“So you see they were both terrible people.” I say in a sad sigh.
Qorth is confused, “I understand the Lamia but the noble seem to be at least charitable.”
“He was not some romanticized thief Qorth, he literally was a person in power who left a terrible gang in place so that he could have fun robbing them. He got off on the thrill. There was no charity but only the prolonging misery.”
“He still gave money to that soup man.”
“...I think that soup man…”
“Mother already looked into it, it seems he just makes soup now.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. I'll leave it be for now.
“The thief had plenty of money and ability to make things better, he simply left the morass. I think he was worse than the murderer. She was incapable of feeling anything other than her need to stab. He saw suffering, knew it was suffering and thought it was a playground.”
Qorth thinks on that. “How are you feeling overall, Red.”
“Terrible. Kalian needed to be stopped. I hadn't realized the thief couldn't make out what the illusion was…”
“I was curious about that, you hadn't interrogated him like the others.” Violet opines.
I shudder, “It was an illusion of us when we were younger, I thought if he could cut down a small girl, he was scum. But he barely understood what he was swinging at.”
My melancholy only increases as I feel a great deal of anger coming from Qorth.
“If he was so reckless as to swing widely at unknown shapes in a city, then I take back my previous assessment.”
The Qorth giveth, the Qorth taketh.
-----
“Only you today, Violet?”
“Red is feeling a bit morose today, mistress. Am I to assume I am no longer good enough alone?”
Delores pats my arm and makes herself a new ultraviolet flower. I miss getting to ask her what flower she wants.
-----
“What are you working on, sweetie?”
“Just a cost prohibitive project.”
A shape another piece of mithril as I remember it. It's delicate work and I am in my own world focusing on it. My other attention is what answered Cecelia, freed from managing my blood.
“Which is?”
“Something to help me train my mental magic.”
-----
I nudge Red. She looks at me and then winces.
“I think we have enough blood to install my rings.”
She smiles, “Alright just give me a few minutes to clear my head.”
“How is the work going?”
“Steady.”
“You went back to the attendant form.”
“Ya, I dunno. I took away the many legs from you, then I got stuck as Marie. Now after remembering the Lamia memories I feel a desire to slither.”
I smile at her, “So slither…after we install my heart.”
“I worry about getting stuck that way though.”
“If you get stuck, that must mean you have enjoyed being it.”
She thinks on that, then nods, "Probably better than random traits being etched.”
“Have you tried to breathe fire?” I ask her, noticing the lingering smell…
“Cooked my throat…How is it that we didn't get a fire resistant throat?”
“I seem to recall the axen having to slowly acclimate to higher temperatures. I think it was training [Resist Heat].”
“And we got the end product without the skills to use it. I never did get those memories.”
“You still have a bit of a backlog. Spoilers there is copulation, grass eating and defending the herd.”
She looks annoyed at me, “I tend to enjoy grass dreams…it is simple.”
I roll my eyes, “Are you ready yet?”
She motions me to lay down. The impromptu surgery nets us two more void resist.
-----
This is a daily reminder: You have 48 unallocated stat points
“Probrably should do something about that.”
I stare up at the sky next to the roc. No light pollution to muddy the sky here.
“Are you paying attention, Violet?”
“Not really.”
I turn and stick my tongue out at my one horned sister. Seems anytime we come out here, our horns come out.
“Lets do a level.”
“Do you plan to sleep tonight?”
She looks annoyed at me for changing the topic. She huffs a sigh.
“Maybe in a day or two. I want some more space.”
I wish I had the option. But I can't begrudge her when I was the one who prevented the rapid firing of lives in the first place. I wish I could sleep but I'm still setting my bone changes. Opted to go slower then blitzmcgee over here. Just one leg at a time.
Level raised to 9
Strength raised to 917
Agility raised to 908
Perception raised to 973
Constitution raised to 928
Presence raised to 1058
Mental Fortitude raised to 1114
Intelligence raised to 1134
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Soul raised to 914
You tied your supplicants closer to you
Remaining soul 68
Remaining soul 816
I forgot how awful all stat increases can be. So used to soul burn just making me feel nothing but the burn. The mental fortitude headache and the skin revulsion of the presence change are the worst. Though I bet the second just reminds Red of spiders.
“I need to make eggs for instance eight.”
I roll my eyes, “You can birth them but I am maturing them forward, the mistress wants us both to be present to mess with her guests.”
She huffs out her annoyance at that but relents.
-----
“Are you ready?”
I nod, I made myself as big as possible which is barely an adult me. I formed the hydra egg. It goes as bad as the last time but Violet has a hand on me to keep the blood from falling out. The amount of damage this does is just too much. I am withered by the end. We use blood mana to restore me. Then a nip from the lake. It felt less than directly using blood.
“Do you want me to do it?”
I shake my head. I touch the egg, willing it to be mature. It takes the blood mana but I feel something is wrong. The egg broke and the yolk was rotted…I'm sorry my baby. I sink to my knees. Violet hugs me.
“Sorry Red, it seems we can't speed up nature that much. Not with blood magic.”
I just nod and let some more tears fall.
-----
“Your tea, my mistress.”
Violet took pity on me when I lost at rock paper scissors. She went to work with Hecnae while I poured the tea. Not before showing up for Jasmine to spot the both of us.
“Its just impossible to get a key now.”
[Dungeon 3] is now [Dungeon 4] Basic 1
Dungeon 4 - The land around your entrances becomes more intune to you, you are able to change the land around yourself
Basic - weather effects, two keys and another placeable entrance
Gain 4 exp
I stagger a bit at that. My various senses now feeling around the plateau and the knight garrison. Very bizarre. Do other dungeons get this or is it unique to me? Also…fuck you system and your desire for prompts.
“Are you alright, miss?”
“Apologies, I should be fine now. Thank you Sir Hischurl.”
A definite issue, we are expanding faster than we can make eggs.
-Perhaps we should kill the five headed Hydra and have her care for the young.
I don't want to risk making more Saras.
-Ah but we can make them bodies now.
Still a soul division problem Violet, five Sara is five ways to get upset at ourselves and be ripped to pieces.
-Fair, fair.
Still adventurers are crowding the instances that have the princesses. More instances don't help that.
-Your spiders don't particularly need rearing…
But my babies will eat each other.
-And that's different from feeding them to a hydra?
…Fine, I'll lay eighty in each new instance. Still takes a week to mature. At least we will be ready for the next two instances.
-Either that or eat the soul of a hydra and spider again.
The rabbit never came back when I did that. Lets just go with the over abundance of spiderlings for now.
-----
And that's the last eighty set. Exhausting but not mortally so. I leave my clutch of eggs in the axen corpse. Thirsty I go to the lakeside. I bend down and take a nip. Delicious.
You have gained [Embrace Thirst] Apprentice 1
Apprentice - The curse last longer every time its applied
Gain 2 exp
You have gained [Embrace Bliss] Apprentice 1
Apprentice - You can put off feelings of bliss, but the longer you wait the harder it is to hold
Gain 2 exp
Wait, is it like a bladder now…
-Do not profane our passion.
Uh Violet.
-Sorry, I thought being dramatic would be appropriate there.
Nothing against passion Violet, it's just our soul is always listening.
-Sure, I created the scorpion in the cell block. It should hold adventurers away from here till the babies mature.
I look back at the hunk of meat I left them. I hope they will mature quickly.
-----
And that's the last bone. I let the carvings do their work, and it seems stable. Look at my skill and decide it's better to progress. I pull the mana from the system and continue to move the blood myself. I am curious where the skill will go from here. At least tonight I can sleep.
“Your tea, my mistress.”
“Thank you, Violet”
I go and stand next to Red. Two attendants for an eleven year old. It's excessive. But also amusing. The dungeon giggles for me. Red gives me a side eye before returning to being Marie.
“So who's [Illusion Magic] is it? Sara or some other employees?”
“Why can it not be mine, Jasmine?”
“Please, you might be aiming for Gotsdam but you're far away from full body projections.”
The mistress grumbles at that. Violet returns to the dungeon. Further convincing Jasmine on her illusion theory.
“Damn, I thought it would be Red this time.”
-----
Someone actually rang the bell. I put it up as a joke, seeing as adventurers ran past the cells to die at the lake. It seemed prudent to only appear when required. I approach in my dryad form. A new group of adventurers…with a Tibyder pulling the bell. I want to go back already.
“Lea, hurry up, we need to head down.”
“O go get started, I'm just here to heal you anyways.”
The human and troll women look annoyed but head down. My fairy pops out while I look annoyed at Lea.
“Oh don't give me that, not like putting me in the clinic would have protected me any better. Seed, please.”
I hand her the seed which she promptly swallows. Surprising considering her last experience with the thing. I go to my couture. It doesn't take long before they give their blood tithe. It feels these days that they just try to tear off and pocket as many horns as possible before they succumb. Almost tempted to start cursing them when drinking…but the new skill makes that dangerous. Lea enters my shop. She is greeted with an annoyed look. Fairy out again to speak for me.
“Who else can I go to for clothes? Not like tailors around here are used to the many leggeds.”
I look at the guild robe prices.
“One small silver.”
“No same race discount?”
“Considering the robe rate is for someone smaller than you, it is a discount. Particular color?”
“White, I saw you have some sort of cabling before.”
“One small silver.”
“You didn't even look at your list.”
“The guild does not have a listing for Tibyder abdomen wear. I brought it up but they still refuse me a membership. They are annoyed that adventurers are in a mithril frenzy and not collecting silk. So I can't really get an established price yet.”
“Can't imagine why a blood sucking monster is not allowed into the crafting guilds.”
I frown at her. “It will be done in an hour, half the payment now.”
She flips the coin and sits on a bench. It looks rather awkward with all the legs. The former elf is rather pensive.
“I didn't get around to saying it but thank you for freeing me. Even if it's just for this Lark.”
I nod at her.
“Are you really as young as you appear?"
Elves don't see other lives as adding to their age. Only the current age of the Lark is considered.
“I'm eleven.”
She winces.
“And where you always…”
“Human once.”
She looks at me with pity. I roll my eyes.
-----
This is a daily reminder: You have 32 unallocated stat points
There. Last piece connected. Violet pops in next to me. I smile at her.
“Ratagin do a Backflip.”
Mithril Ratagin 2.0 performs a backflip.
“Another Backflip.” Violet takes a turn.
He does so again.
“I like to see clumsy soldiers snap this one in half.”
“They would be more likely to abscond with it. Another Backflip Ratagin.”
Ratagin 2.0 will be performing his duties without err for quite some time.
You have gained [Mental Magic] Intermediate 8
Gain 8 exp
-----
“We would like you to make the dungeon a tad bit less lethal. While there is a great deal of interest, not many are able to actually retrieve much.”
I raise an eyebrow at the guild master.
“The adventurers seem to prefer the more dangerous instances.”
“Right well…is it at all possible to stagger the spiders and hydra? Forty spiders and hydra is a bit much. Especially as they are real monsters.”
I lean forward in my blood red poofy dress.
“My mana is tied up with the knight's efforts. Once that is complete I will set about making a labyrinth instead of a single cave. My sister's babies can spread out. The hydra could get hungry though. Could I get some live swamp catfish specimens?”
“Only need one, correct?”
“Prefer a few, getting a male and female pair would be helpful.”
“Then a few it will need to be, I doubt the adventurer retrieving it will be able to tell the difference.”
-Ah, I would have gone fishing.
More like gone to chow town on a certain hydra.
-...You're the one who wanted to risk more Saras.
Sorry, right.
“Is there any idea when the Knights will be done making their arena?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose.
-----
“I do think a portcullis would be grand here.”
“We have willing combatants Dame Hacnae, I don't think we need gates and portcullis to separate the waiting areas. We certainly don't need manacles and chains.”
“Some of these youngins’ get rowdy.”
“Which I can eject on a needed basis. You can lock them up in your own garrison.”
She looks annoyed at me.
“Fine be tha’ way. Would lik’ ya to set up a clinic over here.”
I just pinch the bridge of my nose.
“Is Dame Isabella going to be manning it?”
“I figure you are more than capable of handlin’ the injuries.”
“So the knights want me to provide a venue, maintain grounds, and provide healing services.”
“Aye, that bout sums it up.”
“I am coming around to this manacle idea.” Specifically one that would fit gnome wrists.
-----
[Vampiric Blood Kinesis] becomes [Vampiric Blood Kinesis 2] Basic 1
Vampiric Blood Kinesis 2 - your blasphemy continues
Basic - You store a bit of the blood you consume for later use in your bodies. Should you store enough of an individual for them to die when cursed…they are cursed immediately and die.
Gain 3 exp
-The hell, why is that skill even leveling?
I've been cycling my blood manually.
“Your tea, my mistress.”
-...Are your bones not done yet? Pretty sure you went into the nest to sleep last night.
I wanted to see what was next, Red.
-A ticking time bomb was what was next.
O, it's not that bad, I bet we can just consume the store or remove it from our body.
-...You plan to keep manually moving your blood.
I hope you join me in this effort to see how cursed we truly are, sister.
-...I do want to see it.
