After my quick chat with Root we started the walk back to where we fought the water elemental. During this time I was trying to come up with different methods to practice my shaping ability, it was right on the edge of ranking up.

"Hey anyone have any interesting ideas I could try to change?" I asked.

"What? Why?" Orlo asked, I checked the skill.

Shape Alteration, Rank C - 98%

"I have like 2% or less for the rank up and I'm out of new ideas." I said.

"You are out of ideas?" Orlo asked in astonishment.

"Yell I mean I could give myself real wings or gills again but that might be a little difficult at the moment?" I said.

"Can you make yourself bigger or smaller?" Turnip asked.

"Hmm never tried… but that might be problematic because my clothes don't shift as well." I said.

"Wait why not, I've seen you experiment with changing the shape of a broken plate before?" Turnip said.

"Wow… how the fuck did I overlook that… thanks!" I said excitedly.

Then I concentrated on giving myself a cat's tail as well as altering my clothes to support a hole for the tail. It took a moment of concentration before I had everything repositioned but I had a cat tail and it looked cute. Then I focused on my ears and moved them to the top of my head in a similar spot to when I did Bun ears and turned them to cat ears.

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Shape Alteration skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!

Rank B will cost two (2) general skill points.

Shape Alteration

Rank - B 100%

Permanent changes now cost less, you can now use Stamina to maintain temporary Alterations.

Would you like to rank up to B it will cost two (2) general skill points.

I greedily accepted the new skill like I had with many others.

"Fuck yes Rank B." I nearly shouted.

"Congratulations, that was a general skill correct?" Root asked.

"Yup so it's getting expensive… but it's a crazy interesting ability." I said excitedly.

"What did the rank up provide?" Iser asked.

"Less expensive permanent changes, and I can now use Stamina instead of mana to maintain the change." I said.

"You have been very limited with what you can do after you change. That does not seem like the case anymore does it?" Iser asked.

"Yup, and my stamina still recovers much faster than mana. But I'm unsure right now if stamina usage will match mana usage I suspect not…" I added.

"Right well congrats, but be careful it's unheard of to get two general skills to that rank at your first evolution." Root said.

“Did you give yourself cat ears and a tail?” Lluvia asked.

“Nope!” I said with a very big smile.

We eventually made it to the area that we had been attacked at yesterday. The solution that Lluvia has helped me with was working quite well. Most of my aches had gone away or diminished quite a bit but I suspect some of that was the tea.

The area still seemed similar to how it was yesterday except well dried up as well.

"Can water elementals absorb water from other things?" I asked.

"I am unsure at the moment, this is not even their normal environment which is odd." Iser said.

"Alright well we know more about what we are looking for so keep alert." Root said.

We continued on for a few more minutes then I came up with an idea.

"I’ve got an idea that should be simple and relatively safe." I whispered to the group.

I pulled out one of my water canteens undid the lid then 'mage handed' it maybe 100 feet in front of the group. I then made sure to spill water everywhere then left half empty canteen there. With that set up all waited for any signs of movement.

Lluvia was the first to spot it, it looked like a vine from this angle and distance. As soon as the tenderals found the water the bulk of it came out from the underbrush and devoured the canteen.

"Right… I think I know why it was trying to crush me now…" I said with a sort of queasy fascination.

"Good call on the water." Root whispered.

Now that it was out in the open I took aim with my new and improved crossbow. Also I loaded the bolt up with Shadow mana instead of force. I was hoping it would have more of an impact compared to something more physical.

I fired, I still used a thin mana thread attached to the bolt to help guide the strike like I had done in the past. The bolt impacted and an explosion of darkness momentarily enveloped the monster.

"Oh it didn't like that." Orlo said.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

The response from the thing was to charge our location, luckily I was able to fire off two more shots before it even got to us then I fell back. Iser then hit it with a particularly intense stream of fire closer to what I expected a plasma lance to be like.

Turnip then got in front of the thing and started to swing her mace, which was just tossing large splashes of water every which way. Lluvia was firing arrows into the thing from her short bow but it was having little effect. Orlo was to the left of Turnip with their talons slicing it. There must have been some level of mana infusion as it seemed to have a bit more of an impact than Turnip's tactic. Root was hanging back directing and ready to step in and assist if it looked needed.

I was maybe 20 feet away and didn't want to fire my crossbow over Turnip's shoulder but did want to try the force lance in my vambrace, or maybe calling it a shadow lance now would fit better.

I was standing right next to Iser and fired a small blast of shadow mana into the watery mass.

"Orlo work with Turnip on keeping it immobile, Lluvia let's move up and assist. Iser, Nicole, keep your attacks up, they are the most effective." Root shouted out and ran up. With that I really started to let loose on my attacks.

With it effectively immobilized I started to experiment a little. While my vambrace was working it was also not the most effective. I would need to spend some time and optimize it for dual mana types, and overhaul how much mana I could force through it.

I pulled out my dagger sword and extended it, then I concentrated on infusing it with a mix of shadow and force mana mostly focused on the shadow aspect. The blade started to emit basically very thick and heavy black shadows. The one thing I was discovering about this new class's influence seemed to lean into presentation to some degree.

I focused then swung the sword from 20 feet away projecting the energy in a vertical arc. It felt so corny for me to do this but I always did like Bleach and Dragon Ball Z…

I eventually had to move up and started to cut at it, augmenting my strikes with both force and shadow mana.

Our fight lasted for over 4 minutes and Iser and I kept having to alternate attacks as we were both running low on mana.

Congratulations, you darkened ‘Water Elemental’ Level 28 to its final sunset! Bonus Exp was granted for annihilating a monster above your level! Reduced Exp was granted for working in a group.

For repeating a Special Action a sufficient number of times you have unlocked the class skill: Mimicry

"Fuck that was tough…" I complained.

"That was unusual and it was also larger than the one from yesterday." Iser said

"How much bigger?" I asked

"The one yesterday was maybe half this one’s size?" He said thinking.

"Honestly too you and Iser did all the real work we just kept it from getting away." Lluvia added and there were heads bobbing in agreement.

"Nicole what's your Mana at?" Root asked out of the blue, I checked.

Mana: 50/145

"I have 50 points right now, why what's up?" I asked.

"Nothing good girl, you're just being responsible and aware." Root said proudly.

"Thanks… ugg that makes me feel like a child." I said laughing.

"So umm Iser how much of that was me vs you?" I asked.

"Mostly you, if things got out of hand I would have stepped in." He said with an amused tone.

"So wait, have all of you been working on strategies to maximize my learning and experience?" I asked the group.

"Maybe a little…" Orlo said.

"Right… well I need a moment after that…" I said.

My body was definitely more achy after all of that movement, particularly my lower back and lower abdomen.

Then I grabbed Iser, pulled him up to a tree, then I told him to sit. Once there I sat in his lap, then I managed to grab his tail and pull it into my lap.

"Wake me up on 10 minutes please." I said then rested my head on his chest. I could hear and feel him hum with contentment.

“Did you just turn our Mage into a heating pad?” I heard Turnip ask.

“No…” I said, eyes closed.

After a few minutes I heard Iser say, "Nicole it's time to wake up."

"But you're warm and you feel good on my lower back" I grumbled, wiggling myself deeper into his embrace.

"Couldn't you just change yourself so you didn't have the offending anatomy?" He asked.

"I could but I don't want to." I replied.

"What are you two talking about… I can't understand." Lluvia said.

"How him being warm feels good on my lower back." I told Lluvia.

"And his tail?" She asked with a smile.

"Just nice to hold." I commented, and I could feel his tail twitch a bit.

"Come on girl, let's keep pushing forward." She said and helped me up. Then I helped Iser up and we continued on our way.

“By the way I unlocked a new skill, it's called Mimicry.” I told the group.

“What does it do?” Iser asked.

“It says ‘You have discovered the power of copying others, from moves to mannerisms and even how someone fights or thinks.’” I told the group.

"I've met performers who have that skill, how did you end up with it?" Lluvia asked.

"I'm guessing from copying an attack style…" I said, a bit embarrassed.

"Was it what you started to do with the sword and shadow mana at the end?" She asked.

"Umm… yup." I said sheepishly.

"It was interesting to see, that's for sure." She said.

I accepted the new skill seeing as it could be used for possibly more than just fighting.

We continued on and encountered two more water elementals much weaker and smaller than before. It was also becoming noticeably drier even in the ground and air. Then we made it to a clearing in the middle of this desiccated forest and was greeted by a larger rock or boulder with something shiny or reflective on it.

"Is that a mirror on the side of that rock?" I asked.

"That or a polished surface." Orlo said, confused.

The group approached cautiously until we reached the large stone with what did appear to be a mirror embedded in it. The group was standing off to the side. I guess odd mirrors have been known to have odd magical properties as no one else was going in front of it.

"Umm, has anyone seen anything like this before?" I asked.

"No, also don't get too close sometimes mirrors aren't just mirrors… although that tends to happen in dungeons." Root said.

"Ok good to know, plenty of my world's fiction has that as well." I commented.

"Anyone want to go and look?" Lluvia asked.

"Hold up, let's have Nicole and Orlo check it first." Root said.

“I'm just seeing rock and a mirrored surface.” Orlo said.

I used my identify ability with mana which took 80 points.

Transitional nexus embedded in stone

“Umm… any idea what a ‘Transitional Nexus’ might be? Also it cost like 80 mana to return that.” I asked then added.

“It could be some sort of gateway or teleport? That would also indicate something very rare if it used that much.” Iser proposed.

I slowly edged around to come face to the mirrored side.