NOVEL SIMPLE Body and Territory.
Amia gave a hearty chuckle, “First we need to decide if you want a new body in Floras, then we can pick your skills and traits, finally we’ll choose your starting territory.”
Amia snapped her fingers and a bluish slightly clear screen appeared before Scarlet. In the center of the screen was a copy of Scarlet herself, “This is your status screen Scarlet, it’ll have more uses in the future, but all you need to know for now is that you can open and close it by saying or thinking ‘Status’.”
Scarlet followed the goddess’s guidance, closing it and opening it a few times. She had played some games before and knew what a status screen was, but this one was surprisingly sparse, “Should there be more to this status screen?”
“Later, you’re not fully incorporated into the Floras system so for now it can only show your appearance.” Amia explained, “Now, first things first, do you want to stay as a human in Floras? You can pick anything you want, Elves, Fairies, Mermaids, anything at all.”
Scarlet thought about it for a moment, she went through dozens of different fantasy races in her head, but one had always interested her, “A Dragoness.”
Amia nodded, “Good choice, long lifespan, no aging problems, good starting stats, and high capabilities. It’d normally be too expensive, but I’ll call in a favor from Tiamat, now do you know what type of dragon you’ll want to be?”
Scarlet blanked slightly, she didn’t know there were different types of dragons, and Amia realized her mistake soon after, “Oh right, no knowledge of dragons, let me explain. Dragons as you might have guessed possess incredible magical capabilities, they’re even capable of using any type of magic. They also have a massive boost with a specific type of magic, whichever type they are is what magic is boosted, red dragons boost fire magic, purple boost poison, blue water.”
The choice for Scarlet was obvious, “Whichever improves summoning magic.”
Amia laughed, “I thought you might say that, unfortunately summoning magic is a combinative magic, requires multiple types of magic at once to use. There wouldn’t really be any difference on what type you choose,” She paused for a moment going over different types of magic in her head, “But if you do want suggestions, I’d say go with silver dragons.”
“What magic does a silver dragon boost?” Scarlet asked her.
“Golemancy,” Amia answered, “Not the most combative or expressive magic, but I’d say it's the best considering your past experiences. Golemancy is often ignored due to the large amount of management it requires, but that shouldn’t be an issue for you. At the same time golems are usually larger than their summoners so they often become hindrances, but considering the size of dragons the opposite case will happen here.”
Scarlet had to agree with Amia’s reasons, plus it wouldn’t matter much what dragon type she chose considering she’d still be able to use all magic types, “I’ll go with the silver dragons then.”
“Perfect,” Amia answered, “Now let this goddess of beauty work her magic.” She started tapping away at an invisible screen, likely changing dozens of different things. In less than a minute she was done, and tapped once more in the air, “Now how does this look?” Amia asked her, with two bodies appearing on the screen replacing her original self.
On the right was an elegant dragon, brilliant silver scales, sharp silver eyes, and a pair of large wings that seemed to create a radiant glow in the air. It was also thinner than most dragons Scarlet could think of, trading that typical bulkiness for an air of grace. Yet even with all that beauty the other body just took her breath away.
Scarlet could tell it was still her old body, but it seemed perfected in every way. Wrinkles and sags from her age were gone, any tiny blemish completely removed, her long grayish hair brought back to life in a luster of silver. There were other changes as well beyond those small fixes, her lips were glossier, large breasts perkier, and ass fuller, alongside four completely new parts.
Three of these parts were kept from her dragon form, two silver horns atop her head, her new wings still on her back, and a long scaled tail ending just before it hit the floor. The last part though, filled her with desire.
A dick, appearing almost a foot long and it wasn’t even hard yet, combined with two perfect orbs it just seemed to beg to impregnate any woman it came across.
“So, what do you think?” Amia asked her, a sly smile on her lips, noticing just how long Scarlet had been staring.
Scarlet didn’t know what to say, “It’s perfect.”
“Expect nothing less from a goddess dear,” Amia told her, “Especially when it’s a gift for her Saint.” She paused for a moment staring at something Scarlet couldn’t see, “Tiamat also told me to send you her regards, she was incredibly happy to hear your choice of becoming a dragoness.”
Scarlet finally stopped staring at the screen upon hearing those words, “Ooh, could you send my thanks to Tiamat as well? I wouldn’t have been able to become a dragoness without her help after all.”
Amia smiled, “Oh she’ll know. Now are you ready for the next step?”
Scarlet nodded, “Yes you said something about skills and traits?”
Amia gave a thumbs up, “Exactly, now we can purchase active skills, passive skills, or traits to give you some initial boosts. By becoming a dragoness you’ve already gained a few of each of these, but we still have plenty of divine energy to burn.”
A different screen appeared before Scarlet, this one being white, it displayed three different books, “Left book is active skills, middle is passive, and right is traits.” Amia explained.
The screen also showed a number in the top left, ‘1390 / 2000’, “That number is the amount of divine energy we have left, you’ll find prices on everything inside the books, so take a look through each of them. Oh right, active skills are skills that require active use to get a benefit out of, passive skills and traits are always activated, but traits give far better effects.”
Scarlet finished listening to the goddess before opening the first book, each page was a different skill, giving only its name, a basic description of what it boosted, and a cost. She checked dozens of pages from each book, but only the traits caught her eyes.
They were far more expensive than the skills, with one trait, ‘Extra Job Slot’ costing 500 divine energy alone, while most passive skills took only 50, but their effects were far greater. Even then with the thousands of options before her, she just couldn’t decide there were far too many to look through, turning to Amia she asked, “Any suggestions?”
Amia lowered the teacup she was sipping out, having taken a relaxing drink while Scarlet searched, and smiled, “I was waiting for you to ask that.” With a snap of her fingers both of the active and passive skill books vanished, and only twenty pages of the trait book remained, “To make it fair us gods have been given several restrictions. One of them is that the more influential gods, myself included, cannot give any suggestions unless asked of us.
Skills are simply a waste of divine energy, far too easy to learn if you know what you’re doing. The traits I’ve left you with suit you best, but it’s up to you for the final choices.”
Scarlet nodded in understanding, going back to the twenty traits left. Most of them focused on improving Scarlet’s Growth, ‘Weapons Specialist’ that increased the speed in which she learned skills that use weapons, ‘Skilled Hands’ that improved her crafting skills, and ‘Adaptive Body’ that made her body adapt to different environments faster.
There were three traits that stood out to Scarlet the most, while together they’d take 900 of the available divine energy, they each seemed perfect.
‘Genius Magician’ that improved the growth rate of all magical skills, something perfect for a dragon. ‘Master Trainer’ which boosted the growth rate of anything under her command, considering choice of Golemancy it seemed perfect.
Finally, there was ‘Lion’s Heart’ which was said to improve her courage and commanding presence. While it was far different from the other traits, its uniqueness was what stood out to her, Amia wouldn’t give her a useless choice after all.
When Scarlet confirmed her choices, she gave a glance to Amia who’s once stoic face broke out into another brilliant smile, “Perfect choices darling! Of course, all of them would certainly be great boons to you, those were the ones I wanted you to pick the most.”
Scarlet smiled happy that her choices were correct, “So what do we do next?”
Amia snapped her fingers, everything around the two of them vanished for a moment before they were suddenly in a new location, “Now,” Amia told her, “We choose your territory.”
They were now in a massive library, several floors of bookcases circled the room. In the center of this room was a massive glass floor, likely at least a mile wide, below the glass was a map of a world, likely Floras.
Amia waved her hands and two comfy chairs, and a small device flew over to them. The device landed in Scarlet’s hands while Amia took a seat, signaling for Scarlet to take one as well. Sitting down she inspected the device, expecting something more than what it appeared to be, a small gray brick with three different colored buttons on it, one blue, one green, and one purple.
On a whim she pressed the blue button and below her she watched as the map went to life. The seas lit up as dozens of symbols appeared, even buildings growing out of the ground.
Before she could even ask, Amia went into an explanation, “Floras is split into three unique regions, the Seas, the Surface, and the Caverns, each button represents one of these regions and when you press one it’ll show off the landmarks of said region. Villages, towns, castles, tribes, ruins, dungeons, everything you’ll need to decide.”
She looked around, staring at the massive map, “How long did it take you to make this?” Scarlet asked her, “Even for a god something of this size must have taken some time.”
“Oh, I didn’t make this,” Amia explained, “Right now we’re in the private domain of Maria the Goddess of Maps.”
“What?!” Scarlet exclaimed, surprised at the brashness of the goddess to someone else’s private area.
“Relax,” Amia told her, “Maria’s a good friend of mine. She hired me and a few other gods to complete this, as thanks she lets us view it any time we wish.” Amia waved her hand and the chairs they were both sitting on started to gently fly, “Now would you like me to point out specific areas I think you should make your territory, or just a general guide of the three regions?”
Scarlet was about to agree to the first option, but then she thought about it. This was a full map of Flora one likely completed, while the information would surely be a massive boon to her, was ruining one of the greatest parts of the adventure really something she’d do? After some thought her choice was clear, “Can we start with the guide, then move on to the specifics?”
“Thought you might say that.” Amia told her, “Don’t worry, while we’ll be a bit short on time it should be fine.”
Together their chairs floated over to the southern side of the map, far away from any continent and over a coral crown, “The ocean is made up of several parts, the majority of it is managed by roving disparate tribes, but there does exist three large kingdoms in the seas. This is the one ruled by Mermaids, they’re open to most aquatic races and even make specially enchanted items to allow for undersea exploration from the other races.”
They moved around to the northern pole, a thin clear covering over the waters to show the ice, below that ice was a large glowing symbol of a whale, “Here is the kingdom of the whale-kin, their size and power allows them to control most of the northern seas. They aren’t that open to outsiders, but I do have some priests in their temples, that should allow you entryway to their kingdom.
Amia moved them once more, heading southwest. Surprisingly the next place they headed next was an archipelago, dozens of medium sized islands and hundreds of small ones circled together around a large main landmass, “This is the Amazonian kingdom, they rule the seas alongside the Cecaelia(1). Even when compared to the Whale-kin they’re closed off, automatically attacking any ship that doesn’t wave a white flag in their seas, enslaving the women and killing the men.”
“Wait… shouldn’t it be the other way around?” Scarlet asked the goddess.
Amia smiled, “The Amazonians are one of my most heartfelt supporters, they compete yearly for my blessings, many of them choosing to become more… well-endowed if you catch my meaning. To have even one bride from outside of the islands is an honor, with their Queen having dozens of consorts from the mainland. Of course, I expect nothing less from one of my Saints.”
“Ooh…” For a moment her thoughts lingered on the amazons, imagining them taking a saucy pirate captain and teaching her their place. Her face quickly grew beet red, and she hit the purple button, “Let’s move on!”
Amia laughed at her Saint’s actions, knowing what she had thought of, but decided to give her a break, “Fine.” They both watched as the seas and the room grew dim, revealing instead hundreds of caves and caverns that grew brighter the darker it got.
Surprisingly the Caverns appeared larger than the land above ground, stretching in an interconnected web covering the map.
Once the map had fully settled Amia moved the two higher up allowing for Scarlet to get a full view of the area, “The caverns are the least explored, controlled, and protected region. While there are a few small tribes scattered about, say the Mushroom-kin in the Fungi Fields, most that survive there are located in the small kingdoms scattered about.
The caverns symbols had now appeared, showing off about twenty different crowns, each with their own special design, “These crowns all represent a different kingdom. To name a few of them you have Rat-kin, Dwarves, Gnomes, Bat-kin, Arachnids, Elementals, Dark-Elves, Undead, even a Demonic and Draconic kingdom.”
Amia paused for a moment, staring up at something, “We’re running short on time, so I won't be able to go into explanations for each of these, but there is one kingdom I want to address.”
“Is it another kingdom ruled by a Saint of yours?” Scarlet asked.
Amia nodded, “She’s a ruler of one of the smaller kingdoms, but due to her status she holds a relatively stable position. Azalea the Gargoyle Queen, if you show up, she’ll likely hold a parade in your honor or challenge you to a competition.”
“Really? Does she love fighting that much?” Scarlet asked.
Amia just gave Scarlet a knowing look, “Let’s just move on to the Surface.”
Scarlet hadn’t realized what Amia meant but decided to just go with it and hit the green button. The lights slowly went back to normal as the continents rose, mountains and dunes forming, forests growing, alongside every other environment Scarlet could think of. Hundreds of crowns appeared as well, dotting the continents.
Amia waited for each of them to appear before continuing, “Now, there are far too many different kingdoms for me to explain each of them, but what you need to know is that about a third of these kingdoms are ruled by humans. Some are open to outside races, some closed off, but they’re still more prevalent than any other races. Of course, you still have the other races, Goblins, Beast-Kin, Dryads, Centa-”
She stopped her listing, staring off to the side before speaking again, “Damn it… we’ve run out of time, only have five more minutes.”
Scarlet sighed, “Another of the restrictions?”
“Bingo,” Amia explained, “I’d love to help you to find your perfect territory spot, but alone I just don’t have the time for that now…” Amia was silent for a moment thinking to herself, “Looks like I have to call in a favor.” She snapped her fingers, the room growing still for a moment before someone else appeared, “Yes Amia?”
Amia signaled to Scarlet, “Hi Maria, as you can see me and my Saint are trying to select a territory for her, and we were using your map for some better visuals, but as you can see, we’ve run out of time. Would you perchance be willing to help her find a territory?”
Maria was quiet for a moment staring at the two. This moment allowed for Scarlet to get a better visual on the goddess, and she was surprised at how plain the goddess was.
Maria still kept a sort of godly beauty, having smooth skin, thin waist, short jet-black hair in a small bob, and fully red lips. Her clothing on the other hand couldn’t be further from said godliness, with round black glasses on her face, and dressed like some librarian from the 50s, though considering where they were it fit well.
“First, what's your budget?” Maria finally asked the two.
“Oh, thank you Maria, we don’t have much, a measly four hundred and ninety divine energy.” Amia answered.
“Don’t thank me yet Amia,” Maria told her, “I’ll take a hundred of that divine energy as a helper's fee, and you’ll need to help me with a personal task as well.”
“As always.” Amia responded agreeing immediately.
Maria turned towards Scarlet, “I’ll need some information before I give you your options, so answer each of my questions honestly, understand?”
Scarlet glanced at Amia, wondering if she should agree, and the goddess nodded at her glance, “Understood.”
Appearing from nowhere Maria now held a wooden board in one hand and a pen in the other, “Good, now what will be your race in Floras? What region would you like to be in? Should the region be populous or more rural? Would you prefer a strong dungeon nearby? What environment would you prefer to be in?” Maria listing off a few questions immediately.
The slew of questions nearly overwhelmed Scarlet, but she was an experienced manager and answered quickly, “I’ll become a dragoness. I’d prefer the Surface region, but I want some form of access to the other two regions as well. I’m fine with either, but considering my race I’d likely go with a rural community. I don’t know what a dungeon is, so I guess not, and I would rather have a more balanced environment, one where I can experience each season, but not to any extreme degree.”
Maria jotted down each answer, “That narrows it down a lot, but we still have plenty of room for some leeway. Do you have any race you’d like to be closer to? Fairies, Ents, Spirits, Nymphs, any race you can think of?”
Scarlet thought on it for a bit, “I don’t have a preference for a race, but I’d like to be somewhat close to Amia’s other Saints. While I don’t want to intrude on them, I still think it’d be nice to visit.”
Maria tapped on the board with her pen several times, thinking on Scarlet’s last request, “You’ve made this far simpler than you realize.” The trio glided seamlessly across the room moving to the destination she had picked out.
It was on one of the more outside continents, a mountain standing slightly alone a few inches away from a nearby range, though likely dozens of miles in reality.
Maria instantly went into sell mode, “As you can see it’s fairly remote, a village nearby in case you do want to interact with anyone, but not enough to really bother you. The mountain has an extensive cave system you can shape to your will including a pathway directly down to the caverns. Over the mountain range you’ll have access to the sea, fly almost straight west and you’ll hit the Amazon Archipelago. It’s also within your budget, albeit barely, but trust me this is the best you can get.”
Scarlet looked to Amia, they both shared a look before nodding together, “We’ll take it.”
The moment Scarlet had decided this mountain would be her territory a light started to slowly engulf her, “What’s happening?” She asked the two goddesses.
“You’re reincarnating silly. While I wish we could talk more, unfortunately our time is up,” Amia told her.
“Is it going to hurt?” Scarlet asked.
“No,” Amia answered, “Whole process is completely painless. See you in a few months, my new Saint.” She told her waving a last goodbye.
Scarlet would answer, but she could feel her mind starting to lull, her eyes barely keeping open. The last thing she heard was Amia giggling, “So, now that we’re alone, ready for me to fulfill my favor, Maria?” followed by a loud slap and incredibly erotic moan.
