The Builder's Quest in the World of Dragon Quest Builders
2 Points
2
You're sitting at your desk, minding your own business, lost in the pages of a well-worn book that has kept you company for hours. The tranquility of the moment is suddenly shattered by a strange, tingly sensation crawling across your skin. You look around, confused, as the familiar surroundings of your room begin to warp and melt away, replaced by an entirely different world.
Your body feels strange, different. You gasp and hold out your hands, watching in horror as they shrink, becoming small, stubby, and oversized. You feel a pressure on your chest, but a moment later, your breasts flatten out, and your curves vanish. The transformation is happening fast, too fast to comprehend. Your voice catches in your throat, and you reach up instinctively, feeling an Adam's apple forming there. Panic surges through you as you realize you're losing something crucial, something that was inherently you.
Stranger still, if you were female, your fears are confirmed as the sensations in your lower body change, warmth spreading as your female genitals transform, shifting into male ones. The whole process is excruciatingly surreal.
Your height decreases, bringing the world closer. Your clothes change, morphing into a blue tunic, a red scarf, and white pants. Brown leather gloves enwrap your hands, while boots clasp your feet snugly. A blue cap with large brown goggles sits atop your sandy-brown, spiky hair, and a mallet materializes in your grasp.
As the physical transformation settles, dizziness envelops you. Your mind becomes fuzzy, and you stagger, gripping your head in fear. “Remember... I need to remember!” you try to shout, but your voice falters, reducing to grunts and yelps. Your previous self – your memories, your personality – everything begins to dissipate like dust in the wind. The world around you solidifies into a new reality, that of Alefgard.
The last echoes of your past self whisper into oblivion, leaving you as someone entirely different. You are the Builder now, and always have been. Rubiss' voice reaches out from the abyss, calm yet authoritative.
"<Builder, can you hear My voice?>"
The words resound in your mind as you slowly regain focus, opening your eyes to an unknown yet oddly familiar world. You begin understanding your purpose, slowly but surely.
"<My world has fallen into ruin after the curse of the Dragonlord. Arts of creation are lost, but you, Builder, possess the power to reconstruct, to forge items from raw materials. You must rebuild Alefgard, to give my people a sanctuary from despair.>"
Your surroundings come into sharp relief as you recognize tools and materials scattered around. Rubiss provides guidance, showing you how to craft what is needed for your upcoming journey. Fragments of commands float by as you feel an inexplicable urge to build.
But with each passing second, a peculiar carefree attitude blooms within you. Rubiss continues, her divine voice filling your mind with information you ought to remember.
"<You're not a Hero, Builder. Your task isn't to fight but to build.>"
Even as Her words fade, a smirk forms on your face as a simple desire to build for the sake of building takes root in your soul.
The urgency of the world’s plight settles within you. Yes, you understand now – you’re tasked with rebuilding swathes of Alefgard and in time, deep bonds will form. Your mission ultimately involves repelling the shadow of the Dragonlord, but you choose the path of a Builder above all.
Rubiss sighs, almost exasperated. "<Do you understand what needs to be done?>"
You quirk an eyebrow, a lopsided grin pulling at your lips. The answer you give is silent, yet clear in your intent. You might challenge the Dragonlord himself, not for the glory but for the pleasure of crafting a better world.
“Just build things...” the thought crystallizes in your mind, one last nod to your inherent, carefree nature.
The tutorial concludes as Rubiss continues talking, but you don't hear the specifics. Your hands move instinctively, gathering materials, preparing for the monumental task ahead. The former you is gone – forgotten – and now there is only the Builder.
And you’re ready. Ready to rebuild Alefgard, one block at a time.
This story was generated by user LanHikari with assistance by one of OpenAI’s large-scale language-generation model; prompts used to help generate the story are shown below.
Images were generated with OpenAI's AI system, DALL·E 2, or uploaded by the user.
AI Prompts
Prompt: Write the POV transformation story of the human reader turning into male Builder (who is also a human, albeit magically reanimated unlike the reader himself/herself) from the 2016 video game "Dragon Quest Builders", complete with gender change (if the reader is a female before the transformation; in case the reader is female, her breasts flatten to leave her flat-chested, while her feminine curves vanished to give way to a male body, as an Adam's apple forms in her throat to give her a masculine voice, and her female genitals (vagina, ovaries, and uterus) invert itself into male genitals (testicles and penis); however, the reader could be a male before the transformation, so gender change is optional and only if the reader is female), height regression (making him/her shorter due to his/her chibification, making his/her body small with stubby limbs, an oversized head, and minimal detail), age change, voice change (the voice change also causes the reader to lose the ability to speak and becoming silent (aside from yelps, grunts, battle cries, and so forth)), reality change (the reader's real world becoming the world of "Dragon Quest Builders"), and mind/mental change (with all of the reader's personality and memories being completely replaced with Builder's personality and memories, making him/her dizzy with a fuzzy mind (the dizziness and the mind's fuzziness clears up when his/her memories are fully replaced), despite his/her best efforts on fighting them off (he doesn't want to forget his previous self but then completely forgets all about his previous self against his will), making him unable to remember his previous self, so he remembers (or rather knows) that he has always been Builder (which is his true/real self), completely oblivious/unaware of his previous self (which wasn't real to begin with)). The transformation is permanent (meaning it is forever) and is completely irreversible. For male Builer's appearance (after the reader turned into him), he is a young man (without any facial hair) who has light sandy-brown spiky hair (which is short and spiky), while his skin is fair in color, and his eyes' irises are blue in color. He is a very distant descendant of Erdrick and the last person left in Alefgard who has the power to create new things (as such he is titled as the Legendary Builder and he is tasked with rebuilding the ruined world around him). He wears a blue tunic with a red scarf, black undershirt, white pants and brown leather gloves and brown leather boots as well as a brown belt adorned with a sleeping roll and water skin (representing Wayfarer's clothes). He also wears a blue Phrygian cap with large brown goggles (with yellow rims) on top. He is shown equipped with a Hammerhood's giant mallet. On his hands, Geo wears red fingerless gloves with yellow squares on their backs, which widen into red-and-gold discs around his wrists. Here is male Builder's personality; The Builder is curt and informal when addressing their fellow citizens, and even when communing with Rubiss herself. One such instance of this is upon first meeting Myrlund, the Builder opts to address him as "Gramps". The Builder have a noticeably carefree attitude, often telling others not to worry about their concerns and also is initially disinterested in the larger plight of Alefgard, professing that they would rather build for building sake than doing it so for the good of mankind and their fight aganist the monsters. Over the course of his task however, the Builder's attitude changes, forming deep bonds of friendship with the people he met and assisted. In the end, when asked to leave them under the looming threat of the Dragonlord despite having at disposition all the tools necessary to confront him, the Builder couldn't bring themself to do so, and choosed to challenge the tyrant, even if it meant losing Rubiss protection and critically shortening their own lifespan. Even after proving their identity as the Legendary Builder and earning their respect, the Builder hopelessly appears inattentive and dim-witted to the citizens of Alefgard, who often remark on their vacant stare or overestimation of their own skills. This character follows the Dragon Quest series tradition of being silent, though character's voice actor is employed for yelps, grunts, battle cries, and so forth when taking damage or fighting monsters. Furthermore, a sassy personality is strongly implied for both as the protagonist will talk back to several characters over the course of the adventure, even the Goddess Herself. No dialogue is displayed when this happens, and the implication is carried through by the reactions of the other conversation participants. Here are the male Builder's abilities; The Builder is the only person alive who is able to combine, rearrange and construct objects from materials and the only one who can reduce said objects back to their components by destroying them. This being said, the Builder is not totally immune to the hex--he will be stripped of all knowledge gained during a chapter when beginning a new one, and must relearn every recipe again. Due to the focus of "Dragon Quest Builders" (the game which the Builder is part of) being more sandbox-orientated than previous Dragon Quest game titles, the Builder has far fewer stats than the typical protagonist. Only HP, attack, and defence are shown in-game, with the former improving through leveling up the quality of a given chapter's town and through Seeds of life, with the latter two being completely dependent on weapons and armour. Here is the male Builder's origins/history; The Builder's history prior to the events of the game are never fully explained, only that he died sometime ago by an unknown cause and was brought back to life by Rubiss for the express task of rebuilding Alefguard. The reasons for Rubiss's choice to revive him in particular is due to the fact that the Builder, like the the fallen Hero, is also a descendant of Erdrick--something she does not reveal to him until he has completed his task. However, unlike his ancestor, he was not blessed with strength but with the power of creation, an art lost in this series' timeline. The story is that the reader is minding his/her own business, but is then interrupted by a weird tingly feeling as his/her world suddenly starts warping into the world of Dragon Quest Builders, and his/her body starts to change against his will. After the physical transformation ends, his (the reader is now totally a male if he was a female before) mind starts clouding up (making him dizzy) and he starts forgetting all about his previous self (also against his will), making him hold his head in fear and tells/screams himself to remember, but then he loses his ability to speak (other than yelps, grunts, battle cries, and so forth) and he is losing all memories and personality of his previous self as he suffers from amnesia, making it completely impossible to remember his previous self or life and leaving him as an unnamed Builder. The Builder awakens in Alefgard at the words of Rubiss asking if the Builder can hear Her voice. She explains the fate that has befallen Her world, and that the Builder is the only person alive with the ability to forge items from raw materials, as all others have fallen prey to the curse of the Dragonlord that has clouded creative clarity the world over. The Builder begins the tutorial of the game entombed in an unmarked grave, where in Rubiss explains the process of crafting tools and what will be required of the Builder to save the remaining lives left in Alefguard (while being interrupted frequently). The Goddess ends the tutorial by stating that he is not a Hero, and thus the Builder's responsibility lies strictly with rebuilding the towns of Alefguard and giving safe haven to the people. The Goddess is then flabbergasted to hear Her chosen one "doesn't get it" and "just wants to build things" (but the Builder may in fact rebuild the towns of Alefguard and giving safe haven to the people, which depends on the Builder himself). There should also be quotes from the characters in this story so we know what they're saying and what they're thinking. Also, it is a POV reader story, so it should not be in an author's point of view (my, I, mine, etc), and it should be from the point of view of the reader (you, your, etc).
Response: You're sitting at your desk, minding your own business, lost in the pages of a well-worn book that has kept you company for hours. The tranquility of the moment is suddenly shattered by a strange, tingly sensation crawling across your skin. You look around, confused, as the familiar surroundings of your room begin to warp and melt away, replaced by an entirely different world. Your body feels strange, different. You gasp and hold out your hands, watching in horror as they shrink, becoming small, stubby, and oversized. You feel a pressure on your chest, but a moment later, your breasts flatten out, and your curves vanish. The transformation is happening fast, too fast to comprehend. Your voice catches in your throat, and you reach up instinctively, feeling an Adam's apple forming there. Panic surges through you as you realize you're losing something crucial, something that was inherently you. Stranger still, if you were female, your fears are confirmed as the sensations in your lower body change, warmth spreading as your female genitals transform, shifting into male ones. The whole process is excruciatingly surreal. Your height decreases, bringing the world closer. Your clothes change, morphing into a blue tunic, a red scarf, and white pants. Brown leather gloves enwrap your hands, while boots clasp your feet snugly. A blue cap with large brown goggles sits atop your sandy-brown, spiky hair, and a mallet materializes in your grasp. As the physical transformation settles, dizziness envelops you. Your mind becomes fuzzy, and you stagger, gripping your head in fear. “Remember... I need to remember!” you try to shout, but your voice falters, reducing to grunts and yelps. Your previous self – your memories, your personality – everything begins to dissipate like dust in the wind. The world around you solidifies into a new reality, that of Alefgard. The last echoes of your past self whisper into oblivion, leaving you as someone entirely different. You are the Builder now, and always have been. Rubiss' voice reaches out from the abyss, calm yet authoritative. "<Builder, can you hear My voice?>" The words resound in your mind as you slowly regain focus, opening your eyes to an unknown yet oddly familiar world. You begin understanding your purpose, slowly but surely. "<My world has fallen into ruin after the curse of the Dragonlord. Arts of creation are lost, but you, Builder, possess the power to reconstruct, to forge items from raw materials. You must rebuild Alefgard, to give my people a sanctuary from despair.>" Your surroundings come into sharp relief as you recognize tools and materials scattered around. Rubiss provides guidance, showing you how to craft what is needed for your upcoming journey. Fragments of commands float by as you feel an inexplicable urge to build. But with each passing second, a peculiar carefree attitude blooms within you. Rubiss continues, her divine voice filling your mind with information you ought to remember. "<You're not a Hero, Builder. Your task isn't to fight but to build.>" Even as Her words fade, a smirk forms on your face as a simple desire to build for the sake of building takes root in your soul. The urgency of the world’s plight settles within you. Yes, you understand now – you’re tasked with rebuilding swathes of Alefgard and in time, deep bonds will form. Your mission ultimately involves repelling the shadow of the Dragonlord, but you choose the path of a Builder above all. Rubiss sighs, almost exasperated. "<Do you understand what needs to be done?>" You quirk an eyebrow, a lopsided grin pulling at your lips. The answer you give is silent, yet clear in your intent. You might challenge the Dragonlord himself, not for the glory but for the pleasure of crafting a better world. “Just build things...” the thought crystallizes in your mind, one last nod to your inherent, carefree nature. The tutorial concludes as Rubiss continues talking, but you don't hear the specifics. Your hands move instinctively, gathering materials, preparing for the monumental task ahead. The former you is gone – forgotten – and now there is only the Builder. And you’re ready. Ready to rebuild Alefgard, one block at a time.
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