Wandering into the town, JB felt rather odd. The alone time on the road had only intensified the feelings of dysphoria that she had attempted to push into the back of her mind. The lack of certain parts and addition of new ones was certainly weighing on them, but being called beautiful absolutely made it all worse. Once she found a still body of water, she decided she would judge for herself whether the bearded man’s assertion was correct. 

It was a rather quaint location, not unlike the towns far out in the west. Although the building techniques were different and comparatively outdated, it would look relatively normal in the lands of Kansas. Simply thinking about her time in that state was a wild ride in it of itself. The title “Bleeding Kansas” was, to anyone who had directly experienced it, a massive understatement. If one were to word it more crudely, Kansas was pissing, shitting, puking and bleeding all at the same time as abolitionists and slave owners all came together to battle each other in the name of their ideologies. However, that was a literal lifetime ago for JB.

She took some time scanning each of the buildings and reading the signs that hung on them. She planned to do another prayer later today to thank god for giving her the ability to read, write and speak the language. Eventually, she found a sign which said “Inn” and quickly made her way to the door. Swinging it open, she found an extremely lively scene before her.

Men and women surrounded circular tables, clinking glasses together and drinking dark beer. It was a comforting sight to say the least. It told her that the culture around alcohol was fairly universal. Several of the people in the room turned to look at her with curious eyes, shifting between her face and her rifle. Making her way up to the counter, where the lady was currently serving out drinks and food, she found herself at a height deficit. It was now very clear that JB had lost some inches in this new form. The counter in front of her only barely allowed for her head to be above it, and she had to stretch to get as good a view as possible. All she could do was hope that the lost height went to another page in the book and didn’t just end up going to her chest. 

The receptionist was a large lady, wearing a similar corset to JB. Her clothing was a lot more frilly, especially around her wrists, and her chest was given a lot more emphasis due to the greater showing of skin. The woman’s sky blue hair stood out above all of the features, and it had been carefully braided as it flowed down her back. 

“Why hello there, young lady.” the receptionist said.

Young lady…

There was that word again. It felt wrong, especially because she couldn’t exactly gauge the validity of it. When John Brown died, he was around 59. Being called young was something that hadn’t happened to them in a while, especially in their past life.

“I need a room for the night.” She said as she dropped the change the bandits had given her on the table. “How much will this cover?”

The receptionist quickly counted through the coins, biting on her thumb as she did so. 

“Sorry, but this will only cover about half. But since it’s your first time in town, and I don’t know if you have anyone else with you, I’m willing to give you a stable.”

A roof was better than no roof, so JB quickly accepted. The woman leaned in closer to them and asked them a rather pertinent question. 

“Do you have any money?”

The very obvious answer to that question was no, because she in fact did not have any money. Her understanding of this world’s money was also limited, for she had no way of understanding its value. 

“No, I sadly lack any money. If you have any suggestions, I’d be open to hearing any.” 

The receptionist leaned in further and gave JB a condescending smile.

“Sure. There’s an adventurer’s guild that you might want to sign up with. They have a good number of quests you could participate in, and they reward pretty well. You look like a mage judging from that staff on your back, and the quacks over there love getting new mages.”

There it was again. The mention of a staff. Her rifle certainly looked unique in a world of this age that was reliant on magic. At that moment, JB decided it was best to go with the flow and call it a staff. She still had no understanding of enchantments or anything of the sort, but that didn’t much matter.

“Say, do you mind if I check your stats screen? Depending on what you have, I can give the people at the guild a special recommendation.”

Not knowing what she meant, JB nodded. Seeing her stat screen seemed to be, at the very least, not physically intrusive. After a second, a weird translucent object floated up in front of the receptionist. It was completely flat, and JB found that she couldn’t read whatever information was apparently on it. After a few seconds, the receptionist’s face wrinkled in frustration.

“Young lady, how high is your perception blocking stat? I can’t seem to see anything, and I’ve got a really high level of Analyze.”

It was at this moment that several details clicked together in JB’s mind, and she realized the inherent problem she was facing. God had expressly stated that she had removed them from the system and given her some alternative which JB still hadn’t entirely figured out. That meant that this “stat screen” this receptionist was looking for didn’t exist in the first place.

If there was ever a time to lie about having a perception blocking skill or something of the sort, it was most certainly now.

“I don’t have a stat screen.” JB admitted without a hint of self awareness. 

“Uhhh….”

The receptionist’s “Uh” droned on without any end in sight. It looked as though something in her mind had shattered. Stating that a person didn’t have a stat screen was a lot like telling a person that you didn’t have a liver. JB, of course, had no idea how absurd of a statement they had just made. 

The receptionist quickly came to the only logical possible answer to what JB had just said- The girl had an absurdly high perception blocking stat, and simply said that they didn’t have a stat screen as a joke. The earnesty and blunt nature that the statement had made contradicted this, but the receptionist found it better to refuse reality and stick with her simpler version of the story.

“Alright… Well, I believe that you could do pretty well at the guild with perception blocking like that. Just head out the back and to the right, and you should find the first stable completely empty. I’ll make sure you have food in the morning, so don't worry.”

The sentiment was clear. The receptionist was giving her a day to set herself up, but after that, JB was on her own. After that extremely confusing statement about stats, the woman appeared more hesitant about this stranger’s character. 

“Thank you.”

JB then quickly wandered off to go and rest. 

Lying in the stables, she was forced to confront her current situation. She had spent some time testing out her new body now that she had a place to rest, and realized that there were some clear disadvantages. Her rifle was most definitely a weapon to be feared, but the rest of her body was lacking. She was, for all intents and purposes, a normal human with less strength than her older body had. She also lacked this stat and level system that everyone else seemed to have, and while she didn’t exactly feel angry about it, it certainly created some discomfort. Information was important, and JB was now at a disadvantage. 

Her mission had several layers to it, and she decided to rank all of them in order of most important to least important.

1. She needed to survive. Not dying was very important.
2. She needed to get stronger if she wanted to have a chance against those who God had told her to kill.
3. She needed to kill the reincarnators.
4. She needed to kill slavers and free slaves whenever possible.
5. Live comfortably. 

The fifth one pertained both to her general lifestyle as well as her current mental predicament with this form. Dysphoria was a word not currently found in JB’s vocabulary, but the sensation most certainly was. God had stated that this form would be useful in getting closer to the reincarnators, and that was enough to make her feel as though the change was necessary. The only thing she could do right now was pray that she would eventually get over it.

Realizing that she hadn’t actually checked out how she looked, she quickly ran her way over to a water trough near the horses stables. Looking inside, she finally got a good view of her face. Saying she was beautiful was correct. God had done a fantastic job designing this new body to be appealing to men. Her soft features made her look approachable and someone that your body just screamed at you to protect. She looked fairly young, possibly in her later teens and early adulthood. JB was mentally in their very late 50s, but he certainly appreciated losing some of those years. 

The name “Jane” rapidly flashed through her mind again, causing them to tense up. She wasn’t ready to use that name just yet. It would be useful when infiltrating the harems of these fallen heroes, but it didn’t feel right just yet.

Resting in the hay of the stables, however, felt nice. The receptionist may have been slightly doubtful of JB, but she was certainly helpful. There was an extremely relevant problem, and that was the simple fact that JB had no idea what an adventurer’s guild did. The process of getting missions and assignments made it sound like a mercenary type operation. She would find out tomorrow once she had rested.

Holding her gun in her hands, JB slowly drifted off to sleep.

When JB awoke, the first thing she did was point her rifle at the person who had just ruffled her leg. 

The person in question was one of the innkeepers who had come to wake her up to eat breakfast. Seeing that she was holding her staff at him, even though it was clearly the wrong way that one should hold a staff, he quickly backed off from her.

“Sorry lady, I was just waking you to tell you we were serving breakfast. No need to get violent.”

The staff backed away and ran inside. JB wiped the sweat from her forehead and took a deep breath. She was a lot more tense right now, and she couldn’t afford to get caught off guard. Placing the rifle over her back, she headed inside and quickly placed herself down at a table. The receptionist spotted her and called over one of the other staff to give her some food. It was a completely undeterminable cut of meat, along with some bread and soup. She had also been provided a mug, but it contained water. The fact that JB was constantly called young may have suggested that she was below the requisite drinking age in this world. 

She quickly finished her meal, aware of the several eyes on her back. She was strange for a stranger, and that ‘staff’ she carried certainly caught attention. After clearing the plate, she got up and headed back to the receptionist. 

“I have a question about something you told me the other day.” JB placed both her arms on the table and leaned forward, lowering her voice.

“Yes?”

“Do you know where the reincarnators might be?” She asked with an air of pure innocence. 

The receptionist again paused, struggling to deal with the odd reality in front of her. This young girl had just asked where the summons from another world were. It was finally at this point that several details clicked together in the receptionist's head and led her to a horrifying realization. She leaned forward, nearly touching noses with JB.

“Don’t tell me you’re one of those reincarnators, are you?”

JB was stuck. The answer to that question was very obviously yes, but the fact that one had come from another world could be seen as valuable information. However, since the receptionist had whispered, it appeared as though she was willing to keep a secret.

“Yes, I am one of those.”

The receptionist’s eyes grew wide with surprise and shock. She had expected to meet a multitude of people throughout her life, but someone like JB was not one of them. 

“What’s your name again?”

“JB.”

She nodded, eyeing the girl up and down.

“Ok, JB. You should go and head to the adventurer’s guild. It’s down the street near the center of town. Impossible to miss. I’m sure that you’ll be able to find the other people if you ask around there. One sec.” She turned around and grabbed out a piece of paper and started to scribble on it rapidly before handing it over to JB. “This is a recommendation to the guild. It’s only a small fee, but since you lack any funds, I’ll pay for it.”

It was unstated, but this was the receptionist basically saying ‘This is too much for me, I’m going to let this be somebody else’s problem’. It wasn’t something she could really blame the woman for. 

After giving a small thank you and heading to the door, JB once again made her way into town and started talking towards the center. She continued to take the time to read the signs of every building she could, since it helped to pass the time. Since the buildings and other townspeople gave an informal form of measurement, JB was now sure that her legs were smaller than her previous life. This made walking take longer than before. This didn’t exactly matter to JB, as she believed that the only necessary factor was the ability to use her rifle. 

Making her way inside of the adventurer’s guild, JB braced herself for whatever God might throw her way.

Spedbop

Still getting used to scribblehub's UI, but I think I'll figure it out. By the way, this isn't the only series I write. I'm putting a poll here, just to see if people are genuinely invested in reading more of this. If you want to see a series with genuine world building, and the series I actually care about, please go read my other work on Royal Road, Edge of Freedom.