Chapter 238
With a shuddering breath, I took in my surroundings. Sybil laid next to me, her tail still curled around my own, stirring at my own movement. Some members of the swarm were beginning to wake, a comforting chorus of hissing, shrieking reptiles. I looked over, around, verifying that the swarm hadn't diminished in number overnight, that my companions were still in my vicinity, that my dream was just that, a dream.
Finally calmed enough to begin to think consciously, I thought about the dream that had so forcefully roused me. Was it a dream? Was it prophetic? I wondered if it was actually just some sort of symptom of the stresses of the last months, and if it was, after all, just a nightmare. After all, I'd suffered from dreams empowered by anxiety before. But then again, in my past life, there'd been some Speakers who could foretell weather or certain catastrophic events like earthquakes or hurricanes. I'd even heard of some who understood how to foresee other things, but that was always a working brought about by certain, highly complex Phrases, never a dream. That said, though, there wasn't any harm in trying to understand the warnings given at the end of the strange nightmare.
"Beware the forked tongue. The incredulous are the eternal foe of the progressive." Forked tongue, a liar, a deceiver. In my dream I'd been less lucid, but now that I was awake, I clearly remembered Sybil's words from last night: "a fork-tongued menace". Could Farahlia be the forked tongue that my dream was warning about? Or would it be another, maybe a Moonchild had been lying to us, like Ana or the Allmother? And who is this incredulous one? Though it may have been unfounded of me to think so, I considered myself the progressive in this equation, so who was my eternal foe? I mulled it over for a moment, but came to no conclusion and moved to the next.
"Beware the primordial adversary. The prey return to the ancient hunting grounds." I figured this would be a longstanding enemy of the keelish, or maybe the Keel. Would that be an enslaved race that rose up against the ancient empire? Or could it be something else entirely, something I knew nothing about? But since these two phrases were grouped, does that mean that the prey has something to do with this "primordial adversary"? What was the prey? Could it be… the keelish? While we were troublesome and dangerous while still not being apex predators, we were far from prey, even when considering things whose evolutionary traits were tailored towards direct superiority over keelish. If that was the case, what kind of thing actively "preyed" on us? Again, the thought stumped me and, before too long, I moved to the final phrase and warning.
"Beware the gods. They are inconstant and have been since their inception." If these warnings were, in fact, prophetic in some way, then this warning was the most troubling, before betrayal, eternal foes, and ancient enemies. As a human, I'd never much concerned myself with the existence of gods, much less their opinions of me. The Veushten way was simply to think that if the gods existed, they fulfilled their roles, and didn't much care for the creatures that inhabited the worlds they had created. Before acquiring my [Title] as a Chosen and then a Disciple of Nievtala, I'd largely adopted that same mentality in this new life. When I'd received my [Title], I'd pretty easily fallen into the opinion that following the Goddess that'd selected me would only help, and she had. Her Blessings had carried me to greater heights and kept two dozen of my swarm alive when we'd had no right surviving. Even so, the direst statement that Nievtala was inconstant…
I'd already seen that, hadn't I? Memories of the last days flashed through my mind, but I didn't allow myself to dwell too long on them. Instead, I internally asked, [System], Administrator, you have anything to add or help me with on this?
[There's a lot of this that I can't talk too much about. You know I'm willing to skirt the rules here, so you should understand how much it means that I'm keeping mum. You're asking good questions, ones I would like to help you with. I can't, not like this, not here.]
I would have to ask you during evolution?
[Exactly. I can tell you that every god and goddess have their own desires and plans. Every Administrator does, just as every System user and sapient creature has hopes and dreams. Nievtala has her hopes about what you will do or can be for her, just like how I am your assigned Administrator and generally hope for your wellbeing and success and I also have biases and expectations of you. Just take the advancement of your Title as an attempt at apology from the Goddess.]
Wait, my [Title]?
[Title: Chosen of Nievtala advanced. Status updated.]
Well, that answers that question.
[Status:
Name: Ashlani
Race: Sonic Khatif Swarm Alpha
Titles: Disciple of Nievtala (Advanced)
Killer of Redael
Fahvalo of the Moonchildren
Current quests:
-Hunt 5 new species. Reward will vary depending upon the evolutionary level of prey. Base reward: Constitution, Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Magic +3. PROGRESS: Greater Marsh Crocodile, Perfected Albatross, Partially Awakened Moonchild, Sheer Pass Longhair, Sheer Pass Nanuk. QUEST COMPLETE. New Quest: Hunt 5 new species. Reward will vary depending upon the evolutionary level of prey. Base reward: Constitution, Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Magic +5
-Subjugate or otherwise conquer a community of at least 1000 individuals. Base reward: Constitution +7, Strength, Agility +8, Intelligence +10, Magic +9. Possibility of additional rewards for greater difficulty.
-Speak the entirety of the True Words of Power of Nievtala. Rewards: Upgrade to Title: Disciple of Nievtala; Acquisition of Skill: Voice of the Divine; Constitution, Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Magic +8.
Stats:
-Constitution: 109+3+8+2+5+4+9+1=141
-Strength: 121+3+6+3+5+4+11+1=154
-Agility: 120+3+1+5+8+5+4+1=147
-Intelligence: 119+3+2+6+6+2+5+1=144
-Magic: 126+3+0+11+3+0+7+1=151
Skills:
Adversary: 6/10
Combatant's Bloodlust: 1/4 (Imperial Bearing)
Conqueror's Rebuke: 1/5
Evolutionary Exemplar (Cannot Evolve)
Exceptional Individual (Cannot Evolve)
Fanatic's Fortitude: Unqualified
Fathomless Sonilphon: Unqualified, 0/2
-Crippling Cry: 0/5
-Debilitating Diatribe: 0/1
-Innervating Address: 0/1
-Nurturing Enunciation: 0/50
-Quaking Claw 0/1
Imperial Bearing (Cannot Evolve)
Innate Leadership (Cannot Evolve)
Pack Tactics: 5/10
Pain Tolerance (Cannot Evolve)
Raptor's Eyes (Cannot Evolve)
Tremorsense (Cannot Evolve)
True Dominance: 1/5
Evolutionary Possibilities
-Sonic Keel Zak'Tal: Speak the entirety of the True Words of Power of Nievtala. Progress: 0/1 Have a Swarm Leader level race. Completed.
-Khatif Heretic–Requirements: learn how to bend the world's governing laws and compel the divine to follow your will.
Other evolutions possible, but not currently foreseen. Progress further, and such possibilities will be presented to you.]
Though I'd known it was going to be the case, I couldn't help the pang of disappointment seeing that [Adversary] hadn't progressed. It was a consolation, though, that each of my stats had increased by at least 20. Though, I supposed that would be to the detriment of [Adversary's] evolution. Looking at the individual numbers, though, I couldn't figure out where that final +1 to each stat came from.
[Effects of advancement of Title: Disciple of Nievtala are: +1 to all stats.]
I supposed I could call that an adequate apology from Nievtala for now. Before I could ask the [System] or Administrator any follow-up questions, though, I was distracted by a searing not-quite pain in my chest, as if the suns' heat had been concentrated into the broadest section of my breast.
I reared back, trying to see what was causing me this discomfort, and could barely see something emblazoning itself on my chest. It tingled and burned in the way that standing too close to a fire did–uncomfortable, unpleasant, but nowhere near approaching the scorching, all-consuming agony from the day before. At my disconcerted movements and noises, Sybil roused and looked up at me, her eyes quickly going wide.
"What is happening to you?"
I responded, still patting at my chest confusedly, "I wish I knew. Can you see something?" I worried about the discomfort escalating into pain and agony, but I was happy to realize that there was no increase in the sensation and in fact, it was slowly decreasing.
"There is a spear-shaped marking glowing on your chest."
"What?"
Looking down as best as I could, I recognized the head of a spear pointing up at my head upon my chest.