The Apprentice of Ouroboros [Monster Evo LitRPG Adventure]

“Oh boy, here we go, the obsession with hats,” Juni groaned. She started crunching into her granola bowl with renewed zeal.

“Hey, hats are great for setting an enduring style. I feel like setting a fashion trend. However, that one is different from mine. Less floppy,” Neska said observantly.

Trevor raked his hat almost out of instinct. "You like me for my big hat? Well, to be fair, getting the brim material stiffened and weather resistant does require some technical finesse--why are you two laughing?” Juni and Brent snickered, and Syra rolled her eyes. "My goodness, that hat is brimming--no pun intended--with layered runes. Fascinating," he breathed.

“It's a...a personal affect.” She promptly ignored her friend's heckling and pointed at the brim. “I could see that you've put your crib notes on the inside of your hat," she mused when he showed her the hat.

"U-uh...we're allowed those," he stammered.

"And instructions on how to talk to people?" she said, brow raised.

"I...get anxious when talking to others. Sometimes," he said, looking like he was breaking out in a sweat.

"Don't we all," she said, nodding proudly. He canted his head, looking surprised. She continued her inspection. "I see that you're trying to boost your perception, but not intelligence. Actually, I meant to ask, how many items can you wear that enhance your attributes?”

He looked at her, letting out a sigh. “How much do you remember from well, before you were, you know, a snake lady?"

"Lamia," she corrected. “Unfortunately, Awakening isn't always kind to people. Very important things get forgotten, and I'm no exception. I suppose it beats being dead. Anyway, you were saying?”

He pointed at his hat, taking it off to show her. “See the stitching and embroidery here? The way it works is that items can be assigned to various slots, so to speak. You can wear one hat, one of each armor type, various accessories, and two rings. It has something to do with various magical auras interacting or cancelling each other out, so you can't stack endless items on your body.

"There's sort of a limit to how many things you can put on. Attributes will be additive to your baseline. Most items typically have a diminishing effect if you take them off, culminating in a drop to your baseline attribute. This drawdown can be anywhere from seconds to days."

He pointed to his eyes, which were a murky blue, almost grey. "Most people undervalue Perception as an attribute, but I don't. Perception helps me deduce the affinities and weaknesses of various species or other targets, though most would think scouts or hunters would need it more. It helps me understand where a weak point of an etched rune might be, or more importantly, allows me to correct it before it becomes a compounding issue. Plus, a higher perception boosts certain spells that we have. Wizards tend to be very mana-intensive, so instructors recommend we dump a lot of our points into intelligence and soul."

“But, you seem to have a different mindset.” She was currently spreading stats to multiple attributes, having viewed it as dangerous to let any one attribute get too low. Currently, her lowest were Vitality and Endurance. However, she’d gotten some Titles to cover that weakness. Evolutions would also further boost them, if her last ones were any indicator.

“Those six numbers don't fully define us, but they certainly make certain tasks a lot easier. I got tired of stumbling around in the dark and not being able to spot things, so perception became one of my attributes. I dumped a lot of points into it once I unlocked my interface. It more or less happens when you're 16. So I've had mine for about a year and a half.”

She handed him back his hat. "I couldn't help but notice that someone stitched your name in there. Are you planning on losing it?"

He sighed at that assertion. “No, actually, that's part of the recall enchantment. If I lose my hat, I can typically summon it to my hand, as long as there's no huge physical obstacle between it and me. I can also store small items in it, using this. It acts like a mobile inventory, if you will. But I can only fit what actually fits in the hat. I can't actually store something larger than it. But I can take it out at will. I won’t ever replace it. Mom helped me modify and enchant a lot of the more powerful effects. It’s…one of the last things she made for me. Or, well, something we worked together on."

“I see.” He tilted his head toward her, while she noted Brent and Syra exchanging a subtle head nod.

Trevor leaned in, looking curious. “So why the interest?”

“Mostly because, well, I don't know a lot of people here. Plus…it was the hat. Well, I mean, it wasn’t only the hat,” she admitted. “I think I also saw you sitting alone here before. No one else to keep company with?”

He glanced at a table in the corner of the dining hall that seemed sparsely populated. “I think I prefer solitude. It was, well, too crowded at home.”

"I thought you said you couldn't sit with the peasants," Syra said, a sly smile creasing her face.

"What? Oh, oh goodness, that's not what I meant earlier. I mean, um...people ask me questions why I'd sit with others outside the uh...more affluential families. That did sound rather bad, I'm sorry."

"Make it up to us," Neska said, playing into the opening. "What is home life like?"

He went on to describe his home life, while Neska listened in. Some of it confirmed what she already knew, such as that his father was the true patriarch of the family. All the decisions the family made were typically routed through him. This did not please the junior Marisano, who clenched his fork a little tighter as he discussed him.

Neska did find this interesting, not just because they were looking to keep an eye on him, but also because she was curious. She didn't know many humanoids at the school; establishing rapport with some of them might do her some good.

Or, was it that maybe she was trying to make up for a bone-achingly deep lack of friends on her part? The more she gazed into the abyss that was her previous life, the more she was forced to confront the notion that for a long, long time, she had been lonely, with only Risha in the picture.

Trevor took a shaky breath. “Hey, guys, I had an idea. Team training is coming up this week for combat lessons. It’ll be a mixed bag of Classes and Awakened working in small unit formations. You’re aware of this, yeah?”

“Sort of?” Neska wagged her hand. “Got something in mind?”

“They make teams of four. Two Awakened, two humanoids, or so I heard. I’m a little anxious, and I could use some help with some things. I didn’t want to sit idle in the back, and while I’m not super combat trained, I do have other skills that can help others.”

He peered at Neska. “Would it be too forward of me if I asked for some feedback on artifacts I’m making? Making equipment for the Awakened has always been challenging, and it's one of the things I’m studying. It's something my father had an interest in at one point--one thing we had in common, but he was too busy arming humanoids and other items. He didn't think my current efforts were worthwhile. What I'm saying is, I could use some advice and some input."

Uh. Vivi? Did I succeed here too critically, maybe?

Just go with it.

Before she could, Juni grinned. "Hey, a chance for someone other than a crazy snake-lady to run experiments on me? Count me in.”

Neska smiled politely. “Anything but a hat. I’m rather attached to this one."

“Excellent, it's a date--I mean, uh, gathering, then. See you guys Friday night at my dorm? Brenner Hall, second floor."

Neska’s eyes widened. Surely, he didn’t mean a date, date, right? “Uh, yes, sure! Sounds delightful!”

Sooooo cooked.

---

Neska had gone through a lot of harrowing ordeals in a short time, and none of them compared to the prospect of being on a date with the boy she had just met.

Or, she was reading this completely out of context and was overreacting.

“Dear, what are you doing?” Juni’s voice rang out, filled with annoyance as Neska looked at her attire choices for the day.

“Making an informed decision.” She had three uniform sets. Each of them looked almost identical, and she examined each in turn, looking for holes, rips, tears, or faded fabric. She might have to request ‘normal’ attire. She was at least close enough to humanoid for her upper body.

Close enough. What a strange thought. She knew she was human at one point, but why did maintaining that notion still matter? Would I still want to be human if given the choice?

She gripped her hat, grumbling. This thought exercise was distracting her from the task at hand.

The mouse waved a furry paw in her face. “Galwein to Neska? What is going on in there?”

“What if I was never human?”

“Come again?” The question caught Juni off guard. “But you…were. You have memories of it, or at least glimpses of them. You said so yourself.”

“That lure the assassin used got me thinking otherwise. Along with other things, like the Voice interjecting itself into my dreams. What if that's all a construct, too? What if those were more things Risha put up to…to protect me from a horrible truth?”

Juni patted her shoulder assuringly. “Well, if that were true, I’d go to Peolein with you. Then we’d find Risha's corpse, have you commune with the dead, and I would throttle that crazy witch until her head rattled off her shoulders! Because that's a terrible thing to keep from someone!”

Juni unclenched her paws when she saw Neska's perturbed look. “This is purely hypothetical, by the way. Besides, you act more human than…humans, surprisingly.”

“Swallowing fish, small lizards, and eggs whole constitutes normal? Or curling up in a coil and hogging the heating element? I still have the urge to hunt my own food. Though the arsenal of abilities I have now pretty much ensures no normal prey I chase has any chance of escape.” That part didn't feel as weird to say, surprisingly.

“Human-ish?” Juni proposed.

“To be fair, it's a rather sketchy theory that I was never human,” Neska conceded.

The problem was, she couldn't shake the notion Risha lied to protect her from something horrifying. Maybe she even had her live with Vivi and her family to sequester her away, with Risha only visiting when able. It would explain the gaps in memory. But what did that make Vivi and her parents?

Juni smiled politely. “Despite your best efforts to be weird, you’re pretty relatable to a lot of us. Maturity-wise, too. Speaking of which, Neska, these uniforms are all literally the same. Pick one.”

“But what if I pick the wrong one?”

“Guess what, you can't guess wrong on this one!” To make her point, Juni was already dressed in her uniform for the day. “It is totally fine to wear what you have, because it is literally all you have!”

She pouted gently. “A girl needs clothes for a date, yes?”

Juni rolled her eyes. “It is truly staggering that you have such a preponderous knowledge of alchemy, witchy things, and hats, but don’t know a thing about courtship. Except snugs. You got that part down well enough.”

“The fundamentals are important!” Neska declared, one claw raised in the air. “I shall approach this with all my other endeavors: with confidence, and generous testing.”

Juni’s skewed smile a few seconds later told her that she might have part of that wrong. “We don’t treat dates as experiments. And you’re not going on a date! It was a figure of speech!”

“But what if he desires courtship? What if the reason he is so shy is that he prefers females of a different sort?” It seemed logical. He was very antisocial with most other humanoids. Or, anyone who was human enough. Yet, his posture and demeanor had changed completely in the presence of Awakened.

Juni stuck out her tongue. “Blech. Keep focused on the fact that the Marisanos are neck-deep in with the assassin, and Trevor isn’t off the hook yet. We are here to keep an eye on him and see if we can figure out if he’s got ‘exclusive’ access to the caverns and catacombs, too, just like that fiery feathered pain in my arse. Plus, I’m mildly curious about this ‘armoring up the Awakened’ bit. It’s not a bad idea.”

“It is definitely viable, but each job is customized per Awakened. That’s the challenge,” Neska pointed out. "Right now, I need to go beat this assassin within an inch of his life and force some answers out of him. We need levels. Which means I need to either do a lot of witchy things, or murder a lot of monsters.”

Juni sighed. “Do you know how experience works, exactly?”

“In general, yes?” She had read the instructions on what experience was through the Interface at some point. It was fascinating that the Interface could make such a critical, life-altering asset utterly uninteresting in its description.

Experience was granted for a variety of tasks, and boiled down to utilizing your class. That meant training, supporting others, or various social interactions in some applications. Murdering wildlife by the thousands was a universal option for most classes; she wondered if, taken to an extreme, that might have serious negative consequences for the food web as a whole, seeing as many monster species were predators or aggressive omnivores.

Though it would seem the Interface also accounted for that. The level gap between a person with a class and their adversary played a role in the experience gained, with massive gains granted for defeating a superior foe; But, exertions of the soul and body could still generate growth even without killing every foe in sight.

Neska, you must look at the experience tables and the calculated formula for approximating experience–

Really, now? That might take the concept to an extreme. Who would plan out experience to such minute detail?

People who want to beat overlevelled assassins, that’s who.

Ouch, Vivi. That hurts. It hurts in every coil of my body.

Juni read her silence as ‘I don’t fully understand', based on what she said next. “The bigger the gap between you and your opponent level-wise, or the more numerous the challenges or foes you take on in short order, the bigger the experience gain. Killing everything in sight can help you toward your goal, but exertion of the soul is what fuels our growth. Not monstercide.”

“So if I don’t kill everything in sight…”

“It’ll be less. Plus, if you have people who are neutral or friendly around you, the experience is somewhat distributed. Supportive efforts that keep your allies alive or help them succeed in challenges also grant experience. Anything that your class does well at, like casting rituals or casting curses, contributes.”

Juni grabbed her bag. “Most people don’t obsess over it. C’mon, let’s get going to class.” Luckily for her, the transition to activities in preparation for their field assignment was exactly what she needed.

“Yep. I may need your assistance in class today. I will be attempting to imbue another additive to my venom, and I may require you to apply antitoxins should I overdo it.”

Juni’s bright expression cracked, and her anxious smile returned. “Self-poisoning in the name of arcanist science has become the baseline normal day? Of course it has.” Even Syrona wrapped a little tighter around Neska's neck, as if she, too, were expressing her worry.

---