"You have the... shop function? Like the giftshop-shop function?" Runar asked, not sure he was quite following, "What does that mean? Can you get your hands on the last few items that you were missing from the shop?"

  Ryan slowly shook his head. He had a pretty good idea of what kind of shop this was, though he had nothing to directly back this up, of course, "I think it's more like the shop that we accessed through the exploit I told you about. Like, a way to get 'every' item, rather than just a few random ones."

  "Huh..." Runar let out, cupping his chin in his hand, "But what's the currency? I doubt it would be

  the leftover points from the dungeon."

  "Oh, yeah, definitely not. I actually don't really know yet? I haven't had a great opportunity to test it out yet. I mean, it just happened literally earlier today," Ryan explained, and Runar looked at his nephew with a concerned frown.

  "... And you're fine? No weird side effects from the seeds?"

  "No? I'm fine. I felt a bit dizzy earlier, because some of my stats increased by a ton all of a sudden and it was kind of hard to get used to. But yeah, I feel totally normal again."

  "Okay. Good," Runar nodded. He moved closer to Ryan, and proceeded to slap him in the back of the head. It was ridiculously light and didn't hurt at all, obviously, but it still knocked Ryan's head forward a bit.

  "Dude!"

  "Hey, you put an unknown, dangerous thing in your body without even telling me about it! You deserve at least this," Runar sighed loudly, "Seriously, it's not like you had to be told not to take drugs."

  "... Well..."

  "Oh, no, I'm not talking about weed or anything. I know it's a 'drug', but it's perfectly legal and fairly safe if you smoke within your limits." Runar shook his head, but Ryan's expression didn't change. Instead, Runar's face dropped. "Seriously?"

  "... I ran in some bad crowds, I don't know what to tell you. But I should be fine now, I only did it a handful of times. I never got really 'addicted' or anything," Ryan pointed out, "My mom made sure of that."

  "Your mom knows about it?"

  Ryan shrugged, "Of course. Not about the seeds, I guess, but all the other stuff that I took that I shouldn't have. But yeah, that's my side of it. What about you? How did you get hurt?"

  Runar slowly looked around, seeing that Liam was looking over at him. He smiled and waved at his adopted son and then looked back at Ryan, "I'll explain it to you later, okay? Not in front of the others."

  "H-Huh? Oh, yeah, sure... that... sounds good," Ryan replied. Frankly, he hadn't expected that Runar would actually tell him about it. Of course, he still might end up not explaining what happened, but usually, Runar would just avoid the question, "In that case... What are we doing about the chapel?"

  "Tearing it down, what else?"

  Ryan hesitated, but in the end shook his head, "I don't think we should. I mean, maybe we can move the slab downstairs? I think the spell could be pretty useful, actually."

  "Useful how, exactly? Causing chaos? Are you going the villain route, now?"

  With a sigh, Ryan leaned back on his chair and began to explain what he meant. For one, about how he felt like his personality was merging a bit more with the spirits when he used Silvia's urban spirit outfits, and specifically what happened last night with that super-merger between him, Maximus, and Morgana.

  And Runar was more than just confused, "Wait, really? That... sounds like a skill. A rare one in the Spirit Keeper line. The earliest anyone has gotten it was level 50, called 'Spirit Fusion'."

  "Wait, what? That's what the Spirit Fusion skill does? The notes you gave me made it sound more like it lets the Spirit Keeper temporarily fuse two spirits with each other."

  Runar agreed, "Yes, that's also part of it. But another big function, though it's not explained in the skill description, if you level that skill up a bit it actually lets the Spirit Keeper and the spirit fuse for a short time."

  "Yo! Silvia!" Ryan yelled out loudly, his voice most certainly carrying upstairs. Quickly, the elf came rushing down.

  "What?! Is everything okay? Did someone get arrested?!" Silvia asked, staring at Ryan, who shook his head hesitantly. Her eyes were red and puffy. Had she been crying upstairs? It seemed like Fae noticed as well, getting up from the couch. Yanna was slowly following behind from upstairs, too, after presumably comforting her sister.

  "No, I'm... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Ryan replied, "Just, uhm... I wanted to fill you in on something."

  Silvia sniffled lightly, nodding, "Oh, okay, yeah what's up?"

  "Well... the Urban Spirit outfits, combined with that spell might be sort of imitating another skill in the Spirit Keeper line," Ryan explained, and Silvia's eyes widened.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  "... What? What kind of skill do you mean?" she asked curiously

  Runar sighed, "It's the Spirit Fusion skill. Listen, point is, that's an interesting thing, but I'm not sure how safe it is. How did it feel afterward? Do you have any lingering fragments of their personality?"

  Ryan thought about it for a moment, looking at his friends, "Do I seem calmer than I usually do?"

  They considered the question, and Modak slowly turned around from the couch, "You held yourself back from punching that Jargo guy in the face earlier. That's pretty calm."

  "Okay, shut up," Ryan groaned, "But no, seriously, not that I can tell. I feel really normal. I think it was lingering a bit more while I was still wearing the outfit, even when the spell was 'cured'. But the moment I took off the outfit it was totally gone," Ryan explained, holding his hand forward. Morgana disappeared back into her domain earlier, so he quickly called her back, "Morgana. Did I end up acting weirdly? Were there any traces from our connection?"

  The witch spirit quickly turned toward Runar, knowing that this was who the answer was really for, and then shook her head.

  "Is there any danger of things getting 'stuck' if we continue doing this?"

  Though this time, the answer was a bit more hesitant, Morgana still shook her head. She just needed a moment to think about the answer. Ryan looked at his uncle, "See?"

  Runar sighed, "Fine. But only because Morgana said so." The spirit smiled widely and slightly bowed to Runar, before disappearing back inside of Ryan's domain. In the end, Runar got up from his seat, "Okay, in that case, I'll head out and pluck the magic circle from the ground to bring it downstairs."

  "Ah..." Ryan let out, realising that there was something else that Runar still had to know. The mage looked at his nephew with a raised brow.

  "What. Is. That?" Runar looked at the door inside of the titan's skull. Rather, he stared at it and the void beyond it in complete disbelief, "The door is open? What the fuck do you mean it's open? I tried literally everything, how did this open?!"

  "... That fate spirit girl was apparently here. She broke open my locked door, somehow opened the elevator, came down here and opened the door. Someone saw her when she left, and then when I came down here, I saw it was open." Ryan looked at the door with a sigh, "We have some guesses as to what all the notes were as well. Rather, Morgana does... and this morning, there was an envelope there on the ground."

  Runar was given the envelope with all the notes inviting Ryan to the trial in different languages. He quickly opened it up and looked it through, but he just stared at them in disbelief for a few moments, "The Administrator's Trials..? What..? But the administrator should be..."

  He cleared his throat and shook his head, "Okay, we're going on lockdown. Do not go into the door, ever."

  Ryan stared at his uncle for a moment, whose face dropped into emotionless disbelief, "No. You did not."

  "I may have? Listen, it was like my feet were moving on their own!"

  "You were compelled to go inside?"

  "Well... not technically, I was just really curious, but-"

  "You fucking reckless idiot. You're just like Hayden in that way," Runar started pacing around the door, "And you're fine? The door didn't close, and you didn't feel weird?"

  "Time was different in there. Like, it moved three times faster in there than out here. And there was just a massive notification in there, talking about the Administrator's Trial as well," Ryan explained, and finally, Runar just stood in front of the door.

  "Fucking hell. Okay, I'll go take a look, just-" Runar stepped forward, trying to walk through the door. But instead of passing through the threshold, Runar hit his nose on an invisible wall. He pulled back, pressing his palm against what seemed to be perfectly clear glass. "What. No, no, no. Ryan, come here for a moment."

  Ryan stepped forward and had his wrist grabbed by his uncle. Runar slowly pushed his nephew's hand against the space where he was held back, and Ryan just passed through without issue.

  "What's going on?"

  Runar pulled Ryan's hand back out, and began massaging the bridge of his own nose, "I think you're the only one that can pass through the door."

  "Ah. Yeah, okay, that makes sense." Ryan nodded.

  "It does? You sure you're not affected by the spirits' calmness?"

  "Oh, no, I'm totally freaking out, I'm just too... exhausted to show it."

  Runar looked inside of the void, "This isn't good."

  "Mhm, it's not."

  "Gods... you fucking idiot, Ryan. I swear, if you get hurt, I will-"

  "Wait, what?" Ryan interrupted his uncle, "What do you mean, 'if you get hurt'?"

  "What do you think it means? You have to go in there. An invitation from the Administrator isn't really an 'invitation'. Historically, they were decrees. And since you're the only one that can enter, you can't send someone in your stead, either. So you have to go yourself," Runar explained, but Ryan was just stuck on one word. 'Historically'.

  "Hold on, has this happened before?"

  Runar tapped his foot on the ground, nervously nodding, "Yes. It has. The Administrator gave these trials to certain individuals, though the conditions to be chosen were never clear. But this should be impossible now. After all, they..." Runar stopped himself from finishing that sentence, but Ryan wouldn't let go of that.

  "'After all, they', what?" he asked, and Runar sighed.

  "I told you briefly about the Church of the Dead God, right?" he started, "As it turns out, they're the ones I went to meet this weekend. I wasn't aware of this either, by the way, but the church has grown in power a lot."

  "What do they have to do with this?"

  "Well... they used to be known as the Church of the Greatest God, until our family and the White Shadow Society intervened, in their own ways." Ryan got an inkling of what Runar was saying, as his uncle continued. "The Aglecards dissolved the church. They were a violent cult, founded by a close friend our family's progenitor. Our family held some responsibility for their formation and actions, so we took them down. But the shadows intervened as well. They, working together with the Magic Tower... killed the god the church followed."

  "Huh?" Ryan let out, "The Magic Tower and the shadows cooperated? What do you mean?"

  "... The Magic Tower is neutral. They cooperate with whom they need to at the time. It just so happened that the tower and the shadows shared a goal. So, while the Aglecards dissolved the church, the others killed the 'greatest god'. But over time, that god began to fester. To change, and rot, and... so did their followers. That which once was the Church of the Greatest God was reborn as the Church of the Dead God," Runar started, closing his eyes, "For a long time, it was just symbolic. They didn't have any actual power or anything, just a cult like any other. Which is why I was surprised to see the power of death, or rather, undeath they know possessed. That 'being' became an undead god to them, and bestowed some new powers onto them. Something separate, and uglier to what the rest of us Awakened were given."

  Ryan had already guessed it, but that last line made it clear, "So... the 'Greatest God', and now the 'Dead God'. The guys you were trying to find because you thought they had something to do with Anders' disappearance, and who presumably gave that fucking seed of corruption to the shadows... The one they believe in is the Administrator?"

  Runar nodded, "Yes. And a thousand years ago, the administrator was killed. And now that it's back... It's giving out new trials."