Ryan kept his eyes closed for a while, just taking in the 'fresh' air of this industrial neighbourhood. But his serene peace was then interrupted by the sound of screeching tires as a number of cars pulled around the corner, stopping right in front of the dungeon's entrance. A person quickly jumped out from one of the cars; Aurora.

She rushed over toward Ryan and looked him up and down, "Mister Aglecard, are you alright? Are you feeling dizzy? Nauseous?"

"I'm fine, I felt a bit sick earlier but now that I'm back outside, it's all good," Ryan tried to stand up to properly greet her, but he was pushed down by the man that followed her.

"Just in case, stay still," he said, taking out a small light out of his pocket and shining it into his eyes, "Follow the light, please."

Ryan was confused, but he did as told. While he was doing so, someone else came up to him, grabbing his wrist. They slapped a thin metal bracelet onto it and started typing something on a tablet. The man, seemingly a paramedic even if his clothes didn't match the part, glanced at Ryan's right hand, "What happened? Are you injured?"

Somewhat awkwardly, Ryan nodded his head, "Yeah, I did get hurt in there, hold on," he replied, slowly slipping his jacket off his right shoulder. He looked around nervously to make sure nobody was behind him first, though, and tried to keep the jacket hanging over him as much as he could, "My shoulder was cut by a monster inside, the 'Manager', or something. The metal on its body was super sharp, so it was a clean cut, at least. I used some healing gel on the gauze, and the bleeding stopped. I also ended up... touching the Dungeon Heart, and it gave off this ridiculous heat, but only once I touched it. Used that same gel on my palm. The tube is in my backpack, I can take it out for you if you want."

The paramedic glanced over at Aurora, "Didn't you say he awakened just the other day?"

"...Yes, only last Tuesday. Mister Aglecard, you say you faced a 'Manager'?"

Ryan nodded. He was going to need to report this all to the DMB in a bit anyway. The response team was seemingly getting ready to head inside, just waiting for the paramedic to be done with Ryan so that they could talk to him. Though, seeing that Ryan was about to explain the situation more closely, Aurora called over the person leading the response team; a gnomish woman carrying an intricately crafted cane. She didn't seem to need it to walk, so she was probably a mage.

And so, Ryan quickly started to retell everything that he had done in the dungeon, including how he saw the foremen being created, the drops he got, and how he made his way into the offices, "And then, I broke the Dungeon Heart with the pickaxe, and a bunch of mana was shot into my face. I felt sick for a bit, but when I left the core room, I was alright again."

The gnome, holding a voice recorder toward Ryan, frowned lightly, "I see, and why exactly did you search out the core room again?"

"I didn't directly look for the core room, I just remembered that the office wasn't found anywhere yet, and then I found that weird space on the map. I thought it would be an... I don't know, like a puzzle or treasure room or something. And I know that you get a good chunk of money for that kind of information, so I figured why not check it out? If I had known it was straight up the core room, I wouldn't have done that. There's a lot easier ways to commit suicide," Ryan scoffed, slowly shaking his head. Though, seeing the faces of the people in front of him, it seemed like he was the only one who found that funny, "Uhm... sorry."

Ryan wasn't totally lying either. Obviously he didn't expect it to be the core room, and he wouldn't have gone in there as recklessly if he had known. But he didn't really care that much about the money that came with finding spaces like that, though it was an incentive that didn't necessarily prevent him from looking for that space either. He just didn't feel like explaining the quest, nor did he want to explain that there was a fractured Spirit Core inside of the Dungeon Heart either. Worst-case, they might try to take Gaia from him, and that was a risk he wasn't willing to take.

"I see. Well, you certainly earned yourself quite the reward now. Since you told us right away, we should be able to close the dungeon permanently soon, so you should get a hefty sum from that. We'll let you know through Miss Carlyle. Do you remember the location of the Core Room?" the gnome woman asked, holding a tablet in front of Ryan. It was a seemingly more detailed map of the dungeon than what was on the awakened forums, though it of course still marked the core room as an empty space.

Ryan quickly nodded, tapping at the location, "It's right here, should be easy enough to find. The route wasn't that complicated. Took me like twenty-ish minutes to get out?"

"Perfect. Thank you for the assistance, Mister Aglecard. We'll be headed right in," the gnome nodded satisfied and turned around without another word.

Before she could fully leave, Aurora turned to the gnome, "Thanks for coming so quickly, Melanie."

"...Don't mention it," she replied, quickly heading back over to her team. Overhearing the short exchange, Ryan stared at the paramedic that was still checking on him, now holding the tablet that his colleague had connected to that thin wristband they slapped onto him.

"Wait, was that Melanie Rodriguez?" Ryan stared at the gnome's back in disbelief, and the paramedic scoffed with a nod.

"That's her, alright. Why, you know her?"

"You kidding? Of course I know about her, who doesn't? She's like... the Terramancer, you know? Man, I would've asked her for an autograph if I'd known... Though that's probably a bit awkward when you're in the middle of work, right?" Dejected, Ryan watched as Melanie and her team entered the dungeon's barrier, completely getting rid of his chance. Seeing his expression, the paramedic just let out a laugh.

"Seriously? For someone who should have severe mana poisoning, you're pretty energetic."

"...Mana poisoning? Isn't that, like... really serious?"

"It sure as hell is, but you seem pretty fine... guess you got pretty lucky, huh? I mean, sure, you've got extremely elevated mana right now. If you were a bit higher levelled I'd have suggested you purge it somehow, but I doubt it even shows up in your status. It's all in your muscles and blood right now, and basically fully avoided your magic circuits," the paramedic explained, "Though... your SvMax levels are a bit high too... I'm guessing you levelled up in there?"

"Ah, yeah, twice actually. Got pretty lucky, I guess," Ryan explained. While it was something to brag about, now that he was actually in a situation where that was a choice, he did feel a bit too awkward about it.

Aurora, overhearing this, stepped closer again, "You levelled up twice? In your first week? That is quite impressive, Mister Aglecard. Congratulations!"

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"Thanks, I'm pretty-" as Ryan spoke, he once more heard the sound of screeching tires. But this time, accompanied by another sound that he recognized quite well. The confused voice of his uncle.

"Ryan? Ryan! What the hell is going on?" Runar yelled out, barely remembering to park his rundown old car before jumping out of it as he came sprinting over. Aurora tried to block him, but seeing Ryan's expression, she decided to let him through.

"'Sup, Runar. Some... stuff happened," Ryan said with a nervous smile. He could see how concerned his uncle was, so he felt pretty bad. He had already closed the shop today so that he could stay here to wait for him.

"I barely went out to grab some food for thirty minutes, get a call from you that you're back outside, and I come back to this? What the hell is- Wait, is that blood? Are you hurt? Do I need to call an ambulance?" Runar's gaze darted around the area, but he clearly didn't take all too much information in yet.

The paramedic currently taking a look at Ryan scoffed quietly, "The ambulance is here already. Don't worry, he's... well, he's not fine, directly, but way better than he should be, all things considered."

Runar stared at his nephew with a deep glare, forcing Ryan to turn his head away nervously, "Godsdammit, don't scare me like that... So he's going to be fine?" Runar asked, carefully stepping behind Ryan, placing his hand onto his left shoulder. His hand was shaking, almost as much as Ryan's own.

The paramedic nodded, "Yeah, I'd say so," he said, starting to carefully unwrap the bandages around Ryan's shoulder and hand, "We were mostly worried about his mana-exposure, and he still needs to keep it low for a while, but he'll be fine. Otherwise, there's his shoulder, but it doesn't seem to be that-"

As the paramedic pulled away the gauze, he froze up for a moment. He stared at the wound on Ryan's shoulder, which had only barely stopped bleeding, and involuntarily responded.

"What the fu- How the hell are you this calm right now? Aren't you in pain?"

Ryan shrugged, or at least he would have, if his shoulder wasn't as numb as it was, "Obviously, but what am I supposed to do? Cry about it? In public? Fuck no. Way too sober for that."

"...Are you sure about that? Are you on any pain meds? Alcohol? Drugs?"

"You've got a full list of everything in my body there, right? You know I'm not," Ryan replied, and the paramedic slowly turned toward his colleague, locking eyes with them for a moment.

"Alright, well... in that case, you're a hell of a man," he laughed, carefully rubbing his hands together while stretching his neck, "Now, this isn't going to hurt, but it might be a bit uncomfortable so to avoid any movement I'll be numbing your shoulder anyway, alright?"

After Ryan approved, the paramedic held his hand over the wound. Ryan felt a slight wave of warmth cover his shoulder, before an immediate numbness came over his whole arm as is slumped down a bit. And then, the paramedic got to work. A slightly translucent white needle appeared in his fingers that he pressed into Ryan's skin, pulling a similarly translucent thread behind it. This was a 'Medic' skill. Ryan didn't know what he expected, but it definitely wasn't to be treated by an awakened paramedic outside of a dungeon.

The whole time this was happening, Runar kept standing behind Ryan, as if covering his back from DMB employees that were walking around him. And of course, Maximus was inside of his domain during all of this. He had gone inside once the first cars arrived, by Ryan's request.

"All done," the paramedic said with a smile, as the needle from his skill disappeared, "Your shoulder will stay numb for a while, and I'll send a prescription to your insurance card for painkillers. Basically, if you're in pain, take one, but at most two a day, at least 6 hours apart. Keep applying that healing gel with bandages every day, and swap out the bandages every morning until the wound looks decently healed. And obviously, don't overdo it, alright?"

"Of course. You said I'm supposed to come up for a check-up in a couple days?" Ryan quickly asked, as the paramedic applied a fresh bandage to his shoulder.

"Just come to the Awakened Centre's medical office during regular business hours at the start of next week, I'll usually be there."

"Alright, I'll-"

"I'll be driving you there next week," Runar said from behind Ryan. Now that he saw that Ryan was doing a bit better, Runar's grip on his nephew's shoulder was growing quite a bit stronger.

"...Right, thanks. What about my hand? How's that doing?"

The paramedic glanced down at Ryan's palm, "Honestly, that's not looking so bad, probably hurts like a bitch, though. Just keep your palm wrapped up with healing gel for the weekend. Once the redness is gone and it stops hurting, you're fine."

As the other paramedic quickly took the wristband back off Ryan's arm, Aurora stepped back up toward him, nervously hooting, "Mister Aglecard, in the future, please do be more careful. We at the Awakened Centre have high hopes for you. And even if it all somehow worked out today, it could have very easily gone very badly."

Noticing the squeeze in his left shoulder, Ryan carefully nodded, "I know, I'll be taking it a bit more slow, I think. Might do a bit of training for the time being."

The paramedic raised his brow, "Did you not hear what I said about taking it easy?"

"I'm a magical class, I'm not gonna be doing anything that hurts my shoulder."

"Yeah, but you also very barely avoided severe mana poisoning, so seriously, just take it slow. Read a bit or something, but don't do any major mana exercises for now."

Ryan sighed lightly. Though that did make things a bit more annoying, realistically he wouldn't be able to do any of those 'major mana exercises' anytime soon anyway. He'd have to head to the university library and read up on some magic theory for now. For now, though, he just put his jacket back on properly, and reached out to his backpack, which was snatched up by Runar before he could grab it.

Still trying to avoid his uncle's stare, Ryan turned back to Aurora and the paramedic, "Is there anything else right now? I'd like to go home and just rest a bit."

Aurora slowly shook her head, "We will keep you updated on the progress of the dungeon closure. If the DMB has any more questions, you might have to go to them sometime next week, but this case actually seems pretty straightforward. So yes, please go ahead, rest and heal up, Mister Aglecard."

"...Ryan is fine, by the way," he replied, feeling awkward about constantly being called 'Mister Aglecard'. It felt so stiff and formal and he didn't like it at all.

Aurora hooted quietly, "Then, Ryan, have a good weekend and take care of yourself well."

"I will. Thanks," Ryan smiled and stood up, following his uncle to his car. After dropping into the passenger seat, Ryan leaned back into the cushions and let out a long, deep groan.

"You better shut your mouth," as he slammed the door shut behind himself, Runar practically growled at his nephew, "What the fuck were you thinking? You promised me you'd try to be safe, and what, you ended up destroying a dungeon heart?"

"I just-"

"Are you seriously in that much need of money? Did you get caught up with the wrong crowd? Is someone extorting you or-"

"No, dude, calm down," Ryan interrupted his uncle when he could finally get a word in, but he really didn't know what to say, "...I can trust you, right? Even if you acted like a fucking maniac when I told you I awakened?"

"M-Maniac?" Runar stuttered out, "I was just surprised, that's all... But yes, of course you can trust me. It's just... you're my family, Ryan. Every time I look at you, I see your father when we were growing up. I'm scared something is going to happen to you too, so I don't want you to get caught up in this whole mess. I adore you, man... seeing you like this breaks my heart, seriously."

Ryan sat there in silence for a few moments. He really didn't know what he was supposed to say to that. As the car started rumbling, Runar started driving down the road. No matter how weird Ryan felt about how Runar reacted, he still trusted him probably more than anyone in the world. Runar had always been there for him and his mom, even after his father died, and throughout every bad choice they made afterward. Even when Ryan did briefly get caught up with the wrong crowd in school, Runar was the one that helped him through it all.

"...Maximus gave me a quest to go to the Dungeon," Ryan explained, and Runar turned to him, startled.

"What? Why would he..."

"I guess he sensed that something, or someone, was in there. When I destroyed the dungeon heart, I found something inside of it, another spirit core, but it was fractured. It belongs to this spirit called Gaia."