The outside of the shop was extremely plain. It had no windows, no decorations, it was just redbrick. There wasn't even a name for the store, it was such a juxtaposition against all of the ostentatious shops around that the plainness drew the eye, rather than be ignored. It was odd. Nym didn't hesitate outside of this store as she did outside of the guild building. She immediately pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Inside the store was as beautiful as the outside was plain. On every shelf, every table and lined across the walls were a collection of beautifully made statues and sculptures, some were of humanoid races, others beasts that were mythical to me and others I did not recognise at all but each was as intricate as the last. The attention to detail was astounding, individual scales had been carved into the dragon that was the centrepiece of the room, not a large one, maybe four feet from snout to tail but every detail was painstakingly carved.

Not only was the craftsmanship high but there was also colour everywhere, everything seemed to be alive. The stones weren't painted, it seemed like they had been turned into various colours that perfectly mimicked real life. I looked into the eyes of a woman who was so well made that I could have sworn I could see the sheen of moisture on her eyeballs. I did not doubt that every single piece here was worth a small fortune. How much money were we going to spend?

I had been so engrossed in the merchandise that I had completely missed as the shopkeeper and Nym exchanged pleasantries and spoke and we were now moving into a back room. As we moved, we went passed a workshop filled with half-finished statues. Tools of more types than I could fathom uses were scattered around each and a collection of wands was hanging off of one wall. That was all the glimpse that I got through as we moved passed that room and into a small storage room.

There wasn't much in this room, some more things that maybe didn't quite fit in in the front of the store but it seemed that was where the majority of the stock was kept, on one wall there stood three statues. One a gnome, another a dwarf, the third a human and the last an elf. One for each of the major races in the city. The gnome and the human were both females and I immediately decided against them. Gender may not matter to a golem but I had been a man in my past life and I didn't quite feel ready looking like a woman. Maybe one day, who knows? The dwarf shopkeeper pulled me out of my thoughts as she spoke.

"They're all made to the same quality as everythin' 'at comes out of my workshop, the gnome an' the dwarf will obviously be faster an' weaker than the human an' the elf since their smaller an' doubly so for the gnome. I dunno about the elf an' the human, can never quite tell until they've been inhabited. Never thought I'd be selling to a sentient golem, I won't lie to ya, thought they'd end up as some kind of collection for some fancy noble or somethin' but gotta say I'm glad they'll see some use.

The smaller 'ens are gonna be fifty gold but the bigger 'ens'll be seventy. They're bigger an' took a lot more work, they'll pack more stats too. I'll leave yas to look an' talk but you break it ya buy it." Her speech was rough but had a feminine quality to it. There was no Scottish accent that I had secretly hoped for but it sounded like she'd been raised in the country. She gave us a quick wave and then went back to the front of the shop.

Nym spoke next.

"The archpriest left me with eighty gold, I have no idea what he did that he felt the need for such a sum but it would cover any of these and of course you may keep the difference. Which do you think you prefer?" Her eyebrows had an ever so slight arch to them and the corner of her mouth was curved very slightly upwards as she looked down at me.

"I think I will go for the elf, I was a man once and would like to continue that way, at least in appearance. I'm also over being short." The elf was a little over six feet tall, smaller than I had been in my old life but still closer than the bodies I had had so far. I would need to keep my core somewhere near the middle of the body but that didn't really matter.

"I did not know you were a man, very well then, I will fetch Sharina. You should begin to infuse this statue." She places my core into the hand of the elf statue that had his hands cupped lightly in front of his stomach and went out to the front of the store. The elf, me, was naked, every muscle on his body was clearly carved and coloured making it look incredibly realistic. He had a messy mop of blonde hair and thin eyebrows but otherwise, his body was completely hairless. It was a little odd, to a person it would look almost exactly like a real elf but I could see the little imperfections and chisel marks in the rock that assured me it was not real.

I began to release my mana into the statue, slowly saturating it with my mana. The stone reacted incredibly quickly and seemed to drink my mana, a job that I thought would take hours and many times over my mana was completed in minutes and with less than half of my maximum. I'm not sure what Sharina did to this rock but I loved her for it. I let my core flow into the rock, hiding behind the navel of my new body. It took a moment but soon the notification popped up.

New body claimed Body Type: Deep stone Body stats: Body Rank: B Strength: 14 A body, exquisitely made by a talented craftswoman. The properties of the Deepstone it is made from along with the design allow this body to be stronger and more durable than most non-magical metals whilst still being lighter. Mana conductive materials allow for mana to be manipulated more efficiently. Toughness: 18 Dexterity: 10 Health: 180/180

Good gods this was crazy, this wasn't even a metal body and all of my stats had gone up and not by an insignificant amount. I could kiss that dwarf. This was when I heard the returning to the room and that was also about the time that I realised I was in an incredibly realistic male body, my hands moved on their own to cover my junk as the two women returned to the room.