Hey! Been a while on this one. I had originally written 23 complete chapters of this story, and most of a 24th, but I burned out. I noticed that the ending of chapter 21 would make a good point to break away from the story and then I could pick up the rest later, so I changed it slightly to feel more like an ending, and then uploaded up until that point.
But here we are now, two years later. While I did still have ideas for how I might continue this story, overall, I just don’t want to go back to it. So in lieu of that, I thought I would share the remaining chapters, and then the ideas I had for how to continue.
Chapter 22:
Cara
Another team of hers had graduated just a couple days ago, meaning she would be assigned a new one. Cara often taught 2 or 3 teams at a time, and right now was no different.
She didn’t choose the people she would teach, as they were usually assigned to whichever teacher would be best for them based on the available information.
Reading through the sign-up sheets of the new students she would be taking, Cara became interested in one of them in particular.
So Shae finally did it, eh? Oh, she even wrote a note at the end here.
“My sister only just arrived here a week ago, so feel free to hire me to translate.”
She chuckled.
Brat. I would’ve done that anyway, but now I’m going to have to be mean about it. It can only be occasionally, though. Can’t have the girl relying on her sister for everything.
She looked through the papers one last time to make sure she had everything she needed from them, then left a message for Shae the next time she came in.
Doesn’t look like Victoria’s team will be as well-put-together as Shae’s was. Oh well, it happens.
———
The following day, she showed up at training room 5 early to pull her usual routine of being a pest.
Only one of her students was there already; a certain plant mage girl.
“Hi! Cara said.
“Hi. Another plant mage… team?” Victoria asked in broken Tiirve.
Did Shae not mention me? That’s a little annoying, but it helps for this moment.
“Yeah! We’re going to be best friends. If I can even understand what you’re saying. Never mind actually, it sounds annoying.”
“Uh, sorry. Tiirve… learning.”
My insults can’t even get through at this level. Well, that’s fine.
The doors opened and a man walked in. Seeing the two of them he scowled.
“Two plant girls? What’s even the point of that? You don’t look like you know how to fight.”
“You’re right! Today’s my first day!” Cara smiled and held up her fists in a very poor stance.
Cara had reached a high level much earlier than most, and still looked young. She used this to her advantage.
He scoffed. “I’ll make sure the trainer removes you.”
Sometimes, Cara would have to deal with a student who was an absolute pain in the ass. Though, as a combat trainer, she could simply beat the shit out of them. It was a lovely perk of her job.
Victoria looked at her. “Is he okay?”
“He just thinks he’s special.”
No Skill was inherently better or worse than another. Some weren’t as suited for fighting, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t fight.
Zena on Shae’s team had a skill a bit like that. Though, in her case, it did help her heal and dodge attacks with mana in them, so she wasn’t the best example of a non-combat Skill holder choosing to fight. She just wasn’t able to strike directly with her spells.
The man commented, “I’m more special than the ability to grow some fucking leaves.”
“People love my leaves! I make the cutest necklaces out of them! I’m the pride of my village!”
It’s been awhile since I did that. 250 years I think?
“Yeah, you’re definitely getting removed from my team,” he grumbled.
This is honestly kind of funny.
He chose to ignore Cara after that.
The remaining three trickled in, and everyone else did better than the obvious idiot in the room.
It was a few minutes before anyone noticed. Victoria asked, “Um, 6 people? 5 in a team?”
A certain belligerent pest spoke up. “Can you even fucking speak?”
Breaking him is going to be so satisfying.
Cara stood up and announced, “Yep! I’m your trainer. I annoy people as the first test to gauge your characters.”
“I don’t believe it. There’s no way a tiny leaf girl could be-”
His words were cut off as Cara grew a vine whip from her hand, cracked it forward, which then wrapped around his arm, and she then flung him in a wide overhead arc for dramatic effect, slamming him face down into the ground.
Well, hopefully that convinced everyone.
Three of her remaining four students were looking surprised—and a bit nervous-while the fourth was looking at her with excitement.
Victoria was smiling wide as she asked, “Can do that, too?”
She chuckled. “With practice.” Turning to everyone, she said, “We’ll begin soon. There’s one more person we’re waiting for.”
While they waited, Victoria asked her, “You know Shae?”
“I do, yes. I taught her, too.”
“You did?” Her eyes lit up in what looked to be excitement and a little worry.
“What did she say about me?”
“She said her trainer was good but sometimes sadistic.”
“Well, she’s right. Glad to know she spoke highly of me.”
“O-Oh…”
“You’ll survive. I’ll make sure of it.”
She squeaked.
Okay, now that’s just cute.
The idiot on the floor finally decided to get up after receiving no sympathy from anyone. Cara knew his level was high enough to take the amount of force she used and that he could’ve gotten up sooner.
He seemed like the type of idiot who would’ve lied about his Level and Skill on his sign-up sheet if there wasn’t a heavy punishment for doing so.
Finally, the doors opened for the seventh time this morning, and Shae walked in.
She ditched the trainee set. That’s good. I can see she’s already taken some damage in that one, though. Perhaps I should give it some more?
She greeted, “Oh, Cara, it’s you! It’s been a while.”
“It has,” she agreed. Turning to her students, she told them, “Everyone, this is Shae. She will be acting as translator for Victoria twice a week for at least a month. After that, we’ll see.”
“Hello.”
The idiot opened his mouth again. “They even hire people for idiots who didn’t bother to learn the language before signing up?”
“If you insult her again, I’ll kick you across the room and back. Then I’ll kick you again.”
Please say something. I want to see that.
“What’s the point in helping someone who is too stupid to-”
Shae teleported to where he was standing and swung her foot sideways, launching him toward the wall. Before he could collide with it, Shae teleported and kicked him back to where he had been standing before. She then teleported a third time and kicked him once more, this time allowing him to slam against the wall, where he then fell.
Cara commented, “That was certainly satisfying. Your teleportation timing and placement is sloppy, though.”
She shrugged. “It’s been less than two weeks since I got it. I also can’t practice combat with it that much yet since it’s quite draining.”
Cara smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m happy to help you with that. Though, I hear you think I was a sadistic trainer?”
“Don’t act like it’s not true or that you’re insulted by being called that.”
Laughing, she replied, “You got me. The offer still stands, though, but only when you’re here and it doesn’t interfere with their training.”
“I was hoping you would say that.”
“Since you can take more abuse than them, I can also use you for demonstrations.”
“I knew what I was getting into when I accepted your offer just now.”
“You’re no fun.”
One of the other students was looking at something on the ground. He asked, “What’s this thing?”
Shae noticed, “Oh, I guess he bit his tongue by being an ass.”
She doesn’t care at all.
Cara noted, “I remember you used to be softer.”
“Isn’t removing softness your specialty?”
“That it is. Now, we’ve wasted enough time, so let’s get started.”
One of the students was told to heal the idiot with the bad mouth, then they began.
She’s still too soft. I would’ve kicked him without even a warning.
———
Shae
Cara had hired Shae to translate and help Victoria, just as she had hoped whichever trainer Victoria got would, though it was for only two days a week. She understood Cara’s reasoning, though. She wanted Victoria to be able to stand on her own.
Shae wasn’t quite sure of being there for only two days a week, but she did at least agree that Victoria needed to learn how to deal with things even when she didn’t entirely understand the words or situation.
In Shae’s case, she had been able to spend months in a quiet, little village where nothing happened, gradually learning the language and about the world around her.
The asshole on her sister’s team had learned quickly that he should just shut the hell up, though that didn’t stop his mouth from running sometimes before his brain could catch up.
He had apparently come from a tiny village, where he had gotten a Skill early and outshone the other kids who didn’t have one yet. After a few years of having a higher Level than everyone else, he began thinking he was special.
He had vowed that he would leave the team as soon as he could, which no one had any complaints about. It was at this time that Shae learned that most teams who trained together didn’t stay together after graduation.
The whole point was making sure they could work well with other mercenaries, even if they had just met for the first time. Most people might tolerate their training teammates, but wouldn’t necessarily like them.
So I was just incredibly lucky, then. Even got a girlfriend from my team!
Another aspect of the training was that if someone quit the team, then they weren’t replaced. They had to make do with only four members, or fewer, if more than one had left. And the other in-training teams who suddenly had new members had to adjust to that as well.
Shae’s leveling had been even slower lately, though much of that was due to her circumstances. The 7 weeks of travel in Gortrand had been spent mostly moving as quickly as they could so they could just be done with the place.
The last few levels she had earned had come in just the past couple weeks, and she had even earned a base point in Dexterity, making it 9.
—
Shae Lavandula
Level: 109
Points: 0
Body: 153
Dexterity: 152
Flow: 161
Health: 458 / 458
Stamina: 457 / 457
Mana: 474 / 474
Skills:
[Adaptation]
[Adaptation] Sub-skills: (Main: [Plant]. 36 days remaining.)
[Healing]: Level 30
[Mental]: Level 22
[Pain]: Level 25
[Space]: Level 37
[Acid]: <1%
[Earth]: 50%
[Fire]: 36%
[Flesh]: 18%
[Ice]: 9%
[Light]: 68%
[Lightning]: 59%
[Plant]: 61%
[Poison]: 1%
[Psychic]: 57%
[Sound]: 5%
[Water]: 45%
[Wind]: 82%
—
Shae was thinking it was time to finally push another adaptation into the leveling stage. She wanted [Plant] specifically, and conveniently, she had a powerful plant mage who was eager to help.
It was only a few days later that she was at the Center for her second time that week, and Cara wanted to use her as an example of the difference 453 levels made.
Cara teased, “Do your best~.”
Shae retorted, “I’ll be sure to get hurt in a way that satisfies you.”
“You’re not at a high enough Level for that, darling.”
Ignoring her words, Shae charged forward, saving her teleportation for only key moments, such as dodges or surprise attacks. If she only teleported and didn’t cast any other spells, she could do it maybe up to 5 times, though it took additional mana if it was in rapid succession.
Knowing the overwhelming force she stood against, she activated her [Mental] sub-skill.
She unexpectedly fell forward. Her ankle was suddenly caught on something, and Shae looked down to find that a vine had sprouted from the ground and wrapped itself around it. It began snaking up her leg and crushing it.
Shae teleported out, changing her orientation to be upright again. She appeared right behind her former trainer, who, without even looking, blasted her backward with a gust of wind.
In the split second before she could crash into the wall, Shae teleported again. She was now facing Cara from the front, but her moment carried her backward through the air.
A gust of air slammed her down into the ground from above, where vines immediately wrapped around her whole body. As bones everywhere began to be crushed, she activated her [Pain] sub-skill to lessen her agony. She also activated her [Healing]. While doing that, she was using her [Plant]’s active ability to try to manipulate them off of her, but she couldn’t tell at all if it was making a difference.
Only enough mana left for one teleport.
Deciding to try to be tricky with it, she teleported to just above Cara and threw her fist toward her head. A vine grew from the woman’s head, wrapped around Shae’s arm, and slammed her into the ground one final time.
Shae didn’t move from there and groaned, “Way to embarrass me in front of my sister.”
Victoria apparently understood her well enough, because she yelled, “No, you were cool, Shae!”
She smiled, blood leaking from her mouth. “Worth the pain.”
Cara asked her, “Do you know what you did wrong, Shae?”
“Challenge you?”
“That’s right.” To her students, she said, “Against overwhelming power, just run. Consider it your job to inform someone who can deal with threats beyond your ability.
She literally just stood there. Didn’t raise her hands or even turn her head. Did she even blink? Unbelievable.
While Cara did her job as combat trainer, Shae looked over the changes from what couldn’t even be called a fight.
—
Level: 110
Points: 1
—
She put the point into Dexterity, thinking that better control of her spells might help her survive against a threat like Cara one day.
—
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Body: 154
Dexterity: 154
Flow: 162
Health: 96 / 462
Stamina: 161 / 462
Mana: 39 / 478
—
Didn’t even give me time to expend all my Stamina.
She decided to make another change to her Status. All her sub-skills that were still adapting would be Stage 1, and the leveling ones would be Stage 2.
This was because it was easier for her to think of them like this instead of referring to them by whether they were leveling or adapted.
—
[Adaptation] Sub-skills:
(Main: [Plant]. 36 days remaining.)
Stage 2:
[Healing]: Level 31
[Mental]: Level 24
[Pain]: Level 26
[Space]: Level 39
Stage 1:
[Acid]: <1%
[Earth]: 50%
[Fire]: 36%
[Flesh]: 18%
[Ice]: 9%
[Light]: 68%
[Lightning]: 59%
[Plant]: 66%
[Poison]: 1%
[Psychic]: 57%
[Sound]: 5%
[Water]: 45%
[Wind]: 84%
Chapter 23:
Shae
Shae was able to face Cara a few more times during later training sessions. When the trainer wasn’t busy thrashing her current students, she would be thrashing her former one. With her “help”, Shae was able to get her next sub-skill to Stage 2.
It wasn’t [Plant], however, though that one was close. It was [Wind].
—
[Wind Adaptation]:
[Active]: You may manipulate the gases around you to generate wind. You may also create wind from your own mana.
—
Nice. What kind of glowy effect will I get this time?
She activated her sub-skill, and screamed.
From her back, a set of black-feathered wings had grown. There had been no room for them in her armor, but they continued to grow anyway. Between the two, they both lost. The straps and buckles on the armor snapped, and the bones in the wings also snapped. All the clothes she had been wearing had been torn and fallen off, leaving her chest exposed.
Victoria rushed over while Cara calmly walked. The other trainees just stared.
Her sister worriedly asked, {Shae, what happened?! Are you okay?!}
She deactivated the sub-skill, causing the broken wings to retract. She still felt some residual pain, but it was fading fast. She didn’t immediately regain the lost health, though.
{I just gained the ability to grow wings, apparently. Wasn’t expecting that to happen. I’m fine now, but it hurt like hell. Not the growing wings part, but the fact that they were crushed inside my armor.}
Cara commented, “Impressive.” It wasn’t clear whether she was making a joke about Shae’s blunder or complimenting her now-exposed chest.
Probably both.
Shae rolled her eyes. “Know a place that sells armor for winged people?”
“Most armorers should be able to handle that. I want to see what your [Plant] one does now.”
She shook her head. “Not right now. I want to get used to this one more.”
Cara pouted, but went back to her students, who had relaxed too much for her liking in the past couple minutes.
Shae decided to make use of her shredded undershirt and turn it into a chest wrap. Halfway through wrapping, though, she decided to determine where exactly her wings grew from, first.
She activated the magic again, this time with no resistance.
Properly seeing the wings this time, she decided she quite liked them.
Wrapping up her chest again, she realized that if she wanted to use these in combat or even just in general, then she would need to get clothing with holes for them to stick out of.
But then I would have two exposed spots on my back. I only have wings when I’m using wind magic. So if I wanted to cover them, I guess I would need a shawl or something.
Outside of combat, I guess it doesn’t really matter. So that means whatever armor I get will need to cover that spot when I don’t have wings. I’d rather not get stabbed in the heart from the back.
Hmm… I might just have to avoid using wind magic altogether until I can get the armor situation sorted out. So that leaves getting my current armor repaired. It looks like it was mostly the straps and stuff that broke, so it shouldn’t be incredibly expensive, I don’t think.
Actually, I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ve never used my wings even once.
Shae decided to rectify that issue. Except for when she was needed to translate, she spent the rest of the training session figuring out how her new limbs worked. Her new wings also came with a sort of instinctual understanding of how to move them and apply magic to them for maneuvering.
But that didn’t mean she was any good at it. She knew how to flap her wings and glide with them, but that was about it. Twisting, turning, flying up, diving, and everything else, that was all beyond her for now.
She left the Mercenary Center later, and dropped off her breastplate to get it repaired. Shae’s funds were sitting quite low because of the sudden expenditure, as she had taken Victoria to get whatever she wanted. She didn’t let her sister know how little money she had at the moment, though.
I did pay off my debt just yesterday, though, so there’s that at least.
Her sister asked, {You’re really okay walking around like that?}
Shae looked down at herself. From the waist down, she was still armored. Above her waist, she had only vambraces and a chest wrap.
She replied, {This might sound weird, but I kind of like this look? It’s not practical at all, though.}
{If you weren’t my sister, I’d be drooling right now. I know looks don’t mean a whole lot in terms of how strong someone is, but what’s your Body base stat? Because damn.}
She laughed, then looked a little awkward. {Uh… It’s 14.}
{I thought the limit was 10? Or am I misunderstanding something?}
{10 is like what an athlete on Earth at the top of their game might be at, so like an Olympian or something. That doesn’t mean it’s the limit, its’ just that it’s really hard to reach that point, let alone go past it.
|
{The reason I have 14 is because of Elna going all out on my reshaping before I even had magic. It’s impossible to change a person’s stats under any circumstance, but I technically didn’t have stats yet.
|
{I think Elna mentioned something about ancient experiments to get similar results being done on children, but their bodies weren’t developed enough or something for it to work that way for them.}
{Huh. Lucky you, then. So, I don’t understand it well enough yet, but with your current level, you’re like, dozens of times stronger than an Olympian? Is that right?}
{If we were on Earth, yeah. Here, strength is variable, depending on the person’s stats and where they are in the world. And their Skills.
|
{So like, if I had stats of only ten, then being in a place with really dense mana might literally crush me. It’s also harder to cast spells in those areas. I haven’t left the Arvace Kingdom much, though, so I haven’t experienced it yet.}
{So I could think of some parts of the world as off-limits for now because I wouldn’t be able to handle it?}
{That’s literally how it works, yeah. Weaker people in those places have to be protected with special enchantments until they’re strong enough to not die.}
Victoria smiled. {I can’t wait to explore them with you. You said you’ve been outside the Arvace Kingdom before?}
Shae grimaced, then talked about the unpleasant 7 weeks she had experienced just before reuniting with her.
Walking into the inn for the day, they found Zena and Tria waiting for them, with a novel and a canvas respectively. Shae’s two days a week at the Center had become the rest of the team’s days off. For Shae, it wasn’t that big of a deal since she was training and helping Victoria.
Everyone in the group had paid off their debts now as well, with Shae actually having been the last one to do so.
Melo had been spending a lot of his free time with Broch, making up for lost time. Broch had gotten a job at a butchery, and had the beginnings of a life set up for himself now.
Seeing the sisters approaching, Zena slowly looked Shae up and down, then questioned, “What’s with the change in outfit? Not that I’m complaining.”
Shae retorted, “You spent at least half a minute there not complaining. Anyway, it’s these.”
She made her wings appear.
Zena got up and gently ran her hand down the feathers.
Shae said, “O-Oh… Haven’t felt a sensation like that before.”
“How is it?”
“I guess it’s like if you were scratching my scalp? It feels nice.”
Zena seemed slightly disappointed.
“No new erogenous zones for you to play with. That I’m aware of, anyway. They’re still brand new, after all.”
The implied promise satisfied her.
Shae let go of her wind magic, causing her wings to return, then sat at the table, followed by Zena. Unlike her other Stage 2 sub-skills, this one didn’t create an aura of any kind. So far, all the auras had only been a visual effect, so her wings had been entirely unexpected.
I wonder what else I might get that isn’t an aura? I’m looking forward to it.
Zena asked, “So, why the lack of armor? I understand not being able to wear that set with wings, but you don’t have it with you at all.”
“I had no idea I would get wings, so they bunched up inside my armor and caused the straps and my clothes to break. Which reminds me, I’m only wearing scraps at the moment.”
Seeing Zena’s disappointed look, she rolled her eyes and added, “I can get something like this to wear normally later, but I can feel that it’s on the verge of coming undone again.”
Shae returned to their room to change out of her armor and into clothes.
All my clothes really are just… about as bland as I could get. I guess the habit remained, even after accepting myself. Dysphoria really made me not want to show my body that badly, huh?
Sitting back down at the table, she gave her girlfriend a kiss and told her, “I think it’s time for me to start getting new clothes. Early on, I sort of avoided anything that stood out, then fell into a bad habit because of it.”
She nodded. “Did you have anything in particular you’re looking for?”
She shrugged. “Not really? Honestly, other than buying stuff for Vicky last week, I don’t think I’ve really looked at clothes at all.”
“Do you want to go right now?”
“I’m broke, so we can’t. The surprise armor repairs drained what spending money I had left.”
She smiled. “Then it’s a good thing only one of us is broke.” She turned to the plant mage at the table, who was quietly drawing next to Tria. “Vicky, want to help your sister get some clothes?”
Victoria looked up at her, then at Shae. {Did she just ask me to help you pick out clothes?}
Shae chuckled. {She did.}
{For real…?}
{I’m not trying to be super fashionable or pretty or anything—that’s you—no, I just need things that are less bland.}
{Yes! I’ve always wanted to do something like this!}
Right, I remember how she always wished there was another girl in the house growing up.
Zena giggled. “I guess she’s coming with?” The sisters had spoken to each other in English.
Shae rolled her eyes again . “Tria, do you want to come with?”
The light mage looked up, slightly startled at being addressed suddenly. “Huh? Come with where?”
“I need new clothes and I have no idea what I’m doing, so they’re helping me.”
She nodded in agreement. “Finally, it won’t hurt to look at you. Of course I will come with.”
“I’m not that bad, am I?”
“You are.”
Shae looked at Zena for support. “I wouldn’t say bad, just not interesting. If I thought it was a problem, I would’ve mentioned it when we started dating.”
The four women left the inn together in search of clothes for Shae. They couldn’t buy a ton of new things, as they only lived in either an inn room or a tent, but when the four made it back to the inn later, Shae had a few bags.
As she had promised Zena, she got something that showed a lot of skin. The rest of what she got was mostly pants and shirts, but these ones actually had some color and a sense of design to them.
The one that showed a lot of skin didn’t cover the spots her wings grew from, so if she had something in mind for her wings one day while not on a mission, she had something to wear.
Chapter 24:
Shae
It only took Shae one more spar with Cara before her [Plant] sub-skill reached Stage 2.
—
[Plant Adaptation]:
[Active]: You may manipulate the plants around you as well as cause them to grow in specific ways.
—
She didn’t want to unintentionally give everyone a show again, so she impatiently waited until the training was done. Zena and Victoria wanted to see, too, so they followed Shae into her inn room.
As Shae stripped, Victoria gasped.
Shae tilted her head. {Hm? What is it?}
Her sister blinked. {Just… damn.}
Didn’t she already see everything from the waist up yesterday?
She chuckled awkwardly. {Yeah, Elna does good work. It’s one of the reasons I wanted her to do your reshaping.}
Hated it at first, though…
Victoria looked down at herself and smiled. {Yes, she does.}
“Well, here goes.”
Down to just her panties, Shae activated her [Plant] sub-skill, causing her skin to turn a vibrant green color.
“Just green skin? I’m kind of disappointed.”
Zena commented, “I like it.”
“Thank you.”
Victoria asked, “What were you hoping for?” She had asked in Tiirve, as she had begun making an effort to speak the language more.
She shrugged. {Just thought it would be fun if we could match sometimes. Most of the plant mages I’ve seen had something else going on than just green skin.}
{Can you do [Plant] and [Wind] at the same time?}
She activated both skills simultaneously, feeling the increased strain on her mind. She wasn’t doing anything strenuous, though, so she didn’t activate [Mental].
Her skin remained the same green color as before, but the feathers on her wings were now dark green instead of black, and had a more leaf-like shape to them.
Shae commented, “Oh, that’s cool. Too bad it’s annoying to keep up.” She dropped both sub-skills and reverted to her default appearance.
The strain on my mind is gradually becoming less as [Mental] increases, though.
Zena said, “I’m looking forward to what your other sub-skills bring.”
“Me too,” she replied, putting her clothes back on.
I have to admit, getting nicer clothes was definitely the right call. I look so much better.
Her auras have any combinations like that when combined. The closest was her [Space] and [Pain] ones, which just made the space effect red. Victoria had commented that her combination of [Pain] and [Healing] shouldn’t be possible, though, since they were opposite colors, being red and green respectively.
Her girlfriend looked between the two sisters and asked, “Would you like to go to a bathhouse? We could rent one of those private ones for groups. I’d pay, of course.”
Shae smiled, “Sounds good to me.” She repeated Zena’s question for Victoria.
Her sister meekly asked, {I-Is it really okay? For me to go to a place like that…}
{No one will judge you, sis. Even if we weren’t renting a private one and even if everyone there knew you were trans, they still wouldn’t care.}
{It’s really fine?}
{It would just be me and Zena, and you’ve already seen both of us naked. We could invite Tria, too.}
{No! I-I can’t!}
Zena asked, “What is it? Something about Tria?”
“I mentioned inviting Tria, and now she’s blushing.”
She flatly responded, “Adorable, but maybe too much too soon?”
She shrugged, “Maybe.” To Victoria, she said, {It could just be the three of us? Or you don’t have to go at all. Up to you.}
{I want to go! Um, I-I’ll come with, I mean. Wait, I don’t have a swimsuit!}
{It’s a bathhouse… Well, we can find you something if you want.}
{Right, naked… I’ll…} she started. {I’ll still go with. And we should invite… Tria…} Her voice became rather quiet by the end of that sentence.
To Zena, Shae said, “That’s a yes! Let’s go!”
The three of them couldn’t find Tria in the inn, so they checked her usual spots where she could often be seen with with a sketchbook or canvas, which Victoria had memorized already.
They found her at the third one. She had other usual places farther away, and if they didn’t find her at this last one, they were just going to go without her.
Spotting the light mage, Victoria called out to her, “Tria!”
She looked up to see who had called her and smiled. “Victoria, hi!” Spotting the other two, she added, “Is something going on?”
“We’re going to a bathhouse. Want to come with?”
Her Tiirve is improving rapidly it seems. Or she’s just more talkative with Tria.
“Okay, sounds fun!”
From beside her, Zena wondered, “Why was she so nervous earlier but isn’t now?”
Shae explained, “Oh, Vicky is massively freaking out right now, and when the day is over, she’ll be freaking out over the fact that she did this.”
“Is it really okay for her to come with then, if it’s causing her such turmoil?”
“It might vary from person to person, but in her case, it’s fine. She knows herself and what she’s getting into”
Arriving at the bathhouse, Victoria seemed a little disappointed.
Shae chuckled. {Not exactly the anime scene you were picturing, was it?}
Victoria sighed slightly. {I knew it wouldn’t be like a Japanese one, but it’s just a bunch of wood and stone. Anime ones a probably unrealistic, but still.}
{This isn’t an inn or whatever, it’s just for bathing. Even the private bath we’ll be renting is still just a regular one. It’s just there for smaller groups of people who want to be social but not have to deal with other people.}
Zena came back from the front desk with a numbered key in hand, and the four of them entered the room with a matching number on its door.
As they undressed, Victoria went the fastest. She was embarrassed, but had committed to being there with everyone else. There were showers along one wall, and once they were done with those, they each entered the bath.
The bath was a circle shape made of stone set into the ground. In the middle was a pedestal with sliding buttons built into the top. One was a temperature control slider, and the others were for jets. Zena slid the temperature slider to near its limit, and the jet sliders were set to about halfway.
Victoria exclaimed, {It’s just a hot tub!}
Shae settled into the water and exhaled in relief. Leaning against her girlfriend, she told her, “Thank you, Zena. I needed this.”
Zena kissed the top of her head. “Tough day?”
“Cara was quite eager to help me with my [Plant] adaptation.”
“Ah, she would be. Want a massage later?”
“I’d love that. Going all out today, are you?”
“I would never miss an opportunity to make you happy.”
———
Tria
The plant mage to her right asked Tria, “Are they always like this?”
Shae had been spending a lot of time with Victoria since rescuing her, and now that things were settling down, she was returning to her usual behavior of constantly flirting with her girlfriend.
I’m happy for them, but also a bit envious. Especially since Victoria arrived…
Replying to the girl she was rapidly developing a crush on, Tria said, “Yes, this is normal for them.”
Victoria blushed and simply said, “Oh,” before sinking into the water slightly.
“Is that okay?”
Is she worried about not being able to spend time with Shae?
“Yeah, it’s fine. Why wouldn’t it be? I just realized that I could be like that now, too.”
Victoria’s Tiirve was still a bit broken, but she could be understood well enough by this point.
Alarms went off in Tria’s head.
The girl with sparkling skin asked with slight worry in her voice, “Do you have someone in mind?”
“U-Um… No, I don’t. I don’t have anyone in mind, no.”
Tria relaxed. The couple in the room with them were in their own world, and the jets were loud enough that their quiet words couldn’t be heard.
After relaxing for a bit, Zena removed her prosthetic leg, separated it into a few separate pieces, then she and Shae worked together to clean it inside and out.
Tria had learned from Zena that there were no problems with getting prosthetic limbs wet like this, so long as they were properly dried afterward. Life magic was sufficient for that, and Shae’s minor ability with water magic would also help.
They have something to do with each other while Victoria and I just sit here.
Like she often did when she was nervous, Tria began making small balls of light of various colors and swirling them around.
As they swirled around beneath the surface of the water, small vines began to chase after them. She looked at the girl next to her, who was having fun mixing her magic with Tria’s.
The light mage smiled and began making more balls of light in more colors and moving them in more complex patterns. Victoria responded with more vines, and grew some lavender flowers to try and catch them.
Her control was still much lower than Tria’s, so the light mage didn’t push her magic to her limits to win whatever game this was. Whenever a ball of light was successfully caught within one of Victoria’s flowers, Tria let her keep it.
The game continued on until Tria felt someone tapping her shoulder. She looked up to see Shae standing crouching behind them, looking amused. The tall woman removed her hand from Tria’s and Victoria’s shoulders. Zena was standing not too far back, with a similar expression on her face.
Shae said, “Sorry to interrupt, but we should probably be leaving soon.”
The two girls still in the water both blushed, briefly made eye contact, then immediately avoided eye contact with everyone.
Book Two would’ve opened up with a mysterious figure arriving in the world from the same spatial distortion Shae came through. They would then find the village Shae stayed at, and learn where she went.
Victoria would be really clingy with Shae due to being separated for a year.
As the Skills of everyone on the team progressed, Shae would start to fall behind because her [Adaptation] Skill provides a lot of versatility, but not a lot of power. She would work on gathering and leveling up more sub-skills. I hadn’t entirely decided what I wanted for her next Skill once it unlocked, though I did have two directions in mind.
The first direction would’ve been for Shae to double down on her versatility and hope it allowed her to catch up, and the second direction would’ve been a Skill that is powerful if the user has high Base stats. Since her Strength Stat is 14, that would’ve allowed her to catch up in that way.
So her first Skill was versatile, yet weak, and her second Skill would be strong, yet highly specialized, assuming I went in the second direction.
One thing I didn’t consider when writing this story is that people’s appearances change only when they get their first Skill, so I also considered that first Skills are essentially main ones, with the rest not being as powerful, which would’ve added to Shae’s struggle.
Her teammates would still be very supportive of her and help with figuring out how they can help her through this.
Shae was going to experiment with pronouns going forward. Since she became agender, I kind of sloppily wrote that she accepted she/her pronouns because that’s just what people defaulted to, but I was going to have her try out more.
There actually was a hint of this when Shae said, “I’m your sister or whatever,” showing that it was on her mind at least in a subconscious way at that time.
A plot hole I would’ve filled was the fact that I said that any flesh magic done to a person without their consent counts as an injury, so someone in that initial village could’ve healed Shae. So I would’ve mentioned somewhere that she did try that, but it didn’t work, because the flesh magic used on her was done before she had any mana at all, and that even children in this world have some amount of mana, even if they don’t yet have access to the System.
Another plot hole is that Elna burnt out in chapter one. I later realized that as a highly-skilled and powerful flesh mage, it wouldn’t have made sense for that happen. So I would’ve filled that hole by saying that because Shae had no mana, the process was a lot more costly for Elna than expected.
And yet another plot hole, if you can call it that, is the fact that some Skills would require investing heavily in specific stats. So in that case, I would mention that Skills with this requirement would compensate for any negative effects on the user. If someone focused on a specific stat without having a Skill that compensated for it, they would likely injure themselves.
Victoria and Tria would’ve started going out. I had potential ideas for them forming a polycule with a third girl. Victoria would’ve wanted to go back to Earth to properly say goodbye to one specific online friend, but then they end up rescuing that girl out of a bad living situation and taking her with them to the other world. The three, assuming I used this idea, would’ve formed a mercenary artist polycule together.
I also considered writing Book Two from Victoria’s point of view.
Eventually, the mysterious figure would’ve tracked down Shae and Victoria, and it would be revealed that they work for the government on Earth, as part of a secret magic division. I hadn’t entirely decided how this would go, but the guy would’ve been pretty powerful.
As a side note, they would learn through this guy that a lot of isekai stories are specifically commissioned by the government to prepare people for getting stuck in other worlds. Victoria would’ve replied with something like, “No wonder so many of them are terrible!”
Long-term plans:
-They would’ve eventually made their way to Konial’s homeland for some reason.
-Gortrand’s revolution would’ve begun.
-Elna and Merrin would be investigating unusual events, which is what they were doing all the way back in chapter 1. Signs would point to the System gaining sapience, and it would’ve eventually assigned Shae as one of its admins.
So yeah, I had ideas, but ultimately, IOI was really experimental for me, and I just didn’t feel like going back to it.
