This place was patterned after the real world of Earth, but had sooo many differences to it.
Add a heavy serving of magic in the form of mana, inject an illogical amount of land and water mass into it, and lay on the time acceleration option for several thousands of years, allowing for massive destruction and re-growth, and you’d have the world I’m exploring now.
The avatars or characters which we were provided had all been regressively aged to that of the average biological 14-year-old. This was done regardless of our current age in reality. The mechanics behind it proclaimed it had something to do with how that was the optimal age for starting to learn magic in this virtual reality.
Another mechanic was that we could not change our gender or too much of our personal features outside of character mutations. I was actually quite glad that we were not allowed such options as I was a strong believer of being genuine and true to myself even in the online world. The downside in my eyes is that if ever I sought to maintain anonymity, a close friend or relative who also participated in this VR study might easily identify me even with the other differing features of race and age. I guess that could be both a positive or a negative perk depending on how someone looked at it.
Appearance itself was not the worst part. That had only been confirmed shortly after my official arrival.
I got to experience the hormones of a young teenager again!
It was already bad enough being an awkward and testosterone driven horndog once in middle and high-school. Now I had to suffer such again?!
It certainly didn’t help that my adoptive apothecary master was a single elven beauty to die for! I most definitely was not alone in this vote of confidence as many other Travelers as well as natives in the city did frequent her shop primarily for the scenery.
Funny enough, many of the would-be suitors amidst the city, who lacked a respectable level of self-restraint had at one time or another tasted of my master Victoria’s rather dark and vicious humor.
Those which crossed lines of propriety, depending on the level of their infraction, would experience differing levels of punishment. The most common and minor infractions usually resulted in a light dosing of itch powder which none of the other apothecaries in the city either could, or were willing to treat for fear of angering my master.
The painful itching process simply had to run its course as repetitive bathing could only do so much to ease the effects. It was rare that my master had to take things further, as such victims of her tender actions tended to not repeat their oh so memorable mistakes of the past.
As there were all types of people or sentient beings so to say, there were instances of some, including those who were already married or otherwise engaged, who refused to take the obvious hint of her disinterest and continued to take things too far. When I first met my master, she had jokingly spoke of hating to have to clean up frozen chunks of over-eager would-be suitors. At the time, I had been split between believing her and simply taking it as a joke to warn me off from trying anything myself.
I later watched first-hand and wide eyed at the seriousness of her statement.
.
.
.
I had already been working under the tutelage of Victoria the Apothecary for over a month now, having become her official and only apprentice. I had even been a witness to a few casual and even bold requests of several rejected suitors.
Having eyes only for a certain uptight and elven city councilman, she firmly denied those advances. Usually nothing more came of it as the underlying threat of punishment and rumors of past instances kept the suitors in-line.
It was incredibly rare that one of her customers crossed that line enough to feel the full extent of the thorns protecting the rose. Such perpetrators usually had not been granted the wisdom of their ill-advised predecessors.
I finally got to witness such an incident and fallout with a particularly willful and lustful tomcat demi-human.
This individual was from out of town and had likely not even had the opportunity to be warned, to never mess with Victoria, The Apothecary. When others spoke of her, I could almost always hear the emphasis of her title as she stood a cut above the rest who shared her craft within the city and the surrounding areas.
Maybe the visiting adventurer had not lucked into hearing, or simply didn’t take the warnings to heart. He later paid with his life. . .
It started off with him gracing the apothecary shop with his presence along with his harem of four other women of differing magical features. Even as the four women perused through the available wares, their intense gazes frequently roamed over the humanoid tom cat. The recipient of those stares simply preened at the attention. He appeared to embody the traits by which his animal character was known for. Cunning, manipulative, very charming, and vengeful, was all packaged into a handsome, golden brown and white colored pelt.
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Were I not firmly confident of my own heterosexuality, even I might have been drawn into his alure.
Despite their exotic beauty being diversified among feline, aviary, elven, and serpentine traits, my master easily put his group of sycophants to shame. Through sheer simple existence and just by silently walking through the door of her conjoined home to the front shop, my master commanded admiration and attention.
Radiant she was, with her long fawn colored hair, tipped elven ears peeking out from among the strands, almond shaped brown eyes tinged with innocent mischief, and tastily full lips which promised unspoken pleasures. All this gathered together to form her angel like face. Maybe it was simply my hormones talking as I felt that such alone, could make the hearts of even the most chaste of men to throb. Except, that was not it.
Her arms and legs were firm with toned muscle, yet still they retained an almost dainty fragility, leading one to have thoughts of holding her, if only to protect her from the chaos of the world. Shapely hips and a bust to entice many a thought of burying one’s head within its embrace, was enhanced by her naturally seductive stride. All in all, she had the appearance of a nature loving, innocent, yet very enchanting and well-endowed girl next door.
The libido of the Tom-cat demi-human never stood a chance. With the genetic and magical merging of a cat and human at some point down his ancestor’s line, he was the epitome of haughty supremacy and a lascivious nature. Drawn to Victoria, he began plying his tried-and-true method of persuasive seduction.
My master, ever the opportunistic prankster played along, seemingly giving into his attentions. At the time this occurred, she had been so convincing in her act that even I had feared for her safety. I was later proven to have worried in vain.
Just as she had done before to countless philanderers who crossed the line with her, she dosed him with a liberal handful of itching powder, even while appearing under the sway of his pheromone powered seduction. Much like a feral cat when sprayed with a water hose, he arched up his back, screeching in surprised outrage, and retreated!
That honestly should have been the last we saw of him as his group were simply visitors to our city. Had he done his due diligence of information gathering, he would have learned that Victoria was the single most desired, yet untouchable rose within the city. Unfortunately, his pride could not handle such rejection and torment in the face of such beauty, and so he came back for revenge. . .
Later that night, after the store had been closed and my master and I retired to our separate rooms to sleep, the sounds of shattering glass and an explosion rocked us awake! My master was not happy. Many, if not most would have reacted in terror, likely fleeing from the armored visage of the tom cat and his possie as they stepped through the shattered glass entryway of the store, lit by the rampant flames of their incendiary device.
Victoria, in hastily assembled night-ware, instead, countered their fiery display with a swiftly conjured and diffuse barrier of frigid fury. I watched all of this happen just a few meters away from around the corner of the entryway.
The confrontation, although relatively short, was terribly violent!
At the start, she had repelled the many surprise attacks from his companions as they sought to subdue her for the Tom’s pleasure before he even had to take action. Wielding whips made of flowing ice particles; she rendered them incapable of further violence. Only when they were subdued and bound to the shops floor with icy manacles, did she turn her full attention to the primary offending member.
What happened next bordered on torture as she focused on delivering utter humiliation upon the hot blooded demi. I could only call what she was doing as ‘playing’ with the tomcat. However, such playing would shatter the heart and sensibilities of any real cat lover.
She engaged in short range battle with him, appearing like she was struggling. Then, only after allowing him to run through his impressive repertoire of fighting skills, she artfully began dismantling his armor with precisely placed ice shards as they shot past his looming frame.
His seemingly expensive and high-quality gear which gleamed with meticulous care, began to fall in pieces from off of him. He flinched each time that happened and would move to protect the latest opening which my master could have easily capitalized upon had she desired. She didn’t desire to. Instead, with subsequent dismantling and with barely a drop of blood spilled, he was eventually left only in his skivvies.
At that point, she began sending a series of bladed icicles to lightly slice into his skin but not doing much true physical harm. His expression all throughout this grew evermore wrathful as he was effectively emasculated in front of his impotently observing harem.
Finally, after a short break in the onslaught of ice shards, as if to give him a moment to apologize, my master watched on as he stooped to pick up his fallen weapon. Moving slowly as if affected by the ice on a more internal level than visibly seen, he pressed forward to continue his attempted assault.
With a disappointed sigh slipping from her lips, my master cast a single last ice shard, precisely targeted his nether regions.
*Thunk!*
With its passing, the blood drained from the tomcat’s face as his phallus separated from him and dropped to the floor in a solid chunk!
Victoria then paused again in her attacks, as if to allowing him to back down after this latest grievance. The adventurer’s eyes flared with outrage and a promise of the many terrible things he would do to her even as incomprehensible sounds mangled their way from his whiskered feline lips. With mixed regret and more than a little blood lust of her own, my master cast a single last spell, reaping his life. . .
Despite his many preparations as a veteran adventurer and the supporting offence and help of his experienced harem, the Tomcat ended up being toyed with, castrated, and impaled upon by a pillar of ice.
City patrol had already arrived at the scene by this point, late in the night. Yet none dared to intervene until Victoria had finished with her treatments of the injured party members of the now deceased Tomcat.
I had been deeply impacted by her ability to coldly end the life of another who had sought to do far worse to her. The fear with which I beheld this woman, whom I called master, was then softened as I watched and aided in her gentle ministrations to heal those four women she deemed to not be her enemy, despite their prior actions to the contrary.
This was just one of many incidents and adventures I embarked on in this virtual world.
Often, I found myself absorbed into the ambiance and subconsciously adopting actions I would have taken in reality. This was due in part to the absolute essence of realness which came from my interactions with every native resident.