Grover did not, alas, redo all my enchantments. To be fair, he had good reason; there was no point improving my other orichalcum rings when a few more days of toe chopping would get me them remade in hihi'irokane, and my clothing enchantments couldn't be redone without the aid of a tailor. We weren't even sure the new material could be drawn into thread like orichalcum. Likewise, he couldn't modify our weapons without reforging them from scratch.

He did re-enchant my armour, though, along with Cluma's, so at least that was something. He added fire resistance in our new fifth slot—mostly because it was such a common attack type, but also because of my flame grenades—and having it on our armour would offer far greater protection than having it on jewellery. We'd still need it on jewellery as well, since our armour didn't provide total coverage and I didn't fancy taking a fireball to an eye, but as long as we didn't stare into it, we should be able to stand in something like the hydra's flame breath with impunity.

He'd immediately bought the rank five skill [Grandmaster Runecrafting], resulting in the uptick to his enchanting quality, and had expressed interest in saving for the more unusual [Componentless Mediocrity]. For a penalty of twenty minus the skill level to quality rating, it would let him produce enchantments without the usual ingredient cost. It would let him produce rank four enchantments with a quality rating of sixty-four, utterly for free. Combined with [Quality Control], he could produce max quality enchantments of lower ranks for free, too. Not great for the production of high-end gear, but for experimental and prototyping purposes, it was a great skill. He could churn out items of a slightly lower quality at a ridiculous rate. Not to mention that some enchantments normally required ingredients that were hard to get hold of, or that he couldn't get at all.

Our new rings gave a bonus of twenty-four to each stat. It was a significant boost for me, but was an even bigger fractional increase for Cluma. It also left me at nine-hundred-and-fifty mana. Was there a title upgrade for [Magician] at a thousand? I needed to get a couple more levels of [Extended Mana Pool]. Or I could pay for [Profound Mana Pool], but that seemed like a waste of soul points, given that I wasn't sure the title existed, and even if it did, it would likely only give a boost to my natural regeneration, which I didn't much care about.

"Okay, that's everything I can do today. If you come back tomorrow, we can make some more and I'll upgrade the rest of your accessories."

"Can't you think of some other way?" complained Cluma. "Use the stuff you just made and your new class to improve your mana concentration chamber?"

"We'll need more material than this to improve the chamber, lass. Besides, we'd still be limited by supplies of platinum."

Grover stroked his beard thoughtfully, but didn't add anything else. It wasn't as if methods of magicking materials up from nothing grew on trees, so it would take more than a few seconds of beard stroking to generate any new ideas. Besides, while I was down a few points of health from the blood loss, it was far from being serious. I had no objection to repeating the stunt for a few more days if it meant I got more powerful equipment.

"Well, if there's nothing more to do on the hihi'irokane front, can I get back to my experiments? And... the other thing?"

"Yes. Outside." said Grover. "And as for your tail, I'll lend you the series of training ones Kari used. Switch them over once per day, and by the time you're done, me and Adele will have something special ready for you."

Dammit, what was the point of me being circumspect when he just went and said it out loud? I ignored Kari's hysterics and Cluma's grin to focus on the scariest part of that sentence. "Special?"

"Of course. I've got this new skill to push the boundaries of. What effect will a rank five biological integration enchantment have? Will it permit you conscious control? I look forward to finding out."

Oh well... At least it might trigger [Test Subject]. And, if his hopes proved founded, wings would be back on the menu. Being able to fly would be cool.

But, before that... Respecting Grover's wishes, I brought my accidental pressure washer outside to continue playing with.

Hang on; weren't water jet cutters a thing back on Earth? If I increased the pressure further, would I have a weapon? Or did there need to be some sort of abrasive material mixed in with the water? I had vague memories of sand being involved. No, I didn't want to get distracted. I was trying to make a Cluma detector, not a new weapon. I already had my lightning glove.

How was I supposed to get the water to aerosolise, then? Was the nozzle the problem? One big hole wasn't going to achieve what I wanted. A series of smaller holes? I had no idea how to forge anything appropriate. Likewise, I had little idea how Earth spray cans worked. They involved a liquid under high pressure, but there must be more to it than that. They had to use special propellents, didn't they? It wasn't just compressed air.

What if I had a couple of holes, angled so that the streams of water hit each other?

That turned out to kinda work, in that it sent splashes everywhere, but it wasn't even close to generating a mist. Obviously I was doing this completely wrong. Perhaps there'd be something in the stuff we'd received from Earth, but if I cheated and looked it up, would I miss out on levels?

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

There was still the fire crystal option. I gave that a try, and it worked, but the resulting steam was too hot to breathe. Again, I was trying to make a Cluma detector, not a weapon. Although this one was certainly more viable than a jet cutter. The trio of crystals in grenade form, spraying out burning steam everywhere.

No. Focus!

Wait. Wasn't steam transparent? Yes, sure enough, above the exit of my new toy, I couldn't see anything. The white 'steam' started a few centimetres up. Where it had mixed with the air, and condensed. That was how aerosols worked! Convert the liquid you're trying to spray into a gas, then back into a liquid once it was mixed with the air.

Probably. I had to admit I was still guessing, but it sounded plausible.

Cluma watched on in bemusement as I rebuilt my device, this time with four crystals. Water first, then fire, then air, and finally ice. A thick mist bubbled from the top and slid across the floor, forming a dense, ground-level fog that immediately soaked my shoes in icy water.

"Success!" I declared. "Ish."

ding

"That would completely wreak the place if you tried using it indoors," pointed out Cluma. "Even outdoors, the range isn't great. Not to mention it's freezing my ankles. And besides..."

She vanished, leaving a pair of indentations in the mist, so it did at least work to reveal her location. The fog stirred up around her, but I didn't see any more disturbances. Had she leapt somewhere?

A pair of arms wrapped around me suddenly from the side. Legs too, as she clamped herself above the level of the mist. "... I can just do that."

I stumbled, but managed to remain upright. It was obvious she was going for a hug, but the direction was unexpected. Oh, of course. I was casting a shadow onto the mist. She'd leapt out on top of it.

"Yes, okay. I could tone down the ice crystal to make the mist warmer. Maybe that would stop it pooling so close to the ground, too. Can't do anything about the way it's going to flood anywhere you try using it, though. I fully admit it's not fit for any sort of long-term Cluma detection purpose."

"Then why spend so much effort making it?"

"For the dings," I replied, checking my messages.

Skill [Advanced Smithing] advanced to level 4

Skill [Advanced Runecrafting] advanced to level 7

Class [Artisan] advanced to level 5

Grover's levelling rate had nothing on me. Working this stuff out myself without help resulted in a frankly ridiculous amount of progress. Combined with [Proficient Delver] halving the level requirements, I was halfway to completing [Artisan] already.

"Dings? What dings?"

"You know, the noise the System makes when you have new messages."

"You're poking holes in my stealth skills purely to get a skill level?" she complained, pouting.

"Two skill levels and a class level, actually."

The pout expanded. "I'm certain you cheat," she complained. "Let's get you back home. I want to start growing your tail!"

Should I try for a steam grenade while I was here? Or an improved Cluma detector? Using my mana control to throttle the supply of mana to the ice crystal did improve the temperature of the mist, as well as stopping it pooling on the ground, but that just meant all my clothes got wet rather than only my feet.

"... And I want to dry off," added Cluma, still clamped to me, but no longer above the level of the mist.

"Yeah," I agreed, storing my make-everything-damp device and teleporting us back home.

"You're going to need to get your clothes and armour modified, too," she pointed out once we got back.

"No I won't. A few items of clothing, maybe, but I'm only going to wear it around the house. I'll use [Detach] when I go out."

The house wouldn't be a problem; all of our furniture was suitable for people with tails, since Cluma used it. The bigger problem would be balance issues caused by suddenly gaining or losing my tail, but I'd managed to adapt to turning [Superimpose] on and off, with the resulting weird momentum changes, so I was sure I'd be fine. It might even be worth another point of wisdom.

"Aww. Boring."

"I'm not a complete weirdo!"

Cluma stared at me in silent judgement.

"Okay. Maybe I am. But only in a way you seem to like?"

She giggled while I fished around in the item bag Grover had handed me. There were a series of ten tails, the first being a stubby little thing that might as well have been a rabbit's bob. The biological integration enchantment on it only had a quality rating of twenty, too. Hopefully attaching it wouldn't be too bad.

I would need some modified clothes, though. Well, I had the soul points for it, and still wanted to upgrade [Versatile Crafter].

ding

New skill acquired: [Advanced Tailoring]

Bah. Still no upgrade. Still, it let me perform a few basic modifications to my underwear, and ten minutes later...

"Gah! It still itches!"

Cluma laughed as she watched me squirm.

"If you think it's funny, I'm gonna stick human ears on you!"

"Nu-uh. You're the weird one. I'm normal."

"You totally are not."

"Huh? How am I not normal?"

"You have a life goal of hugging everyone in the world!"

"So? What's wrong with that?"

"The fact you need an explanation is what makes you weird!"

Cluma did her usual cute head tilt that indicated her failure to understand a concept, but I found myself suddenly distracted by the way I wasn't distracted. The itch had already faded.

"Oh. That was far better than my ears."

I could see my mana running through my tail, but unlike my ears, the flow was turbulent and slow. Presumably that was a result of the lower quality. A quick check with [Soul Perception] confirmed my soul hadn't started seeping into it, just like my ears.

"Aww. Watching you squirm was funny," said Cluma, poking my new stub of a tail. I could barely feel it, as if there was a thick mattress between me and her finger.

"You'll get to watch some more tomorrow."

"Sure you don't want to switch over now?"

"Nope," I answered, before peering at Cluma. "Hang on, you're supposed to be the safety-conscious one. Why are you trying to convince me not to follow Grover's instructions?"

Cluma paused before gasping in realisation. "You really are infectious!"

That was one explanation, certainly. A better one was that Cluma's accident was not quite so fresh in her mind, my current experiments had results she was interested in, and I'd proven that I did listen to her and wasn't going to do anything suicidally stupid. She was finally starting to trust that she didn't need to keep me under such a close watch.

"Come on. It's only sixth bell," I pointed out, [Mana Sight] around my tooth showing that forgoing [Shelter] had indeed prevented the instance from being deleted. "Let's go stab some trans-dimensional flatworms for an hour or two."

ding

Skill [Disassembly] advanced to level 2