The Outlands

Ellie kept her head straight, trying desperately not to look back at Tess’s lovely new form. She would be lying if she said this wasn’t a situation she had often fantasized about; somehow, Thomas would get transformed into a girl, and would have to go on the run to avoid intensive government probing. As a matter of course, Ellie would flee with the newly transformed Thomas, and the two would, over time, grow closer and closer together until at last they would break their unspoken agreement and become lovers.

That was scenario A, anyway. The content and how fantastical each scenario was did vary, but they always contained the part about growing closer and becoming lovers. And…here she was, in the middle of one. And, to make things crazier, Tess had turned out so much better than she ever had even in Ellie’s most wild fantasies.

Then, her train of thought ground to a halt as she realized something. There was the potential that, if Tess absorbed the core of an animal-like monster, she could get the ears and tails of that animal. Right, that would be priority number one on her little list of “things to get Tess to do”. Scenario D might not be a pipe dream after all. Well, all her scenarios had been pipe dreams until this morning, but that one had been a bit more distant than the others.

She spent the rest of their walk practically salivating over the possibilities. She would have to play it cool, though; she was still in the closet, and now probably wasn’t the best time to come out. So, she was hoping that the theoretical awkwardness of being around a newly transformed person would cover for her strange behavior.

Her musings were cut short as her grandpa ushered them into a small room. Inside were The Rumors and, surprisingly, Ess. Gramps shut the door behind them, locking it and muttering a spell.

“I have already received your permission, but let me ask again,” He said, “do all of you, save Ellie and Tess, consent to this Fatebinder’s Oath?”

There was a chorus of assent, so Gramps nodded at Tess. “Go stand over near them. Ess will need you there for the ceremony.”

The Rumors were giving Tess some curious looks, but she walked up to in front of them anyway. Once she had, Ess stepped forward, and began to speak in a slow, careful voice, an almost palpable tension filling the air.

“Ker, Jin, and Alice, I ask you in the name of the God of Fate if you will swear to tell no one about Tess’s special capabilities or this Oath until the day she dies or releases you from the Oath.”

“By the God of Fate, we swear it.” They intoned.

Ess reached out, grabbing Tess’s hand in one of hers, and reached out her other towards The Rumors, who each grabbed part of it. “Then, as witness, I declare the Oath made, binding yourselves and myself to secrecy.” She dropped the hands and then yawned hugely, breaking any atmosphere that she had going on. “I’m going to go nap.” She said, “Oaths always take it out of me. Fill me in on the details later, guildmaster.”

“Of course,” Gramps replied, “thank you very much.”

Ess exited the room with another yawn, leaving everyone else just sort of…standing there.

But, not for long. Once the door had been shut, Alice began to speak. “Right,” she said flatly, “I think it’s time you explain yourself. I take my eyes off of you for two hours and suddenly you’ve got yourself turned into…this, and we have to swear a Fatebinder’s Oath, of all things. Spill it.”

Tess looked to Gramps, who shook his head. “I think it’s best you explain it. It’s your status, after all.”

“Um…ok.” Tess replied nervously. “So, after Ker had me go back home, I went to Gramps’ office so I could…go home. And Gramps was grilling me about why I was so discouraged, and so I told him about the Skills I got, and then he had me go beat the dungeon’s Challenge and try the Rewards Crystal and–”

Alice raised a hand. “Hold up there.” She said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Why would the guildmaster have you even attempt that? Everyone knows it’s the most worthless one of the lot so the danger isn’t even remotely worth it.”

Tess tapped the tips of her pointer fingers together nervously. “Uh, well, I might have been holding back on some of my capabilities. I was supposed to keep quiet but now that you’ve sworn the Oath I’ve been told it’s OK so…”

She took a deep breath. “The Goddess of Fortune has been keeping an eye on me and Ellie because of how closely tied we were to the situation with Mael, and then when I got the worst growths possible and Ellie got the best, she took pity on me and gave me her strongest blessing.”

Ker raised an eyebrow. “And, what does it do?”

“Well, if you, uh, look at my sheet, you’ll notice that my Luck is 0 and has 0 in all its growths. She said that’s because the blessing bypasses my Luck stat entirely and just gives me the best result in any situation it would be used.”

“What?!” Alice yelled, suddenly angry. “You have that, and you wanted to quit?! Do you have any idea how amazing that is!?”

Jin placed a hand on her shoulder. “Alice, calm down. It’s a natural reaction to the day he had.” He turned back to Tess, then continued. “Uh, come to think of it, he or she?”

“She is fine, I guess,” Tess said sulkily, “I apparently don’t much care, though I’m willing to bet it’s the transformation’s fault for that. And if you didn’t catch it before, everyone’s calling me Tess now, so you might as well do that too.”

Jin nodded. “Right, well, Luck is a vitally important stat for freelancers. It controls how often your effects go off, how often you get hit with things, certain Skills require it to work, and it even affects how much experience you get and how often monsters drop things. It’s not flashy, but it’s effective. Ask Alice, she’s got low Luck, so she knows better than most how important it is.”

“Oh yeah!” Alice said, “how many cores did you leave on the ground back there?! Surely you got more than the rest of us.”

“Um…Every monster dropped a core. So, if I didn’t say anything then it was just left on the ground.”

Alice started to go over that in her head. “You killed probably 100 slimes, that many cores would add up to…”

“No,” Tess said in a small voice, “every slime. Including the ones you guys killed.”

Alice stopped, staring Tess dead in the eyes. “You…that’s hundreds of cores you just left there!” She sputtered, “You probably could have made a few gold from that!”

“Actually, that’s something I should talk about,” Gramps interrupted, “Tess, I’m going to have to ask that you don’t sell all the cores you get, at least not to other guild branches; there’s a real risk of crashing the market. It probably won’t be an issue with smaller cores like regular slime’s cores, but for things like Bertha’s core it’ll become a problem fast. If you’re around, come to me and I’ll buy them from you in bulk, and we can have the guild hold onto them in case of emergency. If you need cash fast and aren’t here, go ahead and sell a couple to other branches, but be careful about it. The same goes for other drops.”

“Yeah, I can do that,” Tess replied, “that’s a good point.”

“We’re getting off-track,” Ker said, “and while this is obviously an important secret to keep, I don’t think the guildmaster had us swear an Oath just for that. You were talking about the Challenge, right? Please continue.”

“Oh, um, right,” Tess said, “so, I got a resistance Skill for all the elements the slimes in that Challenge use, and Gramps tested it, as long as there’s a possibility for me to resist a negative status effect, I will, so it was perfectly safe for me to try.”

Alice groaned. “That’s not fair. You don’t even know how good you have it.”

“Just ignore her,” Jin instructed.

“R-right. Um, I used the Rewards Crystal, and it gave me this Class called Monster Breeder, which did…this,” Tess gestured at her body. “And gave me four Skills.”

An expression of understanding flashed across Jin’s face. “Let me guess, one of them’s Phantasmal?”

Tess shrunk back into her oversized shirt. “Um…they kind of…all are.”

There was a long pause as The Rumors processed this, which was then broken by uproarious laughter from Ker. “I think that this counts as ‘some crazy Skill or something’,” he said, walking over and clapping Tess on the back. “That blessing alone probably would have let you get by in some higher-level dungeons, but four Phantasmal Skills on top of it? You’ll be totally capable of making your way to the very top, stats or no. Let’s hear about them, shall we?”

As Tess explained, Ellie got to thinking. Apparently, the Goddess of Fortune had been keeping an eye on them, and she was at least somewhat involved with Tess’s change, so…was it possible that the Goddess of Fortune knew about Ellie’s sapphic scenarios and had tweaked things? It wasn’t…right?

Ellie jumped as a screen popped up in front of her, unbidden.

Ellie made a mental note to convert to whatever religion followed the Goddess of Fortune later. Well, provided Fortune really was trying to be a wingwoman and not just messing with her and Tess.

Further rumination was cut off as Tess finished her explanation, and Alice once again burst into speech. “You’re not quitting,” she said defiantly, “that’s the most stupid set of Skills I’ve ever heard of. Yeah, your stats are hot garbage, but who even cares at this point?! Like…it doesn’t even matter! You could literally just buy your way to power, and you have the best money-making potential of anyone.”

“Don’t do that, though,” Jin warned, “I feel it would be more advantageous for you to slowly acclimate to the Skills you receive instead of just getting a bunch right off the bat and not knowing how to use them.”

“I won’t.” Tess replied. “I really don’t want to have to absorb many cores.”

“And why not?!” Alice protested. “There’s like…zero downsides!”

Tess blushed, squirming in place. “Um…ejecting cores is…” She motioned to her privates. “Not exactly pleasant.”

Alice rolled her eyes. “Just suck it up. You’re going to be doing something like that once a month anyway, so hurry up and get used to it.”

“Alice,” Ker said disapprovingly, “I seem to recall you complaining about that very topic not two weeks ago. And, unlike you, she hasn’t had a lifetime to grow used to it.”

“But, just listen to her!” Alice replied. “She’s practically being fed with a silver spoon and she’s still down in the dumps!”

“That’s enough, Alice.” Ker said firmly, “she doesn’t have the experience to know just how nice what she has is. Furthermore, her body’s been changed around a bunch; it’s a totally reasonable response.”

“She knew what she was getting into when she picked the Class!” Alice argued. “It’s–”

“Both of you, stop,” Jin said, “argue if you want, but do it later, when we’re not in front of who you’re arguing about.”

For her part, Tess was seemingly trying to vanish into the shirt without actually physically putting all of herself inside of it. She could probably do that, too, if she huddled up inside and stretched out the fabric.

Gramps walked over and placed a comforting hand on Tess’s shoulder. “Tensions are running high.” He said, “so, let’s all take a break and we’ll talk about this when next we meet. You three can figure out the best way to go about things, I’ll handle making sure Tess gets adjusted. Sound good?”

“Yes, Guildmaster,” Jin replied, “that’s an excellent idea. You lot, we’ve got work to do, let’s go.”

And with that, Jin walked out of the room, followed closely by Alice. Ker waited for a bit, though, giving Tess another clap on the back. “Don’t let Alice get to you,” he said. “She’s just upset because she sees a lot of potential in you and doesn’t want it wasted. Take care, alright?” And then he too left, leaving Ellie and Tess alone with Gramps.

“Let’s get you home, shall we?” Gramps said cheerily, “it’s getting late and you have school in the morning.”

“I…don’t exist on Mael, Gramps,” Tess said shyly, “I don’t think I can go to school.”

“Nonsense!” He replied. “I was expecting to have to pull a lot more strings to get you to be able to be out and about, so my people are almost finished. All you’ll need is a uniform, and until we can get one that fits better you can borrow one of Ellie’s.”

Ellie chose to let the clear display of political power slide; she had more important things on her mind.

Namely, the fact that Tess would be wearing a skirt the next day. One of her skirts. Not that the male uniform on a woman didn’t have its own charms, but a skirt was a whole different animal.

Another thought hit Ellie. “Um, Grandpa, now that you mention it, Tess is going to need underwear.”

He titled his head. “Can’t she just borrow yours?”

“I doubt it. Panties, maybe, but the bra? It’s hard to tell in the baggy clothes, but I’m pretty sure she’s, um, quite a bit bigger than me. She’s going to be really uncomfortable without one and having one that’s way too small would probably be even worse.”

Tess hung her head. “Can’t I just wear my old uniform for a bit? I can think up an excuse.”

Ellie shook her head vehemently. “No can do,” She said, “one, your old stuff will be way too big for you, two, you’re a girl now, and you’ll get a lot of weird looks. It’ll attract too much attention.”

“So? Gramps said he has people working on the memories. It shouldn’t be a big deal.”

“Ellie’s right,” Gramps said, “the memory alteration isn’t perfect, people will be able to start noticing something’s wrong if something too incongruous happens. Where would you have gotten a male uniform from? There’s no reason for one to be lying around the house.”

“And that still doesn’t solve your little underwear crisis,” Ellie said, “even if you could wear your old stuff, you’d be going braless and, trust me, you do not want that.”

“It’s settled, then,” Gramps said, “I’ll show you two to a nice clothing shop close to here and we can get Tess some underwear and regular clothes, then we’ll go home.”

“Can I just…stay here while you do that?” Tess asked hopefully, “I’m not exactly fully dressed at the moment.”

“We’ll need to take your measurements,” Ellie said, “we can go grab your pants and put some pins in them for the walk over, but you have to go.”

Tess sighed. “Fine, whatever.”

A short pitstop and quick pants modification later, the group set out and had another short walk down to the clothes shop.

“Hey, Grandpa,” Ellie asked, “why’s everything so close to the guild? It feels like we’ve barely had to do any walking.”

“It’s a matter of convenience,” He replied, shrugging, “we built it close to the dungeon, and then people naturally built facilities freelancers would want close to the guild. It’s just economics.”

They walked a bit past the dungeon, and Gramps pulled them into a store. “Hey, Rachel, got some customers for you!” He yelled.

“Coming!” Someone, presumably Rachel, replied, “give me a minute!”

While she was waiting, Ellie took the opportunity to look around the shop. There were a lot of clothes in all sorts of different styles hanging around on mannequins, handmade if Ellie was any judge.

Suddenly, there was a myriad of clacking sounds, and an arachne emerged from the back of the shop, walking up behind the counter. Were you to ignore the arachnid lower body, she would be the perfect picture of a saleswoman; she had a bright friendly smile, was sharply dressed, and kept her black hair tied neatly up. Not that Ellie minded the spider body; she rather liked the exoticness of it.

The other strange thing about her was the glasses she had. The woman had a set of human eyes as well as three sets of spider eyes set around them. The glasses had been modified to cover all those eyes, almost reminding Ellie of the tools that optometrists would use to test eyesight.

“Mr. Los, it’s been a while!” She said warmly, “What can I do for you?”

“Well, Rachel, I recently introduced my grandkids to the freelancer lifestyle, and, well…” He pulled Tess out from her hiding spot behind him, placing her squarely in Rachel’s view.

Rachel’s gaze flicked from Gramps, to Ellie, and then to Tess. “Transformee?” She asked.

“Transformee.” Gramps confirmed. “This is Tess, she used to be Thomas. Her wardrobe is kind of unusable right now, so I was hoping you could help with that.”

Rachel nodded sagely, scuttling out from behind the counter and putting a gentle hand on Tess’s arm and another behind her back. “That’s rough, dear. Come with me, you’ll feel better once you’re in clothes that actually fit.”

Without waiting for a response, she led a protesting Tess off to the backroom.

“Just a bra and panties for now!” Gramps called out, “Save her measurements, I’ll order a bunch more clothes later, but we need to leave here having covered her up!”

“Will…she be OK?” Ellie asked.

“It’ll be fine, Rachel’s a sweetheart.” He responded, “best seamstress in town too, if you ask me. Even uses her own silk for a lot of what she does. It costs an arm and a leg, but it’s worth it.”

“Why a seamstress, though? Wouldn’t it be better to get something more mass-produced, at least for today?”

“There aren’t many mass-produced clothes sold in the Outlands. Too many people of too many different races congregate here, so mass-produced clothes wouldn’t fit enough people to really be worth the effort when they could be sold places where the demographic is more certain. That’s not to say there aren’t any mass-produced clothes, just that they’re expensive and it can take a while to find what you’re looking for. It’d probably be faster than going to a tailor, sure, but Rachel works incredibly fast, so just the underwear will only be a few minutes, and if we’re getting clothes, we might as well get good ones.”

They waited for about 10 minutes before Rachel led a very red Tess back into the front. “All done!” She said happily, “we’ll call that one gold even!”

Without even batting an eye, Gramps dropped a platinum on the counter. “We’ll call this advanced payment for the order I’m making. I’ll send over the exact list in an hour or two, but she needs a whole new wardrobe, so it’ll be a big one. I’ll pick up the change when I pick up the order, alright?”

“Can do, Mr. Los.” Rachel replied, saluting and pocketing the platinum, “best of luck, little lady!”

As they left the store, Tess spoke. “Um, Gramps, is it…OK to spend that much on me so suddenly? You said that a platinum was ten thousand dollars, so that seems like overkill.”

Gramps shrugged. “Honestly, it’s not a big deal. I didn’t get to be in charge of the guild off of administrative talent alone, I was the leader of a rank ten party back in the day. I made a killing then, and managing the guild pays well too, so I’m one of the richest people in the Outlands. Rachel is one of the best in the business, her prices reflect that, and I’m planning on ordering around ten sets of clothes, so dealing in platinum is to be expected. Honestly, though, I’m only expecting to spend about forty gold, which really isn’t that bad.”

He gave Tess a smirk. “Trust me, give it a year or two and you two will be totally capable of making that much in a day, at least in raw materials. Besides, most of the clothes I bought for you when you were growing up have been from Rachel anyway, so it’s a little late to start getting cold feet about them.”

Huh. He never had told them where he got the clothes he gave them, and they had always been super nice, so Ellie had just figured they were a perk of whatever top-secret work he did. Her whole life she’d been wearing clothes straight out of a fantasy world and had never known. It really gave her a new respect for her wardrobe.

“Now, let’s go home for real.” Gramps said, “I’m starving!”