Standing before my eyes is a small girl, even smaller than her original doll form. The slightly gray and light brown wood that made up her body became more of a soft tan color. I can still see lines along her new skin from the wood grains, lines that twist a bit and form complex rune shapes.
Tiny fairy-like wings made of light jutting out from her back. Her face is now distinctly human, unlike the rough egg shaped head she had before. I can see a smile form on her lips as she looks over her body, not caring that it is naked and quite feminine.
What I find very interesting is that her look is distinctly similar to the projected form she had always used around me. The form of the cute villainess type girl.
Her pointed ears that remind me of sharp twigs under a head of long curly light green hair now letting her hear the sounds around her instead of having to read my lips or transcribed messages.
“Holy crap Alice! You look incredible!”
Looking over at me with her subtly glowing jade eyes the smile on the wooden sprite gets even wider.
“He he, thank you. You are looking pretty interesting yourself.”
Her calming and ethereal voice overflowing with glee at having a proper body. I had thought this might happen considering that advancing to Class 2 evolves any creature who achieves it. I just didn’t expect her changes to be so drastic.
Her new body reminds me of the fact that elves supposedly originate from earth elementals that had merged with trees. I can tell that this is likely a very similar situation. Her life magic is likely what had the biggest effect, allowing her to change from a doll to a truly living being.
I do think the runes I had carved into her body also had a major effect as well, those light based fairy wings on her back being the biggest clue. I am curious about what other changes her body has had, but I am more curious what I look like right now.
Using my light magic I create a mirror in front of me by reflecting all light from the space in a flat plane.
Looking myself over I find myself very surprised by how subtle my changes are compared to Alice’s. I can see my skin looking smooth and almost blended together. It is like I am made of a single molded sheet of silicone more than actual flesh. However that is rather unnoticeable unless you are looking at it up close.
What I do see that is more obvious is my eyes. Glowing spheres of perfect white with a thin blue ring taking the place of both my iris and pupil stare back at me in the mirror. Once I see them I realize that my vision is far wider than it used to be without any of my perspective changing magic activated.
I can see the different wavelengths of light all blended together around me. I don’t even need to activate my spells to determine the relative temperatures or amount of ultraviolet light in any given space. What is even more strange is that the sight is not disorienting.
When I used to activate the vision spells I would get slight vertigo just from the different ways of seeing the world, and that was with only one of them active. Now with all of them active at once I am somehow perfectly fine processing the information.
Looking over at Alice I get a bit jealous. I don’t have light wings, which I feel is a shame. Flying would have been cool, I should work on a spell like that soon.
“Ok… I can see my eyes and vision has changed which makes sense, but what the hell is up with my skin and why did my body freak out like it did when I ascended?”
My reflexes are also wonky as well.
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Looking over to the demon professor Lucadon I find the creature examining me rather carefully with a pondering look on its blurry face.
“Hmm, yes I see. How fascinating! A large amount of your body seems to have merged together. In fact I don’t see any blood vessels in your body at all!.”
Now that has me concerned. I don’t have blood anymore? And how much has merged together?
Sending a pulse of X-Rays through my body I construct a map of my insides far easier than I had been able to before. I can see now that even my bones are blurry for some reason.
Asking Lucadon I get an answer that I find hard to understand. Apparently my bones have merged slightly with my muscles and flesh. This makes me a lot more durable which is nice. My increased flexibility and reaction speed seems to be a result of this as well.
I try to mess around with my new body for a while, jumping, moving, and bending in strange ways before trying something slightly dangerous. I have Alice on standby just in case I mess up.
Making a golem and handing it a spear, I order it to cut my arm open so I can see inside. I got into a rather long argument about my plan with Alice, but in the end she relented once I reminded her that she can heal me up far faster now thanks to her ascension.
Gritting my teeth at the slightly dulled pain I notice that while I can see the color change as it gets deeper, everything is more of a gradient than hard lines. I look like a cartoon piece of meat on the inside…
Quickly getting healed by Alice before I can get a better look I smile as the warmth of her magic washes over me.
“I find it funny that I became more like a human while you became more like a golem. I do wish you would not treat your body like a science experiment though.”
“Hey! It is better to know the limits of my body now than learn them in battle.”
Grumbling at the logic behind my actions I look away from the pointed glare I am getting from the little fairy.
“Anyway, what should we do now? You told me that we were going to take a break from fighting, but not exactly what we were going to do.”
The tiny wooden girl flies up to my face with her arms crossed.
“You have been pushing yourself too hard. Considering how stupid you are when it comes to anything but magic I can only see you running yourself into the ground at the rate you are going. So, we are going to leave the forest and visit a city. Get you acquainted with other people like you for once.”
I am just about to give a big smile at the thought of getting out of this forest when something occurs to me, making me frown.
“What about my Demon Lord Title and the fact that we are not connected to The System. Won’t everyone be after us?”
Alice frowns at that too, but then Lucadon takes that moment to speak up.
“You both will need to make a dummy connection to the system. I will show you how, but it should be easy with your new power and Lua’s magic. As for the Demon Lord Title, that won't be a problem. Others can not see your title as it is not a part of The System. you will just need to suppress the demonic presence around you.”
“I am sorry… The who and the what now?? I don’t remember having a demonic presence and you have never mentioned it was possible to trick The System like that.”
Smiling with its usual terrible smile, the demon goes on to explain the process of making a fake connection using a golem core while also sucking in the vague blur that was forming around me. I couldn’t see the aura myself and nor could Alice, but apparently that is because I am the source and she is bonded to me in a way.
I noticed a faint blush appear on her tiny face when Lucadon mentioned the bond. So cute.
Packing up our supplies and having Lucadon make us both new clothes out of plant materials, Alice because she was naked and me because I have grown a lot over this last year. I am not sure why Lucadon is so skilled at making bras, but I choose to ignore my questions.
Just as I am about to ask Lucadon to transport us to the first ring, ready for a much needed vacation. Lucadon decides to rain on both our parades.
“Yes, yes, yes. Now that you are both ready I will transport you to the second ring and you can find your own way out.”
“W-Wait what, I thought we were going to take a break?! Getting out of the second ring will take ages! You do know how massive each ring is right?!”
“Yeah! I have walked around the second ring for months and never come close to finding that wall to the first ring again!”
We both shout our complaints only for Lucadon to promptly shut us down.
“Now, now. You both need time to get used to your new power do you not? This will give you an opportunity to collect Class 2 cores to thread while practicing new spells.”
With that both of us deflate knowing the demon is right.
Just as I start to look up I notice we have already been transported to a random location within the second ring of the forest.
“Do you think you need to eat now that you are no longer a doll?”
Alice moves to sit on my shoulder and then sighs.
“If I do, then I really hope your ascension made you a better cook too.”
“Hey!”
Huffing and turning my head I ignore her rude remark and look out towards the dark expansive forest.
“So uh… Which way is out?”
Alice once again sighs and shakes her head.
“North.”
Moving my vision around I look above the treetops that far exceed the height of the ones in the first ring. I can see the position of the sun shining down, its light trying to break through the thick canopy, and from that determine the way to head.
I hope this does not take too long.