I bit down on the urge to panic as Cluma helped me to a chair. Nothing was wrong, per se. Rather, things were... right? Certainly more functional than expected. I could hear through my false ears, despite the fact they didn't have the relevant parts, and weren't plumbed into my nervous system. Then again, I could feel through the previous versions, and they'd never had the nerves required for that, either, which reduced the shock factor somewhat.

Could I just remove them? Yes, they had bits of soul in them, but I'd had plenty of ensouled bits chopped off without issue. Not least every morning for the past four days. It just kinda dissipated from the dead bit and reformed above the wound on my real body. Would I be stuck with nascent soul bumps forever, or would they decay again?

"What's wrong?" asked Cluma with concern. "You look as pale as when you were full of mamba venom."

"Remember Grover was surprised his rank five biological integration didn't do anything special? Turns out it was just time delayed."

"What? Then why are you just sitting there? Get them off!"

"I'm not sure if that would make things better or worse."

"Then let's get you to the institute so Jason can fix you. You and your stupid stupidness!"

"You were the one that first started this whole thing!"

"... But you're the one who took it too far," she grumbled.

"You don't need to worry; it's not like they're broken. Everything sounds echoey because I can hear through them, and they're messing with my sense of balance."

"Wait, you can hear with them? How does that work?"

"No idea."

Catkin ears were totally superior to human ones, at least on other people. Their habit of displaying what the owner was feeling was great when it happened to someone else, but not so much to me. Aside from that, though, Cluma had far better hearing than me, and better balance too, although I wasn't sure how much of that was thanks to her ears. Plus, of course, they were cute and fluffy. Who didn't want to be cute and fluffy?

I was tempted to remove my human ones, but that would leave me with holes in the side of my head while not actually solving any of my problems, given that the relevant parts of the ear were on the inside.

"Hmm... You're looking a little better now, but I still think we should get you looked at."

"I just need some time to adapt. Totally worth it, if I get beastkin-level hearing."

"Stop being so flippant! This is your health we're talking about!"

"That's why we're headed to the institute," I pointed out, skipping the fact that we were planning on heading there anyway for the final day of hihi'irokane production. "I think I'm up to walking now. Let me grab some breakfast quickly."

I ended up with a banana, eaten en route, as Cluma practically pushed me out of the door.

"Stop panicking; I'm fine," I insisted, and it was true. The disorientation had completely gone. Everything still sounded different, but I wasn't having trouble picking out speech.

"No, you think you're fine," she replied, still pushing me down the street. Still, it could have been worse; at least she wasn't princess-carrying me again.

A short journey later, and we were once again back in Grover's office. "You need to look at his ears. They've gone weird!" exclaimed Cluma without so much as a hello or a hug.

"Oh? Weird how?"

"I can hear through them, and my balance was off when I woke up, although it's fixed itself now." And the soul bumps had subtly but noticeably increased in size since I last looked, too.

"Most interesting. I wonder why there was a delay?"

Given the tiny increase in soul size since the last time I checked, the bumps had probably been growing since I'd had them grafted. That was likely the reason for the delay. With [Soul Perception] on, I could just barely perceive mine growing into my extended body.

ding

Skill [Soul Perception] advanced to level 17

"That's not the point! Fix him!"

"What's there to fix? Aren't they working perfectly?"

"No!" exclaimed Cluma.

"Yes," I agreed, in a more restrained voice. "It took some getting used to, but I don't see any problems now."

"What? You're just going to accept that?"

"A few minutes of vertigo in exchange for improved hearing seems like a good deal to me," I said with a shrug. I was far more concerned about the soul interactions, which presumably had something to do with how I could hear from them despite the fact they weren't real, had no moving parts capable of responding to sound, and weren't even plugged into my brain.

Brains were starting to seem somewhat overrated. How much was the System hacking mine, and how much was it not involved to start with? What was brain, and what was soul? While I'd obviously retained memories that belonged to a brain buried and decayed on another planet, it couldn't just be the soul. Loss of memory due to brain damage was well documented on Earth.

"Hey, Jason. What does a brain do?" I asked the visiting expert on all things fleshy.

"Huh? Consciousness, memory, intelligence, that sort of thing. It pretty much runs the place. But that's a bit basic; even a toddler could tell you that. Did you mean something more specific?"

"Yeah. How much of 'me' is my brain, and how much is my soul?"

"Ah, an interesting philosophical question. There are no known skills that contain information about souls, so there's nothing we can say about them." He paused and frowned as he remembered where he was. The System not giving information for free was no excuse for that sort of defeatist answer here in the institute. "There's also no known way to observe them, so finding out anything on our own would be difficult."

"For a start, there's the sort of ailments soul affinity resistance enchantments defend against. Sleep, confusion, and so on. Aren't they things the brain should be responsible for?"

Jason flashed a look of confusion before switching back to blank. Damn. No help from him, then.

"Well, now that you're here, shall we get started?" asked Grover, hefting an axe.

"Huh? Weren't we... talking about Peter's ears?" asked Cluma, head tilted in confusion.

"Yeah. They're all fine," I said, switching off [Soul Perception]. I'd need to keep checking regularly, but they didn't seem harmful. "On the other hand, that is not fine," I added, staring in horror at Grover's weapon.

"Why not? You can't expect me to remove a leg with a scalpel, lad."

Why was I doing this again? Between letting enchanted ears modify my soul and letting Grover hack my legs off repeatedly, it was a surprise I didn't get [Self-Destructive] back.

"Fine. Get it over with, then."

To give him credit, he was efficient, and we soon had a neat row of hihi'irokane legs lined up, ready to be turned into... Actually, I had no clue. "What are you going to do with all that?"

"What'd you mean, 'all that'? We've hardly got any!"

"There's not loads. Not enough to start making stuff for public sale, but it's not as if you only have a few flakes." It was that paralysing middle ground, where there was enough stuff to do some serious work with, but not enough to want to waste any. If one wasn't careful, it was the sort of situation that could result in staring at it forever, never feeling like it was the right time to use it up.

"True. Well, as the lass suggested back at the start, the first thing we'll do is upgrade the mana concentration chamber. Any leftovers will be used to equip a battalion the guild is arranging to farm platinum."

I blinked at the term I'd never heard before. "Battalion?"

"You'd need to ask them for the precise details, but they'll conscript several delving parties capable of operating on floor fifty-five of the grand dungeon. The weaker groups will keep the path between the entrance teleporter and boss chamber free of monsters, while the stronger parties will make repeated runs on the boss."

There wasn't really any demand for platinum, so supplies were nearly non-existent. Assuming their upgrades to the mana concentration chamber permitted its easy conversion, there would be a sudden, huge desire for more. Unlike gold, it didn't seem like delvers would be able to respond to the increased demand without some amount of central coordination.

At least until everyone was equipped with hihi'irokane weapons, armour and accessories.

"Good. I'm starting to get used to watching you chop bits off Peter, and that's not the sort of thing I want to get used to," complained Cluma, who hadn't even mentioned the axe.

"It's not really the sort of thing I want to get used to either," I agreed.

"I'll let you know once we're done with the mana concentration chamber. It'll be worthwhile to get Darren back here and see what he can do."

Our time at the institute over, we returned home again, Cluma pottering along behind me wearing a mildly confused expression.

"Did I miss something back there?" she asked.

"Hmm? Missed what?"

"I... don't know. We were worried about your ears, and then it was all resolved and no-one was bothered any more, but I don't remember Jason actually checking you out. At the time, it seemed natural, but in retrospect it doesn't make sense."

"You don't need physical contact to use skills like [Eye of Judgement]," I pointed out, which was a hundred percent true while having no relevance whatsoever to her question.

"Yes, but..." she stopped and shook her head. "Anyway, I think we should skip the dungeon today. And your tail."

"I honestly feel completely fine. The disorientation only lasted a few minutes. No reason to change our plans."

"You're really going to swap out your tail again? Despite what's happening with your ears?"

"Keeping up my promise of better communication, I'll be honest with you. Even if the System decides to outright race-change me, I'm not going to care."

Cluma blinked. "What? Seriously? But if you were a beastkin, you'd get the mana penalty."

"Would I? You don't."

"Uh... But... Why? Is this about the children thing?"

"Partially; I know you want some. But also, I just agree with your progenitor. Humans are silly and overcomplicated."

"That's not humans; that's just you. And adding a tail will just make you more weird and incomprehensible, not less."

"So?"

"You make no sense!"

I just giggled. The start of the day may have been slightly off-putting, but I'd already completely recovered. "Let's grab some lunch, then back to the dungeon."

"Fine. Steak."

"For lunch?"

"It's compensation for the trauma you're causing me!"

"Sometimes I have no idea why you put up with me," I commented, resisting the urge to smirk. She wore her emotions as openly as I did, after all, so I knew she wasn't upset.

"Because you feed me steak, obviously. Also, cuddles."

A quarter hour later, we were on floor twenty-one of the dungeon. As the maps had described, the quirk of the next batch of floors was roaming portals. Thankfully, [Mana Sight] could pick them out, and I watched a few drift slowly down nearby corridors, dissipating when they hit the end.

Without an ability to know when we'd just walked through a portal—or when a portal had moved through us—trying to keep track of our location would have been a nightmare. Someone could walk down one passage and end up in one of two different locations depending on timing. Not to mention that they could walk from one room to another, do a u-turn, walk back down the same corridor but end up in a different room. With the way all the rooms looked the same, navigation would have been hell.

Thankfully, we did have such an ability. Both of us. All we needed was to be careful we didn't get separated by one of us walking through a portal just as it appeared or dissipated.

Even if we could deal with the maze, we still needed to handle the monsters. They were the highest level mobs we'd ever faced, and I could pick up a pair of them in the very first room. The dungeon's documentation listed them as 'lacuna wolves' and gave a brief description of their ability to create illusions with spatial magic, but it was no substitute for seeing them in person.

My [Mana Sight] could pick out the wolf-shaped monsters, only a metre high, waiting for their prey. If it wasn't for the prior warning, and the whiff of spatial affinity around them, and around an empty space the opposite side of the room, I'd have had no clue what they were doing. When I looked at where they were actually standing, the warped space meant that I saw an empty area from the other side of the room. When I looked at that area, I saw the monsters.

It wasn't infallible; because the locations were swapped, attacking their false images would cause the weapon to become visible in the position they were really standing. Nevertheless, I was glad of my [Mana Sight].

"Can you see where they really are?" I asked Cluma, who was staring intently through the wall.

"I... think so. I levelled [Mana Perception] again, anyway, so that's a good sign."

Again? Was it going to evolve itself into [Mana Sight]? Maybe even a fourth ranked version?