Alanna stared in horror at her new appendage. There wasn’t even any illusion that it might not be hers, that it might be an illusion or a toy someone attached to her for a laugh, because she could feel her hot blood rushing through it, feel it throb in tune with her heartbeat, feel it resisting the pull of gravity with its turgidity.

“How did this happen?” she muttered to herself as she ran her fingers over her member. She could feel the veins bulging beneath the surface, and as her fingers neared the flared head the sensation became increasingly electric. She realized she was horny, and it was quite unlike her experience with Liriel. With Liriel, it was the slow burn of embers in a fireplace, the increasing intimacy between her and her previous mistress increasingly stoking those embers into a flame.

This… This was hunger. A primal need that demanded to be sated immediately, overwhelming in its potency. She grabbed her member firmly, the sensation sending shivers up her spine, and the stroking motions that followed came natural to her, as though someone else put the thought in her head and she was just going along for the ride.

She had to bite her lip to stifle her voice. Some part of her was saying this was unnatural and telling her to question where this would lead, but the hunger pushed it aside. She wanted this and she increased her grip and speed. The effect was immediate, the pleasure increasing in intensity. It encouraged her to go faster, harder, her now-enhanced physiology allowing her to do all of this without tiring.

It was but a few minutes when she suddenly reached the tipping point. She stifled a yelp as, like a boiling kettle, her stimulation reached a fever-pitch and she felt her male organs working independently of her control in their first orgasm. She fell to her knees with the sensation as cum jettisoned from her dick, landing on the wooden floor in long ropes. Her hips bucked back at her hand as she jerked herself as fast as she could, desperate to keep the feeling going for as long as possible while instinct drove her to fuck her imaginary lover. After soiling the floor a few more drops leaked onto her hand from her tip, a wave of relief passing through her body as she slowed her masturbation.

She was left breathing hard, her room now stinking of male musk. The overwhelming horiness now gone, she tried to process what she just did, and how she might best hide anyone from ever finding out about it.

She took a towel that had been set aside next to a wooden tub meant to wash herself and was scrubbing the floor as she thought about what could have possibly caused this transformation. It definitely wasn’t some kind of magic. If magic isn’t stabilized through the use of some kind of enchantment it fades away after some time, she knew that to be true from pretty much all the stories she heard about adventuring, but her new appendage had shown no signs of disappearing other than having shrunk back into its sheath.

She palmed her own face when she remembered what Solizzar told her, that the extracts could have unpredictable effects on her physiology. She went over each extract she had taken so far. The goblin extract had planted some extra sixth sense in her head for traps; The centipede’s extract had made her able to sense vibrations through solid surfaces to help her detect enemies around her; The alraune’s extract had changed her sweat and laced it with pheromones, if the description of her new ability was to be believed. None of her unicorn abilities would explain why she now had a penis.

Then it struck her: Goblins are technically ungendered, the alraune was female and the centipede… Well, either it was female or it was so far removed from anything resembling ‘male’ that it didn’t affect her. The unicorn whose essence she drank must have been male. That meant that her new addition was almost certainly permanent, and more importantly, it meant that what she was doing to her body went beyond just getting new feats and traits, and she couldn’t rely on her status screen to tell her how it was changing her.

A pit formed in the bottom of her stomach. She wondered how much of her was already changed, how much of her was still ‘Alanna.’ She felt stronger, faster, even her senses felt sharper than they had before she had begun changing herself, but… As far as she could tell, she was still herself.

She decided it didn’t matter. This was her route to power. Without power, she would be all the way back where she started: Nowhere. No money, no home, no family. No say in how the world around her operated.

She would not stop.

Alanna was at the front desk after a good night’s sleep and was eager to get her reward, or what’s left of it after the costs of her healing had to be taken out. She was waiting for Renestrae, but admittedly, she had gotten there way too early. She simply couldn’t wait to get her gold for completing her first quest.

The door behind the desk opened up and Renestrae stepped out. She did a double take when she noticed Alanna standing there, so Alanna decided to wave gently in greeting. “Alanna… Is that you?” Renestrae asked with some degree of shock in her voice. “What on earth happened? Your face. Did you… Did you get yourself enchanted last night or something? I thought you barely had gold to spare.”

“My face?” Alanna asked, realizing with some degree of trepidation. “Why? Is something wrong?”

Renestrae handed her a small pocket mirror and Alanna used it to examine herself. Her lips had thickened, her eye-lashes had grown, there was a bit of a rosy glow to her cheeks, amidst a few other changes. She had gone through a similar transformation before when she first drank a regeneration elixir, as it had undone a great deal of the damage malnutrition had done to her development, but the extracts she had most recently imbibed seemed to have greatly improved on what was already there. She looked great, she had to admit, better than she ever thought she could look, though she could see a glimpse of the alraune in her new appearance, which disturbed her.

She realized she had been admiring herself in the mirror a bit too much and handed it back to Renestrae. “Oh, that, uh, I just had a really rough time yesterday. All week actually! Was a long journey getting here and I didn’t really give myself any time to recover. I just took some time to groom myself yesterday, you know? A nice hot bath and a soft bed can work wonders.”

Renestrae rose an eyebrow. Alanna had no idea if the lie was effective, but she hoped that having been a weirdo up until now would put Renestrae off from asking further questions. Sure enough, she sighed and took out a form from underneath her desk.

“Alright, well… We got word from our local Wizard and we sent out some scouts to verify your kill. You indeed killed the right alraune, and she was a greater one as Khilseith claimed, so the Guild added in some gold from our own coffers to cover the extra danger. Just sign here, if you can write, and I’ll pay you immediately.”

Alanna looked at the document. It seemed like a release form for a contract the guild had with a local group of woodcutters to pay for the Alraune to be slain. The amount they offered was not insignificant, a few hundred gold pieces, but apparently there was a significant subsidy from Fort Wildbrooke. Alanna’s eyes bulged out reading the final tally of her reward.

“6400 gold pieces?!” she asked, looking up in shock at Renestrae, who just shrugged, like the astronomical amount of gold she was paying out was no big deal.

“Adventuring is dangerous work, hence why it pays so well. Plus, that was supposed to pay for a party of three or four people working together to bring down the monster. Adventuring by yourself means you don’t have to share the spoils.” She followed up by giving Alanna a very stern look. “Don’t get any ideas, okay? I’ve seen plenty of newbies who got exactly the look in their eye that you have right now and never came home because they thought going at it alone was a great idea.”

Renestrae took out a small pouch labeled with a note that read the quest’s identifier and the gold value of the reward and pushed it across the desk. Alanna picked up the pouch and looked it over in confusion. A gold coin wasn’t that big, about the width of two fingers and quite thin, but the pouch she received fit in the palm of her hand. The idea of thousands of gold coins fitting in there seemed absurd.

She was about to ask when Renestrae piped up. “The Guild always pays out their rewards with those. If you’ve ever heard of a Bag of Holding, these are kind of like those, but they only work for gold coins. I can’t really tell you how they’re made, you’d have to ask someone from the Mage’s Guild, but the idea is that these are easier to mass-produce than Bags of Holding, so both we and the Mage’s Guild, as well as other organizations, use these for large transactions. Open it up and look inside.”

Alanna clicked open the bag and saw a small ocean of gold coins rolling around on the other side, in a space far larger than the bag itself.

“Woah, freaky,” she said, then closed the bag and pocketed the gold.

“Don’t spend it all in one place,” Renestrae stated. “A lot of newbies who get their first big haul make the mistake of spending all their money on a shiny new enchanted sword. There’s lots of stuff you should think about getting if you’re gonna keep adventuring: Some sturdier armor, gear to help you cross rough terrain, supplies, potions. You even have enough to buy a wondrous item or two. Think carefully on what you think you’ll need to excel at your next mission and try to keep some gold leftover to support yourself afterwards. You’ll run out faster than you think, trust me.”

“Thanks Renestrae,” Alanna said. “I really appreciate you giving me all this advice.”

“Don’t mention it. Classes give people a ton of information just by having them, but that means they often don’t realize how much they don’t already know.” Renestrae grinned. “I suppose that you of all people would value learning something the natural way.”

“So, uh,” Alanna began as she looked at the quest board. “Where do I go from here?”

“Oh, right, I guess your first quest was kind of unconventional. Basically, the Guild accepts contracts from the locals, which we then post as quests. Just find one you think you can handle on the quest board, then start asking around until you form a team that you believe can succeed.”

Alanna suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to face what was clearly a half-catfolk woman, indicated by her cat ears, long tail and the tiger-stripes across her skin, and she was certainly not a native. Her dark skin and black hair spoke of southern lands, though Alanna had no idea where exactly. Meanwhile, the light leather armor she wore and the two daggers sheathed on her hips spoke of a Rogue or Ranger by trade. For her part, the half-breed had a peculiar glint in her eye as she flashed an award winning smile.

“Hello!” she said enthusiastically, though with a slight accent. “Are you the new adventurer that they said slayed that Alraune? I’ve been looking for someone to team up with. Are you still looking for a party?”

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“Yes actually,” Alanna said, happy that she seemed to have overcome the prejudice against her lack of a decent class, at least with this one adventurer. “I was about to find myself a new quest.”

“Great!” the half-breed said, grabbing Alanna’s hand and giving her a forceful handshake. “The name’s Nywen. Nywen Karimi.”

Alanna tried to return the catgirl’s energy and found that while she struggled to match her for enthusiasm, she noticed she could easily match her in force after her transformation last night. “Alanna. Just Alanna.”

“I took the liberty of picking out a quest already if you’re up for it,” Nywen continued after releasing her grip. She reached into a pouch on her hip and pulled out a rolled-up parchment, which she unfurled and straightened out on the desk. “There’s a pack of wargs killing cattle in a nearby village. If you can take down an alraune by yourself this should be a cakewalk for us together.”

Alanna couldn’t believe her luck, this was exactly what she was looking for. Something easy to cut her teeth on. “This sounds great!” she said. “Will I need any supplies? I’m still pretty new at this.”

“Why yes,” Nywen stated. “Wargs don’t take anything special to take down, but you’ll always want a good sword or two, enough supplies to make the trip there and back, and in this case, bait.”

“Sounds good,” Alanna said as she looked up from the quest’s poster to try and find Renestrae for approval, only to notice that the half-elf had made herself scarce.

Alanna and Nywen strode through the market district of Wildbrook, which admittedly took up most of the town’s surface area. She was enjoying taking in the many sights and smells, feeling far more relaxed than the first time she went through here and thus better able to enjoy herself. Nywen seemed similarly relaxed, her tail swaying back and forth, though she didn’t seem as distracted by the many stalls. She clearly knew where she needed to go.

“So, where do we go first?” Alanna asked, hoping for some guidance.

“For trial rations you go to the provisioner,” Nywen started, clearly reciting from memory. “Regular food works for short trips, but trial rations won’t get crushed if you get hit during a fight or go bad if you don’t eat them immediately. Any blacksmith can get you a new sword, though I probably wouldn’t go to the Guild’s. They hired somebody but he’s a… A bit of a character. You’re better off finding someone else. For bait, warg’s love raw meat, even if it’s a little spoiled. We can just go to the butcher and get some, long as it’s wrapped up tightly it won’t be an issue on the road.”

Nywen stretched and glanced at Alanna. “You have enough money to pay for all of that stuff, right?”

“Of course,” Alanna volunteered. “Killing that alraune paid off big time!”

“Really? How much?”

“Over six thousand gold!” Alanna said excitedly. “It’s still a little hard to wrap my mind about how much money I have now. I’ve been trying to think of things to spend it on that’ll help during my next quest, but…”

Alanna suddenly heard a familiar cling, that of gold coins hitting one another. She suddenly realized she was being awfully carefree, telling her new companion exactly how much money she just made, a companion that seemed really interested in adventuring with her right after her big haul.

She touched the belt pouch in which she had stored her gold bag, noticing immediately that it seemed empty. She turned and saw Nywen already multiple paces away from her, holding up the gold bag and winking at her.

“Let me take a load off of your mind then, thanks!” the sly catgirl stated as she turned tail and fled down the streets.

“Oh no you’re not!” Alanna yelled, enraged that her bounty was stolen from her. She wasn’t gonna let that Rogue get away with this, not after everything she had to go through to earn that gold.

Chasing the catgirl through the busy streets felt like a continuous series of impacts as the catgirl glided gracefully through the crowd while Alanna seemed to hit or trip over every obstacle that got in her way. In this environment she had no ability to generate any speed, leaving one of her few inborn advantages useless.

As Nywen slipped past a horse and cart, with Alanna having to circle the entire thing to continue the chase, Alanna realized immediately she couldn’t see the Rogue any longer. The crowd was dense and in the hustle-and-bustle in the street it was impossible to see where she had gone. However, Alanna’s sensitive ears managed to pick up a noise echoing down a nearby alley, the walls surrounding the narrow confines amplifying the footsteps just enough for Alanna to hear them above the peddlers hawking their wares.

She turned into the alley and saw Nywen almost round a corner. This was her chance. Alanna burst into the alley after Nywen, her legs pumping with great force. Alanna was almost shocked at her own acceleration, never having thought that her own lack of high ability scores had been holding her back this much.

Nywen turned her head just enough to see Alanna rapidly gaining on her, before doing something entirely unexpected: she leapt. With feline agility she grabbed a clothesline strung between two buildings and swung her weight forward, using one fluid motion to land with her boots balanced on the clothesline.

Alanna could see what was happening next in slow motion. Nywen was preparing to use the force she applied on the clothesline as it came bouncing back up to launch herself towards a ledge. If that happened she’d be on the rooftops and Alanna would definitely lose her. She saw only one opportunity to stop her. She leapt as well, and though she had little of the feline’s acrobatic skill, she had more strength to put behind the jump, just enough to allow her to grab the lowest part of Nywen as it swung down to maintain her balance: her tail.

Nywen yowled as her second jump was ruined by Alanna’s weight pulling her down. She lost her balance and both tumbled to the ground in a flurry of limbs. Alanna wasted no time getting on top as the catgirl tried to squirm out of her grasp, pinning her head against the cobblestone beneath them. Both breathing heavily, Alanna tried to grab the coin bag out of Nywen’s hands but she held onto it with a deathgrip.

“Stop it! Let me go!” the catgirl screamed as she fought against Alanna’s grip.

“Give me back my gold!” Alanna yelled back. “Give it back or I’m going to start hurting you!”

“You don’t understand!” Nywen yelped as Alanna began to apply more force.

“Understand what?!” Alanna yelled back angrily. “That you just got me out of the Guild so you could rob me? I’ve had enough of dealing with terrible adventurers like you!” She pulled back her fist, ready to strike, when she noticed Nywen struggles were dying down and tears were running down her face. She decided not to take any chances that this might be another trick, taking back her coin bag from Nywen before letting her go. The two separated to opposite walls, still breathing hard from their exertions. There was a nasty mark on Nywen’s face where Alanna had been pushing her into the street.

“I’m just trying to get home,” Nywen whined.

Alanna wasn’t sure what to think of the Rogue. She considered if this was just another ploy to use sympathy to get another chance at stealing her gold, but she decided she was curious enough to hear the catgirl out.

“Then why steal my money to do so?” Alanna asked.

“I’m from the Great Desert,” she began. “Figured this was the best place to start off being an adventurer. That’s what everyone said. Except the first group I joined was Khilseith’s. He’s a bastard, and that Sorceress he has with him is worse. Nothing I did was ever good enough because I was a newbie, and I’m pretty sure they both hated me: either because I was a foreigner or because I was a half-breed. Maybe both. They started cutting my share of the loot for ‘poor performance,’ when I couldn’t kill stuff fast enough, or when their Druid had to spend spell slots to heal me back up.”

She spat on the floor, though Alanna wasn’t sure if that was to get dirt out of her mouth or out of some sign of disrespect towards her previous colleagues. “Then they lost some of their gold between quests and blamed me for it! I showed them my backpack, let them see the inside of my pockets to prove I didn’t have it, and they still made me out to be a thief! They kicked me out and told everyone, and nobody believes I didn’t take their gold. It’s impossible to find a group now. Nobody’ll take you in once you have a reputation like that. I was gonna use your gold to go back home, beg my mom for forgiveness for leaving, hope she’d take me back in.”

While Alanna had no idea how much of this she should believe, the tears running down Nywen’s cheek seemed genuine. They were interrupted by a bunch of elven soldiers from the local fortress showing up.

“We heard there was a commotion. One of you explain what’s going on, now,” the lead guard said gruffly.

Alanna quickly deduced that these men not only secured the Elven Queen’s reign in this area but also acted as local law enforcement. She looked back at Nywen only to find the catgirl’s eyes had gone wide with fear. She pondered for a moment. This was a very easy opportunity for her to get revenge. Sob story or not, Nywen still stole a fortune worth of gold from her. She felt temptation… But found herself unable to give in.

“Everything’s fine, officers,” Alanna stated confidently. “We just had a little fight, that’s all. Everything’s resolved now.” Nywen looked at her with eyebrows raised in surprise.

The soldiers sighed audibly. “Keep yourselves in check. Adventurers or not, we demand peace and order in the streets. If you two want to have at it again, do it outside the walls, understood?”

Both girls murmured a “Yes sir,” and the guards moved on. They both sighed in relief, followed by a tense silence that lasted for a few moments.

“Look,” Alanna started. “I know what it’s like to… To have nothing, and no one to help you. If what you told me is true-”

“It is!” Nywen insisted.

“-Then I’ll make you a deal. You need gold, I need someone to adventure with that I can depend on. I’ll take you on every quest I’m going to attempt and once you have enough gold you can go home, as long as you don’t steal from me or any other adventurer ever again. Deal?”

Nywen looked at the ground for a moment, then wiped her tears dry on the sleeve of her tunic. “Deal,” she said, holding out her hand and shaking Alanna’s. “No tricks this time, I promise.”

Elsewhere in the city, a meeting was taking place behind closed doors. Melisandre could honestly state that she hated her current company. Khilseith had taken some time to cool off after their reputation had gotten publicly trashed and nobody’s even seen Prutina since. Instead, Melisandre was now face-to-face with a pack of orc Barbarians. Orcs had a natural affinity for that Class, which meant it was much more common among their kind than others, and as orcs struggled to cooperate civilly with other races they often ended up banding together.

While they lacked a diverse set of skills or abilities, there was something to be said about the effectiveness of so much brute force combined in a single group. Which was exactly why Melisandre was here.

“I called you three here because I need a favor.”

“We don’t do favors,” said their leader, a shorter but exceptionally muscular orc who had only introduced himself as Grug. She had no idea if these savages even knew what the purpose of a last name was. He wore a wolf’s tail for a hairdo and had minimal armor, but wielded a large cleaver on his back. “Gold only, and a little birdy told me that you may be fresh out. Didn’t complete your last job.”

Melisandre noted that the leader wasn’t entirely without brains if he was able to put two and two together, though she had to work to keep her anger under control. Normally she would have already singed his hair off, but this time she wanted something.

“My name is Melisandre Hallowstar,” she said with no small amount of pride as she produced a gold bag from her pocket and slid it across the table. “My family is renowned far and wide. Gold is not a problem.”

Grug opened the bag and nodded appreciatively as he shook it, allowing the gold to roll around the extradimensional space within. “Alright, what do you need killed?” he asked.

“There’s a new adventurer in town. I don’t care what you do to her, I just want her to suffer as much as possible.”

“We can do that,” Grug said with a hearty chuckle. “What’d she look like?”

“You can’t miss her. She’s average-sized, wears studded leather, and has two white bunny ears, tipped with black.”