Bunny Girl Evolution [A Monster Evolution LitRPG]

<AUTHOR'S NOTE>

I have a lot of exciting news!

First, we reached 100 chapters on NovelBin! Yay!

Second, if you missed my announcement on discord, we officially have a release date for Bunny Girl Evolution Book 1 on Amazon! That date is July 1. 3 days before that (the night of June 27, since the book will be live on Amazon right at midnight on July 1), I will be stubbing book 1. "Stubbing" is a term that refers to taking down chapters in order to meet Kindle Unlimited's exclusivity policy. No more than 10% of the book may be available anywhere but Kindle Unlimited, so chapter 7-54 will all be removed from Royal Road, NovelBin, and on Patreon. Sometime between now and then, I will be posting an .epub version of B1 that will be free to download for anyone in a paid tier on Patreon, but that will disappear too once I stub.

Third, I got the final cast for the audiobook:

• Main narrator and Elise: Dorrie Sacks

• Main male narrator (most male side characters): Justin Thomas James

• Other female side characters: Tess Irondale

• Freddy: Jeff Hays

• Other male side characters: Ryan H. Reid

• Emilia: Andrea Parsneau

Fourth, The pre-order for the ebook is available now, and the pre-order for the audiobook will be available starting June 17th.

And finally, check out the cool new cover! It should be visible on NovelBin now, and is also visible on the Amazon page

P.S. Here's the discord link if you're not in it already: .gg/dUu9QCaZSV

<END AUTHOR'S NOTE>

Everspring was considered one of the ten great manmade wonders of the continent, and as soon as they arrived, Elise could see why. The teleportation circle they appeared on was located in an open-air pavilion surrounded by an orchard. It was very pleasant out, neither too warm nor too cold, and there was a soft breeze that was just enough to keep the air fresh without ruffling any hair or fur too much or drying out any eyes.

The pathway away from the pavilion into the city was fine dirt lined on either side by grass and wildflowers, and the buildings down the street were universally pleasant to look at, fitting perfectly into the natural-seeming surroundings. Some were similar to Naomi’s hut back in the drow cave, made up of a ring of trees growing tightly together with branches interwoven to form a room. Others were made of stone with vines crawling up the sides, giving them an almost overgrown feeling despite clearly being inhabited and well-cared for.

However, while the city was beautiful, and the weather was perfect, that was not what made it such an incredible place. It was the geography.

Corunia was a small nation on the northern tip of the continent where it snowed for three quarters of the year, and more than half the country was covered by enormous mountains that were uninhabitable for anyone who didn’t have classes geared specifically toward surviving such conditions. All around them, Elise could see these mountains, rising up so high they covered most of the night sky. Even in the heart of summer, they were covered in snow that extended all the way down to the city limits. And yet, despite this, the weather in Everspring was perfect.

Everspring was aptly named and internationally famous for its eternally perfect weather, and that combined with its incredible views made it a very popular spot for wealthy tourists to visit. They could enjoy all the fun snowy activities they wanted without the hassle of actually having to deal with snowy weather. This also made the residents quite wealthy, as those tourists brought money with them, and most were quite happy to spend it there.

The reason for the weather was an enormous formation inlaid underground deep under the city powered by a manastone vein that not only warmed the place up, but even prevented weather phenomena from forming overhead. The king had a bit of control over it, so he could make it rain when he wanted to, but for the most part, the city was kept clear and pleasant all year round.

Elise had learned most of these things at the Ostra meetings, some from Bobbi the cat, and the rest from the other changelings she had met, but it still didn’t prepare her for the real thing. She was so in awe of the sights all around that she almost missed the dozen heavily armed and armored guards that were waiting for them twenty feet away. They didn’t appear hostile, but Nick still stepped forward with a hand on his sword hilt, putting himself between them and the rest.

“Welcome,” said one of them. “You are Nick, Bianca, and Maia, correct?”

He didn’t acknowledge Elise because she had switched back to her rabbit form for the teleportation.

“Correct,” said Nick, taking a step forward with his hand on his sword hilt.

“We’ve been expecting you. A man named Freddy sent word that you would be coming. Please follow us and we will take you to your accommodations.”

Nick hesitated, but a quick {Whisper} message from Elise explaining who Freddy was made him relax, and they allowed themselves to be guided through the city.

As they walked, Maia kept a slightly awkward distance between herself and everyone else. From what Elise gathered, Nick had a weird relationship with Kaia that was kind of like friendship, and that made his interactions with Maia weird. On top of that, Nick and Bianca were clinging to each other like… well, like an engaged couple that hadn’t seen each other in three months and had been through hell in the meantime. Elise was in Maia’s arms, pretending to be a normal rabbit, though she caught a look from the lead guard that made her fairly certain he knew what was going on.

It was night, but still fairly early, so the streets were still bustling with people enjoying the city’s nightlife. Most of them stopped to watch as their procession walked by, and Elise heard many gossiping and theorizing about what the purpose. They did make for an odd group. Nick was still wearing his bloody and damaged armor, Bianca was wearing a moderately extravagant dress, Maia was dressed like an assassin, and Elise had almost 1700 Charisma, so even without her wings, she was effectively glowing.

She heard some interesting theories that made her snort with laughter. One was that they were a theater troupe who had come in costume because they were professional method actors. Another was that they were the shadow agents of the king who had finally accomplished their mission, and were now allowed to be seen by the light of day. Elise’s favorite was that Bianca was some long lost princess returning to claim her crown, and Nick was her personal knight, Maia was her servant, and Elise was the pet.

None of them seemed to have any idea of what had happened in the Jungle, which Elise thought would be big news so she assumed that Ostra was waiting until morning to announce things.

Their accommodations weren’t far from where the teleportation pad had deposited them, but they weren’t quite what Elise expected. With what she knew about this country and how many changelings lived in it, she had expected they would be staying at an inn or something owned by one, and in a way, that wasn’t far from the truth. It’s just that the “inn” was shaped like a castle and its owner happened to be the king.

Elise had been half-expecting something like this ever since the guard mentioned Freddy, since this seemed like something he would set up, but she still felt it might have been a bit overkill. Even if Freddy wanted to get on her good side, setting her up to stay with the king of a powerful nation felt like it was going too far. She wasn’t going to turn it down though. After a month sleeping in the Jungle, a climate-controlled room in a fancy castle sounded heavenly. Between that and the fact that all her time-sensitive problems had been resolved, relieving a lot of stress, she knew she was going to sleep well that night.

The guards led them to the front gates of the palace where they were handed off to a Changeling Butler and a half dozen Changeling Maids who led them to their rooms. The pretense of Elise being an ordinary rabbit was dropped as soon as the castle gates closed behind and Elise was treated as a normal person. Nick looked a bit uncomfortable, but didn’t say anything, and soon, they all went their separate ways, Bianca and Nick sharing a room and Maia and Elise getting their own rooms.

Elise talked briefly with Maia to confirm that yes, she would let her know when {Rune of Fate} was off cooldown and they could bring Kaia out, then retired to her room. The room itself was nice, but Elise didn’t take much time to examine it, instead flying straight to bed. She landed on a very soft pillow, curled up and almost immediately fell asleep.

“Elise!”

Elise opened her eyes to find herself back on Earth. Well, not quite. It certainly looked and felt like Earth, but the golden-haired, golden-eyed woman calling her name made her quite certain it was just a dream. Still, she did take a second to enjoy the familiar ambiance. She was in her dorm this time, and though it was just as cramped as she remembered, it felt very cozy. It had her old sheets on the bed, her old pillow, her old clothes on the floor, her old laptop on the desk, and even her old roommate’s things on the other side. Elise was even in her own body, which she actually found a bit uncomfortable, since it was in noticeably worse shape than her changeling human form.

Titania herself was also on the roommate’s side, wearing pajamas decorated with cakes and dangling her feet off the other bed. She looked much less regal than every other time Elise had seen her, but there was still a certain aura about her that made it obvious she was divine. Them being there brought up a few questions about how Titania was creating these places, and how much she knew about Elise’s past life, but those questions would have to wait. Elise knew she only had a minute, and was full of questions she had been waiting weeks to get answers to.

“Why couldn’t I use the divine aether to raise my own stats?” asked Elise.

“Skipping the pleasantries?” said Titania with an exaggerated frown. “I’m wounded.”

Elise was fairly certain the goddess was being playful, but she didn’t want to take any chances, just in case.

“I’m very sorry,” she said, bowing. “I was in a rush since we only have limited time.”

“I know,” said Titania with a smile. “And your answer is that you don’t understand the consequences of permanent divine blessings. A bit of healing here, a temporary boost there, and so on is all fine and dandy, but the second you start making permanent changes, you’re treading in dangerous waters. That’s my aether you’re using, not yours, so it would function as a blessing from me, which would permanently tie your fate to me. Your vampire friend told you about how she was trying to break free of her own sire’s influence so she could become a god? You would be in a very similar situation, and your evolution options would become severely limited.”

“Oh,” said Elise, a bit taken aback both by the information and by how thorough the explanation was.

“Well, a thorough explanation was what you wanted, right?” asked Titania.

Can she read my mind?

“Yes.”

Oh.

“As for your other questions, most of them, I won’t answer. I’m not allowed to answer them, actually. Well, I’m sure I could find a loophole, but I don’t wanna. Anyway, before you leave, I’ll give you two pieces of advice. First is that your feline friend has a very damaged soul, and my aether alone won’t be enough to heal that. You’ll need to find a powerful soul healer if you want him to have even a slight chance of survival. Second is that you’ll receive an invitation soon, and you should accept it.”

“What kind of invitation?” asked Elise.

“You’ll see,” said Titania with a wink. “It might help with the answers to your other questions. The ones I’m mostly not allowed to answer. And for the final question–the one you’re thinking right now–I haven’t changed. I’m not any different than I was the last time we talked. I just dropped the mysterious act.

“...Or have I? Anyway, good luck! I’m rooting for you!”

With that, the dorm vanished, and Elise woke up. It was early morning now, with orange light from the sunrise streaming through windows on either side of the bed, and birds chirping in the trees outside. Elise stretched slightly, then laughed out loud. The visit from Titania had been both unexpected, and unexpectedly helpful.

Her words about Jag’s condition were ominous, but also comforting. He was in bad shape, but at least she had confirmed he was alive, if only barely. She would need to look into what soul healers were and where she could find one, but once she did, she would be able to save him. And she wasn’t on a time limit for that, since he could stay in Astrid’s Star indefinitely.

That meant that for now, she could take a bit of time to relax. She wanted to heal Jag as soon as possible, but she wasn’t going to burn the candle at both ends trying to make it happen. She was sure Jag wouldn’t mind if she took it a bit slower, and in fact, he would probably encourage her to do exactly that. Plus, she probably wouldn’t even need to get too personally involved. Finding things wasn’t her strong suit. She would just put in a request at Ostra, and they would eventually find it for her.

With all that taken care of, there was just one thing to think about for the rest of the day: Sophie. She still wasn’t sure how she should introduce herself. The thoughts she had months ago about secretly checking in without the girl knowing were out the window. Nick and Bianca already knew about her. She would have to tell her at least most of the truth. She was nervous about how Sophie would react, but the cat was out of the bag. There wasn’t anything she could do to change how it would go.

She tried to take her mind off it with some {Mana Meditation}, and somewhat succeeded in calming herself, but as soon as she finished, the nervousness began to return. She spent a bit of time exploring the room, which was nice, but nothing special, then grew bored of that and decided to leave the room to try and find something else to distract her. She switched to her human form, then opened the door and walked out into the hall, almost running into a Changeling Maid.

“Oh, Lady Elise, you’re awake!” said the maid in Fey.

“Lady Elise?” asked Elise.

“Yes, that’s how we were told to refer to you,” replied the other changeling. “I can drop the formalities if you’d like.”

“Yes, please,” said Elise.

“Alright, Elise,” said the other changeling. “The king has invited you to have an audience with him in a couple hours.”

“He has?”

“Yes, and he instructed us to help you get ready.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you can’t have a royal audience wearing that.”

Elise looked down at herself, and she had to admit that it was a bit shabby. The clothes themselves were nice enough, but even though she spent most of her time in the Jungle in rabbit form, they still weren’t in great condition. They had some minor self-cleaning magic, so they didn’t reek, but they were a bit dusty, and the cloak was torn in a few places.

“I guess,” said Elise.

“I’ll help you dress,” said the maid. “If you go to your room, I’ll be right there. We have some clothes prepared. Also, your dye is starting to fade. I can get some dye remover if you want, or if you have more, we can re-apply it.”

“Oh yeah…” said Elise, running a finger through her hair.

The dye had colored it dark brown, but it was noticeably lighter than before, and it probably wouldn’t be long before it reverted back to white.

“Can you remove it then?” she asked.

“Of course!”

She had more dye in Astrid’s Star, so could always dye it again later, but she thought it would be better to reunite with Sophie while she had the same color scheme going on.

Elise returned to her room, and a minute later, the maid entered holding a large box. The box contained an elegant red dress and a small bottle of dye remover, which the maid helped Elise apply. The dress was fancier than Elise was expecting, with more frills and lace than she had ever seen, let alone worn, but she had to admit, it looked good. It was a bit more revealing than she’d usually go for, but not extremely so, and the maid explained that such dresses were very much in fashion. Elise didn’t push back much.

Afterward, the maid, whose name was Sandra, recommended Elise switch back to her changeling form until the audience.

“We’re all changelings here,” she said. “They’ll all understand.”

Elise thought it was a bit odd that she said that while being in human form, but she didn’t object. Her skill’s cooldown restriction was annoying, and she wanted to be able to have the form available for its full duration whenever she might need it. As she thought about that, she realized that with the events of Operation Blood, she was actually quite close to her next evolution, and that it probably wouldn’t take long to reach it. Whenever the Gray situation was finally fully resolved, she would have to go on a leveling grind.

After Elise changed back, Sandra gave her a tour of the castle, showing her the various facilities. It was a nice castle, but its layout was fairly similar to the dwarven castle in Dokkalfheimr, so she didn’t find it too interesting. Sandra was a good conversation partner though, so it wasn’t a pointless experience. Elise learned a lot about Everspring, and its local customs and people.

At one point, Elise asked about when Sophie would be arriving, but unfortunately Sandra didn’t know. Well, she kind of knew, but what she knew was that no one knew when the half elf would be arriving. Apparently there wasn’t any kind of specific timeline, and she would show up when she showed up. Elise hoped it would be sooner than later.

After the castle tour, Elise was joined by Nick, Bianca and Maia for breakfast, all of whom were dressed in clothes similar in style to Elise’s dress. Maia looked distinctly uncomfortable in her green strapless dress, but wore it without complaint. Once they had finished, they shortly found themselves in the king’s private meeting chambers.

It reminded Elise a bit of Dokkalfheimr’s Council chambers, where most of the room was taken up by a large table, though this one was rectangular instead of circular. The king himself sat at the head of the long table in a golden throne, and looked every bit the part of a king. He was tall and well-built, and though his hair was gray and his face was lined, he was still quite handsome. He had a stern expression and stiff posture, and he had a jeweled scepter in his hand. Elise did not dare use {Inspect} on him, as she had heard he was a 9th tier, and didn’t want to offend him.

However, Elise couldn’t help but use the skill on the man standing beside him. She regretted it immediately, but in the moment, the urge was irresistible. Right next to the noble, regal, proper looking king, was an honest-to-goodness jester, complete with the patchwork clothes and bells on his hat. He was rocking side to side in his chair, and humming, and when they entered, he turned to face them with a wide smile.

[ ???, lvl ??? ]

Her face paled immediately as the jester’s attention snapped to her, and his smile vanished.

Oops.

He opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment, to Elise’s relief, a new distraction arrived. And quite a distraction it was. In between Elise and the king and jester, two people appeared, standing on the table, facing toward Elise. One of them, she immediately recognized as Sophie. The other was a very naked woman with black hair and yellow eyes who seemed to feel no shame about appearing nude before so many strangers. Elise was so startled that she used {Inspect} out of habit, and for the second time in ten seconds, severely regretted it.

[ ???, lvl ??? ]

Two of them? thought Elise helplessly.