Arvena and the team started shifting. It came to them as a bit of a surprise when she asked them to shift, because they were very deep underground right now, so it simply was the worst place to turn into a fish! Their utter confusion was mostly Arvena’s fault, because she hadn’t been too specific so far, regarding why this pool of water would be helpful to them. She didn’t explain it to them yet, but just told them that their visit here would be a great check-point in their journey to mana quality ascension! It might be a great check-point, however, they were yet to discover the pool’s contents.
The team was cooperative, but then the most annoying part about her idea was that they had to disrobe first, in order to shapeshift afterwards! This was really uncomfortable for them, socially speaking at least. As goblins, neither of them wanted to walk around naked in front of their friends, even if it was for just a minute, so they dimmed their torches while they took their armor off, for the sake of privacy. Then they neatly placed their armor near the pool, on any dry area. Tim was sad that he couldn’t crack as many jokes about this, he felt demotivated!
Anyway, once they disrobed, they started shapeshifting accordingly. Timothy was very used to being a fish so he wasn’t nervous about this plan, however, there were some complications along the way. Since he had sacrificed a whole level of his mana quality yesterday, just to be a goblin, the shapeshifting he was about to go through, came with many limitations! The system gave him a more detailed explanation.
She said, [You can't be 1.75 meters long just yet, Timothy. Though you’ve attained your previous explosive size through the consumption of panzer crabs, or simply in means that doesn’t include mana directly, you still can’t be as big as before due to indirect reasons regarding mana. The size of your mana pool, and the level of your mana quality have significantly decreased yesterday, which in turn has locked you out of the bodily size that you could turn into before! You’ve even been locked out of the mana pool upgrades that you have made in the past, so the situation is a bit bad. Let’s just say that your sacrificial efforts yesterday were… sacrificial, you lost things!]
“Oh, well then I’m never sacrificing anything again, because I worked hard for all the shit I had! I can’t work for them again…” He complained, inwardly.
[You don’t have to work for them again,] The system followed along, and then she added. [You will regain those greater statistics once you level up, hence the fact that those statistics are simply locked away from you, for now. If your mana quality gets back to level two again, you can be a five-meter long stingray once more, if you wanted to! The math or logic behind this is easy to understand, really. Anyway, as for now, you can be one-meter long at most, your mana pool only has the capacity of a thousand points this time around, and your powers are really weak too! So, under these current conditions, I can only wish you the best of luck! Try not to die in that spooky pool, kid.]
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Tim was at a disadvantage here, that was for sure, but even though he was irritated by this fact, he still wasn’t nervous. He had survived as a tiny, powerless stingray before, which was far more difficult to do in a world where almost every creature was power amped! With that considered, it was a treat to slide in this pool as a one-hundred-and-twenty kilogram stingray, as he wasn’t completely helpless! He was eager to kill things.
Anyway, his friend Ortana, wasn’t as lucky either. She was locked out of her former fish body as well, which was disadvantageous, because she had been really small as a fish to begin with, and now, she could only be smaller! She ended up turning into a four-inch sardine.
Now the magical science behind this was really difficult to understand, but she was still a subject to this science nonetheless. Ortana had sacrificed a level of her mana quality yesterday, and seemingly her body as well, in order to turn into a goblin, a whole mammal. Tim suffered something similar, but she had to sacrifice a lot more in comparison! She could switch into a full goblin later on if she wanted to, because she had bought herself that option, yes, but she wouldn’t be able to be as powerful as a fish anymore, because of the very sacrifice that she made. She was only greater as a goblin, for now!
However, even though she had sacrificed a lot, her future was identical to that of Timothy's. She sacrificed her flat, boneless back in exchange for a belly button, yes, but she could also turn back into her ‘sacrificed’ form, a stingray, after she levels her mana quality up! Her fate was really linear regarding shapeshifting, so she was comfortable as a sardine right now, especially since she was less of a target in the eyes of the average enemy. She could also protect herself really well, regardless of how big or small she was!
Arvena was weaker as a fish as well, though not defenseless. Being born a goblin, she had simply never sacrificed her mana quality in exchange for a fish body, because she didn't have to. She just settled to turn into a small, but deadly fish, and she was deadly because it didn’t take as much mana to kill a fish, when one's mana quality was at level six, for example! She could just evaporate an enemy whole, even if her mana pool was limited, she had the advantage, so she didn't need a greater fish body.
Skendus was perhaps the luckiest, as he exploded in size, and switched back in to a sawfish. He had made his sacrifices long ago, when he had been a rat, so the gods weren’t punishing him as much now as he tried to ascend through levels, no! He was all dandy.
Anyway, after they shapeshifted, they were ready to explore what else this pool of water had to offer. There were sections of it which seemed deeper, so by all means, this pool in the middle of the cavern probably had a lot to offer, trouble-wise that is. The team was excited nonetheless, they were ready!
After they swam ten meters below the water, they discovered that the area was actually illuminated really well, even though they had subconsciously imagined the opposite up until a moment ago! The area was illuminated, because the walls were smooth and glass-like, which allowed the walls to reflect sources of light that shone from numerous places. Light mainly shone from the bottom.
Arvena noticed that they had caught up with the latter fact, so she gave them a really taunting offer. Skendus had already predicted what she wanted to say, and yet he could barely muster an answer, even on his own behalf.
She asked, “Are you guys ready to meet a demon?”