When Alan emerged from the grass, it was with an awkward grin, and downcast eyes. Not only did he feel nervous, but he didn't have any idea of what to expect. Was Su'ong going to believe that he was still himself? How was she going to take the changes to his physical features? These and many other meaningless worries stormed through his mind. But most of all, he was afraid that he had overstepped his boundaries.
In the moment, freeing her from the Dungeon's control had seemed like the best option for everyone involved. Well, maybe not for the Dungeon itself, but he really didn't give a shit about what the Dungeon wanted either way. The problem was, he had no way of knowing if Su'ong would feel the same way. How would she perceive him making such a serious decision on her behalf? “Only one way to resolve this…” Alan slapped his cheeks lightly, “Time to get it over with. Just be honest man, we're gonna be stuck together for, well possibly forever, so she'll probably forgive me eventually.“ At least, he really hoped so.
Perhaps it was selfish of him to think like that, but it wasn't like he had many other options. It was already done. Better to hope for the best, and just suck it up, and deal with whatever came after. Alan only had himself to blame for his current worries after all. It was he who had leapt at the chance to alleviate himself of one of his biggest worries.
Namely, that somehow the Dungeon would figure out a way to use its connection with Su'ong to devour his Soul. Gaea herself had warned him of that very possibility, and Reggie the Wraith appearing in the middle of the Soul-Union ritual had only increased his worries. Sure, there was a chance that he had jumped the gun, and acted just as much out of selfishness as he had in keeping with Su'ong's best interests.
Thinking back, it was all little more than a blur. From the moment the Tutorial began, he had been thrust, usually against his will, into one desperate situation after another. He was given no time to decompress, and had yet to be able to catch up. Everything kept changing so fast, that by the end, he was simply acting on instinct and gut feelings. Of which he knew his weren't the best.
Defeating all one hundred Dungeon Born Monsters on the first floor, and then challenging the Earth Wyrm had seemed to be unsurpassable challenges at the time. Yet with Su'ong's unexpected sacrifice, he had managed to survive long enough to cast [Gaea's Tempest].
Running on little more than fumes and adrenaline, he awakened his new Bloodline, and was given a slew of new worries when conversing with his Patroness. After piling the Soul-binding on top of it all, it was no surprise that he was basically flying on autopilot by the time he'd been given the option to annul Su'ong's contract with the Dungeon.
Although Alan wasn't provided the option of asking Su'ong for her opinion, he desperately hoped that she would understand that his hasty decision wasn't made with the intentions of undermining her own opinion.
There were several ways Alan foresaw the situation playing out, many of them worrying, yet never did he imagine that Su'ong's first reaction would be to start laughing. It was a relief to know he didn't have to worry about a fight, but it was slightly aggravating.
“Yeah, yeah, lets all laugh at the lizard man and his freakishly-long tail,” Alan sighed as loud as he could, waving his tail over his head to emphasize the point. More than anything, he wished he had an invisibility Skill. It would be great to just disappear from sight right about now. The glee on Su'ong's face was the complete opposite of how he was feeling.
“Ha, ha ha, I'm sorry! Really Alan, I'm not laughing at you! Please, come here! I'd come to you, but I've never had to walk before. I haven't worked up the nerve to use these leg things yet, so I'm probably going to need some time.
“So… Yeah. Just gonna clear out the elephant in the room real quick. A lot happened while you were apparently growing legs, and, now I'm going to look like this for a while,“ Alan said, gesturing at himself while maintaining an intense focus on the grass at his feet.
Try as he might, he was unable to get himself to meet Su'ong's gaze. He was afraid of what he would find there. “And I won't be able to change back for at least another…“ Alan activated [Soul Cycle] to get an accurate timeline.
Caution! [Soul Cycle] is on Cooldown! (Current Cooldown remaining: 14 Hours, 08 minutes)
“Fourteen hours and eight minutes,” He finished after a slight pause. “And if I'm being honest, I'm not sure what's going to happen when I try to switch back.“
“Slow down, what are you talking about, switch back? So... you are using a Transformational Skill then? That's too bad…” Su'ong hesitated for just a moment, as if unsure of how to express what she was feeling. “I rather like the new look,” She finished so quietly that Alan struggled to make out her words.
Unsure if he'd heard her properly, Alan raised his head, and looked at Su'ong, his mouth agape with suprise. When their eyes met, it was like an electrically charged current surged through his mind. It was exhilarating, and he found that it was impossible to look away. “Your eyes… They… They look incredible!“ Alan blurted out, slapping his hands over his mouth in embarrassment.
“Wait Alan, what do you mean? Have my eyes changed as well?“ Su'ong replied with a worried tone. She rubbed at her eyes, and blinked several times.
“Umm, yeah, I don't think that's gonna help,” Alan said, wishing he would've kept his mouth shut. “Your eyes are… Well, they're not the same colors anymore. The left one is the same shade of gold as it was before... But,” He paused, holding up his hand to halt Su'ong's questioning.
“There's a blue swirl mixed in with the gold now. And your right eye is the the exact opposite. Piercing blue, with a golden spiral.“
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“So mine are the opposite of yours then…” Su'ong stated plainly. “I guess that's not too bad, all things considered.“
“Wait, what?! My eyes changed colors too? Alan exclaimed, swatting at his face in confusion.
While he he'd taken efforts to avoid looking too closely at his own reflection on the lakes surface, he felt it odd that he wouldn't notice such a glaring change in his own physical characteristics. Although, the sharp teeth, and dinosaur face are pretty distracting…
“They sure did!“ Su'ong said, her tone a little too cheery for Alan's liking. “You have a gold and blue left eye, and the right one is blue and gold! It would seem that for some reason, the Soul-binding blended our eye colors together too. That's.. Odd. There has to be a reason. Did you also get an ocular Skill? I got a Beast-Folk (Variant) Racial Ability called [Right Eye of Hygieia]. It lets me use a couple of basic Buffs, and I believe that to be the most likely reason for my eyes changing…”
As a matter of a fact, he had. Two in fact, although his [Left Eye of Maniae] was sealed away with his Human form, so he didn't feel a need to mention it. “Yeah, I got one called [Left Eye of Echidna]. It applies Debuffs, so, yet again, pretty much the opposite of yours… That's kind of strange isn't it? It's like we're two sides of a coin now.“
As he took in the changes to his Soul-bound partner, her beauty was almost enough to cause him physical pain. Having lost the majority of her size, she was actually fairly short now, standing perhaps up to his chest. Her facial features had softened considerably. Gone were the harsh angles of her cheek bones, and aside from her eyes, as well as a thin line of scales running down either side of her neck, there was little left to differentiate her from a human.
Well... A reallllly pale Human. Alan admitted. She no longer had tight braids, her silver hair was short, barely reaching to her shoulders. Alan couldn't help but admire the way it framed her face.
Su'ong's eyes seemed to glow with an inner light. She flashed a dazzling smile, and gestured at the ground next to her. Alan hesitated for a moment, transfixed in his study of Su'ong's stunning makeover. She had always been beautiful, but this was just unfair. When do I get to be the hot one?! Alan grinned at his own idiocy, and sat down next to Su'ong.
Without warning, she threw her arms around his shoulders, and buried her head in the crook of his neck. As she held him in silence, Alan realized that they were truly a part of one another now. With her so close, it was impossible to miss the connection. Until she made that initial physical contact, a part of himself had been missing. He felt it at a level so deep, that there weren't any words in his vocabulary powerful enough to explain it. It simply was.
Because his eyes were downcast, he could see that Su'ong was creating shallow holes under her feet where her toes were animatedly grinding into the ground.
“Toes!“ Su'ong snorted and fell into another fit of laughter. “How fitting! The name sounds just as stupid as they look! But, and I'm sure this is going to sound pathetic, what exactly are they for? What do they do? They just seem… pointless. No claws, and unnecessarily fragile.“ She reached out and gave Alan's big toe a sharp tug to prove her point. "And why do you get claws?"
“It's not like I want the damned things...“ Alan grumbled at the mischievous smile plastered on the face of his Soul-bound partner.
Anxious to get her attention off of his misshapen feet, Alan stood up and walked a slow circle around Su'ong. All the while demonstrating to her how toes were the main stabilizing factor to bipedal movement. “Without these fragile little pointless toes,” Alan said, lifting his leg and displaying his clawed foot, “We would all just… Kind of hobble around I guess? We definitely wouldn't be able to run very fast.“ To prove his point, he lifted his toes, and tried to run on his heels.
“Alright, so they have a use other than being cute,” Su'ong said. Alan's point was driven home when, distracted on Su'ong's words, he stepped on a loose stone hidden under the thick grass and stumbled. “Point taken,” Su'ong said, arriving suddenly at Alan's side. Her hand on his shoulder the only thing having kept him from falling down.
“Thanks for that. So, you uhh…" He glanced down at her legs. "Skipped right on passed learning how to walk, and went straight to the running part huh?“
Su'ong looked down at her firmly planted feet, her eyes widening in suprise. “I guess I did. I saw you falling, and… moved. It actually worked out better than I was expecting,” She said, placing her forehead on Alan's shoulder and letting out a nervous laugh.
Holding Alan out at arms length, Su'ong studied his face, searching for any clues that might be gleamed from his expression. Alan wasn't sure where to begin. But as he gathered his thoughts, he caught himself staring at Su'ong's smaller, but still-very-much ample chest. Aghast, he realized that in the midst of everything, he had somehow totally glossed over the fact that aside from the bluish-green scales covering her arms and legs, she was completely naked.
And technically speaking, so was he. Shit! Now that the thought was in his head, he couldn't focus on anything else. For the first time, he found that he was actually happy his face was hidden under a heavy coating of scales. They were the only thing keeping his blush from showing through.
“Ok, but before I start,” Alan said, pointedly staring into Su'ong's eyes so as to not look any worse than he likely already did. “Do you think you could help me open my Storage Ring? I'm going to be totally honest here. I... Just right now realized that you are completely naked, and now it's all I seem to be able to focus on…”
Once again betraying his expectations, Su'ong burst into a fit of laughter. “I saw it happen!!“ She cried out, falling to the floor like a child in the midst of an unchecked tantrum. She kicked her feet, and beat the ground with her fists, the whole time cackling with unapologetic glee.
Suddenly exposed to her perfectly-shaped backside, Alan gasped, and turned a one-eighty.
“You looked down and saw my b… you saw my boobs! And your jaw literally dropped!“ By this point, Su'ong was laughing so hard that tears flowed freely down her scrunched up face. There were very few things in all of creation that Alan wanted as much as he wished to just disappear. He sent out a silent plea to the System, asking that it provide him with an invisibility Skill.
Alas, the System remained silent. With nothing left but to deal with it, Alan slumped to the floor with an embarrassed groan, and hid his face behind his hands.
Wiping the receding river of tears from her eyes, Su'ong took a deep breath, forcibly regaining her composure. Doing his best to vanish, Alan continued hiding his face.
Shaking her head as she walked, Suong bent over and and pat the embarrassed reptilian softly on the top of his smooth head.
“There, there, it is really not that big of a deal. Think of it like this, we are literally sharing our Souls now Alan. Were tied together at a level far beyond that of mere flesh and bone. If we cannot be comfortable around one another, this is going to be a rough experience.“
“Besides,” she added quickly to drive the point home. “You are very much naked too, in case you hadn't noticed. And I have done a fair amount of peeking myself."