Stepping out of the cart, Ryan took a deep breath, "Oh gods... This is really..." a bit strained, he pushed his breath back out, "This is seriously ridiculous..."

  Inside of his domain, Jester started miming a loud laugh, making fun of how Ryan was reacting.

  "Shut up, you... The speed isn't even the issue, it's just that these coasters aren't made for this speed. Way-too-sharp angles, the harnesses are uncomfortable when you're moving around that fast, and it feels like I'm about to fall out at any moment... But I still managed to get through the first three, it's just a bit rough," he complained and looked at the back of the map in his pocket. Three fields on it were now properly stamped.

  "Let's move on to the next one. I'll go as far as I can for now," he quickly started making his way to the next rollercoaster. There were a total of fifteen here, so he still had a dozen to go. And the worst part was that it all had to happen in a single visit.

  The maps in this dungeon changed together with the overall dungeon. The map was going to be up-to-date all the time, so Ryan could keep using it for however long he needed to, so that wasn't the issue. However, they couldn't be taken out of the dungeon. And when they were left behind somewhere 'safe', they would just be broken down and couldn't be found again, so the stamps didn't carry over to the next time you came along. Annoyingly enough, you couldn't just give the map to someone else to hold it for you while you went out and took a break, either.

  It was a sort of item that synced with the person inside of the dungeon, similar to the gift-shop card. Except that the card counted as a 'drop', so you could actually take it out of the dungeon. If you handed the map off to someone else, the stamps would be reset.

  While this place was up and running, you probably only got the reward if you rode all the rides in a single day or something. Of course, for today, Ryan's goal wasn't to actually finish this. He knew that it was unrealistic to assume he could just finish the last ride without issue on his first attempt. Rather, he was trying to see what his limit was for the time being, so that he could at the very least estimate when he could get there.

  Ryan stretched a bit as he approached the next ride. According to the list, this one wasn't actually a rollercoaster, but instead one of those free-fall towers. It was called the 'Dark Tower', because the ride was completely encased in a large tower and you were free-falling in complete and utter darkness.

  He let out a long sigh. Ryan didn't even want to know how bad this fall was going to be. At least he would be able to survive it. The waiting area was decorated quite a lot as well. Paintings, armour, statues... like you were in some kind of castle. Ryan took a seat and pulled the harness over his body. At least this time, this protective gear was made for some real speed.

  "Okay. I've got this, let's get this on with already," he took a deep breath, settling into the seat. He was smiling, though he wasn't quite sure if it was a nervous grin or because he was excited, something that the spirits also took notice of.

  "Calm down... I swear I'm not a masochist, I just... you know, it's fun to see what my body is capable of, somehow," Ryan explained, though at this point it just sounded like he was making excuses. The ride wasn't moving yet, so he was nervously blabbering away. And then, all of a sudden, the ride shot upward. He felt his body grow so heavy that it, for a moment, was like he would never feel different again. It was like that for about a minute, maybe two. It felt weird trying to keep track of time right now. And then, all of a sudden, the ride stopped.

  Ryan's upper body was pushed against the harness, and he could feel his shoulder popping out after being strongly pressed against it at an awkward angle. It was weird, Ryan's shoulder popped out before, but it didn't feel like this. This time, it was a lot less painful, "That 'cause of you, Tiar?"

  He laughed slightly, looking at the back of his hand, and the symbiote replied with a smiling face, though its eyes were spiralling around. Clearly, Tiar was also feeling the stress that Ryan's body was under. They were sharing it now, after all.

  The ride stopped for just a moment, barely long enough for Ryan's mind to settle down even just briefly, before starting to drop back down. He knew what falling felt like, and this wasn't it. It was so much worse, like he was immediately at terminal velocity. But it didn't even stop there. He was going faster and faster and faster, and it took way longer than just two minutes.

  Breathing was getting harder, and Ryan could feel himself gasping for air. He shut his eyes and just waited for it to be over. Until all of a sudden, the ride stopped again. The harness was lifted above his head, and Ryan slowly stumbled off the seat. The doors leading outside opened, and Ryan carefully stepped out, trying not to fall as he did. His legs felt a little weak. For balance, he tried to grab the railing next to him, when he remembered that his arm wasn't in its socket.

  "Fuck, okay," he groaned, "This is going to suck."

  Quickly, Ryan grabbed his arm and twisted it into slightly into the right position. He knew that you weren't technically supposed to do this on your own, but he didn't have a lot of choice right now. With a swift motion, Ryan pushed his shoulder back into place, and then quickly went to grab the backpack from where he left it.

  He popped a small pill into his mouth, the one made from blood roses, which could heal this sort of internal damage extremely well and quickly. Not that his shoulder really hurt that much in the first place. Clearly Tiar did something for him there, and Ryan was more than grateful.

  Checking the back of the map again, just in case, Ryan let out a relieved sigh that this ride was over, "Four down, eleven to go."

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  "Uh... you okay?" Silvia raised a brow as she walked up to Ryan. He was pale and had bloodshot eyes, plus, he was holding his body a little weirdly.

  "Yeah, I'm fine..." he replied, smiling awkwardly, "I've been going through the rollercoaster gauntlet all day long."

  "What? Aren't those literally deadly rollercoasters?" Modak looked him up and down with a worried face, but Ryan just shrugged.

  "Yeah, I guess so. But I'll be fine. I was actually able to make it through... uh, 13 of them already? Thank god they raised this place as a training dungeon, otherwise I don't think I would've been able to do it."

  The orc scoffed, "You're insane, man."

  "Whatever you say. Uhm... what are you wearing, by the way?"

  Modak looked down at himself. He was wearing a mechanic's overalls that had been reinforced with special armour intended for Awakened. The sleeve covering his broken arm was thicker than the other to protect it more and keep it slightly stiff. On that same sleeve were a few different touchpads and dials that seemed to be taken straight from a DJ's deck. His backpack was basically just a large speaker with some cloth pouches hanging off it.

  Silvia crossed her arms with a smug grin, "I made him an outfit as well. You know, so that he's safe while in here."

  "... Okay, so, armour, that's fair. Both of you are wearing armour, I was aware of that," Ryan started. Silvia was also wearing some fortified clothes. It was some kind of tech-wear, with tons of hoops and strips and carabiners that she had random knickknacks hanging off of. It was a bit unnecessary, but it didn't seem like it would get too in the way of things, "But what about the music stuff you have with you? Are we doing a rave here?"

  The orc and elf looked at each other for a moment. Modak was a bit nervous to explain, but Silvia quickly encouraged him, "So... I'm not strong enough to help in an actual fight just normally, but I can use magic now, kind of. You know, with my synthesizer. I've been working on a couple of tracks for some audio-based offensive spells. There are some, not a ton, but they should be helpful."

  "And you're sure you want to do this? This shit is seriously dangerous."

  At this point, Ryan didn't want to stop them too much anymore. They saw how dangerous things were last time. They saw this place, and they were making their own decisions. He would still rather if they didn't put themselves in so much danger, but as long as they weren't actively getting in his way, he had little reason to say 'no'. It wasn't like Ryan himself was particularly stronger than an average person at this point, at least not yet. He just had experience fighting.

  Both Modak and Silvia seemed determined, so Ryan agreed, "Fine. We're giving it some test runs at the edge of the mascot plaza. Just don't strain yourself too much. You're still recovering."

  With an excited nod, Modak replied, "Actually, I've been feeling pretty good the last couple days since you unclogged my aura. Just... like I'm a bit healthier overall."

  Ryan raised a brow, "Okay? I mean... that sounds possible, lots of awakened, especially those with aura, say that they feel a lot healthier. And you've got more aura than the average Awakened, almost superhuman levels it feels like, so that sounds right."

  "Whatever it is, I feel great! My arm still hurts a bit, but it's way better than it was earlier this week already."

  "Just don't strain yourself too much," Ryan stood up from his seat, "Anyway, want to get going? I finally managed to get the certificate from the petting zoo."

  Without further ado, the trio made their way over to the gift shop. Silvia was especially giddy and excited, almost leading the way ahead of Modak and Ryan, though the two of them had to redirect her a few times so that they could actually get to the right spot.

  Once in the gift shop, Ryan took the backpack off Gaia and emptied out the coins that he got today into the treasure chest, together with the 'Perfect Completion' certificate. He shut the chest, opened it back up, and quickly grabbed the card back out. He currently had 2941 points, which came from quite a lot of effort in taking down different monsters and particularly aiming for boss monsters. Beside that, there was now a second 'area' symbol that had a holographic shine to it.

  "Perfect. Modak, come on, I need to give this a try first," Ryan immediately slammed the bell on the counter, and the clown popped up.

  Modak shook his hand, and the clown started to freak out, but Ryan immediately grabbed his hand and activated the exploit. It was still working perfectly fine.

  There were five different things displayed. Four for the spirits, and one last one; the special reward. But... it was only worth 98 points.

  "Fuck," Ryan clicked his tongue, seeing the price.

  "What, what's wrong?" Silvia asked confused, "Isn't it good that the exploit worked?"

  "Yeah, of course it's good, but... There's no way any fragment or core will cost just 98 coins. The regular voucher costs 500. And it's a special thing, so if I buy this now, it might use up that special reward slot, so I might just waste this opportunity to get another fragment."

  Modak hummed for a moment, thinking deeply, "That is quite a bit risk. For Violette you had 3 out of 5, and for Morgana, 1 of 2. So... you just need two more? There's technically more areas here that you could get that special completion thing from, right? If we can figure all those methods out, you can just be safe for now, buy the special voucher in the normal shop, and then when both Violette and Morgana are safely with you, we can try the exploit?"

  Ryan slowly nodded, "That sounds like a plan, let's do that. Silvia, want to reset the shop and buy some stuff for yourself?"

  He quickly got out his wallet and pulled out Silvia's cards. It had slightly less points, just around 2400, but it was still plenty.

  "Gods, how did you get this many points?"

  "By going from area to area and killing tons of these guys. I actually tried to repeat the perfect completion thing in the mascot plaza, but... didn't work. Sadly," Ryan sighed, but Silvia was already excitedly shaking the clown's hands, and her shop was soon shown.

  She thought about it for a moment, and then quickly bought one of the ceramic pigment jars first, so that she could have a look at what they were about. The clown gave it to her, and the trio huddled around the small pot.

  Carefully, Silvia popped open the lid. Inside of the pot was a deep, clear blue powder.

  "Ooh, this is pretty!" she exclaimed, though she quickly hesitated while taking another look. Silvia pulled out her phone and shone a light at it, "Holy- guys, I think this is a true blue!"

  "True blue?"

  "Yeah, like... you know, as blue as it can get. I'll have to check at home, but I think it's at least really close. If that's the case, this is actually really, really valuable."

  "I mean, isn't it just... blue pigment? What's valuable about it?" Modak wondered. Ryan also seemed a bit perplexed, so Silvia looked at the two of them with a long sigh.

  "It's not just a blue pigment, it's the blue pigment! Do you know how rare that is? You can count the sources for true blue on your hands. There's like... two animals that produce it? One is a super specific type of butterfly, and the other is a single dragon. Not, like, a breed of dragon, but a single, ancient blue dragon that has this specific type of blue. And true blue is also super useful, because you can just use it as a great basis to mix other paints."

  A hunch came to Ryan, and he smiled lightly, "Huh. So, three pots of pigment, and one of them just happens to be the most blue blue you can get?"

  Silvia gasped, "Wait, do you think - Okay, I have to see!"

  Though she meant to grab other items first, Silvia couldn't help herself, and quickly bought up the other two pigment jars as as well. Opening the others, it was clearly just as Ryan thought and Silvia hoped. The reddest red and the yellowest yellow.

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