“So he’s crazy?” Despite being the question all three goddesses wanted to ask, Chance was the one who asked it first. Crossroads’ answer surprised them with how well thought out it was.

“Yes and no. In his case it leans more towards no. What he did to his mind, and how he did it are both completely crazy. But, remember that he did that as a child, and children do crazy things all the time. In the end, he isn’t crazy, exactly. His mind works very differently, but his actions are not any more crazy than anyone else's. He may end up looking crazy at times, but from his viewpoint it was the most efficient decision towards whatever solution he is currently working on.

“For an example, look at his fight with the Flame Tortoise. Before you look at what he did, you need to understand why he did it. For him, the most important thing was finishing that test quickly so that he could finally get to Mantra. Therefore, the quickest way to kill the tortoise that he could live through was the best choice. To deduce the quickest way he could think of, knowing nothing of Flame Tortoises, or how mana works here, he instead went with what he knew from his world. He took what he knows of tortoises, as well as theories on how fire breathing works for mythological monsters, and created a solution. From our viewpoint it was crazy, but for him it was perfectly logical, if dangerous.”

The goddesses looked at each other. The normal silent communication of women was heightened further by their divinity, adding layer after layer to their discussion. Crossroads was old enough to know not to try decoding any of it. Eventually Lust spoke up, “So your suggestion is that we take him, and try to understand him better so that we aren’t completely blindsided by the things he gets up to?”

“Pretty much.” The chuckling he added to the end didn’t calm them at all.

Lust was a little perturbed by how this conversation was going. Dix had seemed like such a perfect choice, but discovering he had essentially performed amateur brain surgery on himself as a child was staggering. The fact that Crossroads had even more to discuss was making her very nervous. So much so that she had given up on her normal flirty behavior. “OK. And what else is there you need to tell us?”

“His race.” Crossroads paused for more than just dramatic effect. He was enjoying this way more than he thought he would. He really did need their help, but there was no reason he couldn’t enjoy their reactions in getting it. He also checked to make sure Dix was already going through the process before he told them. If he hadn’t started yet, he would have just tossed him and Beauty into a time bubble until they got on with it. “Runeborn.”

The reactions of the goddesses would have looked very familiar to Dix had he seen them. Much like Crossroads, they simply stared for a minute, unmoving. Then the incoherent babbling. Eventually, as reality set in, and they parsed all of the different things this could mean, smiles appeared. This was better than they could have hoped for. His racial choice fell perfectly in line with what they needed from Dix, something Crossroads was well aware of.

Once more Lust spoke their minds, keeping it short and succinct. “Your price?”

Crossroads smiled to himself. Most men would run from the thought of bargaining with three women, no matter the circumstances. He was actually looking forward to it, but that was only because he currently held all the cards. Frankly, he didn’t actually need to turn Dix over to them. He could have kept the human to himself, and no one would ever be the wiser. However, in this case, having Dix under the control of these three helped all of them. A fact he needed to explain.

“Just like you, I need something that Dix is uniquely qualified to do. What I need though is the completion of a task which comes with a difficulty far beyond that of yours. I propose that when he has accomplished what you set him out to do, his next great quest will be of my choosing. I could have kept him to myself, but he will gain the proper seasoning completing what you need done to make him ready to start on what I need from him. This way we all win. As a gesture of goodwill, I will require nothing else from you for the acquisition of Dix’s support. And I will help to power any gifts you choose to bestow upon him.”

Chance and Lust were floored. They had originally thought that Crossroads was trying to trick them into paying a fortune for Dix. This wasn’t something either of them were even remotely ready for. Their other partner was failing to hide her giggles at their gobsmacked looks, something that would have earned her a couple of glares had they not been too shocked and confused to realize she was laughing at them. Crossroads himself just kicked back and enjoyed his drink. There was no question in his mind about them accepting.

-----------------------------

When Dix regained consciousness he was snuggled up onto something warm and soft. Opening his eyes he realized that Beauty had tucked his head into her lap, and was quietly stroking his hair. Seeing his eyes open, she blushed prettily with a shy smile on her face. Returning her smile, he reached up and stroked her cheek for a moment. They may have continued that for longer, but Dix’s pets chose that moment to nudge their master. They were all nearing their expiration times, and wanted to make sure their service had been appreciated.

Dix hopped up, gave each of his summons a pat on the head, and dismissed them. Patting himself down he realized that his clothes were once again repaired and cleaned, and the mage weapons were missing. He cocked an eyebrow at Beauty, who giggled at the expression, but answered the unasked question anyways. “I cleaned you up and sent the weapons back to where they belong. Crossroads sent me to get you to the Waiting Room and through your species change.”

He perked up quite a bit at this. A broad, charming smile spread across his face, and he held out an arm for her. “Well, my lovely lady, please direct me to our destination. I understand that there will be some visual changes I need to make before I can get my new species, and I cannot think of a better choice of whom to help me through these difficult decisions. After all, if the Goddess of Beauty thinks I look good, then I must.”

More giggling and blushing ensued. Dix would normally be put off by this sort of behavior from a woman as it was normally the sign of idiocy and airheadedness, but Beauty was an interesting mix of beautiful woman and innocent girl. He wasn’t planning to seduce her, but she was refreshingly charming to him, completely different from the jaded barflies he normally spent time with. She really was that sheltered and untainted by the rest of the world. She had mostly avoided the rest of the gods, choosing to spend time only with those who treated her more as a child. That did not mean that she was powerless, or incapable of understanding what she had going on with Dix. She was just inexperienced, and enjoying it to the fullest. She tucked her arm through his, and they were off.

Looking to enjoy the thrill of being with a man in this way a bit more, Beauty didn’t directly teleport them to the Waiting Room. Instead she took them to one of her favorite views. It was actually on the outside of the area Dix had been cooped up inside of. It was a garden of flowers. All colors, kinds, and scents gently caressed the senses. Different groupings of flowers were planted to be appreciated visually and olfactorily. Each section looked as beautiful as it smelled, and the reverse was just as true. Beauty guided them down the path as Dix was absorbed in attempting to process his new environment.

While the garden was amazing, and she loved it, Beauty hadn’t brought him here for that alone. The path ended in a viewing platform looking over a sea of stars with but a single island placed in the center of the view. Dix could only assume it was Mantra. While it had similarities to Earth, the continents he could see, two at the moment, were all wrong. The lands looked to be made of various shades of green, purple, brown, gold, and blue. Clouds scuttled across the world, with a storm in the southern portion of an ocean. The seas had a more transitional coloring to them, starting at a pale green near the land, then moving to a deep blue at the depths. He figured the seas on Earth did the same thing, but he didn’t think it was visible from space. Which was the exact moment that he realized they were on the moon.

With that startling thought, he stared at his surroundings, but all he could see was the garden. Shrugging to himself, he put an arm around Beauty and hugged her to his side, then he went back to enjoying the sight of all things beautiful. The girl, the garden, the stars, and the planet. It was transcendent, even for his cynical mind, and he basked in the peace of the silence.

After a sigh from Beauty, he released her and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. She didn’t seem to be the type of girl to push much farther on only their second meeting. Ducking her head to hide the pleased smile and blush, she teleported them to the waiting room. Once more Dix looked around, but didn’t get much chance to enjoy it before Beauty pushed him down onto a couch and sat beside him. While he was trying to get comfy, what appeared to be a hologram appeared before him. It was likely some sort of illusion magic, but it was still impressively cool to see. He hoped he could do things like that at some point.

While Dix was admiring the quality of the image, Beauty was adjusting a number of things. He hadn’t realized it yet, but what he was looking at was himself after his species change. Beauty was making all the changes to match how she imagined Dix would look best. She actually approved of his choice, he would look wonderful as one of the Folk. Having only looked at the visuals, she was unaware of the reality behind the pleasing exterior. Dix eventually figured out what the image was, and what Beauty was doing with it. Rather than say anything, he simply let her work. If there was anything he didn’t like, he would let her know when she was done.

The new Dix would keep his features for the most part. Beauty apparently quite liked his body as he wouldn’t grow taller or broader, and his physique would stay pretty much the same. As would his nose and mouth. His hair and beard, which were already black, would actually get darker, growing closer to the disconcerting black that ate everything he had first encountered after he awoke here. It wasn’t quite that dark, but close. It was also rather lustrous, which he surprisingly didn’t hate, and she had extended its length down just past his shoulders. Dix wasn’t upset by this at all, he had always wanted longer hair, but it was a pain in the ass to grow out. If nothing else the ladies would love it.

His facial structure changed a little, thinning just a touch and having marginally more prominent cheekbones. He would still have that boyish charm, but it was now more subtle, and enhanced the overall handsomeness of his features. His skin tone had changed, which was one of the things he wasn’t too happy with. It was now more of a pale gray, lacking the life of his original olive complexion. He thought he looked a little too much like a corpse. As he was about to say something, he noticed Beauty changing it. She flicked it back and forth through a dizzying array of choices before settling on something that combined a little bit of gray and a tiny bit of purple. It seemed odd at first, but at least he didn’t look the least bit dead anymore. In fact there was more life to his skin than before.

Like the elves and orcs of mythology on Earth, the Folk had pointed ears. Having inherited this trait from both species involved in their births, it was a given that Dix would have it too. The ears varied in size from normal human sized ears with just a pointed tip, to those six inches longer. A short discussion with Beauty revealed that they didn’t really enhance hearing that much, and there were skills available to do that without the size increase on the ears. Beauty had already chosen a set that were roughly similar in size to what he had had all his life, but with a bit of an upswept curve leading to the point. Apparently it was a very attractive quality, and considered to be inherited from more powerful bloodlines.

Beauty wasn’t done, and had saved her favorite part for last. The eyes. Apparently one of the things that separated the Folk from others was the differences in their eyes. They had two sets of irises, with the size of the one closest to the pupil expanding and contracting in size much like the pupil does. The reasoning for this was the same as for the pupil with light, but in this case it was mana. It was an evolution to help them deal with having permanent Mana Sight, allowing them to filter the intensity of the light from the mana sources. Having dealt with that problem himself, Dix was looking forward to having a solution, even if he didn’t want Mana Sight on all the time. For her own viewing pleasure of Dix, Beauty had chosen a luminous gold for his outer iris, which was mostly just a thin ring. His inner iris would be a deep azure blue.

All in all, while he looked completely different and would need some time to grow used to some of the changes, Dix could still see his soon to be old self at the root of the image. Each of the smaller changes that Beauty had made highlighted others, enhancing the overall appeal of his features. While he had been worried about the new skin tone, the eyes really completed the changes to his coloration, making it look almost naturally magical, even to someone from Earth. Dix was quite pleased overall, and told Beauty so. Once more she blushed at the compliments.

She had him stand and walk to a mana formation carved into a slab in front of the couch. When he was there she walked around him a few times, the three dimensional image of his new form beside him, inspecting everything. She had him strip to his underwear, and made a couple more small tweeks, mostly removing his scars. None of them held any particular meaning for him, so he was glad to be rid of them. If he was going to be fighting monsters, he was sure to acquire more. After a couple minutes of this process though, he was starting to get a little uncomfortable. He’d never been a model, nor had he ever spent this long designing his own characters in video games. Obviously Beauty wanted this perfect.

When it was finally done, she flicked the image over him and smiled. “All ready. This will hurt, but at the end it should all be worth it. There’s only two more things to get done after this before you head to Mantra. This should only take a minute.” So saying she snapped her fingers, and Dix’s world exploded into pain, causing him to miss Beauty closing her eyes and covering her ears.

What Beauty was ignorant of, and Crossroads had neglected to tell Dix, was that the biggest differences between Humans and Runeborn hadn’t been their bodies. It was their souls. By choosing to change to Runeborn, Dix needed to have everything about him rewritten. Body, mind, and soul.

Crossroads’ in depth study of Dix’s mind had partially been to prepare for this process. He didn’t want Dix to wake up mentally different, when he was already so outside the norm. Luckily, the changes to his mind were mostly physical, and the others had to do with mana handling. It completely replaced the portions that had been implanted into him by Chance’s drink, including the knowledge. The physical portions had a lot to do with memory, and the amount of mana that was flooding his brain would have killed him if he hadn’t been in a formation specifically designed to do things like this.

As for his soul, the Runeborn were more a race of the soul, than the physical. Their bodies were just a shell for them to interact with the world. Their true strength was in their mana, which was tied directly to their souls. Having that connection forged to his own soul was only a minor part of the pain he was experiencing.