"How long has he been in there?" Silvia started pacing around the living room. If this were a cartoon, she would have already walked a three-foot deep circle into the ground. Modak looked over at her and sighed.

  "It's been a couple hours. But don't worry, I'm sure he's fine," the orc said, trying to calm her down. There really wasn't anyone else for that here right now anymore. Fae had left earlier, after the fight between her and Silvia escalated again, and Yanna was so busy that she couldn't stay all day either. After Modak and Silvia had convinced her to take care of herself and her career first, she left, though she wasn't exactly eager about it.

  At the very least, Runar and Yamada decided to stick around for the day to be here in case of an emergency and to watch out for Liam. Though, since neither of them were doing exactly 'great', they weren't a ton of help either.

  Runar was clearly hiding something, and Yamada has been ridiculously pale all day. She's also been hiding her hands, and when she hadn't, they were shaking heavily. Whatever they had been doing, they were immensely messed up right now. Right now, they were outside in the garden, playing with Liam a bit.

  "Just sit down, okay?" Modak suggested, standing up from the chair and walking over to the elf. She looked up at him and frowned sadly.

  "I just... You saw what he was like when he came back up earlier, right? He was obviously freaking out. We both know that look of his when he thinks he's tricking everyone into thinking he's fine, when he's literally anything but fine!"

  "Yes, I saw. He's really not a great actor. But... he told us he's fine, and it's not like we can follow him in there," Modak said, placing his hand onto Silvia's back as he brought her over to the couch, "He's going to come back. It might take a little while, but he will. Hey, who knows, that trial could be pretty fun! Maybe it's some kind of game! He's probably just... I don't know, building a figurine and relaxing, that sounds like it's right up his speed."

  "Please, I just..." Ryan was breathing heavily, sweat flowing from his brow. He had already taken off his shirt because it was completely and utterly drenched, "I just need a few more minutes, man!"

  Maximus stood over him, crossing his arms.

  "Urgh...! Fine!" with a yell of defeat, Ryan lifted the heavy war-hammer back over his head and slammed it down onto the large rock in front of him. He felt the impact in his arms and back, as more sweat flowed from his body.

  Silvia laughed, "Yeah, I guess you're right. It's probably some kind of vacation, huh?"

  "Exactly! So don't worry, he's fine." Modak agreed with a nod, turning on the TV. The two of them sat on the couch for a few minutes, just staring at the screen mindlessly. Frankly, neither of them seemed to even take in any of what was happening on the show. Finally, Silvia grabbed the remote and turned the television back off.

  "He totally thought he might die before heading down there, right?"

  Modak sighed, staring at Silvia for a few moments before getting out his response, "Yeah. Yeah, definitely."

  "Why can't he just talk to us about this stuff?"

  "Because he didn't want to worry us. Again, it's not like we could have helped in any way. There was probably some kind of time limit. Runar seems fine with the decision Ryan made, so I guess we should try to live with it? I don't know," Modak groaned out, placing his face into his hands.

  "... Just... If he dies in there, is it... my fault..?" Silvia asked, though the sentence became a whisper toward the end. Immediately, Modak turned toward her and shook his head furiously.

  "No! Absolutely not, it would never be your fault at all! Just because you technically drew the door, it doesn't mean that you're the one that created it."

  "Doesn't it sort of? What if that was just some crazy bug that happened because I was sleepwalking, and that's not actually a trial, just a really weird effect of my skill that went wrong, because as we know, I was never supposed to awaken, so who knows what kind of weird stuff is-"

  Modak stopped her, placing his hand onto hers to comfort her, "Silvia. No. You didn't do this. I promise."

  She looked back, not sure what else to say beside, "This sucks."

  "Yup, it does."

  "I just thought things were finally okay. I mean, I technically knew they weren't, the door was bothering me the whole freaking time, but I thought we could just move on. Yeah, mysteries are fun and all, but not when someone's life is at stake, right?"

  "Right, of course."

  Silvia stood up, groaning loudly, "Like, I finally just started enjoying art again. You've seen the new paintings I've been making, right? They're good, like, really freaking good. I've literally been looking into gallery spaces to rent because I've been wanting to display them because of how proud I am, and that's crazy for me."

  Stolen novel; please report.

  "Of course, you told me."

  "And the clothes I've been making? Shit, they're so cute and functional? And I don't just mean that they have pockets, I mean that they make you stronger or faster or protect you or, holy shit, emulate skills I didn't even know about?" Silvia once again returned to her pacing, though this time it wasn't out of worry, but more out of anger at the situation they were in, "And at the same time, you're just about to found your own research and development company, while Ryan was going to take the hero exam. And shit, did you see him and that girl last night? What was her name, Jade? They were totally hitting it off! I refuse to let Ryan die before he gets to fall in love! If that's something he wants or even really can do? It's complicated, but the point is-"

  "That it's unfair."

  "Yes. This all is so unfair. Why now, all of a sudden?"

  Modak looked into the garden, seeing the young boy belonging to a species of people that were publicly thought to be either extinct or to have never existed in the first place just a few weeks ago, playing with his adoptive father, one of the strongest people in the world, "I guess it was always going to be that way. Frankly, I don't think we're going to ever have a peaceful or calm life if we stick by Ryan's side."

  Silvia frowned deeply, crossing her arms, "Are you suggesting we just dip out or something? Are you crazy?"

  With a laugh, Modak stood up, nodding his head immediately, "Crazy? Absolutely I am. Shit, I'm dating the most awesome woman in the world, and my two best friends are a world-famous — now magical — artist and a guy whose very existence rejects fate. And me? I'm a guy that used to do nothing but read books in his tiny bedroom, and now I'm an inventor that is set to revolutionize magical engineering. Anybody would turn crazy in a situation like that."

  "... And you're incredibly humble about all of this as well," Silvia laughed, and Modak rolled his eyes with a smile on his face.

  "The point is that, no, I'm not suggesting we dip. Just that I don't think I could live a normal, peaceful, and calm life even if I wanted to, which I don't. I've been making insane progress over the past few months, and I've still been getting bored. Do you know how many side projects I've started? Like a dozen of them. I literally can't be stopped, and I'm fucking bored! I've never felt this bored before!" Modak pointed out, looking over at the spot in the wall where the elevator was hidden, "And Ryan is the craziest out of all of us. You saw how excited he was when he heard what that door was down there. He walked in there without hesitation earlier. Plus, even if he was terrified, Ashton clearly couldn't wait to get back into the elevator."

  Silvia and Modak looked at each other for a moment, and Silvia finally replied, "You know... that one really helped. You've been getting a lot more confident recently, and your speeches got way better."

  "You and Ryan are the most confident people in the world, so I just kind of had to catch up a bit." The Orc shrugged and walked over to the door into the garden, "Anyway, you coming?"

  "Coming?" Silvia seemed a bit confused, and Modak scoffed.

  "Let's be a bit crazy. I've got some ideas that I want you to help me with," Modak explained, grinning broadly, "You said you've been wanting to try out giving tattoos, right?"

  [9.999/10.000 - War-Hammer]

  Ryan brought the weapon over his head one more time. His arms were literally about to fall off, so he wasn't sure if he could do this last one. Frankly, this was already his fifth attempt at getting that last point on this list. It was starting to get a little ridiculous.

  "Please, please, I just want to eat something!" Ryan groaned loudly, straightening his back and tensing up his shoulders. He slammed his hammer down onto the rock, and finally, the counter ticked up that one last time.

  [10.000/10.000 - War-Hammer]

  He didn't even put it down carefully. Ryan just let go of the hammer and proceeded to let himself drop onto the grass behind him.

  "Finally!" he yelled out, feeling his arms pulsating from all the work that he had put in today. Seriously, this was far, far more exhausting than he could have ever thought. This was only the third weapon, too. First, he finished the sword, then the axe, and now the hammer.

  Each one ended up taking him a full day to finish doing properly. Really, the first three or four thousand were easy, but then after a while it just got so, so fucking exhausting.

  But hey, at least his Strength and Stamina stats went up by 0.04 and 0.05 respectively. That was literally the only saving grace here. Plus that he would most likely get some decent rewards at the end of this, but since he had no idea what that reward was, it didn't exist in his head just yet.

  "Maximus, do you think you can feed me today?" he asked, and the knight leaned over him and slowly shook his head. As a reminder, he walked up to the pot and tried to touch it. His hand literally passed through.

  "Urgh... fine, I know, I know!" he let out, slowly pushing himself off the ground. This place was actually not all too bad, if he had to be honest.

  The weather was always pleasant, it wasn't too sunny during the day, and he had all the food he needed. The pot that was hanging over the fire would literally refill whenever he needed to eat, and the fire itself turned on whenever it got too dark out. There were always bowls and spoons nearby, and the dirty ones would disappear whenever he just turned around once. And while it was always some kind of stew, it was always a little different. Sometimes there were potatoes, sometimes a little bit of mandrake was mixed in there for that extra bite. There was a ton of meat in it as well, which Ashton really didn't mind. It was tasty, too.

  And just a minute or two away down the road, there was a small stream of water that was actually pretty pleasant to just relax in before going to bed, and it wasn't too cold either.

  The sleeping situation was a bit more annoying. There was something set up inside one of the carriages that he could use, but it was extremely hard and uncomfortable. Better than nothing, but still not great.

  "So... three days passed here, give or take," Ryan filled up his bowl, sitting down. There were big potato chunks in it today, nice, "So that means it's been seven hours for the other spirits, and a bit more than two for everyone outside?"

  Maximus thought about it for a moment, and then slowly nodded his head. That seemed to be the situation from what he gathered.

  "... I hope they're all doing okay."

  Once again, Maximus nodded his head, trying to reassure Ryan that everything was okay outside. Rather, the spirits were probably having a good time hanging out with each other in their respective domains, and all the way outside, everyone was probably just relaxing. After all, Ryan was pretty damn convincing when he tried to calm them all down before heading downstairs.

  "Yeah, you're right, you're right," Ryan nodded his head, looking around at the other weapons that were left now, "Anyway, which one are we doing tomorrow?"

  Maximus got up from his seat and looked around. In the end, he settled in front of the shield.

  "Really? We're doing shield stuff? We barely did that outside, are you sure?"

  The knight nodded his head, and Ryan sighed before wolfing down some of his stew, "Alright, if you say so. I'll trust you. This is about your skill, after all."

  He looked down at his body and how drenched in sweat he was, "Man, I really need to get cleaned up, I smell like shit."