Without a moment's hesitation, Silvia jumped off the couch, running up to Ryan to give him a hug, "Thank the gods, you're okay!"

  She barely even noticed what Ryan was looking like right now. He hugged her back, "I've missed you guys."

  Runar also got up from the couch and walked up to his nephew, "Did you always grow a beard like this that quickly?"

  "Hm?" Ryan scratched his face slightly, "Quickly? Oh, right. Sorry, it's been like two weeks for me."

  Silvia pushed herself away from Ryan, "Wait, what? You've barely been gone for half a day."

  "Right," he stepped forward over to where the others were sitting, and quickly grabbed himself a slice of a pizza that was sitting on the couch table, "I'll explain it to you guys. Is Liam already upstairs?"

  Runar quickly nodded, "He is. Said he wanted to get to bed early. I don't think he's asleep yet."

  "Okay, got it. That's good," Ryan dropped down on the armchair next to the couch, throwing his legs over one of the armrests. And then, with a half-full mouth, he started telling everyone exactly what happened in there.

  What the trial he went through was, and what the nature of these trials seemed to be in general. And before he even finished speaking, Runar, who had been translating what Ryan said into sign-language for Yamada, started slowing down. His eyes were darting around, and he was clearly trying to figure out what this all meant.

  "So... no, that wouldn't explain the..." Runar whispered, but Ryan quickly stopped him.

  "I've already spent plenty of time thinking about it. Again, I've had two weeks," he started, swallowing the last bit of pizza he still had in his hand, "Basically. There's something special about the spirits. Obviously, they're apparently called 'heroic' spirits, so that's a no-brainer. So, as an extra privilege, so that the Spirit Keeper can actually help the spirits, they were given the trial as some kind of privilege. But I've come up with two different ideas for why the trial appeared now."

  "Really? What kind of ideas?" Modak asked curiously.

  "Well, first. The trial is set to automatically appear at some point. We already know that something about the Spirit Keeper class changed after what my Dad did. Maybe this is just the reset to what it was like originally. In the past, someone somehow interfered with the Spirit Keeper class and changed things about it, including that they locked away the trials. And then, now that the class is back to normal, the trial returned. But maybe it's still a little broken, which is why it was created through the nearest person with a skill that could actually 'create' things, Silvia."

  Runar listened intensely, slowly nodding, "That's... possible. I'm not quite sure about that, though."

  Ryan raised a brow, "Why not?"

  "Well..." Runar let out a long sigh, "When you started the trial, ripples were sent throughout the world. Some of the more sensitive members of our family picked up that something happened, something they've never felt before."

  "Duh, yeah, because I'm the first one whose class was 'fixed' that could even enter those trials," Ryan pointed out. Slowly, Runar looked over at Yamada. She was slowly signing something. Ryan stared at her hands and pulled his feet forward onto the ground.

  "What is she talking about? What is it that you should tell me?"

  Runar let out a long groan, "Fine. Listen, we're not exactly sure about it, but we think that it's highly possible... that there was another Spirit Keeper between Hayden and you."

  "Excuse me? What do you mean, what makes you think so?"

  "Initially, we thought that the Spirit Keeper class just disappeared after what Hayden did. We have our own ways to figure out when the new Spirit Keeper awakens, but when you awakened, we had no idea. And there were more than twenty years between the last Spirit Keeper's death and your Awakening. If we consider the fact that there are a few spirits we know of whose location we are uncertain of, and if we remember that the White Shadow Society had gotten their hands on Gaia... it's not that unreasonable to believe that there was another Spirit Keeper between you and your dad," Runar explained, "But this is just a theory. We have no confirmation or even clues about it, it's just a hunch that I asked some of the elders to follow up on. I didn't want to worry you with something that might not have even happened."

  Ryan groaned loudly, "Man, come on, you could have told me about that!"

  "I know. I'm sorry."

  Taken aback, Ryan stared at his uncle. "Did you just... apologise? Just a straightforward, honest apology?"

  "I guess so."

  "Gods, what the fuck did that freaky cult do to you?" Ryan groaned.

  "Wait, what cult?" Silvia asked, looking at Runar and Yamada, but the rune mage quickly shook his head.

  "I'll explain later," he said, "Ryan, what was the second idea you came up with?"

  Ryan sighed, "The second one is a bit more straightforward, and maybe more likely. The Administrator died, so the trials stopped. And now that the Administrator is back, the trial came back, as well. But this trial is like an automatic program that's running whenever the Administrator is... alive. Maybe it was a little corrupted, so there were some issues with it. But overall, it looked fine in there. Either way, I don't think it's anything to worry about."

  Runar nodded and stood back up from the couch, "Okay, that's good. You said it told you that you have seven days to come back, right? And what then?"

  "It just said that I won't be able to take the trials anymore if I don't come back. So, if I don't want to take the risk, I can just stay back."

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  The moment Ryan said this, the question that everyone wanted to ask was just absolutely obvious. The one to actually ask it was Modak.

  "And what are you going to do?"

  Ryan looked down at his hands. He had heightened his connection to Maximus, and earned the right to access the Knight's Martial Knowledge skill himself. That was a reward that he couldn't just let up.

  But... why would he even take the risk? What was the reason why he felt this extreme need to just grow stronger? There was no reason he had to go to a dungeon or become a hero or put himself at risk. He could just stay back and take care of the spirits in peace. That would just make things a lot simpler, a lot easier. After all, what if the next trial was one where he actually had to fight, instead of just training?

  Ryan took a deep breath, "I'm going to keep going back."

  With a loud groan, Ryan sat up in his bed. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and pulled his tired legs over the side.

  It was Monday, and Ryan had an early class today. He could just skip it if he wanted to, since there wasn't mandatory attendance, but it was a class that he actually liked a lot so he wanted to attend if possible. Modak and Silvia's classes were later in the afternoon so they were probably still sleeping. Runar had already taken Liam back home with him last night, so Ryan didn't have a lot to worry about right now beside getting to class.

  "Urgh, I'm still not used to having a beard," he walked out of his bedroom in his underwear, heading straight for the bathroom. Ryan grabbed his electrical razor and started trimming his beard. He didn't feel like doing this last night, though something about doing this half asleep was even more annoying.

  He shaved off as much as he could with the electrical razor, cleaned up after himself, and then turned on the shower. While waiting for the water to heat up, he brushed his teeth and summoned the spirits. He still didn't love showering when they were just there, ogling at him. So, for now, he just told them to bug off.

  After finishing his shower and washing off all the exhaustion that had built up in his muscles over the past two weeks, Ryan got out and gave himself a clean, fresh shave.

  "Nice, alright," he took a deep breath and stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around him. Ryan got dressed and packed his stuff he needed for university today.

  "Guys, we're heading out," he said, trying to call out to the spirits. One after another, they came to him, and Ryan pulled them back into their domains.

  He walked over into the garage and got on his bike, and started to drive off. During the entire drive to university, Ryan just kept on feeling the same thing. He had been feeling it all morning. That absolutely intense mental exhaustion. Runar had told him that this could happen, especially considering all the stuff that Ryan's mind had been going through recently.

  The tree of blessing, the spell at the party, and then following that with two weeks spent in time dilation where he was doing nothing but train? All that magical weirdness could really mess with the head, and that was clearly happening right now.

  Ryan parked his bike and went on his way to class. Shockingly, he was here pretty early. It was another thirty minutes until class actually started. If nothing else, time dilation clearly messed with the circadian rhythm.

  For now, Ryan took out his laptop. Morgana had asked him to do some research into specific spells, so that's what he was doing right now. Modak sent him some sites, and even Runar had someone send links and login info to Ryan so that he could access some restricted websites connected to the Aglecard foundation. Obviously, the screen was enchanted so that only Ryan could see what was on there. A perfect privacy screen.

  After a while, the lecture hall started filling up with more and more people. It was a pretty popular class, so it was quite full. It didn't take long until the spots around Ryan filled up. But then... someone sat down right next to Ryan. That was nothing weird, obviously, but it was more about the air that they were giving off.

  Ryan turned his head to the side, looking at the woman, who sneered slightly, "Browsing through state secrets in the middle of a crowd? That's quite ballsy of you."

  With a roll of his eyes, he just looked back at the screen, "You're even following me to class now?"

  "This place is easy enough to infiltrate. There's so many different people here that nobody even notices me."

  Ryan sighed, "So what, did you decide to come here and assassinate me since your plan to kill me with the trial didn't work?"

  The one next to Ryan was that woman, that spirit of fate that had yelled at and assaulted Silvia, revealed to Ryan that he didn't have a fate of his own, and even opened the door in the basement. But surprisingly, she shook her head.

  "I didn't do that to try and kill you."

  "Then what was that for?" Ryan asked, and the woman laughed a bit.

  "You sure are calm about talking about these things surrounded by so many people."

  "Yeah, you can stop with that, I know that you used some kind of magic that lets us talk in private, no need to act otherwise," Ryan replied, closing his laptop as he turned fully toward her again, "Again, if your plan wasn't to kill me, why did you open the door?"

  "... As hard as it may be to believe, I am trying my best to... help you," she said, though she seemed to want to vomit at the very idea.

  Ryan raised a brow, "Excuse me? Why?"

  "... You have proven to be a bit more useful than I thought," she explained, "So, I was instructed to assist you."

  "Instructed? By whom?"

  "By the lady of fate herself, obviously," she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "Listen. You... don't have a thread of fate. You don't belong in this world, which is why you mess up the predetermined fate. But at the same time, because you lack a thread of fate, when you do tangle up others', it's weirdly something that can still untangle. You're not so much destroying fate, rather than... diverting it?"

  "And that's not bad?"

  She laughed, "Oh, it is. And if it were up to me, I would absolutely kill you this very second... However, you are not the only one that messes with predetermined fate. But when those people do it, their own fate twists around all the other threads and creates massive... knots."

  "Knots. Okay. And I don't do that, so because I'm the lesser evil, you were told to leave me be?" Ryan asked. He was actually a little curious about it this time. The spirits were also listening in intensely.

  But the woman shook her head, "No. I was told to leave you be because you were somehow able to unravel one of those knots. Sure, it resulted in a completely messy flow of fate that can get tangled up at any moment, and one that was never supposed to be this way at all, but at the very least, you untangled it. So... that is why I was told to help you, so that you could continue doing that. And unless you do something like create a massive knot yourself... I was told to let you be."

  "... Okay," Ryan let out, not quite sure he was following what she meant properly, "And that's why you opened the door? Because that was going to lead me down the path of unravelling a knot?"

  "... It would lead you down the path of encountering a knot. Whether you unravel it or tighten it even more is unclear," she explained. Obviously, Ryan was completely and utterly confused by all of this. He was glad that she wasn't going to mess with him. Frankly, Ryan was incredibly worried about what kind of stupid bullshit she could have been pulling.

  However...

  "Why should I believe you?"

  "Because I can't lie."

  "And how should I know that's not a lie?"

  "Urgh, believe what you want. I was just told to come here to let you know of all this," the woman got up, and Ryan grabbed onto her arm. She pulled back, clearly not wanting to be touched.

  "Sorry, but... I have two more questions."

  The woman sighed, "Fine. What is it?" she asked, sitting back down for a moment.

  "First. What is the knot that I apparently unravelled?"

  "... Three months ago, the amusement park dungeon. A knot had formed with that dungeon at its core. And even though a thread of fate was cut that should have stayed intact that day, the lady of fate has overlooked that for the service you have done."

  Ryan felt his throat tighten up. The thread that was cut... Richie. Trying not to get sick, Ryan nodded.

  "Okay."

  "What's the second question?"

  "Right..." Ryan started, "What's your name?"

  Taken aback, the spirit looked Ryan up and down. She sighed, clearly annoyed that she even had to say this, "My name is Arianda. "