Steve fiddled around with the image of the map in his head. He had already decided to go to Mudda, however far it was. According to Ash, it would take him around a week of traveling nonstop to get to the border. Then, he would need to either dodge the border patrols or produce identification for passage. Steve decided to figure it out on the way there.

Though, there was a slight problem.

Energy.

He was currently seated around a dining table, with various human dishes in front of him. However, he didn’t like the taste of any of these foods. They looked alright but tasted disgusting to him. Steve didn’t have any memories of eating food before, especially these ones, so he was just copying Ash. They were eating what looked like vegetable kebabs using their hands.

He still didn’t know whether or not the food was helping him.

They were having a family dinner. Settled around him were Ash, Azra, Amon, and Azza. Azza was the mother of Ash and Azra. She changed names after marrying into the family.

Apparently, being a changeling meant adapting to a different body both mentally and physically. Steve was in the body of a fifteen year old boy who was learning to eat for the first time. The food felt foreign and hot when it traveled into his body. He wondered whether he would need to eat in his other form as well. That would be a disaster. Food was inefficient. Energy was better.

“Just know that you’ll need to adapt to different forms when changing,” Bonnie had said when he questioned it. “After you feel yourself click into place, you’ll start feeling urges based on the form you take. I’m not sure whether you gain anything from eating, honestly. Maybe it depends on the form.”

So that was why he was at this circular, wooden table sharing a meal with the A family. His mind and body were now connected and aligned, which meant that his mind shared the burdens of having a body. His body also shared the burden of having a mind, though not at the moment. A body overlaid with stress from the mind could have detrimental effects.

Although Steve wasn’t currently in distress, he had a feeling that he could kick his human body into overdrive through adrenaline. It was all a matter of needs.

The Changeling evolution was peculiar in that it could make his outer appearance identical to his target, but the inside feeling was almost the same as a ball of light. Steve assumed this was because of his energy system staying the same, but he wasn’t completely sure. One question kept popping up when he thought about it.

Why was this evolution the best choice?

He had confirmed it multiple times, back before he changed. Deity and Vampire were self-explanatory. They seemed like powerful evolutions, based on what Steve had heard from Ash. The Legendary Vampire George had united the whole continent back then, and he was a vampire. They had strong magic. Blood magic.

Deity, on the other hand, also seemed like a powerful evolution. They must also have had strong magic, but Steve wasn’t sure what else. Being a Deity sounded all-powerful, though.

So, knowing all this, why was Changeling still at the top for him? There was a rule that said he couldn’t evolve to his last evolution, so it was quite possible that Changeling had a better evolution he wasn’t aware of. Maybe this wasn’t the end game.

Steve had also wondered about the ‘Locked’ rules. It seemed a bit scary, how after the ‘Beginner’ moment he was going to be launched into the unknown. He couldn’t go off-continent, though, according to the rules. What would happen if he broke it?

Cross-referencing the set of new rules with his map, he saw that there was a dot extremely far away from the others. That person, Steve assumed it was a person like him and not an alien, was potentially on another continent based on where the dots were located.

This begged the question: Were the rules the same for everyone?

Wondering more about this would do him no good. Part of the benefits of having a strong mind was that he could ignore a lot of the surroundings. It wasn’t exactly like being thoughtless, it was more of consciously blotting out incoming signals.

The food had gone down his throat and into his stomach, where it was currently being digested. Steve wasn’t sure what was going on inside him, but he did feel the abnormal digestive system. It continuously hummed inside of him until it stopped. Then, Steve felt full. Or he thought he did. It was extremely hard to tell, since he had only just turned into a human.

Maybe being a human wasn’t a good idea after all.

There was a bit of conversation at the table. It had turned a bit heated when Azra and Amon verbally sparred, but Azza had brought a stop to that. Steve, having finished his food, turned to Ash. Sensing a lull in the conversation, he took the opportunity.

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“Let’s wait an hour, then test our bodies’ limits,” Steve said in his new body. Even his voice was the same as Ash’s. He wanted to compare the seemingly identical bodies. If he had the same physical limits as Ash, then he could safely assume that his Changeling power allowed him to have the same body structure for his insides. He would be all but human in that case.

He walked around for an hour, getting a good feel for his new body and stature. Technically, he was five days old. It would still take a while before he mastered his movements. He would need to build up that muscle memory.

Steve couldn’t bring up his old energy numbers in his head anymore. The only thing he could go off of was his instinct. This worried him, because he didn’t know when he would run out of energy. He could now feel the food giving him a bit of energy, but the amount didn’t seem worth it for the torture. Steve really needed to figure out what kinds of food would provide him the most energy.

Ash and Steve met up at the end of that hour, and then stood by a measured out hundred meter line. They would both start sprinting at the same time to the end. This would let Steve know whether or not his body was structured differently.

Azra had started the race with a horn.

The horn was structured to make a loud bellowing noise to signal the start of a competition. Usually it was used for village activities, such as sports. The kids loved to play a game they called ‘Soccer’, which involved kicking around a ball on the floor and trying to shoot it into a goal. Steve thought this was hilarious when Ash told him of it, because it seemed too easy. But Ash had said the game was easy to play and hard to master, which made it fun.

The two young men ran as fast as they could. Steve was clumsy and awkward with his running, but still managed to beat Ash. His running was extremely inefficient, but still faster than Ash’s. It seemed his body was made of something else and structured differently. Steve had barely used up any energy, while Ash was panting.

“Wow,” Ash said after a while. He sounded a bit displeased, for some reason. “What a God.”

Steve had nothing to say. He had run terribly, but still managed to overpower Ash in the end. They had been close in the beginning fifty meters, but after that, Ash’s somewhat delicate mage body began to fail him. It was one or the other for most people. Either choose to be a mage or choose to be a warrior. For humans, of course.

“Want to go again?” Steve lightheartedly asked. Somehow, it brought him pleasure to beat Ash with his own body.

“Let’s rest,” Ash suggested, shaking his head.

Steve smiled. It was his first time smiling, and it felt good. Pleasurable. He immediately stopped.

‘If I can feel pleasure, that means I can feel pain!’ Steve thought to himself. ‘Other emotions, feelings, too!’

“So, uh. About your offer,” Ash brought it up again. So that was the reason he was so downcast. He knew that Steve was going to leave Niti soon. The God had literally been a Godsend for their village. There was no villager in Niti that wanted Steve to leave. Well, except for the prisoners of the Mottor they held. The Mottor were going to be transported over to the capital for their crimes. The survivors, of course.

“Yeah. I’m going to be gone for a year or so, I assume. I’ll come visit you in the Capital, though. I need to find my friends,” Steve replied, trying to reassure Ash. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll definitely come to visit Niti Town when it’s up. Though, if you guys ever need my help, just post notices all over the Capital and cities around it. You should be able to do that, with all the money and resources you have now.”

Steve had decided to gift most of the resources he had to Niti. He would take a few smaller Crystals and Elemental Sticks with him, to pawn off for local currency, but the rest would stay with Niti. In return, he would have a haven to return to at all times as well as warriors under his command. He decided to let the prisoners and Workforces have their freedom in Niti, though when he returned they would be under him again. Steve definitely wouldn’t take them on his journey, now that he knew his own abilities better.

They weren’t bad people, most of them. They were just humans, and humans were slow and needy in general.

Ash still looked like he was about to cry, which made Steve’s happiness go down as well. He found the boy likeable, though not in a sexual way. Which brought him to something.

Could he have sex?

‘Just as an experiment…For science,’ Steve thought, a bit too loudly. He heard Bonnie scoff in the back of his mind. Steve killed the embarrassing thought and continued.

“I’ll teach you my way of magic then, or earlier if I feel like paying a visit to the Empire. I have my reasons,” Steve finished. Azra had the same deal. When she was old enough, and in the academies, Steve would come over and teach them personally. The two kids had grown on him, and he wanted to keep his connections. There was no harm in doing so, so why wouldn’t he?

Even if he couldn’t keep his promises, it didn’t hinder him in the present. It could only benefit him.

Ash looked a bit better now, with his face no longer scrunched up in a grimace. The blond haired, brown eyed young man hadn’t wanted to cry in front of his God, and managed not to.

“Here, give me a second,” Steve told Ash. They were right next to his residence, which was convenient. He went into his residence and pulled out a communications Crystal. Leffer had two sets of them, which he gave to Steve for helping the village. “Call me if something unexpected occurs. I do want updates if there is a huge announcement in the Capital. If I’m not available, then I’ll return the call at a later time. Also, let Azra know about this when she gets to the academy.”

Steve gave one of the Crystals to Ash, and pocketed the other one. He had found trousers and a shirt at his residence. Ash took the communication Crystal in hand, and started to cry. Steve pulled him in for a hug. They broke off after half a minute, and just stood there. Ash then looked at Steve, a projection of himself.

“Thank you,” was all Ash could say. The young man was still red-eyed, but had stopped crying. He was overcome with feelings.

Though the God had been at their village for five days, those five days had been life-changing. They could now afford to send him to a prestigious academy, where he would have the opportunity to become a Royal mage or higher. “Thank you…”

Steve felt a warm feeling in his chest. Was this pride? He didn’t know, but it felt nice.

It was time to find Leffer, and prepare to leave Niti.