ACHIEVEMENT!
MITSY ACHIEVED A DEGREE IN ANIMAL HUSBANDRY!
+2 INTELLIGENCE = 20/20 INT
ABILITY UNLOCKED: ANIMAL TAMING
ACHIEVEMENT!
MITSY ACHIEVED A DEGREE IN ARCHITECTURE!
+2 INTELLIGENCE = 18/20 INT
+15% Perception in detecting traps.
ACHIEVEMENT!
MITSY ACHIEVED A DEGREE IN CARTOGRAPHY!
+2 INTELLIGENCE = 16/20 INT
ABILITY UNLOCKED: MAPMAKING
ACHIEVEMENT!
MITSY ACHIEVED A DEGREE IN ELEMENTAL MAGIC!
+2 INTELLIGENCE = 14/20 INT
+2 SPELL SLOTS UNLOCKED
+5% attack power to elemental spells.
-10% mana cost for elemental spells.
I threw myself at Nightfall and he caught me in a hug, twirling me around and smiling indulgently as I celebrated my victory.
Even though the courses here were easy, I felt myself riding high on dopamine from my achievements.
I had two new spell slots to fill and a whole library to choose from. Nightfall accompanied me to the library, and I pulled out books from all over the place, weighing up the potential value of every possible spell I could choose.
While fire and lightning were exciting, I didn’t see much point in attack spells, especially when I was in a team with multiple warriors and a rogue mage who could also conjure fire.
The healing spells were a bit pointless as well, considering I had both my Healing Song and an unlimited amount of slime. I’d learned my lesson about running out and had about a hundred bottles rolling around somewhere in the pocket dimension enclosed in my bag.
I looked at invisibility, thinking that might be a fun skill, but I couldn’t think of a situation it would really be useful in, especially considering Nightfall had the Fading ability and took care of the situations when sneakiness was a necessity.
“Gah! A whole library of options, and I can’t think of a single spell I need!”
Nightfall handed me another book with a brown cover, flicking it open to a page illustrated with animals.
“Animal Speak?” I read, looking up at Nightfall questioningly. “Can’t you and Bruiser already do that?”
“It would allow you to speak directly to Bonaparte, as well as Bruiser when he is in his bear form.”
“That would be kind of useful,” I mused. “And it’d mean he didn’t have to shift so often, whenever he wants to talk to me.”
When we had been travelling, I often liked hitching a ride on his back, but every time he needed to communicate, I’d find myself either piggy-backing on a large nude man or in the dirt because I’d been too distracted to grab his shoulders in time.
While it was kind of fun, it’d be nice to be able to chat with him when I needed to.
I read the spell and committed it to memory, feeling it slide into place inside my brain.
“Okay! One down, one to go!”
I looked back at the books littering the desk. I picked up the “Summon: Object” book again and flicked through it. The problem was, you were limited to only one object which you had to choose when you set the spell into your slot.
One of the illustrations had an archer with unlimited arrows. I couldn’t think of anything I needed an unlimited supply of that I didn’t already have. I still had a hundred or so cinnamon rolls in my bag and could easily stock up on more before leaving town as they were relatively cheap.
“I could summon fish, I suppose,” I mused. My animal husbandry course had basically consisted of feeding fish to animals until they decided they were tame. “It might work alright with my Animal Speak spell.”
“Unconventional, but that fits with you. It is a fine idea,” Nightfall agreed.
I focused on learning the spell as Nightfall put the other books away.
“Nightfall!” An angry hiss broke the peace of the library. “I’ve found you! I demand answers!”
“Blade,” Nightfall greeted him, not even turning around to look at him. “Perfect timing. If you accompany me to the lab, I will take another sample from you now.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Blade’s fur flattened and I recognized from my experience with Kira that it was a sign he had been placated.
“Let’s get it over with now then,” Blade growled. “Glad to see I can pry you away from your girlfriend.”
“Actually, she is key to my research. Come, Emma. I will show you my lab.”
I followed him, curious to see what he had been working on. Any unease I’d previously felt when I met him had been pacified. I felt I knew Nightfall more deeply than anyone had known him before, and I could trust him completely.
I followed him as he led us down another twisted maze until we arrived at his laboratory – or rather, an empty room he had claimed as his lab. It made sense in a way that there were so many empty rooms. The university was housed in a fricken castle, but only had thirty or so courses to choose from.
Nightfall closed the door behind us and readied his workstation. It looked kind of like my high school science class, with beakers and test tubes lining the walls. Blade sat on a chair and glowered at me.
I busied myself to avoid his stare by looking through the papers on the desk. I saw a sketch of Jackal, with two lists of attributes he’d acquired – one from his minotaur father, one from his mermaid mother.
“I’m ready to take your sample,” Nightfall said, and I looked up to see that he had a needle in hand.
Blade shoved his sleeve up and held out his arm and Nightfall inserted it and drew the blood, then placed it into a test tube that had a foaming purple liquid in it. He sprinkled in some powder, agitated it with a stirring stick and placed the used items in the trash.
“What happens now?” Emma asked, looking curiously at the test tube. “And what are you looking for?”
“The liquids will separate, and Blade’s DNA will rise to the top. It will take a few minutes.”
“And then you will find the answer? Why I am the way I am?” Blade demanded. “How to fix it?”
“I will be able to decode a little more. I think I am beginning to understand the reason for your deformity, but it may be some time before a solution is found. If one even exists.”
Blade snarled. I narrowed my eyes as I looked him over once again. He looked much like any other feliskin, furry from head to toe.
“What deformity?” I asked, puzzled.
“None of your grindin’ business,” Blade hissed, but Nightfall held up a placating hand.
“Show her. Emma recognizes the oddities of this world with greater perception than I. She may have answers I do not.”
Blade’s lips were still curled back as he bared his teeth at me in a vicious hiss, but he regained control of himself and locked onto me with an intimidating stare.
“Do you swear you will never repeat what you see here?” Blade growled. “Swear to me you will not mention it to another soul. Swear to me you will help me if you can.”
“Okay,” I said uncertainly. “I swear I won’t tell anyone., And I’ll help if I can.”
He took a long, calming breath and then raised his furry hands to his aviator hat, easing it off his head. I barely contained my gasp as he revealed his ears.
Human ears. On the sides of a very cat-shaped head.
He looked utterly ridiculous. I would have laughed if he didn’t look so utterly ashamed of himself.
“No customization spells work on them,” Blade said, his voice defeated and tainted with bitterness. “I’ve tried everything.”
“He is a half-breed,” Nightfall explained. “Half feliskin, half human.”
“Isn’t that how nekokin are born?” I said, trying to remember Professor Prindous’ lecture. I hadn’t been paying fantastic attention, but I was pretty sure he hadn’t mentioned anything like this.
“Nekokin are common enough to be recognized as a race in their own right. I am the only one like me. Something went wrong. Something is wrong with me.”
“The DNA is ready for examination,” Nightfall interrupted, and we all turned to look at the test tube. The water had separated into two colours, purple on the bottom and clear on the top. A tangle of tiny threads floated lazily in the clear liquid, rotating slowly with the movement of the water.
Nightfall’s hands glowed blue and an orb formed over his hand. He used his other hand to fish the strands out with a stick and dropped them into the orb, which magnified the DNA until they could see it more clearly. It wasn’t as clear as what you would probably get using a professional microscope in a real science lab, but it was still pretty impressive.
He muttered under his breath and part of the strand illuminated blue.
“This is your feliskin DNA from your mother,” he explained. “I cannot identify yet what it contributes, but much of it is visible. If I do this, you will see the DNA from your human father.”
He muttered some more words and a different part of the strand glowed red.
“Wait,” I blinked. In Prindous’ class he’d said nekokin had human mothers and feliskin fathers, not the other way around.
I grabbed one of Nightfall’s pens and scrawled a punnet square like how I’d learned in high school, then placed it on the table.
image [https://imgur.com/a/tCMKWZ6]
“It’s like this, right? You have the regular equation that results in a catgirl – sorry, nekokin – and the other combination is kind of reversed.”
I glanced at Blade again, confirming he also didn’t have a tail.
“I bet James’ put in what he wanted to exist and the AI generator machine kind of filled in the rest. Thus, you get human bodies with cat ears and tails and on the other half, cat bodies with human ears and no tails.”
“How does this fix me?” Blade demanded.
“It doesn’t,” I said, looking at Nightfall hesitantly. “It means… you’re not a mistake. You’re a logical extrapolation. If you want to change your body, you don’t need an existing modification spell, you need to rewrite the rules of the universe.”
“What?” Blade blinked.
“Luckily, you know a person who can achieve that,” Nightfall said, releasing his magnification spell and allowing the DNA extract to fall to the table. “We know vaguely what made this world, and therefore that it might be possible to edit it. If we find James.”
“I just don’t know where he is or how to find him,” I added grimly. “Or if he will do what I tell him.”
“You have already done so much, my angel,” Nightfall whispered, brushing my cheek with the pad of his thumb. “With you, I believe anything is possible.”