The Apprentice of Ouroboros [Monster Evo LitRPG Adventure]

Between classes, training, research, and planning, Neska felt the fatigue building over the next few days. If she wasn’t figuring out every angle to her new and improved abilities, it was finding equipment and methods to counter Markus’s overall strategy.

It didn’t help that she knew that there were multiple threats at her doorstep. The Seekers, chief among her current antagonists, had receded into their temporary barracks in the city itself, rather than the campus. Ortholo and a half-dozen others were regular attendees at Resalio’s office. She knew so because they always kept a pair of them stationed at the main doorway when conducting business.

Short flights with Syrona and her [Familiar Link] showed it was a rather dry affair, mostly about planning, logistics of joint training, and many contentious issues that Resalio pushed back on from multiple angles. Ortholo kept a calm approach and, surprisingly, was willing to budge on a few points of interest.

When she couldn’t focus on the Seekers, her efforts went into dealing with Markus. As much as it pained her, the threat of the Radiant King was further away than this immediate nuisance. She spent most of the day providing her [Love Bites] antivenom for Trevor to pick apart, and Professor Sakiri to help dilute into something he could use for a runic gel.

She ended up going through a lot of water skins to satisfy his demand, and the persistent venom injections left her depleted. On the plus side, [Venomous Bite] increased a rank.

Huh. That had to be a new standard for improving her skill. It was a small consolation for being a milking snake. At least she was able to learn how he was making the armor and took a role in its manufacture.

The way Trevor did it was to create a fabric outer shell; This served as the base for runes to be stitched to provide enchantments. This was the most common method, as specialized fabrics could carry high-strength fibers woven with mana-based materials.

Owing to Syra’s physiology, he opted for a light armor set with no metal; most of it was fastened with cord or straps. The fabric outer shell was only part of it, and he proudly displayed the inserts that he’d been working on.

Neska squinted at the dark plating, which measured about a quarter inch thick, and felt it had the consistency of porcelain or ceramic. “What is this?”

"Bugs."

She recoiled. "Bugs? I see no bugs here."

He chuckled softly. "Look closer." She gave him a skeptical glance before focusing on the texture more closely.

She flicked out her tongue and tasted a bug. Burnt bug, specifically. Stranger still, the material had a slight iridescent look, almost like the wasps of the hive. She gasped as she recognized it. "Wait. These are chitin plates?"

He nodded proudly. “Trauma plates, I call them. Look, armor’s expensive, and repairing it is a bitch. I’ve come up with a middle ground that trades a little protection for a lot of flexibility in repairs, weight, and mobility.” He showed the plating and how it slipped into a pouch that tightly fitted the plating into the fabric outer shell.

“So, this can't all be ground-up bug shells. What's holding it together?"

He counted off on his fingers. “Ground-up chitin, an organic-based resin, a laminate around the exterior, and internally, it's held together with various binders. All the materials are nonmetallic. Then I compressed it down and heated it, sort of like clay. Worked really well, too. I added a glaze to hold in runic enchantments.”

“My [Love Bites] trauma response?” she asked, sounding amused. “So that’s why you needed so much of it.”

“Sakiri is trying to figure out if we can make it without using you as a constant source. He does it routinely for all potential alchemical sources monster species can produce. By creating a synthetic source, we can push it to mass production, and that could change a lot of things in our favor in the fight against the Varadur.”

He grasped one plate. “If this plate breaks, which would normally indicate massive injury or stopping a fatal blow, the rune triggers and antivenom seeps in, causing an on-hit heal. It might be of limited use in total healing capacity, but anyone can use it. That’s the beauty of it!”

His enthusiasm was almost infectious. “So what you’re saying is, you need me.”

“Yes!” he exclaimed. Then his enthusiasm waned as she flashed him a fanged smile, canting her head. “I-I mean, no, not in that way, purely for the venom and certainly not for any other bodily uses, and why am I still talking about this?!”

She wondered if this boy had a bit of a crush on her. Not in the literal sense; that’s what she was for with her [Constricting Coils] power. Vivi, I ask again, are you sure I’m not compelling people through some magic I don’t know I have to, uh…need snugs from a very snuggly subject?

If you are, you’ve got me fooled too. By the way, have you read up on equipment and weaponry in the codex entries?

I have. She’d previously reviewed the entry. In addition to her hat, she had her athame, and keeping it ‘equipped’ was as simple as keeping it on her person for a short period of time each day. When she'd equipped both of them, a new, interesting message popped up.

Synergetic set detected. Minimum of four equipped items required for a set bonus to activate.

This message had bothered her the entire time. How was this athame a part of the same set as her kappell? Unless, of course, Markus was not the original owner of the dagger.

Risha, then? Why would she disband a set on purpose? The more I try to understand her methods, the more I'm left with unsolved questions.

Another question to answer later.

Or the stranger part she discovered by accident, swallowing it with her [Dimensional Stomach] ability, it still counted as equipped. She’d gotten past her initial hesitance on swallowing weapons. She’d also tested it with liquids, to predictable results. It just went into her normal stomach, instead. It apparently needed to be stored in a jar or sealed container to be preserved.

Juni had looked horrified at Neska when she reached for the jar that she kept Grubby, their new ‘pet’ larva wasp, and told her it would likely lead to something terrifying. Neska countered that the physical objects she swallowed came out in the same shape they went in, and that nothing terrible had happened.

Then Juni asked her in an irked tone what, exactly, would happen if Neska swallowed her own tail. She stumped, not knowing what the result would be. When the mouse proposed she could end the world by eating her own tail, just like Ouroboros, the silence in the air could have been cut with a knife.

She was never, ever, ever testing that ability out on her own tail. Daggers, arrows, and alchemical munitions were fine. Swallowing tails would probably end her, and possibly, the rest of the world.

But she also discovered she kept the equippable attributes from any swallowed and stored weapon, in this case, her athame. While she couldn’t swallow an entire armor set, maybe she could swallow a ring and get its benefits as though it were equipped? It would be an interesting theory to test, though she had no gear that conveyed magical benefits such as that, except her athame and her hat. And her hat was fashion, not food.

Maybe she’d test it on a worm or a small bug first. Something she treated as food, anyway. That might be safer to observe the result. Or an egg. If she successfully hatched an egg after placing it in her dimensional space, it might warrant more cautious experiments.

Right now, her experimentation was focused on this armor set. “Trevor, how does armor count as ‘equipped, at any rate? I know that the Interface recognizes and quantifies the attributes and abilities and other passives an armor or item may grant, but how does it know how to read it?”

Trevor shrugged. “Magic. I wish I had a better answer. Though I suppose if each item has a unique mana ‘signature’ as we do, then it’s reasonable to conjecture that this signature is Interface readable. Like a scan code.”

“A what?”

“Magitech that uses light to read bands of white and black data. The idea is that the sensor ‘reads’ the data and can interpret this as numbers or letters. Though it’s very bulky and very limited for now. We can effectively scan words such as ‘hello,’ and that’s it. Anyway, I digress. Shall we test it?”

Neska blinked. “It’s ready?”

“Well, almost. We need to patch in the runes not only on the plates, but we need to use all that antivenom you used and soak the fabric in it. Now, mind you, I’ve diluted the venom at about a 100:1 ratio, but it should provide the intended effect, according to Dosei’s calibrations of magical enchanting standards.”

Neska flicked her tongue out. “I think you made that up.”

Trevor grabbed a book off the desk, flipped open a page, and pointed at a section without even looking. “Oh, really?” he asked with an arched brow. “What does paragraph six say?”

She peered at the text, surprised at the result. “Well, now. That’s fascinating. But, tell me. I have no crafting abilities; does this mean if I were to make a similar set, it would be nonmagical?”

“Yes and no. Crafting abilities are present in numerous classes, even the witch class. I suppose you could even construe alchemy and rituals as ‘crafting’ of sorts,” he added with a smirk. “The point is, the process of creation in and of itself may require magical materials, but not necessarily a magical ability to fuse it all together. The interface can read the equivalent effect on your physiology when you equip it or hold it.”

“Hey, speaking of which, I need to uh…borrow something enchanted. Something that I wouldn’t have worn yet.” He’d tested a few armors on her, and though she mostly fit into them, they weren’t designed for lamia physiology unless he flared out the torso opening. And pants and trousers and sabotons were right out. “I need to test a theory on my [Dimensional Stomach] power.”

He nodded, and rummaged through a drawer by his desk. “Here, try this. It’s a ring of intellect. It’s a plus one to intelligence. It’s quite literally a trinket; anyone can make this. And, no, it will not help you ace your exams. Intelligence only helps your memory recall, and information processing and conceptualization of complex topics.”

“I know. A shame. I’d really love to learn the history at a faster pace. And I promise you, I will clean this before I return it.” She couldn’t help but notice him growing tense and crossing his fingers as she brought the ring up to her mouth, and picked it out of her fingers with her tongue, before tossing it up and swallowing it, triggering her ability.

She never felt it hit her throat–like all the other items she’d carefully tested this power on. She felt a fullness somewhere else, and saw her inventory display trigger. In addition to the athame she could pull out at will, an icon for the simple silver band now showed up. She mentally clicked it, studying it.

Ring of Intelligence +1. It’s in the name.

Hey, our path to godlike equipment and superpowers has to start somewhere. It still won’t help you pass your history lessons class.

Neska willed her Interface to display for Trevor, since it was just the two of them at the moment. Juni and the others had gone out to grab an evening meal and promised to bring something back for them while they worked in Trevor’s mini-lab. He chuckled softly when he saw Vivi’s personalized description. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Interface aspect with such…personality. You really are unusual, Neska.”

“This wasn’t obvious when you learned I had witch powers?” she asked, letting out a hissing laugh.

“Okay, so what are we testing?”

“I was just testing something out of curiosity. I can’t swallow armor for this test…it doesn’t taste very good,” she chuckled. “But my athame seems to retain my Attributes and abilities whenever I store it in my dimensional stomach. I was testing to see if other items could do the same.”

“But you haven’t worn it.”

“I know. This is what I wanted to test. I was trying to determine if it’s related to the ‘retention’ or ‘the magical stickiness factor’ when it comes to equipped items. The interface can be really complicated at times.” She read the query tool again and saw a new icon visible in the display. It looked like a hand slipping a ring on a finger.

Equip? Y/N

Neska stared, stunned. “Okay, I’m a little scared now. It says it’s equippable. In my stomach. I think something is horribly, horribly broken.”

Trevor leaned in, curious as he read the Interface. “I haven’t said this, but one of my basic Abilities is an Assessment power that allows me to read various parameters of a person. There are many viable choices, and it depends on how you build your powers. I picked items and equipment very early on, naturally. It allows me to understand if items I’ve crafted are working correctly, especially when worn or used by others.”

“You can see the items I’m wearing? Including my hat?”

“Uh, your hat is showing a blank. When items are strong enough, I lack the ability to ‘read’ them. The stronger the skill, the more information I get. But your ring…” he trailed off and focused on her, while her tongue flicked out, more from habit than curiosity.

He smelled of metals, salty sweat, and alchemical residue. Plus a hint of herbs. Interesting. She kind of liked those scents, and she hadn’t really thought about it. “Sooo…what can you see?”

He squinted, then shook his head. “Okay, I got nada. If I didn’t see you swallow that ring, I’d never know it was there. Perhaps my ability can’t read a dimensional space, or it needs more proficiency ranks. Go ahead, equip it if you can. Then check your attributes.”

She did so, and felt a buzzing sensation in her mind. It was quick, just like when she took off and put on her hat at the tail end of the day. She felt her mind expand just a little, able to run complex math calculations just a little faster as she tried out square roots and exponentials.

She took a long, slow breath, then looked at her Status display. Her eyes widened.

That Intelligence +1 came through clear as day. Even more importantly, the item showed it was equipped when she pulled up the [Dimensional Stomach] display. “Trevor. This power is hella busted,” she concluded with a widening grin.

He paled when he heard that. “Oh, boy. I better go lock up all my loose equipment. If any goes missing, I’ll know exactly where it went,” he added, pointing at her snout. She flicked her tongue, tasting metal and salt, and he flinched. “Did…did you just taste me?”

“Yes. You don’t taste like food, for the record. Rings and amulets and other small baubles, however…”

He burst out laughing. “Boy, Neska, you sure do keep it interesting. Let’s take it up a step, and finish putting this armor together, and see what you and I have crafted. Let’s get the dye bath ready.”

She cracked her knuckles on her claws. “Oh, trying to show off?”

“What do you mean by trying?” he added with a sly smile. Then he gasped as he realized what he said, clapping a hand over his mouth, eyes going wide. “I’m sorry, I have no idea what came over me. Was that too forward?”

“No. I think you might be as weird as me, and that’s a good thing.” If his face turned any redder, she’d swear he was having a bad reaction to an alchemical residue from their work. She reached over for the armor pieces and fabric, looking at the task ahead. “Let’s get started.”

Within minutes, they had set up a small fixing station to dye the fabric elements. Trevor braced as he added the [Love Bites] mixture into the vat. “And here we go. Fingers and tails crossed.”

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