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I'm a Human Now, So What? - Chapter 1 - Rest in Peace?
🕑 Added 2024-01-06 09:54:14 +0000 UTCLilussees was in heaven.
Everyday, she was allowed to sleep as much as she wanted. She was placed atop soft mattresses, or gently rocked in warm arms. Her new, mammalian body even had its own circadian rhythm! Previously, sleep had been something Lilussees has intentionally developed for herself. Monster spiders, after all, only had periods of high and low activity, but generally remained fully conscious, especially when they were full on mana. Lilussees had previously been intentionally activating a vestigial hibernation instinct in order to get some rest.
But no more!
Now her body would not only allow her to sleep, but demand that she did so! Deeply, and frequently! Her entire body appeared to perform maintenance and growth in that time, refreshing her fatigue. She even got pleasant dreams!
…ok, the one about fire creeping around her and slowly burning her home down with her still in it wasn’t the most pleasant, but it was fine! Some human would show up and gently rock her back to sleep whenever that happened.
And speaking of the humans…
“Oh, is the young miss sleeping again?”
“Yes.”
“Isn’t that strange? Didn’t she just take a nap?”
“Yes…but the healer assured the master she’s perfectly healthy. Apparently, she just likes to sleep.”
Lilussees heard laughter.
“What sort of infant likes to sleep? Our lady is truly blessed.”
Lilussees felt a hand brush across her head.
“Indeed. The young miss is already the most well-behaved child I have ever seen.”
The noises they made had morphed into coherent language. Lilussees had listened with concern at first, but quickly determined the humans weren’t a threat to her and then lost interest. In fact, they were praising her for sleeping! Lilussees readjusted her evaluation of humans. She supposed she wouldn’t need to kill or eat these ones in particular.
That said, not everything was to Lilussees’s liking. She had half as many limbs and the ones she had were too weak to accomplish anything. Her mouth didn’t seem to work, and she couldn’t seem to communicate directly to anyone. She also didn’t have her dungeon or any of her monsters anymore, which was a bit of an uncomfortable thought. She was highly vulnerable, and lacked any sort of control over her circumstances.
But, well, since she couldn’t do anything about any of that, she just gave up and went to sleep. Either the humans would kill her and she needed to enjoy the sleep while it lasted, or the humans wouldn’t, in which case there was no harm in taking a rest.
And so Lilussees spent her days in bliss, sleeping as much as she wished, being fed on demand, and not having to do anything to secure either her safety or her next meal.
But little did she know that those lovely days would soon come to an end…
***
Lilussees lie in her bed staring up at the ceiling. She had come to learn a horrible, terrible truth. The dark side of her otherwise bright circumstances. The natural consequences of her own actions.
And that was…if human circadian rhythm dictated a required amount of sleep each and every day…then it also dictated a period where it wouldn’t sleep. Once the required amount of sleep had been obtained, the human body would attempt to become active and remain awake. Humans simply did not undergo hibernation and sleep for extended periods of time defined only by available nutrition stockpiles and climate.
So, she could, in fact, sleep enough. And would subsequently remain awake no matter how hard she tried. She could lie completely still and empty her mind and still her body would remain conscious.
And worse…the human body’s need for sleep seemed to be directly tied to its activity. So…the more she slept and tried to sleep…the longer she had to remain awake before the body would subsequently sleep again.
All of this is to say Lilussees was currently awake, and would not be able to go to sleep for a few more hours. An amount of time which would grow larger if she didn’t…do something.
Now, formerly, she would have had plenty to do. She had had a dungeon to manage, subordinates to instruct, invaders to consume, choices to make, etc. But now…she had no dungeon, no subordinates, and adult humans who would automatically feed…and hopefully protect…her as needed. In other words…she also had nothing she had to do. Which meant if she was going to do something…she had to figure it out…herself…
She felt tired already. She tried to go to sleep with that feeling but it unfortunately did not extend to her body.
“Ugh, this is, like, so annoying, or something. I have to, like, do things? Ugh. And, this body is, like, super weak, or something.”
The doing things challenge was made worse by the fact that her body could barely actually do things at all. Her arms and legs struggled to support her current weight, she couldn’t even flip herself over, much less move about. She was completely helpless.
And that…was terrifying now that Lilussees was awake long enough to think about it. Any monster or hostile sapient who happened to pass her by could kill her at their leisure and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it. And once she had that thought…she started to frown. Only her former instincts as a dungeon master and ambush predator kept her from crying. The same instincts that, unfortunately, absolutely refused to accept her present vulnerability. She had to figure out something or she would never have any peace…and that would interfere with her sleep!
Lilussees was now, for the first time since she arrived here, fully motivated to act. She took stock of her current resources. Her body was too weak to do anything, too weak to even begin building up the strength needed to do anything, so she ruled it out. Her body also seemed to lack fangs, leaving her to wonder how she was supposed to inject venom, but she supposed the ability to actually move was a prerequisite for that anyways. She also didn’t seem capable of spinning web anymore. The substances her body could currently produce did not seem useful for building traps or defenses.
So, having determined her body was entirely hopeless, she turned to the other source of power she knew of.
She reached through her body, extending her senses to search within herself. She was searching for an energy that she knew was flowing through her. That once flowed through every inch of her dungeon, connecting her to it and everything within it.
She was searching for mana.
She frowned and tried to chitter her mandibles…which came out of this body as some sort of high-pitched babble that annoyed her even more. Where once torrents of mana constantly flowed through her in a stream that was honestly kind of annoying when she was trying to sleep, she now found only still and barren deserts. She couldn’t feel anything inside herself.
“Like, how do humans even survive, or something?”
She was aware that she was some sort of human infant at this point…but it was still shocking exactly how weak and helpless this body was. Even a newly born spider monster had a mana core and was capable of fighting, to speak nothing of basic motion. Lilussees had been vaguely aware that non-monster sapients were born noticeably weaker than she and her dungeon monsters, but she had no idea they were this weak.
But at the same time, she knew she couldn’t have no mana. Everything, living, dead, undead, animate, inanimate, or whatever other qualifier, had mana at least flowing through them. Whether or not they could do anything with that mana was another question but it was at least there. Her mana must be incredibly tiny for her not to be able to sense it but she knew it still existed. So, she kept up her search.
And she was once a dungeon master. The master and protector of the conduit between the Realms of Mana and the Material Plane. One who lived, breathed, and ate mana, who used it in everything she did. Heck, her sleep had been a magically induced hibernation state, so she even slept mana.
And so, she found it. A tiny little sliver, barely a drop slowly rolling through her body, like the morning dew on a dry morning barely able to condense. But it was there.
Once she had found it, she gently, extremely gently, reached out towards it with her attention. A drop of mana that tiny would be incredibly tricky to manipulate. It was apt to dissolve into nothing, or to simply escape her notice while she was trying to grab it. But Lilussees was once a spider. She knew the value of patience in trapping her prey. She didn’t rush, she didn’t pounce, but she slowly focused her attention more and more on the mana until it was firmly within her mind’s grasp. Then, and only then, did she…
The door suddenly opened.
“Hello Young Lady, are you hungry?”
Lilussees glared at the human who had approached her, the one who was responsible for her meals. But then her stomach began to gurgle, and soon her body betrayed her.
It went without saying that she had lost the drop of mana…
***
A short meal time later and a bit of rocking by the interrupter later…Lilussees found herself tired enough to enter a blessed nap. And once she had awoken from that…and confirmed that she, once again, could not return to sleep immediately, she returned to her task.
It took some time but since she knew what she was looking for she managed to find the mana drop more quickly than before. She began the slow and steady process of reaching out for it. And this time, she was not interrupted. She once again had a firm mental grasp on the mana drop. She slowly, ever so slowly, attempted to shift its motion on a different path.
And, once she did, the drop exploded. She felt mana streaming into her body from the outside and mix with the drop in her body. The tiny drop now became a tiny little stream. Little more than a collection of drops compared to her former dungeon, but a flood compared to what it had started as. And then…llight began to appear before her eyes, causing her to instinctively flinch. But once she had control of herself and opened her eyes again, she made a small smile.
A familiar transparent blue scroll appeared and unrolled before her eyes.
Personal Status
Name: Lilussees Camille de Atreis
Species: Human
STR: Abysmal
MAG: Minimal
DEX: Abysmal
SPD: Abysmal
DEF: Abysmal
RES: Abysmal
Skills
Rest I
Special Skills
All-Language Comprehension, Spider Queen, Monster Spider-woman
Titles
Hero From Another World, The Sleepy Spider Queen (Unique Hero Skill)
Lilussees tried to tilt her head and ended up shifting slightly. That…looked, like, a lot different from the records she remembered. Did the Aesdes change things recently, or something? Or, well, she also had gone from a dungeon master to a human infant so maybe this was, like, the one humans got? Or something?
She also vaguely remembered someone who was like an Aesdes but also not telling her something about her going to a new…something. She was, like, sleepy at the time and she remembered some very comfortable clouds that demanded her attention, so she might have dozed off, or something. Maybe that had something to do with the changes in the records?
Well, different or not, the records were, like, the records, hopefully. So, they would hopefully serve, like, the same purpose. At the very least, she could check her own status…
She frowned. What she saw was…not encouraging. Her stats…well, like, at least the magic was different, or something. Minimal was, like, better than abysmal, surely? She tried to chitter and ended up babbling again. The dungeon records she once had had, like numbers and stuff. They were, like, kind of annoying to keep track of at the time, but these vague descriptions were noticeably less helpful.
The overall point was clear, though. Her stats were, like, garbage and one of her weakest spiderlings would have been able to crush her. Hopefully one of her skills would be able to make up the difference…
Lilussees’s train of thought ground to a screeching halt when she saw the skills section.
Rest. Rest was a skill here. And she had it.
She immediately activated it and felt her tiny pool of mana flow through her body, converting into a soothing warm that rocked her back and forth…
She awoke only a few minutes later though, but felt amazing. She even remembered what she was, like, doing beforehand.
She reopened her status and gazed at the beautiful, wonderful skill there.
Rest I - Enter a restful state to quickly recover.
She decided, like, being a human wasn’t so bad. She resolved to master that skill, no matter what she needed to do.
She gazed upon it for about half an hour before she finally tore her eyes away and proceeded through her status. She may have gained the ultimate skill that would be, like, the ambition for her life, but she had to admit that it wouldn’t particularly resolve her current state of helplessness. But maybe one of the others would.
All-Language Comprehension - Translates all languages both oral and written into wielder's primary language
Spider Queen - You naturally rule over spider-kind. Note that effect may vary or even fail depending on the strength of the spider in question compared to your own.
Monster Spider-Woman - Does whatever a monster spider can. Currently locked based on current body growth.
Lilussees tried to nod and found her neck couldn’t actually move her head at present. All-Language Comprehension…seemed, like, convenient. If she, like, wanted to talk to people, or something. Which…she didn’t, but she guessed it was, like, nice to know what the humans around her were saying.
The other two skills, on the other hand, were much better. She apparently retained some of her capabilities from her past. She could command spiders…depending on the difference between her strength and theirs. Which…under her current circumstances…well, she might, like, be able to command a mundane spider…baby, or something? Like, maybe?
The other skill would, like, let her do whatever a monster spider could? Did that mean, like, any monster spider, or just a base monster spider? The description was not particularly detailed…and irrelevant, because apparently the skill was, like, locked.
Lilussees decided to check out the titles.
Hero from Another World - Accelerates growth, allows user to learn skills more easily, grants All-Language Comprehension skill
The Sleepy Spider Queen - Grants Rest I skill. Grants unique hero skills: Spider Queen, Monster Spider-woman
Well, it was, like, nice to know where the skills came from. It was also, like, nice to know all of her efforts had been rewarded in the form of the Rest skill. Yes, all the hard work she put into her dungeon that was nearly immediately destroyed while she slept.
But, like, knowing where the skills came from didn’t actually improve her situation. So, she would like, still need to figure out what to do, or something. And sadly, reviewing her status did not make her tired enough to sleep again. She did try to activate the Rest skill, but it didn’t work this time.
Well, she only had, like, one other skill she could actively use at the moment. So she did.
Her tiny little stream of mana activated and sent a tiny little wave of mana out into her surroundings. And fortunately, she was in luck. A little spider happened to be crawling across the roof. It stopped, and then began to lower itself on a string of silk, moving down towards her crib.
Lilussees smiled. She was, like, worried that the skill wouldn’t even work on a spider like that. But it seemed she was, like, still a spider queen after all. And that would, like, solve all of her problems. Even if she was personally helpless, as long as she had defenders to command she could secure her own safety, and even have them hunt on her behalf. That was, like, what she had done as a dungeon master, after all.
The spider was moving closer, just about to reach the top of her crib…
“Oh no you don’t!”
Suddenly a loud clap sounded through the room as one of the adult humans smashed the spider between their hands. Lilussees was so started she reacted subconsciously. Which, in her current body, meant starting to cry.
“Great going, Emma, you scared the young miss!”
“I-I’m sorry! It’s ok, it’s ok! Shhhhh…..”
It seemed it might be a while before Lilussees could resolve her vulnerability…
Author’s Note:
Lilussees spinoff go! I got inspired today so have a chapter! Prologue here in case ya forgot what happened so far. Reminder that this story is as I feel like it so there will be no particular schedule for chapters or anything.
Hm, I guess since I, like, re-used Ione I should probably, like, use the Isekai Bob system, or something. But that system, like, has too many numbers! This story is, like, supposed to be low-commitment and low e-word! So, like, obviously Ione got lazy and stopped doing math! Or, like, it’s an alternate version of that isekai world? Is Ione responsible for more than one? Or do I, like, have to bring Isekai Bob into this?
…eh, whatevs, Imma go sleep now so we’ll figure it out later!
Anyways!
Will Lilussees master the secrets of the Rest skill? Can she resolve her present helplessness? Did Ione randomly change the entire system of Isekai Bob just to be lazy? Tune in next time, to find out!
Comments
Beeees!
Honestly perfect vibes for a lil side project. I'm excited to have this story trickled out as it's written
Tsorov
Wait! Lilussees don't fall into that trap! The rest skill may bee able to make you sleep, but it also makes your sleep more efficcient! That means even less sleep than you already have as a human!
