Chương 142: Maturity

Puberty had made it obvious, but even now, I knew my thought processes were still slightly off. I may have the memories of another life, but they'd spent years being processed by a child's brain. Despite all my claims, I wasn't mentally in my thirties. I simply had thirty-something years of memories, which was not at all the same thing. To put it politely, I'd been impulsive. Less politely, I'd been an utter imbecile.

I'd done some damn stupid stuff when I was younger, and I still had my [Self-Destructive] title as a result. I might even go as far as to admit that the twins were more mature than I was. Perhaps harpies were less enslaved to their hormones than humans? I was supposed to be an adult now, so it was high time I stopped messing around doing whatever I felt like, and actually started planning things out properly.

Alas, as motivated as I was to force myself to be more sensible, planning a route from A to B required having some idea of where B was. What long-term life goals did I have? I had nebulous ideas of reaching rank five or clearing the great dungeon, but I had no real reason for them, and hence no great amount of investment in their success. I already knew what was at the bottom of the great dungeon, and I'd met someone who was rank five and had solo cleared it already. There was no mystery anymore.

There were new goals I could pursue. Understanding the System. Bending the Law to my will, so I could 'rescue' any future reincarnates. I could end up ruling the world if I took control of both. But I didn't want to. Besides, I was under no delusions as to my intelligence. Understanding the System was beyond even my System-enhanced capabilities, and messing with the Law involved soul magic. I had a permanently slime-drenched finger to remind me what a bad idea that was.

Neither did the idea of living a quiet family life with a regular day job appeal to me, no matter how much my previous Earth incarnation would have been pleased with that outcome. I was concerned by a niggling bit at the back of my brain that wanted a mass invasion of reincarnates, or another large-scale dungeon break, or any other sort of emergency to happen, just to give my life some purpose. I tried to shove it down, back into the depths of my unconscious. Peace was good.

I couldn't wish harm on the world for my own entertainment. The lesson I'd been bashed in the face with twice over recent days was that I needed to stop trying to make decisions on my own. If I was making long-term plans, I needed to consult my parents, as well as Cluma. Her dreams for the future involved such insanities as giving a hug to every person in the world, but she might have more realistic ideas buried away somewhere too. Besides, since it was her, maybe hugging every person in the world was realistic.

I doubted anyone would think less of her dream than they'd think of me claiming I wanted to clear the great dungeon. Putting long-term goals aside, what did I need to do short term? I'd been focusing on picking a new dungeon, but I'd been ignoring other things I could do. I needed more soul points, for a start.

I should spend a few days in the library; it might not hold information on my class options, but I could research monsters we might face in the future, and there was bound to be other useful information I could find. If I looked at other random classes, I might even give myself ideas for my future. My levelling speed hadn't been great over the past few years. I'd gained three levels since the twins were born, which was slightly over my recent average, but I wanted to speed up further.

Hopefully, the challenges of deeper dungeons would help with that. There was skill training to do, too. In particular, I needed to stop being squeamish about training my health pool skills, lest I end up dying a stupid death to not-Blobby accidentally serving me poison again. I couldn't live with my parents forever, either. It wasn't like everyone moved out the second they came of age, but a few years from now, living with my parents would be considered weird. That was fine; I could afford a house.

But where should it be? I could teleport, but Cluma couldn't without my help, and neither could anyone who might want to visit us. Dawnhold seemed like the sensible option, but I also needed to consider here in the village, or in a larger city, with its greater amenities. The Emerald Nest or Synklisi were options. Again, it was not a decision I should be making on my own. I still wanted to visit the twins on occasion, too.

There was no longer such a communication barrier between them and their new family, so my presence was less important, but I didn't want to leave them alone. Particularly knowing what was happening to them. They were still rather more sanguine about it than I was. With a sigh, I dragged myself out of bed and got dressed. In the living room, Dad glanced at my head and stifled a chuckle.

"Go ahead, laugh away," I commented. On the one hand, keeping my fake ears around didn't exactly help me feel more mature, but on the other, they reminded me of exactly what could happen when I acted on impulse.

"Anyway, shouldn't you be out in the fields?"

"I gave the livestock their feed early today. Your mother and I are visiting Dawnhold."

"Oh? What for? And what's Darren doing?"

"Staying with Richard. He wanted to watch his life magic," answered Mum. Fair enough. Darren generally ignored affinities other than fire unless someone started doing magic around him, but he did have other attuned affinities, so it would do him good to diversify. And to stop burning things. But that was only half my question.

"You skipped the what for." Mum glanced away, leaving Dad to fill in.

"Obviously, we need to talk to Clana and Camus." Oh... Apparently, I was failing in my new resolution to think things through already. Of course, I was being serious when I returned Cluma's feelings, but for some reason I wasn't expecting much reaction from anyone else. I'd asked Mum about the matchmaking tradition, but she'd never said what happened next, and I hadn't asked because it hadn't seemed relevant. Why did our parents need to meet up? But it was a good opportunity to talk over my plans with them.

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"Can I walk with you? I wanted to ask your opinions on things." Quarter of an hour later, we departed for Dawnhold at a jog. They needed to be back in the evening to collect Darren, so they couldn't waste time travelling at walking pace, but they weren't in enough of a rush to use [Weft Walk], giving me plenty of time on the way there to talk. To my surprise, they made no attempt to convince me to stay in the village.

Dawnhold was their preference, but they would happily accept anywhere as long as I came back to visit, especially since they could signal me through any detached body part I left in their house. As for my future plans, they had nothing to offer beyond telling me to do whatever made me happy. That wasn't really helpful. At Clana's house, me and Cluma were promptly booted out to let our parents talk without us, leaving me once again wondering if I could get away with hiding a detached ear.

Alas, Cluma dragged me away before I had the chance to follow through.

"Where are we going?" I asked, as I was pulled along.

"The delvers' guild!" she exclaimed happily.

"We need to pick our next dungeon!"

"Is that really what you want to do?" I asked.

"Huh? Why, do you want to run the Dawnhold dungeon again?"

"No. I mean... What is it you want to do with your life? Do you have any long-term goals?"

"Of course! To give everyone in the world a hug, to evolve my [Invisible Terror] trait to rank five. To gather enough stealth skills and enchantments that no-one can see me, not even you."

"Then why do you want to go dungeon delving?" Cluma's tail twisted in a loop, looking almost like a question mark, as she tilted her head to the side.

"Because it's fun?" she answered, as if I was asking a trick question. Right. Not every action needed to be something that worked towards a long-term goal. People were allowed hobbies. Why was my head so messed up?

"Then where would you like to live? Here in Dawnhold, the village, or somewhere else?"

"Are you feeling okay? You're being weird today."

"Weirder than in the ark?"

"No, thankfully."

"Good. And I've just been thinking about the future a lot today."

"Well, I don't care where we live. We're going to spend every day exploring new places and dungeons, so home is just somewhere to sleep. Since you can teleport us there, it doesn't matter where it is."

"Sure it does. What if your parents or friends want to visit?"

"Ah," said Cluma, pausing in her sprint and looking thoughtful, then suddenly gasping.

"But I'm going to make friends everywhere we travel to! Do we need to have a house in every town?!" That answer made me laugh. Yup, it was typical Cluma.

"I'm afraid that my budget won't stretch that far. I think here in Dawnhold, so family can visit, would be best. We'll just have to visit your friends ourselves." We proceeded the rest of the way to the guild, while I considered the optimal beacon layout for minimising travel time to any part of our continent. Level fifteen [Detach] wasn't going to be sufficient. Why couldn't I have a proper teleportation spell?

"Hi, Peter," called Ella, who was once more on reception. She looked around suspiciously, before adding, "Are you alone?" Alas, no amount of alertness of her part saved her from Cluma's rear tackle, the [Invisible Terror] having leapt over the counter before Ella had even finished her greeting.

"No," I answered redundantly. Ella sighed, the surprise hugs being slightly less of a surprise given that my presence had put her on alert.

"You need to let me walk in first," complained Cluma.

"Then they'd see the door open but no-one walk in," I pointed out.

"Anyway, what can I help you with today?" asked Ella, trying to drag the conversation back into a sensible direction.

"We need a new dungeon!" exclaimed Cluma happily.

"This one is too easy now."

"We're looking for something twenty floors deep," I added.

"Twenty floors specifically? Ah, you both have the [Novice Delver] title, don't you? And now you're after [Proficient Delver]. Then you want Serpent Isle or the town of Bloodrock. There's a third near the Sapphire Depths, but I assume you would prefer something drier." That was the same three that Camus listed. And she knew them all off the top of her head. Yay for talented receptionists. And Bloodrock? That must be the name of the settlement, like Dawnhold.

I'd complain about it sounding ridiculously ominous if I didn't know that the demons were as brainwashed as everyone else. It was probably named because the surrounding terrain was red and stony or something.

"I know Serpent Isle is full of snakes, but what's the Bloodrock dungeon like?"

"Bloodrock is a demon settlement south-east of the Obsidian Spires. The dungeon takes the appearance of a natural cave network. Top floors have no natural lighting and contain cave dwelling critters, like giant spiders and insects. The ambient temperature increases as you get lower, and you'll need magical protection past floor ten. Monsters switch to fire affinity varieties, and by floor fifteen, you'll start seeing lava."

No wonder that one attracted a demon settlement; it sounded completely inhospitable to humans. But we did both already have fire resistance amulets, and it sounded far more interesting than snakes.

"What sort of magical protection? Will our rank two fire resistance amulets be enough?"

"Perhaps they'd be enough to survive, but you wouldn't be able to fight effectively. I'd recommend you purchase the rank three versions stocked by the local store." This overqualified receptionist even knew what stock foreign stores sell? Although, it was kinda reasonable for the store right outside a fire affinity dungeon to sell fire resistance items. A rank four, orichalcum version from Grover would be better, but I lacked anything to entice him with for now.

Even if the heat would be uncomfortable, it sounded more interesting to me than endless snakes.

"Which do you think?" I asked Cluma.

"Lava or snakes?"

"Nice of you to ask my opinion," huffed Cluma, but it was a huff with a bit of humour in it. I'd messed up somehow... What did I do this time? It couldn't be too bad, because she wasn't angry, just mildly exasperated." You might know what the Serpent Isle dungeon is like, but I don't! How am I supposed to decide?" Oops... Who knew trying to think things through and include other people in my decisions would be so hard?

She'd been unconscious when I was talking to Camus about it, so why did I expect her to already know?

"It's twenty floors of snakes," laughed Ella.

"Each floor is a single, massive chamber, filled by a jungle. All floors have fake sunlight and regular thunderstorms. Teleporters are only present every five floors, but so are bosses, and you can travel up through the dungeon as well as down."

"Serpent Isle, then," said Cluma.

"Given your ability to teleport out of dungeons, the sparse teleporters don't matter, and I'll be able to fight more effectively in an open jungle than narrow caves. You probably can too. And I'd prefer getting wet to overheating." I blinked in surprise. I'd asked out of politeness, but I thought Bloodrock was the obvious answer. Twenty floors of snakes was too uninteresting by comparison. Once again, I'd assumed, and been completely wrong. But at least this time I'd asked. I was learning!

The only problem was that I still wanted to go to Bloodrock. Should I accept Cluma's answer, or try to convince her otherwise? No—she was obviously right. In a narrow crevice, she would find it far harder to avoid enemies as they moved around, so wouldn't be able to use her [Stealth] to full effectiveness. I would likely be forced to use my short sword too, and besides, cave dwelling critters might include more centipedes.

"Okay," I agreed.

"Snakes it is."