Firm: Opal’s Story

Opal’s Bunny body

“It worked!” I announce while entering Jessica’s office. She seems to be talking to one of the city’s guards, so I close my mouth and wiggle a bit while waiting for them to finish. The guard bows to my daughter then me before leaving. Jessica says I’m not supposed to bow back, so I wave goodbye to him instead. “You should give Onyx back her collar. People might get the wrong idea.” Jessica tells me and I reach up to my neck, feeling the cold metal. I respond “Oh, I was too excited and left before she could take it off.” I don’t want to break it, so I’ll just go back to the prison after talking to my brown haired daughter.

She sighs and asks “Can you send one of your bodies to Ruby. I got a scout report saying there is a new zombie type leading this next horde. They might finally have 7^th tiers, and Ruby’s Rest is our only other city that gets large hordes.” We’ve been expecting it to happen soon. Based on what Citrine told me, the second year is when a lot of Player settlements were lost in her last life. I didn’t tell everyone where I got the information of course, just that it was probably reliable. The places without my experience boosts would probably be caught off guard by the zombie’s jump to 7^th tier. This is important information, so I agree and start running to Ruby’s Rest with one of my bodies. I of course apologize to the hounds who were about to take a turn, but the pack is currently a lot closer than any of my bodies in dungeons.

I remember to tell Jessica “The new bonus is a lot better than I thought. It also gets rid of the 50% stat loss from Rise Up.” I can’t help but wiggle while saying it. It really is amazing. Her eyes go wide and then she seems to be thinking about something. After about a minute she finally tells me “Get Citrine to fly one of your bodies to Woodville. I’m not sure they’ll be able to handle it if a horde with a 7^th tier shows up. I was planning on going myself after the report, but now you’d be much more helpful if things get serious. They’re our first allies and it would be a shame to lose them so soon.” That means I’ll finally be able to visit the city Citrine and Cindy told me about. Well, I was going to be able to see it soon anyway since I was planning on attacking the slaver cities near it with my restored stats.

After I agree to help she asks “Does the bonus let you use skills while in a collar?” I shake my head and tell her it doesn’t, still glad that I thought to check. I remember something and ask “You said there was something else I could do with the new bonus if it worked. Can you tell me what that is?” She nods and stands up from her chair replying “Of course. We can talk while I get Barrier ready for this next horde.” Going around the city, she explains her idea to me. I don’t think there will be an opportunity to use it with the Slavery quest ending soon. Basically, she thinks I could pretend to be caught by slavers. Then, when they take me into their camp or base thinking my stats are lowered by a collar and brand, I can attack them from the inside.

It sounds like I’d have to do that acting thing, and it could be fun. Too bad it’s not likely to happen. With my stats fully back now, there won’t be a reason for me to do something like that for the slaver cities around Woodville. Citrine says they don’t even have a single 7^th tier Player. I finally tell Jessica my plan to take out the slaver cities with my restored stats, but she shakes her head and responds “There are too many things that could go wrong. Remember that strange orc with the spikes that seemed to ignore your defenses? What about when all your bodies were put to sleep by that 6^th tier when you went to rescue Amber?” I sigh, realizing that she’s right. Even if I took most of my bodies, I shouldn’t ignore potential weaknesses. I was just so excited by my new bonus, that I wanted to help get rid of a problem sooner.

Jessica smiles and gives me a hug before continuing “Besides, we need enough people to take over one of the cities. It was always the plan to leave enough there to stabilize a new settlement for us. If you just take Amber and Citrine, you won’t be able to deal with the prisoners and freed slaves.” I make sure to be extra careful when hugging her back. My daughter is so smart. I didn’t even think about what I’d have to do after dealing with the slaver leadership. I say “Okay sweetie, I’ll wait to help out with what we originally planned. Your sister is flying one of my bodies over to help Woodville now.” I’m a little disappointed I can’t just deal with the slavers myself, but if something went wrong it might make trouble for my kids. So it’s better this way.

-POV Citrine-

As I fly mom to Woodville, I’m also flying Amber down to the farm where her kids live. The news about possible 7^th tiers showing up in hordes is too important, and my orange haired sister was understandably concerned for her children. I’m going to be telling my brother and his scaly offspring myself after dropping her off. The lake with mom’s frogmen comes into view, and I swoop down towards the obvious guard stand.

The frogman standing on top of it points a spear at us, but quickly lowers it when we get closer. “Greetings wife of mother.” It says and Amber responds after I let her down “Hey there sis. We got information that the zombie hordes can have 7^th tiers now. Do you need us to send people to help you out?” Right, I keep forgetting that some of these frogmen are my siblings too. I have such a huge family this life that it’s hard to keep track of everyone. My frogman sister shakes her head and responds “Your offer of assistance won’t be needed. I myself am 7^th tier, and we repelled one such horde last night.” Amber hugs her saying “Congratulations sis. Remember, if you ever do need help just let us know. We’re all family.” The fact she can get to 7^th tier without mom’s boosts shows how much fighting the frogmen have been doing. It is pretty impressive.

“Yes, and I see you inherited mother’s desire for touching. I will return your offer for help with our own if you are ever in need of such. Knowing mother’s power, it seems unlikely.” They always show so much reverence for mom. It’s kind of creepy. I can see why she doesn’t visit them much if they’re like this. I probably shouldn’t judge them too much though. They are monsters after all, and thinking about them in human standards might not make sense. Amber lets our frogman sister out of the hug and we’re soon back up into the air again.

Not long after, I’m dropping Amber off with her kids. They don’t have any 7^th tiers, so she’s going to be staying down here with her elf body for a while. They seem pretty surprised to see her without her horns and cow tail, but she wanted to keep her cow body in Opal’s Home. I’m pretty sure it’s because of the brothel. She does always use her cow body when prostituting herself there. After asking her to remind me to buy some of the uniforms on our way back, I leave her and start flying towards Jett’s place.

Since the people at Woodville have seen my body without all the marks, I’m using it to fly mom there. Lucky for me, it means I can get new marks and piercings if my brother has any. I’ve really been wanting something cute to add to my collection. Fiddling with the bag mom sent with me, I remember I have to limit myself a bit. I’ll probably be staying there for a while, and I only have a few bottles of mom’s milk. I won’t be helpful to anyone if I just get addicted again. Maybe they won’t even need my help and I can just get the marks and go.

I get stopped by a new patrol of their flying guards that doesn’t recognize me, but they just want to bring me to Jett to check my identity anyway. One of them with orange scales knocks on Jett’s door and a few moments later it’s opened by the female Wyverkin I had met before. “Mom, this woman says she’s father’s sister. We escorted her here just to be sure.” He says and she smiles at me telling him “That’s right. I’ve met Citrine already so you can leave her here.” She then opens the door wider revealing her naked body and motioning for me to enter. I can see the male guards eyeing her body, including her own son, but I just roll my eyes and go into Jett’s house.

Once the door closes she gives me a hug and says “Dad’s missed you Auntie. He’s been working himself hard in the dungeon and is taking a nap, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind getting woken up for you.” I might have to stay her for a while, so I don’t mind waiting for him to get up. I hug my niece back and tell her “I don’t mind waiting a bit. I can just tell you whats going on until he’s up.” After informing her about the 7^th tiers she doesn’t seem all that concerned. So I ask her why and she says “The undead can’t attack here. The cliffs surrounding our village are too steep for them to climb.” She shrugs and then continues “Usually we fly over the hordes and drop stuff down for experience, but we haven’t had a problem with them yet.” Right, it’s almost impossible to get here without flying.

I don’t know what to expect with the new 7^th tier zombies though. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if some of them could fly. I tell her that and add “I’ll be staying here for a while in case the worst happens. If they really don’t end up being a problem, then I’ll leave after finding out.” She did get a little worried when I mentioned that they might be able to fly, but seems excessively happy about me staying for a while. We talk for a bit longer and it becomes clear that my brother is interested in me, and she’s trying to help him. They really have almost no social experience and it’s easy to tell what’s going on.

I groan inside. I love having a little brother, but I’m not interested in him like that and it’s just going to make this trip annoying. Maybe I should have been more careful of my actions when visiting him before, but it was easy to let my guard down around him. I hear “Amber, do we have a visitor?” and see the door to Jett’s room open. Being reminded that he named his favorite daughter after my sister puts a smile on my face, and brings me out of my bad mood. He steps out and looks at me, his eyes going wide before he excitedly walks towards us.

I sigh, wondering how I’m going to deal with my little brother’s crush.

-POV End-