A few days later, Cluma and I returned to Dawnhold for a day trip. Long gone were the days when I needed Henry to give me a lift to achieve such a thing. Instead of [Weft Walk] I cast [Endurance] on us both and we sprinted freely. Being able to not only keep up with Cluma, but also to keep keeping up without running out of stamina, was amazing. Admittedly I was more than twice her level, but it was still something I didn't think I'd ever achieve.

Actually, I was surprised I needed to cast [Endurance] on her at all. Wasn't she already capable of sprinting without tiring when I saw her last? I suppose I'd never gone this far with her before... I must have overestimated.

At the delvers' store, Adele fussed over Cluma as much as she'd done to me last year. Apparently I was now the boring regular customer while Cluma was the new adorable cuteness.

"Well, go and change. Don't keep me waiting," she exclaimed, directing us to the changing rooms.

"Umm... How do I put it on?" asked Cluma, staring down at her pile of black leather and giving me flashbacks of my own experience.

"It's obvious once you unfold it," I answered, walking into my own room. My new set of armour was a much better fit than my old outfit, although no doubt I'd grow out of this one soon enough too. Just one of the many disadvantages of being eight years old.

I stepped out, unsurprisingly far in advance of Cluma, who would doubtless take a little longer to work it out. Adele gave me a few checks and proclaimed it as perfect.

Dire Wolf Leather Armour (Quality: 50)

- Enchantment: Comfort (Rank 3)

- Enchantment: Durability (Rank 3)

- Enchantment: Lightning resistance (Rank 3)

Nice, she maxed out [Expert Tailoring]. It all looked good to me, and when I hooked my lightning glove over the top, I found it still fit perfectly.

Cluma emerged some minutes later, and unlike my first time was looking completely unabashed. And sheesh, she was cute. We must have made an utterly adorable pair of cosplay assassins. We should have entered into the group tournament together and defeated our opponents with charm. Adele immediately started squealing, bustling around and checking the fit. Cluma gave us both a twirl, a big grin plastered on her face, and Adele gave a nod, satisfied with her work.

"Thank you, it's amazing," Cluma exclaimed before grabbing me and Adele in a big joint hug. She couldn't even get her arms around Adele, but bless her, she did her best. It took her a few seconds to even notice what she'd just done, but this time, instead of pulling away, she just continued to giggle. Apparently the old Cluma was back at last.

This time we weren't going to the guild, so I went back to the changing room to change back and pack my armour away into my [Item Box]. I gripped my helmet to pull it off, but then had an interesting thought. Did I need to remove it first? I stared into the mirror, concentrated on my helmet and activated [Item Box]. My helmet vanished from my head with a muted pop.

ding

Skill [Item Box] advanced to level 5

Wow. That would save me a bit of time changing, particularly if I could put it back on in the same way. Although, possibly I should have tried with a sock or something first, in case my whole head had vanished... Thankfully this one worked, but I really needed to stop with the dangerous experiments. I stripped my armour off in the same way, then got dressed again by the conventional method.

I left the changing room, pondering. Could I do that on other people, rather than myself? If I was fighting a tough opponent, could I just magic away their weapon or armour? I needed to touch something to activate [Item Box], but that wouldn't be hard against a front-line fighter. From the way I could only recently store my staff, there seemed to be some sort of maximum dimensions that I could pack away, and it was possible that adult sized two-handed weapons still wouldn't fit, but daggers and single-handed swords certainly would. I would need to do some experimenting.

Cluma emerged shortly afterwards, handing me her armour set to pack away. "Thank you," she repeated, before giving me and Adele another hug, one at a time this time. "I got it back, thanks to you two."

"Huh? Got what back?" asked Adele, echoing my own thoughts.

"That's a secret," answered Cluma, giggling.

Leaving the store none the wiser, but happy that Cluma seemed to have completely got over her poor mood, we stopped by Lord Reid's place. I hung around outside the perimeter while Cluma snuck in the back door to visit Clana in her post-lunch break. Hopefully, seeing Cluma cheered up would reassure Clana, at least as long as Cluma didn't mention that I had suggested bringing her into the dungeon. I kinda wished I hadn't done that...

Her visit over, we returned to the village, this time trying to jog with [Weft Walk]. I ended up in hysterics watching Cluma repeatedly go sprawling, and the journey took far longer than if we'd just walked, but it was the most fun I'd had in ages.

ding

Skill [Dexterity] advanced to level 15

Skill [Endurance] advanced to level 14

Skill [Weft Walk] advanced to level 5

[Dexterity] maxed out before [Strength]. I didn't see that coming, but I suppose that's what I got for going so long without bashing anything. Meanwhile, Cluma said that she'd gained not only dexterity but also wisdom, which proved trying to keep balance wasn't a purely physical problem. Drat, maybe I could have snagged a [Minor Wisdom] level too.

Over the next week, I had a few sparring sessions with Cluma, preparing her for the tournament. She was still a challenge as long as I held back from using magic, but didn't utterly dominate me anymore, and my win ratio ended up far better than the previous one to two hundred and thirty-eight. If I did use magic, she stood no hope; my rank two spells gave around five times the boost of the rank one spells I'd been using when we last fought, and I eclipsed her in both physical stats and weapon proficiency.

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ding

Strength increased by 1

Dexterity increased by 1

Alas, the sparring didn't give me anything in the way of skill levels; my weapon skills were already maxed out.

My ninth birthday came and went, which was a far more energetic affair than usual with our newly resident cat-girl, who I continued to take back to Dawnhold once in a while to visit Clana. I decided to train my rank one spells in the last couple of weeks before the tournament, lending her my old stat rings to keep things fair, a move which turned out to be rewarding for both of us.

ding

Skill [Minor Strength] advanced to level 13

Skill [Far Step] advanced to level 14

Skill [Minor Speed] advanced to level 14

Skill [Minor Dexterity] advanced to level 13

Skill [Minor Slow] advanced to level 14

I also experimented with [Item Box]. I found that with a good grip on her weapons, I could indeed steal them into my storage. Of course, trying to get a good grip on a real blade would be a bad idea, so it was a very situational strategy, but one I stored away for future use. Probably more applicable to sparring than it would be to dungeon monsters, but even with them I might be able to do something about blunt weapons.

And then, with only a few days to go, Elle, of all people, turned up at our door, on horseback.

"Good morning. Do I have the right..." she started, before spotting me. "Ah, Peter, excellent. The guild master needs to see you, as a matter of urgency."

I couldn't think of any reason why the guild master would be summoning me. Anything to do with the tournament wouldn't be urgent. More mythril? I wasn't the only one who could make it. Presumably this was something else. "Why? What happened?"

"I don't know the details, but something happened to the dungeon. He... well, so far whenever anything weird has happened involving monsters or the dungeon... umm... you know." Elle trailed off, embarrassed.

"It's been my fault?" I suggested, finishing her sentence for her.

"I wasn't going to say fault," said Elle. "but yes, he thinks you might be involved."

I couldn't think of anything I'd done... I hadn't even set foot in the place since the start of spring. Something to do with the activists? Well, at least this time the messenger had enough information for me to confirm that it was actually me they wanted, so I knew I wouldn't be wasting the trip.

"Cluma?" I called. "Want to come? Given that the tournament starts soon, we might as well stay there. You can spend a bit more time with your mum."

"On my way!" she shouted, already busy packing.

"Hah, I'd heard we had another child in the rank one group. Should have known that was your fault too."

Yeah... I'd accept that one; Cluma probably was my fault. I'd got her going all those years ago when she found out I'd been fighting slimes. She'd actually gained a level at some point in the last few days. One more and she could have ended up needing to be transferred to the rank two section. That would be all sorts of hilarious, but she probably wouldn't fare too well as a fresh rank two. It was likely she'd get the last level mid tournament, so I'd need to warn her that changing class would get her disqualified.

We ended up departing together, [Weft Walk] easily keeping up with Elle's polka-dot horse. The pace was a little slower than our normal one, but at least we had someone to chat to while we travelled.

Back at the guild, we only had a short wait before being summoned to the guild master's office. There were three other people in there with him, two of whom I knew.

"Lord Reid," I greeted politely, with a tip of my head.

"Bah, why is he polite to you?" asked the guild master. "And who's the catkin?"

"I'm Cluma. Sorry, I didn't want to stay in the bar on my own. Shall I wait outside?"

"It's fine," said Lord Reid, when the guild master glanced at him. I was disappointed that Cluma hadn't immediately hugged them both. Apparently, she wasn't completely back to normal. Either that, or she had, at some point, learnt the meaning of restraint. I was sure the guild master and Lord Reid would consider it an improvement, but it meant I'd just missed out on what would have been an incredible comedy skit.

I looked over at the other person in the room that I recognised; Lee, the newbie delver. Although, to be fair, I wasn't sure he still qualified as a newbie by now; he'd been at it for a year already. He was obviously nervous, but whether that was due to being in front of these high-ranking people or something else, I couldn't tell. If I had to guess, he would be the one who encountered whatever dungeon anomaly Elle had mentioned, because I couldn't think of any other reason for him to be here.

As for the last person, he wasn't wearing delving gear, and looked like some sort of official.

"This here is Simeon, a pen-pusher from headquarters," said the guild master, introducing him. But wasn't the guild master a pen-pusher too? "Now then, Peter, would you analyse Lee here and tell me what you think?"

I blinked in surprise. Just what exactly was going on here? So far, whenever something weird had happened, the guild master had contacted headquarters. Headquarters had never sent anyone here. And it was something to do with his status? Completely clueless, I had no choice but to play along.

Name: Lee

Species: Human

Class: Apprentice Fighter (Level 9/19)

Health: 20/20

Stamina: 32/32

Mana: 19/19

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 14

Endurance: 15

Intelligence: 14

Wisdom: 16

Charisma: 12

Rank 1 Artes: [Mighty Swing 3] [Shattering Strike 4]

Rank 1 Skills: [Weapon Proficiency: Axe 8] [Meditation 5] [Enlarged Stamina Pool 6]

Traits: [Strong] [Perceptive]

Titles: [Jack of All Trades] [Failed Delver]

ding

Skill [Analysis] advanced to level 3

Oh, good timing. I could see rank two stuff now, and that was enough to see all his traits and titles. So, what about that was supposed to be interesting enough for headquarters to send someone over? Skills and stats were normal. I'd only heard of one of those traits before, but the other didn't seem interesting. Of his titles, one I knew very well, which just left the second. Was that anything like my [Novice Delver]? Did he get it for quitting delving or something?

"Looks normal to me. The most interesting thing is the [Failed Delver] title. Where does that come from?"

"Go ahead and tell him," said the guild master.

"I died..." he answered, hesitatingly. A blink didn't cut it for expressing my surprise at that answer; I would have needed to borrow Lord Reid's parasitic eyebrow, or maybe several of them. "I was stupid. I've been stuck on level nine for ages even though Anton broke through weeks ago, and I heard that fighting solo can help break through bottlenecks. I snuck away from my party on the fifth floor and tried to run the boss on my own. Anton had told me how you'd done it at my level, and our group could easily take it down as a team, so I thought I could manage it. Turned out that I couldn't."

Well yes, but when I did it, Erryn cheated. But that didn't answer the important question. He didn't look like a zombie.

"For reference," added Lord Reid, "it's a rank one title, and the description reads 'You have succumbed to wounds, poison, disease, or maybe even hunger, letting your health hit zero while within a dungeon. Dungeon access is forever barred to you'."

"So basically," stated the guild master, "instead of dying, as might be expected when an orc caved his head in and splattered his brains around the boss chamber, Lee here woke back up on the surface, fully healed. He can't get near the staircase anymore either; it acts like there's an invisible wall around it."

I stared, slack-jawed. Had Erryn done that, after I'd complained about people dying in dungeons? She'd made dungeons safe?

"So now," continued the guild master, "we'd like you to explain exactly what you did, and what the hell is going on."

Bugger.