Chapter 331

  Can You Give Me A Hand?

  (Valeria)

  Watching her Master work was truly a sight to behold. Ruthless dedication to ensuring both a standard production rate, and for constantly trying to improve.

  From her time in the Legrand Empire, Valeria had been made aware of the speed and rate of which Dr. Spiritlight received praise after praise. Recognitions that felt like they were being heaped upon her for effectively doing nothing. That was the process of thought when she first met her, but things change when you are there in the moment.

  For her part, Valeria had never known that certain moments in time could have an actual weight, or gravity to them. Yet, watching Dr. Spiritlight work proved that there is a vortex effect for certain moments. These are events with a singularity that pull you in and let you know you are about to witness something amazing.

  Such moments, or rather the time leading up to such powerful moments are hard to define. Looking back on it, there was the odd tingling sensation of skin at the back of her neck, the way her hair seemed to raise up at being aware of an unknown energy being culminated. But ultimately the thing that proved that Valeria herself was not going crazy was the way everyone around them, especially those students who just so happened to be in the viewing balcony of the Supply Depot all stared on in slack jawed amazement at the moment stretching out before them.

  Valeria herself kept finding herself breaking away every so often, looking around just to seemingly make sure that the world hadn’t slipped away from being directly focused on the Doctor and her Clone.

  There was an oddity to the clone, having spent so much time watching the two interact, it was clear to Valeria which one was the clone. Yes, there was the fact that the clone never spoke, but that was just a ruse. Everyone knew that the clone could talk, at least that was the scuttlebutt going round, yet no one ever had a moment when they could prove definitively that the clone was the one speaking and not the Doctor who changed places with the clone at the last moment.

  Such actions made no sense to Valeria, ultimately this factoid was squirreled away yet another odd eccentricity of the Doctor. Oddly enough, the clone did apparently give advice and guidance to Dr. Spiritlight, a fact that was proven after an apparently shared note. Then the clone took over when Dr. Spiritlight got distracted.

  Valeria had been warned that she could get distracted, but it was never expressed as being this bad. Normally distractedness would come in the form of realizing a keyway to solve a particular problem or figuring out a life lesson that the world would announce for everyone to witness.

  Now though, now Valeria could see the cracks starting to form. As it was clear that Dr. Spiritlight was pressing too hard. There were slight bags under her eyes. Of course, those bags just glowed and radiated power, that and given her otherwise youthful face and one could almost assume it was a new beauty mark. But it wasn’t.

  These were the signs of someone who was haunted. Which made sense as even now the Doctor seemed to avoid any reference to where she was for a month, how her time there was, or what exactly she was forced to do while there.

  Even Zero looked exhausted whenever he showed up. Their bond, that of Master and her familiar’s was amazing, they were able to bring those living skill books back to life, the Libre, to their maximum potential. Valeria was certain that such an act should not have been possible. It was an action that made no sense and was up there with that Hollywood Wars series, you know the one where the guy with a hoodie gets struck down and becomes infinitely more powerful. That was what happened this time.

  Yet, despite her constant successes, the Doctor never seemed happy. She smiled, a feature that was seemingly an automatic feature on her face, but that smile never met her eyes. Even when she succeeded it seemed to feel hollow to her, as she did it. Hours’ worth of work and research of not just her, but her own clone put together and finally made a change to an extreme level Alchemy potion generated by the system as a reward.

  Even from the side of the room, the fact that the Doctor had done what she set out to do, exact change on a Legendary recipe and improve upon it had come to fruition. An effect that was easy to see based on how the liquid went from a light blue mixture to a slightly dull orange. A slightly dull orange that still glowed with pan intensity that was easily twice that of the standard vials the Doctor had been filling up to this point.

  Valeria knew she had succeeded the moment the new potion had been created, for it was at that moment the one where the orange mixture began to pour into the vial that the intense pressure of the room seemed to finally give way. As gravity seemed to relax its hold and no longer pull everyone towards the doctor and her clone.

  Then Valeria finally noted the reason why the Doctor seemed off. It was there at that moment of triumph that seemed to galvanize the fact that Dr. Spiritlight was not doing well. For there in contrast to her forced smile was a smile made by her clone. A clone that was absolutely beaming at the success that Dr. Spiritlight had finally achieved. Yet, the Doctor only seemed to be frustrated with herself.

  She hadn’t known her long, but it was clear something was off.

  Then just when she made a note that she would step forward and do something, or at least tell the Doctor some words of encouragement, that’s when disaster struck.

  “Get that out of your mouth, no wait, come here, what is that?”

  ***

  (Penelope Tailor)

  Pets, they are great until they are very annoying and do something they shouldn’t, then they are just okay, for a time.

  Penelope knew that Umbra was up to no good.

  How did she know? Well, the reason for her knowledge was simple, Umbra, the still growing albino Dire Phase wolf pup that started off as the runt of the litter but soon grew to be twice the size of his fellow packmates due to his special blend formula provided by Dr. Spiritlight herself. A formula that was then supplemented by Gwendolyn Spiritlight, after the Doctor’s departure caused the hound to bulk up.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  Not in size, but in muscle mass and fluffiness. That fluff was a huge distraction though, for while it might mean that the pup looked cuddly, which he was. Said fluff also had an alternate effect of providing a dense lair of protection from other attacking monsters. This same fluff was also a way that Penelope could use to gauge just how much trouble the young pup had gotten into.

  This time was no exception, for the pup who had been seemingly power leveling, going up twenty-four levels in the time that they were here watching the Doctor work was alarming.

  For a time, Penelope wanted to go out and see exactly what mischief the pup was getting up to, for that leveling was at a pace that was roughly eight levels an hour. Not an unheard-of rate for lower level creatures, especially creatures out here, but it was concerning that Umbra was going out alone.

  Still, Penelope’s desire to be here with Cass, during whatever she was clearly going through and seeing her brilliance on display once more, outweighed her want to protect her pup.

  Also, the pup’s health never dropped too low, taking damage and then somehow being able to heal said damage almost instantly. Penelope still wasn’t fully aware of all of the tactics that the albino terror could use and employ, but he was fine, mostly.

  There was also the knowledge that Cass could Resurrect the pup, if worse came to worst. That said, Cass clearly was focused, her tongue was out, which invariably caused all of the hairs on the back of her and all other guild members’ necks to rise up in tension. These were the magic moments, ones where the very laws of the universe were first proven, then used to show how the changes that Cass wanted to make were not only possible, but the way the world should be.

  Poof.

  A slight feeling of tension eased in Penelope’s soul, as she could feel Umbra coming closer. Better still, he was in that spatial tunnel system that his entire family could use. Penelope knew that so long as Umbra remained in that spatial tunnel system, he would be fine.

  Which was good, as Cass was now starting to argue with herself, and lose.

  Penelope tried to wonder what it would be like to have multiple versions of her running around but then stopped as it was not something she truly wanted. Especially after seeing the way Cass had to seemingly argue with her own Simulacrum. Worse, she was arguing and losing.

  Then just as Cass managed to finally relax after trying and altering the formula she had been given so many times, she succeeded. Of course, that exact moment is when Umbra decided to plop down, right next to Penelope, where he laid down and began gnawing at some type of bone that was in his mouth.

  Realizing this was a sterilized environment, Penelope tried to get Umbra to stop.

  “Get that out of your mouth,” Penelope began, then bending over she saw something that sent shivers down her spine, “no wait, come here, what is that?”

  As Penelope tried to reach down to grab the item from her pup’s maw, it got up and began to move away.

  “Is that a human hand?” Gwen cried out from across the room. Of course, Gwen would have been able to see the hand clearly with her strange, odd Angel’s Sight, the same type of sight that Cass had.

  “Get it,” Penelope cried out, seeing the green nature of the appendage being chewed and realizing that it would likely cause indigestion. Indigestion that Penelope would either need to clean if it happened here. Or if she was lucky, the Sacrificial Altar that Cass, well Rune-Ulacrum had created would clean up the mess for her.

  At first, Penelope used to fear the Kujo Caverns, but now she truly appreciated the functionality that Cass had put into that place. It was a Godsend.

  Scamper.

  Umbra, feeling both persecuted for his food choices and seeming to think this was a game, seemed to smile as he stood up and began darting forward, right towards Cass and her Simulacrum.

  FWOOSH!

  That was the exact moment that the oddity of what Umbra had found and chosen as his snack of choice began to react violently. Flames erupted from the appendage, burning Umbra’s mouth.

  “ARGH! ARGH! ARGH!” Umbra cried out, having dropped the still slowly burning appendage on the ground. After dropping said appendage, Umbra began running forward and cowering down and between the free-floating bodies of Cass and her clone. Then hunkering down to create as small of a ball as possible, he buried his head under his paws and began to try to hide, using Cass as his safety net. That was something that Penelope was still getting used to, while the entire pack mostly followed her and her orders, it was clear that they had all imprinted with Cass first, and therefore felt most comfortable with her.

  Yet, that wasn’t the problem right now, as currently Penelope was more concerned about the flaming hand that was now leaving scorched silhouettes on the ground. The flames had been intense as they apparently took off a portion of the poor pup’s health. Health that was now slowly kicking back up, thanks to being in Cass’s Healing Aura. Another reason why the pups and other tamed creatures seemed to feel most comfortable about Cass.

  Meanwhile, Cass and her Simulacrum seemed to show that they were one and the same, for rather than looking down at Umbra, they both stopped everything they were doing and tilted their heads to the side as they stared at the still burning appendage. A completely useless gesture as they were functionally blind, but the act seemed to work as they both peered at the burning appendage, before turning to face each other. A note of understanding filling their faces.

  Cass for her part floated backwards.

  This caused an awkward moment where Umbra who had been covering his face seemed to realize the slight shifting of the body above him and began low crawling forward, until he was once again underneath Cass. Simultaneously, her Simulacrum stayed still at first, until Cass had moved back far enough that it had a clear effect on the rate of erosion that was now affecting the burning hand.

  The two both stared at the burning husk, then after a few seconds Cass nodded her head. At which point the Simulacrum began floating forward slowly.

  FWOOSH!

  There was an instant increase in the intensity of the flames as Cass’s Simulacrum moved closer to the burning hand. Then another nod from Cass, and suddenly the pressure in the room dropped even more.

  It was an odd sensation, almost as if a cold breeze had blown through, after an overly effective heater had been turned off. The effects of this change were apparent on multiple levels, for just as Penelope suddenly felt the cold chill of the world around her. The hand that had been burning with a raging intensity suddenly died down, until finally the flames went away completely.

  At that, Cass nodded three times, apparently having expected this type of reaction, or something similar to this happening.

  “Well that was interesting,” Cass called out, her words adding a levity to the situation that seemed to have spiraled out of control rather quickly.

  Whoosh.

  Just as before, it seemed like another space heater suddenly went out and the world became a little colder all of the sudden. Rune-Ulacrum went over to the discarded appendage and grimaced as she reached down and seemed like she was about to pick up the discarded appendage.

  “Eww, don’t touch it,” Cass cried out, then she held out a hand and caused the appendage to rise up from the ground and fly towards her.

  There was just one issue with the sequence of events. Or rather, there was just one problem that resulted due to this series of events. The problem was that the closer the burnt, gnarled, and chewed upon hand got closer to Cass, the more it began to glow with a malevolent dark green energy as it began to seemingly heal itself.

  “Yeah, that’s not disgusting,” Cass muttered as she brought the floating hand up to eye level and opening her third eye began to peer into the rapidly regenerating hand.

  Now it was clear that Penelope had not been wrong in her assessment that the skin of the hand was in fact green, meaning that Umbra needed to be grounded to the Kujo Caverns, otherwise she would have to spend a long time cleaning up after the pup later tonight.

  Cass stared at the appendage for a long moment, and then her posture seemed to change as she turned and moved just enough so she could stare down directly at a still cowering Umbra.

  “Umbra,” Cass began, her tone laced with authority. Just hearing her speak caused a chill to run down Penelope’s spine as she found herself drawn to stare at Cass.

  Umbra for his part just seemed to cower and tremble a little bit more. Here he was, the next oversized alpha of a likely new breed of Dire Phase wolves, and he was cowering at the way Cass called out his name. Now that was true power. Looking on, Penelope could only watch to see what exactly was found. It had to be something important given the gravity that was now filling the room.

  “Umbra, sit.”

  Reluctantly Umbra got up from a cowering state and sat.

  “Now open your mouth wide,” Cass demanded, her tone calm and pleasant, but still Umbra quivered and cowered at the command. Apparently he realized he might have done something wrong. That was why, without any further protestations, Umbra opened his mouth and even stuck out his tongue, letting Cass get a full view of the phase wolf’s maw.

  “Gah, you need to brush,” Cass stated before opening her third eye and peering all around inside the beast’s open maw.

  “Yep, just as I expected,” Cass stated coldly, “you’ve been infected, though I don’t think it has taken root within you, just yet.”

  “Infected?” Gwen called out first, she was always the one who felt the most comfortable talking to Cass, something that Penelope truly wished she could mimic.

  “Yes, this seems to be a new mana devouring form of the Blight, though I’m not quite certain what caused this exact mutation. I do know that this hand originally came from a human male.” Cass stated calmly, as if the idea of an new variant of the Blight epidemic filling the land wasn’t something to be concerned about.

  “So what should we do?” Valeria asked, moving closer to Cass as she spoke and all but making Penelope feel like she was completely left out of the conversation. Or that she would be somehow imposing herself to further encroach upon Cass’s space.

  “Simple, find the virus, develop a cure, and voila.”

  Poof.

  As Cass spoke, the gangrenous appendage that had been growing to near capacity by being within the aura radius of Cass suddenly erupted into smoke and ash.

  “A cure,” Cass concluded.

  And like that, Penelope, as was becoming a habit, suddenly found herself speechless in front of Cass.