Staring into the darkness, with only my awareness to guide my thoughts, is a strange feeling. It's like fumbling around in a room with the lights off, completely aware of where everything is, but there isn't a switch to flick for light. My eyes scream for stimuli, and my brain seems confused at the images coming in through something that's not meant to connect to it.

I wince and close my eyes. The sensations instantly stop, even though I can still 'see' everything my awareness 'sees'. "Pearl, did something happen to my awareness… like… five minutes ago?"

She shoots me an inquisitive glance. "Not that I noticed. Why? If it's something weird, maybe I can give you some advice."

"Yeah, it's definitely weird." I chuckle humourlessly and start walking along the wall. "It just started hurting when I looked at things with my eyes open. Almost like my brain's trying to tell me that there's nothing there for me to see, but my awareness is telling me otherwise."

"Hm. That's probably because we didn't completely remake your brain. Actually… no, wait, I gave you awareness before we remade you. Huh." Pearl crosses her arms and leans against my head. "I guess it could be your brain trying to actually accept the awareness as a part of you, and not just something I gave you. Honestly, though, it's probably just overuse–you've been using a lot of spells and brainpower the last few days."

I nod in agreement and toss down another shield platform. "Good point. Good thing I've got a few days to take a break, right?"

Pearl doesn't even try to stifle a giggle. "Right! You're definitely not about to jump into a quest that could take anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks to complete."

"Let's hope for 'weeks'. If it's a mad dash for a prize, there's no way we're beating Stonestep solutions and anyone else who's found their way into the quest." I wince and roll the shoulder Pearl isn't sitting on as a dull pain shoots through it. "That was weird. I don't remember pulling this shoulder. Anything new in your awareness?"

"Give me a second to check." Pearl closes her eyes and leans forward to focus. "Nothing… nothing… nothing… um, I think that's nothing… but it could be something. There's a pillar of rock just barely jutting into my awareness' range. Do you want to jump in?"

I glance down at the sticky, oily, scummy water. No part of me particularly wants to take a dip in the stuff that could've been stagnant for years, but since we don't have any other clues… I guess I don't really have a choice. Oh, wait–I can just shield myself and go down. That's a much better plan.

"Not really, but I've got an idea. Point me in the right direction."

Pearl nods, then shifts and points away from the wall. I turn until I'm aligned with her finger, then toss a platform out for some more walking space. My footsteps click against my shield, fading into the distance without so much as an echo as I make my way to the spot. After two minutes I'm reminded just how much further Pearl's awareness stretches compared to mine.

"Stop." Pearl decrees as her point shifts into a flat palm. "We're right above it. And there's a bunch more of them close-ish to this one. I'll scream really loud if something randomly appears in the distance."

"I'll keep my ears open."

I stomp on my shield, breaking away a portion just big enough for me to fall through. The connection to the shield weakens in my mind, and I'm made aware that it's time limit just shrunk by half. It'll still be more than enough, it just means I need to go a little faster than I initially thought.

Two more shield coins appear in my hand. One of them turns into a long pole, hollow at the top, and the other encases me in an airtight oval with a flat bottom and a small hole at the top. I feed the pole into the hole in the oval, then push it against the bottom until the two shields fuse together. One look with my awareness informs me that the seal is watertight, so I hop into the hole I made and drag the pole down with me.

Water rushes in around me. I take a deep breath as my awareness completely fades away, my eyes still scrunched closed, and motion for Pearl to lead the way.

"Shelby… your awareness should pierce through your own magic. Shift forward a little here, then just keep going down until you hit something." She pauses for me to move, then nods. "That's good, we're right over it. But it's going to be useless if you can't see it and that's how we're supposed to get the quest. So stop not seeing."

I shoot Pearl a flat, closed-eye stare. "Sure. I'll get right on that. Just let me open my eyes, and… well, would you look at that? My head hurts and I still can't see anything."

"Not like that. Obviously." She smiles and pats my temple. "My awareness can go through your shields, and I know yours can too–it's done it before. But it didn't the last time you used it, since you were so tired, and now your brain thinks that's normal. Just remember what it was like before and it should come back to you."

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…Just remember. Yeah, sure, easy as that. I place a hand on my shield to steady myself for the eventual impact with the spire, then try to remember what it was like before. But… it's weird. I've never felt like my awareness was penetrating my shields–just that it somehow didn't even factor in. And now that I'm more… well… aware of my awareness, it feels like it's having a few more issues. I breathe deeply through my nose, imagine the water beyond my hand isn't separated by a veil of my own magic, and try to see through it.

Wet, echoing shudders reverberate from the bottom of my shield. I steady myself with my other hand on the wall, and my eyes snap open to try and see the source of the impact. It's still pitch-black. But now, my awareness sees… something else. Grains of magic floating around my shield like salt dissolved into existence itself. Each of them takes hold of my awareness and traps it, stealing it away like salt dissolving into water. I frown and rub my hand against my shield, feeling the strength of my magic warring with my awareness.

Is my shield… too strong for my awareness? "Pearl… can you feel something off with my shield?"

"Off?" She frowns and hops off my shoulder, scurries down my arm, and presses her hands to the magic. "Um… hmm… nope. It feels exactly like your Fleur-empowered shield. Maybe a little stronger than a few days ago, but that's probably because you've been using it to block a lot of stuff. Heck, if I was the system, I would've leveled up your shield just from the fight at the graveyard."

"No. My shield doesn't… 'level up'." I say, but as the words leave my lips, I'm not convinced. "All that matters is how much Worth I put into it. Skeletal ghost quarters for shields, regular ones for projectiles. Sometimes mixing the two up if I need more or less firepower. Nothing's changed."

Pearl turns on her heel and points at my chest. "Nothing but you."

I swallow hard; I don't have an argument for that. "Do you really think the skill I got from Fleur had that much of a difference?"

"Unless you suddenly found a way to easily triple your Worth when I wasn't looking?" Pearl nods. "Yes. Fleur isn't system bound, just like Illumisia and I. It'd make sense that she'd let you grow without the system's permission–just like your awareness does. But I guess your awareness isn't growing as fast as your spells."

An unused shield coin seems to grow warm in my holster. "Fleur isn't system bound?"

"Obviously not. You put her data into the system, remember? If she was system-bound, you wouldn't have named her species or become her god." Pearl grimaces as she walks back up my arm. "The system doesn't like god-like figures. Just like it doesn't like anyone that uses magic it can't fully control the output of. That's probably part of the reason it hates Worth classes so much."

Because we don't stick to the strict set of regulations it created. Hrm. Maybe I'll have to be careful when I eventually bring Fleur over to this world–or… well… since she's stronger than I am… nevermind. I can't get sidetracked now. My awareness isn't penetrating my shield because it's become too strong. So I need to work on making my awareness more powerful. Putting points into Soul might help, but I really need to find out how shellraisers did it way back when.

Unfortunately, the chance of that info not being censored is close to zero percent. "How do you make your awareness stronger?"

Pearl raises an eyebrow. "___."

I wince. She nods to herself in frustration.

"I can't tell you. You'll just have to advance your quest."

I scrape my fingernails against my shield until I ball my hand into a fist. Damn the system for censoring everything that could help me right now. When I get my hands on more stat coins, I'm going to dump all of them into Mind so I don't have to deal with this shit.

No, no–I can't get pissed now. Gotta focus on the problem at hand. My awareness won't pierce the shield. So how can I fix that? I could weaken the shield, but that comes with its own risks, and it might not even work at all. Collapsing the shield completely could also work. Then I'd be able to get my hands on the spire, but I'd also be shoving myself in the potentially disgusting water.

…Wait, am I stupid? I know that my awareness still works when I can't see. So it must come out of my body some other way. All I need to do is make a hole in the shield and stick, like, a single finger out. That should be enough.

I nod to myself, not proud of how I didn't even think of that before, and push a finger against the shield. With a few strong thoughts and a lot of pushing, my shield breaks perfectly around my digit–losing half of its structural integrity in the process. And with it blossoms my awareness, filling the space around me in the strange outlined black that's exactly the same as when I have my mask on.

There's an empty space in the exact shape of my shield. I wince and shift my focus away from it to the pillar that my shield is slowly grinding up against. It's all lumpy and misshapen, with a slight curve to it that almost looks like algae swaying in the water. I watch for a few seconds just to make sure it isn't moving, and when I can confirm it isn't, I shift my focus down the pillar.

Scanning what I can of the thing doesn't take long. The tippy tops of two others just barely poke into my awareness, and from what I can see of them, they aren't any different than the one I'm looking at. But the formation is just… weird. Stalac…tites? Mites? Whichever one piles up on the ground of caves–that's what these things remind me of. But Pearl didn't mention anything about the ceiling looking strange, and I didn't see anything on the way down.

"I hope these things are important. Identify."

…I frown as absolutely nothing happens. "Identify. That rock pillar. What's it made of?"

Still no response. I hum to myself in thought and push my finger at the pillar, straining to move my shield until I just barely brush flesh against… something that squishes under my fingertip. A wet squish that's disgusting, unsettling, and freakishly familiar. The sides of my mouth curl into a grin as I scrape off the smallest amount of stuff and pull out my Class Card with the other hand.

I swipe through until I get to my inventory. The plastic stares back at me, an extremely small amount taken away to make the map work. I stare intently at the number, then focus on the stuff under my fingernail and attempt to pull it in.

The stuff disappears from my finger. No new acquisitions appear in my inventory. And the amount of plastic just barely climbs up one decimal point.

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