It took some time for me to start using [Soul Perception] again after that. I had no desire to see a visual representation of the Law, which was the only explanation I had for those chains, and the fact that Henry and Cluma had them while I did not. Once I did use the skill in the village again, I could see that everyone had them, as well as the crystalline structure.

While I lacked the chains, I did have the crystal, and mine was far more intricate than anyone else's I'd seen. Darren's was the simplest, barely more than a spherical core, lacking branches and most structure. The complexity corresponded to the number and level of skills, so my guess was that I was looking at some sort of representation of the System, hooked deep into the soul of everyone. The fact that it meshed far more cleanly with the natural parts of the soul than Erryn's chains was a testament to the skill of whoever it was that first built the System.

I kept up my new hobby of soul-watching while continuing to help out around the village. My universal [Basic Crafting] skill let me help out almost anyone, and I flipped between farming, smithing, tailoring, and even helping out with some more building work. Despite a steady trickle of people leaving the village, more were arriving, and we needed more housing. The village had been gradually expanding over the decade of my life, which wasn't a surprise given that I'd now been around for almost twenty percent of its lifetime.

Of the people leaving, the twins Holly and Joseph were two. After reaching adulthood, Joseph moved out to start a new life in Dawnhold, and Holly moved to another village to the north-east to marry. From my point of view, she seemed rather young to commit to marriage, but between the longer years—she'd be over eighteen in Earth years—and System enhanced intelligence meaning everyone tended to mature faster, it wasn't that weird. Even so, it was a couple of years younger than the average around here. Her new husband had apparently been something of a childhood sweetheart, the twins' parents being friends of the family and visiting often, and the pair of them eventually getting together had been a bit of a no-brainer.

My eleventh birthday came and went without incident, leaving me one year closer to my own adulthood and subsequent beginnings of my own adventure. The annual tournament came around, and although I couldn't participate, I stayed in Dawnhold for the two weeks to watch Cluma. The previous year, she'd only managed to win a couple of rounds, having had no chance to level up as a rank two. This year she did a little better, with her level ten [Stealth] allowing her to trivially take out any opponents that were unable to see through it. It came as no surprise at all to me how quickly she'd maxed that skill out.

I had, alas, not been able to find her any silence enchanted clothing. Normal cloth simply didn't hold an enchantment for long enough to be worthwhile, and dire wolf leather wasn't suited for making casual outfits. When I inquired about it at the delvers' guild store, Adele expressed surprise at two people asking about the same thing. Because of course Cluma had been looking into the options on her own. Why had I expected anything different?

I did note a number of mages fighting with [Greater Mana Control] this year. After the rush to get the skills a few years earlier, people had now got them to a sufficient level for practical use. There also seemed to be more low-level delvers overall, which Ella informed me was due to the confirmation that dungeons were now safe. They'd had a big rush of applicants once the announcement was made, of people wanting to take advantage of the high paying but suddenly very low risk occupation.

She also mentioned that of the new intake, a full thirty percent had fallen in their first year. They were attracting a more foolhardy, excitement-seeking demographic, and instructors were pulling their hair out trying to instil the customary levels of paranoia into the brash teenagers. The net result was that the population of higher-level delvers was unlikely to rise by much, because anyone who took risks based on the fact that their life wasn't in danger would fall before climbing that high, while the population of low-level delvers had boomed and the first couple of floors of the dungeon had become saturated.

Walking around Dawnhold, we were passed by the occasional cyclist. As promised, bikes had indeed made it to sale for the summer. I also saw glass windows, which last year I'd seen only on Lord Reid's manor, but which had now spread to half of the town. Most stores had glass shopfronts. How much longer until glass spread as far as our village? Had it spread to the rest of the world? Just how much change had I wrought?

As far as I was concerned, my fourteenth birthday couldn't come soon enough. I was getting fed up of the world streaming by while I was being treated as more of a child than I had been back when I was eight.

With no further plans for the year, I ended up buying myself a native stringed instrument that looked kinda like a lute. With so many skills already at level fifteen, why not work on [Musician] for a bit? I hoped that adding a new hobby to my list would stave off boredom for a while longer, and so the next year passed.

Skill [Weft Walk] advanced to level 12

Skill [Item Box] advanced to level 11

Skill [Foraging] advanced to level 11

Skill [Foraging] advanced to level 12

Skill [Musician] advanced to level 5

Skill [Musician] advanced to level 6

Skill [Musician] advanced to level 7

Skill [Musician] advanced to level 8

Skill [Clock] advanced to level 11

Skill [Extended Mana Pool] advanced to level 10

Skill [Extended Stamina Pool] advanced to level 9

Skill [Soul Perception] advanced to level 2

Skill [Soul Perception] advanced to level 3

Skill [Soul Perception] advanced to level 4

Skill [Analysis] advanced to level 8

Class [Spatial Mage] advanced to level 13

Class [Spatial Mage] advanced to level 14

Disappointingly, [Clock] did nothing whatsoever on advancing to level eleven. Given that it had previously added additional information at every level, that didn't leave me with much hope for the remaining four levels.

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With summer would come a major change, far more important than me merely being on the cusp of a class change. Clana's indentured servitude had come to an end, and Cluma would soon be leaving our household. She hadn't grown any less energetic despite her extra years of age, and I was going to miss her terribly, in both her sparring partner and hug factory capacities.

Clana decided to stay in Dawnhold, but rather than making another attempt at opening a place of her own, she'd landed a job at the institute canteen. The melting pot of races that worked there, with all their different cuisines, proved an irresistible draw. She was staying in a dorm at the institute for now, but as soon as she had a bit of pay under her belt, she planned to rent a house in town and bring Cluma back.

It was thus shortly after my twelfth birthday that our whole family set off to Dawnhold to deliver a hyperactive cat-girl back to her rightful parent. No-one had even mentioned Camus in all this time, so I had no idea what he was up to, whether his sentence was longer or shorter than Clana, or even if he was still involved with the anti-dungeon movement. I'd heard that it had dwindled somewhat since dungeons became safe, but there was still a core of supporters who believed that it was their own threat to block off dungeons that had led to the change in behaviour, and that dungeons still needed to be closed for good or else they'd one day revert to their old murderous ways.

Trying to bring everyone into [Weft Walk] failed, not only because there was no way my parents could make use of it and still remain upright, but also because my quest-given item seemed to have a limit of two passengers. We had to walk the hard way, but it was a nice day, so it didn't really matter. This was going to be a full day's trip to begin with.

Clana had rented a small house on the outskirts of town, on the side facing the institute. As with the majority of the town's construction, it was stone rather than wood, two stories tall, and in the middle of a terrace of identical houses. I wasn't convinced it was any better than our shack, with worries like insulation, plumbing and sewage all being rendered redundant by the insanity that was magic. Nevertheless, Cluma ran around the place, happily exploring. No doubt we'd see her again shortly; it wasn't as if she needed anyone's help to travel between the village and Dawnhold.

There was one more trip I wanted to make before our return home; the delvers' guild. If at all possible, I wanted to enter the tournament this year. I was only one level away from a class change, and if I wasn't going to be able to join in, picking up [Apprentice Fighter] next might not be a great idea. Even if it only needed four levels, I needed some way to get those levels, and it was hard to see that happening while living peacefully in the village.

And I was now a hundred percent sure I wanted [Apprentice Fighter]. If I wasn't going to take delving back up once I came of age, there wouldn't have been any point, and previously I wasn't certain I was going to. I no longer had a reason to; there were no more orc attacks to concern myself with, nor did I need to reach the bottom of the great dungeon to meet with Erryn. However, the [Failed Delver] introduction had changed all that. Now being an interesting job was more than enough excuse to take up delving without needing to worry about consequences. I was fully intending to join the delvers' guild for real in two years' time. I would be one of those brash and foolhardy teenagers.

Ella was at the reception desk, looking noticeably aged since I'd last seen her, a fact that drove home how rarely I'd been visiting here. Had they reused my room yet? Surely they must have by now. It had been years!

"Oh my, long time no see," she called out. "When did you get so tall?"

I suppose she wasn't the only one looking older... "I'm a kid. We grow fast."

"Hah, true. I suppose you're here to inquire about this year's tournament? There were those among the guild leadership last year who were hoping they'd get to see you in person, and were disappointed that you didn't show. Are you planning to enter this year?"

"Depends. Have the rules changed since last year? I'm still not keen on paying out four gold just to participate."

"It doesn't cost money to participate, though?"

"But I can't travel there on my own."

"Yes?"

We looked at each other in mutual incomprehension. What was it that she didn't get? It wasn't complicated... "If I go, I need to bring a parent with me. My parents are not competing, therefore they need to pay two gold each way to travel."

"Oh, your parents don't want you to travel without them? That's a pity."

"No, we're fine with it," chimed in Dad. "He can take care of himself just fine."

"Then I'm not sure what the problem is? Yes, you need to travel with a guardian, but a quarter of this guild are going! Plenty of people here know you, and would be happy to vouch for you."

Wait... I was being an idiot, wasn't I. I'd been thinking of 'travelling with a guardian' as 'travelling with a family member or family friend who me and my parents know well and trust'. In this brainwashed world where I could trust anyone, I just needed to find someone travelling in the same direction and tag along, and it didn't matter if Mum and Dad had never seen them before. Perhaps that wouldn't have worked to get to the Emerald Nest, but it would work just fine here, where a large chunk of the guild was going the same way and staying the same length of time.

"Right, sorry. I misinterpreted what you meant by guardian, and didn't think that any random delver would do. Then yes, I'll sign up." Drat... I should have joined last year after all!

I ended up agreeing to meet with Vyre's party the day before the tournament was due to start. This would be interesting; I'd get to see an actual city! Synklisi wasn't one of the original settlements, and in fact had started life very much like Dawnhold, as a delver outpost built outside a dungeon. What set it apart, and had resulted in the influx of peoples of all races, was the dungeon it was built around. The great dungeon, of which supposedly no-one had ever reached the bottom.

Drat, now I needed to decide on what to wear. Should I order another full armour set? It would literally only be used for this competition; I was—I very much hoped—approaching the tail end of puberty, but even so, I doubted it would last till next year's tournament. Cluma had just been going in regular clothes, but then she hadn't experienced Freya going all out on her.

Wait... Adele wasn't the only rank three tailor around. There was another one standing right next to me!

"Mum, would you like to make my gear for me?"

Her eyes sparkled. "Of course, I'd love to! We'll need some material, though."

We ended up walking home with a sheet of dire wolf leather in my [Item Box], along with some enchanting reagents. I couldn't do comfort enchantments, but I could do a rank one durability. Hopefully, this little tailoring project and the upcoming visit to the city that housed the great dungeon would take my mind off how quiet our shack suddenly was.