I continued to slowly sway from the ceiling, focusing on [Channeled Blink]. My improved biology was stopping the blood from rushing to my head, letting me think clearly.
I just needed to keep this vampire talking for fifteen, twenty minutes tops, and I’d be out of here.
Time to take stock of what I had. First, levels.
[*ding!* [Long-Range Identify] leveled up! 380 -> 400]
[*ding!* [The World Around Me] leveled up! 76 -> 80]
[*ding!* Congratulations! [Butterfly Mystic] has leveled up to level 460->490! +8 Strength, +8 Dexterity, +70 Speed, +70 Vitality, +70 Mana, +70 Mana Regen, +70 Magic power, +70 Magic Control from your Class per level! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control for being Chimera (Elvenoid)! +1 Strength, +1 Mana Regen from your Element per level!]
I already knew I was screwed. Well, here’s to another thirty levels before I bite the dust. Most notably, my mana regeneration got the strongest bump thanks to [Nectar]. Also split a good amount of the experience with Auri.
Hopefully not my last present to her.
[*ding!* [The Very Hungry Bookwyrm] leveled up! 115 -> 117. +80 Dexterity, +80 Vitality, +80 Speed, +240 Magic Power, +240 Magic Control, +240 Mana, +240 Mana Regeneration per level from your Class! +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Speed, +1 Vitality, +1 Magic Power, +1 Magic Control, +1 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration per level for being Chimera (Elvenoid)! +1 Mana, +1 Magic Power per level from your Element!]
Fighting for my life was not what [The Very Hungry Bookwyrm] wanted to be doing as a class. Best I could imagine was saving my spell books had gotten me the levels, and that was it.[*ding!* [Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri] leveled up! 480 -> 508]
SO CLOSE to Auri’s third class!
[*ding!* [Center of the Universe] leveled up! 472 -> 473]
Anti-pain, yay.
[*ding!* [Mantle of the Stars] leveled up! 492 -> 495]
Right. That was it for levels. Stats.
[Mana: 0/904,360]
[Mana Regen: 554,429 (+1,109,372)]
Stats
[Free Stats: 0]
[Strength: 1,361]
[Dexterity: 9,967]
[Vitality: 31,508]
[Speed: 31,540]
[Mana: 90,436]
[Mana Regeneration: 90,561 (+110,937)]
[Magic Power: 55,399 (+1,420,984)]
[Magic Control: 55,277 (+1,417,855)]
Magic power went hand-in hand with magic control for being completely useless, since I had no significant amounts of mana to use. I was too tied up for dexterity or speed to matter, and I wasn’t even going to think about my strength stat being useful here. I was out of mana.
Vitality and mana regeneration were my two big resources, magic-wise. I didn’t have enough to pop a spell book out of storage, let alone activate any of the spells I’d prepared.
My healing and [Channeled Blink] were my two main useable magical abilities. I was completely tied up, negating my physical abilities.
That left my social skills.
I’d just be my normal, chatty, friendly self. That should do the trick! Just channel Iona and her amazing tongue.
I wonder if the System would give me a skill to help me out here? I liked my general skills, but I could dump [Persistent Casting] or [Imbue] if it gave me a chance. I sent a quick little prayer to the System.
[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Arachnid Acrobat]. Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]
[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Entangled Escape Artist]. Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]
[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Trapped Troubadour]. Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]
[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Sticky Sleuth]. Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]
[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Webbed Wordsmith]. Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]
[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Captive Comedian]. Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N]
Better than the usual offerings, all utterly worthless. One day I’d get a clutch skill to get out of here.
“Hello! Mind letting me down so we can have a more comfortable chat? It’s a little awkward staring at you like this, and I don’t think you’re looking to outright murder me because it seems like you could’ve done that ages ago.”
Wait. Shit. That wasn’t what I wanted her to do at all. Maybe reverse psychology would work? Perhaps I should start talking about my deep-held fear of drowning at the bottom of the sea.
She studied me for a few moments longer.
“If only to stop you from teleporting out of here.” She conceded, and the strings dropped me, twisting and forming around me to form a chair. I was still bound to the chair, but now the lady in front of me was right-side up… and my [Channeled Blink] had been completely broken, putting me far out of range of teleporting out of here.
My mouth opened in shock. How had she known!? I had a nasty reminder of how annoying it must be to fight Iona, who had an inside line to people’s skills thanks to her divine blessing, but I didn’t think those were being handed out like candy.
The woman rolled her eyes.
“Please. I’m Sentinel Arachne. A little level 500 wandering around that tunnel, completely naked? Without the door being disturbed? I didn’t need to have seen you teleporting books out of your personal storage to work out that you’ve got a Spatial element, and it’s frankly elementary to work out that you teleported in. At your level, weight, and displayed power, you can’t have a true teleport or blink, which implies either a gem or a channel. There are no gems on your person, making a channel the only viable option.”
When she put it like that…
Also, I started to get excited. She was wrong! I had a single, tiny arcanite crystal inside of me. It was practically nothing, an emergency in case I was ever trapped long-term by a canceler and needed to pull on it to heal myself of biological toxins and impurities. It had been made mostly redundant by my further modifications, but I hadn’t seen the need to remove it. Just in case something went wrong. It wasn’t enough arcanite to do anything really… but Arachne didn’t know about it.
She wasn’t omniscient.
The woman in question narrowed her eyes at me.
“You do have a gem on you. Please do not make me vivisect you to find it.”
How had she known!? I nodded furiously. I did not want to be vivisected, not for something that was entirely worthless.
Arachne started to slowly pace around me, hands clasped behind her back. I saw a small black widow crawling over her chair. I swear it sent me a jaunty little wave.
[Black Widow - 2145]. No bets on it being her bonded companion. I was frankly impressed that something so small had survived so long. Then again, being small meant it was hard to be hit… but area of effect skills were a thing, from the classic [Fireball] to skills like the Erosion-aura the spinosaurus had.
I started working out various ways I could try to fight my way out of this, and was coming up entirely blank. I’d failed at the very edge of her range, and now I was in the heart of her lair, at the center of her web.
My efforts would be better focused on how to talk my way out of this. I spun one thought process off on how to break out of various jails, especially with only a trickle of mana available. Also tried to work on figuring out how she knew so much.
“You are something of a puzzle.” Arachne said after circling me a few times. “Human, which implies your country of origin is likely Rolland or Exterreri, with an outside chance that you’re from The Great Tang, Lithos, or one of the other places where humans are a small, but present minority. Yet your accent isn’t placeable. You speak Creation with an archaic bent, placing you in Exterreri, but again. I do not know of any vampires with that exact inflection, and I know all the old ones. Even combining their accents with secondary influences gets me nowhere. You’re comfortable in our clothes, our cultures and customs… somewhat. You accept some things like they are natural, but other items that are utterly mundane baffle you, and there’s no rhyme or reason that I’ve been able to find. Yet. You will give up your secrets before I am done with you.”
She continued to slowly pace around me. That was quite a lot of information she had, but I guess the accent thing sort of made sense?
“Your application has your name as Elaine, which is either the worst disguised name, or the best. Or… no, it really is your name, isn’t it?” She mused out loud.
I wasn’t quite sure why she was talking out loud like that, but I figured trying to be stoic about this wouldn’t help me.
“Do you want me to tell you?” I asked. Arachne stopped in front of me.
“You already are. Are you from Exterreri? Rolland? Lithos? Vollomond?” She interrogated me, rapidly cycling through all the countries, not giving me a chance to answer. There were a few countries I didn’t know. Ekada Ruh? Who were they?
“Fascinating. Minor reactions to a few that let me know you have a connection, but it’s plain as night that you’re not from any of them.”
“How-” I started to ask, and she cut me off.
“Expressions and reactions. You’re in my cocoon, I can sense everything, every minute tensing of your biomancied muscles, every twitch on your face. It is possible that you’ve got two distinct sets of biomancied signals going on, one for show, and one specifically designed to throw me.”
Arachne crossed her arms and started to drum her fingers on her arm while I processed what she was saying.
She was cold reading me!? I suppose with stupid high level skills it was possible, and I’d already thrown her once with my arcanite, so it wasn’t invincible. How did I beat it?
… Did I want to beat it?
Right, thinking it through. She had told me about it. Which meant normal countermeasures like trying to control my facial expression was completely useless, it might even help her. What if each [Parallel Thought] focused on something different? The conflicting signals would hopefully obfuscate anything…
I tried it. First straight to mangos, and how good they felt in my mouth. How I peeled them, how their succulent flesh melted on my tongue, how tender and juicy they were, how their sweetness was divine in a way nothing else could match, how…
The second went to Iona. How lucky I was to have her in my life. How she made every moment feel special and magical. How getting a random glimpse of her made my heart skip a beat, how she inspired me to be a better person. How the sound of her laughter was music to my ears, how she was an omnipresent ray of sunshine. How beautiful of a person she was, inside and out. How…
Auri was third, my dastardly little pyromaniac. I wonder if she thought I was in danger due to all the levels I’d sent her way? If she’d raise the alarm, find Iona. If they’d try to find me, and if they’d succeed.
The fourth stayed on Arachne. I wasn’t going to stop paying attention to the lethal vampire who had me tied up in an underwater base.
“[Many Minds, One Brain]?” She asked, studying me closely. “Or some variant? Clever. Do cease your attempts, else I’ll end this conversation and simply execute you as a nuisance.”
Good to know it worked. I promptly stopped, refusing to tremble at her threat.
“Execute me? Why? Simply for looking in the tunnel?” I shot back.
She laughed.
“I can’t tell if you’re naive, or one of the best spies I’ve ever encountered. Utterly fearless as well. No - not fearless. You’ve simply mastered your fear. Not a fool then.”
I stared her straight in the eyes, and would’ve straightened my back if I could. She was speaking of executing me in a matter-of-fact way, any claims of being a Sentinel wouldn’t matter at this point. I’d die with dignity, staring death straight in the eye.
Would it be White Dove who came to claim my soul, or Black Crow?
“I am Dawn. Last Sentinel of an ancient empire, mentored by one of the vampire progenitors. I braved the endless Formorian hordes, their black bodies coating the horizon. I stole from dragons, parlayed with elves and dwarves, and brought wrathful justice to the shimagu. I witnessed emperors rise and kingdoms fall, traversed worlds and visited the realm of the gods. I endured dragon fire and bathed in the flames of a phoenix. I witnessed a god splitting the skies and smiting his foes, and brought an angel back from the brink of death. I’ve been stabbed, sliced, burned, beheaded, impaled, crushed and more. I fought Black Crow in his manifested form, and defied White Dove to her face. You may hold my life at the end of your thread, but you are far from the scariest thing I’ve faced.”
Arachne smiled at me, a sinister gleam in her eye.
“Good to know beheading won’t work, and it’s fascinating that you consider parlaying with elves and dwarves to be notable enough to mention. You offered to tell me your story, very well, let me hear it.” A thread shot from Arachne to her chair, pulling it to her. She sat down, crossing her legs and leaning forward, giving me her full focus as her spider scuttled up onto her shoulder. “Do make sure to fully include why you’re looking for Night, and who sent you.”
I started at that. She knew I was looking for Night!? That was the most important thing for her!?
She had to know something. Full cooperation mode engaged! Never mind the kidnapping and imprisonment, all water under the bay if she could lead me to Night.
The thought briefly crossed my mind that perhaps she was against Night, a member of some rival faction of vampires. But, even assuming that was true, that would mean she knew who Night was, possibly where he was. I was possibly deluding myself, but I was hopefully worth something to Night, enough to be kept alive rather than dead.
“Somewhat abridged?” I offered. My full tale was long.
Arachne thought about it a moment.
“Your age? Your real one?”
“27.” I said, looking her in the eye, trying not to control my facial expression too much. If she wanted to use it as some sort of truth-detector, I wasn’t going to try and stop her… but thinking too much about it was making it all change and different and…
“Mmm. I believe I have the time for your full story. Entertain me, little butterfly. Ah, but first, I would like you to lie to me. Tell me something outlandish and false.”
I looked down. My first instinct was to say ‘I wasn’t wearing clothes’ but the threads were so thick and everywhere that it sort of counted. Uhhh… finding an obvious falsehood was hard.
Oh! I could say I hated mang- no wait, that was so blasphemous that I couldn’t even say the words. Uhhhhhhhhhh…
“I think adventurers are… no I can’t say that.” I shuddered with disgust. Arachne looked highly amused at my indecision.
“I have a Water element class.” I said at last. Except I knew I was lying, and she was reading it, and wouldn’t that foul a read, and how could she be so sure, and…
I was tying myself in knots. I was going to do my best to tell the truth… but only as much of the truth as she wanted.
“Excellent. Do try to keep to the salient points, there’s no purpose in stalling. Your friends won’t be able to locate us. If they managed to accomplish that, I doubt they’d fare much better. Carry on.”
I randomly got some nostalgic vibes off of her. Weird.
“Skipping over a few things, my tale properly begins when I met Papilion in the realm of the gods. Best I can tell, I was a disembodied soul, and he was fixing some issues…”
I spoke quickly and articulately, leaning on my speed stat and her obvious ability to keep up. I didn’t want to annoy her by dragging things out too much, and as much as I loved Auri and Iona, I mentally stacked the Eventide Eclipse up against Arachne, and found them wanting. The level disparity was too much. Just as I leaned on stats and levels to win even impossible matchups, I had no doubt Arachne could do the same.
Why hide anything? I was so utterly outclassed by a Classer ready, willing, almost eager to murder me, that I might as well see if the truth would set me free. No more secrets.
Her eyebrows steadily rose as I wove my tale, and she leaned forward, engrossed. Reading all the books I had, retelling stories for an age had given me something of a storytelling bend.
I first hesitated at the Guardian fight.
“Um. What’s your take on… large flying apex predators with scales and fiery breath?” I asked.
“Dragons? Well, given that you’re placing yourself 20,000 years ago, I doubt it’ll be an issue. Fascinated to hear what yarn you’ll weave.”
“Wellllllll… the dragon in question is still alive. Today. And active. And I’m entirely sure about this.”
Arachne pondered the question a moment.
“A few names spring to mind. Be cautious and do not name the dragon, and continue.”
“Moons?” I suggested, and a knowing light went on in Arachne’s eyes.
I carried on, telling about the guardian fight, and my adventures after. In no time at all I was at Lun’Kat’s lair.
Arachne looked on in open disbelief as I explained how I acquired Auri’s egg, and the rest of my adventures back to Remus. Then the fairy ring, the School, and Immortality.
“...I’d like to not go into details on my curse.” I said.
“Unfortunately, I’m going to insist.” Arachne’s tone and the situation made it clear that it wasn’t optional, no matter how politely she phrased it.
I mentally cursed and dished, then carried on with my story, sticking to the facts without adding any speculation as to why White Dove had chosen that particular curse. Graduation, acknowledgement as the creator of the Medical Manuscripts - which got Arachne pausing the conversation for a few silent moments before gesturing for me to continue on, and my decisions leading to my current capture.
“...and then I got dragged here, terrible whiplash on the ride, and you were here for the rest of it.” I finished. “Also, I don’t know if you’ve got a bathroom around here, but I need to pee. And get some water.”
“Remarkable.” Arachne gave no hint as to how she felt about any of that. “But yes, I have been a poor host, one moment.”
Two minutes of being awkwardly whipped around by threads later, and I was back in front of Arachne, one hand free and drinking from a cup.
“I would like to ask a few questions.”
“Naturally. Thanks for letting me get it all out. Just curious for a moment, sorry. Why the hospitality, when you seem determined to execute me?”
Talking ‘normally’ with someone who wanted to execute me was weird, and coloring the tone and every interaction.
“Manners maketh the Immortal.” She primly replied. “Either I execute you, and the entire thing is moot, or by some miracle, you survive. At which point, in the future, you will recall the interaction more favorably than if I had employed… other methods. You claim to be among the ranks of Immortals, and if your claim about the authorship of the Medical Manuscripts alone is true, I will be forced to simply exile you from Exterreri, instead of stringing you up next to the murderers and rapists. Now. Did you encounter a vampire named Vitus at any point during your adventure?”
Vitus, Vitus…. Ah!
“Yeah! He was the vampire who translated for my entrance exams. How’d you know?” I asked, but Arachne didn’t seem to be in the mood to entertain any more of my questions. I shut up.
“What are the 12 cranial nerves for elvenoids?” She asked next.
I stared at her blankly. What did that have to do with anything?
Well, when the ‘I’m going to murder you when you stop talking’ Immortal asks me what the price of mangoes in the third plaza is, I’m going to give her the price of mangoes in the third plaza. Or in this case, the 12 cranial nerves.
“In humans the 12 cranial nerves are olfactory, optic, facial…” I listed them off, then expanded my answer.
“Elves have an additional one for their horns, as do demons, satyrs, minotaurs, and the rest of the horned elvenoids. Mermaids have two extra, no similarities to elves, and they are…”
I went through the exhaustive list of all cranial nerves in different elvenoids, all while Arachne stared on impassively.
“Good. The myotome for finger adduction?”
I answered a few more of her biomancy questions, getting more and more confused by her line of questioning.
“Excellent. You claim to have a perfect memory skill. Are there any holes in your memory? Any unexplained spots? Anything that doesn’t match up?”
I promptly nodded.
“Oh yeah!” I said, sweating as the threads started to tighten around me in a constricting way, starting to dig into me.
“No, wait, I told you! Papilion!” I choked out.
Arachne had narrowed her eyes at me.
“Do you find yourself having any holes in your memory, unexplained spots, discrepancies, or anything that doesn’t properly match up since your claimed reincarnation into Pallos?”
I gulped.
“Fae realm was pretty weird and doesn’t match up.” I squeaked out. Arachne frowned.
“That is… unfortunate. I wished I could rule out a [Biomancer] fabricating memories and inserting them into you. For my next question.”
Arachne interrogated me for what felt like hours, intensely picking at one aspect of the story, then seemingly switching to utterly unrelated items, like the seating arrangement of the chairs in the School library's forbidden section.
I felt a little like I was betraying the School’s confidence as I told Arachne about it, but I’d worked out my list of personal priorities a long time ago. My life versus the School’s trust in a relatively minor matter? No contest.
“Fortunately for you, there is enough corroboration of your tale that I will stay the headsman’s axe for now. Not that such a device would stall you for long, by the sound of it.” Arachne concluded the interrogation.
I tilted my head a bit, the threads having loosened enough. I didn’t want to ask, to bug her, but she could read me like an open book.
“Vitus sent a letter a few years back mentioning a woman, speaking Creation, who claimed the title of Sentinel.” Arachne said, and I paled at how badly that could’ve turned out for me. “Marcelle is your biggest defender. My agent has already spoken with her, and she confirmed your claims of writing the original Medical Manuscripts. You have my personal thanks for that, the book has saved my own life. Ranger Team Gale reported a fascinating encounter with a phoenix a few weeks ago, heading towards Sanguino. There were quite a few moments of consternation until I was able to observe Auri. Such a darling. Your mercantile friend is filled with strangeness, one well-explained by time and trades with the fae. Then there is your badge.”
One of Arachne’s many threads came into her room, my Sentinel badge on the end of it. The same badge that had been safely tucked away in my room.
“Hey!” I instinctively protested, but Arachne only laughed at me.
“It is yours, but an interesting artifact nonetheless. And it will prove, one way or another, if your story is true.”
I made the connection, the implications electrifying me like Artemis’s bolt.
“You know Night!?” I tried to shoot up out of the chair, entirely forgetting that I was tied to it.
She gave me a puzzled look.
“Naturally. After all.” She indicated the intricate tattoo around her neck. “I married him.”
Arachne walked out of the room, the threads puppetting me and forcing me to walk along when it became clear that I was too shell-shocked to respond.
Night?
Night was married!?
Who - wait, I knew that. HOW!? Why - wait, that one was obvious as well. WHAT!?
I had the presence of mind to at least trace where I was going through the tunnels, and they abruptly morphed. From crudely hewn stone to perfectly straight and smooth stone of a single material, the tunnel changed.
Then we were at the end, passing through a set of doors.
“Hey love! Got a few minutes?” Arachne called.
Slow footsteps echoed through the underground house, and in just a moment, my friend, my mentor, my boss, walked through a door.
Night.
[Name: Elaine]
[Race: Chimera (Elvenoid)]
[Age: 27]
[Mana: 0/904,360]
[Mana Regen: 554,429 (+1,109,372)]
Stats
[Free Stats: 0]
[Strength: 1,361]
[Dexterity: 9,967]
[Vitality: 31,508]
[Speed: 31,540]
[Mana: 90,436]
[Mana Regeneration: 90,561 (+110,937)]
[Magic Power: 55,399 (+1,420,984)]
[Magic Control: 55,277 (+1,417,855)]
[Class 1: [The Dawn Sentinel - Celestial: Lv 513]]
[Celestial Affinity: 513]
[Cosmic Presence: 328]
[The Stars Never Fade: 15]
[Center of the Universe: 473]
[Dance with the Heavens: 513]
[Wheel of Sun and Moon: 513]
[Mantle of the Stars: 495]
[Sunrise: 472]
[Class 2: [Butterfly Mystic - Radiance: Lv 490]]
[Radiance Affinity: 490]
[Radiance Resistance: 490]
[Nova Lance: 490]
[Lepidoptera: 490]
[Nectar: 490]
[Solar Corona: 490]
[Scintillating Ascent: 490]
[Kaleidoscope: 490]
[Class 3: [The Very Hungry Bookwyrm - Spatial: Lv 117]]
[Spatial Affinity: 117]
[Comprehensive Speed Reading: 117]
[Channeled Blink: 42]
[Bookwyrm's Hoard: 117]
[Beneath the Dragon's Eyes: 117]
[Vivid Dream Reading: 117]
[Astral Archives: 117]
[Hunger for Knowledge: 117]
General Skills
[Long-Range Identify: 400]
[Parallel Thoughts: 177]
[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 508]
[The World Around Me: 80]
[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 513]
[Sentinel's Superiority: 513]
[Persistent Casting: 432]
[Imbue: 189]
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