The Apprentice of Ouroboros [Monster Evo LitRPG Adventure]

Professor Kalloway looked at Neska, stunned. “You're telling me that you have an ability that allows you to pick a familiar? That is the witchiest not witch ability I've ever heard of from a lamia. This is why you wanted a monster egg. But why?”

She and Juni were in his office in the cathedral tower, trying to make a pitch, with Juni starting. “Look, you said to come to you for assistance, and we are. If this goes the way it might, it could give us an unprecedented study of both familiars and monster evolutions. As a familiar, it may have the evolutionary system. At least, in theory,” she added, making the case an academic curiosity. “Do you not have the least bit of interest? Because it sounds like Risha took a lot of her research with her.”

“She did,” he said with a resigned sigh, rubbing his chin. “This is just between the three of us, but…I think the work she did ate at her from the inside. I’ve already pushed myself to limits I vowed I would never cross. I can only imagine what thresholds she breached to accomplish what she did.”

“You know, I’m getting rather annoyed how every professor has clammed up about what, exactly, she was doing,” Neska said, flicking her tongue in agitation. “Was putting people into monster bodies not the worst thing she did?”

“It’s not just that. Risha was in the field, training students to battle the Varadur, studying them, collecting specimens for our efforts to make Awakened. Some expeditions came back with far fewer people than had left the academy. And she did this, for nearly seventeen years. She would not talk about what happened on her last expedition, and Serkin didn’t either. Only Resalio and a few others do.”

Inwardly, Neska wondered if that was the reason she left. Whatever happened then. “What was their last expedition?”

“She took a team to try and capture a powerful monster specimen that the military had highlighted for elimination. Risha said they should take it alive. Almost no one, save her, Serkin, and a few others, came back alive. And empty-handed.”

Except that was a lie. Neska tried to control her reaction, though her tail trembled. The tier five core–wherever it had come from, that must have been it.

Kalloway missed her reaction, and he glanced at the wall of photos again before looking at Neska. “What exactly do you need for a familiar? I know most of the items, but it varies a little from witch to witch on the exact items needed per the Interface and other instruction books.”

“We’re in the process of getting most of the other items. I just need an egg. Specifically, a fertilized egg from a rare monster. I've been trying to acquire eggs…or where to find them.”

“I don’t suppose a certain sly wolfling is busy pulling questionable items onto campus through his ‘sources,’ is he?” Kalloway asked, sounding amused. Likely, this wasn’t the first time Brent had done shady things with probably good intentions. “Look, if you ask me for a dragon egg, I'm going to say no, because I don't have any. But more importantly, because it will be suicide to try to get one. You think you're the only student that's trying to attempt this?”

“I’d give her decent odds of pulling something just crazy enough to succeed,” Juni said, shrugging her shoulders.

“Enough with the jokes.” He pointed at his wall. “I had two students who were grievously injured, trying to do what you're doing, with something less dangerous. Pick something safer, for the life of all of us.”

“When has playing safe ever been rewarding? Not that I wouldn’t try for a dragon egg, because I think it would be adorable if a dragon were to part amicably with one.” She scrunched her snout, thinking that a dragon would make for a very amazing familiar. Or at least dragon-inspired.

Kalloway stared at her, bewildered. “I think ‘adorable’ and ‘dragon’ should never be put in the same sentence again. It is a terrible idea, by every measure.”

As far as she was concerned, dragons were just snakes with limbs and cool feathers, so yes, they could absolutely be adorable. “Okay, what about something a little more common that we can readily access? There has to be something accessible but still powerful. The rarer it is, and the more closely we pull off this ritual, the better the result.”

A massive bird landed on one of the lampposts just outside the office window that illuminated the tower during the evening hours. She heard the lamppost creak, as if the metal were sagging under the beast's weight

Neska felt a slight wave of apprehension looking at the massive bird, almost as big as a griffin, currently preening its black and blue feathers. It had a wicked hooked beak and equally sharp talons that looked like they could grab Juni right from the room if they left a window open. "That is one big bird."

Juni gritted her teeth and tapped the glass. “Shoo! No eating students!”

Annoyed, the bird let out a soft crackle of disgust, then spread its wings and took off, flapping off in the direction of the academy perimeter wall. Then, it dove right past the demarcation point where the cliff was past the academy wall, dropping out of sight.

Neska went closer to the window, intrigued. “Wait, was that a Roc? I’ve heard of them, and they’re a candidate I forgot to check for!”

“That was a Highland Roc, specifically. Nasty things, they nest in the cliffs and caves that are pockmarked along the siding of the plateau,” Kalloway grumbled. “They also bother the griffins in the aerie. Those damn pests are aggressive, and they have other abilities, including energy shots from their wings. For a monster that isn't one of the Varadur, I would prefer they not assimilate that particular creature. I dare not think what it would evolve into…”

He trailed off, his face melting into horror when he witnessed the delight crossing Neska's face, and he rubbed his temples as a headache were building. “No. Please no. Dear Divines, no, anything but that!”

“Rare, dangerous, readily available, is exactly what I’m looking for,” she countered, a grin spreading across her face. "Where do they nest exactly? Did you say the cliffs? Also, why is such a dangerous bird allowed so close?”

He let out a groan. “You are not serious. As I said, the damn things are territorial, breed fast, and hunt the same things griffins do. We have to go through about ten to twenty pounds of meat for just one of the griffins a day, each! So, them competing for the same space–and harassing students by dive bombing them is…problematic.”

“So, it would be doing the academy a favor if we…removed them?”

He went wide-eyed. “This is the point where you call a professional, Cassia. This is not a monster to be trifled with. On the other hand, yes, it could be a good experience, provided you do it with experienced professionals. Plus…”

“It's their mating season, isn’t it?” Neska asked. “Probably doing a lot of hunting and harassing of the local wildlife and the stock animals lately, yes?”

“Cassia,” Juni said with her teeth on edge, “Do you really think it's a good idea to take an egg from your mortal enemy, birds? Especially one this dangerous?”

“It's not as big as me. Besides, I'm not worried. Professor Kalloway, surely with assistance from the faculty, this should be considered a worthy endeavor to advance our understanding of familiars?” she asked persuasively.

He pointed at his notes. “First, it was the unauthorized diagnostic, which, while remarkably successful, should have been done in a controlled environment. Now, this. I understand your motivations, but Cassia, this could--no, will be dangerous. I dare say most of the facility will try to stop you if we pursue this mad quest.”

Am I that easy to read motivations on? Crap. I need to be snakier. I mean sneakier. Damn it, internal puns!

“But, you like the idea. Because you want to know what will happen,” she said in a silky voice. “You’ll be the first to document it.”

He let out a resigned sigh. “Don’t leverage my academic curiosity too hard. I will say that you got the diagnostic ritual right on the first try. Either by dumb luck or skill. And I’m not partial to believing in such things as luck,” he said, tapping his fingers on his desk.

Then, he tilted his head, as if he’d made up his mind. “Okay. Only because I’m morbidly curious about this, what do you intend to do? Take an egg from a Roc nest, then see what happens when you perform a familiar binding ritual?”

“Yep. The Interface says it can be a monster, unlike the standard witch class. It also costs two essence points, so it better be damn good."

“Fascinating. And unprecedented. I should go along with you on this one, to give this the coloration of officially sanctioned studies for your witch training.” He rose from his desk, pinching the bridge of his nose. “If I had to hazard a guess, you would do it anyway, with or without my blessing, and imperil yourself further. Especially with what I know of your…mentor.”

Neska didn’t know whether to feel insulted by that. “When could we start? I anticipate that we could make a distraction to dislodge them from the nests, if they’re in there. Plus, I need the assistance of a few of my friends. The sooner, the better.” Neska would argue that no Divine Beast would stop her from getting what she wanted, which was a cuddly new best friend. And maybe a second set of eyes and ears.

He made a motion of tapping his chest and saluting the heavens. “I’d like to prepare for a few days; the birds have been nesting there on and off, and aren’t going anywhere. I would ask, what could possibly go wrong with this? And the answer is, a lot of things.”

“Better brace yourself then, professor. Because this might be the craziest thing we’ve done, and that’s saying a lot,” Juni said, gesturing to Neska. “Danger noodle is living up to her name.”

---

For the next few days, Neska could only think of one thing: getting her familiar. If she couldn’t chase assassins at the moment, she could do this. The sooner they found him, the sooner the Seekers would leave.

In the meantime, she had to keep up appearances. Just an average student going through average classes…

…And performing decidedly abnormal actions.

Her first goal was to test the [Love Bites] antivenom properties to give everyone the ability to shrug off whatever the assassin might throw at them. She quickly ran into a rather unexpected problem.

She fully realized it before, but she was immune to her own venom. Even as she bit down, expecting relief from the centipede venom, nothing happened. Except for the fact that she'd bitten her own hand.

The things she did for science. She let out a hiss of frustration at this complication, then remembered this was one venom that wouldn't work. "Is that specific to [Love bites] or all venoms?"

She tried again with her standard venom. Nothing happened, except she'd bitten her hand again for science, with disappointing results.

Juni stared at Neska as she’d bitten down on her hand, injecting venom into her hand, and noted the centipede poison had not, in fact, been cured. “Uh…should I come back later?”

Neska slowly, deliberately withdrew her fangs from her hand, wincing at the two pinpoints of blood. “It’s science.”

Juni laughed heartily at that. “Only for you, Neska. Is this related to venom testing?”

“Yes. I just ran into a problem,” she said as she chugged down the specific antivenom vial for centipedes. The itching and burning on her arm cooled, then ceased as the venom broke down. “I can’t use my venom on myself. It did nothing.”

“Does that mean any effect of your venom?”

“Inconclusive. But it means I can’t deliberately poison myself to test how effective my antivenom is. That means I'll need to pull in…volunteers.” She slid back from the desk, resting her hands behind her neck. “And I think volunteers are going to be quite averse–”

Juni rolled up her academy uniform sleeve. “Well, I’m poison-resistant with my geo affinity. Let’s get started. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger, right?”

Neska arched her brow. “I think I’m setting some ethical boundaries about biting my friends, when possible. Especially mousey-shaped ones. That could lead to some unfounded accusations.”

She grabbed one of the sample vials in her alchemical kit and then drained out her venom from her fangs, where it joined several sitting on the table. “I have some of these antivenom samples aged two hours, six hours, twelve hours, and yesterday. I need to see if the potency degrades. Are you willing to be envenomated by centipede venom several times? Because I need to run a proper trial with actual arcanist standards. As soon as I remember what those are,” she muttered.

“Don’t you have instructions for it?”

Neska pointed to an academic journal for setting up controlled testing. “Following it, but I don’t fully grasp the reasons why. Repeatability of data matters, along with introducing controls in your experiments. I also don’t know if my ability is consistent, whether I pump more mana or less into it, my state of health, and so on. There are many variables.”

“Gotta start somewhere,” Juni pointed out, grabbing the centipede venom. “Let’s get going.”

Several self-envenomings later, Juni was exhausted and had to retreat to the bathroom after nausea overwhelmed her. “Okay, I think we pushed the limit–hurk.”

Neska turned her head and rubbed the mouse's back as the venom effects wore off, and the mouse was sick in the washroom. “I did say that we might be pushing the limits.”

Juni wiped her face with a cloth, breathing heavily. “Yep, poison resistance is not poison immunity. In your defense, you did warn me.”

Neska gave her a gentle pat. “Feel better?”

“Marginally,” Juni said, before gargling a mint wash at the sink a moment later. “So, what have we learned?”

“I think my venom–or my antivenom, for that matter–maintains potency for longer than I initially believed,” Neska said as they returned to their dorm room and picked up her notebook. “It also cures increasing levels of envenomation, per our efforts to increase the centipede venom dosage. But I also worry our results are skewed by the build-up effects of alchemical residuals within the body. Or yours. Or your toxin resistance.”

Juni let out a hiccup sound before grabbing a snack of floury, hard-baked crackers she’d taken from the dining hall earlier. “Yep. Lots of variables. But we now have mobile, general-purpose antivenom and antitoxin. But does it cure inflicted damage?”

Neska peered at Juni, and the spot she’d injected centipede venom, and frowned. “Is it still enflamed?”

Juni pulled back the fur and looked at it. “Pink. No inflammation, no pain in my paw movements. I think it has some regenerative effect, but I don’t think it’s better than a healing potion, which is better for general healing and emergency triage.”

Juni cast a glance at Neska’s workstation, which they’d set up over the past day. It was essentially a miniaturized version of the alchemical bench in the caster labs, but with reduced capacity. The fact that Kalloway lent these amazed the lamia further. “What about other venoms?”

“I stuck to centipede venom because testing other, deadlier stuff, without safeguards in place? It’s risky.” Neska waved her hand to her next experiment. “Now, however, I have a new test, since I know my venom is shelf-stable, barring any more interesting circumstances.”

“Huh? You want to run more tests? To do what?”

Neska pointed to a vial she had prepared by mixing a few ingredients. “Oh, just a little something I prepared to catch that slippery bastard.” Neska grimaced as she opened it. “Now I need to test how much venom I produce for a given alchemical effect.”

Juni recoiled and nearly retched again, heaving. “Dear Divines, what is that awful stuff?”

“My next foray into possibly regrettable decisions: locking foam precursor, which is an alchemical agent.” She pointed to the alchemical book co-authored by Risha. “It's easy to make. But Juni, I am not looking forward to doing this.”

Neska poured the substance into a small cup and groaned. “I think this is gonna taste worse than it smells.” Before Juni could leap in and stop her, she stuck her fangs into a cup and ingested the composite in a way that felt like getting water up one’s nostrils.

Which was to say, it burned as it went up the hollow fang, and a noxious taste emanated in her mouth, so strong she gagged. Her venom glands felt like they were burning like fire ant bites, and she rubbed at her cheeks, where the sacs lay behind somewhere.

It was also met with an indicator of success, courtesy of Vivi, after several seconds of immense discomfort that faded to a more tolerable burning.

Alchemical Locking Foam was successfully imbued into venom. This replaces any natural venom effects.

This is a limited-use imbuement. This may be dismissed and replaced with any naturally produced venom you can generate. Additional charges may be added by additional imbuement, up to the maximum charge number. A bite or a single spray or application of venom uses one charge. Charge count increases with Endurance, starting with 1, then Endurance/5, rounded down.

Venom charges: 5/5

You may want to consider a mint after consuming alchemical agents. Just saying.

Neska gripped the table and let out a hiss of disgust, wiping her snout. “Oh, divines, the things I do for science,” she gagged. “That was awful.”

Juni approached her cautiously, eyes brightening. “It worked?”

“Yep. Even better, it fully replaces any venom effect I produce naturally!”

She clapped her hands together, spotting her bow and arrows in the corner. “Now we need to test it.”

---