บท 17: Calamity part 1 (unedited)
I thought about what I needed to get through this dungeon because the two teenagers seemed unreliable at best. I looked at them still whispering back and forth, and wasn't confident putting my life in their hands. They seemed strong enough, but their private talk was disconcerting and made me nervous. However, I needed too many things to be a one-man army. I could put everything into my perception, raising it from thirteen to sixteen and hope that I could detect most of the traps. But if the teens left or betrayed me, could I survive the waves of the monsters without upping my stamina? I actually had the answer to my problem; I just didn't want to do it, so I kept trying to come up with alternatives.
Charisma was the obvious choice because it raised the power of both my Holy and Summoning magic. On top of that, I also had the 'All Natural' boon. The last time I increased the charisma stat to twenty-three it had gone up by five, making it twenty-eight. The time before that, it had given me an extra four. If the pattern held, I would get a serious boost by raising it again. It sounded fantastic in every aspect, but was it all sunshine and rainbows? With every increase I had become prettier, which in and of itself wasn't a big issue. The problem came with the last increase, in the form of a new ability 'Charm'. It was one I couldn't control. There wasn't an on/off switch for it and several men, and even females, had become charmed by just looking at me. I had been wearing the illusion ring to get the negatives so that didn't happen again but, in a dungeon, I couldn't handicap myself like that. The thought of becoming like those nobles in school made me feel queasy.
I had thought long and hard about the 'All Natural' boon and had not planned on increasing charisma. It wasn't all about the charm effect, although it didn't play a heavy role in my decision. The other reason was that it was too overpowered. So far, those extra bonuses were increasing my stat from twenty-three to thirty-five. It was such a big increase that I began to look for negatives and I found one. It was pretty easy to see once I began looking. All Natural required me to be... well all-natural. Any illusion and makeup would reverse the boon and create negatives to my stat. The greater the increase the greater the negative. The cheap illusion ring, I was currently using to keep my charm in check, showed that to be true. All it would take to weaken me would be for somebody to toss makeup powder in battle or cast an illusion on me, and I might end up dead.
Between the two negatives, I had been happy to not advance that stat any further because I was trying to keep it balanced so the negative and charm effects didn't get out of hand, but... I gritted my teeth and upped my charisma. My body began to change like it had before, but my hope of only obtaining minor changes, were soon dashed. I felt my armor adjusting as my chest and ass swelled. Then my legs began itching unbearably as I watched them lengthening. I wanted to cry, not in pain but frustration. When I designed my "character" I had made her smaller in both size and "assets". I had started off as a pretty girl and with every upgrade my appearance increased a little in different aspects, but not to the point where I feared I'd be auctioned off.
My mind was racing as the changes finished. I already knew that I made a huge mistake. My waist had visibly slimmed and any extra weight I might have collected had obviously traveled northward. My chest had increased at least a cup size, causing the skintight leather to look like it was painted on. It might stretch and shrink but there were still limits and my armor had obviously reached it. The 'Armor of the Night' had to become thinner as it stretched to cover my "improved" dimensions and now left nothing to the imagination. It looked more like a spandex body glove compared to the leather armor it was. It should still possess the same protection values but as I looked at my nipples that poked out, I wasn't so positive about that.
From what I could see, my body had become my idea of sexy to the N'th degree; it seemed to be a merger of my favorite supermodel and an erotic porn actress. I was voluptuous in all the right ways... if I wasn't an adventure. Now, I wasn't even sure how realistic swinging a mace would be. Even if I could, would anybody take me seriously? I was oozing sex appeal and looked like a bedroom decoration. I had been already having a hard time dealing with men hitting on me. I took a deep breath trying to calm myself and took out the small, polished piece of metal that I used as a mirror and wilted. My full lips had a cute pout to them, hiding my displeasure at all the changes. While my big, golden eyes screamed innocence. They held flecks of emerald green that gleamed like tiny jewels. I felt a desire to look deeper; to find their hidden secrets. I just stared dumbly at my reflection until I blinked, breaking the spell. I shut my bewitching eyes, and put away the mirror. I now had the body of an enchantress, and a face of an angel. Just looking at it made it made me feel that the horrors of the world weren't that bad and everything would be better. I just wanted to keep looking at my face, to have that warmth in my life.
I pulled up my character sheet, hoping it was all worth it. The first thing I saw was 'Charisma: 24 (42)' and began to sweat at the thought of what people would do to get ahold of me. A sweet scent began mixing with the earthy scent of the torn up glen, I now sat in. Its pleasant aroma permeated the area around me, but I was still thinking of my changes to even notice it. I thought of the boon I gave up 'Defend Thy Honor' that doubled my charisma. At that time it was at twenty and gave a warning that I'd need strength to keep my chastity. Was I strong enough? I thought of all I've been through, how I've grown and that strange overconfidence, I felt for over a week after the Capital battle, washed over me. These changes weren't going to be the nails in my coffin. I might be a walking calamity; a beauty that nations would war over, but I was stronger now. If nations came for me, then Nations would fall... right after I destroyed this dungeon.
I continued to look over the main page of my character sheet but not much changed on it. Things like my magic pool increasing hadn't surprised me, so quickly switched over to my spell page since that was what I was counting on to get through this. The Holy and Druidic pages had all the same spells. The only difference was that all the holy spell names were now outlined in gold. Maybe a boost in their strength? I wasn't sure. It was the Summoning page was completely different. It had re-categorized the summonables. Instead of one long list, it now had sub-tabs labeled 'Plant', 'Beast', and 'Demon'. The last tab was a little unnerving. Demons were deadly. Everybody knew that, but everybody also knew they were evil, and a natural enemy of humanity.
Having them taking my orders, assuming they even would, would mark me as an enemy to every living race. Of course, wasn't I already marked as such? Or maybe I was completely wrong. Annos' Temple did have demon statues, so maybe there was a group of summoners that specialized in it. I never read about it and suddenly missed the school's library. Without reading or seeing it, I couldn't make myself believe other would except it. I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to think of what I should do and ended up curling a piece of it around my finger, enjoying its silky feel. Should I try a few Holy spells to see their effects or summon a critter? I didn't think there was any drawbacks to either since I still had my 'Sanctuary' spell up.
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