Morgan Mackenzie was suddenly back in her own physical body, and thoughts of wings and tattoos were whisked away by this new state of affairs. She found herself unable to move, and she quickly realized that the class selection experience was only the beginning of her newest ordeal. In the span of two heartbeats, the notifications began as she lay helpless on the sand.

Self-Unity achieved. Class compatibility approaching 100%. Class selection confirmed. Consent acknowledged: Initializing Soul Modification.

That seems ominous, she thought. I hope this isn’t going to hurt. Or take very long. And it’s going to change my Soul? I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this...

Her worries were indeed well-founded, as what came next hurt a great deal more than she was prepared to endure. Morgan screamed internally as she felt a merciless pull on what she now knew to be her Soul.

Skill List analyzed. Aspected Skills incompatible with class selection. Generating compatible Skill List…

Compatible Skill List generated.

Revoking Aspect: [Naked Affinity].

Morgan felt her sanity begin to fray as what she could only have described as a spiritual cheese-grater flayed her skills away from her. Each vanishing ability left an agonizing void in her Soul, and her mental anguish intensified to a fever pitch. Her mind felt stretched out, like a rubber band about to snap, but before it could, she felt a familiar otherness envelop her psyche like the most comforting blanket she could have imagined.

And then she was pulled down. Down, away from the pain of the changes being wrought on her Soul. Down, into the blessed blackness. The storm raged above as her Soul was stretched, and cut, and re-woven into something stronger -- but she was held within her own mind, away from the brunt of the experience. Her inner self had no words to offer, she knew, but words were not needed in this place, as they drifted below the waves of sensation. She had chosen this, and would endure.

Lulu’s [Exfoliate] skill has reached level 4!

What?

Lulu’s [Exfoliate] skill has reached level 5!

LULU!

Gripped by sudden panic she fought to reach Lulu, angling towards the tempest of pain above before her other self redoubled its grip, pulling her down once more. This new dream place seemed to rock placidly, back and forth, and she heard a low rhythmic humming surround her, comforting her in this time of crisis. The next notifications allayed her concern, and she felt a small swell of pride.

Lulu has defeated a [Chittering Murdersquirrel(Lvl - 12)]!

Congratulations! Lulu has reached Level 4!

Congratulations! Lulu has reached Level 5!

Hah! Go Lulu!

The scrubby would have to fend for itself for a while, at least until Morgan’s changes were finished. Her concern for her poofy little friend was offset by the fact that the scrubby seemed perfectly capable of handling things for the moment. The notifications seemed to indicate that such was the case, anyway.

Lulu’s [Exfoliate] skill has reached level 6!

Lulu’s [Exfoliate] skill has reached level 7!

Lulu’s [Exfoliate] skill has reached level 8!

Lulu has defeated a [Slap-Tongue Toad(Lvl - 15)]!

Congratulations! Lulu has reached Level 6!

Morgan chuckled internally as Lulu’s notifications appeared. Apparently she’s more dangerous than she looks!

She felt a shift in the mindscape as the storm seemed to calm, and the cold sensations of her skills being ripped away one by one finally came to an end. Her own notifications resumed immediately after the surface of her Soul grew quiet, far above her.

Aspect revocation complete. Incompatible Skillset removed.

Applying Unique Class Framework: [Skyclad Sorceress].

Piercing golden light danced across the surface of the dream-sea far above her, etching a pattern that started as a simple circle centered directly over where she floated. As soon as the circle was completed, the light split and raced outwards in too many directions for her mind’s eye to follow. Concentric loops, geometric patterns and runic designs spread out further and further as the points of light continued to propagate, its lace-like complexity quickly defying her ability to understand.

The changes written into place by the golden light were neither pleasant, nor painful like the removal of her Aspect had been. The light writing changes onto her Soul now felt like a symphony of music that resonated her very being. The glow caused dancing curtains of dappled luminescence to shine down into the dream-sea, and Morgan felt herself lulled deeper into the soothing presence humming tunelessly around her mind. She let herself drift, and time lost all meaning as the messages marking her transformation continued.

Applying Class traits and conditions…

Equipment Auto-Rejection: Enabled.

Auto-Rejection response set to Extreme.

Skyclad status: Absolute, Irrevocable.

Morgan felt only a twinge of regret over the choice she had made. Bye-bye pretty dresses, she mused, the thought meandering to the forefront of her mind. Good lord, am I going to miss my spiffy boots…

Lulu’s [Exfoliate] skill has reached level 9!

Lulu’s [Exfoliate] skill has reached level 10!

Lulu has mastered the skill [Exfoliate]!

Lulu has defeated a [Razortail Crawdad(Lvl - 13)]!

Congratulations! Lulu has reached Level 7!

She was suddenly struck by the absurd mental image of the plucky loofah murdering critters while she lay immobile in the dirt. She’s like a frilly Dalek! You exfoliate all those little bastards, Lulu! A soundless laugh escaped her as she found herself more amused than she was disturbed by the scrubby’s new lethality.

Applying Class Bonuses…

Oh, thought Morgan as the lattice mosaic of light above her flashed brightly for a moment and the complex shapes began to shift and turn. Is this the good part?

Experience Gains Bonus: 100 Percent.

Distributable Status Points Gains Bonus: 100 Percent.

Skill Points Gains Bonus: 100 Percent.

Enhancement Points Gains Bonus: 100 Percent.

Resistance and Affinities Acquisition Difficulty: -50 Percent.

Uh… Yeah, that’s definitely a good part. Wait! The last gains bonus was something she had not seen before. What are Enhancement Points? Is this a class thing again? Oh, she thought sadly. I can’t ask anyone for details anymore, not unless I can find people...

Lulu has defeated a [Carrion-Crawler Centipede(Lvl - 13)]!

Lulu has defeated a [Carrion-Crawler Centipede(Lvl - 13)]!

Congratulations! Lulu has reached Level 8!

Lulu has defeated a [Carrion-Crawler Centipede(Lvl - 15)]!

Congratulations! Lulu has reached Level 9!

What in the world is going on up there? Morgan was struck once again by deep concern for her poofy little companion. She had no sense of time in this place, but it certainly seemed like there were many more threats to deal with than just the few she had encountered herself.

Activating Unique Class Signature Skill: [Living Runic Enchantment]

Enabling Primary Rune Anchor...

All thoughts of Lulu were driven away as a pillar of golden light burst downwards into the dream-sea from the center of the primary circle, pinning Morgan in place. It caused no pain, but instead an all-enveloping tingle like she was floating in a fizzy drink. An eternal moment later, a needle-thin beam of purple light connected the center of her chest to the center of the golden circle above.

Inscribing Rune: [Soul Anchor]...

You have gained the Living Rune: [Soul Anchor]! Living Runes are Enchantments that will grow in power as you do. This Rune allows you to inscribe one Living Rune per level of [Soul Anchor] onto your body. Maximum level of Living Runes is equal to the level of [Soul Anchor]. Removing an existing Rune to inscribe another results in loss of the previous Rune’s level. [Soul Anchor] may not be removed.

The Rune felt cold on her chest after the thinner beam vanished, but she could not see what it was. More notifications came almost immediately as the purple beam returned to strike her directly in the eyes, blinding her with brilliant indigo incandescence.

Inscribing initial Rune: [Mana Vision]...

You have gained the Living Rune [Mana Vision]! This rune has replaced your previous Aspected Skill [The Naked Eye], allowing you to perceive the flows of magic as well as improving vision in all light conditions. Higher levels will allow you to pierce through deceptive enchantments such as veils and glamour.

She could feel a similar cold sting on her face as the glare faded, stretching across her eyes in a band connecting her temples. She didn’t even have time to wonder what the runic tattoo might look like before Lulu’s messages intruded upon her attention.

Lulu has defeated a [Shock-Maw Eel(Lvl - 16)]!

Lulu has defeated a [Shock-Maw Eel(Lvl - 15)]!

Congratulations! Lulu has reached Level 10!

Lulu has spawned a Brood!

WHAT!?

In that moment, Morgan wanted nothing more than to wake back up to see just exactly what was going on in the physical world, but the golden light held her pinned in the dreamscape. Her own state of affairs changed almost immediately as well, with the sudden acceleration of the shifting geometric and arcane patterns far above.

Reapplying Modified Skillset…

[Naked Instinct] changed to [Primal Instinct].

[Naked Acceleration] changed to [Acceleration].

[Naked Athleticism] changed to [Athleticism].

[The Naked Eye] removed, replaced by Living Rune: [Mana Sight].

[Naked Recovery] has evolved to [Regeneration].

[Naked Camouflage] removed, replaced with [Fade Presence].

[Naked Resilience] removed; skill effect intrinsic to Class.

[Naked Magic] removed; skill effect intrinsic to Class.

[Naked Elementalism] removed; skill effect intrinsic to Class.

[Runic Enchantment] modified to include [Living Runes].

[Spell Surge] unchanged, compatible with Class.

[Resistances] Skill Group created; see status menu.

[Affinities] Skill Group created; see status menu.

[Spell List] compiled; see status menu.

WIth every notification that appeared, sections of the light-woven lattice above her shifted. They turned, folded into each other, and slid in dizzying patterns as the entire mosaic seemed to be condensing into the greater circle directly over her floating mind-self.

Lulu has spawned a Brood!

The absurdity of the notifications continuing during Morgan’s transformation gave a humorous tint to the seriousness of the changes happening to her Soul and body. She knew that time felt different in this place, and was now even more eager to return to the waking world to help her loyal companion. Her excitement over the Class notifications and changes had been building ever since the pain had stopped, adding to her impatience.

Formatting Class Status Menu… Complete.

Status Information for: Morgan Mackenzie

Level - 10

Primary Class: [Skyclad Sorceress]

Secondary Class: [Locked]

Health - 250/250

Stamina - 280/280

Mana - 210/210

STR - 20

AGI - 20

CON - 20

VIT - 28

INT - 21

Stat points available to distribute: 10

Current Skills:

[Primal Instinct]

[Acceleration]

[Athleticism]

[Regeneration]

[Fade Presence]

[Spell Surge]

[Resistances]

-[Pain Resistance(Lvl 9)]

-[Heat Resistance(Mastered)]

-[Lightning Resistance]

-[Mana Resistance(Mastered)]

[Affinities]

-[Mana Affinity(Lvl 6)]

-[Fire Affinity]

-[Heat Affinity]

-[Water Affinity]

-[Lightning Affinity]

-[Earth Affinity(Lvl 2)]

[Spell List]

-[Mana Pulse(Mastered)]

-[Spell Channeling(Lvl 5)]

-[Lightning Bolt]

-[Flame Bolt]

-[Water Bolt]

-[Wind Barrier]

-[Candleflame]

-[Earth Sculpt(Lvl 4)]

-[Earth Wave]

[Runic Enchantment]

-[Candleflame Rune]

[Living Runes]

-[Soul Anchor]

-[Mana Sight]

Skill Points available: 15

Titles, Mantles, and Aspects

[Worldwalker(Title)] - You have travelled through the void between the many worlds! Every world is different, each with its own gifts and dangers. To help you survive strange new places you gain a slight boost to health and an increased ability to learn new things! (+50 to Health, +50% increased gains to Skill Experience)

[Blessed of the Guardian Tree(Title)] - Through an offering of the blood of your enemies you have reawakened the ancient tree! You need never fear its hungry roots! Future offerings or actions that benefit the tree may enhance this Title!

Class Traits

[Skyclad] You are clad in the sky itself, forfeiting items, clothing, and equipment in exchange for the unrivaled power of purest Sorcery. There are no barriers between you and the magics of the world. Items will no longer equip; in exchange, intangible gains are substantially increased.

[Sorceress] Your pathway to magic and power is Sorcery itself. Needing neither incantations nor blood nor prayer, you wield the flows of Mana directly by your own will.

Morgan took in the new status information as her floating dream island began to rise towards the bright circle. Something about it simply felt right, even though it was only now sinking in that included in the deal was nudity. Lifelong nudity, firm and inescapable fact. For some reason she was not quite as bothered by her nakedness as she may have once felt. She had come to an agreement with her innermost primal self, after all.

Well, she thought, it doesn’t matter out here in the Wildlands, and if I finally meet people they’ll just have to get over it!

Lulu has spawned a Brood!

She had no response for yet another brood spawning message other than to just chuckle, which seemed to be echoed by her other-self as the dream refuge rose to the surface. As she approached the glowing circle, Morgan felt that other presence squeeze her mind tightly with a burst of emotions that she could not help but mirror. Satisfaction, anticipation, affection, protectiveness and eager hope, all rolled into one brief mental hug that needed no words to be understood.

Class Framework finalized. Soul Modification Complete.

Activating Selected Class: [Skyclad Sorceress]!

May your Story be Remembered!

Morgan jolted awake on the sun-baked sands where she had fallen. The river was still a few dozen paces away, and the grassy brushline was still at her back, in the shadow of the trees on her side of the water. But as she sat up, her eyes fell upon a loofah armageddon, and shrill purbling war cries matched bestial screams in her ears.

“LULU!” she called, stiffly jerking herself up to her feet. Her body felt like she’d been immobile for days, and she had to pee with a near painful urgency. [Regeneration] seemed to work like an even more enhanced version of [Naked Recovery], and she could tell her body’s fat reserves were slightly diminished, although not to a troubling degree. What was troubling, however, was the death and destruction Morgan could see all around her.

The broad sandy bank of the river resembled nothing so much as a war zone, akin to the beaches of Normandy she had seen in high school history class documentaries. There were craters blown into the sands, bloody bones scattered everywhere, and several different kinds of strange and frightening beasts laying dead and exfoliated all around her for hundreds of paces up and down the riverbank. Like a victorious army, loofahs of every color of the rainbow puffled all over the place, demonstrating magics similar to their hue.

She could do nothing but stare for several moments, mesmerized by the ebb and flow of the oddly colourful and purbling combat. Despite her confusion, she had already pieced together much of what had happened. I’ve been out longer than I thought. It must have been three or four days, at least…

The skeletons of the Lesser Alpha and the Eel-Hydra were gleaming and polished, and a legion of tiny, coin-sized scrubbies scooted its way between other skeletons on the sandy shore. More scrubbies fought several creatures that looked like bigger versions of typical river and forest dwelling creatures.

Morgan tried to take a step towards the swarming frilly madness, wanting to help out, but she found her path blocked by several skeletons. One was a rodent that must have at one time been the [Chittering Murdersquirrel] that had been the first of Lulu’s victims. A vaguely frog-like skeleton and several long bone formations that must have at one point been eels also sprawled around her.

The blood and viscera soaked into the sands seemed to have seeped down to the water, drawing more and more creatures eager to feed. Lulu, in turn, had fed well. The plucky scrubby matriarch was now perched on top of what looked like a lobster or crawdad the size of a Volkswagen, with gleaming swords of chitin for the ends of its many legs and fanning out from its tail.

There were more eels trying to slither up the sands towards the feast of corpses, but the scrubby legion reacted as one organism. Poofy loofahs swarmed any threat as soon as it emerged from the water. Red puffballs glowed with intense heat. Yellow ones crackled with arcs of electricity. Green ones left trails of hissing, caustic cleaning fluids. The scents of ozone and lye soap and charcoal warred with the pungent aromas of days-old corpses the scrubbies had not yet had time to consume.

As one giant eel fell to the sand, still wriggling weakly and not quite dead, the larger loofahs made way to allow the smaller ones to swarm in for the kill. The last thrash of the sparking jaws led to dozens of rippling golden pulses as the smaller loofahs became not quite so small from subduing their foe and leveling up.

Farther down the bank from Morgan, several scrubbies as big as Lulu were furiously consuming the corpse of another eel, and one by one they all swelled up into massive lacey puffballs. With an almost cartoonish sounding fwoomp the first scrubby exploded like a piece of popcorn, sending tiny prismatic puffs outwards as it lost its extra mass and returned to normal. The newly poofed brood of scrubbies immediately began to feed on the dead bodies scattered across the sands. They were soon followed by more fwoomps, and more scrubby cousins.

The river itself was awash with foamy blood and goopy viscera and variously tinted patches of soapy bubbles, and this seemed to be what fueled the constant onslaught of the riverbank invasion.

For spawning ten thousand descendants, Lulu has gained the Title [Loofah Prime: The Scrubby Matriarch]!

A silvery halo briefly appeared over the precocious puffball as Lulu hopped off her dead crustacean perch and began working her way back in Morgan’s direction. Morgan herself had been picking her way towards Lulu, around and over and sometimes through the gleaming, off-white skeletons. The combat all across the riverside sandbar seemed to lull for a moment as she scooped up her murderously adorable friend for a hug. The lavender scented puffball frantically checked to be sure that all of Morgan was still there, zipping across arms to hands and hopping down to check toes and feet before making its way back up to perch on her shoulder, purbling in relief.

As she walked towards the water’s edge, Morgan felt for her magic, and found it eagerly responsive. With a touch of willpower and Mana, she pulled a globe of water up from the river. The greater ease with which the magic flowed in and around her was simply astounding. She could feel the impurities in the water as well, and expelled the blood and filth from her globular acquisition before sipping from the floating sphere.

“This is amazing, Lulu!” she exclaimed to the scrubby that was, once again, happily perched on her shoulder. Letting go of the ball of water with a splash, she held up her hands and pulled Lightning Mana out of the air around her. She let it dance around and between her fingers like a crackling purple game of cat’s cradle. “My magic doesn’t hurt me anymore, Lulu! It’s like it’s all natural now!”

She paused for a few seconds before chuckling and shaking her head. “Heh, all natural, au naturale, I guess it comes with the territory now.”

The attacking creatures seemed to have vanished for some reason Morgan could not detect, but with her newly attuned instincts giving faint tingly warnings she headed away from the water. She turned to the most recently deceased eel and, when her instinct skill reassured her it was indeed edible, tore a large chunk of the fishy white flesh away with her bare hands. She was not starving, but she was quite hungry.

With an improvised usage of her [Wind Barrier] spell, she held the roughly torn eel filet suspended in mid-air and cooked it with a careful application of [Candleflame] while she sat on the lobster-like carapace that had previously been Lulu’s matriarchal throne. The sound of purbles and warbles and trilling purrs surrounded her, and she simply stared at Lulu’s progeny with incredulity as she ate.

“I wasn’t ready to be a grandma, girl.”

Lulu’s only response was a haughty puffling shake before going back to working through Morgan’s hair, which had become encrusted with sand and grit while she lay still for several days. She finished off her roasted eel and suddenly remembered her tattoos.

Jumping up and nearly dislodging a protesting loofah, Morgan drew another ball of pure water from the river. With a brief struggle of will that was more about visualizing exactly what she wanted and less about the power required to do it, the sphere of liquid flattened out into a spinning shimmering disk.

Her reflection in the improvised mirror was utterly striking. She stood naked on the sand, with a proud, confident stance she had not even realized she had grown into. The diminutive, withdrawn posture of the waitress she used to be was gone. The image she now saw was a strong, fit example of unapologetic femininity and strength. Shoulders back, hair wild, and standing tall on bare feet. “Totally not giving any fucks, Lulu,” she said. “Hah! I couldn’t equip a fuck to give it!”

With a wry chuckle, she pulled the mirror closer to inspect her enchanted tattoos. In the center of her chest just below where her collarbones came close together was a simple divided circle tattoo. The two halves of the shiny indigo disk had a thin gap of separation between them, but at the center of the circle they seemed to twist together like a lock.

Two hair-thin lines of deep purple inked their way upwards, one from each side of the circle. They pulled close together to trace their way through the narrow indentation between her collarbones, then turned outwards to curl up the sides of her neck and behind her ears. The lines re-emerged from her hair on either side to connect the [Soul Anchor] to the [Mana Sight] Living Rune.

The tattoo for [Mana Sight] struck Morgan as hauntingly beautiful, and reminded her of Celtic woad designs and other tribal imagery. The thin connecting lines split at her temples and wove an intricate, narrow belt across her eyes in a matte indigo color. The tattooing even covered her eyelids, and she made awkward faces at herself by closing one eye and trying to inspect its lid with the other eyeball.

Her moment of self-reflection and study was brought to a halt sooner than she would have liked. Thunder rumbled ominously to the south, despite the bright sunny day. She had been wondering what could have scared off the local critters that had been fighting over the buffet of dead creatures all around, and now it made its appearance.

The legions of loofah scrubbies began purbling with nervousness and making their way back into the brush and trees away from the water, but Morgan stood her ground. Her instincts were less fearful and more watchful, as the marshy stretch of the river in the southern distance was covered in low thunderclouds centered over a single large shadow. As the localized storm front crept up the river towards their location, Morgan activated her [Mana Sight] tattoo and, with her vision now piercing the clouds to see the currents of Mana within, the source was revealed in all its fearsome magical detail.

The center of the small storm was almost directly above a most distinctive creature that Morgan had no trouble at all naming. “Good Lord, Lulu! It’s an ACTUAL hydra! Seven heads and all!”

The loofah simply puffled with a complete lack of being impressed by that statement, which Morgan could actually understand given the loofah’s recent record-setting bout of reproduction. The hydra appeared to be quite a bit smaller than the electric eel-hydra had been, but it more than made up for that with powerful front limbs that pulled it through the marshy waters and mud of the lower section of the river.

In addition to sheer strength, the magic was obvious. Morgan could make out giant eddies of Water, Air, and Lightning Mana swirling in the clouds above the approaching monster. And another type of Mana was visible to her rune-enhanced vision, a type she had not yet experimented with herself. This new Mana seemed to form concentrated knots in the upper layers of the storm and then zip downwards, propelled by the winds and the Air and Water Mana to incredible speeds to then hit the mud with thumping, wet sounds of impact.

Holding up her hand, Morgan copied the knot of strange new Mana she could see in the hydra’s hovering storm clouds. Within moments, a sphere of ice drew in all the moisture around her hand as it swelled into existence. It froze to her hand, but that proved a benefit as the entire process rewarded her with a spell, a resistance, and an affinity within a handful of heartbeats.

You have learned the spell [Hailstone]! One or two may not do much, but a storm of hundreds can be deadly! Form a ball of ice with Frost Mana. Multiple [Hailstone] spells may be cast simultaneously, at a proportional cost.

You have gained the skill [Frost Resistance]!

You have gained the skill [Frost Affinity]!

Morgan cackled suddenly, but did not flee the approaching beast. “Lulu…” she said between gasps of laughter. “It’s a Hail-Hydra…”

She laughed so hard it hurt, and still she did not flee. The scrubby on her shoulder seemed perfectly calm, and instead of fear, her instincts were telling her that the hydra would be quite tasty indeed. The urge to test out her new class limits and this newly responsive and intuitive use of magic was overwhelming; and, she admitted to herself, both me and my inner me have some issues that would be good to get worked out.

Her caloric reserves were almost fully replenished by the magically broiled eel she had consumed. Her Health and resource pools were all full, and she felt physically better, more alive, than she had ever since appearing in this world.

Morgan stretched her arms above her head and twisted from side to side as if she were merely preparing for an exercise session, then cracked her neck and then her knuckles. The [Skyclad Sorceress] wanted to play, and one unfortunately tasty-looking Hydra had picked the wrong time to appear.