Bunny Girl Evolution [A Monster Evolution LitRPG]

75 – The Plan

Thankfully, Elise was already sitting still meditating when he arrived, so he didn’t seem to notice how she froze when she read his species. He also didn’t seem to notice that she had used {Inspect}, which was good. Thus far, only Freddy had been able to do that, but as she got stronger, anyone with ??? in their tag, especially a non-human, was risky.

While he exchanged pleasantries with Maia and introduced himself to Penelope, Elise’s mind raced. Sidhe was the same species that Emilia had been. That didn’t necessarily mean that he was like her, but it definitely did make him non-human. Did Maia know that? Did Otto know that? Was there any way for her to find out without putting herself or them in danger?

That also had implications on what the organization backing him could be. It was possible that he had snuck into a normal organization, pretending to be an Ainar, but she had a feeling that wasn’t it. She didn’t know the world very well yet, but she did know of one secretive organization that protected non-humans that was probably powerful enough to make the Blood Syndicate hesitant to mess with them.

“And you must be Elise,” said Hans, turning to her with a smile.

Elise broke off her train of thought, and looked up at the man. She hadn’t wanted to get involved with Ostra again at all, let alone this quickly, but it seemed she didn’t have much of a choice. At the very least, they didn’t seem to be after her for any bad reasons at the moment, so there was no point in trying to avoid them further.

She shifted to her human form to find that Hans was actually not much taller than she was. She hadn’t noticed while looking up from the ground, but he was quite short, only coming up to Maia’s eyes, and Penelope’s chin.

“Nice to meet you,” she said, holding out her hand.

“It’s nice to meet you as well,” he said, clasping her hand. “And no need to worry about word getting out. I have no intention of blowing your cover.”

“Thank you,” she replied.

“Now,” he said, taking a step back so that all three were in front of him. “I suppose you all want me to explain the plan.”

“Yes, that would be appreciated,” said Penelope.

“Not a problem,” he said. “I still can’t tell you much about the organization behind the operation, unless you want to sign a contract, which I would not recommend, as it would be very restrictive. However, I can tell you all about the operation we will be a part of, what our role will be, and how we need to accomplish it.

“Before I get into that though, there is one more squad member who will be joining us shortly, and before I introduce him, there are a few things I need to say, and you may find them shocking. Especially, you Maia, and for that I apologize, but it needs to be said. I… am a fey.”

“A-a fey?” asked Maia. “Really?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Oh.”

Maia didn’t seem to know how to respond, so Hans continued.

“I’m sorry for keeping it from you for so long, but I hope you understand why I needed to do it. My kind aren’t exactly welcomed in human spaces, so if I wanted a chance at a normal life, I had to pretend to be human.”

“Y-yeah, I get it,” said Maia. “I just- Did Otto know?”

“I honestly don’t know,” said Hans. “It’s impossible to tell what that man does or doesn’t know.”

“Yeah, I guess,” said Maia. “Still… Huh. Well, alright then. Why did you need to tell us that though? Is the last member of our squad also not human?”

“Correct,” said Hans. “And much more obviously so than me. He should be here by the end of the day, and when he gets here, you’ll see what I mean. I just wanted to preface his arrival with the reveal of my own nature so you would be less suspicious of him. He is a wonderful person, and very trustworthy as well, but his appearance is a bit… well, you’ll see.

“Anyway, back to the topic at hand, this operation will be fairly large in scale. We are one of about ten squads working in concert to take down the entire Blood Syndicate’s headquarters. We are under no illusion that we can take out the whole organization, but unlike their leadership, their headquarters is immobile, and eliminating it will deal a large blow to their power.

“We will not be doing much direct combat, if possible. Our squad’s job is extraction of high-value targets. This includes your friend the knight, and Maia’s sister.”

At that, Elise narrowed her eyes. That sounded suspicious. She could maybe understand Nick being a high-value target, since he was a Jelorian knight, but what about Maia’s sister? According to Maia, she had been taken by the Blood Syndicate right when her System had awoken, and her only strong attachments were to Otto and Maia. Was Otto powerful enough that Maia’s sister could be labeled as “high-value”? It sounded suspicious, but she didn’t say anything.

“However, while extraction is our goal, conflict is likely unavoidable.” As he said this, Hans’ demeanor suddenly shifted from friendly to stern. “You three were included on my squad because you were deemed competent enough to be of use, but I was not the one who made that decision, and I will not be taking solely your reputations and the word from the higher-ups as absolute fact. The mission takes place one month from now, and during that time, I will be testing and training you. If I don’t think you’re ready, I will leave you behind.”

While Elise felt a bit excited about getting even more training, her suspicion only grew the more he talked. Why were they even being included at all? Ostra– assuming it was indeed Ostra– seemed to have a solid plan already in place. Penelope and Maia were competent, but as far as she could tell, neither of them were strong or specialized enough to make them must-have additions to the operation.

On top of that, with two humans working so closely in concert with the non-humans, they were bound to notice something. She would be shocked if Maia and Penelope hadn’t already surmised that the organization behind Hans was one run by and for non-humans. And the more they worked together, the more they would glean. Neither of them had been contracted to secrecy, and neither were particularly trustworthy. Penelope was a knight, but she had already openly flouted the law to deliver justice, and Maia was connected to a man who proclaimed himself to be one of the best information-gatherers in the continent.

Then again, there was a very strong chance Otto already knew. In fact, there was almost no chance he didn’t know. He had known that Hans and Ostra were planning the assault on the Blood Syndicate. Or had he? If he didn’t, why would he have sent them to Hans?

Either way, it was strange. Including Penelope and Maia in the operation wasn’t worth whatever the risk of them leaking information was. That meant one of three things. First, they trusted Maia and Penelope not to talk. Elise didn’t think that option likely at all. Second, they planned on killing both of them at the end, to make sure that nothing was noticed. Elise thought that was more likely than the first option, but not by much. It didn’t make much sense either. That left the third option: Ostra wanted to make themselves known. Or they at least wanted rumors spreading.

She kept her face still, but internally, she was scowling. She had gone straight from the center of one major historical event right into another. She hoped it had nothing to do with her, but she didn’t like the timing. Ostra had been in hiding for centuries, and they had decided that now was the time to reveal themselves? That alongside the odd circumstances of Elise’s own uncontracted knowledge, and what she had learned of the Rune of Fate with the dwarves made it seem like it wasn’t as coincidental as she would have liked.

Still, at least this time, she wasn’t playing a pivotal role. Yet. Hopefully she wouldn’t in the future either. Regardless, she still had to save Nick, and now Bianca too, and then find Sophie. She couldn’t shrink away, just because she might find herself embroiled in something else above her paygrade.

Why not?

She was about to argue back with herself when she realized that her subconscious had actually brought up a good point. Why did she need to be involved at this point? Now that she knew there would be an all-out assault and massive rescue operation, why did she need to be personally involved? Nick and Bianca would most likely be saved, regardless of whether she personally went or not. Wouldn’t it be a more productive use of her time to go look for Sophie then?

On the other hand, what if she didn’t go, and something happened to Nick and Bianca? Would that be her fault? Even worse, what if she did go, and she made a mistake that got them killed? She wasn’t qualified for this. She had never done anything like it. Would her skills even be helpful?

Stop, she told herself. Nothing has even happened yet. Stop panicking.

She took a deep breath to calm herself, then realized that Hans had continued talking while she was lost in thought, and that now he had even pulled out a map.

“-are kept here,” he said, pointing to a spot on the map. “The guards there are strong, but most of them will be gone, dealing with the assault force. I doubt they will leave the prison completely unguarded, but it will be few enough that we should be able to handle them without issue. It will become much easier as well once we clear the first cells, as these are the fighters, which will give us more manpower.”

Elise stared intently at the map, trying to figure out what she had missed. Clearly, he was talking about their plan, but where had the map come from? She chided herself for getting so lost in her own thoughts that she missed something so critical. She focused harder as he continued talking, trying to fill in the gaps that she had missed.

He went on to cover two more locations on the map, one being the guards’ dorms, and the other being the location of the Blood Syndicates’ leadership. He made it very clear that they were to avoid both areas if possible. It was mostly a contingency for if things went south and they had to retreat, since ideally, they wouldn’t be getting anywhere near those two places, but just in case, they were to run in literally any other direction.

That still left most of the map unexplained to Elise though. It seemed that the complex was located in the center of the Jungle in a roughly circular area surrounded by trees on all sides. One side of the area was taken up by a smaller circle, though based on the sizes of the buildings nearby, it was still huge. Judging by the size and the shape, and what Hans had said about Nick likely being a pit fighter, she could only assume that was the arena where the fights took place.

The rest of the map was an assortment of buildings, that almost seemed like an entire city, complete with streets, open squares, and even what looked like a wealthy neighborhood with its greater spacing between buildings and longer pathways leading up to them.

The prisons where their targets were located were in the center of it. Fortunately, Hans did cover the route they would take in and out again, so Elise could see it, but that didn’t alleviate her concerns at all. As far as she could tell, they were just going to be marching straight into the camp and bursting into the prisons. That didn’t seem like a very good way to accomplish a combat-free extraction. There must have been some other detail she missed.

“And, that’s the plan,” Hans finished, rolling up the map. “Do you have any immediate questions?”

Elise had many, but didn’t want to ask him to go over the plans from the start because she wasn’t paying attention, while Penelope and Maia were still there, so she held her tongue. Neither of the other two had anything to ask either, so he put the map back into a bag on his hip and clapped his hands together.

“Well then. I supposed it’s almost time to start training. We’ll start in earnest once the last member of our squad arrives, but before then, I’d still like to see a brief demonstration of your skills. I also have something I need to discuss briefly with Elise, so would you two mind getting ready, and maybe warming up a bit while we talk? We can get started once I get back.”

“Alright,” said Penelope.

“Sounds good,” said Maia.

“What do you need to talk to me about?”

“Nothing too important,” he said. “Fey things. Let’s step away a bit though.”

This sounds important, thought Elise, but she didn’t say anything, merely nodding and allowing him to lead her away.

Once they were about a hundred feet away, out of earshot of the other two, he stopped and turned to her.

“So, do you have a special mission?” he asked.

“What?”

“I wasn’t told about another Ostra member being added to my squad. Do you have another mission that I should be aware of? It’s fine if you can’t tell me what it is. I just want to know if you have other goals.”

I’m not an Ostra member though, she thought.

She knew better than to say that out loud though. It was one thing for Mindy to not know she wasn’t part of Ostra, since she seemed to be just an ordinary member, but if Hans was trusted enough to lead a squad on such an important mission, he should have known better. That meant that most likely, Freddy had not told anyone that she decided not to join. In fact, he might have even told them the opposite, based on their reactions. She had no idea what his goals behind this were, but whatever they were, telling Hans the truth probably wasn’t a good idea.

“I’m just here to save Nick,” she said. “I have no other missions.”

“If you’re signed to a contract of secrecy, then just any kind of signal-”

“I’m not,” she said, cutting him off. “I am not bound by any secrecy contracts regarding this mission, and I have no other goals. I just want to save Nick.”

He didn’t look like he quite believed her, but he nodded. “Then I look forward to working with you.”

“You as well.”

“While we’re out here though, are there any more… fey-like abilities you’d like to disclose privately?”

“Nothing I can’t show them,” Elise said.

“Alright. Then let’s head back. No point in wasting any more time out here.”

When they returned, Penelope and Maia were both doing stretches to warm up. Hans gave them a couple more minutes before turning to each of them one by one and asking for a brief summary of their abilities, and occasionally demonstrations. During this time, Elise learned that on top of her normal combat abilities, Penelope also possessed a few passive skills, both mental and physical, that were focused on resilience.

Maia’s skills all revolved around stealth and speed. She was not especially strong, nor was her magic anything special, but the ease with which she could disappear, and the swiftness of her attacks was impressive. Elise had vaguely noticed before when they practiced at the Lappin estate, but when Hans asked her to demonstrate some of her shadow attacks, the speed was on full display. She had one attack that sent a blade of shadowy mana out from her own knives, and while it wasn’t as strong as Penelope’s own mana blades, it was so fast that it almost didn’t matter. Elise’s {Mana Sense} had surpassed level 50, and she could still barely detect it.

After them, it was Hans’ turn to demonstrate his own abilities. After her experience with Emilia, Elise had been expecting more on the subtle manipulation side, or perhaps more overt mind control. Even with “Duelist” in his species name, she was still expecting something more like her own skills, focused on affecting his opponent’s mental state. While he did have a few skills like that, his main attribute was speed.

Compared to him, Maia seemed positively slow. He had a skill called {Swift Step} that was less of a step, and more of a teleport. All Elise saw was a blur, and suddenly, he was thirty feet away. It was like her own {Dart} skill on steroids. He fought with two short swords, using {Swift Step} and a few other movement skills to attack before his opponents had time to react. He admitted that his other stats weren’t very high, and that he wouldn’t be able to take much damage without being put out of commission, but that was only if he got hit, which he rarely did. Most of his scars had actually come from moving too quickly and running into things, rather than from battles.

Elise demonstrated her own {Magic Missile} and {Vicious Bloom}, but since she couldn’t really demonstrate how she hunted using {Suggest} without a good target, she was left feeling like her own performance was lackluster. None of the others said anything, but she knew that with that demonstration, she had more or less proved beyond a doubt that she had half the combat power of Maia or Penelope, if even that.

After the demonstrations, they went back to their more static training methods while they waited for the final member of the squad. Elise wanted to ask who it was, but she got the impression that, despite claiming that he didn’t want them to be too surprised when they saw the fifth squad member, he actually did want them to be surprised. He had been vague about their appearance to the point where Elise was almost certain it was intentional, so she decided that she would just let herself be surprised, rather than worrying about it. After all, she had other things to worry about.

With the absence of Hans' talking to distract her, her mind returned to her earlier thoughts about her own position on the mission. The demonstrations had made it painfully clear that she was out-of-place, and probably underleveled for what they would be doing, and while she could understand how {Suggest} or even {Charm} would be useful for such a mission, Hans had {Suggest} as well, so she wasn’t really needed. In that case, why was she there? Why not trust the others with the mission and leave to look for Sophie instead?

Do I have a choice? she wondered.

While she didn’t think she could help much with the Blood Syndicate operation, she couldn’t really do anything else while looking for Sophie either. Even Otto couldn’t find her. What was she going to do? Especially since she now realized that she had no good way to get around. With her Charisma, she drew attention no matter what form she was in. Otto had sniffed her out almost immediately, and there would be others like him. How long before she ran afoul of one who would be happier to attack or capture her than to help her? What she needed was a better transformation skill, letting her take on less conspicuous forms, but she couldn’t do that without leveling up.

In that case, there was no better place she could be than where she was. Even if she wasn’t on the mission, the Jungle was already the place she had wanted to go after leaving the caves. She would be able to level up freely here. If she left the mission, or got kicked off the mission, she could just fly a bit further away and start hunting solo. In that case, while she might not be useful on the mission, there was no point in leaving either. She might as well just stay and receive whatever training Hans wanted to give her. In all likelihood, he would just kick her off the mission due to lack of ability, in which case she would just keep hunting on her own and wait nearby for the mission to be complete.

With that, her internal doubts were at least partially laid to rest, and she was able to put her full focus into her training once more. Her meditation was progressing smoothly. Not quite smoothly enough for the progress to reach ? on her Skill Quest, but she estimated that she might be able to get it within the week. Her lower core had become much more responsive, and she could already feel its effects. The mana flowing through her body seemed to strengthen and refine it, even after the circulation stopped, and she could move about more easily than ever.

She absorbed herself in her meditation for about an hour before she heard the sound of footsteps approaching in the distance. She opened her eyes as they grew closer, and soon, the others noticed as well.

“He’s here,” said Hans. “Do not be frightened.”

As the footsteps grew closer, Elise noticed that whoever it was was definitely not bipedal. They also weren’t hooved. Whatever it was had paws. She ran through the mental list of non-humans she had met at Ostra, but before she could even guess who it was, they came into view around a tree.

“...Jag?!”