It's been a bit since I properly assessed what my True form can and can't do... so maybe now it's a good time to bulletpoint the pros and cons.

Pros:

1. I become similar to a ghost and can, for all intents and purposes, move completely independent of my body.

2. Enemies don't seem to notice me whilst my allies can see me.

3. I can interact with anything created using my dungeon's mechanics.

Cons:

1. I can't touch anything similar to a ghost, which means I can't interact with things or feel them. This excludes natural environment like the ground and my dungeon's lower floor.

2. I can't use anything that relies on my Manifested Form's body, such as Growth.

Although it's a simple 3-to-2 comparison, the cons normally kept me from using it anywhere besides the dungeon. Being able to phase through the grass without it hindering me is convenient but not being able to carry corpses made the form all but useless beyond crafting and managing things that my dungeon had stored or ready to utilize. Working the furnace with my body was dangerous but my body also acted as a channel for my mana; without the Creeper, my mana was back to its non-elemental state whilst in my True Form.

On top of that, none of my skills or abilities for combat or support worked whilst I was in this form. Any danger or fighting would mean I'm completely powerless to fight back. No Thorntwist or even my faithful Vice could save me if someone decides they want to take a chip out of me.

If it wasn't for the system's hijacker yelling at me, I'd never take a risk as great as this. But don't let that takeaway from a new con that I learned the instant the confirm text was selected.

Con #3: When outside of the dungeon, changing to my True Form lets gravity influence me.

Even if I'm a ghost, falling face-first onto the ground without any ability to right myself or balance out hurts like a bitch. My camera's placement normally stood taller than my body since I needed to see, which meant I fell a humorously awful ten feet. If I had bones, they'd be broken right now.

Thankfully, I don't have bones.

Bomber looked over the brush at me for a few seconds, yet my ranbli minion didn't see fit to give me even an approving nod. He just shook his head and tried to ignore me as if I'd just embarrassed him.

I don't blame him at all.

Sorry Bomber; if I knew how bad this'd be, I wouldn't have agreed to it. But those echowings would spot you in an instant if you tried to cross this field... and as far as I know, nothing can see me when in this form. I'll go in, find the artifact or whatever, and then come back so we can form a plan.

The hare pats my dormant Creeper body reassuringly but I don't think he understands even still that it's not me whilst I'm in this form. Not that he needs to, as I don't plan to ever use it unless I absolutely need to in this world. All of the cons aside, there isn't any method to properly figure out what my stats are; whenever I use the character sheet in this form, it just proceeds directly to the timer and option to return to my body.

In short, the True Form isn't intended in its current state — or potentially forever — to allow me to utilize my stats. This could mean that they're dormant, active, or whenever I enter this form that I become outside of the system. The lattermost option seems wrong given I still interact with traps and the system works, but that could simply be due to my connection to the system versus my actual placement and function within it.

Crossing the field isn't a challenge at all, but it is a bit intimidating; walking through open-ground alone is a huge contrast to how I'd spent my time in Grey Valley. It compounds a lot when there are echowings gliding and casting giant shadows across the glowing grassland, though. Even in my old body this would be horrifying to experience, especially since one of them even swoops through me.

My True Form is still intangible. Let's hope it stays that way.

Oddly enough, that close encounter helped me see something that I hadn't from afar. In particular, it let me see that their wings have small hands near the end of them, neatly folding three times so that their hands are useable. Most of them walk and push off the ground with their hands to help balance, almost like a sort of winged waddle. Their hands lack opposable thumbs, though, and only have four basic fingers. Echowings look a lot like humans but their anatomy differences tells me it's impossible that they erected the stone buildings they live in. Additionally, they're near imperceptible when compared; humans would have anatomical differences such as chest shape differences, for example, but the dimorphism is much smaller for echowings.

Echowings instead rely on their clothing... and what looks to be their tails. Males wear more revealing outfits that show off their shoulders and have smaller tufty tails, whilst the females wear shoulder-covering wraps, have only slightly wider hips, and bear spaded tails similar to my old world's artistic interpretation of demons. They're hard to spot at a distance, however, since the females keep it wrapped tightly into a similar shape like the male's tail.

It's a bit weird to actually see spaded tails... but it's even weirder seeing a race that's so physically similar despite their gender. The way they walk and look is so different from us so maybe I should've figured it'd be like this.

I watch one of them approach another, letting out a squeak-like language that morphs mid-way through.

"- are you doing?"

So they speak a mix of Oldnat and something else... maybe a language on their race can understand?

The high-pitched question inspires a laugh — at least I hope it's a laugh — from the echoing sitting in the doorway.

"Don't worry," the female echowing replies, albeit she lets out a few squeaks before the words continue. "Hunting ground secure!"

Both echowings lean forward, rubbing their foreheads together and ruffling one another's hair; none of them had intrinsically different hairstyles but instead had differing lengths, resulting in sloppy mismatches of length messing each other up. There may be a reason to it but as far as I can see it looks like children figuring out how to cut hair with scissors and going wild with it. The only parts kept short are what hangs over their dark eyes and sits at the base of their ears' openings, allowing them to see and hear without any issue.

More interesting than that, though, is that after they rub heads like this they immediately go back to business; they don't repeat rubbing heads if they re-approach the same batboy or girl afterward, but the echowings always seem to end their conversations with it.

If it wasn't for the timer on my True Form, I'd love to watch them longer. All this social interaction is something I missed dealing with Bomber, Ivy, and Ropert!

I pass deeper into the village... or at least I hope it's deeper. The stone houses are all easily far older than the woods around them, which means that the only indication of it being deeper is an increase in the echowings' numbers.

Based on their fingers, it should be impossible for these houses to have been made by them. The echowings probably didn't originate here... or maybe they're descended from a species that had the ability to make these homes and simply lost the ability?

If they truly evolved or regressed to the point they can't make new homes, that'd make it near impossible to figure out the origins of the lone cabin back in the valley. My new comprehension of Oldnat meant I could go back and read the carvings, but that was no guarantee it'd be entirely written in Nata. Everything here, though, definitely is; I can see each building marked with a singular Nata, followed by it translating into the meaning in my head. The carvings all seem to represent jobs: carver, hunter, and forager are just to name a few. None of the echowings spare the nata more than a glance, so most of them probably know the village's layout like the back of their hand.

My True Form is tall enough that I can look down on every single one that crosses my path, so I'm sure I'd have seen them raise their heads. It's a pretty impressive feat for so many to memorize what's what. The carvings at least seem accurate since every echowing I've seen so far had some sort of token with them to authenticate them. The carver carried a bone knife on his belt, for example, but otherwise dressed the same.

Monotonal outfits, almost no dimorphism, and the amount of resources they have makes me think they're not very intelligent... but that'd be foolish to assume outright. In a world of magic, Brogdar is no doubt full of surprises and requires not taking anything for granted. The gemfawn is the biggest testament to that.

The system said to find the healer's hut... but so far it looks like the only ones in the buildings are inclined to or physical work. I've already wasted half my time in True Form and seen nearly the whole village. What am I not seeing here?

A simple turn of a corner lets me confirm that I have indeed seen everything... but none of the carvings depicted a healer's job. I didn't see anyone wearing a headdress or something that a healer might stereotypically have, so where are they? If I'm not quick about it, I'll be forced to search again once my True form goes through cooldown.

Waiting that long may lose precious daytime. Think, Kaden... what are you missing?

These echowings are so simple that it's hard to decipher who's doing what once they leave their homes; they sit in circles around campfires or take flight in pairs, yet only the ones returning or turning in for the night go apart. This kind of community makes every part of me ache trying to parse apart and that's before adding in the difficulty of them appearing so similar to one another.

Even if I was a pervert, this sort of situation is awful! Their clothing and mannerisms are just so primitive that you can't appreciate a damn thing! I mean, there's one licking others over there and-

... Licking? Status: Ivy. Manager.

Ivy -> [Manager] Nursing Lick Learned Support-type A Support skill; an alternative to magic healing, some creatures can convert their stamina into a light medicinal mixture.

Heals 2 HP per use.

Costs 12 SP.

Don't tell me that the echowings also use Nursing Lick!

I rush over to the bat's side, taking note of their appearance as the final moments tick away for my form. Just in case I run out of time, I need to have them memorized!

The echowing healer is a female; like other females she has a spaded tail curled into a neat tuft-like shape, yet she wears a wooden neckband that further helps hide her shoulders. Her top is almost entirely leather with fur lining around her neck, wrapped similarly to a shawl to hide her paltry chest. Her bottom set of clothing is similarly leather with fur lining, but hugs her hips with just the smallest hint of tightness you'd expect on a pair of modern shorts or underwear so that it can show off what little body fat the bat has.

She's only about five feet tall but her wingspan...

The girl opens her wings and wraps them around one of the other echowings, grossly splatting her wide tongue against his exposed shoulders. The saliva shimmers a brilliant blue only moments before a pair of scratches seal shut. Unlike the lick Ivy has, this one is far more potent; the likelihood of this being an evolved skill or even a spell doesn't seem that far off.

Her ability to heal is impressive.

As if she heard my thoughts, she raises her head and looks toward where I'm standing. She blinks and tilts her head so as to listen, all but confirming she didn't really hear or see me. At least I'm pretty sure she didn't; maybe one of the squeaks from the other echowings was someone calling her by name.

For now, I just need to find out where she-

[Notification] True Form's time has expired: returning the user to their body now.

WAIT FUCK NO I WAS JUST AT THE SORTA LEWD PART BEFORE I FOLLOW HER-

Something grabs me and throws me. Not really but that's sure as shit what this felt like; one moment I was perfectly in the middle of the village and the next I was hurtling through walls, echowings, then flying through the empty space of the field. My stomach lurched so hard I could taste vomit in the back of my mouth but slammed into my body before I could even attempt puking as a poltergeist.

Instead, I crumple over and slap against a tree, blacking out just as Bomber dives aside so that he doesn't get pinned between me and it.