Their body ached, and their mind began to spin as Azotreh awoke. They could sense Nicholas, Fuzem, and Errazorrus still nested soundly within their soul, but they somehow felt distant. Azotreh could track where they were instinctively, but it still made them feel awfully lonely.
They opened their eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. The room was dark, though some twilight filtered in through the window beside the rather soft bed.
They could also feel Ruby wrapped around their right arm. She awoke a moment after Azotreh. She immediately moved to curl up on their face, making sure they were still breathing. That got Azotreh to sit up.
Ruby plopped into their lap with a whine before wagging her tails. She bared her claws and ripped her way up Azotreh's chest to settle around their shoulders like a fur scarf.
Her claws were a bit blunt, but still hurt. Even so, Azotreh let them climb. Just letting her be safe on their neck felt good.
Azotreh climbed out of the bed and landed softly on a carpeted floor. The carpet was made from a single massive bear pelt, though its head was instead on the nightstand, with a light stone in its mouth. The macabre sight didn't faze Azotreh as much as they thought it should have.
Azotreh stretched a bit before noticing a simple tunic and pants folded in a corner of the room. Azotreh pulled the short pants on before attempting to pull the shirt over their head. They expected Ruby to be the problem, but the real problem was the pair of rabbit ears sitting on their head.
They twitched one of the ears instinctively, then did it again. They didn't remember rabbit ears. They didn't have rabbit ears before, did they?
They reached into the soul bond. While the other three seemed to be doing something with the dungeon, Azotreh could still reach them. Nicholas's presence suddenly grew stronger, in more ways than one.
Before, Azotreh could only communicate with the others through faint emotions while in control of the body. They could only speak if they entered their soul realm and actually talked to them.
Now, Nicholas's voice entered their mind directly.
Yo, what's up?
It was startling enough that Azotreh went silent for a moment, but their life was getting stranger every day. Sudden new changes to their own communication aren't that off-putting to them.
"Why do I have bunny ears?" Azotreh asked.
Azotreh felt a slight hesitation from Nicholas as he spoke, Well, you know how you were unconscious after the dungeon nexus was formed?
"Yeah?"
Errazorrus wasn't. He selected our dungeon faction as the Black Dragon faction. Why there isn't just a dragon faction is beyond me.
Nicholas paused as he considered the question, then just shrugged.
Magic is magic, I guess. Anyway, so we found out that we couldn't get new monster blueprints from advancing the faction because certain common abilities allow certain beings to collect information. Most dungeons aren't people who ate dungeon nexi. Due to our… peculiar acquisition of it, we got hit with a limitation.
But we discovered we actually had two different abilities that could gather monster blueprints for us. Analysis grabs small amounts of the information for later storage. Most people lose that information, but because of Records of Existence, we keep it, allowing us to slowly collect entire blueprints from repeated analysis. The other is Gluttonous Devouring. It lets us take aspects of things we eat, including blueprint fragments.
"What does any of this have to do with me having bunny ears?" Azotreh asked.
I'm getting there. So, Errazorrus finds out that we can get blueprints from Gluttonous Devouring, and we kept collecting those rabbit corpses. So he ate them, getting the Nightshade Horned Rabbit as a monster we can spawn in the dungeon. Errazorrus is fond of the little things. But that also affected our body.
"Why would dungeon blueprints affect our body?" Azotreh was growing more nervous by the second. Ruby wrapped herself a little tighter, reminding Azotreh that she was here for them. Azotreh petted the fox affectionately as Nicholas continued.
That's complicated. Well, not really complicated. Whenever we're threatened, the animalistic instincts of Errazorrus and Fuzem take over. You saw it when the tribulation hit, the way we mimicked dragon scales and teeth. Haven't you noticed that you subconsciously don't have your wings or tail anymore?
Azotreh turned their head 180 degrees to look at their back, and sure enough, no wings or tail to speak of. But it was curious, not having them.
Turns out, whatever Fuzem is based on has a mimicry feature. According to the literally nothing I know, I assume it's to better do whatever it does. All I remember is the doc mentioning something called Qirazzaric, or something.
The mimicry thing was transferred to Fuzem and likely to the others of her kind. Though my guess is that they won't be as good as us, considering that we're always mimicking your form.
Something clicked into place in Azotreh as they remembered the experiments of what Ruby called The Enslaver. Every time that brutal knife was used on them, before they passed out, their body spilled semi-transparent blue fluid instead of blood.
They knew their species had changed; their status showed as much, but they hadn't fully put together what that meant until now. There was quite a difference between being told you weren't human and truly not being one.
Even so, Azotreh pushed that from their mind. They had just subconsciously turned their head 180 degrees, so it should have been clear that they weren't anywhere near human.
"So I'm mimicking the rabbit ears based on the horned rabbit? Why don't I have the horn?"
Azotreh only got back a spiritual shrug from Nicholas. Azotreh ran their hand over their head, pulling back their hair. As it turned out, a tiny horn had appeared on their forehead, just below their hairline.
They shrank it away after, this time with a little conscious effort. They were surprised when Nicholas shouted in their mind. A moment later, a system prompt appeared in front of Azotreh.
[You have unveiled Innate Ability: Mimicry]
Unveiled? So we already had it? Nicholas asked. Azotreh didn't know.
Just then, the door opened.
A rabbit-kin with purple hair and green highlights entered the room.
They were a model of lean muscle, and from the aura they were emitting, only a rank or so higher than Azotreh. Pale skin and intelligent eyes looked at Azotreh.
Azotreh responded by immediately getting on all fours, back arched like a cat. Ruby, still wrapped around their neck, leapt onto their back and growled low in her throat.
Azotreh didn't even notice their shirt riding up a little, revealing a small scar just above their tailbone. But the rabbit-kin noticed, and a look of pity crossed his face.
Azotreh only backed away a bit, analyzing the rabbit-kin.
[Unknown Rabbit-Kin - Nickel Rank]
Analysis returned a tiny result, or so it seemed, but Nicholas quickly vanished from Azotreh's mind, making them even more cautious.
Azotreh was about to begin slinging slime, and the one attack ability they knew, but the rabbit-kin raised both hands in a harmless way. Not in the way some spellcasters raise their hands when preparing a spell, but instead a proper showing that he meant no harm.
The rabbit-kin spoke a language Azotreh didn't understand. When Azotreh didn't respond, the rabbit-kin spoke another, more guttural language. Azotreh still didn't understand it.
The rabbit-kin waited for a response before swapping to the human common tongue.
"I mean no harm, child." He said in broken common.
"And how do I know that?" Azotreh asked with a slight growl in the back of their throat.
The rabbit-kin's face broke into a frown as he spoke, "Because I haven't killed you yet."
Azotreh knew it was true. They'd been taught from an early age that someone of a higher rank was roughly equivalent to ten lower rankers of the same grade. Considering Azotreh was G-Grade, that likely meant that this rabbit-kin, if they'd made much progress in their rank, was at least ten times Azotreh's match.
Azotreh slowly let their muscles relax, just a bit. The rabbit-kin stepped into the room at a casual speed, letting Azotreh watch their movements.
"Cute pet," the rabbit-kin said, reaching out to Ruby. But Ruby was not feeling cooperative with the possible threat and sank into Azotreh's body, becoming a tattoo like a fox mask on Azotreh's face.
"Not a pet then, a familiar." The rabbit-kin nodded approvingly. "Good to bond the young, lets them grow up together. Tell me, child, from what clan do you hail?"
"Clan?" Azotreh responded questioningly.
"Yes, which of the three clans have you come from? Your hair is a peculiar color for a nightshade rabbit."
Azotreh reached up subconsciously to their head, the black, blue, and white hair on their head obviously different from the purple and green hair of the rabbit-kin.
"I- I do not belong to a clan…" Azotreh said. They couldn't even remember their family name. The only reason they remembered Azotreh was because it was emblazoned on their stat sheet.
"Clanless? Then where do you hail? The clans of the north have white hair, and those of the swamps often have almost black hair. But blue is not common unless an archmage was somewhere in your family line."
"I hail from outside the forest…"
"Outside? How did you get in?"
Azotreh shook their head. On one hand, they remembered the monster. The force, the hit, and the flight. But that entire time was a bit of a blur. They also didn't want to reveal that they'd come in with any experiments still running around. They knew there were others, since the party that had come after them had called them by their experimental name.
"I… I don't remember…" Azotreh mumbled.
"You're quite the enigma, child. What's your name?"
"Azotreh."
"Hmm… rather fitting, given your circumstances."
"Fitting?" Azotreh asked, curious. They knew their name meant heroic child or something in their parents' native language, but they didn't see how that could be fitting.
"Oh, right, you don't know Aemabi."
Azotreh stumbled over the unfamiliar word, "Aemabi?" They asked.
"The language of the emerald nightshade clan rabbit-kin. It's the second language I tried speaking to you in. The first was Ilmabi. Anyway, in both languages, Azotreh means 'lost child.'"
The rabbit-kin grinned, "Fitting, isn't it?"
Azotreh was stunned a bit. Especially after they felt Nicholas' will reappear inside their mind.
Kid, what'd you do?
Azotreh didn't want to sound crazy, so they tried to send thoughts back instead of speaking aloud.
What do you mean, what did I do?
Nicholas groaned again before sending Azotreh the new system windows.
[New Skill: Aemabi A-1]
[For learning a new language, you have unlocked the Language Series of skills.]
[Unveiled Skills: Scinparic M-2, English M-4, Spanish J-14, Italian A-99, Latin A-12, Chrodraco E-3, Bladraco E-7, Redraco J-91, Bludraco J-76, Whidraco J-55, Aquan E-4, Slimish A-1]
[New Skill: Ilmabi A-1]
[For reaching Journeyman tier in a skill, you have received one Common System Boon]
[For reaching Expert tier in a skill, you have received one Uncommon System Boon]
[For reaching Master tier in a skill, you have received one Scarce System Boon]
[Current System Boons: 1 Epic, 2 Scarce, 5 Uncommon, 10 Common]
[You have gained…]
[Gained Ability: Aura Telepathy]
Then it stated that they'd gained a bunch of depth and density in quite a number of Potens. They were mostly Intelligence, Wisdom, and Perception, which massively boosted those potens, but what was shocking were the results from the draco languages and Aquan. Both gave mana increases.
The sudden massive poten gain drove Azotreh to the floor, clutching their chest. Blue-transparent light bled from their eyes, and the rabbit-kin was beside them in a second.
"What's wrong? Azotreh?"
Azotreh coughed up some slime, which quickly dissolved into essence smoke.
Then they passed out.
"They seem to pass out a lot, don't they?" The hydra asked as she watched the child pass out again. She was surprised they were still watching them, considering how much damage a tribulation can do. She kind of assumed they were dead, even with her vampiric buddy's insistence that they were still alive.
Worse, a fourth person had joined their little triumvirate of watching the kid. The Lord Rabbit Nightshade stood beside Chief Bloodskull. While all four had avatars out doing other things, their true bodies were holed up watching a fascinating anomaly.
The Lord Rabbit looked up at the imposing hydra and spoke.
"Why do you never take on your human form anymore? This place is awfully cramped with that huge body of yours."
"Are you calling me fat?"
"I am."
"Fuck you."
The Lord Rabbit grinned, "Only if you ask nicely, you old hag."
The hydra raised her voice enough to shake the walls of her cave as she spoke, "You're older than me, you old fart!"
The rabbit waved his hand, "Only by a couple thousand years. It's not that bad."
The vampire shushed them as he finally realized why the kid had passed out. He slapped one palm to his cheek in embarrassment that it took him so long.
"Why didn't one of you youngins tell me sooner?" He asked in his most stereotypical old voice. Both the Lord Rabbit and Hydra glared at him disapprovingly, though Chief Bloodskull chuckled.
"Tell you what?"
"Why the kid passed out."
"There's a why? I thought they just passed out." The hydra said, the Lord Rabbit nodding in agreement. Lord Bloodskull just looked mildly confused.
"I don't understand why we're friends sometimes." The vampire shook his head as he pulled out a set of crystals. They created a holographic screen between them, like the system screens they'd all seen their whole life. It would be a little disconcerting to most, seeing the system being controlled like that, but to those who knew anything about the real world, it was some basic stuff.
The vampire put on some blood red glasses before pulling a stick from his storage. He pointed at the screen as text started to appear.
"See, the kid was just taught a word in Ilmabi, right?" The other three nodded.
"Well, they only knew the human common tongue, Scinparic, until now. Considering they're natively fluent, I have no doubt it's reached Master tier. But when you advance a skill, it grants some potens and other benefits."
"Right," Lord Bloodskull began, "so it's like when I combined Club Mastery and Pole Mastery to make Blunt Weapon Mastery, and it instantly gave me a hundred depth to my strength?"
The vampire snapped his fingers, "Exactly. They were only journeyman one, so you only got a hundred points immediately. And it hurt, right? Getting all of that so abruptly?"
The orc nodded.
"Now imagine if it were master-tier. Worse, imagine having another person in there. What if they had another language of their own? What if you instantly gained eight hundred depth in strength at tin rank?"
The orc's nodding froze.
"I'd probably die."
"And yet they're only passing out. They'd probably die if it were just the kid, but there are four of them, and a dungeon nexus. Providing healing energy. The combination is probably what's keeping them alive."
"The required willpower…"
The vampire turned to the Lord Rabbit, "Make sure the emerald tribe doesn't kill that kid. I'm pretty sure they got a powerful blessing somewhere in there, too."
"You think they can be a candidate?"
"I hope so."