Unbound Soul Chapter 139: Evolution (Patreon)

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Skill [Mana Sight] advanced to level 9

Without managing any further words, Cluma lost consciousness. Her mana circulatory system was going haywire, but it didn't look damaged. In fact, it looked better than new. That was where the good news ended, though. She was still breathing, thank goodness, but it came in disturbingly shallow, irregular breaths, and she was still shaking even while unconscious.

"Let's get her to hospital," I said, not looking forward to explaining this to her parents.

"No, there's no time. I can see what's happening. Use your mana control to reduce the density around her as much as possible."

Given Kari's definition of 'safe', I really wanted to question her instructions, but I followed them anyway. She seemed more excited than worried, which hopefully meant she didn't think Cluma was in danger. Surely the Law wouldn't let her risk someone's safety to feed her magic obsession?

I took out some spare clothes from [Item Box] and lay them on the floor, gently placing Cluma on top, and made a start on building a bubble of reduced mana. Kari joined in too, her face a mask of concentration. As the mana density dropped, Cluma's unconscious body stopped spasming, and her breathing became more regular.

With how often I seemed to use my clothing as a makeshift bed, perhaps I should pack an actual mattress?

"Should we take her to the null mana room?" I asked.

"No, she needs the mana. We'll raise the density slowly until it's back to normal."

At least Kari seemed to have a good idea of what the problem was. "What happened?"

"The System interfered. Rather than let her adapt naturally, it's saddled her with a new trait that had a major effect on the parts of her biology that deal with mana. As you might expect, having your biology swapped out suddenly can come with side effects. Basically, it's a physical version of the mental problems you had when you bought too many skills at once."

Kari inspected Cluma eagerly. "Her thauma suddenly started pumping mana of far higher density than she's used to. Her newly improved circulatory system can take it without problem, but her body didn't know what to do with it all, and overloaded. We just need to ease her into it, and she'll be fine. Better than fine. And I need to make notes! We're quite possibly the first to see anything like this!"

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Skill [Expert Mana Control] advanced to level 14
Skill [Expert Mana Finesse] advanced to level 12

We spent the next half hour letting the ambient mana gradually return to normal levels, while Kari ran around like an excited kid, scribbling in a notebook. But this posed another problem. "What's going to happen when she steps into a dungeon, with its higher ambient mana?" I asked.

"Make sure she has a proper night's sleep before your next delve, and she should be fine. If she does start experiencing symptoms on any floor, don't move onto the next until they stop."

It took another half an hour before Cluma stirred again, wriggling and half opening her eyes. "Woah, so pretty," she mumbled, dazed and still half asleep, before waving a hand in front of herself and trying to grasp thin air.

"Well, that's an improvement, I suppose. Are you sure we don't need to take her to the hospital? Or at least take out her earring so I can use [Analysis]?"

"Give her a few minutes to wake up properly," answered Kari, waving a hand in front of Cluma's face. Her eyes seemed to be tracking a point somewhere behind Kari's hand, rather than the hand itself. "The earring has enchantments that affect her mana, so I don't want to risk removing it right now. There's nothing more anyone could do for her in the hospital, either. If she doesn't wake up fully by tomorrow, and is in need of hydration, we'll take her, but for now it's best that she isn't moved."

Kari seemed to be taking this far too lightly, looking at it as a chance to learn more about magic rather than the fact that the two of us had just seriously hurt someone. Or perhaps I was panicking, after having found out she was crushing on me and then badly injuring her immediately afterwards... At least all the times I'd almost killed myself, it had only been me affected! Well, almost. My family would have been upset, obviously... Either way, I was going to owe her one hell of an apology when she finished coming around. And goodness knows how Camus would react when he found out. If he tried to separate us again, I'd struggle to blame him.

"Cluma?" I called, and she turned her head to face me before wincing and screwing her eyes shut.

"Tuh brrriii..." she slurred, obviously still not awake.

I didn't respond, having looked into her eyes in the brief moment before she closed them. "Umm... Kari? Why have Cluma's eyes turned purple?" It wasn't obvious from the sides, having changed from a dark brown to a similarly deep violet, but viewed from head on, it was obvious that the colour had changed.

Kari lifted one of Cluma's eyelids, examining an eye.

"Too bright..." Cluma repeated, and Kari let it close again.

"Umm..." said Kari, echoing me, which wasn't particularly reassuring. "At a guess, it's an effect of her changed biology?"

"Why are you phrasing that as a question? How much of everything you've said today has been guesses, and how much do you know? What have we done to her?!" I complained.

"Calm down. Panicking isn't going to help."

The dazed Cluma, now with her eyes half open again, was waving a hand around in mid-air, giggling to herself.

What was she laughing at? Why were me and Kari 'bright', but looking up at the lights on the ceiling wasn't a problem? The way she was waving her hand looked like she was interacting with something. What were her changed eyes actually seeing? Mana?

After a few more minutes of playing with empty air, an activity that seemed to amuse her greatly, she curled up into a fetal position, threading her tail between her legs and out in front of her. She wrapped her arms around it and snuggled her face into the tip, soon making purring noises. If it wasn't for the current circumstances, it would have been unbearably cute.

"She doesn't appear to be waking up. Quite the opposite, in fact," I pointed out.

Kari sighed, then knelt and removed Cluma's earring. "Well? What does [Analysis] say?"

I didn't even hear Kari, being distracted by Cluma's continued tail snuggles. But not because of the cuteness. "Her tail!" I gasped, as the dark orange fur rippled, darkening and lengthening, starting at the base, but working its way along the length as I watched.

"[Analysis]. Now," Kari repeated, and for the first time she sounded deathly serious.

I took a look, but she still had [Privacy] on, which at least explained why Kari had asked me instead of doing it herself. Limited by her lower level cap, there's no way she could penetrate it.

Cluma had certainly gained a fifth trait, but I couldn't see it. With my level of [Analysis] that meant it was over rank two. No, wait... Forget the trait. The trait wasn't important. Another element of her status was far more serious.

"Her species has changed! She's still beastkin, but her subspecies changed from catkin to cat-sìth."

"What else?" asked Kari, sounding calmer after a few seconds of silence.

"Don't you think... No, I suppose there's nothing we can do about it now. She has full health and stamina. Mana is... Her capacity has doubled! It's only half full, but she hasn't had a chance to recover it all since the experiment yet, so that's expected. She has one new trait of rank three or above, so I can't see it. No other changes."

"Pity. That means we can't even use the library to look up the trait details. At least we can look up the new species, if she doesn't wake soon. But the appearance changes are likely linked to her species change. I don't think we need to worry."

Her tail was completely black now, darker even than Camus' fur, and the hair on her head had begun changing too. It was previously shoulder length, but already had visibly lengthened, and was still growing. The orange colour was fading, even from the tufts at the front of her ears, which were previously Clana's neon ginger.

If Kari hadn't already completed the [Life Mage] class, I'd have insisted on the hospital whatever she said, but she still thought that a sleep was all Cluma needed to recover, and that it was best not to move her. A doubled mana capacity at least meant that whatever had happened wasn't all bad, but it wasn't worth this.

"What should I have done?" I asked forlornly.

"Huh? What about?"

"The only reason I tried something as insane as using [Item Box] on a person was because the Dawnhold dungeon is too low level for us and we needed to go elsewhere, but all her friends and family were here and she'd only just been reunited with her dad. I wanted to leave, but I didn't want to drag her away. I was desperate to find some way to do both."

"I don't think there is a correct answer to that. What was her opinion?"

I blinked. Had I ever even asked? I'd mentioned my own opinions, but I'd never asked for hers. I'd assumed. Dammit!

"Well, the first thing you should have done was ask," said Kari, seeing straight through me. "After that, it's impossible to say. Maybe this was the best solution. Or maybe you should have split the party, gone somewhere on your own, and come back here to delve with Cluma once a week. There were options."

I sat stewing in regret over how much I'd been taking Cluma for granted, despite telling myself I considered her my equal. On reflection, my choice was pure selfishness. I'd wanted to remain in the party with her, and so I'd implicitly rejected the alternatives, without even asking her first. I'd never even considered visiting other dungeons myself while she remained here. I'd like to think she'd have chosen to come with me, but I'd never even given her the option.

How the heck did she fall for someone as clueless as me? I didn't deserve her...

It took another tense hour before Cluma woke up again, now with midnight-black, waist-length hair. Even her ears had lost every last hint of colour.

"Morning," she said to herself, uncurling and stretching her arms and legs. She was still mid-stretch when it seemed to occur to her that she wasn't in her bed. "Where?" she muttered, before holding a hand in front of her face and waving it around a bit. "Whu?"

"Cluma?" I called gently, and she spun around and stared at me with her deep purple eyes.

"Peter? What was I doing?"

She blinked a few times before her eyes narrowed and her tail puffed again, the effect now far more visible with her lengthened fur. "You said it would be safe! You idiot! What have you done to me?! I feel... I feel... Pretty good actually?"

Her head tilted to the side as her angry expression slipped into pure confusion, her tail flopping back to the floor. Well, that was good, at least. And even better, this time she was lucid.

"It should have been safe, but the System screwed you over. I... don't think it's done any long-term damage, but..." how the hell do I gently break the news that her species changed?

"It took you a while to adapt, but I don't think it's harmful," agreed Kari. "You've taken some changes to your status, though. Please can you read out the details?"

"Wait," I called as Cluma's eyes focused on a point half a metre in front of her face, but I wasn't in time to stop her. Her jaw dropped open as she stared at her status.

"What have you done to me?!" she repeated, louder and with a touch of hysteria.

That's what I wanted to know!

"I'm sorry, but please can you read it out?" repeated Kari, politely, but in my opinion, being as diplomatic as an orc. "We need to know what happened."

Cluma closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths before speaking again. "I have a new trait. [Magical Beast]. 'Baptised by mana, your body is composed as much of magic as it is flesh'. And my... my species changed to cat-sìth. 'A subspecies of beastkin. These mystical felines are as capable with magic as they are with more physical feats.' But how can my species have changed?!"

I looked at her again with [Mana Sight], and it was certainly true that she had a heck of a lot more mana flowing through her now than she had earlier, but I wouldn't have said she was made from it.

"What are the effects of the trait?" asked Kari.

"It says I don't suffer the traditional beastkin penalty to my mana reserves or regeneration, am sensitive to the flows of mana, and get one point off the cost of magic skills and spells."

"Woah..." I replied, my thoughts about diplomacy blown away by that set of perks. "That's not a bad trait."

"Perhaps you missed the part where my species changed!" she snapped. "And a body made of mana? What am I? Some sort of monster?"

"Not at all," Kari interjected. "Demon bodies are mostly mana. Fairy wings are entirely mana. It's not anything harmful."

"You're still Cluma," I added. "You're still beastkin. You have the status of a person, not a monster. So you really don't have to worry about that."

"So it hasn't really changed me at all? Just given me more mana?" she sighed and relaxed, but she hadn't quite been correct.

"Not... completely," I said.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" she asked, sighing. I'm not sure if that was better or worse than getting angry again.

"Your eyes changed colour. They're violet now. And... your hair..."

She blinked and rubbed her eyes, then she reached behind herself and pulled on a lock of black hair, staring at it wordlessly.

"Earlier, you seemed to be looking at something other than light, too."

"Please tell me you can fix this? One of you?"

"I don't think there's anything to fix," said Kari.

"I like the new look. Your eyes are a beautiful colour," I added, trying for a bit of diplomacy again. Certainly more than what Kari was offering. Besides, it was true.

"And I can now absolutely guarantee that using [Item Box] to teleport you won't hurt you anymore," added Kari. So our purpose for coming here was a success, at least. And all it cost was Cluma's... humanity didn't apply here. Catkinity? The trait seemed to be nothing but upsides, but I had to admit the description was rather disturbing.

Cluma performed a few stretches and walked a couple of laps of the room, convincing herself that her body was functioning normally.

"Okay, everything feels normal. There doesn't seem to be anything odd with my eyesight, and I can cut off the excess hair. And... I know Peter was desperate to find a way to visit other places while letting me continue living in Dawnhold. It wasn't like you did this to me for the fun of it. But even so, don't think your compliment about my eyes is going to get you out of my punishment for this. A single hour playing maid will be nothing by comparison."

"An hour as a maid?" asked Kari. "When did that happen?"

Dammit, Cluma! Mentioning that in front of Kari. Apparently, she was starting her revenge already.