Darren had switched his class to [Artist] at some point during Cluma's party without even telling anyone, although I did manage to confirm from him that [Apprentice Mage] hadn't appeared as an option. He had a skill that let him subtly shift the colours of paints and inks as he used them, and another for erasing parts of a canvas or paper or whatever else he happened to be drawing on. Useful for him, but not of great interest to me, so I lost my enthusiasm and returned to other matters.

As far as I could think up, I had three options for rescuing the twins. Use my own soul magic to tear the chains from them directly, force entry to the ark and hope I could find something in there to either free them or stop the System's erosion, or visit Erryn and hope that my soul magic could restore her memories.

Two of those three options involved soul magic, so I naturally decided to start off with the one that didn't. Accidentally welding my soul to one sociopathic monster was already one too many. I could still feel my finger soaking in her slime, and rather wished that I couldn't. That meant travelling to the ark, which I didn't want to do in winter. Nor could I get back to the Sapphire Peaks. Doing anything else with or about the twins was going to need to wait until spring.

Of course, that didn't mean I had nothing to do in the meantime; it was finally time to resume delving! To that end, me and Cluma were visiting Adele to pick up our outfits. My own was a perfect fit, as ever, with my usual collection of enchantments. Then Cluma emerged from the changing rooms in her skintight leather and struck a pose that made me very glad I was already inured by all my previous time in the guild, and safely out of the clutches of puberty. If anything, the outfits were even sexier now, Adele having got the hang of zips. But then, adding a touch of horror to my day, Cluma confirmed the list of enchantments with Adele. Comfort, durability, silence and mana veil.

"Mana veil?!" I complained.

"Yes? She asked for stealth effects. You were there when we were discussing it," pointed out Adele.

Did they? I have no memory of this! Oh, damn; I was thinking about how best to work a few metal plates into the design, and not paying attention to them. Wow, what a self-inflicted failure that was. Am I really not allowed to use [Soul Perception]? At least Darren won't be delving with us, so I should be able to keep up an active scan without him sabotaging me again, but I'd need to keep it up all the time.

Dressed and armed, and, in my case, terrified, we headed to the delvers guild, where Ella was at reception.

"Wow, it's been a long time since I last saw you in uniform."

"Only because I got banned," I complained.

"You weren't banned, you were unallowed."

"That's... not even a word."

"Sure it is," interjected Cluma. "You used to be allowed, and then you weren't."

"Whu?!" exclaimed Ella, jerking and looking around wildly, before jerking once again as arm impressions appeared on her uniform, wrapping her from behind.

"Sorry, but Cluma has had some upgrades. Best to just assume that you may get hugged without warning at any time."

"I... see," replied Ella. "In any case, may I assume you are both here to join the guild officially?"

"Yup."

There was paperwork. I was pretty darn sure I hadn't needed to deal with paperwork the first time around. Apparently there were fringe benefits to my special dispensation that I wasn't even aware of at the time, and by the time I got to the third form I was offering silent thanks to Lord Reid and the guild master for having made it all go away. A lot of it didn't even seem relevant anymore, with lists of emergency contacts and next of kin. I suppose the magical protection only kicked in if you actually died, and coming out with mere crippling wounds could still leave someone in hospital for a bit. Even a rank three healer couldn't regrow a whole limb with one spell.

That was a bit of a loophole, actually. What if someone took a wound that wasn't immediately fatal, left the dungeon, but bled out before reaching a healer? Would they still be protected? Given the doubt, leaving the dungeon while seriously wounded would be a bad idea.

Thankfully, me and Cluma were both literate, so we could at least read and fill in the paperwork on our own. The glut of newbies since dungeons became safe must have caused a considerable increase in the receptionists' workload. Not that I'd ever seen reception busy. At most, I'd only ever seen one or two more parties in here.

I almost wished Cluma wasn't literate; the quill had been subsumed into her [Stealth] the moment she picked it up, so all I could see were words appearing on a piece of paper. It felt like I was haunted.

"Are you just going to be invisible permanently now?" I asked the empty space where I assumed she was.

"Yup!"

Obviously... Why did I even bother to ask such a pointless question?

"Now, normally new joiners are assigned an instructor, and put together in a training team until reaching rank two," explained Ella, treating the invisible Cluma with exemplary professionalism. "Since you're both already rank two, that won't be required, but we do require you to have some amount of formal training on dungeon delving. Peter has already received that, but what do you plan to do with Cluma?"

Argg... This damn bureaucracy! I swear, one day I'm going to snap.

"Can't Peter teach me?" asked Cluma, being far more calm than me.

"Yes, that will be fine. I'll note that down."

"Wait, it will?" I asked in surprise, expecting to have to wait for her to have some sort of Xander-like training session before we could get going properly.

"You've spent an extensive amount of time in this dungeon, and are suitably well informed, so I see no reason why not."

"Oh. Okay." I was thankful, but it somehow felt anticlimactic to raise a roadblock like that and then immediately sweep it away. In fact, once the paperwork was done, there wasn't anything else to take care of. We were successfully registered and allowed into the dungeon right there and then.

Ella had raised a good point, though; I did need to be a little educational here. What had Xander done with me when I was learning? We'd spent my first day on the first and second floor, where I'd learnt to spot traps, anticipate ambushes and harvest cores. Unlike me when I first entered, Cluma had extensive experience hunting mana fields and sparring with a wide range of opponents. She also had an equipment and level advantage; I'd been a fresh rank two with rank two enchanted equipment at the point I'd entered, whereas she was not only equipped with super-material weapons and Grover's best enchantments, but her status...

Name: Cluma

Species: Beastkin (Catkin)

Class: Scout (Level 18/38)

Class History: [Commoner] [Apprentice Fighter]

Soul Points: 3

Health: 47/47

Stamina: 94/94

Mana: 31/31

Strength: 27(+12)

Dexterity: 41(+12)

Endurance: 30(+12)

Intelligence: 19(+12)

Wisdom: 21(+12)

Charisma: 25(+12)

Rank 1 Artes: [Backstab 10] [Armour Break 5] [Rapid Shot 10] [Piercing Shot 6]

Rank 2 Artes: [XXXX] [XXXX]

Rank 1 Skills: [Basic Cooking 10] [Weapon Proficiency: Dagger 10] [Inspection 10] [Concealment 10] [Meditation 10] [Enlarged Mana Pool 10] [Hunting 10] [Dismantling 10] [Weapon Proficiency: Bow 10] [Weapon Style: Dual Wielding 10] [Privacy 10] [Danger Sense 10]

Rank 2 Skills: [XXXX] [XXXX] [XXXX] [XXXX]

Traits: [XXXX] [XXXX] [XXXX] [XXXX]

Titles: [XXXX]

Surprisingly, it worked this time, rather than being blocked again, although I already knew most of it. She'd managed to take scout up to level eighteen without ever setting foot in a dungeon, by hunting, sparring and being generally invisible. She'd maxed almost all of her rank one skills, only missing a couple of artes that couldn't be used in either sparring or against the low level, unarmoured kobolds, and I knew she'd picked up the other scouting skills, [Threat Perception], [Trap Perception] and [Monster Perception] in readiness for today. Alas, [Trap Perception] was still level one, having had no opportunities to train it. Even the other two were low, since she'd only recently maxed out the prerequisite [Danger Sense].

Wait! Why can't I see [Hugger]?! It's rank one, so it should be visible. Don't tell me she evolved that! Bah, I need one more level of [Analysis] to see rank two stuff, given her maxed out privacy. At least now that it was maxed out, she wouldn't be able to spot my analysis attempts via level ups. And doesn't she have one more soul point than she should have? And she has full mana! She'd been using [Stealth] for ages! She seriously can be invisible permanently!

"Oi! How are you using [Analysis] on me while I'm invisible?" she complained, as my interface collapsed back down to the 'analysis blocked' notification.

Apparently, I spoke too soon. How did that appraisal block enchantment work? Did she need to deliberately reactivate it each time she wore the earring? "You don't have Darren around to mess up my mana control today. I can see you... perfectly would be a lie. But I know where you are."

"Bah. Just wait till I rank up."

"Ha. So sure of yourself. I'll just have to make sure my perception skills keep pace. And what happened to [Hugger]?"

"Not telling."

"Just so that you're aware, even if you're completely invisible, I still know full well when you're poking your tongue out at me. I can feel your mockery from kilometres away."

"..." responded Cluma.

"I can sense your pouting, too. I have a pout perception skill."

We approached the gate leading to the dungeon, where the guard was peering strangely at the teenager apparently talking to himself.

"Going in alone? Where's your... Oh, Peter! Sorry, you haven't been around for a while. Took me a moment to recognise you."

"And his party is right here," said Cluma, still not bothering to deactivate [Stealth]. Just how good was that mana efficiency enchantment? It couldn't possibly be enough to keep [Stealth] active indefinitely on its own. If she'd evolved [Hugger] into some sort of surprise hugger trait that gives her extra stealth benefits, I was going to give the System a serious kicking when I next visited the ark.

The poor guard looked around and saw nothing, before stumbling a few steps back as Cluma caught him with a surprise hug. "You didn't think I'd go delving with someone normal, did you?" I asked.

"Oi, I'm not... Okay, you raise a valid point, but you didn't have to phrase it quite like that."

The guard, completely lost with the situation, simply asked for Cluma's name, then jotted us both down and waved us through. I'd never really noticed when I was younger, given my special circumstances and that I was known by sight, but they did keep a record of everyone who went in and out. When someone failed to return, they needed to know who it was.

The short walk and comedy sketch bought enough time for me to decide on a plan. "We'll head straight to floor five," I stated. "It's deep enough that the newbie crowd shouldn't be too thick, the monsters won't die just from you breathing on them, and most importantly, it's the first floor with concealed dart traps. It'll be a good place to train your [Trap Perception], but the darts won't penetrate your armour even if you miss one."

I saw Cluma nod with my active mana scanning, and we stepped into the dungeon. "The light is weird," she commented a few steps down the staircase.

"You get used to it. Not all dungeons are like this."

A few more steps in, and I was starting to appreciate the upgrade to [Mana Sight] even more than I already had been. Despite the background glare of the dungeon, I could 'see' a large portion of the floor, including the location of delvers and monsters. It was more than enough to make up for the lack of tracking skills in our two person party.

We had arrived early, and the first floor wasn't completely devoid of monsters yet, but we nevertheless ignored them and headed straight for the boss. I pointed out the occasional trip wire as we passed, and talked about the relationship between rooms and corridors and the various types of monster behaviour, to which Cluma listened with polite attention, but in terms of practical experience, there was nothing this floor had to offer.

That was underlined when we hit the boss, which still consisted of three low-level goblins. I let Cluma kill them, and the poor things barely even noticed they were under attack. They remained in their default waiting position despite Cluma walking right up to them, and even when she simultaneously beheaded two, the third didn't do more than turn his head before Cluma stabbed him in the heart. I let her loot the chest, partially because she was the only one fighting today, but mostly because it made me feel a little more like a proper instructor.

The same pattern continued as we headed through the dungeon. Monsters simply died, without ever comprehending what was attacking them. I watched from a distance with [Mana Sight] as they fell one after another, members of their groups wildly but helplessly looking around. Cluma was completely hidden from sight, sound and smell. On the stone floor, there were no visible footprints. Even her mana was veiled, although the monsters on the upper floors had no ability to perceive mana to start with. The fourth floor boss, which had injured me so badly on my first attempt, fell with as much ease as the first, the party of goblin champions never managing to locate their attacker.

"Why the heck were you worried about holding me back?" I complained as she looted the chest.

"Because this isn't anything that you couldn't do."

"I'm... pretty sure I can't do that."

"Sure you could. Your dagger skill is higher than mine. Maybe your [Backstab] isn't, but you could raise it quickly enough. There's nothing stopping you from taking the [Scout] class and wearing my enchanted items. With one class change and a few soul points, you could be every bit as much of an assassin as me."

Cluma paused for a second and then giggled.

"What?"

"Sorry, it just occurred to me that my armour wouldn't fit you, even with the enchantment that makes it stretchy. You'd have to wear my dress instead. I think you'd look cute cross-dressing."

I had to admit she had a point. At least about the stealth, if not the cross-dressing. It wasn't the build I'd gone for, but there was no reason in principle why I couldn't have. I'd already completed [Apprentice Fighter], and so [Scout] was available. All I needed to do was complete my current class, and I could emulate everything she'd done today. Still, just because I could didn't mean that I would.

"Okay, I admit it. You're right."

"Really? Awesome, you can try it on when we get back then!"

"What? No, I mean the stealth. The stealth!"

"I know; I'm messing. I thought you could see when I poked my tongue out?"

Once again, I felt like I was losing some sort of game here, despite no-one explaining the rules... "Anyway, I could take the [Scout] class and emulate your invisibility. Or I could take the [Ranger] class and become a rear line fighter. There's plenty I could do, but there isn't time to do it all. I've already picked my fighting style, and I intend to continue improving it, not switch to something new."

"That's not the point. I want to be able to do things you can't do, not just things that you won't. But don't worry; I already have it all planned out. I know exactly what rank three class I'm going for, and it's one that you could never get, however much you want it."

"And I don't suppose you're going to tell me?"

"Nope, but I'll give you a clue. It'll make my hugs even more surprising!"

"That's... not exactly reassuring. But you keep on being you. There's no-one else I'd rather go delving with."

I watched Cluma turn away and look around as we stepped onto the fifth floor, while I checked out the vicinity with [Mana Sight] to find our first group of prey.