Despite all the unnecessary thinking, I spent a vast majority of my time either reading or practicing. Now granted, I didn't really know how to practice or what the books were referring to, but I still went ahead and did it anyway.
Siarre helped but she didn't really know how magic worked fundamentally either. And she wasn't adept at anything other than darkness magic, so that proved to be a drag. However, she knew a lot about void magic and thanks to that, I eventually did manage to form a dimension pocket big enough to hold just a pouch… barely.
And like that, four days passed.
I could produce some electricity and create odd sounds but not talk. I could create water droplets and if I tried hard enough, maybe make one glass worth of water. Apparently, I just had to concentrate on condensing the air around me and liquifying them. I kinda wish I'd taken science class just a little more seriously cause at least that would have helped me understand how things worked and thus helped me form magic spells better. But of course, that was just my hypothesis and regret and nothing concrete. Besides, I could easily snuff out light without even understanding what light even was so that was also a thing.
But that wasn't the only thing we'd been doing these last few days. I was constantly going on hunts with Escalor and Siarre.
We hunted, we practiced and they helped me hone my skills. Namely Necromancy and Summoning. Both were now E ranked skills. And I was lv4. Apparently once you evolve, gaining levels was harder?
The summons stopped starting at LV 1 and instead started at LV 5 now too. But they hardly seemed conscious like the girl, Luna. And, I didn't manage to see the odd golden thing either. But I did feel more connection to them than Goblin-01 at least, so that was a good thing.
"I actually wasn't expecting so much progress," Escalor said, leading.
Midnight. Tall grass. Brought back horrible memories but I remained calm. Vivia and Luna were with me. I even had a group of four goblins acting as my rearguard along with Siarre.
Luna could actually wield a bow now; a skeleton bow and the arrows were apparently bones. They used up some mana which she had and didn't need any from me. She didn't need any HP either so that was nice.
Couldn't say the same about the Goblins though.
Anyway-
We were out today, to hunt another snake. No, not the small large anaconda sizes but rather… something bigger. Something I'd been dreading for the last couple of days.
"But are you sure I have to do this?" I managed.
"Think of it as ritual of power."
Basically, their form of a graduation ceremony. Both Escalor and Siarre were going to leave tomorrow. And I'd basically be on my own. I could go on an adventure, or stay in this city forever without really doing much of anything. I was an undead and apparently could live for thousands of years and even if my head was severed from my body, I wouldn't die. Or so I'd read. But that still didn't take my fear of death away. Heck, I was already dead and still didn't want to die….
I guess that part of me still remained the same.
"Don't worry, if anything goes wrong, I'll come for you," Vivia assured me.
Which was a given since if I went out, she'd go down with me. I did feel at ease even if just by a little. But my fear of reptiles didn't really die off. I didn't have a phobia perse but I did fear them a little more than necessary. Particularly because once a snake had slithered into our balcony. Was it poisonous? I had no idea but I killed it and dread the whole thing….
"I don't mean to intrude sire but-" Siarre said.
"Didn't I tell you to call me… sigh. What?"
"Could you give her one specific order? I really don't mean to-" She fidgeted. Really uneasy.
"Go on…."
***
I'd read a book about monsters.
There were various kinds in this world but most of them were just large animals that got either larger or deadlier and yes, some of their non monstrous counterparts also existed. And some particular creatures were a mishmash of different deadly animals, something akin to a Chimera.
The Anacobra was both large and deadly. It was larger than a Nile Crocodile and deadlier than a king cobra… or so I'd read.
And yes, both were an understatement.
Why?
Because I was looking at one. And it was looking at me. The eyes were larger than my face. Big, yellow, slitted. The head was larger than my whole torso; a beautiful flowery pattern almost drawn over its whole face like a joke, and it stared at me from above, like two stories above. And no, that wasn't its full length, cause more than half of its body was still slithering on the ground protected by those black shiny scales.
Hiss… it blinked, carefully analyzing me and my dumbfounded face before slowly or rather not so slowly reaching out to me, biting.
I dropped on the floor and watched it slam its jaws above. Woosh! A gust of air spread. Damn thing was fast as hell.
And a singular thought spread as well… 'I'm so fucking dead….'