"You certainly have interesting hobbies," giggled Carys. "I'm starting to see how maybe you could have accidentally unlocked [Basic Etiquette]."

"This isn't a hobby," I disagreed, before stopping to consider that statement. "Actually, correction; this is Cluma's hobby, not mine."

Cluma refrained from denying my accusation. In our frank discussion a few days back, I probably should have had words with her about her sadistic tendencies. Maybe her darkness and death affinities weren't so mismatched with her personality after all?

"Am I missing a joke?" Grover asked, turning to Hassok, who shrugged. "Why is Kari curled up on the floor laughing?"

He looked genuinely confused, leaving me rather confused in turn about dwarven fashion. I hadn't exactly been sightseeing on my only visit to the Emerald Caverns, but I hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary, nor had I with any of the dwarfs here in the institute. Grover wore plain fabric trousers with a tunic, along with a belt hanging with various tools. Hassok wore something similar, except with different, larger tools. Interestingly, neither seemed to possess gloves or safety goggles. What would goggles even be made from?

I cast my mind back to the time I'd spent with Remous in his smithy, and neither of us had taken much in the way of safety precautions. I guess when it was so easy to regrow an eyeball, health and safety wasn't so important.

"Just ignore her, and let's get on with it," I said.

Grover gave Kari one more odd look before fiddling with my artificial arm. I considered that a win; between me wearing lacy women's underwear and Kari laughing at me for it, the dwarfs thought Kari was the weird one. Didn't really help my attempt at getting a third opinion though. Other opinions apparently varied.

The old arm detached and Grover fitted the new one, which immediately caused me to topple sideways. "Well?" he asked gruffly.

"It's too heavy!" I complained. "There's no way I can balance."

"The first one I built according to the standard design, but that's supposed to be for people wearing them. Since you're not, I saw no reason why we shouldn't thicken the shell. In fact, this one is solid, although the bulk of the interior is air-touched steel, with orichalcum bones. Yes, it's heavier, but if it's going to live in your [Item Box], that doesn't matter."

"By that same logic, you shouldn't have bothered with all the detailed sculpting."

"Don't ask a dwarf to half-arse a job," said Hassok, matter-of-factly.

Lying on the floor, resting the weight of the arm on the ground, I flexed my new limb, clenching and unclenching my fist a few times. "It doesn't feel any different to the old one. It doesn't seem to be reacting more quickly, and I seem to have about the same dexterity."

"My extra skill level should have made it more responsive, but I wouldn't be surprised if the difference between a quality rating of seventy and seventy-one isn't noticeable. What about the strength?"

Weight-lifting from floor level wasn't easy, but it turned out I was weaker than before. Although, on reflection, that was likely because the bulk of my strength was going towards lifting the arm itself rather than the arm being weaker. Casting [Strength] made up for a chunk of the difference, the spell working more effectively with the body affinity enhancement engraved in orichalcum.

"Okay, and now to test [Superimpose]," said Grover, scribbling on a notepad.

I used [Redistribute] to switch back to my real arm, standing up before activating [Superimpose]. The spell stuttered, but only for a moment, the new arm turning transparent quickly afterwards.

"Oh, this feels weird," I said, waving my arm around. It wasn't moving properly, and my dexterity was completely shot, but it didn't seem to be a problem in my arm's responsiveness. It was more that I kept misjudging where it was and where it was going.

ding

Wisdom increased by 1

What the heck? Why did I get a wisdom increase?

"Think you can do some more tests?"

"Yes, I think so."

A bit more weightlifting revealed this configuration to be much the same as the old, except that [Strength] had a larger effect. [Dexterity], meanwhile, did nothing whatsoever. My issues with controlling my arm obviously had nothing to do with physical dexterity. Something about the new arm had changed its behaviour, and it was like I was relearning how to control it. I was getting used to it, but it was taking time.

My sword could cut my arm, but now I needed to put substantial force behind it. With the enchantments buried deep under the adamantite skin, I couldn't see them being accidentally damaged by any monster I'd ever be fighting. Unlike the slight boost to [Strength], the durability had received a huge improvement, presumably due to the better materials.

"Hmm... I have an idea about why you're having difficulty controlling it," opined Kari, who had finally recovered from her laughing fit. "I just need something to test it. I don't suppose anyone is hiding a watermelon about their person?"

"Why would anyone have a watermelon? It's obviously a question of momentum," said Vargalas. Nice to see he was still here and paying attention. Given how silent he'd been this time and last, I was starting to suspect he'd left some sort of illusion of himself behind and snuck off to play with lightning.

Momentum was a good guess, though. I could see where he was coming from, and waving my arm around a few more times, it did seem that I underestimated how much force I needed to get it moving, as well as that needed to stop it.

"Yes, that was my thought, too," agreed Grover. "As a consequence of the increased weight, if [Superimpose] is transferring it across, your movements will have far more momentum behind them."

"I have a watermelon, actually," added Carys, causing us all to stare. That was a rather bulky thing to carry around, and it wasn't even as if they grew around here. "What? It's not that strange. I like them, so mum sometimes brings leftovers home from Lord Reid's mansion. It was going to be my lunch, but I'll happily sacrifice it if you're going to do what I think you're going to do."

"What are you going to do?" asked Cluma curiously.

"Punch it, I assume," I answered.

"Why would you punch a watermelon?"

Cluma must know what a watermelon was, given Clana's occupation, and I'd taught her about momentum back in the village. I suppose there was no substitute for real-world experience when it came to putting things together, though.

"I think Kari just wants to watch something explode," I answered. "And Carys too, apparently."

Carys gave a refined giggle, covering her mouth in a manner [Basic Etiquette] highly approved of, before fetching a watermelon from a bag at the edge of the room and putting it on Grover's workbench.

"If you're right, we probably want to do this outdoors," I pointed out. "Actually, we probably want to do this outside even if you're wrong. I bet I can still smash a watermelon with my fist, boosted momentum or not."

"Yes, my workshop is messy enough already."

"Aww," pouted Kari, who still hadn't forgiven Grover for her new ears and tail, although I noticed her tail was spending a lot less time hanging limp than it used to on our last visit, so maybe it was growing on her.

Not that I was staring or anything. Or having more thoughts about getting one of my own...

After Cluma begrudgingly permitted me to put my tunic back on, we relocated outside, where I punched at the watermelon with full force. It detonated.

"While I'm glad we didn't do that in my workshop, I do wish I'd had the foresight to wear an apron," opined Grover.

"Safety goggles," I muttered, scraping chunks of watermelon off my face. "I really must get around to inventing them at some point."

"Given the amount Peter's fist slowed, combined with the usual mass of an arm and a watermelon, I would say that yes, that punch had far more momentum behind it than it should have done," said Vargalas, who was somehow completely clean. How'd he manage that? Alchemists shouldn't have defensive skills.

Cluma was also clean, standing at a further distance than most and her superhuman agility being sufficient to dodge whatever had come her way. As was Kari, having deployed an earth shield.

"That was awesome!" exclaimed Carys, who wasn't at all clean and was sporting a mad grin that [Basic Etiquette] was horrified by. "Totally worth wasting my lunch for. Shame about my robes, but I'm sure it'll wash out."

So, my movements had more momentum than the product of the mass of my arm and its velocity. No wonder my dexterity had gone down the drain. It was an interesting bit of physics abuse, but my [Mighty Swing] arte already bestowed weapons with more momentum than they should possess, so it wasn't anything unique. I did look forward to punching some snakes, though. Kicking, too, once I had my new legs.

"So, shall we move on to the rest of my limbs?"

"Right. Let's get back indoors."

We traipsed back inside, where I once again undressed, while double checking my available links. I had one in the village, one with the slime, one in the Synklisi guild, one in the Sapphire Peaks, one in the Emerald Nest, one outside on Serpent Isle and one on floor twenty. There was one in my home, of course. That was eight, and I now had a maximum of thirteen. I could use a link for all four limbs and still have one spare.

That wasn't really enough. I needed two links to make my hand-eye drone. Fortunately—while I didn't want to say it out loud and jinx it—chances were pretty good I was going to get another level here today. If not, I'd just have to discard one of my links. I'd been thinking of the Emerald Nest one, since I had no real reason to go there, but that had been selfish; Cluma had friends there, and valued my ability to teleport her. Maybe the Serpent Isle outdoor one, once we made it to the boss antechamber, which would have a portal straight to the surface anyway.

Lying on the floor, I used the first stage of [Detach] on my left arm, then, remembering the pain from last time, gritted my teeth as I activated the second stage. Carys responded with even greater celerity than last time, her life magic sealing the wound after a single heartbeat. A [Redistribute] and [Superimpose] later, and I had two overpowered arms. The legs followed just as easily, with me managing not to die of exsanguination despite Cluma's fears.

"Everything working?" asked Grover.

"Feels like," I answered, standing up. Trying to stand up. "The increased mass might be great for exploding things, but it's not so great for my ability to walk," I pointed out, back at ground level.

"Hmm... We could replace one of the enchantments with mass reduction, but that would cost you an enchantment slot."

"Yeah, I think I can get used to it. My problem is going to be when I do get used to it, and then turn [Superimpose] off, and needing to relearn how to move without it. I'm having to manually draw in mana to sustain this, and while I can do that almost unconsciously these days, I can't do it while asleep."

"You also don't need to move while asleep," pointed out Hassok.

"Well, no, but it'll be disorientating as heck when I wake up. And as second nature as it is, I still don't fancy needing to funnel mana at all times."

Buying [Rapid Mana Regeneration] and gaining a few levels would be enough to keep [Superimpose] going, as long as I wasn't paying the increased cost that came from storing the metallic limbs in my [Item Box]. I had no hope of natural regeneration covering those increased costs.

"Hmm... Maybe we didn't put enough thought in before increasing the mass."

"I don't think it's worth modifying them. As long as I alternate from time to time, I'm sure I can get used to both." It boosted my wisdom, after all, so the stat must help with managing the changes. I'd get there, even if it took some time.

That just left more tests to confirm that the performance of all four limbs matched, and we were once again done.

ding

Skill [Detach] advanced to level 14

Skill [Redistribute] advanced to level 11

Skill [Superimpose] advanced to level 9

Skill [Extended Health Pool] advanced to level 3

Skill [Extended Health Pool] advanced to level 4

Skill [Rapid Healing] advanced to level 7

Class [Eldritch Mage] advanced to level 23

For your experiments to expand the knowledge of your skills, [Test Subject] awards 5 soul points.

A good crop of skills, including the [Detach] level I was hoping for. The health pool skills were the real winners, though. I should cut limbs off more often.

"Oh, I got a class level this time," commented Kari, her tail swishing happily behind her.

"I didn't, but [Heal] levelled up," said Carys.

"I got something this time, too!" exclaimed Cluma, before turning as white as a sheet. "Huh?! No! I don't want that!"

Analysis blocked

Darn it—the appraisal blocking feature of her earring was active. "What's wrong? What did you get?" I asked, on the off chance she'd answer.

She glanced at me, then looked away in shame. "Not telling, but, umm... if you want to change your underwear now, you can."