Author’s Corner: For previously stated reasons, there was no chapter yesterday. So, have a second one today!

“Wait, you did what?!” Talia’s face was pale as we explained that we had just killed the first of the six calamities, the twilight widow. “We thought you planned to go have some drawn out battle, or use powerful magic…”

“Ah.. about that.. I have this… ‘condition’ that the new system deemed to give me.” I chuckled dryly as I tried to skim over one of the main reasons I would not go anywhere near the giant spider.

However, Sharon proved to be my undoing, whispering in a very loud voice. “He blacks out and goes berserk any time he sees a spider.” After saying so, she winked playfully towards me, and I suddenly found the floor to be very interesting.

“Well… that’s… unfortunate.” Talia seemed to be struggling to hold in a laugh. I’m still right here, you know!

“Still…” I sighed, lifting my head back up. “We told the High Queen about that, so we figured she would have informed you.”

The little queen huffed, crossing her arms. She was still wearing that white dress that she had been granted at the temple. To the best of my knowledge, nobody else has been given anything like that. I really couldn’t understand what Aria would be thinking. “The High Queen did not tell us anything about this. We assume that you plan to deal with the other calamities in the same manner?”

When we both nodded our heads, she just gave a tired nod. It’s hard to remember that she’s really older than either myself or Sharon when she looks like that. “We understand. Not like we have any say in the matter at this point, since it was already taken care of. Is there anything we can do to help?”

It was at this point that Celeste chimed into my head and had me ask for something. “Ah, well, if it’s possible, could you provide us with samples of various fruits and vegetables from this world?” That got me a curious glance from Sharon before I explained. “We don’t have as much of a variety on our ship as we would like, so meals can get a little bland.”

Talia smirked wryly at that, nodding her head. “We’ll see what we can do. We hope that you will remain in our territory until the first of the druids have finished their training, and then we can ask to arrange for someone to give you a tour of the cities.”

I thought about it, and those first two druids that I had started training should be able to finish in a few days, since they seemed naturally gifted. “I think we can handle that.” I nodded to her. It was a perfectly reasonable request. Leaving the training only half-done would eliminate the entire purpose of doing it in the first place.

We spoke for a few more minutes before we left. Soon after we did, there was another Kingdom Alert, saying that Talia had placed an order for Improved Architecture. I was curious what that would result in, but since the countdown was going to last another week, I just made a mental note to check back on it before we left the system.

It was only a few moments later that there was a sharp cry in the sky. Looking up, I saw a small storm cloud moving in our direction, before a streak of lightning shot down at me. Reflexively, I wanted to use my magic to defend, but I soon realized that the very fact I had time to think about that meant that this could not be a real lightning bolt.

Indeed, just a few meters short of me, the lightning bolt shattered, and in its place was a silver bird with golden specks along her feathers. She stood just over a meter tall, and yes I knew it was a she because she immediately nuzzled against me when she arrived in front of me. Yang, who had heard the cry, rushed nearby and squealed in surprise. “Sister!”

Yang hurriedly ran over and gave the bird, who was by now obviously an evolved Yin, a big hug. Then, something happened, something that nobody here expected. “I’m home…” Yin spoke, even in her bird form. It was a high pitched voice, but still distinctly feminine.

I could only chuckle, patting Yin on the head. “Welcome back. Did you finally manage to get your alternate form.”

Yin nodded her head quickly. “But… embarrassing. No clothes…” She then looked towards Yang, nodding towards the latter’s attire. It seemed that with this method of evolving, her mentality was much more developed than Yang’s was when she first became a demi. Even Yo was not that developed. And finally, I could be proud of the fact that one of my animal companions did not enjoy walking around naked.

“Well… this is going to be interesting…” I chuckled, opening up my friend’s list and placing a call to the little queen that we had just left.

“Yes? Did something happen?” She sounded somewhat worried that we had called her so soon after leaving.

“Ah… well… kind of. I need a favor, and I’m not sure who the right person here would be to ask.”

“Oh?” She calmed down quite a bit, relieved by the fact that there was not some earth-shattering terror invading her land. “What is it?”

“Well… I need clothes.”

“...Say again?”

“One of my companions needs clothes.” I nod towards Yin, sending her a mental message to head into the castle. She nods back, and flapped her wings to fly on in, passed the shocked eyes of several guards. “I just sent her in now. I really hope that this is not asking too much.”

“No, no, it should be fine. Is it Sharon? We could see her outfit getting damaged easily if she spends so much time with wild animals--you just sent a bird in here.” I could quite easily tell when Yin arrived in the throne room based on the conversation. “Please do not tell us that this is a joke? Are we supposed to find clothes for a--oh…wow..”

Either Yin just spoke, or she shapeshifted in front of Talia. Either way, mission accomplished. “So, can you help her out?”

“Uh huh…” That was pretty much all the reply I was getting, which made me curious. Worried for my own future, but still curious. Nonetheless, that was taken care of. So, we decided to wait around. It’s not like it would take too long to find something for Yin to wear.

“You know, we’ll really need to get someone that knows how to sew in the future.” Sharon looked to me with a slight smile. “Even leaving your companions aside, now that they all will have at least one outfit, I have no idea how many I’ll evolve that will require clothes of their own. And last I checked, the ship did not have a sewing station.”

It really didn’t, as Celeste informed me, but Sharon raised a very valid point. “I… don’t suppose you’d be willing to learn?”

I was instantly pierced by a rather evil glare. “That was a joke because I’m a woman, right?” However, her smile quickly returned. “Just kidding. But no, I really couldn’t. I’m more likely to stab myself with a needle than use it properly. Maybe we can teach Yin or Yang to do it? I mean, Yang is already a craftsman of sorts. Maybe she could make clothes out of natural materials?”

“We’ll have to find out eventually, I guess…” I felt a bit of a cold sweat, and I was not entirely sure why. I glanced over towards Yang, and saw her looking at us curiously after we mentioned her in our conversation.

Yang, Sharon and I waited outside the castle for roughly fifteen minutes, and I was just about to send Talia another call when the gates opened. The figure that came out was, in a word, stunning. At just over five and a half feet tall, although she did not have much of a bust like most of the other girls around me, she had a very well defined body. Silky smooth skin, an almost perfect face with long silver hair trailing down to her narrow waist, and long, slender legs.

The woman’s outfit was something that I believed could have been pulled from the queen’s own wardrobe, a light green dress that practically shined when the light reflected off of it. The dress only had one sleeve, the other side dipping down under her should for an almost teasing view of skin. She was wearing rather elaborate green slippers on her feet as well, which matched rather nicely with the dress.

When this woman walked out of the castle, she approached us and said with a soft smile. “I’m back… what do you think?”

Sharon, who had not thought much of the woman that came out of the castle, suddenly widened her eyes in surprise. “Yin..?” The other woman’s cheeks reddened slightly, but she nodded. “Wow.. you look great.” She then turned towards me. “You know that this is totally not fair, right? All of your companions have become gorgeous in one way or another…”

I couldn’t help but laugh lightly at that, grinning to her. “Yes, they have.”

After realizing the implication of those words, Sharon’s face turned red immediately, and she began mumbling something to herself. Yin, however, walked up to me and did a polite bow. “I’m back, John.”

Well, this was a pleasant surprise. Not master, not papa, she actually called me by my proper name. “Welcome back, Yin. Did you have enough of your training?”

“Yes… I’m glad to be back. I missed you.” Her smile widened, and she stepped forward to give me a light hug, before moving over to give one to Yang as well. Though, I thought I heard her whispering something to the demi.

“It’s good to have you back, sister.” The demi didn’t seem to mind whatever it was that Yin had said, and only smiled brightly at the fact that Yin had returned. Still, looking at how she turned out, I am not surprised that Talia was left speechless. Aside from her ears looking human, Yin looks like the perfect example of what the elves value for beauty. And she just appeared naked in the throne room.

I could guess that those clothes likely came from the late queen’s wardrobe, and that they were simply too big for Talia to wear herself yet. With that thought in mind, though, I went over to Yin before something bad had the chance to happen. “Before anyone goes doing something that we all might regret… Yin, can I enchant those clothes real quick? That way they won’t break when you transform back.”

Yin blinked at me in confusion for a second, before realization dawned on her and she nodded her head quickly. After all, I was still shirtless from my previous incident of forgetting to enchant my clothes. Seeing her agree, I quickly went through the process of enchanting her dress and shoes to adapt to her form. After I did so, the dress seemed to tighten slightly, further revealing her figure without causing her discomfort. I was not even going to suggest doing this for her undergarments before she spoke up to save me. “Will have Celeste do the rest.. on the ship.”

“Right.” After this was all settled, we would still need to retrieve these clone bodies so that we could go to the other worlds as well. That meant that Yin could hand off these clothes to her real body at that time. Though, it seemed that she did not enjoy talking as much as the other girls, which was not a bad thing. Variety is the spice of life!

At this time, Celeste spoke up in my mind, and I had to relay her words. “Celeste’s going to teleport you back up to take care of this real quick.”

Which meant that I would need to log out afterwards to refuel the ship. But still, I felt that this was worth it. A few moments later, green lights surrounded Yin, and she vanished from our view. Roughly two minutes later, as expected I was asked to log out and resupply plasma to the ship’s generator.

When I got out, Yin was looking around the medbay, seeming to take the view in with a different perspective than she had previously. Thankfully, she didn’t seem as averse to space travel as Yang did, though I figured she would probably still stay in my grove to keep the demi company. Our next trip was going to be a long one, longer than the total amount of time we’ve had since NeoLife appeared. It would be natural for her to get lonely if she was in my grove all by herself.

I’ll have to try to get her more comfortable with the ship… See if there’s anywhere that we can put in a garden or something for her. I thought about this as I went and refueled the ship, letting Celeste teleport Yin back down before I filled it up with plasma one more time. Might as well make sure the generator is full before I go back down, right?

Anyways, when we got back down to the planet, we decided to walk around for a bit with everyone and catch up. To my surprise, Yin had apparently evolved several days ago, but wanted to do some training to get used to her new body(or would it be bodies?) before she returned. As such, she was already familiar with her new powers. That explained how she was able to do her little entrance that she had shown before, at least.

She had various other powers as well, such as shooting lightning bolts from her feathers, altering the weather, and she was even able to wield the lightning like a sword or a whip in her human form. Though, according to her, it felt like she could only use about half of her power when she’s not in her bird form, which made sense. If she was able to use the full potential of the bird form in human form, then what would be the point of it?