“The Wakefields have been needing a farmhand for some time now,” the wizard explained. “I probably would have given them Aaron, but clearly he cannot stay and be their farmhand while he is off on quests and having adventures as a knight. It seems only fitting that you should take his place. But why give them a little boy who will take years to grow into usefulness when I can just give them a perfect farmhand now?"
Brian was distracted from his attempts to find a way to escape by the wizard's confusing words. Why was he talking about a little boy when Aaron was clearly a knight in his twenties? And what did he mean by a perfect farmhand? Before he could figure any of that out, though, the wizard spoke some syllables that Brian couldn't understand, and then waved his hand at the elf, who shuddered at the feel of some unseen force that sent a tingling sensation all through his body as he felt himself start changing.
The formerly human elf became a human once again. His pointed elven ears rounded into human ones. His facial features shifted, becoming softer and less angular, and seemed to mature, though in reality he was staying the same age, which appeared differently for elves and humans, and his slender build bulked up somewhat. Brian soon looked just like he had as a human in the real world, before he had started the game, and for a moment it looked like the changes would end there, but then he felt that same tingling sensation starting up again even more intensely and the changes continued.
Brian didn't seem to get any older, still looking like a teenager, but he did keep on getting bigger. His frame continuing to bulk up and he got taller as well. His shoulders broadened, and his bigger chest inflated out into a pair of meaty pecs while his arms ballooned as well until they were thickly muscled. His newly strong build and the muscles he had grown all over his body gave him the look of someone who did a lot of hard physical labor, an impression helped by his skin, which tanned and toughened. His dick grew longer and regenerated its foreskin, and his balls swelled. His hair grew longer too, and shaggy and unkempt. His facial features became smoother and coarser. His forehead seemed to deflate a little, and his brow dropped a little. His jaw went slack, and his eyes dulled. The former elf now looked like a strong, stupid, teenaged laborer.
Ty and the wizard both grinned at him, but Brian felt confused. He looked down at himself and could tell that he was different, but he was having trouble thinking of exactly what had changed or what was going on. It was hard to concentrate or focus, like there was a fog in his head.
Perhaps sensing that otherwise he would get nowhere, the wizard helpfully informed him, “You are a peasant farmhand now, and have been for the past nine years, ever since the Wakefields took you in off the streets. You plow fields, harvest crops, take care of the animals, and do other chores around the farm for them, since you are too dumb and uneducated to do anything else.”
“I’m not dumb an’... undedjercated,” Brian protested, hearing the sound of his new, deeper, slower, duller voice for the first time. He had trouble putting the words and syllables together right.
“You are now,” Ty replied, still smiling like the Cheshire cat. “You may still remember your old life, but not reading, writing, math, or any of the other things you’ve learned, because now you have a new life where you never learned them. And I wouldn’t count on remembering your old life for too much longer, I think your head is too thick to have room for all of that. You’re a total dimwit, which is perfect for a farmhand like you, since you don’t need to think or ask questions.”
Brian tried to remember his education, how to read, but he couldn’t remember what those squiggly marks meant anymore and was having trouble comprehending the whole idea of them. He could still remember reading, but memories of school were fuzzy and distant and he couldn’t recall the specifics of names and faces and words. Actually, the same was true of all his old memories, not just school but also family and friends and his whole life growing up in the suburbs. Instead, he increasingly remembered his new life. He had grown up as an orphan on the streets of the town and had to live off the charity of the townspeople since he was too dumb to fend for himself, and then the Wakefields took him in and put him to work on their farm. He felt a flash of canine loyalty towards them, and thought of them almost as his masters. He remembered years of labor in the fields and stables, growing big and strong, and how it was all perfect for him because he liked working outside or with animals, liked feeling his own strength, liked not having to think. Ty was right, he did feel dumb. His head felt heavy and it was too hard to think about his old life or anything complicated.
Something seemed to click in Brian’s head, and he settled into his new personality, feeling content and confused. He looked down at himself, naked, and then around at the stable, now unfamiliar, and asked in his dull voice, “Why’m I in here naked?”
The wizard rolled his eyes, muttering, “Oh, for the love of the gods,” and gestured again. Brian was suddenly clothed in rags and seemed much dirtier, like he hadn’t taken a bath in far too long, if ever, but the dimwitted boy didn’t seem to notice. “You came in here to look at the horsies,” the wizard said, “Now run along back to the farm.”
“Duh, okay,” Brian nodded, not questioning what the wizard told him. He liked horsies. And so the big, dumb farmhand lumbered off out of the stable and down the road to the farm on the route that he now remembered, though he would need to ask for help to get there since he got confused. His magical experience inside the stable was forgotten, and he now had a new reality.
Ty nodded in approval. “That should teach him to nose around.”
The wizard chuckled. “I do not think there is much danger of him doing that in the future. He does not strike me as the curious sort anymore. But who knows, perhaps adventure will still manage to find him. Or not.”