Bunny Girl Evolution (BOOK 2 COMPLETE) (STUBBED!)
115 – Fox and Hound

“Snowberry, you look so pretty!” exclaimed Sophie.

“Thank you,” said Elise, smiling at Sophie before turning her attention back to Erin. “What’s going on in here?”

“I was just greeting your guest,” said Irylax. “Did you know she has {Dragon Heart}?”

“I didn’t…” said Elise. “But what does that mean?”

“It means she was raised by a dragon,” said Irylax.

“And that she has a lot of mana,” added Sophie. “And faster circulation and better control.”

That sounds overpowered.

“I see.”

“Well, I won’t interrupt your time together any more,” said Irylax, standing up. “Whenever you get back, tell whoever it is that raised you to send me an invitation for tea or beer or something. It’s been a while since I talked to any other dragons.”

“Y-yes, Ma’am!” said Erin.

“Alright, have fun. Bye.”

With that, Irylax walked out. Sophie followed behind, though she stopped to give Elisse a quick hug before she left. Erin immediately relaxed when Irylax left the room, but she still looked a bit nervous, and not quite as carefree as she had before.

“Hey, Elise,” said Erin, switching to Fey. “You didn’t mention that Irylax was here, haha…”

“Should I have?”

“It would have been nice to have a heads-up…”

Elise was confused. Part of her confusion was due to the fact that Erin thought Elise would have actually warned her if it crossed her mind. After the stunt the kitsune pulled at the dinner party, Elise wished that it had been intentional. Seeing Erin sweating in nervousness was more than enough to make up for the tight spot she had put Elise in earlier.

The rest of her confusion was due to Erin’s reaction to Irylax. Of all the people to get nervous like that in front of Irylax, an 8th tier kitsune who had been raised by a dragon herself was last on Elise’s list. Her reaction didn’t really make any sense.

“Did you already know Irylax, or…?” started Elise.

She knew that the answer was “no,” since Irylax had clearly never met Erin, but it would hopefully lead in to the actual answer.

“Not personally,” said Erin. “But I’ve heard stories…”

“Yes, Irylax was quite the troublemaker when she was younger,” said Oberon. “And I don’t think she’s entirely grown out of it. I’m looking forward to what will happen when she reclaims her old territory.”

Erin shivered.

“What did she do in the past?” asked Elise.

“You don’t know?” asked Erin, looking a bit incredulous.

“Hey, I’m not even a year old, there’s a lot I don’t know.”

Erin stared at Elise, then glanced at Oberon before going back to Elise.

“It seems you’re more familiar with her past than me,” said Oberon. “Why don’t you explain?”

Erin narrowed her eyes at that statement, but didn’t protest.

“Do you know what her nickname was before she disappeared?”

“I think she mentioned it,” said Elise, thinking back to her first meeting with the dragon. “The something of the North Sea?”

“The Scourge of the North Sea, yes,” said Erin. “And since you don’t know how she got that nickname, I’ll tell you. In the past, the North Sea was one of the most important trade routes in the world. The humanoids spent almost a thousand years carving a route through the icy waters, and one of the most important stops on that route was an island whose name is now Irylax Island. Can you guess why?”

“Because that’s where Irylax’s lair is?”

“Correct. So a powerful 9th tier dragon had her lair on that island unbeknownst to the humans. She was napping when they built their port, but when she woke up, she demanded tribute to continue operating on her island, and when they failed to pay, she blew up the port. According to the old stories, the kingdoms involved sent peaceful delegations to attempt to treat with her, and she rejected them all until eventually, they just decided it would be easier to kill her. Of course, they were wrong, and two entire nations fell, and every single person involved in the attempted subjugation was killed.”

“She disappeared shortly after that, and since all the direct witnesses were dead, some people started to doubt that she ever existed in the first place, but Father- my father always said she would be back. Actually, he said she was back not too long ago. I just didn’t expect her to be here. I think I’m going to have to head home early…”

As she continued her story, she slowly grew more relaxed, and her tails perked back up, but now they were drooping again, this time out of sadness rather than fear.

“Ah, that’s a shame,” said Oberon. “I was going to ask you to show Elise a few of your tricks. Kitsunes are always so fun.”

“Maybe next time,” said Erin apologetically. “I really should get back. Father will want to know about this.”

“Well, you’re welcome anytime!” said Oberon. “Especially if you’re here to help Elise out. And you don’t need to be so formal. It doesn’t suit you.”

Erin broke out into a toothy grin as she stood up and smoothed out her dress.

“Alright. Well, I’ll probably be back soon. Maybe with Father, if he has the time.”

“We’ll look forward to it.”

She walked out of the room as well, leaving Elise alone with Oberon.

“Well, that was quicker than expected,” he commented. “Which works out perfectly, because I had something else to show you!”

“What is it?”

“The items from the auction have arrived!”

Two minutes later, they were standing in Oberon’s office where two large wooden crates awaited them. One of them, Elise could identify without opening it. It was clearly the black box that she had accidentally spent 42,000 gold on. Even without being able to see it, she could feel its pull. It was like it was making her mind foggy and giving her a subtle desire to open the crate and touch the box.

Is this what it feels like to have {Suggest} used on you? she wondered. I don’t like it at all.

It took her a few seconds, but she managed to tear her eyes away from that crate and look at the other instead, since it raised almost as many questions, the main one being “what is it?” She had already collected her books, and she was certain that she hadn’t purchased anything else, yet there was another crate here the same size as the one with the black box.

The fact that it was a crate was a hint on its own, because only items that couldn’t be stored in a spatial storage would be put in a crate. That meant that it was either a spatial storage device itself, or that it was alive. As she tried to recall the items at the auction, she heard a faint scratching and a low whine from within the crate.

“No…” she muttered.

“Yes!” said Oberon excitedly.

He waved his hand and the top of the crate flew up and the sides fell away to reveal the glass box containing the many-legged puppy. A moment later, the glass box was dismantled as well, and the puppy stampeded out and straight into the arms of Elise, who had crouched to welcome it.

“Ohmygosh it’s so cute!” she exclaimed. “I can’t believe you bought it!”

“I thought it would make a good mascot for the castle,” said Oberon, looking quite pleased with himself. “One creature. Many sets of legs. Just like me!”

The puppy kept pushing forward, so Elise let herself be pushed over until she was sitting down and it was stomping all over her lap. As it tried to decide between licking her face and letting her scratch its ears in peace, Elise used {Inspect} to try to figure out exactly what it was.

[ Centipup (Chimera), lvl 2 ]

That made her pause. She frowned as she stroked its back and looked at the creature more closely. As far as she knew, chimeras were supposed to be artificial creatures made by mixing other creatures together, but this one was clearly made using only puppy, and as far as she could tell, it looked natural.

“What is it?” asked Oberon, catching her look of confusion.

“It’s a chimera,” she explained.

“Oh,” he said. “That is interesting.”

He crouched down and did the same as Elise, looking closely at its body and sometimes trying to peer beneath the furs though looking for seams. After a few seconds, he stood back up with a thoughtful look on his face.

“Well, I don’t doubt your skill, but I believe this particular animal is a registered chimera. Naturally spawned, rather than created.”

“What does that mean?”

“Sometimes, if a chimera or other kind of artificial monster is stable and reasonable enough, the System will add it to its compendium as a normal evolutionary option, and it then gets treated as an ordinary monster. It still retains the Chimera label, but functionally, it’s just a natural monster. The fact that they didn’t share this information at the auction is odd though. That seems important. Unless…”

He walked over to his desk and picked up a piece of paper and started reading.

“Aha!” he said a minute later. “Found it. It was in the fine print of the contract I pretended to sign. The fact that it was a Chimera was intentionally hidden, and had I actually signed that contract, I would have been obligated to keep it a secret. I guess someone doesn’t want it getting out that all these ‘extinct variations’ are actually just chimeras? Humanoids are strange. But, it’s not our problem, so I think we can ignore it and enjoy our new pet!”

Elise didn’t see any reason to object, so she shrugged and went back to petting the puppy with gusto. After a minute or so, the puppy was too excited to continue sitting still, so it started sprinting around the office. Because of how long it was, it often bumped into furniture when it took turns too tight, or slammed its rear end into walls and bookshelves when it took its turns too wide, but it didn’t seem hurt at all, and it looked so ridiculous it had both Elise and Oberon in laughter. The two played with the puppy mindlessly for a quarter hour or so before it got tired and peed on the ground before curling up on one of the couches.

Oberon split off a clone to clean up the mess while his main self and Elise calmed down and adopted more serious expressions as they approached the unopened crate. Oberon waved his hand and the wood for this crate fell away too, revealing the black box inside. With nothing now between her and it, it took a healthy amount of self control for Elise to refrain from immediately reaching for it.

“It wants me to touch it,” she said.

“That’s odd,” said Oberon, stroking a long, thin beard that had just appeared on his chin. “I don’t sense anything from it at all.”

“It’s definitely trying to get me to touch it,” she said.

“Oh, I don’t doubt that,” he said. “But what I meant was that I literally don’t sense anything from it. No mana, no aether. As far as my {Mana Sense} and {Aether Sense} are concerned, the box doesn’t exist.”

Elise frowned, and then confirmed with her own {Mana Sense} that the box didn’t seem to exist. And if Oberon, who probably had both skills maxed, couldn’t sense anything either…

“This was made by a craftsman far beyond any that I’ve ever met,” said Oberon, slowly circling the box. “Look how smooth it is.”

Elise looked. It was smooth. She didn’t see how that was important. Oberon noticed her confusion and elaborated.

“This may be the smoothest object in the world,” he said. “It is perfectly smooth down to an atomic level.”

At that, Elise’s eyes widened. She almost reached out to touch it to see how it felt, but stopped herself. As strong as the urge to touch it was, there was an equally strong urge at the back of her mind to hide it in a block of cement and drop it into the middle of the ocean, and the more she learned about it, the more logical that option seemed.

“Since the box itself is such an impossible creation, and since only you can sense anything from it, that leaves us with two possibilities,” said Oberon. “Either this was created by a god, or this was created by another aetherborn.”

“Or both,” suggested Elise.

“Or both,” he agreed. “And since I’m fairly certain we’ve gotten all we could out of mere observation, there’s only one thing left to do.”

“No!” said Elise, but she was too late.

Oberon reached out and placed his hand on the box. For a second, neither of them moved. Then, Oberon started moving his hand side to side. Then, he raised his other hand and started rubbing the box with that hand as well. Then, he split off two more clones who both also started rubbing the box.

“It’s so smooth,” the original said. “Impossibly smooth. I’ve never felt anything like it.”

Well, now I want to touch it too, thought Elise.

Oberon split off two more clones, then two more, and all seven Oberons rubbed every inch of the box with odd smiles on their faces. Between the desire to experience what he was experiencing and the existing urge to touch the box, Elise almost gave in right there. After about a minute, the clones started popping out of existence, and though Oberon kept his hands on the box, he finally looked back up at Elise.

“Well, this was well worth the price just for that,” he said. “Do you want to try?”

“I do,” Elise admitted. “But I feel like if I do, something bad will happen.”

“I do too,” said Oberon. “So, want to try it anyway?”

“...Kind of.”

“In the worst case scenario, I can probably save you,” he said. “Even if you get possessed or it tries to kill you.”

Elise thought for a moment. It was tempting. Very tempting. And she wasn’t sure how much of it was her own desire, and how much was the box calling to her. After a few seconds, she shrugged and nodded.

Am I really about to gamble my life on a probably?

Despite that thought, she didn’t actually feel like she was gambling her life. Not exactly, at least. She certainly felt like it was a gamble, and that something bad might happen, but she also felt certain that it wouldn’t kill her.

Oberon finally let go of the box and walked around until he was standing behind her. He put both hands on her shoulders, making her flinch before she stepped forward and raised her hands. At the last second before she touched it, a moment of clarity arrived in her mind.

Titania, if this is going to get me or someone else killed, please tell me now so I can stop.

She waited a few seconds, and there was no response.

No response means I’m good to go, right?

There was still no response, so she took a deep breath and lowered her hands.

“Oho, interesting,” said Oberon behind her.

Elise barely noticed. Her attention was drawn to how the box felt in her hands.

“It’s so smooth,” she breathed, rubbing her hands along it.

“Hey, you should probably-” she heard Oberon start saying, but she didn’t hear the rest because she blacked out.

When she woke up, she had reverted to her base changeling form, and was laying on one of the couches. She felt a little woozy and disoriented, but soon, her head cleared and she fully recalled what happened. She sat straight up and looked to see the box and the puppy both exactly where they had been.

“How long has it been?” she asked.

“Not long,” said Oberon. “A minute or so.”

“What happened?”

“As soon as you touched it, it started siphoning your aether out rapidly. If I didn’t pull you away, you probably would have died.”

“Oh. That’s not good.”

“No, not at all,” he agreed. “I don’t recommend touching it on your own until you at least have {Aether Sense} so you know how low you’re getting. Even then, maybe hold off. It drained an aether-focused aetherborn in seconds, and the rate of the drain only got faster the longer you held it.”

“Yeah…”

Elise looked over at the box, and once again felt the urge to touch it, and this time, it was more intense. Only a little bit more, but definitely more. She concluded that for whatever reason, it needed the aether of an aetherborn to fully activate, and now that it had tasted hers, it wanted more badly. She was curious about what would happen whenever it did get its fill, but at the same time, now that she had sated her curiosity about what would happen if she touched it, and how the smoothest object in the world felt, the urge to sink it into the ocean was stronger than ever.

Whatever the box contained was likely dangerous. It could trick the senses of a centuries-old 9th tier fey, it could only be fueled by the aether of an aetherborn, and in Oberon’s opinion, it could only have been created by a god, or by an aetherborn powerful enough to be comparable to a god. That meant that whatever was inside was either the greatest treasure in the world, or the most dangerous thing in the world, or both. Either way, it was probably best that it never saw the light of day.

“We should lock this away,” said Elise. “Somewhere no one will ever find it. Especially not me.”

“I agree,” said Oberon, looking uncharacteristically serious. “I am burning with curiosity, but I am not quite so immature and foolish as to believe that I would have any control over what would happen if it ever did get opened. And not being in control is very un-free. Very un-fey. Don’t worry, I will find somewhere to put it that no one else will ever be able to find it. Hmmm, maybe I’ll give it to Irylax. No safer place than in a powerful dragon’s lair.”

“Maybe,” said Elise. “Or sink it into the ocean so that no one will ever find it. Anywhere but here though. I don’t want it anywhere near me.”

“I’ll come up with something,” he said. “And I won’t tell you what that something is.”

“Thank you,” she replied.

“Now, I’ve partially replenished your aether, but you’ll want to get a good night’s sleep to fully recover. Why don’t you head back to your room, and I’ll figure out what to do with this box while you’re asleep.”

Elise noticed that she was feeling drowsy, so she nodded her head, and activated her wings so she could drift lazily toward the door.

“We’ll go over your training in more detail in the morning,” said Oberon. “Sweet dreams.”

“Bye.”

Elise yawned all the way back to her room, and as soon as she entered, she flopped on to her bed and closed her eyes. At that moment though, she heard a ding, followed by the System’s voice, and in an instant, she felt wide awake again.

“Congratulations!” it said. “Your System has been upgraded to version 7.1.0 Alpha, Edition.”