IWUAaDNW: Party 5.2

“And it doesn’t have to stop there, either,” Tyr addressed the crowd fully. “Dungeons are full of all kinds of wealth and miracles, but if this is right, then those miracles will only come to us if we’re generous ourselves. Dungeons are known to break down essentially everything that falls on their floors; if I’m not wrong, then she will be able to use it to unlock more monsters.”

Would that work? I’d never absorbed anything that wasn’t a dead animal or plant so far. Would an animal body part made into something else work? Plus, these people didn’t have much, though. Other than the clothes on their backs, a few weapons, a couple of tents, a few mud brick houses and a lot of hope, they had essentially nothing. Was it right of me to accept some of their precious belongings? Yes, I would eventually be able to provide them with a way to remake those possessions, but with the way the system worked, there was no way just one trinket would be enough to complete any of my progressions.

I was thinking of how I could tell them about this, when someone from the crowd called out,

“Let’s help her!”

And it was like a dam. The villagers started talking to each other, some of them even brandishing possessions that they carried on themselves.

“Are old skins good enough? I have a leftover wyvernscale blanket from a thrift shop in Magnus, worst blanket ever––”

“Oh! Oh! That vial of water slime you’ve been saving, Gram––”

“Rasmus, put your shirt back on!”

“It’s mammoth wool!”

“You’ll take that slime out of my cold, dead hands, boy!”

“But gramps––”

“And you won’t, because I’ll give it to her myself!”

“Honey, where did we put that pillow?”

Kamella turned to her villagers with a proud smile and said, “First, we will see if she can gain anything from breaking down our possessions. There is no point to throwing our things away if there’s nothing to be gained out of it.”

“We can try with––”

“Rasmus, put it back on.”

Ignoring that outburst, she turned to my luminous pixies and pulled up her sleeve. She had a kind of bracelet wrapped around her wrist, a simple blue and white rope from which a small curved fang was hanging. She unwrapped it from her wrist and held it out.

“Would an amulet made of a snake fang be acceptable? It was my husband’s, but I believe he would prefer you take it, if it means his daughter and I gain something out of it.”

Was she sure this was what she wanted to try with? This was precious, not just because of what it was made of. Even if an exact replica was made, it wasn’t going to be the same thing.

She smiled, and dropped the amulet on my stairs. I nearly made my pixie go and pick it up to save it, but held back when I remembered about the barrier. The amulet shriveled and broke apart in moments, the fang disappearing in a puff of white smoke. A hush fell over the villagers.

My progression window now listed: Small Reptiles, 0.1/25. My spirits fell as I did the maths. With about three hundred people in the village, the only way I would unlock this was if nearly every single one of them had a snake part on them somehow. Dejectedly, I included it in the holographic progression window I was showing over my entrance. Kamella looked perplexed, while the villagers’ voices rose with their spirits. I cringed as I expected their disappointment. There was no way they would agree to give me anything, not when there was so little to gain from so much work.

“Is that… one tenth? Is this how you show fractions?” Kamella guessed, correctly.

Thumbs up.

“Then, it would take you… two hundred and fifty of these amulets to unlock… snakes, I would presume.”

And there it was. I saw a few faces fall as this information registered.

But only a few, to my surprise.

“Small snakes are usually on the same level as other small reptiles,” Ulfric put in. “Usually. Dunno if the outliers are just dungeon preference.” A thumbs up again. They probably were. Ulfric grunted. “There we go, then”

Kamella sighed. “That’s… not a lot.”

That’s why I didn’t want you to throw your husband’s precious amulet away, Kamella…

“But it’s something, right?” a man spoke up, whom I recognized as one of the cooks. “She still gets something if we drop something in her. So, you know what?” He pulled a bracer off his wrist, walked up to my entrance and dropped it in. “There!”

The bracelet puffed out of existence. I got two hundredth of a point for large mammals. Out of ten.

Somehow, this did not demoralize them. More villagers stood.

“My hairpiece too!”

“I’ll get my blanket.”

“Son! Go and get my slime!”

“And my shirt!”

“I swear to the druids, Rasmus––”

It was foolish. It was stupid. They were going to waste their precious tools on me. What little they had, for no real benefit. It was a waste.

Their voices rose, not in outrage and disappointment as I’d feared, but in… hope. And determination. I had no body, but my heart still rose to my throat. I had no tear ducts to cry with, and yet my vision blurred. I laughed, but they could not hear me.

So I did the first thing that came to my mind.


I created another form over my entrance. A human shape.

Curly dark hair. Pale skin. Too wide mouth.

Two arms.


I bowed.


Thank you.