Novice Reincarnator

“Ya—!”

My wooden club cut the ambushing goblin’s battle cry short. Ambushes were frequent in Goblin’s Nest, but goblins had a bad habit of screaming before they attacked. Their screams instantly gave away their locations and it wasn’t hard for me to dispatch the one or two revealed ambushers.

I hadn’t gone far into Goblin Nest. There was no need to. Goblins near the entrance gave a delicious amount of experience for a Novice. Each new level took more experience than the previous one. Additionally, there would be little to no experience gain if the explorer was far stronger than the monster she was fighting.

This meant explorers had to constantly search for stronger and stronger enemies to continue to level up. Thankfully for me, a Novice had the lowest experience requirements to level up and it was easy to hit max level in a single dungeon dive. A wave of heat filled me for the fourth time.

“Finally, I hit max level. This stinky goblin blood was starting to get to me, White.”

While I had gotten better at cleanly killing goblins, that didn’t stop me from occasionally getting their blood on my hands. I wasn’t willing to reveal that I was wearing a slime to White, which meant the only thing I could do was put up with the unpleasantness while in the dungeon.

“Status.”

 

Name: Ash

Class: Novice

Level: 10/10

Personal Skills (3/3): [Weak Bladder], [Breast Binding], [Clumsy Fingering]

Racial Skills: [Contract I]

Class Skills: [Novice]

Option to reincarnate or ascend is available.

 

There were two new buttons on my status that I could select to either reincarnate or ascend. I ignored those buttons for now and left the Goblin’s Nest.

I wanted nothing more than to return to my room, take a shower, and ponder over my options, but life had other plans. The bored elf receptionist took one look at me and wrinkled his nose.

“You stink. Take the transport crystal to the academy’s facility and wash that blood off of you.”

“I was planning on doing that at home.”

“Sorry, we can’t have you walking through the campus looking like a deranged murderer. Rules are rules. Now, go wash up.”

The transport crystal was located in the back of the Goblin Nest administration office. Its appearance was rather similar to the teleportation crystals found in dungeons. With a nervous gulp, I put my hand on the crystal and my vision flashed.

When I came to, I was standing in an empty locker room. These must be the facilities the receptionist was talking about. I took a peek and there was an elaborate, luxurious bathing facility just past the locker room. It was completely empty at this hour.

The transport crystal moved explorers based off of the information on their cards. Since my card had me as female, I was in the female bathing facilities. This was a dangerous accident waiting to happen, but I couldn’t resist the allure of soaking in a luxurious, spacious bath.

All I needed was five minutes to clean off and take a quick dip. Nobody would be any wiser. Additionally, I didn’t want to wait until I got back home to clean all this goblin blood off of me.

I claimed one of the lockers as my own and quickly stripped off all of my clothes. I had Lime enter the locker and clean my clothes so that I wouldn’t have to walk back home in blood-soaked clothes.

Cool air from the air conditioner touched my bare skin, causing goosebumps to break out. I quickly went to a shower stall to wash up.

“Mmm. This feels good.”

It was like I was shedding my old, dirty skin and was being reborn by the blissfully warm water of the shower. I closed my eyes and relaxed under the steady stream of warmth. The knots and tension that had built up unknowingly throughout my dungeon dive rapidly faded away.

I lost track of time as I simply enjoyed the feeling of being alive. Perhaps this was the happiest I had ever been since I came to the Upper Realm. I even began to hum my favorite song.

The soft pitter patter of footsteps put a stop to that. My heart lunged to my throat and I suddenly woke up from my blissful mood. It had been way longer than five minutes since I entered. My face was on fire from embarrassment. I was naked and without a change of clothes. How did I end up trapped in a shower stall?

My ears strained to their utmost limit, waiting for the footsteps to stop. My plan was simple. I would immediately head to the locker room to get changed as soon as the other girl entered one of the shower stalls to wash up.

The sound of footsteps halted. I quickly turned off the shower and stepped out into the open. My eyes eagerly drank in healthy, white tracks of exposed skin. A pair of cute feet were connected to long, slender legs and slim hips. 

As if they had a mind of their own, my eyes took in an adorable belly button and a narrow waist. They roamed up her supple curves and dainty shoulders until they met an enchanting pair of violet eyes framed by her trademark silver hair.

I stood there rooted in place, unable to form even a single coherent thought. Those deep, violet eyes captured my soul and I found myself drowning in them. After what felt like an eternity, her gaze shifted away from my face and a single thought managed to pierce my hazy mind.

Cecilia Snowlight. That was the name of the naked girl in front of me. She showed no shame in her unclothed appearance. I was in the middle of doing something before I ran into Cecilia, but my murky mind couldn’t recall why I was here.

My consciousness threatened to slip away under the unadorned appearance of the Legendary Archangel. She was even more beautiful in person. I forgot how to breathe. A fluffy, floating sensation filled my heart and power refused to gather in my body.

My vision grew faint and I was a hair away from losing consciousness. I would have fallen if not for one burning question filling my mind. What was it that had attracted this goddesses attention?

I watched in shock as Cecilia’s gaze dropped from my face to the rest of my body, lingering especially on my overwhelmingly large breasts. With that, I finally remembered my own state. I was completely naked with everything on display.

Overwhelming heat scorched the haze filling my mind. I blushed with all my might and with how pasty white my skin had been recently, it had to be easily noticeable. Power returned to my limbs.

I didn’t scream or try to cover myself up. My embarrassment meter far exceeded its capacity to the point where it swung back to the beginning and I regained my calm(?). There was nothing strange about being naked in a bathhouse and I didn’t have anything I needed to cover up anyways.

As a man, I never cared about covering up my chest and I no longer had a manhood that needed to be hidden. In short, I had no reason to be embarrassed.

My mind instinctively knew this thought process was the only way for it to avoid shutting down. Hence, I took the path of self-preservation and forcibly convinced myself it was true. Otherwise, I would have fainted in a heartbeat in front of Cecilia.

The exit was between Cecilia and I. There was no way I could approach her without fainting. My only option was to take a bath while I waited for her to leave. I nodded to Cecilia and moved to the big bath.

My heart beat like a drum in my chest. I didn’t have the presence of mind to notice what the bath felt like when all of my senses were hyperfocused on Cecilia. It was only when a showerhead turned on and the archangel began to take a shower that Cecilia’s spell broke.

Throughout the whole time, neither Cecilia or I had said a single word to each other. I had a lot of things I wanted to say to her the next time we met, but I hadn’t managed to say anything at all. I didn’t creep her out by checking her out, did I?

This was my chance to make my escape, but I couldn’t move. A deep seated exhaustion claimed me the moment I came down from my adrenaline high. I couldn’t do anything but vaguely stare at my breasts that were floating in the bath water.

The stream of water from the shower cut off. The steady pitter patter of feet filled the bathhouse. Faint uneasiness swirled in my heart as the footsteps grew louder. I didn’t turn my head in fear of what I might see.

Alas, my worst fears came true. A dazzling goddess slipped into the bath beside me. I didn’t know what she was thinking. This bath was huge. There was no reason to purposely sit right next to me.

A fragrant, heavenly aroma enveloped me and the faint, floating feeling I had finally vanquished returned with a vengeance. It was all too much. I now knew how those girls that loved Leo could faint when they saw him smile.

Cecilia’s presence alone had me on the verge of fainting. I fought to keep my wits about me and the fainting sensation seemed to ease by the smallest of amounts.

“I am sorry that I ended up showing the world the moment when you were at your lowest.”

A clear voice like a bell chime rang out from beside me. It was such a pretty voice that it took me a moment to realize that Cecilia had spoken. It took me another second to understand what she had said.

My head whipped to her in shock. My eyes got a full helping of her angelic beauty at point blank range. She was so beautiful that it hurt. My heart burst and my mind exploded. My vision darkened and my consciousness slipped away. The last thing I saw was her violet eyes that held a faint sadness.

I blacked out… as if I would be defeated! I could not let Cecilia’s words go. A loud splash broke the silence and the next thing I knew, I was grabbing Cecilia’s delicate looking shoulders.

“Don’t apologize!”

Her beautiful violet eyes widened in surprise. Words spilled out of my heart. I couldn’t stop myself even if I wanted to.

“You saved me. I was all but dead, but your sword saved my life. I always wanted to say these words if I ever got the chance to meet you again. Cecilia, thank you for saving me.”

My noisy heart exhaled in relief that I finally got those words off of my chest. At the same time, our current positions dawned on me. I was standing over the sitting Cecilia with my hands on her shoulders. Of course, we were both naked.

I hurriedly let go and sat back down beside her. I couldn’t help but mumble in embarrassment.

“If anything, I should be the one apologizing to you. I am sorry I showed you such a sorry sight.”

I hugged my knees to my chest and looked away from her. Cecilia laughed and it was like the world suddenly became brighter. I wanted to hear more of her laughter, but it ended as quickly as it came.

Strangely, I no longer felt like I was going to faint. Now, if only my noisy heart would calm down too. In the end, I never introduced myself to her. This meeting was a once in a lifetime thing. Ash, the demon girl explorer, would disappear once I reincarnated.

We would be strangers. I hugged my knees tighter to my chest. That was what I wanted, so why did it make me feel lonely?

I wanted to wait until Cecilia left before leaving the bath, but minutes ticked by in silence without any signs of movement from my companion. In the end, I hit my limit first. Water splashed as I awkwardly shot to my feet and left the bath.

I had just grabbed the towel I had left behind at my original shower stall when I heard the soft pitter patter of footsteps leaving the bath. My mind was in chaos. Why did Cecilia follow me out of the bath?

No, no, no. Surely I was overthinking it. It had to be a coincidence. We did spend a good amount of time in the bath after all. I hastily dried myself with my towel and moved to the locker room before Cecilia ended up blocking my escape again.

Alas, Cecilia and my destinations coincided with each other. I found myself standing in front of my locker at a loss of what to do. Lime was sitting in the locker with the rest of my clothes. Wearing a slime as clothing wasn’t unheard of in the Upper Realms, so it was mostly my embarrassment getting to me.

For now, I took the bandages out of my locker and began binding my chest. I couldn’t help but notice my companion had stopped what she was doing to observe my actions. Thankfully, I had a towel around my waist so there was nothing for me to be embarrassed about.

“Hahaha, really? No way!”

“It is true. Adam promised to go out with me.”

“You lucky girl!”

Three noisy girls suddenly appeared in the locker room. I froze like a deer in headlights. The group of explorers looked like they were having a lot of fun chatting about their love lives. Their conversation came to an abrupt end the moment they realized that they were not alone.

“Cecilia Snowlight!”

“Empress!”

“Kyaaa!”

All three of them screamed and fainted. Somehow, they had incredibly sloppy expressions on their red faces that couldn’t be shown in public.

“...Eh?”

I stared at their collapsed forms in shock. My eyes inevitably fell onto Cecilia, but she hadn’t done anything strange. The Legendary Archangel stood in front of a locker with a towel in her hand. The only thing that stuck out to me was her nakedness… but that was because I was a man on the inside.

“Helen.”

A maid suddenly showed up beside Cecilia. For some reason, she was wearing a blindfold. After she called her maid, Cecilia seemed to lose interest in the collapsed girls and proceeded to get dressed.

The blindfolded maid, Helen, grabbed the collapsed girls with a familiar ease and disappeared, leaving me alone again with Cecilia. The whole incident started and ended in under thirty seconds.

I tore my eyes away from Cecilia when she started putting on her underwear. I needed to get changed too. I firmed up my resolve and called out to my contracted slime.

“Lime.”

Lime’s figure surged from the depths of the locker and covered my naked form. I felt a pair of eyes fall on me, but I ignored them in favor of putting on the rest of my cleaned clothes. A minute or two later, I was back in my usual explorer outfit.

Cecilia finished changing at roughly the same time and we both headed to the Transport crystal together. My vision flashed and I found myself back in the administration building of Goblin Nest. 

With that, my strange time with Cecilia Snowlight came to an end. We hadn’t said more than a couple of sentences to each other. I still couldn’t quite believe that I ran into her in the bath.

My mind and body hadn’t come down from the strange, floating state I was in. I left the administration building and headed back to my dorm. There were quite a few explorers starting their day early.

It was a quiet morning. I had spent much more time outside than usual. A group of men in mismatched sets of armor blocked off my path.

“Hey girl, are you looking for a party? How about diving into the dungeon with these older brothers?”

“That is right, little princess. It isn’t safe to enter a dungeon alone.”

I froze in shock and my floating state of mind disappeared without a trace. Heated gazes licked my chest, thighs, and legs. Goosebumps broke out on my skin and revulsion churned my stomach. The party of male explorers all had disgusting smiles.

“I am not interested.”

I skirted around them and continued on my way home. Thankfully, the group didn’t do anything to stop me.

“Our doors will always be open to you!”

One of them called out to my departing figure. Their gazes remained on my back until I left their line of sight. The rest of the way back passed without incident. I collapsed on my bed as soon as I got back.

“I can’t believe a group of men tried to pick me up.”

I muttered to myself in disgust. My petite body hardly had any curves after I bound my chest. It shocked me that someone would be interested in my poor, childish body. When I glanced at girls' chests in the past, did those girls feel the same disgust that I felt when those men did it to me?

I was nauseous. Somewhere in the corner of my mind, I had naively thought it didn’t really matter if I had turned into a girl. This event thoroughly shattered my silly fantasies.

As I thought, this reincarnation was a mistake. It didn’t matter if I could become stronger by contracting more monsters as a Hornless Demon. I didn’t want to be the strongest. All I wanted was to change.

I no longer hesitated. I opened up my status and mentally selected the reincarnate button. My vision turned white.