The Apprentice of Ouroboros [Monster Evo LitRPG Adventure]

Meanwhile, at Rivilat...

Before anyone could react in the room, everybody's lapels started giving off a small crystalline ping. Neska frowned and tapped it in response, knowing this must be a special announcement.

Emanating from all the lapels was a message that sounded like it came from Headmistress Resalio, her voice resolutely calm and composed.

“Attention all students and personnel. All extracurricular activities are canceled effective immediately, and all classes are postponed. Students must return to their dorms at the end of this message and wait for further instructions. There has been an incursion into the northern end of the valley, near the Arcesti Hills. Students will be selected for a first response based on aptitude scores and team cohesion.

“This is not a drill, Varadur forces have been spotted in the valley, we do not know exact numbers and composition as of yet. Please return to your dorms to await further instructions.”

Neska glanced at everyone else in the room, with Trevor looking rather frightful, his hand expressions becoming very animated. “I've never had real combat experience, only the training here at the academy. What do I do if they call me?”

She slithered over him, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “I doubt they would throw you into the deep end without a team that had synergy with your abilities. Now, take a deep breath, relax. This might be an opportunity for all of us.”

He blinked, then his face brightened. "Do you mean like using these prototypes? It would be excellent to get some field data. Even if there is some risk. But you should return to your dorms. I don't want you guys to get in trouble.”

“Sheesh. Where was this bravery hiding before?” Brent said, leaning casually against the doorframe.

“Because I was–well, I suppose it doesn’t matter. I was afraid. A professor had been attacked in his own office. The rumor was that it was you, Cassia. Given your aptitude and demeanor, I can thoroughly dismiss that rumor.” Trevor’s voice trembled only a little. But he quickly regained his footing.

“I was there. I also saved his life. Though his falling into a coma was unfortunate. He…” she trailed off, wondering how much she should say. “He’s taken a lot of difficult things on. And heavy burdens he carried by himself.”

She glanced around the room. Her timetable had accelerated. She thought field training would be later, not this soon. “Actually, Trevor, I had a few ideas. Anything we can do in short order?”

“W-well, yes. Why?”

“I’m getting this feeling I’ll be called into action, along with myself and the others. We have actual combat experience. I better relay a friend."

She tapped her lapel. “Cassia to Lieutenant Jurik. Am I correct in guessing that my name is about to be called for a special assignment?”

A crackle of static later, she had her answer. “Are you speaking in the presence of third parties, before I respond?”

Trevor nodded, and Neska tapped her lapel. “Yes, I am.”

“Then I will keep it brief. Yes, you’re on a short list. You, Juni, and a few of your newest associates. Finish whatever reliable armaments you’ve been cooking up and be ready to get thrown into the field. Corvin, I, Hadley, and others will be leading the teams. We have a pretty good idea how this will be arranged.”

“What are we up against?”

“Goblins, hobgoblins, wargs. Possibly more. The hunters who reported in on the northern fringe of the territory didn’t elaborate, but this large group is well south of the holding line. I can’t say more until we’re there in person.”

Neska glanced at them, with Trevor biting his lip. “How long do we have?”

“Two hours. They want to move with all due haste at first light. Griffin mounts will scout the area while ground teams make their approach. Divines be with you, Cassia.”

She clicked off her lapel, with everyone looking to her for direction. “How fast can you fabricate something from alchemical components into something usable for armor or equipment?”

“U-uh, not that fast. Why?”

“What if we lent a hand? I’ve worked on runes, Juni, too. Syra has a little experience.”

Trevor frowned. “You really think this will be important to speed run through?”

Neska grabbed a jar. “Have you used alchemical-based materials to bake your own runes?”

“For basic stuff. Definitely not enough time for anything fancy. Why?”

Neska snapped her fingers. “What do goblins and hobgoblins present as threats?”

“Danger in numbers, and goblins are nasty. They shit and piss on all their ranged weapons. Nothing worse than getting shot with septic-inducing weapons,” Brent summarized.

“Seconded. Wargs are also highly aggressive and will always target the smallest members of a team,” Juni added. “Hobgoblins have basic infantry tactical formations down to an art. They are organized and will use goblins like cannon fodder.

“Despite the name commonality, they are two unique species, though hobgoblins typically start at Tier two. They also have competency in basic ambush tactics, and there are a few sorcerer variants among them, plus shamans with druid-like powers.”

“Goblin bites will also get infected fast,” Brent finished. “So healing will be useful. May I ask why the venom?”

Neska grabbed one of the empty sample vials on the table. After a confused look from Trevor, she streamed a small amount of venom into the tube from one fang. “Can you infuse this? It has an antitoxin and mild regenerative effect.”

He frowned and tipped the vial in curiosity. “Interesting. You can produce your own anti-venom?”

“Doesn't work on me. Unfortunately.” Juni made a subtle motion, pretending to bite her own hand, and Neska furrowed her brow. “Could that effect be added to these modularity runes?”

“No. I would need to study it. The mana structure within the venom would need to be mapped out to create the proper bond pattern with a rune template.”

“So, not so easy, huh?”

“No. Runes for rituals are traditionally much simpler. Adding permanence to an effect requires much more effort. Though…maybe I could try with this one.”

“Then let’s get started."

“Yep. It isn't much to look at.” Trevor wiped a bit of sweat off his brow as he showed off a preliminary rune template he’d written down. “But, this is a great start.”

After a little head-scratching on how to research her venom in a hurry, Neska tried something she hadn’t tried before: she’d used Risha’s hat to analyze her own venom. She almost cursed at herself–why was she underutilizing this utility function of the hat? She figured if she could check her status baseline, she might be able to deduce something.

Unfortunately, it had limited results. She was able to see the exact effects on Juni, who tested a sample on herself through a narrow cut made by one of her own claws.

Neska watched with keen interest as her vision changed. The world turned a muted greyscale, not unlike when she focused on her thermal vision, but this was different. This showed things with a translucency she hadn’t seen before. She could faintly make out the bones of Juni’s hand, with mana encrusted along the material.

The same was true of the mana in her bloodstream. She could see a complex tangle of all the major arteries, awash with a slight aqua glow, tapering to a deep blue. More telling, she could see the subtle charge of magic from the venom as it dissipated into the blood like frosty breath expanding outward.

Wherever it touched, the mana flow brightened and flowed faster. She couldn’t see the speed, specifically, but there was a gradient of its intensity as it flowed to and from the heart and central organs.

She spent several minutes describing what she saw, with everyone listening intently. She also offered her own suggestion that what she was witnessing was a change of ‘status’ from wounded to healed. Indeed, as the wound closed, she noted the coloration around the injury site dimmed.

Trevor had filled out several pages of a notepad, writing with intensity. “Fascinating. And this hat allows you to see it?”

“I’ve only tested it a few times. But I can see gradients of mana, plus a basic map of mana flow. I can’t discern much else from it yet.” The ability was still limited, and doubly so because she couldn’t build proficiency in it–it was an artifact ability, not a natural ability. “So, what do you think?”

“I think this is immensely helpful. This…might allow me to build a new rune. What, exactly, it will do is probably one of two things. A regenerative rune that allows minor healing, or a resistance to toxins, if applied to an armor or an equipment piece.”

He leaned back in his chair, cupping his face with his hands and letting out a soft exhale. “But I can’t do it in two hours. I’m going to need a day or two.”

While disappointing, it also meant it could be done. “Even if we all worked together?”

“There’s a time bottleneck on making the rune. You can only bake a template at a certain speed,” he shrugged. “And in this case, for fabric? It would be in the form of a dye or a metal insert. Runes are way easier to make for metal, ceramic, or other hard substances. It’s why enchanted garments are pricey, and only the rich and elite wear such protections.”

He glanced at the clock, sighing. “You guys had better go. The last thing you want is to be busted for not listening to the announcement."

After giving Trevor enough venom samples to kill even a dragon and leaving herself parched, they left, with the prospect that a major opportunity had arisen.

Juni still looked anxious, more than usual. "Are you sure we're up to this? I mean, are we putting Trevor in real danger, given his lack of combat experience? I know he has a little, but…”

“I’ll have his back,” Brent said stoically. “You know how I know when I can trust someone who’s a humanoid, and that trust goes both ways? I can smell it, practically. No fear. None that matters.”

Neska gave her a firm smile. “Given our past experiences, and given the situation? This is an ideal opportunity to get Trevor off campus and give him some experience. I'm sure that we won't have any issues if the threat is relatively low.”

“Low risk doesn’t mean zero risk,” Syra puffed.

Juni wrung her paws gently. “But, we haven't had a lot of good experiences in the field; we were coming out of fights by the skin of our teeth.”

“Yet, we also threw resounding defeats at the Varadur. If nothing else, this field experience will give me options to test out some new abilities.”

Brent and Syra departed for their dorms for the night, likely to prepare. Neska had the same idea. As soon as they were back home, she and Juni worked together to prepare themselves as best they could in their dorm room, with Neska tinkering with her venoms and various alchemical extracts, noting results.

She confirmed her venom potency trials were proving the substance was far more promising than she thought. It appeared none of her time-delayed samples had lost any of their potency. There must be a preservative or stabilizer enzyme in the venoms that helps them retain full power, even after an extended duration. She didn't know how long, but it was shelf stable for now; a few days, at least. She wondered if it would preserve shelf-limited formulas more effectively.

That would require more trial and error. Right now, she also needed to prepare her other new opener: her eyes and ears in the sky. She glanced at Syrona, “I had an idea.”

“Syrona, I need to test something with you." Neska knew she could sense her familiar nearby through some faint spark of energy and a rough distance between them. She didn't know if she could share senses with her familiar. It had shown up in the books, from what she read. And it appeared to be an ability shared with all familiars. She hadn't seen it listed under her familiar subgroup of Abilities.

She suspected that it would be more discovery-style powers that sprang from the base power, which was the familiar itself. She’d already found two variants of her rooting hex, which was incredible, and she suspected there were more.

Reading further, the book also highlighted a warning: any mental attack that affected the familiar, or anything that attacked their senses, would also have a lesser impact on Neska, through the link. That meant they typically served most witches in a supportive role, rather than as a frontline attacker.

Neska started with simple instructions for Syrona, encouraging her to take a look around the room. She asked her to find various objects in the room that the snake could see, while Neska kept her eyes closed.

Predictably, she saw nothing at first. This was an ability that would take time to train. She decided to approach this from a slightly different angle.

She closed her eyes and then covered her ear canals. But she could still hear the sound; she needed something a little bit stronger. “Juni, do we have any cotton wads, anything similar to that? I need to try to focus on the sensory link. I want to try to clear every distraction I can.”

The mouse tapped her snout for a second, then snapped her fingers. “Yeah, you know what, you could always use a sound-damping potion. It dampens all sound around you within a given radius."

Neska glanced at her notebook and frowned. "I haven't made that one yet. I also unfortunately don't have any evolution points. Let's see here." She looked around the room, but couldn't find much else. Juni provided a couple of cotton swabs from their small kit for the laboratory. Neska stuffed them into her ear canals, best she could, then wound herself into a tight coil, meditating on the small task.

As far as she knew, she should have this ability already, owing to her having a familiar. Syrona also coiled next to her and put her wings together in a meditative pose. Neska let out a soft chuckle. It was kind of funny that her familiar was trying to emulate her movement

"Syrona, I have a little task for you. Find me something in the room that is red. Can you do that for me?"

The familiar chirped in acknowledgment and then began scanning the room, slithering to and fro before settling on using a short flap of her wings to hop up onto the dresser. The creature grabbed Juni's comb in her mouth, then hopped back down to bring it to Neska, letting out a chirp of contentment.

“Your familiar is not a dog, we're not telling her to fetch," Juni said sourly.

"Not quite. I said the specific color, and Syrona recognized it." Neska grabbed one of several chicken eggs stored in a paperlike packaging they stored in small ice chest in the room. Syrona greedily gulped it down in one bite.

Juni let out a huff. "It was a fluke. Plus, I think she was being a tease because she grabbed my brush."

Neska let out a soft tsk. "Nonsense, she's an angel."

"A mutated angel, sure."

Several tests later, with various colored items, Neska knew for certain that Syrona could detect color, and knew what the colors were. After a short period of time, she also tasked Syrona with searching for specific objects. She had her search for things that were specifically square, small, or with specific textures.

"I think she knows these things because I know them," Neska affirmed, tapping her book. "It's said that familiars have childlike humanoid intelligence. They only grow in maturity and intelligence over time, as their witch's levels increase."

Neska looked at Juni, a wicked grin sprotting across her snout. "Syrona, can you fetch me something mouse-shaped?"

The familiar gave her an indignant hiss, looked at Juni, then shook her head. "Okay, okay, I know you can't carry her. You must treat mice kindly."

"We'd better," Juni growled, gnashing her teeth. "If you can't eat mice, she can't eat mice. Invertebrates, fish, and eggs are fair game." Syrona's response was to stick her tongue out at Juni, before settling back down around Neska's shoulders. "How is this helpful, anyway?"

"Syrona is going to be our eyes and ears. She's rather subtle when she needs to be. If we're going out in the field, which we most certainly will, having a pair of eyes in the sky will be helpful."

"But, how?" Juni asked. "I remember reading a brief snippet that you guys might be able to see what the other is seeing, but I don't know how it works."

Neska glanced at the familiar, currently nipping at her feather hair, and gave her a gentle tap on the snout. "No eating my hair. It's not edible."

She thought about this for a moment, then coiled low, folding her hands together, and closed her eyes. Maybe it was something that she could activate using the Interface.

After a moment of silence, a steady breathing, Neska pictured reaching out to her familiar, trying to see if she could touch her soul spark just like she did leading up to the completion of her familiar ritual. Within seconds, she could feel that spark, not so much in a spatial physical location, so much as being able to sense it like a relay pinging in the distance.

A second later, a tunnel of alternating colors impaired her vision. She blinked, then the world came back into focus. She was looking about in the dorm room, but something was off. Her position was slightly different from where she sat earlier, and the colors were muted, though the vision was no less sharp than hers.

Her field of vision turned, but she didn't turn her head. She knew she had her eyes closed physically, yet she could still see, and then she realized she was looking through Syrona's vision.

Wow, this is strange. Seeing myself without a mirror is…odd. They spent the next minute or two watching Juni's anxious glance, with Syrona turning her head back and forth, peering around the room, and then going back to nibbling on Neska's hair. Instead of opening her eyes, Neska blindly tapped her finger on Syrona's snout. No, none of that, please. Mommy's working. Syrona, you can hear my voice now, correct?

The snake dipped her head up and down, and Neska saw her own body, which felt a little surreal. She didn't realize her feather hair was that long. She wore a rather stoic expression while doing all of this.

"Can you see out of her eyes?" Juni asked.

Neska kept her own eyes closed. “Yes, I can. I don't know about hearing, however." She tried picturing the world through her familiar's eyes, and felt a mental connection, as if someone plugged a mana crystal directly into the back of her mind.

As if on cue, a new interface message appeared.

Ability gained: Familiar Link

Create a telepathic link to your familiar, allowing you to share its senses. The range, fidelity, and effectiveness of this link increase with additional skill ranks. Note that any optical or auditory abilities that impact your familiar have a reduced impact on you.

Ability Proficiency Increased: Familiar Link 1 > 2

Neska let out a triumphant grin. Finally, some progress. Extra snugs for the snuggly floof rope.

A knock at the door interrupted her. Neska glanced at the open window of her dorm. Syrona? Let’s test it out. I want to see who’s arriving.