512 Chapter 512

With the immediate annoyances taken care of, Cain gathered up Cyrene in his arms and returned to the library. He gently set her down once he landed, then transformed back into a human before heading to the comfortable chairs.

“I don’t want to put pressure on you when the eggs are forming, so you can do what you like, or curl up in my lap and be a book rest.” Cain teased her, but Cyrene thought that wasn’t a bad plan.

That way she could read what he was reading, and might even gain a useful new skill if he was reading something she could understand.

She didn’t know that the book was in the Ancient runic language, which wouldn’t automatically translate for her, but his body heat was the best medicine, in her estimation, so there was no reason for her to be elsewhere.

When Cain picked his book back up from the table he placed it on to deal with the so-called Warlord, he found a new bookmark tucked into the pages he was reading.

It was clearly a spell diagram, and attached to it was a handwritten note in an elegant script.

[Ancient Cain,

You will need this spell to communicate effectively when you come to see us for the birth. I don’t know how long that is in your time, it has been five days here and Ancient children come on their own schedule.

Nyarla]

‘Well, that was unexpected and very minimally informative.’ Max thought to himself, reading the letter for a second time. At least now he knows that they don’t intend to keep him away from Misha forever, and that time is moving very, very slowly wherever they are.

Her spell doesn’t seem to have a title or name, but from what Cain can tell it is a type of mental communication spell. It should let him mentally communicate with any other Ancient who is in the same world he is. It was a rather simple spell, only activating an aspect of his mind that should already exist, so Cain only needed an hour to memorize it.

The spell was written in the same arcane language as the Skill Books, so Cyrene read along, trying her hardest to memorize the spell at the same time Cain did. He finished first and set the piece of parchment aside before closing his eyes and focusing on how the spell should be cast, not noticing that his lap warming bookholder had been reading along and trying to learn the spell.

Cyrene picked the neatly written sheet up and worked on comprehending the complex symbols inscribed there. It wasn’t easy, and she had never seen anything like this before, a spell that permanently enhanced the mind, but if it was that interesting to her master, it was interesting to Cyrene.

Cain activated the spell as soon as he was certain that he had it exactly correct, and the strangest sensation overcame him.  His mind seemed to split in half with one half being himself and the other containing the thoughts of every one of his Companions, as well as the Echoes and Watchers. Surprisingly, it wasn’t overwhelming, more like a conversation in a room. With a simple thought, he could tune it out or focus on the portions that he wanted.

There was no longer any need to focus on messaging each other, everything they thought was available to the others easily and clearly. Cain took a moment to appreciate the pure genius of the idea and work on becoming accustomed to the extra train of thoughts before an unexpected new mind appeared in the stream of consciousness.

[It’s so nice here. There are people, and I know everyone. Ooh, we can gossip about Master Cain, this spell is great.] Cyrene’s thoughts entered the stream.

[You do realize he can hear everything you think, right? The spell links every user’s thoughts into a collective constant chat.] Vala pointed out.

[Oh, that could be inconvenient. How do I deactivate it? I hope I can deactivate it. What if I think lewd things where he can hear me, what would be so embarrassing.] Cyrene’s thoughts were so lively that they made everyone else laugh, Cain included.

[You are having his children, plus we are your friends and we have always been in his mind, including while you were together, so we know how lewd you are already little snake.] Svetlana joked, thinking of the night Cyrene went into heat.

[Is it possible to actually die of embarrassment? Because I think this spell might actually kill me.] Cyrene complained.

[Relax, once your thoughts settle it will be more normal. The more worked up you get the more you reveal. But you can block your thoughts so only certain ones get broadcast. I will show you how to do it later.] Victor the Echo consoled the panicking Lamia.

Once she calmed down enough to think rationally, Cyrene was much happier. Never again would she be alone in the dark the way she was as a child. Even in the middle of the night, there would be someone there in this part of her consciousness.

Cain focused back on his book of [Spell Crafting] and his thoughts faded into a soft murmur in the collective. That gave Cyrene her first clue as to the method of hiding her thoughts, so she got to work on not being the noisy one in the proverbial room.

She watched as Cain picked up a mace he pulled from his inventory and focused on improving it. The item level slowly raised until it reached three hundred and then as she watched, quietly listening to his thoughts as he worked, Cain brought the quality of the item up one rank at a time.

The level of mana control he was using hurt her head just to listen in on, so Cyrene decided that a bit more sleep couldn’t hurt now that she was comfortably placed in his lap for the day.

The enhanced item was technically a success, at least up to Legendary Quality where Cain stopped for a break an hour later. But he still felt like he was missing something. Self-teaching was always more difficult than learning from someone who already knew how the task was supposed to be performed, but the book was a good one, so Cain was sure he would get it eventually.

His next thought was to use [Modify] on the item while he worked. It wasn’t an ability intended for making magical weapons, but it could possibly allow the transformation to proceed more smoothly. There were things that were assumed during this section of the guidebook, one of them being that you understood blacksmithing techniques and the properties of the items you were working on, which was a very shaky subject for Cain.

[Imbue willpower on the enhanced item to create Sentient Blade Puppet?] Y/N

No, that wasn’t what he was after, but it could come in useful later. He could stuff annoying people into weapons to create cursed weapons. The user would have to channel mana into the weapon to let the soul trapped inside use its skills, but in theory, the occupant would be Immortal if the weapon didn’t break.

[You know, I think I understand why Ancients were viewed as evil. When you get to that level of power, morality no longer matters in the same context as it does for most people.] Cyrene’s sleepy thoughts made Cain smile and pet her head as she started to wake up.

“You will get used to it. Everyone else has been in my head all along.” Cain consoled her, stroking her scales.

She was getting noticeably thicker already and Cain began to wonder how many Lamia were born in one clutch. The red patterns on her white-scaled lower body rippled as she moved around so Cain could pet the itchy spots and he tried to count the eggs but failed, lacking the senses to detect them with a simple touch at this point in their development.

“I asked Oath Breaker one day and they said between one and twenty, but usually single digits,” Cyrene said, turning his thoughts into a spoken conversation.

That was a pretty wide range, so they would have to wait and see.

“Should we order lunch? I’m going to need days to get this skill even advanced enough to be reliable. We might as well get comfortable.” Cain suggested, picking up the book again to review the instructions.

“We might as well. I can send messages from here to handle anything that comes up with the guild that doesn’t require one of us to attend it personally, and the others have been very careful the past few days not to let me do anything where I might injure myself.” Cyrene agreed with a smile.

As they waited for lunch, Cain noticed that as he got used to the spell, it slowly became background noise. Like a radio, it was playing for you to listen to, but you didn’t have to listen or interact if you didn’t want to.

Cain spent another two hours trying to get the mace to advance from Legendary to Ancient Quality successfully, but without luck. The step in between the two was a big one, and the subtle shift that was needed seemed to elude him today, he simply couldn’t seem to decipher what he was doing wrong, so he didn’t know what he needed to fix to get it right.

At least the item didn’t degrade between attempts if you stopped and settled it in at a quality level before trying to advance again.