Chapter 37. No.No.No.

Chapter 37: 37. No.No.No.

"I got the information I needed. I can definitely make a sex toy if we find an actual corpse of the adult Sylvbeetle they were talking about in the book."

She hugged the book she was holding, tight, stretching her legs out and releasing them with a lazy breath.

"Concerning, that they burned all their research. They’ve most likely destroyed the adult Sylvbeetle corpse into dust as well."

She proceeded to act like a little girl who’d lost her prince-charming teddy bear, comically depressed.

"Are you really getting this worked up over a beetle sex toy."

"You just don’t know how rare these are, alright. Besides, there should be more to it, if you find out."

Dr. Rhiannon sat up, closing the ghostly book, closing her eyes out of satisfaction. I thought about it for a second, I hadn’t read most of it, so I couldn’t really say.

"Anyway, you will scan the rest of the books. Meanwhile, I’ll find the adult Sylvbeetle’s weakness."

"Alright."

Now we were actually doing some work, instead of goofing around. I went through the other room, scanning the rest of the books. Somewhere in between, I read a few paragraphs myself, they weren’t that interesting.

However, in the last and smallest room, I found something fascinating. In previous files and books, The Black Covenant wasn’t clear about their objective at all, hypocrites, considering they were the ones keeping records of what the Drevaunts were up to.

The books I ran into weren’t normal records. Weirdly enough, they were comparing the Sylvbeetle to another species in every way possible. The other species was called Lurewings, from The Nectarfall.

With the English at a godly level, and no context behind the words, I was lost, I had absolutely no idea what any of it meant.

Carrying the book, I went to check in on Dr. Rhiannon and found her focused on her work, this time for real, not even noticing I was standing right beside her. Eyes on the pages, several books open around her.

"Dr. Rhiannon!" ℴ

"Maren’s power is incredibly accurate... oh yes, muffin, you need something?"

She’d hit flow state way too fast. Great, to be honest.

"Can you tell me what these terms mean?"

I showed her the book, pointing at the words. She pushed her glasses back as she read.

"You don’t know what The Nectarfall is? It’s another realm, known because elves live there. And the Lurewing is an extinct, human-sized insect species from The Nectarfall."

Dr. Rhiannon answered my question like a heated teacher, not stopping.

"I don’t have much knowledge about them, except that they look similar to moths or butterflies. The Nectarfall is full of dense mana creatures, and a big chunk of them are insects."

She was handing the book back to me, but I pointed at a record, making her read it and give me her opinion. She had to read more to make sense of it, and after a while she got interested, but not that much.

"Ohh, it seems Lurewings share some percentage of DNA with elves, and they were trying to bring them back with all these experiments. Hummer beetles were just convenient subjects. Hmm."

Then she shifted back into work mode, saying nothing more. That was my sign to leave her alone.

I got my answers and went right back into my own work with a lingering thought. Those records were comparing Lurewings to their lab creation, the Sylvbeetle. What do they want from Lurewings?

For now, that’s a mystery. It’ll remain a mystery, I suppose.

After a few minutes my work was done, all the data scanned, I just had to wait for Dr. Rhiannon to finish so we could finally move on.

I waited for minutes that felt like hours. She was still reading, quiet and focused like an owl, her face still, hard to read.

"YES! I found it!! I’m so dumb for not comparing the juveniles to the adult form, but I finally figured it out. Hehe."

Then suddenly she burst into pure joy. After a straight face for so long, the joyful outburst, followed by a jump, felt uncanny, but I let it slide.

"Nice, so we have her weakness now?"

"Sure we do!"

Dr. Rhiannon showed me the book with the juvenile Sylvbeetle’s skeletal structure drawn on it, followed by a description I didn’t read. She was pointing at the side of the juvenile’s head.

"See this spot, when the juvenile turns into an adult, this is where the head claws, ears, and jaw muscles start developing. In short, the sides are the most compact area, and that leaves the ear the most vulnerable."

She looked at the diagram again, amazed and interested.

"To protect its ear, they develop a small shell, but it’s also weak, because they need space for sound to reach it. Maren was right, their biology is messed up."

Dr. Rhiannon went on for a moment. I made myself a good listener and waited until her jaw felt a little heavy from all the talking.

"Wonderful, now for the boring and annoying part. We have to find Seraphine without getting killed by the undead creature roaming outside."

"You sure you don’t want to do anything else?"

Dr. Rhiannon leaned in on me, straddling where I was seated, keeping her arms on my shoulders. The weight of them made me brace myself with my hands.

"So my little muffin isn’t desperate for me anymore? You were listening to me like a good boy. Now I’m desperate."

She came closer, lips about to lock on mine, then pulled back a little.

"Of course, if you don’t want to, I won’t force you. Tell me..."

My supporting hands found her waist. The touch made her lose balance, and she ended up resting on my lap.

"Holy mother, I got the answer I needed."

Dr. Rhiannon held my jaw, tilted my head upward, and in a quiet second, kissed me. Her lips locked on mine, soft but searching. Her tongue rolled in at the rising moment, I grabbed her soft flesh, bodies closer than ever.

"Come on, take your clothes off and take me like a man!!"

Dr. Rhiannon said, parting our lips, her hands quickly unbuttoning my first two buttons before removing my belt pouch, tossing it aside.

It was my duty to return the favor, so I took her mini dress off. Her purple bra held her breasts with profound care and tightness.

"You like my bosoms, huh? Want to eat the juicy fruits."

I was hypnotized, for real this time, intimacy felt so different with her than with Rue. And I was really falling for it.

"I never liked fruits, but this time I’m not sure."

"Well, come and take a bite, boy–"

Suddenly the ground beneath us started shaking, like an earthquake out of nowhere.

"What the hell is going on!"

The shaking stopped, and Dr. Rhiannon quickly pulled up the layout to see if the undead creature was outside causing it, but instead we found something even more terrifying.

A yellow dot, Seraphine, right outside the data hub.

"Quick! Put your damn clothes back on! Or she’ll kill us."

She stood up, grabbed her mini dress, and got dressed, and I straightened my clothes too.

In the middle of it, we heard the doors of the data hub opening and closing, almost too fast. And before we knew it, Seraphine was in front of us.

"What were you two knuckleheads doing in here?!"

Seraphine leaned against the door frame, covered in beetle goo and blood that wasn’t hers, extremely pissed, pointing her polearm at us, tired but not calm.

"Nothing, nothing, we were just cleaning ourselves."

"There was this undead creature chasing us, so we hid in the data hub, and we actually managed to figure out the beetle bitch’s weakness."

I stepped in and told Seraphine something she’d like to hear, and that calmed her down. Using her polearm for support, she took a deep breath.

"Oh, that’s fantastic. I thought you were having sex for a second... don’t worry about the undead creature, I killed it..."

Me and Dr. Rhiannon felt something between tension and relief, which makes no sense, I know.

"Then I ran into the beetle bitch. She managed to get away, though. She was sucking the life out of your poor friend."

"Sucking? Ouch!"

I pinched Dr. Rhiannon’s arm, telling her not to joke right now, and she made an apologetic face. Seraphine definitely noticed, but decided not to react, since she needed a moment.

"I’ll tell you the details later. Elias, can you pass me a healing potion?"

"On it."

I reached down and found my belt pouch missing. Dr. Rhiannon noticed my confusion for a second, then realized she was the one who’d thrown it. Naturally, she looked around to find it.

Grabbing my belt pouch, she took matters into her own hands. Seraphine had made herself comfortable, sitting on the floor.

Dr. Rhiannon reached in and took out a healing potion, giving it to Seraphine. She drank it in one go, the disgusting smell and taste doing nothing to her.

"On a side note: the beetle bitch is trying to revive some of her own kind with the help of your friend... wait, I need another healing potion, just in case."

Dr. Rhiannon took out a potion and gave it to Seraphine. At that moment I was focused more on Wendel, poor him. This was really bad, what had he done to deserve this. I hoped she’d keep him alive until we got there. I needed to ask Seraphine for the details later.

Then my eyes shifted back to the scene in front of me, focusing on the potion bottle. Weirdly, it had the body of a woman.

"Wait, that’s not the healing potion!!! That’s The Starving Hour. It will make... you..."

It was too late, Seraphine had already drunk half of it. At least she had the instinct to stop halfway, but there was no point now.

No. No. No.