When it was eventually Emilia’s turn to be served eggs and toast, though, Zora made sure to trudge over and steal one of her crunchy eggs, tossing it into his mouth as he gave her a playful wink.

  “Wait for the two of us in the eastern foyer, okay?” he said, patting her head over the countertop as he slipped a piece of bloodberry candy onto her plate as well. She started salivating the moment she smelled the human-flesh candy in front of her. “We’ll go out and get the other teachers soon, so finish your plate and don’t throw any of it into the bin. Even a spider saves every thread for its web.”

  He didn’t wait to see if she was doing as he asked. The water was boiling and popping violently behind him, so he raced back over the stove and turned the fire down, peering into the pot. The legs looked red enough. Cecilia eventually walked over to check on his progress as well, and the two of them stared blankly down like witches waiting around a magic cauldron.

  There was still the giant moth carcass they could eat in the western foyer, but they’d closed that door for the time being. They physically wouldn’t have the stomach to eat and digest any part of the moth for breakfast, and they didn’t want any kid wandering in and freaking out over the giant carcass.

  “... For a humble language arts teacher, you sure know a lot about the Magicicada Witches,” Cecilia said quietly, helping him stir the pot with her wand.

  “A butterfly knows more than the garden it lands in,” he replied plainly, poking one of the legs with his wand to see if it was tender enough. “In fact, I’m surprised you don’t know who the Magicicada Witches are. Our Magicicada Classes were developed a long time ago based on their magic and mutations, after all. The mutations we can unlock are mutations they already have, and our magics are exactly identical.”

  “The mages are quite the secretive bunch, after all,” she mumbled, “and so are you.”

  He didn't respond to that, and Cecilia looked at him quietly.

  She remained silent and picked her words carefully.

  “Do the Magicicada Witches have anything to do with why you ran away from the Fabre Household ten years ago?”

  He stabbed one of the legs with his wand and pulled it out of the pot, still steaming. Cecilia did the same reluctantly, and for a good few seconds, all they did was blow on their legs, trying to cool them down to room temperature.

  “... It’s okay if you don’t wanna tell me,” she said, kicking the back of his knees and smirking as he yelped. “You were always the quiet kid in class, ever since mom picked you up and brought you here ten years ago. Given you’ve never told anyone about your past even as you opened up to me and Marcus and Julius, I’m not about to be annoying and start prying now, but…” she trailed off, kicking the back of his knees again. “If there’s anything important I need to know about the Magicicada Witches, then you have to tell me, okay?”

  He snorted, kicking the back of her knees in return.

  “That goes without saying,” he muttered. “If I knew how to kill Nona, I’d tell the world in a heartbeat. It’s not about either of us here—our kids are the top priority.”

  Cecilia scowled at him as she stood up straight, rubbing the back of her knees. “Glad we’re on the same page, then.”

  They clinked their wands and started stuffing the katydid meat down their throats, choking and gagging once more as they forced themselves to finish the entire pot. With that, they’d obtained the maximum amount of points they could obtain this morning. If they wanted more, they’d have to wait until launch after their stomachs finished crying and digesting all of the katydid meat.

  Open status interface, he thought.

  [Name: Zora Fabre]

  [Grade: E-Rank Giant-Class]

  [Class: Magicicada]

  [Swarmblood Art: God Tongue]

  [Aura: 521]

  [Points: 87]

  [Strength: 2, Speed: 3, Toughness: 3, Dexterity: 2, Perception: 2]

  [// MUTATION TREE]

  [T1 Mutation | Resilin Tymbal Lvl. 1]

  [T2 Mutations | Basic Tympana | Basic Abdovoid] 50P

  He glanced at his status interface as he swallowed the last of the katydid meat, trying not to vomit all of it back into the pot.

  “We’ve got… how many points do you have?” he asked, wiping his lips with the back of his hand. “I got eighty-seven. It’s a bit more than enough to level up a few attributes and unlock one of the tier two mutations.”

  “I got eighty-five,” Cecilia said, squinting at her own status interface off to the side; neither of them could see each other’s screens, though, so he was sure he looked just as stupid staring off into nothing as she was doing from his perspective. “That's still a lot of points, though. Do we have to unlock one of those mutation things? What if we just put everything into strength so our subconscious believes our spells can hit harder?”

  “The mutations are typically worth the points. They’re like… additional passive and active abilities, I hear, while our attribute levels only influence our basic physiology,” he said. “Sure, we could raise our strength levels to four and spend the rest of the points on the other attributes, but I think getting at least one tier two mutation will be worth it. Shame I’ve got no clue what either of them would do, though—”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “A ‘tympana’ is the membrane that protects and amplifies an insect’s hearing, so I’m assuming ‘Basic Tympana’ means we’ll evolve a thin membrane in our ears that’ll enhance our hearing,” she said, pointing at the left mutation. “And when you’re holding more air in your stomach, you can generally project a deeper, louder voice. It’s called ‘diaphragmatic singing’, so I’m assuming ‘Abdovoid’ is short for ‘abdomen’ and ‘void’ together. Considering the strength and range of our spells depend on how strong and far we can project our voice, I’m going to conclude that ‘Basic Abdovoid’ will help us do that just a little bit better.”

  He stared at her, blinking pointedly.

  “I do think you’d still be better off as a cooking teacher instead of a music teacher—”

  “—quiet, you—”

  “But assuming you’re correct, ‘Basic Abdovoid’ sounds better for the time being, no?” he said, cracking his neck as he mused at the options. “We can get both tier two mutations if we have enough points, but I'm not sure it's healthy for us to bloat on bug meat. I don’t presume you have enough room left in your stomach to digest that moth in the foyer, hm?"

  "Sucks to be small-eaters."

  "Which mutation are we unlocking, then?"

  Cecilia tilted her head back, thinking for a moment. “Sharper hearing sounds nice, but it’s also pretty lame if you ask me. Go for ‘Basic Abdovoid’?”

  “I’ll go first to see if it actually does what you think it does.”

  It was the same as increasing his attributes. All he had to do was ‘will’ his system to unlock the tier two mutation on the right, and immediately, he felt his stomach groaning and warbling and… expanding under his skin.

  Visibly, nothing changed.

  Internally, he felt as though he was just a little bit lighter, and the status interface that popped up next to his head confirmed about as much.

  [T2 Mutation Unlocked: Basic Abdovoid Lvl. 1]

  [Brief Description: Your abdomen has become hollow, and you have grown a tymbal exoskeleton membrane along the walls of your abdomen, allowing you to project your voice much stronger and farther with double your strength level. Subsequent levels in this mutation will increase the strength and range of your voice projection. At max level, it will be five times your strength level]

  [Aura: 521 → 571]

  [Unallocated Points: 87 → 37]

  “... Yep. Go ahead and unlock ‘Basic Abdovoid’,” he said. “There’s a ‘brief description’ interfacethat pops up after you unlock a new mutation, by the way. I recall seeing it for the tier one mutation I unlocked the moment I got the Magicicada Class as well.”

  Cecilia needed no telling twice. She gulped and lurched a little as a pop came from her stomach, but then her eyes flitted over her own status interface as she read the brief description as well—he was quite sure they made the correct choice picking this mutation.

  “It says the mutation is ‘level one’ here, though,” she mumbled, pointing at the air. “You said something about… levelling up mutations to increase their strength, and then at certain levels, we can unlock… something?”

  “Branch mutations,” he said, nodding quickly. “One more time for you: the cost to increase a mutation’s level is that mutation’s current level cubed multiplied by its tier, and once a ‘Basic’ mutation reaches level five and ten respectively, we’ll get to choose between three branch mutations that’ll augment the mutation even further. Right now, all ‘Basic Abdovoid’ does is allow us to project our voice stronger and farther, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the branch mutations turn it into a powerhouse mutation at level ten.”

  “And these branch mutation offerings are the same for everyone?”

  He had to think for a moment, scratching the back of his head as he tried to recall what he’d read in a textbook. “Not exactly, I don’t think. Say there are three branch mutations at level five, labelled A, B, and C. If you pick A, then at level ten, you’d get to choose between E, F, and G, but if you pick B at level five, then you’d get to choose between H, I, and J at level ten. The second branch mutations change depending on which first branch mutation you choose.”

  Cecilia mumbled something under her breath—something about ‘you should be a system class instructor instead of a language-arts teacher’—but he ignored it and waved the brief description status interface away.

  They had more important things to talk about than daydreaming about what sort of branch mutations were offered to the Magicicada Class.

  “... So? Who are we looking for first?” he asked, both hands still on the counter as he endured the painful rumbling in his stomach. The mutation process for ‘Basic Abdovoid’ had yet to completely finish. “I’m the only teacher who survived the south, and you’re the only teacher who survived the west, so what next? Go east for Marcus, or go north for Julius?”

  “Marcus,” she grumbled, without missing a beat.

  “Agreed,” he said, nodding vigorously.

  “And we’re taking Emilia with us again, right?”

  He frowned, giving her a blank, empty stare.

  “We can’t just leave her here with the rest of the kids, can we?” he said. “She… should stick with me. Just in case.”

  “But if we’re going to be running into an Insect God, maybe it’d be safer if she were here,” she countered, biting her lip as she glanced back at Emilia, lowering her voice. “Even if she is strong and fast and helpful, and she did save our asses last night with those threads, she’s still—”

  “I know,” he mumbled. “I don’t like it either.”

  “...”

  Cecilia sighed, kicking the back of his knees again.

  "Where are we putting the rest of our points?" she asked.

  "At least one more level in strength, first,” he said without hesitation. “Then we can increase both mutations we currently have by at least one level, and if we have any points left, we can just scatter them across the other attributes evenly.”

  “Shouldn’t we try to aim for a branch mutation quickly first?”

  He shook his head. "Now's not the time to get all creative. Hitting hard is more than half the battle, so let's just hit things hard with more strength and bludgeon through every bug in our way."

  With that, he willed the system to allocate the rest of his points, and he glanced at the status interface only briefly again.

  [Strength: 2 → 3]

  [Dexterity: 2 → 3]

  [Perception: 2 → 3]

  [Resilin Tymbal Lvl. 1 → Resilin Tymbal Lvl. 3]

  [Basic Abdovoid Lvl. 1 → Basic Abdovoid Lvl. 2]

  [Aura: 571 → 606]

  [Points: 37 → 2]

  [Grade: E-Rank Giant-Class → D-Rank Giant Class]

  “... Says here that my ‘grade’ has increased as well,” Cecilia said absentmindedly, staring off into empty air. “So the system now thinks I’m on par with an D-Rank Giant-Class bug?”

  Zora shrugged. “Seems like it.”

  “I don’t wanna be compared to a bug, though.”

  “It’s supposed to be an honour. For your reference, most humans with classes are around A-Rank Critter-Class, which means this stickman right here,” he said, thumbing at himself, “is much more physically fit than your average human.”

  Cecilia looked at him pointedly, her expression one of complete disbelief.

  “Nope,” she said plainly. “I don’t accept it.”

  “The almighty system says so.”

  “Nope.”

  … And Emilia heard everything they were talking about.

  She’d ducked under the countertop the moment Mister Zora gave her her favourite bloodberry candy and turned away. The two teachers had been whispering so quietly amongst themselves that she was just a bit too curious about what adults like Mister Zora and Miss Cecilia talked about when they were alone.

  She hadn’t really planned on overhearing anything important—really, she just wanted to clean her plate and suck on her bloodberry candy somewhere close to Mister Zora—but she’d heard everything they said anyways, and she couldn’t help but feel a painful twinge in her chest as she took small bites out of her toast.

  She didn’t like the toast.

  She didn’t like this ‘normal ‘human food.

  But I can’t be a bother to Mister Zora and Miss Cecilia.

  If they think I’m weak, they’ll leave me behind here.

  If I’m irritating, they’ll leave me behind here.

  I don’t… want that.

  So she ate the toast.

  She forced every last crumb down her mouth and swallowed hard.