Sheeno had brought dinner with her, and we had a quick meal while I pondered on what to do next.

“Maybe a better form of attack for yourself? [Mana Bolts] and [Mana Orbs] become pretty useless in the face of high enough defense or agility, so you would need both something quicker, and something stronger”, she said, when I asked for inputs.

“I mean… you’re right, but that is mostly from my staff and… and I have yet to enhance it.”

I slapped a hand to my forehead, realizing that I hadn’t upgraded any of my equipment with my previous discovery; and the fact that I hadn’t done so for my [growth] item made me feel all the more stupid.

I was waiting for a better moment to point it out, but yes.

I let [Buddy]’s comment fly, since I deserved it this time.

“One moment, I just remembered that I yet had something else to do” I explained to my tall companion.

“Sure, but don’t take too long, since none of us has a [Fire affinity] to reheat the dinner once it goes cold”, she warned.

I waved a hand at her, as a sign of acknowledgment, but my mind was already working on how to enchant my clothes. The fact that I was wearing them didn’t matter, since it neither made it easier, nor harder, to [Enchant] them. I started by removing the old work, erasing even the [Enchantments] they had come with (not without committing their [Matrix] to memory though), and then I added [Adaptability] to everything: Everything went according to plan, with the equipment gaining general protections, while also becoming capable of further protection the longer they were exposed to a type of damage; at least, that was true until I got to the staff.

Name:

Adaptive Staff of Growth

Owner:

Darwin Dulcet

Type:

Catalyst; Quarterstaff

Rank:

Growth (Epic)

Property:

Growth; Adaptability; Orb; Bolt; Barrier; Anthiteism; Dampen

The [Property] section was new, another sign that my [Inspect] was evolving, but [Adaptibility] was a [Trait], not a [Property], and the fact that [Orb], [Bolt], [Barrier] and [Dampen] were listed so casually next to it was worrisome, since their [Matrix] didn’t feel like the ones they had before, and they too weren’t ‘properties’.

The only thing I did was copy and paste [Mana Orb], [Mana Bolt], [Elemental Anthitetism] and [Kinetic Dampening], but, somehow, [Adaptability] was able to influence the process, and make them into something more generalized, without my input.

The only net positive I could see was that it had grown to the [Epic tier].

“[Enchanting] and [Spell-Weaving] without being able to completely see the [Matrix] was a mistake: Even with that lever cranked to the max I still have difficulties seeing properly.”

True, but I can tell you that the [Property] section in items is normal: Anything an inanimate object can do on its own is counted as a [Property].

As per the changes that there have been, the only Information that I could find was that since the [Spells] have lost their [Mana] nomenclature they will be much more malleable and personalizable during casting.

“You mean that while I had to push for them to accept [Mana] attuned to a certain [Affinity], they will now do so more readily?”

Yes, and that is not exclusive to your Affinities, those in the ambient or shielded by the Barrier from the staff can be utilized too.

“That… that’s a big fucking deal!”

And that too was an understatement: My major complaint about my situation was that I didn’t have any direct way to attack, and this event was just the ‘game changer’ that I needed to be even more OP.

I would also check your clothes a second time.

“Check my clo-“ I started mentally asking, but the screens that appeared when using inspect halted my query.

Name:

Adaptive set of the Beginning

Owner:

Darwin Dulcet

Type:

Garment; cloth; Enchanted

Rank:

Rare

Property:

EverClean; Adaptability; Anthiteism; Dampen

Name:

Adaptive Cape of Protection

Owner:

Darwin Dulcet

Type:

Cloak; cloth; Enchanted

Rank:

Rare

Property:

EverClean; Termostasis; Adaptability; Anthiteism; Dampen

“Well… shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Asked Sheeno while putting a hand over one of my shoulders, having heard the exclamation that I inadvertently made out loud.

“Ready for another secret that you’ll have to keep between us?” I asked, flashing her a skittish smile once I turned around to face her.

She proceeded to remove the hand from my shoulder and place all four on her hips and sides, while simply asking “what did you do now?” while squinting at me.

Quickly deciding on how much I wanted to disclose to her, I went with a less problematic, yet truthful, version of the story:

“I may have successfully [Enchanted] my equipment with a plethora of innovative [Enchantments], without overloading the structure, nor having it release so much mana to resemble a ‘magical fallout’, like the building we’re in…” seeing that she only responded with a raised eyebrow, I kept going, “so, I think that will be a problem if anyone tries to look at me with a powerful enough [Inspect Ability]”.

“Darwin, there are [True Enchanters] and [Master Enchanters] that can put up to five [Enchantments] on a piece without any problems, so you have nothing to-“

“My staff has currently seven [Properties]”, I interrupted her, irritated that she’d dismiss my worries so easily.

She appear annoyed that I had interrupted her, but that emotion only seemed to last for a few seconds: Once realization occurred, awe, surprise, and worry took its place.

“Well, shit! I might take you up on that offer or re-[Enchanting] my royal garbs, if you can make whatever you did work with consistency”, finally said a wide-eyed frost maiden.

“Wait, no, I best not get into the habit of calling her a ‘maiden’, since she hates that.”

“Until I learn to hide the results, I’m kind of scared of even exiting this room, why would you ask me to increase the number of evidences one would need to take into consideration when deciding to whether kidnap me, and beat my secrets out of me, or kill me, and make it so they will fade into obscurity!?” My breath was growing ragged by the end of the rant.

“Kindap, kil- Darwin, you’re a [Transferred], if anyone tried anything of the like they would get a [Divine Smite] dropped on their head, doubly so since your [Patron] is one of the main [Gods]. Honestly, one that even dares to try it is just an asshole that would deserve to suffer the consequences anyway”, she reassures me, first with surprise, and then expressing disgust at the idea of the offending party.

That… made sense, but fear didn’t need to be rational.

“ ’The mother of idiots is always pregnant’, so you shouldn’t trust so easily that everyone would do the reasonable thing. And I bet that isn’t different in this pocket universe”, I interjected, waving a finger at her.

“True, and I love that turn of phrase, by the way, so maybe you could just extend that [Anti-Scrying] effect on your hand to a bigger area around you?” She calmly says, while gently lowering my pointed finger with one of her hands.

“My what?” I dumbly ask, only for her to point to my left hand, “oh, my glove? Of course!”

And I went back to tinkering.

But I immediately stopped my work.

The [Matrix] of the glove was amorphous, and difficult to look at, which reminded me of some of the equipment the [Adventurers] we passed by had.

“Uh. Well, the glove was a gift, and I have no idea on how to work around [Scrying] on my own, so I don’t think that would work until I study up on the subject”, I awkwardly said.

“That’s a pretty expensive gift, but what’s it for then?” She asked, pointing at it again.

“…Another secret that I’m not ready to divulge yet”, I said while looking at how she would react.

“All right then, keep your secret”, she half muttered at me.

“Sure Frodo”, I fully muttered back.

“What?” She asked confused.

“What?” I asked back, innocently.

“That’s the second time you’ve done that”, the stacked giantess said while staring squarely at me.

“I don’t have the faintest clue of what you’re talking about” I responded while looking away, unable to hold her gaze.

“…Fine! Have it your way. Then you could check that it doesn’t have a trigger to extend its effect to other things… You have no idea of what that would look like, right?” Her shoulders dropped at the end of her discourse.

“Hehe”, I awkwardly laughed, while scratching the back of my head.

“Equal to a [True Enchanter] my ass”, she stated, while shaking her head.

* * *

Turns out that there was such a button, at least a metaphorical one that could be activated with a thought, and the [Anti-Scrying] effect quickly started affecting everything that either me, or my mana, was touching.

Although, it wasn’t easy finding it, since I didn’t want Sheeno to fiddle with it, and get her too close for comfort to the [Blank Demonic Contract] that I was trying to hide, and she couldn’t describe what I was looking for with little more than charades, since she wasn’t an [Enchanter] herself.

Name:

Anti-Scrying Glove

Owner:

Darwin Dulcet

Type:

Artifact

Rank:

Epic

Properties:

Obfuscation; Adaptability

And I even threw [Adaptability] on it, daring to see what would happen, but nothing seemed to come from it.

The fact that Merga gave me only one glove made even more sense now, since they had such a function, and two of them would probably do little more than add a level of control over what gets obscured and whatnot. Or maybe give a failsafe born of redundancy. She probably didn’t say anything about it because she either thought that my [Inspect] had already evolved, and I already had found out on my own, or she thought that it would have been funnier to have me mess with the thing until I found out.

Knowing the [Depth Witch], it was probably the latter.

Now, with my secrets protected from prying eyes, I and Sheeno were going towards the dormitories that they had assigned to us, at least until we could afford better housing.

Well, until I could afford it.

Sheeno was still salty about it.

“I want you to know that I’m still not happy about how things turned out”, she grumbled at my side.

“And I want you to know that I appreciate that you’re indulging this whim of mine”, I earnestly said back.

After a deep sigh, she responded “I know, but I’m still gonna miss the comfy bed”.

“Oh, I’m sorry, is the [Princess] complaining about the future lack of posh furniture?”

She growled at me for my statement, but that only made me laugh, and she unsuccessfully held back a smile of her own.

“It’s weird to think that we haven’t known each other for more than a couple of days, and yet we already are this comfortable with one another. Maybe I was just touch-starved, and I bonded to her, just like I had with Undine and Merga? Maybe… but her being more handsy than I’m used to probably helped…

Not that ‘being handsy’ would have been difficult for her, since she has four of them.”

You did not just ruin a moment of introspection with a damned pun.

You are absurd sometimes.

“And I care about you too [Buddy], since having my thoughts constantly naked to your inspection probably helped our relationship along.”

I can tell that you are still wary of me from time to time, but we definitely went a long way from when you were thinking that I wanted to “high-jack” your body, or other horrible ideas like that.

“You can blame the culture back on Earth for that, but the initial diffidence was all mine.”

I know, I share part of your memories after all.

Which I still thought was weird, but it only made it easier for us to get along.

Bickering and insults included.

Apart from adjusting my goggles when walking through the aisles, nothing eventful happened, and we got to our assigned room.

Opening the door, I noted that the initial space seemed to be a communal room, with a couple of coffee tables and two sofas each, while in the back there were three doors, that once inspected revealed to lead to one bathroom, and two lightly furnished bedrooms.

“Better than I thought, honestly… Well, I’m going for a jog before sleep, since I feel that I haven’t moved enough today, wanna come with?” She casually asked, after finishing her inspection of the place.

The allure of observing her jiggly bits from behind, while they jiggled, even more, was strong, but, unfortunately, I was mentally exhausted.

“Sorry, but I’m beat. I think that I’m just going to hit the sack, if you don’t mind”, I replied, and accentuated the fact with a big yawn at the end.

“No prob, see you tomorrow then!” She said, slapping me on the shoulder hard enough to make me stumble and then rushing out with a big smile on her face, before I could say anything back.

I randomly opted for the left room, since the left was always right, and quickly went to sleep.

Sheeno must have been capable of being quieter than I thought, since the next morning she awoke me only when she decided to bang on my door, already full of energy, even tho I still felt groggy from sleep and had slept for at least a couple of hours more than her.

But nothing seemed to dampen her joyous mood: She was ready for an adventure.

And, honestly, I was too.