Glancing down at his phone, Ryan took a closer look at all the information that the trio had gathered today. They didn't manage to find out anything massive in the dungeon's other areas as they had in the gift shop or the food court, but they still did manage to figure out a couple of things. Largely due to the help of the thrown-together translator that Modak made. There was some writing on the walls or signs that was usually scattered that actually helped them attain a couple of tips here and there.

  Largely, the things they found somehow related to the 'gimmick' of each area. Just like the mascot plaza, other areas of the amusement park had some gimmicks connected to them that now correlated to the way they presented in the dungeon. In the mascot plaza, it was the 'Quest System', as Runar had already explained to Ryan on his first day in here. Basically, every mascot could give out a small quest, mostly related to answering trivia or going on a specific ride. And, for some reason, that was translated into killing the mascots when this place became a dungeon. It was probably related to what happened here before then, because clearly there was something immensely wrong with this park when it was still up and running.

  However, even there, an important hint was revealed. There were two types of special prizes that you could get from the mascot plaza. One, by doing the hardest quest, which was that of the main and most popular mascot, the Monkey King, aka the gorilla mascot and area boss of the plaza. And as a reward, instead of the plastic coins that you got from other quests, you would get a small statue. Since this was the most popular area, it was very likely that this theme of the coins and statues was simply carried on to the other monsters of the dungeon. That being the case, there was a second, harder prize to attain, which was only hinted at, and Ryan could guess what that was. Completing every quest. It was very likely to be the case, since that was the condition for the 'Perfect Completion' reward.

  Beyond that, the pieces of information that they found which Ryan thought to be the most useful were the petting zoo's, the funhouse's, and lastly the haunted house's gimmicks. There also seemed to be something connected to the roller coasters, but that seemed to be just something like getting a stamp whenever you completed one, so Ryan should just go and try to see what those were all about later on.

  However, the gimmicks for the other places were very interesting. The petting zoo's gimmick was like something of a safari, as all the animals were free-roaming in a fairly large area. Visitors could purchase cameras to take photos of each animal. Each photo was worth a different amount of coins in general that the visitors could get, while a photo of the highlight, the 'Moss Sheep', of which there was only one in the entire park, would get the special statue this time around. However, as for the 'secret prize', the three figured that it required someone to take a photo of every single type of animal. That meant it was possible that Ryan would need to kill all the animals in the petting zoo area, just like the first, though Modak wasn't certain.

  "Hm... Are we sure about that?" he asked, taking a closer look at the map as the three were looking around the park, "Here, there's something marked in each of the petting zoo areas. The position seems kind of random, though... try going there, maybe you'll find something out there. Maybe you don't need to kill them, but... I don't know, pet them? Take photos? Something like that."

  Since he wasn't totally sure what the case here was, he figured he should just do what Modak suggested. If there was nothing at the place marked on the map, then he could always just try and wipe out the monsters of the petting zoo anyway. Now, next there was the funhouse. Runar already told Ryan a bit about how the funhouse worked. You were just supposed to get to the end, and there were tons of moving parts. There were different puzzles to solve on the way, too. Considering that the entire funhouse was apparently considered a monster by the dungeon, due to those former moving parts, Ryan figured that trying to kill the monster could be a reasonable way to get the perfect clear. Since its interior was accessible, it could be possible to find vital organs to take out. The signs that they found and translated also seemed to hint at small secrets hidden across the funhouse, so it was worth taking a look around. Though, if possible, Ryan would like to wait until he unlocked his physicality stat. Runar did mention that they used this place to train people with that stat.

  And then, the last place that they found something useful for was the haunted house. In there, from what Ryan already knew, there were a large number of rooms, and in each one, some kind of gimmick-based, powerful monster was waiting. You had to get through to the other end to get the statue. Once again, the clues that they found in regard to this area's hidden price hinted toward the idea that all the rooms needed to be beaten.

  Overall, there was a theme here that couldn't be denied anymore.

  "Whoever designed this park was a bit of a completionist, huh?" Silvia pointed out as the group stepped out of the dungeon. She actually needed a moment, feeling a bit light-headed as she entered the outside air. Going from dense mana to low mana wasn't quite as impactful as it was the other way around, but it could still make you a little lightheaded.

  "You okay?" Ryan placed his hand onto her back, trying to make sure she was fine, and Silvia quickly nodded.

  "Yeah, yeah, I'm okay..."

  "Alright. Eat something sweet if you need it, quick changes in mana can make blood sugar drop. I think I actually have some candy in the bag for exactly that," quickly starting to sort through the bag that Gaia was carrying on her back, Ryan soon found a small pack of hard candies, which he gave to Silvia. She opened it up and grabbed herself one, and as she was sucking on it, Ryan continued the main discussion, "Anyway, you're probably right. Completionism is sort of the theme here. There might actually be another reward if you complete every single area, with the way things are going here so far."

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  As he was saying so, Ryan looked over at Modak, who approached Silvia's car. It was technically Yanna's car, but she was on some overnight training camp to prepare for her debut in a couple of weeks, so Silvia took it for the day, "Ryan, you said there was some certificate that came out with the 'Perfect Completion' thing, right? And then you managed to get a fragment from the gift shop? What do you think would happen if you got the certificate and then used the exploit?"

  Immediately, Ryan stopped walking, as if he were frozen. He thought about it for a moment, trying to figure that out himself, "I, uh... I don't know. That's actually a really good question. Do you think it could let me buy a bunch of spirit cores? That could be absolutely game-changing."

  Silvia clicked open the car while pushing the piece of candy into her cheek, "But what if you can only get fragments from it, and not full cores? If it's totally random, then it's super unlikely you would have gotten specifically a fragment for Violette."

  "Well, if it's just fragments, that's still a lot of help. Either way, it's worth trying out," Ryan started taking the backpack off Gaia to put it into the trunk, "Oh, right, Silvia. Do you want me to drive, or are you good?"

  The elf shook her head, "I'm fine, don't worry. Just give me a second to take a breather, and then we can leave!"

  Ryan nodded and pulled Gaia back into her domain, before taking a seat in the car, taking a breather. There was a lot of new info, so he decided to close his eyes and talk to the individual spirits in their domains to try and figure out what they should do.

  The car came to a stop in front of the gates. Ryan was about to step out to open it up, since it wasn't automatic, but Runar stopped him. Using his finger, he wrote something into the air, and the gate opened up completely on its own. Yamada quickly drove through onto the property.

  "Hm, you guys picked out something pretty big. And... old," Runar said as the car was parked, stepping out and taking a look around.

  "Yeah, well, it basically just offered itself. A lot of space, tons of rooms, and really just whatever we could ever need. Plus, you're the one paying for it," with a slight grin, Ryan approached the front doors with some keys in hand. Usually, it would have been impossible to secure a deal as quickly as they did, but with the influence and renown that the Aglecard foundation had, the house was sold to them almost immediately.

  Runar slightly rubbed his eyes, "I guess so. It looks good. It's got history, clearly. We just need to clean up around here and then you can get moved in."

  "There's going to be a lot of repairs that are needed, right?" Ryan asked, "How long do you think that will take?"

  Runar looked around. Though, he wasn't really focused on the building itself, but rather on the surrounding area, "With how remote this place is, we can do whatever we want. So let's just say... Depending on how bad things are, you should be good on monday night? And then we can get a moving crew together to get everyone's stuff inside. Plus, make some orders for new furniture and such."

  Confused by what his uncle just said, Ryan stopped halfway as he unlocked the front door, "Excuse me? Monday night?"

  "Yeah? What about it?" as if it were the most natural thing in the world, Runar looked at his nephew with a raised brow, "Since there's nobody else nearby, we can use as much magic as we want without anyone questioning things. And, you know... repairing things, on a magical level, is a lot easier than constructing them."

  Runar stepped into the building after Ryan, pulling out his pen. He glanced around, soon finding a part of the floorboards that was actively cracked. He wrote down a simple rune into the air above it, and the floorboard started to repair itself just a moment later.

  "Mending. One of the more basic non-elemental magics. Constructing a new building takes a lot more effort, you know? You need to plan it out, you need the basic materials, and if you use magic, you need to make sure that your magic was stable enough for every tiny aspect of it, and you'll need to use dozens and dozens of different spells to make things work in a way that meets current building standards," Runar explained, stashing away his pen again, "But repairs are a bit simpler than that. Objects and places all have their own essence and soul. It's why mana can stick to them and turn them into elementals or dungeons. Mending spells can take advantage of that fact and help those objects heal. It's literally like a healing spell but for physical objects."

  "... Huh."

  "We employ plenty of specialized mages for things like disaster relief. And in downtimes, when there's no disaster to be relieved, they help out in construction spaces since some of their spells overlap. We can just get them here, let them repair things, then run tests to make sure everything is up to par, and, well, that's it."

  Ryan let out a slight sigh of relief. In that case, things would be happening pretty fast. Depending on how long this took, he was actually going to ask Runar if he could pay for an interim apartment or some kind of hotel for Modak. Things at his parents' place really wasn't great recently. He's been staying with Yanna most of the time, but he felt like he was intruding far too much. But if this was the case, that was perfect; he could let the others know.

  Ryan was staring at the floorboard when he looked over at Runar, noticing that he was signing something to Yamada. He tried to look at his uncle's hands, but he wasn't able to keep up with the speed, "What are you saying?"

  "Nothing much, only what I told you just now. Plus, that we need to figure out what to stock this place up with in regard to furniture and materials. Oh, and of course security equipment. It's not going to be the kind of thing that we can access, so you don't need to worry about being watched, but considering the situation, getting cameras set up around the property isn't a bad idea. Plus some barriers outside of the perimeter. The walls offer themselves for that, too," ending his sentence with a yawn, since he was clearly extremely exhausted, Runar looked around, "Anyway, what was it you wanted me to check out?"

  "It's over here," Ryan said, walking over to a nearby wall. This place was exactly where the 'hidden' space was. It was like a room-sized pillar leading through the entire building from top to bottom, "There should be a space behind this wall."

  After discussing it with Modak and Silvia, the three of them decided that it was better to let Runar check this out. Even though they wanted to distance themselves from him and the main family's influence a bit more, this was too risky. There could be something dangerous going on.

  Runar quickly wrote onto the wall with his pen. A moment later, Ryan could feel deep quakes travel through the ground, as if a weak earthquake had just hit this place.

  "Huh. There really is something behind here," Runar pointed out, quickly writing a sentence of runes onto the wall. A moment later, the wall cracked open and turned into a doorway. Looking into it, Runar seemed even more confused, "... Okay. This is... unexpected."

  Ryan quickly came over and take a look, prompted by his uncle. What he was seeing in front of him was a deep hole, leading down into the darkness below. Whatever drew Ryan here was down there.

  Check out the Patreon! Read up to 15 Chapters ahead!

  Join the Discord!