Chapter 6: Chapter 6 – Magical Girl transformation sequence

The next day, I woke up after a dream of a baby dragon just as dawn broke and immediately went to check on my precious potato plants. They were growing well, and I quickly watered them while checking each individual plant for weeds, bugs, or diseases. Everything seemed fine, so I went back to the cabin to have my breakfast afterwards.

After lunch, I was going to do some woodcutting, and maybe some fishing, too. But first, it was time to have some fun.

Though I couldn’t do anything about my food and house situation, at least I could improve my clothing. Right now, I was wearing the crude and cheap-looking beginner clothes. It consisted of a brown robe and brown pants made of coarse cloth. My shoes were cloth ones with thin soles that didn’t keep out the cold or wet. Fortunately, I wasn’t suffering too much because I had a lot of them, so I just threw the used ones in my inventory and got fresh ones every day.

Time to level up my look!

Adventure Online was monetized with a monthly subscription for premium membership as well as a shop that sold items for real life money. In the past, everyone could use these Cash Shop items, but a few years ago a level requirement was introduced. Gossip among the players claimed that this was caused by myriad complaints by parents who said that their children had just downloaded the game and immediately spent hundreds of dollars on it. Thus, Cash Shop items could only be used by players with a combined skill level of 15 and above.

Now that I had reached the proper level, I could use these items. GIA had lots of things, and I scrolled merrily through my inventory, looking for something good to use.

First things first. One of the most fun things to do, of course, was to customize the character’s physical appearance. I went to the Cash Shop menu and activated a [Makeup Wizard] pack.

These packs were basically loot boxes with random items inside. For the next few minutes, I continued opening packs until I had around a hundred different pieces. Character modification was pretty nice in Adventure Incarnate. One could modify even the smallest things, such as eye size, eye shape, eye makeup, eyelashes, and other facial features down to the last millimeter.

However, I didn’t really want to change my face. I was afraid that if I modified it too much, I wouldn’t be able to recognize myself in the mirror. Thus, I only did a few minor adjustments: making my eyelashes thicker and longer, my lips pinker, and my skin flawless. The latter really made a big impact since it banished all my pimples and skin blemishes. Using the Cash Shop mirror that was floating in front of me, I turned my head from side to side, admiring how much better I looked.

Though changing my face was a no no, the same did not apply to my hair. After all, what was life without a bit of excitement?

I cycled through the many hairstyles available, from short platinum blonde locks to knee-length curly red hair. There were even outré styles like a pink mohawk, rainbow hedgehog, and spiked spider braids. Eventually, I settled on a classic “beach waves” hairstyle that went down to the middle of my back. I was going to settle on a shorter hair length, but when I tried out the first one, I noticed that when I used a cash shop item on my hair, it became magically easy to manage, unlike my normally wayward hair.

Having chosen the style, I had a difficult time picking the right color because I was really tempted by the many pastel shades available. My hair was naturally dark brown with lighter brown highlights since I was half Singaporean Chinese and half French-Swiss. Alas, in the end, I found that cotton candy pink and baby blue hair didn’t suit my complexion, so I had to settle on brown hair and blonde highlights.

Now that I was done with the physical enhancements, I looked for some better clothes and accessories. Although the Cash Shop sold individual items, cosmetic packs were a lot more popular. I grabbed a lot of boxes and started opening them one by one until I had a hundred.

[Medieval Princess] pack? It wasn’t practical, but what woman didn’t want to at least try out becoming a princess?

When I clicked on the [Wear] button, I thought the clothes would just magically appear on my body, but I was wrong.

Very, very wrong.

I should’ve realized that Adventure Online was never that simple.

First, a shower of silver sparks fell down from a point two feet above my head. Second, the sparks turned to a curtain of light that circled me from the ground up to my head. Third, I was lifted a few inches off the ground while my current clothing slowly dissolved to nothing. Fourth, a swirl of light enveloped me while I was floating. Fifth, the light turned into medieval princess clothes.

Oh my gosh! It was a magical girl transformation sequence!

I never thought that I could experience a magical girl transformation in real life.

Was I happy about it? I wasn’t sure. The transformation wasn’t painful or anything.

Was I sure that I would never do this in public? Absolutely.

The Princess costume was pretty nice. The crimson and black gown was made of some heavy fabric, probably velvet and silk, and embroidered with intricate and ornate flower and leaf designs in gold and silver. The long sleeves went down to the floor, and the full skirt was more comfortable than I would’ve thought. Was it magic? The dress felt a lot lighter than it looked.

The silk slippers that went with it fit me perfectly, and my inner child was inordinately delighted by the upside down ice cream cone headdress that had a veil flowing down from it.

I spent a good five minutes twirling in front of the System’s full-length mirror.

Who’s a pretty princess?

Unfortunately, I didn’t think I would be attending any costume balls in the near future, so I undressed and folded the dress up, storing it in a chest under my bed.

In rapid succession, I tried out a few more costume packs. The maid, catgirl, and clown sets were really fun to wear, but a farmer needed more comfortable and practical clothes for everyday work, as well as a few good robes for special occasions. I tried them on, then put them away in the chest, giggling every time I went through the magical girl transformation sequence.

You are reading story The Chronicles of Emberstone Farm [Cozy Fantasy] [Farming] [No Harem] at novel35.com

Time to get serious.

Browsing through all the options, I selected a few that looked like I could actually use them.

The first one that looked promising was the [Chic Waitress] costume. Specifically, the black pants looked very nice, and they wouldn’t be out of place on the farm. Sure enough, the waitress pack’s trousers looked great. Through experimentation, I found out that I was able to use the [Wear] button as much as I wanted. Were twelve pairs of trousers enough?

Then I got a few more good items from the [Gothic Witch] (black skirt), [Easter Bunny] (a plain white top), and [Playful Santa] costumes (black boots).

Then I moved on to the ones that were sure to be much more appropriate in the Westerlands - the traditional Chinese clothing sets.

The [Springtime Delight] set was quite showy, but it was very similar to the clothing that I had seen the rich ladies wearing when I first arrived in this world. Consisting of a floor length green silk dress with long white sleeves, it included a thicker dark green cloth wrapped around the chest with a white ribbon strung through it. A translucent green scarf completed the look. All of that was usable if I wanted to dress nicely.

The [Enchanting Empress] set, on the other hand, featured a magnificent red silk robe lavishly embroidered with gold silk thread as well as a spectacular two-foot high golden headdress and dazzling gold ruby earrings. Of course, the whole thing would be inappropriate to wear, but I hoped I could find individual pieces that I could use. Alas, only the underwear was usable.

Now that I had the hang of it, I quickly tried out several items and got a lot of good stuff from the [Moonlight Jade], [Flower Dream], [Butterfly Beauty], [Mountain Mist], and [Peach Blossom] packs.

The [Noble Scholar] set was practically perfect. The robe’s sleeves were slightly shorter and the skirt narrower compared to the other traditional Chinese fashion packs, and the whole thing gave off an air of elegant simplicity and refinement. Made of fine cotton and embroidered with a bamboo design, its only accessory was a jade pendant hanging from the belt. When I wore it, I felt very dignified and calm.

Thus, I was able to get better work clothes and a few luxurious outfits in case I needed to go to the city.

I went through the cosmetic items one more time, and I was about to call it a day when I spotted a ridiculous-looking red beret that I wanted to try because it looked exactly like what I thought the character from Prince’s song “Raspberry Beret” would wear.

I mentally selected the [Parisian Barista] costume pack and was very surprised when I equipped the full set. Not only was I wearing the red beret, brown slacks, striped T-shirt, and white gloves, I was also holding a coffee cup in my left hand and a coffee maker in my right hand.

Incredible! I looked at the illustration of the cosmetic item again, and I noticed that the character was making coffee. Fortunately, I had coffee beans in my inventory. I made myself a cup of coffee, half expecting it to burn because of my low cooking level, but it turned out perfectly. That was probably because the coffee maker I was using was a cash shop item.

So did this mean that anything that the cash shop illustration showed would also be equipped? Obviously, the background stuff like the café hadn’t materialized, but the stuff that the illustrated character had been holding had.

As I browsed the cash shop inventory again, I paid attention to whatever activity was being shown.

The Greek Librarian was holding a magical scroll, but I was disappointed when I equipped it. The scroll materialized, but it only had some random scribbles on it.

On a whim, I went outside and tried out the [Sexy Stewardess] set. After all, it wasn’t likely that anyone would see me doing something as embarrassing as magically changing my clothes out in the open. Anyway, the curtain of light covered everything, so it’s not like they would have seen anything. As expected, I wasn’t able to get a free airplane.

Too bad.

I went back inside the house and tried out various items. The [Tea Ceremony] pack, which I had somehow overlooked earlier, turned out great. In addition to the exquisite pink kimono and classic Japanese wig, it came with a complete tea set.

Actually, I was someone who preferred coffee over tea, but I knew that in the Westerlands people served tea to their guests. Perhaps Shuye would like some?

But I truly hit the jackpot when I found the [Romantic Valentine] set. The illustration showed a woman dressed in a 1950s style circle dress holding a bouquet and a large box of chocolates.

When the box of chocolates materialized in my hands, I fell on it like a starving dog. I didn’t stop eating until I had polished off all fifty pieces.

Afterwards, I lay down on my bed, exhausted.

Wow.

If only there had been a sausage maker costume, or something similar, I might’ve been able to enjoy eating meat.

How was I to know that my craving for meat would lead to a dangerous complication?