Ryan walked down an old, clearly abandoned path. Following behind him was Runar, who would be watching his nephew's back.

"So, why exactly do you keep this place to yourself? And how, even?" Ryan asked, looking around. He was standing in front of a dungeon. It was an old amusement park that had long fallen into disrepair, being taken back over by nature. Mana had gathered here and slowly turned into a dungeon over time. Now, beyond the turnstiles, the space had become enlarged and distorted; you couldn't even see inside, as everything was blocked by a layer of thick mist.

Runar thought about it for a moment, "So, our family owned the amusement park for a while now. After it went under, the plan apparently was to turn it into some kind of facility or another, but then plans changed, people were swapped out, and it was just sort of forgotten, always just blocked off with that security fence. Since it's so far outside of New Riverside, people just forgot about it. And with a simple barrier, we can keep it hidden from any dungeon-sensors as well."

"... Alright, but that doesn't really answer why you're keeping a dungeon hidden," Ryan pointed out. It seemed like Runar was trying to avoid answering the question, but it was clear that he couldn't keep doing that.

"... We're using it as a training ground. Technically, that is very, extremely illegal. It's a particularly aggressive dungeon, with low resource and research ratings. It would be a high-priority target for destruction. Dungeons with lower aggression or greater usefulness are usually kept open for an extended period if time to act as potential fodder for Awakened, but at the end of the day, every dungeon has to be destroyed within one year of it being found," Runar explained, "But this one was too beneficial for us to let up. It has a large variety of monsters with many different abilities. There are 'puzzles', illusions, mazes, whatever would be useful for training new operatives. At the same time, it's predictable enough that we can make it as safe as possible for those new operatives to learn."

"Okay, sure, but... isn't it dangerous like this?" Ryan asked, looking at the entrance of the amusement park, "Wouldn't it reach Stage 3 at some point?"

"If it weren't for the barrier, maybe. But this dungeon is basically as old as you are, and we've been able to contain it in Stage 2 since then. So instead of advancing to Stage 3, it just keeps expanding inwardly with the mana it keeps accumulating," Runar explained, patting his nephew on the back, "Now stop worrying and get in there. I'll be watching and giving you tips if you need them, but otherwise I'll be staying behind. Can't have Maximus feeling too safe, or else that's going to dampen his levelling speed."

"Right... Then let's get started. Gotta properly use the new armour that Silvia made," Ryan looked down at his body with a smile. It had a similar use to the outfit that he wore in the Abandoned Copper Foundry, in that it practically turned him into Maximus' Armoury. The main difference was that much more powerful materials were used now that they had the resources of the Aglecards.

Initially, the plan was to let Silvia just design the armour and then have other people actually construct it, but now, with her being an Awakened too, it was a much smarter idea to have her work on it herself, letting Silvia and Ryan grow alongside each other. Of course, the Aglecard craftsmen supported her and taught her more about what was important when making an armour, but she did the actual designing, planning, and crafting. And since Silvia still chose to see this as an expression of art, her skills applied pretty well. Since she was trying to match the way that Ryan usually moved when he fought, the armour had improved mobility due to Silvia's skills, even if it was minuscule at this point.

Though, since Silvia wanted to make sure her skills actually applied, she may have gone a little overboard in her choice in patterns and designs. This outfit was quite flashy and vibrant. Ryan didn't mind, but it ended up coming together with a pretty unique vibe. Like if you mixed streetwear with some bits and pieces of medieval armour.

However, the weapons that Maximus was going to use were different to the improvised weapons that Ryan, Silvia, and Modak had bought, which were really just cooking tools. Instead, they were weapons that had been specially created for Maximus by the Aglecard craftsmen to better fit the tiny Knight's proportions.

Hammers, axes, swords, spears, halberds, shields; they might have even gone a bit overboard with the amount of weapons they made for Maximus, but since he seemed to be able to make skilled use of everything they could think of, the craftsmen were pretty enthusiastic. They were all attached to Ryan's outfit in a way that he could swap everything out easily whenever Maximus needed it.

Ryan held his hand forward, and Maximus, whose right arm was swapped out for the Crusader armour piece to give him a bit more power, stepped out of the domain through his fingertips.

"Are you ready?" He asked, squatting down in front of him, and Maximus quickly nodded. At the same time, though, Gaia seemed to want to come out of her domain as well.

"Oh? Are you sure? You don't have a combat class, you don't have to... Rather, I'm- Well, no, I'm not saying you can't handle yourself, don't worry, but-" Ryan nervously looked at the golem sitting inside of her domain, silently staring at him. Raising his brow, Runar looked at his nephew.

"What's going on?"

"... Gaia wants to come out and help as well. And I'm sure she could be helpful, but... I don't want to use her as a distraction, and frankly, she's not agile enough for combat," Ryan pointed out, though Gaia seemed to want to come out anyway. Her green, threaded mana poured out of his body and soon appeared next to Ryan.

Runar laughed quietly, "Well, if she wants to join, I'm sure she has her reasons. Though... I do agree that it's a bit too dangerous for her to simply join combat."

Turning over toward Runar, Gaia seemed to be looking at something. The backpack that he was currently wearing. It was Ryan's backpack, filled with emergency supplies and a ton of snacks. It also had some metal rebar attached to it that Ryan could use for the 'Spirit Armament' skill during an emergency. Runar had decided that it made more sense for him to carry it around and let Ryan focus on his training. If Ryan needed anything, Runar could be there at a moment's notice anyway. But even so, Gaia walked up to him, and held her hand toward him.

After a bit of hesitation, Ryan raised his brow, "I'm pretty sure she wants you to give her the backpack."

Looking down at the Golem, Runar shrugged. He squatted down and helped her put it on, though it didn't seem to fit her perfectly. After tightening the straps a bit more, it seemed like Gaia would be able to carry it without problem, though.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"If you want that to be your part in this, then maybe we should have a bag made specifically for you," Runar suggested, and Gaia quickly turned around, returning back to Ryan's side. Though, he was still a bit concerned.

"No need to be too protective of her. She's literally made of rock. If you need to, just pull her back into her domain, and she'll be fine," Runar suggested, "Either way, let's just get started."

"Right. Let's go," Ryan agreed, and the small group quickly stepped up to the turnstiles. They pushed their way through, and almost immediately, the mist parted from in front of them. Instead, it had moved to the other side of the entrance, disallowing them to see what was outside of the dungeon. But Ryan couldn't even concentrate on that right now. The concentration of the 'Dungeon Air' was overwhelming.

He felt dizzy for a few moments, though he luckily adjusted quickly enough. While Ryan was taking steady breaths to get used to the mana-filled surroundings, Runar walked up to a nearby stand, grabbing an old pamphlet that he quickly brought over and handed to Ryan.

"What's this?"

"A map of the dungeon," Runar responded as if it were obvious, and with a raised brow, Ryan grabbed it and unfolded the pamphlet into a large map that he could barely hold up with both of his hands stretched out fully.

"Excuse me?" he asked, glancing around the map. He found the entrance pretty quickly. From there, paths branched off into every direction. Though it was covered in damage from wetness, as well as cuts and tears and bites from bugs, Restaurants, rides, and even the old petting zoo were marked on the map again and again. So did the colour-coded 'sections' of the park, split up into different themes. These sections spread around almost randomly and repeated themselves up to the map's edges, clearly continuing on even beyond it, "Wait, is this seriously a map? You guys made a pamphlet?"

Runar scoffed, "Not us. The dungeon. I mean, I guess it realized that maps were a big deal here in the 'memories' of this place. It understands what it needs to display, it just doesn't realize that under normal circumstances, this would be a death sentence."

With a smile, Runar glanced around the map and soon pointed to a small building that only appeared a single time in the whole dungeon. The administration building.

"The core room's in there. But because we don't plan on destroying this place, we've been able to just ignore it after realizing what it is, so the dungeon never realized how bad of an idea this is."

"Now I get why you use this place for training... this goes beyond even 'predictable', man," Ryan scoffed, "So, where do we go first?"

Glancing at the watch on his wrist, Runar thought about it for a moment and quickly decided, "Around this time, it would be best to stick to this part, the 'plaza'. The opponents are fairly weak humanoids, albeit a bit creepy."

"Alright, how do they fight and attack?"

"Why would I tell you that?" Runar scoffed, and Ryan narrowed his eyes confused.

"Excuse me?"

"Use that ridiculous intuition of yours and figure it out. That's part of the training. Again, they're pretty weak, so it's nothing too dangerous. And if anything happens, I'll step in, so just calm down."

Ryan sighed lightly, looking down at the map with an annoyed sigh. He quickly walked down the path in front of him while Runar carefully built up the distance between them to the point where Ryan actually wasn't able to see him anymore. He had a rough guess of where he was, but he couldn't say for sure. He walked for a while until the cobbled path slowly changed. At the side of the road stood old, rundown shops and restaurants, as if this were some kind of small town. Though the colour had mostly faded, Ryan had a pretty good idea about what this place used to look like when the park was still active.

Properly folding the map back up, Ryan quickly placed it into the backpack Gaia was carrying, and then looked around, squatting behind an old food stand. He couldn't see anything, but the hair on the back of his neck stood up anxiously. That was when the sound of feet dragging over the ground could be heard, and Ryan took a peek into the direction where the sound came from. And immediately, he understood why Runar called the monsters in this part of the dungeon 'creepy'.

What was walking aimlessly down road was an old, broken-down mascot. It was seemingly supposed to be some kind of humanoid dragon with a massive bulbous head. The costume was torn in many places, and everywhere it wasn't torn, it was covered in a solid layer of dirt and grime.

Truly, it was the kind of thing you had nightmares about.

"Fucking hell..." Ryan groaned, looking around the area. This mascot was a bit too out in the open. There were probably more wandering around in those old shops, so if they were to fight in the middle of the road, they could attract other monsters and end up surrounded. Ryan would really like to drag the mascot off to a more secluded area.

Ryan picked up a small pebble off the ground, throwing it on the ground near the mascot to see how well it reacted. It seemed to flinch for a moment, glancing at the pebble, and then walked toward it curiously. Though, after staring and kicking at it once or twice, it quickly moved on again.

"Hm..." Ryan sat there and thought for a few moments, trying to find the best spot to lure the monster to. Nearby, there was an alley that seemed like it could provide good cover for them. But at the same time, it was also going to block them from seeing out on the road, and that felt a bit too risky in this circumstance where enemies could come from any direction. And that was when an idea popped into Ryan's head.

"Gaia... can you split off your two sub-golems for a moment?" he asked, and Gaia quickly replied with a nod. Two rocks dropped from her torso, quickly becoming humanoid golems the size of Maximus. And then, Ryan activated one of his skills, Spirit Link. A green thread connected him to Gaia, and his awareness was expanded by what she saw. But that wasn't all; the thread also expanded to each of the two sub-golems.

Instead of having information from just one more perspective, he received information from three additional perspectives. It was disorienting beyond belief, much more so than when he first connected with Maximus, but it wasn't to the point where Ryan couldn't handle it when he concentrated properly.

"This is perfect," he grinned lightly, quickly turning toward Maximus, "You've seen the monster too, right? What weapon do you want?"

The knight thought about it for a few moments. He held up two fingers, his index finger and thumb specifically, the sign they came up with for the polearms, and then held up his index, middle, and ring fingers, specifying one of the glaives. Ryan quickly pulled it off his armour and handed it to Maximus, who quickly tightened his grasp around it before nodding to Ryan with satisfaction.

"In that case, let's get started," Ryan said, carefully glancing over toward the mascot. He mentally focused on one of the two sub-golems. Since it was just an empty hull without its own consciousness, Ryan was able to control it perfectly. It looked like Gaia did that, usually, but in this case she ceded that right to Ryan.

These sub-golems, while a lot smaller, were also a bit faster than Gaia was. That was why Ryan was pretty confident in using them to distract the monster and lure it into the nearby alley. The sub-golem jumped up and down a few times near the monster, and the dragon mascot quickly turned toward it. Reacting immediately, the monster started moving toward the small figure, and Ryan instantly had it turn around and run away. The sub-golem quickly hid in-between some plants, and as the mascot got close enough, the other sub-golem jumped on a shard of a broken pane of glass, cracking it further.

The mascot's attention was drawn away from the first over to the second sub-golem. With its attention pulled away, the first sub-golem moved to the next position, and just like that, Ryan carefully guided the, clearly quite simple-minded, monster into the alleyway. Once inside, Ryan, Maximus, and Gaia followed. Gaia stood at the very back, keeping watch with one of the sub-golems. Ryan stood in front of her, facing the mascot, while Maximus was going to be the main combatant.

Behind the mascot, trapped at the alley's dead-end, was the other sub-golem, giving Ryan a clear view of every angle of the alleyway.

And so, he gave Maximus the signal to start the fight.