Despite living in the town, Camus was still working as a farmer, tending fields a short walk away from their house. Given the time of year, and that there wouldn't be anything planted yet, he had little to do out there other than care for a small number of hexauyos that they kept for the eggs. I would have expected Clana, who worked at the institute cafeteria, to have heard some rumours of what was going on, but given that she hadn't turned up to watch, she must have left before the gossip spread that far. With how long it had taken for Grover and Adele to perform their experiment, both of them would be home by now.

And thus me and Cluma made our way back to their house, [Mana Sight] confirming they were both in the living room before we entered. Cluma pushed open their door, and the two of them looked up. Straight into her eyes. I saw the look of confusion forming on their faces, and felt my new ears droop again, this time in perfect synchronisation with Cluma's.

Bursting into laughter at synchronised ear droopage wasn't the way I'd envisioned this conversation starting. Cluma turned to me in anger, having been walking in front of me and not seen my own ears, and hence thinking I was laughing at her parents' reaction. I had to explain what happened, which cheered her straight back up. Thankfully, she saw the amusing side too.

"Will one of you please explain what's going on?" asked Camus, pinching his nose in exasperation. "Why does Cluma look so different, and why does Peter have catkin ears? Just how much mischief have you managed to get up to in one afternoon?"

"I'll start," I said, wiping my eyes. "I wanted to take Cluma to other dungeons without separating her from you, but I couldn't think of any sane ideas, so... I tried a slightly insane one. I can put something into [Item Box] here and eject it at one of my beacons, so I wondered if I could use [Item Box] on Cluma in order to teleport her. It turned out that I could, but she lost health in the attempt. We went to visit the institute to see what they made of it, where Kari had me try a couple more times. Unfortunately, flooding Cluma with my more powerful mana had... side effects."

"My species changed from catkin to cat-sìth, and I got a new [Magical Beast] trait. Apparently I'm good at magic and have purple eyes and black hair now," elaborated Cluma, without mentioning the fact that she ended up unconscious for two hours in the process. "Also, I need a haircut."

Clana and Camus boggled.

"So she said that since I changed her species, she was going to punish me by changing mine, so now I have these cute fake ears, complete with a rank four irremovable enchantment so I can't take them off. And biological integration, so they behave properly. So yeah, we had a rather strange day. Even if Cluma had her revenge already, I thought I owed you an apology too. I'm sorry."

ding

Skill [Basic Etiquette] advanced to level 2

Huh? Oh, I'd apparently done some sort of official gesture of apology without even thinking about it. A tip of the head and very slight bow while crossing my arms across my chest, hands on my shoulders. I'd never heard of that gesture before the skill downloaded it into my head, so Camus or Clana might not recognise it either, but at least it looked official.

"As much as I hate to admit it, you two are made for each other," grumbled Camus.

""Huh?"" we both replied, in perfect sync.

"Cluma, why would you let Peter try to use [Item Box] on you? And then again, even though it hurt you the first time?"

"Kari said it would be safe!"

"So? You'd already experienced it first-hand and knew it wasn't. She was mistaken. And then you, Peter. You had permission from Cluma to try it, so why so guilty?"

"She neglected to mention that after her species swapped, she ended up unconscious for two hours. Without me and Kari managing the mana around her, she struggled to even breathe. It was a dangerous accident."

That made Camus frown. And Cluma; apparently she hadn't wanted to share that, but if I was apologising, it would help to explain what I was apologising for.

"Only because of the System! You and Kari were both right up until that point; it was safe. It wasn't you that hurt me, it was the System!" argued Cluma. "And then I hurt you..." she added, in a smaller voice.

"Look, I don't know quite what happened, but is anyone permanently injured?" asked Clana, joining in at last.

""No,"" we both answered.

"Are either of you upset at the other?"

""No!""

"Is Cluma going to need a special diet, or other accommodations, or face changes to her day-to-day life?"

We looked at each other. ""No?"" we responded, still in sync.

"Then I'm afraid I fail to see what difference a changed word in your status makes. Camus is right; the two of you are equally insane."

There I was, getting all worked up, and Clana's just waving it off. Camus was struggling, though, hearing how bad the accident had been. Why had that even happened? The System was generally safe. I may have knocked myself out buying too many skills, but I'd never heard of the System causing problems by automatically adding a trait before. Nor had I heard of it changing someone's species at all. I suppose Darren counted for dangerous traits; it didn't hurt him directly, but without me controlling him, he surely would have torched himself...

The worst case would be that without Erryn to manage it, something had broken. Should I call not-Blobby and ask her to help me get into the ark? What could I even do if I was there? Erryn hadn't figured out how the System worked even after six hundred years. But now that spring was here, I needed to get back to the twins and put some serious effort into saving them from the Law, which was likely to involve an ark trip anyway.

...And here I was, standing next to Cluma, who was fully under its control, and yet I'd never put any effort into freeing her at all. I was too attached to the status quo. These people are already under the control of the Law, so I can leave them. These other people aren't, so I should ensure that remains the case. The logic of apathy.

I left the house, leaving Camus to talk to Cluma without me. Should I try to free Cluma? Her family? My family? What would people be like without it? Would Darren become a real arsonist? Would Camus have tried to murder me to keep Cluma safe, rather than fleeing from me to the Emerald Nest?

Unwilling to return home to face my parents, I ended up wandering to the delvers guild to see if I could pick up any information on new dungeons, beyond what I'd got from Camus. Alas, thanks to the late hour, reception had closed. I could still hear noise from the bar, though. Maybe I should sit in there for a while. I took a pace towards the door.

"Peter? Can you hear me?"

Erryn?! What? How?

"Hello? I have no idea if this is working."

I paused. It was telepathic communication, but the voice was different and it lacked the rustling and the feeling of attention that always accompanied Erryn talking to me. There was only one other being I knew of that had the ability to communicate with me telepathically, a feature of my unwanted [Soul Bound] trait. But how was I supposed to talk back? She obviously couldn't read my mind like Erryn, so I must need to do something active.

"Hello?" I tried, thinking as loudly as I could.

"If you can hear me, please come and visit. We need to talk."

That hadn't worked, then. Having spent the weeks since our soul-splice doing my best to ignore the fact that I had one of my fingers forever entombed in a shell of jelly, I now tried to focus on it. At least the permanent changes I'd inflicted on Cluma were better than what I'd done to myself.

Through [Mana Sight], I could see that not-Blobby was in her bedroom, the overwhelming quantity of pink thankfully not reflected in the room's mana. There was no-one else there. "Hello?" I tried again, this time focusing on my finger and its connection to not-Blobby's core.

"Eeep!"

"Umm. Sorry? So you could hear me that time?"

"Stop shouting! I'm not deaf!"

"Hey, this is my first time using telepathy," I pointed out, trying to think a little more quietly. "I think I'm doing well for you to hear me at all. Is this better?"

"Much. Now get yourself over here. I want to talk to you properly."

"So it really was the System glitching then," I thought.

"Huh? What has the System got to do with anything?"

Or maybe it wasn't... Was the timing just coincidence?

"What timing?"

"Bah, I've not got the hang of this. I didn't intend to think that last bit out loud. What is it you want then?"

"Just get over here. Please."

There was a mental click and the noise cut out. Did she just hang up on me?! How rude! And also, how do I learn how to do that? Spending six-hundred years in telepathic contact with Erryn must have taught her a few tricks, even if in my experience, not-Blobby always talked back with her voice.

Regardless, I wasn't going to teleport over there tonight. No way was I teleporting using not-Blobby's finger, or I'd end up wrapped up in her again, and the other teleport beacon I'd left was inside the delvers guild, which would be closed. Maybe that wouldn't matter, given that this world hadn't got around to inventing door locks, but when I left a chunk of toe in the room they used as a teleportation point, it did have very clear hours listed.

I teleported home instead.

"Mummy, Peter is wearing something weird again," said Darren, who was standing and staring in my bedroom.

"Mum, Darren is invading my bedroom to watch me using magic again," I retorted, climbing off my bed and rubbing his head. I'd actually managed to forget about my new ears, with the surprise of not-Blobby's sudden phone-call. "And don't worry. It's nothing made of lace."

I walked into the living room, Darren following after me.

"Oh? You've decided to make them part of your regular outfit?" asked dad, grinning. "Wait, it just flicked!"

"Yeah, they do that. Long story. Short version—yes, Grover can enchant ears and tails to be more realistic. The tail didn't work out, though. Also, I almost killed Cluma."

Obviously, they demanded the long version too, forcing me to retell it all over again, during which time Darren was poking and prodding my ears, apparently attracted by the interesting enchantments. To be fair, I was interested myself. With [Mana Sight], I could clearly see that my own mana was running through them. There may not have been blood or nerves involved, but they had definitely integrated themselves with me to some extent.

I even took a peek with [Soul Perception], thankful to find that my soul hadn't started to occupy them.

With the tale told, I went to bed. Quite enough had happened for one day, and I was glad to be done with it. Not that tomorrow promised to be much better. Should I bring Cluma with me? On the one hand, the interactions between her and not-Blobby would probably be amazing, but on the other, not-Blobby was dangerous. On the third hand—since Grover was making such an effort to give people more—she could see some of the great dungeon. And on the fourth, much of what she would see would be overcrowded newbies. Well, I'd just have to ask her and let her make her own choice. Kari was right about that part.

Which left only one question; how the heck was I supposed to sleep when my pillow kept tickling my fake ears?!