It had been another year since the pyromaniac baby incident, and I was coming up to my eleventh birthday. The previous year's tournament had subdivided the rank two group into those below or above a total level of forty, and I hadn't managed to win that year. I'd faced my first ever [Thaumaturgist] in battle, and he'd ripped my spells to shreds. He was even able to purge me of my active buffs. Suffice it to say, I hadn't won that match. The [Thaumaturgist] didn't lose a single round, using his own version of Kari's tactics, but with the advantage of actually knowing how to fight. In retrospect, perhaps I'd dismissed that class too quickly. Given my attuned affinities, I wouldn't have been able to use it to such great effect, but it was still irritating to have been beaten so badly.

The delvers' guild was now pretty certain that it was no longer possible to die in a dungeon, but after weeks of bureaucratic wrangling on the topic, had decided to postpone any change to their entry requirements, with the excuse that dungeons were still going through changes and they wanted things to settle before switching up their procedures. That meant I was still banned from delving, and my armour had ended up only being used for the two tournaments. Cluma, of course, had got maximum possible use out of her own, regularly wearing it around the house and milking the silence enchantment for all that it was worth.

We'd both grown beyond the scope of what the comfort enchantments could cope with now, but I decided there was no point ordering myself a new set until I came of age or dungeons were opened to minors, and I could get more than two weeks worth of use out of them each year. I'd have to see if I could get regular clothes enchanted with silence for Cluma, though, because the aura of pure sadness she radiated when she realised she could no longer squeeze herself into her bodysuit was unbearable.

I hoped so; I really didn't want to order new armour for her. I'd thought myself long since over my issues with the protective fetish-wear, but I was now a boy of that age. Somehow, by thinking of myself as an adult all this time, I'd completely failed to consider the fact that I had puberty coming up. I was, for the first time since I'd been banned from the dungeon, glad that I wasn't hanging around a lot of fit delvers in skintight leather.

This year, the Dawnhold guild branch was holding a much reduced competition, with only categories for rank one and rank twos below level forty. The higher levels were being held at the guild headquarters in the city of Synklisi, which, on the face of it, was a great idea. They had larger facilities, with more arenas and stronger barriers. They even had one where rank fours could duke it out without demolishing half the city. There promised to be many more entrants in each category, as well as the higher rank categories.

Of course, while it was great in theory, practice was another matter. While headquarters were not imposing an age limit, and were offering free transportation for participants, they wouldn't relax the no-unaccompanied-children rule, and anyone accompanying me would not be free. In addition, since it was to be held at Synklisi rather than the Emerald Nest, it required two hops through the portal network. I made an attempt to convince Kari to enter and act as my guardian, but she didn't want to leave the institute for that long. I'd started earning royalties from some of the stuff the institute had invented that I'd been directly involved in, but while I was filthy rich for a villager, I wasn't about to shell out four gold coins for the opportunity to fight. Maybe I would next year, but this year Cluma would be entering on her own. At least I'd get to watch her. Or perhaps not, given her maxed out [Stealth].

Darren had managed to learn that setting things on fire was impolite, and whether that was enough for the Law to kick in or if it was his own good nature, that allowed us to remove his bracelet and let him play without needing to be on constant high-alert. Watching him toddle around with wisps of flame dancing around him, laughing and shouting "fire! fire!", gave me a small picture of what people must have felt like around me when I was that age. Not that we left the bracelet off all the time; he still had to sleep with it. We didn't want to risk any accidents.

I'd also noted that even with the bracelet removed, his status continued to lack any indication of his mana pool. That had some interesting implications, but required Darren to grow up a bit more before I could start investigating them properly. It certainly suggested that the answer to my old question about whether the System's mana quantisation was artificial was a big fat yes.

Going a year without electrocuting myself, burning myself, blowing myself up, getting myself gutted by goblins or accidentally tearing out my own soul had done nothing to rid me of my unwanted [Self-Destructive] title. The library was no help either, with no comments about how to remove the thing. I was still hoping it would go away on its own eventually, but thus far I'd still not had a single stat gain in wisdom. To be fair, I wasn't really gaining much in the way of any raw stats these days. It was mostly just skill levels, of which the previous year had brought plenty.

Strength increased by 1

Charisma increased by 1

Skill [Minor Strength] advanced to level 15

Skill [Minor Endurance] advanced to level 15

Skill [Minor Intelligence] advanced to level 14

Skill [Minor Intelligence] advanced to level 15

Skill [Minor Charisma] advanced to level 15

Skill [Weft Walk] advanced to level 10

Skill [Weft Walk] advanced to level 11

Skill [Item Box] advanced to level 9

Skill [Item Box] advanced to level 10

Skill [Distortion] advanced to level 13

Skill [Inspection] advanced to level 14

Skill [Inspection] advanced to level 15

Skill [Meditation] advanced to level 15

Skill [Concealment] advanced to level 9

Skill [Foraging] advanced to level 8

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Skill [Foraging] advanced to level 9

Skill [Foraging] advanced to level 10

Skill [Hunting] advanced to level 5

Skill [Clock] advanced to level 9

Skill [Clock] advanced to level 10

Skill [Soul Sense] advanced to level 8

Skill [Soul Sense] advanced to level 9

Skill [Appraisal] advanced to level 14

Skill [Appraisal] advanced to level 15

Skill [Enhanced Mana Recovery] advanced to level 13

Skill [Extended Mana Pool] advanced to level 8

Skill [Extended Mana Pool] advanced to level 9

Skill [Secrecy] advanced to level 5

Skill [Secrecy] advanced to level 6

Skill [Enhanced Stamina Recovery] advanced to level 9

Skill [Enhanced Stamina Recovery] advanced to level 10

Skill [Extended Stamina Pool] advanced to level 7

Skill [Extended Stamina Pool] advanced to level 8

Skill [Analysis] advanced to level 6

Skill [Analysis] advanced to level 7

Class [Spatial Mage] advanced to level 10

Class [Spatial Mage] advanced to level 11

Class [Spatial Mage] advanced to level 12

Class level increased intelligence by 1

A giant wall of gains, to be sure, but nothing of particular note. I was interested to see what would happen once [Clock] went over ten. Was there any more information it would provide? It hadn't unlocked a rank two skill when it hit ten, but I was still holding out hope for an inbuilt GPS at some point, particularly if I was going to go wandering around the whole world.

[Soul Sense] had stalled out at nine too. That was likely my best shot at getting a new rank two skill, although I still had no idea what use it would be. A visit to grab some kobold meat had revealed that, unlike normal wildlife, monsters had no souls, so even an upgraded long-range version wouldn't be any use for things like spotting goblin assassins.

With the improved acuity I could see a little more detail on people. No longer just plain whites and greys, but with hints of colour within. Patterns and detailing on the edge of my perception, far too fine for me to properly observe, from lines of black around the outside to colourful, subtle movement beneath the surface. Movement which changed based on emotion, slow when sleeping, faster and brighter when excited. Each one was a work of art that I could easily see being put on display in a gallery, if not for them being, well, people's souls. I doubted the current owners would approve.

Today I was accompanying Henry to Dawnhold. My [Item Box] was now at a sufficient level for him to not bother with his cart as long as he didn't need anything particularly bulky, and he had, eventually, got the hang of [Weft Walk]. The trip that used to be an all-day affair for him could now be completed before lunch. Cluma came with us, wanting to visit Clana while I stuck with Henry to pack away his purchases. Clana was two years into her three-year sentence, but I hadn't heard what she planned to do once she was released. Hopefully, they'd stick around.

I followed Henry around while keeping a constant watch with [Soul Sense]. I'd noticed that some souls were denser or more imposing than others, and if not for Darren being anomalously bright, I would have assumed that it was a representation of their rank. Cross-referencing with [Analysis] showed that there was no correlation between soul appearance and someone's System granted power at all. Rather, it corresponded to the rank of their traits. That made logical sense; traits were a representation of someone's inbuilt qualities, while skills and classes were artificial.

That implied that when my traits had evolved, I hadn't prodded the System into granting me a level up, but rather had been growing my own soul, with the System building its own rewards on top of that. That was a rather weird concept, but again, I was no expert on souls. It would have been interesting to have watched Cluma when she went from two traits to four, to see what had happened. Shame I didn't have the skill back then.

I continued my musings on what exactly it was I could see with [Soul Sense] on our way home, and apparently that contemplation was finally enough to get me the next level.

ding

Skill [Soul Sense] advanced to level 10

That did indeed unlock a new rank two skill, [Soul Perception], which I immediately splashed out three points for. Perhaps I should be saving for [Eye of Judgement] given that [Analysis] only had a few more levels to go till ten, but twenty-three was a lot of points, and I wasn't sure if I'd even qualify for it without some sort of specialised class.

As expected, the new skill ate up [Soul Sense], so I switched it on to see what difference the upgrade had made. The shock immediately knocked me out of [Weft Walk], and while not as bad as when I used [Mana Perception] for the first time, it still left me reeling. I'd been expecting to see myself and my travelling companions, not the whole landscape! Every insect, every blade of grass, every worm beneath the soil, I could perceive every living thing within a few metres of me.

Henry tripped and fell, caught off guard by the suddenly disrupted travel skill. Cluma stumbled but caught herself, turning to check up on me. "You okay?" she called, before seeing my face. "Woah, you look awful. What happened?"

"Mana getting a bit low. I'll be okay in a moment," I answered, shutting the skill back off. I could admit I'd got a new skill, but then she'd want to know what it was, and the Law wouldn't let her remember soul related stuff. It was easier to just make excuses.

"Well, please warn us next time," said Henry, picking himself back up. "I'm way too old for this magic malarkey."

"You're what, forty something? You're not old."

"I was fifty last year, lad."

Wow... In Earth terms that meant somewhere over sixty-five. Not old enough to be worried about a sudden death of old age, not with a [Life Mage] in the village, but sometimes I forgot that as I aged, so did everyone else around me. He probably was a bit old to be making this trip on a regular basis. But who would replace him when he stopped?

We all sat down for a break, and I thought back on what I'd just seen of Cluma's soul. A cloud not of pure white, but of delicate and ever-changing patterns, still far beyond my ability to comprehend. It matched her shape perfectly, moving in perfect synchronisation with the twitching of her ears and swishing of her tail, but lacked features such as eyes, mouth or hair. Beneath the surface, dots of yellow and red jumped around in groups, almost as if they were dancing. Deeper inside was something like a crystalline tree, its many spindly branches spreading throughout the whole structure, looking quite unlike the rest of the soul, but nevertheless it somehow fit, in some way I couldn't explain.

And the black lines, which my improved perception resolved to thick chains, not just wrapped tightly around her surface, but also plunging through her, leaving strange shadows in their wake.