Bunny Girl Evolution [A Monster Evolution LitRPG]

87 – Future Goddess

[ ???, lvl ??? ]

Elise immediately regretted using {Inspect} on the woman. The other woman–Rayna– didn’t react in any obvious way, but any doubts Elise may have had about her noticing were removed when their eyes met.

“And who’s this?” asked Rayna.

“My name is Elise,” Elise replied, trying to sound calm. “I’m new. It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you as well,” said Rayna with a smile. “You have very pretty eyes.”

“Thank you,” said Elise. “Y-you too.”

“Have you ever considered becoming a vampire?”

“Sorry?”

“A vampire,” repeated Rayna. “It comes with a few drawbacks, but I think you’ll find the benefits outweigh them by quite a bit. Your body seems weak at the moment. Vampirism can fix that.”

“N-No thanks,” said Elise.

“Well, my offer still stands, if you ever change your mind.”

“That’s enough, Rayna,” said Freddy in a light tone. “She only just returned. I can’t have you scaring her off so soon.”

“Oh, of course not,” said Raina, laughing. “I’m sorry if I was too forward.”

“It’s alright,” said Elise.

“Now, Rayna, shall we?”

Freddy smiled and gestured back towards his office where he and Elise had just come from.

“We shall!” said Rayna, holding her arm out.

They linked elbows, and together walked back out of the ballroom. Unlike when either had been on their own, no one stopped them, instead stepping out of the way. To allow them a clear path. It felt like the entire room was frozen while they walked, and it was only when the door closed behind them that the conversation resumed.

“She’s another of the Executives.”

Elise flinched as a voice suddenly spoke from directly behind her. She turned to see Hans, a serious expression on his face.

“Like Freddy?” asked Elise.

“Yes,” he said, nodding. “I heard that the whole Operation Blood was her brainchild.”

“But I thought Firona came up with the plan.”

“Firona came up with the strategy,” corrected Hans. “But it was Rayna’s idea. Apparently, the entire Blood Syndicate is run by another vampire, and one who used to work under Rayna.”

“Will she be helping on the mission then?”

“Not directly.”

“Why not?”

“9th tiers are bound by certain restrictions,” explained Hans. “Not necessarily System-bound, but there’s a global tacit agreement of sorts for 9th tiers to not get involved in the affairs of those lower. 9th tier is a half-step before divinity, and actions made by 9th tiers carry the weight of demigods. If one 9th tier makes a significant move, the gods and other 9th tiers take notice. They need to be very careful in what they involve themselves in, because it will cause a ripple effect that may grow beyond what they are able to handle.

“The Blood Syndicate does not have any 9th tiers, so her direct involvement was not deemed necessary. Also, since one of the goals for this mission is to paint Ostra in a good light for the world, revealing that we have a 9th tier vampire as one of our leaders is a bad idea.”

“I guess that makes sense…”

Elise had a brief mental conversation with the System to confirm what Hans said about 9th tiers, but that only made her more confused. If getting involved with things like that was so risky for people of their level, why had Freddy been so quick to involve himself in the conflict between the dwarves and drow? He had just explained why he wanted her on his side, and why he was willing to go so far, but was she really worth taking a risk that big? Or perhaps it wasn’t a risk at all to him, and he had already handled the consequences.

Regardless, it was interesting information. It made her wonder how many other 9th tiers there were. More importantly, how did they level up? If they couldn’t make any big moves without getting noticed by the rest of the world, how did they ever hunt enough to level up? Maybe they used Emilia’s method, manipulating things from behind the scenes and farming large amounts of experience.

Or maybe monster gods simply didn’t exist on a large scale. Humanoids could just keep training until they progressed through the 9th tier. Monsters had to hunt and kill, and she couldn’t imagine a 9th tier monster would be able to hunt and kill enough to reach godhood before the humanoids got involved. That didn’t seem fair at all.

Maybe if she was a human, she wouldn’t have minded, since monsters were monsters, but now that she was a monster herself, and had befriended other monsters, she didn’t like it. The fact that Jag had to give up on progression, just so he could live a normal life didn’t sit well with her. The fact that she had to give up on progression if she wanted a normal life felt even worse. Not when humans could have both a normal life and level up.

System, how can I get a species that will let me level up without fighting?

“I’m sorry. You don’t have access to that information.”

How can I get access to that information?

“I’m sorry. You don’t have access to that information.”

And how can I get access to that information?

“You must receive permission from a System Administrator.”

Oh!

Elise wondered why she hadn’t tried that sequence of questions before. She felt stupid, but she also felt a spark of hope. The System Administrators were the gods, and she happened to already have a connection with one of them. Probably. Titania had been kind of ignoring her lately though…

Either way, having an actual potential method to unlock System-restricted information was good. She was sick of constantly being stonewalled whenever she asked. Even if Titania didn’t grant her permission immediately, she figured she could eventually get it. If not, she could probably find out in other ways. Freddy would at least know something. In fact, he might have already gotten such a class revolving around contracts. It would make sense, since even his Domain skill was focused on signing contracts, while everything else Elise had heard indicated Domain skills were usually more combat-focused.

I wonder what my Domain skill will be, she thought.

Thus far, though she hadn’t been entirely keen on it, she was developing into somewhat of an expert on {Suggest}, and though {Charm} felt weak, she didn’t doubt that it was doing plenty of subtle work too. {Fairy Dust} got plenty of work as well, and though {Lesser Transformation} hadn’t been as useful as she hoped, she assumed that when she evolved, it would lose that “Lesser” moniker and become much better. Her mana-based skills were good, but they weren’t really anything special. If she only had them, and didn’t have {Suggest} or anything like that, she would be quite weak.

Assuming she stuck to that path, which she was warming up to a lot, she would probably dive further into aether-based skills, rather than mana-based ones, and if her Domain was related to her other skills, it would probably be aether-based as well. In that case, would it fit more with her curses and blessings, weakening enemies and strengthening allies? Or would it be more about mental manipulation, disorienting or even controlling enemies who entered? Or maybe it would be something weirder. She was a fey after all, and fey magic got weird.

She found herself getting a bit excited about the possibilities, but was taken out of her fantasizing by a sudden influx of people who wanted to talk to her. Apparently a private meeting with Freddy followed by an immediate offer of vampirism from Rayna made her much more interesting than before. Who would have thought?

After almost two hours of socializing, Elise was feeling her battery running low, which was thankfully just in time for dinner, so she politely excused herself and changed to her human form to grab food. Transforming into a human immediately reduced the others’ interest in her. It wasn’t exactly a taboo, but evidently, the Ostra members didn’t approve of her preference for her human form. That was fine with her. That meant less people bothering her while she ate.

She still had a few guests, but mostly, she just ate in silence with Jag and Hans on either side of her. Thankfully, they seemed to have noticed that she was getting tired, and had placed themselves there so that she could take a bit of a break from talking to people.

Unfortunately, Elise was truly wiped out by that point, and she wasn’t recovered by the time they got dragged away by their own friend groups, leaving Elise undefended. She phoned in a few conversations with other monsters while nibbling on a few snacks, with each conversation draining whatever energy she had managed to regain.

“Not one for social events, huh?” said a voice behind her ear.

Elise flinched, accidentally crushing the piece of potato she was poking at, and looked behind her to see Rayna standing there. She was smiling pleasantly, and Elise had to hold back a sigh. No one ever started a conversation like that, then proceeded to respect the answer. In fact, agreeing might even make it worse.

“I’m just a bit tired,” said Elise.

“Fair,” said Rayna, taking a seat on the opposite side of the table. “I hear you’ve been here since the morning. I’m not sure I’d be feeling much better if I was the same. Here, why don’t I give you a little break?”

The black-haired woman snapped her fingers, and though Elise couldn’t sense anything, it felt like the atmosphere had changed ever so slightly.

“You can just relax for a little while,” said Rayna, with a soft smile.

The vampire turned herself around so that her back was toward Elise, and she was looking out at the ballroom. Elise blinked a few times in surprise, then looked around. There was no obvious change after Rayna snapped her fingers, but as the minutes dragged on, Elise started noticing a few oddities. No one around was acting strange, but when they looked toward Elise and Rayna, their eyes seemed to pass over without noticing them. Elise even made eye contact with Hans once, and Hans didn’t seem to realize it was her.

Rayna continued to sit where she was, looking around at the others, but she never spoke, and after a little while, Elise started to do as the other woman had recommended and relax. No one came to talk to them and there were no gazes fixed on them. After a few more minutes, Elise decided she was full and switched back to her changeling.

For nearly half an hour, she just sat where she was, observing the monsters around her, and occasionally using her ears to eavesdrop on interesting conversations. She heard a few interesting tidbits of news from monsters discussing their regional affairs, but nothing of special note, and soon, she found her attention drawn to Rayna. Elise was a bit worried that the other woman would get annoyed about keeping the skill up and doing nothing for so long, but she showed no signs of it.

Clearly, Rayna wanted something. Elise doubted she was doing this out of charity or anything like that. Even knowing that though, Elise appreciated it. There was nothing wrong with a business relationship, and unsolicited, highly appreciated assistance was a great way to open those negotiations up. Elise was still sure she didn’t want to be a vampire, but she also didn’t know exactly what that would entail, so she was open to having her mind changed if Rayna proved it was worthwhile.

“Thank you,” said Elise after a while.

“No problem,” said Rayna, glancing over her shoulder. “Feeling better.”

“Yes,” said Elise. “W-was there something you wanted?”

“Yes.” Elise was a bit taken aback by her candor. “I was hoping to have a conversation with you. I figured I should do it while you’re comfortable, and not looking to get out of it as soon as possible. If you’re not ready yet, you’re free to keep relaxing. The final brief doesn’t begin for another half hour or so, and even after that, I have all night.”

Elise still felt a bit lethargic, but her curiosity got the better of her.

“I’m fine to talk now.”

“Excellent,” said Rayna, spinning around. “So, you’re an aether specialist, right?”

“I guess you could say that.”

“I’m quite skilled with aether as well,” said Rayna. “It’s not my specialty, but I doubt there are more than a few dozen people in the entire world who use it better than me.”

“If this is about me becoming a vampire, I don’t really know what that entails, and I don’t think I’m interested.”

“Oh, no, that was more of a test than anything,” said Rayna with a light laugh. “If you had accepted, I would have gladly turned you, but I think that rejecting my offer was actually a wiser choice. Ascending to divinity is much more difficult when your path to 9th tier was paved by someone else. On top of that, if you do manage to ascend, if the one who paved your path is already a deity, then you will become a lesser one. It’s actually something I’ve been struggling with, as the one who turned me is now the vampire god. If I do ascend, I’ll be stuck working under him.”

“I see,” said Elise.

“That said, it might actually work out well for you. You’re already a rather unique species. Even if you were turned, you would remain turned, and you might not even end up working under me. I have no idea if that’s how it would work, but if you’re interested, I’m willing to help you test it.”

“No thanks.”

Rayna laughed again. “I thought so. That’s fine. I’m more interested in you as you are than in you as a vampire. Freddy said he already told you about your unique constitution, right?”

“He did.”

“Then I will tell you a bit more,” she said. “You already know that it grants you an increased capacity for aether and aether control, yes? Well, did you know that you are actually the first true aether specialist to be born with that blessing? In the past, those who had it merely used the aether as a supplement to their other skills. Aether makes an excellent supplement to any other skillset, but you actually have an opportunity to be the first to go truly all in on it.”

“Really?” said Elise, slightly doubtful.

“It sounds a bit far-fetched, but it’s true,” said Rayna, sensing her doubt. “Your constitution only appears once every few centuries, most don’t realize they have it until their path is already set, and on top of that, aether specialists are rare in the first place. Most of them have positions in government or business, and even then, calling those people ‘aether specialists’ is a bit of a stretch when many of their skills are hardly affected by it.

“You, however, are different. You are a fey, a species who naturally favors aether, and more importantly, you’re a monster, meaning you need to fight and kill to level up and evolve. This is a very unique combination, and one that the Executives are keeping a close eye on. I think that if you continue on your current path, you have a very good chance at divinity.”

Elise did not respond immediately. What Rayna explained made sense, and it further explained Freddy’s desire to be on her good side, but it also sounded too good to be true. She had just chosen the fey route on a whim, hoping it would get her to a human form. It did get her that, but now she was being told that it was also a path to becoming a goddess?

While being a goddess sounded nice, she had never really had a strong desire for it before. She had idly wondered what it would be like, and even sort of assumed she’d go for it eventually, since she didn’t really have a lot of long-term plans, but this was the first time she had seriously considered doing it. If it was really as simple as going down her current path, then why shouldn’t she? It would be nice to be so powerful.

Was it a selfish desire? Probably. But was there anything really wrong with that? All her other motivations at the moment were based on other people. Save Sophie. Save Nick. Save Bianca. Save Maia’s sister. Avenge Sylvanna and Corwin. She wasn’t really doing anything for herself. Plus, the more she thought about it, the more it sounded desirable. She was already frustrated with how powerless she often felt. Even if she never actually made it to the level of divinity, just getting stronger on her current path would help with that.

She thought back to what Freddy had done to end the war with the dwarves and drow. He had arrived, and within the span of a few hours, the conflict was over. Zero casualties, and zero long-term damage. If she got stronger, she could do the same.

She looked at Rayna, who was smiling patiently. The information she had just shared was useful, but that couldn’t be it. Unless she was aligned with Freddy and just wanted to get on Elise’s good side. In that case, she would surely be open to answering a few questions, right?

“So you think I can become a goddess?” asked Elise.

“Absolutely,” said Rayna. “Especially if you continue your specialization in aether.”

“And what exactly does that entail? I only learned about aether recently, so I’m not entirely sure what that all means.”

“Well, it will be a bit of a long explanation.”

“That’s fine with me,” said Elise. “As you said, we have time.”