"Hey guys, I do have one small issue…" Bjorn suddenly spoke up. "I can't really play in the next hour; I do have an important work related call."

The group sighed but nodded in understanding. It was quite unexpected, but there was not much any of them could do.

"Go, but we will have some fun without you, though." Karl sneakily added.

Bjorn disappeared. The group looked at each other.

"Actually, it feels a bit weird to have a party without Bjorn. So I suggest we split up. I will ask around for the best way to travel." Karl announced. And after a nod, he ran away too.

"I am going back to the dojo. Wanna come with me, Fred?" Augustė offered.

"I actually have something I want to try out too." Fred replied uncomfortably. He did want to go with her, but somehow that felt a bit unfair and uncomfortable.

The girl disappeared, and Fred was left alone. There was a thing he wished to do, and he could only do it in secret. To collect some money so he could surprise his team with tasty sandwiches. However, there was something else he wished to do before that. Fred traveled to the dungeon, where he saw the catgirl.

He picked up the torch and went towards the secret room of the dungeon. He roughly knew it would be in the middle of the dungeon. It took him a bit to find it, but he found it eventually. There was a torch socket on the wall. He placed the torch down and inspected the door.

He did not have the firefly skill, so he could not make the text appear. But he did not need to. Simply saying 'catgirl' to the job made the magical circles appear.

But there was a problem. The circles just continued spinning. Nothing happened. It did not turn him into a catgirl or anything remotely like that. It did not affect him in any way.

Fred tried saying 'catboy,' but that made the circles disappear. He sighed. Nothing worked. Augustė must have done something to activate the spell. He had to know what it was.

He opened the menu and suddenly saw a message from Augustė.

> Come to the dojo; I have a surprise for you, nyaa!

Fred immediately quick-traveled there. It is not like he had any clues about opening the door. He wanted to ask her, but he felt it was better to do it in person.

Augustė was cheerful and glowing with excitement. Fred pulled up the menu and immediately saw why. She was ranked D. She passed the challenge!

"How?!" Fred gasped, completely surprised.

"The firefly. Watch." She proudly laughed.

Augustė pointed her finger into the sky, and a small ball of light appeared right above it. Fred saw this before, but this was way different than before.

The first time Fred saw it this way, the sphere of light just circled around the caster's head as if it were a mosquito trying to find a spot to land on. This time, the light floated in a precise, well defined orbit around her finger.

"Go fly and bite Fred in the ear." She commanded.

The firefly did exactly that; in a blink of an eye, the firefly's orbit quickly expanded, and it crashed into Fred's head before he was able to comprehend what exactly just happened. It was just a slight pinch, but it was enough to do exactly one point of damage.

"Wait, you can control it?!" Fred still could not believe her.

"Yep. It took me a few tries, but I finally managed to pass the challenge." She replied smugly.

"Hmm, I see." Fred sighed. A part of him did want to be the first to solve the challenge, but now it was too late. She beat him to it. Then again, she did use a skill Fred did not know of.

"Actually, could you tell me how to get this skill, the firefly?" Fred suddenly asked.

"Yep, it's in a dungeon not far from the starting town. I can show you the way. But remember our promise; you can't use it to pass the challenge anymore!" She smiled.

"Oh, of course. I just thought it would be nice if I knew the same spells as the rest. I can teach you the 'Light Arc' in return." Fred immediately replied.

"I am not really a swordfighter... So I don't need it. Anyways, let's go to the town of the beginnings…" She offered and disappeared into thin air.

Fred quickly traveled there, too. His companion was already waiting.

"So well, it's about an hour of walking from here." Augustė announced and began walking.

"Wait, wait, I did not realize it was that far away." Fred sighed.

"Do you have any travel points north east from here?" She asked, and Fred shook his head. "So, well, we have time, right?"

"I suppose…"

They began walking. There was a small forest path, not wider than half a meter. The forest itself was not difficult: tall pine trees, some moss, and nearly no grass underneath.

"Hey, I was actually wondering. When you became a catgirl, what did you do to activate the spell?" Fred inquired; he was still thinking about it.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Nothing specific; I just said the word catgirl, and it happened. But why do you ask?" She playfully replied.

"I just went there, said the same thing, and it did not work for me."

"Oh, you wanted to become a catgirl too?" Augustė was pretty sharp.

Fred blushed. He was embarrassed to admit it. He did not open his mouth, but his face made the answer obvious. She was staring at his face too, which made him blush even further.

"It is ok; I won't tell anyone. But I really don't know why it did not work for you. Maybe because I was a girl? Did you try saying catboy? Nyaa." The ex-catgirl looked away and eased the pressure Fred felt.

"I tried, but the word catboy did not work. I did not activate the circle either."

"I see."

They walked in silence for about ten minutes. Then Fred paused. He saw something that intrigued him. A mushroom was growing out of the moss.

He jumped right at it and carefully inspected it. It was indeed the same delicious milkcap that the bakery asked for. Upon closer inspection, Fred noticed a few more growing around it.

"Oh, I know these, but why are you picking them?!" Augustė stared at him.

"It is a secret, but I will tell you a bit later. Do we have a minute? I will be quick."

"Sure! I will wait."

Fred removed his sweater from the backpack and stored the mushrooms. While collecting the initial bunch, he spotted a few more, and then a few more. In the end, Fred ended up picking nine of them.

Wondering whether his backpack would get dirty, Fred stood up and put on a sweater. He looked around for more mushrooms, but there weren't any.

"You said you knew them?" Fred asked after resuming walking.

"Yep, they grow in my hometime. My family used to bake them. They are quite tasty." She smiled.

"Ah, and uhm, sorry for taking your time. I found someone who buys them, and I need a bit of money."

"Don't worry about it. We have plenty of time. And, uhm, you were so excited that you actually reminded me of my younger sister. She always got so excited when she spotted a msuhroom before me. Very cute too, nyaa." The girl immediately blushed, as if she was not supposed to say that last part.

Fred smiled too. He found that last nyaa to be indeed quite cute.

"Did you just say nyaa?" He asked, slightly teasingly.

"Yes, yes, I did. I see you finally noticed. I've been saying it every now and then ever since that quest. It must be a longer term side effect or something like that." She replied slightly uncomfortably.

Fred was not sure whether she had made that up or not.

"In real life too?"

"Yes… Oh, hey, look…" She suddenly distracted him and pointed her finger to a place where a few more mushrooms were growing.

Fred collected those too. Another seven of them. He was happy. His quest to make his party happy progressed further. He stood up and continued walking, but suddenly he noticed Augustė, who looked worried.

"Fred, please don't tell anyone about the nyaa part."

She was serious, and Fred nodded.

"Is it getting worse?"

"No, not at all. It's disappearing. Or maybe I am learning how to control it. It is just so embarrassing…" She blushed again.

"But, um, how does it work? Do you say it and then realize it after the fact?" Fred was not sure what to say, but it was something he was definitely really curious about.

"No no. It's weird. But I guess I can tell you. See, I always wanted to be a catgirl; it's not really a new thing. But I was always afraid something bad would happen if I did actually say or do something cat like. As if I would lose a part of myself. But after that cave incident, well, I did meow a lot. And I acted all cat like. And nothing bad happened! I am still myself. And it felt really nice. It felt as if I had a year long itch, and it finally got scratched." She explained through her red face.

"But that sounds nice. You were afraid of something, and the cave showed you there was nothing to be afraid of. That's great, so, well, why are you so uneasy about it?" Fred smiled back.

"Because it is like scratching my itches! It does help them heal; it makes them bigger! And I worry I won't be able to stop!"

"But you've said it's getting easier."

"It is, but, well, actually, let's drop this topic." The girl insisted.

Fred nodded and walked in silence.

Eventually, they reached the cave. The familiar message popped up.

> Dungeon: Starlit Sky

>

> Recommended level: F

"Huh, strange name. What is it?"

"You will see." She smugly smiled.

They both entered, and the darkness swallowed them. And it became darker the deeper they went into the maze. Fred decided to take out the sword, but as he reached towards the backpack, he was interrupted.

"Stop. Let your eyes adjust." She explained. "Actually, we can still see the ground here; let's get further into the dark."

She then grabbed Fred's hand and pulled him further into the pitch blackness. It was unexpected, but holding hands made it easier to follow.

"Hey, how do you know where to go?" Fred asked in the darkness.

"Look up, silly."

Fred looked up and saw something beautiful. The cave's ceiling had many faint, tiny dots in it. Likely some kind of glowing mineral. They were hard to see, but as Fred's eyes adjusted to the darkness, it became even more astonishing. It really looked like a starry sky.

"Beautiful!" Fred gasped.

"It is." She replied, and they continued further.

"But wait, how do you know where to go?" Fred asked; he was still pretty clueless and could only follow thanks to her hand.

"I follow the Milky Way."

Fred looked a bit more closely and indeed noticed a band of stars brighter than the rest. It was slightly curved, and they walked right under it.

"It's a trick dungeon. If you use any light, you will simply see a large, empty room with nothing in it. But you won't be able to reach the treasure either."

"I see. The entrance looked like it's an entrance to a maze. But it is actually not a maze at all."

"Yep. I assume a few tight corridors were necessary to shield this room from the outside light."

They walked for one more minute, and suddenly Augustė stopped. She kicked something metallic with her foot. Fred followed the sound and touched it. It was a chest.

"Don't open it yet."

"Why not?"

"Because once you do, the firefly will illuminate the place, and you won't be able to see the Easter egg."

"Oh, I do want to see it."

"Sit on the chest and look somewhat straight up."

Fred did as told and sat down. He searched for anything unusual and suddenly saw it—a constellation of stars. Faint, but not invisible. Just enough to see a monochrome picture of a small girl. She was sitting at a table with a laptop in front of her and a wide witch hat right beside the laptop. The girl had twin tails, and she was waving to Fred as if he had just stepped into her office, and she was giving him a welcome.

"Wow, pretty. Do you know who she is?"

"I think she is some developer's daughter or a niece or something like that. Forums said she was a developer herself, but I find that hard to believe…"

Suddenly, a notification popped up. A new message. Fred opened the menu and read it; it was from Karl.

> Hey, where are you? Come to the guild building; I found a quest. It's a VIP quest; we need to protect a merchant from wolves, but it should get us half way to the capital.

Fred closed the menu and sighed. He could no longer see the stars; the glow from the menu was enough to saturate his eyes with light.

He heard a sigh beside him. Augustė made the same mistake.

"Oh well, open the chest~"

And so Fred opened the chest. Suddenly, a familiar firefly jumped out of the chest. It made a few large circles around Fred, then the bright dot calmed down and made smaller circles above Fred's head. Fred had a new skill now too.

The entire place was now illuminated and just utterly boring. Just dirt—dirt walls, dirt ceilings, and dirt floors. And an open chest with nothing inside.

"Let's go." The young woman sighed, and they both quickly traveled to meet their friend.