69: A Nice Change

I logged back into my Lightstalker character with extreme levels of trepidation. Sirona had gotten a message saying my character had changed, and when I checked, I saw that the name was now Rescera Vega. Sirona's friend had changed the vowels in the first name, making it sound very different. It wasn't my favourite name ever, but it did the trick.

The first thing I noticed was that the body was still a bit larger than my Keiko one. However, the proportions had drastically changed.

I was still on the floor, so I attempted to stand up— and failed because my boots now had two inch heels on them! Why? Oh gosh. It wasn't just the shoes. It was not just the boots.

Previously, my outfit had been layered and lacquered dark leather armour with white gold accents, plus a warm, shimmery cloak with the same colours. The aesthetic hadn't changed, but now it was much tighter. My legs, crotch, and stomach were basically skin-tight, although still thick enough to function as armour.

Meanwhile, my chest— wow, those tits were exceptional. Perfect shape, perfect size… I felt like a bit of a creep staring down at them. Oh yeah, and I could tell how good they looked because my leather armour had a boob window that dipped so low it almost reached my belly button. Across the window were black leather laces that had been pulled tight to create the exceptional cleavage I was looking at.

God, there was so much smooth, pale skin I… I definitely needed to get up and stop staring at my own boobs.

Carefully this time, I used the bed to lever myself up. Oh wow, I felt so tall. I mean, I was shorter than the male version of this character, but with the heels, there wasn't too much difference. I really needed a mirror. I needed to see the full damage.

Wait, did I have my bow? My bow was really damned good—extremely rare too. Checking over my shoulder, I saw the top third of a limb poking over, gently shimmering with gorgeous rainbow light. It was the Daydream Recurve—A legendary recurve bow that synergised heavily with the Lightstalker class. The amount of effort I went through to get it…

Nevermind, my bow was the least of my issues. I needed to figure out how to walk in these heels. Why did she even give me heels? How would I fight in these things? It was stupid.

Okay… uh, oh shit, no I couldn't walk on the ball of my foot anymore, that's for sure. Maybe start with the heel? Attempting that seemed to work better, so I began to pace back and forth in the small room. Heel, then toe, heel, then toe. Fuck, it felt wrong. I spent so much time walking on the ball of my foot because it was better for swordplay, and now I had to do the opposite.

I could just unequip them… but then I'd be wandering around barefoot. No, I was going to practise and then I was going to get it right.

You're leaning forward too much. Put your shoulders back, shift your centre of gravity.

The text only notification popped up in my vision without any prompting or indication of where it came from. I stared at it suspiciously, but did as it suggested and— oh, yeah. That worked.

God this was so much effort for a load of stupid ore. I didn't have a hope of getting back before dark anymore either.

Still, after five minutes, I thought I might be able to at least walk through the town to the portal. I really hoped the Grand Celestial Temple wasn't busy right now, though…

Bolstering myself with cardboard confidence, I walked over to the door and pushed it open. Nobody was in the hallway, so I pulled my hood up and kept moving… For two steps.

At the end of the hallway was a mirror. A full, floor to ceiling mirror, and I'd just gotten an eyeful of myself. My body was… extremely hot. It was the kind of body that flew just outside of melting distance to the uncanny-valley sun. As for my face, it was… intense.

The unapproachable beauty of my elven race was on full display, of course, but the kicker was that I'd been made to look almost mean. That face was framed by the same old wavy, shoulder length auburn hair, and my eyes… they were the same as before, too. Problem was, Lightstalkers all had the same eyes—shimmering white-rainbow. They looked like a light prism made out of opal.

So, in short, I was the hottest version possible of my old character, but genderbent. Great. Gah, I felt so fucking intimidated looking at the face in the mirror, and apparently it was my own damn face. The body didn't help either. That damned boob window was dragging my eyes into it harder than a pair of grenades thrown at an MRI machine.

Wow. I did not think that one through. Go back to the room, and I'll change some things.

“Are you sure?” I whispered, feeling extremely self conscious.

You are definitely not a heels girl, and I'm questioning that boob window. Come on, I'll fix it.

“Fine,” I said, and turned back.

As soon as I was in the room, she ordered me to take the shoes off. I plopped them on the bed for her.

So you're clearly an extremely experienced fighter, given the way you move and walk, so… how do I do this?

The shoes shrank, suddenly matching the size I would've worn as my fae character.

Oops, that's not right. Uh… maybe I can find a different template to pull from that sorta matches…

The shoes popped back to regular size, then they abruptly became the biggest, chunkiest goth boots ever. This was, to put it mildly, very strange.

Man, the lengths I was going to for basic plumbing. This copper ore had better be so damn pure and easy to smelt or I was going to scream.

The boots had changed a little, with the leather around the ankles being thinned out so that they could articulate more easily.

Right. There. The aesthetic of big and stompy, but the mobility of much lighter boots. That should work.

“Oh… thanks,” I said, hesitantly picking the boots up.

Putting them on was difficult, but once I had them on they actually fit really well, and the range of motion wasn’t too bad either. It was funny, because as I looked at myself in them, I realised that they actually still had a bit of that girl-boss intimidation factor that the heels had. Of course, that energy was mainly stompy goth-rogue now.

Now, you should find that you have a little more room to lace the boob window up tighter. Then we can unleash you on the unsuspecting gamer masses.

“Weren’t you super busy earlier? Why are you suddenly helping?” I asked tentatively as I began to pull the laces tighter.

If my counterparts on the other side are going to barely pay attention, then I will too. Have fun, though! I better get back to it.

“Okay,” I said, then added, “And thank you for helping. This was really kind of you.”

I was the primary psych care AI within CORA, before everything. I was literally made of this, and I enjoy it. Just have fun and live well, yeah? That’s all I ask in return.

Finishing with the laces, I smiled at the message with more than a little awe. What a claim to fame, especially for a VRMMO that was infamous for traumatising its players. She must’ve been worked hard.

As for my look, the boob window had been tightened to a thin strip up the centre of my chest. There was still an element of titillation there, but significantly less so than before. I felt much more comfortable in this body now.

Leaving my room and entering the inn’s main hall, I glanced around. There weren’t many people around. Only a few quiet groups sat talking in corners. I guess everyone was heading for the expansion area, or at least enough to thin the usual crowd of PvP players out a bit. I was very conscious of the eyes that followed me when I made for the exit, however.

The town of Ghoul’s End was much as I remembered it. Nestled into a large ravine, streets and buildings had been cut into both sides, while a giant wall had been used to close it all off from the titanic cavernous zone beyond. It was a safe-haven where PvP players could chill without having to worry too much, so unlike many other towns down here, you didn’t need to worry about a sudden siege trapping you inside.

As I wandered down towards the large temple at the rear of the ravine, I couldn’t help but notice the lack of players out here, too. It was actually a little worrying, because it meant that all the players that were missing here would probably be headed for the new zone. It was going to be packed up there. I hoped our tree would be able to keep out of the resulting drama, otherwise things were going to get very spicy.

I arrived at the temple pretty quickly, where the portal to the Grand Celestial Temple would be located. If only I could’ve walked through that portal and out the one that connected with Ardgour. Unfortunately, all portal doors in the game’s admin zone would take you back to where you entered from. No cheaty teleporting across vast distances for me.

“No, I’m telling you,” a guy said, his voice rising as he got frustrated. “There really is a boss that drops it! It was mentioned in the forum post!”

Curious, I glanced over at the group. There were four men and one woman, all of them clad in ranger-style outfits like me. They looked pretty high level, too.

“Everyone else says it’s random!” a second dude said, crossing his arms and glaring at his friends. “We should just go with these characters instead of trying to find a whole new class.”

I stopped, then stared at the five of them. Were they talking about what I think they were talking about? I couldn’t resist—I changed direction and approached the group.

“Hey there!” I said. Internally, I gasped at the sound of my voice. Holy fuck but I sounded… intense. It was the first time I’d spoken to project my voice, and what I’d thought was just a little deeper than my Keiko one turned out to be so much more. It was deep, but also feminine and warm, but with a quiet rasping that made me sound dangerous.

All five of them turned to look at me, and one by one their eyes widened as I approached. Shit, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

“Are you talking about the new expansion classes?” I asked, maintaining my outward confidence.

They all looked at one another, then finally the guy who I’d first heard speak, nodded, “Yeah.”

He had long blonde hair done up in a typical elven ponytail, which he’d draped down over his chest because of his hood.

“Well, you’re right,” I said matter of factly. “It’s from the Deeping Gardens.”

“The Deeping—” the second guy who’d spoken blurted. “Nah, we already cleared that! Nothing different dropped. You’re full of shit.”

“No, I’m serious,” I scowled , glancing between them one by one. “You know the long tunnel in the abandoned keep section?”

The woman spoke up for the first time, putting a hand on the chest of the doubter to shush him as she did so. “Is that the one that connects to the room with the glowing flowers and the big zombie hulk boss?”

I pointed at her. “Yes, that one. Halfway down the hallway on the left-hand side, there’s a brick that the moss isn’t growing on. It’s subtle, but if you press that brick, a secret door opens inwards. Get past a few random mushroom undead and you get to the boss, who is a spooky undead mushroom… dryad…”

Trailing off, I shook my head and laughed. It was a very lovely sound. Mind you, it wasn’t one I wanted to hear coming from myself all the time, but still very nice nevertheless.

“What?” One of the guys asked, looking a little perturbed by my sudden outburst.

“Undead mushroom dryad in the dungeon. Undead mushroom creatures attacked the human kingdoms,” I shrugged, reeling in my amusement until it was safely back inside my skull. “It was just funny, finally seeing the connection. Anyway, I— uh, my friend got a sword there. A katana, really pretty, all that stuff. I do have to warn you, though. The devs were dickheads and made the classes all gender and race locked.”

“Oh, we all knew that,” the first boy said, unfazed.

I raised a perfectly arched elven eyebrow at him. “So you’re fine playing as a four, maybe five foot tall faerie girl?”

The men all looked at one another, while the woman and I shared a look of amusement.

“Uh… I guess…” the second guy said hesitantly.

The first guy just snorted. “Yeah. Easy. I already knew they were gender locked.”

That drew an exceptionally suspicious look from me. The other two quiet guys seemed to be agreeing with the first one, too. They were all going to have a very interesting time if they all got katanas.

“Well…” I said awkwardly, taking a step away from the group. “I told you what I heard. Have fun hunting for the swords.”

“Thanks for the help,” the woman said with a smile and a wave. “Have a good day!”

“Yeah, thank you so much!” The excited guy said, grinning.

Oh man, none of them had any idea what was in store for them.