Hassok, wearing my bracelet, inspected my and Cluma's new armour sets. "I could probably forge some chain mail to give additional protection to the joints, but if I attach it to the leather as-is, it would tear out in no time. We'd need to redesign the entire outfit to have proper anchor points. And if you're assuming it's a solution that wouldn't impede your movement at all, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. You'd lose maybe a quarter of your range. Better than plate, certainly, and it's an interesting idea, but I think you're overestimating the ratio of advantages to disadvantages."

"I don't see why you're so focused on chain mail," commented Grover. "I mean, all you really want is something that's both hard and flexible..."

"Aren't they mutually exclusive?" I asked, just as he smashed the puddle of corpusclite with a hammer.

The hammer went sproing, bouncing off, tearing itself from Grover's hand and flying across the room, where it crashed into a wall.

"Wow. Bouncy!" exclaimed Cluma.

"Umm... Are you suggesting I wear that?"

"Why not? It seems perfectly safe," he said, prodding it with an unprotected finger.

Cluma bounced up and started doing the same. "Wow, this is weird," she giggled.

"Despite only being rank three, these materials are all useful. I can already see how this lightning-touched steel could boost the output of an electro-thaumic projector, maybe by as much as half."

"Darren made that at ambient mana density. He might be able to make something even better with denser mana, with proper precautions to ensure he doesn't electrocute everyone in the institute."

Grover twitched, no doubt trying hard to resist the urge to run to the village and drag Darren back immediately.

"And if you can find mages with other affinities..." I added, trying to tantalise him further. "We've barely scratched the surface here. This is only five affinities out of fourteen, and what happens if we mix multiple affinities at once, or start with different base metals?"

"You have space and time, don't you? Didn't you try them?"

"Umm... do you know what effect raw space or time affinity mana would have on their surroundings?"

"No," he admitted.

"Nor me, and I didn't really want to find out. Prove that it's safe, and I'll see what happens if I force space or time affinity into steel."

Hassok whacked Grover over the head. "We've got more than enough on our plate already. Deal with that first, and then you can get excited about new possibilities."

"... Spoilsport."

Hassok joined in the prodding of the corpusclite. "I'll need to do some experiments, but it's possible we could coat the leather in this stuff. We'll need more of it, though."

"That's not a problem. Let me borrow your mana concentration chamber, and I can make as much of it as you like."

Hassok nodded. "Between this bracelet and getting to play with new materials, I'll make you the best armour I can, but if you'll indulge my curiosity, how did you get your hands on these bracelets? I've never heard of a crafting skill enchantment before, yet you have two of them."

"They were normal drops in the Dawnhold dungeon. My theory is that the drops suit the delver, and I have lots of crafting skills, whereas normal delvers don't, so it only drops for me."

Grover twitched again, eliciting another smack on the head. "No, you can't go delving into a dungeon to gather more of them. As interesting as it would be to see what sort of drops someone with a crafting class would get, deal with your current commitments first!"

Grover pouted, which was a rather sickening expression on an adult male dwarf, but nodded. "Fine. Two sets of upgraded armour. It'll be ready by the time your limbs are."

"Five days?"

"Yes, five days. You think we can pick up new materials and be ready by tomorrow? Now, off with you. Let us get on with it."

I stopped off at the mana concentration chamber to manufacture them a working amount of the foul, pale pink, gelatinous metal, where, despite Hassok's attempts to keep him focused, Grover talked me into attempting the same trick with silver, gold and even mythril. All the metals refused to store any body affinity mana, unlike how they soaked up pure mana, so either this trick wouldn't work with them or else there was something fundamentally different about their reaction. Darren could give it another go, but I wasn't able to discover anything.

"So, now what?" I asked Cluma. "I don't think we should continue Serpent Isle until our armour is done, so I guess we're on a short forced vacation."

"The great dungeon? Since Adele gave our current equipment a patch job, we could delve to floor ten or so? Or make another attempt at getting a replacement bracelet of crafting skill? Or we could visit the twins, or have another date in Synklisi. Or if you're offering your services as a teleporter, I'd love to visit my friends in the Emerald Nest. There's plenty of stuff to do!"

Getting another bracelet would be nice, but I was hopeful we'd be fighting the final boss of Serpent Isle before too long, and that might give an even better version. The great dungeon was a good idea, since it wouldn't cost me a [Detach] link to save our progress. Visiting friends was fine, too.

And another date in Synklisi? When was the first?!

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Well, we have half a week. We can do all of that. How about another trip to the beach, too?"

"Oh, yeah! That would be fun. But... you need to teach me how to deal with sand first. Trying to get it out of my underwear was a nightmare."

"Hah. I wish I'd had a solution to that back on Earth. It's easy here, though; you just need a comfort enchantment to make things self-cleaning."

"You think there's anyone else in the world apart from you who has something as insane as enchanted underwear?!"

"Yes, both my parents and Darren. You're welcome to borrow mine."

"What do you mean, yours? You don't wear..."

Cluma stopped dead, presumably when she realised that, thanks to her, I did.

"They wouldn't fit me properly, even with the comfort enchantment," she finished.

"Well, yes, I suppose my cup size is considerably smaller than yours," I laughed, earning myself a tickle attack for my trouble. "Borrow some from my mum then, or ask Grover for more orichalcum thread and get yours enchanted too."

"Seriously... Using orichalcum for something like that..." whispered Cluma, fidgeting with her orichalcum rings. "I owe you more than I can ever repay, don't I?"

"Huh?" I asked.

"I mean, orichalcum rings and adamantite swords. Now the armour. Back in the Emerald Nest, I had no armour whatsoever, and a simple bow and steel knife that weren't enchanted at all. It wasn't until you mentioned compensating Grover that I really thought about how much it was all worth. How much would this cost if I'd bought it in a shop?"

"Hey, don't start that. Your mum got you that earring, and my mum has already given you enchanted clothing."

"Both from Grover's orichalcum supplies, which you gave to him. Seriously, how much would these cost to buy?"

"I have no idea, but I don't think it would be as much as you're assuming."

"Okay, let me modify that question slightly. How much would these cost to buy if you hadn't discovered a cheap way of manufacturing high-end materials?"

"You couldn't. Orichalcum and adamantite weren't available before."

"Mythril and mana-reinforced steel, then?"

I pondered, but I didn't really have any points of reference. Given the scarcity of mythril, I would guess the answer would be 'a lot', but beyond that, I hadn't a clue.

"Sorry, but I have no idea. There's no point dwelling on what-ifs, though. I did discover those materials, so it doesn't matter what they were before. And there's no point wondering what they would cost now, either. All that matters is what I paid for them, which is considerably less than what we've spent on antidotes and healing potions the past few days."

Cluma sighed, and I could tell it still bothered her, but knowing her, she'd bounce back in under an hour.

An hour turned out to be a vast overestimate. It was a mere four paces until she suddenly started grinning.

"Now what?" I asked.

"Not telling," she giggled.

"You aren't half tiring sometimes," I moaned. "Since we're dressed for it, shall we start with the great dungeon?"

"Yup! You already have maps, don't you?"

"Yes. They sold them in batches of five, and the slime was on floor six, so I have as far as floor ten."

"Oh, that's a point! Maybe we can stop off for a massage?"

"No way. If you want a massage, ask me for one," I complained, before teleporting her to Synklisi before she had a chance to complain about me being possessive.

"Fine. As soon as we're done here," she answered once my first ear had joined her.

"Really? You're not going to ask to stop off at the tavern for a level forty monster core?"

I saw the look of temptation flicker across her face, but she quickly stamped down on it. "No way. I saw the prices on that menu. Equipment is one thing, but I'm not wasting that much money on food, however amazing it makes me feel."

"How does it make you feel, anyway? You looked a little out of it the first time."

"Umm... It's like... you know how if you're really desperate for a wee, when you finally let it out, it feels kinda good? Like that, but longer lasting, and in my head instead of my tummy."

I stumbled as we continued our walk to the dungeon. I wasn't sure what sort of explanation I'd been expecting, but that sure as hell hadn't been it, leaving me walking in stunned silence until we reached the dungeon guards.

"Shouldn't you get your equipment repaired before you start delving?" asked a guard concernedly.

I let Cluma answer, well aware by now of how much easier that made this sort of conversation.

"We have new armour being manufactured, but it won't be ready for a bit. We're going to clear the top floors here while we're waiting."

The guard shrugged and waved us in after taking down our names. Perhaps he'd have questioned us a bit more thoroughly prior to the safety net, but young adults getting themselves fake-killed in dungeons through arrogance or naivety was commonplace. The guards probably found it hard to care by now.

We started on floor six, and made our way to the boss chamber, although I couldn't resist taking a short detour when [Mana Sight] picked up one of the floor's residents.

"Remember what I said about bugs on this floor?"

"Yup. Why?"

"There's one in the next room."

"I know. [Monster Perception] is picking it up."

I didn't actually know what [Monster Perception] felt like to use. Given that she'd used it as a substitute for eyesight, it must give more detail than 'there is a monster around here', but did it show them in enough clarity for her to know how gross the monster was?

"Oh, wow. Cute!" she exclaimed as we stepped into the room.

"What? Hell no!" I countered. "In what way is that evil monstrosity cute?"

"But look at all those little legs, clicking away. How can you not think that's cute?"

At this point, the aforementioned monstrosity attacked me, Cluma being safely hidden with her usual [Stealth], so I bisected the thing with extreme prejudice. And then trisected, quadsected, and whatever other made-up words applied to chopping it into tiny pieces.

"Umm... Are you okay? Do you need a hug?"

"Maybe?"

"There, there," said Cluma, hugging me and patting my back. "Did the cute little centipedes hurt you the first time you were here?"

"They are neither cute nor little," I argued, but half-heartedly as the hug drained some of my indignation. "Okay, I'll admit it. I'm just not good with bugs."

"That's okay. We all have something we're not good at."

"Why do I feel like I'm being babied here?"

Cluma giggled and detached. I resumed our trek, this time being very sure to stick to the direct, already cleared route between entrance and boss chamber, hoping that no more of the oversized bugs would spawn before we get there. Thankfully, they didn't.

There was, as usual when the slime was running it in person, a queue for the boss room. That was annoying, given that we were here to actually clear the floor this time, and not for... whatever everyone else was here for. Looking over the queue, there were far more single delvers than was normal, but there were still some parties.

I was also suffering from the problem that as I got closer to the slime, the projected sensations through my detached finger and the soul bond were getting stronger and harder to ignore. It hadn't mattered on our last visit, but this time...

"Are you still bothered by that centipede?" asked Cluma. "You're looking flushed."

"Hah, first time here?" asked the person in front of us in the queue. "Don't worry. Everyone is here for the same reason. There's no need to be embarrassed about it."

"Huh? Reason? Aren't we all trying to get to the next floor? Or does everyone want a massage?" asked Cluma, who hadn't spent enough time in Synklisi for the slime's reputation to really sink in.

"What, you brought your girlfriend without even telling her?"

Cluma looked at me in confusion, with just a hint of suspicion mixed in.

"We really are just on our way through to the next floor," I answered. "We aren't from Synklisi, and haven't been to floor seven yet, so we couldn't enter further down than this."

"Really?" asked the delver, a human male who looked barely older than I was. "Then why are you blushing so badly?"

Dammit Erryn! That bloody Peter-can-lie patch! If I ever get control over the Law, removing that will definitely be my first action.