rabbit

Royal Road

1

SomethingOtherThanRain

Bunny Girl Evolution [A Monster Evolution LitRPG] by Bedivere the Mad

5 - Cabin

A note from Bedivere the Mad

3 more chapters to go after this one. Less than an hour until this initial drop is complete

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"Bu zl tbfu, lbh'er fb phgr!"

The one in the tree was the girl from the hunter pair that she had seen tracking her slime's trail the previous day. She was crouching on one of the thicker branches and staring at her with a wide smile. Normally, she would consider a smiling human a good thing, but being one of the primary food sources of said smiling human, it made her blood run cold instead.

Elise used {Dart} to get as far away as she could while the girl jumped out of the tree and ran after her, calling something out. She couldn't understand the words, but the tone made her pause. She wasn't calling for assistance, or trying to get the attention of another human; she was calling to Elise, and waving at her. Elise didn't trust the human, but if she was friendly, it would be better to establish a relationship than panic and run away. And if it turned out that the girl really did just want to eat her, well, Elise had already established that she was faster, so she could just run away again.

The girl stopped twenty feet away, noticing that Elise was tensing her legs to run away again.

"Njj, qba'g or fpnerq. V nva'g tbaan uheg ln."

Elise had no idea what she was saying, but her tone sounded calm and soothing. The girl crouched down, and when she brushed her hair away to keep it out of her face, Elise noticed that her ear was pointed. That instantly improved her opinion of the girl by a good twenty percent. If she was an elf, that meant she was close to nature, and much less likely to hurt Elise. It wasn't a guarantee, since she didn't know anything about that world, but the girl passed the eye test for being a benevolent being so far.

She inspected the girl as well, just to make sure she was actually a girl and not a disguised {Bunny-Muncher} or something ridiculous like that. As it turned out, {Inspect} did not show species for humanoid creatures. Or maybe her {Inspect} was just too low-leveled.

[Apprentice Mana Dancer lvl 12]

"Jurer qvq lbh pbzr sebz, phgvr? V arire fnj n enoovg yvxr lbh orsber." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a carrot and held it out. "Urer, jnaan fanpx?"

Why did she have a carrot in her pocket? Elise wondered.

Elise didn't move, but she was interested in the carrot. She had always liked them as a human, and was excited to see what they tasted like as a rabbit. She was also starting to trust the girl a bit more. Kind of. Part of her also wondered if she had that carrot in her pocket so she could try to lure in rabbits to make stew out of. She wanted to deride that part of her for being irrational, but she also knew that excess paranoia was better than none in a situation such as hers.

The girl set the carrot down in the grass and backed up another twenty feet away before crouching down again and smiling at Elise. Elise tentatively made her way over to the carrot, keeping her eyes on the girl the whole time to watch for sudden movements. She sniffed the carrot to make sure it wasn't laced with poison, not that she'd know what that smelled like, and then took a small bite. It was incredible. Just as good, if not better than grass.

Seeing that Elise was enjoying the carrot, the girl started to creep forward, and Elise decided to let her. Her gut said she could trust the elven girl, and her eyes hadn't seen anything to prove the opposite.

Elise continued to nibble on the carrot while the girl reached over to gently stroke her back. Elise did not protest. She trusted the girl, so now she needed the girl to trust her. If she could make it inside the cabin, she would be set, at least for the short term. Food, shelter, and a guarantee of no monsters in the vicinity. It would give her a lot more breathing room to figure out what she wanted to do with her new life. And besides that, being pet felt nice.

"Ubj ner lbh fb phgr?!" the girl crooned. "V pbhyq jngpu lbh rng sbe ubhef!"

She reached over to pick Elise up and put her in her lap. She was also kind enough to grab the rest of the carrot from the ground so that Elise could grab it with her paws and keep munching while the girl held her. Elise used her excellent peripheral vision to keep a wary eye on her surroundings, but she let herself relax a bit. If this girl felt safe, there would be nothing that could hurt her.

When she finished her carrot, the girl crooned over her for a few more minutes before standing up with Elise still in her arms and half-running toward the cabin. Elise could tell that she was excited, but also didn't want to frighten or hurt Elise, so she was trying to be both fast and gentle. She was doing a rather poor job of it, but Elise appreciated the effort at least.

The interior of the cabin was cozy and decorated with a pleasant assortment of wood and leather furniture and flowers. The girl skipped past the kitchen and into a sitting room with two couches, one of which held a blonde adult woman reading a book.

"Zbzzl, ybbx jung V sbhaq!" said the girl.

The woman peered at her over the book without saying a word, then sat up straight. When she did, Elise realized that the girl was actually just a half-elf. The mother's ears were much longer, and her face was much more slim and regal, like Elise thought an elf's should be. The girl's looked far too human. The two shared the same bright green eyes and the same slender build though.

[Mana Dancer lvl ???]

"Fbcuvr, jung qvq V fnl nobhg oevatvat navznyf vagb gur ubhfr?" said the mother.

"Ohg, Zbzzl, ybbx ubj phgr fur vf!" replied the daughter. "Pna jr cyrnfr xrrc ure?"

"Qb lbh erzrzore jung unccrarq ynfg gvzr lbh oebhtug na navzny vagb gur ubhfr?"

"Fur'f qvssrerag! Fur'f fb avpr naq pnyz! V cebzvfr fur jba'g pnhfr nal ceboyrzf! Frr?"

The girl set Elise on the ground. Elise couldn't understand a word they were saying, but she got the gist of the conversation. The daughter wanted to keep her, and her mom said no, so the daughter was trying to prove her wrong.

Elise knew what she had to do.

She hopped over to the mother and nuzzled against her leg. The elf woman looked down with pursed lips and Elise looked back up, trying to act as cute as she could until the woman finally relented and scratched under her chin.

"Nfx lbhe sngure," she said.

The girl cheered and scooped Elise back up to run out of the room.

"Vs gung guvat znxrf n zrff, lbh'yy or gur bar pyrnavat vg hc!" called the mother.

"Bxnl!"

Elise then received a house tour. There was the kitchen by the entrance and the sitting room next to it, and then a dining room in the same public area with a hallway leading further back. The house had three bedrooms, one master and two smaller ones. One was clearly the girl's since that was the only one that Elise got to actually go inside and explore, while the others she only got to peer into from the door. There was also a bathroom but Elise wasn't allowed to go in there either, so her curiosity about how a fantasy bathroom would work remained unsated.

In the cabin's backyard there was a sizable garden full of mostly dirt and a few sprouts. Here, Elise squirmed out of the girl's arms and ran to the nearest sprouts.

"Jnvg! Ab, lbh pna'g rng gung!"

As soon as she was within range, she cast her new spell {Sudden Growth}, causing the nearest sprouts to triple in height, and new leaves and branches to appear. She had convinced the daughter and the mother, so her position was probably safe, but just in case the rabbit-hunter himself came back and denied her, or decided to eat her, she wanted to cement her place as a useful animal to keep around.

The girl picked Elise up while staring down at the magically enhanced plants while Elise heard footsteps coming from the house. The older woman appeared from the back door with an angry expression on her face.

"Fbcuvr, qvq lbhe arj crg whfg-"

She stopped when she saw the plants, then her eyes narrowed while she looked at Elise.

It was then that Elise realized she had made a mistake. In her haste to prove herself harmless and helpful, she had also proven that she was far more intelligent than an ordinary rabbit had any right to be. In a world where things like Demon Rabbits and Rabbit Enchantresses existed, it was foolish of her to act so suspiciously.

"Yrg zr frr gung enoovg," said the mother, holding her hand out.

The girl seemed to sense the mood and hugged Elise tighter to her chest.

"Zbzzl, fur'f n tbbq enoovg. Fur znqr gur cynagf tebj," she said.

"V xabj, fjrrgvr, V whfg jnag gb gnxr n ybbx ng ure," replied the mother, beckoning the girl over. "Oevat ure bire urer."

"Cebzvfr lbh'er abg tbaan uheg ure?"

"V cebzvfr."

The girl trudged over to her mother and handed Elise over. The elf woman picked Elise up under her front legs and held her out in front so she could make eye contact. Elise shuddered as she felt a wave of mana pass through her. The woman's eyebrows raised, then lowered again, and for a moment, her face was blank, and there was no reaction. Elise could feel her heart rate skyrocketing as the tension built and she was filled with dread.

"Guvf vf n tbbq enoovg," said the woman, handing Elise back. "Znxr fher lbh gnxr rkpryyrag pner bs ure."

"V jvyy!"

The woman returned inside, leaving Elise wondering what had just happened. What spell had she cast? Why did she just let her go? It was definitely better than being kicked out or killed for being dangerous, so she wasn't complaining, but not knowing what had happened or why was making her anxious.

Her questions remained unanswered though. She spent the rest of the afternoon playing with the girl, and testing out her skills. Using {Sudden Growth} in the garden had cost 10 of her now 43 mana points, but she had already recovered one of them by the time the mother had gone back inside, and it didn't take long for the rest to return. She thought that seemed a little fast, but that could also have just been because of how pitifully small her mana pool was. {Sudden Growth} wasn't even that powerful or useful of a spell, and it had cost nearly a quarter of her total supply.

She wanted to test {Magic Missile} and {Suggestion} too, but being so unsure of her position in the house, she wanted to seem as harmless as possible, so she refrained from showing off her offensive spells.

She did allow herself to experiment with {Prehensile Vines} though, and she was glad she did. The spell caused two vines to sprout from the ground in front of her that she could control as she willed. It wasn't quite like having arms again, but it was much better than before. She could pick things up without also tasting them now, and she could even detach them from the ground and transfer them to her body, though they started decaying quickly if she did that. Another downside was that she could only make them last about a minute, even rooted before her mana ran out and she couldn't control them any more.

This spell amused the girl greatly when she saw Elise picking up sticks and rocks. She doubled over with laughter, and tried to shake the rabbit's vine hand. Elise tried to oblige, but by the time the vine reached the hand, she was out of mana, so all she could do was graze the girl's fingers before the spell failed. The girl tried to convince Elise to do it again– or at least that's what it seemed like– but with no mana, and no way to communicate that, Elise just stared blankly until she gave up.

After that, the girl asked Elise a question that she couldn't understand and before she would have had time to respond even as a human, she was once again in the girl's arms and on her way to a new part of the property. This time, it was a small creek running alongside the house full of slow, clear water and small, silver fish.

The girl put Elise down and made a motion telling her to stay, then stripped off her shoes and socks and waded into the water until it was up to her knees. She shivered a bit, but kept her wide smile as she stared Elise in the eyes and started moving her arms. It looked like a Tai Chi kata, but as Elise watched, she also sensed the mana moving, and soon, there was a snake made of water floating above the creek, moving alongside the girl's hand as she carried on with her dance.

The snake was strong and vivid for the first minute, but after that, its form started to waver as the girl's concentration failed. Her smile was gone, and her face was scrunched with effort, but another minute later, the snake failed entirely, splashing back down into the water as she made a disappointed trudge back to the shore.

Elise thought the performance was wonderful though, and made sure to do everything she could to let the girl know it. She couldn't give her a hug, or tell her how much she enjoyed it, but she could nuzzle up against her and– as weird as it felt– lick her hand. She wasn't sure how that last gesture would go over, since she didn't know if real rabbits even did that, but the girl giggled, so Elise considered her mission a success.

Soon after, Elise heard footsteps, and seeing her perk up, the girl followed her gaze toward the front of the house where the hunter man was walking down the path toward the front door.

"Qnqql!" exclaimed the girl.

She picked Elise up and took off running to meet him without even putting her shoes back on. When she got near to him, she shifted Elise to one arm, then took a flying leap into her father's arms. The bearded man caught her deftly, taking care to make sure Elise didn't get crushed in between. He laughed and kissed her on the forehead, then looked down at Elise. As she had expected, the girl was only a half-elf; his ears were round.

[Steward of Nature, lvl ???]

[Inspect has leveled up! Lvl 17 -> 18]

"Lbh'er jrg," he said. "Naq lbh unir n ebqrag fghpx gb lbhe nez."

The girl looked shocked.

"Fur'f abg n ebqrag!" she exclaimed. "Fur'f n enoovg! V jnf fubjvat ure zl jngre qnapr!"

"V thrff jr'er univat enoovg fgrj sbe qvaare gbavtug gura," said the man with a smile.

The girl peeled herself away and backed up, hugging Elise protectively.

"Ab, lbh pna'g rng ure!"

"Ohg fur ybbxf qryvpvbhf." He licked his lips and laughed.

"Ab!"

The door opened behind them and the mother walked out. She went to her husband, who bent over to give her a peck on the lips as they embraced.

"Rjj!" said the girl.

"Jrypbzr onpx, qrne," said the woman.

"V zvffrq lbh," he replied. "Vg ybbxf yvxr bhe qnhtugre unf sbhaq urefrys nabgure arj crg."

"Vg'f n tbbq enoovg," said the woman before kissing him again. "V guvax jr fubhyq yrg ure xrrc vg."

"Ernyyl?" exclaimed the girl

"Ner lbh fher?" asked the man.

"Lrf. Jr pna gnyx zber yngre. Sbe abj, yrgf trg vafvqr. Qvaare'f jnvgva'."

The elf waved her arm and warm wind swirled around them and the water was siphoned from their clothes and fur. She turned and walked inside, and the rest followed.

Dinner that night for the humanoids was some kind of brown stew that smelled like meat and herbs. Intellectually, Elise thought it smelled delicious, but internally, she was repulsed. Her new herbivorous instincts didn't much like the smell of cooked meat. Especially when the odds that the meat was one of the rabbits the man had hunted were as high as they were.

Dinner for her was a small plate of assorted greens. She recognized lettuce and kale, but there were three other kinds of leaves that she wasn't sure of. They were all delicious. She ate on the floor, which she didn't like, but she was an animal, so expecting a seat at the table would have been odd. She listened in on their conversation while she ate, and though she still didn't understand a word, she thought she had a rough guess at what the girl's name was now. It sounded almost like 'Sophie', but the -ph sound was closer to a -v than a normal -ph would be. Elise mentally filed her as Sophie to make things easy, but if- no when she was able to speak, she would make sure to pronounce it properly.

After dinner, they sat around the table and talked for a little while longer before they went to their respective bedrooms for what Elise assumed to be the rest of the night. Sophie didn't go to sleep immediately, instead choosing to stay up reading a book at her desk by the light of a magic lantern, but Elise was wiped out, so she curled up on the bed and fell asleep almost instantly. Some time later, Sophie put out the light and joined her in bed, curling up into a fetal position wrapped around Elise.

Elise realized as she lay there that at some point, the father must have accepted that she was staying there. She had tried to pay attention for if the conversation would turn to her, hoping that even if she didn't know the words, she would at least be able to sense the attention on her, but it had never happened. It seemed that he had just gone along with it as soon as he got back home.

She didn't have the mental capacity to think any deeper than that though, as she was drifting off into a deep, dreamless sleep.

The next morning, they were awoken by a pounding on the door and a voice shouting from the other side.

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Sophie!" Sylvanna pounded on the door for a third time. "Breakfast time!"

Sophie replied with an incomprehensible mumble, muffled by the solid oak door. Sylvanna knocked one more time before opening the door. The room was mostly clean, save for the two books left open on the desk and the bedsheets which had been gathered at the center of the bed in a vaguely human-shaped lump.

"So-phie," she sang. "It's time to wake up."

There was no response.

There was only one way to solve this problem.

She grabbed the sheets, and tore them away to reveal her daughter, one hand grasping blindly for the sheets, and the other wrapped around the white rabbit. The rabbit looked at Sylvanna, as if begging to be rescued from the girl's less-than-gentle embrace.

"Sophie," she said. "The sun's been up for an hour now. It's time to wake up."

"Iowanna," said the girl, rolling over to face the wall.

"How many times have I told you not to stay up all night reading?"

"Nnnnnnhhh."

Sylvanna reached down to extract the rabbit, causing another round of blind grasping from the girl.

"If you want to play with her, you'd better wake up soon. We were going to name her today, remember? If you don't hurry, I'll be doing it without you. I was thinking Madame Fluffybutt would be fitting."

"Nooo!" Sophie finally sat up, blinking rapidly to clear the drowsiness.

"Then you'd better hurry up and get out of your pajamas and get your breakfast."

Sylvanna left the room with the rabbit in her arms and went out to the kitchen where she had set out two steaming plates of sausage and a plate of carrots. She set the rabbit down on the table in front of the carrots, which it began to eat with gusto. Sylvanna had to give it to her daughter; the rabbit was indeed cute. Its fur was so white it was almost blinding to look at under the sun, and the way it couldn't sit still because of the constant twitching of its nose and ears was adorable. Even its ruby red eyes were cute, though she had found them a little unsettling at first.

The rabbit seemed to sense her gaze and slowed its eating. The animal was also strangely intelligent. Definitely one of the most intelligent that Sylvanna had ever met. It could not understand language, but it seemed to understand everything else, including body language and basic trade. She would be lying if she said she wasn't curious, or even suspicious of its origins, but when she checked its emotions, it only showed fear, and hope, with not a hint of malice.

She reached out to pet it, and check it again, to find it still the same. It stopped moving under her touch, and started trembling slightly.

"Don't worry, little one," said Sylvanna with a smile. "I won't hurt you."

She wasn't sure if it was her words or her smile, but the gesture seemed to put the rabbit at least somewhat at ease, and it returned to its food. Sophie arrived soon after, yawning and stretching her arms as she walked down the hallway.

"Mommy, where's- oh!"

The girl skipped over to the table to pet the rabbit. Unlike with Sylvanna, the rabbit didn't seem to mind her touch, and kept eating while being pet.

"Eat your sausages before they get cold."

"Ok."

Sophie sat down in her chair and started eating, but her eyes never left the rabbit, and in between bites, she would smile at it. Sylvanna herself smiled as she watched both of them.

"Where's Daddy?" Sophie asked.

"He went out early this morning, remember?"

"Uhhh."

"We talked about it last night."

"Oh yeah…" her face turned glum. "Are we really going to have to leave?"

Sylvanna sighed. "I hope not, but if monsters keep spawning, I don't think we'll have much of a choice."

Sophie poked at her food. The rabbit sensed the mood, and its eating slowed as well.

"But on the bright side, your father and I were thinking of sending you to the academy early!"

"Really?" Sophie asked, perking up.

"Yes! You've done very well in your studies so far. If you took the entrance examination tomorrow, you'd pass with flying colors! Your father was worried that you'd have trouble making friends, being so young, but there should be a few more students your age, and I know you won't have any trouble making friends."

"Can I really go to the academy?"

"Of course!"

"Can I bring her?" She pointed to the rabbit.

"We'll have to see if the academy allows pets."

"We'll at least bring her when we move though, right?"

"Well, we can't leave her behind in a monster-infested forest, can we?"

"Nope!" said Sophie happily, turning back to her meal.

Sylvanna smiled again, but inside, her heart was heavy. She was trying to act like it wasn't a big deal, but she had been around long enough to know that a sudden change in monster spawn rates was never a good thing. It had only been slimes until now, but if a mere rabbit had managed to gain enough experience to evolve, they might have to leave sooner than later.

"Have you decided what you want to name her?"

"Yeah! Snowberry!"

The rabbit's ears straightened, as if it knew they were talking about it.

"Snowberry? That's an interesting name."

"It's because her fur is white like snow, but her eyes are red like a strawberry."

"It's a great name." She turned to the rabbit. "Isn't that right, Snowberry?"

Elise was very confused when the elvish people started saying her name. At first, she was worried that they had learned something, but as they kept saying that, she realized that somehow, they had independently decided to name her 'Elise'. She wasn't sure how that worked out. It must have been some other word in their language.

After breakfast, the mother started to give some kind of lesson to the girl in the sitting room. Elise wasn't sure what it was about, and even though she tried to listen and learn the language, it was so boring that at some point, she fell asleep in Sophie's lap.

She woke up around noon as the lesson wound up, and they headed outside to tend to the garden. It was a lot more exciting than Elise expected it to be. The creek was a good hundred feet from the nearest plants, but that did not bother the elf woman. She did some dance-like motions similar to what Sophie had demonstrated at the creek the prior day, but instead of creating a small water snake, a long, swirling stream of water came out of the creek and followed the woman on her dance around the garden, dripping onto each crop as it went by. Sophie tried to imitate, but she did not have nearly the range of her mother, and had to walk the water over from the creek before she could start depositing it on the plants.

Once they were done, Sophie lead Elise over to a certain section of plants, and pointed at them and said something. Elise didn't know exactly what she said, but she understood her meaning, and cast {Sudden Growth} in the area. The girl laughed and bent down to grab one of the green sprouts and pulled it out to reveal a magnificent carrot. She pulled a few more, then jogged down to the creek to wash them off. She tossed one to Elise, ate one herself, and pocketed the other three.

"Sophie! Elise!" called the elf woman.

Elise froze for a split second, still not used to them knowing her name, but soon recovered and responded by bounding back toward the cabin.

"Yhapu gvzr," she said when they arrived.

They went back inside where the older woman had somehow had time to prepare another meal. It was much lighter this time– a plate of greens for all three of them– but Elise could have sworn that she had only been inside for a minute before calling them back in. They settled back into the sitting room for another lesson of some sort, but this time, Elise was too full of energy to sit still.

She took to exploring the house on her own, which was very different from her tour from Sophie's arms. For one, everything looked a lot bigger from her perspective. The tables were roofs over her head, the actual roof was so high it might as well have not existed, and the undersides of the couch now looked like cozy areas that would be perfect for a nap.

The house was oddly clean too. Well, maybe not oddly when the elf woman could use magic so proficiently, but even if she could do that, Elise still wasn't sure if she would bother to clean under the couches and in between the floorboards.

With {Mana Sense} Elise also found that the entire house was filled with organized mana. It ran along every wall, though thicker on the outer walls, and there were lines of it running under the house. She could guess with reasonable confidence what a few of them did, such as the big one that pointed toward the creek and ended at the kitchen sink, or the dense outline around each door and window frame, but most remained mysteries.

While productive, her exploration didn't actually take that long, since the cabin wasn't very big, and when she finished, the lesson was still ongoing, and she no longer had anything to do. She tried playing around with her skills, but the only ones she could safely use in the house were {Dart} and {Leap} and there were only so many times she could jump onto and off of a chair before it got boring. Thankfully, the mother noticed her boredom and decided to let her outside.

The cabin was set in a shallow valley in between three hills– one of which was the one she had emerged from the wyrm's tunnel atop– and the half-elf family had taken over its entirety. The trees along the hilltops were marked with bright ribbons, and every square foot of the valley showed signs of use: a sawed-off stump here, an old firepit there, blade marks on the larger trees…

There was also a complete lack of wildlife, aside from a few small birds and harmless rodents. Or at least, that's how it seemed at first. As Elise ran alongside the creek, she suddenly heard a pop from behind as a slime appeared. Because of her near-omnidirectional sight, she could see that it had literally just appeared there. It didn't emerge from hiding or come around a corner and into her sight or anything like that. It was just pop and then it was there.

[Forest Slime lvl 1]

As with the first slime she had met, as soon as it noticed her, it made a beeline directly toward her, disintegrating every bit of plant matter in its path along the way. For a brief moment, Elise tried to remember where the cliff was, until she mentally facepalmed as she remembered she wasn't anywhere near as helpless as she had been before.

One quick {Magic Missile} later and it was dead. She stayed further back when casting, in case it popped when it died, but instead, her attack just poked holes in it, causing it to rapidly deflate and ooze its innards into the creek.

[You have defeated Forest Slime, lvl 1]

[{Magic Missile} lvl 1 -> 2]

System, do all monsters just appear like that? She asked.

"I'm sorry. I do not understand the question."

Do all monsters just randomly appear in places? Are they not born like anim- like humans are?

"Yes. Monsters arrive in the world through a process known as 'spawning'. Would you like to learn more about spawning?"

Yes please.

"I'm sorry. I cannot answer that question."

What? Then why did you ask if I wanted to know more?

"I'm sorry. I cannot answer that question."

Arrrrghhh.

"If you are dissatisfied with your experience, would you like to fill out a short feedback survey so that the developers can improve your future experiences?"

No! I already filled that out.

"I am sorry you are dissatisfied. Some of your concerns may be addressed in our next major update, for which a closed beta test has just been released. Would you like to enable beta features?"

Beta features? she asked. What are the beta features?

"I'm sorry. I cannot answer that question."

What? Then why did you offer them to me?

"By agreeing to enable beta features, you are also agreeing to our strict Non-Disclosure agreement. Information about beta features is not permitted to users who are not in the closed beta. If you wish to know what the beta features are, you must agree to test them."

Well that's dumb.

"I'm sorry you feel that way, but no matter how frustrated you are, derogatory language is never acceptable."

What? But I wasn't-! Nevermind. Can I turn off the beta features if I don't like them?

"By agreeing to test the beta features, you must opt in for at least 7 days. After that, you may disable the beta features if you would like to."

Elise contemplated. She was tempted to accept it without further thought, because whatever it gave her couldn't be worse than what she had now. Maybe it would get smarter with the beta, or at least tell her why it couldn't answer her questions, and what other kinds of questions it couldn't answer. However, she did not trust the 'developers' or whatever had created that thing. They clearly didn't care much about user experience. She had seen her fair share of 'upgrades' to programs she used that only made them worse and more annoying.

But if it was a closed beta, as they said, that meant a limited number of people were getting to test it. That meant that they might actually take her feedback seriously if she gave it to them. That settled it in her mind. She had an opportunity to help guide the developers in the right direction, and maybe even prevent them from worsening an already subpar product. She wouldn't throw it away for a cowardly what-if.

I would like to enable beta features, she thought.

"Excellent. Please sit tight while we upgrade your system with all the latest new features, courtesy of !@#$%^&!"

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System upgrade in progress. Some features may be unavailable during this time.]

[0%]

[11 hours 59 minutes remaining]

What features are unavailable? She asked.

There was no response. She was almost relieved.

She tested the rest of the features she knew about, like her status window and her skills, and they seemed to work just fine, so she shrugged and moved on. It wasn't like she had nothing else to do. In two different places in the distance, she could hear the faint sizzling of leaves coming into contact with acidic slime bodies.

[You have defeated Forest Slime, lvl 2]

[You have defeated Forest Slime, lvl 4]

[You have leveled up! 1 -> 2]

[Agility +3, Dexterity + 4, Charisma +12, Intelligence +4, Willpower + 4, Mana +5, Mana Control +5]

The level up felt like a heat spreading through her veins and energizing her. It was almost addictive, and left her craving for more. She didn't remember getting that sensation from the last time she leveled up, but then again, the last time she leveled up, she was panicked and almost passing out from the pain of her broken paw. She also wasn't getting any physical stats then, unlike this time.

She scanned the area once more with her ears, hoping to pick up on more exper- more slimes in the area, but even with her super hearing, nothing turned up. She slowly stalked the edge of the valley, hoping to hear more popping as new slimes appeared, but nothing happened. Not within the valley at least.

She could hear distant rustling in the trees, and the sounds of other creatures moving about in the woods beyond the hills, but she was hesitant to leave the safety of the hunter-controlled land. If what she was hearing happened to be the direwolf again…

As if in response to her concerns, her ears flattened against her back as they picked out the sound of a howl a mile away. Not wanting to tempt fate, she wasted no time in returning to the cabin. Her Charisma had more than doubled since last time she ran into it. She didn't want it even catching a whiff of her. She didn't know if that was how that worked, but better safe than sorry.

It hadn't even been an hour since she went out, so when she got back, she could hear the mother still lecturing from within the house. She approached the back door, looked up at the round door handle, and paused. She could have opened it with {Prehensile Vines}. However, she wasn't sure if that was the best plan in her situation. It had only been a day, and while the family seemed to accept her, showing too much intelligence could still be dangerous.

On the other hand, how else would she get back in? She tried scratching on the door, but her tiny paws and short nails didn't make enough noise for them to hear her. She circled around the house, hoping to find some other way in, but stopped as another thought entered her mind.

Had they actually "let" her out?

She wasn't exactly trying to be stealthy as she jumped around the house. Maybe they had just gotten annoyed with her, and decided that she was going to be an outdoor pet now. She sat under the window to the sitting room for a few minutes and listened in on what had turned from a lecture to a discussion. She did not hear her name once.

She was about to head back to the trees when she heard the howling again, this time closer, and she no longer cared whether or not she had been kicked out. She used {Leap} to get up to the windowsill and started pawing at the window. The two looked over at her in surprise, and then Sophie jumped up from the couch with a smile and opened the door to let her inside. Elise tumbled into her arms where she remained until she could stop shivering. She wasn't actually that scared, but her body seemed to have an involuntarily extreme reaction to the howl of a wolf, so it took a few minutes to calm down.

She spent the rest of the early afternoon in Sophie's lap while the lectures continued on, and when they were finally over, Sophie took her back outside. This time though, she joined Elise, so she wasn't alone again.

Elise spent the next two hours getting "trained" by the girl. It was clear that the girl had no idea what she was doing when it came to training a pet, but she tried her best, and her best meant using lots of treats, so Elise didn't object. She learned a few new words too, like "sit", "jump", "come here", "stay", "no", and "carrot". It wasn't much, and it wouldn't help her except when she was being directly addressed, but it was much better than before.

They stopped when the sun started setting, and footsteps on the dirt path leading up to the house announced the return of the father. Sophie ran to greet him like she had the day before, and Elise followed, but she stopped when she rounded the corner. The man had three more rabbit corpses slung on his hip. By that point, she was fairly confident that she would not end up the same way, but it was still a gruesome reminder of her place on the food chain.

After dinner that night, Sophie retired to her room to read, and this time, Elise jumped onto the desk to try to read along with her. The girl giggled and pulled her close.

"Guvf vf n obbx!" she said.

Elise looked up at her, then back at the open pages. The language looked similar to English, but at the same time totally foreign. The characters were similar, and some almost the same as English ones, but Elise couldn't find a single word that made sense.

"Qb lbh yvxr gur obbx?" asked Sophie.

Elise looked back up, not sure how to respond, but the girl was not expecting a response, since Elise was a rabbit. She put her finger on the page under the first word in a random paragraph and started reading aloud.

Elise had to say that Sophie was a very good reader. She had no idea what the book was talking about, but the way it was being read, it sounded like the greatest story in the world. Every sentence was full of passion and her expressions were animated. She even changed her voice around for what Elise assumed to be different characters during dialogue sections.

The whole experience was not only fun and cozy, but immensely helpful. Elise started recognizing some of the more common words as they reappeared throughout the book, and the way Sophie read, she was even able to get general ideas of what the words meant. If she could get treated to this more often, she might actually be able to learn the language within a month.

At some point, Elise heard the gentle footsteps of Sophie's parents creeping down the hall and stopping outside the door. There was a soft creak as they leaned against the wall and listened in, but Sophie didn't notice and read on until long after the sun had set and she needed to turn on some kind of magic lantern to be able to see the pages.

When the girl's voice started getting hoarse from exertion, there was a knock on the door.

"Sophie," called her mother. "Vg'f gvzr gb tb gb orq. Qba'g sbetrg lbh'er tbvat bhg jvgu lbhe sngure gbzbeebj zbeavat."

"Jr'er nyzbfg qbar jvgu guvf puncgre!" Sophie responded.

"Gung'f svar. Whfg znxr fher lbh tb gb orq evtug nsgre."

The two pairs of footsteps retreated back down the hall, as Sophie returned to reading. Her mother must have told her to go to bed, because she only went on for a few more minutes before taking a deep breath and closing the book. She smiled down at Elise, then picked her up and leapt into the bed. She set Elise down on the side before wrapping herself up in her sheets and curling up into a half-fetal position.

"Tbbq avtug, Elise," she said with a smile.

Seconds later, she was asleep.

Elise followed her example not long after. However, over the course of the day, she had completely forgotten that her System was upgrading, leading to a rude awakening later that night.

"Congratulations!"

The voice was jarringly loud, making Elise flinch violently. Sophie stirred, but did not awake.

"Your System has been upgraded to version 7.0.0, Beta Edition!"

The voice was also much different than it had been. Before, it spoke in monotone, with no emotion whatsoever, but now it had switched to the opposite extreme, sounding like a cartoon character after 10 shots of espresso.

"In v7.0.0, we have added many new features. We've leveraged the power of Artificial Intelligence to enhance our virtual assistant! It can now respond to more queries than ever, with more accurate and reliable information. And with enhanced error reporting, you'll never have to hear 'I'm sorry. I cannot answer that question,' ever again!"

Elise blinked in surprise, wondering if she was still half asleep. That last sentence was almost verbatim exactly what she had written down on the feedback survey from the other day. But there was no way they had implemented her feedback that quickly. It was impossible. She was no software developer, but she understood enough to know that a two day turnaround was next to impossible, even for the biggest and most well-staffed of organizations. It must have just been a coincidence.

"In addition to upgrading its functionality, we've also upgraded its voice. Your System assistant is now able to emulate six different emotions. That's right! Six different emotions. And with our new AI-powered algorithm, it's guaranteed to always choose the most appropriate emotion for every situation!"

I somehow doubt that, thought Elise.

"And finally, we've given the System's accessibility features a massive overhaul. After hearing large amounts of negative feedback, we've decided to roll back the change from v4.2 that prevented users from seeing information about their class and species options before selection. Additionally, we've added more customization to your System interface. With 13 background colors and 7 text colors, you'll have no shortage of fun new ways to spice up your windows!

"Thank you for opting into this open beta. We here at !@#$%^&! appreciate your adventurous spirit, and we look forward to your continued feedback and support!"

The voice vanished, and was replaced once again by the silence of the night.

Is that it? She asked.

"I'm not sure I understand the question," said the System in the same over-excited voice.

Are those all the beta features?

"I'm not sure I understand the question. Could you please clarify what you meant by 'that'?"

Elise sighed. Are what you listed all of the new beta features?

"Would you like me to describe all the beta features?"

No, I'm asking if your explanation from earlier was a complete summary of all the beta features.

"I'm not sure I understand the question. Would you like me to give you a complete summary of all the beta features?"

Yes. But make it-

"In v7.0.0, we have added many new features. We've leveraged the power of Artificial Int-"

Stop! If she had palms, Elise would have brought them to her face. Give me a very brief list of the new beta features. 2 words or less for each one.

"Okay. I will give you a brief list of the new beta features using no more than two words for each one: Upgraded Assistant. Assistant voice improvements. Accessibility features."

Elise waited a few seconds.

Is that it?

"I'm not sure I understand-"

Agghhhh, stop that! This is worse than before! I want to fill out a feedback survey!

"It seems you've already filled out a feedback survey recently. In an effort to avoid spam, we do not allow our users to submit more than one survey response every thirty days."

Is there no exception for beta testers?

"Ah, it seems you are correct. There is an exception for beta testers. Would you like to take a short feedback survey to help make our product the best it can be?"

Yes.

"It seems you've already filled out a feedback survey recently. In an effort-"

Nevermind. I don't care anymore. Just shut up.

"I understand that you may be frustrated, but it is never acceptable to resort to hurtful language, no matter the circumstance."

Elise had never been so frustrated in her life. She wanted to scream. She wanted to punch something. She wanted to find whoever had designed this stupid System and pour water in their socks and spit gum in their hair. She almost did the first thing, but refrained, so as not to wake up Sophie.

She took some deep breaths to calm herself before deciding her next move. She could try talking to the system again to figure out the actual full extent of the beta features, but decided against it. It was like talking to a brick wall, and she would rather do it the next day when she was able to move around more to vent her frustration.

Instead, she looked at her status window, for the first time noticing a tiny gear on the bottom left corner. Focusing in on that, she found what must have been the new accessibility features. As advertised, there were new colors that she could choose from. She would have liked a few more options, but anything was better than the default obnoxious bright blue.

She ultimately settled on a deep purple for the background and gold for the text, because it reminded her of royalty. She hesitated to finalize it with those options though. Was she being too self-indulgent? She was just an ordinary girl turned into a slightly less ordinary rabbit. In the end, she decided to go with it anyway. After all, she was the only one who could see it. Why not treat herself like a princess?

When she was done, she found herself yawning. It was still the middle of the night, after all. She settled back into her place next to Sophie and went back to sleep and dreamt of poor, bespectacled programmers stepping on four sided dice. It was a good dream.

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