While trying to fix a broken Hybrid skill, I get interrupted by a System message. Or rather, something that poses as one.

  Oh, great. Does that mean my inbox is a public space? This is at least the fourth person who wrote there: the lich Basluth, the Creed guy Amon, the glitch creature... I hope I didn't forget anyone. Can I have some privacy in the future, please? No? Damn...

  Not that I'd even know how to respond to these text messages.

  Another dialog springs up.

  A download? What for?

  And why should I accept that? That's just a random attachment, that could be anything!! Who can guarantee me that this crappy System doesn't immediately execute any included macro to fuck me over even more?

  Wait, does this System even have a virus scanner? Probably not, but then, I've already enough malware in my soul that the only way to make it worse would be to install Windows.

  So the mysterious lady Orpyne really exists - I wonder what she's actually after; if she wants her involvement to be kept a secret from the glitch beast it can't be too straightforward, it seems she wants to play both sides at least.

  And I was at the entrance to her home, huh? I guess she means the door behind the glitch passage, but how does that work? I thought the mysterious helper was not a glitch but something like a high-ranking sysadmin.

  I guess it is more likely that I was just wrong about the Mother of Glitches being behind that door. Yeah, the glitch creatures would've found that already.

  Alright, I'm listening.

  At least it sounds genuine, so she really isn't a living glitch, not yet at least. Admittedly, Para never mentioned whether the "mother" the glitches are looking for was a glitch or something else, so she could still be the rumored Mother of Glitches.

  Why does she know about my situation in this detail, and how has she already three solutions ready? I had to interrogate two eldritch abominations about the deepest secrets of the inner workings of souls and skills, and the only thing I came up with was to sacrifice my wife...

  I guess this comes with the territory of being an expert in all things souls and system skills. I hope she has something better than I did...

  I glance over at the download progress.

  Oh, hey, another broken part of UI, how surprising. Must be a day ending in y.

  Miss Orpyne sends me more messages.

  That makes how many wannabe masterminds who want me as their pawn? More than none, too many for my taste. I'm so sick of it...

  But fine, I'll play along - for now. I keep sitting.

  It takes a few seconds before the next message arrives.

  I'm torn between saying this serves you right for violating my privacy and feeling a tiny amount of pity. Though you'd need a microscope to see it.

  Suspiciously "fair". As far as I'm concerned, nothing of that ever happened, so why should I trust you at all?

  So you say you're the reason I survived the first glitch bath? That's a tall claim, lady!

  Still more believable than Elly still being around...

  Speaking of idiots, I might've considered asking her for advice on this situation, but if this lady has a backdoor in my skill, she might just as well be able to listen in on our mental communication.

  Better not risk it for now.

  I wait a bit, but she writes nothing else. Is this supposed to be a joke? If so, it's not my type of humor, especially not in this situation.

  About what feels like an eternity in this situation, she finally continues.

  I don't like this option, not one bit. She claims we tried this already, and just look how long that lasted...

  Not to mention that I would be guaranteed to lose Eclaire in one shape or another...

  That is the solution I arrived at as well. Admittedly, I had no idea how to pull it off, but I want to say I was on the right track at least.

  Allegedly, normal spirits are rather simple creatures so they don't take up too much space. Elly cheated something with the title that gave me her, no idea how that works, but for now, I'll believe that it works the way she said; the spirits get a semblance of personality or individuality, and don't take up much extra space because the compressed data was included in the title.

  But Eclaire - she wasn't created that way. Lucy did something to regain her missing half as our latest summoned spirit. We weren't together for long, but I didn't see too much of a personality change between our first meeting and now, so that she retained most of her original soul isn't too far-fetched, which means... I'm housing a full soul within my soul. Yeah, that couldn't go too well for long, could it?

  But what is the downside? She said that each of the options had a problem associated with it, but I'm not seeing it here. I mean, even if she wouldn't count as my spirit anymore and so wouldn't get the level increases from that, she would still be married to us and get the levels and classes from Lucia's [Unholy Matrimony] skill.

  Maybe the implied downside is that we could no longer enact Lucia's plan for a level loop. But with what I've learned about exp recently that might actually be a good thing. Each level needs much more exp than the last, and the System is currently in some form of energy-saving mode for this planet; we'd very quickly reach a point where the ill-gotten exp is not enough to cover the required amount which can only mean harm for our souls...

  Suddenly, the glitch creature begs for attention again, "Hey, uh, how much longer will you take? You've been at it for almost an hour, and I don't see much progress."

  Oh, really? Didn't I say so before?

  "Why are you surprised? This shit is complicated, and you are either unwilling or unable to help."

  "Oh, umm..."

  "I mean, think about it, if you can, I'm basically inventing a whole goddamn science over here, so cut me some slack. If you have something valuable to add, then feel free to do so, otherwise, shut up and let me concentrate!"

  It sounds distraught and its threat-tentacles hand loose, "Awww....."

  Anyway, what's the final option? Maybe that is even better.

  Why dance around the topic? Just call it what it would become - a hivemind. Maybe not in the sense of becoming one entity but of dulling disagreeable personality traits... Just look at what happened to Therese. There's no denying what caused it - the hybridization process. I did not want it, but it still happened...

  I'm not fond of losing my individuality or robbing someone else of theirs. Admittedly, that got me into this whole Deteoh mess in the first place, but I've come too far to back out now. Sunk cost fallacy be damned.

  Oh, the message still continues.

  It seems the download will still take a while.

  So which one should I pick? No, that's really not a question: the second one. I came up with the idea without assistance, and I have enough self-respect to trust in what I came up with.

  The first option doesn't sound like it would help in the long term.

  Was it Karen who told me about the glitch zones? I think she said that they suspect there would be one below every major dungeon in this world. With how things are going, we'll likely visit them in the future, and if it is only to save people from the side-effects of this disaster. And it would be better to have a reliable way to dispose of these zones.

  Not that I see how a skill reset button would work as a skill in the first place - wouldn't it immediately self-destruct?

  And the link amplification... Honestly, it sounds like the strongest option. I alone am almost enough to take in a whole glitch area. Let's be a bit arrogant and say it takes ten regular Hybrids for the same result - they already number in the thousands, depending on how long this situation lasts and how well the rescuing goes, it would end up in the hundreds of thousands if not millions if it goes beyond this continent. I can't imagine how bad a glitch disaster would have to be to endanger us at that point.

  Also depending on how far this amplification goes, it should also extend to the other benefits the Hybrids get, the level and number of classes they get for free.

  But I don't like it - not after what happened with Therese.

  No, I'll stick with the second option: give Eclaire autonomy.

  If it works like I think it does, it would allow me to choose which spirits get disconnected from me, and then they'd no longer occupy one of the limited spirit slots. We could build up an army of disposable minions from nothing - and most importantly, destroy that traitor Elly.

  I think some more in the few minutes until the download finally finishes, but my decision doesn't change.