Versatile: Alternate World

Tina and Lina are both helping on Cotton this time around. Gobu and I are staying outside as both are doing girl things, which is not part of our work right now. Our job is done here, to be honest. We waited for an hour before the door where Cotton performed her metamorphosis opened, revealing the three. Lina carries the pail that Gobu had before while Tina carries Cotton like a child.

Looking at Cotton, she really looks like a 5-year-old kid being carried by her Mom out of the room. In fact, Cotton is strikingly similar to Tina. If I have seen Tina in her childhood, perhaps she would be like this as well. The only difference between the two is that Tina has pure white hair, while Cotton has shiny gold hair that is very striking to look at, not to mention, it's very silky and long that she might be mistakenly identified as a model for a shampoo brand.

"Master, Cotton is now dressed up with the dress you made. I didn't know you could make a great dress for kids since I usually saw you make only clothes for battle and some armor," Tina then put Cotton down on the floor.

Cotton really looks adorable in the clothes that I made. It was my first time making a dress as well but I just took inspiration from the dresses designs I have seen in many illustrations and anime so its natural that it would come out well, Not only that, but with the help of Lina as well and some of her tips and some of her contributions as well, the dress came out pretty nicely.

"So, Tina... can she talk? After all, she no longer retains her previous form and she looks more like an insect person kid."

Although Cotton looked like a human child, there is a big distinct look of her that differentiate her from a human child and that is her eyes and her antennae. Her eyes do not have any pupils, instead, it's just black with a little tinge of the transparent white circle that seems to be the pupil on her eyes though I am not sure if that was the best term for it, and at first glance, you would think she is wearing a shade but it was just her eyes. Very similar to Tina's eyes as well, making her look like an insect person rather than a human.

"She can talk but she can only talk our names. It seems she understood us but she still has only names in her vocabulary for now. She knows my name as well as everyone as well. Based on what I can gather, Cotton understood us since she hatched and memorized our names. She can understand our words but she does not know how to convey them like us. She is like how a kid who still doesn't know how to talk," Tina explained.

Lina returned after carrying the pail to the bathroom and heard of our current conversation.

"In that case, I can personally teach her how to talk. I taught many kids back then as it is part of the jobs of a battle maid."

"Oh, that is great, Lina-chan! I am not good at teaching others, especially kids so I can appreciate it if you do. But I can pitch in to help as well," Tina happily nodded after hearing that Lina is capable of teaching basics to Cotton.

"Hey, hey. Don't forget about me. I may be a goblin but I also have experience handling and teaching kids as well. I have the first experience in parenting as well so if your girl gets troubled, you can ask me for suggestions or any tips as well. In fact, I can even ask my wife for input and if she can pitch in as well if you guys are also busy," Gobu proudly declared.

"Then, Cotton is in good hands. I will help as well but don't expect too much from me as I don't have first-hand experience in dealing with kids," I scratch my head. This part is one of my weaknesses. Not only do I have limited information about it, but I also don't have experience in taking care of a child as well, being someone who returned to the past without being able to hold a son or a daughter in my arms.

"No worries, Master. Taking care of a child might take time to experience but that doesn't mean you can't learn. You can learn here too, and once you get your own pups as well, then you will have already the experience and prior knowledge on what to do. That's how first-time parents do most of the time and even though you are not the parent, you are the acting guardian and stepfather of Cotton right now, which is necessary if we want to make Cotton a good girl as well."

As we are discussing stuff, Cotton's antennae started glowing like little light bulbs attached to her head. It's twitching for a bit before.

Then, the same aroma that we smelled before when we are raiding the church on Luminous Continent wafted all over us. A sudden calm of the body overwhelms me and my mind became clearer as a result.

"Aromatherapy?" Tina immediately recognized the ability that Cotton used to us.

"Master! Tina! Lina! Gobu! Hehe!" Cotton pointed at all of us while calling our names, well except for me because she is calling me Master. It's kinda weird that she is calling me Master for some reason but that's just how the summons and companions call me so who am I to say what they should call me? And she is still a learning child so I must say she is already quite good at saying our names.

"It seems Lina retained the Aromatherapy skill which is good considering some of the starting skills she might have before are gone now. Master, perhaps you can check her status and check the skills she has already?" Lina asked.

"Good idea," I seconded and opened her status bar.

However, when I tried doing so, my system glitched and I can't open up her status compared to when she was newly hatched.

"What's wrong, Master? Your face seems conflicted." Tina frowned seeing me do so.

"I can't access her status page. It's glitching and no matter how I do it, it's not opening."

"Are you sure, Master? Perhaps it's just getting broken?" Lina asked.

"No, that's not it either. I can open the menu just fine and I can open the status of you guys, only Cotton is not accessible at all."

Hearing this, everyone frowned. They have not heard of someone or something with an inaccessible status page since even bosses and monsters have one as well. For Cotton to lose that when she evolved is something else.

"Well, it doesn't matter what the status page of Cotton looks like for now. Besides, she is still a kid. She shouldn't participate in battles just yet," Tina shrugged and scoop up Cotton on the floor.

"You are right, we shouldn't even care much whether her status page cannot be opened or not. Cotton is still a kid. We can't just drag her to the battlefield without her consent. We shouldn't force her to do so. She just needs to have fun with life instead of worrying about monsters every day," Gobu nodded as well.

As a result, everyone agreed that we will not bring Cotton to battles though everyone does agree that we have to level Cotton up so that she can develop and recover all of the experience points she lost and that might be one of the prerequisites to open up the status page of Cotton if she has a high level.

Still, it makes me wonder. What really is Cotton? Despite hatching from an egg, she became a humanoid after evolving. It makes me wonder how the heck the Poison Spider Queen grabbed a hold of the egg where Cotton was. Is she a unique identity because a player is currently helping her? So many questions but no answers at all.

After our discussions, I went inside the room where Cotton was previously. The large cocoon is still present in the room but compared to before, it's not as sturdy as before might be because Cotton is already out from it which might be the main reason why.

I checked the cocoon's item description and I was surprised to see its usage of it.

[Empty Cocoon]

Type: Item

Info: A large item made by someone or something from the insect people to encase themselves during evolution. This cocoon is something that cannot be used again by its original occupant therefore, it is now considered useless to them. However, since it was made of silk, it has a chance to become a great material if properly converted by a capable worker.