Writing Club - August 2026

Haha, well... My character goes to the 'Classlight Ceremony' and finds out they're a [Shapeshifter]. This class is highly stigmatized. As an example, when the crowd in the System of the World Church sees [Shapeshifter] projected on to the ceiling, someone shouts, "that's a class for hookers!"

The starting skills for a [Shapeshifter] are [Flesh Shaping] and [Shape Memory]. As in, that's all they get to start. There's loads of other skills, of course, but they're considered "adults-only" and hence, my MC isn't allowed to learn about them since he's 12 (this world considers 16 an adult since that aligns with the medieval-styled guilds).

He works in a forge and the system won't let him use [Flesh Shaping] to make himself stronger because that also violates the rules of The System (because then children could make themselves stronger than their parents and possibly kill them when they make them [Eat Your Vegetables] haha). So basically, he feels useless, since he can't pick up all the skills that an [Artisan: Blacksmith] would get that make them more efficient and proficient at their work.

He's desperate to unlock skills! He's surrounded by people who have loads of useful skills and he can make his face more handsome (and his dick bigger, hehe). But what good is that for a 12-13yo?

He does some research (reads through some history of shapeshifters) and finds out that someone was able to unlock a legendary [Shapeshifter] skill, [Sex Change] by drinking a Potion of Sex Change. He thinks that if all he needs is to drink a potion to unlock the skill, he might as well (he's not trans). He desperately wants to level up like his peers and that's a legendary skill!

Except that potion costs as much as a townhouse. Since that's unobtainable with a kid's funds, he uses his deep knowledge of biology to come up with a workaround: Certain amphibians can spontaneously change their sex under certain conditions! So if he can "just get a witch to curse me into a frog for a month..."

The local hot springs area is warm year-round and contains a large population of Common Reed Frogs. But how does he know which ones are male and which are female? He needs a male to go into that terrarium with him for a whole month! In order to write that scene, I needed to know what the differences are, haha.

Ultimately, his gamble works, though he had to mostly (and painfully) use [Flesh Shaping] to essentially remove his balls just before he gets cursed. Because Common Reed Frogs normally only spontaneously change from female to male. However, males of the species do have ovaries, so if you "just disable testosterone production"... Hehe.

I learned so much about Common Reed Frogs, haha.

Anyway, The System also considers [Sex Change] an adults-only skill, so when he transforms back into a human, he gets stuck as a girl for ~2.5 years. Which causes all sorts of chaos for his family, the guilds, and his mental health. "It's only until I'm 16. I can do this."

He also ends up unlocking [Bone Shaping], [Biomineralization], [Keratin Shaping], and similar "shaping" skills thanks to his extensive knowledge of biology. This allows him/her to create objects out of their body like a 3D printer.

Eventually, they end up saving the town with some clever [Bone Shaping] against a "Sub-Plot-Level threat" (hehe) and The System rewards them with two incredible skills: [Bioanalysis] and [Vicarious Shapeshifting] (which let her shapeshift others).

That [Bioanalysis] skill ends up letting this character unlock [Chitin Shaping] and the ability to produce just about anything that an animal can produce. That means iridescent/metallic beetle chitin and resilin which is the most incredible rubbery material that actually exists.

...and then there's the chaos that occurs when a teenage girl suddenly has the power to make everyone "young again" and give every peer "perfect skin" and "enhancements" like removing the apocrine glands under everyone's arms (and functional cat ears, hehe).

Because of the [Bioanalysis] skill, I've also had to learn about loads of "pretty bugs" and bugs that might unlock powerful skills (like the ability to produce hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide like a bombardier beetle).

So there ya go 😁

Note that the Wikipedia article on epicuticular wax only covers the plant version. Any sort of wax/hydrocarbon coating on the outside of a living creature is considered "epicuticular wax" or sometimes just "cuticular wax".

My character uses the type used by beetles to prevent themselves from drying out. They'd use the plant kind too but, "ain't nobody got time for that!" (Having to turn your skin green with chloroplasts and sit in the sun for hours to produce plant stuff is very time consuming 😁)

So you don't miss it, see my other comment in this thread:

https://programming.dev/comment/25738446