Despite living in the town, Camus was still working as a farmer, tending fields a short walk away from their house. Given the time of year, and that there wouldn't be anything planted yet, he had little to do out there other than care for a small number of hexauyos that they kept for the eggs. I would have expected Clana, who worked at the institute cafeteria, to have heard some rumours of what was going on, but given that she hadn't turned up to watch, she must have left before the gossip spread that far. With how long it had taken for Grover and Adele to perform their experiment, both of them would be home by now.
And thus me and Cluma made our way back to their house, [Mana Sight] confirming they were both in the living room before we entered. Cluma pushed open their door, and the two of them looked up. Straight into her eyes. I saw the look of confusion forming on their faces, and felt my new ears droop again, this time in perfect synchronisation with Cluma's.
Bursting into laughter at synchronised ear droopage wasn't the way I'd envisioned this conversation starting. Cluma turned to me in anger, having been walking in front of me and not seen my own ears, and hence thinking I was laughing at her parents' reaction. I had to explain what happened, which cheered her straight back up. Thankfully, she saw the amusing side too.
"Will one of you please explain what's going on?" asked Camus, pinching his nose in exasperation. "Why does Cluma look so different, and why does Peter have catkin ears? Just how much mischief have you managed to get up to in one afternoon?"
"I'll start," I said, wiping my eyes. "I wanted to take Cluma to other dungeons without separating her from you, but I couldn't think of any sane ideas, so... I tried a slightly insane one. I can put something into [Item Box] here and eject it at one of my beacons, so I wondered if I could use [Item Box] on Cluma in order to teleport her. It turned out that I could, but she lost health in the attempt. We went to visit the institute to see what they made of it, where Kari had me try a couple more times. Unfortunately, flooding Cluma with my more powerful mana had... side effects."
"My species changed from catkin to cat-sìth, and I got a new [Magical Beast] trait. Apparently I'm good at magic and have purple eyes and black hair now," elaborated Cluma, without mentioning the fact that she ended up unconscious for two hours in the process. "Also, I need a haircut."
Clana and Camus boggled.
"So she said that since I changed her species, she was going to punish me by changing mine, so now I have these cute fake ears, complete with a rank four irremovable enchantment so I can't take them off. And biological integration, so they behave properly. So yeah, we had a rather strange day. Even if Cluma had her revenge already, I thought I owed you an apology too. I'm sorry."
ding
Skill [Basic Etiquette] advanced to level 2
Huh? Oh, I'd apparently done some sort of official gesture of apology without even thinking about it. A tip of the head and very slight bow while crossing my arms across my chest, hands on my shoulders. I'd never heard of that gesture before the skill downloaded it into my head, so Camus or Clana might not recognise it either, but at least it looked official.
"As much as I hate to admit it, you two are made for each other," grumbled Camus.
""Huh?"" we both replied, in perfect sync.
"Cluma, why would you let Peter try to use [Item Box] on you? And then again, even though it hurt you the first time?"
"Kari said it would be safe!"
"So? You'd already experienced it first-hand and knew it wasn't. She was mistaken. And then you, Peter. You had permission from Cluma to try it, so why so guilty?"
"She neglected to mention that after her species swapped, she ended up unconscious for two hours. Without me and Kari managing the mana around her, she struggled to even breathe. It was a dangerous accident."
That made Camus frown. And Cluma; apparently she hadn't wanted to share that, but if I was apologising, it would help to explain what I was apologising for.
"Only because of the System! You and Kari were both right up until that point; it was safe. It wasn't you that hurt me, it was the System!" argued Cluma. "And then I hurt you..." she added, in a smaller voice.
"Look, I don't know quite what happened, but is anyone permanently injured?" asked Clana, joining in at last.
""No,"" we both answered.
"Are either of you upset at the other?"
""No!""
"Is Cluma going to need a special diet, or other accommodations, or face changes to her day-to-day life?"
We looked at each other. ""No?"" we responded, still in sync.
"Then I'm afraid I fail to see what difference a changed word in your status makes. Camus is right; the two of you are equally insane."
There I was, getting all worked up, and Clana's just waving it off. Camus was struggling, though, hearing how bad the accident had been. Why had that even happened? The System was generally safe. I may have knocked myself out buying too many skills, but I'd never heard of the System causing problems by automatically adding a trait before. Nor had I heard of it changing someone's species at all. I suppose Darren counted for dangerous traits; it didn't hurt him directly, but without me controlling him, he surely would have torched himself...
The worst case would be that without Erryn to manage it, something had broken. Should I call not-Blobby and ask her to help me get into the ark? What could I even do if I was there? Erryn hadn't figured out how the System worked even after six hundred years. But now that spring was here, I needed to get back to the twins and put some serious effort into saving them from the Law, which was likely to involve an ark trip anyway.
...And here I was, standing next to Cluma, who was fully under its control, and yet I'd never put any effort into freeing her at all. I was too attached to the status quo. These people are already under the control of the Law, so I can leave them. These other people aren't, so I should ensure that remains the case. The logic of apathy.
I left the house, leaving Camus to talk to Cluma without me. Should I try to free Cluma? Her family? My family? What would people be like without it? Would Darren become a real arsonist? Would Camus have tried to murder me to keep Cluma safe, rather than fleeing from me to the Emerald Nest?
Unwilling to return home to face my parents, I ended up wandering to the delvers guild to see if I could pick up any information on new dungeons, beyond what I'd got from Camus. Alas, thanks to the late hour, reception had closed. I could still hear noise from the bar, though. Maybe I should sit in there for a while. I took a pace towards the door.
"Peter? Can you hear me?"
Erryn?! What? How?
"Hello? I have no idea if this is working."
I paused. It was telepathic communication, but the voice was different and it lacked the rustling and the feeling of attention that always accompanied Erryn talking to me. There was only one other being I knew of that had the ability to communicate with me telepathically, a feature of my unwanted [Soul Bound] trait. But how was I supposed to talk back? She obviously couldn't read my mind like Erryn, so I must need to do something active.
"Hello?" I tried, thinking as loudly as I could.
"If you can hear me, please come and visit. We need to talk."
That hadn't worked, then. Having spent the weeks since our soul-splice doing my best to ignore the fact that I had one of my fingers forever entombed in a shell of jelly, I now tried to focus on it. At least the permanent changes I'd inflicted on Cluma were better than what I'd done to myself.
Through [Mana Sight], I could see that not-Blobby was in her bedroom, the overwhelming quantity of pink thankfully not reflected in the room's mana. There was no-one else there. "Hello?" I tried again, this time focusing on my finger and its connection to not-Blobby's core.
"Eeep!"
"Umm. Sorry? So you could hear me that time?"
"Stop shouting! I'm not deaf!"
"Hey, this is my first time using telepathy," I pointed out, trying to think a little more quietly. "I think I'm doing well for you to hear me at all. Is this better?"
"Much. Now get yourself over here. I want to talk to you properly."
"So it really was the System glitching then," I thought.
"Huh? What has the System got to do with anything?"
Or maybe it wasn't... Was the timing just coincidence?
"What timing?"
"Bah, I've not got the hang of this. I didn't intend to think that last bit out loud. What is it you want then?"
"Just get over here. Please."
There was a mental click and the noise cut out. Did she just hang up on me?! How rude! And also, how do I learn how to do that? Spending six-hundred years in telepathic contact with Erryn must have taught her a few tricks, even if in my experience, not-Blobby always talked back with her voice.
Regardless, I wasn't going to teleport over there tonight. No way was I teleporting using not-Blobby's finger, or I'd end up wrapped up in her again, and the other teleport beacon I'd left was inside the delvers guild, which would be closed. Maybe that wouldn't matter, given that this world hadn't got around to inventing door locks, but when I left a chunk of toe in the room they used as a teleportation point, it did have very clear hours listed.
I teleported home instead.
"Mummy, Peter is wearing something weird again," said Darren, who was standing and staring in my bedroom.
"Mum, Darren is invading my bedroom to watch me using magic again," I retorted, climbing off my bed and rubbing his head. I'd actually managed to forget about my new ears, with the surprise of not-Blobby's sudden phone-call. "And don't worry. It's nothing made of lace."
I walked into the living room, Darren following after me.
"Oh? You've decided to make them part of your regular outfit?" asked dad, grinning. "Wait, it just flicked!"
"Yeah, they do that. Long story. Short version—yes, Grover can enchant ears and tails to be more realistic. The tail didn't work out, though. Also, I almost killed Cluma."
Obviously, they demanded the long version too, forcing me to retell it all over again, during which time Darren was poking and prodding my ears, apparently attracted by the interesting enchantments. To be fair, I was interested myself. With [Mana Sight], I could clearly see that my own mana was running through them. There may not have been blood or nerves involved, but they had definitely integrated themselves with me to some extent.
I even took a peek with [Soul Perception], thankful to find that my soul hadn't started to occupy them.
With the tale told, I went to bed. Quite enough had happened for one day, and I was glad to be done with it. Not that tomorrow promised to be much better. Should I bring Cluma with me? On the one hand, the interactions between her and not-Blobby would probably be amazing, but on the other, not-Blobby was dangerous. On the third hand—since Grover was making such an effort to give people more—she could see some of the great dungeon. And on the fourth, much of what she would see would be overcrowded newbies. Well, I'd just have to ask her and let her make her own choice. Kari was right about that part.
Which left only one question; how the heck was I supposed to sleep when my pillow kept tickling my fake ears?!
Sushi potato
I hope that one day Kluma will leave Peter for being a [dish licker](an expression meaning to eat the leftovers of the owners).
can i ask why? cause one the author is definitely making it seem like cluma is his love interest and two i dont see how peter is a [dish licker] as you call it
yeah why? i don't get it either
@DStoDS
In terms of love, I don't believe that Peter is capable of love, as his ability to love has been replaced by [not insulting another person's love feelings].
So he will [not insult the love feelings of another person] all his life torturing other women and himself with this.
He is the product of a society with a much more cruel law in which love was called harassment and the prohibitions were brought to the point of absurdity when people in love with each other make sure that the hand hangs, but does not touch the ass, when taking a photograph.
Second,
Peter looks down on people.
This contempt is manifested both in overprotection of others, and in the denial of their real achievements.
For example, he doesn't give a damn about the fact that Kira, as an experienced person, handled Kluma's mana glut situation better than the doctors in the hospital would have done, where they would just put her on the bed.
It doesn't matter to him that Kira knows more doctors and is much more experienced, what matters to him is that doctors have a piece of paper with the right to treat, while Kira doesn't.
If he had the opportunity, he would [paper correctly] put Kluma in a hospital where she could become disabled or die and neglect the help of a really competent Kira who could save Kluma from disability or death.
Peter is the one who will cause suffering and evil [for your own good].
I won't be surprised if one day he takes the law system from restrictions to a complete prison with [accept/deny list] restrictions.
He still hasn't warned the twins that they shouldn't buy skills in the store and should try to gain them as far as possible outside the system and unnoticed by it. All his reasoning about caring for these twins is hypocrisy, so he will tell them about the law when they definitely cannot avoid falling under its influence or already fall under it.
I hope that the twins will then show him the door and ask him never to show his face again.
And yes, after that he will tell another chapter of reasoning about morality and his feelings of guilt.
@torvn77 First can i ask what the brackets around some words are about
Second, i disagree with the fact that peter would be incapable of love, at least from the view that earths stigmas surrounding love have trained his brain in such a way.
I see it like this, ignoring the magic, peter is an outsider, through and through, he knows it, erryn knows it, his status tells him it. and the world he now lives in has its own style of cultures which are completely different from his own and he isn't used to it even after however many years of exposure to the culture.
This is probably gonna sound racist but I'm using it as an example, lets take someone from a city in Mexico, and they permanently move to japan. This person has lived in Mexico for 20 years and now has a completely different culture to contend with, but he meets this girl, who loves him back. He's trying his best to fit in with her culture but is struggling to change his mind set for it. Would you say this person is wholly incapable of love?
Yes their is much more of a culture difference between earth and the new world (forgot what its called) but a culture difference does not make someone unable to love, even if they aren't following the same style of love as the new culture.
Now thirdly, a quote from two chapters ago, where he wanted to take Cluma to a hospital and Kira said no
Or perhaps I was panicking, after having found out she was crushing on me and then badly injuring her immediately afterwards... At least all the times I'd almost killed myself, it had only been me affected!
he is very worried for Cluma's safety especially after this new information and Kira has reliably shown that she cares more about learning about magic than the safety of others which he also states in the chapter
Given Kari's definition of 'safe', I really wanted to question her instructions, but I followed them anyway. She seemed more excited than worried, which hopefully meant she didn't think Cluma was in danger. Surely the Law wouldn't let her risk someone's safety to feed her magic obsession?
and again this is another culture thing, he's been trained in the thinking that the doctors most of the time know best from earth and that people who aren't doctors shouldn't be relied upon for medical help and advice. How would you feel if your Significant other is on the floor not breathing and some person with a history of being unreliable says "I got this, you don't want to go to the doctors for help"
and I don't really remember the twins chapters well enough to give a strong opinion to one side or the other but I can say this, he fell under the influence of they system in some ways anyways, and his meddling accidental or purposeful has affected a great number of people. Be it his younger brother, they fact that he practically killed Erryn with his talk about why do dungeons have to kill people, they fact that he nearly killed not blobby with his own soul meddling and the now permeant change Cluma has underwent.
He might look down on people but I see it as "I don't think they know better" rather than "I know better than them". Yeah he's overprotective of them. but peter is a fool in some ways and recent chapters has shown that. He never thought to ask Cluma her opinion on staying close to home, he assumed, and he realized this, but he's not denying them their real achievements, he's "protecting" them from dangerous situations that he put them in. Especially with Cluma.
The orc and slimes way back. Cluma leaving forever because of her family thinking Peter was too dangerous to be around. Cluma's failures in some parts of the dungeon (which he tries to help fix, in a way that helped for him). and again now he's put Cluma in a dangerous situation because he's changed her entire species