Nihility [ Isekai • Dragon Evolution ]

"You aren't a normal Earthclaw Weasel, are you?" The elf girl asked me in an innocent voice. My stomach dropped with that. How could she possibly know? And what was that electric shock I felt?

[The [Appraisal] skill operates by emitting a pulse of magicules that travels to the target, gathers data, and returns to the user with informational details]

That was not what I aske-Wait. So that's why that knight knew I had [Appraisal]. This shock I felt is the magicule pulse the skill uses to gather data. But what did she see? If she had seen what species I actually am then she wouldn't have asked if I wasn't a normal weasel. I thought and then she shook me side by side.

"Hello? System to the not weasel?" She said. "Is someone there?"

I looked at her face when she stopped shaking me. What should I do? Should I answer her? Should I play the dumb weasel? Would she understand me? I looked in her eyes, I saw the impatience in her growing. I didn't know what she was capable of, maybe it was better to comply with what she asked.

"No, I'm not a normal weasel" I said.

"Oww, what a cute sound!" She said, then petted my head. Huh. I think she doesn't understand me when I talk. "Anyway. Can you tell me why and how do you have three [Unique] skills?"

Oh…She can see my skills, then. Does she know what they do or can she just read their names like when I pull my status screen? I thought. Though, she isn't asking me what they do, but how I got them, which I can answer honestly.

I shrugged and she looked at me with a confused face and a smile on her lips. I hope this means the same thing in this world as in my original.

"You… don't know? So, you were born with them? Neat" She said. Then I guess a shrug is the same between words, then, thankfully. "Oh!" She exclaimed. "You shrugged! That means you can understand me!"

Oh, yeah. Guess I can't play the dumb weasel anymore even if I wanted to, huh? The elf girl then started bombarding me with questions of if I was someone's pet, someone's familiar, someone's contracted beast, a spirit, a skill construct, and if I was someone doing an astral projection then possessing the body of a weasel, which I denied all.

Then she started to think and after a few seconds placed me on top of the cage I had just escaped from and pulled a card from somewhere I didn't manage to see and put it in front of me, just like last time.

"Do you know why or what the six is?" She asked me.

As I looked at the card, I noticed it was the exact same one she had previously shown me, the last time I was in the camp, a card decorated with a nebula painting that shifted slightly with each second and in the middle of it there was the number 6 written in gold. Looking at it with more attention it is incredibly beautiful, honestly. Though, I noticed the number in the middle wasn't the same as last time. I knew the last time I saw the card I couldn't actually read it, and even now with the knowledge of the language I didn't know what was written, I know what symbol it is, mostly, but I couldn't place it in the language because the thing I remember is a memory, not an actual thing. Basically, as I remember not understanding the symbol, I don't actually understand the symbol after the fact… confusing? Yes, very.

But anyway. What I do remember is that the symbol now and then were different, but I couldn't exactly know how. Maybe it changes over time and it just didn't change to that other yet? I am interacting with her way earlier than I was before.

After staring at it for a few seconds, I looked at the elf girl and shook my head. I honestly don't know what the number means and I doubt I ever will. She looks at me and nods.

"Okay, thank you" She said, before just jumping and taking off towards the sky as a strong gust of wind carried her away, almost blowing me back. At the same time, that same feeling that the world itself is holding its breath starts up, it's very subtle and I almost didn't notice it, but it's there and ever so slightly increasing. If this is the earlier warning from the boronita exploding like it was last time, then this loop is coming to a close very soon, probably in around an hour, but I'm not an expert in this kind of thing.

I looked around and saw that most of the guards were standing still looking straight up at the elf girl, and the young noble was desperately trying to scream, his face was even purple with the lack of air. I took the chance and ran away from there.

After the distraction the elf girl made, leaving the camp altogether was easier than entering. I just locked in the direction of the forest and ran in a straight line. The anti-monster field didn't mess with my senses when trying to leave, which is a nice thing. Imagine having a monster somehow find itself inside of your anti-monster field and not be able to leave because when it tries to, the field just makes it turn back towards the center.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

It took me around 20 minutes of running until I was satisfied with the distance I had with the camp. Though, considering this loop was probably going to end soon I could have stayed there and the consequences be damned, hell I could even die and I would just go straight back to the God of Time's room, although he did say for me to try not to die. Oh well, I had another reason to leave the encampment as well. If I stayed there I wouldn't be able to practice with my new skill, as they would probably put me in another cage and, even though I want to level my [Magicule Manipulation] up with the help of the anti-magic field, I wanted to try to crack my new skill first because as it is now, I only have the water jet spell to be able to be casted.

First order of business, I sat down and triggered [Genetic Dysphoria] to revert back into my true form as it was more comfortable to be in than transformed in a weasel. As my flesh and bones melted into a gooey substance, I used [Magicule Detection] to try to understand what was actually happening. I saw that my entire body was like a blazing sun to my magical senses. It was so bright I almost looked another way, but I managed to glimpse at what was happening somewhat.

I saw that all my magicules were flooding every cell in my body and turning them into basically a cell soup and then rearranging them in new structures and shapes. I couldn't see that well, but if I were to guess, the skill was actually rewriting my DNA in every cell of my body during this process and that's why it needed to make my body this goo like thing before taking shape again. I saw way too many memes of the "my metamorphosis begins" to know this is probably the best way to do it.

After I was back in my true form, I quickly looked around to see if there was anything that would interrupt me and after finding nothing, I pulled the [Magical Programming Language] skill and looked at the code for the water jet skill and erased everything.

I had two theories of how the skill worked. The first one was that it was an actual programming language that I didn't know of and needed to stumble my way to be able to do magic, the worst option. The other one was something I believed it to be true, as it was what the [Spell Planner] did before evolving, it didn't have a fixed language and actually fed off my intention to compile the code and do the actual spell.

For that I pulled one of the spells I had written during my time in the cage. It was a flamethrower spell.

flamethrower = {

connect UserMind;

wait MagiculeCharge;

absorb Oxygen;

compress Oxygen(pressure = 275790400 Pa);

ignite Oxygen;

ventilate IgnitedOxygen(direction = UserMind.Target);

};

It was based on the waterjet spell, but I changed stuff a little. In theory it should pull air from the surrounding and compress it into the same pressure the water jet had, which I honestly didn't know if it was enough to liquefy the oxygen or not. Though, even if it did, It should shoot towards a target I defined.

I compiled the code and felt my magicules being drawn towards the spell, and drawn, and drawn. At this moment the spell was in front of my face and I could see my magicules being driven into it by the skill, and it was a lot. Unfortunately I had to take control of my magicules and pull back when I noticed it wasn't going to stop until I had depleted my magicules reserves.

The moment I pulled my magicules back, the spell broke apart and exploded with around 500 MP in it. It was enough to blow me backwards a few meters, but thankfully nothing beyond that.

I probably just exaggerated the pressure and it ended up needing a shitton of magicules to be able to compress it.

I quickly changed the pressure and dropped it three orders of magnitude. I probably didn't had enough magicules as I had only about a third left, but I wouldn't be able to wait for it to regenerate as that sensation was starting to become unbearable, meaning I had only a couple minutes left in this loop to do whatever, so, throwing caution through the window, I cast the updated version of my spell.

The magic circle appeared in front of my face again and started to draw in my magicules. This time I felt it fill up much quicker than before, but still took half of my remaining magicules. I watched it as a small sphere of compressed air, barely visible through my eyes, ignited in flames and then started spewing out in the direction I had set up, straight from me. Unfortunately it only lasted for a few seconds and the oxygen inside the sphere was used up. I saw two flaws with this particular spell. The first was that it was somewhat costly to compress it too much, and the second one is that as soon the compressed air empties out, the spell ends. I probably could increase the time if I injected more air in it before it was all used up, kind of like a jet engine.

I couldn't ignore the feeling anymore, it was too intense for me to ignore now. It had reached a crescendo and I knew this loop was over. Even though I wasn't a single step over how to close the loops and escape, I was happy with the outcome of this loop. I finally accepted who I was now and gained a new skill with it. I was also able to confirm that it worked with intention more than an actual programming language, meaning it had opened a lot of ways I could maybe exploit stuff, but that is to be yet seen.

I felt the explosion before I saw it. It was brighter than the sun and it basically blinded my magical senses like I was standing next to an atomic blast, which I doubt it was too far from. The moment I saw the light was the moment I was engulfed by it and was standing back on the room.

"It's still not enough" The God of Time said, with his back towards me, and then he turned towards me, with his mane of bright neon green, which I guessed was pure time energy. "I congratulate you on your new skill" He said.

I thanked him and asked if he could give anything I could use to escape the loops, but he told me again that I would know what to do when the time came.

The magic circle appeared below me again and in a flash I was back at the forest, running from the butler and the knight.