That Time I got stuck in a VRMMORPG and Got Turned into a Succubus!
By Ozzallos
Chapter ONE
The skyline wavered away as if it had been little more than a dream, then suddenly she was there.
Wherever 'there' was.
'There' consisted of an ostentatious bedroom suite, reminiscent of some of the mansions Ranma had voluntarily and involuntarily taken up residence within. A glance behind herself revealed a luxurious canopy bed draped in translucent white silk. The white fur rug beneath her feet looked plush and expensive, while the grand wooden tables and massive armoire spoke of wealth. The gothic architecture of the room drew her eyes up to the vaulted ceiling where an artistic mural, much like he would expect from a church, filled the space.
It was a fairly convincing depiction of reality, but the graphical interface floating in her peripheral vision was the biggest immersion breaker. It featured a red orb conspicuously anchored to the bottom left of her view and a blue one to the right. Simply focusing on either brought new text into focus, denoting her meager thirty health and one-hundred and twenty… Mana? A handful of icons floated at the bottom of the screen in their own bubbles, each as incomprehensible as the last.
"Hold, Charm, Void Strike, Ice Ray…" The martial artist murmured to herself, studying the various pictograms for several moments before losing interest in favor of the environment around her. It wasn't a perfect representation of the real world, she noted. Just looking at her own hands she could tell that they seemed to lack pores or the blemishes of reality. Her continued study found each finger adorned by a sparkling purple fingernail and various rings that caused her masculine sensibilities to wince.
Morbid curiosity eventually drew her attention to the rest of her body. While it would take a mirror to get the full effect of her current wardrobe, the general theme seemed to be a complicated, strappy black swimsuit with a trailing gown, ruffles, golden chains and a lot of skin. Even her body was somewhat more exaggerated with the curves of a supermodel and stilettos, giving her nearly half a meter more in height. The redhead stared down at her chest with a bland look, cupping a breast to give it a gentle bounce through the costume she wore while wondering just how she had gained an additional cup size. Instead of the tactile sensation she had expected, a vague feeling of resistance accompanied the shift of her feminine charms.
'So much for realism,' She thought to herself with a sarcastic sniff that acknowledged the very contradiction of being a guy cursed with a female body and the knowledge of knowing exactly how the bounce of her breast should have felt. Ranma rolled her eyes and continued her study of the character she had loaded into. Even though it would take a mirror to visualize the full effect, Ranma was certain that whatever she was wearing would be enough to make all the guys drool, and that was enough to satisfy the ego of both genders… At least until some movement from the edge of her vision caught the redhead's attention.
She turned back behind her to an unlikely sight- A tail. Ranma blinked, twisting around one way and then the other to get a better view of the winding appendage that was clearly attached somewhere to her backside even though it didn't register to her senses. She watched, almost mesmerized by the red spade tip that seemed to sway apart from her control before simply shaking her head, completely at a loss as to its presence.
It was almost as strange as the wings riding low on her back just above the tail.
'Bat wings?' Ranma scrunched her brow as she tried to assemble a mental image of the body she was controlling. It was all a bit weird, but the details could wait. Finding out where the game had dumped her was the first order of business. The martial artist turned on the ball of a strappy heel to the door, pushing it open to step into a hallway as grand as the room she had just left. It probably should have bothered her that she navigated the stilettos with practiced ease, but they were the least of her concerns as their points clicked across speckled black marble like gunshots.
The idea was only just forming that she had no idea where she was going when a giant wolfman stepped into the same hallway from another section of wherever the game had dumped her, prompting Ranma to slow her advance in caution. The man-beast was clad in heavy plate with a massive sword slung across his back, vaguely looking as if he belonged in Herb's company along with Mint and Lime in terms of appearance. Unlike those rivals, the wolf man was a wall of muscle easily two heads taller than her own stature with a wild mane of white hair falling down his back. Where his armor stopped along his chest and arms, toned muscle took over beneath the fur, promising no protection whatsoever. Ranma eyed the triangular ears poking through his hair and her continued study prompted further details from the game's interface.
[ThacO] Lvl 100 Berserker Wrecking Crew
The wolf-man paused, cocking its head as it finally noticed her for the first time. Ranma was reminded of an inquisitive dog's expression in the moment, a thought completely at odds with the giant, rune encrusted sword riding his back. As if sensing her confusion, the werewolf nodded even as a smiley emoji appeared over its head.
"Ranma?" The redhead blinked with the growl of her name, prompting her to stare some more. The longer she did, the more familiar the wolfman seemed until she was all but squinting at him in order to divine his identity.
"Raaaaaanmaaaa!" A familiar voice pulled her attention from the wolfman and onto a trio of women, one of which was already waving emphatically as they emerged from the same passageway. The first was…
'...Idealized,' was the word that came to mind as she gave her the girl a onceover with 'perverted ninja girl' being the next thing to come to mind. Black with pink accents dominated the frilly skirt that floated around her thighs, flowing upward along skin tight fabric and into strapless cups that put her perfect bust on prominent display. If Ranma hadn't been a girl herself for the last two years, she would have been forced into a double take and potential nose bleed. The revealing attire and even the black leggings that stretched up her long legs from the wedged bootlets she balanced atop didn't help either, so she focused on the two short swords riding her hips instead. One was a glowing dagger-like kunai, while the other appeared to be a highly decorated wakizashi.
[Parfait] Lvl 100 Kunoichi Wrecking Crew
The devil was in the details, however… Literally. Ranma's attention was inevitably drawn to the girl's more demonic features; a pair of segmented, obsidian horns curling off the side of her head like a crown and sharp, pointy ears that jutted out at an angle. A tail similar to her own trailed behind her with a sway, causing the martial artist to glance briefly back at her own with a blink.
Like the wolf-man, familiarity tugged at the redhead's thoughts and after a moment, facial recognition finally fell into place amid the girl's drastically altered physique.
"Yuka?" Ranma cocked her head, still barely certain of the identity of the person she was looking at. The light blue haired demon girl smiled brightly, then nudged her companion with a smirk.
"I told you she would recognize us!" Yuka smirked, prompting her pink-haired companion to roll her eyes with a friendly smile.
Her friend wasn't much better in terms of modesty, the martial artist noted. The main difference between them was the armor and it was quickly becoming obvious that Valhalla Online was a proponent of fan service. This girl bore a heavy indigo breastplate that conformed to her gifted assets, yet somehow left the bottom third exposed. What remained could only be classified as a generous amount of underboob. Like the wolfman, the plate would have afforded the woman no significant protection, but something told the martial artist that wouldn't matter one bit here in the game. Heavy indigo scales mounted her shoulders to match the sturdy banded bracers riding her forearms. From there down it was all skin, interrupted only by a tight bikini bottom with armored plates draping down her hips. Her long legs took over, wrapped in fishnet leggings before disappearing into heavy, knee-high boots.
[Eclair] Lvl 100 Fencer Wrecking Crew
Like Yuka, the demonic trend continued; Horns, tail and ears. This time she noticed a new detail- Fangs. Regardless, there was enough recognition for her to make positive identification.
"Sayuri," she guessed, watching her friend produce a cheerful nod. Ranma turned to the wolfman. "That makes you Hiroshi?"
"Of course!" The warrior produced a fanged grin. Ranma was about ready to congratulate herself when she was reminded there was still a missing piece of the puzzle. That piece was the quintessential fantasy elf-girl with flowing blonde locks and green eyes set on light olive skin. Her dress was slightly more conservative than the girls escorting her; something between a cocktail dress and a cheongsam made of leafy foliage. She bore a gnarled branch staff that seemed to have grown into an oversized sunflower.
"Um, Gomen. I'm Shiro." She bowed politely, her body language bearing a vague resemblance to the bespeckled classmate he knew. His own status hung just over her head with the redhead's notice.
[Nouveau] Lvl 100 Druid Wrecking Crew
Ranma stared for a bit longer than necessary as she attempted to reconcile the boy she knew playing the game as a girl without the benefit of curse. Not only was the game making him sound like a girl, but he was intentionally using 'atashi' instead of 'boku'. The redhead chewed on the discrepancy for another moment before ending the internal debate with a mental shrug, deciding that she was the very last person to be passing judgment on somebody's gender bending gaming habits.
"Well?" The first demon-girl bounced over to Ranma with a beaming smile. "What do you think?"
"We've got a bet on this, too." Sayuri smirked as she slunk alongside her classmate to join the redhead.
Ranma opened her mouth, then closed it, momentarily fixing the pink haired demon girl with a look of disbelief before composing her answer. She eyed them speculatively, gesturing to their costumes. "I think… you're both gonna kill somebody in those costumes."
"Every damn day." The wolfman laughed from the side even as the two girls posed cutely together, though cute when combined with their outfits produced a sight that would make any male look twice. Flirtatious and outgoing wasn't exactly a side Ranma had seen in either girl. While neither was particularly reserved in her experience, both seemed content to coast along in Akane's shadow. Their confident attitudes and liberal armor put both girls in a new perspective for the redhead. Fortunately, it was a sight Ranma could largely brush aside since she had worn worse.
Much worse.
'Akane'd have a fit,' She decided with a small measure of mirth. Even Hiroshi seemed more confident playing as his character. Shiro was… Shiro. His normal personality somehow fit the elf girl better than the student she thought she knew in real life.
Looking the group over, she couldn't help but to be reminded of a fantasy movie that drifted vaguely in her memories; something about assembling a group of adventurers to defeat a dragon. The redhead shrugged the recollection aside in favor of getting the ball rolling. "Alright, so what's next?"
She watched as Sayuri and Yuka both looked at themselves with mischievous grins before turning them upon Ranma herself. The martial artist's expression turned wary as both smiles widened in unison.
"FASHION SHOW!"
Ranma blinked, nearly forced a step back by their enthusiasm. "Wait! I didn't—!"
"Tax." Hiroshi snarked, prompting the redhead to flash a grumpy frown in his direction. Sayuri and Yuka simply nodded, entirely too pleased with themselves. Shiro was the one to step in to fill the knowledge gap, however.
"There should be a shield icon in the upper left of your interface, Senpai." The elf girl avatar gestured to the air where the icon was theoretically positioned. Ranma's eyes flicked up and noted the shield with crossed swords exactly where Shiro said it would be. "Touch it and draw a diagonal line to the center of your vision or just say 'Status'."
Ranma tentatively poked at the icon's airspace and drew her fingers diagonally. The icon blinked and suddenly a new screen unfolded before her. Its predominant feature was a picture of her, or rather a version of her. Ranma cocked her head, leaning in to scrutinize the image that was and wasn't her own. It was her face, but the details were… off.
"Weird." She commented as she took in the portraits details further. Her eyes were the first thing of note within the portrait. They were a bright pink and much like Sayuri and Yuka's, held long predatory slits within the iris. Her attention flicked to the pair of curved horns growing from beneath her red bangs and a pair of long, angular ears jutting out at nearly forty-five degree angles that she hadn't seen up until now. Ranma cocked her head slightly and touched the tip of her left ear, feeling the same resistance as before when she had tried to interact with her body.
"Sympathetic feedback," Shiro's elf-girl avatar pointed out, noting her surprised expression. "The game does a good job with visuals, but it can only do so much with touch using the thirty-five nanometer interface."
"If you say so," The red-headed demon girl mumbled, her tongue running across her teeth until meeting the vague resistance of what were supposed to be fangs similar to those of Sayuri and Yuka's characters. After another long moment of self study, one thing became readily apparent about her devil-girl persona: She made it look good.
Her current fashion statement was vastly more revealing than her original estimation. It was the swimsuit-dress she had supposed, only worse, proudly showcasing her generous bust in a strapless demi cup. From there it continued to plunge down to her navel as a jagged, sexy 'v' that merged into a trailing black and purple gown that opened in the front. Thigh high leather leggings accented the sparse armor plates, ending in sharp heels. It was fashion that effectively made her several centimeters taller than her natural height, and her ego found it hard to disparage the final effect.
The martial artist offered the mirror a final, flirty pose that took full advantage of the body she now wore before turning back to the girls now favoring her with knowing smiles. The martial arts devil-girl stuck her tongue out back at the pair, saved from complete embarrassment by the fact that she was in the company of friends. Hiroshi simply rolled his eyes at her act while Shiro produced a demure giggle before continuing with her tutorial.
"Along with being able to review and change your appearance, your character's general status should appear to the left and right." The elf girl gestured as if she could see Ranma's mirror for herself. The redhead eyed her reflection once more in fascination before pulling her attention away to the text itself.
Name: Tiramisu 70[70]
Class: Sorceress
Race: Succubus
Level: 14
STR: 40
DEX: 20
CON: 15
WIS: 20
INT: 50
CHA: 60
'Tiramisu…' The name caused Ranma slight amusement, her attention briefly flicking back up to Sayuri and Yuka; Eclaire and Parfait respectively. They were the names of sweet desserts and it was obvious to the martial artist where and by whom her own name had been derived. The remainder of the information was cryptic at best, however. Ranma's brow furrowed as to what exactly a Sorceress was and—
The game sensed her visual focus and a helpful balloon of text appeared next to the entry. 'Drawing her energies from the corruption of the Warp, a Sorceress specializes in status effects, damage over time and summoning.'
'I guess?' The martial artist cocked her head as she processed the information without a frame of reference. Her attention drifted over the remaining information, hoping to glean a basic understanding of her character. Ranma scrunched her brow, unsure what to make of the selection, or even the statistics following it. She arched an eyebrow back up at the girls, lightly touching her horns. "So we're magical demon girls now?
"Hot magical demon girls." Sayuka emphasized smugly, saucily cocking a hip. Yuka leaned into her, projecting a peace sign with a self-satisfied grin.
"The Tempting Triumvirate!" She proclaimed, then snatched Ranma's hand to pull her over. The school girl's sudden claim on her left Ranma blinking at first before an unlikely smile found its way to her lips. It could be worse, she decided in the moment. The pair that had laid claim to her were probably the closest things to girl friends she had without being fiancees. It was…. Nice. Even Hiroshi, Shiro and the other absent member of the computer club, Daisuke. They were her…
...She hesitated in labeling them, as if Ranma Saotome wasn't allowed to have friends.
For the moment however, it ceased to be an issue. She belonged. Somehow. It felt nice and this time Ranma didn't question it… Or the black strapless ballroom gown they had talked her into wearing courtesy of the interface. The dress was chased with layers of ruffles down the garment itself with a slit up the side. A cinch pushed her already obnoxious bust up upon a ruffled shelf whose tension was maintained by a blood red ribbon tied into a bow. Thorned black roses formed a belt that hung around the flare of her hips and long, buckled gloves stretched from the tips of her fingers to her elbows. Each step she took was accompanied by a sharp click of stilettos that were becoming all too familiar.
"Let's get a selfie!" Yuka gushed, pulling Ranma in closer. Instead of resistance, she offered an exaggerated sigh but shrugged nonetheless and allowed herself to be pulled into the scene. Yuka produced a finger heart while Ranma pursed her lips for a kiss. Sayuri positioned the camera angle via a transparent interface and offered the magic words.
"Say 'cheese'!"
A tiny click accompanied her words and suddenly her trial run of Valhalla Online wasn't the death sentence it initially had seemed for the martial artist.
"So now what?" Ranma drawled as her hosts led the way through the guild mansion. "Besides the fashion show?"
"Sight seeing!" Yuka's demonic avatar chirped. Beside her, Sayuri demon nodded. The group of five continued through what Ranma could only describe as a gothic mansion.
"We scored this place purely by accident," Hiroshi turned back down the hallway, gesturing for the redhead to follow as his white tail wagged behind him at a slow pace. "Yggdrasil has a housing system for individual players and even generic guild plots, but if you want to make a name for yourself, you need a custom place like this."
"Dire Hearth," Shiro continued from alongside the faux demoness, gesturing to the halls around them. "Compared to other holds, it's small, but a small guild like ours was lucky to even find it, let alone clear the lower dungeon beneath it."
Ranma tilted her head, now vaguely curious. "There's a dungeon under here?"
"Five floors. Mostly demons and some undead," The elf-girl elaborated as they opened up another door into what looked like a cathedral in disrepair. Many of the pews were shattered into wood splinters and random planks, reflecting the condition of the stained glass mural that admitted jagged rays of multi-colored sunlight. Ranma took in the details, forming her own opinions as to the environment while Shiro continued. "We stumbled across it purely by accident and by the time we realized what we were in for, the only way out was through."
"Let me guess, defiled church, cursed holy site kinda thing?" The redhead arched an eyebrow, then shook her head. "Been there, done that."
"Uh, yeah. Exactly." His classmate nodded slowly as he was once again reminded of just why Sayuri and Yuka had pushed for Ranma to come along.
"Clearing this place out was also the inspiration for our characters." Yuka added with a self-satisfied nod. Sayuri nodded in kind, leaving Ranma to blink curiously at the demonesses for a moment.
"This is the main hall where we usually gather to plan our activities," The elf girl gestured as they continued deeper into what Ranma could only term as an evil lair now. A long, rectangular table dominated the space, accented by pillars of intricate design. Ranma was still taking in the details when the pink haired demoness beside Ranma gestured to a massive horned skull hanging on the far wall like a trophy. Even with all of her unlikely exposure to the supernatural, the redhead was having trouble placing the angular skull's origin.
"That," She stressed, "Was Nafearion the Malcontent. He was the boss of Dire Hearth until we moved in. Wiped out most of the raid. In fact, I think Lo f was the only one left standing when he finally dropped."
"Popped his Last Stand skill," Hiroshi nodded his agreement as they walked through the room. "That glorious bastard survived a blow that should have killed him two times over, then finished Nefarion off with back-to-back crits while the rest of us were laying on the floor, waiting for rez."
Ranma didn't realize she was unconsciously nodding with the account while relating it to any number of life and death battles she had experienced in real life. It was all too easy to imagine facing down a demon somewhere in the bowels of a dungeon in a martial arts showdown… And without the drama usually associated with life or death duels and weekly challenges?
Maybe… just maybe this dive MMO stuff wasn't total crap after all.
Ironically, it was the outside that held her attention more than the inside as the tour of the interior wrapped up, introducing Ranma to something vaguely resembling warm sunlight and a cool breeze to her senses. It may have been a game, but it was a picture perfect day framed by blue, cloudless skies with only the minor details to throw it off. Looking directly up at the sun didn't reduce her vision to tears and she was pretty sure the lens-like effects were thrown in just for styling.
Even so, the crush of grass beneath her feet and faint smell of flowers was real enough to immerse herself in the experience.
"It's a fixer-upper." Hiroshi joked as they stepped into the courtyard. Ranma found herself nodding with the assessment. The property was in every sense a neglected temple fallen into disrepair. Crumbled supports lay upturned at angles and barely standing walls overgrown with ivy complimented the deteriorating statues of some forgotten deity. A worn cobblestone path wound through the yard of stricken monuments and up to a giant stone wrought ring with ominous looking glyphs carved into the circumference… And it still wasn't the weirdest place she'd seen in her travels.
'Throw in a few cursed springs and call it home,' Ranma scoffed to herself before attempting to satisfy her own bit of curiosity. She turned to Hiroshi with a questioning look. "So, a wolfman?"
"Got the idea from the guy and his friends that came looking for you a few months ago." His classmate produced a wry smile, as if the idea had been a great revelation on his part. Ranma barely schooled the twitch from her face.
"He's a Lycaen," Sayuri offered helpfully as the group traversed the decayed stone path toward the stone ring. "Human races are the most popular of course, followed by the Sun Elves and Drow." She gestured to Shiro, who smiled sunnily with the attention. "High Ogres and Lycaen are about tied in terms of popularity after that, while premium races are more uncommon."
"Premium?" The redheaded demoness character cocked her head. The wolfman-Lycaen helpful supplied his own sarcastic context as he led their group to the stone ring that dominated the coutyard
"VO has to keep the lights on somehow," Hiroshi smirked, leaving Ranma to her left to fill in the details. Fortunately, one of their party was less cryptic.
"Premium races can be bought through the cash shop and normally require special quests to fully unlock," Yuka explained from the other side of the group, gesturing to herself. "Us, the Nyan, and Bunn."
Ranma furrowed a brow as she mouthed the foreign names, but Sayuri was already continuing where her friend left off. "I won mine in a contest. Yuka splurged at the cash shop-"
"-Hey!"
Sayuri stuck her tongue out, teasing her indignant bestie before continuing. "And we both went halfsies on Tiramisu for Akane. Unfortunately… well, you know."
"Yeah, could have told you that wasn't going to work out." Ranma nodded with the girl's shrug, already having reconstructed that particular encounter with Akane in her head. The word 'perverted' figured prominently in any scenario she could imagine.
"It's not a total loss, at least," Yuka smiled back at Ranma, filling the redhead with that warm, nebulous feeling of affection that had somehow kept her coming back to the computer club against most logical reason. Ranma couldn't help but to crack a smile of her own to match the girl's.
"No guarantees," She waggled her finger back in a rare moment of uncharacteristic humor, prompting the other two girls to giggle.
"Of course not," Sayuri winked, as if she had insider knowledge as to the bargain Ranma had entered into.
"Each character also has a job," The demon-girl mentioned as they walked the unkempt courtyard toward the stone ring. "Knights manage the front line, clerics heal. Berzerkers like ThacO are melee weapons of mass destruction, but not as well protected as fighters…"
"You don't need a massive amount of armor if you kill it fast enough." The wolfman sniffed with his own humor. Ranma found it hard to disagree given her life experience
"Don't forget Druids." Shiro huffed from beside Hiroshi, prompting Yuka to offer him a charitable smile.
"And Druids." The demoness added. "They use their nature-based summons for healing, damage or tanking. A jack of all trades, so to speak."
"Alright, then what's a…" Ranma paused and swiped her hand through the air to summon her display. She found the correct term labeling her portrait after a moment of searching. "...A sorceress?"
"Somewhat like a mage, but focused on status effects and summoning." Sayuri elaborated. "It's a tactician class; not big on up front damage, but absolute murder the longer you leave them on the battlefield."
"They're not super popular, unfortunately. It's part of the reason we use Tiramisu as a bank," Yuka shrugged, only to have Ranma scrunch her brow without comprehension and the girl elaborated. "First, not the same up front satisfaction of blowing things up like a mage."
"And second?" Ranma pressed and Hiroshi took over, shaking his head.
"It's a pretty tough class to PvP with," The wolfman shook his head. "Many of the sorceress abilities don't have the same impact on players as they do NPCs. The sorceress as a whole is seen as somewhat handicapped."
"Okay…?," The redhead drawled, making it clear she was lacking critical information.. Sayuri nodded sympathetically for her.
"It's been a long standing community issue." She elaborated. "It's a class that revolves around control, but the player always knows when they are being controlled…"
"...And can always pick the correct ability to counter it." Yuka nodded in agreement.
"Good thing I'm not stuck with her then," Ranma took the moment to glance at her own delicate fingers as if studying them for some hidden defect before simply shrugging. They had already said there was a martial arts job, after all.
"A sorcerer's 'Vorpal Storage' skill is super useful as a bank, however," Shiro offered, trying to spin a bright side to the character.
"And she's perfect to use for 'show and tell'," Sayuri shrugged as they stepped up to the ringed gate. The martial artist watched as Shiro raised her hand up to the gate, calling forth glowing glyphs within a spinning magical circle just beyond her palm.
"GATE!"
The command invoked activity within the ancient looking stone ring as its surface began to glow with lines of power. Energy began to spin within its circumference, crackling with prismatic particles of power. Ranma watched with wide eyes as the tiny beads of light were sucked into the gate like a magical whirlpool, disappearing into a cloud of ether deep within the vortex. Regardless of her doubts, the others seemed to consider this normal and began to ascend the meager three steps up to the artifact.
Yuka held out her hand with a friendly smile. "Ready?"
Ranma looked at the hand and the expression Yuka held for her. It wasn't one she had seen many times in her life and with it came uncertainty that lasted only a moment. Friendship. Not a fiancee. No strings attached. Given and received freely. Ranma smiled in kind and took the hand. Sayuri nodded her approval and took the first step, promptly fading out from the world. Shiro was next, then Hiroshi.
Yuka and Ranma took their step into the portal hand in hand. Yuka's form flash brightly and then it was her turn to-
A keening pitch took up residence in Ranma's ear as the world dissolved around her. For a moment it felt like her insides wanted to become outsides, then not. Her body was suddenly swelteringly hot, leading her to wonder if everybody had to endure the same process.
'Better not be like this every time I use these gate things…' She thought to herself while the heat pulsed from the knot forming within. Space continued to shift around her in blurry waves even as a subdued female voice unexpectedly intruded upon her thoughts.
"New device acquired. Mapping resources."
If Ranma could have blinked her surprise from within the disembodied void, she would have since the last time she had heard the digitized voice was during the initial setup. Prismatic space rippled with every word as it continued.
"Device label assigned: Jusenkyo."
The assistant's advisement jarred the martial artist from her complacency, causing sudden and immediate concern. Just the namesake of her curse was enough to cause her alarm, let alone wonder just how the computer intelligence managing the game had come to know of it. Its voice became inexplicably more life-like in that moment, losing its androgynous tones as it spoke once more with authority.
"A NEW ADVENTURE AWAITS."
Before she could question it further, her insides turned molten, causing her to scream in disembodied agony. Unconscious thoughts spoken aloud battered her senses, as if every deed and memory decided to visit her in the present moment. Her mother smiled, yet she cradled her sword. The wilds of China replaced the woman, then a beautiful valley of sparkling springs.
An all too familiar redhead lingered, vying for Ranma's attention while the fiancées argued in the background. The girl teased vendors for food and rivals for techniques while they fought around her as if part of some performance, forcing her intellect to twist and turn in a vain attempt to catalog it all. Ryoga. Saffron. Kumon Ryu. Herb. Orochi. The multi-headed dragon swirled through the space of her mind's eye, pulling other memories within its turbulent wake. A long, spiraling noodle writhed like a snake along with it, causing the martial artist to frown. The Dragon Whisker. Another serpent darted out of the clouds of memories, another dragon; This one sleek and red.
Ranma's attention darted back to the girl that Herb had melted into at some point during her distraction; the dragon prince's armor now oversized for her petite frame. She was suddenly engulfed by a whirlwind tornado, her form lost to the swirling chaos that the martial artist immediately identified.
The Hiryu Shoten Ha.
She felt its pull, the metaphysical pressure around the tempest somehow sucking her consciousness into it. The memories playing around her were swept up by the dancing whirlwind. The fiancées tried to run. Akane. Shampoo. Ukyo. Kodachi. Her rivals were sucked away while the pair of dragons rode the violent eddies upward.
She was next.
The gale caught her and suddenly Ranma was twisting through the violent layers of cold wind and rain. Akane's smile floated into view, then a snarl and her fist... The teen winced, but she was gone, only to be replaced by her father dangling a kettle of hot water just out of her reach. It was enough for the redhead to take a swipe at the vision, but another violent gust sucked it away before her fist could connect. Little Ukyo danced next to her Okonomiyaki wagon, forcing Ranma to lend the vision a double-take as they ascended the tornado.
A spotlight abruptly pierced the tempest, blasting up through the center of the tornado to wash the okonomiyaki cart from her vision. Bright blue symbols- letters and numbers -flickered within its boundaries like phantoms; organized one moment then breaking down into chaos the next. Concentric circles of yet more symbology formed around the shaft of light, inscribing themselves across several levels above and below while pulsing with bright blue power. The martial artist marveled at it; briefly wondering what was happening… Until the pillar's bright blue structure flushed to menacing red.
'What the hell is-WAAAAAHHHHHHH!'
The tornado abruptly began to implode upon itself, as if somebody had pulled the plug on a drain. The nauseating sensation returned as the Hiyru Shoten Ha reversed directions, pulling her down into a black pit. The ragged cries of meowing could be discerned now, overlapping with one another to spur the teen to panic. Ranma tried to paddle and flail against the wind as the mewing grew louder.
"No!" She screamed as the pit sucked her in. "No, no, nonoNONNONONNOOOOO-!"
Ranma Saotome opened her mouth to scream again when vertigo caused her to stagger unexpectedly. The very real sensation of gravity beneath her feet caused her eyes to pop open and blink as her eyes adjusted to the warm rays of natural sunlight. After a moment of furious blinking it became clear that she was… There. Outdoors. Somewhere that definitely wasn't the ring she had stepped through or a pit of cats.
'This is… the game?' Ranma wondered cautiously as she stared out into the world beyond. Blue skies and billowing white clouds framed the grass plains and stone ruins around her, forcing her to acknowledge the amazing, if improbable, level of realism. Gone were the edgy shadows and lens flare effects that were easily distinguishable as artifacts of the software. Even the soft breeze tugging at her clothes was indistinguishable from the reality she had just recently left, so much so that she couldn't help but to acknowledge it aloud.
"Weird." She mumbled, staring at her hand for any flaw in the game's graphics. It was seamless, all the way to her skin tone and the pores therein. Even the texture of the clothing she now wore felt real. The redhead fingered the simple cotton mini dress she wore, secured by a leather cinch that seemed to serve less to protect her abdomen and more to push her bust up to further prominence. The off-shoulder dress likewise seemed to merely serve as a cotton wrapping, hanging just high enough to maintain some modicum of modesty but not much more. Black stockings secured by buckled garters hugged her legs, allowing a scant few inches of bare thigh to draw the eye for they plunged down into a pair of plain block heels. Though it certainly wasn't the most expensive or even sexiest thing she had ever worn, her male ego was content that the dress would allow her curse to have it and flaunt it in the same breath.
Ranma's brow arched as her study fell upon the pommel of a knife riding in a simple belt and leather sheath loosely riding her hips at a diagonal angle. Sliding the edge out, she took the next few moments to study the undulating edge of the kriss before returning it to the sheath and turning around to the stone ruins she had been teleported to. Monolithic slabs towered around her, their differing elevations worn by time and weather reminiscent of the pictures of Stonehenge she had seen. Wild grass grew out from the remains of the earth she stood upon, as if the site had been one of significance at some point.
From there it only took a few steps to move beyond the crumbling stone and into the soft grass dotted with colorful orange flowers. White birch framed the treeline beyond, but as idyllic as the scene was, a discrepancy tugged at the redhead's thoughts- The user interface.
Simply put, it didn't exist. The health and mana gauges were absent, as was any menu icon, filling Ranma with a certain unease. It shared space with the fact that nobody from the computer club had shown up despite the insistence they were all going to the same place. The martial artist held out a hand and wiggled it, hoping to incite the interface to do something. A solitary green leaf tumbled about her feet courtesy of the wind, before it was caught up upon a gust to be sent aloft. She tracked its skyward progress for a moment and while doing so, looked for any hint that the game had even acknowledged her efforts.
After a moment she felt silly wiggling her fingers to empty space and withdrew her hand with a frown. No interface, no friends and a game that looked and felt entirely too real to be fake.
'Wonderful,' the redhead thought to herself in an acerbic tone while trying to recall the limited guidance she had received earlier. Ranma snapped her fingers as she recalled the conversation. 'Something about a friends list and…'
"...Status?"
A translucent white screen abruptly winked into existence with the word, floating in the air before her. The gender cursed teen blinked and leaned in to study the information.
'Spells… Feats… Details…' She mumbled to herself in slight disappointment. Her study flicked back up to the portrait to scrutinize the demonic caricature representing her in-game persona. Ranma was about ready to simply roll her eyes at it and move on when slight peculiarities were noted. Her ears were still sharp points jutting out from her red mane at an angle, but the horns atop her head were gone. Her wings and tail had likewise disappeared, but she had confirmed that just by looking over her shoulder earlier.
Moving down the page, Ranma chuckled at the name now associated with the portrait and continued down the profile.
Name: Tiramisu 14[14]
Class: Sorceress
Race: Succubus [Lesser]
Level: 1
STR: 10
DEX: 12 [+1]
CON: 8 [-2]
WIS: 10
INT: 10
CHA: 13 [+1]
Unallocated: 20
While it was interesting, it wasn't a 'Friend's List' nor did one seem anywhere present. Her study ran across several menu tabs with their own labels, but none of them alluded to a friends list of any sort. The presence of any log-off function was also conspicuously absent.
'Thanks for nothin' I guess,' The martial artist sighed and attempted to physically bat the screen away. It blinked away with the brush of her hand, leaving her in the situation she had started with. She turned, scanning her environment for anything…
'...Unusual?' Ranma thought with a certain amount of irony as she considered just how many times she had been trapped or ensnared by some random magical artifact. She still wasn't sure, but her present situation felt all too much like those instances for her liking. Her thoughts were just about to grumble on how the unusual was becoming all too usual when the shuffling of foliage and a chorus of animalistic grunts offered her momentary distraction from her discontent. Ranma turned to find… A pig?
The teen cocked her head, staring at the small group of five as they emerged from the deeper shadows of the forest to graze on the clearing's grass. Even calling it a pig, swine or hog was stretching the definition of the livestock she was familiar with, however. This particular specimen started out as a hog at its snout, but sported a nasty meter length horn as if it were related to a smaller, chubby rhinoceros. The differences only grew from there on back. Its neck was covered in a bushy lion's mane while the rest of the body was clad in a dull, scaled hide.
Ranma stared, idly musing on how many Jusenkyo pools the alien had to have stumbled into to result in the unlikely fusion she was seeing.
'I don't know that many Chinese words,' the redhead sniffed in dry amusement, watching as it chewed through the stalks of grass at a lazy pace. Beyond it were more of its cousins, cautiously hanging closer to the treeline than the one she approached. Ranma watched it graze some more while glancing around every once in a while to see if anybody else had dropped by as promised. The teen sighed as boredom set in.
'What the hell do you do in this game, anyway?' She wondered, her thoughts tinged with disappointment. Reflecting on the matter, every game she had server played had you fight stuff, from space aliens to monsters. Ranma glanced around, noting the idyllic setting around her. Here, there was only grass and pigs. The girl's thoughts paused, eyeing the mutant swine as she rolled the thought over in her head.
A small smile crept to the martial artist's lips as she rolled her hand into a fist, cracking her knuckles. The scaly creature wasn't exactly Ryoga, but she was bored. As if sensing something, its stubby head popped up from the grass to scan its surroundings. The girl and alien rhino-swine locked eyes in that moment. Ranma's smile increased into a smirk.
It was time to find out just how realistic this game was.
A pig.
She was getting beaten by a goddamn pig.
Ranma Saotome, Heir to the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, winced as she shuffled back out of the pig's attack radius to consider her newest dilemma- Wherever she was geographically, it was not simply the product of a video game. The burning pain in her side and the crimson gash tracing up the flank of her ribcage assured her that much. The swine squealed its challenge as if to confirm the fact that it was real, inciting Ranma's pride to grumble as she clutched at her side and the crimson seeping between her fingers. Pig, rhinoceros or reptile, she was bleeding from a gash in her side courtesy of the now blood stained horn and a rhino-pig, squealing like it was all-too-proud of its achievement.
'Stupid pig,' Ranma grumbled, nursing her wound while using a nearby tree stump for support and maybe even cover if she was lucky. How something that only stood waist high had achieved such a decisive blow on her was almost incomprehensible; Almost as incomprehensible as her missing it with her opening kick, nearly tripping over herself with the evasion and taking the thing's horn nearly head on as if she were a rank amateur. As if that weren't bad enough, she was feeling it- feeling her heart throb from a level of exertion that was normally only the result of a prolonged martial arts battle. She felt the pain from her wound scream back at her even though she should have been able to take substantially more punishment than some hog-thing's dull rhinoceros horn.
At first she had wondered at how real Valhalla Online felt and looked. At first she had honestly been impressed. None of her games could even touch this level of realism. Another throb of pain caused the martial artist to wince and glance down at the bloody hand still holding pressure on the wound. Her gaze flicked to the pig which had just finished its prancing. She instinctively knew it would remember her sooner rather than later.
None of those games could touch VO's realism because it was real.
Somehow.
The question now became what to do about it.
[Steady Nerves] acquired.
And then there was that. A quick glance around her didn't reveal any other presence aside from herself and the pig, but something resonated in her head. It wasn't a voice or an image, but a perception of information that seemed to randomly intrude on her psyche. Even though it was a mystery that begged to be picked apart, there was a more pressing concern, and it squealed loudly as if to get her attention.
Ranma reasoned that any solid blow would be able to take the thing down and there was nothing to indicate it was somehow super durable…
The gender cursed teen hesitated.
…But that was how she had gotten into this mess to begin with. Upon loading into Valhalla Online, she had admired the realism, marveled at the sights and wondered at the scaly pigs passively grazing in a small nearby forest clearing. And what better way to test that realism than to pick a fight with one of the mutant porcine?
Ranma gaze narrowed irritable at the porker, who was now gouging its hoof into the grass, its attention now squarely back on her. About the only good thing to have come out of that plan was that nobody was around to watch her ass getting kicked by a pig. The knife at her hip came to mind, but martial arts were still the weapon of choice. All she needed was an opening. She squared up opposite of the swine, this time determined to take the encounter more seriously.
It charged. Ranma was already moving to counter. Even before it's head dipped down to gouge again, she knew the outcome. Somehow she was going to-
WHAM!
The martial artist skidded across the grass in the wake of its horn. This time she had taken less of the point and more of the curve. Her lungs emptied of air with the blow and she tumbled with stars flashing across her vision. Ranma rolled to a halt several meters away and flopped over onto her side, coughing up blood. Even through the partial daze and thruming pain coursing through her body, she could think. Pain, after all, had been her constant training companion growing up and it in no way inhibited her ability to tactically analyze the-
[Pain Tolerance I] acquired.
"Yeah, shut up," Ranma grumbled at the mental intrusion and watched the pig as it began its victory shuffle once again. Her first defeat could have been chalked up to being a fluke of some sort. A second was almost impossible for a martial artist of her caliber to even consider. Something was wrong.
Really wrong.
It wasn't even a matter of strength at this point, the redhead reasoned grimly as she crawled up to a kneeling position. Her coordination was off. Her reflexes, trash. Ranma looked down, flexing her left hand into a fist. Even if she landed a punch, she instinctively knew the pig would shrug it off as if she had been hit by another weakness moxibustion. The girl winced with the parallel she had drawn. Even worse, she intuitively knew that another solid attack was going to put her down.
'Options…!' The martial artist growled as she forced herself to work through the abrasive pain.
Her upbringing had been full of pain and she was all-too aware of the lethal edge she was now riding. Somehow this game that wasn't a game had robbed her of every advantage she typically enjoyed as a martial artist, and Ranma's brain raced through the limited information she had gleaned from the computer club before she had been dropped into wherever the hell she was now.
'Classes, skills, uh…' Her brain stalled as she tried to recall the brief overview she had received before logging in while watching the pig-thing finish up its prancing. Ranma blinked. Inspiration. "Status!"
The barely familiar screen suddenly blinked to life, causing her to fixate on the transparent blue frame and its information. Her attention was immediately drawn past her own portrait and onto an ominous red numeral amongst the other statistics.
HP: 3[14]
The interface sensed her attention and helpfully provided the relevant context. 'Hitpoints—A measure of overall health. More is better, zero indicates character death.'
Ranma cursed and moved on, hastily sifting through the panel's information. More numbers. More stats. Her intellect raced through the information, trying to find some tool to fight with even as the rhinoceros-swine finished up its gloating and turned back toward her. 'Inventory… Skills… Skills?'
Her focus once again activated the interface, pulling the relevant SKILL tab to the forefront for her use. The red head's eyes quickly flicked from entry to the next as she scanned the page for anything that would keep her finding out just how real the game got.
'Charm… Transfigure… Blight…' Ranma's concern only grew as she picked through the meager skills available to her. She hurriedly chose the first one to read as the creature gouged its hooves into the dirt. A threatening grunt followed its display of force. The martial artist hastened her study. 'Charm: target regards you as-"
"BWEEEeeeEEE!"
She was out of time.
The pig charged with a loud squeal and Ranma skipped to the most intimidating sounding skill amongst her small pool of choices.
This time it wasn't just her focus. It was as if the game sensed her very intent to use the skill. Foreign power poured into her, causing the redhead to gasp as she unwittingly called forth the spell's magical potential into the real world. Her blood seemed to boil impatiently and in that tiny space, she somehow knew the exact nature of the power she had summoned.
Warp magic.
The Blight.
Her hand floated out almost without conscious direction, sighting the length of her arm down toward the charging pig. She was barely aware of the spell she whispered and an ultraviolet pink circle flared to life just outside her grasp. Gouts of angry neon green fire abruptly materialized along the flanks of the charging creature, inciting it to squeal in pain as its flesh burned with splotches of emerald fire. The spell expended its power, leaving its caster in abrupt and sudden confusion.
What? How? Why? Ranma was just barely processing these questions when central horn of the
mutant slashed at her side, sending her sprawling with another wide gash across her stomach. Pain bloomed to excruciating levels as she tumbled without grace, rolling several times before simply flopping over onto her side. She clutched at the pain, her hand soaked in blood even as the pig-thing squealed its victory to her increasingly dimming senses. Ranma Saotome gasped for breath, well aware of the critical injury she had sustained.
'Stupid… game…' Ranma mumbled as her vision began to fade out. The answer to just how real Valhalla Online was now had a definite answer. Unfortunately, the answer had a very lethal exclamation point that stained the earth with her blood. She tried to gasp at another breath, but found her lungs uncooperative. Black splotches dominated the redhead's vision as she took her last breath and…
GASP!
Ranma sucked in a new breath and abruptly coughed up blood. The fit lasted several seconds until she could take a clear breath, somehow still alive. Her first act was to address the sucking wound in her side, only to find it… healed?
'Barely,' The martial artist noted morbidly, tenderly fingering the torn flesh still seeping blood. It was one minor twist away from reopening completely without stitches or some form of dressing. How she wasn't dead only moments before was a mystery, but the game's realism was no longer in question. How and why would have to wait for later. Ranma strained to look at her opponent as it staggered around, its scaly hide burned down to meat in places. She stared, wondering exactly what she had unleashed upon the animal.
[Blight, Level 1]
The redhead blinked. She knew, as if the knowledge had always been there. The rest came without effort. 'Drawing upon the negative energies of the Warp, the enemy is inflicted with ten damage,returning two hitpoints to the caster.'
She stared at her bloodied hand, remembering the feeling of power she had called into existence. There was no way in hell it was chi, and she shouldn't even know-
"SnortSnorT!"
The rhinoceros-pig drunkenly turned back toward her with an indignant squeal, reminding Ranma that it hadn't forgotten her. The martial artist cursed under her breath as she pushed herself back to a shaky stance. The math wasn't hard. If the last attack had nearly killed her and Blight had returned two hitpoint, the pig's next attack would be more than enough to do the job.
"Yeah, let's do this," Ranma nodded, taking a deep breath. Her eyes flicked to another pig idly grazing closer to the treeline. It was a plan, but things were about to get worse before they got better. The martial artist sighted the other pig and hoped that intention alone would incite the same results. The foreign swell of power descended upon her, winding through the redhead's body… The boiling energy caused her bones to vibrate with a pleasant buzz that the martial artist had little time to appreciate. This time, she raised her arm up at the new target with more purpose than her last attempt, and the alien words came naturally from her throat.
"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!"
The idle pig screamed and Ranma felt the energy drain from her bones and into her target as if her entire being was a conduit of power. It was in no way like the warm chi that gently lapped at the soul. Chi was a natural part of life. Whatever Warp Magic was, it wasn't natural. It entered her like a lightning rod and jumped out with the same vigor.
'Warp Magic: drawn from the emotional tempest of the warp, empowered-'
'Not now!' The redhead hissed and turned to the original pig now stalking her. She didn't have time to indulge in crap she shouldn't have known in the first place. She aimed her hand at it even as the second pig squealed in frustrated agony. As if to reply, the first pig charged with an unsteady gait.
Again, she knew. The power in her hadn't returned to level yet. She wouldn't be able to recast the spell until her body found equilibrium.
Ten meters.
Ranma grimaced as the first mutant swine charged clumsily, now slower due to the damage it had originally sustained. It was going to be close. 'Come on come on come on come on…!'
Five meters.
She could almost feel it in her soul, like a balloon relaxing to accept her next breath. She held out her hand. It felt like she could almost grab its blood stained horn. The glyphed magic circle began to form in her hand.
One meter.
"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!"
WHAM!
The impact lifted the martial artist into the air almost as soon as she uttered the spell, where physics seemed to hold her for a long moment before pulling her back to the ground without remorse. She bounced twice before skidding to a stop, her body dancing with the flows of warp magic even as she lay dying on the ground. Another massive wound had opened up her thigh, causing more than enough damage to kill the redhead outright…
…And yet.
Ranma Saotome rolled over, coughing up blood, but still alive even as the pig writhed in neon green flame. She watched as it seemed to eat away at the alien swine until it seemed to lose its balance, falling over dead.
"BWEEEeeeEE!"
'Yeah, yeah. Wait your turn,' The teen thought at her newest and next opponent with a bland tone. One glance at it showed similar scaring as the first had received, only this one was still very much alive and very pissed off. Ranma glanced down at her wounds from her unsteady stance. The gambit had worked. Barely. Two damage sources, four points total in health. The gashes across her body were still ugly, but it had been just enough to survive the first pig's final charge. She produced a frown with her glance back up at the pig's next cousin as it oriented its horn on her with a threatening snort. The only question now was could she survive this pig's assault?
'About three damage per attack and I got like one or two health left,' The redhead reasoned, trying to calculate the variables without knowing the exact values. The rhino-swine gouged at the earth with its hoof. Ranma raised her hand in response as the magic from the last cast decompressed.
It charged. The milliseconds it took for her body to stop tingling from the last Blight seemed to drag on into eternity as the scaly swine-rhino galloped toward her. It was too close. She instinctively knew that. Even if she got the attack off, there were too many variables. Would the health credit in time? Would it be enough to offset the attack? Would it even die from this one? Would-
PhffT! Phfft-Phhfft!
Two thin arrow shafts suddenly sprouted from the creature's flank, causing it to instantly veer off balance and off course, its horn dipping into the grassy earth with disastrous results. Like an airplane plowing nose first into the ground, the pig-thing instantly flipped into a wild tumble before flopping over on its side with a final twitch. Two arrows had hit. The other had missed its target and found a home within a shrub. Ranma's wide eyes traced the pair of shafts down into their wounds where the creature bled dark purple ichor then to their source. She blinked her surprise upon finding what appeared to be an Oni straight from Japanese legend. A simple brown tunic reminiscent of Ryoga's travel worn shirt draped over his red tinted skin with darker patchwork pants to match. Overall, it wasn't any more impressive than what she was dressed in save the fact he had a quiver full of arrows and a bow to her paltry fifteen centimeter kriss.
Her observation had only started when a warm glow poured into her, eliciting an involuntary gasp. Something within her contracted- not warp magic this time -then released in one harmonious flow. Ranma blinked at her hands as a soft golden light bloomed across her own skin, fusing her cuts shut before fading away less than a second later. She stood there staring without comprehension until a single word broke through the logjam of thoughts.
"Congratulations!"
Her attention snapped back to the grinning Oni who had since retired his bow back over his shoulder. Finally something approaching a coherent thought made its way past the incredulity of the moment. She stared at the oni as he approached. "Congratulations, what?"
"You leveled up!"
Author's Notes: Thanks to Fuyukazehime for editing services rendered and everybody at my Fiction Forge discord for suggestions and putting up with this plot in general. Anybody can join; the link should be via the patr30n page, /ozzallos. Sorry, ffnet hates scrubes those links so you'll have to figure it out yourself :)
Aside from that, this fic has nothing to do with SAO or any other series, save for the fact that it's as derivative as every other isekai idea ;)
Special thanks go to those Patr30n like people. You're awesome and deserve a shout out:
mangadaemon, shaun shultz, Nick Chavez, Donovan Gamble, Takumi10, Leah Bunt, bad49824, Naveed Afzal, Taitenator, Gwetholin Nanvirhael, Mars, Kathy Burrell, Rayvien, John Harrison, Albert Purulczak, Dagi, shaderic, John F. Meehan, Danny Underwood, Sunhawk, Name not found, ValkyrieHamster, Lishmael, Oscar Wijnands, War Giver, Stevie Metke, Daniel Thomas Stack, Raneko, Jeremy Fecteau, Kailandi, zerox4x, Paula Schultz, Andrew Seegebarth, Alice Moriko, Alois, Hiryo, Silverstrike, Javier Rey Brooks, Campbells RedCap, kalistira, Charles Fitt, macdjord, Ellinore Wilson, Invernos, Orchamus, John Knize, Matt Kent, Andrew, Noirdragoon, Elliot Courts, mpotato, Norman L. Wash, Xivaqeis, Jason Howson, Matthew Laforge, Michael Seger, Treant Balewood, Frank Rice, Gerard Kelly, DreamweaverMirar, Maurice Brown, Daphne Pfister, The Don