Live & Learn [4]

https://discord.gg/ZrWk2jqjbV

AN: Took a short break because I was feeling kind of burned out, I'm back now though.

—

After yet another fruitful session of tutoring under Azazel I made my way back to my lab, with regards to "that" I have found two methods to keep myself sound.

Looking for distractions being one of them, and the other is quite simple. A water bottle—not a see-through one of course.

Naturally I avoid other water surfaces, but I can't just ignore my need for water now can I? And I take showers not baths so that's not a worry.

I don't know if Azazel has noticed something is up with me, either that or he's just pretending not to notice in order to respect my privacy, but the longer this keeps up the more likely it is he'll bring it up.

I have enough self-awareness to know that I'm acting out of character, usually I have this care-free aura around me that only exudes my curiosity and enthusiasm, but now I feel like I'm always on-edge.

It's not that I don't want his help, believe me—it's just that, what am I meant to say? 'Yeah I saw a crazy demon thing in my dreams and now I can't look at water anymore'

I know how pathetic it is that I'm deathly afraid of simply looking at water, but I can't help it, anything to get whatever "that" was away from me is more than welcome right now.

I'll find a way to get rid of this or "it", I have to.

I swiped my card on the smartlock and made my way to the refrigerated sector of my laboratory, where I kept the snake corpse.

I carried it out of its container and took a second to admire its beauty once again. Its purple rounded pupils and jet-black body gave it an almost "royal" appearance.

I brought it to my personalized workshop and placed it down—putting on my gloves and grabbing a scalpel shortly after.

I made an incision on the top of its head, and used pins to pry the skin and flesh open. I now had access to its fully exposed brain.

It was time for the reanimation process to begin—snakes have relatively small brains so I had to be extra cautious when going through with the procedure, luckily I'm anything but a rookie with a Transmitter.

Snakes have elongated brains as well as a special structure near their nose called the "Jacobson's Organ"—it gives them the unique ability to quite literally both taste and smell the air.

There are four parts to a snake's brain I have to pay attention to, firstly the largest part of the brain, the Telencephalon, or the forebrain—this is where most of the thinking and judgment of the animal is done, or as we like to call it "Animal Instinct".

During this procedure this will be the most important section I need to pay attention to, none of the other structures of its brain can survive without it. I grabbed the transmitter and carefully drew an elementary looking flask with my fermented [Mana].

I had drawn a similar one on my hand as I need a seal as well to allow me to connect to my golem.

I took a deep breath and steadied my grip on the Transmitter, just as the manual said a single puncture would cause the entire operation to be rendered useless, there was no room for error.

I had high hopes for this species, as the combination of a hood and rounded pupils both pointed towards it being possibly an Underworld variant of a King Cobra.

But I didn't value it so highly because of its "power" after all I had no idea what it could do, but rather for its potentially high intelligence.

King Cobra's are considered the most intelligent species of snake for numerous reasons, such as the ability to differentiate its handler from other humans and the ability to recognize its own territory.

I know that alone isn't very impressive, but hear me out. Regular hog's are considered quite intelligent as well, and its Underworld variant had the ability to comprehend the concept of trade, even between other species.

Now whether a King Cobra is more intelligent than a hog is arguable, but my point being, its Underworld variant should also be quite special as well.

I continued to mark a straight line from its forebrain to its hindbrain or Medulla Oblongata—now it was time to start branching out.

I had to make sure to cover each component of its brain—even if I somehow managed to make it function once again, an incomplete circuit would just lead to an essentially brain dead golem—which I would rather not have.

Slowly but surely I continued to branch out, following the instructions the manual provided me as closely as possible.

…

Two hours later—I had finally managed to complete the circuiting, I wiped the sweat off my forehead and loosened the pins that were digging into its skin.

I gently held the opened skin together and changed the [Mana] inside the Transmitter with [Light Magic]—using its healing properties I carefully sealed it up and prepared for the moment of truth.

I injected a portion of my energy from [Flame Shake] into the snake and felt the seal begin to absorb it.

Suddenly I felt a radiating pain swelling within my right hand—specifically where I had drawn the seal. Although—despite the pain I was filled with glee, this was a sign of a connection forming between me and my golem.

After a few minutes of waiting the sensation had died down—I went closer to its body to inspect its condition.

And before I could even react there it was—a jet-black cobra with its hood flared staring me right in the face.

It's speed was so ridiculous I didn't even get to see a blur nor afterimage of its movements.

Despite its glare for some reason I felt no sense of danger, as if it wouldn't dare to harm me no matter the situation—or more accurately, that it couldn't.

'Who are you?' a feminine voice echoed in my head. This thing has telepathy? Or perhaps that's just a side-effect of it being linked to me.

Furthermore it can communicate verbally, it seems my hunch about its intelligence was correct. But I doubt it knows any human languages so how can I understand it? Another side-effect of it being my golem perhaps.

"Long story short—you were given to me as a corpse, and I basically brought you back to life" I replied.

'Why do I feel connected to you? What have you done to me!?' it hissed, strange—either golems retain their memories prior to their reanimation, or there's something special about this one.

"Relax, relax—I'm not going to harm you, rather I'd like to form a partnership with you" I really have no idea whether I'm picking the right words or not—but hey, it's not like I have much experience in negotiating with snakes.

Though I expected them to be obedient right off the bat, I guess I can't have everything handed to me.

'Partnership? Why would I form one with someone like you?'

Time to take a gamble.

"Give me a minute" I went to one of the storage units where I kept most of the "substances" I wanted to analyze further.

I came out with a vial containing the sap I had collected in the Volcanic Marshes—it worked on the hog, so it might work on her.

'What is that divine substance!' Seems my gamble paid off.

"If you work for me, I can promise you a lifetime supply of this" I said as I wiggled the vial in my hand, bribery is one of the best forms of negotiation—don't look that up.

Do I actually have a lifetime supply of this? Nope—actually my current stock is very limited, but with the power of pestering Azazel constantly, anything is possible—well, almost anything but you get my point.

'Very well I'll accept your partnership, now hurry up and give it to me!' Something about hearing that line from a female voice just feels wrong.

(AN: *whistle*)

I opened the vial and poured it into her mouth—this thing really has an effect on animals from the Volcanic Marshes, perhaps now I'll get some answers as to what it actually does.

"Now then—since we're partners from this moment onwards, I suppose I need a way to refer to you, do you have a name?"

'Name? What's that?' How stupid of me, she's a snake of course she's not going to live by human terms.

"It's something used to refer to someone else, like a way to identify them per say, for instance my name is Koen"

'I don't get it, but I suppose I'll allow you to give me a "name" if you want' Let's see here…

"How about Kokuja" It literally means black snake in Japanese.

'I'm fine with it'

"Well then Kokuja, would you mind telling me about your abilities?"

'Abilities? What do you mean?'

"Erm, let me word that better, is there anything special you can do? Something perhaps you've noticed other species you've encountered cannot?" Speaking of which, I've got a plethora of questions I want to ask her.

Snakes are carnivorous, meaning there must be other species somewhere in the Volcanic Marshes, and who knows what other secrets she has, I'm definitely going to be visiting again.

I've already witnessed that monstrous speed, and I'm pretty sure she has venom—but its exact properties have to differ somewhat from regular cobras.

'Well, when I bite things they die slowly' Hah—here I am once again, expecting human comprehension from a snake, nice going Koen.

"...Nevermind, we can work something out later, by the way—is there any method for me to bring you alongside me easier?"

'Stretch your arm out' I complied and she began to make her way up my body.

She wrapped around my neck like a scarf. 'How about this?'

"I suppose it works, but is there any way for you to be more 'discrete'?"

'Hmmmm…let me search your memories for a bit' She can do that?

'Yes I can, this link you somehow implanted in me goes both ways' Great, she can read my mind as well—not intrusive at all.

And to my surprise, she quite literally turned into a scarf, it was black in color with purple markings—not sure how I'm going to explain why I'm wearing one in the Underworld, but at least it hides her.

This means that she knows how to use [Transformation Magic]—I doubt she had a mentor, but could something like that be obtained just from genetics? How odd.

Although the fact that she thought of looking for a solution she didn't have via searching my memories, intriguing.

'Koen…'

"I know you probably have a truck load of questions and frankly so do I, I have plenty of time on my hands so we can go through them one by one"

Considering she can see my memories she probably knows about the whole reincarnation ordeal, boy am I going to have a fun time explaining this.

I'm not really mad that she searched through my memories without permission, actually it's nice to have someone to share my secrets with, without having to deal with being judged and whatnot.

Mostly because she doesn't comprehend human values—but my point still stands.

And we're probably going to be together for quite a while, so this is a nice way to build some trust between us.