“AND HAHHH DE HAHHH!” Julia cheered as she drunkenly danced atop a table to the cheers of the Dryholm’s guard and the dismay of Henrek.
She slipped off the edge, her neck twisting as she landed on the ground. The crowd gasped for a moment until she jumped back up.
“AIHMM LIKE WATER BITCHESS!” Julia laughed as she wandered over to her frustrated brother, gleeful Utarou and concerned Vicar.
“This is certainly beyond my realm of knowledge.” Vicar John sighed as he stared at the strange looking skill.
Body of Water was the kind of skill he would have prevented from being unlocked at all costs.
Total Cellular Control was also a legendary Tier 4 skill, one which his religion claimed to have the only Holy Path towards.
“Perhaps The Savior kept this knowledge hidden from us for a reason… I can’t support it.” Vicar John lamented as he closed Julia’s skill tree.
“I’m hardly a fan of it either.” Henrek concurred.
“You two are just being worry warts, what’s the worst that could happen?” Utaoru laughed as Julia drunkenly stumbled towards the group, putting her arm around Utarou.
“Ouch, that ‘Liquid Damage’ skill hurts you know.” Utarou moaned. Julia had unlocked the initial pre-req skills pretty quickly for Body of Water, the latest one being Liquid Damage, making all of her fluids deal damage.
Including the sweat she was covered in from her little performance.
“Bpathhh you’re like healy anhs sthufh. BARKEEP! GIMETH ANOTHER!” Julia demanded as she continued to lean on Utarou and beckoned towards the Innkeeper of Dryholm’s.
“Right away ma’am.” The man nodded with a sigh.
The town guard had just returned from a successful mission to clear out a spider's nest near their new outpost by the lake and were celebrating, Julia of course having been the undisputed most valuable person in the mission was celebrating the hardest.
Additionally, she was celebrating the inevitable unlock of her Tier 4 skill and creating history, she just needed a bit more XP and she’d be able to unlock Body of Water, with 18 months she’d have more than enough time to get it as well.
“Are you sure you need to unlock the skill? I mean, it’s there, we can see it on the menu…” Henrek whispered into Vicar John’s ear.
“I doubt Adam will be satisfied with just seeing it and not knowing what it will do…” Vicar John sighed, shaking his leg anxiously as he thought about the shape of Body of Water.
It wasn’t like any skill he’d seen before, only heard about, in the tales of demons and of holymen led astray by temptation.
“I can only pray God will forgive our foolishness.” Vicar John said as he left the bar.
“Not staying to party?!” Utarou asked with his usual optimism.
“No, I can’t. It all sickens me.” Vicar John hissed.
“Tough crowd, oh yeah Henrek how’s Hope?” Utarou asked, it’d been a month since their picnic and Hope was on bed rest, due any day now.
“She’s fine…” Henrek muttered dismissively, clearly things were not fine but he was hardly in the mood to discuss it with Utarou of all people.
“You still haven’t told me what skill you guys picked, better not have been something boring!” Utaoru laughed as he smacked Henrek on the back before walking over to Julia, who had managed to get herself stuck in a cupboard showing off her new contortion skills.
“Because if I told you, you wouldn’t leave us alone. I know Hope wanted something else but I couldn’t…” Henrek thought to himself as he swirled his brown liquor.
“Alright guys I should probably head back to the wife and-” Henrek began before being interrupted by Julia’s shouting.
“WAIB A MINUBTE! IT’S HERE!” Julia exclaimed, opening her menu to reveal she had just crossed the threshold to gain another skill point.
The last skill point she needed to unlock Body of Water.
“FREE DRINKS ON ME! TONIGHT WE CELEBRATE ALL NIGHT!” Utarou shouted, jumping up onto a table gleefully.
“Wait, Julia hold on, not while you're drunk.” Henrek exclaimed as he quickly made his way across the bar to his sister.
“THISH ISH A TOSTH!” Julia shouted, raising her empty flagon of booze, and without hesitation, unlocked the skill.
It happened in an instant.
One moment, Julia was standing, happy as she’d ever been, living the life that had been denied to her to its fullest.
The next, there was a puddle of blue goo, a pile of clothes and a flagon on the ground.
The room was silent.
And they were all looking at Utarou, who was looking at the puddle, waiting.
“W-w-wait! She’ll rise up! She’s just a slime girl now! She’ll be fine!” Utarou shouted confidently, but Henrek was expressionless, with the only hint of emotion being pure rage just behind his eyes as he snapped Utarou’s head off with his bare hands.
“This is a coup. Frederick, get the cage.” Henrek commanded coldly.
“H-hey Henrek! She’s just learning how to use her new body! She’ll be fine in a minute!” Henrek blathered as Henrek held his spine, preventing it from regenerating.
“She’s gone, and you killed her.” Henrek hissed, Utarou feeling his stomach drop.
Well, his stomach had already dropped but, figuratively.
Utaraou kept looking at the puddle that was now Julia, waiting for something to move.
It didn’t.
She was gone.
And all that was left was a pile of blue liquid that was currently seeping into the floorboards.
“Oh god, don’t tell me you need a Tier 4 skill in order to use a Tier 3 skill? Who designed this stupid system…” Utarou thought with a grumble before his head was shoved into a clearly custom designed cage, his neck being painfully clamped.
“Hans, you’ve secured the body?” Henrek asked.
“Y-yes sir!” The slightly intoxicated Hans replied, clamping another metal device around the other end of Utarou’s neck.
“Uh sir, what do you want us to do with… this?” Another man asked, picking up the flagon with a few drops of the blue liquid left in it, the rest having soaked into the floor already.
“Just… just put it somewhere safe.” Henrek choked as he looked at Utarou coldly.
“I told you many years ago now, the only reason I became a night was to protect my family. My mother died under your rule and now my sister, from your hand, has been turned into this. I will not let you touch my new family.” Henrek said calmly, it was almost rehearsed.
It was something he had been thinking about for a long time.
“W-what about Templar Adam?! He said he’d burn this place to the ground because of all the heresy!"
“THE HERESY YOU COMMITTED!” Henrek screamed, nearly throwing Utarou’s head cage to the ground but stopping himself. He took a deep breath, saw the crowd forming outside the tavern and looked at Utarou dead in the eye.
“I have spoken with Vicar John deeply about this, the sins are squarely on your back. I have given my child a Legacy Skill advised by the Vicar, we will return to the Holy Path.” Henrek declared to the audience he’d gathered.
Who, were more positive about it than Utarou had hoped.
“Hey! Don’t you people see the bigger picture! Monster Girls are not on this holy path! Can’t you see this is just a minor setback and-” Utarou was silenced by his throat being stuffed with a dirty bar cloth.
“SHUT UP ABOUT YOUR MONSTER GIRLS! YOUR PERVERSIONS KILLED MY SISTER AND I WON’T LET THEM KILL ANYONE ELSE!” Henrek shouted, handing Utarou’s head cage to Hans.
“I need to compose myself, we’ll hold a public trial in the morning.” Henrek coughed, struggling to hold back tears as he felt the grief of finally losing his sister hit him.
“So dramatic, she’ll be fine… Hopefully.” Utarou thought, only just now considering the possibility she won’t be fine and ergo, his monster girl project not being fine.