In this dark, cold and quiet room, there was nothing but a single old wardrobe. Its wood was worn out and half-rotten, but you could tell that it was once an expensive and high-quality piece.

Ryan slowly turned to Rose, "What's going on? What is this?"

"That's 'Kindly'. He has a curse that infects others by latching onto their mana," she explained calmly, staring right at the wardrobe.

"Got it... and that's why he's hiding in there?" Ryan asked, but Rose just laughed and shook her head.

"No, he's not hiding at all," she explained, and started clapping her hands together a few times, "Come on, Kindly. Wake up!"

With loud creaks and the sound of wood cracking and bending, the wardrobe started to shake ever so slightly. Not sure what was about to happen, Ryan looked to his friends, both of which were just fully focused on what was happening in front of them. As Ryan turned back, the wardrobe had already changed into something... else.

The wood of the wardrobe cracked and dozens of red and yellow eyes were peering out from the darkness. Its door was pushed ajar, and wart-covered, fleshy black tentacles were slithering out from beyond it, latching onto the wood and ground. Ryan's heart almost skipped a beat as he stared at the thing inside the wardrobe. No, as he stared at the thing that was the wardrobe.

"He's a mimic," Rose explained, "They're like hermit crabs turning objects like this into their homes. But instead of just living inside of them, those objects turn into a part of their bodies. But Kindly's current body is breaking down because he's slowly outgrowing it, but we can't coax him out of it, no matter what we do."

Modak stared at the mimic, another creature that he had only read about in fairy tales. But different to the others that he had seen here so far, mimics were always monsters. Things that hid in small nooks and inconspicuous places, ambushing them to get something to eat between their teeth.

"How can I... how can I help? Am I supposed to pull him out of there?" the orc couldn't move his eyes away from the thin, clearly sick tendrils of the creature in front of him. But Rose quickly explained what he had to do.

"No, that's not it at all! Definitely don't! He's just... he's hurt. We're already trying to figure out how to deal with his curse, but that's going to take a while to resolve. But he has these really nasty cuts and gashes and wounds, and he won't let anyone get close to him."

Modak slowly understood, "So... I should treat him? I don't know anything about veterinary medicine..."

Rose shook her head, "You don't have to, I can walk you through it. It's nothing too complicated, but we don't have anyone that can do it..."

"I... Can I think about this for a second?"

"Of course! Take your time!" Rose immediately replied, some panic in her voice. Modak turned around and stepped out of the room back onto the balcony, rushing down the stairs.

Silvia and Ryan looked at each other, and the elf hesitantly opened her mouth. But before she could, Ryan spoke up, "I'll go after him, you can stay here."

She slowly nodded her head, as Ryan left the room. Silvia was also dealing with some things right now. Though Ryan still didn't know what it was, he was sure Silvia wasn't in a state of mind to give a pep talk to someone else right now.

Modak was already at the bottom of the carved stone steps, pacing around in circles on the trampled patch of grass. From here, Ryan could see some dryads curiously peeking out from dense artificial forest spreading around the edges of the whole cave, trying to see what was going on.

"Hey man, you alright?" Ryan slowed down as he got to the bottom of the stairs, and Modak immediately and violently shook his head.

"No, I'm not alright! What the hell is going on?" he let out, heavy breaths pouring out of his mouth, "This morning, I've never so much as petted an animal without being hissed or barked at, and now I'm the king of cockatrices and the only one that can treat a fucking mimic? How the hell does that makes sense?"

"Yeah, and yesterday I was still the son of an accountant and a bookkeeper, and now I'm the direct descendant of millennium-old secret society. Things change very quickly these days," Ryan scoffed, sitting down on the steps with a laugh. Modak turned to him and sighed loudly.

"It's just... so much. It's not that I don't want to help, but I... I don't even really like animals all that much. I don't hate them, obviously, but until now they were just kind of a topic I stayed away from. I don't know if I can do this," Modak let out a laugh of disbelief, continuing to pace around, "I don't know the slightest thing about how to handle animals whatsoever. I don't even know how to handle people. If you and Silvia weren't the way you are, my university experience would be very, very different."

Ryan narrowed his eyes, staring at his friend. He wasn't sure if he was understanding him correctly, "What are you even saying? You were friends with everyone in the robotics club. You walk up to your professors and talk to them about topics I've never even heard of."

"... That... that's not the same thing."

"How is it not? Why do you keep underestimating yourself, you're a literal fucking genius. Who cares if you don't know much about animals? You can do this. Especially with the help of someone that awakened as a 'Zoologist'."

Modak slowed down, just standing there for a few moments, his back turned to Ryan, "Can you just... tell me what I should do?"

"Are you shitting me?" Ryan asked, almost angry about being asked this. He stood up from the steps and walked around the orc to look straight into his face, "I'm not going to tell you what to do, that's not how this all works. You're not my aide. You're my best friend. But genuinely... I fully believe that you can do this. I just can't tell you if you should."

Modak and Ryan locked eyes for a moment. And then, with a loud groan, Modak threw his head into his neck, "Okay, fine. I'm doing it."

"You sure?" Ryan asked, a slight smile on his face, "Nobody's forcing you to."

"Oh, shut up, you want me to do it, right?" Modak sighed.

"I don't not want you to do it," Ryan held forward his fist toward the orc, "Come on, man. You got this."

A smile formed on Modak's face as he bumped his friend's fist, "Yeah... I got this."

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Runar sat in his office, peering through a magnifying glass onto the thin metal plate in front of him. He was using an extremely fine brush to carefully paint patterns onto it as his eyes let off a soft green glow.

"Still doing that kind of busywork?" a woman asked as she walked up to the desk. Without even looking at her, Runar calmly replied to her.

"I'm definitely not letting anyone else set up a permanent magic array here, so I'm the only one that can make these," he pointed out, slowly pulling the brush away from the metal plate to glance up at the elf now standing in front of him, "Also, I'd appreciate it if you could knock before coming into my office."

"Oh, don't be like that! You're the one that invited me here," she responded with a slight laugh, sitting down on a chair across from Runar. Rolling his eyes, the rune mage continued his work.

"Yes, but I don't remember sending anyone up to let you in, so that means you broke in."

"That's a strong word, don't you think?"

"No, actually. I don't think so," Runar stayed calm despite the watchful gaze of the woman in front of him. She shook her head and sighed a few times as Runar was working, until he had enough of it.

"Alicia, what are you doing?" he asked, trying to hold back a groan. Alicia just shrugged and leaned back in her seat.

"I didn't do anything."

With a slight laugh, Runar raised his brow, "Alicia. Tell me. What is it?"

"... A four-pointed array for the third circle would be much more effective than a five-pointed array. You're just wasting mana like that."

"That would be the case if I were working with a standard mathematical model, but I'm using a combined runic model. Because of the 'Syt' rune right here, I need the additional stability that a five-pointed array provides."

"Well, that would be the case if you weren't already using 'Bak' right at the connection between the second and third circles."

"Bak? What do you- this is 'Het'!"

"... Didn't I tell you to fix your handwriting?"

"My handwriting is fine. How about you start wearing your fuckin' glasses for once?" with a click of his tongue, Runar leaned back forward and continued drawing these complex patterns onto the metal plate. Alicia crossed her legs and shook her head as she replied.

"Glasses don't suit the shape of my face," she pointed out, placing her palm onto her cheek with a slight grin.

"... Mhm."

For a few minutes longer, until Runar was finally done, Alicia just silently observed. And then he finally pulled back and placed the plate next to the other two that he had already finished. He stood up and stretched, finally properly looking at the woman in front of him with a smile on his face.

"Thanks for coming on such short notice," he said, walking around the table to give the elf a hug. She returned it happily and shook her head.

"Anything for my favourite student."

"Oh please, I was horrible."

"You were also half the age of the second-youngest person at the tower, so you're getting some bonus points," Alicia laughed, "So, you have three new arrivals, I see?"

Runar looked at the metal plates. The paint that he just applied to them still had to dry for a little while longer, "It's a bit complicated, but yes. It's... Ryan, and his two closest friends."

"Ryan? That was... that was your nephew, correct?" Runar slowly nodded, and Alicia placed her hand onto her chin in remembrance, "I thought you said you were trying not to get him involved."

"That's what I promised Hayden, so yeah. But then he became the Spirit Keeper, so that changed very quickly."

Alicia's eyes widened in surprise, "The Spirit Keeper? That is quite the coincidence... and his friends are trustworthy as well?"

Runar hesitated for a few moments, "I think so. I actually did some background checks on them a while ago, and they came out perfectly clean. No connections to any other factions in the family, nor to the Shadows or anything of the sort. And Ryan has a pretty good eye for people these, and an even greater moral compass. If he trusts them... so do I. Worst case, I make them forget about this whole thing, but let's hope I won't need to."

"You still meddle with memories so easily?"

"... I don't easily. I just don't hesitate to do it when I need to. Not any more," Runar pointed out, quickly trying to move on from the conversation, "Anyway, you brought everything you need for your clairvoyance, right?"

"Of course," Alicia petted the ceramic bottle hanging by her hip, "Though, you still didn't tell me what you want me to find."

"Oh calm down, you already know, right?"

"I have a guess. I would just like to hear it from you directly."

"Ryan has found two thirds of a spirit core," Runar explained, glancing down at the watch on his wrist as he walked up to a nearby shelf, grabbing a box from on top of it, "So, we need your help finding the last third."

Alicia smiled lightly, narrowing her eyes, "Has he now? He just 'found' them?"

"Can you stop acting like you don't know about all of this already? You already knew that Ryan awakened as the Spirit Keeper, and you also already know that the Shadows are involved."

Alicia looked up contemplatively, slowly shrugging, "I am very good at guessing."

Runar rolled his eyes as he opened up the top of the box, pulling a small larva out of it. It was around half the size of a pinkie, and was still slightly moving. He stepped up to the spherical nest, carefully placing the larva into its entrance. Hesitantly, small hands covered in dull feathers grabbed it, pulling it deeper inside.

"A pixie?" Alicia asked curiously. This time, it was real curiosity. The difference was pretty obvious to Runar; she hadn't known about the pixie girl.

"We rescued her from an auction yesterday. She's still too scared to let us properly check on her, but I think she's warming up to me."

Alicia smiled lightly, squatting down in front of the nest. The pixie, currently trying to eat the larva, was startled as she looked at Alicia. She pulled the larva closer to her body, as if trying to hide it. The elf carefully held forward her finger as Alicia's eyes took on a soft, mellow pink. Runar couldn't see her mana directly, but he could feel some of the most refined mana he had ever seen flow from the elf's fingertip.

Just a moment later, the pixie's demeanour changed almost completely. While she was scared and hiding before, she now wore an excited expression, jumping onto her feet. Her injured wings fluttered quietly as her innate mana started pulsating and flowing around her, responding to Alicia.

The elf chuckled slightly, looking up at Runar, "You should really freshen up on your Pixie-speak. She called you dull."

"It's my pixie-speak, I just don't have your ridiculous level of mana control. But I've been working on an array to make it a bit easier for me, I've just been a bit busy since last night," Runar pointed out, "Plus, I wanted to let her take it easy for now. She went through a lot."

"Right, right, you dull little boy," Alicia laughed, watching the quite reinvigorated pixie continue with her meal, "Alright, let's go meet this Ryan now. He's the one with the dungeon mana stuck in him, right?

"Hm?" Runar saw Alicia's gaze move into a specific direction of the cave, as if she was looking at something beyond the walls of this building. And he immediately realized where she was looking, "Wait, why are they... But yeah, that's him. Sorry, can you see what they're doing?"

"The three of them seem to be taking care of a cursed animal. That's par for the course here, isn't it?"

Runar raised his brow confused, "The three of them? Sorry, does one of them have red, kind of spiky mana?"

"Mhm, and quite a lot of it too. There's one with a little bit, but not enough to be of substance, really."

With a confused frown, Runar picked up his pen from the table, writing a series of runes into the air. His eyes took on a green glow as he started seeing the mana of the people in question. There was something weird there. He wrote a rune in front of his right eye, closing his left as he activated it. His sight was quickly magnified. Just like Alicia, he could see three people. Ryan with that thick dungeon mana stuck inside of him, Rose's ridiculous amount of innate mana, and someone with clean, but unrefined mana. And then there was of course Kindly, whose cursed mana was like a splotch of ink accidentally thrown onto a canvas, sticking out. But right in front of Kindly, there was an outline.

A spot where there was no mana at all. A complete absence.

"Is that... Modak?"