I woke up feeling refreshed and raring to go. After my last few lethargy filled awakenings, it was a pleasant experience. I was also rather comfortable and seemed to be on a proper mattress instead of a sack full of hay. Not to mention having something warm wrapped around me, like a soft and squishy duvet.

...A duvet that also happened to be a suspicious transparent blue, with a golden orb resting on my stomach.

"What the hell, Elanor?" I muttered. "Why are you... I don't even know what you're doing."

The core remained where it was, but my comfy cocoon of blue slime flowed upwards and gathered up around it, turning into Elanor's usual slime girl form, kneeling on my tummy and leaving her core in her knee. Apparently, we both got better. Yay. Thankfully, she didn't seem to weigh much. Now let's just hope she wasn't hanging around waiting for me to wake up so that she could savagely murder me.

She didn't, but she looked like she very much wanted to.

"So, I assume whatever happened hasn't magically repaired us both. What went wrong this time?"

"Just look at your damn status," she said, glowering, her voice echoing slightly, as if two people were talking slightly out of sync. "Probably not going to do anything, you said. If this is not anything, I don't want to see what you'd consider something."

Fine... How bad can it be?

Name: Peter

Species: Human

Class: Eldritch Mage (Level 13/75)

Class History: [Commoner 10] [Apprentice Mage 10] [Body Mage 20] [Spatial Mage 15] [Apprentice Fighter 7]

Soul Points: 3

Health: 190/190

Stamina: 560/560

Mana: 680/680

Strength: 33(+17)

Dexterity: 35(+17)

Endurance: 34(+17)

Intelligence: 46(+17)

Wisdom: 30(+17)

Charisma: 31(+17)

Rank 1 Artes: [Backstab 4] [Armour Break 5] [Mighty Swing 7] [Swift Strike 9] [Shattering Strike 1] [Rapid Shot 6] [Piercing Shot 5]

Rank 1 Spells: [Minor Strength 15] [Far Step 15] [Minor Speed 15] [Minor Dexterity 15] [Minor Endurance 15] [Minor Intelligence 15] [Minor Wisdom 15] [Minor Charisma 15] [Far Reach 15] [Minor Slow 15]

Rank 2 Spells: [Strength 15] [Dexterity 15] [Endurance 15] [Weft Walk 15] [Item Box 15] [Distortion 15]

Rank 3 Spells: [Detach 6] [Redistribute 7] [Shelter 4] [Superimpose 2]

Rank 1 Skills: [Inspection 15] [Meditation 15] [Concealment 11] [Foraging 15] [Hunting 10] [Musician 12] [Weapon Proficiency: Universal 15] [Basic Crafting 15] [Clock 15] [Enlarged Health Pool 7] [Accelerated Healing 8] [Stamina Finesse 5] [Danger Sense 8]

Rank 2 Skills: [Appraisal 15] [Enhanced Mana Recovery 15] [Weapon Style: Flowing Mist 15] [Extended Mana Pool 15] [Engineering 5] [Secrecy 9] [Enhanced Stamina Recovery 15] [Extended Stamina Pool 15] [Soul Perception 15]

Rank 3 Skills: [Analysis 11] [Expert Mana Control 12] [Expert Mana Finesse 10] [Mana Sight 6]

Traits: [Unbound Soul] [Determined Progressor] [Researcher] [Xenophilia] [Soul Bound]

Titles: [Jack of All Trades 2] [Victorious Underdog 3] [Skilled 2] [Survivor 2] [Flexible Combatant] [Versatile Crafter] [Self-Destructive] [Magician] [Athlete] [Novice Delver] [Durable]

Quests: None

Oh boy... Isn't that an ominous sounding new trait?

[Soul Bound] - Your soul is bound to another. You can share your senses and even your thoughts when in close proximity. Stats suffer penalties with increasing distance. (Rank 3)

So I have to stick close to the slime forever, or I'll end up as weak as a baby again? "I'm not moving into the dungeon," I muttered. And was the weird echo to her voice because I was hearing it telepathically?

"What? Why would you do that?"

"The [Soul Bound] trait? It says I'll suffer stat penalties if I don't stick close to you. Isn't that what you were talking about?"

"No, you idiot! I'm talking about the familiar stuff! The bits that say I'm your familiar, you're my master, and I have to do everything you order me to!"

"There's... nothing like that in my status," I said, double checking. Nor were there any new skills in the shop.

"Well, there is in mine. Are you sure you're not just blind?"

"If you have to obey my orders, then my first one is to cut the ranting and talk politely."

"As if I'd... You... Stop... Argg!!!"

Wow, she really did seem to suddenly have difficulties being rude to me. If I had my strength back, did my missing skills come back with it? I reached out with [Analysis], and it responded.

Blobby, Sentient Slime (Level 70)

Health: 205/205

Stamina: 205/205

Mana: 105/105

Strength: 200

Dexterity: 200

Endurance: 200

Intelligence: 100

Wisdom: 50

Charisma: 50

Conditions: [Tamed]

ding

Skill [Analysis] advanced to level 12

I tried to focus on that tamed condition, but just like viewing the traits of an analysed human, it wouldn't show me a description. Regardless, it seemed like there would be lasting consequences to our altercation and my soul affinity powered defence. As she said, its usage always came with a price.

I checked us out with [Soul Perception], and was happy to see my soul had its arm back, along with the missing bits of my crystal tree. I was less happy to see that my entire arm was patterned with Elanor's yellow. Likewise, the growth had vanished from her soul, but my own patterns remained where it had been. The damage had been repaired, but we were still stuck with unwanted bits of each other.

"Well, you always said you wanted to visit the surface, but that your mother wouldn't let you. Now you have no choice."

"As if I... Let... Dammit! Please, would you kindly let me talk properly, my beloved master."

"Fine. Somehow, talking like that was even freakier anyway."

"As if I want to tour the surface glued to you! I'd rather be stuck in the dungeon!"

"Well, I don't particularly want to be glued to you, either. How far apart can we be without penalties?"

Elanor gave me another glare like she was looking at something icky stuck to the bottom of her shoe. Or someone else's shoe, given that she didn't wear any. I needed a new set of analogies for her...

"Do you think I'm hanging around in your bed for the fun of it? I need to be touching you. With my core. At all times. The moment I detach, I'm reduced to something no better than a regular slime!"

Oh. For a moment there, I thought it was going to be something that wasn't trivial to deal with. I plucked off my left pinkie finger and handed it to her.

"What the heck is that?"

This time, it was my turn to glare at her. Wasn't it pretty obvious what it was? "My finger. Glue it to your core or something."

"You... It has to be a living part of you, damn it!"

"It is a living part of me. It's got a bit of my soul in and everything. It's the [Detach] skill from the [Eldritch Mage] class."

Thank goodness for me following Tilyana's recommendation. Actually, now that I had proper use of my skills back, I found that my previous detached bits had all been wiped out. I was going to need to get back to the Sapphire Peaks the hard way. Annoying, but given my condition, not a complete surprise.

That would be rather disturbing for Tirrani; I doubt my lump of flesh completely vanished. I would have just lost the link, so it would also have lost the effects of [Shelter]. A lump of toe would have randomly appeared on her doorstep. And in the Dawnhold guild reception... Oops.

Elanor looked doubtfully at the finger, pressed it against her core, then slowly raised it away from my stomach. When that caused no ill effects, she climbed off me completely and backed away, carefully inspecting herself.

"Okay, that seems to work," she begrudgingly admitted, her voice now lacking the strange echo. "What's the range on that skill?"

"There isn't one, as far as I know. At the least, it's greater than the distance between Dawnhold and the Sapphire Peaks."

"Thank goodness for that..." muttered Elanor, finally relaxing slightly.

"Where are we, anyway?" I asked.

"The hospital."

I looked around with [Mana Sight] and saw numerous small rooms like this one. Most were unoccupied, but they all had the same single bed layout. There also seemed to be a number of people hanging around outside my door. My family, who I could easily recognise by their mana, Dru'hazzak, who was rather distinctive, and one more I didn't recognise. Elanor had probably chased them all out so that she could yell at me in peace.

"So, now that one problem is resolved, fix the second one!"

"What second one?"

"Me not being able to go against your orders, stupid!"

"That's easy enough too, isn't it? All I need to do is not give you any orders."

"Hah. As if you'll be able to resist. You already used it for something as trivial as not letting me be rude. As soon as you're given a clean bill of health, no doubt you'll be straight back to the subject of those reincarnates you were telling me about, and ordering me to tell you everything I know about the Law and soul magic."

Damn, she was right... I had an information source right in front of me, and she was compelled to answer anything I asked. But to make use of that ability would be to strip from her the same freedom that I wanted to preserve in the twins. Did I value the twins more than her? Did the end justify the means? I looked away guiltily.

"See, told you. You know I'm right."

"Fine..." I muttered. "I promise I won't abuse the soul bond to force you to tell me anything."

Elanor looked at me doubtfully, but there wasn't anything else I could do but promise. I couldn't undo whatever I'd accidentally done to us. Besides, this was all her fault.

"You lot eavesdropping outside, you might as well come on in," I called.

"It's not as if I actually know anything useful, anyway," Elanor muttered as I watched the group outside flinch, then start to move. "Mother often told me what she was doing, but never how."

"So you don't know how to stop the System eroding them? And that's not an order. You don't have to answer."

"No. It's not like mother left a manual. She spent centuries trying to manipulate the thing and still complained she didn't understand it."

"How's she doing, anyway?"

"She's gone. Doesn't remember a thing. That child is no more my mother than any other human."

Well, we already knew she'd lost her memory. I was hoping she'd at least left something, but what it could be, I had no idea.

"Peter! You have to stop scaring us like that!" exclaimed mum, finally making it through the door.

"Sorry..."

"So, what happened this time?" asked Dru'hazzak. "You both fell unconscious, but the slime woke up an hour ago, and hasn't stopped cursing you since. Apparently she has to keep touching you to maintain her strength." He glanced at her, now detached from me. "Although I see you've overcome that."

"Weren't you listening?"

"Yes, but we couldn't hear anything. You were talking too quietly."

Like hell we were. There must have been too much soul related discussion, and it all got edited out again. "We're fine, but we ended up kinda linked. We still have to stay touching, so I've lent her a finger."

"Lent her... a finger..."

"It's his current class," said dad. "As if he wasn't weird enough already."

"You cut your finger off?!" exclaimed the unknown person, who I still didn't recognise upon seeing his face, but from his white robe and [Life Archmage] class, I assumed healer. He grabbed my hand and inspected it. "The heck?"

"It could do with regrowing, if you don't mind," I said.

"But... this looks like a portal? It's not an injury."

"It will be, once I activate the second half of my skill, which I need to do at some point for Elanor to keep her copy of the finger indefinitely."

"Hey, wait," exclaimed the slime. "I said I need it to be alive! Don't cut it off."

"It still will be. It's weird. Or rather, eldritch."

"I have no idea what's going on, but yes, I can regrow a finger."

"Great," I said, activating the second stage, resulting in a spray of blood shooting out of the stub with each heartbeat. The healer's eyes opened wide, but he quickly worked his magic, and I watched my finger rapidly grow back.

ding

Skill [Detach] advanced to level 7

Elanor stared at my new finger, and then at the one floating around inside her. I flexed it, eliciting a shriek from her. "How can you still move it!" she exclaimed.

"No idea. From the skill description, I should be able to do it with entire limbs, or maybe even more, but given the requirement for immediate and powerful healing, it's not the sort of skill I use casually."

"Whatever. I've had enough of this. I'm going home."

"Take care," I said. "And I'm going to be adventuring a bit with a friend of mine soon. We might be below your level for now, but even so, if you want to join us at some point, just ask. You should be able to use the telepathy thing through the finger if you want to call."

She froze mid-stride. "Telepathy thing? No, don't tell me. I don't want to know. And why the hell would I want to adventure with you? I have far nicer friends, ones who haven't effectively enslaved me."

"I was trying to be nice."

She started walking again, without another word. "Bye-bye slime lady," called Darren, waving.

Best I don't mention the sense sharing, if she doesn't even want to hear about the telepathy. How come the two of us ended up with such different things on our status? From her side, it's as if I'm a monster tamer that has contracted with her, and has complete control. From mine, there's nothing that identifies her as inferior, and [Soul Bound] implies an equal relationship. And as far as I could tell, we were both correct. Whatever; it seemed stable, and nothing was broken. It would be best not to mess with it further.

In the end, my visit to Synklisi had been a complete bust. Not only had I found out no useful information to help the twins, but I'd been knocked out for nearly a week, inconveniencing goodness knows how many people in the process, glued myself to a sociopathic slime, and had lost my scattered lumps of toe that I had been using as teleport beacons. Of course, that in no way meant I intended to give up. What could I try next?