“How? I didn’t know…”

Freya spun the shirt around, looking at it front and back. The brown smock shirt was made from a rigid kind of fabric in the torso area and a looser, stretchier material for the arms. It had a high neckline and looked bigger than shirts Freya would usually wear, but nothing else was special about it. Only the textbox attached to the shirt made it special.

“Didn’t know what? Do you see something special about them?” Yina prodded. The dressmaker knew about the game’s stat boosts and had even made clothes with bonuses before, but she couldn’t see them herself.

“I didn’t know such a specific skill boost could be added to an item,” Freya replied. “The textbox for this shirt says it will give the wearer a plus one bonus in Misidenify for a male identity.”

Yina shrugged, “Isn’t that just what we want?”

“Yes, but,” Freya sighed in exasperation. She looked to K13 for confirmation and held up the shirt for him to see, “This is something pretty unusual, right?”

The berserker nodded. In a quiet voice, he said, “It’s- it is rare to have bonuses for a skill. Usually, only for attributes.”

Freya looked down at her current clothes. They were also made by Yina. They had bonuses for dexterity and vitality; both attribute bonuses, as K13 mentioned. It wasn’t unheard of for non-players to craft items with in-game bonuses, but Yina’s high proficiency was uncommon. Freya wondered what she would be able to create if she ever got a Player Card.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Go try them on!” Yina said smugly, pushing the clothes into Freya’s arms. “Oh, also use this to bind your chest more.”

She added a roll of fabric onto the clothes, then pulled K13 out of Freya’s room. Shaking her head, Freya quickly changed. Using the long strip of cloth, she tried to even out her figure. The new smock shirt seemed like an outer garment, so she wore a loose undershirt with it. Her new pants were a little bit looser than before and came down to her ankles. Just like her old pair, they also gave a +0.5 dexterity bonus. Everything felt comfortable. Her inn room didn’t have a mirror, so Freya wasn’t sure what she looked like, but she couldn’t imagine she looked that much manlier. 

Still, this was a good opportunity to test out the bonus. Before she called back Yina and K13, she tried to settle into a male identity. 

How do men think? Freya thought, I’m a man. I’m manly. I’m… strong and self-reliant?

Freya already thought of herself as those things, but she couldn’t think of anything else. She pulled up her extended stats then scrolled until she found the appearance section. 

[Appearance:]

[Sex: Female] [Ethnicity: Solangi]

[Hair color: Brown] [Eye color: Brown]

[Height: 161 cm] [Weight: 53 kg]

She hovered a finger over [Female] and typed in [Male]. After a moment of thought, she also scrolled up to her name and deleted an ‘a’ from it. Finally, she changed her class. Then she pressed the [Change] button.

After a few moments, she reopened her extended stats to see if the change went through. Her sex was listed as male.

Hmm, I guess it worked? I didn’t get an error message. Let’s call back Yina and K13.

Just as she was about to call out to them, she stopped herself. Pounding her chest, she cleared her throat. Then she called out in a low voice, “You guys can come back.”

Yina burst through the door first. She had a mischievous smile when she saw Freya.  

“Haha, even better than I thought,” Yina said, appraising her work. She circled Freya then turned to K13, “What do you think? You’re a player, right?”

K13 stared above Freya’s head. 

“You changed your name?”

Freya smiled. It was a tiny change, but it made sense to her if she was a man. She looked up to her ID screen.

[Frey Evenkey]

[Lvl 16 Shaman Apprentice]

[390/390 HP] [135/135 MP]

“Is my textbox green or grey?”

“Grey,” K13 answered slowly. He kept looking at her from top to bottom. “Your voice, you sound different.”

“Really? I’m trying to speak in a lower voice, but it sounds off to me.”

Both K13 and Yina shook their heads. 

“You sound like a different person. Or maybe just a male version of yourself,” Yina said. Like K13, Yina also kept staring at her and blinking. “Is this the perception thing you were talking about. You really look different now. As if your facial features have actually changed.”

“Really?!”

Freya felt her face. Nothing felt off. But what did her face usually feel like? She didn’t mind pretending to be a guy for a few weeks, but she didn’t want to become one permanently. Panicking a bit, she grabbed one of her clean vials and tried to see her reflection.

“Oh, it stopped,” K13 said.

Freya finally found her reflection in the glass. She looked normal. Glancing up at her ID screen, it had shifted back.

[Freya Evenkey]

[Lvl 16 Martial Artist]

[390/390 HP] [135/135 MP]

“That makes my head hurt,” Yina said, rubbing her eyes. She looked back at Freya. “You look normal now.”

Freya laughed. She felt silly for panicking, but she also didn’t think the Misidentify skill would work so well. 

“Haha, I guess it was the perception warping. I don’t notice anything different about myself, but I guess to everyone else I’ll look and even sound different.”

Keeping up that ‘Frey’ persona didn’t seem difficult. So long as she didn’t panic about her identity, it seemed easy to maintain. It wasn’t difficult to imagine a male version of herself with a similar name and basically the same job. Of course, the bonus from the clothes probably helped too.

“Thank you for the clothes,” Freya said to Yina. “I should still try to level up my Misidentify skill, but this saves me a lot of time.”

Yina smiled warmly, “I’m glad you like it. Wear them well.”