"Get that lousy cauldron tipper right now!!" shouted the Chaos Church goon who had been struggling with the door lock when I first entered the factory hall. Is he trying to be a leader-character? If so, he's failing hard if the stinkeyes from the other Church goons are to be trusted.

Regardless of their willingness to follow the "leader's" orders or not, the other 5 goons understood that they were under attack, uniting them despite the "leader's" lack of leadership abilities. They flew up to the 2nd floor scaffold where I had been pulling down the cauldron from, but who's stupid enough to stay at the same location after a trap's failed? I've long since moved to a different spot where I can...

Hold on a sec. The other "5" goons? Ignoring the guy who got KOed by the "leader's" outburst, wasn't there 7 Chuch goons down there? Uh-oh.

For once, none of my Perception-type skills, from [Intuition]'s damage-detection to [Infrared Sight]'s ability to detect heat, warned me of anything, but my... "sixth sense", you could call it, rang all the alarm bells in my head. I lunged forward, just a moment before a loud crash came from the spot where I had been lying in wait just now.

"Huh!? How did you notice me!? Even with my Extra Skill active!"

The mysterious goon #6 shouted in surprise, in an opposite fashion from his stealthy approach just before. Strange, gray steam could be seen around his feet, probably an aftereffect of this "Extra Skill" he mentioned. Not that I have much time to dwell on that mystery. The other goons aren't deaf, to say the least.

To face one Extra Skill, you need one yourself. I fired a Zahhak attack at the "stealthy" Steam goon, enveloping his whole body with the darkness dragon's massive jaws and sending him flying to the ceiling. The blast created a nasty sound that didn't lose out to the Steam goon's own punch just a moment ago, and one glance at the guy, even without [Identification], told me he was out of the fight, at least for now. My honest thoughts are that I want to make sure he stays that way by introducing his neck to my scythe, but here comes the rest of the goon patrol!

Using the "jet boots", two of the goons jumped into the air with their armored fists at the ready. Remembering the attack the Steam goon did, a move possible thanks to his own mecha-like gauntlets, made me throw [Web Bombs] at the goons while fleeing backwards to evade the rocket-powered fists. One of the goons got caught by the webs, but the other guy used the boots' double-jump function to evade in mid-air and succeeded with his attack.

Hmm, double jumps. I could use something like that. Not the thing to be thinking about when falling from a broken scaffold, but when I see something I like, I see something I REALLY like. But for now, let's break my character and start escaping with my life intact and not in a zillion pieces on the floor, deal?

A wire string to the ceiling later, and I swung away from my fate-to-be-broken. That didn't pause the goons, as the guy who had crushed the scaffold came charging at me with those fancy boots of his. I let go of my web string, rolled on the floor, and while doing so, secretly started to apply the effects of [Natural Webbing] onto it. When the destroyer goon came charging like a bull, I kicked the floor and jumped away, letting the goon come crashing into the floor that had been turned into a web-like substance. Sticky web, I might add.

Okay, that's going to keep him occupied for a short while. That's three goons and the incompetent leader left until the first half gets back on their feet. Man, I wanna run away already.

Just as I was about to call Bloom and ask her how things were faring with Noire and Revi, a loud racket from shattered glass rang out through the factory room. A large, wooden barrel had been thrown into the room. It's a pretty standard, brown wood and black metal rings keeping together, a lit fuse visible on the top... Scratch what I said about "standard" and "barrel". That thing is a bona fide bomb!

[Intuition]'s warning came after I had already jumped deeper into the factory and hid behind the remaining cauldrons. The Church of Chaos goons were too flabbergasted over the sudden appearance of the barrel bomb to react in time, causing them to be engulfed in the "BOOM!!" when the barrel got blasted into a huge cloud of smoke and colorful sparkles.

That wasn't all. Several other barrels came flying through the windows, causing a hodgepodge of anarchy, destruction, and multicolored smoke to cover the whole factory area. If they hadn't been in the middle of the mess, I suspect the Church of Chaos would be enarmored by all the chaos.

It took a minute or two of keeping my head down to the floor, but the mayhem finally calmed down, leaving behind scorched furniture, destroyed crates and pots, as well as the Church goons knocked out and lying facedown across the room.

It didn't take many seconds after that for the main entrance's door to be kicked in, a galant figure standing in front of a group of adventurers, demanding that the people inside the factory surrender...I think. The fireworks show has made me deaf for the moment. But my eyes, oh, they're still working, Mira!!

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Yup, the "galant figure" leading the adventurers is Mira. The same failure girl knight whom I tasked to guard Lily and the wounded Iron before I split off from them. What is she doing here? Hold on, is that the same duo of protection targets I just mentioned mingling along with the adventurers? Don't think that "bringing them along" is the same as protecting them, you loophole knight!! Loopholes are my thing, and mine only!

*Sigh*. Iron looks much better, at least. He looked like a broken tincan when I last saw him, a result of having to endure the mecha gauntlets, most likely, but now he looks almost back to full health. I can see some black-robed priest-looking guys alongside the adventurers. Probably a party of dedicated Spectermancers and Necromancers, if I'm to judge them by their outfits. And the many skull and bone accessories. Maybe they had a hand in our ghost knight's sudden recovery.

Still, that doesn't mean Mira can bring him along on the manhunt! And especially not bring along the newbie with her as well! Lily is looking at the other adventurers putting the smoky remains of the Curch of Chaos goons in chains with a strange look of satisfaction on her face. Girl, did the Church do something to you? Other than lately, I mean.

Regardless, I came out from behind my hiding place and raised my voice to get Mira's attention. It worked, despite my temporary loss of hearing. The moment Mira noticed me, her eyes went wide before...she fell to the ground, holding her sides and shaking. Hey, what's wrong? Is one of the goons still awake!? No? Iron, Lily, why are you looking like you've seen a ghost?

Just then, I sensed someone tapping on my shoulder. It was Bloom who had finally decided to show herself. That was about time, you slowpoke fairy. ...Were you always so big?

Bloom tried to tell me something, but my ears are still ringing. She then shrugged and started taking out a System Message. Right, she could do that, making previous Messages appear again. It's not that fancy of an ability, so we never paid it much heed, but maybe she can use it to communicate with words rather than voice? Good thinking for once.

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

Temporary trait: [Humanoid: Dwarf] has been acquired through the item: [Changeling Rainbows].

...Eh?

---

"HOW IN THE WORLD DID THIS HAPPEN!?" - Garami

After things had finally calmed down and everyone had gathered outside the factory, I didn't hold back in voicing my frustrations to the world. Who wouldn't do the same in my situation? For whatever reason, my body had shrunk. I look like a preteen right now. Luckily, it seems my clothes shrank along with me. Even the Nightmare Scythe has turned kid-sized.

"Master, can I start explaining?" asked Bloom, whom I glared at in reply, urging her to start her explanation of whatever's going on here.

"In simple terms, the old factory seems to have had its secret stockpile of Changeling Rainbows, a type of pollen from a rare type of plant known as 'Changeling Daisies'. I said they were rare, but in the Shaharin Underwoods' unique biosphere, things are different." - Bloom

"Th-those rainbows... You mean the same stuff we were asked to collect?" asked Mira after finally having gotten her breath back after seeing my humiliating transformation.

"Yes. The pollen is famous for gifting people who are covered by it a new trait, a feat that often accompanies drastic changes to the user's body. Many people have researched pollen in the hope of developing a business around trait-altering medicines, although any changes the pollen makes are temporary. Master, Revi, and Noire will turn back to normal within time." - Bloom

Right, it's not just me who's gotten an involuntary makeover by that ****ing flower dust. The girls, who had been knocked awake by Bloom and the two Smoke Ghosts I had given her, were preparing to assist me in defeating the last Church of Chaos goons when those weird barrel bombs came flying and caused everything to go to kingdom come.

Revi's transformation is the most drastic of us three. Her arms and sides of her face are now covered in a red, shell-like substance. She's also gotten another tail that ends with a stinger. She must have gotten some scorpion-flavored trait from the pollen; that's all that I can think of. That stinger looks damn intimidating. Revi herself looks unsure how she should react to this new look. She was living for several hundred years as a decaying dragon corpse before we met her, so this much isn't fazing her that hard.

Noire, meanwhile, is more comical. She seems to have acquired some cat-based Therianthrope traits. She's got a pair of cat-ears on top of her head and a tail peaking out from her skirt. It's a good thing that she didn't get any whiskers as well, or else Mira might have died from laughing too hard. Something strange about these new appendages is that their fur is violet-colored instead of silver like her hair...

Oh, wait. Now I remember. Noire is faking her appearance with that strange magic tool thingy of hers. I think it's some sort of fashion statement, cause even Filyn knows about this "disguise" and says it's not worth making a fuss over, so there's nothing sus about our failure fallen angel even if she's hiding her true hair color. The thing doesn't even seem to be able to adapt to the new traits Noire's received, so I guess the item's from the bottom of the barrel when it comes to disguise tools.

"Then you're saying this pollen's just a gag item?" - Garami

If the pollen's not everlasting, then what good is it for the Life Champion's trait-related problems? Such a doubt was harbored in my chest, but Bloom replied that the Changeling Rainbows were also the ingredients to various magic tools and potions that are used to remove artificially added traits to people. Is this a "one man's poison is another man's antidote" thing?

"Just to be sure, are there no other cures for this mess?" - Garami

"Nope. Raw Changeling Rainbows' effects are only removed by the power of time. You'd better enjoy being pampered while you can, Master." - Bloom

Who wanna be a pampered little kid!? And Mira, I can see you trying to hold in your laughter again. You're failing big time. I wanna give her a lecture ASAP, but there are some other things I wanna go over with the others before that. Let's start with the biggest mystery first: how did Mira and co get their hands on such wacko explosives so fast???

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