I woke up buried under a tangled pile of limbs, and it took me a few seconds to remember that we weren't at home. It made me really glad I'd added our extra bedrooms, or this would soon be what trying to sleep would be like every night. If I hadn't been as tired as I was, I doubt I could have slept.

It was still pitch black, so I needed to rely on [Mana Perception] to 'see' where everyone was. With the lack of ambient mana I could only pick up people and not the room itself, which was somewhat disconcerting, but it was enough to confirm that everyone was safe and nothing was on fire. It also showed someone waiting outside. I kinda wanted to go back to sleep for a bit, especially since no-one else seemed to be up, but it would be rude to keep whoever it was waiting.

How could I see outside, anyway? Wasn't this room supposed to be completely cut off from mana? The only time [Mana Perception] had ever been cut off was the dungeon core room, but aside from that, no type of wall had ever been a barrier to it.

Having had my first full night's sleep in a week, I felt a lot better. It was a shame my endurance stat didn't elide the need for rest. Maybe when I had a hundred points of it I'd be better off, but for now I was grateful for our little mana-prison. And it really was little; there was barely enough space for us all to lie down. I carefully disentangled myself from my family and one additional Cluma, for whom mere unconsciousness was apparently not a barrier to hugging my arm, and fumbled my way through the darkness back out of the room. I used my own mana control to prevent an inrush of mana through the open door, unwilling to give Darren even the slightest hint of ammunition, asleep or not.

"Oh, you're up at last, then?" came a voice from the corridor outside.

"Morning, Grover."

ding

Skill [Clock] advanced to level 8

Yup, it was still morning. Barely. "Sorry, none of us have had much sleep recently."

"Well, I had a little chat with that Kari lass, and we did think up something to try. Here."

Grover handed over a large ring, far too big for my own finger, never mind Darren's. On closer inspection, it appeared to be hinged on one side.

Mythril manacle (Quality: 50)

- Enchantment: Durability (Rank 4)

- Enchantment: Mana shackle (Rank 4)

ding

Skill [Analysis] advanced to level 5

Ah, not a ring; a tiny, baby-sized bracelet. A locking bracelet. And another bit of evidence that my appraisal skills levelled quicker when I actually cared about the results, rather than if I just used them blindly on everything. Another point towards my meaningful skill uses theory. As if I needed extra evidence after witnessing Cluma's meteoric levelling of [Stealth]; for her, every surprise hug was meaningful. Apparently the System depended on our own perception of what were and weren't meaningful skill uses. Was there any way to abuse that?

"Can't say we've ever had a use for that mana shackle enchantment before. It isolates the wearer from external mana, preventing them from accessing it. It even stops them regenerating their own pool. It doesn't offer any protection from outside magic, though, so I really have no idea what the point is supposed to be. I've heard of people trying to clamp disposable versions onto dungeon bosses, but they've always complained that it's more trouble than it's worth."

Knowing the System had been around since before the Law, I could see the point of them very clearly. What would be the point of locking a mage in a jail if they could blow the wall up? It sounded like just the thing we needed to keep my explosive brother under control.

"I couldn't slap comfort on it, or he'd be able to take it straight off, so it'll need to be resized regularly as he grows. You can do that yourself. Just make sure to insert the extra material between the runed areas so that it doesn't break the enchantment."

"Thanks a lot. How much do I owe you for this one, then?"

"Just replace the mythril I used," Grover answered, waving me away. "And let me know how he gets on."

I took out some mythril scraps from [Item Box] to hand over, and we continued to chat while waiting for everyone else to wake up. They'd improved on the lightning glove design, but not by enough to render my own prototype obsolete. Even if they had, given that I was currently banned from the dungeon, there was no point in getting new gear. Apparently the elves had sourced rubber, or at least something close enough to make functional off-road tyres, so bicycles were now a thing that could be made for reasonable prices, unlike when they'd required highish level monster skin. It sounded like I'd be seeing them around town by summer.

Vargalas turned up too, interested in the baby that could manipulate mana without skills. That wasn't a surprise; I knew he would be desperate to do the same thing if he could, to better feed his lightning obsession. The only potential hint I could give him was that I'd been playing with mana around Darren for a long time, at which he immediately went running off again to find Kari. I foresaw some amount of pestering in her immediate future, for which I silently apologised...

Eventually the rest of the family woke up, and we locked the manacle onto Darren's wrist. He didn't like that one bit, as might be expected, but he was just going to have to get used to it. With his young age I couldn't use [Analysis] to check what it was doing to his mana pool, but despite sitting around for a few hours, we experienced no further incidents. That was a promising start, but we decided to stay here for one more night, just to make sure.

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Thankfully, the dormitories the innkeeper had told me about before were built now, and with visitors reduced in winter, there was a spare one for us to stay. Cluma had the chance to visit her mum, a week after her birthday, but still close enough. The rest of us took it in turns to try to comfort the now perpetually grumpy baby, with minimal success. I couldn't say I'd enjoy having my magic cut off either, but until he was old enough to understand that setting things on fire was bad, the manacle was staying where it was.

That actually raised an interesting question about the Law. Arson was banned, obviously. Equally obviously, so was setting people on fire. Yet Darren had done both, or at least tried to, repeatedly. It was possible Erryn had exempted him in the same way as she had me, but I doubted it. Maybe it was because he didn't understand what he was doing? The Law apparently did nothing to prevent accidents. If it did, people would find it far harder to get themselves or teammates killed in dungeons by accident.

After a further day of no incidents, the five of us returned to the village. Despite the lack of snow, the sky was clouded, and the temperature had dropped significantly since our outgoing journey. It was at the point that I needed to keep [Endurance] active on everyone other than myself, just to keep them going. With the exception of Darren, of course, who was being carried and was wrapped up into a big enough ball that we probably could have rolled him home. Travel in this weather was dangerous, and I looked forward to getting back and spending the rest of the day sat in front of a fire crystal.

The next few weeks passed calmly, with Darren getting used to having his magic cut off, and eventually his birthday came around. I wasted no time in seeing what was up.

Name: Darren

Species: Human

Class: Commoner (Level 2/2)

Soul Points: 1

Health: 8/8

Stamina: 4/8

Strength: 2

Dexterity: 4

Endurance: 3

Intelligence: 3

Wisdom: 2

Charisma: 2

Skills: None

Traits: [XXXX] [Creative] [Pyromaniac]

Titles: None

Oh, come on. He had an actual [Pyromaniac] trait! Also, one that I couldn't see. With my level five analysis, I'd be able to see anything up to rank three, so it looked like we have another rank four trait in our family. A trip to Richard, who had levelled up his own [Analysis] in the years since he'd first tried to appraise me, confirmed it as [Natural Mage]. No-one had ever heard of it, and it was a shame we couldn't read the description, but from the name alone I was pretty sure I knew it was to blame. Also interesting was that he didn't merely have zero mana, but his status didn't have a line for mana at all. Possibly a side effect of the mana shackle?

When spring rolled around, I made another trip to Dawnhold to fill in our rescuers at the institute, but they had never heard of [Natural Mage] either. Fortunately, the library had it listed, but when I read the description, I could do little but stare in shock.

[Natural Mage] - Exposed to mana from an early age, its perception and use have become second nature to you. Removes System restrictions on unstructured mana usage. (Rank 5)

ding

For your efforts to uncover the secrets of mana, [Researcher] awards 2 soul points.

Well, of course [Researcher] would kick in at that! It more or less confirmed that the System blocked people from using magic outside of pre-approved skills! It also confirmed that it was my fault that he got it, although I'd been assuming that already. And the final revelation was that it wasn't rank four... With my humongous sample size of two, it seemed that rank five traits affected rather fundamental bits of System behaviour. Darren had a cheat every bit as big as my own.

The biggest question was whether this could be replicated. Could any baby get this trait? I'd have to pay another visit to the institute on my way out of Dawnhold and fill them in. But first, for the sake of completeness.

[Creative] - You would rather spend time on arts than labour, and find fulfilment in self-expression. Creative skills of any rank do not cost soul points. (Rank 2)

[Pyromaniac] - You appreciate the beauty of a naked flame, and the bigger the better. Provides minor fire resistance. (Rank 1)

Those descriptions gave me visions of him as some sort of heavy rock musician, strutting around a stage firing magical pyrotechnics all over the place, leaving me with a sudden urge to add an electric guitar to my rather sparse to-do list. Or at least a drum kit. I wasn't sure what skills counted as 'creative', but at rank two I doubted it would give him all the crafting skills. Maybe there was painting or sculpting or something to go along with [Musician]?

And while I was here, it was an opportunity to look up Cluma's one known trait too.

[Hugger] - The concept of personal space is anathema to you. Provides 1 bonus point to charisma. (Rank 1)

I grinned at that description; it suited her well.

And that more or less settled the whole burning baby incident. I looked forward to him growing old enough to understand how to use his newfound powers safely, so that we could remove his bracelet, but for now we could once again pretend that he was normal.

With that little adventure over, nothing much happened until summer. Between autumn and summer I hadn't been training as hard as I had been between the previous summer and autumn, and had comparatively fewer gains to show as a result. Once again, I was sure I'd missed out on a big pile of mana control and perception skill levels, this time from my efforts at reining in Darren. It was a shame I couldn't bank the experience ready for when I picked up the rank three versions of the skills.

Skill [Minor Dexterity] advanced to level 15

Skill [Minor Intelligence] advanced to level 13

Skill [Minor Charisma] advanced to level 14

Skill [Weft Walk] advanced to level 9

Skill [Item Box] advanced to level 8

Skill [Inspection] advanced to level 13

Skill [Meditation] advanced to level 14

Skill [Foraging] advanced to level 6

Skill [Foraging] advanced to level 7

Skill [Soul Sense] advanced to level 6

Skill [Soul Sense] advanced to level 7

Skill [Enhanced Mana Recovery] advanced to level 12

Skill [Extended Mana Pool] advanced to level 7

Skill [Enhanced Stamina Recovery] advanced to level 8

Skill [Extended Stamina Pool] advanced to level 6

Class [Spatial Mage] advanced to level 9

I had a huge glut of soul points now, and nothing available to spend them on. I was at least drawing near to my next class change, but it would still take more than this year's tournament to push me over the edge.