Velasteros used her next immediate meeting with the woman to question if she was in possession of any books. Which was the next day, and once again, the woman laughed at the scorpion’s words. Velasteros was starting to worry if something about her voice sounded strange.
“I don’t have much on me, but here is one—Cenrnox Forest Plant Life.”
The woman pulled out a small book from her cloak. It was so tiny that Velasteros questioned how it could even contain anything.
Despite not saying anything, the woman could read the scorpion’s reaction like a book. “Let me read you a little segment.”
She began reading, and after the first thirty seconds, Velasteros was amazed. The woman read off information about different types of leafy fruits that grew in the forest, the effects that they had on consumption, if they required cooking, if they had other usages, and how dangerous they could be. Then, after reading about what felt like a dozen entries, the woman flipped the page and kept going!
What is this~!
The scorpion carefully wobbled forward to get a closer look at the book. Her eyes couldn’t make out the words, which deeply frustrated her, but she could see that they were there, with sometimes a few images.
The paper pages were so small that Velasteros was afraid to touch them in case she accidentally ripped the paper with her claws. The human’s hands seemed so perfect flipping through the pages while holding the book upright.
One of the plants she described was a red lily that the scorpion remembered seeing. It had a strange scent that made it so she hadn’t forgotten the appearance of the flower. Apparently, it was deeply harmful, as when the leaves broke, they released a paralysing toxin that impacted creatures with exoskeletons, which included her!
“And that’s all I’m reading.” Velasteros could hear the woman smirk and was beginning to realise how tricky humans could be.
Velasteros’s claws twitched, and she scratched them nervously. “...Could I try reading?”
She felt stupid even saying that with her poor eyesight.
The woman asked, “Can you even turn the page?”
“...”
That’s not a fair question…
“Soon I will be able to.” Velasteros scuttled off without any shame.
The woman froze for a moment, stunned at what she had just witnessed, before cackling so loudly that the tree worried it had made a deep mistake.
After retreating and dealing with the strange feelings of embarrassment that the emerging pride burst out of the mental ground, to immediately hammer the shame into the ground.
Was this such an important issue that Velasteros should be spending her time solving? The scorpion said definitely. It was a source of knowledge that only the intelligent could acquire, and her pride wanted to prove she could solve this issue.
The introduction of the idea of a book had branched from her complete stable [Intelligence] obsession.
Hunting a few small creatures to power her mind and finding a good spot, Velasteros began debating how she would solve this issue.
Reading, and turning pages…
Her inability to see the words and turn the pages wasn’t something that came naturally to a scorpion of her evolution. So either she needed to gain those abilities or find a job.
Potentially [Force Pull] could work, but when Velasteros went to test that first option with grass… It was too effective. Even the weakest level of pull was still too strong a tug.
Can I even make it weaker?
A failed attempt at trying proved no.
I should’ve just gone immediately to skills.
The positive of this whole situation was that it also solved a different issue, the need to fill out all her skill slots. It ended up being worth waiting a day before making the final call… though she couldn’t delay much longer. A dark part of her that her fear was warning her about knew that if she didn’t, her instincts would somehow select the forbidden skill for her.
Okay… I have two options for hope when it comes to my eyes…
[Amethyst Gem Eyes] and [Eyes Of Crystal] were her only chance at immediately improving her eyesight. Though she had no idea if they even would or which would be better.
For page turning, [Bipedalism Form] seemed like an alright option. [Bipedalism Form], from what she understood from the feeling of the skill, would give her a shape that would be more similar to a human.
Unable to decide between either eye skill, Velasteros chose to select [Bipedalism Form] first.
Ergh…kee…
The skill activated the moment it was acquired.
Her form cracked as it stretched taller, and after a slow transformation that took an hour, Velasteros could finally embrace her new form.
This… is certainly not what a human looks like…
Without even seeing a reflection, she knew this had gone badly.
It wasn’t even possible to call this form a half-human, or even a percentage human; it just wasn’t. The exception was if a person called anything that stood on two legs somewhat human. If they did, Velasteros would call them a right true absolute idiot.
I don’t even have hands…
The biggest want for this form was hands… and she only got legs. Her pincers did have a longer range in this form, but the more she existed within it, the greater the feeling of unhappiness grew. It started as a single small crying flower, but every second added another to the orchestra.
I think it is best to get rid of it…
The result of [Bipedalism Form] left Velasteros feeling down. Her sadness made itself a large pool and dragged all her other emotions, and it was impacting her psyche. She wasn’t used to this sort of feeling and the failure of something in the grand scheme of things that was not important enough that it would save her life, but something she just wanted—hurt.
Even the desire to test the two skills had sunk.
Emotions could be an unstable and fickle thing at times, and while Velasteros had been learning to process and control them in some way, she was still almost an infant in terms of properly dealing with them. The strange line of an old soul, growing intelligence, as well as feeling and comprehending emotions properly for the first time, was bound to cause some issues. It was something Velasteros simply had to learn to adapt, control, and manage.
The scorpion whined for a while as it clicked away an annoyed sorrow.
The woman asked, “Why do you look so sad?”
Velasteros couldn't exactly describe how she had disgracefully made her way back to relaxed women many hours after her failed attempt with [Bipedalism Form].
“I look sad?” The scorpion focused on a different point of her question.
Wait… how does my body show emotions? Wait, can she read my mind?!
Velasteros’s claws jumped up defensively.
“You don’t really talk to people, huh?” The woman scoffed with a smile.
“You are the first human I’ve met!” Velasteros complained back, deciding that yes, she hadn’t met anyone else before.
“What a pleasure indeed. I’m happy for the honour, but still, what has gotten you so down?”
“...” Velasteros paused. “I tried to get a form that would allow me to turn the pages of a book, but that failed.”
The woman chose not to laugh this time and held the explosion deep within her chest. She touched her chin. “Did you try a skill that changes your physical form?”
“...” Velasteros looked away.
“I will take that as a yes.”
How!?
The woman pulled her body up the tree slightly to adjust her sitting position. “Would you tell me what skills you tried to pick?”
“...” Velasteros felt that was a bad idea. There was an instinctual feeling that information should be private at all costs.
“If you don’t want to tell me, that is fine, but it’s not like the skills you pick are going to affect me in any meaningful way.”
She could be lying… I don’t exactly know how knowing another skill could be dangerous after all.
“[Bipedalism Form]... I had hoped it would allow me to turn pages because I thought it would make me more human. [Amethyst Gem Eyes] and [Eyes Of Crystal] were skills I debated in hopes of improving my eyesight.”
Velasteros had no plans to mention any of her other skills.
“Yep, that wouldn’t work. It is a powerful skill, and it could lead to future skills that would get you the result you want, but that could be far off.” The woman responded helpfully. “For the others, [Eyes Of Crystal] will help you see, and I am unsure about [Amethyst Gem Eyes]. The only thing of note I could add is that creatures with purely stone eyes tend to have worse vision than humans.”
Velasteros felt the woman was telling the truth, and Velasteros stepped forward, interested in what else was to be said.
“As for turning pages…” The woman smirked, “I could help you with that.”
The scorpion paused. “How…?”
“Many ways. I can even teach you to read, but doing that all for free is a bit much. So a deal where you get something in return is best after all.”
“That… is true…” Velasteros clicked her claws in agreement.
The woman then asked, “What is your name?”
“...Why?” Velasteros asked curiously. They hadn’t needed names before this moment.
The woman happily replied. “Well, to make a deal, it is usually appropriate if both parties provide names.” She paused. “Unless you don’t have a name?”
“Of course I do~!” Velasteros clicked her claws. She wasn’t some common scorpion.
With a moment of hesitation.
“Velasteros…”
The wind seemed to stop.
…!
The scorpion was unsure why it gave her true name.
“Yeah…” The woman’s voice dropped before shifting back to the calmer tone she had before. “You should probably change that…”
Why did I say it!?
“Is it a bad word?” Velasteros chose to play ignorant.
The woman coughed, “Yes. Let’s say that. I’m not sure I have a book on me to explain that series of events, but yes, quite a bad name for a monster to have.” She thought for a moment before clicking her tongue. “Well, do you like that name?”
Do… Do I even like my name?
She couldn’t even remember being given the name. In all likelihood, it was given to her by her former master, but holding no hatred towards the name meant the thought of changing never came up.
“What is yours…”
“...Sarah, but if you aren't too attached to the name, you should probably change it.”
“...I don’t know…” The scorpion muttered.
“Do you have any attachments?”
“A little?”
“Hmmm.” Sarah clicked her finger on the arm that was resting on the ground. “Valmyst. How does that sound?”
Neutral on the matter, but happy it started with a similar sound. “It’s fine.” She didn’t understand that it was a strange mix of Velasteros and amethyst that Sarah had quickly thrown together after jumbling the letters around in her head a few times.
“So, Valmyst, let’s have a deal. I, Sarah, will teach you how to read and even help you develop a way to turn frail book pages. In exchange, I want you to do me a small favour, and I promise it won’t cost you your life or anything like that.”
Sarah smiled, and Velasteros felt compelled to trust her words.