As soon as I got through the checkpoint, there was an immediate difference. The town was different from Avenci’s. Well, there was many similarities, but there were non-humans, and some of the architecture and clothing reflected the different cultures.

I didn’t want to be viewed as a bumpkin, or be in the way, so I only paused briefly after entering the southern town, then immediately moved on. I headed for the food stalls. There was a much bigger selection to choose from then there was in the north. However, not all of it fit human tastes, so I did end up getting laughed at a couple times when I tried to choke down something I shouldn’t have.

Looking around while munching on food, I saw that most of the people around were still human, which is to be expected considering the neighbor to the north. Few non-humans would want to be close to a nation where humans saw any other race as no more than a slave.

After doing a bit of sightseeing, I made my way to the gates. I wanted to get several cities away from here as quickly as I could, then I’d use the potion. Walking a ways from the city, I ensured we were unobserved, then had Fran grow and carry me onward. We made decent time, though nowhere near what we should have. That border crossing was ridiculously long. It’d have been even worse had I waited any longer to get into line.

We spent the next several days getting as far south as we could. We wound up crossing over a fifth of the country. Finally we reached our destination. The dungeon city of Nanris. I thought about visiting it before using the potion, getting Fran some real clothes, but decided against it.

Finding a nice isolated location, I pulled out my boulder and we entered the portal. As usual the villa spread out before us. Today would be the last day I saw it in this body. Tonight I would take the potion. I was not looking forward to the next few weeks, but I believed it would be worth it.

However, before I took the potion there was one more thing to do. Spin the gacha. The angel said that my current stats would become my base stats after taking the potion, so I wanted to push them as high as I could. I had 12634 points to use. It had taken us over 2 months to collect that many. It was still broken, but not as badly as it could be.

Right now it took 10 points per pull. If I did individuals of the random category, I’d have 1263 pulls. More if I did it by 100 points a time. This time however, I wasn’t going to do that. I needed stat boosters. For a specific category, it took 100 points per pull, or 1000 points for eleven. I was going to pull the 1000 pt gacha twelve times, and then the 100 pt six.

The total pulls was 138 pulls. It took me some time to do it, I had to empty the prize section before I could pull it again. But eventually I got through it all. I was left with a lot of potions and a pile of stones.

The potions would wait in my inventory for a while. The stones however were used one after another. The total change was quite nice. My luck pulled the stones I needed to increase the most.

Here’s what my base stats looked like.

HP 155 → 230
MP 245 → 295
STR 16 → 34
VIT 30 → 45
DEX 23 → 39
AGI 19 → 40
INT 47 → 57
LUK 120 → 126

When the base stats were multiplied by my level, it became a little insane.

Level 19
HP 1240
MP 1575
STR 187
VIT 247
DEX 214
AGI 220
INT 313
LUK (1)26

My stats are now better than the heroes started at. Bwahahaha! I will be the most powerful! OK, ego trip over. I needed to get back to reality. I headed to the kitchen. While we do have two dining rooms, we usually eat at a small table in the kitchen as it is just easier and more comfortable.

“I’m all ready to take the potion. Are you two ready? I’ll be counting on you to keep me alive during the transformation.”

“Everything is prepared. There are sufficient supplies within my item box for several times the estimated time frame involved. I shall ensure the health and safety of your body.”

“I’ll help master! I’ll be there with you!” While we were in the villa, Fran spent nearly all her time in catkin form. She was so cute!

“Thank you both. Then I’ll take the potion after dinner. I don’t know what kind of condition I’ll be in, so for until the transformation is complete, I order you to use your best judgment regarding my actions. This includes disregarding orders I may give.”

“Understood, sir. I shall do my best.”

“Undastood!” Fran was so cute, even when she didn’t actually get things. I gave her a hug.

We finished dinner, then headed upstairs. I changed into a loose fitting set of clothes, then climbed into bed. Getting comfortable, I pulled the potion out.

“Bottoms up!”

I downed the whole thing in one go. It’s a good thing I did. The taste was horrendous. It had the taste of cinnamon, diablo level hot sauce, and reaper peppers. For the texture, it felt like it was sand and chunks of rock that I was downing. It felt like it cut up my throat on the way down.

“Gods that tastes awful.” I tried to pull a water bottle from my item box. I couldn’t. “Alfred, could I get a cup of water please?”

He passed me one, but as I was reaching for it the pain began. It was terrible. And it was just the beginning.

---

The next several weeks were a blur for me. I was constantly in pain. I was also unable to move or talk, so I had to rely on Alfred and Fran to take care of everything. Fran was always with me, but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Every time I was touched, the place I was touched started to ache and throb.

When my mind was mostly clear, I tried to tell her not to touch me, but she could not understand, thinking I wanted something. I gave up and just endured.

Alfred came to check on me occasionally, bringing meals that Fran tried to feed me, but for the most part he was elsewhere. I think I remember him giving reports about the status of the fields, but I couldn’t remember.

The pain ebbed and flowed like the tides. Sometimes completely enveloping my mind and body in pain. At other times, I felt fine, like it was over, but was still unable to do anything. It was aggravating. I wish I could have used the apps, but after I’d downed the potion, nothing would work. I should have started music playing with an ultra-long repeating playlist. Too late for that though.

Eventually, I started to regain control of my body. Everything felt strange. Looking down my body, I could see that my body was very different. I was shorter. Much shorter. Before, I towered over Fran, but now I was only a bit taller than her. I could tell easily, since she liked cuddling up with me.

Finally it was over. I knew because I got a popup notification that it was over.

 

[Congratulations! You have changed race to Dragonkin!
Your Level and stats have been updated. Please refrain from any strenuous activity for at least two weeks. This includes any form of leveling. Including skills.
You have gained the Dragonkin’s Flight Skill.
You have gained the Dragonkin’s Transformation Skill.]

 

“Finally! It’s over.”

Sitting up, I moved my legs over the side of the bed, but wasn’t able to feel the ground.

“Oh yeah, I’m shorter now. Gonna have to get used to that.”

I hopped down, and realized that I was naked. I guess it made it easier for them to care for me. I was the only one in the room for the moment, so I took the opportunity to look at myself in the mirror.

In the mirror I saw a cute young girl, looking around eight years old. The hair was a shining silver, with the eyes the same color. Tiny silver horns peeked through the hair. Turning around, I looked at my new equipment. I had two wings and a tail mostly the same color. My skin was a pale whitish-pink. I’d have to see if it tanned. Considering my other coloring, I doubted it. The tail was not how I’d imagined it, but that was fine. It seemed to be more cat-like than lizard-like. Easier to control.

Finished looking at the additions, I looked down my body at where my old equipment no longer was. The angel said that dragonkin were hermaphroditic, but I didn’t expect my twig and berries to disappear. I was completely female right now. I didn’t really care much right now, but when I grew back up I might have to figure out how to trigger the hermaphroditic change. Maybe it was in the transformation skill.

Thinking of that skill, I used it, focusing on looking like a human. My horns, wings, and tail shrank and joined with the rest of my body, leaving a silver-haired human child. Hmm, I looked very cute. And I needed to stop with the ego trip.

Fortunately, Fran came in at that time. As she entered the room, her first view was the empty bed. Gasping, she hurriedly pushed the door open, finding me in front of the mirror. She gave a sigh of relief. What had I done in the past weeks to make her anxious when I wasn’t in bed?

She rushed over to me and gave me a hug and nuzzled her face against mine. I returned the gesture.

“It’s all done Fran, the transformation is complete. What do you think?”

I stepped away from her, and undid the transformation. She looked me up and down, then started playing with my wings. It tickled. I pulled them away from her, giggling.

I headed for the wardrobe and started selecting clothes. I was a girl right now, and I was gonna dress like a cute one. I asked Fran for her opinion several times, and eventually ended up in a soft pink dress with a little bit of lace around the cuffs. I had white stockings and black Mary Janes on my feet. I also pulled out a pink bow and tied it in my hair after I’d brushed it out.

I finally understood just how great the shape adjustment on the clothes was. Holes were included in the clothes for my wings and tail, and disappeared when I went human. I decided to keep to my new true form. I’d need to get used to both it and the human form over the next two plus weeks before heading back out into the world.

As I thought of this, I twirled, the dress fanning out around me. To which Fran jumped on me and hugged me again. I love my Fran. And now I have no reason to be embarrassed when she gets naked in front of me. We’re both girls now. Bath time will be a lot more fun now. We can wash each other’s backs.

We headed downstairs, meeting up with Alfred in the kitchen.

“Hello Alfred, the transformation is all done. Thank you for all the help, and I apologize for all the trouble.”

“You are my master. Your needs are my joy to take care of. Dinner is cooking now. It’s a gruel, since I’d thought you’d need something easy to eat, but I can make something else if you’d like.”

“We’ll eat what you’ve prepared. Give my stomach some time to adjust. I’ll eat some other light items for snacks later on. How are things going in the garden?”

“I have planted a reasonable number of each of the fruit trees we had seeds for. They will not produce fruit for a few more weeks at least. The vineyards are doing well, and will produce in the next few days. I have planted and harvested a few different vegetable crops. While using magic to improve growth speed hastens production, I have found that it decreases the flavor. It would be better to let things grow at their own speed, while providing resources for them to do so.”

“Understood. I don’t know much about farming, so I leave you to make the decisions that will yield the best results.”

“As you wish, master.”

The food was ready by this time, and he served it out to us. I started out with a plain bowl, but started adding little things in like cream, berries, and sugar, which my stomach seemed fine with.

“I think I’ll likely be fine with regular meals from now on. Though, we’ll have to see how fuel efficient this body is. Not sure what it will take to fill the stomach. Oh, and we’ll be staying here by ourselves for another two weeks. The message I received said I needed the time to let my body stabilize. I’m also not allowed to practice any skills, so I’m going to play some games. Who wants to join me?”

They were both fine with the idea. I used the Media app to start up a popular MMORPG by Blizzard. I had Fran do the same. I was able to make a terminal for Alfred to use. While I did have a bunch of characters, they didn’t, and we wanted to play together, so we started new characters together.

I chose to play a paladin, Fran was a druid, and Alfred decided to be a rogue. The classes were somewhat fitting for how we actually fought. And so began our journey through a digital world. We did wind up seeing a few other players here and there, but we didn’t end up interacting beyond a wave.

We spent most of the next two weeks playing, though I did make sure to take some time to become accustomed to my new body, including its flight capabilities. Flying was fun. Failing at flying was not. I got used to it.

The time flew by.