Few bells after the summoning.
"Bleh." Fiikhindqah's scaly body shivered as the heat of his summoning faded over the days after regaining a portion of his freedom. "Cold."
Accustomed to a hotter climate, his green scales with a blue tint to them began to wave resembling the ripples on the water's surface. As the scales moved like tiny fans their underside shimmered with colourful sparkle which gave the shadow he was hiding in a rather strange look.
"Can't believe the system turned off the heating this much," The lizard-like being instinctually reached to the side, expecting a control panel to manifest itself there but instead of grasping on a foggy lever, his fingers closed around empty air. "Sigh, why did that Urathîl Hero have to put me into that box? One would imagine a race of flesh and light to be kind to their elders."
The Dragonoid complained as above his open palm flimsy flickers of magic appeared and disappeared as he was cycling through various spells in his system.
Unable to sense his awakener, the lizard continued his waddling around the rotting structure, hoping whoever had freed him was nearby. His wandering eventually led him onto the stone road, which was filled with watery earth, creating a thin film above it.
Disgusted by the habits of the creature inhabiting the current cycle the once mighty scholar moved cautiously through the streets
*Hzzz* *Hyyyy* *Uuuu*
Strange noises eventually began to rattle around inside his smooth-scaled head. He was rather proud of his scales which got progressively tear-shaped the lower down his body they went. He tried to lament about the sheer amount of time he was stuck inside that dumb statue and the time he hadn't cleaned himself but the strange buzz began to grow louder and sharper.
"Hey! Are you deaf? Do you not 'now 'ere you are?" Something grabbed the lizard's shoulder shouting something in gibberish. "Whaa?!"
Forced to turn around, he saw a strange being in front of him vaguely resembling Urathîl with their almost complete boldness but they lacked the spiralling veins of pure mana nor were they tall roughly being as tall as him.
At least System got that inequity right.
"Big bro, 'ere is a fucking lizard!" The being in front of Fiikhindqah pointed at him with one of his fingers causing another of their kind to appear from the alley, and this one was far more hairy and taller than the previous one.
"H-hi?" No matter how alien the world has become the sigh of a blade being pulled out was the same through the cycles causing Fiikhindqah to reach out his mind toward the burly being trying to de-escalate the situation.
"Ahhhhh!" The human screamed grabbing his head with both arms.
"!?" Out of fright, the scales on Fiikhindqah stood and his lizard form began to shimmer.
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"Kill that monster!"
Stuck in his race's natural flight-or-fight response, the responses around him composed themselves and began to hurl bloodthirsty but unintelligible words at the Dragonoid.
"Time to escape." He told himself as he waddled through the mud.
It turned out that the beings around him were faster than him. Blood-red ichor began to seep out of his arm as the sharpened piece of glass cut through his standing scales causing some of them to fall to the ground.
Panicked the once mighty scholar hurriedly looked around him and found a void on the side of the road. He was not part of the Worker class and the purpose of such a void was unknown to him yet as a pinkish hand reached out to grab him he took his chances with the void and jumped into it.
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POV Change. Current time.
Above a peaceful meadow distorted shards of reality floated above like low-hanging clouds. A gentle breeze coming from the oil-like void encasing the space, swept over the grassy landscape causing the meadow to ripple with golden waves.
Under a tree growing on a small hill in the centre of this bizarre landscape bright light would sometimes illuminate its bark and leaves. On an even rarer occasion, a fiery insect entirely made out of mana would circle the tree roots, cracking with energy as it did so, before destabilizing and leaving a charred mark on the timber.
*Sigh*
Iris sighed as she sat amongst the umbrella-like oak, taking a moment to gaze in front of herself at the ever-shifting world.
She was practising taking finer control of her mana and playing with ideas on how could she improve her array of spells. Kia did speak to her like she usually did for roughly a bell trying to spark some Eureka as she called it but warned her, that her build wasn't a purpose build to cast spells and therefore her progress might slow down.
Iris wasn't entirely proud of how naive she was, brushing Kia's warning aside but at the same time, a person like her couldn't be blamed for getting excited after experiencing a meteoric rise in her level.
Still, no matter how disappointing it was not to gain a new spell, it wasn't like her entire time spent in her mind was useless. The hand size firefly which appeared every time she casted Infernal Mirage turned to be able not only orbit around her. With stern and direct commands, she could direct the magic fly and order it to do its wishes. Commanding it reminded her very much of how she ordered the clay constructs, especially the way she needed to be very careful of what she said as both the firefly and the constructs had a rather direct way of obeying orders. Unfortunately, the Infernal Mirage was a rather expensive spell so she didn't forsee using the fiery insect too much.
"Time to go." The risen said to herself.
The moment that thought left her mouth, almost immediately she found herself sitting on the couch with a certain parasite's hand holding onto her back. Iris found Kia napping on her shoulder with one hand of course snaking under the elf's shirt.
"You're not going to stay with me?" Iris asked her Lazyicu noting that there were few more bells until nightfall.
Scratching the ancient under her chin didn't seem effective as the girl's eyes continued to move under her eyelids and Iris had to stop and open her System unable to bear the feeling of something crawling under her skin.
Shivering, the risen grabbed the girl's nape and gently pulled it away from her, like an overly annoying kitten. Her method seemed to work as the ancient's eyes stopped moving and eventually, Kia lazily opened one of her eyes to stare at Iris. The golden iris narrowed and the parasite shuffled over and laid her head against the elf's chest.
"Did you gain a spell?" The girl asked, her hand reaching for a clay construct she wouldn't have seen or sensed with natural senses and rested her hand on its bald head.
"No, but I did practice casting some of my spells."
"Good, good. Attack speed is an important statistic." The necromancer mumbled to herself. "I think you're close to another level."
"I am?" Iris raised her brow at the comment. She herself couldn't peek behind the System to check her progress so she wondered how the girl could sound so confident. "How do you know that?"
"I'm inside your soul silly." Kia pulled her head away and answered with the warmest voice the elf had ever heard.
"Didn't you say you didn't care about the difference between a centimetre and a meter?" Iris recalled the girl saying these words when describing the human expedition which had met its doom in Necropolis.
"I don't, unless I live in their soul." The ancient answered.
"Good to know that you're finding that little soul comfortable."
The two coloured gems suddenly sharpened. "But it is." The necromancer reaffirmed seemingly mistaking Iris's complement with some sort of a poor jest.
"I wasn't making a joke, Kia," Iris spoke. "How are your studies?"
"You ask me this question every two days." The kitten moaned but did not put her whole being into it before eventually relenting under Iris's piercing gaze. The girl liked to grumble but in her glowing eyes, it was apparent that she liked speaking. "Good...My experiments are running without any issues and I have learned two more spells albeit inefficient and in sore need of optimizing..."
Iris had no idea what the girl meant by experiments. She knew that Kia was studying the noble who came every day to their room but Kia who was pedantic with details couldn't have made such a mistake.
Common started to disappear from Kia's vocabulary and her back straightened as she came to sit on her knees next to Iris who listened quietly to the Cyclopic sermon.
Well, I don't see zombies walking around the corridors so it must be fine.