This is a daily reminder: You have 8 unallocated stat points
You have gained [Two Separate Minds] Basic 5
Gain 1 exp
I wake up standing in a field, two antispoil containers next to me. An axen is dead in front of me. Seems sister went to the dungeon to fill some containers. It takes a moment to catch up. Oh our [Mana Aura] finally tiered, I can use advanced mana types directly. No more converting from arcane and my reserves. I suspect it's another tier before I could use life magic through my aura. That's considered master level. Wonder where soul mana sits in all that.
I take a look at my new red priestess robe. I have to agree with sister, getting doused with blood just means I should make it harder to tell. I go and open the container. Seems an axen enough to fill one. I glance at the hydra in the distance. Not sure I want to try it. Maybe after I get more settled.
Gain 13 exp from Axen
I kill another axen and decide to make more bandages. Otherwise all this meat will go to waste. When my arcane core gets to half I get up and collect my spoils. Sister saw a request for axen horns. I collect them and leave.
-----
Lindur is at the counter again. I place my four horns on it. She quirks an eye at me.
“Do you ever sleep?”
I shrug. She pushes seven large silver, six small silvers to me.
“Four contribution.”
I nod and drop off the rest of my stuff in my room. The eggs at the bar were decent, kinda wish they were runnier. After my fill, I go and sit on my stool waiting for the inevitable injured adventurer.
It was the guild master who showed up instead.
“What good are you as a clinic if you don't sleep.”
“Do I look tired?”
I stifle a yawn. That didn't help my argument. But it's still half an hour before midday. O that's a murderous rage.
“I want the key back.”
“I refuse, it's part of my compensation that you agreed to.”
She looms over me and grabs the key from my pocket. Rude. I snatch it back and promptly swallow it whole. I give her a toothy grin. My stomach warms and then my sternum itches.
She responds by picking me up by the scruff of my robe, grunting. She promptly punches me in my gut, hard. She then drops me as I double over and puke onto the floor. She grabs my braid and pulls me away from the pile of partially digested eggs. Making me land on my ass a few feet away. I hurt all over.
“Where the hell is it?”
She looks at me.
“I think my body absorbed it.”
“The hell are you saying, Mourns.”
“It was a type of metal right, I think my body absorbed it.”
I flick a life sight to my sternum, the bone where I took an arrow is different. Guess my body prioritized my previous trauma.
“Are you telling me you ‘absorbed’ a mithril dungeon key?”
I shrug. Guess you don't have to feed an iron horned rabbit all at once to swap its metal. Just don't get results until it starts to replace its hair.
“MOURN.”
“You picked me up, I weigh that much cause I'm part iron horned rabbit. Part of that lets me eat metals.”
Well here Sara dies, pissing off a guild master with incomprehensible truths.
“So you're telling me that you are the dungeon key now?”
I shrug. She slings me over her shoulder and carries me out of the city.
-----
You have gained [Two Separate Minds] Basic 6
Gain 1 exp
Why am I being carried by the guild master? My body feels all sorts of sore. I am promptly thrown in front of a mana interface.
“Activate it.”
“One second I'm still remembering what's going on.”
“What?”
Shit. Nevermind, sister needs to stop pissing off the guild master and leaving me to apologize. I touch the mana interface. The barrier comes down. Guess I am a dungeon key now. The guild master walks through and into the dungeon. I just sit and wait. It's not a long wait. She comes back up.
“You killed two of the axen but all the goblins are still up. You would have made more if you brought back the carcasses. Also I saw no campsite but one of the carcasses was partially eaten. You're not eating it raw are you?”
I just stare at her.
“Damn it, Mourns, I'm not the enemy here.”
“Says the one who punched me in the gut.”
“You ate a mithril key, I should of been quicker since you seem to have managed to make yourself the key.”
I hrumpf and turn away from her, my petulance on full display.
“The goal of giving you clinic duty was to keep you out of trouble.”
I turn to her, “That was your goal, I still have my goal of progressing my adventurer rank.”
And maybe burning down some more monasteries.
“If that's all, I'll put forward the application for you to be given permanent membership myself.”
Just like that, annoying. I sigh.
“I still have to go here.”
Her eyes narrow at me.
“Why?”
She didn't give a shit that I was undead.
“I require blood to survive, I have a skill that makes it my only food source.”
“What sort of benefit would a dumbass skill have that trades off food consumption.”
“The kind that lets me kill hydras without spending half a day bludgeoning a half dead corpse.”
“Gil did say you killed the hydra unnaturally fast. Guess to our benefit then. Well Mourn tomorrow you get to go from priestess to babysitter.”
I tilt my head.
“Why I wanted the key fool, the college is sending out their pampered babies to get some dungeon time. It annoys the shit out of all the adventurers but the guild gets twice the rate on rentals. Now they get to rent you cause you're a dungeon key. If you need more blood for whatever dumb shit, just kill another axen. Leave the goblins alone.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“I should be alright for now. I can always grab more from the forest. How long will I be babysitting for?”
“At least a week, control your face dipshit, you plan on showing such displeasure at the noble classes? Where was I, right, they are required to get a hydra kill but some get a taste for the adventurer life and stick around for longer. It's generally only a month longer before they lose interest.”
I get up to start walking back.
“Mourn how the hell are you still awake.”
I turn back and look back at her, a question on my brow.
“I've been keeping a sense on you, I know you've been active since you came back to the guild with your stuff. That you left near midnight and returned with axen horn makes me think you only managed two hours of sleep at most, but that would be stupid since it meant you slept here.”
Damn, clandestine activities could get harder if she is always watching.
“Does it matter, my explanation of it would just make you think I was crazy.”
“I already think your crazy miss half iron horned rabbit.”
“Fine, you want crazy, I'm part human, elf, rabbit, tiger, goblin skeleton, spider, and hydra. I'm not sure which is more absurd, the spider or the hydra.”
“I can see the rabbit and tiger but what. Nevermind, is it the skeleton that makes it so you don't have to sleep.”
“No living bodies need sleep. I didn't need it when I was undead but I do now.”
“But you haven't slept.”
I flick my status screen to her.
Two Separate Minds - now there are two of you, so far
Basic - your just a baby hydra, cept with one head, the other you is asleep
She was stunned for a moment.
“You are crazy.”
I roll my eyes at her.
“Is that why you were confused at the interface? I got empath and it feels like you swapped emotions on me at least twice since I met you.”
“Sister keeps going to sleep after you get in her face.”
“You refer to your other mind as sister?”
Her exasperation seems to be growing. I mean it's how the hydra thought about it, guess it kinda just took. I shrug at her.
“How many heads can a hydra grow anyways I mean it's going to get crowded in here with four.”
“Mourn, they don't stop making heads. The guild makes a priority request if a six header is spotted. They become natural disasters at eight.”
Oh system, an immortal Sara who just keeps becoming more and more Saras. I'll just have to take it one mind at a time. I think the guildmaster might be correct about my sanity.
“So now you understand, I have been getting way too much sleep.”
“Anything else I should know?”
Hmmmm, fuck it.
“I can make silk and iron, is it going to seem weird if I bandage people to prevent them from knowing I have way more mana reserves then I am letting on.”
“I don't understand.”
“Part spider, I can make silk bandages, imbued with life mana. They seem to heal minor wounds.”
“I actually got that part, what do you mean you have more mana then you are letting on.”
I release my soul that I've been hiding. The guild master steps back. My soul slightly larger than her own.
“The hell?”
“I have three mana cores to go with my soul core. Considering I don't have the levels to make that plausible, I was just making myself look like I was level fifteen.”
“How is that possible Mourns.”
I stare at her again.
“Fine whatever, go back to hiding. You can use the bandages but don't sell them, I doubt you want the alchemist guild breathing down your neck…Can you really make silk cloth?”
I raise my sleeve and she feels it.
“That is nice, don't suppose you are willing to make me some undergarments?"
-----
What is my life? I am in my room with the guildmaster. It is after dinner and she is here for undergarments.
“I have to get naked to make my silk, I prefer to do it alone.”
“How are you going to make it to my size if I ain't here for you to measure off of. You don't have anything I haven't seen. Besides, you get to see me naked as well.”
I quirk an eyebrow at her statement. Whatever. I remove my robe and underwear.
“I thought you had mail under your robes but it's just pink scales, the hydra?”
Shoot me now, they are pink, why can't anyone see the majestic ultra violet.
“I wish they were purple.” I scowl.
“Ah they say for each new head, a new scale color.”
So if I want purple I need three sisters. I can live with that. But then the fourth sister will change it again. I sit on the floor and start weaving.
“Okay I take it back, I haven't fucking seen everything.”
I look at her annoyed.
“Well go make this more awkward and get undressed. I'll only need to make you a pair then you can get out.”
She steps closer to me instead of disrobing. She is looking at my chest, particularly the bra.
“I want some chest coverings too.”
I roll my eyes as I weave.
“You want fire stitching?”
“Fire stitching?”
I toss the roll of fire iron threads at her. She catches.
“Oh that's warm and heavy, it's not silk though.”
I roll my eyes.
“You've already grabbed me by my hair, guildmaster.”
She drops it in revulsion.
“Seriously? I am literally making you crotch silk and you're worried about thread made from my hair?”
She looks at me sourly. She picks it up and brings it over to me.
“Sorry, yes your warm iron threads would be great.”
I keep at my work doing my best to ignore her.
You have gained [Attention to Detail] Competent 1
Competent - you focus twice as much in your efforts at perfection
Perception raised to 208
“You are planning on washing the bandages before using them, right?”
-----
This is a daily reminder: You have 8 unallocated stat points
You have gained [Two Separate Minds] Basic 7
Gain 1 exp
I see ten pairs of underwear and bras that are not my size. I did not expect that to be the result of our latest meeting with the guild master. I review the insanity that is my life and start laughing my ass off. Sorry sister, I will make an effort to stop pissing off the guild master. I figure perhaps some swings of the sword are in order. I stop at thirteen hundred. No skill up though. But my arms are like jelly. I consider my other hands but I suspect that would just be awkward to fight like that. Being up at this hour is annoying, but what can I do? I go to the fountain to get some water. I need to learn some water magic. Till then, I'll just have to boil the bandages in fountain water.
-----
After the guildmaster collected her bribe, she ushered me into the back room.
“I'll be back with your life magic trainer in a moment.”
Was more like twenty moments, but she did return.
32 ? Elf Competent Mage, Instructor
“You're telling me this level fifteen is ready to learn [Sustainer Magic].”
Don't look at my tapestry, don't look at my tapestry, don't look at my tapestry.
“She clearly an inherited, just do the job you were hired to do.”
He is looking at my tapestry. His eyes narrow. His eyes flash green x's. He points a finger at me.
“May your ovaries become shriveled and barren.”
I negate the curse, holy shit my soul core just dropped twenty percent. I scramble backwards.
-My sword, damn it, it is in my room.
The guildmaster slams the elf into the wall. Her forearm against his neck, pinning him there.
“Explain yourself, you just attacked your client and if I see any magic in your words I will shred your soul myself.”
“She is a bleeding hybrid, I either kill her or make it so she can not bear children.”
“Did you just curse a bleeding child with infertility?”
“He tried too, I negated it.”
He glares at me. He wants to try again but the moment he tries to gather mana the guild master pushes a little harder on his neck.
“It doesn't matter, he is under a geas, either he succeeds or he reports me so that others might succeed. I need to flee the capital.”
An aura spreads from the guild master. The elf grows scared. His neck is snapped and his body goes limp.
“I promised to keep you protected as my employee. That I instead placed you in danger is unforgivable.”
“Did you just shred his soul?”
“Use a strong enough aura and it rips their current tapestry. They get reborn but they can't remember how they died. Best I can do, if you train [Resist Life] you can negate life sight from looking at you.”
“What are you going to do about him?”
“Oh, report that he attacked you. I will need to submit to questioning but since it's true I'll be fine.”
She digs around in his pockets. She finds a familiar book and tosses it to me.
“Don't let anyone see you with that. Mage handbooks are valuable artifacts. They only give them to competent mages and above. It should have what you need to know in there. Hurry up and figure out sustainer magic before the rich brats show up this afternoon.”
Did Marcene give me her book? The guildmaster ushers me out of the room
-----
I open the book infusing it with life magic. My sister, still awake, is fuming. I turn the page, just introductions so far. -He almost robbed me of my ability to conceive. Various ways to level life magic. -He would have denied me the chance to bring back my daughters. Another page, resisting life magic can make it harder to be healed by others. -Damn it all, one look at my tapestry and he went murder mode. Flip, using the death side of life magic can train resist. -I need hidden weapons, knives to defend myself. Sustainer magic, use life magic to replenish blood, grow nails or hair. -Engraved knives, the golem runes make muscles do a certain motion. To train the magic simply focus your life magic on your scalp and attempt to coax the hair follicles to grow. -What if the golem rune for back flip was contained all on a blade, would the muscle it pierce twist and rip.
You need to go back to sleep sister. She relents.
I snap the book shut and put it in my pocket. Lindur is approaching. I'm not sure my hair follicles are good for learning this, the process it is made by is different.
“I'm here for my training.”
I made a new illusion for her to study.
“Mind if I practice sustainer magic on you? Just to gain the skill.”
“Why can't you do it to yourself.”
“I want to be able to see it with my life eye as I work.”
“So grow your hand hair then, dipshit.”
I thrust my hand in her face.
“Where the fuck your hair all go?”
I just look cross at her.
“Fine whatever, just till you get the skill.”
My green cat eye lights up and I start to coax her hair to grow. She reaches up and scratches the spot I was working on.
“Seriously?”
“What? It fucking itches.”
I roll my eyes and try again.
You have gained the skill [Sustainer Magic] Basic 1
Sustainer Magic - magic for manipulating the body functions
Basic - grow hair, nails and blood
Gain 3 exp
I stop. She looks up at me. Her mental mana dot is bigger than before. I smile.
“Got the skill, thank you.”
“Whatever.”
She goes back to studying the illusion I made.
