Author's note: Another chapter for you guys, uploaded the same time as the New Journey of an Old Soul! I originally planned to do this longer, but decided to split the original chapter in two to give you guys your gender bender fix. From the last poll, I ascertained that you guys like both styles of my writing. I tried to change some of my writing after reading reviews on different fiction. I added more details, and am trying to lean towards the 'show, don't tell' direction. New poll up for you guys as well, shouldn't impact the story much, but I might be able to add a lot more comedic scenes if it goes through.

BTW, we reached 2500 average views! Woot! Keep it up guys, the views are telling me that I'm doing something right. Thanks for reading and enjoy.

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A wagon was riding along a dirt road, kicking up dust clouds along the trail it followed. It was currently heading towards the capital of the human continent, Barkovichi. Driving the wagon was an old man. His head was already nearly bald, with some grey hair standing up on both sides of his temple. His hazel eyes, which were already losing some their colour, were focused on the road ahead of him. His wrinkly hands held onto the reins as he sat slouching.

Coachman: [Well, miss. We’re almost at the capital. We’ll just stop at the village for the night and we should arrive tomorrow.]

???: [Thank you for taking me this far. It’s pretty selfless of you to take me towards my destination without even asking for payment.]

The voice belonged to a beauty of immeasurable proportions. Her light blue eyes were gazing upwards while she hummed a melody and twirled her golden blonde hair with her long, dainty fingers. Her breasts had already grown to a nice size, not too big, not too small - they were a size that would captivate everyone looking at them. Wearing a white dress, her height of 170 cm wasn’t particularly noticeable when sitting due to most of it coming from her long legs. A bystander looking at her would probably describe her thighs and butt as ‘delicious’, due to their well-sized proportions. Her long, pointed ears stood out underneath her hair that extended to her waist.

Coachman: [Ha ha ha! It doesn’t bother me at all! I am heading there anyways and it is nice to have a companion to talk to during travelling. It gets boring otherwise. I’m curious why an elf like you is going to the capital. While we don’t mind elves, I’ve heard that your kind hates us. I’ve always wondered why that is.]

Amaterasu knew what the old man was talking about. During her travel, she had encountered many elves that carried a disdain against humans because of their greed, treachery, and other moral values.

Amaterasu: [Hmm, the problem is that we have seen too much human filth in nobility, and that reflects on the general populace. You’re a nice person, though.]

The old man’s cheeks turned red and his hand began to scratch his head.

Coachman: [Ha ha ha! Don’t mention it! It’s nice to hear a compliment from a youngster like you, though.]

Amaterasu: […I’m probably more than twice as old as you.]

Coachman: [Ha ha ha! True that! I forgot that elves live a very long time!]

Amaterasu took this opportunity to lie down on her back. She used this opportunity to summarise the events leading up to now.

Another two years had passed since Amaterasu parted with Eos. While Eos had gone to meet the other three gods – Laillo, Barlowe, and Shanoa – Amaterasu spent another year training different magic spells. Throughout her constant training, she was able to raise her rank another level to rank A.

However, Eos warned Amaterasu that every god found it easy to rank up to rank A and that once Amaterasu achieved it, she would find it difficult to rank any further. Eos did tell Amaterasu that her growing speed was only second to Laillo’s, though.

After achieving rank A, Amaterasu decided that there wasn’t much point left in staying at the house. She packed up any necessary items for the journey, such as clothing, food, and weapons, using her magic, ‘Dimensional Storage.’

‘Dimensional Storage’ was a void where any individual can store various items depending on their mastery of the magic. Currently, the limit of what she could store inside the void was the amount of material one could fit in a 2 m x 2 m x 2 m box. This meant that she wasn’t able to store a house or anything similar in size, but her equipment was able to fit with space left to spare. The convenient thing about this magic is that the weight of the item was negated, which meant that it was possible to carry extremely heavy items.

What Amaterasu didn’t know was that ‘Dimensional Storage’ was a rare and sought after magic. Not many people were able to learn it because of two reasons. The first reason was that you needed to have mastery in the darkness element. The darkness element was extremely rare and usually reserved for specific races such as dark elves and demons. This meant that not many even had the opportunity to learn this useful magic in the first place. The second reason was that it was extremely difficult for people of this world to even visualise what a void looks like in the first place.

Fortunately, the gods knew how to use dimensional magic because both of the reasons didn’t pose a problem. As a god, they had to be able to, at least, use all the elements. The second problem didn’t pose a problem either because every single one of them resided in the void during their conversation with God Almighty, so they were easily able to visualise it.

After Amaterasu packed up her belongings, she sealed her house with a light barrier. Unfortunately, the barrier created by God had disappeared by that point, so as to prevent unwanted intruders, she decided to devise her own. Unfortunately, Amaterasu couldn’t create a barrier even as close as powerful as God’s, so she had to rely on trickery instead. The light barrier, while not strong, diverted the rays of light from every angle so that the house and the clearing became invisible to the observer. This would have been impossible for Amaterasu at her level, if not for the empowering effect of the ‘Divine Staff.’ It was a truly useful item.

Amaterasu’s current journey to the capital of the human kingdom was due to the quest entrusted to her by Eos. Since there was one god unaccounted for, Amaterasu’s job was to seek them out and introduce them to the group. For this reason, she had been travelling the past year to the human capital, Barkovichi.

The journey should not have taken that long originally, around eight months at most. However, it turned out that elven territory was extremely confusing to navigate through if one didn’t know that correct way. Amaterasu hypothesised that this was to trap any approaching army and annihilate them in their confusion.

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Fortunately, Amaterasu had brought enough food and water to survive the trek through the forests. It had also helped that she encountered many native elves, who treated her with kindness and helped her with food and direction. The elves were truly magnificent beings when it came to helping their own kind.

The six month journey through elven territory had finally brought her out to the human kingdom. Unfortunately for Amaterasu, the capital of the human kingdom was far from elven territory, so another six month journey was needed to reach it. Humans treated her with a various range of emotions: fascination, inquisitiveness, and even disgust.

Amaterasu had decided to remain as an elf for the time being. Since she was primarily a mage, Amaterasu reasoned that it would be easier to explain her capabilities in magic due to her nature as an elf. Besides, she didn’t want to attract unneeded attention from other humans, who would most likely hail a prodigy such as her.

Yet, Amaterasu could not help but feel that the problem was rooted in deeper than that. She felt some kind of fear when she considered changing back into her human appearance. It was as if though the elvish nature had rubbed off on her and she started to feel the same disdain towards humans that they feel.

Lying down in the straw, Amaterasu was thinking about her destination.

Amaterasu: ‘If Laillo’s theory is true, then the place with the highest chance of finding the last god is in the capital.’

Her thought was broken by the voice of the old man.

Coachman: [Now that I think about it, you haven’t told me your goal in the capital. If it isn’t a secret, can you tell me?]

Amaterasu: [Hmm? Oh, it’s not that big of a secret. I’ve heard that there's a slot open in the academy, so I decided to try it out.]

Coachman: [Ha ha ha! So I assume that you’ll be meeting the heroes?]

Amaterasu tilted her head at the old man’s question.

Amaterasu: [Heroes?]

Coachman: [Oh, I guess you elves didn’t know. The king decided to summon heroes from an alternate world using some magic circle. I have no idea where the king obtained it, but he actually managed to summon some heroes yesterday! At least, that was what he announced to us, but the king is a generous individual, so I doubt that he would lie. I’m personally looking forward to seeing them in action. Ha ha ha!]

Amaterasu: ‘So Eos and the rest did succeed in summoning the heroes. I can only assume that they went to a place rich in mana and opened a wormhole between the two worlds.’

Amaterasu: [Is that so? I look forward to meeting them then.]

Coachman: [Ha ha ha! I knew you would! Oh, the village has come into sight, so we’ll stop there for the night.]

Amaterasu remained silent, just nodding once to acknowledge his remark. She did not have money to stay at an inn, but Amaterasu was used to camping outside. Even without a tent, she could, without any problem, lie down on the grass and sleep quite peacefully. Amaterasu assumed that this was another effect of being an elf, that one was more in tune with nature.

As the wagon steadily approached the village, Amaterasu took a glance outside the cabin to observe it. Fairly small, the village had wooden walls encircling it from all directions. Stationed at the gate was a sentry, clad in armour, who sported a long, brown moustache.

Sentry: [Halt! Intruders bring any danger?]

The sentry’s thick accent surprised Amaterasu for a moment, as she had never heard one before in her travels. She wanted to ask the sentry about it, but hesitated as this was not the proper time to do so.

Coachman: [We’re not dangerous. It’s just me and the missy here.]

The sentry took a glance inside the wagon to look at the person who the old man was talking about.

Sentry: [She – elf. Can’t allow in village at time like now.]

Amaterasu’s face was flustered. She could not sense any hostility from his voice, so she was genuinely confused at his statement.

Amaterasu: [Did something happen?]

Sentry: [Bandits and raiders. You – unknown. Sorry, miss. Can’t allow you inside. Protocol calls.]

The old man could feel his face reddening at such a treatment towards his passenger.

Coachman: [But can’t you–]

Amaterasu had interrupted the old man before he lashed out at the sentry.

Amaterasu: [Leave it. I don’t want to cause more inconvenience for the guard. I’m used to sleeping outside anyways. We’ll see each other tomorrow morning.]

The old man visibly hung his head low and dropped his shoulders.

Coachman: [Fine. If the missy says so…]

The sentry bowed to Amaterasu as she jumped off the wagon.

Sentry: [Thank you for understand.]

Amaterasu was about to begin walking towards the nearby forest when she turned her head towards the guard.

Amaterasu: [By the way, I’m interested in your accent. I have never heard it before. How did you get it?]

Sentry: [Come from tribe. Tribal language different. Surprised you know human language also.]

Amaterasu’s face cramped in confusion as the guard said that. She had thought that she was speaking the same language all along, but the guard’s words implied that elfish and human languages were different. Amaterasu had decided that she will ask Eos about this topic later on.

For now, Amaterasu made way to the forest. Elves were creatures of nature after all, and the closer they were to nature, the more comfort they felt. Amaterasu also felt that comfort as well. Of course, she preferred a nice, warm bed at the end of the day, but sleeping in the bushes made for a nice alternative.

As the sun set on the horizon, Amaterasu was rethinking about her plan to find the missing god.

Amaterasu: ‘If they’re in human territory, then they’re most likely attending the academy to learn about this world. I had enough luck to encounter big sister, so I stayed undercover for a period of time, but I can’t say the same thing for this God. Still, finding this god will be challenging. If I was S rank, I could detect divine aura like big sister, but that is not an option for me. Maybe Laillo is sending me a challenge this way? I don’t like him one bit.’

Amaterasu gazed at the night sky as she reminisced her days with Eos. Though she was harsh, Amaterasu had enjoyed spending time with her.

Amaterasu: [Alright! If I will find him – or her – then I will be the best big sister possible to fill in the gap that big sister filled in for me.]

It was then that Amaterasu noticed flickering lights approaching the village at a high speed.