image [https://i.imgur.com/V51lsJb.png]

I blinked when I saw the information displayed on the information screen. For one, Alsvartr was no longer considered a pup. Just two days ago, she had been considered a baby bat, which meant her evolutionary stage was at pup. Now it was showing her to be a juvenile. There was no way that was normal.

In fact, looking at her, I had to admit that she was much bigger. The increased size might also be why her strength had increased by a point. None of the other attributes had increased except for intelligence, which had increased by two points. That might also explain her ability to communicate with me.

Another thing I noticed was that she had some status in the tribe now. Apparently, someone had told the other kobolds that I had a familiar. Since I was so high ranking in the tribe, this afforded Alsvartr some status as well. Another pleasant surprise was that I had attunements available. That meant that I could let her wear magic items.

For a second, I considered taking off my necklace and placing it on Alsvartr. She didn’t have access to racial memories or memories from her past life. That meant that she could benefit more from the Phylactery of Hyggiandi than I would. My intelligence was already very high. While I would lose the benefits the necklace brought, they weren’t essential for me.

The only thing that stopped me was the Hyggiandi’s reaction and the actual attunement process. I wasn’t sure that she would be able to survive attuning the Phylactery of Hyggiandi. As for the nagging, well, that was the price she would have to pay for knowledge. As for how Hyggiandi, I was certain she would be offended. However, it wasn’t as if I would have to listen to her nagging me.

Children often had teachers they hated, and as a former teacher, I knew I taught some kids that I hated. In fact, there was this one little… “Nope, concentrate,” I said to myself, not wanting to ever think of that boy ever again. He was the one that caused me to retire. I would curse his parents for raising him to be so evil, but they had to live with him, so I guess they were already cursed.

Despite this, I decided to curse them anyway, “May you and your devil child be reborn as gnomes!” I couldn’t think of any worse fate than that. In fact, I almost hesitated on wishing such a fate on anyone. However, after thinking about how he and his parents had made my life miserable, I decided it was appropriate.

Anyway, if Hyggiandi did cause problems, I could always take her back. If she annoyed me too much, I could always use her to evolve or extract her magic. In fact, if she wasn’t sentient, I probably would have already done so. However, despite her being annoying, I wasn’t ready to kill someone because of that. Otherwise, I would have been in jail after the first day I started work as a teacher. However, I did have to admit that if I had to deal with that boy one more year, I might have been willing to risk jail to put him in his place.

Forcing myself to concentrate on the information screen, I decided to think about giving my baby girl the necklace later. For now, I needed to figure out her powers. The racial features were obvious, but I wanted to learn about the class features. For example, what powers did they give her?

“Alsvartr,” I asked, “can you explain your class powers?” I hated the thought of someday missing an opportunity because I didn’t bother to ask. After all, how could I make the best plan if I don’t have enough information? In fact, there is a quote that says you need to not only know your enemy, but you also need to know about yourself.

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“Sure daddy,” she said, “Death’s Touch allows me to give or take away health points. I can take away others’ health or give them some of my health.”

I nodded at this, realizing that if she healed me, it would be at the cost of her own health. On the other hand, she could absorb the health of others to recover her health. That sounded like a nice power to have. Already pleased, I continued to listen to see what each of her other powers did.

“Shadow of Death allows me to merge into someone else’s shadow. I can also use most of my powers while merged with their shadow. As for Shadow Shape, I can form a humanoid body made out of shadows. I can walk and interact with objects just like you,” she said proudly, although her voice had a tinge of disappointment when she continued. “Unfortunately, the body I create doesn’t have any distinguishing features yet. I am still working on that though,” she finished with a determined tone.

“That’s amazing,” I said, interrupting Alsvartr before she could tell me about the rest of her powers. I could already guess what everything else did anyway. “You have grown so powerful. Do you want a pretty necklace?”

“Oh, that sounds nice,” she said, obviously pleased with that idea.

“You better not give me to her,” a nagging voice suddenly screamed into my mind. She sounded really upset. In fact, she reacted as if she had woken up and found herself reborn as a gnome.

“Shut up Hyggiandi,” I cut her off before she could continue. “My baby girl needs a good teacher, and from what I have seen, I couldn’t ask for a better teacher than you. You know just about everything. While I could teach her, I simply don’t have the time or energy to do so.’

I continued on, not giving her a chance to speak, “You might have noticed how quickly I am advancing in levels. When I become powerful enough, I’ll create a body for you so that you aren’t stuck in a ring.” I stopped there and gave her time to think about my offer.

Finally, after a few seconds, Hyggiandi said nothing. Then, reluctantly, she said, “You do seem to be growing unnaturally fast. Obviously, some divine entity is assisting you. You aren’t smart enough to do it by yourself. However, with their help, you might be able to keep your promise.”

Hyggiandi seemed reluctant to admit it, and obviously hated the idea of being paired up with someone whose intelligence was only a third of mine, but for a body of her own, was willing to deal with it. “Fine,” she finally said.

With that, I cut my attunement to the necklace as I took off the Phylactery of Hyggiandi. Gently, I placed it around Alsvartr’s neck and told her, “Before you attune to the necklace, I want you to cast False Life on yourself.” While I wasn’t certain it would matter, I was a little worried about her getting injured.

Most kobolds who attuned the necklace took damage. However, Alsvartr was almost as smart as a normal kobold. When combined with the fact that Hyggiandi was agreeing with this attunement, I really doubted anything bad would happen. Still, just the possibility bothered me more than I was willing to admit.

As soon as I stopped my attunement to the necklace, pain jabbed through my mind. I grew dizzy and my thoughts became hazier. It was as if someone had hit me with a bat. I couldn’t think clearly. In fact, I swayed and almost fell. Luckily, I had time to compose myself while Alsvartr started attuning the necklace. My mind was like a puzzle that had been assembled already when someone came and slammed their hand down on the table and knocked some of the pieces loose.

I could already tell that I had lost most of the gains from attuning to Hyggiandi. Surprisingly, I still retained some of those abilities. Perhaps it was because the information was downloaded directly into my brain. While I might have lost the extra intelligence and wisdom, I had kept some of the knowledge. “Nice,” I thought to myself. I had actually expected to lose everything.

Hopefully, I wouldn’t lose Alsvartr. Even if she took a lot of damage from attuning to Hyggiandi, I was certain that she had enough health points to survive the process. However, I was still worried. I watched as she continued to sit on the tunnel floor attuning to the necklace.