The sky got dark as we climbed the stairs, and slowly stars peppered its deep blue. At some points, the stairs we were on was little more than a steep path, but mostly it was a gradual flight leading us to the top of the hill. At the summit, we found a shrine built in a semicircle of rocks. There was also a bridge leading over a narrow gully into the trees.

In the shrine, a four-feet high statue stood on top of a pedestal. It was in the likeness of an attractive horned woman with four arms. The relatively short horns were shaped like lighting bolts zigzagging out from her head. Each hand held something. Two wielded swords, one gripped a lump that may have been a heart, and the fourth held out a bowl.

"Well, lets get to praying," Josh said. He was understandably eager to get his Godless restrictions removed. Ever since he'd raised his Intellect to 4, he'd been a lot less clueless about how this was holding him back.

"Wait," I said. "This must be the false temple the woman spoke of. See the sneer on its face. It looks evil. And the system just lists it as Unknown Temple. The real one must be across the bridge."

"But I'm tired of walking. And she's pretty. And she looks tough, like a chick on a heavy-metal album cover. I think I'll just pray here."

It took all of us to convince him to keep on a little farther, telling him how much better the other one would be, and how powerful it would make him. It reminded me of coaxing a stubborn, over-tired child.

The bridge didn't look like the sturdiest ever built, so we took it one at a time. Once on the other side, we were plunged into the absolute darkness of the forest canopy. Aaron cast their light spell, and we were able to find a footpath. I was beginning to think this might be a bad idea, and maybe the old woman had tricked us, when we stepped out into a clearing. 

At first, I thought the spell had gotten brighter. but then I saw that thousands of fireflies fluttered around the trees casting the entire glade in an ethereal glow. The trees were ancient and gnarled, and not the pines of the rest of the wood. They looking something like oaks, although not quite. Perhaps a species that existed long before oaks. A stream trickled through a channel of rocks and opened up into a small pool. In the center, there was a carved figure of a woman. It was about the same height as Aaron, but with the proportions of a tall, very curvaceous woman. She had wide hips and large breasts. She was also horned, but the horns reminded me of an African antelope, straight and long. Her face was kind in a way that made me instantly trust it. The figure was fashioned out of a dark wood, rubbed smooth to the point of looking oiled.

I pulled up the system entry on it and read:

Temple to Nymphara — Extremely rare. An ancient forest goddess of youth, beauty, fertility, and rebirth. Known for her generosity, she will bestow blessings on everyone, varying in degree by the worthiness of the petitioner and favors women. She will only accept devotees from wood aligned species. As with all ancient gods, she requires blood as an act of sacrifice.

I knew we'd paid for the information about the blood, so I decided to omit that in case Mack started to complain about wasting money. I also decided to leave out the part about fertility. Myths were far from my specialty, but I'd studied enough about the subject to know nearly all goddess of olden times were about fertility in some way or another. I figured focusing on the blessings and not on her aspects would keep people from hesitating. (And yes, I realized that under Katie, things might go terribly wrong with this, but there was just something about the appearance of the idol that made me feel that getting her blessing would be a good thing.)

"But I'm not a woody creature," Josh said. "So, this is fucking useless! I should go back to the other one."

"No, you'll still get a blessing. Don't worry we'll find a god for you. We came across the one with the boggles, now this one. I'm sure we'll find more soon."

"That's just another lie. You keep lying to me. The next one will be better. We'll find one soon. Just get this weird chick's blessing, it's good. All lies. I don't want to pray to no stupid forest goddess anyway." He went off in a huff and sat down, pouting by the edge of the grove.

"Leave him," Mack said. "You're sure its safe for earthers?" 

I wasn't sure that was the correct term for earth aligned, but I nodded.

Aaron got out a knife, and we all pricked the tip of a finger. One by one we deposited a drop of crimson life in the rough carved bowl at her feet. Josh didn't participate. Neither did Crystal or Ellie. Crystal already belonged to Garotha and praying to another god would be insulting. And Ellie still had Garotha's blessing on her which might be seen as insulting to Nymphara.

My drop of blood hit the bottom of the bowl, and the world flooded with a warm golden light, blinding me from all else, until the system message came up.

 

A magical glow of light faded from my eyes, and I saw the grove again. Everyone else was blinking.

There was so much to information to take in, I didn't know where to start. But then my mind hit on the word voluptuousness. I looked down and my hands when unconsciously to my body.

My hips had flared out. I'd never really paid much attention to them before, so it was hard to say exactly how the were different, but they were definitely wider. My butt yielded handfuls of firm supple flesh that was definitely not there before. As I was exploring my lower half, my eyes were locked onto my cleavage. I shook my torso and felt the two weighty orbs bounce. 

As I've said before, I'm no expert in bra sizes, but if I had to make a guess, I'd gone from a B-cup to a D.

Mack cursed, "What the fuck was that about attracting a mate and baring children!?!"

She'd changed too. Not as dramatically, but an hourglass had entered her silhouette. Her breasts were fuller, but still only about B-cups (up from her former As).

"Oh, this name thing hurts my head," Cherry said. "I'm sorry if I wasn't more sympathetic, Crystal."

The little wood sprite was downright gorgeous. Their hips stuck out beyond the confined of their dress, and the V-neck showed off their perky breasts that had gone up a few sizes. But it wasn't only that. She looked good—really good. Amazing even. When I realized I was getting arousing, I turned away and actually examined her words.

Yes. I was Yarrow now. That wasn't so bad. I'm not sure I preferred it to ... whatever I'd been named before. There was a nagging feeling that it had been different, but I could recalled a single time someone called me something other than Yarrow. I thought of my friend, and their name came to me quite naturally: Cherry-blossom. Had I really ever called them anything else? I pictured them as they'd been, a gawky, thin boy in glasses who was named Cherry-blossom. It seemed so normal.

Just like when I thought of my youth. I pictured my mother holding my face. I must have been about twelve. "Yarrow, you're growing into a fine young man."

Cherry was right. Thinking about this hurt my brain.

Ellie went up to Cherry and wrapped them in a hug. "Wow, those blessing really changed you. Don't get me wrong, you were beautiful before, but now ... wow! You're something else, Cherry."

"If I have to be saddled with this name, could everyone at least call me Blossom. It's a little less weird."

Mack said, "I've always called you Cherry, and I always will."

Rick approached me. "Are you okay." I nodded and he took me in his arms. "You look incredible too." I could feel his stiff member pressing against my stomach. It made me want to go off into the bushes with him and try out this new and improved body.

"Welp, someone's attracted their mate," Mack said. "Are you going to bare his children now, Yarrow?"

Crystal said, "Look, not all of us got blessed. I need some downtime or my Life Balance is going to get critical."

"Right," Mack said. "The grove is a safe space, so lets go into sleep-mode for a full eight. Also, remember it's a sacred space, so you may want to refrain from fucking like bunnies." She very pointedly looked at Rick and I and then Cherry and Ellie.

I realized she was probably right. I wasn't a hundred percent sure the goddess would mind, considering sex was sort of the desired outcome of the changes she gave me. But it was probably best to err on the side of caution. So, when we settled down for the night, I lay next Rick but didn't do more than a goodnight kiss.

After I stretched out on my back but before I activated sleep-mode, Cherry whispered, "Did you get a divine quest too?"

"Yeah, clearing a polluted pool."

"Same as me, so I guess we can do it together. We just have to find the valley. At least it might be easier to convince everyone to go that way if it's the two of us."

"Have you looked into the new skill and restriction yet?" I asked.

She shook her head and we both pulled up the archives.

Nymphara's Radiance: At level 1, you radiate seductiveness in power with your Presence. Your skin is perfect and at divine levels (Presence 16+) will give off a glow that will comfort and cheer others. For every exposed body part, receive +1 to your Defense Rating and +1 to Magic Resistance.

Natural Beauty: Your natural beauty shines through and artificial enhancements are not needed. Modifiers to Presence (positive or negative) have no effect.

"Well," Cherry said. "I had a buff on my Presence from my bracelet that's now gone. But obviously, it was made up for. I just feel bad I put the last free attribute I got into Presence. Feels like a waste now."

"Why did you do that?"

They looked a little embarrassed. "I wanted to make myself more attractive to Ellie."

"May I ask, what's your rating now."

"Fifteen."

"Fifteen!" I clapped my hand over my mouth as though to push back my loud exclamation. No wonder she was gorgeous. 

"Um ..." they started hesitantly. "Have you found the mark yet?"

I hadn't. It wasn't on my arms or legs or anything I could see without completely disrobing. We snuck out to the trees and helped each other find it. I was a little bothered by getting naked in front of them. But then, they'd seen me naked a few times now after the invisibilty had worn off, so I dropped my robe and got it over with.

They circled around me and then said, "Here." Their fingers touched the small of my back. The warmth of their skin made my spine arch. "It looks like a V with a few markings in between the diagonal lines. I'm not describing it well, it's nice. Sexy even." They paused, then said. "Fuck! A tramp-stamp. Do I have one too?"

She turned and flipped the back of her dress to the side. Their butt stuck out at me all round and perfect, and it took a fair amount of willpower not to press my face into those cheeks. 

"Yeah," I said, my voice a bit breathy from arousal. "Right above your tale-bone. It looks a little like a diagram of a woman's reproductive organs, but more stylized. But that might just be my mind making associations. It could be anything." With each word, I found myself bending down farther, getting closer to my friend until my breath left a shimmering fog of condensation on her skin. I could just run my tongue over the mark, taste the drop of sweat that hovered there.

They shivered and scooted away.

I shook myself and tried to gain some composer. "We should get our rest."

We went back to the others. Right before sleep, I checked my character sheet. Other than the blessings not much had changed, but I was still got a spark of happiness from seeing how my Storm skill had gotten high enough to evolve my spells. Gust had become Gale, and Electrical charge had become Electrical Surge. Both had a wider area of effect and dealt more damage now.

Looking it all over, I realized with the new bonuses to my Defense Rating, I had a 22 fully naked but only 7 with my clothes. It really was like the gamer was trying to get me just to go around naked all the time.

 * * *

When we got up the next morning and prepared to go, Cherry asked the group, "Where's Josh?"