Cynthia awoke in a place she didn't recognize. She was in a soft bed placed in a room furnished like a medieval inn. There was a small simple wooden desk and chair in a corner with what looked to be an oil lamp. Radiant sun rays flowed through the window. Cynthia took off the blanket and noticed she was clothed in a simple night gown. Something she noticed as soon as she tried to stand was that she had grown. She stumbled for a moment, and regained her bearings. Unfortunately Cynthia didn't see a mirror in this room. She tried to sense who was close, but nobody under her command was close by enough to warrant calling them to view her appearance.
"Since this appears to be an inn, I might as well inquire about a mirror." Cynthia thought. She then walked towards the door and opened it to find a hallway with many doors and a staircase at each end of the hallway. One went down and one went up. Cynthia sensed the energy of the world to know which way to go. Originally she was going to go down but she didn't know if in this world inns had rooms in basement levels. Her worries seemed to be founded in reality. What's more, she noticed that the energy here was incredibly rich. She could also feel that behind most of the doors here, people were meditating and taking in the surrounding energy. Most were humans. She did sense an unfamiliar race though. Neither human nor beast. She could sense a humanoid send a message through the energy. "Everyone here knows you were brought here unconscious, young one, so they are being lenient." Said what seems to be a bull beast in humanoid form with striking horns and feet that resembled hooves "it is frowned upon to peer into others rooms.". "I'm sorry I was just trying to figure out where to go." said Cynthia respectfully. She knew that the beast was very much her senior so she treated him with the utmost respect. "Everyone here understands that. Go up ten floors. You are on the lowest floor that is rented to individuals. It is a good thing you did not go down like you were originally going to." said the bull senior "This is not an ordinary inn, as you've likely already figured out. This is an inn for cultivators.".
"Thank you very much for your help, senior." Cynthia said respectfully. "You're welcome. I've heard that celestial white tigers tend to be arrogant and combative but you seem to be a lovely little one. I have a daughter your age and she's spoiled rotten." replied the bull. "Oh I assure you, I am plenty arrogant, senior, but I am also not enough of a fool as to not recognize one who can achieve humanoid form." said Cynthia reverently. "That's actually not as hard as you think, little lady. Look for obsidian mirrors in the market." suggested the bull "On your way now. I'm sure you have plenty of questions. If I remember correctly your subordinates went out to look at the wares in the market. The monkey said he knew you'd reward them for what they did and insisted that the others leave the room with him and let you rest" said the bull. "That presumptuous bastard! It was mostly his loose tongue that got everyone into that mess!" said Cynthia getting riled up again. "It was more so that the two spiders were bawling their eyes out because they were worried about you." said the bull trying to ease the girl's anger. "It's fine, I'll get the full picture when I talk to them." said Cynthia "they are incapable of lying to me.". "Alright I wish you all the best." said the bull. "You too, senior." said Cynthia, blinking to him in respect.
After the festival Cynthia was fully capable of communing with her instincts. She now knew on an ingrained level about the etiquette of celestial white tigers. With this knowledge she also now knew that she was most of the way through the juvenile growth stage because of the increase in stats she received from her titles during the fight in the arena. Human instincts were incapable of knowing of their own growth so she wasn't aware of what her visual age was in human senses but she knew by her change in height that she had aged at least two years visually. She could also feel that the slider for her human transformation skill had changed. It now had another axis to it and it was more than just human and tiger. She could feel that she could half transform with tiger fur covering her body but with a still humanoid shape. The extra axis seemed to be about her age. She could now switch between being a cub or even being in full humanoid form without the tiger ears and tail. She could feel that this was actually what every celestial white tiger could do if they got past a certain point in their growth. She was actually capable of a little more because the skill she absorbed from the shapeshifter and her natural abilities seem to have combined. She knew that most celestial white tigers were capable of what she was doing right now but going fully human without any beast features was her ability alone.
By the time Cynthia was done pondering all of this she had arrived at the top floor of the inn which was the ground floor. "Ah, it's the little butcher!" said a lady at the front desk with a radiant smile "come here, since your subordinates aren't here I should inform you of what happened.". "Well you can start by telling me why you just called me a butcher." said Cynthia approaching the front desk. "Keep in mind I heard everything up till your arrival second hand." said the lady at the front desk "Apparently you went mad in the arena and started butchering your opponents.". "I did most of that with a clear mind" said Cynthia, taking a sip of tea which the receptionist had offered. "With how cute you look, nobody would expect that from a little girl such as yourself." said the receptionist unfazed by Cynthia's reply "I don't blame you, though. The beast taming business goes from taming beasts to slavery rather quickly since beasts usually attain intelligence if they have the potential to be strong.". "After your subordinates and others got you to sleep they brought you here to recover, and after everything calmed down rumors started to spread and they gave you the nickname little butcher." said the receptionist. "Funny story when your subordinates brought you here some of our customers were about to beat them up because they brought a naked little girl covered in blood and were asking for a room.". "Those idiots were just carrying me around town naked?!" she said, mortified. "I'm curious, did your clothes get destroyed during the fight?" asked the receptionist. Cynthia then realized that she didn't actually own any clothes, because she just wore her stigma all the time. "About that…" said Cynthia "they may actually not be that idiotic". "What do you mean?" asked the receptionist. Cynthia called her stripes forth to make her armor. "I usually wear this but it seems that without consciousness it disappears." Cynthia said now embarrassed that she didn't consider that. "It's fine! Since you know now you can go out and get some clothes!" said the receptionist. "Wait, my money!" said Cynthia in a panic.
"Your beast pearls have been stored in your warehouse" said a new blue window. Cynthia made a visible sigh of relief before her panic set in again. "God dammit I can't access that!" said Cynthia in distress. "What's wrong?" asked the receptionist worried for the little girl. "I have a small area in my beast pearl that can be used to store things. The issue is that I have no idea how to access it." said Cynthia. "I actually study extradimensional spaces as a scholar. I just work here to pay my tuition." said the receptionist "the hard part about making a space ring or space bag is making the space inside it. Every person studying extradimensional spaces has at least one failed item that can access such space but no attached space. I even have a few in my desk drawer from practicing on breaks.". The receptionist opened her drawer and showed them to Cynthia. Take your pick. Cynthia picked out a silver ring with a piece of jade fixed on top of it.
"Now all you have to do is Connect the space. The ring is made to do this like a needle is made to break skin. All you need is to direct it." said the aspiring scholar. Cynthia did just that and she felt a connection. "A connection has been made to Warehouse 1" said a new blue window. Cynthia then brought out one medium beast pearl. "Is this enough for the room, night gown, and ring?" asked Cynthia. "Yes but how did you know the gown was mine?" asked the receptionist. "I have a very good nose." replied Cynthia "Do you have a mirror I can use?". "I don't but there are mirrors in most clothing shops. If you can wait until my shift is over, I can bring you to some of my favorite places.". "Let's do that then," said Cynthia.