“Thank you for being cooperative, sir,” Shel calmly stated while leading Roge into a simple, white room. Sat in the center were two couches facing each other which the priestess pointed him to. “Have a seat.”

  “It’s not your fault that my party didn’t communicate with me,” Roge grumbled, his white hot anger dialing down to embers as he sat down on the couch furthest from the door. “So how does this work exactly? Is it a mind-based ability?”

  “No, actually. It’s a Form based one. Are you familiar with what those are?” Shel decided to sit directly across from Roge, while one guard left and the other stood firmly next to the door.

  “No, but I have two effects that mention it.” This seemed to surprise the priestess, Roge sighing as he tried to translate his thoughts into words. “During the encounter with the doppelganger snake, I couldn’t fully shake off the skill. I could resist it and stop them, but I couldn’t reverse it. So I used one of my skills to steal it.” He went to his hoard to pull out an example, deciding to grab one [Glass Bottle Making] gem and one [Sleeping Magic] coin. He would have preferred to give them one of the ones he got from the snake, but he remembered that Hops had them in that moment, and he mentioned to Shel as much.

  “Fascinating,” she murmured, the aquatic woman looking over the coin and gem intensely.

  “Taking those from a creature harms them, so when I took it from the snake, I think I killed it instantly.” Roge winced at that, a flash of the sizzling body going through his head. “The problem was that the skill’s effect didn’t reverse. Some of my Form was in him and vice versa. So…” Roge paused in that moment, feeling a bit uneasy about mentioning that he stole the class. He couldn’t even prove it, as the system had mentioned he wouldn’t be allowed to do it again.

  “Don’t tell them,” Alton sounded off beside him, Roge seeing the minotaur sitting next to him on the couch in his peripheral vision. “They take privacy seriously about that stuff.”

  “Sir?” Shel asked, looking a bit concerned at Roge’s silence.

  “The rest of what happened is a bit… private. Suffice it to say that I gained a skill that allowed me to absorb the forms from the snake, but it’s not something I can do willy nilly.”

  “Understood.” The priestess nodded and looked over the coin and gem once again. “And do you have any desire to take these gems and coins, or even forms, from other people?”

  “I mean… if they consent then I’d be willing to. Otherwise, no,” Roge grumbled, narrowing his eyes as he looked into her light blue eyes. “You’re using a truth-sensing skill, aren’t you.”

  “I have several,” she replied, grinning widely. “Tollerance doesn’t provide much on the perception end, but I have crafted my skills specifically. Thank you for the hint to not use a mind skill, as that one bounced right off of you.”

  “That’s…” Roge sighed as his anger tried to ignite again, taking calming breaths as he tried to let that feeling go. “That’s fair honestly. May I ask what ‘Forms’ are? My descriptions seem to assume I would already know.”

  Shel nodded at that. “The priest coming to see you would be able to explain it better. May I ask what other ability mentions forms?”

  “It’s an added effect from hitting rank ten in one of my skills. It’s nature based and allows me to turn into creatures I’ve bonded with.”

  “And I assume you got it after your encounter?” Roge nodded at that. “Be careful in the future with that. The more you use your skills to shapeshift, the more the effects lean that way.”

  “So if I want it to lean towards magic item creation and nature, I just use those more often?” Roge frowned at that, looking over his [Status]. “But wouldn’t that make classes that use shapeshifting grow slowly?”

  “You can still use them, just don’t experiment with their boundaries.” Shel frowned herself, looking a tad worried. “They should have covered this in your education growing up…”

  The conversation was interrupted by the door to the room opening once more, the other guard from before entering along with a short priest in rust colored robes. What stood out to Roge the most was the sound that came out of the robes, sounding like pistons hissing with every step. The person’s face was covered by a helmet, though the goggle-like eye holes had lights shining out of them. When the person reached the couches, he stood right in front of Roge, the dragon realizing that, even with him seated, he was still a bit taller than the newcomer.

  “Name, age, and species?” The voice sounded artificial, that and the being’s mechanical arm that ended in a claw leading Roge to the assumption that he was talking to some sort of magical android.

  “Roge Youngston. Twenty eight. Dragonkin.”

  “Yup. I’m sensing some other forms, but that’s the original for this body.” The android then, surprisingly, looked right at Alton, who’d been sitting there, quietly watching. “That’s some nice projection effect you have there. Name, age, and species from you as well.”

  Alton sat there for a moment before responding, long enough for Shel to start to look massively confused and worried. “Alton Wilcox. Thirty two. Minotaur.”

  “And did this person trap you intentionally?” Now the priestess looked really concerned, looking back and forth between the android and what, to her, probably looked like an empty seat.

  “No. He actually freed me from the snake and said he is trying to get me a new body.”

  Roge blinked slowly at that answer, feeling a tad embarrassed as he scratched the back of his neck. “I’m really not happy that random people can just see him…” Roge muttered. At Alton’s affronted look, the dragon explained more. “It forces me to talk to you in public and makes me look like a crazy person. At least in private, there’s no one to see me talking to the air.”

  “Have this conversation later. Everything looks to be fine, Shel.” The android turned back to the aquatic woman, her face relaxing as she most likely sensed the truth of his words. “Dragon is the original owner of the body, and seems like a decent sort. Just make sure to send notice to the adventurer’s league about his recent addition. Wouldn’t want them making a similar mistake in thinking he’s trapped the bloke.” He then turned back to Roge, his light-like eyes trained right at Roge’s own eyes. “Just make sure you occasionally give him access to physical sensations. Wouldn’t want him to go mad with how much freedom you’re giving his mind, but not his body. It’s usually why forms get suppressed.”

  With that, the android stomped out, leaving everyone in various states of confusion and concern. Roge, mostly, was looking at Anton, the minotaur looking away from the dragon and refusing to look him in the eyes.

  ~~~

  Roge was a little mad he really didn’t get to say much around the form expert, walking back out to join his friends, much to Shel’s protests. “Think of the good you could do if we studied your power. If you’d just let me try to convince you to join-“

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Not interested,” Roge said testily, finally arriving at his friends. He was still a bit mad at the lion, and the aquatic priestess was still bugging him, so Roge decided to take the form expert’s advice to avoid the situation.

  The shapeshifting only took a few seconds to complete, Roge’s form ballooning out into that of Alton’s with surprising speed. What took up most of Roge’s attention, though, was the way his mind manifested. Due to Roge’s limitations, there couldn’t really be a battle of wills, and so Roge lost instantly. He was shoved directly into the plains hoard environment without ceremony, only hearing cries of protest for a brief second before the rustling of trees replaced everything.

  “Finally…” he muttered, sitting at the base of one of the trees and looking over his hoard screen. “Some peace and quiet.” He’d noticed during his perusing of his [Status] during the interrogation that he had another magical bond slot open. Which meant he could bond with an already magical plant, and his eyes immediately zeroed in on the various tobacco plants. He didn’t really have a choice on picking which ones to bind to , as all of them immediately gave him buffs at once. Roge grunted at the flow of power, finding it to not be as powerful as he expected.

  ‘I’ll have to experiment with that later…’ Roge thought to himself, wondering how the energizing effect was so high. ‘Is it making different variations…?’ As he looked through each description, he noticed that the [Stimulant] and [De-Stress] plants each had the specific ability at three. ‘So it could be all of them adding up. Or…’

  He tried to extract the coins from the leaves, but found he couldn’t access his inventory while in the state he was in. ‘Guess that means I can just… take a break…’

  ~~~

  “Where did Roge go?!” Sean nearly shouted, Marge holding his back from punching the now bewildered minotaur.

  “He’s in his hoard,” Alton replied, looking over his body to see if anything had changed. “Just got another buff, from the popups I’m getting, so he’s safe.”

  Alton blinked at the last effect, pulling up the description and smiling. “Oh that one looks fun…” He then focused on his fur, finding that he couldn’t ‘draw’ on himself, but he could change any ‘brown’ fur to another color. He always wanted to go with white after his grandfather had passed away, and the white/grey fur instead of the brown/tan fur looked really good on him.

  “Great. We have a meathead Roge now…” Hops grumbled, earning him a glare from the minotaur.

  “I may now be that smart, but that doesn’t make me an idiot,” Alton growled, to which Hops blushed at in embarrassment.

  “Why did Roge… let you out?” Sean asked, clearly trying to keep his anger in check.

  “The form guy said that I need stimulation otherwise I’ll go nuts. Don’t feel anything unless Roge transforms into me, and I think he understood that.” Alton stretched his arms above his head, finding the fresh air on his white fur almost too much sensation to handle. “Now, we were going to see about getting lion guy a god class, right?”

  The minotaur hadn’t even noticed the aquatic chick still hanging around until she excitedly rushed up to Sean, the lion looking tired as she started speaking. “OH! In that case, Tolerance is always looking for new followers-“

  “Nope!” Sean shouted out, roughly pushing himself past the woman and walking into the main square of the church, where all of the statues were kept. Each one depicted an artist’s rendition of each god, as most did not have a physical form to recreate. Alton immediately noticed a spectral dragon standing at the nearest statues, most likely kept from the rest of the space by having to stay close to the minotaur. Alton decided to walk over to him, as he was clearly reading the plaque sitting in front of the first statue.

  “Want to look around some?” the minotaur asked, not caring about the weird looks he received from the clergy nearby.

  “You guys… really have gods?” Roge muttered, turning to look at the party with a conflicted expression. “We weren’t sure if our gods were real on the earth I’m from.” It still seemed bizarre to the minotaur that Roge had memories from another world, though he supposed it wasn’t the craziest thing he’d heard the previous night.

  “We even have heavens and hells that are their domains,” Hops interjected, giving the spectral dragon a small smile. “We could go over each one, if you’d like, though Sean probably knows best about them. His dad is a priest.”

  “Then… why aren’t we waiting until we get back so your dad can help?” Roge asked, a flash of anger going across his face as he looked at the lion.

  “We uh… don’t really get along,” Sean replied, nervously trailing a paw through his mane. “He became a priest of Purity and… well… has gotten a bit odd over the years because of it.”

  Alton smirked at Roge’s disturbed face, the dragon clearly knowing a bit about how Purity could work. “Oh goodness… is it that weird thing where they try to purge the unclean?”

  “Not a lot of priests of Purity are kept around,” Alton growled out, remembering his own run-in with one of the clergy. “Better watch out for them. The church would never let them hurt you but…”

  “Best be careful, yeah,” Roge sighed, looking back up at the statue they were currently at. That one was one of the odder ones, showing a lime green, humanoid slime with red cracks all over its body. Even the ‘eyes’ on its head were a deep red, seeming to stare into anyone who looked at them. Each statue was only about seven feet tall, though this one looked to have a bit more of a presence. “Addiction looks… kinda scary.”

  “His priests aren’t too bad,” Sean said, giving the statue a smile. “While addiction is his domain, he seems to understand that it’s not healthy for most people. So his priests gain a lot of power by absorbing someone’s addiction over time and slowly healing them of the malady. It’s one of the examples of one of the Hell Gods being not that horrible. Independence is actually a little worse than him.”

  They moved on to the next statue in line, which showed a harpy woman with a rainbow feather pattern. She looked almost free, like she was flying through the air even though the statue was rooted to the ground. “She tries to have her priests free prisoners sometimes…” Alton muttered.

  “Oh I remember that fiasco!” Marge said, laughing uproariously. “Didn’t her Champion say that it was a misunderstanding or something?”

  “It was. The idea to free prisoners was all the priests’ ideas, not hers,” Sean stated, tracing a claw along the edge of the plaque for the goddess. “They took her teachings too far. It was a good example of the need for moderation.”

  As they continued to talk, going down the line of Wrath and Humility next, Alton payed more attention to Roge’s reactions, knowing that the anger the dragon felt would take time to cool.