Equilibrium

Chapter 86

With my system restored, I spent quite a bit of time looking through it. My new alignment, Chaotic Neutral, was quite pleasing to see. It certainly fit how I planned to behave better than Chaotic Evil had.

One of the most significant changes I found was in the content of my store. The range of monsters open to me had increased significantly, and a variety of new magic items were available. Between the two, I was more interested in the items.

It seemed like using Duello's boon had influenced things. The items were all sound and communication-related. Glyphs that could be imprinted on objects to create sounds, linked devices like walkie-talkies, even a few that record and playback sound like magic cassettes.

I immediately bought a couple of the playback items and sent them to the bards. They would get quite the kick out of those. However, once I was done playing with that, I realized I'd neglected to check my communications interface and contacts.

Agony and Steve were still grey. A bummer, but I found everything else in working order, thankfully. Selecting Henry as a test subject, I was surprised to find a new option to contact him, video call. That might be fun to play with, but I closed it for the moment.

Henry was sitting on the couch, sipping a Chaos beverage and watching me placidly. Despite our earlier argument, he seemed much calmer now. He hadn't even tried to rush me to read his letter, encouraging me to finish looking things over first.

I was genuinely grateful for him being understanding on the point. However, as much as I was enjoying the process, it was still underlined by anxiety. Until I did a thorough examination, I wouldn't know everything was truly alright and couldn't fully relax.

Looking through my contacts list a second time, I realized that I'd missed something. Steven and Agony were greyed out, but a new icon had appeared, the friend invite option.

I'd added people before, and my monsters auto-populated my contacts, but this was slightly different. Selecting it, I found that I had the option to invite Mira, Hetcha, and Elim's mother. They were people I hadn't met in person and couldn't access a system profile for.

I was very tempted to do just that for a moment. But, in the end, I thought better of it. Elim's mom was unquestionably off-limits without his express consent, and I wasn't going to ask. His concerns about my intentions toward Tiller did not suggest it would build trust for me to ask for increased access to anyone he cared about.

Mira and Hetcha were still tempting, but I decided against it for slightly different reasons. I'd already established a communication method with them. Changing to using the system might scare them or raise new questions I wasn't ready to answer. My relationship with them, such as it was, was still new and very fragile.

"I feel like I'm missing something," I said morosely as I sat on the couch. I'd started hovering again, but it seemed like I had better control than before. I was able to seat myself instead of floating slightly above it—a nice change of pace, in my opinion.

"Well… Perhaps," Henry said, pointing. Pointing turned to a poke as he nudged my lips with his finger.

"What?" I asked, not catching on.

"Y-You've changed a b-bit," Henry said wryly. I felt my orbs flicker. I'd forgotten the recent addition to my face for a minute.

After a moment of embarrassment, I nodded. I should take a look even if it didn't feel like the new addition to my anatomy was that important in the grand scheme of things.

With a sigh, I added a mundane full-length mirror to the wall across from the couch. Then, getting up and heading over, I examined my mouth visually for the first time. It was definitely the stuff of nightmares, a maw full of carnivorous black teeth.

The interior tissue was primarily black. However, on the ribbed flesh, there were highlights of dark green. My tongue was dark green with hints of lighter color. It seemed normally proportioned despite being pointed.

Like a little kid, I tried to touch the tip of my nose. To my surprise, it reached up without a problem. Fully extended, it was inhuman in design, long and tapering to a thin point.

I had to lean in pretty close and use a light stone to see all of that. Like with the rest of my body, my mouth would be invisible from a distance except in silhouette. Even up close, someone would probably only get a vague impression of wrongness—only the vaguest suggestion of torn flesh and teeth.

"I think the mouth is the only change," I said with a sigh. I'd given myself a cursory feel up to check. Unless I was missing something visual, I hadn't felt anything new. No second set of arms or spikes had appeared.

"A-agreed," Henry offered, clearing the throat he didn't have and looking away. I almost said something but froze. I realized that he'd done his own investigation not too long ago—a rather thorough one at that.

"Uhm… Well… I suppose it's an aesthetic improvement to have a mouth now. Can't say how I feel about it looks-wise, though," I offered awkwardly. How I felt about myself wasn't something I spent a lot of time thinking about.

Usually, if I was concerned with aesthetics, it was about one of my projects. Honestly, the skeletons were a lot more expressive regarding personal style and aesthetics than I was. They chose to wear or not wear clothes, and I'd noticed a few of them adding what looked like scrimshaw to their bones.

When it came to myself, I couldn't say much. It might have been a holdover from the lack of personal memories, but I wasn't sure. I did a lot of design work, so I felt like I had preferences in that respect. I just couldn't say I had a favorite color or a hated one when it came to myself.

"I like it," Henry offered. I could hear a grin in his voice and felt the acidic tingle of a blush at that one. However, I kept on with my examination rather than dignifying that with a response.

"I guess I kind of like green?" I muttered to myself. My orbs were an attractive color, I felt. They were green toward the bottom, where the heart of a candle would be. The paler outer edges were a brighter, almost electric shade. I decided to consider green my favorite color until I felt strongly about another.

I decided to leave the mirror in place and went back to the couch with my inspection done. It was about time I got to my normally scheduled dungeon tasks. I wasn't seriously behind yet, but there was no reason to put off buying tiles I could.

"This all feels surreal, but it's nice to get back to work," I said to Henry.

"I-Indeed… I have a f-few projects I should work on as w-well," Henry added, getting up. I was a little surprised but didn't feel disappointed. After what happened earlier, it was probably best that we both had some time apart. At least until I read the letter.

My only regret was not telling Henry how much I appreciated him coming back before the transfer was completed. It might not have hurt to do it, but I felt nervous. Accidentally triggering another blow-up would be more than I could deal with at the moment.

"Alright, hope I get to see them soon," I offered sincerely. It was always fun to see what Henry cooked up for himself and others.

"You will," Henry assured me. He executed a charming bow, and I couldn't help laughing. He seemed pleased with that, and I realized he was trying to cheer me up. It worked despite everything going on.

Once Henry left, I took a couple of minutes to decompress. I had lots to do, and sorting out my priorities was the first step—something best done with my mind solely on the task.

I considered reviewing the hero party raid, but decided against it. It would need to be done soon, but it wasn't a high priority. I needed to build out the stub layers first. Fine-tuning based on the raid could come after that.

Not that I had high hopes about what I'd learn from the group. They'd been under mind control and fighting suboptimally because of it. So they were hardly an ideal control group for a test.

A message notice chimed while I was working. Seeing it was from Elim, I decided to take a short break and read it right away. His health was good, and the title didn't indicate urgency, but I liked to be prompt.

[Mistress 42,

I considered your advice and told Tiller about you. She would like to speak with you at your earliest convenience.

-Elim]

I read the clipped working of the note twice and felt a shiver of foreboding. I hoped I was being paranoid, but this did not feel like it was going to be a friendly chat.