Sir Prise bids us adieu once she had escorted us to the teleporter room, and we quickly found ourselves back at our house. As soon as we arrived we carefully checked that everything was in order, a very swift thing thanks to my [Unavoidable Detection], after which we proceeded to cook a light brunch, since it was too late for breakfast and too early for lunch, consisting mainly of some normal looking sausages, regular toasted bread, and some blue eggs.

“I probably shouldn’t find blue eggs with runny green yolks appetizing, but damn that smell if it isn’t heavenly!”

Sheeno also tried offering me some kind of fruit that looked like a durian on the outside, but resembled a fig on the inside; it tasted and felt like a raw mushroom: I was not a fan, but ‘food was food’, and Sheeno wouldn’t make me eat something that she didn’t think would be healthy for me.

And thanks to the [System]’s streamlining I don’t have to wonder whether I’d be able to properly digest it, nor if I might be allergic to it in the first place.

“So, what’s the actual plan for the day?” My girlfriend breaks the silence once we were almost done eating.

“Can I ask something first?” I ask after a brief pause, now uncertain if I should just spring this up on her.

“Of course”, Sheeno easily responds, either not hearing the worry in my voice, or tactically ignoring it on purpose.

“Are we boyfriend and girlfriend right now, or something else? How stable is our relationship?” This was it, no holding, no more fear of confrontations.

“Hm? We were already friends, and now we’re mates. I don’t think that I’m fully understanding whatever you might be asking”, Sheeno finally stops eating, and gives me her full attention.

“I guess it’s kind of hard to explain to someone from a vastly different culture, Let’s put it this way: Two people are ‘boyfriend’ and ‘girlfriend’, with different combinations of so for different people with different sexualities, when they are courting and plan to explore their romantical relationship to figure out whether they fit together well enough for it to last for a long time. Is your definition of ‘mate’ the same thing, or is it closer to mine that stands simply for someone you ‘mate’ with?” I carefully explain, feeling my cheeks grow slightly warmer towards the end.

“Well, not to be punctilious, but we haven’t mated yet, but I still call you by the same term. I thought that was hinting enough to discern at which point I thought our relationship to be at. But I guess that if I had to say where I define us to be out loud, we are indeed close to the level of your definition of ‘boyfriend’ and ‘girlfriend’, and technically slightly behind to where my people would define each other as ‘proper mates’. I hope this eases your worries, so that you stop doubting our relationship: It’s annoying.”

“You’re right. Sorry and thank you both”, I quickly reply, with a goofy smile on my face.

“What I got from that is that she’s my girlfriend. Yeah, baby, that’s what I was waiting for! Woooooh!!!”

Good for you.

Now stop being moist and act more critical to the situation.

“Going back to what I originally asked you, before you started doubting yourself again: Plans?” Sheeno asks again.

“The… same I had before we were interrupted by our home invader: [Spell-Weave], [Rune-Craft], and experiment a little with [familiars] and item crafting”, I immediately reply.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” She asks, slightly glaring at me.

“I don’t think so- Oh! If you meant my [Sub-Class], while I have many interesting options, there’s only one real possible choice that I could have made”, it’s there that I realized that I didn’t reveal to Sheeno the various options I indeed had.

“Then why didn’t you pick it yet, if you’re so sure about it?” Sheeno gives me what I learned to recognize as her signature expression, with two arms resting on cocked hips, and two others folded under her breasts, all put together by a single, questioningly raised eyebrow.

“Knowing my track record, I wanted to be in a relatively secure location, where I wouldn’t attract any unneeded attention, and with only one or two trusted people to assist me in case there is any need. So I guess that if we turn on the protections in our house we should be fine, and I can begin whatever this choice will entail”, I explained, slightly distracted by how Sheeno made her chest purposely bounce, and I knew it was on purpose by the slight smirk when she noticed my wondering eyes had finally settled somewhere.

“You’re making this into a bigger deal than it is: It will just give you a few extra points each [Level] and maybe a new [Trait]… why do I suddenly want to call it a [Title] when talking about it with you?” She made a very weirded-out face when she felt her [cultural interpretation], or something similar, feed her small hints on how my instance of the [System] now classified things.

For your information, it is not unheard of for such things to happen, but it is normally restricted to those that are strong enough to affect the reality around them.

“And isn’t that the entire point of my [Class]?”

Touche.

“I personalized my [System], I’ll tell you about it later”, I replied with a dismissive wave of my hand.

“Of course you did, why shouldn’t you have?” Sheeno mumbled, lightly enough that I probably wasn’t meant to hear it.

“Anyway! Here goes nothing”, and so saying I mentally push [Buddy] to accept my choice, not even bothering to give the other options more than a passing glance (Not that their descriptions were any more useful than what my [Classes]’ had been).

You have selected [Theocrafter] as your Sub-Class:

You will receive per level, in addition to what you already did, +1 [Serendipity], [Insight], [Reflex], and [Energy], +3 [Ego], and +5 [Will].

The Inspiration at the moment and conveyance of Intent are increased when creating something.

You have earned a new [Title] for being the only [Human] with both your [Class] and [Sub-Class]:

[Alone you stand].

Alone you stand:

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

But with many, you will run.

Slightly increases Statistics of entities that fight on your side, while they know that they’re doing so, and while you’re actively participating in the conflict.

Due to your chosen Sub-Class, [Modify] has Evolved into [Alter]:

Alter (Aberrant)

Alter matter around you, that you either contributed to creating or influenced otherwise.

Well, the [Stats] are amazing, but that [Title] worried me for a minute there. At least until I read the description, and then I was instead positively giddy at how good it sounded, especially if it ends up working on [familiars] and [constructs].

The [Evolution] of my [Ability] feels like it will be one of those things that are subtle enough to not be immediately evident, but then result in massive beneficial changes to how it works. For example, right now [Alter] sounds like it could be used on anything that I affect in any way, which probably means that it counts [Manakinesis] and [Bettement] as valid options, meaning that I could alter my enemies into being dead just by catching them unaware with either of them; and if it works with [Word of Power]… well, I’m pretty sure that would actually put me in [Demi-God] category.

“How unheard of is the idea of there being a [Demi-God] at [Lvl 10]?”

I am not even going to deign you with an actual answer.

“Completely unheard of, got it.”

I just looked at Sheeno, giving her an exaggerated thumbs-up and another goofy grin.

That earned me a smirk from her, but then her gaze went unfocused just for a moment.

“Right, you’re protected from [Inspect] and all its variants; honestly, I don’t know how I forgot about it after all that ordeal with your glove and the link you had to the [Depth Witch]. So, what [Sub-Class] did you end up choosing?”

“[Theocrafter]”, I decided to leave it at that to further pique her curiosity.

“So you’re a [Theomancer] specialized in [Theocrafting]? C’mon, you have to give me more than that?!” She was quick on the uptake, following along with my silly ploy.

We had to savor these more light-hearted moments whenever we could get them.

“Only if you beg me on your knees!” I declared imperiously.

“Oh? Only beg? Because I can think of something much better that I could do in that position~”, Sheeno suddenly switched her tone, sounding so low and sultry that I could already feel myself getting goosebumps.

“O-o-oh, y-yeah? And w-what might that be?” I bashfully asked, kind of hoping to know where this was going.

“Kiss you, because you’re too short”, She deadpanned, metaphorically dousing my flames of ardor and igniting those of anger.

“Fuck you!” I shouted, looking betrayed at my girlfriend.

“Bet”, Sheeno simply said, moving purposely closer.

“…dammit!” I inevitably was the first to relent, blushing and looking away like a freaking teenager.

I immediately caved in, telling her how my [Sub-Class] seemed to just enhance my original [Class] as a whole, and looked like it was trying to encourage me with experimenting wildly while creating or modifying new stuff.

“It’s not that weird to have specialized [Sub-Classes] that are derived from one’s main [Class], but since your [Class] was already that out of the ordinary to begin with, I guess this is just the natural progression that your path is bringing you on.

Let’s just say that I agree with your choice and leave it at that. Going back to reopen the sack of worms that your brand of [Magic] seems to be would be just a waste of our time.”

And so saying Sheeno nodded, like the discussion at reached a satisfying point.

“Just like that!? No astonishingly deep argument about how weird what I can do is, or how unique I seem to keep on becoming?” I felt the need to ask, after her uncharacteristic calmness.

Ok, it isn’t uncharacteristic of her to remain calm after these revelations, but in private I expected her at least to act exasperated in the face of my ongoing weirdness.

“Honestly, I kinda gave up on figuring out your limits: I accepted that my mate is a [Demi-God] in the making, and that’s it.”

Yeah, that would be it. Sheeno had simply reached my same conclusion and was simply becoming used to what I seemed to keep on doing.

And at this point, I don’t know whether that’s a good or a bad thing.

“Whatever… I’m going into the secure room to work for a bit”, I mumble after a while.

“And I’m coming with!” Sheeno declares.

“Of course you are…” I mumble again in quiet acceptance.

“Because I bet it’ll be interesting”, she explains.

“Of course it will be!” On this, I wholeheartedly agree.

* * *

The secure room is simply an imitation of Rubicon’s isolation chamber, but adjusted more to our liking: Like the additions of actual furniture, and yet-to-be-filled bookshelves covering most of the walls. It has plenty of [Enchantments] to secure that is… well, ‘secure’, and before my forced training period with the [Guild Master] was over I had started implementing some carved [Runes] for added benefits.

Now, making the [Runes] actually permanent was one of the first hurdles that I was met with, and one that I yet had to completely conquer: Now, if the inscribed [Runes] remained within my area of influence, they wouldn’t degrade and work perfectly fine passively, but even then they would start self-destructing once they were used actively. Having them stand far away from me for a prolonged period of time? That is where I kept on failing still.

But I was getting ahead of myself.

The first thing I had to do, well before anything else, is check what changed about my [Adapatability] after my [Evolution].

[Adaptability] was my bread and butter, practically my cheat code to make my bullshit work even when it wasn’t meant to.

And now it had been changed into [Overflowing Adaptability].

I would have understood ‘Overwhelming Adaptability’, that would have sounded like a direct upgrade.

But ‘Overflowing’? Since when has it become a liquid!?

I don’t get it, and the fact that I didn’t get it could mean that I might have just lost one of my most convenient assets.

“Well, there’s just one way to find out the truth!”

And so thinking I once again play the [System] with a combination of [Create] and [Modify]- I mean [Alter], but I seriously can’t feel the difference when using it- And the quasi-[Matrix] of the [Trait] into being as a more ‘physical’ form.

I say ‘quasi-[Matrix]’ because [Traits], and now I guess [Titles], only resembled in shape [Matrixes], and that was only externally; now I could even tell that all the internal messy structure is a multidimensional layer of [Runes], something far beyond me, but that I can still recognize with a modicum of effort.

Nothing that I will be able to replicate any time soon, so I’ll just add it to the ‘later pile’, where all the things that I want to do, but that I’m still lacking in something to properly do, are mentally kept.

I really look at the [Trait] now, having gotten my other thoughts finally out of my mind.

And… well, it’s ‘overflowing’, alright.

Two identical copies of the original [Adaptability] are sitting one against the other, connected by crossed funnels that create some sort of ‘feeding loop’, and at the midpoints of these ‘funnels’ [Runes] seems to ‘escape the confines of the [Matrix], without reem or reason governing their creation.

At least that’s what it looks like… at first: The random [Runes] soon reveal their cyclic nature, alternating between all those I know and more, finally going back to those I know after a while, which now look incredibly basic compared to the latter ones of the cycle.

Every cycle takes only a few minutes, yet the number of [Runes] it’s consisted of could be counted into the thousands. They go incredibly fast, but I must watch, both mesmerized and utterly fascinated by the wealth of knowledge hidden within. They are incredibly numerous, and only shown for a fraction of a second each, and yet I must observe it all with my all.

The [Runes] are a preventive attempt at [Adapting] to whatever it may meet, going from more general concepts and ideas to more elusive and obscure ones.

It’s all so painfully obvious now that I can’t do anything but weep in the face of my foolishness.

…

Wait, it’s actually painful… and since when have I been one to cry so easily?

I snap out of the trance an undetermined amount of time later, feeling completely drained on a deeper level than physical exhaustion would dictate.

I barely have enough energy to bring one hand to touch my tears and then observe the viscous liquid they stain with.

Yup, that’s blood.

Incredibly deep red blood with a purple metallic sheen to it.

“That can’t be good…”

Fatigue at extreme levels!

[FP: 201%]

“Oh fuck, that sounds bad.”

I’m pretty sure that [Buddy] replies to that last comment of mine, but fortunately for me, I was already slipping into unconsciousness, and couldn’t really pay attention to it.

But before the darkness, my old friend, could come to talk to me again, I feel Sheeno wonderful arms catching me before I could hit the floor.

Gods, I love that woman.