Pov - Umbra

While listening to the adventures discussing things, I realized that I spent another day just reminiscing about my previous experiments. All this does is make me want to yell at myself for wasting so much time just standing in front of my creations. Is it because of my new body that I am losing track over time, or is it because I am spending too much time just watching my creations and zoning out? It's a wonder that I have not gained the meditation skill or did I develop the skill on my own like the… person in the Priestess party said.

Even though the adventurers talk little about it, what they said while outside my door gave me a lot of information. The gist of it is that there is an investigation team sent from the guild to explore what my Demi-Plane book has to show. Speaking of that, I still need to come up with something easier to say than Demi-Plane books.

I can hear the Spellcaster complaining about ‘a dungeon should not have this many stairs and that I should have a teleportation pad’. So just some basic complaining and there are only 253 steps nothing major… I have a lot of free time… Oh, look they reach the door, time to eavesdrop, I mean investigate.

“So once we're in, let’s be quiet, so the dungeon can't learn any information.” The Swordsman says keeping his voice down but not whispering.

Wait, they don’t know that I can hear them where they are? That must mean that normal dungeons can’t see outside their influence, point toward me for being the best. But can’t they tell that the staircase is also my influence, or are they saying this on purpose, so they seem ignorant? So many questions and they most likely know that I have questions, so are they doing this to antagonize me. No, that would not be a good idea because I could ruin their chances of survival by ordering all my minions to attack them. Some of them will listen, but the more sapience ones might not join in because of their intelligence. For some reason, they can ignore my orders, Not concerning at all. I still don't know why, but the more sapient ones have become more independent, while the mindless ones follow whatever I say to the letter. Is it because they gain something like a soul? Well, whatever, I’ll investigate it when the time comes. I also know that they aren't doing it on purpose. That is because if they did, they would be putting themselves into too much danger.

Oh, they're opening the door, I guess I missed most of their conversation because I was wondering why they think I can’t hear them. When they step through I can see the Swordsman, Rogue, Tank, and Spellcaster look around in shock while the Priestess just smirks at their wonder. Well, now is a better time than any to look at their characteristics. The Priestess just like last time had blond hair and blue eyes. Like a Nazi! I cough into my mental hand, I don’t know what came over me. Continuing, the Priestess also wears a gold and white robe with a sun on the front of it, signifying a God, I think.

The Swordsman on the other hand was an elf. No his ears were too short, so I’m going to call him a half-elf until proven otherwise. Other traits of the Swordsman were that he is male, his hair was a light blond boarding on silver, his eyes were brown, and he was wearing some light armor. The armor is made of leather I believe with some thin strips of metal over some key areas. So overall basic.

The Rogue was interesting, mostly because he was a Neko male or as the people call him in this world a Demi-human. If I remember correctly from one of Akasha's brief seminars on history, the Demi-humans are called that because they were originally enslaved by humans, and they call them that, so they feel lesser. The years of being enslaved caused the race to forget their original name, and Demi-human just stuck. The Demi-humans seemed to not care about the name, so it never went away even after they killed all their enslavers and escaped. Oh yeah, his appearance, so well black hair, and amber eyes. Black leather covered him head to toe, with no visible metal or weapons on him. He seems more like an Assassin than a Rogue.

The tank is awesome because it is a race that I haven’t heard of yet. The tank is a girl from what I can tell, but she looks like a bipedal lioness. Her fur is the same original color that you would expect to see on a lion. Her armor and shield both are simply made of a dark iron-like color.

Finally, the Spellcaster, who is also female, has smoke-colored hair, her eyes are silver, and her skin is a pinkish hue but still within the bounds of looking normal. I believe she is human, but what do I know, this is a fantasy world. The clothes she is wearing are also leather with a dark purple cloak draped over it. So also basic.

Wait, why did I spend so much time investigating them? Do I think I have nothing better to do? I could have spent more time trying to figure out the secrets of well anything in my laboratory! I spent so much time investigating that they are now skulking around instead of being enraptured by the infinity library that surrounds us.

Oh, look, they have found Akasha just sitting there. The priestess seems to be surprised from what her view must have been days just to find Akasha still deciphering the same book. The priestess seems to be trying to bring the investigation team to her, but I can see on all the other investigation team members that they are grimacing. They obviously find the Priestess's conduct appalling from what they can see to be a dangerous situation. Yet, all of them stop skulking to walk over to the priestess. Most of them end up flinching at the presence of Akasha, except for the Spellcaster.

The other members of the investigation team seem to be wanting to pry an answer from Akasha. I just shake my mental head, knowing that you can’t gain any information from Akasha when she is not providing it, I know because I have tried.

As I predicted, most of the investigation team walk away, obviously in a downtrodden mood. The only one that seems to be ignorant of the happenings seems to be the Priestess, as she looks around confused. That is quickly turned around when the rest of her team calls her over. With the calling from her ‘friends’, she skips over, excitement written all over her face.

They seem to try to get her to reveal the location of my Demi-Plane book because they don’t know where to find it. The Priestess almost giddy brings them a few rows over, showing them the Demi-plane book. They show their thanks to the Priestess, but the thanks seem to be faked. I don’t know how I can tell that they are faking the emotion, but they are.

The investigation team excluding the Priestess seems to deliberately walk in front of Akasha. They want to get a reaction out of her, but just as expected, Akasha does not even flinch. To be fair, I don’t even think Akasha noticed them with how engrossed she is in deciphering my core book. With the reaction, they are more downtrodden with the fact that Akasha did not even notice their presence and just ignored them. Their faces show that their pride has been dealt a blow because of the fact they are not seen as a threat to Akasha. The Rogue shown to be the most prideful of them all seems to want to jump over the counter and punch Akasha for ignoring them. But the Spellcaster puts a hand on the Rogue's shoulders and shakes her head, telling him that he will get his ass kicked by Akasha if he were to try.

With that quick scene over with, they seem to sit down in one of the provided chairs. Funny enough, it was the same chair the Priestess originally sat in. But that was the past, now I have a real team coming in and wanting to explore instead of getting in and then getting out as the Priestess's original team did. I can’t wait for the excitement is overflowing, I want to see them struggle for victory, and with them on their final leg win. As hope then overflows them, I send an even greater challenge. Then I can watch as their sparkling hope turns to the mundane gray of despair.