Wrottzen woke up the next morning disoriented until he remembered the events of the previous day.
I guess it wasn't a dream after all. "Morning."
"Oh, hey you're up!" May replied. She was sitting on the other bed already dressed and prepared for the day. "How'd you sleep?"
"Fine. How are you already dressed?"
"I'm an early riser and unlike other people have been a girl my entire life."
"Give me a second to get changed and then let's get something to eat." Wrottzen said, pulling up his menu. "In all the confusion, I didn't eat a single thing yesterday."
"I didn't eat anything yesterday either." May admitted. "But before you start I've been thinking. Today you should start getting changed normally."
"Without the system assist?!" Wrottzen exclaimed.
"Yeah. It's just like you said yesterday: You need to take the worst case scenario and take it as the truth until other evidence presents itself."
"What's the worst case scenario in this case?" Wrottzen asked, having not given much thought to this himself.
"Well what if you get down to Gotham and can't find an Appearance Changing Potion?"
"We will find one." Wrottzen replied almost immediately.
"It's just a what if. Consider this more likely scenario: What if the system assist system stops working?"
"Stops… working." Wrottzen repeated blankly.
"Exactly. With all the other crazy stuff going on, it isn't much of a stretch to think the system assist might go out." May explained. "Then you'd have to do it yourself."
After considering May's words for a moment Wrottzen conceded, "You might be right but it might be too much stimulation for me. Any ideas on how to get around that?"
"Take things one step at a time. The system assist is still there, so maybe try putting on one piece by yourself each day until you feel comfortable and then increase it to two pieces and so on."
"OK, so what should I try putting on first?" Wrottzen asked.
"Obviously your undergarments." May replied.
Pulling the garments out of his inventory, Wrottzen began preparing himself for the task at hand. Just as he was about to start, May asked, "Hey, isn't that the same pair you were wearing yesterday?"
"Yeah. This is the only bra and only pair of panties I have in my inventory. Why?"
"That's crazy! Next you'll be telling me you don't have any other clothes besides your armor and those pajamas."
Wrottzen ignored May's comment and went about putting on the female undergarments. Unfortunately, May took his silence as an answer.
"You don't do you? We'll have to remedy that."
"No we don't." Wrottzen replied. "I have my armor and that's enough."
"I beg to differ. What if you have to go to the beach and swim to an island? That armor isn't going to float. And what if you're in the desert? You'll be baked alive in that thing."
"Sure, whatever. Can I have a little help here?"
May walked over and helped him fasten the back of the bra. "See? Was that so bad?"
"Yes! Your talking about my clothes was excruciating to listen to."
"It distracted you from your body didn't it?"
"I guess." Wrottzen admitted, putting on the remainder of the armor with the system assist.
"Then it worked!" May said cheerfully, "Now let's go eat!"
The two girls collected Bojohn, checked out of the inn and found a good place to sit and eat.
"OK guys. How about eggs?" Bojohn asked.
"Sounds good. Just hurry up and make it already, I'm starving!" Wrottzen replied.
Utilizing the system assist, Bojohn pulled the eggs from his inventory and gave one to both Wrottzen and May.
"Let's eat!" The three declared and bit into their food at the same time. The excited expressions on their faces soon turned sour.
"I think those eggs might've gone bad." May said.
"All I can taste is wet paper." Wrottzen said.
"OK. It's a little inappropriate for breakfast but here's a couple of hamburgers for ya!" Bojohn said, pulling three burgers out of his inventory. As the three bit into the food, they yielded the same result.
"Maybe it's your food." Wrottzen said, pulling a sandwich from his inventory. He took bite and declared "Nope. It's not just your inventory. What about you May? Does your food taste like this?"
"I don't know." She replied and pulled some things from her inventory. "I don't splurge much on food so all I have are a couple of apples and oranges."
"Those'll do." Bojohn replied, picking up an apple. "Well here goes nothing." He bit into the apple and paused.
"Well?" Wrottzen asked.
The remainder of the apple was gone in a matter of seconds. "I've never been so glad to eat an apple in my life."
"You mean it has taste?" May asked.
"Yeah! Try some yourself."
A single bite was all it took for May to exclaim, "It's delicious!"
Hesitantly taking a bite himself, Wrottzen found the apple did in fact taste like an apple.
While the three adventurers feasted on fruit, Bojohn asked, "I wonder why May's food wasn't effected."
"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that all of these fruits are considered ingredients by the game, while ours were meals." Wrottzen said, looking through his inventory. He pulled out a peach and tossed it to Bojohn. "Here's a fruit from my inventory. Try it."
Bojohn looked hesitant at first but soon took a bite, "You're right dude! This tastes like a peach!"
"So that is it." Wrottzen said, taking the final slice of orange from the platter. "That still leaves us with the question of why do ingredients retain their flavor and not meals."
"We can worry about that another time." May said. "This is a huge step in itself finding out what foods do and don't have taste. The rest can be figured out later."
Finishing the fruit platter, the three rose and prepared for the day ahead.
"Well it was nice meeting you May." Wrottzen said extending his hand.
"Oh no. I'm not through with you yet!" May replied ignoring the outstretched hand. "We're going shopping!"
"Oh you're coming with me and Bojohn to the market?"
"Not supply shopping, clothes shopping!" May said, "I haven't forgotten about our conversation this morning."
"No! Don't send me clothes shopping!" Wrottzen pleaded, "Bojohn back me up here."
"She might have a point. I mean a lot of things could happen on the way to Gotham. And if you're going to buy women's clothes, I'd be handy to have a woman around."
You traitor. Wrottzen thought.
"OK then it's settled." May said, grabbing Wrottzen by the hand. "Bojohn will do the supply shopping, while I help you buy some clothes. We'll meet up here again later."
As May pulled him away, Wrottzen mouthed the words 'Help me' to Bojohn, who only laughed to himself and walked in the other direction.
After 10 minutes of walking, Wrottzen finally built up the courage to ask, "Where are we going?"
"Here." May said, pulling her friend another couple of feet.
The storefront read 'Girl's Exclusive' in a fancy pink logo. I can already tell this is going to be fun. Wrottzen thought sarcastically.
Not willing to put up a fight, he allowed May to drag him into the store which was filled to the brim with racks upon racks of frilly, girly clothes.
"Let's get you started with some undergarments." May said, pulling Wrottzen to the appropriate section of the store. Choosing a few styles, she handed them to Wrottzen and said, "Go try these on."
Sighing, Wrottzen took the clothes and went behind the designated curtain.
"Well?"
"They don't fit."
"What do you mean they don't fit?" May asked.
"I'm saying the top is too tight and the underwear rides up too far."
"That can't be right. I gave you… my size." May trailed off, staring at her chest with a frown. Walking away silently she returned a moment later with bigger sizes and handed them into the curtain without a word.
"Hey these fit much better!" Wrottzen said, unknowingly striking at May's pride again. "But do they have anything less girly?"
"They're undergarments for women." May said flatly. "They're supposed to be girly."
"I know, I'm just asking. Can look for the least girly pair there is?"
Suddenly in the mood for revenge, May returned with the most risqué set the store had in stock: a black semi-transparent bra and matching panties.
"Are you sure this is the manliest set they had?" Wrottzen asked.
"Oh yes. You'd have to be a real girly girl not to like this set." May replied truthfully.
"Then we will purchase these and the other sets." He declared stepping out from behind the curtain. "Are we done here?"
"Are you kidding? We haven't even scratched the surface we have…"
"Oh God." Wrottzen thought as May rattled off a list of things he apparently needed. It wasn't until the end of the day that the two got around of supply shopping.
"That was so much fun!" May said, as Wrottzen stopped at an odd looking store. "What'ca getting here?"
"Transmutation circles."
"I didn't know they had alchemy in this game."
"Not a lot of people choose to be alchemists." Wrottzen admitted. "Most people want something that will help them out in combat."
"Since you're obviously an alchemist, what can they do?" May asked, genuinely curious.
"As long as I have the raw materials for something, I can use a transmutation circle to transform it into a finished product."
"That sounds like an overpowered ability. So if I gave you a hunk of iron and the proper transmutation circle, you could make a sword?"
"No. You'd still need a blacksmith for that." Wrottzen admitted. "You also still need a pharmacist to create powerful healing potions and such."
"If you can't do that, then what can you do?"
"Well I can create weaker healing potions, and a couple of poisons. But I mostly use my subclass to increase the quality of weapons."
"You can do that?"
"Yeah, but it takes a lot of low quality weapons to transmute a single high level one. Take a look at my sword." Wrottzen pulled out his sword and handed it to May, "This sword is an ordinary drop from the Onadag Badland. Using transmutation, I was able to take a bunch of these swords and combine them into that one."
"That's actually pretty useful."
"The only thing is, I can't write my own transmutation circles. I have to buy them off scribes. What about you? What's your subclass?"
"I'm a Dancer. I can't do the fancy things you can but I get an Attack and Agility bonus to my stats."
After stocking up on supplies and food, Wrottzen and May went back to the designated area where Bojohn was already waiting.
"Hey guys! How'd shopping go?"
"Great!"
"Terrible."
The differing opinions met only with a slight chuckle from the swashbuckler.
"So did you get the horses?" Wrottzen asked.
"Yup! I got two horses, a map and stocked up on healing potions for the trip. We should be ready to leave at dawn."
"Great!" Wrottzen replied and turned to May, "Thanks for all your help today. I honestly wouldn't've been able to make heads or tails out of that store today."
"Comes with the territory." May said, "I've had a blast with you guys. Thanks for letting me hang with you."
"It was our pleasure." Bojohn replied. "Come on Wrottzen! We should probably get a good night's rest tonight if we're going to be traveling tomorrow."
"K. Thanks again!" Wrottzen said before walking off with his best friend.
May waved for a few moments before coming to some realization and running off toward the market.
It starts tomorrow. Wrottzen thought. The quest to get my body back!
The next day, Bojohn and Wrottzen awoke at the crack of dawn and went to the edge of the Onadag Badlands. Summoning their horses, Bojohn asked, "Ready?"
"I'm ready. Let's-"
"Wait!" Rushing down the road to meet them was none other than May, riding a horse of her own. "I'm coming with you!"
"You're leaving Syr too? Why?" Bojohn asked.
"I don't know anyone here. Heck, I don't really know anyone from IRL that plays Elder Tale, so I thought I'd tag along with you guys!"
"What makes you think we'll let you?" Wrottzen replied. "You could just be a burden on us in the future."
"I won't be a burden. In fact you need me." May replied. "You've seen how I can handle myself with those PKers on the first day and a healer would be a wonderful complement to your party."
"She has a point." Bojohn admitted.
"Times, you still need me to help you with that body of yours. If this game throws anymore curveballs at you in the body department, wouldn't it be handy to have a girl around?"
"I guess you're right."
"Then it's settled!" Bojohn declared, sending May a party invite. "Welcome to the team May!"
"Thanks!"
"Now that that's settled, let's get my body back!" Wrottzen exclaimed, spurring the trio off into the badlands.
AN: Not much progress this chapter besides learning a little about food, subclasses and Wrottzen adjusting further to his new body. I hope you enjoyed! Until next time