*dingalingaling*

  A soft bell chime rings out as we walk into the store. It’s a rather cozy little fantasy store. Something you might see in one of those games where your parents leave you with a store and ten bajillion dolrs of debt. There’s all kinds of different colors of potions on the shelves, all with interesting effects.

  A pink one that apparently turns men into women. A blue one that turns women into men. A purple one that turns people into futas.

  There’s one to give you a bigger dick, a smaller dick, to make you burn fat overnight, to grow out hair. There’s even one that’s called ‘God’s Blind Eye,’ which apparently makes it to where you can commit a taboo without actually getting a taboo in your status. It has a sign in front of it that says ‘pairs well with the Genetic Warp potion.’

  I look around and eventually find a green potion with purple swirls in it. I read the description out loud;

  “Warps a person’s genetics temporarily… Allowing for potential parents with defects to give birth to children without… Wait, is this an incest potion?”

  “Not technically! But it can be used that way!”

  I jump slightly as a high pitched voice comes from behind me. I turn around and see a girl almost a full two feet shorter than me looking up at me. She looks like a full adult human woman that’s just been shrunken down. She has brown hair pulled into a ponytail, and two golden yellow eyes.

  “H-huh?”

  I look to Mina and see her shaking her head and walking up beside me. She talks to me and says,

  “This is Mari. She’s the half-gnome girl who owns this shop.”

  I feel a bit confused. She was supposed to be shy, wasn’t she? And wasn’t this store called Jenny’s Illegal Goodies? And, like the little half gnome is reading my mind, she answers,

  “The store is called Jenny’s Illegal Goodies because it was my mom’s before me! She’s Jenny!”

  Mina answers the other question like I asked it out loud as well,

  “And she normally is shy. She’s just a potion freak. It should kick in in about 5, 4, 3, 2, 1–”

  I just blink a bit as I see the gnome girl’s face slowly turn red before she runs back and hides behind Mina. She looks at me slightly before saying,

  “Uhm… That potion can be used for what you were mentioning… If you want, you can buy both of them as a bundle…”

  I shake my head,

  “It’s alright. I just need the Genetic Warp potion. Ah… Also, do you have any items that can hide one’s status from the checkpoints? Preferably two of them.”

  Mari looks at me and nods her head,

  “I do. I have a whole box full of jewelry imprinted with other people’s statuses. They basically take your status and make it match the status saved onto them. It's good enough to hide them from the machines the guards use, but anyone with an appraisal skill will see through it easily.”

  I smile and nod my head,

  “We’ll need two of them. Ah, also, do you happen to have anything that can make someone appear human? If so, we’ll need two of those as well.”

  The short girl thinks for a second before nodding her head,

  “That’s crazy… I just had someone buy a few of those as well… Ah, sorry, I do. They’re not bought very often. Unless you’re going to sneak into Cult Kingdom of Leandral. I’ll bring them out and let you see them.”

  I nod and watch as she disappears behind a curtain to the back of her shop. I take the time to look at some more potions.

  ‘Giant’s strength… Gill Former… Wait a damn… Acid Resistance potion… Pairs well with a Potion of Shrinking… The hell is that supposed to mean?’

  It only takes me a dozen seconds before I realize what it is.

  ‘Goddamn people are freaky…’

  Thank fuck the people of this world don’t have access to the internet. I can only imagine the porn that would be filmed…

  I choose to spare my not-so virgin eyes and move away from the potions, not wanting to imagine what freaky shit the people of this world get into. Of course, the other side is just as freaky. Person-sized muzzles… Leather straps… A fucking gimp mask?!

  I walk over and poke Mina’s side, getting her attention,

  “Are you sure this is an illegal goods store and not a sex shop?!”

  Mina shrugs her shoulders and looks around,

  “They kinda go hand in hand, really. I mean, those who seek out stores like this tend to be deviants already. It’s a smart business idea. Most regur sex shops wouldn’t have stuff for the more extreme fetishes anyways.”

  I’m surprised at how candidly Mina is talking about this. Is this the same girl who blushes and acts bashful with a simple butt touch?!

  Just to check, I reach down and squeeze her butt. Sure enough, her face flushes red and she turns towards me with a pout,

  “Jeez! Save it for ter, okay? Gosh… The stuff in this store is making me self conscious enough!”

  I smile at her,

  “Just had to make sure you were actually Mina.”

  She puffs out her cheeks cutely and hits my shoulder lightly,

  “Who else would I be? Meanie!”

  I chuckle at her reaction and pull her into a hug, pnting a kiss on her forehead. Her light hits stop after this as she melts in my arms. She nuzzles into my shoulder as I hug her and lets out a sigh of relief.

  “Ahem…”

  We’re startled when we hear the voice of Mari ring out behind us. Mina backs away from me and blushes wildly. She then ducks out behind me to hide her shame. I can’t help but chuckle at this, earning another ahem from Mari. I look back at her and see that she has four items on her. Two bracelets, and two rings. She sets them out on the counter for me to look at before talking,

  “Alright… So, the rings hide your status. When you pce your hand on the scanners, it’ll read the ring first, then you. Keep in mind, these won’t hide your names. They’ll hide your race and everything else. Now, if they use a detailed scanner, they also don’t hide your stat points. Skills, race, titles, everything’s all hidden.”

  She then shows me the bracelets,

  “Now these have an illusion enchantment on them that will make someone appear human, hiding any monstrous, or Demi-human features they may have. It doesn’t affect your height, though. Trust me. I’ve tried.”

  I nod my head along with her talking, admiring how she changed into business mode after coming out from the back. I pce the green potion on the table as well. She takes it and looks at the price, putting it into what looks like an old timey register. She takes one of the rings and puts it on top of what looks like half of a weight scale, which reads out the price. Most likely something that reads the enchantments and puts the price of them. They come out to 890 gold each. When she does the same for the bracelets, they come out to 17. Mina looks confused by this and asks,

  “Shouldn’t the bracelets be worth more than that? I mean, they’re enchanted. Anything enchanted is basically gonna be worth over one hundred gold.”

  Mari nods her head,

  “Normally, that would be the case. But humans have gotten a lot more accepting of other races over the past few decades, so the price for stuff like this has plummeted. Back when I was a kid, you couldn’t find one of these for less than two grand. Nowadays, most human countries are pretty open to other races. Other than the obvious one up north.”

  She tallies up the total before saying,

  “Alright. That’ll be two thousand one hundred and thirty nine gold.”

  Oof… That’s a lot of money… I reach into my inventory and pull out the amount needed in a leather bag, about the size of a small backpack. Thankfully, the gold coins are only about the size of a quarter.

  She nods her head happily and takes the bag that’s about half her size. She grabs it and pours out the contents into a little tray. When it’s all out, she runs her hand along the pile and spreads them out evenly. After that, she grabs a handle on the side of the tray and tips the tray over, sending the coins down into some sort of machine. Each coin that travels down the tray causes a little flipping set of cards to turn, counting them.

  After a few minutes, the cards read out ‘2139’.

  “Alright. You’re all set. Hope you get some good use out of this stuff.”

  She smiles at me as she pushes the items across the table towards me. I grab them and put them into storage before thanking Mari. She just gives me a nod before walking away from the counter. It’s only now that I notice, the space behind the counter is raised compared to the rest of the store, letting her stand at eye level to her customer. Huh. Neat idea.

  Mina and I hold hands as we leave the store, new items in tow. All that’s left now is to get these items on and head towards Gulfhaven.

  It’s crazy. This st week and a half has felt so much longer. Like it’s been almost a year since I was brought here.

  I guess that’s what happens when you’re having fun and feel loved!

  Altdegen