then she would fully support him in this. Knowing what she knew about his family dynamics, it wasn't the worst idea either, as far as she was concerned.

  "Alright. I'll help you find a place then. Oh, and before I forget... Ryan called you last night while you were sleeping. I told him you would call him back when you're awake."

  Modak raised his brow, taking his phone, "Right, I need to let him know about some stuff. I'll call him in a second. And after that, do you think you could do me a favour?"

  Surprised, Yanna nodded, "Of course, what do you need? Do you want me to get you something? Here, I already brought you some books and some snacks," she explained, quickly pulling a few things out of her bag. Modak smiled at her.

  "Thank you, but no, that's not what I mean. Do you think you could... and I know this is going to sound a bit weird, but... could you push some of your aura into me?"

  Silvia was sitting in front of her television. Reports about what happened at the expo yesterday were the only thing that any news channel was showing. Of course; it was a terrible tragedy of a sort that the city hasn't seen before. Spirits attacked people viciously and without reason. Instances where spirits attacked people did appear, but those were usually cases of self-defence. Or, for example, if a lake was being polluted, a spirit born from that lake could attack the people doing the polluting. And usually that didn't even end in death, but was just a way to stop whatever damage was being done.

  But this was different. As far as anyone could tell, nobody had done anything that could offend the spirits that went on a rampage, and definitely not enough to make them so violently tear apart the victim.

  Of course, there were some more fringe news channels trying to paint the victim, Marge, as some kind of sicko that deserved to be killed like this, but Silvia knew that couldn't be the case. Modak has been talking about her like she was some kind of saint. This was most definitely a case of the spirits having been corrupted. It already looked like some smaller celebrations were being cancelled, and the big ones would probably see less people today. The idea that spirits could be violent like this was clearly worrying a lot of people, exactly as the White Shadow Society wanted.

  "I need to... I need to do something to help," Silvia said to herself. Her class was a 'production' class. When it came to something like combat, she was a supportive role.

  Was there a way for her to help out in combat? With her 'Artist's Gallery' skill, she could basically store away some of the art she made. If she was able to be there, in the background, and then give the others whatever art they needed while things were going on... maybe she could help strengthen everyone a bit.

  "But for that, my art needs to be good enough to be useful... What would be useful in the middle of a fight?" Silvia wondered, biting her nails. Right now, she wasn't able to do a ton yet. She was able to strengthen items to a small degree, and she could influence emotion through things she painted. At least at the moment, Silvia wasn't able to give buffs just through paintings, and swapping out items in the middle of a fight didn't sound useful enough to justify being there. If she followed Ryan around, he would need to protect her.

  "Think... what is it that Ryan mentioned he needs right now? Something that I can give him that will help him in a fight? I can't just sit here and do nothing..." she muttered, taking notes on a piece of paper with whatever came to mind. Which was when she thought of something. A paper airplane. Silvia had made one before, and using her skills, it flew pretty far. Rather, it could have flown for much longer if it hadn't hit Ryan. And that was just something she drew without thought.

  What if Silvia could make Ryan something that he could just throw into the air, and use it to fly around the area, maybe distracting or luring enemies? In that case, Silvia would just be able to prepare a stack of paper for him, and then he could throw one into the air and it would fly away and do its thing.

  But for that, Silvia would need a few more things... For one, an image of something 'distracting' or 'luring', something that would force dungeon monsters or even thoughtless people to pay attention to it. Plus, it would need a way for Ryan to actually control it. Would Silvia be able to push all of those things into a single drawing, on a piece of paper?

  "... I guess I just have to try."

  Immediately, Silvia grabbed her drawing supplies, and started sketching a few things on a piece of paper. Silvia just had to do something.

  Ryan stared at the screen in front of him, doing some more in-depth research on something.

  Reaching the peak of the levelling system is not something done easily. Rather, at any one time, there are only a handful of individuals that have reached this point. The power they hold is almost insurmountable in their respective categories, and that is not even counting in the special benefits that are awarded by the system when one reaches that point.

  The stats, skills, and experience gathered by the individual alone are enough to make them a power that can threaten the stability of a given nation.

  "... Nothing new. Do you guys know anything about max level?" Ryan asked, looking over to the side. Jester was sitting on top of a pillow on his bed, just relaxing, while Maximus was right next to Ryan on the desk, reading along. The two spirits locked eyes for a moment, and then shook their head. However, Maximus stood up and traced a small symbol on the back of Ryan's hand.

  "A star? What do you mean?" he asked, but Maximus just shrugged. With a loud groan, Ryan leaned back in his chair, "Gods... seriously? Fucking amnesia... Dad, why couldn't you have just... not done this to them? Urgh..."

  Ryan had been trying to find something new about max level for a while now. He had, of course, read up on it a lot before, but that was always just mindless browsing and not actual deep research. He wanted to understand the implications of becoming max level more. After Runar told him that he was level 99, Ryan wasn't able to protest anymore. Someone that powerful had to be able to take care of this all on their own, and Ryan would just get completely in the way if he tried to do something. But there was something more. Some other reason as to why Runar hadn't told him about his level before.

  Of course, Ryan had considered that Runar just wanted to keep it a secret to ensure that this couldn't spread to enemies, but that didn't feel right. There was surely something more connected to being max level that Runar knew, that he didn't tell Ryan yet. Somewhere on the internet, there had to be a clue as to why becoming max level was so special. And how was it related to stars?

  Ryan stared at the screen, trying to think of something, but no matter what, nothing came of it. He was just stuck somewhere. And that was when a great distraction came through. Ryan's phone rang, and the moment he saw the caller ID, he picked up.

  "Modak! Are you alright? How is your arm?" he asked, feeling his heart almost jump out of his chest in anxiety, but Modak just laughed on the other side.

  "Don't worry, man, I'm alright. Physically, at least... yesterday was pretty fucking insane. Do you know if they're going to try anything else?"

  Ryan sighed, exhausted, "I don't know, maybe? Probably? Runar is out trying to stop anything else from happening, and I guess he'll do a good job. But... we'll see. At this point, there's nothing we can really do, I think."

  The other side of the call was silent for a few moments. Modak clearly wasn't happy with that, "Okay, I'm going to ask you something insane right now, and I want you to just wait until I explain it before you freak out."

  Nervous, Ryan responded, "Uh... sure? What's up?"

  "Can I go into a dungeon with you?"

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