Loki watched the faces of everyone present as they heard the report; a horde of dragons would be upon them by tomorrow evening.
They all looked grim and mournful at the news. No doubt they were all terrified of the prospect. Loki, however, didn't share their fear. For whatever reason, he felt detached from the whole situation.
"According to the reports, the hordes flight path takes them right through here."
"We need to start evacuating the village," Hughs said, he then turned to the messenger, "send word to the other villages in the area, they way be able to offer our people shelter."
While everyone was mulling around trying to formulate a plan for evacuation, a chime went off in Loki's head. It was a new message from Admin 0;
[OH NO, A DRAGON HORDE IS COMING. HOW SCARY! I BELIEVE THIS IS JUST WHAT YOU NEED TO LEVEL UP QUICKLY. AND, SHOULD YOU SUCCESSFULLY PROTECT THIS VILLAGE AND THE VAULT I WILL GRANT YOU AN APPROPRIATE REWARD.
BEST OF LUCK ; )
-ADMIN 0]
Of course. Not only did he have to help the village in this crisis —which he already intended to do– he also had to fight against a dragon horde. And to make matters worse, Loki didn't know what would happen should he fail in this task.
Loki hadn't been paying much attention to how the others reacted to the news, so he was caught off guard when Hughs addressed him.
"Lord Loki?"
"Sorry, what?" He snapped, turning his attention back to the group.
"We will begin evacuating the village, may we ask for your assistance, lord Loki?"
"Uh... just Loki is fine," he said, "and do you really need to evacuate the village?"
They looked at him as if he'd said something crazy.
"Loki, we're talking about a horde of rogue dragon," Sara said, "these are wild feral beasts that will destroy everything in their path."
Rogue Dragon. Loki remembered that dragons were a diverse species, there were hundreds of vastly different types and subspecies that all fell under the umbrella of 'dragon', from the proud ancient dragon lords with centuries of wisdom, to the dragonewts and salamanders, commonly used as beasts of burden. Rogue dragons were little more than monsters without reason or mercy that were barely sentient.
"Why don't you use dragonsbane?" Loki asked,
"What is this dragonsbane?" An elder demanded
"It's like a dragon repellent," Loki explained, "if you deploy them around the village, the horde will avoid this place as they pass by."
"Is such a thing really possible?" Sara asked, her voice hopeful
"Yeah, I'd need a few things first, but I could whip up some dragonsbane." Loki said, "the main issue is why the dragons are here,"
He turned to the scout, who looked at the elders for confirmation.
"They're heading straight for the vault I came out of, aren't they?" Loki guessed, "this village is close to it."
The scout nodded, "that appears to be their intended destination."
"Monsters are known to gravitate towards recently opened vaults," Sara told him, "something to do with the quality of anima they release."
"So this is normal?" Loki asked
"No, this dragon horde is coming from the western mountains, that's quite some distance away," another elder added, "it's uncommon for a new vault to attract monsters from such a great distance,"
"It has to have something extremely potent inside." Loki mused
The all turned to Loki,
"What?" He asked, oblivious.
"We can't let them have the vault," another elder said, "if they settle there, this whole reserve will be overrun,"
"So we just fight them," Loki suggested, "turn the vault into an ambush and drive them off,"
"Can you do that in just one day?"
"Honestly, it'll be a bit tricky," Loki admitted, "but I think I should be able to pull it off with help,"
"Very well," Sara said, "you'll have the support and resources of my militia,"
Loki smirked, "alright, then I better get to work."
As soon as he leaves the hall, he is met with a group of people in light armor, the militia. Sara comes out to meet then and introduces Loki to them.
"There are a bunch of stuff I need to make dragonsbane," Loki said, "but the key ingredients are ghost eel, chalkgrass, red cray oil, and licorice ink. I'm gonna need you to get as much of these as you can for me."
"The eels, do they need to be alive or dead?"
"Preferably alive, the fresher the better," Loki said. Like was becoming common for him, this information just poured out of his subconscious when he needed it. He wasn't particularly sure this would work though. He knew what ingredients he needed, but the exact method to make dragonsbane still eluded him, somehow he still felt like he could pull it off.
As the agents of the militia dispersed, Loki went to talk to Sara.
"So, you're in charge of the militia?" He asked
"Yeah," she shrugged, "I trained every member on how to defend our village, we might not be as good as a city guard, but we do alright,"
"Impressive," Loki said,
"Excuse me," she said, "I need to go and coordinate with the other elders,"
As she walked away, Loki took the chance to appraise her with his [Appraisal] skill;
[STATUS]
Name: Sara Clawthorne
Race: werewolf
Age: 49
Sex: female
Karma: lawful neutral
Attribute: wind
Condition: wary
Jobs: mercenary/ hunter/ militia captain
Affiliation: Rondel village
Level: 309
Tier: Elite
HP: 100.00%
Anima: 100.00%
[SKILLS]
Archery; Air Strike; Cooking; Grey Shift; Healing; Howl; Hunting; Intimidate; Judgement; Maternal Instincts; Naturalist; Perseverance; Swordmanship; Soothing; Sense Presence; Sneak; Truth Seeker; Tracking; Wisdom; Wind Walk;
[EQUIPMENT]
Simple blouse; Simple skirt; Hunting boots; Elder's broach; hunters cloak; Appraisal lens; Hunters belt;
[TITLES]
Hunter; Survivor; Single Mother; Trainer; Militia Leader; Elder; Strongest in the Village;
[CLAN]
-Tetra (daughter)
-Petra (daughter)
-N/A
He was surprised when he saw some of her skills, she didn't have that many... at least compared to him, but some of her skills were impressive.
Hell, she had the high level skill [Grey Shift], which was a time dilation ability that allowed the user to think and react faster. How in the hell had she gotten such a skill?
Her level was quite good, not too high, but impressive all the same, so much so that she was recognized as the strongest in the village.
'Hmm, I can work with that,' Loki thought watching her leave.
Sometime later, the members of the militia returned with the ingredients he'd sent them to retrieve. Loki was genuinely surprised, he'd have figures some of the materials wouldn't be available in the area, but hey; don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
They managed to bring back quite a bit of the ingredients, and looking at them, he suddenly knew exactly what to do. He went to work, his hands moving as if possessed, disassembling the ingredients and putting them together in their right ratio. While he worked, he had received a system alert that he had unlocked the skill [Crafting], and that he had leveled up his [Designer] skill.
It took him a couple of hours, but when he was done, he had about two dozen jars of dragonsbane prepared.
"Will this be enough?" Sara asked
Loki shrugged, "depends on how many dragons there are, but this should put things in our favor. I also want to have a look at your weapons, see what I can do,"
"Are you sure?" She asked
"Yeah, this is what I'm good at," he said confidently.
"I'll bring it up with Hughs,"
Loki knew he had to fight against the dragons to complete this quest, and looking at their weapons, he had some ideas.
After a while, he retired back to the room he first awoke in to rest and recuperate.
He hadn't realized how much anima his skills consumed to function. As he was Level 2 right now, with very low anima efficiency he needed to keep constant watch over his anima consumption. Fortunately, his vision featured what he could only describe as augmented reality, with a heads-up display. In the corner of his vision, he saw a list of readouts;
Anima: 54.85%
HP: 100.00%
Condition: recharging
He was laying on the bed, pondering what kind of enemy he'd have to face soon, when there was a knock at the door.
Opening it, he found Sara with her daughters,
"Sorry to bother you," she started
"Don't worry," Loki smiled, "I wouldn't mind the company,"
As they settled inside, Loki took the opportunity to appraise the two girls only to receive a blank screen with only [N/A].
"You two aren't users?" He commented
Sara hid her surprise well, how did he know that from a glance?
"No, they aren't old enough yet." She explained, "they'll be turning 16 soon, then they'll gain access to the system."
"So no one is born with access?" Loki asked
"You say the oddest things, do you know that?" Tetra asked
"Sorry, it just feels like I woke up in a whole different world," Loki smirked.
"So, how are you?" Petra asked,
Before Loki could respond, he suddenly keeled over. Dropping to his knees, he grabbed at his chest as heat started to radiate from his heart.
"What's wrong?" Sara demanded, shocked by the sudden distress, then, as she approached him to check him over, the stranger spontaneously combusted, bursting with bright green energy that engulfed his form.
The twins jumped back in panic, watching as Loki burned with green fire.
"Go get help!" Their mother barked at them as she grabbed the blanked from the bed to try and smother the flames.
Fortunately, the horrific scene before then lasted only a few moments, and by the time the twins were at the door to scream for aid, the spectacle had come to an end and Loki appeared to be alright, sprawled on the floor, breathing heavily.
"Hey, are you alright?" Sara asked. Loki slowly rose, letting the blanket fall off him, causing Sara to back away, "What the actual f@£k?"
Those that had rushed to help, as well as the Clawthornes, stared in disbelief as Loki got back up.
"Dammit... what the hell is this?" Loki demanded, looking down at the cleavage of the breasts that now appeared from the ruined collar of her now charred shirt.
Yes. Her.
Loki had just turned into a woman.