During my bath, I took the opportunity to familiarize myself with my new body. My small, callus-free feet that were just as soft as a baby’s, and almost as tiny. My delicate fingers and plump cheeks. Speaking of cheeks, I feel I should mention that Lilac was packing some serious junk in the trunk. I’d made her butt really big in the character creator, because I’d thought it was funny there was even an option for that, but now her comically enormous booty was my problem. Well, it wasn’t really a problem in most ways. There were guys back home who would kill to have a girl with a rear end like mine.
It still felt a bit weird to call this body mine, since it’d originally belonged to Lilac, but I was getting used to the idea of the two of us being one and the same now.
After a long, trauma-healing bath, I changed into a bathrobe and face pack. These had originally been released as a joke, but once I saw what Lilac looked like wearing them on the preview screen, I had to buy them. Tonight, though, I wasn’t wearing them because I needed a laugh; it just felt right to wear them after a bath. I pulled another item out of my inventory, a full length mirror. I was pretty sure it had an effect that let you view places like Way-Point Flowers registered on your map without leaving the dungeon, so it was pretty powerful. In this case, I really just wanted a look at myself. You know, the thing mirrors normally do.
Even with the face pack on, it was obvious. There was no getting around it: The figure staring back at me in the mirror was none other than Lilac Grimwood, my avatar from Questonicia. It was more for confirmation than anything at this point.
The next order of business was to take a nap—I’d had a rough day—so I pulled out another piece of furniture from my inventory. “Fairy’s Grand Canopy Bed” was every bit as luxurious as it sounded. In the game there was no real need for it other than decoration, but I was glad I’d bought it anyway. According to the description, those who slept on it would always have good dreams. I wondered if I’d dream of the family I’d left behind. There was only one way to find out.
Actually, though, speaking of “only one way to find out”...I still need to try summoning some Sprigoblin Irregulars.
It made sense to summon them before I went to sleep, so they could explore and gather materials while I slept. So the next step would be deciding what to wear. After all, it wouldn’t look good for me to meet them in a bathrobe and face pack. It was time to find something regal-looking.
After nearly an hour looking through the outfits in my inventory and trying them on, I found the perfect one for the occasion. (I knew it was close to an hour because I checked the time on my tablet.) Since I was going to be summoning, I chose to wear my “Summoner’s Gown,” a shimmering purple dress with glowing rune patterns. Apparently, wearing this dress when summoning gave the summoned creature a temporary bonus to their stats. You might well ask why I wouldn’t just wear that all the time, but when you realized that it only worked the first time you summoned something, and that anything being summoned for the first time was basically guaranteed to be pretty weak anyway, you’d start to realize it really wasn’t that overpowered. In fact, it was kinda terrible. It was cute though, so it was okay.
Once the Summoner’s Gown was equipped—and I’d given myself a quick once-over in the mirror to ensure maximum cuteness—I approached the Dungeon Portal. Apart from being able to teleport me in and out of the sealed dungeon master room, this portal would allow me to populate my dungeon with creatures. For most creatures, I’d need some materials, but the Sprigoblin Irregulars had no requirements: I could summon them right away, then take a nap while they hunted materials.
I held out my tiny hands, and invoked the summoning. The Dungeon Portal shimmered in response to my efforts...and then they appeared.
I’d been really worried that it might not work here, but there they were—a squad of Sprigoblin Irregulars. There were four of them. Each was actually a bit shorter than I was, with a pleasingly plump round body and an adorable little face. Their light green skin and pointy ears were really the most goblin-like things about them. Well, those and their little underbites with conical teeth jutting out from their lower jaws. They were dressed in comically shaped leather armor, and each had a short sword. Over time, they would each specialize in different weapons, but this was what their default equipment looked like. Mere moments after being summoned, the four of them knelt before me.
Okay, now what? Should I just use the tablet to command them like usual? Should I say something? Would they be able to understand me if I did? In the game, Sprigians had their own language. I’d actually looked into it, to see if I could learn it just for fun, and it’d turned out to be pretty easy. Most of the words were just scrambled English, so it was more of a substitution cipher than a real language. Come to think of it, when I invoked spells, I was speaking Sprigian, wasn’t I? I hadn’t really noticed. Then again, I hadn’t used magic much since I got here. The time with the bear had been without a chant, and the only other time was the summoning invocation just now. Maybe because this was Lilac’s body, it felt pretty natural. It was almost as effortless as breathing.
Okay, I decided. I’ll try talking to them.
“My Irregulars, I command you to go forth and survey the nearby terrain. The area I find myself in is unfamiliar to me, and there seem to be dangerous creatures around. Exercise utmost caution as you survey the surrounding area, and bring back materials for the dungeon.”
Okay, so I put up a front, trying to sound as important as possible. I was absolutely overflowing with royal dignity. There was an awkward pause, and for a moment I was worried they didn’t understand my Sprigian...but then they responded with a unanimous, “Yes, Your Majesty!”
That caught me off guard, but I went with it. More importantly, it sounded like we could all understand each other.
“You’re dismissed; go forth, and return safely!”
“Yes!” the four shouted in unison, and then they were gone.
They teleported out of the room using the Dungeon Portal, and were off to survey the forest for me...which meant it was finally time for bed.
I changed out of my summoner’s gown and into my kitty pajamas. Okay, so officially, the outfit was called a “Faecat Kigurumi Onesie,” but it was basically a fuzzy light blue outfit with a cat theme which covered my whole body. They came in a variety of colors, but this blue one was my favorite, and I’d been dying to wear it for a while. There were built-in kitty paw gloves, but nothing to cover the feet—remember, there’s that whole thing about Sprigians’ feet needing to touch the ground. I zipped it up all the way, then pulled the hood over my head and admired myself in the mirror for a bit. The hood had not only cat ears, but eyes and a nose as well. It was super cute.
Once I was satisfied, I climbed into bed.
I wasn’t sure how long it took me to get to sleep, but considering it was an unfamiliar place with a bed far different from what I was used to sleeping on, I think I went to sleep relatively quickly. I was pretty sure I did have some nice dreams, but unfortunately, I couldn’t remember any of them. I awoke the next morning feeling refreshed and renewed. That is, until I saw the alert on my tablet.
I rolled over and picked it up to check the notification: My squad of Sprigoblin Irregulars had been completely wiped out.