Sparring with Cassie was usually rewarding, and tonight was better than usual as I took my martial arts skill to adept good. From talking to her, I realized that the bands used a very different system of ranking from G to A, with five subranks, and then S and SS that only a limited number of people could achieve in a skill.

This made no sense to me. Why could only 5 people be ranked SS? Your skill was your skill, not a corporate leadership position. Having to defeat the next higher rank to get better is ridiculous. Heck, from my experience, you learn more from losing and figuring out what you did wrong than you did from winning.

Then again, it was probably just another peculiarity of the band’s progression. Just like set skill categories rather than skills that are designed to work together. In real life, blocking defensively and aggressively were both parts of the same shield training, but Cassie had informed me that Shield blocking and shield offense were two entirely separate skills!

Some of my skills I was considering separating because of how specialized they were becoming, such as cooking/alchemy from survival, but I didn’t need to do it. Unlike players, I didn’t get any special maneuvers or unlocks from my skill levels, unless I created them myself.

I had a sudden, horrible idea. Players kept their skills separated because of unlocks. I didn’t need them. Perhaps, instead of separating things, I should be trying to group them more loosely? Of course, if I did so I might have to use a different sort of representation for my whole character sheet rather than the 2-dimensional frame I was currently using. Something 3 dimensional or more loosely associated perhaps? It gave me something to think about.

I dropped into my soul space to look at the various types of materials I had available in storage just to have a better idea for Raphael’s armor. I had a plan that I wanted to use, but sometimes looking at what you have available led to better concepts.

The field was… clean? My little park looked rather pristine, rather than being covered by stacks of stuff I had shuffled into it. I looked around in confusion to note that Mnemosyne was snickering as she watched my search.

“Okay, where is everything?” I asked her curiously.

She pointed across the bridge. “The habitat evolution is not what it seemed to be. I apologize, I was using my closest approximation when I described it. It allows a spirit to manipulate physical objects in this place.”

Across the stream, her treehouse had changed. The park in my soul was as large as it could go from my memory without adding local back yards, a construction storage yard, or just imagining more forest, but she had expanded it into what looked much like an old Roman Villa, only open instead of enclosed by walls.

“Now I am really confused. I thought that was where you were supposed to live?” I asked.

She shook her head, “Not entirely, it’s where I CAN live, and I do, but I made a set of workshops for you.” She beamed, “I also put aside a space for a garden so your meditation park isn’t affected. I have a surprise for you!”

I smiled and started walking across the bridge to explore. “What surprise?”

“I figured out the [grow] verb! She stated, almost hopping from foot to foot.

I added the verb, linking it to my understanding, and it didn’t hurt at all. It was an expansion and incremental increase verb, which allowed me to add more mana multiplicatively instead of additively at the cost of complexity. This meant that, as long as I could trace the knot, I could add grow to my essence loop for hitting harder without having to spend extra time feeding essence into my strikes, and the potential for expanding the strength of my aspects was much higher!

“Neat! I am impressed. The building is beautiful also. You were able to create it yourself?” I asked curiously.

She shook her head, “No, I was probing for links for another verb, ‘build’, and you had this thing. I cannot actually affect your soul space like that, but since you gave me control of this area I was able to change the idea to a memory you had linked to ‘workshop’. I was as surprised as you, but when you created it, all the materials moved to their separate areas.”

I HAD been giving the partitioning of the materials a lot of thought, and I remembered reading a picture book as a child on castles and manors, although I didn’t remember this precise one. “This is neat. So, at least I have everything organized now. It’s kind of funny that the workshops are set up, though.”

“Why is that funny?” Mnemosyne asked me curiously, brushing one reddish strand out of her eyes.

“Well, because it’s my soul space. I am just going to have to move the stuff out if I want to use it, but this would be a good place to figure out how I want it arranged if I set up a real workspace.” I replied, checking out the cookshop. Both my alchemy and cooking supplies were in this area, as well as a big wood-burning stove/oven combo that I remembered seeing in a classic Italian eatery video. I was not a classical alchemist, and so I was not too worried about the idea of poisoning myself with my magical foods, so I could see how I could use it to create new, magical concoctions if I could ever set it up for real.

Mnemosyne looked at me and then slowly smiled again. “You still haven’t figured it out?”

“Figured what out?”

“The habitat evolution allows spirits to manipulate physical objects in this space.” she picked up a small shaker of salt, shook a little of it out into the sink, and grinned. “YOU are a spirit in this space. Why do you think everything is sized for you?”

I hadn’t even noticed! Yes, I was a short kobold, but it was scaled as if I were my normal height. “You mean… I can craft in here?” I asked, nervously.

Mnemosyne nodded, “Yes! You can even craft at full zone speed, although chemical reactions and stuff will still happen at normal speed unless you.” and she coughed a little bit fakely, “You know, fed in a little temporal mana to make it happen at zoning speed also.”

I was staggered. “So, you are telling me I finally got an OP isekai advantage?”

Her eyes narrowed at me, “A what?”

“Umm, in classic Isekai stories, the guy who gets sent from earth to a new fantasy world has some kind of weird advantage that no one else has, that lets him do things no one else can do, making him overpowered for the world. In this case, I have a storage space that I can use for crafting and speed up to incredible levels, and no one else can do that!”

Mnemosyne shook her head, “No. I mean, yes, sort of, but wizards can create a ‘tiny workshop’ spell, and add in a haste component that will let them enter a space and produce things incredibly quickly also. But, they use a lot more mana for both, if that helps?”

“Bah!” I said loudly, grinning, “Bah I say and double bah! This is my new secret overpowered advantage, and I intend to exploit the crap out of it.”

She giggled, “You bet! I had no idea this was possible within though because as I mentioned before, all my experience has been with mages that create things outside of themselves, but I do have a request.”

I bowed to her with an extravagant sweep, “Your wish is my command.”

She looked a little worried, “Well, I would like you to create a light, a bright light, strong enough to mimic sunlight in here. And I still want to try growing something, but I was wrong about what plants need… They don’t need earth, air, and water aspects, they need actual earth and air and water. Is there any way to bring some of that into your storage?

I nodded. “I need to make some armor tonight, but if I can work at a speed that shouldn’t take too long. The light should be fairly simple, especially with [growth], but if I do it at speed I should be able to create a light source this evening. How much earth, air, and water do I need?”

Mnemosyne waved her hand at my large terrarium and its attached structures.

I sighed. “I can probably gather enough air and water, but dirt will take a very long time. My paws are only so big. When I start to gather it, can you stop me when I have enough?”

At her nod, I smiled and started gathering materials. There were areas where hard plates of really heavy leather would be ideal, and as inspiration, I would be working on more of a bodysuit rather than medieval-style armor. I intended this armor to last for some time and be upgradeable, so the heavy outer plates could be replaced with something more durable if I could find it.

I kicked into the zone while I was working, and paid careful attention to my slowly reducing mana as I worked. I had to do some rearrangements and laminated both the heavy leather and wyvern scales onto places like the long bones where they would have little to no effect on flexibility, but this time I was carving buttons as well. I certainly wished I had zippers, but with the strap arrangement I was working out, Raphael should be able to get into and out of the loricated bodysuit nearly as quickly as he could get in and out of the padding, which was put together much like a fencer’s pads.

I popped out of my zone while still having about 20% mana remaining, but I was aching a little from a full day’s work compressed into barely twenty minutes. Wordlessly I handed the armor and padding to Raphael.

Well-crafted Dire fur padding (rare)

This armor is made from dire fur quilted into padding. It is very well-made light armor on its own merits but is designed to be worn under a tougher outer layer. It is custom-designed for a digitigrade medium changechild. It provides extra defense against crushing attacks and tends to keep the wearer cool and comfortable.

Because of the enchanted materials, it is crafted from, it is considered enchanted armor and can self-repair when damaged. It also tends to keep itself clean and repairs minor wear without assistance.

Value: High (Unique)

Weight: 2 lbs

This armor padding provides light armor without causing potential spell failures due to its lightness and flexibility. If used as the underlayer for another form of light armor, the combined armor is considered medium.

And, of course, the more complicated outerwear I had outlined earlier. I also tied in an unpowered temporal knot, but since I wasn’t going to add permanent essence as I had for Shiana’s armor, Raphael would have to use his own energy resources to power it.

Brawler armor of movement

This armor is exceptionally well-crafted and custom-made for a changechild light warrior. It qualifies as heavy armor for defensive purposes, but light armor for movement and maneuvering. Because of its enchantments, it adds a large bonus to preventing others from grappling you.

Because of the enchanted materials that went into its creation it is considered enchanted armor and can self-repair when damaged but not destroyed. It also tends to keep itself clean and repairs minor wear without assistance, and is resistant to acid and cold attacks.

Value: high (Unique)

Weight: 12 lbs

You can temporarily dramatically increase your movement and action speed by spending mana on the armor, however, all physical activities while in this state cost extra fatigue. This does not affect mental skills or spellcasting.

Raphael took the armor without comment and started donning it. “This. I don’t understand how you can make this.”

I shrugged, “According to everything I understand, it’s not that amazing. It’s all considered one piece, which is why I can apply an overall bonus like the haste effect, but according to Cassie, adventurers around level 25 can get individual armor pieces with real enchantments, like strength or health bonuses, so they can mix and match for more customized effects.”

Raphael nodded, “Yes, but I am only level 10.”

I grinned, “Yeah, for a level 10 the price cannot be beaten.” I then handed him a flask. “This, on the other hand, is something special I made. Remember that I can only magically enhance the stuff I am specialized for, but I call this dandelion wine.”

He opened his eyes widely, “I have heard of dandelion wine. This is for getting drunk?”

I shook my head, “No, I call it dandelion wine. It’s basically magically enhanced dandelion and willowbark tea, and if you take an umm…. Glug, it will temporarily increase your regeneration, fatigue recovery, pain resistance, and immune system response for about three hours, by a large amount. It’s not as powerful as alchemical potions, but it’s good for all levels, and it doesn’t have a crash. If you drink more than a mouthful before it wears off, though, you might get drunk, since it's close to 140 proof. I had to use distilled brandy as a suspension without losing a lot of strength, which boiling in water would have done. I made it for Cassie since she’s a dwarf and considers 140-proof liquor to be a slightly strong beer. I figured you could use it too before a big fight.”

I chuckled, “I added honey to improve the taste, but no matter how good my cooking skills are, it’s impossible to hide the taste of Everclear. The best I could do is to make it taste a bit like children’s honey cough syrup.”

Raphael chuckled, “It’s probably a good idea to leave a bit of a medicine aftertaste, or people will drink it like beer. Besides, have you ever actually tasted a recovery potion? It’s like going down on a sea turtle. Nastiest stuff I have ever tasted.”

“You went down on a sea turtle? Wow, both disgusting and talented.”

Raphael laughed, “Okay, like I imagine it would taste like. Seriously, though, if you added soy sauce to it you might be able to choke it down.”

I nodded, “You know, weirdly enough, I would love to find some soy sauce. I figure if I get close to the ocean someone’s likely figured out how to salt pack fish, so fish sauce might not be out of the question, but soy sauce? I might have to talk to one of these Mathorian traders to see if they have heard of it.”

Raphael nodded slowly and then started stretching to test out his new armor.

“Hey, do you mind if I take the third watch tonight? That would put you on the second watch, but I have an evolution I have discovered that may knock me for a bit of a loop, but should offer a lot of benefits to make me a little more capable in combat.”

Raphael nodded, “That is not any kind of a problem. I have a very high constitution, so I am usually refreshed after six hours, I might just stay up until after my watch is over.”

I nodded and called to Cassie, “Hey, I am going to go through a pretty major evolution, so if we get jumped I might be out of it. If you gotta run…”

Cassie nodded, “Throw you over my shoulder. Got it. Just try not to break out in the stinky oozes.”

I chuckled, “No promises, but if I make a mess I will clean it up.”

My mana was almost completely recharged, so after removing my armor, I dived into my soul space again.

“I take it you want to see the evolution I found?” Mnemosyne asked.

I nodded, “Yes.”

She smiled and pointed out a small node to me. “It’s kind of weird. It’s attached to your body, but not the kobold bloodline. As far as I know, it’s usually only available to kobolds that become familiars, as it is on a far different path than could be naturally chosen by a kobold.”

I [observed] the node carefully

Intellectual Maturity-

This is a nonstandard evolution. You become emotionally, mentally, and physically a young adult. Choosing this path unlocks your full automation and scrounging racial features rather than kobold adulthood size and strength bonuses.

This evolution will slightly increase your size, and dramatically increase your lifespan, willpower, mental acuity, and ability to handle mana.

This evolution will NOT improve your natural weapons, or add tracking scent, fangs, scaled hide, or danger sensing like kobold Adulthood would.

“So you put a warning in there, telling me all the things I am giving up if I take this route?” I asked Mnemosyne a little snappishly.

She shrugged, “You want to be more human. Humans are physically weaker and more vulnerable than high kobolds, I just wanted to make sure that you understood that before you chose it. It also might have some other mental effects, just like when you unlocked your silver cord. On the plus side, though, it should also open up a ton of bloodlines other than pure kobold, which seems to meet your needs?” she queried.

I nodded and started feeding quintessence into the node, which started to swell. I had high hopes that, since kobolds were bipeds, there was a bloodline that would be unlocked that was far closer to ‘human’ than it was to ‘gator’. I had no illusions that becoming human would magically make everyone love me, but I was USED to people of other cultures wanting to kill me, rather than being Kill-On-Sight to most other sentient species.

The familiar pain of a full-body evolution gripped me, little trills of agony running through my body as I felt myself starting to grow larger. I fell out of my soul space as the pain redoubled, and redoubled again, and then my stomach clenched as I fell over on my side, gasping out onto the muddy ground.

All of a sudden my emotional control was broken, and I could feel terror ripping through me. What the hell had I just done? After seconds, that terror was replaced by anger, and then absolute, uncompromising rage. I leaped to my feet, ignoring the yammering surrounding me and dodging the large, dark obstacles in my way, and started running.

The wind from my running felt cool on my agonized skin. Every part of me, head to feet, was in agonizing, almost crippling pain. I couldn’t shut it out, any more than I could shut down the rage that was ripping through me like a tornado through a trailer park. I was running because that seemed to be the only thing that helped, loudly crashing through the scattered leaves and leaving slashing scars on birch and cypress tree trunks as I ran past like a deadly wind.

I felt Gigantic, like I was 30 feet tall and a destructive force of nature itself, the pain retreating only slightly as I ran. The fury was real, but only barely matched by something else… a desperate desire for. Um… a woman. Any female. Elf, kitsune, dwarf, human, kobold, I didn’t care. I would find her and take her and ease this horrible pain. My nose opened and I started smelling things again, the forest, myself, and all the other things that were barely more than distractions in my hunt. I looked down and noticed I was male now, very obviously male.

A wolf, much smaller than I was used to, bared his teeth, challenging me as I ran. I ripped into it with my claws, and it ran off howling and dripping blood from the claw-shredded side of its face. I tried to follow it for a few moments, but it fled too quickly for me to follow even in my newly godlike state. There was something I could do to stop it, but I couldn’t concentrate.

My nostrils caught a smell. I turned and ran towards it, as it smelled promising, female. Something was flashing at the edge of my vision, but I ignored it. Everything was far too intense. The agony was joined interspersed by the same feelings I had felt when I had ‘cut loose’ in grade school, a wash of irresistible feelings. I hate it but I followed where it led, out of control.

I kept running forever. It felt like forever, and I knew it was forever because my eyes were starting to hurt from the increased level of light even under the thick forest canopy. I was scratched and torn, but still driven by needs I couldn’t understand, sensations so powerful that I couldn’t get ahold of my own mind.

I spied her. I think it was her. She was just as gigantic as I was, towering over the sparse underbrush. She looked a lot like a kobold, but more slender and humanoid-looking, a scaled, almost elven face opened in an ‘o’ of astonishment. I screamed my pain, rage, and need at her as I charged forward, hands wide, and my eyesight suddenly shut down.

I was enveloped in an ever greater sensory onslaught than before, eyes stinging and closed, and it felt like tear gas ‘confidence training’, where they filled a small shed with diluted pepper gas while wearing your CBR gear to show you how well it worked, and then made you take your mask off and make your way out of the shed to cry and throw up on the grass outside. This stuff, however, made that diluted pepper gas feel like warm spring rain and the smell! It was so horrifying it clawed at my brain and sent me to the ground, on my knees, a hundred times worse than any skunk.

I was unleashing the contents of my stomach violently, clawing at my face to try and stop everything, when my squinting eyes spotted a small, green fist heading right for the side of my head.

I slowly opened my eyes. My gut was clenched, and I was resting on my side with a nasty, sticky mess against my cheek that smelled almost as bad as the rank odor had before. What had woken me up was getting splashed with water, probably a bucket full, at least, and I was finally able to think somewhat clearly. The water smelled, odd, very astringent, and it seemed to be cutting down the stink that had enveloped me before.

“Are you awake?” a voice asked. I nodded, slowly, the throbbing in my head easing. I probably had a concussion, but one of the advantages of being a kobold was that regeneration kept repeated concussions from causing permanent brain damage, and I think getting knocked out was starting to become a habit. “Yes,” I croaked. Whoever it was, she was speaking Rhydian blended with low kobold.

“Good. You can speak. What the hell are you?”

I winced and looked up, and rolled over slightly, but then I realized I couldn’t do much more than roll since it felt like both my ankles and wrists were firmly tied together. I was lying on the ground in a drying puddle of my own vomit, trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey. I groaned and saw the same creature standing above me that I had seen before.

She had both hands fisted at her waist, a leather bucket dangling from one hand as she glared at me. The sun was behind her head, and I realized we were in a clearing, so I couldn’t catch much detail, Like me, she looked like she was soaking wet, which I could tell because she was wearing a set of sopping buckskins.

Bran! You have to calm down! Something unexpected happened. When you hit maturity, you blew right through puberty into young adulthood, and your body released all the pubescent chemicals at one time! Only your regeneration and quintessence flow is keeping you alive.

Bran! Try to swim or something! You have to come back to yourself.

Please be okay, I am so sorry.

You have to calm down! That’s a swamp elf, she could kill you.

Your [observe] skill was only partially successful!

Kalikamastrinmakaveld (Deadly)

Swamp elf (Troglodyte)

????

Curiosity, Humiliation

Health: 100%

????

Reputation: ????

You have been caught in a natural stinking cloud ability

You have been rendered unconscious by Kalikamastrinmakaveld

“You have forced me to dishonor myself! Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you right now.” The woman? Girl? Said angrily.

I croaked out, “Sorry. Was under a spell.” while I tried wriggling to face her. Previously, a long shirt was more than enough coverage with my armor, but now, I was acutely aware I was going to need something more. That and I was about as guilty and mortified as it was possible to be… what would I have done if she hadn’t been able to stop me?

She shook her head, “Nonsense! You were poisoned. Are you recovered enough to pay for your actions?”

I looked up at her in confusion, “I will do my best.” and then sighed, looking at the muddy ground. “To be honest, I cannot come up with a good reason you shouldn’t kill me. What I almost did was inexcusable. I should have had better control. I can give you a reason, but not an excuse.”

“What was your reason then?” she asked, looking a little less enraged.

I decided to go for honesty. “I just rushed through maturity with an evolution. I have evolved before, and I am well aware of all the changes and pain getting compressed, but I didn’t even stop to consider what that would mean for sexual maturity. It was utter foolishness on my part that could have been prevented if I had simply taken the time to think about what I was going to go through and warned someone to keep me restrained. You know what I tried to do. I am not suicidal, but if you need to end me, then do what you need to do.”

Most emotions didn’t dig too deeply into me, but guilt was a hell of a driving force in my life. I didn’t want to die, but if I had succeeded in what the chemicals in my brain were driving me to do, I would have turned myself over for justice to whoever needed it. I was many things, some of them evil, but rapist was not one of them.

She crouched closer over me, and I thought that was it. Adventure over. “Good. You can take responsibility for your actions.” She looked me over and I noticed that she was not wearing a band.

“You are a badly broken little thing, aren’t you?” She stated, “I could not see it while you were unconscious, but you have a role to play in the future. As your punishment, I shall give you a choice.”

I felt an edge at my wrists and they were freed, followed a moment later at my feet. “I am a child of balance. I do not judge which path you take. I can free you of your wall of aura, you can leave the Winnowrill forever, and become a sorcerer of incredible renown. You can free this world of its conquerors, and one day transform yourself back into a human. In the end, you will have power beyond your dreams and protect both humans and kobolds until the end of your considerable days, enough power to have whatever you want.”

She continued, taking a step backward. “Or you can cast off your poorly-constructed party bond and save their lives. You can live with the responsibility for your own actions, and pave the way to ending the threat against two worlds. You will not become a powerful sorcerer, and you will have pain and anguish aplenty to accompany what happiness you gain. Your success is not assured, and you will never truly be human again, but I can promise you that should you survive, you will go far beyond humanity and can bring those you truly care for with you.” Her voice had an odd hollowness, almost an echo, and her eyes glowed faintly as she spoke.

Well, crap.