PlagueDaddy This chapter will mostly if not entirely be in the third person as a means to test it out. Some feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day.

Orstelia awoke at exactly the fifteen-minute mark since her evolution. It wasn't a gradual awakening either, one second she was asleep, and the next her eyes shot open. Uncoiling from the knotted mess she made of her tail in her sleep she immediately noticed a few new things. Her tail was thinner and a bit longer. It used to be around three meters (almost 10 feet) long and almost one and a quarter meters wide (around 4 feet) at her widest. Now she was a few centimeters longer (3.048 meters or exactly 10 feet) and her width at her widest was back to what it was during her time as a snake, around sixty-one centimeters (around 2 feet). Her scales were the same color but they felt slightly different, like they weren't as smooth as before. Feeling her face and hair there was no noticeable difference either. She tried moving the muscles in her tail as if she were preparing to leap forward. As the evolution screen described she felt like she could control not just the tails muscles, but all of the muscles in her body better.

'This will be quite useful. Let's check out my status and see what changed.'

'A few new things and a few old things changed. [Devour] was changed like how [REDACTED] said it would be. [Constirct] was updated with some new information and the multiplier changed from a x3 to a x4. Why did that change? The only thing I can think of is that I have better muscle control so the multiplier changed. Weird. The new ability seems useful and I'll try it out in a little bit. But what are Evolution Aches and Oroboros Mana Circulation Technique?

'Interesting. Evolution Aches explains the aching I have felt ever since waking up. Oroboros Mana Circulation Technique is nice, that means less self-discovery I have to do, but that last part is cryptic. What do you mean it may or may not hold a deeper secret? Probably [REDECTED] having a bit of fun with me and purposefully withheld information. Well, it's not like anything bad has happened because of them yet so it's probably fine. Let's try out [Masquerade] and then Oroboros Mana Circulation Technique. There should be a bit until breakfast so a little practice should be fine.'

Before Orstelia activated [Masqurade] she quickly took off her cloak and sword belt. They should be fine but she didn't want to take chances for her first transformation. When she was completely naked she activated the skill. A puff of magical white smoke appeared around Orstelia and when it cleared a lamia was not there.

Instead, there was a humanoid woman around one and three-quarters meters tall (around five feet and nine inches tall). She had long black hair that went down to her butt, ruby red reptilian eyes with a pinkish circle in the middle of the iris, and scales of the same color and pattern as the lamia that was stood there previously in several places on her body. They started on her inner thigh, crept around her vagina in an oval shape, up her stomach, and around the underside of her boobs. They also circled her butt, connected to the short and stocky snake tail she had where most beastkin therianthropes had them, up her spine where it then went to her shoulders. She also had some scales around the corner of her eyes closest to her long, tapered elvish ears. 

Orstelia didn't seem that shocked about the sudden transformation, but she was shocked at the little tail and scales she had when she did a quick examination of herself. Taking a curious few steps on her humanoid legs she struggled to keep her balance as it was like her legs were asleep and slowly waking up. After wobbly pacing back and forth through the tent a few times she seemed to finally get the hang of walking..

'Some more practice and I should be fine.' thought Orstelia. 'Now that I have a humanoid form I should see if there are any clothes to wear inside this tent. I doubt most of it will fit but it's something to cover me up at least.'

Orstelia had just finished searching the tent when the oni girl called into the tent saying that breakfast was ready.

"I'll be out in just a minute," replied Orstelia. She was currently putting on the little clothes that she could wear. She found a large white shirt that was quite baggy when she wore it, pants that were so tattered that she just turned them into shorts instead, some black, fingerless leather gloves, and a pair of caligae. They were Helostriopian military sandals. Why Arthur had those she had no idea. There was unfortunately no usable underwear so she would have to go without for now.

Those weren't the only things she found in there though. There was a chest hidden under the cot that had a curved dagger whose blade was made of black metal, had a golden crossguard, and a black leather grip with a golden disc pommel. There was also a shortbow that looked like it was made of animal horns and had a quiver of thirty steel-tipped bodkin arrows and thirty broadhead arrows. [Identify] had some interesting things to say about them.

'These are some good weapons, and I can use the bow with Average Marksmanship. The dagger will make a great backup weapon although I'll keep the sword for now. I should use [Inspect] on the sword just in case it's special.'

'Perfectly normal. Now I do have these stat points to spend and the bow needs thirty [Strength] so might as well use some of them now.'

'Let's leave the rest till later. I'm hungry and breakfast is ready.' Orstelia thought as she finished strapping the dagger to the sword belt and the quiver of arrows, which had a place for bow storage on it, to her back for ease of transport. She didn't know if she was going to immediately leave after breakfast or if she would stick around, but she had a feeling that it wouldn't be that easy.

Orstelia walked outside the tent and saw the three ex-slaves around a small fire with a pot of stew above it. There was the oni girl, whom she had seen before, a dogkin boy who barely looked old enough to wield a knife safely, and an older dogkin girl who looked the oldest out of the group and similar to the boy so Orstelia thought they might have been siblings.

"Good morning everyone. Enjoying your freedom?" Orstelia asked innocently.

The dogkin boy looked up from his bowl of stew and smiled with his cheeks stuffed with stew like a big chipmunk. The older dogkin girl just nodded sheepishly while the oni girl looked at Orstelia, mouth wide open and what looked like stars in her eyes. Orstelia saw that and smiled at her reaction.

Orstelia grabbed a bowl and filled it with stew, then sat down on a nearby vacant log. They all ate their fill in silence, happy with the warm food, and three were happy without the iron collars around their neck. After the meal was finished the four began discussing what to do next.

"Do you three have anywhere to go to?" Orstelia inquired.

"I have a relative in the nearby city. It's around a quarter's day of travel to get there but it's pretty secure. The only problem is getting there. There are no roads to there from here so we would have to go through the wilds, and all of us should know how dangerous it is out there." replied the older dogkin girl.

Orstelia and the oni nodded in understanding. It would be dangerous but there were only a few cities on Tarrise, three from different nations trying to colonize the continent while the fourth was established as a neutral trading city by the nation of Dorado. That one also happened to be the largest as a lot of goods went through it so the city expanded quite quickly. The only downside was that there were fewer laws and regulations in place, allowing things like the three kids to be enslaved without the usual crime that would place them in that situation.

"Do we have any other ideas?" Orstelia asked. Everyone shook their heads. "Alright then. Perhaps we should do some introductions. I am Orstelia, a snakekin and I'm decent with a bow." Orstelia partially lied. Being known as a completely unknown species would spell trouble and her imparted knowledge told her that snakekin existed so she could at least pass as one.

"My name is Beatrice, you can call me Triss if you like, and this is my younger brother Leon. I'm not good with weapons but I know a bit about navigating so I'm certain I can take you to the city. Oh, I forgot to mention it's the city founded by Dorado, Goldtusk." 

"I haven't earned a name from my clan yet but you can call me Shi. I'm good with a sword as I've wielded one since I was a kid."

After their introductions, they agreed to pack everything they could use into three packs and meet back up in the center of camp. Then they would depart to Goldtusk.

Orstelia began packing all she could from Arthur's, now her, tent. Including the tent she found a few trinkets she could sell for money along with a leather pouch carefully hidden behind the cot that contained thirty copper coins and ten silver coins. From what she remembered the coin conversion went something like this.

Most people would maybe see a few golds in a year, nobles would be able to see star silvers, and nobility and other countries would be able to see astral golds.

Orstelia finished before everyone else, so she rearranged some of her equipment for convenience. She strapped the sword to the backpack all of her loot was held in, or on in the case of the folded tent, the dagger to her left hip, the quiver of arrows to her right hip, and the bow diagonally across her left shoulder, with the bowstring against her chest, for quick access. She would usually keep it in the quiver but she may need it at any time so being able to quickly grab it would prove useful. 

'I should finish allocating my stat points and decide whether I want to practice using the bow or try circulating mana. Mana circulation could help immediately but I don't know how long it will take, if I can stop it once I'm going, if I'm aware of my surroundings, or anything else about it honestly. So while tempting I should probably use the bow a bit and get used to it. A bit of practice wouldn't hurt in the long run, especially if I tried to use it untrained in the middle of combat. That could spell trouble for my allies and me. *sigh* I will have to wait yet again to try circulating mana.'

As those thoughts ran through Orstelia's head she assigned her free stat points.

She chose those stats for specific reasons. [Strength] and [Dexterity] to use her bow better, [Mind] because she thought it would help with something eventually plus she didn't like seeing it be so low, and [Charm] because she was going to a city and the better it was the easier interactions she would have.

Half an hour passed as Orstelia practiced shooting her bow at some empty crates and boxes she stacked up away from where everyone else was in the camp. She has had an easier time using the bow than she thought she would. She did have some trouble at first but it seems Average Marksmanship came with a bit of knowledge on how to properly use and fire a bow. That wasn't in the description which made her wonder about what else wasn't told to her. With that knowledge, she quickly adapted to using the bow and found that she rather enjoyed it.

Her current bow was also better than she expected. The first arrow she shot was fired as soon as she let go of the bowstring and hit the crate before the twang of the bowstring was heard.

'Hellsfire this thing is fast,' Orstelia thought. 'Just how fast is a kamaitachi if this is nowhere close to it?'

The only thing she disliked about it was that the string was a bit hard to pull back, but a few levels and points into [Strength] would fix that. As Orstelia was retrieving her arrows the other three showed up. Shi and Triss were only carrying a day or three's worth of traveling supplies and some valuables they stole along with a few clothes that they made fit them. Leon wasn't carrying anything as they didn't want to risk him using up all his stamina and being unable to run away if a monster attacked them.

Orstelia also noticed that Shi didn't have a weapon so she took her sword off of her backpack and handed it to Shi.

"I'm letting you borrow this. I want it back when we are in the city okay?"

Shi squeed in excitement and wanted to call Orstelia 'Big Sis' after that. Orstelia agreed only if she swore to return the sword, which Shi promptly did. Triss and Leon giggled at their antics. Once everyone was confirmed ready to go the group headed southwards, following the river as they went towards Goldtusk.

PlagueDaddy

Going to have this little section here to describe some things that won't pop up naturally in the story without it seeming a bit forced.

Some of you glorious readers may have realized that multiple ways to describe things like time showed up in this chapter. Simply put that is because of a lack of education of people in the world. Schools and academies do exist but they are usually private institutions where you have to pay an admittance fee, usually in gold which most common folk don't have so instead of minutes, hours, and years they use other things to reference that. Most big towns have a clocktower with an hourly bell chime so people who grow up in big cities use bell chimes instead of hours, and they break down hours into chunks to describe minutes. Instead of years, the common people use winters instead as it's a consistent thing.

This world has 100-minute hours, 24-hour days, 10-day weeks, and 400-day years which are split into four seasons, 100 days each, and no months. The seasons are called the Season of Growth (spring), Season of Heat and Rain (summer), Season of Harvest (Fall/Autumn), and Season of Frost (winter). The seasons are a universal saying as it's something everyone has or will experience in this world. Each season is split into 10 weeks which is used to describe when something took place.

Example. This person was murdered on the sixth day of the second week of Season of Harvest.

Some people who were educated in the proper terms may still use the more common terms when talking to those who were not educated just to make sure they understand. This is of course something that some nobles disdain but actively don't do anything about it as that would mean elevating the folk you can't afford to study in prestigious schools or academies. Most of those same nobles will at least respect commoners that attend as most of the world recognizes effort but there will always be outliers.

If you lovely readers want more stuff like this please let me know and if so some general topics to talk about. There are quite a few things like how people talk about time in this world that are slightly different.

P.S. These are the two snakes I used for Orstelia's colors and patterns. An Indonesian Autumn Adder, the red and black one which I'm not 100% sure if it's Photoshop or not, and a Green Anaconda. A bit extra was added but those two were the main basis for it.