It had been a while of studying with no results. I decided I needed a break from the library. Rogs was excited about a new dungeon that was on the south side of town. He was saying people were severely outnumbered by the undead, and that we should go help before they clear it out without us. “If we get down there and can help, we can take whatever we find! I could really use some new magic items, and the stuff in those dungeons usually sell for great prices!” he was practically bouncing off the walls. En and I shrugged at each other. We weren’t talking much these days, but it was nice to be around her still. We were almost able to communicate without words better than we could by speaking lately. A connection that transcended our standard method of communication, but also left me feeling a bit lonely. I missed her voice. It made me happy when she spoke to Rogs.
En said “We should go right away then. Anyone need to grab anything before we head out?”
Swiping the ale off the table and downing my mug, I slammed it down empty and only slightly slurred, said “I’m ready to magic us out of trouble!”
My common had been progressing, though I was still a built stilted when speaking to others. It helped that I could still understand most of it at this point, but people assumed I couldn’t with how they talked around me. I didn’t mind. Most of it was talking about my butt, or my face, and how I seemed to show up in the same party as my friends right when the ugly guy disappeared. I kinda loved the positive attention. Even the bartenders who were good at being nice to everyone were much more relaxed around me now than they had been before. Though lately I’d been making a concerted effort to speak in common instead of Elven when out and about. And I think people were noticing. I heard less comments about my butt as close to me, and while the comments didn’t STOP, more of them were at a distance where there was some plausible deniability of who they were talking about. I still didn’t mind them, to be honest. Made me feel like I made the right choice in abandoning my old “Ugly” face. It had been devastating to look in the mirror, and now I got to look at this cutie every day, so almost every part of the change had been for the better.
One of the patrons across the bar had been talking to his buddy and loudly stated “That girl has an ass on her. I wish my girl had those kinds of curves.” I turned and he and his buddy straightened up, then I turned away and I heard drunken laughing. It would have been honestly a little cute, if they weren’t talking about already having a girl at home.
“Let’s go, let’s go!” Rogs shouted, running ahead like a kid going to open presents on Christmas day. He bounded out the door and down the street, leaving us to trail behind him. We kept up mostly, but he had to stop and wait more than a few times. He was an orc in his own right.
When we finally made it to the dungeon, it was eerily familiar. We walked through hallways and rooms that looked like I had seen them before. Undead began to scamper from the debris and charge at us, and between Rogs swords and my magic, we were able to keep them away from us with relative ease. There were a few other groups inside the dungeon as well, but they had decided to mostly stick together and repel into and fight in a large area that looked more like an entry hall to a hospital, complete even with a red plus on the wall.
The rooms and hallways twisted and winded in paths that were too decayed and destroyed to be sure they were anything in particular. If it had been a hospital, it was filled with tech I had never seen in my past. The whole place looked out of the aftermath of a sci-fi movie where the world fell to a great disaster of some kind. There was hardly anything in the whole place, at this point besides zombies, but the occasional computer-like device remained, and Rogs would dig out a RAM chip or pull the CPU from a machine and hold it up like he was collecting gold. Into the bag it went. Every time I saw the way these machines looked on the inside, it reminded me of my past life. They had the same generic structure as the gaming PCs I used to tinker with before. The only difference really was the level of complexity to the motherboards and how they were attached to the chassis. instead of screws, they seemed almost fused in place. That wouldn’t have worked in my time, as that would mean replacing the motherboard would need a new case entirely, and people really liked their custom cases.
“Do you know what those things are?” I asked Rogs. He shook his head and dug out another CPU shaped thing. They did come out a lot easier than the ones from my time building PCs. It may not be the same components, just similar in shape and size? Who knows. It wasn’t like they could turn on.
“They were supposed to have decent materials for weapons smiths to use.” Rogs pulled out his sword and pointed to the small flecks of silver in the chip. “I collected enough of these to melt down into this huge thing once upon a time. The other parts are mostly useless”
“Does anyone know what these things did?” I asked.
“The most that has happened with them was that scholars once made one beep, and light up by striking it with lightning, but it didn’t do much else and went off shortly after, and then they couldn’t recreate the process with the same machine. It seemed like it was a waste of time, if all it can do is light up in some weird colors.” En had chimed in. “After they hit it with lightning, the material that would normally be worth collecting had all been evaporated anyways, so we stuck to scavenging them for parts.”
I was taking note, but staying silent after that comment. I might know how computers in my world worked, but only enough to get them to turn on. I couldn’t build one from nothing, and make it work without a steady stream of electricity. I would have to invest my time in finding one of these with a screen. Maybe this world had laptops too, once upon a time? I sure hadn’t found any in my time here.
We continued and the undead became thicker as we progressed. They seemed to have congregated near the base of this dungeon. We came out into the vast open area the rest of the groups had made their way to, and began to join them in clearing the threat from a flanking position. There was a LOT of undead. All mindless things that cared only to bite and tear at flesh of the living. Somehow they avoided each other with ease.
I found myself rather adept at slaying. I could turn pebbles into stones after flicking them into a wound, causing the area to nearly explode at the sudden change of contents. I could turn branches to metal, using them as spears and thrusting them into the heads of the creatures. I could even simply snap and sap the magic that animated the walking corpses, refueling myself in the process. I always felt a little sick if I overused that power though. Death magic came with side effects, and it was well known.
For the most part, I tended to stick to the dagger that I had brought with me, turning it to a sword and cutting off limb and head in steady, lopping motions that had begun to feel natural after the second or third undead. The blade being imbued with a vibration that made the cutting more quick and effective helped a lot with my lack of muscle mass that Rogs was displaying as he chopped bodies in two. Honestly, to compare with him, I would have needed the modified blade even in my more muscled male body.
For every scratch or slip or even sprain, En was there with her life magic to pump us back up and get us going again. She hardly seemed tired after all of the healing, which was unusual for the type of magic, but not for her. She was as strong as any caster.
Though, when Rogs managed to get bit by one of the creatures, she was the first to speak on it. “Fall back! We need to patch you up now. Healing can keep you from becoming like those things, but you need to step out and heal immediately with this many.” She pointed to a door “We can hole up in there for a moment.”
Rogs glanced at the wound, and shrugged, still managing to slice through another three creatures and turned to me. “You’re doing okay, yeah? Do you want to stop for a bit, cause I’m kinda in the groove.”
“Rogs, I know better than to listen to you over Enpi any day. You do too. She’s the leader. Get in the room. I’ll guard the door while she heals you.” En smiled at me and we backed away. Swords still slicing and attacking on our retreat. I slammed the door shut behind us, and Rogs sat impatiently on what could have been an examination table.
Enpi began using her magic, and then stopped. “We need to leave soon. I don’t have much more healing to give, and you’ve both gotten banged up pretty good over the last couple hours.”
“I was just getting the hang of things!” I chided playfully. She scowled. “Sorry. That was a joke. I really do want to take home one of these machines instead of pulling apart their pieces, though. I think I can do something with them!”
“En, you mean we just have to avoid getting hurt anymore? I think I can do that. We’re almost through them all!” Rogs smiled, bravado in his voice.
“No. I won’t be losing my friends because you’re too stupid to know when to leave. We have enough trinkets. Lets. GO.” she sounded stern.
I wasn’t totally ready to leave though. “Can I find this technology outside of the dungeons? What if I want to investigate them? If I just had the right-“
“NO!” She shouted, nearly frantic at this point. A moment later she cooled down slightly. “No. We leave. Grab your stuff, and follow me out.”
I obeyed, and while Rogs was giving us both passive aggressive looks, he followed as well. We pushed out the door, and cut down the few undead beyond, then made our way back out the way we came, through the hallways and passages, up the crumbling stairs. The rest of the parties in the larger area were still shouting and fighting hard, but that only drew the crowds away from us on our departure. Rogs was right, though. We were about two thirds of the way through the swarm. I didn’t mention it, though Rogs made clear with his eyes that he believed we should have stayed.
“I really want to check one more place though.” I said, stepping back from the group and slipping through a door that looked like it lead to a server room. Technology layered on technology spanned the room.
Rogs was next in, shouting “Holy crap, we hit the mother-load!” and I smiled before looking around for a device that looked in decent shape.
Enpi was last in the room, following us reluctantly and frustration was evident on her face. “I thought you would be better about this than the oaf.” she said to me loudly.
“Hey!” was all Rogs got out. I gave her an apologetic half smile and she rolled her eyes in obvious anger. It was the first time I had seen that anger directed at me, even after our ridiculous encounter in the bar.
I found one a decent machine, but the monitors were less than ideal. Most had clearly been lost to time.
I began to pull the machine from it’s housing when it hit me. Or, rather bit me. I felt my body change back into a man as my spell had seemingly worked. My clothes were imbued with magic to change with me as well. Magic seemed to be working as intended. Though, the bite tore into my neck, and the blood loss was fast and chilling. I slumped to the floor and heard faint shouting sounds from behind me. Rogs was over me in an instant, showering me in the blood of the creature. Enpi was there half a second later, pouring every bit of healing she had into my body.
She used her magic to weave my wound shut. It seemed like my spell had automated the reversal of my gender spell, but not the re-implementation of it after the initial blow. Something to work on, I thought as I drifted out of consciousness.
The next few hours were fluttering eyelids, confusion, and lots of red. I didn’t feel anything coming out of me anymore, but I also didn’t feel much of anything at all. I would wake up just enough to see those hazel eyes staring at me. Rage and worry mixed in equal parts when our eyes met. And I didn’t understand any of it. I couldn’t even remember why I was swimming through my own mind, lost to reality. I was too lost in the daydream of her beauty. Nothing seemed real for a while.
When I finally came back, I was in a healer’s ward. It wasn’t Enpi over me anymore, but someone I didn’t know. She was pouring a lot of magic into my recovery. I looked up at her groggily with thanks in my eyes.
When my eyes opened and looked around, the woman turned her head and nodded somewhere below my feet. I tried to look, but she pushed my head back onto the table. “You stay fucking put.” The strange healer said to me. I nodded slightly and remained in place until the face of Rogs came into view.
He looked me up and down. “Now how the fuck did you get back to this body? Was the spell canceled when you passed out?” He asked.
“I designed a modification for the spell. I was supposed to take damage in this body, and then transition back to the other. In theory, it would keep this version of me in stasis, and keep me from dying of blood loss…” I sighed a bit. “Seeing where I am and the obvious signs of blood loss, I would say the second half of my spell failed. I’ll have to go back to the drawing board.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, it’s still you, no matter what body you’re in. You’re a real nerd, you know that?”
“My old friends called me king nerd. I ran a weekly game where we would sit around a table, roll dice, talk about all the fantastic races and magic of a world just like this, and let the numbers decide if we won or lost. It was the most nerdy game known to man at the time.”
The healer, still focused on my wound, raised an eyebrow at the conversation. “Other world? Do I even want to know?” She chided.
“Probably not. Where’s Enpi?” I asked, worried at not seeing her in the room.
“She’s healing now too. We must have taken more out of her than we realized. When you went down…” Rogs sighed. “She’s really mad at you for not listening to her. And for the first time, I think I get why she said we needed to leave when she did.”
“I… I guess I deserve that. Is she okay?” I pried.
“She’s fine, just.. Tired. She spent a LOT on keeping you lucid enough to even be healed by someone else.” Rogs replied. His face was overcast with grief, but he pulled a smile over it all in a poorly maintained mask that only had me more worried about her.
“She’s going to kill me when I’m healed, huh?”
He nodded, the smile faltering.
“I get it. I bet she already laid into you too?” another nod. “Well… Can I move now doc?” I asked, and the healer just stepped back and shrugged.
“Don’t go doing anything too rash, but your body should hold up and heal over time.”
“I don’t plan to keep it.” I smiled at Rogs.
He chuckled leaving the healer to ask “What aren’t you keeping?” Then I was a woman again. My body perfectly healthy. My mind was still a bit woozy from blood loss though. I took my time sitting up. The healer simply scowled and walked out the door. “All this fucking time healing this ungrateful..” her muttering trailing off as the door closed behind her.
“Was I ungrateful? I appreciated her help. I guess I didn’t say so out loud, but… It seemed like she saved my life.” I said to Rogs who just shrugged.
“I can’t read women. You’re all crazy to me.” his teasing, genuine smile betrayed his monotone speech.
“I guess I could have probably thanked her. And asked her name.” I muttered.
On my way out, I made sure to tell someone else to let her know I said thanks for the help, and they looked confused as they hadn’t seen me come in, let alone request help. I just shuffled out and went to grab some reading from the library, before grabbing some baked goods to have ready for En when she got home.
I knew I needed to do more than just say sorry. I knew I couldn’t hurt her like that again. Enpi had put everything into healing me, and after I had gone and done something stupid. It was my fault she almost lost someone right in front of her. My fault, but I know she would have blamed herself. Even more than she would have blamed me or even Rogs who had been the ones still exploring after she told us to leave. It was my fault, but she wouldn’t ever release the credit if I had died. I knew her too well to believe she even could. The girl needed therapy, but I needed to keep her safe too. And that meant keeping myself safe around her. I needed to stay by her side for all of time, to make sure she always had someone there with her.
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