Catori was glad she could spend some time as herself. That… thing… still haunted her thoughts. It would appear in her nightmares for months to come, probably. What the taint had done to the dog was… incredibly disturbing. She was very glad they had taken so many precautions and were not exploring the tainted land with Fio’s body.
She opened her eyes as soon as she got back to her starling body. It was still a little strange since she was only slightly larger than Nymph but she was happy she had something for herself that wasn’t just in their soul.
“You’re back”, Nymph sent, “How did it go?”
The mantis was sitting on a nearby branch and working through some paperwork it seemed. The pages were a little ridiculous but she could easily move the paper with her control over the grove.
“Not bad but not great, either. Taint is horrifying.”
A small vine with soft leaves slithered down towards her head and gave her a soft pat.
“Tell me.”
And Catori did. When she was done, Nymph looked just as terrified as she felt. It should have been difficult to read an insect’s emotions from its body language but they had spent so much time together, Catori found it no more difficult than reading a human at this point.
“Then we can not taint the world to change the node”, Nymph said, “It will be a much worse end if tainted people still are themselves.”
“We want to bring a tainted beast to the edges of the silverwood forest and see if we can’t figure something out. Maybe there’s a cure. Or even a preventative, some kind of vaccine or protective gear.”
“I see. I wish you good progress in your research.”
“Thanks”, Catori said, “So, what are you doing?”
“We are preparing the Thaumaturgical Convent. Many people, both dwarves and humans as well as Guardians will be coming here. The Guardians will be hosted around the grove.”
“Ah, right. Almost forgot about that. When does it start?”
“We expect the first arrivals sometime by the end of the week. The Convent is scheduled to begin in twelve days but we have some flexibility. Hopefully.”
“Hmm… So how many people are coming?”
“We do not know the exact numbers of the human delegation. Our expectations are somewhere between thirty and fifty. Of the dwarves, twenty-two thaumaturges have confirmed their direct support as well as five Clan-Heads and four Guardians. The others will make sure we have supplies when we make for the goblin village.”
“Right. To study the small hungry node.”
“Exactly. It will be an interesting journey, travelling with so many other beings. I am looking forward to it.”
Catori smiled. Or she tried to. A few feathers bent a little to give a similar expression, at least. And the feeling was sent across their telepathic link. The starling shook her head.
“Sounds fun. I’m not sure I’m safe like this, though…”
Nymph nodded.
“I believe you will evolve soon. The system is trying to do so every day, is it not?”
“Yep. At least I know it’s not trying to hold me back.”
“It has always been supportive, at least. Now, I need to get back to this. But let us have dinner together after that, alright?”
“Sure thing. Don’t overwork yourself”, Catori said.
She spent the next hour flying around the Comraich, never entering the city proper. There would be too many distractions. She wanted some time to think about things. Tainting the world to change the node at the centre was obviously a very bad idea. Unless they could find some form of separation. Building a Noah’s Ark of sorts. Could they make a floating island? Probably not without generating too much flux and tainting the place in the process. So, a spaceship?
Catori nearly dropped face-first into the grass as she tried to contain her laughter. That was a stupid idea. And impossible. And even then, there were so many species on this world. Proper preservation was definitely impossible. Maybe there was another solution… Only tainting the node locally, maybe?
She was distracted from her thoughts by a stinging pain in her head. Catori quickly made to land. By now she had decent practice at dealing with this. The system’s attempts at forcing her evolution were getting a little worse every day. But maybe this was the last time.
~ding~ Congratulations! You reached vis enriched (major) during adulthood. You can now adapt an Affinity or create a Core to evolve.
And there it was. The system trying again.
~ding~ Evolution attempted. Repetition noticed. Attempt #9. Collecting data… insufficient. Adjusting parameters. Harmful parameters exceeded. Searching solution…
That was new. Normally it would stop after ‘Adjusting parameters’ and then reset her vis enrichment to medium. It seemed there was a fail-safe to protect her body.
~ding~ Solution not found. Expanding search algorithm… Individual is sapient. Suggesting active evolvement. Do you want to proceed, Catori? Y/N
“Are you alright, Catori?”, Nymph sent into her mind.
“Yeah. The system is being a bit weird, though. It wants to actively involve me in my evolution, I think?”
“That is intriguing. What caused it to give you that option?”
“It said something about ‘harmful parameters exceeded’ and that’s the first solution it found. I don’t know if there is another option.”
~ding~ Please make a decision, Catori!
“And now it’s demanding I decide.”
“You should do it. For your own benefit.”
“… right. Try to stay connected? Maybe you can help me out.”
“I will. Good luck, my friend.”
“Thanks”, Catori said and turned her focus to the system message. ‘Yes’, she thought, ‘I want to proceed.’
~ding~ Thank you, Catori! Proceeding… Isolation barrier adjusted. Consciousness active. The process may be painful. Detecting connection to outside individual. Separated. Proceeding…
So much about getting help from Nymph…
~ding~ Basic concept prepared. Dissatisfaction likely. Please suggest changes!
Species: Wind Spirit (humanoid)
Age: 2
Name: Catori
Gender: female
Status: sapient, healthy, Beast Core (common), twin soul (Fio)
Level: 25
Class: -
Strength: 10+39
Constitution: 9+36
Dexterity: 20+44
Perception: 12+45
Intelligence: 8+114
Wisdom: 8+114
AP: 0
Skills: [Spirit Sight lvl 6], [Preening lvl 4], [Active Touch lvl 4], [Spirit Song lvl 7], [Perfect Levitation lvl 7], [Hidden Identify lvl 7]
That was… something. The system wanted to make her into a spirit? It did satisfy the main conditions of flying and having hands, if only because it was humanoid. So that was something, at least. She tried to see the details of her supposed new species and the Skills coming with it. Sadly, the latter were not reacting.
Wind Spirit (humanoid): A being of the air, free from the bindings of people and obligations. These beings control the winds or simply ride with them to find new places. They rarely stay in one place for more than a moment.
That… yeah. ‘Dissatisfaction likely’? More like ‘guaranteed’. She wanted to be human because she wanted to interact with people more not less. Well, not necessarily human but have hands and a mouth capable of speaking. Honestly, the flying part was secondary to her desires. She could just borrow Fio’s body. Or have her take over some other bird to use whenever she wanted.
‘Maybe drop the flying requirement?’, she thought at the system.
~ding~ Negative. Dissatisfaction likely. Please suggest changes!
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Huh… so the system knew her better than she knew herself? But it could not come up with a proper evolution? Then what about…
‘Make me an angel.’
~ding~ Negative. Species designation ‘Angel’ not found in database. Please elaborate!
That was progress, at least. What even was an angel? Maybe not exactly like the more religious versions from Earth. They were the messengers of God and had a one-track mind to fulfil their task, didn’t they? Not to talk about the 'biblically accurate' ones.
~ding~ Mental profile not compatible with ‘Angel’. Please suggest changes!
Right. Still, the general idea wasn’t all bad.
‘Do you have a variation of the human species that has wings and normal arms?’, she asked the system.
~ding~ Checking database. Species found:
Harpy (variations), lacking separate arms for specific forms
Arbiter (unique)
Vampire (demonic)
Pegasus Centaur (unique)
Lord Of Despair (unique)
Spirit (variations), lacking wings/flight for specific forms
Elemental (variations), see Spirit
Dread Harpy (variations), tainted species
Celestial (unique)
Golem (variations), lacking wings, only levitation for specific forms
Dragon (variations), Skill to transform into humanoid for specific forms
Catori’s eyes bulged at the list the system had suddenly produced. Were those all beings with arms and wings?
~ding~ Variations of the human species, as requested.
So all of them had evolved from humans at some point? That made more sense. Considering how many species there were, unique evolutions alone would probably make a rather huge list. Catori went through it again, quickly removing the first few options. She had already seen the spirit, at least a variation of it, and decided against it. Elemental seemed to be pretty much the same thing. Dread harpy was thrown out for the sole reason that it was tainted. Golem was also not the right thing. That had been Alexandra’s first species. She did not want to be so restricted and only levitation sounded boring.
This left a far simpler list already:
Harpy (variations), lacking separate arms for specific forms
Arbiter (unique)
Vampire (demonic)
Pegasus Centaur (unique)
Lord Of Despair (unique)
Celestial (unique)
Dragon (variations), Skill to transform into humanoid for specific forms
Four of these were unique, though. Did that mean she could not take them? Or would they only be useful as a base form?
~ding~ Unique Beast Core can not exist more than once in the system. Currently living unique Beast Cores from this list: Celestial, Pegasus Centaur.
Great. Two more options out. Catori did not really want to become a centaur, anyway. But she kept celestial as a potential basis to build upon, for now.
‘What about the other two?’, she asked.
~ding~ Mental profile not compatible with ‘Arbiter’ or ‘Lord Of Despair’.
‘What are they about?’
Arbiter: You are the judge. You are the jury. You are the executioner. Guide your people to prosper after your ideals, for they have wronged you.
Lord Of Despair: You were suppressed but you never surrendered. Now, you stand above the Arbiter. Bring an end to his dictatorship. Bring despair to his supporters. Revel in the destruction.
Catori shuddered. That two unique classes developed specifically to fight against each other… There had to be a very sad story behind that. She threw them out without another thought.
‘And Celestial?’
~ding~ Access to Celestial description denied. Celestial is still alive.
‘Yes. But I want to see if I can change it to fit me?’
~ding~ Mental profile not compatible with Celestial.
Did she really have to… Fine.
‘Why?’
~ding~ Celestial was a derivation of Wind Spirit.
‘Okay, then change the travel and explore part to making and protecting friends. Call it… Seraphim.’
~ding~ Seraphim added to database. Please suggest changes!
Seraphim: You are free from your bonds. You do not require anyone. But you still care. Make connections and protect them. Find those that would harm you and your loved ones to strike them down. And restore what was harmed.
~ding~ Mental profile compatible with Seraphim. Designing Skills… Designing form… Complete. Please suggest changes!
Species: Seraphim
Age: 2
Name: Catori
Gender: female
Status: sapient, healthy, Beast Core (unique), twin soul (Fio)
Level: 25
Class: -
Strength: 10+39
Constitution: 9+36
Dexterity: 20+44
Perception: 12+45
Intelligence: 8+114
Wisdom: 8+114
AP: 0
Skills: [Eye for Danger lvl 6], [Shifting Wings lvl 4], [Binding Light lvl 4], [Healing Light lvl 1], [Light of Protection lvl 1], [Seraphim’s Song lvl 7], [Aerial Manoeuvring lvl 4], [Hidden Identify lvl 7]
Catori gulped. That looked kind of amazing. A healing Skill? And a barrier Skill, from what it sounded? This was more of a Class than a Species… Then again, Fio had her shadows and screech. Most species probably had some innate magical Skills open to them. But why would she just… get them? Without any work?
~ding~ Unique species can not be taught by ancestors. All capabilities granted on Evolution.
‘Thanks, system’, Catori sighed. Then she looked at the updated list again:
Harpy (variations), lacking separate arms for specific forms
Vampire (demonic)
Seraphim (unique)
Dragon (variations), Skill to transform into humanoid for specific forms
Out of these… Seraphim was already very high on the list. Definitely better than Harpy. She immediately removed that option. Now, that left vampire and dragon. There was potentially a simple reason to remove vampire…
‘System, are vampires harmed by sunlight?’
Vampire (demonic): This rare variation of the already sparse vampire species is much less reliant on blood. Instead, it thrives on the ashes of burnt innocents. It has leathery wings and horns tipped in eternal flames. Its tail secretes a highly flammable solution. This makes it even more vulnerable to sunlight than normal vampires. A demonic vampire is a scourge on all life it comes across.
Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope! Now, what about becoming a dragon?
~ding~ The Dragon species takes many different forms. Options fitting your criteria are:
Four-legged Dragon (Illusion)
Four-legged Dragon (Shifter, humanoid)
Quetzal (Illusion)
Quetzal (Shifter, humanoid)
Illusion was definitely not what she wanted, so that was out. The other two should be mostly different in their dragon form. Maybe a quetzal was something like Stormbringer while the four-legged dragon was the normal western version? Limbs sounded useful…
Four-legged Dragon (Shifter, humanoid): This beast of legend is feared wherever it goes. But it has found a way to still get close to its prey. By turning into a much less threatening form, it can approach even the most suspicious food without scaring it off. It still prefers to lie on a mountain of treasure in its true form.
Catori sighed. More lethal options. Considering everyone else food was… not what she wanted. Definitely not. So was it just Seraphim?
~ding~ Mental profile compatible with Seraphim. Please suggest changes!
It was honestly a stroke of luck that the other options were all incredibly destructive or ‘incompatible’. Sure, she could probably convince the system to give her a shapeshifting dragon species that was more at home in a human body and did not consider everyone else food. But she was happy with Seraphim. The combination of freedom and caring for her loved ones enticed Catori and it was probably close to an angel in appearance. A human with splendid feathery wings.
‘I think this is what I want’, she thought at the system, ‘I’m happy with it. Unless you want me to change more?’
~ding~ No more changes to suggest. Compiling information. Seraphim sub-process created. Running simulation… Simulation successful. Catori is compatible with Species Seraphim. Active involvement successful. Logging for future… Completed. Evolution imminent. You will be able to object after the process. This will be painful. Stay strong!
And then the agony hit her.