Chapter 20
(Ssslippery when wet)
“You have died.”
Initializing. . .
“Jarow, don’t feel sorry for me.”
New body found
“Because of you I got to be free. I got to run and play in the sun and grass. That is more than I had ever done before.”
Beginning transfer
“You rescued me. My spirit can move on now. You have my eternal gratitude. Thanks for being my friend, Jarow.”
Transfer complete
Jarow felt the cold, unyielding stone beneath him, a stark reminder of his continual reincarnation. Tears streaked down his cheeks, tracing a path of grief he couldn't escape. He could hear the drops as they landed on the floor, drip, drip, drip.
The void that Noruff left behind burned in his chest, an ache that refused to dull.
Refusing to open his eyes, Jarow’s last memories replayed before him like a haunting melody.
He wasn’t ready to move yet. He wasn’t ready to find out who he was this time. He wasn’t ready to push on without his friend. Noruff was gone, and Jarow, as always, had returned, alive once again.
This time the memories he’d gained since awakening in the Fading Divide returned to him quickly rather than being delayed. His ability to remember allowed him to not wake up violently screaming and wondering what had happened to him; for which he was grateful, but instead, this time he woke up crying and filled with sorrow.
He wasn’t sure if he truly preferred this option or not if it required the death of someone he cared for. A huge hole had been left in his heart, a hole where his only physical friend used to occupy.
He could still feel the phantom pain of the creature’s blades sticking out from his body. He could still see Noruff’s face looking down at him, a hard earned smile turning up the corners of his mouth slightly. He had been able to overcome his anxiety and save Jarow; the smile he wore showed just how difficult that had been.
With his eyes closed, Jarow could still envision the last moments of his friend's life. He cherished those moments, but at the same time hated them as they continued to flash repeatedly through his memory, but distort with each pass.
Because with the repetition of Noruff’s last moments also came the image of the alien creature who had taken Noruff’s life. As his memories contorted, the monster went from the burnt insectoid face to one that wore a sadistic grin as its blade arm slid through the Quigza’s neck. The haunting image mocked Jarow, eventually changing to a scene of the monster laughing as it beheaded his friend.
Jarow couldn’t stop the memory from replaying, couldn’t help but watch and somehow feel his friend's head fall from his body, to strike his chest where Noruff’s dark eyes stared at Jarow, judging him.
No, he wasn’t ready yet. He wasn’t ready to move on, not ready to live. He needed to hurt; he needed to feel the loss and the sorrow. He had fucked up; he hadn’t been strong enough to save his friend. He wasn’t strong enough to save himself, but that part didn’t matter, did it? He would always come back.
Because that’s what he did now. He lived. He didn’t die, even though he had died at least four times now. He always came back. Noruff didn’t have that ability, though. He was gone. He was dead. He had saved Jarow’s life only to lose his own, died for a person who couldn’t really die.
“He should have run! He should have hidden! He knew I would come back! He knew I would come back for him!” Jarow mentally screamed as his mind shifted from grief to anger. “I should have saved him! I should have had the power to…”
Congratulations, you have reached level 6! You have 5 attribute points to distribute. You have 1 new skill to choose. You have 1 new ability to choose.
The window appeared with its normal bright holographic blue, recalling simpler times, times when Jarow had nothing to worry about other than adjusting and changing the theme of his UI. The window only served to piss him off more, being yet another reminder of the fact that he had just lost his friend, and that he was powerless to do anything about it.
He quickly dismissed it with an angry mental swipe, but another window appeared to take its place.
Death is never easy to contend with. I am truly sorry for your loss, but death is a constant part of being an adventurer. The best thing you can do is to move forward with your own life and live for the ones you lose. Whether that means avenging their death, mourning and progressing on in their stead, or finding a new path forward; the choice is up to you. But not even you can escape death completely. You should know better than anyone by now how easy it is to die. Be grateful you have the ability to continue on where others do not, and use this gift to always move forward.
Jarow read the text and quickly thought: COPY. He didn't dismiss the window but mentally opened up a new window, one where he could paste the text and eventually show it to Xinpo.
Then Jarow realized he didn’t know where Xinpo was at the moment. A new wave of emotions rolled over him. Thoughts of not being able to find Xinpo, of losing his companion. Then the memory of Xinpo appearing before him briefly interrupted the monster removing Noruff’s head. Jarow remembered Xinpo clanking to the floor before him, and some of his anxiety lessened.
Jarow knew there was a chance that Xinpo would be simply transported to this location, wherever he was, as had happened before. The brief memory sent a shiver through Jarow’s spine; the cold floor below him, as well as the smells, the silence, and the taste of the air, all reminded Jarow of a very specific place, a place he thought he had escaped already.
He quickly shoved those fears aside for now. He knew he had to save the text to show to Xinpo. He quickly pasted the text into the new window and moved the window to a place in his peripheral where it could stay but not be in the way when he decided to open his eyes.
Then Jarow returned to the window which had the personal message written in it, but to his befuddlement, he found the text had been replaced with:
Do you wish to be teleported to your previous location?
Jarow stared at the new text. “One sentence? Teleported?” he thought. He moved back to the window where he has pasted the longer, more personal message. The window came back into focus and what Jarow saw there caused his heart to drop even further.
Do you wish to be teleported to your previous location?
The text he had copied and pasted had changed to the one-sentence-long newer version, replacing the personal message about death and moving on which had been there previously. Jarow stared at the words, not believing what his eyes showed him. The importance of what the paragraphs had held, the message from the god, programmer, or whomever it may have been that was watching him, now gone, just a memory.
Jarow felt as one last tear escaped his eye and trickled down over his cheek. This tear was shed not just for Noruff but for the loss of everything in his life. He lost his memories, he lost his life numerous times; now, he lost the words of condolence he had tried to save.
He began to worry that Xinpo would be his next loss. The key-dagger-sword-being had been with him the longest now, seen him through the hallway, through defeating Boklojif, through meeting the Oonja, and now he was not here, possibly gone as well.
But the text in the message began to sink in then. He could be teleported back; he could return to Xinpo this time, rather than Xinpo returning to him. Relief washed over Jarow, knowing he, at the very least, had a way back to his companion. Although that also meant he would have to deal with the carnage he had been a part of there and he would have to see Noruff’s body.
Jarow was not ready to face that scene just yet and slid the window to the side. He kept it within view but not where it would obscure his vision, although he had yet to even open his eyes. It was all too much for him to process yet. He knew he would soon have to deal with the new body he was in, learn its traits, and decide what to do next, but first, he needed some time, time to think and process.
A thought occurred to Jarow then; “these really are personalized messages and I’m not going to be able to show Xinpo any proof of it.”
The thought frustrated him more than anything, but it also gave him a little comfort; if he were being honest with himself. How many other people could say they had someone or maybe some ‘thing’; powerful enough to bend the rules of the cosmos, sending them messages? A deity that was cracking jokes with them, and even trying to console them?
“What makes me so special?” he wondered. What had he done for someone so powerful to pay this kind of attention to him? “Could it be that I was just a random choice? I just happened to die at the right time?”
He pondered his existence for a while, his lives and the challenges he’d faced. It was a welcome distraction from the feelings of loss and despair which threatened to send him into a fit of tears again at any moment.
----------------------------------------
After what may very well have been hours; time Jarow had spent crying, remembering, learning, and finally accepting his circumstances; he felt ready to take the words of advice that had disappeared and begin his moving on.
He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to get revenge or if he would just bury Noruff and try to move on from there, but he knew he needed to do something useful. Lying here pitying himself wasn’t helping anyone, so he finally opened his eyes and stared up at a very familiar stone ceiling—one that he had guessed he would see once he opened his eyes. The too-flat, digital-looking ceiling of the Fading Divide.
He slowly sat up to take a look at his new body and felt an unusual sensation coming from his lower half. He had blocked out any physical sensations he might have felt coming from this body so far because accepting that he was truly in a new body signaled his acceptance of the truth of the visions of Noruff dying, which still replayed in his mind’s eye.
He looked down to find out what was going on with this body, and his jaw hit the floor.
Jarow’s eyes traveled over the smooth and supple dark brown skin of his torso, noticing small, perky breasts poking out from his chest. His waist was high and narrowed shortly after his rib cage ended. The skin from that point on was different though; for starters, it went from dark brown to a deep black. It also changed from smooth skin to what looked like semi-rigid scales.
Rather than legs, Jarow’s lower body curled around and grew more slender until it finally ended at a small tip. The deep black scales were accentuated by geometric patterns of yellow and red which created striking and intricate designs throughout his scaled lower body.
Jarow stared open-mouthed at his, or rather her, lower half. His brain didn’t register or care that he was apparently female again. It even temporarily forgot about Xinpo and even Noruff for the time being; the unfamiliar and fantastical body she occupied was more than Jarow’s mind could deal with.
All her brain was capable of doing in the moment was registering that her new body was no longer a person, at least not a bipedal person, which is the only kind of person she thought of or even considered being before.
Slowly, as she rethought her initial assertion and moved her hand over her scales, feeling the new and unique sensations coming from that still alien part of her body, she came to understand that she was indeed still a person, just no longer fully humanoid, and that was okay.
With effort, Jarow finally started coming to terms with this new and extremely unique body. Moving it, feeling it with her fingers as well as feeling her fingers touch her scales. The sensation was not as sensitive as it would have been if she were touching legs with skin, yet it almost felt as though there was more sensitivity than she had experienced before.
Her eyes slowly moved back up her body, “Breasts, yes, female again. Small, but perky. Nice,” she thought as she moved her hand up to feel her chest.
She tried to bring herself up, she told her body to ‘stand,’ but that was not a command her body knew how to interpret anymore, not in this form. Instead, she found the movements that accompanied the command were strange and difficult.
She tried to uncoil her tail, and in doing so, jerked it around, causing the muscles to cramp. She moved once again, attempting to will her tail to operate in a manner she wanted, but all she managed to do was to tip herself over.
“Totally different muscles. Totally different feels. It’s like touching the ground on a huge giant bendy foot,” Jarow thought to herself.
She decided to take a new approach; she would allow this body to do what it wanted to do, rather than trying to make it do what she wanted it to do. She hoped that muscle memory would take over and allow her to function.
After a few minutes of flexing and moving, allowing her tail to slither back and forth according to what felt correct to her, she was able to bring herself upright while holding tight to the wall. It took a lot of balance and muscle control to even stay upright, though.
Unlike the other bodies she had occupied where the muscles and joints were relatively similar, this body required some extra work to get used to.
“What the hell is this kind of species even called?” Jarow asked herself and opened up her character sheet.
Name: Jarow
Level 6
Age: 29 (current)
Race: Naga (current)
Gender: Female (current)
Attributes: (current)
Strength [ -7- ] (+1 KOS)
Dexterity [ -8- ] (-1 racial bonus) (+1 KOS)
Constitution [ -5- ]
Intelligence [ -8- ] (+1 racial bonus)
Wisdom [ -9- ] (+1 racial bonus)
Charisma [ -5- ]
{5 distributable points}
{Hidden attribute unlocked}
Luck 7 (+1 KOS)
Skills:
Sneak Intermediate
Pick Beginner
Hammer Beginner
Dagger Beginner
Sword Advanced
Quarterstaff Advanced
Ambidexterity
Abilities:
Berserk Buff +[- 2 -] Increase to Strength +[- 2 -] Increase to Constitution - +20 HP per level added to max HP **
Minor Heal 6 HP 2+5 (Charisma bonus)
Power Blow Increase to hit chance 20% - Increase to damage 20% - Increase to critical hit chance 20%
Extra Perception
Dark Vision (Racial Skill)
_______
{Added Special Abilities}
Willow in the Wind (Combat System)
Bighorn Sentinel (Combat System)
_______
Conjuration Specialization:
Available spells: Weapon Whirlpool - Oil Slick - Spontaneous Combustion - Acidic Regurgitation - Shadow Clone - Earthenware - Kiddie Pool - Gust - Boost
“A Naga?” Jarow saw and mentally thought of the term. A flood of information rushed into her brain with the name of the species. A new window opened up as well.
Nagas are generally aligned negatively, but not always. They have a long history of cultism and dragon worship. They are generally found in jungles, swamps, or underground. Nagas have additional senses which assist in their ability to adapt to their environment.
Nagas are particularly adept with the manipulation of magical energies and favor water and poison spells. Additional information is available.
Do you wish to read the additional information?
Jarow swayed from side to side from the information overload she’d just experienced. Luckily, it seemed as though proper muscle manipulation was also part of the download, and rather than falling over again, her body with its new found coordination, automatically took over.
The muscles in her lower half all began to synchronize, moving both of their own accord but also remaining easy for her to manipulate. Her tail began to slide along the floor in constant motion, the side to side swaying giving her balance even while not moving her forward.
Finally, she managed to straighten up completely, and she looked down. The floor was much farther away than she thought it should be. Her head towered over the top of the door. “I've never been this tall before; even my Orc body was able to walk under the door frame relatively easily enough,” she thought to herself.
She dismissed the window. She actually was interested in learning more about this species but thought it would be more beneficial to learn more about herself in this new body first.
Now that she could move more easily, she turned her torso around to look down at her tail. It continually swayed back and forth behind her. Jarow wasn’t moving forward, or in any other particular direction, but the swaying allowed her tail to maintain the balance required for her to stay standing upright.
Shifting her gaze from her tail, she looked upward along the wall. She noticed she had woken up, or maybe risen from the grave was a better turn of phrase, in the cell she had noticed once previously; the cell with the window set too high up for her to reach.
Jarow paused for a moment upon seeing the window; she then shook her head and chuckled. She had wondered what had become of this room. Those thoughts seemed as though they were from months ago, yet as she recalled the room, she realized it had only been days since she had last been here. Now it appeared she had found this room once more by mere happenstance.
She knew, even before she decided she needed to look, that there would be nothing to see, but she couldn’t help herself. Her curiosity had to be sated. She slithered over to the wall and extended her body, lifting her torso high up into the air on her tail like an uncoiling spring.
She was able to get herself up the wall and to within a few feet of the window by just using the strength of her tail, uncoiling and pushing her torso upward. With a final bouncy push, she grabbed onto the window’s sill and pulled herself up the last couple of feet with her arms. She pulled her head up over the sill and looked out, finally able to see what was outside of the Fading Divide.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
But there was nothing, as she had speculated; nothing she could see but dark gray fog obscuring anything beyond a few feet away.
She chuckled to herself as she lowered her body back down onto her tail, thinking that she would tell Noruff about what she had just found. But then she remembered Noruff wasn’t going to hear anything ever again, his gruesome decapitation once again replaying in her mind.
Her entire body seemed to weaken, and she slumped into a pile. She sat frozen, her shoulder pressed into the wall, her tail barely holding her upright as she let the scene play one last time in her mind. She then paused for a last moment of grief before banishing the memory from her thoughts. She had to be strong now; she had to leave this place and find a path forward. She changed her sadness to anger, letting hatred take the place of her sadness.
“I’m sssorry, Noruff,” she said through gritted teeth, then angrily shouted to the room, “Ssseriously? I talk with a lisssp now? Am I just a clissshay?”
Anger at Noruff’s death, and now her being unable to talk without extending her esses put her in an even more foul mood. She violently shook her head and slapped her face, but then she used her fingers to feel around her face, her anger momentarily displaced by curiosity.
Without a mirror or anything reflective here, touch was about as good of a look at herself as she got. As her fingers traced over her face, feeling the delicate skin there, she could feel that her face felt normal, pretty, and symmetrical.
She felt around her large round eyes with their long lashes, her cute little nose and high cheekbones, and her dainty lips. Her hands moved next, up to her forehead where she found multiple small and tightly braided locks which laid close to her skull. They trailed down the back of her head and extended past falling down her back.
She pulled one of the small braids around her shoulder to where she could look at it. It was flawless; every strand of hair held together and woven with incredible intricacy. The braided hair was thick, yet not a strand frayed or fell loose.
Finally, she opened her mouth to feel what was causing her altered speech. As she opened her mouth, she felt two large fangs jutting from her upper gums. She sighed, and everything fell into place; she understood where the lisp came from, but was surprised she hadn’t felt them earlier through her lips. As she closed her mouth, she felt the small needle-like fangs retreat into her upper jaw, and everything fell into place.
She experimented with the fangs for a moment. She learned that she could extend them or keep them retracted as she saw fit. When she moved them, she could also feel a new muscle located above the roof of her mouth. It was apparently the place where her venom sack was located as well. As she touched the area above her palate, her small sensory tongue flicked forward and tasted her own hand.
“Holy shit. That is just creepy!” she mentally screamed. Then the senses from the tongue made their way to her brain, and she began digesting all the additional information the strange organ provided. Yes, it tasted her skin, but in that brief moment, it also tasted the air in the room. It was stale, but it brought with it a plethora of additional information.
Even here in this desolate, strange, and empty place, she could taste the walls, the doors, the fog, and even remnants of other people; people she couldn’t identify but had the suspicion were her previous bodies.
“That is going to take some getting used to,” she told herself.
She ran her hands along the rest of her body, making some interesting and somewhat disgusting discoveries. Ultimately, she was satisfied that she would be able to control this new body and live in it as long as she was granted. It probably wouldn’t have been her first choice, but overall, it had some interesting advantages.
With her body and image now locked in as best it could be, Jarow decided it was time to leave this place. The hallway of the Fading Divide had never been a place she would have called comfortable, especially now that she had tasted her freedom and wanted more.
Besides, she had work to do. Her anger once again began to burn inside her chest, and she felt herself harden further. Her last memories in her dwarven body tried to sneak back into her mind, but she firmly pressed them into a small box and locked it tight. She needed to keep those feelings in the background now; her anger would be much more sustaining for what she knew she had to do next.
The temporary, personalized message from earlier said she should either just move on and live for Noruff or take revenge for his death. She decided that she would choose the latter. Not only was she in a body that felt strong and capable of wreaking some havoc on those mantis-bug-looking things, but because she believed Noruff would have wanted her to push on and hopefully avenge his death.
Jarow moved the prompt from earlier back to the forefront and chose "yes" to being teleported back to Xinpo. She could see the gray, semi-real hallway of The Fading Divide just beyond the doorway. As she selected "yes," a pinpoint of yellow light materialized at the center of the opening.
The dot of yellow light quickly expanded outward, creating a box of yellow lines until the entire frame of the door was outlined in pulsing yellow light. It was as if a string of glowing yellow fire encircled the frame of the door. Then her ability to see through the doorway rapidly faded.
Within the fiery outline, charcoal gray and pinkish-white clouds materialized, churning within the rectangular area. They billowed out from the center point, creating a maelstrom of bubbling and writhing mist until the entire doorway resembled a slowly undulating vortex of foggy pillows. This portal was extremely different from the one Xinpo made, but she instinctively knew that it was indeed a portal, and the feeling of safety it radiated seemed very familiar to the sense she had felt when looking at Xinpo’s portal.
Jarow decided that there was no further point in delaying here, her anger was at a peak and she meant to use it. This was only the second time she had entered into a portal like this, so she still felt a bit of trepidation as she did so, but she steeled her nerves, took a deep breath, and slithered into the fluffy funnel.
----------------------------------------
The ride through the portal was different than before; it felt much faster. She didn’t lose her sense of time at all as she passed through. Her body seemed to stretch from the doorway in the cell where she was to the other end of the portal located at the ancient town’s square where she had died, instantaneously. She exited the portal and saw the fountain at the center of the square.
She had indeed reappeared only feet away from where her dwarven body lay. Along with it were the bodies of the creatures who had ended its life. Also there, lying on the now bloodless ground, was Noruff's. The Quigza’s severed head pointed face down, just a few feet away from the torso. The end of the neck still dripped, but the blood was quickly whisked away.
The drops of bodily fluids still falling from the bodies would touch the ground and quickly move towards Xinpo. The silver sword absorbed everything it could. The multicolored wooden handle was still gripped in her dwarven body’s small, gnarled hand.
As the tip of her tail touched the grass, she heard a sound like the rushing of air through a hose; whoosh, and the portal disappeared. Before she could move forward, windows began to appear in her vision.
Do you wish to loot Quigza?
Do you wish to loot Thu’kri x 2
Do you wish to loot your Dwarven body?
Jarow didn’t really want to deal with removing the things from Noruff’s body and doubted the Thu’kri had much to loot anyways, so chose “yes” to those options without hesitation. She also knew that she would receive her dwarven body’s soul coin once she looted that body, so she chose yes to that option as well. The three windows disappeared as she made the decision and directed her answer to the windows.
"I think I need to get Identify next," she made a mental note to herself. It was nice to find out what the insectoid monsters were called, the message had generously provided the information.
Without preamble, jewelry once held by Noruff as well, as the pieces once covering her once worn dwarven body materialized in midair in front of her then fell and clanged against the uneven stones. Before she could figure out what had just happened a new, red window appeared before her.
Inventory full
The error message popped into view, flashed, then continued to repeat for each item that hit the ground in front of her. The objects created a rather large pile, and the flashing red window caused Jarow to wobble from the flashing in her mind.
“Would you mind retrieving me, suzerain?” A familiar voice entered her head before her wobbliness ended.
Slowly, she was able to focus again and mentally replied, “Oh yeah, we don’t have to be touching to communicate anymore, do we?”
“No, suzerain. It is good to see you have returned. Your new form is (pause) quite unique though,” Xinpo said with a dramatic pause mid-sentence.
Jarow mentally chuckled. “You don’t know the half of it.”
Jarow slithered around the fallen jewelry and pried Xinpo from her former hand. The grip was still tight, and she was forced to break the fingers to get them to move.
“I don’t know if in my previous life I was squeamish, but after living this one for a while, any remnant of that is rapidly disappearing,” she said to Xinpo as she worked. “How long was I gone?”
“Thirty-two hours and seven minutes,” Xinpo replied. “I believe that is close to the normal amount of time for your reincarnations, suzerain.”
She nodded and continued prying open fingers. “It does seem to be a pattern,” she thought.
Once she had Xinpo back in hand, her previous body exploded in a rainbow shower of translucent sparks. She had seen this happen several times now but was still startled and awed at the same time from the dissipation. The colorful sparks tickled her skin as they bounced harmlessly off, and then the body was just gone.
She opened her Inventory screen, wanting to make sure the soul coin was there. She had left four slots open after taking what she wanted from Boklo’s treasure pile, but knew from the flashing error messages that her inventory was full.
As the Inventory window manifested in her view, she saw the familiar five by five divided squares open up before her eyes. The first thing she noticed that had changed was the addition of the soul coin for her dwarven body. The soul coin’s presence relieved her, and she exhaled a breath she had not known she was holding in.
The next item she noticed in the Inventory window was pretty self-explanatory. Occupying only one square were 4 Thu’kri blades. She could see from the small image they were indeed the blades that were attached to the monster's hands. She slid the window to the side and looked at the monster’s bodies to verify. Both now had two arms ending in bloody stumps. The blood dripping from the severed appendages now began to pool since she held Xinpo in her hand.
The next item filling an Inventory square was also familiar. It was Noruff’s lover turned blade, Shiarra. Jarow internally debated for a few moments, considering whether to bury the blade with Noruff’s body or to keep the sword as a memento. She then realized that the Quigza may have specific burial rituals or something, and she might have to find someone more knowledgeable on the subject if she were to do it properly. So, until then, she didn’t think he’d mind her using his sword, especially to kill the monsters that took his life.
The last item in Jarow’s inventory was a necklace. There was no description beyond that, so she pulled it out. It was obvious why it had landed in her inventory rather than falling to the ground with the other pieces of jewelry. Even without having her Extra Perception active, she could feel the aura emanating around this piece of jewelry.
She had noticed before leaving the Fading Divide that one of the chains Noruff had been wearing had a strong aura. She hadn’t bothered to tell him then since she couldn’t actually tell what it did, but now, as she held it in her hand, she started regretting that decision.
The necklace’s pendant was somewhat disturbing, especially in her new form. It depicted two snakes winding around each other. One snake bit the neck of the other snake while spiraling around its body. The bitten snake held in its open mouth a large pink crystal.
Jarow internally lamented her dwarven body’s knowledge about stones. "I would have known exactly what kind of gemstone this is," she thought as she studied the necklace more thoroughly.
Jarow pulled her Extra Perception into view and verified the necklace’s aura as being the same she had seen before around Noruff’s neck. The pendant had been tucked inside his fur, or she may have questioned its aura earlier. It didn’t give off a malicious feel though; in fact, its aura shone a pinkish-gray. But the twin snakes coupled with a strange feeling Jarow was getting from the piece of jewelry made her suspicious of its actual power.
She stowed it away again but wasn’t happy about having a completely full inventory. After explaining to Xinpo what was going on, she decided she was going to need some extra room in her Inventory if she were going to take on this dungeon.
If all that these Thu’kri dropped were their blades, then they would stack and she’d be ok, but there would ultimately be a boss, and she didn’t know what she would get from defeating it.
“I assume you leveled as well?” she asked Xinpo telepathically, still not liking the way her esses sounded in this body and not wanting to deal with Xinpo if he chose to make fun of the way she sounded.
“Yes, suzerain. Shall we adjust our levels together?” he asked.
A wicked smile spread across Jarow’s face, and two large fangs slipped out from the top of her mouth, pointing downward just outside her lower lip. She could only imagine how her wicked smile with fang accessories must appear. "Yes, let's do that, then it'll be time for this snake to go down a hole."
Jarow swiftly chose Identify as her new ability. She realized there were others more suited for combat, but she grew tired of not knowing what things were and decided that knowledge would be a better weapon for her at this point.
With the ability, she could assess the jewelry and items they’d taken from Boklo’s stash, to determine their worth. She also anticipated gaining valuable information about monsters, which would prove extremely useful.
For her available skill, she and Xinpo debated between Arcana and Dash.
“Arcana leads to more magical skills and can be used in numerous ways,” Xinpo explained.
“But Dash would be extremely useful, especially if the monsters within this dungeon are similar to these insectoid creatures here. If I could escape by dashing to the side or take the initiative by dashing forward, the last fight would have gone much differently,” Jarow retorted.
In the end, she chose Dash. “I think our immediate needs are greater than possible future opportunities,” she told Xinpo, secretly convincing herself as well.
“I wonder if perhaps a more physical build would be more appropriate for you, suzerain?” Xinpo asked, his voice carrying a strong sense of “I told you so.” Jarow imagined his eyes, if he had any, would have rolled with the question.
“You could be right, and so far I am doing a lot more fighting than spell casting,” Jarow agreed. She knew he was right, but still looked forward to trying out her new spells.
She found she had two new spells in her list, and two other spells that had been upgraded. Xinpo helped explain them, “Zombie Hands causes skeletal semi-solid hands to spring from the ground in an attempt to grab onto enemies' ankles.”
Jarow really didn’t like the idea of having a necromantic spell but could see its usefulness. The other was Ice Bullet. This one she liked.
She conjured an ice bullet, and it appeared before her. It looked more like a small icicle than a bullet as it floated in front of her and she examined it. Then with a thought, she sent it forward. It flew away at an incredible speed and shattered against a rock sticking up from the ground on the other side of the square. It impacted with a sharp crack and debris flew out from the point of impact, leaving a visible chip in the rock. “Exsssellent,” she said before remembering her speech impediment.
Jarow tensed and waited for Xinpo to say something, but there was no retort, no mental chuckle, or snicker. She looked quickly from side to side as if waiting for someone else to say something about the way she now talked, but there was no one else around.
Finally she relaxed and began to slither over to the rock to take a closer examination.
“That was an Excellent shot, sssuzerain.” Xinpo said as Jarow hunched over to look at the now chipped stone.
“Ugh…” Jarow practically exhaled the word. “I knew you couldn’t resist.” Jarow said and heard Xinpo mentally chuckling.
“I aim to please, sssuzerain”
----------------------------------------
Two new special abilities appeared on Jarow’s character sheet as well: Darkvision and Thermovision. Both of these were classified as racial abilities. She wondered why they hadn’t appeared on her character sheet while she was in the Fading Divide, mentally asking her UI for answers, but none were forthcoming.
The last thing she did was distribute her attribute points. While a direct correlation wasn’t visible, she confirmed with Xinpo that Intelligence influenced the strength of her spells, while Wisdom increased her Mana pool.
She also found that she couldn’t influence her Luck attribute directly. She had assumed as much but tried to add an attribute point to it just in case. The window blinked red, not allowing the action to happen, but fortunately, she didn’t lose her point.
Instead she took her point and added it to Wisdom. Her Wisdom was already at 9, so she added one point there to bring it to ten. As soon as she did so, a new window overlaid her character sheet.
You have achieved a WIS score of 10. Bonus unlocked. Bonus - +10% to Mana pool
She looked at the message and noticed the blue bar in the center of her screen slightly grew in length. It also changed to a darker color, it now looked more royal blue than cerulean it had been.
"Well, that’s nice. I wonder if each time I reach ten in an attribute point, I’ll get a bonus?" she asked herself and continued once realizing she could test her theory. "Actually, let’s find out."
She dismissed the bonus window and went to add two points to her Intelligence attribute. As she looked at her Character sheet, she noticed that her Wisdom attribute was now highlighted in the same color blue as her Mana bar. The text had a bolder look to it as well.
She didn’t know what the bold new look meant, but she brought her Intelligence attribute to ten as well by adding two points and waited to see a similar change. She wasn’t disappointed.
You have achieved an INT score of 10. Bonus unlocked. Bonus - +10% critical hit chance
“Wow, that isss definitely not what I exssspected,” she said out loud.
“What’s going on, suzerain?” Xinpo asked upon hearing her speak.
“Did you know you get a bonus when your attributes reach ten?” she asked as a follow-up, this time keeping her words internal.
“I was unaware, since I do not possess such attributes. Oh, an increase to Mana pool and an increase to critical hit chance. Those are very nice bonuses,” Xinpo commented after viewing her character sheet.
“You have enough attribute points to raise your Dexterity to ten as well. Although your Charisma and Constitution attributes are rather low. I would suggest adding the remaining points to those, but I am curious as to the bonus given by Dexterity.”
Jarow considered the idea for a moment but ultimately decided she would rather have a more balanced build, so added her final two attribute points to Constitution and Charisma. Before she did so, she first watched the line of her INT attribute gain a more bold saffron yellow color to indicate the bonus effect.
With her leveling complete, she asked Xinpo what he was considering for his level gains.
“I have been pondering which abilities would best benefit you. I upgraded my Absorption skill and can now absorb fluids before they exit the body, as well as maintain a minute amount of continual absorption from the surrounding magical energies,” Xinpo explained. “There are three new ability options which I am also considering,” Xinpo continued, manifesting his available options on a screen for Jarow to see.
Enlarge - Increase Density - Decrease Friction - Illusory Wall - Glass Door - Ultra Lock - Unlock Potential - Energy Shield - Quick Shift - Weightlessness - *Elemental Strike
“All of these abilities have great potential. Quick Shift grants a short, instantaneous teleport, mainly used to dodge incoming attacks. Energy Shield is also a good defensive ability, creating, as the name implies, a bubble-like shield which can defend against magical attacks and can deflect small ranged projectiles such as darts.”
Jarow looked over the list. “What about Weightlessness? Is that like a hover or something?”
“It has multiple uses. I would be able to remove the pull of gravity from an object or person for a short period. That can be used on an enemy, ally, or an inanimate object.”
The thought fascinated Jarow. Gravity was something everyone and everything had to contend with, so being able to remove it, even temporarily, seemed amazingly powerful.
She also considered asking about Elemental Strike, but had a pretty good idea of what that would be already. It would definitely complement her build.
“Well, Quick Shift and Elemental Strike seem like they would work best with what I have going on so far, but I can’t help but want to try Weightlessness. It’s up to you, though, Xinpo,” Jarow told her companion.
Excitement fueled her, but she also felt a hint of apprehension. She had never willingly entered a place solely for fighting and killing before. While she understood the nature of it and certainly desired revenge for both Noruff and herself, the situation still frightened her.
There was a pause as Xinpo considered, and Jarow scratched the familiar itch at the back of her neck that symbolized Xinpo’s deeper thinking. Then Xinpo announced, “I have chosen, suzerain. While I do see the value in all the abilities, I believe the Energy Shield may prove to be the most useful in the underground dungeon we are going to face.”
Xinpo’s character sheet appeared before her eyes. She looked it over and nodded in approval. “Just a few loose ends to tie up, and then we can head down,” she said after agreeing with Xinpo’s choices.
Name: Xinpo
Level: 7
Age: ???
Race: Dimensional Being
Gender: ???
Attributes:
Strength [+1]
Dexterity [+1]
Luck [+1]
Skills:
Enhanced Absorption 226 of 400
Dagger
Quarterstaff
Sword
Damage multiplication 2 (2-8)
Keeper of the Oonja’s Seed.
Abilities:
Passe-partout (Upgraded)
Complete Cleanse
Ability amplification 2 (2-8)
Frozen moment
Telepathy
Dispel
Energy Shield
The loose ends she spoke of were relatively minor. First, she removed the denim kilt she had made to cover her dwarven body and fashioned a small top with part of that material to cover her exposed breasts. She felt no self-consciousness in this body, but the male part of her brain kept looking down, giving rise to inappropriate thoughts.
The strangest of these thoughts revolved around the bottom half of her new body and how the female parts functioned down there. She had only found a singular orifice, leaving her wondering whether it served more as an entrance or exit. While curious, she decided that exploring that particular dungeon would be something done only after she had finished defeating the one with the monsters first.
Also with some of the leftover material, she fashioned a makeshift belt from which she hung both Xinpo and Shiarra and created a pouch to carry the loose jewelry, including the powerful necklace that Noruff had been wearing. Before stowing it away though, she used her newest skill to identify its properties.
With a quick thought, simply thinking the word 'Identify,' she activated the ability. A small blue window appeared at the bottom of her field of vision, strategically positioned so as not to obscure her sight. This was convenient because she hoped to use this ability while interacting with enemies as well as other people. The window displayed:
Necklace of the Serpent's Kiss (Cursed):
This necklace entices its discoverer to wear it by emanating a false sense of security. Once placed around a person’s neck, it inflicts the curse of Apep, causing the wearer to uncontrollably experience fear and anxiety. Successful Charisma checks can temporarily halt the curse, but the longer the person wears the necklace, the more they suffer from crippling paranoia.
Jarow stood in stunned silence, the weight of the words on the screen sinking into her consciousness. The realization that this necklace was cursed paralyzed her, chaining her thoughts in a loop of shame, desperation, and self-blame. Although she had sensed something wrong with her friend, she hadn't connected the dots until now: a small piece of jewelry, a seemingly innocuous necklace, held the power to cause such suffering.
Thinking back, she recalled the moment when she had first glimpsed the necklace and its aura; it was wrapped around Noruff’s neck, concealed beneath his fur. Regret gnawed at her; she could have said something, could have warned him of its possible danger. If only she had chosen the Identify ability earlier.
Depression clawed its way into her. The weight of her self-blame intensified as thoughts of how she had failed Noruff lashed at her psyche like flaming whips of shame and self-doubt. The haunting scene, locked away but now vividly resurfacing, replayed in her mind; Noruff's goofy smile, the blade that severed his head from his body.
“Suzerain!… Jarow!” Xinpo’s voice finally broke through her ruminations. She didn’t think she had ever heard her companion use her real name. She found herself staring into the pink crystal of the ring, her finger tracing the edges of the jewel seemingly of its own accord. Her name finally broke the spell, and she quickly withdrew her finger and closed her hand around the necklace. She was panting and dizzy.
“Suzerain, are you okay?” Xinpo asked gently.
“Yeah, I think so. I can’t believe how powerful this thing is. We need to destroy it,” she replied.
“Agreed, suzerain. But allow me to attempt to dispel the magic of the necklace first. If that works, then it will no longer be able to harm others.” Xinpo could see the windows that Jarow did, so he had been able to read and understand what this necklace actually was.
Jarow had forgotten about Xinpo’s new Dispel ability. They had not really discussed it much and had never had the opportunity to try it.
“Yes, please. Dispel the heck out of it! But, how does it work?” she asked in her still shaky voice. Her mental stress comes through even in her telepathic communication.
“Simply place the ring against my blade,” Xinpo calmly said.
Still trembling, Jarow carefully unfolded her hand, allowing the pendant to fall limply from her palm, keeping the chain still wrapped around her middle finger to prevent it from escaping. The pendulum of the chain swung back and forth for a moment before finally coming into contact with the side of Xinpo's blade. The moment of contact was accompanied by a deafening crack that reverberated through the air.
Jarow's eyes widened in awe as the once-golden metal of the pendant, featuring the carving of two snakes coiling around each other, succumbed to an instantaneous and obvious transformation. In a cascade of darkness, the embodiment of the Dispel's potent magic, the jewel nestled within the pendant darkened and cracked. The shadowy force of the spell swiftly ascended through the pendant and onto the chain, rising over the golden metal like a tsunami of darkness. The shadowy force of Xinpo’s Dispel ability completely enveloped the item with its power.
Then the once-cursed necklace crumbled to dust, the metal simply turning to ash and floating away, leaving behind nothing but a profound sense of cathartic relief.
“Wow, that was intenssse,” Jarow whispered.
“Yes it was indeed, suzerain. I did not expect the dispel ability to work so thoroughly. I believe the entire necklace must have been made of magical substances. That would explain why it no longer held a physical form once the magic was dispelled.”
“So, do you have to touch something to Dispel it?” Jarow asked after a moment, watching the ash drift away, taken by the breeze. Her mind was happy to see the necklace destroyed, but somewhat saddened as she had just lost another piece of Noruff, even if it was ultimately what had led him to his demise.
“No, suzerain, but if the spell is cast in an area, it dispels everything, therefore it has a possibility of affecting you or your gear.”
“Good to know,” Jarow said and brought her eyes back into focus. She would have enjoyed a small break, a chance to look over the other items in her inventory and just relax before taking on her next tasks, but that wasn’t something she felt she could afford at the moment. Besides, the fire burning in her belly, the flames of revenge pushed her into moving; she had payback to deliver.
----------------------------------------
Once their discussion concluded, and the cursed necklace was no more, Jarow confronted a task she had been dreading since waking up in this body.
She slowly slithered back over to the scene of carnage, where the bodies of the Thu’kri and Noruff still lay where they had fallen. Drops of blood fell sporadically to the ground, creating the occasional dripping sound. Though she hadn't taken a good look at the monsters earlier, she did so now. There wasn’t much she hadn't seen before, and Jarow realized she was stalling. It was time to gather up Noruff; he deserved better than to rot in this desolate city, and it was up to her to remove his body from this place.
She wasn’t entirely sure why she felt this way. Logically, the body should return to the ground, be consumed and distributed by the inhabitants of the world, contributing to the cycle of life. Then she remembered how few things lived here, even though the planet seemed incredibly verdant.
Her gaze shifted to the large bowl and the spires sticking up from it. The city was built upon the edge of the bowl, so the spires were still easy to see. The green spire with the innumerable birds flying around it caught her eye.
There was life here on this planet, just not in this specific location. She deduced that the dungeon or its inhabitants must be what keeps living things away from here. A scornful look passed over her face as she thought to herself, “another reason to get rid of this dungeon.”
The time had finally come, and Jarow couldn't avoid her heart-wrenching task any longer. She reached down reverently and picked up her small friend Noruff’s body from the ground. A black tear in the fabric of reality opened near her, and Jarow, still holding the small furry body, passed her hands into the void-crack. The body twisted and folded in upon itself, magically sliding into her inventory. The sight was disturbing, prompting Jarow to quickly open her Inventory screen to double-check that the body was still intact. It occupied a single square, labeled only as, ‘Quigza body.”
She then moved over to where his head lay, face down on the ground. Gently pulling the head up to her, she cradled it tenderly. Tempted to turn the head around and look into those dark brown eyes once more, she resisted. She knew she would find no life there now—no intelligence, no love, only emptiness. Wanting her memory of him to be of him alive, not like this, she called the crack in reality to open once more and placed Noruff’s head into her inventory.
Several tears rolled down her cheeks as she watched the furry white head shift and morph to fit inside the crack. Once there, she checked again to verify it was still whole. Fortunately, her Inventory allowed the body and head to occupy a singular space. That made Jarow happy, but the sight of the head and body attached in the small square of her Inventory window brought mixed emotions. She couldn’t discern many details due to the size of the square on her screen, but she could see the two dark spots of Noruff’s eyes looking upward, and that was enough to make her cry once again.
She was unfamiliar with Quigza rituals or beliefs and unwilling to lug around a decomposing corpse, so she had decided her inventory would be the most logical place to store the body until she could properly send her friend off.
However, the addition of the body took up the space where his cursed necklace had just been, leaving Jarow’s inventory full once more. She now needed to figure out what to remove to make room for potential finds in the dungeon. The denim pouch she had created was large enough to carry the jewelry she and Noruff had taken, but the items in her Inventory were generally larger, such as weapons and armor, which would have been a burden to carry.
A couple of wands caught her eye; they were small, and Jarow thought she could probably fit them into her pouch. She removed them and used Identify on them before stowing them away with the jewelry.
One was a wand of Heal, a valuable find that Jarow was glad to have. The other, however, came up as question marks.
“Xinpo, why can I not Identify what this wand is?”
“Your skill is newly acquired, suzerain. Some skills take time to build up, almost as though they themselves have to level. Once you use your skill further, it should be able to identify what kind of wand you have there, as well as give you more detailed information on monsters,” Xinpo explained.
“This place just keeps getting more complicated, doesn’t it?” Jarow complained.
Finally, with her tasks complete and the fire in her belly urging her forward, she was ready to enter this dungeon and deal with some bugs. She had cleared up some space in her inventory and had a friend to take back to Quigza civilization.
“Time to go roach ssstompin’,” Jarow whispered to herself.