It feels like everything has been a blur… will that change when my [Intelligence] increases?
Velasteros flicked through the pages of the book in her hand. Tales of the Nexus. She read this story twice but only recalled specks of the overall plot but she always had the ability to re-read the book.
I already felt like I didn’t really understand who Sarah was. Now, I can’t say I know the children’s parents' names. Mavis, Thomas, and Nieca, they are the only people I know.
She paused her daily reading and went back to writing.
The scorpion in her human form rested against a tree on the road. It had been a day since she left, and after she awoke, she decided to do some morning reading, then continue where she left off from yesterday, updating her diary.
Writing should be… no, this is hard…
Velasteros sighed as she held the diary and the makeshift pencil in her hand. They had been part of her gift. Sticks that had been carved into small sticks that she could hold. Inside the tips of each was a material cold Blue Needle. It wasn’t a product from the local trees, and it could be used to draw. It didn’t smudge easily but was hard to erase. The easiest way was with water, but on the paper she was given, that would only destroy her diary.
Positive in all this… I have substantially more respect for everyone who has to write the books.
The physical act of writing was hard enough. She had been given an extremely quick crash course on how to write, but the muscle memory wasn't there. Spelling and grammar weren’t too bad, since she always had another book by her side, which she constantly referenced.
Do I do less detail… or is more required? Sigh… I will only find out once I start forgetting again…
The purpose of the dairy was simple and obvious. To help Velasteros remember. It was gifted with that reasoning in mind.
Velasteros wasn’t sure if she exactly liked people yet.
But she also knew that she hadn’t really interacted with people.
And if she wanted to complete all her current goals, she needed to at least be decent in human communication.
Step one… get better at human communications…
The first hurdle. Its difficulty was quite high, all things considered. With her most recent few points making the situation worse, as she could reflect on her past conversation more, she realised she had been an absolute mess. Embarrassment was raising a flag in her mind, while indifference was running after it with a sledgehammer, trying to whack it down—currently failing in that effort.
Sigh… I started a dairy, but I didn’t even write down my major goals.
…I need to sigh less often. It doesn’t feel nice.
She flipped to the back page of the diary.
Number 1: Get a big brain.
Number 2: Complete Saraha’s request.
Number 3: Don’t associate with the past.
Number 4: Become strong enough to be happy.
Num—
All her goals were written with the utmost seriousness, and any questions about them would be greatly intolerated.
She looked at the fifth option again, and a sudden warmth entered her heart.
Number 5: Build a library…
Words she wrote in her diary were almost unintentional. She was trying to remember the information on the people and history in the settlement. When she returned to the fact that it was Mavis’s grandparents who built the building, she began scribbling it down. Slightly incorrectly.
What’s the settlement called again...? Gravelle! I need to write it down before I forget.
Her notebook slowly transformed into a glossary of information.
It was harder to make than she would ever like to admit. The headaches were less frequent, but they were recurring. Having the need to constantly triple-check the information in the book to make sure she had written it down.
I think that is done for now…
Velasteros finally looked at her status again.
Name: Velasteros
Species: [Amethyst Jewelled Scorpion] [24/50]
Stats: [0]
[Vitality] - 40
[Strength] - 37
[Endurance] - 22
[Intelligence] - 95
[Wisdom] - 31
[Agility] - 14
Skills: 6/6
[Crush] Lv9
[Barrier] Lv3
[Force Pull] Lv16
[Human Shifting] Lv1
[Eyes Of Crystal] Lv1
[Reinforce] Lv2
So close yet so far.
Her rampaging was successful. She had slaughtered a lot throughout the night, which brought her ever closer to her goal. If she could level up one more time, she would have enough points to reach [Intelligence: 100]. It wasn’t an enlightenment stage, but it was the baseline.
She felt like it was close… just a tiny push and then she would be there.
Now all she needed to do was reach Navivade.
“You will drop the book.”
“Mooo.” The cow, which had a book in its month impressively managed to moo.
“Drop it.”
“Moo.”
“I said drop it!”
Velasteros was going to have her way, whether this cow wanted it or not.
The scorpion in human form began running around the bovine, shaking with all the might of an angry scorpion.
What happened? Well, that could be explained by a series of mysterious and strange events.
Velasteros got distracted by a butterfly. Now it wasn’t a normal butterfly. It was a rare blue lily butterfly, which was mentioned in the Battle of the Flags. Until this moment, she had thought it was completely fictional. Her re-reading of the book this morning had managed to create a situation where she chased after the insect.
After going off the beaten path to catch up to the bug, even though she had no follow-up thoughts on what to do if she even caught the creature, it eventually led to being lost and losing the butterfly. The worst of both worlds.
Embarrassment was cheering, and curiosity was trying to whack it away, both equal in their effort. So both emotions were still strong in her mind. After stumbling around the forest for a bit, she finally found the road! However, it was the wrong road that was important as it meant she had officially become very lost.
Mavis had given her the directions to follow to reach Navivade, and now she had no clue where she was in relation to the directions she had been given.
…Killing the cow would probably be unwise… they are usually owned by people, and I don’t want to end up like Cow Killer David! But I won’t let this beast defeat me!
Despite the problems with killing the creature, Velasteros debated hard about punching a hole right through the damn bastard's heart.
After what could only be described as a prolonged struggle, the scorpion still failed to remove her precious book from the cow’s mouth, who thankfully hadn’t chewed on it much. If it did, it might’ve been easy to yank it from the beast's mouth.
“Huu huu…” Velasteros began to huff as she had exhausted herself after spending twenty minutes trying to remove the book from the cow's mouth.
“Argh! The pages are going to be damaged!" She cried to the heavens.
“Are you okay…?” The traveller asked, but there happened to be someone nearby instead.
Greenish-blue hair that had been tied back, golden eyes, and a very confused expression, Velasteros only looked back for a second before facing the cow. “Of course not!” She pointed at the foul beast. “This thing has stolen my book!”
“I see…” Catcher didn’t know what he tripped over today caused this to appear in front of him, but he decided to count his blessings that this wasn’t something dangerous. “I’ll help you with that.”
He moved down the path towards the range where the cow and the pained lady fought. With a few calming scratches, we managed to have the cow open its jaw enough for Velasteros to rescue her book.
With the speed of a cat seeing tuna, she was in and out within a blink.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you thank you!” Velasteros grabbed the book, spun around, while trying to wipe off all the spit that had rudely tried to infect her precious.
“It’s quite all right…” He raised his hands, wanting to stop the girl’s endless thanks. “I’m Catcher. Are you okay?”
“Thank you again.” She noticed she felt pretty relaxed after everything.
Huh… anger really made talking to a stranger a lot easier.
She bookmarked this discovery.
Oh yeah, I should answer his question.
“Yes! Now I am, thanks to you.” Velasteros held her book closely. “I’m Valmyst.”
“Nice to meet you, Valmyst.” He took a moment to look at the situation. “Can you… explain what happened if you don’t mind?”
“...Well, I got lost…” Velasteros explained with the utmost seriousness what happened.
She recounted the events with the butterfly and eventually found the road. She tried to look around but had a bad trip, which sent her tumbling. In great shame, she mentioned how the book she was holding fell out of her hand and was evilly snatched by the foul beast’s jaw.
“I see…”
“Yeah…”
Velasteros was beginning to experience a moment of awkwardness that lasted for an uncomfortable long period of time.