Chapter 418

“It gave me a quest to upgrade a Mortal to Truly Awakened, with the reward of a Class Change Token,” Cain explains, staring at the book.

“That was left here by an Elf, well over a Millennia ago. She said that she had seen a vision that it would be needed here one day, but until today, not a single soul had even managed to open the cover, much less understand anything about it.” Lilly explains.

So the corner Puppet has been through here with the library. That was a promising lead for Cain, who was eager to get his hands on the child care portion of that library. 

“You sound way too optimistic. Truly Awakened is someone like Vala, who the system calls Mythic and has a Mythic Quality innate skill.” Lilly, the Bog Witch points out. 

“That’s alright, I’ve got a plan that I’m pretty sure can accomplish the necessary task. If I just give you a Mythic Innate Ability and then change your species to match, you should register in the system as a proper Mythical being. Tell me, did you have a plan in mind for your progression?” Cain responds, while Lilly just stares at him open-mouthed.

“Who said anything about me?” She demands, the body of the Nergal Form making her voice raspy with a bit of demonic echo.

“I’m like 90 percent sure you volunteered,” Laura says, looking up from her spot in Cain’s pocket.

“Yeah, the Punishment says you have to help, right? Who else could it be?” Nemu agrees, enjoying the Bog Witch’s discomfort.

“Do we know a Mythic Bog Witch? It would make things really easy.” Evangeline points out, and Lilly finally sees a bit of hope for her future.

“Now I understand why everyone was afraid of the Ancients in the old stories. It’s not that they’re evil, it’s that their power is so alien that it makes no logical sense at all.” The Quest Hall boss says before her eyes glaze over as she sends a message to someone.

“Back up a second. Are you saying you could actually just change my entire species?” Lilly asks while the others wait for the boss to finish what she’s doing.

“Yeah, that is the plan. It might not work, but it’s the easiest place to start. The only question is if the System will recognize you.” Cain informs her, rubbing her head as she absorbs this new information.

[Why don’t you use my ability?] A voice appears in Cain’s mind and a floating shadow appears in the corner of the room.

It is a Male Nergal, level 396, classified as a Beast, so it has no class. But it is Mythic and has the Mythic Racial ability [Shadow Form], an upgrade from the [Shadow Protection] That Lilly currently has.

[That would likely keep the Bog Witch in this form though.] Cain informs him, and the shadow lightens for a second. He’s not sure, but Cain assumes that is the equivalent of a shrug.

[She’s cute. I would take good care of her.]

“We could make you a Nergal full time. A Mythic Nergal is pretty powerful.” Cain suggests and Lilly leans forward to simply stare straight at him.

“Who gave you that idea? Would it be a Nergal named Xxiactix? Tell him he’s still not getting a date until he completes the task I set him.” The Bog Witch growls, looking around for the shadow that only Cain seems to be able to see.

[You heard the lady, you have to complete her task to get a date, she won’t go for it.] Cain tells the shadow, but it is already moving around behind the couch that the boss is sitting on.

The oddly named demon cat stops in the shadow of the couch and shifts into a humanoid form, becoming a Male Bog Witch of Mythic Quality, with a bouquet of fragrant blue flowers in one hand and a box in the other.

“Did you know that these flowers have been extinct for over three thousand years? I had to find ancient seeds in a ruined city and cultivate them. Only I found out that the blue ones only appear when the plant first blooms under the light of a lunar eclipse.” The oddly named man tells Cain with a smirk.

It seems he has come prepared for today, and Lilly has moved to hide behind Cain, like that will stop her suitor from remembering that she is there.

“Our parents arranged our marriage when we were younger, but she set us an impossible condition to begin the courting process, hoping to drive me away, but see how silky that fur is? How could I say no to such a beautiful wife?” Xxiactix smiles, moving around Cain to hand Lilly the flowers.

“Only her fur is beautiful?” Vala asks teasingly.

“Well, you see, I’ve never actually seen her human form, every time we are supposed to meet, she transforms and tries to run away. But today, she needs to stay near you, so she can’t run too far and I can finally give her the flowers I grew.” He replies sheepishly and Cain bursts into laughter.

“Lilly, there’s playing hard to get, and then there’s just being cruel. You could have just told him no instead of having him spend years growing flowers for you.” Cain admonishes the Bog Witch on his back.

“I just needed a little more time you see? I wasn’t even forty yet.” She whines.

“Wait, how long did you spend on the flowers? Nemu asks the man holding the flowers.

“Twenty-six years. I actually finished them last year, but I couldn’t find her. She didn’t tell her parents she had moved and gotten a job here.” He tells her proudly.

“You two really do need to talk. Lilly, please accept the flowers. He did everything you asked, it’s only polite to accept his efforts, even if you don’t accept him.” Cain suggests.

“Well, he does seem to be rather handsome. For an old man.” She sighs and her suitor shakes his head in amusement.

“Six Months. I am six months older than you. I just happen to have the same name as my more famous uncle.” he replies and Cain can feel her freeze.

“As great as this daytime drama is, I have another option available. Another volunteer, who will gladly be your test subject.” The boss informs the room, while the two Bog Witches just stare at each other.

A few seconds later a small girl with shimmering opal hair comes running into the room, searching frantically for someone before her eyes land on Laura, who has moved to the top of Cain’s head to watch the show.

“It really is a Mythic Opal Prismatic Dragon!” She squeals, transforming into a tiny version of Laura. 

Her dragon form is roughly the size of an Iguana, no more than a meter from the snout to the base of her tail, and she is of ordinary quality. Cain has never seen an ordinary quality dragon. Even most of the drakes are Greater Golems, Ordinary quality makes up the lowest grade of Lesser Golem summons. Cain inspects her to see how that is even possible, finding some very strange results.

[Name] Defect

[Race] Opal Prismatic Dragon

[Class] None

[Skills] None

That shouldn’t be possible, every dragon has at least a breath, claw, and bite attack at birth. If they are unlucky they might have to wait on a class, but they always have the basic species skills. Cain has thousands of variants of dragons in his listings thanks to Aggramor, and not a single one is like this. She can’t even fly properly, being wobbly in the air before Cain catches her with a tentacle and holds her up at his head height so she can talk to Laura.

“Hi, I’m Defect, it’s good to meet you Your Majesty Laura.” She greets her peer and Cain can feel the dragon in Pixie form stand up straighter at the praise. This little dragon might not have combat skills, but she is a master brown noser. Not many things could have gotten Laura on her side as fast as that.

Vala clearly agrees, petting the tiny dragon in Cain’s grasp as she looks her over. “She’s good. I suppose we could put in a good word to get the boss to help you out.”

Defect makes a happy purring noise and gives Cain an amazing pleading look that Cain recognizes very well from every time he has tried to bypass a candy shop in the past.

“Fine, we will run the experiment twice. Lilly, talk to your fiance. Defect, come here so I can tweak your system a little bit.” 

Cain puts the dragon down and she shifts back to human form and runs over to stand by his feet while Cain thinks of the best way to accomplish what he has in mind. Honestly, the best option in her situation would be to make a Puppet Body and then use [Living Dolls] to transfer her into a fully formed body with a full set of skills, then give her one more skill with [Modify] to activate the system.

There’s only one small, minor, inconsequential issue with that plan. In order to use [Living Dolls] to transfer the dragon to the new body, he has to kill her and transfer her body into a Stasis Gem that the spell will create. Or, maybe he can do that without killing her first? The description of Living Dolls says that it will resurrect a soul into a Puppet body and put the body in a Stasis Gem, but it doesn’t actually specify that they must be dead first.