The Apprentice of Ouroboros [Monster Evo LitRPG Adventure]

Falling forward through space, time, and energy was not something the lamia had prepared for. She couldn't feel her body, she instinctively wanted to coil around safety, trying in vain to latch onto something.

The streaming light warped and distorted around her, then slowed. She turned her head and saw something that couldn't be there. It shouldn't.

Syrona should have been right next to her. Instead, she saw someone with their back turned to her, wearing the same hat she was wearing. Before the mists wrapped around Neskas' vision, she saw a glimpse of familiar long red hair, turning slowly to face her.

It can't be. You're gone.

Before she could comprehend how, reality whirled back into focus, and she curled around the first solid object to anchor against, coiling tightly.

That first object happened to be Kasfew, who screeched, then let out a wheeze as Neska’s head snapped around, taking in her surroundings, and they tumbled to the ground.

“What? Where? How?!” she swore she'd seen something that should be impossible, and clung tight until she was sure this was reality.

The ground felt pretty solid. The bird felt pretty floofy, in a nice contrast. They were both quite real. So was the bird's protests.

“Please let go.” Kasfew wheezed again, tapping impatiently against her body with his claws. “You've landed, and my bones are very birdlike and fragile.”

It did not help matters that her face was inches from his, and she accidentally flicked her tongue out, tapping his beak. “I assume that it's normal to get that feeling of total matter disintegration and falling through space?” she said in a quieter tone.

“Yes,” he growled, a few feathers smoldering. She loosened the coils of her body, and he rubbed at his presumably bruised arms and wings. "Do you always try to crush the people trying to help you?”

“I startled a bit, and I clung onto the nearest solid object, apologies. You're warm, by the way.”

His beak gaped. “Say that again?”

“You’re like a portable hot pack. I may need some of your feathers for an insulative armor set I had in mind. Purely donations only, for arcanist science.”

“Absolutely not! I refuse to be your crush, and your thermal…whatever!” He fumed, stamping his talons.

“The term is my personal thermal reserve, but we can discuss that later,” Neska added with a smirk. It amused her to watch him being on the defensive for something so innocuous.

A soft cough got her attention: Juni wore a leering smile aimed at the two of them, her posture relaxed. “I see you two have gotten along together quite well. A little bonding moment. I'm so glad you two have made up.”

“Watch it, furball,” Kasfew growled. “You've got a lot of bite for someone half my size.”

“Agreed. I’m at the perfect kneecap biting height," Juni retorted, chomping at the air.

“Who’s biting and crushing what now?” Syra asked, confused.

“You are all complete oddballs, you know that?" Kasfew called out, throwing his wings up in frustration. “Look, a few things before we go further. We don’t talk about this place, got it? It's sort of a code of honor. That may or may not be enforceable by ritual wards on the place. Understood?"

Neska had seen the runes on the archway above the portal surface as they left the chamber. She slipped into her [Spectral Sense] more and more often; though with too many people or magical effects ongoing, it was too much stimulus and left her with a headache.

Before she forgot, she turned to see Syrona popping out of her bag, twitching agitatedly. She must have been taking a nap. Syrona, did you see that?

The familiar looked at her, confused, then shook her head. Did Neska imagine it? Was it some strange aftereffect of the portal?

She'd ask later. They had other priorities today.

Brent, and Trevor both came out the other side of the portal, the metallic surface clinging to their bodies for a brief moment before springing backward. The distortions bounced along the surface, then pulled taut until it was as still as a mirror, perfectly polished. Once again, Neska could see something just beyond the surface that looked roughly like the commons area they had just been in. "So, what'd we miss?" Brent asked, pointing to the still poofy looking Kasfew.

Neska shook her head. "We were negotiating. And having a snugging moment. Inadvertently.”

“We were doing nothing of the sort!” Kasfew fumed, tousling his feather crest to be pointy again. “Let's get going before the lamia gets all clingy again," he bristled, gritting his beak as he did so.

The space they were in was not the roughly hollowed-out, impromptu space she'd expected. Instead, it was constructed of solid gray slab brick walls, with small recesses where arcane light fixtures had been embedded. The devices cast a soft white-blue light. She put her hand up to one and felt no heat at all; very efficient, when she thought about it, especially given that they were built to operate almost indefinitely with no external power supply.

The small dome-like chamber had one exit, leading down a small flight of stairs again made of the same tiled stone surface. Neska noted there was a ramp she could slide down without issue.

How convenient. They made the undercommons snake accessible. Stairs had always been a pain, but this ramp was really nice. Juni's whiskers twitched as Neska slid down a second time on her belly scales. "You're having way too much fun, you know."

"Would you like a ride on my back?" Neska teased. "Snake skating. Let's set a trend!"

"Let's not," Juni sighed, chuckling contentedly even as she sounded slightly dismissive.

Kasfew and Nori stayed in front, leading the way, sticking to the main path and chatting idly. Neska saw other passageways branching off from this one, some of them populated by students wearing casual clothes, rather than the standard uniform. In one quarter, several people gathered around a table and a chalkboard, scribbling notes, trying to design arcane rune templates on the board. If she had to hazard a guess, they were making a protective rune against certain infectious diseases. Ones involving…itching.

She wondered about that one. Could the monsters get ill, or get infections? She theorized they probably would, given the injuries they sustain on a routine basis in the fight against the Varadur. Notwithstanding her own exposure-based toxin resistance.

The stairwell reached a level area; ahead, there was an entryway into a large oblong room, stone slabs forming a decorative archway. Tapestries colored silver and green draped overhead and fluttered in a light breeze, though they appeared to be handmade by the students rather than the standard Academy banner. Students walked on by, not paying her group any attention.

Past the archway, the area opened up to a massive chamber, nay, an entire underground cavern, with several overhanging layers above it, with windows and lights visible. She noted access stairways to her left and right leading to them. In front, various stalls filled with trinkets, armor, and equipment were set up for sale on either side. Some of the goods looked like alchemical components from plants, roots, mineral samples, and even mana crystals. Others resembled body parts from the Varadur specimens, such as plating, chitin, scales, teeth, or other components. Some of the more ominous items were stowed in jars filled with murky liquid that hid their contents, unless one paid close attention.

Kasfew turned around, wearing a proud smile, his hands stretched out. "Welcome to the undercommons, everyone. This is a place with looser rules than Rivilat, where everything is for sale, people don't look too closely, and somewhere you can come to have some fun. Without being judged.”

Indeed, Neska was fascinated by how the large marketplace opened to a balcony on the far side overlooking a chasm. A set of metal posts had been driven into the stone, cordoning off the overlook with a wire barrier. Peering down, Neska’s eyes widened when she realized that the bottom wasn't just a big pit.

Instead, what she saw was a large series of structures clinging to the ledge of the vertical chasm, little lights winking on and off. She could make out sounds of people cooking, talking, and sometimes laughing at each other, the activity echoing across the expanse. Several arcane lights connected to thick wires spanning the chasm, providing surprising illumination to the whole area.

The strangest visual was the waterfall cascading down and splashing into a distant pool that glowed dimly with small bits of mana crystal illuminating the turquoise-tinged water. She wondered if this water was connected to the storm drain she'd seen by the lake, but that didn't make sense. Perhaps there was a natural spring welling up water here from the depths? She knew if the rock pressurized the ground, that was one means for it to form.

In short, she had never seen anything quite like it. Down below, at the bottom of the chasm, she could see the tops of structures seemingly buried into the cavern, including chunky boulders freshly fallen on some of the buildings. She heard the distant sound of picks swinging and impacting stone, plus other industrial sounds of drilling and whirling arcane steam boilers with their distinctive combined hiss of steam and electric whine.

"Are they still actively digging into that city, diverting resources from training?" Neska asked, surprised by the endeavor.

Kasfew shrugged. "They never really stop digging; that's the expeditionary task group that comes down here on occasion. Officially, students aren't supposed to be excavating the city, at the risk of bringing it down upon their heads, or finding some giant spooky monster that will bring about a cataclysm. The latter of those, I find highly unlikely, in my opinion. Unofficially, however, some professors have been spotted down here 'supervising' the excavations. They typically come in another way; you can't get up here from there unless you plan on flying up or climbing. Remember, there's more than one way into the Undercommons area. Again, your level of access may vary."

Neska forgot about the mini bazaar around her, people gawking at the nearby sundries and saying hello to Juni and everybody else. She was fascinated that this entire area was a little city underneath their feet. She had never seen anything like it.

There was also something else, something she couldn't hear, so much as feel: something called to her down there, in that city of broken stone and crushed dreams. She didn't know what it was. It wasn't a vibration; it felt like something resonated within her, as if she had tapped crystalline glass, leaving a sweet-sounding chime ringing in the air.

Something in her soul stirred, in the proximity of whatever was down there. She didn't know what it was, but she knew she had to find out. The only problem, she suspected, was that it wasn’t on the surface. It must be deep, deep below, in the ruins of the failed city.

Junie finally spoke up, after gawking at the whole situation and walking up to her and the firebird. "I don't get it. How do you keep something this big of a secret for this long?”

Nori raised a feathered finger for emphasis. "For one, there's a lot of access control; not just anybody can get down here, certainly not without somebody being vetted by someone else. A lot of the people here have connections to the major families of Valos and Juiksen. I think you guys might be the exception to the norm, all things considered. "

"So you're saying it's an open secret," Neska said dryly.

"Pretty much."

Brent took a sniff of the air, letting out a contented sigh. "Man, somebody's making fried horker. I can smell it from this distance. They do custom food too? Not that the dining commons don't do wonders, but this is a cut above."

"Whatever they can bring in. Though, as you might find out, you're going to need to have something to trade or a premium incentive," Kasfew explained, looking confident. "That's not an issue if you come from the right place or the right family. For others? Well... they get crafty."

Trevor looked down at his bags, then opened them. "I don't suppose several high-potency toxins and wasp carapace are in high demand, are they?"

"Trevor, I thought we were going to be using those for armor," Juni protested.

He smiled proudly. "You really forget how much I actually grabbed out of that hive. I took some on the way out. So, we're not lacking corpses. I was also able to preserve them, using one of my abilities. It's handy, but a bit gross to some. Personally, I prefer dealing with non-organic crafting materials," he added dryly.

"So where do we start?" Neska asked. "There are a lot of things that are on my list of things to purchase."

Kasfew waved his hand around. "Take a look. What exactly do you need first?"

She put a finger to her chin. "Let's browse first. Show me what you think is popular." She got the feeling Kasfew was delighted to be in this position, so she fed into that for the time being.

Kasfew let out a soft cluck of satisfaction. "How about something I think you might be interested in? Given what I know of you."

He approached a stairwell leading down, where a mixture of students and other people in regular civilian clothes walked in both directions. He passed by several vendors and continued down a side alley that led to another chamber separate from the one they were in, recessed against the large cavernous wall. Neska could still peer down into the abyss of the city below, never straying from her mind or her sight.

Kasfew passed a few more stalls displaying various sundries and other trinkets. A few seemed to be offering paraphernalia hooked up to a small device that people inhaled through a small tube. Afterward, their eyes seemed glassy, and their entire bodies seemed slack, sitting in the reclining chairs nearby. They talked with a touch of melancholy to one another.

Kasfew pressed on. They descended a dimly lit, slowly spiraling staircase; the arcane lanterns' light barely illuminated the steps. Neska switched to her thermal mode and was able to see the birds' outline, blazing brilliantly. His talons were soon joined by sliding scales and the light clink of Trevor's boots as they descended towards another open area. This area cast more shadows than the cavern above them. This area's walls were paved over, smoothed over with granite stone and interlocking designs. Neska also couldn't help but feel it was cooler down here, damper. She also heard various sounds that unsettled her.

She hoped it wasn't what she thought it was. She hoped those animal grunts and growls weren't what she thought they were. The sound of applause and laughter emanated further in.

Neska pushed past Kasfew, who startled and let out a squawk. “You might want to slow down a minute, Neska.”

“Nope.” She heard snarls, screeches, and the rattling of something metal in the distance. Was it what she thought it was? Perhaps a collection of animals for fresh alchemical components, or pets, or something else?

She rounded a corner and saw a large room that looked almost like an arena. Several students sat perched on wooden benches overlooking a sandy pit, with two ramps leading down that could be raised by a series of mechanical levers and pulleys.

Neska put a hand to her snout to avoid shouting, drawn to the spectacle in a way it shouldn’t have. One student in fatigues brandishing a shortsword circled through the sandy pit, bloodied but still mobile, sweating profusely.

Across from him was a large, six-legged feline creature with dagger-like fangs protruding from its mouth, circling the pit, its hackles raised and letting out low, catlike growls. It bore numerous wounds on its body, blood dripping and staining the sand below it.

Neska ignored the student's cheers as the announcer spoke into a relay to amplify his voice. People placed coins into hats and baskets, presumably for a gambling activity.

She was focused on the captive Varadur they were using casually for sport. The male student, dark-haired and sweaty from exertion, was likely to win. All he had to do was wear the creature out, and it would be over.

They didn't even pretend that this was a fair fight. Even if the creature ‘won’, what then? Would they let it kill the student? Would the several armed men standing near the pit step in and finish it off? She narrowed her eyes and subtly raised her arm, searching for roots in this arena. None were present.

Damn. She hadn’t had a chance to talk to Brienne since she got back to campus. She needed more genesis seeds or a way to grow her own.

Kasfew’s fingers clenched on her shoulder just as she coiled her body to leap in. “See something you don’t like? You’ve got that look.”

“You knew about this.” She didn’t look his way, but continued watching the man leap in, landing a slashing cut on the creature’s flank before darting away. The creature slashed, hitting nothing more than billowing sand. The man was fast on his feet and strong, likely some mixture of physical Attributes favoring Agility. “Pit fighting a trapped animal?”

“Pit fighting a Varadur that had a hand in killing other people,” Kasfew clarified. “You know, it’s damn hard to capture one alive. They go feral when faced with capture, did you know that? No, I bet you didn’t.”

Neska clenched her claws tightly as she weighed the options. “So this is…a blood sport? Some paid revenge scheme? Entertainment?”

“Training.” Kasfew pointed to the men now filing into the arena, spears poised. The creature appeared exhausted. “You know the thing about experience? You don’t need to kill a living being to earn it. Surely you’ve noticed your powers have grown without the need to take life. The same goes for the Varadur. They don’t need to kill each other. We’ve even seen examples of it from the organized humanoid specimens such as orcs and kobolds. Some classes reward crafting, healing, diplomacy...and so on."

“It’s barbaric. What if that man misplays? Will the handlers be able to step in in time?” She pointed to the feline. “This game is rigged against it, no matter what it does, and it knows it.”

“Since when do you care about the fate of the Varadur?” Kasfew sneered. “You, who burned half an Instance?”

“Our goal is not to kill the Varadur. Our goal is to kill the things that control them and force a de-escalation to end this conflict, birdbrain,” she said, claws still clenched tightly.

Kasfew waved toward the spectacle, where the creature was herded to a gate slowly opening by lowering a large counterweight. One man wearing heavy armor dared to get close enough to the beast, no weapon in hand, but holding what Neska thought might be medical equipment.

Neska heard a few startled gasps as the others caught up. Syra looked aghast, Juni looked grim, and Brent wore his calm gaze, arms folded and muzzle clenched tight, shaking his head in disappointment at the spectacle.

Trevor looked ill at the sight of the blood across the arena, his arms slack. “I can’t believe they allow this here,” he said distantly. Neska focused on the man attempting to heal the feline, with others nearby in case they needed to pull him out.

The creature yowled at this handling, but strangely, lowered its body and stretched out its legs as if submitting to the man. The short-haired man wore a stern but concerned look. He was no fighter–he looked more like a healer as he began to dab the wounds with a poultice, then wrapped bindings around the wounds until they stopped bleeding.

Kasfew stayed by her side, pointing to this strange turn of events. “Still, when you think about it, this is its penance: we get stronger by experiencing the thrill of battle and exertion of the soul. There’s still a very real chance it ‘wins,’ so to speak, and it, too, could evolve if this were to be maintained long enough.”

Neska knew this cycle of violence had been going on for a while. The creature’s fur was parted in multiple places across its body, scarred tissue raised and crisscrossing its limbs, torso, chest, and its face. She swore she heard it purring anxiously as the healer motioned for someone else nearby to hand him supplies with surprising gentleness. The man, with messy brown hair and green eyes, cast a scathing glare at the celebrant who had inflicted the injuries on this creature.

“So what do your cold, calculating notions tell you, Neska?” Kasfew asked.

“They’re telling me to change the math. I want to turn every one of these Varadur truly free, then offer them a choice. A real one.”

Juni perked up, now by her side. “How?”

“By figuring out how I’m breaking their connection to the collective. We now have a source of wild Varadur. Now I need to inject myself into proximity in the heat of battle regularly, while running arcanist experiments to rule out irrelevant factors. All while finding a means to toggle this currently undefined power I possess at will. Oh, and not die in the process,” she answered matter-of-factly.

Juni gaped for a second before throwing up her paws and turning to the firebird. “Kasfew? Remember when I warned you that spooky shit was going to happen on a routine basis in your near-future?” she asked in a dreaded tone. “Guess what? It’s too late to back out, now.”