"What in the blazes?" exclaimed Adele, circling me and Cluma in disbelief. She lifted my arms, flexed my joints and generally poked and prodded all over before clicking her tongue. "Those were new this winter! How'd they get torn up this badly? I can't fix this with [Mend]."

"We hit floor twenty, and dire wolf leather couldn't stand up to the monsters on the lower floors, even with Grover's help."

She shook her head sadly. "There's nothing more I can do, then. You need something tougher. If you get it from here, it would have to be plate. I know you don't have any skills for it, but you could get something lighter, with chain mail at the joints, and it shouldn't slow you down too much, given your strength."

"Could I wear chain mail over this leather? The monsters can't bite through any of the thickened reinforcement, so we only need to do something about the weak spots."

Adele peered thoughtfully at the pair of us. "Maybe? It would take a talented smith to fit it properly."

"Hassok should be working with Grover at the moment. Maybe he would do it."

"Even if so, you'd be better off using something better than dire wolf leather for the base."

Cluma giggled, knowing what was coming, so I pulled out the pair of anaconda emperor skins from my [Item Box]. We'd taken the full corpses to the warehouse and had professional dismantlers skin them for us, the rest of the material more than covering the cost.

"Oh, my!" exclaimed Adele, inspecting the material. "Yes, this is substantially better, but why are you bringing it here? Couldn't the local tailor have worked it for you?"

"But you make all our armour!" exclaimed Cluma.

"I think we've developed some brand loyalty," I added.

"Okay," she said, smiling. "I can certainly make you something out of this; there's more than enough material for two armour sets. I don't know who the Hassok you mentioned is, though, and you'd want that sort of work done prior to any enchantments. If I make the basic armour, can you arrange the rest?"

"Yes. I don't mind."

"Yay!" exclaimed Cluma, diving in for a hug. I was impressed she'd held off for that long.

"You can keep the rest of the skin if you think there'll be leftovers," I added. "We can get more easily enough, and it's not like I have any use for it. But can you do a patch job on our current outfits?"

"Thanks. I'm sure I can find something to do with it. As for a patch job... I can make sure it holds together, but you shouldn't be fighting in it."

"We'll stick to opponents that can't hit us."

"Fine. As long as you promise," she sighed, before turning to Cluma. "Make sure he sticks to it!"

"Mmm, will do!"

We departed the store, still wearing our old, battered outfits, their appearance only slightly improved by judicious use of [Mend]. "Now what?" asked Cluma. "Should we train on a higher floor?"

"Actually, I was thinking that we need something to pay Hassok and Grover with. I think we should run the Dawnhold dungeon floor ten boss while Adele is working on our new armour."

"Pay? But we never pay Grover. Doesn't he take a share of what we give Adele?"

"Nope. He always wants paying, but not with money. He wants materials and knowledge. Like the way his payment for the artificial limbs was me agreeing to take the [Artisan] class."

"Ah, I see. So what do you want from the last boss?"

"Bracelets of crafting skill. Even if he can make better items than the dungeon, I don't think that's an enchantment that can be manually applied. I bet he'd love one."

"Hmm... But we've only found one of those out of all the times we ran the dungeon. They must be rare."

"Two, actually, since I found one before you started. But yes, they seem very rare. Thankfully, this time I can leave a teleport beacon right outside the boss. We can fight it repeatedly without having to make our way through the rest of the dungeon first."

"Oh! Good point! Then yes, we should be able to get one in no time!"

By the end of the following day, I wanted to berate Cluma for jinxing our chances. One had popped late in the evening, but I wanted one for Hassok too. Perhaps I could just give him mine? It wasn't as if I got much use out of it these days, and hopefully I'd get another, higher ranked one from Serpent Isle at some point.

At least we hadn't been interrupted by Krana calling us for another anomaly; the next one had been due that morning. I hadn't had any foreign soul notifications either, so hopefully whoever was opening the portals had been scared off.

"Well, we're out of time," I commented. "Adele will be finished by tomorrow, so we'll just have to give this one to Grover and hope we can pay off Hassok with regular coinage."

"Actually, about that. I've been thinking..."

"Uh-oh, sounds dangerous."

"Oi! I'm not you!" Cluma giggled, flicking my forehead. "Anyway, you know how you've been making materials for Grover by flooding materials with mana? Why do you always use pure mana, and not mana that already has an affinity?"

"There aren't any materials made out of affinity mana."

"Aww, pity. How do you know, though?"

I stopped to think for a moment and realised that I didn't know. When I'd first been experimenting and made mana-infused steel, I'd had no expectations. I wasn't expecting to succeed, nor did I have any clue what would happen if I did succeed. But then it turned out that the material I'd made was already something that was well known. Next we made mythril, which again was a known material. At some point, my thinking had changed from 'what happens if I do this?' to 'infusing metal with mana makes things that are available from deeper dungeon floors.' The question mark had vanished.

We'd since produced adamantite and orichalcum, which were unknown materials, but they were straight-forward progressions of what we'd already made, and I'd still assumed they could be found in dungeons if someone delved deep enough. I should have asked Krana if he'd encountered them. But metals infused with affinity mana weren't something that had ever been found in a dungeon, so I'd assumed they didn't exist.

Assumptions were an enemy of science. Cluma was right; it was worth a try.

I could produce affinity mana, but I didn't fancy my chances of controlling it, not to mention that raw mana of my attuned affinities was dangerous stuff. Body mana, perhaps? It was the only one of my four that I was prepared to risk, but what the hell would body affinity mana do to an ingot of steel?

"I don't. It's a good idea, actually. Shall we try it?"

"Sure, as long as it won't take long, and it's safe."

We teleported back to floor ten of the Dawnhold dungeon, but instead of entering the boss chamber, I placed a steel ingot at a distance, then used [Expert Mana Control] to produce body affinity mana, attempting to force it into the ingot. Trying to convert the ingot at long range was hard, and I failed to make any headway.

"This isn't working. I need to get closer."

"Why are we standing so far away in the first place?"

"Because I have no idea what effect raw body affinity mana has on a body, and I don't really want to find out."

I went to take a step forward, only for Cluma to grab my back and pull.

"Nope!" she declared. "I'm vetoing this experiment."

"What? Why?" I replayed my previous admission in my head. "Oh."

"Yes, exactly. Think before you act, dammit!"

"Fine. In that case, shall we try again in the Serpent Isle dungeon?"

"Okay. But no getting close to stuff you don't understand!"

We teleported back to floor twenty, making sure of no monster snakes in the surroundings, then I repeated my experiment with body affinity mana.

Clunk.

ding

Skill [Expert Mana Finesse] advanced to level 15

Class [Eldritch Mage] advanced to level 22

Class level increased intelligence by 1

"It... worked. I think?"

"I'm... not sure that counts as working," disagreed Cluma, watching the former block of metal as it blobbed into some sort of gelatinous puddle. It had lost its lustre and reflectivity, becoming a matt white-pink.

Corpusclite Ingot (Rank 3)

Weight: 10kg

[Eye of Judgement] gave it a name I'd never heard before, but it was certainly lacking in the solidarity department. Despite that, it stayed together as one piece, even when I poked it. Grover would probably want a sample regardless of weirdness, so I stored it with [Item Box], glad that stuff stored in there didn't interact and I wasn't going to accidentally coat my rations in... whatever the hell corpusclite was.

"What about getting Darren to try? Perhaps fire affinity mana will give something more sensible?"

"Perhaps. Maybe I'll bring him to the institute tomorrow."

Our experiment complete, and the result a qualified success, we teleported back to Dawnhold to end our day.

ding

New skill acquired: [Extended Health Pool]

Skill [Enlarged Health Pool] consumed by superior skill [Extended Health Pool]

Skill [Extended Health Pool] advanced to level 2

The next morning, I teleported back to the village, happy to find Darren already awake and active.

"Peter!" he called, running over to me and hugging my legs the moment I stepped outside the shack.

"You've spent too long around Cluma," I muttered. "Anyway, can you come to the institute with me today?"

"No, playing!"

Oh. Drat, I should have come earlier. Then again, it's not as if Darren needed to be at the institute.

"Then can you make a bunch of fire mana and force it into this?" I asked, pulling out an ingot and dropping it.

Darren did so, with an ease that made my body mana experiment of the previous day look embarrassing, the heat from the fire affinity mana causing the ingot and ground beneath it to glow red hot.

Clunk.

"Oh, a level!" exclaimed Darren.

Unlike my experiment, the ingot remained ingot shaped, but even after Darren's mana dissipated, the ground around it continued to steam and sizzle. Without fire affinity mana injecting extra heat, it ceased glowing, but had taken on a slightly red hue and was still burning hot to touch, with no signs of it cooling. At least it looked far more like a lump of metal than the abomination I'd created.

Flame-Touched Steel (Rank 3)

Weight: 10kg

"What if you use more mana?" I asked, wondering if it had a second evolution.

Darren strained for a bit, reheating the ingot and its surroundings, but nothing further happened. "Nu-uh. Not enough."

This was only ambient mana, after all. Maybe he'd have more luck at the institute, but one new material was enough for now. That experiment could wait. Did he have other safe affinities, though? Actually, now that I had [Eye of Judgement], I could check them all. I stored the new material in [Item Box] before scanning Darren.

Name: Darren

Species: Human

Age: 6

Class: Artist (Level 3/13)

Class History: [Commoner 10]

Soul Points: 11

Health: 12/12

Stamina: 12/12

Strength: 7

Dexterity: 8

Endurance: 7

Intelligence: 8

Wisdom: 7

Charisma: 6

Rank 1 Skills: [Musician 5]

Rank 2 Skills: [Talented Artistry 2] [Strip Canvas 2] [Colour Shift 3]

Traits: [Natural Mage] [Creative] [Pyromaniac]

Titles: [Jack of All Trades]

Status Conditions: None

Attuned Affinities: [Fire] [Air] [Lightning] [Life] [Space]

Rank 2 Available Classes: [Bard]

Rank 3 Available Classes: [Adept Artist]

Rank 1 Available Skills: [Inspection] [Meditation] [Basic Cooking] [Basic Farming] [Enlarged Stamina Pool] [Foraging] [Basic Tailoring] [Basic Carpentry] [Clock] [Basic Smithing] [Basic Masonry] [Weapon Proficiency: Unarmed] [Weapon Proficiency: Dagger] [Weapon Proficiency: Sword] [Weapon Proficiency: Heavy Sword] [Weapon Proficiency: Axe] [Weapon Proficiency: Mace] [Weapon Proficiency: Flail] [Weapon Proficiency: Polearm] [Weapon Proficiency: Staff] [Weapon Proficiency: Bow] [Weapon Proficiency: Thrown] [Concealment] [Hunting]

He still hadn't spent a single soul point, which meant all of his rank two skills had been free. As for his affinities, I hadn't known about air, but the others came as no surprise. Actually, the fact that I could see his affinities at all was the biggest surprise. Given that he was cut off from System magic, shouldn't that line be missing along with his mana pool? They were supposedly a feature of the soul, hence my impossible affinities, so were they something that existed completely independently of System magic?

I ruled space too dangerous, but let him try the others, resulting in a bar of air-touched steel that lost ninety percent of its mass in the conversion, a bar of lightning-touched steel that took on a light blue hue and made my hair stand on end when I touched it, and finally an ingot of animalite, which was a silvery-yellow and pleasantly warm to the touch.

With a total of five new materials stashed in my [Item Box], which would hopefully be enough to get Grover to form our new armour enchantments in orichalcum, I jumped back to Dawnhold, only to find that Cluma had already left her house. I found her in the delvers guild store, our new armour sets in hand. The bodysuit-and-helmet style was exactly the same as our usual black leather, but this time it was in diamond-patterned browns. Without a comfort enchantment, they were also impossible to wear, which made me question Cluma's eagerness. Why had she rushed over here without me?

"You'd better not have been ordering maid costumes again," I warned, causing her to giggle and hug me.

"Don't worry. I promise she hasn't ordered you anything," said Adele, leaving me to heave a sigh of relief, even if I wasn't completely convinced. She was definitely acting suspiciously. Maybe she'd ordered herself one as an apology?

No, wait. As I looked at my helmet, I realised there was something up.

"Why is mine a beastkin design?!" I exclaimed.

"We can't have those cute ears of yours being flattened inside it forever, comfort enchantment or not."

"Is this your fault?" I asked Cluma.

"Nope. I decided that on my own," said Adele, smiling. Fine. Apparently, everyone had decided my fake ears were a permanent fixture now. Maybe I should get that tail to go with them.

The twins had been born as harpies. What if I'd been born as something inhuman, like them? I'd picked up [Xenophilia] from imagining being born as a catkin, but with what I'd learnt since, I knew I'd have hated that given the penalty to magical abilities. Maybe an elf? But I'd quite like to fly, which meant harpy or fairy. Fairies were kinda cool, but male fairies weren't a thing... Oh, how about a dragon? Couldn't I have been born a dragon?

"Never mind that, let's get these to Grover!" Cluma deflected, despite the fact I'd long since been sidetracked from her suspicious behaviour. I let her drag me back out of the store without comment; as long as it wasn't me she was trying to embarrass, I'd let her keep her secrets.

Ten minutes later, we were in Grover's workroom, where Hassok was indeed present. "You're far too early, lad. Your new limbs won't be ready for half a week."

"That's not actually why I'm here. Let's start with the bribery first."

I took out the five new blocks of affinity-infused steel, resulting in four clunks and a splat. Then I added the pair of bracelets, enduring the brain-melting effects of removing mine with as much grace as I could manage.

"What?" asked Grover, downing his tools and approaching the ingots with something approaching reverence. He poked the corpusclite, which squelched. "What?" he repeated.

"They're all like mana-infused steel, except that we used affinity mana. Fire, air, lightning, life and body."

"And the bracelets?"

"Bracelets of crafting skill. They boost your crafting skills by one."

"Hmm? You mean smithing enhancement? I doubt they're better than what I made for myself."

"No, it behaves differently. It boosts your actual skill level."

"I've never heard of anything like that. I know dungeons make martial skill enchanted equipment, but I've not heard of one for crafting." He picked up a bracelet and shoved it on his wrist, wincing as the extra knowledge forced its way into his head.

"Bloody turnips!" he exclaimed, which had to be one of the strangest swearing attempts I'd ever heard. "Fine. Consider me successfully bribed. Now, what have I been bribed to do?"