The twins led me up onto the second floor and we stopped in front of a door. Phyara pulled two items from her personal storage and handed them to me to put on. The first was a sleeping mask, and I couldn’t help but give her a very confused look.

“What? I’m sensitive to light when I’m trying to sleep! It’s perfectly normal!” Phyara huffed back at me.

The second item was a gold band with lettering woven around it, but I didn’t recognize the language at all. It was also entirely way too large to fit on any of my fingers.

“Stick the ring on any finger you want, it’ll fit when you do. When you’re ready to start put on the mask and I’ll take your hand to guide you into the other room,” Phyara said, holding out her hand.

I wound up putting the ring over my left thumb and surely enough, it shrank down until it was a perfect fit. I put on the sleeping mask when I was done and took her hand. She led me into a room a good dozen steps, we stopped, and she released my hand.

Eilyen spoke from my right side: “Try and clear your mind. When you have, you should start to sense things and feel a pulling sensation on your ring hand. When you do, follow it around and eventually it’ll lead you to the weapon type you have a strong affinity for.”

“Okay. Why do I need a mask, and do I have to watch out to avoid tripping on anything?”

Phyara answered: “The mask is to help keep your conscious from influencing the magic. And the floor is empty, everything is on the walls, so don’t worry.”

“Okay. Well, I’m going to go now, then.”

I felt pretty foolish as I stood there wearing a sleeping mask. It smelled like Phyara, though and I was trying my best to ignore the fact that this was apparently her personal sleeping mask and not something for whatever this ritual was. At least the mask would hide my blushing face. Nothing seemed to be happening, so I tried doing some breathing exercises to distract my energetic brain. That whole meal was making me feel juiced up, like I had a huge amount of energy.

Stop getting distracted! Breathe in, hold it, breathe out.

My new long ears twitched as I picked up something in the distance. I turned my head back and forth, trying to locate the sound… there! I focused on the barely perceptible noise. It sounded like a smithy, maybe? Clanging metal. I took a tentative step towards it, and the sound became marginally louder. I wasn’t feeling a pull, but the twins weren’t saying anything, so I went along with what was happening. I started walking towards the sound, and after a minute or so of walking, I started to smell something. It was oil and metal, and the coppery tang of blood, too. The clanging grew louder, and I recognized it as the sound of martial training, or perhaps battle. I approached more, and when I did the sounds and smells spread out and circled around me.

Sniffing like a hound, I wandered around the strange sound and smellscape I found myself in. I let my nose guide me for the most part. I heard some sounds that sounded familiar to me, but I was better able to distinguish things through smell without having my sight to inform me. The current area I was in smelled like wood, soot and hints of iron. I didn’t like it, so I moved on. The next distinct area was leather and steel scented and I heard the ringing of metal, similar to a smithy. It was pleasant, but I didn’t really feel a draw towards it. I continued in my search, and the next area I came to smelled primarily of blood. I could hear the pitter-patter of liquid dripping, and the sounds of a weapon being unsheathed, striking and being resheathed quickly. This was more interesting to me, but I kept moving along, thinking I might find something better.

I was in an area that smelled like the wild now. Trees, dirt, grass, smoke, ash were all familiar smells, reminding me of survival training and camping. There was a pull here! I could feel the slightest pressure upon my hand, and I raised it up in front of me. The tugging sensation became stronger when I did, but there were a number of things that seemed to be pulling. Without the twins to guide me, I figured I’d play hot and cold with the sensation. I started waving my hand around to try and feel if the sensation was stronger in one particular direction over others in front of me.

Simply waving didn’t seem to be helping narrow down things much at all, so I went back to focusing on the smell and sound. Moving my hand to my left, I could pick up a whistling whoosh sound like something being swung around. It had a middleweight pull to it. I lowered my hand downwards, and I could smell cracked stones and hear the bass-laden thud of something crashing into the ground. Less of a pull here. Next I moved my hand up high. The smell of wood and oil became strong, along with… bone? I could hear loud creaking build up to a very loud crack, and something whistled off into the distance. Medium pull. I tried swinging my hand to the right last. I heard a long rasp, and… something hard to place. Creaking leather, perhaps? The smell drew both my nose and hand towards it strongly! It smelled like blood, like many of the ones I’d visited, but there was also the scent of meat and bone, pungent sweat and the musk of monsters.

In reaching further towards the smell, my hand came in contact with cool metal. It felt raw, like it was barely worked under my fingertips, and there was a tingling energy radiating between my fingertips and the metal. This was the one, I was sure of it!

“I found it. There is a weird tingling when I touch it, and it pulled me in!”

I heard a pained sigh behind me, and Eilyen’s dour tone said: “You can’t be serious right now. Of course she has an affinity for that one. Why not, let’s throw common sense out the window entirely.”

“Shush, you! Senwyn, you can take your mask off now, I think you’re in for a surprise!” Phyara called out to me.

With my free hand I slid the strap of the mask up the back of my head and lifted the mask off my face.

What the hell!?

I was touching a sword…? I drew my hand back quickly from the surface of the weapon. It was a sword, but a sword made for giants! Even then it was absurd! The blade had to be nearly two feet wide, and eight to ten feet long! A single edge ran down the length, and the sharpened tip curled up to meet the spine directly. The handle was as thick as a boat oar and three feet long all on it’s own! I turned around and looked to my mentors for guidance. How was I supposed to use a weapon that was more than twice the size I was?

My eyes widened upon seeing the room that I was in. It was a large room, roughly square and maybe about thirty feet wide and deep. The ceiling was high at ten or twelve feet, and weapons of all kinds hung from every square inch of every wall. Mage lights hung from the ceiling and lit the gallery of war, making the walls glint and glimmer with all the polished and shining metal, wood and leather. Dozens of points of reflected lights were scattered on every surface in the room from where the light caught edges of swords, tips of spears or the polished head of a mace.

This is incredible! Not even a blacksmith’s shop has this wide selection of weapons. There’s things in here I’ve never even seen or heard of!

Eilyen snapped me out of my wall-gazing reverie when she asked: “Are you sure that was the one? Did you feel anything else pulling at you?”

I turned around and pointed at the biggest bow I’d ever seen, one that was nearly on the scale of that monster of a sword, saying: “That one I felt like… a medium sort of pull on? But there wasn’t anything else that really drew me in, no.” I turned back around to look at Eilyen, only to see her covering her face with one palm.

“What?” I asked, puzzled.

Phyara giggled and said: “You seem to be drawn to two weapons that require considerable strength to use. And well, you have to admit, it’s kind of funny when you look at those two weapon types, then back at you.”

“What even are they? I’ve never seen weapons like this on the streets or for sale at a blacksmith.”

Eilyen scrubbed her face with her palm, then dropped it with an exasperated sigh. “That type of sword is called a [Juggernaut Blade], and the bow is a [Giantsbane Bow]. They’re both [Exotic Weapons] that idiots try and use.”

Phyara turned and poked her sister in the chest with a snicker and said: “Well, it’s a good thing we don’t train idiots then, isn’t it?”

Eilyen gave her an annoyed look and huffed, then turned to me: “Alright, there is a zero percent chance that you can train with either of those weapons. I’ll have to go look in storage and try and find you the smallest and lightest [Juggernaut Blade] I can find that we have. And you simply aren’t capable of using the bow, I’m sorry. I still think your god is pranking you or something, but to ignore an affinity is to seriously stunt your growth, so we’ll go with it. Somehow.”

Phyara motioned me over and held out her hand. I took off the ring while I walked over and placed both items in her palm. Not specifically addressing either of them, I asked the pair: “Why can’t I use the bow? Wouldn’t it be much lighter than the sword?”

Phyara covered her mouth and tittered while Eilyen practically marched out of the room. “Hold your arms wide open like you’re flying,” she told me.

I did as she asked, looking slightly confused.

“There you go. That’s how wide your arms are, yes? Now look at the bow and visualize the distance of the draw if you wanted to pull the bow fully.”

Oh gods. You’d have to be pretty damn big to even draw the bow in the first place. So why do I have an affinity for it? Hmm. Wait a moment, there’s that title and species modifier I have. Am I supposed to shapeshift to be able to use them? I don’t even know how to shapeshift in the first place!

Phyara must have seen the realization written on my face, because she told me: “You look like you figured something out. You can tell me about it on the way! Follow me, we’re going to go ahead and start getting you outfitted with some things while Eilyen goes and dives into the treasure trove. She’s going to have to dig through so much stuff to even get to where those swords are stashed, hehehe!”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“She’s going to take this out on me later, isn’t she?” I asked, already dreading the thought.

“Probably!” Phyara told me in her normal cheery tone.

We only walked a few doorways down the hall, took a right and then stepped through another doorway into a brightly lit room filled with glass display cases. A chair and small table sat off to one corner, and the table had some spooky looking tools on it. My eyes widened as I got to look into the display cases: they were filled with all different kinds of jewelry! Earrings, chains, bracelets, jeweled bracers, anklets and ankle bracers and rings. So, so many rings. There was hundreds of them!

“Don’t you worry about security here? This door isn’t even locked, and the main door isn’t locked either. What’s to keep thieves from just sneaking in here when it’s quiet and cleaning your company hall out?” I asked.

Phyara was going around from display case to display case, picking through various jewelry with thoughtful hums. She picked a few odds and ends out and started setting them on a velvet-lined tray as she told me: “Oh, you’re not wrong in saying that someone could easily break in here and lift a good amount of valuable loot from us. The thing is, thieves run in their own little circles and groups, and they are a very talented and talkative bunch. Have you ever heard of the phrase ‘honor among thieves?’”

Oh, I certainly had, and her analysis was spot on. Professional thievery was the work of groups, each member of the ring specializing in their own area. She was busy looking through the cases still, so I said: “Yes, I’m familiar with it.”

“Well, that is one part of it. We happen to have two or three members who are highly regarded within their community, and stealing from them would be a sign of great disrespect. But that doesn’t keep out everyone, of course. There’s plenty of those who have less scruples, who will do their own partners bad, or may not have any partners at all.”

“So you just soak up the losses from the independents and backstabbers?” I asked.

“Well… not usually, but that has happened a time or two, sure! Generally our reputation keeps out the little rats, and you’re also assuming that thieves make it out of the building, hehe!”

Well, hmm. That would deter thieves if the people who robbed the place tended to go missing. Ghoulish, but effective, I can respect it.

“Take a seat, darling! I’m going to poke you full of holes, hehe!” Phyara announced to me in her cheery tones.

I walked over, took a seat in the chair and eyed the tools sitting in the tray on the table warily. I thought it was dental equipment at first, but I realized that it was just some odds and ends to do piercings with. The needle looked like it came straight from a leather shop though. I wasn’t looking forward to that one bit.

Phyara came over to me with some jewelry laid out on her tray and looked back and forth at my ears. Then she leaned in super close and peered into my eyes. My blush was automatically deployed by her proximity, and it was only with a will of cast iron that I kept my eyes planted on hers and not at the ridiculous display she was presenting down the front of her dress. She stood back up abruptly and smiled warmly at me, saying: “I absolutely love your changes! They’re so lovely!” I stared at the display case behind her and nodded numbly. I’d witnessed plentiful perky bouncy when she’d righted herself and I thought I felt my soul slipping away.

“Oh, you shouldn’t feel embarrassed by your changes! Really! They’re wonderful and suit you so well!” She admonished me.

Yes. Embarrassed. I’m extremely embarrassed right now. I’m so self-conscious, that’s it, mhm.

I mumbled out an apology and looked at what she’d picked out. It was all really nice, but my eyes were drawn a few pieces that were carved from pristine white shell.

“Oh, I was wondering which set you’d like, I went out on a limb and took a few guesses at things that might suit you with what I know about you and your changes so far! What do you think?!” She asked me.

“I’m not sure I like the bright silvery stuff. The gold is nice, it would give me a little splash of color, but I like the natural materials the most. The shell is nice, but I also like wood and amber types of stuff as well!”

“Oh, a lady after my own heart! I love non-metallic jewelry as well!” Phyara was practically squealing with joy, and I wound up breaking into a broad grin because of it.

“Right, so! We have a selection of options to choose from, but these are all basically what we consider to be basic requirements for everyone! First and foremost, a dimension storage space ring. Pick anything that catches your eye from this row right here…” Phyara indicated with her finger as she spoke. There were a number designs to pick from. There was a gold band with inky black scrollwork running around it that I liked, so I pointed it out and Phyara slid it to the side.

“Next up, pick a pair of earrings from this column.” I picked the seashells carved to look like feathers with winding curvy stem that served as the hook. “Great, and now one set from this column, too.” I saw two tiny long rectangular wooden earrings with runes carved into each side of the wood, and picked those.

Phyara smiled at me and asked me: “Okay, last set you have options on! Either four earrings or three rings from any of these columns…” She pointed out four columns of gemstone stud earrings. “…Or these rings over here,” and she indicated the last three columns on the right most side of the tray, each with six or so rings to choose from.”

“How does it work if I want to mix and match?” I asked.

“Two earrings for one ring. If you want my suggestion, I’d go with the earrings,” Phyara told me.

“Why, are they more powerful than the rings?”

“Nope! You’d just look good with a variety of jewelry in those lovely ears of yours! Now tell me, would you rather recover health, stamina or mana faster?”

“Earrings it is then, and uhm, health seems obvious? I can live while tired, but I can’t get stamina back when I’m dead,” I said, inflecting a question with my tone at the end.

“It’s not a trick question, being able to fight harder for longer because you have better stamina or mana regeneration really equates to being able to survive more blows. Whenever you’re in a fight, it’s a contest to see who kills the other first, yes? So being able to kill faster is equally as good as being able to survive longer.”

I’ve never really thought about it that way, but it does make sense. Hm, she’s the expert, I’ll tell her to pick for me.

“Go with what you think is the best for me, then. You know far more than a level ten [Fighter] when it comes to this stuff,’ I admitted.

“Okay! Now that we have things that you like picked out, let’s get all of these installed! Did you have any piercings before your ears changed? I never got a chance to look before.”

I shook my head while she set the tray down and picked up some tools and wiped them down with a solution and a cloth. She dipped her fingers in the solution afterwards and ran it along the lower edge of the hanging flap my new ears had. I stiffened and let out an “Eep!” when she did. The solution was cold, but the flesh of my new ears was sensitive in a way that was decidedly not unpleasant. Phyara giggled at me, and I did my best to try and relax while she cleaned the skin.

I’m butchering my fifth plains deer back at work right now, and I’m covered in blood and guts and the smell makes me want to throw up so bad… There, that’s better, oof.

While I distracted myself thinking revolting thoughts I felt Phyara still playing with my first ear, then she went over to play with the second. I really hoped that she’d get on with doing the piercing before I wound up embarrassing myself. She fiddled with my ears on my right side for just as long, then stood up and said: “Okay! All done!”

I rapidly blinked my eyes and brought a hand up to feel my ears and… wow, she wasn’t joking. They were all in, and I had two hanging earrings and two studs in each ear. She held up a mirror for me to check out the new look. The hanging earrings were neatly side by side down where my lobule used to be, right under the entrance to my ear canal. All four of the gemstone studs were out closer to the tips of my ear, with one red and one blue stone on my left side, and golden stones on my right side. I covered my mouth and felt like I might wind up getting teary-eyed, but I was able to blink back the water welling up in my eyes. I never thought that I’d ever get the chance to wear such pretty jewelry in my life. Even if I’d made it as an adventurer, I’d be consigned to the cheapest of the cheap sterling silvers and alloys.

Phyara gently ruffled my hair, and I laughed. She handed me the ring and said: “Wear it anywhere you like, it’ll size automatically, but generally it’s easier to take things out of storage with your hands and not your feet. Have you ever used one before?” I slipped it on my left middle finger and the band shrunk down to a nice snug fit.

“So the dimensional storage I picked out for you is a ten foot cube space. It has enchantments on it to prevent spoilage and contamination, so feel free to toss meat, clothing, weapons, whatever you want in there. Food and drink won’t spoil, and things won’t make a mess in there. Toss it in, it’ll automatically sort and arrange itself to maximize the use of the space.”

“Yeah, but how do I actually like… you know, access it?” I asked.

“Oh! You’ll have a new entry on your inventory called dimensional storage. Just open that and you should get a visual representation of everything that’s in there. If you wind up storing tons and tons of stuff in there, it might get pretty cluttered and have a big, long display of things to search through though, so be mindful of it!” Phyara told me.

She held out her hand and a golden yellow apple appeared in it. She held it out to me with a smile on her face. I took it, then tried to use my interface. Surely enough, all I had to do was access my inventory and there was the option to select dimensional storage. When I did, I saw a large, dark gray semi-transparent box fill a chunk of my vision and I pictured putting my apple in it. Poof! Just like that it was gone from my hand in instant, and I had a golden yellow apple icon represented in the top left of the box. Holding the pose my hand was in, I selected the apple and it popped directly into my grip.

This is child’s play. I would have thought it was far more complicated than this!

I handed the apple back to Phyara and she winked at me and took a bite of it. I closed out the interface in my vision and stood up. When she’d swallowed her bite of apple, she told me: “We’ll leave here in a moment, but just so you know, what I outfitted you with was a [Whisper Rune] earring, a [Petrify] immunity ring, a [Curse] and [Doom] resistance earring, one mana regeneration, one health regeneration and two stamina regeneration earrings.”

[Petrify] is basically instant death, unless someone knows where you are and has the ability to remove the condition. [Curse] trashes your stats until it is removed, and I have no idea what [Doom] does. Being able to ignore or be better protected against any of those three is a huge relief.

“What is [Doom]?” I asked.

“Any time you get either [Curse] or [Doom] you should call for help or exit the tower and come here right away, unless you know what the [Curse] does and you’ve prepared for it. [Doom] sits on you for a while and then after some random amount of time has elapsed, it will drop your maximum health to a single hit point until it is removed.” Phyara told me as she opened the door and held it for me to make my exit.

“That is insane! What are you supposed to do if you get that in the middle of doing a dungeon or something?!”

Phyara grinned over her shoulder at me as we walked down a second floor hallway and rounded a corner. “Well, it’s aptly named, isn’t it? You’re doomed if that happens! In all seriousness, you have ample time to get out of the tower and have it addressed before it will take effect, but don’t ever make the mistake of thinking you’re good to fight just one more monster. If you get it, immediately stop whatever you’re doing and leave. It’s that simple. It’s a status that kills cocky adventurers.”

We headed through a swinging double door and entered a gymnasium. There was a variety of weights, giant metal balls, stones, logs and timber beams to exert yourself with. Fiber ropes hung down from the ceiling along one wall, with a variety of challenge ratings. One that was thick and had equally thick knots, a thick one, a thin one and a thin one that looked oiled. There were poles of similar types of challenges to climb. A full quarter of the quite large space was dedicated to a forest of log poles about a foot in diameter, and interspersed through the log poles were bamboo poles that were maybe three inches in diameter. All of the poles were securely anchored into the floor and were distributed in some kind of pattern that left enough space to fall between them while still providing room to move around. There was even one full wall of different types of stone to climb!

“You like it, huh?” Phyara asked me with a big grin plastered on her face.

“This is awesome! You can do all sorts of training here without having to go out into the city or the Tower! Do you use it often?”

“Oh yes. And trust me, you might love it here now, but you will absolutely hate it at times, too. Perrick comes in here often and changes things up, just so that it continues to provide a challenge to people.”

Phyara looked to the side and said: “We’re in the gymnasium right now” very softly. If I wasn’t standing right next to her and in a quiet space, I’d never had made it out, even with hearing that seemed to be getting better by the day. A minute or two later Eilyen walked in with a monster of a sword slung over her shoulder. A stout looking leather harness hung from the middle of it. Once the absurdly large blade cleared the doors, she set it on the floor next to the wall with a huff and stood back upright.

“You’d better be thankful for that. It’s the smallest one I could find, and the lowest level, too, since they tend to scale in size based on their tier. It’s a level 150 weapon, so should have some time to grow into it.” Eilyen turned to me and continued: “You’re going to be training with it full time, so I suggest getting used to carrying it. In fact, all the exercises we’ll be having you do, you’re going to be doing with that strapped onto your back. It’s generally good to get used to the feeling of having your weapon on you when training, but in your case, you’re going to need all the help you can get with building the strength that monstrosity is going to require.

I nodded, glanced between the two elves and braced myself. Speaking slowly, I told them: “There are a lot of things that are changing on my character sheet, with my skills and titles, everything, and I don’t understand most of it. I told you I’d settle up with you two so you knew everything and could give me good advice. Can we do that now?”

Eilyen glanced over at Phyara, and I could swear they were having a conversation with just their eyes. Eventually she looked back over to me and nodded, saying: “Yes, let’s go sit down someplace comfortably, this is probably going to take a while. We’ll be coming back here when we’re done, or maybe getting lunch first, depending.

Phyara beamed a huge smile over at her sister and clapped her hands once, declaring: “Hooray, let’s use Eilyen’s fancy office!”

Eilyen’s eyes nearly rolled all the way back up into her head and she let out a loud sigh. Not saying a word, she just turned around and walked out of the gym, and Phyara snickered and motioned for me to follow along.