"Eclaire, don't you think this is a very personal matter between me and Lucia?", I tease my second wife.

But it seems Eclaire doesn't get it, "Jared, I'm in this mess as much as she is. We are - or at least were to an extent - one and the same. Even if we're now different people, please remember that we started as the same person! If it concerns her, it concerns me!"

"Weird, I would've thought you'd play the spouse angle. You know, because you cheated yourself into our marriage and everything. I expected you to argue that this is a family matter."

She fidgets, "Uh, yeah, totally, there's that, too."

Seriously, why am I the only one that is affected by all of these marriage shenanigans? Is no one else bothered by the brainwashing caused by the title? No, just me? Goddamnit, people!!

I sigh, "Alright, you can stay."

Eclaire just smiles mischievously, "Yeah, I know."

Or maybe I was the one that didn't get it? I swear, this girl...

I look one more time over the [Essence Drain] skill, I need to make sure I understand all the relevant details. Screwing up with a close companion like Iris would've been bad enough but ultimately tolerable. But messing up my wife Lucia... unforgivable.

Essence Drain

[ERROR: UNKNOWN REQUIREMENT O-7734]

When you drink at least 100ml of the blood of a creature, you retain a Blood Echo of the victim.

This lasts for either 1 year or until it is used in the following effect: Choose a target between yourself, one of your familiars or a creature you touch.

You can sacrifice up to 8 skills from your own, the chosen creature and any by Blood Echo-linked creatures' skills.

These sacrifices are used to create an í̷̪l̶͚͠l̸̖̒e̷̢̚g̶̪̅ḁ̴͑l̴̠͂ extra class or mutate an existing extra class of the target creature.

The sacrificed skills can't be regained.

If a skill originates from multiple sources each instance is treated separately.

You cannot trade skills fundamental to a creature type, e.g. [Undead] or [Spirit], this way; they are only a valid sacrifice if their owner is the target of the process.

If skills were sacrificed the recipient must've lost at least 2 skills in the process, otherwise, the process fails.

The created/mutated class varies by the offered skills and essences of the involved, and, in case of mutation, on the extra class that gets modified.

Sacrificing multiple skills does not guarantee a better result.

If at least 3 skills are chosen to be sacrificed you can preview the result without losing the skills and still abort the process.

When the class creation is successful, the class granting this skill increases its level by 1 unless it is already your highest-leveled class.

A given target can only receive (1 + skill level / 15, at most 5) additional extra classes this way.

Nothing special stands out. I only need a Blood Echo from her and then we can get going, and obviously, the nighttime plays from before I acquired [Essence Drain] don't count.

"I need some of your blood for this, honey. You know how this goes, right?"

A static confirmation follows, "Y̴e̵s̴,̵ ̷I̶ ̷u̶n̴d̴e̸r̸s̷t̶a̴n̷d̸.̸ ̴I̶'̸m̵ ̷r̴e̷a̷d̴y̷.̸"

I hug my wife and sink my fangs into her neck, then drink a bit of her blood. It tastes... different. Wrong. Addicting.

A moment later, Eclaire shakes me to wake me from my stupor, "That's enough, Jared! You're killing her!"

What? I'm...

I quickly let go of her, "I'm sorry, I've no idea what came over me..."

"I̷ ̵d̶o̶n̸'̶t̷ ̶e̷i̴t̵h̷e̴r̵.̶ ̸I̷t̵ ̶j̸u̴s̷t̴ ̷f̷e̵l̸t̸ ̶r̸i̵g̷h̵t̸ ̸t̵o̸ ̷b̴e̸ ̸d̵r̴a̸i̵n̵e̴d̵ ̵d̵r̵y̵ ̸b̸y̶ ̸y̵o̷u̸.̷.̶.̷"

Eclaire slaps the back of my head and shouts, "Just 'sorry'? You almost killed her! What would you've done if I wasn't here!?"

She winds up again, but Lucia stops her, "T̶h̶a̸t̵ ̵i̶s̷ ̷e̸n̴o̴u̵g̷h̷.̷ ̴W̴e̸'̷r̶e̴ ̶j̶u̵s̷t̷ ̶u̸n̷d̴e̶r̶-̴"

Eclaire relents, "Lucy... You better explain what was going on once I can understand you again..."

It seems like Lucia wasn't finished with speaking before Eclaire said her part, she seems mad about something.

"There's a lot that has to be explained then, like this whole forced marriage business. But first, we need to get there. And for that, I need to know a few skills you're willing to sacrifice for this, Lucy", I say while checking through her skill list, "How about [Embrace]? We're not using that one."

Lucia tries to speak once more but gives up once she realizes we can't hear her anymore, so she just shakes her hand.

Eclaire takes over, "That is a no then, how about..."

After some more back and forth, We've gathered a list of skills Lucia is willing to part with: Beast Killer, Corrosive Rain, Dark Magic, Intimidation (2x), Spectral Hand as well as the Demon, Fate Breaker and World Resident titles.

This would be a prime opportunity to rid us both of the penalty title World Resident. I used my copy on Iris but it reappeared because of the title synchronization through Lucia's [Unholy Matrimony]. But if I use both of our copies...

Damn, I can't select mine. It seems to be in a weird Schroedinger state of both being present and not. I hope it'll disappear when I use Lucia's copy of the World Resident title.

I test several combinations of which skill sacrifices along with World Resident would yield a decent result, but quite soon, I end with this result for sacrificing Dark Magic, Spectral Hand and World Resident:

Hybrid Ḽ̵̃ḭ̴̔v̴̳̋ȉ̶̯n̵̠͠g̵͈͛ ̷͖͒Š̷͈ĥ̵̢a̵̎͜d̵̘͆ö̴͜ẇ̶̬ extra class Growth Rates

18.5 HP, 12 MP, 14.5 SP, 3 STR, 2 DEX, 3 VIT, 3.5 MAG, 3.5 FTH, 2.5 WIL, 1.5 CHA S̷u̵n̴'̴s̷ ̷N̸e̵m̴e̵s̴i̴s̵

Passive

Negative effects caused by the sun are doubled.

While at least 30% of the body is covered by shadow (e.g. clothing counts) and for 15 seconds after it, all effects involving the sun or indirectly triggered by it are negated. Shadowcraft

100 MP

You can reach into a shadow to create a simple, solid object you know.

The created object can for example be equipment, ammunition or crafting materials, but all stat modifications and special properties are removed.

The creation can't be larger than the shadow you used and is visually clearly made of darkness.

It lasts either until you dismiss it or don't have physical contact with it for a minute.

Crafting materials created this way are 50% harder to work with and bequeath their restricted lifetime to the created product. Shadow Walk

270 SP

You can treat shadows thrown by stationary, solid objects as portals.

You can enter such a shadow and come out from a visible shadow within 500 DU as long as both shadows are large enough for you. Light Weakness

The first skill is a double-edged sword, but as long as she doesn't prance around outside in a typical chainmail bikini she should be fine, no more need for her to avoid the sun. I have to admit, I'm jealous about that. But then, that will only be a problem for me again when this dungeon mystery ends, and maybe by then, I'll have solved it for myself as well.

Though I'm not sure where this defensive and mobile line-up comes from. [Dark Magic], the World Resident title, none of them got to do anything with it, but then the World Resident title was kind of a wild card for Iris as well. There it let her live as a (pretend) human by giving her a transformation, here it grants protection against the ur-evil called a sun.

The stats aren't too hot, like half of what Iris got in her Hybrid class, and I don't really see a use for [Shadowcraft], she can already create real weapons with [Create Weapon]. But... I'm afraid we're running out of time. I wish I could grant my wife something better, and I haven't really checked that many combinations yet but Lucia's condition is getting worse and worse by the minute and I refuse to let her suffer longer than necessary. Not if there's this massive risk that she could die any minute now, or suffer something worse...

Well, assuming this Hybrid stuff helps in the first place...

"Please let it work."

I bestow upon her the new Hybrid class and immediately see how the selected sacrifices disappear from her skill list. A moment later, Lucia falls asleep in my arms, still flickering in and out of existence like a bad TV signal, but it seems the reception is getting better, the flickering gets less severe than before.

While I wait for her to wake up or something else to happen, I keep an eye on her status but the World Resident title is already back. Shit.

I would've expected [Dark Magic] to return, given that she still has the dark affinity from [Undead] and the [Affinity Magic] skill to grant the related elemental skill, but that is not the case. But why is the title back then? I can't even select it anymore in the title list. It is displayed there, it affects our stats but it doesn't react when I click on it. This is frustrating, do you mean to tell me that I already blew our only chance to delete this bullshit title!?

Nothing I can do about that anymore and Lucia's survival is more important right now.

Clack

What was that?

Clack Clack

Damn, I'm suddenly getting a headache... And did the Hybrid class just fricking move!?

Clack

It... It just did. It moved from the last spot in her extra classes step by step to the first spot, always resynchronizing the levels with me - this has never happened before.

Previously, it was always impossible to change the position a class is in. Even when the glitch bath ruined my status, every class kept its spot without exception.

I try to, but as expected, I still can't move classes manually. As usual, glitches do whatever they want.

Name Lucia Delacroix Status none Age 18 (frozen) Classes Battle Smith 16, Fallen Saint 9, Blood Witch 9, Lead Singer 10, Forge Wizard 9

Trickster Priest 9 Race Sunbound (human) 10 Extra Hybrid 20, Vampire 20, Noble 20, Lord 20, Progenitor 8 Divine Cursed Queen 11 Title W̴̦̿o̷͕̐ȑ̷͚l̴̮̄d̷͎͑ ̴̟̓R̶̰̍è̸̬s̶̙͊ȋ̷̯d̵͔̈́e̶̿ͅn̴̪̈t̶̥̊, World Navigator, Noble, Vampire Progenitor, Daywalker, Demon Lord, Regenerator, Title Holder, Demon, Fortress Lord, Fate Breaker, Happily Married, Master Crafter, R̶̟̐û̴̫l̶̩͋e̸̡͒ṙ̶̫ ̵̼͠ǫ̸̽f̸̯͗ ̴̱̊F̴̙́a̴̙͝m̶̲̐i̵̹͠l̸̕i̴̫̒a̴͚̔ṛ̸̽s̷̪̑, S̶̬̓u̸̖̿m̵̲͑ḿ̴̪o̷͉͛n̶̫͐ ̶̖͆M̸̢̆ạ̸̈́s̷̖͛t̸̪͑e̸̙̅r̵̤̊, Summon Master, World Resident, Three of Disaster

Title Level 7 EXP approaching zero - eventually - but still negative HP 3477/4092 [5115] MP 2390/2785 [4107] SP 3252/3720 [4651] STR 786+95 (hammer) or +189 (claws) or +48 (created 1-handed weapon) DEX 645 VIT 688+56 MAG 679+20 FTH 701+15 WIL 586+31 CHA 628 Equipment Smith Hammer, Robe, Habit, Sun Guard Ring Skills - Weapon Axe Training 10, Unnatural Claws 20 Skills - Magic Bless 9, Corrosive Rain 9, Enchant Weapon 9, Earth Magic 9 (Rank 1), Fire Magic 19 (Rank 1), Ice Magic 9 (Rank 1), Profane Bolt 9, Shadowcraft 20, Twisted Pillar of Light 9 Skills - Status Charm Eye 8, Create Weapon 16, Disguise 20, Energizing Song 10, Intimidation 28, Sharpen Weapon 16 Skills - Special Embrace 20, Familiar 20, Greater Vampiric Bite 20, Shadow Walk 20 Skills - Passive Affinity Magic 9 (Rank 1), Ageless 20, Armor Training 16, Beast Killer 20, C̷̨̒u̶̢̕r̸̲̅(̶̞͝s̴̺͝)̴̩̀ĕ̵͓ Magic 11, Dark Lord 11, Enhanced Regeneration 20, Forgery 9, Hard Worker 10, Living Undead 11, Sleepless 20, S̷u̵n̴'̴s̷ ̷N̸e̵m̴e̵s̴i̴s̵ 20, Supernatural Toughness 8, Undead 20, Unholy Matrimony 11, Vampire Hierarchy 20 Queen's Dignity 11, Royal Guidance 11 Weakness Fire, Light, Dark, Holy

Weird, I could've sworn her status field showed something different before, but maybe I'm just imagining things, the pollution has affected me after all as well.

By now, Lucia has stopped flickering, "She seems to be stable now. All that is left is just to wait and see."

And maybe hope. Just because she seems fine from the outside, doesn't mean she wasn't affected mentally.

Eclair agrees, "Yeah, seems like it. At least her skills look readable again."

"What do you mean, Eclair? The skills look the same as before to me."

She shakes her head, "Maybe you should get your head checked? Her two 'unknown' skills [Queen's Dignity] and [Royal Guidance] turned into a random mess of letters and numbers several days ago. H-4-1-8-something."

"Weird", am I... so far gone already that I could read the glitch language, at least in part? Hmm, no, those skills still appear as an overlapping, ever-changing, unreadable mess. So what's going on now?

"Speaking of, I never checked what those two skills do."

Queen's Dignity

Passive

Provides immunity to stun, grapple and other effects that restrain movement.

Nice in theory, but more often than not the main threat lies in getting killed in about two hits, so this has little chance to come up. Maybe once we have a lot more levels to our names.

Royal Guidance

Passive

All class levels of your subjects slowly rise towards 80% of the level your spirits would have, if below.

The exact growth rate depends on the subject’s mental fortitude and well-being and can take anywhere between hours and months for a single level up.

If you mistreat your people or they reject you they may not profit from this at all.

This would explain why every familiar I saw had increased levels in their new classes, so I guess they are at least moderately happy with the vampiric tyrants governing them. But that is about all, I've got no clue how Lucia could create a world-shattering master plan with this.

I mean, if we had max-level spirits we would quickly have an army of nearly max-level familiars, yes, but how would we get there? I doubt there would be many problems left if we had enough classes and levels to command summoned spirits near the level cap in the first place. So at that point, it would just be a win-more type of skill.

The flood is only composed of low-level mobs, by the time I would have over nine-thousand CHA to max out my spirits, I would also have enough HP, VIT and FTH that I could just put on the corrupted [Life Eater Armor] and take an enthusiastic walk towards the goal. Any attack I'd suffer would retaliate with likely enough force to instantly kill the offender and restore any damage suffered.

And dungeons are so far not relevant. Basluth is a side quest, I don't care about those if I have something better to do. I want to remove the threat of the demon artifact - assuming it even exists - give the devas the middle finger and then settle down somewhere far away from these problems.

No, there must be something else entirely to this puzzle. We can't just start at step twelve of ten.

"I don't see how you can craft a world-shattering master plan with this. What am I missing?"

Eclair teases me, "Not telling. I promised her."

"Okay, I get it, you have no clue either, she didn't tell you anything."

"Do too!", she yells like a frustrated child.

"Then prove it!"

She angrily replies, "I said I promised her she could have the honor of telling you!!", she sighs, "Listen, I may have overdone it a bit with insults towards her intelligence when we first met, so... she just wants to prove me wrong, prove to herself that she isn't useless. Just... let her have this, okay?"

"Fine, fine. I'll let it rest."

If she doesn't want to talk about that... how else to pass some time?

"Can you tell me more about yourself? How are you around? I thought dead people... stayed dead. I mean after forcing me into a marriage, you owe me at least this much."

Eclaire thinks for a moment, "I guess this is as good a way to pass time while my counterpart naps as any other. You see, dead people are supposed to pass on to the afterlife, right? They don't, that was just a lie. It seems like the worldwide barrier traps the souls of dead people and sucks them into the dungeons. From what I could tell at the time, they are processed into... monsters. It takes some time, a lot of time. The queue was full, very full."

She takes a while to explain her whole journey starting with me turning Lucia into a vampire and ending with her not-so-random meeting in the latest death trap dungeon where Lucy abused her divine rights and the last remaining DP to turn Eclaire into a spirit to save her. Except her explanation took way more than a sentence...

"And that's why sleeping sideways is outlawed in households with magitech-powered kitchens", she exclaims proudly.

Maybe I tuned out too early. Better not click on the "yes, repeat the whole dialog five more times, please" button.