“That is handy.” Iris spoke, ignoring the questioning looks from the others as she spoke to herself “Don’t want to change her permanently though…” she glanced at Lily, her gaze falling onto her many little feet.
The spider in question backed up, her feet tapping on the soft forest floor “w-what are you doing?”
“Yeaaah, that would be an adorability loss of the year.” Nodding to herself, she needed something more temporary…
Iris clapped “Yes! And it is cheaper too!” she spun around and pointed at Lily, everyone else immediately backing up and going on guard “Granted!” Iris shouted, a blinding light rapidly expanded from her finger tip, blinding everyone in the vicinity.
“Argh!” “My eyes!” “what are you doing?!” “Kyaaa?!”
They all screamed and protested, but Iris ignored them and watched as Lily’s lower half glowed a bright white, shifting and twisting into a bud that imploded on itself, coming together and forming two points that lengthened into two legs. The light then faded, revealing two chitinous legs extending from Lily’s bottom “It worked!” Iris shouted.
Lily stopped rubbing her eyes “W-what di-w-w-oah!” Lily wobbled on her unfamiliar feet, falling on her back she landed on her bare butt as her clothes shifted “Wha-what did you do?!” she shouted, looking her body over. The child now had a pair of legs, covered in black chitin with white fuzz appearing further up her legs. At her waist, she still had her white furred spider abdomen, shrunken in size but still there above her butt.
Surprisingly, as her clothes shifted some more, two additional pairs of arms navigated their way out from beneath her dress, leaving her with a total of 6 arms. “I… Iris! What did you do!” Lily attempted to stand up, but faltered and fell forward into Iris’s arms.
“Made it so you can go into town!” Iris said happily “now you don’t have to worry about people attacking you for being an Arachne, right guys?” Iris turned to the other three, her eyes wide with expectation.
“””…””” The three had recovered their sight, and stared in disbelief at the result of what Iris had done.
“Did she just…”
“N-no, right? We are dreaming, got hit in the head, right fellas? Dreaming…haha…”
“J-“ Gregory choked on his words, swallowing hard he continued “Just making sure…” he shakingly raised a finger towards Lily’s new set of appendages “She, she couldn’t do that before, right?”
“Eh? Nope! I just granted a skill to her.” She patted Lily’s head “She should be able to turn back if she wants to, didn’t want to change her permanently without her consent.”
“But you changed me like this anyways?!” Lily shouted, then closed her eyes, and in front of everyone she was enveloped in a soft light that shrouded her body as she slowly shifted back into her normal self. “…I can change back…” counting her limbs, she breathed a sigh of relief.
“See? Told you.” Iris smirked “Now we can go into town, no problem.”
“There is clearly some problems!” Liam shouted.
Ana rose her arms up into the air in protest “Yeah! what do you mean you gave her a skill! And you can just change her?! What even are you?!”
“Told you, Creation Goddess.” Iris put her hands on her hips and planted her foot atop the nearby trunk “Things such as this are easy for me~ now-“ she shifted her position, sitting atop the trunk and spreading her arms wide in acceptance “Feel free to worship me, my love is free~” she spoke, as softly and motherly as she thought possible, awaiting the influx of creation points to hit her from the four.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
““””…””””
“Ew.”
“T-that’s a bit harsh but…how do I put this…”
“Doesn’t fit her.”
“Totally.”
“Eeeeeeh?!” Iris’s eyes shot open “What do you mean it doesn’t fit me?!” she stood up in protest.
“Felt forced.” Lily said.
“Right? Like sure, she gave you a skill, but maybe there is a trick to it?” Ana added.
Gregory nervously laughed, rubbing the back of his head “Didn’t feel very divine, more like a beggar on a street corner.”
“B-but, I…” Iris slumped down, not understanding where she went wrong. Maybe she just had to see how the other so-called gods did it? Maybe it was the delivery, or was just bluntly saying it was ok to worship her was in the wrong? Did they need more proof “B-but I gave her a skill, it costed me 25 creation points!”
“Creation points?”
“Apparently points she needs to create stuff.” Lily added “She can make food with it, really tasty food.”
“Ah, so like a production skill?” Gregory asked.
“Food! Right!” Iris shot up, raising her hand into the air she spent 1 creation point to make the supposed super delicious food item she knew. A green cube plopped atop her hand “Here! I made it S-rank this time! A cake!” surely if they tried this, they would believe her.
“Run.”
“Huh?” the three adventurers turned to Lily, seeing her turn the opposite direction of the forest and break out into a sprint towards the plains “Run? Why?!”
“Eh? Still aren’t going to try it?”
The three turned back to Iris, seeing her poke the top of the green cube, a bit of it chipped off and fell below, landing on the trunk.
vvvvVVRRRMMPPpphmm
and rapidly expand then shrank, disappearing and leaving nothing behind except a small hole.
“Ah, ignore that, I am sure it is tasty, just as Lily had discri- where are you going?”
The three took off after Lily, quickly catching up to her and scooping her up, desperately carrying her away from whatever the hell that cube was.
“W-wait!” Iris panicked, throwing the cube behind her and chasing after them “I’m sorry! I just wanted you to believe meeeee!”
She chased after them, catching up instantly and causing them all to scream for their lives.
* * *
The three adventurers watched the Arachne, Lily, be played with by the young unknown girl, Iris, as the three followed a few steps behind. Just a few hours ago, they had thought this girl was being taken hostage by the Arachne but now they were sure it was the opposite. Thankfully, it seemed like the young Arachne didn’t really mind, despite any protest, and stuck close to the girl on her own volition.
The situation was, in short, a massive confusing headache.
The Arachne was, at least, straight forward in what she was. A risen Arachne that had left the nest, by law, she was to be treated with sentient rights and not as a monster. Supposed to, at least.
A risen Arachne in these parts, so close to a nest that had been causing problems for a decade… she’d be lucky if she was killed instantly without pain as others took their grievances out on her.
But that was solved thanks to the bigger problem.
A girl with long silver hair with a pink hue, purple eyes, pale skin, and no taller than 5’2. At first they thought she was a half elf with her short thin build and small pointed ears but no half elf was ever that strong. And if only her strength was the problem.
The girl said she was a goddess.
First the three thought she was a fresh and confused Risen, but then she went and performed a miracle.
She granted a skill.
And what more, she forced it upon the bearer.
Then she went and asked to be worshiped!
They had managed to play it off, at risk of an ill-cubed fate, but this was a big deal.
“Hard to believe such a small girl has that sort of power.” Gregory talked to the three over telepathy.
“We are agreeing to just, ignore it, right?” Ana asked “She said she could change their bodies… but went with a skill…”
“Ignoring et, no jes blasphemy, she a straight demon”
“Yes, just get her to town, toss her to someone else, and book it to the furthest town we can get to before the world ends.”
The three glanced at Iris who was helping Lily learn how to walk on two legs.
“You know, she doesn’t look all that evil when it is just like this, maybe we are overreacting a bit?” Ana said via telepathy.
“Between everything we have encountered in our career, no, I have seen dragons less scary then that girl… I couldn’t even move my sword with all my strength once she got a hold of it, and then she threw it into space!”
“We are only alive right now cause she doesn’t want to kill us…”
“You two...” Ana rolled her eyes “Look, we did attack first, and she didn’t do anything to us.”
“You sure?” Gregory raised an eyebrow “What about you? You couldn’t cast spirit magic back there, maybe she did something to the spirits around us.”
“Nah, that was just them playing a prank, maybe they knew we shouldn’t attack her or something.” She waved them off, then started to prepare one of her skills [Spirit Sight] “I’ll check and make sure, huh?” she activated the skill, her vision instantly being blanketed by a sheet of pure white “I can’t see?” she deactivated it, her vision returning to normal.
“See! Did something!” Liam shouted through telepathy.
She tried it again, getting the same result she gave up “No, she couldn’t have… how would she even? It has to be a prank, right?”
“Let’s just get her to town, dump her on the guild, and bail.” Gregory restated his plan “We can pass through Triton and head to the west, Phera should be nice this time of year…”
“Aww, but I hate deserts… sand gets everywhere!”
“You can stick around and get turned into a monster or join my sword in space if you’d like.”
“…Fine…” Ana sighed, she still thought they were overreacting, but better safe than sorry.
It was going to be a long trip though.