A soft swishing sound pierced the morning air and woke me from my dreamless sleep. I yawned softly and looked around the room, realizing that the morning light wasn’t yet peering around my curtains. It was very early. The swishing sound was rhythmic, but it changed, occasionally, transforming from a ‘thrum’ to a ‘swoosh’. It sounded familiar yet distorted.

I stumbled from my bed and walked to the window. Pulling back the curtains my eyes were met with a world of white. A fog had settled overnight in our small clearing. My first reaction was to admire the beauty of it. My second was to curse under my breath. I’d need to make a rune to keep airborne mists away. How I hadn’t considered that before was beyond me. The dampness could easily seep into the wooden house and rot away the enchantments etched into its marrow.

Through the mists I could see the shadow of Benson swinging his sword. True to his personality, he was tireless in his training. I pulled the lock free from the window frame and lifted the glass up. The morning mists smelled strongly of a late night rainfall, soft and earthy.

I found myself leaning on the sill, watching Benson’s shadow progress through the forms. Every step he took was fluid, and every movement dynamic. It looked like a dance.

The smell of something sweet wafted up through an opened downstairs window. I hadn’t considered it, but it seems Tenia had purchased a few supplies with the coin she exchanged in town. I’d be lying if I said the smell of hot chocolate didn’t entice me. With my ears in the open, I could faintly hear her whistling a tune in time with Benson’s sword swishes. The two had clearly made up from whatever fight they had been having before… Or they were really good actors. Either way, I was convinced.

I moved to the drawer where I deposited my clothes last night to find them missing. In their place was a new set of rather… Different apparel.

Tenia was meddling. She wanted to play dress up with me...

I had to admit, though, the outfit was cute looking. At least it wasn’t a dress.

I pulled on the simple short leggings and undergarments first. They fit too well. Where did she get these clothes from anyway? Had she shopped for them yesterday as well?

Next came the shorts. They were an off yellow color and fell far above my knees. The top was a scoop-necked shirt with the same yellow color but in a slightly darker shade. Over this was a small vest-jacket with a flattened lapel.

It was a complete ensemble, including a small shoulder-strung leather tote bag. I was honestly amazed at how complex looking the clothes were. There was no way Tenia had obtained them in a small farming town in a fantasy world like this… Then where did they come from?

I pulled on the belt-strung boots and made my way downstairs. I could smell eggs. The distinct sizzle of bacon could be heard, too.

“Morning, sunshine,” said Tenia with a hum as she set out three plates on the table. Each was stocked with an eggs and bacon smiley face.

“Where’d you get the eggs?” I asked.

“I searched for some bird nests last night,” she replied with a smile. Then, with all the grace of a shrieking goat, she yelled out the window, “Oy, stupid cat, November’s up and it’s time for breakfast!”

I winced at her loud voice in the quiet of the early morning. Wasn’t Tenia supposed to be the graceful timid one? Or, perhaps to those who’ve earned her ire, she was completely different? I hadn’t remembered writing anything like that… Though to be fair it was sort of impossible to write up an entire person’s personality in a single paragraph. Both her and Benson were bound to have facets to them even I wouldn’t know about. They’d be completely one dimensional otherwise… And they were both very clearly alive now, meaning they probably had the full range of human emotions everyone else did.

Benson didn’t rebuke Tenia’s call and instead opted to return quickly. I was certain, due to the way he stared at the plate of food, it was more due to hunger than apathy.

I cut a small piece of egg and a piece of bacon and ate them together. A lot of people are in the ‘the peas and potatoes must not touch’ group when it comes to eating foods, but that’s not for me. I’ve always lived under the ‘mash everything together and eat it all at once’ group. I remember once, eating lunch, James had commented about how I “carefully sculpted every bite on my fork”. I didn’t particularly mind it. It was a habit I’d picked up from my father back when he was around. He always talked about potatoes improved the taste of everything else. His favorite was homefries and scrambled eggs, slathered in ketchup.

Benson didn’t even bother cutting his food up. He simply grabbed each piece and ate them whole. He looked more like a vacuum cleaner than a demi-human. Tenia, on the other hand, was absurdly neat with her table manners. Her foods never once touched each other.

A lot could be inferred about a person from the way they ate their meals.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit happy getting to eat a home cooked meal with friends.

“Mistress,” said Tenia as she set down her silverware for a moment, “One thing I forgot to mention yesterday is that the people may speak English, but their accent is terribly strange.”

“Oh?” I mused, “How strange could it be?”

“To be honest, I had never heard anything like it before. It took me a few minutes to decipher some of the things they said from time to time.”

“Can you describe it to me?”

“N-not really. I think it’s something you have to hear for yourself,” replied Tenia.

I pondered it for a moment. There was mention that the older members sometimes spoke another language. Could it maybe be something like when a foreigner tries to speak a language and their own intonations slip in by mistake? What language did they originally speak then… And why did they switch to English?

The native language being was just too convenient… In fact, it seemed to point to this world having others like me in it, then. There had to be people from the old world… But that leads to another strange thought. In order for an entire language system to be changed it would take at least two generations. We’ve only been in this world for a little over 24 hours. Suppose, other players of Xternity were sent here… Could they have been sent to different points in a timeline? If whatever world this is has time moving faster than the old world… Then surely any slight differences in the ‘transport’ event could result in huge gaps of time being spanned.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Though this is all conjecture. I could be completely off base. For all I know this could just be some demented mirror dimension going by multiverse theories. Oh how I wished I could climb the Tower of Babel~

We finished our breakfast and set about preparing for the trip. Tenia advised me to use the tote bag when retrieving things from my [Inventory] to prevent the hammer space from being seen. I, of course, agreed effortlessly. It was a good idea.

“Though, I have to ask Tenia, where did you get these clothes?”

She looked at me with a smile in her eyes.

“In my inventory, I have hundreds of outfits that I’ve collected over my travels in the old world. Your command to collect all ingredients, back then, translated to collect everything I could legally take without committing a crime,” replied the black haired woman with an unsettling laugh.

…

Somehow, I felt a strange sense of dread coming from Tenia then. She eyed me much like a young girl would a dress-up doll. It was unsettling. I met her eyes and firmly told her, “No dresses.”

“Yes mistress,” replied Tenia with a soft bow, though the lopsided smile on her face belied her agreement.

Tenia herself was dressed as usual in her blue tacky high-mage robes. They probably weren’t too out of line for a fantasy world, so I just assumed to let her be.

I found myself playing with the ends of my hair as I walked towards the door, a goofy grin on my face. This curly red hair looked and felt just like my mother’s. For a moment it felt like I had her with me. I was also immensely thankful it hung a bit past my jawline. While I may have had bed head, it didn’t look terrible because of how short my hair was.

Spoiler: Hair Reference

http%3a%2f%2fi.imgur.com%2filRn8Ta.png [http://i.imgur.com/ilRn8Ta.png]

Just imagine it’s red instead of brown. Also a bit more frazzled and curly. Picture references are hard ●︿●

“Benson, be sure to do the dishes while we’re gone,” called Tenia behind me as we stepped out into the dying morning mists. A golden-orange light was piercing the fog just over the edges of the treetops.

“The sunrise is beautiful,” I muttered softly.

Our walk through the woods was rather easy. Tenia, in anticipation, had cut out a path yesterday when she traveled. If I didn’t know exactly how powerful of a mage she was, I’d probably be astounded by it… But such a thing was probably easy for her.

Not a single animal or monster bothered us on our brisk walk. I could tell Tenia wanted to move faster, but I was thankful she was restraining herself for my sake. My body’s physical parameters were, probably, equal to maybe a level 30 combat class if I had to guess. Thus it was best to be reserved and just take my time. It was a long walk to the town, but I didn’t mind it much. My stamina was my dump stat, after all. Being a crafter, the other primary stats never held much appeal. Obviously my intelligence/wisdom was maxed out, though. Theoretically I had as much mana and magic potential as Tenia did… Perhaps I should have her teach me some basic combat spells later. Though, it was hard enough to remember the ones I already knew.

Spells weren’t like potion recipes. You couldn’t write them down. They involved making pictures in your mind. It was a bit like trying to solve different shaped rubix cubes. I’d much rather just throw a poison gas cloud down and give myself the antidote. There was little strain in that kind of method… Well, assuming you have confidence in your antidotes that is~

Characters in Xternity with combat classes were provided more stat points upon leveling up, thus it was natural that Tenia had quite an advantage over me in terms of physical ability. Our magical talent was equal, but with her powerful spells and strong body I’d be hard pressed to even escape her, let alone win a fight… It also helped that she had antidotes to just about every poison I’ve ever crafted in her inventory too. She also knew the runes I carried for protection inside and out too… In all honest, Tenia was probably the scariest person on this entire planet for me if she ever decided she was sick of me. For some reason, though, I felt that she’d never do something like that. I’d always been rather untrusting in my past life, so why did I have this odd sense of trust in Tenia now? If anything, I was afraid she’d be too overprotective of me rather than hurt me.

I was a bit glad that Benson had supported my desire to leave the house. Knowing Tenia, she’d prefer to keep me cooped up in there for my own safety. Then I’d have to argue with her about it and we’d risk fracturing our friendship… That was definitely something I didn’t want to have happen.

We walked at a brisk pace, in the end. If I had to compare it, we were moving at about the pace of a marathon runner in my old world. It didn’t feel odd, though, In fact it felt overly normal. Maybe I was just getting desensitized to the fantasy thug life~ I made sure to use my [Ingredient Scan], but nothing picked up. Tenia had stripped this part of the woods clean.

Another point of note I need to add is how strange walking felt without a penis. You wouldn’t think it makes that much of a difference but it does. Every step reminded me that I was now a woman. If I didn’t have this fantastic hair as compensation I’d surely sink into depression.

With my head full of strange thoughts, we quickly arrived at a much larger path cutting through the woods. Far ahead I could make out the edges of civilization.