Since Casey’s parents still wouldn’t come for at least a few days, we decided to make her home our base of operations for now.

My mom lay down on the couch while the three blondes brought out some of the magical items they had looted from the wizard’s secret lab. Frank and I stood off to the side since we both sucked at magic.

I still wasn’t fully comfortable with having Mom be our test subject. I wanted to go back home and fetch another miracle cure just in case… But at the same time, I didn’t want to leave right now. I worried about what might happen.

“I really think we should have a real doctor here…” Mom murmured.

“Please rest easy, Mrs. Chrona,” Elyssa assured her. “I have experience in curing various diseases. Since this is a disease from my world, there should be nobody more qualified for this than me at the moment.”

Huh? Really? Well, she had only existed in the game to teach the skill… but it made sense that she had plenty of other talents.

“This is a mana detector that can track mana inside living beings,” Casey said as she put the odd-looking metallic helmet with a cyan sheen on Mom’s head.

“And this is the mana conductor,” Casey said, handing a crystalline orb with glowing runes to her. “We’ve been using these to learn how to use magic faster, although it’s still hard even with them…”

“Heh… Cheaters,” Frank stage whispered to me.

“You tested this, right? It’s safe?” Mom asked, her expression unsure.

“Yes, it’s completely safe. We used them plenty of times while learning magic.”

Mom nodded, still looking uneasy.

“Okay. Close your eyes and try to feel the mana. It should feel a little like static electricity, except instead of stinging, it will be like touching flowing seawater.”

That made no sense. But then again, it was magic.

Mom closed her eyes as instructed. Her eyebrows creased and mouth thinned into a line. We stood around awkwardly for a couple of minutes before anything happened.

A soft intake of breath.

“I think… I can feel it…? It’s kind of fuzzy…”

“That was quick…” Wi murmured. “Try to take it inside yourself now. Through the tips of your fingers… Yes, just like that.”

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To me, nothing was happening other than Mom concentrating and her fingers minutely twitching.

“Alright, there’s mana in your body now… It’s slowly spreading from your hands. Tell me if the headaches get better,” Casey instructed.

A couple of minutes later Mom breathed out a sigh of relief.

“I think it’s getting better now…”

Casey nodded as she stared at the runic patterns on the helmet lighting up.

“Just as the mana spread to your head…” she murmured. “I guess it really is mana…”

“Great! Problem solved then! We just spray everyone with mana and once they are cured, we delete the mana from the world,” Frank proclaimed cheerfully.

“Not yet,” Elyssa said, her tone unusually serious. “Wi, please be a dear and carefully drain the mana from Mrs. Chrona again. We need to see if the mana cleansed the disease or merely halted it.”

Wi nodded and placed a hand on the orb thing Mom was still holding before closing her eyes and concentrating.

A moment later Mom groaned.

“This is uncomfortable…”

“Sorry…” Wi murmured. “I’m still learning…”

A few minutes later, Mom raised her hand and touched her head with a grimace.

“The headaches are back…” she muttered, to the dismay of everyone.

It hadn’t solved anything. Mana only inhibited the virus – or at least the headaches – but it didn’t cure it at all. At best, we would have to keep the world flooded with mana to keep the virus from affecting people.

“That’s what I was afraid of…” Elyssa murmured, a frown on her face. “One more experiment then.” She held out a hand to Mom and helped her sit up again. “Would you be opposed to learning the true form skill, Mrs. Chrona?”

Mom blinked.

“I… I was actually going to ask you if you could teach me the skill as well,” Mom admitted with a strained smile. “And feel free to call me Emily, Elyssa.”

“Of course, Emily. I will gladly teach you,” Elyssa said with a smile before turning to Casey. “I’m also curious. Wi said that the magic of the ring from my world is in some ways similar to the mana of her world. The skill isn’t magic, but I would still like to know whether your device can detect anything.”

Casey nodded and stood next to Mom again as she stared at the helmet thing. Elyssa, in the meantime, sat next to Mom, held her hands and began instructing her on how to use the skill.

It didn’t take long before the familiar glow of transformation covered her body and she changed.

Once the glow subsided, I blinked, then blinked again, opened my mouth, and closed it.

I had expected Mom to change but… I had expected a fox like me, or some other animal… Well, technically, this also counted as an animal but…

Mom opened her eyes and gasped.

“This is…” She looked behind herself at the large reptilian tail covered in crimson scales sticking out of her pants. The tail then lifted up into the air and wiggled. Then she frowned as the back of her shirt bulged out. She reached over to lift the back of her shirt out and allowed the large scaly wings to spread out from it.

All of that, combined with the beautiful golden horns, golden slitted eyes, and the crimson scales covering her arms, legs, and face led my mind to a single conclusion.

“A dragon…?” I murmured, being taken completely aback by this.

“Huh… Those aren’t the fish zombie scales, are they?” Frank said.

“No… They aren’t…” Mom said in awe as she ran her hand over the scales on her forearm. “Not slimy at all… This feels amazing… And the headaches are all completely gone…”

That made me finally relax, although I still couldn’t stop staring at Mom’s true form. It looked so… majestic. Not even the fact that we could see the back of her bra because of the lifted shirt ruined it.

“I expected nothing less from the mother of a goddess,” Elyssa said with a satisfied smile.