Waking up on a bright Sunday morning, the events from the day before hit him in full. With a mournful sigh, Drew fell into a depression. He would lose the bet. Stuck at level one, even if he remade his character, he would be the weakest by far of the group.
Today was also the last day of the beta test. After today, the game would be down a week for tweaks before it was released to the public.
Distractedly, he stared into the bathroom mirror. With short brown hair and soft brown eyes, he had a clean face that could neither be called handsome or ugly. For the first time in a week since the beta started, there were no bags under his eyes from lack of sleep. One benefit of yesterday’s disaster, he dispiritedly thought. After cleaning up and grabbing a quick bite of breakfast, Drew laid down on his bed and put on the dive gear.
He was glad they decided to go with a small eye visor type dive gear rather than a full dive pod. A full pod would have been much more expensive.
“Link Start.”
The world faded to darkness and with a flash of light, Raine reappeared in front of a familiar fountain.
System Announcement:
To mark the end of the beta test today, a special event will be held. All logged in players will be forcibly teleported to participate in the event. A special reward will be held for those that complete the event that will carry over to when the game is released.
New Quest: Special Event
Not much is known about what this quest entails. Depending on how well you do in this event, you could even obtain a unique class. Time until Event Starts
39:25 IGT(In Game Time)
Watching the timer tick down, Drew calculated that the event that ends the beta test will start at 10pm his time. He still doubted how a time dilation of 1:3 real time to game time was possible, but the proof of it was in front of his eyes.
“Now then, since I have some time before the event starts, time for the most important thing...”
“Delete Character.”
System Message:
Character can not be deleted when suffering from a god level curse. Either remove the curse or buy a new account.
“Wha-?”
When the beauty first logged in near the fountain, several players furtively stole glances at her. Hearing her exclamation of surprise, they all quickly gained an interest in something else. Finding out that her surprise was not related to their discrete behavior, they went back to their cautious observing.
“... Now what? I doubt I could join any party… ‘Nice to meet you, I am Raine. Level 1. Did I forget to mention I have no chance of leveling up? Teehee~’ Will I become one of those players that relies on guys to gift her with gold and carry her?.”
Raine shuddered at the thought. Before she could fall into a spiral of negativity, a loud growl rang out in the plaza.
"What a monster made it into the safe zone!?"
Worried, Raine scanned the nearby surroundings. Seeing nothing but people looking at her strangely, she relaxed.
Maybe I just imagined it?
“Gyuuuu~”
A very loud cute sounding growl rang out once again.
“Woah, you can hear it even from here,” said a low level warrior.
“Newbie-chan let her satiety drop too low,” said a strong looking thief.
“Seriously, it is the last day of the beta. You think she would have learned by now,” said the warrior.
Ears turning red in embarrassment, Raine quickly ran away from the scene. Once she put sufficient distance between herself and the fountain, she stopped to catch her breath.
"My stamina is pitiful. I will level the endurance stat again."
In Evolution Arts(EA), a player started out with 6 basic stats. These 6 stats can be leveled through player action or the level up bonus stat points.
“Gyuuu~”
No no no. I need to find some food and fast. Ah! There is an inn.
Walking into the inn, Raine ordered some stew from the innkeeper and sat down at a table. As the food arrived, Raine mechanically ate it, her thoughts elsewhere.
"Basically, the only thing I managed to keep was my inventory. I would have wagered I would lose my inventory before even my gender. Sadly, most of these items have level restrictions. The newbie gear automatically equipped itself when Chronos cursed me," thought Raine.
"Well, might as well verify that I am indeed cursed. Off to hunt horned rabbits."
Plan decided and stew finished, Raine got up from the table, payed for the meal, and left. Five minutes later, She was out of the town’s gate and in the open fields.
Scattered across the fields, a few players fought horned rabbits. When the beta test first started, these fields were filled with players, but now only a few remain. Most moved on to bigger and stronger monsters.
Beginner sword in hand, Raine slowly approached her target. In front of her was a horned rabbit. The furry critter was level 1 and commonly targeted by beginners to gain experience.
"Sorry little one, today you will become another victim in the name of science."
Sword raised high against an unsuspecting foe, it ruthlessly slashed down.
“Eh?”
A voice of shock leaked out. As Raine’s blade slashed down, the rabbit jumped out of the way.
“Why?”
In the gap born from confusion, the horned rabbit attacked. A dull thud. Filled with pain, Raine desperately lashed out.
The horned rabbit let out a small yelp as Raine’s sword grazed it. Raine warily eyed her opponent. The horned rabbit's attack had taken out 20% of her health. In turn, she had only taken out 10%. As the rabbit charged, Raine jumped out of the way. Yet she still took a glancing hit.
A frown formed on Raine’s face. Her typical strategy used to deal with the small critters failed. Changing her stance, Raine abandoned defense. As the rabbit leaped at her, she slashed out, bisecting the rabbit in two.
You have killed a horned rabbit. You gain +10 EXP.
Altered Time activated! You lost all experience.
You have died! Respawning at the nearest safe location.
With a familiar flash of light, Raine found herself once again at the fountain.
“I died? Come to think of it, a box did pop up saying the curse activated.”
Confused, Raine stormed off for the town gates to fight a few more horned rabbits.
--------------
With a weary sigh, Raine collapsed onto a bed in the inn. The last few hours were exhausting, both mentally and physically. The sun had set and half the village was asleep.
“I am really cursed, huh? No matter how many rabbits I kill, I don’t level up.”
Mournfully, she gazed at her experience bar. Six dead rabbits and still it was empty.
“Not only that, but I have that stupid art as well. It takes up one of my precious art slots and I can’t even remove it.”
Courtesy of a certain angry time god, Raine gained the art 「Altered Time」. That is to say the curse is activated through this art. The art itself reads:
Passive Art: Altered Time Lv.5(Permanent)
Reverts the art owner to their original state. Exists as part of the curse by the Time God Chronos. Impossible to remove from equipped art list unless the curse is removed. Implanted in the owner’s soul, it uses the owner’s mana to activate. As it is a god level art, it consumes an unimaginable amount of mana upon activation
“So basically, my mana is too low so when the art activates, the mana drain kills me. On the bright side, I already gained a stat point in wisdom, increasing my mana by 10. And the art itself is already level 5.”
Hollow laughter rang through the room in the inn. Desolately, Raine buried her head in the pillow. The art itself was a curse that couldn’t be removed and players started with only 5 slots for arts, leaving 4 slots for arts.
“Even the production path is blocked from me. Hahaha, who knew crafting a potion also gave experience?”
Just recalling that particular death almost brought tears to her eyes. How would everyone in the Alchemy Guild take her sudden disappearance?
“Well, playing the flute didn’t generate any experience but then again, the songs I played didn’t give any stat bonuses either.”
She had bought a beginner silver flute, but being a novice made it difficult to generate arts in profession specific fields like that of a bard.
“But worse of all… this body. I was not sure at first. I thought maybe it was just the low stats that were throwing me off.”
Raine struggled in her first fight with the horned rabbit. Her initial strike missed and she failed to dodge an attack. Similar problems occurred in the subsequent battles. But that was strange. The horned rabbit was the weakest mob in the game, perfect for beginners to practice combat on. Even when she first started the beta with her new character, she did not struggle so.
“There are no abnormalities in my stats, so that leaves one thing. This body.”
Raine tried to ignore one simple fact. Loki’s potion freed her from the full effects of the curse. As a result, her arts and stats had leveled up after the curse activated a few times. She thought if she ignored one particular issue, she would be okay for the rest of the beta test. But this issue caused a problem.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“My body is now female instead of male. Of course there would be differences between how the two bodies move.”
Glancing down at herself, her throat suddenly felt dry. There were several obvious differences between the two bodies. She was shorter and her reach wasn’t as long as well. And most of all...
“No no no, what am I thinking?”
Players were not allowed to create a character of the opposite gender and the beta test will soon end. Such a chance would never come again.
“I have been ignoring it the best I could... Maybe I should explore the differences... Come to think of it… I never actually verified that my new body is indeed female.”
With a loud gulp, Raine guiltily looked around the room. Nothing but the sight of an empty room greeted her. Her hand trembled on the game menu as she unequipped her newbie gear. With a flash of light, a stunning sight appeared.
A silver haired maiden adorned only in her snow white underwear sat on top of the bed. Her long silver hair, grey eyes, and creamy white skin gave her a sense of innocence. With breasts that were neither too big nor too small and a fragile figure, she looked like she would break if you held her too tightly.
Trembling like a newborn fawn, she rested one hand atop her chest as if to calm her rapidly beating heart. The other hand slowly snaked downwards. Hesitantly, it traced the curves of her stomach as it went lower and lower. Passing her cute belly button on its way, it reached the holy land. And stopped.
Turmoil flashed across the maiden face as she argued with herself. Reason told her to stop, but the devilish snake said otherwise. The snake whispered sweet temptations. It told her to sink her fangs into the ripe fruit presented before her. Conflicted, the hand gained a will of its own and resumed its trek. With increasingly ragged breathing, the sinful hand reached the snow white holy land. And then---
“You look like you are enjoying your new body.”
“Kyaaa!”
A familiar voice spoke out in the empty room. With a girly scream, Raine threw the pillow at the source of the voice and frantically covered herself in embarrassment.
“Umph! That was rude! Is that any way to treat a god?” the intruder complained.
“You!”
That voice was a familiar one, she had heard it just the other day. Embarrassment forgotten, Raine angrily charged at her foe and pinned him against the wall. Staring at him with hate filled eyes, she vehemently protested.
“Because of you I turned into a girl! And the curse was not even removed you liar!”
“Now now, calm down. I don’t know how to handle being stared so passionately by a maiden in such a position.”
“Wha-!?”
Meaningfully, Loki lowered his line of sight down. Confused, Raine followed his line of sight. Clad only in her snow white underwear, she held Loki against the wall, her face only inches from his.
“Kyaaa!”
*Slap*
----------
Nursing the handprint on his cheek, Loki looked at the trembling maiden. On the furthest corner of the bed, she covered herself with the blanket, leaving only her face with its teary eyes peaking out.
Fearfully, the maiden stared silently at the god. Unable to take the pressure, Loki spoke up.
“No, no. I understand. After such a disastrous days, anyone would want to take whatever comfort they could get. In hindsight, maybe I should have waited until you were finished...”
Loki trailed off as the stare got stronger and tears threatened to spill from the maiden’s face.
“Eh!? Look, I am sorry! Truly sorry! Please forgive me!”
Desperately the god asked the mortal.
“...”
The bundle of blankets and tears did not respond.
“I won’t do such a thing to you ever again! I promise!”
The god of trickery and deception hastily made a promise.
“...Promise?” A reply filled with hope came back for the first time since the slap.
“Yes, yes. I promise I won’t walk in on you when you are in the middle of---”
Loki suddenly halted his words. Tears streamed down the maiden’s eyes.
“Ahh! Please don’t cry! I can’t handle it when a maiden cries.” Frantically, the god confessed to the girl.
“...” With tear filled eyes, the maiden looked upon the desperate god.
“Umm... lets see… did you know that Freyja use to cry a lot when she was younger? Such a gap from her current image of a mature beauty, right? Hilarious right? Thor went through a huge effort to put an enchantment on his hammer so that it returns to him. This was actually because he was such a muscle head, he would forget where he placed his hammer and spend a thousand years searching for it… What else?... Did you know that I once mistook a man for a women and spent a decade trying to woo him? Isn’t that funny? Ah, what am I even saying...”
Loki trailed off in confusion. The sound of a small chuckle raised his head.
“Ah…”
The once crying maiden now had a faint smile.
“... Such a weird god. Getting so desperate because someone is crying.”
Loki didn’t quite know what to say to that. He could only weakly laugh.
“No defense? You really are too weird.”
With another small chuckle, the maiden dried her tears and sat up straight on the bed.
“So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”
She inquired to the god in a bell-like voice.
“Ah, er, thats right. My original purpose. Raine, the great God Loki has come to---” Again, a small chuckle, interrupting his prepared speech.
“It’s too late to try to sound like a proper god after all that, you weird god.”
“... As an apology for the potion turning you into a girl and all your recent troubles, I came to give you a small bit of help.”
“Help? You?”
Her eyes contained a hint of laughter. A god of trickery helping somebody out?
“Of course, the help would be hidden behind riddles and half truths. It wouldn’t be my fault if you drew a false conclusion from my help.”
“Alright, lay it on me.”
“No, well you see. I was going to have some fancy riddle that basically said you needed to return to the origin. But as compensation for the trouble I have caused you, I will go ahead and tell you. Although you will be unable to meet Chronos, if you complete the same dungeon that you did in the Clock Tower, your troubles with the curse will surely lessen.”
“I see, so there is something in that dungeon that can help me?” Inquired the maiden.
“Basically” affirmed the god.
“Alright, thanks for the help.”
Loki froze in surprise. The maiden’s warm smile took away his breath. He quickly gathered himself to reply. Suddenly, the smile changed to a very familiar smile. One he often sported himself. A mischievous smile.
“I am glad to see you fell for my act.” said the maiden in a devilish tone.
“Ac...t?”
A look of shock flashed across Loki’s face. Her tears. Her smile. Her embarrassment. All an act? The god of deception was deceived? Her rage when she first saw him, her embarrassment when she realized her position, her teary silence and subsequent smile. They were all an act? And now that she had the information she wanted, she ended the act? The tense silence was broken abruptly.
“Hahahaha! The look on your face! You looked like your world had suddenly been turned upside down!” said Raine.
Hearing her laugh, Loki realized the truth.
“Huh, I will admit defeat this time. Be prepared, next time I will pay you back for this!”
Sporting a mischievous grin of his own, Loki challenged the victor. At this proclamation, the face of both of them fell.
“... That’s right. There probably will not even be a next time,” muttered Raine.
They could only look at the other sadly. After all, in less than two days in game time, the beta test would end and there would be a character wipe. After that, whatever connection Raine had with Loki would be lost in the flood of new users and characters.
Raising her head, Raine looked Loki in the eye.
“Very well, I will look forward to next time, whenever that may be.”
Seeing her challenging grin, Loki couldn’t help but smile.
“Then until next time.”
“Until next time.”
With a flash of light, Loki left the room, leaving Raine alone with a faint smile.
“What a weird god...”
As if remembering something, her faint smile froze. Slowly, her ears turned red and her face was on fire.
“Not only did I scream like a girl, I exposed myself and cried like a child! What happened to my manly pride? It has not even been 24 hours and I am already behaving as a women.”
Just remembering the events caused Raine writhe in shame. Not only did she behave like a girl would, she also childishly cried. Loki did nothing wrong but was rewarded with a slap.
“No, what kind of man trespasses unannounced upon a maiden’s room. It is all that weird god’s fault! No, Wait. That is not right, I am a guy. Not an innocent maiden. I am a guy.”
Raine desperately corrected herself. She found herself immersed in quicksand as she struggled to free herself from her image as a girl in a slowly losing battle.
“Forget it, I am going to sleep.”
----------
Anguished moans leaked outside the door. Guests that stayed at the inn would quickly cross the door and murmur “ghost” under their breath in fear. Not only that, a few unearthly screeches were heard by all the residents earlier in the day. Maybe a banshee had moved in as well. The inn would later become famous to its visitors for supposedly being haunted.