Lilussees groaned. Another group of monsters from the dungeon they were assaulting turned the corner. Couldn’t they just lighten up? Shouldn’t they realize it was pointless by now?
Lilussees turned over in her hammock and focused for a moment, selecting one of her protocols. Her mana flared to life and linked to the drones flying around. A dozen magic circles formed, and then Fusion Dark Beams combined into a massive beam that filled the entire hallway. One monster to the side had barely survived, nothing remained of the others.
Lilussees tapped the metal walls around her. The Living Armor she was hiding inside of stepped forward, and lifted its hand.
Mana-conductive web in the shape of a magic circle glowed on its palm. The Living Armor channeled a bit of its mana and the circle lit up, firing a smaller Dark Beam to finish off the survivor. Lilussees sighed, and then crawled out of the Living Armor, spinning another web magic circle on its hand before crawling back to her temporary room.
“Well, like, keep going, or something.”
The Living Armor nodded and started walking again, the drones following suit. Lilussees groaned again.
She just had to go and become the best mage in the ‘network’ after the boss lady, huh? If she had known there was an option to hide in her room and command golems from afar, she never would have started this training! But no, now she had to be present on the battlefield so she could cast her magic. Of course.
Well, at the bare minimum, she wasn’t going to walk!
Which is why she…politely requested the assistance of the Living Armor. There was barely enough room for a hammock up to Lilussees’s standards, but she made it work. Somewhat.
Lilussees shook her head as she reviewed the messages from the Aesdes. Since, like, the boss lady had one of those under her command now, apparently. But thinking about that and the relationship of the Aesdes to dungeon masters was too much work, so Lilussees didn’t.
“Oh, look. Like, another evolution, or something. Which probably means, like, more work for me, or something. Great. Just great.”
She had already become some sort of ‘Cyber-Arcane Weaver’, or something. She could cast more magic and make magic circles out of her web now. Most of which now meant more work, just her luck. She had briefly considered choosing something weak, so that she wouldn’t have as much to do, but she discarded that thought almost immediately. Her instincts as a monster and dungeon master made her deeply uncomfortable with intentionally weakening herself, and losing her magical abilities might just result in her getting another job that might require even more effort.
And, well, Lilussees also felt vaguely that she would like to kill the people who threatened the boss lady. They were threatening her safe and comfortable home, after all!
So she glanced over the list of evolutions.
Available Evolutions: Name: Description Giant Cyber-Arcane Weaver
A larger Cyber-Arcane Weaver. It produces a truly astonishing amount of mana-infused webs to cast its spells with.
Cyber-Dread Weaver
A Cyber-Arcane Weaver attuned to Dark Mana. Its mana and poisons carry Dark curses.
Cyber-Arachne
A humanoid cyber-spider hybrid. Combines humanoid intelligence, machine precision, and a spider’s deadly characteristics.
There were some more but Lilussees paused there.
Being connected to the NSLICE network, she could access data on ‘friendly units’ whenever she wished, to a certain extent. Such as biological data regarding the mundane species upon which they were based. So, Lilussees was now aware of the difference between mammals and arachnids.
Such as the need for sleep.
Not a mere period of low activity. Not a hibernation dictated solely by environmental conditions, though apparently they could do that too. No, mammals would completely lose consciousness every single day, with a complex and sublime process featuring multiple stages, multiple cycles of sleep. The cats, both the newcomer and the Felix monster summoned earlier, could sleep for up to two thirds of the entire day! And this was a built in process that they didn’t need to force via magical means!
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Wasn’t her earlier torment due to the fact that these cybernetic components couldn’t identify a need for rest in her physiology? Wasn’t that an oversight she could now resolve?
Lilussees knew what she needed to do.
She made her choice.
Insufficient space for chosen evolution. Please relocate to an area with more space.
She stared at the message for a moment before smacking her face.
Right, she was still inside the Living Armor. She ordered it to stop and then crawled outside…
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Ateia and Taog were sitting around a fireplace in the Primary Home Base, watching a pot of stew simmer. Apparently, NSLICE-00P could now summon food at will, so long as she tried it at least once before, so the pair were trying to make everything they could for her.
Which…wasn’t much, seeing as they were living out on the frontier and raised by an Exploratores, a legionnaire, and a Wulver. But they would do what they could.
Suddenly Taog’s eyes widened, and Ateia felt a tap on her shoulder. She glanced behind her and her eyes widened too.
She was staring at a human face, only with eight eyes. Four were spider-like, the other four were robotic, built into the metal helmet covering half her face.
“You, Ateia. I’m going to, like, borrow your bed, ok?”
Ateia blinked, her mind still catching up to the situation.
“Um, ok?”
“Kay thanks.”
The woman then immediately skittered over to Ateia’s tent…on eight armored legs connected to an armored spider body with an armored human torso rising up from where its head would be. The arachne dove into her tent before Ateia could actually process the question.
Taog just stared into space.
“Um, what?”
Ateia tilted her head.
“I, um, think that was Lilussees?”
Taog tilted his head in response.
“Lilussees?”
Ateia nodded.
“One of the spider monsters, Contracted by Seero before us even. She, um, likes to sleep a lot, so you probably haven’t seen her much.”
Taog frowned.
“In that case…I think she’s sleeping in your tent now.”
Ateia thought about it for a moment, then went to contact Lilussees on the NSLICE network. But she simply received a notification that the unit in question had initiated standby-sentry mode. Ateia blinked, then chuckled and shook her head.
“Well, I don’t mind if it’s just for a bit. It’s not every day a monster suddenly becomes part human.”
But, it turned out it would not be just for a bit. Ateia wouldn’t reclaim her tent for a while, as Lilussees refused to leave until she was provided with bedding of her own. The first use of Rattingtale’s new domain was for Ateia and Taog to conduct a shopping trip in Castra Turannia, and to acquire human bedding for Lilussees.
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Estrith stood in the new world with her brow furrowed, mumbling to herself. She glanced up, at where NSLICE-00P’s monsters were training, looking at the Sacred Otterkin once again. She went back to mumbling, then heaved a sigh.
Intelligent, humanoid dungeon monsters were not unknown, or even uncommon. The Dobhar had experienced countless raids by various aquatic species sent by the dungeon masters of the deep, many of whom were as sophisticated in weaponry and tactics as the Dobhar themselves.
But…this situation implied that the Dobhar could be one of those species. Perhaps they still were. Estrith did not know all the stories of their origins. And Mighty Ardith had stated they were a young race. Estrith assumed they had been created by the Aesdes.
But what if that wasn’t true? What did that mean for her people?
It was at that moment that Lilussees returned from a dungeon raid, briefly talked to Ateia, and then commandeered the girl’s tent. Estrith blinked.
The spider monster…had become human? At least partially.
Then Estrith glanced over at Taog and Ateia…then back to the Sacred Otterkin. Her heart and her face both filled with heat.
She was being foolish.
A monster gained a human torso. A Wulver and a human gave birth to something new in Taog. Ateia had apparently become an Aesdes. Estrith herself had been transformed in the manner of Her Queen.
Species changed and grew all the time. Individuals could even change their own species under the right circumstances. Was not Steward Uscfrea transformed after his victory over the Sea Dragon?
And wasn’t the first Sacred Otterkin created to save a pup from the Dread Plague?
What then, was Estrith doing, worrying about such things?
She grabbed her spear and shook her head as she rose to her feet. It was not like her to brood over the origin and fate of species. Estrith was not a storykeeper, or a shaman.
She was a warrior.
What mattered to her was not the circumstances of one’s birth. What mattered to her was what one did with their circumstances. Steward Uscfrea was not born with his dragonblood-blessed fur, after all, and it was not for that trait but for the feats of valor to acquire it that she admired him.
She walked over to where the monsters were training, and approached the Sacred Otterkin.
“You there, pup.”
The Sacred Otterkin paused what he was doing and turned to face her. He saluted in Dobhar fashion.
“Yes, do you need me?”
She tossed her harpoon to him. He barely managed to catch it.
“Come. I will teach you how the Dobhar fight.”
The Sacred Otterkin tilted his head, but then smiled and nodded.
“Yes! I would be honored to learn from a mighty warrior like you!”
Something clicked in Estrith’s heart at the sight of the earnest young otterkin looking up at her. She averted her gaze.
“T-Then come, and let us begin.”
She turned, but then paused. She glanced around at the other monsters watching them. She took a breath.
No, it was not just the one that appeared as a Dobhar. Everyone here was Her Queen’s people.
“In fact, may I join your training, all of you? I only know how the Dobhar fight, but perhaps we can help each other as well.”
And so Estrith began to train with the monsters.