“Lori! You’re finally awake! I was so scared when I heard that you were in a coma…”

As I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the adorable face of my best friend. Ailyn’s complexion had changed a lot over the years. Especially since she started staying in the third ring… Ael Tol to be specific. She was still kind of brawny for a girl, but at least her face looked a big less haggard. Although she still stayed up all night and barely got any sleep, she was eating lots of really good food, so it kind of balanced out. Those brown irises glowed faintly in the dimly lit room, while her long silver hair was straight and surprisingly clean compared to how I remembered her in the olden days.

I smiled at her and licked my whiskers, before asking “How long was I out? Hmmm, I feel kind of… different? What did Pinky do to me this time?”

Lyn sighed, complaining “That freaking psychopath wanted to turn you into a damn tree-monster… It’s a good thing I made it in time to convince her to only umm, fix what was wrong. Okay, don’t freak out Lori. But you have to understand… That Yuri doesn’t really take no for an answer.”

“What happened? Hmmm, uh~, Lyn…” I looked down at my body and gasped in shock. I reached out and grabbed her by the hair, screaming “Why the hell am I green?! Didn’t you just say that you convinced her not to turn me into a fucking tree?!”

She smacked me across my face and I immediately let go of her hair, then she yelled “You aren’t a Dryad! When Yuri was fixing you, she had to pick the parts to save… I’m sorry Lori, but Mouse Tribe aren’t that strong. There was only so much she could do to keep you looking like… Well, it’s better if I let you cope. I’ll make you something to eat.”

Ailyn scurried out of the bedroom before I had the chance to attack her again. Hmmm, I can’t remember if I said this already or not but… For most of my life, I had always hated the part of me that I inherited from the piece of shit that impregnated my mother. When I got up off of the fluffy bed and walked over to the full-length mirror across the room, it felt like I was looking at a total stranger.

“Hehehehe~, I have to admit… You look pretty fucking sexy, Lori. Then again, I’ve always had a thing for scales.”

Of course, Levi’s ‘compliment’ didn’t really stop me from having a mental breakdown. My eyes were blue and slit down the middle, just like always. Honestly, my head was almost exactly the same as before. Instead of hair, there were a bunch of dark-green vines dangling from my head.

From the neck down though, all of my fur was gone and my skin was covered in green scales. They were smooth and flexible, like a salamander or snake. My boobs were gone… Well, I never really had boobs before then anyway. My nipples were gone though, which was weird. My body shape didn’t change much, but I was definitely taller. Only about the same as an ordinary Rat Tribe though.

Obviously I was upset at first, but eventually I got distracted by how cool my scales felt. Then I noticed that my palms and the bottoms of my feet were kind of sticky. I walked over to the huge window and started climbing up to the ceiling, which was at least four meters.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I was in my penthouse above Angren. So when I looked outside, I could see a bunch of people fighting against the hordes of demonic creatures that were swarming into the arena.

“Seems like you’re back to your usual self…” Lyn walked into the room, carrying a tray with two bowls on it. She placed it on the small table at the center of the room and sat down, letting out a long sigh. There were also two cups of hot Angren Cocoa and some spoons.

I pushed off the wall and did a backflip, rolled across the floor and then pounced onto the startled girl. Her chair fell backwards and smacked against the ground, while I hugged her tightly. She yelled “Ow! Damn it Lori! What’s wrong?!”

“You smell so~ good~…” I licked her pointy left ear and rubbed my scaley chest against her white tank-top, then jumped backwards and landed on my feet.

As she got up off the floor and picked up her chair, she grumbled “Still as fucking weird as always…”

“Lynny! I almost forgot something really important!” I put my hands on my hips and declared “I’m supposed to save the world!”

Ailyn sighed, then sat down and started eating without responding, so I continued “When I was sleeping, I had this crazy awesome dream! I saw the whole continent! All the way from the giant cataclysmic supervolcanic eruption in the north, down to the dying forests in southern Lorthon! I know what I need to do now! I’ll become Super Lorelei and go stop the evil tigress from destroying the world! So, did you finish making it yet?!”

She frowned, complaining “It’s only been like three days Lori. Yuri finished the dryadic exoskeleton already, but I’ve had a lot on my plate lately… Okay, okay, I’ll finish up the helmet tomorrow. Then you’ll be go to go… Wherever the fuck you want to go in the Forest of Corruption.”

“Sweet! Awesome! You’re the most amazingly, adorable, sexy Dark Dwarf in the whole world!” I tried to pounce on her again, but she punched me in the face and I tasted purple for a few seconds, before getting up off the floor and sitting down to eat. There was a bit of blood running down my nose as I asked “Pinky gave you some ‘modifications’, didn’t she?”

Lyn coughed and almost choked on her soup, then I noticed the light-red blush on her grey cheeks, as she muttered “You know how that annoying bitch is… It’s like she doesn’t even see ‘me’… Just my damn genes.”

“Daw~, my bestie’s having relationship trouble… Don’t worry. I’m pretty sure that Pinky only knows how to show affection through playing around with your genes, hehehe~!” After teasing her a bit, I said “By the way, in my vision I saw some interesting things… Like what the tunnels and stuff look like underground. It’s kind of swirly. Almost like a giant drill? Hmmm, but the important thing is that beneath Black Mithril and the other cities, there should be other metal tunnels that go around the rings of Lorthon. There are like, loads of other cities too…”

“That sounds like a problem for Beatrix and Conor… Wait, do you think you can draw what the tunnels look like? You should do it after we finish eating, before you forget.”

After that we mostly just talked about random things that happened while I was sleeping. Chrissella disappeared after the riot. No one knows if she died or fled. There are lots of other people who escaped in the chaos too. All of the instigators of the failed revolution that could be found though, Conor personally executed them for treason and murder. There were a bunch of civil lawsuits too, on both sides.

People who killed innocents by accident usually had to pay a heavy fine to the victim’s surviving family members. In the event that the victim wanted the other person to pay with their life though, they would need to have the strength to back it up. They could challenge the other person to a duel and either hire a Champion to fight on their behalf, or do it themselves.

You might be wondering “Wouldn’t that make things really unfair? If the victim’s family is weak or poor, then the criminal can get away with murder!” It isn’t murder though. That’s the difference. Under normal circumstances, murders will be executed or the family can choose to simply sue them instead for the damages. After all, even if you get revenge, most people still have a family to take care of… What good would it be for them if their enemy was dead, but so was their main bread winner?

Anyway, we mainly talked about Yuri in the end. The two of them had a really weird relationship. Lyn was a normal-ish girl, while Pinky was practically devoid of emotions. They would constantly argue and fight, but they still cared about each other a lot.

Unfortunately, when I asked “So how do you two have sex exactly? Is it like a tentacle free-for-all? Does she have a dick or is there a hidden vagina somewhere on her body? No actually, does she have any holes at all?” Lyn refused to give me an answer.

When dinner was over, I had to go to the bathroom really bad. My butt was a little bigger, but it still worked normally. My nipples weren’t totally gone either. I found out that if I got horny, they would poke out from behind my booby scales. Although Yuri did say something about making my ‘reproductive organs’ more flexible, I didn’t notice much of a difference from before. Then again, it’s not like I tried to have sex with my bedpost… I’m serious! I didn’t do that!