POV Aron Brightcloud
The time went by. I observed our surroundings while my teammates recovered their mana and state of mind.
“This should be enough. Get back into standard formation, we will proceed.” Luana’s voice signalized the end of their break, and we stepped further into the darkness in search of treasure and experience energy.
The cave system turned out to be enormous and filled to the brim with goblins. Four hours later, our once purpose driven group looked rather filthy and exhausted.
I once more got assigned guard duty with my still energetic little brother while the rest of the team rested against the wall of the tunnel. Olivia had disappeared long ago, her skill-set much better designed to hunt down unsuspecting enemies than a packed group in a shield to shield melee.
Once in a while, I felt the feelings of pride and content through our bond. It informed me that another straggler had found its end.
“Let’s push a bit further, if we can’t find the boss in another hour we will turn back.” Luana’s idea ignited little approval, the others too tired to feel positive about it.
Yet they stood up as they had been trained since small. Always follow the higher noble. I wordlessly moved back into the line and prepared to cast shield-spells if we encountered an enemy.
We didn’t find the boss during the set time, yet we found something else! A recovery area with a portal room that came to life the instant we stepped into it. It Seemed the dungeon had built this floor much larger and had equipped it with a second exit. My teammates' expressions immediately filled with renewed vigor when they realized we had found a way back.
Before we used it, we checked the surroundings for traps or enemies, making ourselves familiar with the place. The next time we would start from here, so we needed to know the area in case enemies appeared. I told my little huntress to return. Luana planned to stop here and proceed on another day.
It was already evening when we stepped through the portal back into the academy. Luana dismissed us, but not before she told us to replay the dive in our mind and find things we could improve on. She wanted to discuss our findings in the morning.
I walked with Bones and Olivia on my shoulder through the corridors of the academy. The day had come to an end. Illuminated by magic lights, my element’s tower was plunged into a blue hue. For a moment I stopped to appreciate the view. Its beauty reminded me of the fact that I had been given the chance to start my life in a completely new world. I should be more grateful for that. Nodding to myself, I went to sleep with a smile on my face.
______
POV Olivia
Deep into the night, a young mirror bone-spider slept in her nest built between the wooden support beams of Aron’s room. The day had been very lucrative for her; she had killed many beasts by herself, and the massive amount of energy she had absorbed from the core of the first floor boss had pushed her to the boundaries of her first evolution. As a first strata beast she needed much less than higher graded familiars to reach the evolution criteria.
Unbeknownst to everyone, the evolution had begun. The mirror trait of her race activated. It extended its “tentacles” into her bonding partner in search of properties that the spider felt most important to replicate.
At that point, the first unusual thing occurred. The bloodline ability realized it had two bonding partners to choose from. Which one should it take? The beast or the human? Both had benefits the spider craved to have. At first the tentacles moved towards the human, but stopped after a short distance and moved back towards the devourer. The ability felt unresigned; the spider wanted more. No! it needed to have more! To break through her own boundaries! In her most inner core, the spider craved to evolve! Suddenly, deep in her bloodline, additional energy erupted, pushing through her entire being. It reached the tentacles and split them into two. A victorious cry swept through the spiritual plane as the doubled tentacles moved into both her partners and took everything they offered. The other familiars in the academy suddenly shivered in their sleep. Some even awoke but couldn’t find the reason for their sudden apprehension.
The spider’s bony carapace burned in black flames as her entire inner being changed. New runes carved themselves through her carapace while the bones altered their structure as she accepted Bones’ gift. Olivia herself was submerged in an endless dream, witnessing the creation of black holes, the destruction of planets, and the devouring of matter itself. As the first gift ended, the second forced its way in. She felt as her mind expanded, taking in the new understanding, strategy, long time planning, adaptability and the ability to discard parts of her psyche to better serve her purpose. In a way, Aron’s gift was even more valuable. Bones gave her the tools, but Aron gave her the understanding and thought processes to actually use them to their fullest potential.
Finished with the transformation, the black flames and runes disappeared into her carapace, replaced by her usual weak blue flames. Incited by her quality change, her camouflage ability upgraded as well, hiding her transformation from the world. Something new and greater had been born, Olivia stood at the beginning of her journey to the apex.
As Olivia awoke, she knew she had changed and her destiny with her. Still, it was not like she had completely transformed into an immortal being. She was still weak, only her potential had changed. Most of her dreams and new memories had submerged into her subconscious. They would only emerge in the future when she had grown sufficiently to use the knowledge and powers.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Now that her mind had expanded she understood even more how much she had to thank Aron for taking her in, he had always protected her and provided her with this unique chance of growth. He was her bond-mate. She would take care of him. Now that her “shackles” had been lifted, nothing would deny her wishes. The small spider climbed down from her nest. She found her rightful place on his throat and cuddled against Aron’s lower chin.
______
POV Aron Brightcloud
My dreams suddenly took a turn for the worse as I felt eight bony legs smother me in a tight embrace. I tried to run, but spiderwebs blocked my escape. With an iron will, I turned back to face the beast that was hunting me. I would prevail! I would- suddenly I felt lighter. I checked my first-rate armor and realized with horror that it dissolved. Even worse, my purse was emptying itself as well!
Accompanied by a loud shout, I awoke and sat up instantly. Sweat ran down my back. Only then did I recognize where I was and recovered from my sudden panic.
It was a dream, only a dream!
‘Shh Aron, everything is fine.’
A soothing female voice relaxed my tense mind.
‘Go back to sleep, dear. Relax.’
My head filled with “cobwebs” hearing her beautiful voice. She was right, everything was fine. I let my body fall backwards onto my bed. Sleep took me as eight bony legs caressed my neck.
_______
I awoke well rested the next morning. Did I dream during the night? Shreds of memories touched my mind, only to dissolve when I tried to access them. I thought I had heard a female voice, but couldn’t remember the topic. Still, the thought filled me with warmth and apprehension at the same time. A truly discordant feeling.
Shaking my head, I stood up. No use brooding over a dream I had forgotten.
I checked the time, Bones had already vanished. His lessons in Torsk’s group had started half an hour ago. My mind moved further to my other bond-mate. Only as I checked on her did I realize she hadn’t slept in her nest but hang already around my neck. Her camouflage ability must have improved. I hadn’t even realized she was here. That realization came with a particular feeling of heaviness around my neck. Did she gain weight? It felt especially strange, as I hadn’t even realized she was here before.
I touched her mind with mine and felt pure Happyness and content trough our bond. My inability to be aware of her position disturbed me, but her content soothed my emotions. It was only right for her to be here. I scratched my little darling’s carapace. Everything was fine. In a good mood, I prepared myself for my lessons. It . It promised to become a great week.
_____
POV Torks Forus
What a shitty week. Torsk felt annoyed. At first it had seemed that his measures had succeeded in stopping the thief, but now the thefts had resumed. It even seemed that the more he pushed his recruits, the more the thief stole from him. Torsk was at his wit's end. He even once had stood guard but couldn’t find anyone entering the armory.
In the end he didn’t see another solution than to ask a friend of his to ward the armory with a special anti-theft formation. Even-though expensive, such a formation would catch the thief for sure if he was so brazen as to try again.
On the bright side, Aron’s familiar had started to push his recruits more and more. The exotic skeleton had quickly learned the basics and implemented all the tricks it had observed from others. Naturally, his recruits wouldn’t allow a mere familiar to best them and had invested more into their training as well. Torsk felt positive that this group of recruits would eclipse his earlier batches by far.
Nevertheless, his empty purse caused his mood to sour.
______
POV Aron Brightcloud
A week later, after dinner, I stood with Bones in one of the sparring areas. My little brother had prospered under Torsk’s care. His technique made a step forward, and he solidified his mental control even more. He didn’t ask for food even once!
Naturally he still had a long way to go, but he had made significant progress. It became even clearer when I observed him during our latest dungeon dive yesterday. Bones had behaved mature and hadn’t tried to eat any corpses while the rest of the group was near him, only when they were distracted did he take care of them.
Today after his training with Torsk he had even come to me and asked if I had books about formations! He had realized by himself that it would benefit him to understand how they worked so he could protect himself. I felt so proud!
We finished our sparring session and returned to my dorm room.
‘Big brother do you have the books we had talked earlier about?’
Bones’s eager voice resounded in my head. I grinned at his anticipation.
‘Yes I got them during the afternoon. Here, take them.’ I took the formation books out from my spatial ring and gave them to my thrilled skeleton.
Not waiting a second, he opened the first volume and began to read.
Olivia’s mind touched mine lightly. My little spider wanted to read the books as well. I nodded in response. If she wanted, she could. I didn’t have the heart to tell her no. Although it would be impossible for her as her mind was not developed enough. The complexity of formations was enormous. She’d need to at least be able to speak through a mind connection before her mind possessed the required strength and toughness to understand and build formations.
She quickly made her way over to Bones and made herself comfortable on his smooth head. Both of them starred intently into the open book.
Even though I knew that not a lot would come out of it, I couldn’t stop myself from feeling happy as my little brother and Olivia sat at the table, absorbed into the book. I understood Bones, although he seemed eager he didn’t have the patience and mental fortitude required to master formations. Olivia on the other hand had the patience in spades but lacked the before mentioned attributes.
They would invest some days, then move their ambitions to another topic. Still, maybe they would learn some theoretical knowledge that could help them in the future.
I left them alone and turned to the window. Watching out I into the night, I observed the majestic towers glow in their respective colors. The dungeon-dives this week had stumped us. We still hadn’t reached the boss of the second floor. Instead we had found two additional recovery areas. Luana had assured me that this was highly unique, normally this never happened on low-level floors.
The dungeon built this floor enormously. My group-mates were not happy at all. Being stuck in dark tunnels, filled with goblins all day without getting a reward for killing a boss, felt unsatisfying, even for me.
On the bright side, we were on the right track as the tunnels had turned wider and inhabitable stone shacks had appeared in irregular intervals. The goblins went crazy when we arrived at those, as the shacks were inhabited by their women and children. I would have felt bad about killing them but they didn’t even give us to chance to talk and attacked. Even the kids! More mindless beast than thinking creature they threw themselves at us with abandon.
At least we wouldn’t have to start anew after a week as the recovery areas functioned as saved entry-points. I moved back to the table and grabbed a book of my own. More general knowledge was never a bad thing to have.