Loki had only just thought about changing, and suddenly it triggered something within him.
He felt his body come apart, reconfiguring cell by cell within the same moment, to reform his being anew, but now Loki was female.
As Loki acclimatized to his... her new form, a window opened in front of her;
[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE UNLOCKED THE SKILL [SHAPESHIFT] AND HAVE JUST BEEN GENDERBENT!]
[YOU HAVE GAINED THE TITLE [PANGENDER]! YOUR PAIN RESISTANCE FOR SHAPESHIFTING HAS IMPROVED!]
Knowledge suddenly became available to Loki as soon as she saw the alert.
Apparently, titans were phantasmal beings, like spirit, and as such were gender-fluid, so they could shift forms and sexes at will. This was expressed through the epic 3rd-grade racial skill; [Shapeshift].
Seeing the message, Loki checked her status;
[STATUS]
Name: Nex Loki
Race: prime titan (fallen)
Sex: female (fluid)
Karma: lawful neutral
Condition: stabilizing (♀️)
Jobs: maker
Affiliation: N/A
Level: 7
Tier: Irregular
HP: 99.95%
Anima: 72.78%
Points: 70pnts.
[SKILLS]
Appraisal; Crafting; Devil's Luck; Designer; Faker; Heresy; Hero's Fortune; Iron Flesh; Iron Will; Longevity; Opportunist; Recovery; Shapeshift; Survivor; Trace; Transmute; Universal Translator; Word is Bond;
[EQUIPMENT]
Simple pants(singed); simple tunic(singed); simple boots(singed)
[TITLES]
Irregular; Fallen; 1st Heretic; Reawakened; Exhibitionist; PANGENDER;
[CLAN]
(Locked. Conditions not met)
[OPTIONS]
Inventory(Locked. Conditions not met)
Map(Locked. Conditions not met)
Messages
[OBJECTIVES]
Establish residence (complete)
Reach level 100 (...)
Resolve incoming crisis (...)
"Uh..." She started, looking at the surprise on the twins faces, "so... how do I look?" She asked, inspecting her new body, patting her chest, hips and crotch... just in case.
"What... are you?" Petra demanded backing away. They'd heard of skills that allowed users to change their appearance... but nothing like this.
"I'm sorry if I scared you," Loki said, "apparently this is a thing that can just happen to me,"
"Is- is that safe?" Tetra 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
"A few days? A few months? Who can say?" Loki shrugged, before noticing one of her nipples peeking out from her ruined shirt, "We should head back, I need to change clothes anyway."
The next morning, Sara was shocked to see Loki as a woman,
"Well, aren't you full of surprises," she commented, "nice stick,"
Loki still had the staff she had made the night before.
"Any more surprises you wanna share?" Sara then asked
Loki just shrugged,
After getting dressed in a long skirt and plain blouse, Loki went about her day. Sara had decided to bring her to the militia armory. With them was one other militia member.
"What's with the babysitter?"
"He's here to supervise you," Sara said simply
"C'mon, I've been here for over a week," Loki stated, "where's the trust?"
"I can't even trust you to stay the man I saw yesterday," she replied with a cheeky smirk,
"I guess you have a point," Loki sighed
The armory wasn't much, just a single storehouse full of swords, spears, and some other weapons. There were also other rare and dangerous materials kept in the storehouse.
"So, what do you want me to do?" Loki asked
"You said you have a skill that can improve items, right?" Sara asked, referring to [Trace]
"Well, I would like you to see what you can do with these,"
Loki shrugged, pulling a sword from the rack. The sword wasn't anything special, a common 10th-grade item. It was a simple double-edged steel blade. Loki held the sword straight in front of her.
With a thought, she activated [Trace], and the green circuits appeared over the weapon, 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 different, it was lighter than it should've been, and the blade was of finer quality.
"What did you do to it?" She demanded,
"I gave it an upgrade, like you wanted," Loki explained, "bumped it up to a rare 8th-grade by infusing it with my anima."
"What?" the militia member exclaimed
"So, with your skills, you can create any kind of item you want?" Sara asked
"If I have the right material to work with," Loki replied.
After using [Trace] on several more weapons, Loki started to feel light-headed. Confused, she checked her stats;
Anima: 16.81%
HP: 98.58%
Condition: anima deficient
"Urgh," She groaned, holding her head,
"Are you alright?" Sara asked,
"I'm really hemorrhaging anima, and its even affecting my health," she replied,
"Well, at your level, I'd expect you to have comparably low anima capacity and efficiency rigth now," Sara explained, "and since these skills seem very high performance, they probably eat up a lot of anima, especially when used repeatedly. Right now, you may be experiencing anima exhaustion."
"It feels like a bad hangover," Loki muttered
"It'll pass," Sara chuckled, "the more you use these skills, the more efficiency you gain with them, and the less anima they drain. And as you level up, your anima capacity increases as well,"
"I feel like I should know this," Loki mused,
"I'm sure you did," Sara informed her, "it's probably something you were only subconsciously aware of until now. You might even know more about it than me, once more of your memories come back."
"I guess," Loki said, " it'll take me a bit for my anima to recover."
"Use this," Sara said, handing her a small vial, "a recovery potion, works for both health and anima,"
"You sure?" Loki asked, "this was probably expensive,"
"Oh, it was," Sara chuckled, before handing him five more potions, "but they're of better use to you right now,"
Loki opened one vial and drank the blue liquid inside, feeling her anima already filling back up.
"Yes, there are other materials in there I think I can work with," Loki nodded, "plus, I'm really looking forward to what I can make with them."
"Just be careful," Sara cautioned, "some of stuff in there is old and probably unstable, wouldn't want you to blow yourself up before our expedition."
* * *
By the end of the day, Loki had finished upgrading all the wapons. She had only done a basic augmentation on the weapons and armor.
Her eyes flicked to the counter that had appeared at the corner of her vision a while ago;
[A CRISIS EVENT WILL OCCUR WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS! BEST OF LUCK]
Of course there would be annoyingly ambiguous time limit. It was a clear message from Admin0 that she was running out of time. She was done buffing the militia equipment, and she still had two recovery potions left, so she decided that it was time for her to get really creative.
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... zzzzsplosives, highly 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 had a cork at the top.
"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?"
"It's an acid bomb." Loki said, "The cork is stopper keeping the reagents inside separate, pull it out and they mix, creating a highly volatile and corrosive reaction!"
"That sounds... very dangerous," Sara said, looking as the dozens of similar devices Loki placed in a crate.
"Unfortunately, I had neither the time nor the anima to properly synthesize the materials for the components, so I had to improvise, meaning I can't really tell how long the timer is." Loki said, "I'm a little impressed it hasn't exploded already,"
"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 I had on hand."
The materials the village had provided her were very good quality, most definitely came from hunting monsters, and some of them could even be considered exotic, rare materials with great utility and versatility. A godsend to crafting specialists. With the materials she had, she was able to whip up a few different kinds of improvised bombs, each should be strong enough to face whatever Admin0 had in store.
"Will all this really be necessary?" Sara asked, "I mean, I get it; we're going into a new vault, but this seems a bit excessive."
"I just think it's better to be overprepared than caught with our pants down." Loki said, "after all, 'A wise man would rather be overdressed in a desert than naked in a blizzard'." Loki recited
"Huh?" Sara asked, "What sort of saying is that?"
"Not sure, it just came to me," Loki shrugged,
"You're wierd, you know that right?"
Loki just smirked, "wierd is just another way of saying interesting, and I find that to be a compliment."
* * *
A few hour later, the alarm bell started ringing. Loki, who was working on yet another incendiary device in the militia's 'armory' wandered out to find Sara coordinating the militia.
"What's going on?" She demanded
"A patrol just spotted a monster stampede heading this way." Sara said urgently
"That's not normal, is it?"
"No, something must've riled them up good," Sara replied. "We're evactuating the civilians into storm-shelters, runners have been sent to warn nearby villages as well. Right now I need every available fighter with me, so here,"
Sara shoved a bundle of clothes at Loki.
"Get dressed," Sara said, I'll see you in a bit."
Sometime later, a small army of militia and volunteers were waiting by the new vault clearing, facing the deep forest. Loki met up with Sara again, and they were both wearing militia uniform; a red leather tailcoat over simple leather pants with boots, and gloves. On the back of the tailcoat was the crest of a tree, the emblem of Rondel village.
Loki liked the uniform, it was well-made and even had adequate defense buffs, the only problem was that red wasn't her color at all.
As time ticked by, Loki felt a shift in the air. Accute detection abilities Loki hadn't even been aware of alerted her that there was a large mass of creatures approaching. The monster stampede.
More distressing was the fact that Loki sensed an even greater presence farther behind the horde.
As Loki tried to focus on this new presence, a new message window popped up in her HUD;
[UNIDENTIFIED SIGNATURE CONFIRMED AS A [TYRANT DRAGON]!]
"S#!t." Loki swore.