True to Sarah’s words, Velasteros’s human form mimicked Sarah's. Similar facial features and body structure, but she looked a number of years younger. If Sarah was an adult, Velasteros was clearly in her teens.
It brought her curiosity about why that would be the case. Velasteros didn’t have any ideas, besides what Sarah’s words brought, of what the body would look like. Based on the facts, Velasteros, before transforming, figured she would either be old due to her past life, young because of being reborn, or match Sarah’s appearance, but somehow it was none of those options.
The key points of difference were that her features were a degree sharper than Sarah’s, and the bigger difference was the eyes and hair. Orange eyes that sparkled like crystals and almost black hair, but appeared a shade of purple.
It was Sarah’s body that had been dyed in the scorpion's colours.
The clothes were a little loose, and Velasteros had never worn human clothes before, so she was doing her best guess at wearing them.
“This is me…” The final difference was her voice. The only one who would’ve known was Sarah. The voice coming out of the body was distinctly Velasteros’s. In her scorpion form, the voice was screeching monster chatter, but Sarah could hear Velasteros’s true voice from within.
On the deeper end, but not too deep, not too quiet, and loud enough that one could hear her just fine. If anything, it was relaxing for Sarah to listen to. When she was reminded of how the scorpion actually sounded through the body.
Velasteros stayed where Sarah had vanished. Not even a corpse remained.
That’s why you didn’t ask to be buried.
There was a character in one of the books who asked to be buried when they were nearing their death. It appeared to be a human custom, but it seemed Sarah knew what was going to happen to her.
With her human hands, she reread 'From Swamp to Sea'. Technically, it wasn’t the last story they shared, but to Velasteros, it had more of an impact on her than the bedtime story Sarah told at the end. Perhaps Sarah realised that, which was why she left it on the ground next to her.
Reading the book again, Velasteros felt a parallel with the main character and Sarah. Two people who wished to see something but were betrayed and never saw it again. There was a clear difference; the boy in the story, Kale, never saw the sea, but it was a sight he dreamed of. Sarah had seen the sunrise many times, but the betrayal meant that without Velasteros’s interference, she wouldn’t have seen it again.
“Was she trying to teach through the books she chose?” Velasteros gripped her head as she felt a headache pulse. Whenever one occurred, thinking became harder, which greatly infuriated the scorpion.
Velasteros wondered if she was overthinking it.
I need to increase my [Intelligence] faster…
[Intelligence: 80] was her current amount. [Human Shifting] did provide her with a small boost of one point.
With the completed book in hand, Velasteros didn’t wait any longer and moved through the forest.
Velasteros ran through the forest; the advantage of the human form in her mind was evident—she was faster. There was no time required to learn how to move; everything was innately understood. She didn’t know whether this was the nature of the skill or something else Sarah did.
Her [Agility] didn’t shift, but there was a physiological component that made her faster than her scorpion form. However, it actually wasn’t by much, but the way the wind and plant life felt on her human skin made her feel much quicker than she actually was.
She was actually surprised that none of her stats actually lowered. With such a different body, a modification in her stats felt expected? The scorpion was wondering if she had the wrong idea of the skill and statuses.
Despite running for over thirty minutes towards the direction Sarah had said humans were, she didn’t have any plans. The immediate running was more of a panicked response that the scorpion didn’t understand.
After a while, the physical and emotional exhaustion caught up to her, and she needed to rest.
The tiredness allowed her to focus on other matters.
Where are they?
Velasteros looked through the pockets of Sarah’s clothes. There was a concerning lack of books.
Please don’t tell me they vanished with Sarah!
Velasteros hadn’t even got the chance to reread the books on her own yet or read the other books Sarah showed off but never read together.
Wait! It must be like one of those... what was it... storage items! Yes, but argh! What could it be! All the ones mentioned in the stories were huge boxes.
The conflicting information only increased the panic
Finally, after an eternity of worry, she pulled a ring that, when it was within her grasp, she could feel a tug on her mind wanting to welcome her in. Her instincts told her to completely toss away the ring, but her curiosity was jumping up and down, wanting to know what this item was. If Sarah didn’t mention anything, then it must be safe, right?
As her mind was dragged in, she pictured a place, a small flat square with piles of clothes, books, and other travelling items. The only thing it was missing was food, but besides that, it seemed to be the perfect setup for an adventure.
This… must be valuable…
Reading the fact that storage devices were large, bulky things made the scorpion question the validity of that statement. Which led to two conclusions. Either the fiction books were incorrect, or this item was rare. Recalling every lesson Sarah had tried to teach her, for her own safety, Velasteros chose to believe the second option until proven otherwise.
It took longer than Velasteros would like to admit to learn how to retrieve a book from the ring, and even longer to figure out how to put them back. Once she forced her way through that problem, she chose to read another book on the nearby wildlife as she rested.
It was an interesting read, and the fact that it doubled up on information Velasteros already knew didn’t bother her. There was certainly less detail in many areas, which was likely the reason why Sarah hadn’t used it as a key reading material.
Suddenly, Velasteros felt an ache within her body and instinctively tried to resolve that feeling. Her body began to morph for a second time; gemstones pushed out from her arms, black obsidian shade markings rapidly covered her body and with her hands turning the same shade as her shell, her tail and stinger grew from her lower back.
Once the transformation was complete, Velasteros was feeling a little better but also hungry.
“This… is not exactly what I expected…”
[Human Shifting] Lv1
The skill came with a few quirks Velasteros wasn’t expecting.
“I'm smart. I can solve this.”
Velasteros began to learn that the process of discovery was one of trial and error and a lot of pain. Many days had passed, some spent trying to learn the characteristics of [Human Shifting] with a small amount of distance travelled. Others were spent hunting and hiding.
In the end, Velasteros did learn something. She couldn’t be in her human form forever. Said duration appeared to be a day at best, with being on a full stomach helping reach that max duration. The unknown partial transformation was in between that could be maintained for a much longer period of time, and being in said form helped with the recovery from the human transformation. However, Velasteros didn't know if this form had a limit, as she couldn’t completely stress test the duration.
Her complete scorpion form was the most comforting, but it came with the massive downside of no hands, which meant no reading. Truly, an indisputable failing on the form.
Velasteros looked upon the massive mountain. The so-called home of a dangerous beast. Her curiosity was bubbling, but her caution and fear worked together to pop every bubble. Basically, every scenario of this proud little scorpion meeting said great, dangerous beast would end in arachnid paste. Unless the creature happened to be in a good mood or was extremely friendly! Which was unlikely... a creature with a reputation that stood for centuries.
The human world, huh...
Originally, her interest in such a place was only middling. There was something there to spark curiosity and ignite joy and bring the cloud of worry, but none of those emotions were strong enough to really move her.
That was until the power of the mystical: books.
Knowing that such creations existed to store and transfer knowledge, of course, she had to go and acquire more!
Of course, she was no foolish scorpion. Walking into a human city in her original form was a no-go, and even if she properly mastered her human form, the chances of her lack of knowledge of human customs and structure being her undoing were high.
So, she formulated a master plan. To acquire more books within the depths of human civilisations, she needed to read about human civilisations!
Getting the books for the plan would require another plan that Velasteros was sure would come together perfectly.