Titans were phantasmal beings, like spirits and elementals, so they could shift form at will. Fallen titans have retained this trait, although now that they are in a physical body, it became the epic 3rd grade racial skill; [Shapeshifting].
This knowledge became obvious to Loki, as well as the knowledge that fallen celestials were evidently gender-fluid, and could switch between sexes at random. This particular quirk of the skill was something they couldn't fully control.
As Loki acclimatized to his... her new state of being, a window opened in front of her;
[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE JUST BEEN GENDERBENT! YOU HAVE GAINED THE TITLE; [PANGENDER]! YOUR [PAIN RESISTANCE] HAS IMPROVED!]
Seeing the message, Loki checked her status;
[STATUS]
Name: Nex Loki
Race: prime titan (fallen)
Sex: female (fluid)
Karma: lawful chaos
Condition: stabilizing (♀️)
Jobs: trickster/master maker/archivist
Affiliation: N/A
Level: 2
Tier: Ace
HP: 91.05%
Anima: 78.37%
Points: 0pnts (cannot spend.)
[SKILLS]
Anima Manipulation; Appraisal; Awareness; CRAFTING; Devil's Luck; Designer; Elemental Resistance; Faker; Foresight; Golden Rule; Heresy; Hero's Fortune; Illness Resistance; Iron Flesh; Iron Will; Joker; Longevity; Mental Fortitude; Opportunist; Pain Resistance; Poison Resistance; Parallel Thinking; Recovery; Shapeshifting(fixed)(locked); Survivor; Thought Acceleration; Trace; Universal Translator; Word is Bond;
[EQUIPMENT]
Simple pants(singed); simple tunic(singed); simple boots(singed)
[TITLES]
Ace; Primal Shard; Fallen; Survivor; The Joker; Maker; Leader; Archivist; Traveller; Nomad; God Slayer; Genius; Observer; Reincarnated; Exhibitionist; PANGENDER;
[CLAN]
(Locked. Conditions not met)
[OPTIONS]
Inventory(Locked. Conditions not met)
Maps
Messages
[OBJECTIVES]
Defend Village (...)
"Uh..." She started, looking at the surprise on everyone's faces, "so... how do I look?" She asked, inspecting her new body, patting her chest, hips and crotch... just in case.
"What... are you?" Sara demanded backing away. She'd seen users with skills that allowed them to change their appearance, but nothing like this.
"I'm sorry I scared you," Loki said, "apparently this is a thing that can just happen to me,"
"Is- is that safe?" Petra asked
"I think so. I mean, other than the fact that it hurt like a bitch, there aren't any other side-effects." Loki said turning on the spot to show off her new body.
Petra stared at Loki' new body, admiring the curves of her new breasts and hips, catching sight of more skin since the clothes she was previously wearing had been burned during her change.
"How long will you stay like this?" Tetra asked
"I don't know, maybe a few days, maybe a few months." Loki replied, "Um, can I get some new clothes?"
One quick change later, Loki was now in a long skirt at plain blouse. Loki didn't much like the draft under the skirt as she was still going commando.
"Lord... er... L-lady Loki?" Hughs called from the doorway
"Yeah?" Loki replied
"The elders and I have discussed, and we agree to let you into the armory,"
"About time," Loki scoffed
When she arrived at the armory, with her were Sara, and several people from the militia.
"You didn't think we'd leave you unsupervised with all our weapons, did you?" Sara said
"Where's the trust?" Loki asked
"I can't even trust you to stay the man I met this morning," she replied with a cheeky smirk, "so, what are you going to do?"
"A little bit of tinkering," Loki shrugged pulling a sword from the rack. The sword wasn't anything special, a pretty common 9th-grade item. It was a simple double-edged steel blade. Loki held the sword straight in front of her.
[Trace] Loki thought, activating the skill, as the sword in her hand started to shimmer, green circuits appeared over the weapon. Everyone gawked as the circuits covered the entire thing, then the patterns of the circuits changed, altering it's base properties.
A few moments later, the shimmering faded and she handed the blade over to Sara.
"Try it out," she encouraged,
Sara took the sword in her hand, although it didn't look any different, it felt lighter than it should've been. On closer inspection, the blade looked of finer quality.
"What did you do to it?" She demanded
"I gave it an upgrade," Loki explained, "bumped it up to a rare 8th-grade by infusing it with anima."
"What?" came the general exclamations from the gathered militia members
"H-how did you do this?" Sara asked
"I have a special job-class skill that allows me to modify items." She shrugged repeating the action on another sword.
"So you can create any kind of item you want?" Sara asked
"If I have the right material to work with," Loki replied, right before stumbling a bit. On the HUD of her augmented reality vision, she checked her stats;
Anima: 58.53%
HP: 98.58%
Condition: stable
"Urgh, I'm hemorrhaging anima for even a simple trace and upgrade?" She muttered to herself, "being low leveled sucks."
"Are you alright?" Sara asked, as Loki regained her balance.
"I'm fine, it's just my abilities are seriously hindered as I am now," Loki complained,
"Will you be alright?"
"Of course, I'm recovering, it'll just take me a bit," Loki said,
"Can you still go through with upgrading the armory?"
"Of course," Loki boasted, "there'll be plenty of raw material for me to work with, plus I'm looking forward to seeing what I can make."
* * *
Hours later, Loki was presenting the upgraded weaponry to Sara. She had only done a basic augmentation on the weapons, but had she more time or anima she could've gotten really creative. She was just about done when she suddenly received a surprising notification;
[INCOMING CRISIS EVENT: 18H:30M:23S]
It was already late at night, she was running out of time. After she had finished buffing the weapons and armor she was allowed access to, she went to work preparing her own arsenal. She had been given access to raw materials and supplies by the chief, and allowed to do whatever she wanted with them.
"Alright," Loki said cracking her knuckles, "it isn't going to be pretty, but it's going to have to do."
She went to work, using up the last of her anima and resources provided and working well thought the night.
The next morning, Sara found Loki slumped against a worktable, surrounded by different pieces of equipment and machinery. From the looks of it, she hadn't gone to bed last night.
"Loki?" She called, lightly tapping the sleeping woman's shoulders.
"Hnnn... zzzzssplosives unstable... please don't blow up," Loki slurred as her head rose up, she stared groggily at Sara and blinked. "Huh?"
"What is all this?" Sara asked, holding a small sphere the size of an apple, it was ash colored and had the signature green circuits engraved into its surface.
"Careful with that," Loki said, instantly alert as she snatched the device from the elder woman, "It's not very stable,"
"But what is it?"
"Long story short, it's a bomb," Loki said, "I call it a seeker grenade, I drew up some plans for it last night. Unfortunately, I had neither the time nor the anima to properly synthesize the materials for the components, so I had to improvise."
"So these will seek out the enemy before they explode? Impressive." Sara gawked at the small sphere Loki placed in a crate full of dozens of similar devices.
"Because it's improvised I can't really tell what will happen once its armed, but I'm hopeful." Loki said
"And what about that?" Sara asked, gesturing towards what appeared to be a large tube device.
"Oh, that's a gravity engine." Loki said, "also improvised, by the way. I'd advise you keep your distance from that one on the battlefield. Hopefully it should work for a bit before it breaks down and, as a bonus, not just kill us all."
"What?" Sara exclaimed
"This thing requires specialized tools and materials, none of which I have on hand, so I had to make do." Loki said, "What I do have are the designs in my head and the materials you gave me. I consider myself lucky it hasn't blown up yet."
The materials the village had provided for her may have been average quality at best, but some of them could be considered exotic matter, rare materials of near unlimited utility and versatility. A godsend to crafting specialists. If she had enough exotic matter, there was very little she couldn't turn it into.
"An item that controls gravity? That's impressive." Sara said in awe, "But what about those?"
The final items Loki had just finished making were throwing knives made from gleaming black metal with glowing green circuits engraved onto the blades.
"These are for me, personally," Loki said as she picked one up
"Are simple knives going to be enough?" Sara asked
"They're very well made." Loki said, handing Sara one. It was a light weapon but with a razor's edge that seemed like it could split hair lengthwise.
"Will all this really be necessary?" Sara asked, anxious about the upcoming battle, "I mean, we're up against dragons, and you made bombs and knives,"
"Hmm, 'A wise man can do more harm with a stick than a fool can with a blade'." Loki recited
"Huh?"
"Nevermind," Loki sighed, "what we have may not look like much against the threat of dragons, but if we fight smart, it may be all we need."
Sara spent the majority of the day preparing the village and the militia, while Loki then spent the time making more weapons, by the end, she had come up with shock bombs and a device she called a cortex disruptor; all devastating weapons she remembered from... somewhere.
* * *
When the time finally arrived, they were as ready as they were ever going to be. The villagers were taken to the storm shelter while the dragonbane was set up around the village, while Loki, Sara, and a few handpicked members of the militia were at the vault opening, waiting.
"Here it comes," Loki said taking a deep breath.
She was wearing militia uniform; a leather tailcoat over simple leather pants with boots. On the back was the crest of a tree, the emblem of Rondel village.
Along with the uniform, Loki also wore some finger-less leather gloves. Loki liked the uniform, it was well made and came with a defense buff, but the only problem was that red wasn't her color at all.
As the counter ticked zero, Loki suddenly felt a pressure shift as the air itself felt heavy and the ground beneath them seemed to tremble. Loki's detection ability alerted her that there was a large mass of creatures coming right for them. The dragon horde.
"Assess." Loki commanded, viewing several red dots approaching from the west on her map as a new message window popped up;
[THREAT IDENTIFIED AS A TYRANT DRAGON HIVE RUSH]
Loki's eyes widened, a rush was when a large mass of enemies stampeded through an area to overwhelm users. Unless people were properly equipped for such an ambush, they'd be trampled. And to make matters worse, there was a tyrant dragon there that possessed the ability to enthrall the other dragons in a hivemind. If she could kill that dragon the hive would scatter, but it would definitely be the most powerful dragon there, at least a greater dragon with some form of intellect.
"S#!t." Loki swore, as a nervous smile crept up her face.