Getting used to this feminine body took some time, but I still managed to accomplish the task. Although the extra weight on my chest is annoying, I don't plan on doing a self-surgery and potentially killing myself trying to remove them. Regeneration can only go so far, after all, and should I fail and accidentally injure my heart, that would be an almost assured death.

Naturally, I hadn't remained a sitting duck and instead had already moved out of the volcano. As of right now, I was flying over the large expanse of land surrounding the volcano in search of a place with civilization of any kind. 

The sight was beautiful. Magnificent ancient trees stood with roots digging into the mantle of this planet, crystal clear lakes gave the liquid of life to many different species of animals, beautiful birds sang their lovely songs... It truly was a sight to behold, and behold I did.

I take back my statement of not being a sitting duck. I think I stood still, glass-eyed, for how long? An hour? Two? I don't know, but I do know that this sight brought the memories of my ancestral home back. I would be lying if I claimed I didn't miss those times, back when I wasn't a slave of a power-hungry, selfish and ruthless Emperor.

Sighing, I resumed my flight towards the unknown. Although I had been standing still mid-air for a while, nothing seemed to have spotted me, which was definetly good. I prefere being the one doing the first move.

----------------------------------------

It didn't take me too long to find a small village. Spotting it from a couple miles away, I descended to the ground and stalked my way over to the place.

When I say small village, I truly say small village. I doubt there were any more then a couple hundred buldings at most, and it's 'walls' were nothing more then some small palisades made of wooden sticks around the edges.

I crept around for a bit, gathering information by listening in to the conversation between the few farmers here and there and by comparing it to what I knew.

The language wasn't a problem, as in order to make it easy, the game had a built-in translator for everyone, NPC's included, so that everybody could understand each other. 

The people here were mostly humans with a couple half-elfs and beastmen. Halfs were often resented due to their inherent nature, however, it didn't seem as such in this village. Beastmen were the same story, albeit a bit less, and again they were treated normally. A rare sight in a game made by human supremacists, but again, this isn't a game anymore.

Deciding to take the gamble, I grabbed my makeshift clothes as well as some gems I had made on the get-go by condensing lava and other materials into what I think people would consider 'valuable'. I had ossidian, hematite, gypsum, gold, peridot and fluorite. Although back in the old world these things were worthless, I have reasons to believe that these may be valuable.

After all, I'm not a stranger to finding out what is valuable or not. We once used a strategy where we planted several gold mines on a planet and instigated the natives to go to war with each other over them, severely weaking them and then taking them down in one fell swoop.

Shaking away the darkness that are my doubts and reminding myself that confidence is a must, I exit from the forest and enter the village like I belong here.

There are no guards to check who enters, nor does anyone stop me. However, almost everyone does stop and stare at me, especially men, which confuses me.

That confusion only lasts a couple seconds, however. Back in my world, people often made themselves very pretty artificially, and beauty levels like that of this body were considered normal, sub-par, even. However, in a world as primitive as this, it naturally wouldn't be considered normal.

Not that it bothers me. Rather, this is one more advantage up my sleeve to use. As I walk around the small town, I check out all sorts of places, and though there isn't really any order in where things are, there are a couple 'important' buildings that stand out.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

One place is the adventurer's guild, which in a place as remote as this, probably only stays here due to the meager profits without competition. Another building would be the mayor's house, obviously. Then, lastly, there is an expensive house even more luxurious then that of the mayor, which I assume is in case some very important people come over.

Some people did look at me weirdly, but I ignored them and arrived in front of the mayor's house. 

Knocking on it, a butler-cum-assitant looking guy opened the door. He frowned when he saw me, but still aked "Yes? I haven't seen you around before."

Doing a small bow, I introduced myself "Hello. My name is... Via. I come from a very long journey, and haven't been able to contact civilization for a very long time. I would like to speak to the mayor about my lodging here for a while."

The man seemed doubtful at first, even pitying, however, that quickly changed when I showed him some of my 'gems'. He immediately excused himself politely and let me enter before bringing me in front of the mayor. Nnn? That sounded wrong? Wrong is a matter of perspective.

I was left out of a room for a couple minutes as, thanks to my great hearing, listened to the butler go on about how I was a beauty whom had travelled far and wide and had come with great riches. Truly makes you wonder who the man in charge is in this place, but what can you do.

After several minutes, the butler-cum-assistant opened the door and led me in. The room was quite bland, except for a very antique desk where a slightly plump man sat at. He looked at me with interest as I sat down in front of him.

The first to break the ice was him as he introduced himself after a slight cough. "Good afternoon, miss Via. I was told that you have been cut off from civilization for quite a while, and are seeking refuge here. Am I correct?"

I nodded, ignoring the fat man's grin. "That's great. It's very rare to get new blood in such a remote place as this, but do tell me of what you did during your... 'travels'."

"I travelled around the world, seeking the wisdom of the Overlords, the might of the Titans, the beauty of the Mermaids and the greatness of the Gods."

This was one of the secrets I knew. Only nobles knew what all of this phrase meant, and naturally, knew the meaning behind it.

The man paled a bit and said "O-oh... I-is that so..." 

My eyes narrowed dangerously as I said "Indeed, for the wisdom of the ancients may bless the newborn." As I finished saying this, a strange aura erupted from my body. The man seemed to have lost half of his remaining years.

The man practically prostrated as he whispered "M-mighty Ancient Hero, I beg your forgiveness for not welcoming you in a better manner..."

All of what I had said was what the developers in the game world, or 'Ancient Heroes' as the mayor calls them, would say in order to make even kings obey them. Naturally, it was a complete and utter cheat, but as a developer, I didn't play the game in order to win, nor did I do it for fun. Not even for money, really. I just needed a job.

All NPC's knew of this phrase, but the very code of the game forbid them from ever speaking of it to anybody, and naturally, us developers wouldn't either. It was needed in order to get special events going or do what was needed without having to stop the game and have the programmers potentially mess up the extremely intricate code of the game.

"Speak no more. As I said, I am merely seeking a place to rest. My only wish is for you to give me a place to stay for a while. I won't stay here for long, only around a couple thousand years." I said, realizing that I just said something I shouldn't have.

"T-thousand years...?" The man seemed to tremble. By this point, it wasn't even fear anymore. He was trembling from a mixture of excitement and reverence. 

He even began whispering "An Ancient Hero is in my town... hehe...", which I ignored as I said "Do you understand?"

Recovering, he immediately acknowledged my plans. I gave him my gems in exchange for money and a house, nothing special, but still good. He also was gentle enough to give me some local information, which I may or may not have dug out of him. Unfortunately for him, he ended up blurting out a whole lot of very important things, which means I now have a whole lot of very important things that should not be known by anyone. Shameless abuse of authority? Perhaps this world is different from my previous one, and shame has turned tasty?

As I left the mayor's building, I headed straight for the place the mayor gave me. After a couple minutes of walking, I finally reached it.

It wasn't anything much, really. It was shabby, run-down, and the interior decorations sucked. Still, I could make it better. Although I would like to have some corpses to dismember and use in the decoration, I doubt these people would like it. I was essentially forced to abandon that habit when I 'joined' the military back in my world. It's a shame, really, as skulls really work well at calming my racial bloodthirst down.

Well, this all will have to happen tomorrow, as for now, I'm going to sleep. Too much happend today, and hopefully, I won't just wake up in yet another weird world tomorrow, as I quite like the idea of trying out what this world is like, and perhaps experience this body more...