I dove down deep into my soul, back into the space where I visualized the node network that made up my bloodline and its associated skills. Where I had first seen the node that represented my familiar. It only looked like anything at all because I visualized it; it was metaphysical space that contained information, and the visualization simply made it easier for my mind to understand and work with. I watched with fascination as the node was covered in rapidly spreading cracks, like a small animal breaking free of its egg to enter life. One moment passed, then another, and the number of cracks only increased until the node itself shattered, breaking apart. What was left behind was a warm glow, the soft light of a candle in the surrounding darkness.

  The feeling of my familiar awakening for the first time was hard to describe. It was like the warmth of a hug from a loved one, it was a familiar home-cooked meal after a long, hard day, but on a deeper level. It wasn't a physical thing; it was completely internal in a strange way that I had trouble parsing. It was as if someone dear to me had reached through my physical form, right down into the core of me, to hug my soul itself. It was warm and soft, accepting. In the back of my mind, I could feel the connection deepening, and a whirl of emotions and feelings hit me like a brick to the back of the head. Fortunately, it was all good thoughts and feelings, good vibes as they say. My new familiar didn't communicate in words. There were no fully formed thoughts or language; instead, there were vague feelings, a sense of happiness and joy at being here. At the prospect of life. I couldn't help but grin; it seemed my familiar was going to be a bit of a counterpoint to my own unending cynicism. I withdrew from my visualization, Node Space, I decided to call it for simplicity's sake. There was something to that place. Something I didn't understand yet. I had no clue what, but I was sure there was something there I was missing. I just had to find it, but now wasn't the time for that.

  Back in the physical world, I leapt from my perch, making a beeline for my web. I wanted to be more secure when I brought out my familiar for the first time.

  I leapt and soared through the air, tracing a similarly frenetic path through he cavern to the one I travelled to get back to the last royal guard. I could feel the potion wearing off. It was a dwindling in my veins, a slow decline of energy. Though the joy didn't dissipate, flying through the air, slipping around obstacles. I enjoyed it a great deal, the freedom of movement my increased stats and spider body offered was a heady thing. Minutes later, I was climbing onto the web I'd made as the last vestiges of the potion were finally being burned through by my body. A shudder passed through me, then I was in human form, balancing easily on the web lines. I grinned. I would never have been able to do this before; I simply hadn't ever had the balance required for such a feat before. My stats combined with [Web Walker's Grace] made it simple, easy in fact.

  I could feel my familiar in my soul, insisting on coming out; it was like a puppy butting its head against your leg for attention. I wasn't quite sure how to bring my familiar out into the physical world, so I leaned on the instinctive knowledge of the skill and raw instinct, pushing my will into the visualized node.

  Suddenly, there was a weight across my shoulders, and the feeling of scale-like roots sliding across the back of my neck. It was bigger than I had expected. I could feel coils looping loosely around my body, from my shoulders where it was perched, down my abdomen, and reaching all the way down to my knees. There was no way it wasn't at least five or six feet long. I heard the rasping sound of vines dragging across the new chitin breastplate I wore courtesy of my gear menu. I turned my head to the side and came face-to-face with my new companion. It looked like a combination of the giant root snakes and the serpent roots that populated the chamber it had been born from. It was wholly different from either, however. Like the serpent roots, my familiar seemed to be made of black vines, with patterns of vibrant blue lacing its entire body, glittering and glimmering in the gloom with unknown energy. There was more definition than any other serpent root I had seen before, though. Its vine-like body seemed to be covered in some sort of scales, the scales were soft and warm against my skin, yet I could feel the barest hint of an edge to each one. I imagined that in battle, the scales were just as much a weapon as they were armour for the creature.

  When I met its eyes, the most poignant difference between it and the creatures that seemed to have gone into its creation set in. Instead of the gaping maw of electric blue teeth and innards that serpent roots had, what I found was the visage of a snake, a viper. It was much more like a giant root snake in that way, more snake-like than root creature. Blue eyes glowed softly as they stared back into my own brown eyes. There was intelligence in those eyes. An almost frightening amount of it. I reached up a hand to pat the creature's head, and a feeling of warm contentment filled the bond I shared with it. It was an odd sensation, but not unwelcome or even uncomfortable.

  "Going to have to give you a name, aren't I?" I mused almost to myself. Their words came out rough like tumbling gravel. I hadn't spoken much at all since the beginning of this wild ride, and it showed. My familiar bobbed its head, nodding to my statement.

  "Are you a boy or a girl?" I asked. The snake wiggled in response and looked at me with a bit of reproach, as if to say I can’t speak, dummy, try again.

  “Yes or no questions it is.” I chuckled. “Are you male?”

  The head waved back and forth.

  "Female?" The head bobbed up and down, and a happy feeling coursed through the bond we shared. "

  "Hmm, name for a female snake." I mused, trying to call up a list of names from memory. Remembering names had never been a strong suit for me. I could remember faces with ease, but putting names to faces had always been an issue.

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  "I don't suppose you'd let me call you snake, huh?" I said, trying to keep a straight face when my familiar's jaw cracked open and a blue tongue slithered out, tasting the air, accompanied by an annoyed hiss. That same annoyed feeling crossed over the bond we shared.

  "Just a joke." I snickered, reaching up to pat my familiar's head again. Snake, big snake, girl snake, female viper, Vipera?

  "How about Vipera?" I asked, looking to the snake where it was perched on my shoulder, watching me. A deep hum vibrated its way through the bones of my shoulder as my familiar, Vipera, nodded vigorously.

  "Well, nice to meet you, Vipera," I patted the snake again. I enjoyed the feeling of her warm scales against my skin. I had a feeling this was going to be habit-forming. I couldn't bring myself to care. A hum of contentment passed through our bond.

  "Let's see what you can do while I check my level up," I muttered, pulling up screens.

  First was my new level. That was simple at least. I dumped the free points into dexterity to bring it closer to par with my ever growing strength stat. During my fight with the royal guards, I felt I could have done much better if I were more coordinated, better able to move freely around the environment, and react faster. The next screen was my [Familiar Soul Bond] skill. It had gone through some significant changes, well, additions more like.

  That was an addition, alright. The skill had gone from a few simple lines to seemingly including the major abilities of my familiar, which included passive benefits for me. Even if Vipera was inside me, rather than aiding me in battle directly. Based on abilities alone, just her presence would make me a powerhouse. I was already strong, but every aspect of her abilities would enhance my own. Her [Venomous Strike] would allow me to inflict her venom on enemies without having to rely on her biting them, possibly my own as well. I wasn't quite clear on that. It would require some testing. If I could inflict both of our venoms at once, from each of my eight legs, that would be a very potent bonus.

  [Root Regeneration] was an all around boon. After losing limbs and experiencing a regeneration potion, I was all for anything that would enhance my ability to heal from whatever wounds I might suffer. The way it was worded was interesting, though; it didn't say rate of regeneration, it said regeneration as a whole. Full stop. That might mean I'd be able to grow back limbs in my human form now? If it didn't just increase the speed but the capability, scope and scale? I wasn't willing to start chopping off fingers to test it, but still, it would be a nice safety net for the worst circumstances. With that addition, I would have two different passive healing effects working to keep me in good shape.

  Finally, there was [Venomous Aura]. Every gamer knew that shredding your enemy's resistances was just as good as increasing your damage. I doubted this case would be any different. Combined with [Venomous Strikes], this would be a huge boost in my combat power. This combination was likely to be the deadliest thing in my arsenal for some time to come. I was a bit annoyed that it scaled off of my Charisma stat, but thankfully, I'd kept it up at least somewhat. Realistically, it probably wouldn't matter if I were close enough to stab them with my spider limbs or bite them; they were almost certainly in range of the aura in the first place.

  I turned my attention directly to Vipera, wondering if she had a stat sheet herself. Nothing happened; no screen appeared. I focused my will on the skill, wanting to see a full stat sheet for my familiar. We were bonded at the soul; if anyone should be able to get a look, it should be me. A moment of resistance, and the Skill acquiesced.

  The screen snapped open before me. It seemed odd that it wasn't natural, like opening other things had been. There had been several instances so far where I'd had to push the system to get it to do what I wanted. I hadn't questioned it much before, but I was filing every instance away in my memory for future reference; every screen was just another piece on a pile of questions that went without answers. The pile would remain unanswered for the foreseeable future. Much to my annoyance.

  "You are an impressive thing, aren't you?" I muttered to myself, absently patting Vipera as I read through her stat sheet. Her stats were impressive, well in line with my own for the most part. The only areas she suffered in, ironically, were intelligence and charisma. That made some sense, while she was certainly one of the most intelligent creatures I'd met, she was still essentially an animal. Perhaps that would change as we gained levels? The thought both made me smile and shudder. The idea of a massive snake more intelligent than any human ever born was disconcerting, to say the least. Then again, I was essentially a giant spider with the intelligence of a human at this point. There was sure to be a large swathe of earth's population that would consider my existence nightmare fuel of the highest order. I snerked. What had my life become?