The scorpion continued its march in its hybrid form through the forest, slowly increasing in elevation as it approached the mountains leading towards human lands.
If I want to work with humans… What role should I disguise myself as?
All while mumbling in her mind about how to acquire more reading material. Sarah’s advice and Velasteros’s mumbling lead to the conclusion of work→money→books. It was a genius strategy.
The adventure novels were a great source of inspiration. So many party compositions of various sizes, even within the same book! And through their stories, it showed how they could theoretically work together. Out of all the options for work, that profession seemed like the best, as it aligned with her goal of getting rich quickly and getting stronger for Sarah’s request.
I would have to be some sort of mage… but likely a pure mage.
Velasteros, even in her human form, had a good amount of physical power due to her nature as a monster. It wasn’t absurd for what trained people had; they would be able to overpower her, but it was part of the act that she believed would be best. The scorpion didn’t know how she truly compared, only going off small details from the books she reviewed and what Sarah had explained to her. With all that, a mage who stayed out of physical combat sounded like the best option–despite the few problems she had to deal with first.
I don’t exactly have many offensive spells… Fighting as a human was going to have to be so much different from her true form. For combat, there were no advantages gained besides being a smaller target, but that was a great gain. She lost access to her claws, tail, poisons, and all-powerful weapons she used to finish foes and was only left with what could be called utility.
Wait! That could work!
Mulling over her thoughts, she had an epiphany.
A support mage!
Someone who could stand in the back and be the less noticeable member of the party. While the people with bombastic spells or swordsmanship could stand in the front. As long as she could prove her skills useful, then she optimistically thought there wouldn’t be any problem.
The thoughts of how difficult it might be to find a group that would want just a support mage were left in the dirt. Despite everything, and Velasteros trying her best to learn, she was still very clueless about how much of the world worked.
She reviewed what she could do and added practising that skill set to the agenda.
[Barrier] and [Reinforce] were defensive options she could use on others. She had even practised on some animals the moment she had this idea, and it was instantly proven true. The range was limited, almost impossible to use on others in an actual combat situation when they would be even a few feet away, but that meant she needed to train both skills to overcome that weakness.
[Force Pull] had already proved its usefulness, and while in its current state, its usage as a support skill was limited. Velasteros had great hopes for its development. It was already her second favourite skill.
Annoyingly for the scorpion, there were other issues with her skillset.
Though in terms of blending in with humans… [Human Shifting], [Eyes Of Crystal], and [Crush] are all basically dead skill slots… That will limit my role in a team!
Unless she completely rebuilt her skill list. There was no option other than a support mage in the scorpion's mind that would work with her current skills. Her only skills in her human form were two defensive skills and utility skills. Removing [Crush] wasn’t happening; it was too useful for combat in her true form. [Eyes Of Crystal] was a difficult one, as technically speaking, she could see with her human form now, but experiencing sight made her not want to lose it in any form.
The scorpion's lovely thinking time couldn’t last forever.
“Oof!” The forest had been quiet, but suddenly a large hog twice her size appeared nearby, and the moment Velasteros looked into her eyes with the creature, she knew whose prey was who.
Transforming between forms wasn’t instant and left the scorpion stuck in a long window where she was incapable of defending herself. So instead—
Time to book it!
—She just ran.
The large hog chased Velasteros through the forest as the scorpion kept searching for somewhere to hide from for a moment to shift forms.
Trees were like sticks for the hog, as anything in its path could be bent out of the way. Velasteros still had access to her tail, so poisoning was still an option, but this form was so much more fleshy than a full scorpion. She didn’t care if supposedly the [Endurance] was the same; she wasn’t testing getting hit with a hog charge.
Dammit, leave me alone! Why couldn't there have been any books about escaping from hogs?!
Frustration and rage kept her moving as she quickly got lost with her only goal being escape. She could feel worrying slamming loud sticks in her head, warning of the possibility of getting lost, the hog catching, and a bunch of other shit, and the scorpion didn’t care! Only wanting a separate emotion to shut it up so she could focus.
Ah crap… The voice of worry lamented its failure as Velasteros reached the edge of a cliff. She couldn’t even turn around to see the beast, as its stomps were right behind her. Velasteros tried to dodge, but there was only one direction to go, and the hog only accelerated.
Within a moment, Velasteros’s eyes were looking up towards the sky, and the hog soared past her. The two went flying off the cliff, and the panicked scorpion created the strongest shield she could as she fell to the ground. The hog’s charge had sent it hurtling towards the sun, while Velasteros’s stumble off was only headed straight down.
Soon, the forest was welcomed with a loud bang as a sphere of power crashed into the ground, followed by a pile of surface dirt breaking off the side of the cliff.
Ouch, ouch, ouch~! The scorpion regretted aspects of her prior decision-making. Perhaps there was a plan that would’ve resulted in not being buried under the mound of dirt and stone.
After a slow exit, Velasteros, in her partial transformation, emerged. She had to cough up the accidentally swallowed dirt.
Stupid hog, only the smartest survive in the end!
Velasteros was hurting but was in no serious trouble, but she was a little lost. The chase had caused her to completely lose her sense of direction, and now she needed to remap where she actually was. The forest around her wasn’t familiar, so she looked to the sky and sun to figure out the direction she was forced in.
Let’s continue forward!
Optimism told her everything was going to be okay! And the other emotions that could raise counterpoints were dizziness from the fall.
Velasteros stumbled through the forest, hoping she was going in the right direction. Which eventually reached something.
I think that is people…
Hearing some voices in the distance, Velasteros shifted into her human form with caution. The voice sounded like it was coming from below, down the hill she was moving down. Once the transformation was complete, she slowly moved forward, trying to get a better picture of the voices.
Velasteros then slipped.
“Argh!” and tumbled down the rest of the hill and landed back first onto the dirty ground below.
Velasteros’s eyes slowly blinked as the voices of the humans she vaguely saw made their way into her ears.
“Sis! A person!”
“I can see that Mark…” The younger child muttered quietly as she looked at the lady.
Finally, Velasteros rolled over and properly looked up at the two children. Both were much smaller than her; that was at least obvious.
Blond-haired siblings, one with blue eyes and the other green, a boy and a girl. Both looked tired, and their clothes were worse for wear. She could feel the caution in their stare, and being the first humans she had met since Sarah, Velasteros’s negative emotions were praying they weren’t being shown on her face.
How does one start a conversation?
“Do you have any books?”