We reached a city by nightfall. I’d changed back to being a girl. It was easier being a rich girl with a slave than being a guy with no identification when entering a city at night.

They had a line. Adventurers, probably. And some merchants too? Hmm… the actual walls were pretty similar to that village. What was the name? Lamin, lumen, something? Anyway, this place was kind of similar but the wooden trunks were wider and the top actually had greenery. These things were alive. But plants couldn’t survive that close, right? So, magic?

After some fake tears we made it past the imposing guards and entered the city. Wide unpaved roads, some carriages, wooden and stone houses positioned in a very consistent way. Lots of people and although mostly human, there were some shorter people here and there; shorter as in half the size of typical people. Yeah, this seemed like a city. A fantastical city. Why? Because not only did we have pets walking around, we also had pets flying about. What sort of pets you might ask?

Well, let me give some hints. Scales, reptilian in nature and with wings!

Dragons!

Yes but no. Fuck, they’re dinosaurs.

Almost all the dinos here had feathers on top of their scaly ass skin. And the vast majority of the stuff were small. Like chicken small. Okay maybe not that small. Turkey, yeah, turkey! The flying ones were pretty small too. The ones on the ground had wings but they didn’t seem to be flying. They were running alongside the people like they were born to do this.

“Aren’t there any bigger ones?” I asked, to one in particular.

“There might be some in the dungeon,” Sen said. “What now though? Find an inn? Do you have money?”

“I don’t but our friends did,” I said, producing a pouch from underneath my dress. Obviously, there was nothing there but I manifested it at the very last moment. As for money, well, I knew the basic shape of money in this world and since I could now synthesize gold and silver and… basically, I could make all the money in the world if I wanted. I just needed enough mana to make the coins. Since I didn’t have a lot of it though, I opted to make two silver coins and one gold coin. That was it and it was probably enough for a month.

Like any typical fantasy city, the first few buildings were mostly catered towards adventures and travelers. Inns, hotels, restaurants, taverns, bars and such. I liked some of the inns but the hotels seemed like a better place to stay at. And they advertised double beds and stuff, so I chose that one. One week for a double room cost about five silvers, aka, half of a gold coin. Gold coins were basically like $1k, so that was a considerable chunk of money. I can make infinite amounts though.

A wooden desk and a counter. They had a waiting room with some people. I didn’t get any sort of suspicion from anyone. Which was odd. I wasn’t getting any lascivious glances either. Do I look ugly right now or something? Maybe I’d messed up my face when reconstructed this body?

I made it up to the third floor where our room was. It was still early, so most of the rooms were vacant. Or maybe since it was expensive here, people didn’t stay here? Either way, good for us.

Our room was spacious and had two beds right next to each other. We could join them if need be. I didn’t have that need, so I opted to not give a fuck.

The room had nothing though. Not even a table. At least they were gracious enough to provide a lamp.

Not that I needed one.

“We could have gotten good food from the inns,” Sen said, falling backwards on her bed with a satisfied moan. “But I have to agree, I love the privacy of these fancy hotels.”

“Privacy. So that’s why people avoided eye contact.” I searched for a mirror, there wasn’t one. So, I produced a mirror on my hand from polished silver and… I looked about the same. Sen had already seen me transform my body partially, but she chose to not dwell on that. Very suspicious but I chose to just watch for now.

“Yeah, you would have gotten a lot of looks from the people at the inns,” she said. “I said I won’t ask questions but, are you a girl or a guy?”

 “I’m a guy,” I said, changing into a guy. The dress went into the inventory, so I was pretty bare skinned. Which prompted her to look away with flushed cheeks. “But I don’t like this look. I can’t change the muscle composition and since I wasn’t the one who achieved this-” I sighed. “It feels wrong. The girl version meanwhile is closer to my actual body; skinny and al.” I switched back and wore a pajama, cost about 2 mana.

Speaking of bodies, I tried but I only had options to either chose a thin girly body, or a large masculine one. It didn’t matter how many humans I absorbed, sigh.

“I really like your muscles…” She cleared her throat. “What happened to your-” She paused. “Sorry, I won’t ask questions.”

“It’s dead,” I said. “And don’t forget the rules. I don’t need sleep and I don’t need anything to stay alive. If you betray me-”

“You’ll eat me like them.”

“That’s right.”

She didn’t smile. She didn’t frown. She just stared at me. “I give you my word, I will never betray you. Even if it means cutting off my tail.”

“If you cut off your tail, I’ll fucking eradicate you.”

“I’m not a roach,” she snickered.

Rolling my eyes, I fell on the bed myself. “Feel free to order any food you like.” They had room service. And I had cash.

“I think I’ll pass. They cost too much money,” she said. We had some meat from earlier; we’d smoked it. No, she had some meat from earlier and was gladly chewing on it.

 As for me, my view was on the ceiling. I’d successfully cleared my first dungeon. I’d devoured a village. Found myself a pet with a fluffy tail.

But now what? I just keep doing this? Wouldn’t it get boring?

I could get overpowered and maybe take over the world. But what then? It wasn’t going to make any difference at all. I would feel the same, empty.

For now, I could conquer the dungeon here and that would keep my mind off things. But what about the next step? Did I even have a next step?

Be overpowered, conquer dungeons, have fun?

Have fun, huh?

Guess I’ll visit them busty elves afterward.

[Quest Visit Busty Elves, issued]