Dragon Goddess’s chosen

I woke up with a pounding headache on a somewhat cushioning but rough to the touch surface. Sitting up and rubbing my eyes a bit, I found myself in a barn on a stack of hay in an unoccupied stall. I also discovered that I was out of that dress but now in a red overshirt and slightly longer yellow undershirt though my stomach would be exposed if I raised my arms too high. Luckily I did get full leather pants at least. Only when I went back to checking out my surroundings, I spotted the rest of my equipment in the corner of the stall: a longsword leaning against the wall and a what looked like a short chainshirt and leather leg armor with boots.

"Oh... guess she gave me Ciri's alt armor... kinda big for me but glad that was in the front of my memories instead of any more slutty armor from other games..."I sigh, bringing my knees to my chest as I sit on the hay "ok, ok, what to do now, in a different fucking world without a clue.... need to find Kat... how...? Would she even look the same...? She won't even recognize me in this state... wait Rissaeth said she'd give me a book..."

I scrambled over to where my equipment was, quickly finding a backpack hidden under the leg armor. I dug through it right away, taking inventory while I searched.

"Ok, a few dry rations...meat of some sort? Um some rope, climbing gear... a box of... oh fire starting stuff... and a different box... of cooking utensils... spare clothes...water skin...full oh and the journal!" I immediately snatch up the leather bound notebook and open it.

Alex,

As promised, I provided this journal, it contains common knowledge that most inhabitants of this realm are expected to know, especially adventurers.

It read on the first page and I took the time to glance through the other pages and sure enough its full of local history and maps of the area. I went back to reading the first pages again. 

Be warned, despite being rare, our kind is still feared by most, learn how to adjust your form in this polymorphed state, high stress or emotion will allow you to take on a hybrid form like you started in. With enough practice you'll eventually break this protective charm I placed on you and you'll be able to change to your true form and back at will.

 

"Good thing I decided to pick barbarian I guess...'raging' might be able to let me do that last part..."

For your sake, I spoke with Ivra, your friend, her chosen was placed in the city Rookport, many miles north of the village I placed you but the king of the gods had a rule placed on starting proximity of other chosen. If you’re driven by finding her, try registering at the local guild, make a small name for yourself while seeking her out, it may make this task easier.

For the first time, I was actually thankful for this Goddess, something that is helpful beyond getting this second chance. I put the journal back into a safe place in the bag before packing the rest back up and taking a look at the armor before me.

"Now to figure you out...should be simple enough "

I sat down to start putting on the armor but paused when I caught a glimpse of something vibrant purple on my forearm that distracted me. Upon further investigation I found a trail of small scales scattered down the ulna side of both of my arms that led up further. "Weird... guess I'll never look fully human again..." I shook my head to focus "check yourself out more later, in an actual room" I reminded myself and resumed getting the armor on. 

It took less time than I expected, even felt like I had a feeling of deja vu as if I've done this plenty of times before. Even down to getting the sword scabbard perfectly positioned in a comfortable place on my back, one of my big worries about getting right, came easy to me. Pleased with the easiness of the task, I slung the bag over my shoulder and crept out from the barn stall. A few nearby horses were awake and aware at the time and gave me nervous looks and whinies as I went by but thankfully stayed mostly calm as I made my way to the large doors on the other side of the barn.

The headache earlier came back with a vengeance when the sunlight of outside hit my eyes, making me quickly try to cover them to cut off the blinding light. I was surprised a moment later when I suddenly felt 4 metal spikes press against my exposed midrift. Slowly, I spread a couple of my fingers to be able to look between them, only to find a short and stocky farmer in front of me with a pitchfork pressed threateningly against my stomach.

"What're you doin in my barn, runt?" He asked gruffly

"Yer hungover or somethin?"

"I'm so sorry sir, honestly don't know how I got here..." I responded, trying to back away, only to bump into the barn door. The farmer eyed me suspiciously then broke out in a smile.

"You yougins need to learn your limits with alcohol, tired of catching ya sneaking out of my barn"

"Y-yeah, can you move the pitchfork...? Please?"

"Sure sure" he laughs, raising the farm tool and leans on it like a walking stick.

"Um, also if I could ask..., what town am I in?"

"Oh ya had that kinda night" he laughs more "Rookville, gotta ask though, ya celebratin something?"

"O-oh just finally leaving home to become an adventurer" I half-lie "t-there's a guild hall in town right? I'm not sure how far I traveled last night."

"Sure is, my daughter takes care of tings around there. Just follow me out to the road and I'll point it out to ya" he gives a small motion before starting to walk away. 

'Thank god he bought that' I think as I follow him out of the lovely little farm he has set up to the closest road. From there he pointed me towards a building that looked like a saloon almost but had a bulletin board outside. 'Well if he's just lying to get me off his land the board is as good as any lead...' I thanked the farmer before making my way toward the singled out building. As I walked, I took in the sights around me. It was really early in the morning so not many people were out at the moment but I could tell that it was fairly large even if the farmer and Rissaeth called it a village. A horse drawn carriage rolling by me as I walked confirmed the time period to be feudal or medieval to me, along with the thatch-roof structures around me, matching the time period I've known fantasy worlds in the games I was used to. Of the people actually awake and walking around at the time, I noticed a variety of races humans, elves, beastfolk, and a few dwarves like the farmer. 

'Always wished to do like a full dive fantasy game, guess I got what I wanted...'

"Oh a new face!" A happy female voice called out as I walked through the doors, snapping me out of my thoughts and making me look up to find a short and stout built woman behind the counter, another dwarf. "Too early for drinks for most humans, take it you're here for guild services?" She smiled kindly at me.

"Um yeah, I was hoping to register as an adventurer... and maybe find a room for tonight?"

"We can do both of those here, name's Thastida by the way, or ya can jus call me Ida, can I have your name for the room and starting your guild license?"

'Shit, should I just stick with my name??' I thought in a bit of a panic 'It'll help Kat find me...'

"Alexandra Steele" I responded, automatically just flipping my first name to feminine "but please just call me Alex..."

"Alright, Alex come up here and" she got down off the stool she sat on and retrieved a slate of stone and put it on the counter with ease "put your hand where the handprint is" I approached the counter, hesitating a bit in slight awe of the glowing runes across the stone slate. "Are ya familiar with the guild registration process? Any family members that went through it?"

"Um no... not that I'm aware of..." I answer, something in my instincts making me unsure about putting my hand on a magic board.

"Oh a first generation, congrats sweetie! Ok how this'll go is that you'll put your hand here" she taps an outline of a hand on the right side of the board "You'll feel a little prick on your thumb, middle finger and pinky. It'll take a little blood and we'll use info from that to build your profile for the adventuring guild and keep it up to date. It'll also show your affinity for magic or martial abilities and help guide you towards the right class for you. You can work towards one that's not recommended but that is up to you if you want to put in that work."

"Oh um ok, sounds easy enough" I sigh and hesitantly put my hand on the spot, awaiting the pain to follow. I flinched when it finally happened, three spikes hit the fingers she told me but I was immediately distracted when an illusionary display appeared above the slate. 

Name: Alexandra Steele 

Titles: N/A

Race: Dragon

Height: 6' 5.7" (Quadraped shoulder height)

Weight 3180 lbs

Affinities :

• Strength: 83/100

• Dexterity: 62/100

• Durability:75/100

• Arcane Magic: 77/100

• Divine Magic: 20/100

• Nature Magic: 16/100

Rank:E

 

I was in slight shock that it could pick up on dragon but just as I finished reading the "screen" seemed to glitch and corrected itself:

Name: Alexandra Steele 

Titles: N/A

Race: Human, 1/8th dragon

Height: 5' 2"

Weight 131 lbs

Affinities :

• Strength: 83/100

• Dexterity: 62/100

• Durability:75/100

• Arcane Magic: 77/100

• Divine Magic: 20/100

• Nature Magic: 16/100

Rank: E

"Oh you're dragon spawn, haven't had one register here in awhile" Ida says cheerfully "You can definitely tap into that to be a sorcerer but you have the strength and durability for martial classes"

"Um I-i was thinking both sorcerer and barbarian... that's bloodrager right?"

"That's right, sweetheart, but be warned with your stature, you're not going be taken seriously for a bit as a barbarian, until you show that strength!" She laughs.

"T-That's fine, used to being small" My hand goes up automatically to nervously scratch the back of my head.

"I know how you feel" she laughs as she places a card on the rune slate and stamps it, the display updating with the new class. "Alright for a room for tonight and tomorrow along with registration will only be one gold. If you don't have it, I'll let you take a couple jobs from the board outside and I can wait for your payment."

"I-i think I have enough here..." I rummaged through the coin purse that came with my equipment and handed over a gold coin 'need to figure out the worth of these, maybe its in the journal...' "um do the rooms have a place to get cleaned up in?"

"There's a bathroom connected to every room with a tub in them where you can draw a bath if you wanted" she reached under the counter and brought out a key. "Here ya go, go upstairs and the room is the last one on the right "

"Thanks, Ida,... oh is there a way to look up another person in the guild? I'm looking for a friend of mine..."

"Sure, I can try, what's the name of yer friend?"

"its a long shot but I knew her as Kat Torres but she might have went with her full first name, Katrina..."

"It'll take me some time to summon any records I can"

"Oh and I think she only joined in the last week or so if that helps" I add

"That'll certainly help rule out people if the name gets any hits, I'll handle it, ya just go check out your room and when you're ready, you can take any E or D rank quests on the board outside"  

"Thank you so much" I gave her a polite smile before heading to and up the stairs to the rooms. 

In no time at all I made it to my rented room. I quickly slipped in and locked the door behind me, dropping my bag on the bed and taking a look around. It was a simple room, a twin size bed, small wardrobe, a mirror on the back of the door and another door that presumably led to the bathroom.

"O-ok, let's get this over with..." i sigh and start stripping down, laying out my clothes and armor on the bed, keeping by back to the mirror for now. I steady my nerves a bit before finally turn around to face the mirror. "Ok... this is weird start from the top..." My face was still like it was before, the average of all the female PC's I've made that I've made over the years playing games: cute, young adult... the eyes were a lot more striking blue than what I would normally pick but the hair was dead on now, a deep red. Hesitantly, I look further down, feeling heat flush my cheeks when I see my chest.

"Fucking hell, why did I always put bust sliders to the max..." I mumble and hesitantly cup my chest with my hands, flinching a bit when they're more sensitive than I expected. "They don't even fit in my hands... gotta be Fs or something..."I shook my head to clear it and moved on, looking over myself closer. I quickly noticed patches of tightly packed purple scales on my upper arms, almost like I'm wearing scalemail sleeves. As I look further down, I noticed that, with some twisting and with the mirror, I also had patches of scales on my sides just as tightly packed as my arms but it decreased in a gradient down to only skin the closer it got to my stomach or sternum. I also quickly noticed that the top of my thighs were scaled with a gradient down to skin towards my knees but going up, to my surprise my entire groin and hip area was area was covered in scales and the flexible belly plates. At first glance It looked like I was Ken doll smooth but I quickly discovered two slits down there, one vertical one lower down between my legs and a horizontal one just above it 

"weird... t-though if she gave me both...i-is that how it works in dragons?" I sigh and turn around to the look the best I can at my backside, immediately noticing scales across my upper back except for around the ends of my shoulder blades. "Definitely would think a girl like this is pretty... but I feel nothing... guess because its myself... ok, this is done... gotta do a job or something, bath can wait, even if I smell like a barn."

Curiosity with myself mostly satiated, I sighed again and got dressed and armored again before leaving the room. I went back downstairs and gave Ida a polite wave on my way out to the job board. Several of the jobs were marked as C rank and involved checking ruins or dealing with bandit camps, they paid seemingly well, enough to rent the room for a couple months, but were probably meant for a team, not that I was high enough rank to grab them with how Ida made it seem. I focused on the jobs that were within my range... a lot of chore-like jobs in E rank, help the blacksmith, gather some herbs for the alchemist, etc, pay's mostly enough to pay for a night at the guild. Then I spotted a single D rank quest, slay slimes in a nearby clearing and bring back a few bottles of the remains to the alchemist as well, that one paid enough for almost a week for 20 slime bottles. I decided to just grab the requests for the herbs and slimes, best to get in really good graces with people, easier to get my name out for Kat to find me if Ida couldn't find her in the records. 

It took a good ten minutes or so of wandering through the fairly large village before I managed to find the alchemist. I took a breath to steady my nerves before entering, only to have to freeze when the scents of herbs and chemicals assaulted my nose.

"Fucking hell, of course my nose has to be more sensitive now too" I grumbled before focusing again and making my way to the counter in the back and calling out "Hello? I'm here about the jobs you put up at the guild..."

"I'll be right with you!" A cheerie man's voice called out from a back room " if you're here about the slime job you can make yourself useful and bring 20 of the 2 ounce bottles to the counter.

"Yes, sir" I replied and turned to search the store for the bottles. I also took the time to check over the prices of the potions I found along away. One red potion I found was labled as a minor healing potion but was 4 gold to buy, enough for several days of rent at the guild. I checked my coin purse, found only 5 gold coins there however. With a quiet curse under my breath, I continued my search for the empty bottles, eventually finding them in a back corner of the shop floor and I brought them up to the counter just as a tall man with pointed ears and twirly mustache and goggles stepped out of the back room, in full mad scientist attire. As I got closer to him, I caught wiffs of sulfur and alcohols from him.

"Hello, miss..."he greeted me and I cringed a bit at the title.

"Steele... but please just call me Alex..."

"Alex it is then" he gave a kind smile "Welcome to Roots and Cauldron, you said you were here for job postings, right?"

"Yes, sir, the herbs job and the slimes"

"Sir?" He laughs softly "polite, I'm going to like working with you, but you can call me Ailmar or Mr. Iarhorn, but anyways the jobs: I'll start with the herbs, are you familiar with wolfsbane?"

"Heard of it, its poisonous, right?"

"Yes, especially so to werewolves but also good to treat Lycanthropy with small doses to give people enough time to go visit a priest in Rookport before the first turning. Do you know what it looks like?"

"Not really, I'll need a picture..." 

"Not a problem, over here " he waves me over towards the end of the counter, where he grabbed and handed a small notebook over to me "a field journal, you can find a picture of wolfsbane in that, just bring that back when you're done, I only need 8 full flower clusters, but for any more you bring back I'll give a couple extra silver each. 

As for the slimes, I recommend going after those first, if you get in a tussle with them with wolfsbane strapped onto your bag, they could get ahold of it and eat it then you'll be left lacking some wolfsbane and a poisonous slime. Neither is good for you. Any questions?"

I shook my head and put the field journal away securely in my bag "I don't think so... wait is there anywhere you recommend to look for both?"

"There's a spot half an hour west of town where there's a pond and clearing where the slimes gather, around there, in the woods you can find the wolfsbane, anything else?"

"Nope, you answered everything I had"

"No haggling then? You adventurers tend to like haggling the pay"

"No...? Didn't think about it... is that really that normal of a thing to?"

"I knew I'd like working with you," he laughed. "Yes I get haggling a lot when I post jobs. I'll tell you this, you do a good job on these I'll try to figure out a small bonus for you"

"Oh... thank you... I guess I should get going then! I'll try to get everything back to you by tonight!" I gathered up the bottles with Mr. Iarhorn's go ahead and gently put them in my bag before heading out.

"Ok, I have some dried food already... should be fine for lunch, gotta find some food after these quests.."

 

---

 

30min later 

After a fairly easy, albiet long walk for me through, I made it to the clearing Ailmar told me about and sure enough there was a pond on the other side from the road. I stopped by a large tree and kneeled down to watch the area, not wanting to charge into this blind. The idea to check the cheat journal pops into my head and I immediately went to retrieve it. Luckily, Rissaeth grouped her information into chapters and I was able to find relevant parts quickly.

'-All of the gods involved in this initiative of creating heroes agreed to allow our chosen to have a head start in our world as if they've lived here their whole lives and had appropriate training for the class they picked. I provided you with the basic training and techniques you would need to handle most swords or other weapons knights and soldiers are taught with. Also since the chosen have not spent their lives here, you can choose to visualize your spells, skills and abilities in a way you can best understand, no matter what you choose the natives to this world or other chosen cannot see, it is by all acounts in your mind and can be dismissed at will.

 

'Wait does this mean I can just give myself a video game interfa-' before I could finish an illusionary pop-up appeared in front of me.

 

Welcome Alex.

 

Loading current stats....

 

Strength: 55

Dexterity:31

Durability: 47

Arcane: 49

Divine:10

Nature:7

 

"Ok, good to know... a few seem high?"I mumble to myself "Do I know any spells?"

Loading Spell list...

 

Induce fear: inflict terror on all you count as hostile within a short radius, people and creatures with strong wills may resist

Thunderous Roar: Daze and inflict sonic damage in an area in front of you. 

 

"Two spells, probably shouldn't have expected much... ok I'm a dragon... where's my fire breath or whatever...?

 

Loading ability and skill list:

 

Rage: induce a state of rage on yourself for one minute, strength and durability increase during this state. Bloodragers take on aspects of their sorcerous origin while raging. Stamina temporarily depleted when effect ends.

Fire dragon breath: capable of breathing out elemental fire without damaging your own  mouth. Consumes Stamina while in use.

Lightning dragon breath: capable of breathing out elemental lightning without damaging your own mouth. Consumes stamina while in use. 

Fire damage resistance: fire is half as effective against you. Evolves into fire damage immunity.

Lightning damage resistance: lightning is half as effective against you. Evolves into lightning damage immunity.

Passive magic detection: use of magic near you appears as an aura around the source of the magic.

Inspect: information that you perceive above a target is displayed in a way you most easily understand. Can be detected as magic .

"Holy shit, that's where everything went." I waved my hand in front of the display and it went away immediately. "O-ok... lets try these out... they're just slimes, can't be too hard..." I put the cheat journal away, making note to try to read more of it tonight, not sure if I would bother with the history sections or not. I stood up and cautiously made my way towards the pond, drawing the sword from my back. 

From a distance, I saw collections of green gelatinous orbs bouncing around the pond. I watched them for a bit and eventually spotted one that ventured off by itself and went after that one

It seemed to notice me almost right away and tried to scurry away into the woods. Unfortunately for the slime, I could run faster than it could bounce and caught up before it could disappear. I swung my sword, and it easily cut through the slime, striking the little rock like core inside and sending that flying out. The rest of the slime dropped down into a puddle on the ground when its core was ejected. I quickly dropped down and tried to scoop the puddle into a few of the bottles, my skin Tingling then eventually burning where I touch the goop.

"Fuck, they're acidic..." I grumbled as I cap four bottles of slime. Upon that realization, i checked the blade of my sword. Fortunately it didn't look like the slime ate away at it but the core definitely put a chip on the edge. "Ok... not doing that again... definitely can't touch it..." I sighed and stood up, putting the bottles away before walking towards the pond. "They seem shy enough, just gotta get them before they all run away "

The slimes stopped bouncing around when I reached a point about 30ft from the edge of the water, almost as if they were watching me. This made me pause a bit but quickly just resumed my approach. The first one ran from me after all, how would these other goo balls act any different? I froze again when I saw a few of the slimes jump into each other and fuse together.

"Umm... how do I do it... shit, shit shit" I slowly backed away from the growing slime. "Uh ...? Inspect?" Immediately a pop-up appeared above the slime. 

Common slime(5)

 E rank monster 

Stats:

????

__________

 

Abilities:

Acidic membrane

Amalgamation defense: when threatened, common slimes can combine with up to 4 other nearby common or variant slimes to defend against predators.

 

"Well, fuck" I mumbled as I looked over the info, too distracted to see the pseudopod swinging at me. First, I felt the blunt impact on my side that tossed me to the ground, then I felt the lingering burning feeling in the same area where I didn't have armor. There was a small spark of anger building in me as I pushed myself off the ground. "Little fucker..." I growled, almost ready to just charge at it but was barely able to jump back in time for another pseudopod to swing at me. Knowing I couldn't just destroy my sword trying to kill it, I tried to plan my options while dodging the occasional slow pseudopod swing. Every time my thoughts were interupted, the anger grew within me and I felt an energy building within my chest. First I tried grabbing a rock and pitching it as hard as I could at one of the cores floating in the creature, that only made it about an inch into the goo before stopping. It caught me by surprise after that by jabbing another psudopod into my gut and knocking me back and the wind out of me, along with an arc of electricity out of my mouth. I felt the energy in my chest dissipate a bit with the release of the arc, and my mind connected the dots right there as I scrambled back to my feet.

After that last hit, I focused on dodging and the feeling of the building energy in me. This time it felt like the energy gathered up much more quickly. Eventually I felt and heard electricity crackle in my mouth whenever I breathed out and instinctively knew that it was ready. I aimed myself at the big slime as It rolled at me with another pseudopod ready to strike me and focused on remembering what it felt like to release the last bit of energy when it hit me. Last time, it only made a high pitch crackle as it left my mouth, this time the Thunderous boom was nearly deafening as a bolt of lightning shot through the slime. Each one of the cores shuddered then crumbled as the rest of the creature convulsed and slumped into a mound in front of me. 

I was left panting there from the exertion and a popup came up in front of me.

Your knowledge of common slimes has been updated:

 

Weakness to lightning damage.

 

Personal stats increase:

Durability rose by 2 

Arcane rose by 1

 

"Would have been good to know before..." I sighed and got the remaining bottles out to scoop up the corpse of the combined slime. I tried to be careful but still burnt my fingers on the acidic stuff several times before the time I finished. 

The herb gathering afterwards was uneventful, though took me awhile to find enough wolfsbane to fulfill the quest and then some extra, wanting to buy something to treat the acid burns on my stomach and hands. To my sort of surprise, wildlife and sounds of wildlife were completely absent for awhile in the area, I chalked it up to the noise I made at the time, but I appreciated the peace, after experiencing slimes I did not want to experience wolves or a bear on the same day.