"I won the betting pool," Brittney shouted happily.

Everyone in the room looked at her in shock. Adam's anger fizzled due to her reaction. He tilted his head as he watched her with confusion, unsure of how he should respond.

"Your bet was on a [System Conduit]?" he asked numbly, when he could finally speak.

Brittney's face blushed and she realized what had happened. She lowered her hands, tucking them into her armpits in embarrassment. The small girl tried to turn her face away and make herself even smaller.

"She bet there would be an error. Didn't even specify it would come from the corruption," explained Tom. "We don't know what a [System Conduit] is though. It might not be an actual error, so we can't say you won."

"It didn't give Adam the class, so it's an error! Don't be a cheat, Tom," snapped Brittney, her embarrassment gone as she glared at Tom for trying to welch from the bet. "You'd better pay out!"

"Gambling aside," redirected Carlos. "What is a [System Conduit] and why did it affect Adam?"

"Maybe the [System] is angry at Adam and making up crap to @*@% block him?" offered Randall.

"It reminds me of what happened when I used to plug a new drone into my router," spoke up Ed. He furrowed his brow thoughtfully, trying to remember in detail. "The drone would come with a pre-assigned IP address. If that address was the same as an existing drone, then neither would work."

"Can you explain that in not-nerd?" asked Joseph flippantly, but from the looks of those around, he wasn't the only one who didn't get it.

"Fine," responded Ed petulantly, trying to think of how to dumb it down. "When setting up a network, everything using it needs an address. A location for information to be delivered to. If two devices, like a phone and a tablet, get the same address, it causes problems because the information doesn't know which address to use. So neither get it and the router sends an error message. That simple enough for you?"

"Well…" started Joseph, but Adam interrupted him.

"Network? Like what I did to create an area for a class in my soul?"

"What did you do to get a class, darling?" questioned Andrea suspiciously. "You never did tell us directly. There weren't many details, and we let it slide because it seemed like such a good thing."

"Oh, uh, yeah," said Adam, running a hand through his hair nervously. His eyes darted around, refusing to make eye contact. "Well, it's like Ed said. I, uh, created a, er, network since my own soul didn't have enough space for the class."

"Using your soul for a network does not sound good. How did you create a network with your soul?" asked Abbey, her eyes narrowing at Adam.

"Yeah, about that. There is this thing called a soul bond. But you guys don't need to worry, only certain classes from the Red Clan can make them," stumbled Adam, blurting out too much under the accusing gazes of the girls.

"Aaadammm," sang Alissa. "Why would we need to worry, unless it was a bad thing. What did the mind witch do while you were captured?"

Adam looked around hesitantly. As he saw the expressions on Andrea, Abbey, Alissa, and Brittney's faces, he released a big sigh. He had managed to keep all this from them, but he just wasn't sure how he would talk his way out of it this time. With a bit of regret, he explained what a soul bond was and what the Red Clan usually used it for. He did include that it became a really big weakness which could be exploited, so they needed to keep this information secret.

"Then you never killed the mind witch?" asked Brittney.

"Is that why the prison base was never added to the network?" asked Alissa.

"Yes," answered Adam truthfully. "I needed to keep her in a safe place so she couldn't be exploited."

"What if she finds a way to exploit it? All this time we thought she was dead," said Andrea.

"No worries there," answered Adam with an exhale of relief. "I figured out how to wipe all her memories. Since then, she's been no more than a doll. A few Leputi guard her and keep her alive. Plus, I also erased her class, so she doesn't have the Red Clan skills anymore. I connected my class area to hers and put the [Protector] class there. It has empowered me, if anything."

"If that's the case, I guess it couldn't be helped," said Abbey, the sternness leaving her face. "She did this to you. It wasn't anything you could control and keeping it secret sounds like it's for the best."

"Yeah," agreed Adam quickly, "better not to advertise that getting to her could harm me."

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He decided to refrain from admitting that he was the one who created the bond, although accidentally. After all, creating it had forced Cruxannith to delay sending him back to her home world. The girls all relaxed, except for Brittney who still stared at him suspiciously. Adam felt sweat on the back of his neck, so he looked away.

"Does that mean the [System Conduit] is exactly what it sounds like?" asked Carlos. "A connection between us to the [System]?"

"That does make sense," said Lucas. "There has to be some connection to let the [System] build classes, skills, and titles in our souls, right? Adam, originally you even said that when you looked into other people's souls, your connection couldn't occupy the same space."

"True," considered Adam. "My connections can't occupy the same space as another soul. They can move through it, but never truly combine. Souls move out of the way when my connection tendrils enter. Except for the soul bond I mentioned before. I've never thought about how the [System] can affect us. It builds all these things insides us, can practically read our thoughts, or maybe memories, and even makes us see things."

"Then that's your answer, boss," said Tom. "This [System Conduit] must be like a super powered version of your connections. Since your class occupies two souls, and each soul has a different conduit, you were thrown an error. Find where the mind witch's conduit is and unplug it."

"Do you think it'll be that simple?" asked Nick.

"Of course not. But if anyone can do it, it's the boss," bragged Tom.

"Except I've spent months inside her and my other captives' souls. I've never seen something connecting them to anything external," said Adam.

"You didn't know to look for it before," suggested Brittney. "Maybe now that you do, you can search in different ways."

Adam sighed and slumped his shoulders. He was sick of watching memories and investigating what was in souls and how they worked. Sure, he had learned a lot, but he'd much rather be out there fighting the invaders. Unfortunately, now that he saw what he could gain from evolving to an impossible class, he had to admit he needed to find this conduit.

"Of course. More soul investigations. Yay," he said flatly.

***

Adam signed as he sat back in his chair. He watched Cruxannith sitting without moving. Her legs were in a V shape in front of her and her arms were just draped at her sides. Her head looked upwards, staring at nothing in the air, with unfocused eyes.

It had been another five days of literal soul searching inside Cruxannith. Then he looked around his own, comparing the two. It was difficult trying to examine the energy structures within each due to the soul bond. The gaping hole that connected their souls had fully assimilated. Energy passed through the hole as though it belonged within both of them.

The only real difference between their souls was that Cruxannith could pump in more energy by drinking blood. Adam had to kill to gain energy.

Even without finding anything new, there were two items that were nagging at Adam. He couldn't explain either, so he didn't know if they were important or not.

The first item was the clarity of his class and skills.

Up until now, when he looked at skills in other people, he saw them as indistinguishable masses of energy. They had a rough shape and density. It was like looked through a telescope at a city, except the lens was too blurry to make out more that just the rough areas that were lit by streetlights.

It still looked that way in other souls, but now when he looked at the skills in Cruxannith that his own class area linked to, he could see them more distinctly. He saw where one mass of energy denoted a skill, and the separation between the different skills.

It might have been the same way immediately after getting the class, but at that time he only had two skills. With so few to compare, there wasn't enough of a sample size to really notice this difference.

All that Adam could guess was that since the Protector class was now a part of him, he had a more intrinsic understanding of it. Of course, there was no way to verify this.

The second item was regarding the soul bond. In the beginning with the soul bond, the hole that connect their souls felt like it had been two sets of tendrils that had woven together to form the opening. With the knowledge of soul shaping that he had gained since then, he could almost see a way to disconnect those tendrils and patch the opening without experiencing permanent soul damage.

However, now the tendrils connecting both souls were gone. They had smoothed out and truly merged. There were no lines to show which parts had belonged to either soul. It was all the same color and without any lines to speak of, a single surface that had no disconnect from either soul had been shaped. Truly there was no way to separate the souls now without catastrophic damage.

The idea of two souls servicing both people felt like a break from physics. Not that Adam knew the laws governing souls to allow him to look at the rules scientifically. He had to figure everything out through observation, because he sure as hell wasn't going to go blasting his or Cruxannith's soul to experiment.

Leaning back further, Adam glanced at the cell holding the Red Clan Powerguard. How unethical would it be to experiment on invader souls? Adam felt like it was a line he shouldn't cross, and yet, how else was he supposed to figure this out.

Having suffered soul damage, Adam knew how destructive it could be. And yet…he hated all the creatures from deep within the corrupt. Every time he thought about doing it, the voice inside wailed, CONQUER!

Besides, hadn't most scientific breakthroughs required stepping outside the lines? Breaking the rules? The rules only accounted for what they believed at that moment, not how the rules would change with the unknown discoveries on the horizon.

Putting his head in his hands, Adam whispered, "[System], can you give me some hints here? Maybe a manual on souls so I don't need to start from scratch? Even the knowledge I got from the memories of the Red Clan only held simple changes and effects to the soul. Has no one done deeper research?"

Before he even finished talking, Adam realized that he was growling and had disgust all over his face. Practically praying to the [System], the cause of all this trouble. That left a bad taste in Adam's mouth, or more accurately his soul considering how roiled up the river was.

"Yeah, I just need a new perspective," sighed Adam. "Some new insight to investigate."

"Is that why you called for me?" asked Brittney. She was standing in the doorway at the end of the hall, with one of the Leputi warriors behind her holding the door for her.

Adam perked up and stood.

"Exactly," he said with a weary grin. "I need some ideas, and you seem the most able to think outside the box."

"And here I thought it's because I have the cutest soul."

Bending down, Adam gave her a kiss. "That too, I'm sure."

"So where are you at?" she asked.

"Nowhere," he admitted. "It all feels like wasted time. This isn't even looking for a needle in a haystack. It's more like looking for a chrome needle in a pile of silver needles. No way to tell with my eyes, or [Soul Vision] in this case."

"Then I'm glad you called me. Let's walk through what you know and what you think, and we'll see if I can brainstorm something you haven't tried."

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