Rae woke up after midnight that night, and flexed her limbs to make sure everything was working as intended after that odd moulting incident.
It made sense, with the crab blood that she had used, but it was a new experience for Rae, who normally just grew and reshaped herself a little. It wasn't bad, though. She felt brand new and refreshed, ready to face the world in a whole new Totem Ranked body.
[Did you want to do your reveal first or second, little sister?] Rae asked as the sun began to co up in the Tiny World.
The butterfly thought about it. [Together. I will set the stage, and we can make a grand entrance.]
Rae waited while her little sister made the final plans.
Everyone was awake now, and getting into the showers. So, that was the perfect mont to set up their entrance.
Four ranks of illusionary spiders flanking either side of the walkway to the house, with a light fog around ground level to let Rae camouflage herself more effectively until she was ready for her grand reveal.
Then butterflies and sparkles in the air above them, where she would be hovering and waiting for Rae to appear and get her praise, so she could swoop down for the fireworks and then introduce herself to the group.
Rae tried not to laugh as she saw the Royal Procession that had been prepared for her, with all the illusionary spiders bowing before her.
Remi and Thor dragged the group out into the yard to watch, and Lotus was practically vibrating with excitent as she realized that Rae was going to make a dramatic entrance.
Rae started off invisible, then blended herself with the fog as the approached. Slowly, she adapted back to her natural black and red, as if she was erging from the fog as she slowly strutted down the path.
Whistles and cheers greeted her approach, and Lotus ran up to hug her while the others laughed.
"Congratulations, Rae. Excellent work on making it to Totem Rank." Karl congratulated her, while fireworks began to explode overhead in the morning twilight.
Then the butterfly appeared.
Not as an illusion, but actually outside of her space for the first ti since she evolved.
"Good morning, Sister Butterfly." Karl greeted her.
{You may call Opal. I like that na. It is a pleasure to et everyone.} She replied.
She fluttered down, her tre wide transparent wings reflecting the sunlight, and creating shimring rainbows on the ground, along with the sparkles of shed mana as she moved.
That was an unavoidable side effect of her species, but now that she was powerful enough, she could recover far more than was needed to sustain the loss, and she could limit the spread of the mana particles to nearly nothing. So loss was unavoidable, but the stronger she got, the better she was at controlling it.
It was strange being outside, not as much mana, and all sorts of new scents and auras.
But she got to actually touch people.
That was surprisingly fun.
"So, you can finally join us on adventures, Opal?" Tessa asked.
{Only a little bit. I will be a Totem soon, and then I'll be able to stay outside all the ti if I want. But it's more comfortable to stay ho and let the illusions do it.
[Illusionary Domain] is my world, and being outside of it just feels weird, even if I do get to et new people and see new things.} Opal explained.
That was understandable. Her illusionary world was so realistic, with illusionary people, plants and buildings in it, that there wasn't much reason for her to ever leave ho. She was essentially a city lord for a city of her own creation, with hundreds of subjects under her control.
A gentle ringing, like a doorbell, filled the Tiny World, and then a portal opened next to Karl.
That should not be possible, Karl knew.
Opening a portal into a separate space required knowing exactly where it was, not just the opening, but the actual nature of the space, and how it was ford.
But when an extrely annoyed looking Totem Ranked Vampire stepped through, nobody was startled anymore.
"Miss Tiffani, good morning to you and your Mistress. What brings you here so early?" Karl asked.
The Vampire examined him carefully, trying to determine what this strange man had done to himself since they t last.
"How did you make yourself an Elite Creature? That role should be reserved for dungeon bosses." She demanded, skipping the formalities.
"It's a pleasure to see you again as well. But really, I don't know. I went into a Trial Instance, and it gave the option to optimize myself. I chose that option over the others, and then completed the trial, and it gave a fancy thing for my na.
I can't see it, but nobody else seed to know what it ant." Karl explained.
Dana cleared her throat, drawing Tiffani's attention. "What actually brought you here today? I suspect that if you forget the important part, it might beco a problem for all of us."
"Right. The Supre Lady wants to take a picture with the spider and the badger." The Vampire explained.
She was obviously not happy about it, but that could be the fact that she had been chased out of bed at dawn. For a Vampire, this was just past their natural bedti. Not that one as old as her would have any trouble being awake all day, but even the naturally cheerful Mick was cranky when it was too bright outside.
Plus, those born as Vampires from infected parents died the first ti, the nature of their powers changed, and they beca much more nocturnal.
Cara was happy to take a group photo, even if the cara was a relic, and she couldn't be certain of the quality of output they were going to get.
Karl set up the cara to catch the group, and Opal moved to hover behind the trio, while Cara stood up on her hind legs, so her face was closer to Tiffani's head height. Rae still dwarfed both of them in her natural form, though she was only a little taller than Tiffani. Just much wider.
There was only one button on the large tripod mounted cara. Karl had no problems getting it lined up for the shot, and then channelled mana into the button as he activated the magical device.
Unexpectedly, the cara did not output a photo. Instead, a tre wide, landscape oriented painting ford against the legs of the tripod, as if they were a painter's easel.
"Thank you. That will make her happy. She's been annoying to get a picture of the Chaos Badger for ages, and now that there is a Totem Ranked child of the Spider Goddess in the Guild, she had to be the first to record it."
Rae snorted in amusent and transford into a humanoid. "Does that an we should expect a visitor from the Spider Goddess soon?"
Tiffani nodded. "Likely a whole group of them to test you and the Karl. Though, he's already fought off a whole group of assassins from Nerud, so they might be more polite the second ti."
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