Rylan's eyes widened, but he didn't pull his hand off the glowing prism; Ethereon was still calculating. 'They're on the move? Where?'

[They're coming this way! I think he's giving her a tour... Big Sis seems to be trying to stall—she's stopping and pointing at things—but the hallway they're moving down doesn't lead anywhere but here!]

Mentally, Rylan cursed up a storm. It seemed Dash was willing to take the risk of allowing Leahna to come near the Dungeon portals after all—or perhaps he simply figured she wouldn't be able to tell. After all, even standing at the top of the stairs, Rylan couldn't feel the tell-tale buzz in the air he'd felt last time. The basement holding the decayed settlement's portals was probably pretty deep down in the hill.

"Ethereon," Rylan whispered. "Are your calculations almost done?"

《Calculating, please stand by.》

Rylan groaned. What rotten timing. But there was nothing for it. He would just have to sneak out and come back after they'd left. The longer he waited, the faster he would have to move through the dark, and the more he risked stepping on something noisy like a shell.

Gritting his teeth, he lifted his hand off the prism and started to turn to the exit. Then he froze in his tracks.

The prism was still glowing.

Foooog! "Ethereon! Cease operation!" he hissed, his heart beating in his throat.

《Calculating, please stand by.》

[Boss, I don't mean to hurry you, but they're coming closer and closer!]

Rylan's eyes darted from the distant exit to the glowing prism. He made a split-second decision, whipping off his cowl and starting to wrap it around the console.

The dark green cloth definitely dimmed the deep purple light, but it wasn't quite enough; thin beams of light still leaked through, looking pretty darn eye-catching in the pitch-dark room.

[Boss, what are you doing? They're about to turn the corner!]

Indeed, Rylan could hear the echoing sounds of footsteps and faint laughter. As he looked over in the direction of the noise, he saw two glowing spirits moving closer to one of the dome's barely visible entrances; one green and one blue. However, no other light seemed to be approaching.

Most likely, Dash was intending to show Leahna the constellations embedded in the roof, for which he would need the room to remain utterly dark.

Questioning every single decision that had led him to this moment, Rylan took a deep breath, then hopped up on the console and clamped onto the top of the pedestal like a baby fogtopus clinging to its mother.

[Boss... are you all right?]

'It's glowing, Arphin; I'm blocking the light! Tell Leahna to keep Dash away from the centre of the dome!'

[Ah, it's those stupid eyes again... You got it, Boss!]

Even through his cowl and leather coat, the edges of the hexagonal prism dug into his belly uncomfortably, but he didn't dare to move as the sound of the footsteps sharpened.

"And here we are," a smooth baritone spoke.

[Big Sis, you have to keep away from the middle of the room; Boss is hanging out there!]

There was an audible intake of breath. "Oh my!" Leahna said a moment later. "That really is quite pretty!"

"Isn't it? Come, let me show you—"

"Oh, look over there," Leahna interrupted hastily. "The frog! That's my favourite constellation; come, come!"

"Or we can go this way, I suppose..."

Rylan did his utmost to keep his breath slow and steady; it wasn't easy with the uncomfortable position he was in, but he no longer dared to move. Right now, he was hopefully little more than a dark spot against a black background in a foggy room.

《Calculating, please stand by,》Ethereon repeated helpfully.

From the sound of the footsteps, Leahna had initiated a stroll around the rim of the room. Rylan just hoped Dash wouldn't try to insist on taking a look from the middle as well.

"Do you have any siblings?" Leahna suddenly asked.

"Hmm? Oh yes, I have a younger brother."

"Me too!"

"Ah, they are a gift and a curse, are they not?"

"Oh yes," Leahna said with a sigh. "My younger brother can be a real pain. Always getting himself in trouble. And I'm sure you can guess who has to go bail him out."

Dash chuckled. A muscle next to Rylan's eye started twitching, but he otherwise kept still.

A moment later, however, his attention was drawn by an odd prickling coming from below his stomach. There was a probing, pulsing sensation that was slowly growing in intensity.

《Initial analysis failed, Affinity unknown. Scanning user, please stand by.》

Rylan's heart skipped a beat. It seemed Ethereon was doing something in an effort to find out what was going on inside his body. The problem was, whatever it was doing was generating noticeable Quintessence fluctuations!

His mind raced. Down in the cloudsea, he'd realised he was quite sensitive to the presence of powerful Malequints. It was something he hadn't paid much attention to since gaining a blessing that allowed him to see their spirits, but it was something he'd been told was linked to the Perception Attribute.

Dash didn't strike him as someone with a particularly low Perception Attribute, so this could very well become a problem.

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Fog, isn't there anything I can do about this?!

Mitigating Quintessence fluctuations was not something Rylan had ever tried or even considered the need for. After all, Quinthar were already more difficult to detect than Malequints in that sense... because of their Mana Shells!

Closing his eyes, Rylan focused on the sensations he was getting from his Mana Shell. He could tell that it was in fact reacting somewhat to the pulsing fluctuations, ripples spreading seemingly in concert.

It seemed like he was probably already dampening them a little simply by covering the pedestal like he was. But as the fluctuations were still building in intensity, he worried it wouldn't be enough.

Concentrating on his own spirit, Rylan sought out the part that he'd long known linked to his Mana Shell.

The Quintessence Structure that generates my Mana Shell is part of my spirit as much as my Skills are... which means I should be able to control it.

For lack of a better idea, Rylan started to visualise the pulses meeting his Mana Shell and being absorbed and dampened. Nothing immediately changed, so he tried to push that idea into the corner of his spirit that controlled his Mana Shell.

It felt... awkward. Like trying to control a facial muscle he'd rarely used, or doing something complicated—like shucking a cockle—with his left hand.

Still, as he continued to focus on it, the ripples passing over his Mana Shell seemed to grow larger, as if it were resonating more strongly with the pulsing fluctuations coming from below his stomach.

Although it could also have to do with the way the fluctuations were still building...

There was an odd crawling sensation in Rylan's bones, like something was passing through them. He didn't have any attention to spare for the feeling, however, as trying to improve his Mana Shell's dampening properties was taking his full concentration.

Finally, all of a sudden, the pulsing stopped.

《Scan complete. Calculating, please stand by.》

Oh, thank the spirits...

However, right at that moment, his sister spoke up. "Is something the matter?"

"I'm not sure," Dash spoke slowly. "I feel like there was something there that I hadn't even really noticed until it suddenly disappeared..."

Rylan's blood froze in his veins.

"Something?" Leahna repeated lightly after a moment. "Should I be worried?"

"Well, obviously you have nothing to fear in my presence, milady."

"If you say so, milord," Leahna replied amusedly. "Well, if you say it's disappeared, then I will trust that it is so. And I have to say, I'm getting a bit chilly again..."

Dash hesitated for a moment longer. "Of course," he relented. "Let us return to the barracks."

Rylan waited until they finished their circuit and walked out of the room before he finally blew out a breath in relief.

With a groan, he detached himself from the pedestal, the lines pressed into his stomach somehow hurting worse after he got back to his feet.

[That was a close one, eh Boss?]

'You don't know the half of it...'

《Proficiency requirement met, Attribute requirements met,》Ethereon spoke suddenly, sounding a little cooler and less lively than before.《Congratulations. You are eligible to obtain the Skill: Stealth. Do you accept?》

Rylan's eyebrows shot up. Why do I keep getting Skills at the worst possible times?! Not that he was complaining...

"Please give me some time to consider, Blessed Ethereon," Rylan whispered with a smile, even if he was pretty sure after last time that it was just going to keep reminding him until he made a decision one way or another.

Standing next to the console, he hesitated. Part of him wanted to quickly leave the temple and let Leahna know that she should try to ditch Dash so that they could get out of there, but he still hadn't gotten the result of the analysis, and he actually had some more questions to ask the console afterwards if he could...

Thankfully, it took only a few seconds before Ethereon spoke up once more, and this time with its livelier voice.

《Analysis complete. User profile updated. Congratulations on the discovery of a new Affinity, designated: Nimbium.》

Nimbium? As in... cloudmetal?!

Rylan's mouth fell open.

How is that even possible? How could Maris's blessing have caused my Aetherium Affinity to be...

His brows drew together as an idea started to form in the back of his mind, memories bubbling up from what felt like a lifetime ago. What if... what if he'd misinterpreted the Blessing he'd received all along?

In the memory-vision Maris showed me, she'd been familiar with the concept of giving out Blessings, because she'd seen Ethereon do it. And the first Quinthar she provided a Blessing had been praying for a Blessing of the Sea... She didn't just give me the ability to see spirits; she gave me an Affinity, one for seametal! An Undium Affinity!

No wonder Ethereon had told Rylan he wasn't eligible to receive the reward for the Champion's Dungeon. He'd already had an Affinity, and like Soren had told him, you couldn't have more than one.

But then Rylan had overruled the safety mechanisms, and Ethereon must've tried to make it work without triggering a spiritual collapse. Somehow, that had resulted in the Undium and Aetherium Affinities being combined into a Nimbium Affinity!

It made a kind of sense to Rylan, as cloudmetal did seem to share some of the properties of skymetal and seametal. Like skymetal, it reduced the effects of gravity—as evidenced by the floaty feeling present in the cloudsea—though not by as much. And like seametal, it attracted moisture and cooled and condensed it.

This also explains why the completion of my Affinity has been steadily ticking up; all of our drinking water comes from condensed fog, so it all contains small amounts of cloudmetal!

Rylan had literally been drinking it, cooking with it, and even bathing in it. And right then and there, he was even breathing it in!

Actually, if he recalled correctly—and Rylan had been recalling things with increasing confidence for a while now—he'd reached his first 0.1% of progress in a matter of hours after initially gaining his Affinity, not days. So perhaps breathing it in directly was an even more efficient way of absorbing cloudmetal than eating and drinking it.

I reached 5.1% completion only yesterday, so let's see where I'm at right now...

"Ethereon," he whispered. "Can I see my Affinity Window please?"

Affinity

NIMBIUM

Progress: 5.2/100%

Yes, it's growing faster in the fog!

[Oh! Did you figure out your Affinity, Boss?]

'I did, it's cloudmetal!'

[Whoa, like Dreadmaw?! That's pretty sick, Boss!]

Rylan blinked, momentarily imagining himself sucking enemies into his mouth... Yeah, that wasn't going to happen.

Considering how to use the tinted mana cloudmetal would produce could wait, however; he was getting ahead of himself again. First he'd have to complete his Affinity. Fog, there was still a whole grade before Ruby, by the name of Sapphire, and he hadn't reached that yet either.

Still, there was no reason not to consider ways he could complete his Affinity a bit faster in the meantime, now that he knew what it was...

Even though it seemed skin contact wasn't truly necessary for the console to perform its analyses, Rylan picked up his cowl and placed his hand back down on the glowing prism.

"Ethereon," he whispered. "How fast would I complete my Affinity if I stayed down in the cloudsea?"

《Query understood. Calculating. Based on average atmospheric Nimbium concentration, a rough estimate of 117 days, 3 hours, and 28 minutes.》

Almost two full seasons down in the fog. That was a long time, but perhaps better than waiting ten years to complete his Affinity. He could go live in the slums for a period...

Well, he wasn't in that much of a rush either, Rylan decided. Besides, he could probably find a better way to do it. The caves below the city had in them fog as well, and there were massive copper pipes below the streets that pulled up fog for nebulariums, saunas, and to produce the city's drinking water.

Actually, even the Knackered Hag had a walk-in nebularium in the basement to keep meat and fish fresh. Sitting in there would be a bit cramped, but it could be a place to do mana exercises.

His considerations were interrupted by a faint, familiar sound that seemed to travel through the stone below him and reverberate within the dome. It had a rhythmic cadence that tickled something in the back of Rylan's mind...

Is that a kelpie? But I only hear one... where's its herd?

The sound rapidly grew louder as the lone animal seemingly approached the temple.

[Boss,] Arphin suddenly sent. [There's a woman riding this way on the back of a kelpie, and she seems to be in a real hurry too!]

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