The Stitched Horror actually blew up upon death! This necromantic dungeon core is an asshole! I shut all the notifications down congratulating me and opened my eyes expecting to see a devastated landscape. Except, the landscape was fine. If anything, the trees looked a bit thicker. The only indication of the explosion was Bill’s tattered form lying a few feet from the now defeated horror. ‘I have to save Bill,’ I thought as I rushed over to check on him.
Other than the heavy plates of his armor being bent where he had taken hits he looked normal. Well, other than his skin turning grey and a bright neon green light traveling along his veins. As the timer in my head counted down the light corrupted more of his veins while his skin began to fade from gray to white. Was he turning into an undead? It sure looked that way. As if to verify that, a dungeon message appeared, *Corruption of Warrior of group three 25%*. Was he considered dead? If so I could use ‘Death is a Friend of Mine’ to revive him. ‘Come on Bill! Fight it!’ I thought as I touched his skin.
There was a soft ding from my closed display and his skin changed were I touched. It turned back, changing back from the pallid white to his normal sun-kissed bronze. It was just a patch no bigger than the palm of my hand but it gave me hope. I could save him. I heard people moving behind me. Looking back i saw James and Frigus looking at Bill and me. James had a worried look on his face while Frigus had a look of awe and wonder. I rested my hand on his cheek. That was about the only place he wasn’t armored. My hand felt warm and I saw golden light begin to fuse into his capillaries; a stark contrast to the neon green they had become. It wasn’t quick but the timer also slowed down. The golden light would move forward an inch only to be pushed back a half-inch. Slowly, a handprint was left where I had rested my hand. The golden light stopped moving and only resumed when I moved my hand to a new location.
Testing my theory, I placed my hand in a new location, his other cheek, and watched as my hand worked like magic. ‘Come on Bill! You need to survive. I don’t want to lose a friend.’ A drop of water landed on his face. “Quick help me remove his armor,” I said. While the timer had slowed down it had not stopped. I needed their help if I was going to save him. James didn’t hesitate and quickly moved. He took off Bill’s armor much quicker than I ever could. The buckles and straps that held it in place were more complex than I was use to and while I could have gotten it off it would have taken me longer.
Instead, I let James remove it and as soon as I could access Bill’s skin, I ran my hands along it. Arms, legs, chest… damn what I would have done to have those muscles in my last life. Well except the exercise. It was just too much work. I ran my hands along his body until I came to a certain place. I paused. Should I just stab him and then bring him back? That wouldn’t work either. I can’t kill people. Maybe I can have James stab him? Doubtful, gritting my teeth and closing my eyes, I moved my hand inside his underwear. I never ever thought I would be feeling up a guy but it is to save his life. Every time I paused the contamination would begin to spread.
I kept repeating in my head that in this world I was a doctor of sorts and doctors had to ignore genders and just save lives. I had to make sure everything was ‘touched’ and by the time a notification popped up showing he was cured my face was as red as a tomato. In a shaky voice, I said to James, “We never speak of this.” Then removed my hand and wiped the wetness from my eyes. He was alive. I didn’t lose another person.
It took Bill a few minutes to get up. He looked at me and then looked away. I did not know what he was thinking and probably didn’t want to. I closed my eyes and looked at the notifications.
*Congratulations for reaching Level 8*
*Choose your advantage* and underneath the notification there were hundreds of choices but most did not actually give me an advantage. Like ‘Spice of life’ where it added healing effects to anything I cooked. While it sounded nice, they’d have to actually eat it. For whatever reason nobody ever wanted to eat my cooking. While I admit Lilly cooked better than me, mine was still edible. Well, nobody ever died from it. I looked through the list and narrowed it down to my top ten that I thought could help me the most.
*The Sky’s the Limit - Increased flight speed and maneuverability
*Resistance is Futile - Removes enemies’ resistances to magic within casters aura
*All In - Put all your mana into just one spell amplifying it
*Skin Deep - Perfect control of your aura to the point where it can sit below your skin
*The Missing Link - Leave out one item while crafting or cooking and get the same results
*The Magic Touch - Any spell cast at touch will double in strength along with any other multiplier
*Peace of Mind - (Aura) protects the minds of anybody under the casters aura from mental attacks
*Never without my Permission - No deaths can happen within casters aura (time limit) *Requirement: Death is a Friend of Mine*
*Death Waits for No Man - siphon life energy of anyone *Requirement: Death is a Friend of Mine*
*Branching Out - Caster can access another magical class at master level
Each had their own appeal from extra healing, extra protection, better flight but I kept coming back to ‘Branching Out’. Another magic discipline would give me more versatility. The appeal of an extra god’s blessing was too much and after thinking about it for less than a minute I selected it. Another list of choices appeared of all the magic disciplines in this world. I have gone through them before when I visited the temples and finally chose Annos, God of Summons. Because of that I already had a narrow list of what I wanted; teleportation, body enhancement, divination, time manipulation, charm and druidic magic.
Charm was out. While it was high on my list before, it now creeped me out too much to even think of using it on another person. Teleportation and time manipulation were fantastic mainline powers but they used up too much energy so unless that was all I wanted to do in a fight both of those were also out. That left druidic, body enhancement and divination. Of those, druidic magic was based off charisma, divination was linked to both perception and wisdom, and body enhancement was, based off one of my worse stats, stamina. I really liked the idea of making myself super strong or super nimble but at the moment I would be mediocre at best in it. More to the point, I felt I needed information. I kept feeling I was missing things like ‘who was watching me?’, ‘What was the prince up to?’ and so on so the last two could help with that. Divination being the obvious choice but because of that there were more counters created against it.
But after hanging out with the druidic doctor at the medical center, I noticed something. He could talk with plants. I already knew they could talk to animals but plants? That amazed me and seriously who guards against a flower ratting you out? Then there was those stones he carved. They could store magical spells. Generally, he’d have to leave them in the forest for months to collect energy after assigning the spell but my ‘Healing Light’ spell charges them without the wait. So I could prep a few to use when I am running low on energy. The only limit would be weight. I also think, but am not certain that their herbalism and alchemy skills get a boost but that is more my guess than actual knowledge. They just all seem to know those skills. The down side to this choice was it was another medical class. They did tend to be a bit more versatile with some defensive, offensive and had a couple of nature based summonables but in the end, their main focus was healing over time. They could imbue magical salves, ointments and drinks to speed up natural healing that could last a few days based off the casters level.
The fact that I could prep the stones and healing salves beforehand would save me a lot of mana cost in the dungeons, allowing me to get the most use out of it. With that thought in mind, I selected druid magic. Perhaps the Gods knew I would since they named it ‘Branching Out’. Once I selected it, information flooded into my mind. It was not my first time experiencing this type of information dump so I knew what to expect. While it still sucked, as I felt my brain was trying to explode inside my skull, I was ready for it.
What I wasn't expecting was the pain in my lower abdomen. It was like two red hot pokers were stabbing into my ovaries. I soon forgot about the pain in my head as I doubled over with a groan. The pain pulsed and throbbed and then spread out like a river of fire that was slowly moving within my body. It moved up and down. I focused more on the downward movement because it hurt a hell of a lot more. I gave a soft whimper before biting my lip to keep from making any more noise.
All I could focus on was the pain and I lost track of the outside world. It wasn't until the pain faded that I became aware of a soft hand resting on my shoulder; unsure of how long it had been there or how long the pain lasted. The pain faded just as quickly as it started and I just felt spent. Soaked in sweat, I looked into Frigus' emotionless eyes, patted her hand and thanked her for her concern. At least, I think she was trying to comfort me. I couldn’t be sure since she wasn't the best at showing her emotions.
I pulled up my information and saw new spells had appeared along with some new skills. Something called ‘affinities’ also appeared and was linked to animal types but at the moment was blank. I suppose those would be the types of animals that liked me the most. I will go through all this new info when we camp.
I then moved onto the next notification *Activation of Compassionate Touch*. It was the second to last one followed by it announcing that it shut off a few minutes ago. That must have been the skill that saved Bill and I gave a silent ‘Thank you’ to whichever God gave me it. Anything that could save my friends was worth a thanks or two. I then noted that I got another forty-five skill points when I reached level eight. That brought me to sixty five points that I could spend but I put that on the back burner for now since I have been sitting here with my eyes closed as if I was in shock. I opened my eyes after closing everything back down. I heard Bill laugh at something so I figured he was feeling better. James was next to him but looking at me, a quizzical look in his eyes. We needed to rest. We were all exhausted, our magic depleted. “Should we camp?” I asked. I was going to push for it but didn’t have to as both men just nodded. The location wasn’t the best since we were on a path and not a clearing but on this level there weren’t really any better locations to camp.
So at their nods, I expanded my aura and cast ‘sanctuary’. As the shaft of light descended, I heard whispers coming from around me. “Where’d they go?”, “Missing?”, “look, look, look”, “Can’t live, can’t die, forever tormented, what’s the point” and so on. They sounded like old men and women. I looked around but didn’t see anything other than the trees along the path. Was it them? I waited and watched. It did seem to be the trees. Was that how the dungeon kept track of us? Probably not since some dungeons didn’t have any plants.
I settled down and began to set up camp and soon the others pitched in to help. Well, except for Frigus. Frigus was only following me as I worked while Bill and James were breaking down the undead for their materials. Neither of them said anything about Frigus not lending a hand and, since she was here as a courtesy, I also didn’t say anything. It took an hour for us to finish. I plopped down and ate some of my rations. I was too tired to cook. The adrenaline had worn off and all that was left was exhaustion. James must have noticed it because he volunteered to take first watch without me asking.
I moved over to the half person high partition to wipe down and change into my oversized shirt I slept in. It was then that I noticed I had tattoos?! There were two trees that were leaning together, intertwined and became one near the top. It had only one tree crown but two separate budding flowers that rested right below my navel. Their trunks spread out a little before the roots coiled and twined together, going lower and lower until they finally formed a heart on my naughty bits. Then a few offshoots branched out from the heart and trailed along my upper thighs. It was vivid. So life like that the trees looked like they would sway if there was a breeze and the roots dug into my skin as if I was the earth. It was in the shape of a diamond if you took the whole thing in. The crown at the top, the heart at the bottom and each base of a tree ended close to where my ovaries were.
I didn't know what it meant, why it appeared or, I suppose more importantly, where did the soft fuzzy hair that was growing down there go. Actually, all the hair on my body except for what was on my head was gone. My skin was now soft and smooth and a little darker, like I got a slight suntan. It was so weird. Did every druid lose their hair and get these tattoos? I imagined how I would even ask to find out. Like, "Hi my name is Alice, do you happen to have a tattoo on your..." I snorted at the absurdity of it before pulling on my oversized shirt; very glad that it hung to my knees because it completely covered the new tattoos, happy that I splurged and paid more for the darker color. My paranoia of it getting wet at some point paid off because the colors of the tattoo would’ve shown through most of the lighter fabrics. I went to lay down on my thin blanket to sleep. It did not take long for me to fall asleep. The smell of the dirt from the road and fauna nearby was oddly comforting and made me feel safer.
***
“Five more minutes,” I groaned out. Whoever was shaking me awake wasn’t giving in though and I opened my eyes to see James looking into the forest while he continued shaking me to wake me up. “I’m up. I’m up. What’s going on?” I whispered. I looked around. Bill was already up, armored, and looking around trying to spot something. He seemed way more awake than me. It felt like I just closed my eyes.
James whispered back, “movement in the woods” and I checked my notifications to see what was ordered here to attack us. Nothing, instead it seems that group two’s assassin had appeared in our area. The mist obscured any chance I might have had spotting him but a tree was complaining about how it never got respect and how kids just climbed on him willy-nilly anymore. I turned toward the complaining tree and tried to spot the assassin without any luck. “He’s part of another group and not a dungeon mob.” I said. Then added as an afterthought, “probably there” pointing at the tree. What? I was tired and non-flesh eating humans weren’t top on my threat list. They should probably be number one on it but my head was foggy. I cast ‘Revitalize’ to wake up a bit more. I felt a flood of energy as my coffee spell kicked in.
It was about this time I realized that casting a spell while pointing at an assassin was probably not my finest idea. I heard an “Oh, good he left” from the tree before I felt somebody stumble into me and then a blade rested on my neck.
“I’m not your enemy.” I hear in my ear. He sounded like a kid trying to make his voice sound manlier.
‘Great, I’m going to die to a tall, lanky pre-teen’ I thought. I made sure not to make any big movements and as calmly as I could said, “Co…” And before I could say the rest of ‘could you remove your dagger from my neck?’ His knife pressed harder into my neck. I shut up as the sharp blade nicked into my skin. I could feel a trickle of something wet running down my neck and into my shirt. I waited. I wasn’t as helpless as I appeared. The reason why he had his dagger on my throat was because most casters needed to speak to cast. I didn’t once I mastered a spell. So I could sneak attack but did not want to take the risk. He could have easily slashed my throat instead of just holding me hostage.
While it seemed aggressive. I could kind of see where he was coming from. His party was mostly dead, now he was alone and met a strange group of adventurers. Before he could figure out if he should approach or run, a girl began casting while pointing at his hidden location. It was commonly known that adventuring parties weren’t always on the up and up. Killing other groups for their items wasn’t an uncommon event. Not to mention that, judging from size and voice, he had to be young. As I waited, I ran through spells that might save me. I really need to up my attack spells!
James and Bill had moved to positions that would allow for them to get to us quickly but had not moved any closer. I finally settled on ‘Bind’. It was not a fantastic spell but probably the best one I had. As long as he didn’t kill me outright, I could fix any damage he did to me. I looked at James since he was in front of me. I couldn’t see Bill at the moment since he circled behind the assassin. I was waiting for a “get’m signal” when I felt the knife being moved away from my neck.
“I’m not an enemy. Sorry I panicked. I’ll leave.” He kept saying short sentences as if he was trying to pick the right words. I looked over my shoulder and saw a pair of brown eyes darting around. Probably looking for an escape route.
“I’m going to cast a heal on myself,” I said. He seemed a bit flighty but he’s been on the run for a day, facing god knows what so I was going to spell out what I was going to do so that I didn’t get shivved by accident. Once I was sure he understood I cast a light heal and looked at my now stained shirt. That was not going to come out. Lucky that it was at least a darker color so it hid it a bit, I sighed and turned around. “Hi, I’m Alice that is James, the big guy behind you is Bill and the quiet girl over there is Frigus. You are?” I asked. I was just going off a feeling but for an assassin he had a gentle look. I expected a more jaded look from him. One that spoke of countless killings and not one you’d get from the boy next door. Either way he seemed ok, short of the knife to the neck incident.
“My name is Nic… I mean Phantom Blade… I mean my team called me Phantom Blade.” He seemed flustered but settled down by the time he told us his team name. Something that some people liked to do to keep their private lives private after they were done with the job. The adventurer’s guild didn’t care what your name was as long as you weren’t on the wanted list and it took a lot to make it onto one. A lot of identification magic was needed to catch those criminals. “Could you share some food? My team mates were carrying…” he stopped, sniffed and my image of assassins fell apart.
“Sure.” I pulled out some more rations. I looked at my still warm blanket forlornly. I would have to wait until the spell wore off before I could sleep again. “So umm phantom, what’s your plan? Are you trying to leave?”
“I’ve been trying to find my friends but so far all I’ve found is monsters. I’m out of food but Slasher and Ravine are still out there somewhere. I don’t want to leave them if I can help it.” He stopped and looked at the mist filled woods that seemed to come out of a horror movie.
I filled in the gap by asking, “Your mage was called Ravine?” He looked at me and nodded. I sighed and continued, “He was killed earlier. Your berserker friend is still alive though.” I wanted to tell him the bad news fast and then give him better news to blunt it.
“How do you know? He can’t be dead! His family…” His voice lost the fakeness for a second and it hit a higher note before he collected himself and continued in that fake voice, “… but Slasher is still alive? They still have him to help support the girls.” His voice held a little bit of hope.
“Hold on, let me check something,” I said and closed my eyes. I pulled up the message log and started scrolling back trying to find the group twos berserker. I finally found his location near where group one was heading. With a bit of luck and if they both continued to move in the direction they had been going, that group would end up meeting him in about a half-hour. I quickly filled him in while he ate.
He had lowered a flap on his head covering to eat and I finally got a look at his face. It was not too obvious because she, yea she, was younger but I was pretty sure she was a girl. That was why she was making her voice deeper. Her height was taller than average and she was flat chested so either she was a girl or a very feminine looking man. Is it a girl pretending to be a boy or not? I wasn’t a hundred percent sure but it was not my concern. I didn’t say anything or ask about it since it changed nothing.
“It should be the group we met before. If so, that group won’t go downward,” Phantom said, “but they will take him out for some of his loot.” She paused and then asked, “Are you going down? Can I tag along? I.. I want to help destroy this dungeon. It killed my friends.”
I looked at Bill and then James. James just shrugged and Bill said, “I’m just observing. This is your party to control.”
“I see. Well, I am going to continue. I think the dungeon has been weakened with the death of the Stitch Horror so this is an opportunity for us. Phantom Blade, if you wish to join us you can but it might be dangerous doing so. I should have enough…” I paused as I did the mental calculation of how much of my food was left. I tended to pack extra food but feeding two would depend on how long we took. I then looked at Frigus. I never seen her eat anything. Her stick like figure told me she needed a few good meals though. “Frigus, did you bring food?” I needed to know. If I had to feed her too there was no way to continue.
“My god provides for my needs. I do not require anything.” I looked at her hollowed cheeks and skinny frame and thought her god may want to up her meal plan. Should I would risk it? How much could she eat? I'll at least take a look at the next level before making the decision.
I would need Bill and James' help as well. Bill couldn't bluntly say he was going to help but when he said he was just an observer he winked at me. I was assuming that meant he was going to lend a hand. If I was wrong, this was going to be the shortest excursion ever.
“Well, sleep if you need to. I’m too awake to fall back asleep so I will keep watch.” checking the time, we were just at the start of the second watch so I could sleep on third watch. I didn't want to overtly rely on 'rejuvenate' since, while it woke you up for a time, it couldn't replace the need for real sleep.
After everybody fell asleep, I purified my sweaty armor and then assigned my attribute numbers. I was going to up my Charisma, Wisdom and Dexterity by one. I needed a bigger magical energy capacity. I had not taken into account long drawn out fights or overwhelming numbers. I needed to be able to outlast them. Upping dexterity allowed me to dodge better while increasing my health a bit more. I made my choices and watched as my magic capacity go from 1,080 to 1,896 with the all-natural boon. I noticed that more of the blue wisps of energy that floated in the mist moved in my direction once my selections were done.
After that I tried to figure out what was wrong with my link with James' display but couldn’t find anything. It had to be something James had on him that was messing with my magic. I was just killing time. The trees grumbled from time to time but other than that nothing happened. The dungeon was oddly quiet and the only notifications I got was from it earning DP or the group one moving toward the exit with Slasher. Apparently they did make a deal after meeting. Although I was off on the time of their meeting. They kept backtracking then going forward. That area probably had a lot of dead end paths causing it.
I shook Bill awake. When I woke him up he just stared at me a bit too long before asking, “Were your eyes always green?” My ‘Coffee’ spell was fading and I just wanted to crawl into my blanket bed so I ignored him. They were blue. It was weird enough that he was dreaming about me, the least he could do is get the color right. I made sure he was awake. He seemed to be absentminded so I made sure before I finally closed my eyes to get some much needed sleep.
***
We headed out after third watch was over. I made sure to attach Phantom Blade into my display and was shocked that he actually showed up as a guy. He was prettier than a lot of the girls in my village. I tried to keep the shock from my face but I am pretty sure I failed. Before we left I made sure to ask him about what he could do. Long story short, he could do short range teleports but tended to be off by an inch or two causing him to sometimes miss his target or stumble. He seemed apologetic about it. He didn’t have the oomph to move anybody other than himself and light equipment. Anything more was too draining.
We moved down the pathway and I heard a soft voice groan, “finally free” and when I turned back a tree was rapidly withering. Frigus was calmly walking away with her hand lightly trailing along its bark as she did. Ok, what the hell was that? Never mind, I probably didn’t want to ask because she would just give me a weird answer. I turned back around and continued to walk down the path. It branched a bunch of times but the giant footprints made it easy for us to find the entrance to the third level. It was an old fashioned inn. Well, to me anyway. It was probably a new inn for this time period. Dense fog surrounded it with only the doorway and the upper parts of the building being clear of it. A wooden signboard, with the name ‘The Great Folly Inn’ carved into it, swung above the door. A green nimbus surrounded the door indicating it as the entrance to the level. The color was just the type of energy the dungeon used and was not an important indicator since we already knew it was using necromancy.
Bill and James went in first followed by me. Frigus and Phantom followed after me. We ended up in a spacious entranceway that led to a reception desk. There were paintings hanging on the walls. A smiling man and lady stood in one while another showed a girl playing in a field. To the right of us was a dining hall and bar that had a fireplace big enough that I could stand in it without hunching over. A roaring fire crackled happily within it, warming the room. Behind the reception desk were slotted boxes about a foot wide and high. As we got closer I could see that some had keys inside them. The numbers stamped into the slot matched a wooden tag attached to the key. They were probably room keys. The empty boxes didn’t have numbers. They instead had symbols of a hand, an eye, a ball or globe, a cleaver, and reins in place of the numbers.
I was gawking around. I never had the opportunity to see such a luxurious inn. Everything seemed to be of high quality. The place seemed empty until I heard a door close on the floor above us. I turned to look for the stairway up when I heard a voice behind me. “Greetings…”
I did not think about communicating with plants at the time and they do make the best spies if she can negotiate with them well.
Besides having access to more permanent animal companions I dont think she should underestimate how well she can improve in the use of poisons and medicine through plant knowledge.
Also if she can learn how to control plants then she can become unbeatable in forest areas and such, and maybe be able to summon/create plant monsters to protect her.
He could talk with plants. I already knew they could talk to animals but plants? That amazed me and seriously who guards against a flower ratting you out?
Imagine an angel talking
to a bonsai tree like it was a naughty pet hahah.
, I selected druid magic. Perhaps the Gods knew I would since they named it ‘Branching Out’
maybe, indeed.
I suppose those would be the types of animals that liked me the most. I will go through all this new info when we camp.
Please let it be a pants
dropping monster
“My name is Nic… I mean Phantom Blade… I mean my team called me Phantom Blade.” He seemed flustered but settled down by the time he told us his team name
AWWW, that charm
stat is working.
We moved down the pathway and I heard a soft voice groan, “finally free” and when I turned back a tree was rapidly withering. Frigus was calmly walking away with her hand lightly trailing along its bark as she did.
A holy person
with life drain may seem off, but actually makes seems, you can forgo eating or
drinking, maybe fasting helps in prayer or sacrifice.
It would
seem that Alice became even more fertile, I can feel the god of beauty giggling,
though did this also improve her endurance?
I guest
Alice can ask the trees or any plant life for info now, or just scream at her
plants to grow.
Those tattoos
reminds of runes, Druids love runes, Cu Chulainn
From FGO is a good example.
TYFC
for me it's important to stay on the middle path... to build up your strenghts while undermining your weaknesses... to neither be a one trick pony nor a jack of all...
while there certainly are stories with systems that rewards going all round or have some bug that can be taken advantage of or the protag got some op cheat those sort of situations don't work in a balanced setting and you need to team up with others to challenge places of your skill level that recommends going with a party...
Her desire to wanting more attack power makes sense but she already have strong summons so the thing she is lacking is either mental powers to sustain the strain or more mana...
I originally voted for Skin Deep since to me it made sense to have a passive that upped her control and thus reduced mana waste and increased spell power... druid magic was my second choice since it would help her build on all her strengts with potentially strong new summons and having mana saving options... it also gains from her main stat cha (something I find funny for her to raise due to all the trouble that comes with it ) But that's my opinion...
Btw what was that about pain in the ovaries??? Is she now hyper fertile or infertile??? Without body hair I guess she is more pretty but what other changes did she undergo other than the tatoos and eye collor??? Or would that be spoilers??? If so don't answer ....
I wish you all a good day ......
ovaries - Spoiler
Lack of body hair, eye color, slightly darker skin - minor spoiler
Tattoos - Major spoiler
@Piisfun fertility isn't the spoiler. She was already hyper fertile. What is going on with the ovaries, the tattoo and the changes are all kind linked together in certain ways. So once you figure out one it'll be easier to go oh so that must mean... Sadly the jerk of an author really didn't give you enough info to piece it together.... I blame well me...
@Piisfun that and the prince's finance was worried agreed get pregnant with just one go
@Deathangel female holy mages have it rough
@Deathangel inb4fertilitygoddessascension
@Sath
@Deathangel
............. Are gods and goddesses immortal in this world?
@Sath
I am going with the 'as long as one person believes' theory so basically they are immortal
@Deathangel
..... Assuming the MC is heading in this route, how is it going to be impacted by ... you know .... being in a tube on Earth?
@Deathangel WAit, can a goddess of nature be made?? piety in some isekais are enough to gather faith, to ascend.....
@Sath hmmm this reminds me of SCP 1230, a guy got trapped in his own imagination and committed suicide when he woke up.
@markos
Interesting ... I had to look that up. It also (potentially) reminds me of a novel called "Apotheosis of a Demon". A very brief, and slightly inaccurate for spoilers' sake, summery being "MC is part of an Alpha test for a new fantasy VRMMO that turns out to not be a game, but an alternate world. Things get pretty bad for the MC on Earth and they end up "downloading their mind" into their game world avatar with the aid of the world tree, effectively ending their life on Earth, and starting anew in the alternate world. https://www.novelupdates.com/series/apotheosis-of-a-demon-a-monster-evolution-story/
I'm not saying this is the case for Alice, but the idea that they've "actually been playing in an alternate world and not a game" has been a more and more reoccurring thought I've had
Wasn't sure if this was spoiler territory, so just to be safe, I've marked it
@Sath it's not one I read so I can't give a good answer
@markos
they'd need to have people actually believe they were a god without the other gods smushing them for being impudent
@Sath
the link to earth will need to be broken of course ... one way or another
@Deathangel so dying and coming back after 3 days ahaha
@markos lol something like that
@Deathangel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zBwRDEFMRY
*cough* <_<; Just ignore me ... also, this didn't need to be spoiler marked, but I thought it more humorous
@Sath lol one way or another
@Deathangel
Yes. Hard to enjoy s*x if every time one will end up pregnant.
@RavenWolf I think that sentiment might be putting the cart before the horse for Alice, who currently views themself as a straight male gamer playing a female avatar. I think the MC already said in a previous chapter that they were basically going to live (play) a celibate lifestyle
@Sath
I believe it was more about how does one know a girl is interested in a girl in a nation that brainwashed their women to believe kids are the ultimate success. Add in the fact that he never successfully courted a girl before and you get our hesitant virgin.
Of course now that she has hit puberty and now has decent amounts of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone (apparently women have it too... who knew) in her body as well as some of the "changes" her choices and a few other things have done will make it hard for her to be celibate. Add it the fact that her menstruation cycle is a bit different than a normal girls. Her bleed period is reduced while her ovulation period is increased. (Just one of the reasons holy mages get pregnant more often) According to the medical journals I have read women are more in the mood for s*x when they are ovulating. I simply haven't figured out how to write it in such a way that it adds to the story and not distract from the plot so I have not put it in yet. I as a person am not good with emotions so I am very worried that I will mess it up
@Deathangel
Fun fact, men and women both have estrogen and testosterone, we just have flipped "status values" ... In fact, estrogen is a particularly important chemical when it comes to physical height growth during puberty .. though I can't immediately recall how and in what way. I'd have to look that little factoid up again.
Careful there, you basically just admitted Alice is going to get pregnant (not sure if you meant to intentionally drop that tidbit), though it's not the most surprising bit of news ... What with all that talk earlier about how "hyper fertile" she is, Chekhov's gun will see to it that she ends up with at least 1 little Alice at some point, quite possibly more (And, you know, your reaction to my "inb4fertilitygoddessascension" comment wasn't a flat "No" ;>_>)
As far as writing such content in a believable way .. I can't really help you there. Not unlike yourself, my emotions have had a restraining order taken out against them... What I can say that MIGHT help is that I know from personal experience that if you mentally decide you do not want something, you can deny a LOT of emotional or physiological appetites without much effort, meaning that Alice might not have to fight her physical or emotional desires too hard to avoid certain situations, even if it turns out she's craving hard. Well ... I say that, but I did say "believable", and I honestly don't think many people will necessarily be satisfied or believe that someone could put up such resistance ... After all, not many people willfully deny their sexual hungers.
... I guess that's the point though. "Why would anyone do that?" is the very question being answered because of the situation that Alice is in. The MC's in a very unique position where 1) they're mentally male (or mostly male) at this point and seems to hold beliefs of being straight, so from their standpoint, both men and women as romantic targets are out of the question.
2) They likely have some pretty deep seeded reservations/issues with relationships considering their Earth background (no experience, possible trauma, and their general situation of not being in a position to really pull off having any relationships with people beyond 100% complete in/dependence).
3) Pretty much everyone around Alice is either a complete tool or megalomaniac out to take advantage of them, with the soul exception of maybe 7 people, half of which are adults that aren't interested, or at the very least, doesn't view the MC as a potential paramour. In fact, judging from the way Alice has so far been written, I'd say she basically came to the conclusion that "romance can wait until I'm not neck deep in sh*t (that keeps on coming and it don't stop coming)". After all, while things were basically pretty good while she was with her parents, after the class selection ceremony, things immediately took a turn for the worse.
Personally speaking, if I were in her shoes, romance would be the last thing on my mind...
@Sath @Deathangel
Note this has already been edited to make sense. I Think.
You guys just stated the reasons why they are few to none romance written after the " yes we are dating phase" or the " they finally kissed/confessed phase" , most just don't tell that story, or put something like a time skip. That is IF there will be romance, and not a tragedy that the female gender has endured since the beginning. Also writing parenting single or other wise is also lacking in content in (fantasy/sci-fi) fiction.
I can't give any advise about writing, because I suck, BUT idiots can try, note that the gender and number of lovers, permanent or other wise are still up in the air.
First, I believe that HIMBOS/BIMBOS are cute, especially useful ones.
Second, the "f*ck IT" responds, if Alice decided to live someone she can forgo reason and do whatever, the results may vary.
Third, did this boost in vitality/ fertility extend the life span, if it did FAE or other long lived races may be better overall, being able to outlive your partner(?) and children might not be the best.
Fourth how about the children, what I wonder about every isekai is of they have children, would people from the modern world be fine if their children grew up on the values of medieval times, especially women, I would hate to see my own blood line suffer in such conditions.
Fifth, would this affect her stats, and how would this affect her relationship to the gods.
A Fun thought if Alice married into a race know to have reproductive problem, like dragons, her bloodline could be the reason why populations of dragons and half-dragon explode with in decades hahahahah.
@Sath
Personally speaking, if I were in her shoes, romance would be the last thing on my mind...
I don't know. Many soldiers has always wanted s*x and romance even if their situation have been shitty. For many s*x is some sort of relief for stressful situation. Also there are lots of different kinds of s*x like hate s*x or rage sex. Partners doesn't even have to like each other to have sex. Some might ever hate each others and still have s*x willingly with each others. Of course people rarely want to have children in bad situation but s*x is totally different thing.
Romance can blossom very different situations. It can be blessing or curse. There is no perfect moment to for romance to happen. Your life can be in very shitty situation and love can change your life totally or make it worse. For those who wait life to get stable before starting to romance someone are just fools. Life never is perfect and if you wait you wait forever. Also you just might miss the best opportunity of life.
Of course there are people who are fine being themself and don't even want relationship. That is fine too but majority of people will want to find someone special. In general it could happen suddenly unexpectedly in situation where you never ever could believed it to happen.
@markos the last part is amusing to contemplate
@RavenWolf
Hmm ... you have valid arguments ... but I still stand by what I said, in regards to Alice. if for no other reason than because of the way she's been written, she seems far more pragmatic and unlikely to let herself get caught up in the moment and say "You know, screw it... me ... Screw me. I'm gonna f*** until my bits fall out, and this particular piece of meat in front of me will do just fine" *stares at male character of choice*. It just doesn't fit.
I'll give you this, though. Depending on how things play out in the future, certain events and chains of events may lead to a point where she does "give in", but it will have to be either pretty bad, or pretty good for her to just ignore the fact that she's basically going to end up with triplets or quads every time she does the deed. As I said before, if you mentally convince yourself you do not want something, it's going to take a life shattering event to either clear out the mental full stop, or rend and sunder it, assuming you have a choice in the matter.
@Sath lol the bits falling out part made me laugh
@Deathangel Don't think about it for long... the more you do the more graphic it gets .... oof ...
@Sath you have no idea... I've been trying to come up with a new ability title and your comment took it in while new direction.
the title ' fertile as the fields' shows up on her list and the bits that drop out may come in a couple of months
@Deathangel ..... Oh my .... What have I done? ..... What horrors have I caused? ... It was such a nice story until I came along ...
@Sath hmmm "nature" and " fertility" are linked, so the druid class set this in stone. But you definitely helped.
inb4naturegoddessascensionhehe
@markos
... Not sure if it was a poor choice of words or ironic that you should say "set in stone", especially if she starts dropping magically charged rocks out of anatomically sensitive locations....On a side note, "Kidney Stones" takes on a whole new meaning ...
...It was SUCH a nice story ....
@Sath
@Deathangel ... I want to say "I take no responsibility for this" ...... I really do .... -_-;
... Just know there's worse floating around my head ....
@Sath FGO Caster vs Archer, runic stones baby.
@markos I was literally thinking about Druid Stones when I had that thought, though less like monolithic rocks in unnatural locations (https://i.pinimg.com/736x/bf/fa/64/bffa6428636dbcb12ead2732654ee1b1.jpg) and more like largish marbles with some pretty miraculous effects on crop fields. Take that how you will ....
@Sath ahh perfect for rituals, I firmly believe Stonehenge was used for ritual ceremonies of a sort, that and whatever they were smoking back then was some good stuff. OR a combination of both .