“I think it means exactly what you think it means.” Jun laughed, reaching up to move my hand off her back. She grabbed her interface and spun it back in front of her, tapping on it a few times to summon regular clothes for herself. “If you’re having second thoughts, then we can just break it off once we get to Rainbow Basin. But look at this; it worked.”

Jun spun around on her hammock and stood up, walking over to sit down next to me so we could both see her interface. In big letters, above all of her stats and equipped items, it said ‘Juniper Persephonia’. It seemed as if she’d only taken the part of me that was connected to Nia, or else she would’ve been named ‘Juniper Cormier Persephonia’. Which would’ve been hard to explain, so it was probably better this way.

“And your back was fully healed when we got back here. What the hell did The End do to you?” I wondered, unsummoning my own armor as Jun pressed into my side. “Did you get any new functions or stat boosts?”

She shook her head. “My quick check didn’t come back with anything new. Except for my name, which was the most important thing of all. So… you really don’t have a problem with me being a Staura?”

Oh, god. I wasn’t planning on having this conversation at all. But here I was. “I have absolutely no fucking idea how I’m supposed to come out of this looking good.”

“You probably won’t.” Jun said teasingly, resting her head on my shoulder while looking up at me with a slight smile. “I guess it’s the same for me; shouldn’t I just be attracted to Staura guys?”

“Or girls.” I offered.

“Or girls, yeah.” Jun agreed. “And, sure, I did have some crushes growing up. Even dated a few guys while I was training. But… I never really felt a… connection? If that makes any sense?”

Jun shrugged. “Then I met you, and for the first while I thought you were a Staura like me, I had a major crush on you. You treated me like a person, didn’t talk down to me, and didn’t once ask me what my family name was. Then I found out you weren’t a Staura. And, uh, those feelings didn’t just go away like I thought they were supposed to. I still liked you for the same reasons, I just pushed the romantic parts of those thoughts away because I wasn’t supposed to love you.”

“I didn’t think cross-species relationships were that rare.” I pointed out.

“Oh, I didn’t know that until we got trapped here with Okeria. He answered a lot of questions I had without me ever asking them. That sort of translated to me avoiding you a little while I fought with my own emotions.” Jun said sheepishly. “Skies above, I wasn’t anywhere near being ready to confess today. I kept telling myself, ‘when we’re done with fighting Endra and things aren’t so hectic, then I’ll tell him how I feel’. The End put that on a fast-track.”

It most certainly did. I chuckled and nodded in agreement, cautiously lifting my left arm and letting it fall over Jun’s shoulder. She flinched slightly, but before I could pull away, she hooked her own arm around it and held me in place.

“Sorry; I’m a little jumpy right now. Still can’t convince myself that what you said back there was true.” Jun chuckled nervously. “I know love usually takes a while to really cement itself, so I’m fine going slow from now on, but I want to do it as a couple. You and me against the world.”

“I…” I started, but realized I didn’t have an answer. I definitely enjoyed Jun’s company, and trusted her more than anyone else on this planet, but did that mean I loved her? Whatever The End did to me–and Mortician, now that I thought about it–certainly thought so. But… but…

But what? All my arguments sounded like excuses, or half-veiled high-grounds that relied on me still feeling like a fifty-year old. But I didn’t any more. I felt like whatever the hell I was right now, and that I was very happy to have Jun cuddling at my side. Maybe it was time to let myself try something new.

“Like I said, I’m fine if we have to go slow.” Jun said as she lifted herself off my shoulder.

I pulled her back in a moment of resolve I knew I would never regret. “Enjoying each other’s company is slow. So let’s just sit like this for now, and decide what we’re going to be when we aren’t marching straight into danger.”

Jun looked up at me as if to make sure I wasn’t about to change my mind, but whatever she saw on my face seemed to satisfy her. She nuzzled into my neck and sighed happily, swiping away her interface to leave us completely alone in the room.

“You should see how much potential I cost you.” She suggested. “I have a few tricks to show you when we get to the nexus, and I want you to be in peak condition fighting right next to me. If that means you have to corrupt some new armour for yourself, then you should do it sooner than later.”

“Good point.” I agreed, opening my interface and swiping over to my core. I blinked at what I saw, then narrowed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. “I have four thousand potential left. That’s more than enough for a few corruptions, so don’t worry.”

“I wasn’t worrying.” Jun yawned. “Is it okay with you if I take a nap?”

I smiled down at Jun and nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll be here for at least an hour.”

I kept scrolling through my interface as Jun steadily drifted off to sleep. Her breathing levelled out over a few minutes, and soon enough her chest was rising and falling to the rhythm of sleep. I patted her on the head with my left hand and a small smile on my face, feeling a lot warmer and happier than I’d ever expected to feel in this world. Even if I wasn’t in love with Jun right then, I could easily see myself falling in love with this woman.

{The End has just informed us of your engagement. Congratulations! We knew you loved Juniper, though you were hiding it from yourself for some odd reason.

-Mortician.}

Even that didn’t break a piece off my good mood. Hell, it almost made it better in some weird sense. {Don’t get too smug.}

{Impossible. We are simply stating a fact. There is absolutely no smugness in this message.

-Mortician, who was completely correct.}

{You little prick.} I typed with a chuckle. {Oh, there’s something I meant to ask you; how are you supposed to deal with the slyk titans when you won’t have as much time in there as I have out here?}

{The End’s intervention, of course. The stingprey sensed it before we did; the moment you left, The End forced the oilsea to experience time at an accelerated pace. We now experience one hour for every minute you experience.

-Mortician.}

That brought back memories of the room The End had made for me back during Addia’s attack. {I didn’t know The End could affect that much space at once.}

{Neither did we, but it has something to do with the fact that we are now classified as an occupant of the Ossuary. The End has slightly more sway when it is only affecting its own, and not system-bearing individuals. At least that is how it was explained to us.

-Mortician.}

{Oh, of course. God-like power. Why didn’t I think of that.} I sarcastically responded. {Seriously, though, good luck with the titans. Jun and I will be waiting for you at the nexus.}

{We will be there on the backs of the titans. Until then, we wish you good luck and good health. Extend that to Juniper as well.

-Mortician.}

I swiped away from the chat window and went back to my gear. The majority of my armor still hadn’t been corrupted yet, which left me with plenty of options on where to go. There was a good chance that any of my currently equipped armor would turn into the same riverbloom set that my helmet and chestpiece already were, which would be fine, but I wanted to see if I could influence the corruption with any of the things I had in my inventory.

That single thought started a chain of resonance within my interface that ended in my core. I didn’t just want to see what materials I could use to corrupt my gear, I wanted to see what the corrupted gear would be. But that would cost an exorbitant amount of materials. I knew that my core had ‘evolved’ a few different utility functions that made my life just that little bit easier, so maybe it could do this for me as well.

Through delving deep into the menus and options of my interface, I managed to find a locked function that–if I was right–would help me with my problem. It was under a section labeled ‘corruption’, cost 2000 potential, and was called ‘PEER-AHEAD’. If that wasn’t some sort of preview of what I was about to corrupt, then I’d eat my helmet.

I held my finger over the words as potential drained out of my core and into my interface, eventually filling up to the point that PEER-AHEAD’s description was no longer concealed from me. I pressed once more to bring up the function’s entire description.

PEER-AHEAD

When attempting to //CORRUPT an item, an additional cost will be displayed in potential just above the cost to consume the item and create something new. That cost is the PEER-AHEAD cost, which shows exactly what the item will be corrupted into.

The PEER-AHEAD cost is equal to the cost of all materials that the bearer is attempting to use.

If an item has already been crafted with the exact same materials before, the PEER-AHEAD cost will be 0.

A function that let me trade potential for information. It was almost exactly what I’d hoped for, except that it actually cost me something to use. Maybe it had been a little too optimistic to think that the 2000 potential upfront cost would mean the function wouldn’t cost me anything to use, but the fact that I could check and see how rare materials would corrupt with an item before I wasted them was an invaluable ability.

Even if it seemed to be unbelievably expensive.