It was happening, the moment I had been dreading since I found out what Concepts were. If I had ever honestly analyzed the reason why I always found things to do that kept me from venturing into the city where I'd be in the public eye, this would be it. The idea that other people's perceptions could influence who I was, had quietly terrified me from the very start.

Though I found her actions to be exceptionally rude, the way the Voice had meddled helped to alleviate the absolute worst of my fears. They probably wouldn't think me a monster, but that did not mean I met the storm of energy surrounding my soul with anything resembling joy.

I was profoundly grateful to Randy for giving me a short explanation of what to expect when we spoke about Concepts. He had told me that becoming sensitive enough to Concepts to feel them beginning to form was actually the hardest part. It took most people many lifetimes to get a feel for it. The body I had been given seemed to have such senses built in. In fact, the feeling of pressure from the Conceptual energy flowing into me drowned out every one of my other senses.

The second hardest part didn't come nearly as effortlessly, I had to identify the oncoming Concepts, and time was of the essence. I had no idea how long they had been in this state, though I had a feeling I had woken up without Belua's help because of it.

It would usually take anywhere from minutes to hours for a Concept to coalesce after the mental energy that had been directed at a person reached the tipping point. It depended entirely on how much energy there was.

If an elder god thought something about you, and allowed their mental energy to leak out, it would be instant. I had experienced that with Curious. If a million normal people thought something similar about you, it would take mere seconds. If it was only a few hundred it would be hours.

I was fairly certain that it wouldn't take hours. I had no way to be sure, but I found it extremely likely that if seers from far away had been watching us after I killed the stone tree, they sure as hell would have been watching the Voice of Humanity when she was out in public. I hadn't received anything from the tree incident, I wasn't sure why. Maybe they thought a lot of different things, maybe they had kept the story under their hats.

The Voice had told them what to think this time.

I tried not to let the Voice's words influence me as I tried to get a feel for what the incoming energy had to say. It was possible, though unlikely, that public sentiment would not match the Concepts that I was expecting. I doubted that Zeke would be the only one for whom her words sparked jealousy, and anger.

With that in mind, I put every ounce of my focus on parsing the greater meaning contained within the swirling energy. Curious helped me tremendously, though it's possible that some of the things I tried to do might have been dangerous.

First I did what I assumed any self respecting mana beast would do. I tried to eat it. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, my metaphorical teeth couldn't latch onto the energy. I did get a small sense of what could possibly be described as flavor from it, though.

From that test, I knew that there were three distinct flavors in the energy storm. I couldn't tell you anything about what the flavors were, though I did recognize slight hints of Belua's authority in one of them.

I poked and prodded at the energy with every sense and ability I could think to use. None of my System given abilities responded to the energy at all. I had been at it for nearly an hour when something finally clicked. I had to open my mind using some of the same mental muscles as mind speech. My instincts were extremely unhappy with my actions, but it worked, I could sense the ideas held within the energy.

Holy, Proud, and Heroic.

During my experiments, I had also ended up detecting a drip feed of energy entering strong as well. Since the Concept already existed, the energy just sank into it without ever building up.

I wasn't sure if I was relieved or dismayed by the fact that the Concepts were exactly what the Voice had seemed to want. I was leaning toward being relieved because I'd put some thought into what I wanted those Concepts to mean for me. But the sheer power the little proto-deity had to influence the minds of the masses was more than a little disturbing.

I was still in the process of ordering my thoughts into focused, concrete ideas of how each Concept would be aimed when it happened.

Holy pulsed once, and a half a second later, it was sinking into my soul. I tried to connect with it, to influence it before it influenced me, but I missed my chance. Trying to organize my thoughts on three Concepts at once was too much.

I focused on one of the two remaining Concepts. Heroic was dangerous, but I could mitigate much of the worst parts of it by linking it with survivor. I really wasn't worried about most of the mental influences that it would contain. If you thought about it, the Concept was little different from the combination of kind, and protective.

Proud was another story, there were versions of pride that I simply would not abide having sully my mind. If I failed to influence that Concept I swore that I would figure out how to cut the damn thing out of my soul. I wouldn't care how much damage such an act did. I wouldn't care how hard it was to learn. I would absolutely make Randy's fragment add it to our coming lesson plan.

I began to go over the things I had come to realize I was proud of already while I meditated in Belua's realm. I was proud of who I was when nothing was influencing me. Proud of the fact that being kind was a choice that I had made, proud of how I didn't think its influence changed my behavior at all. Proud of how being honest, while inconvenient at times, was not something that disturbed me.

I was also proud of how, when I didn't have something pressing on my mind, I had a habit of viewing every being I met as an individual, regardless of their station.

I was well aware that Belua, Hash, and Randy were beings who had immense power to shape my life, for good or ill. but that didn't make me think Hash was any less of an asshole. And I didn't want to get started on what I thought of Belua, at least I could trust her to mean well.

In a world with levels, Zeke was now far below me, but that didn't make him any less worthy of sympathy. He had made a mistake, several if the number of chemical toxins the life mana had detected in his system was any indication. He'd also admitted that he'd hated me from the beginning, but I was still happy that Belua had helped me put him back on track.

I shifted gears as having felt it once before, I was able to detect the coming pulse in Proud.

I was proud of my ability to acknowledge, and learn from my mistakes. I was proud of my ability to learn in general. I wasn't some genius, and I still had a lot to learn, but I hadn't had all that long to learn about an entirely new reality. I thought I was doing pretty well.

The pulse came, and this time I was ready for it. I pressed my ideas into the Concept as it formed. I felt them sink in, altering it as it came into being. I grinned, proud of my accomplishment.

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Heroic pulsed a moment later, I didn't have time to alter it. I did, however, have the ability to tether it to survivor. It used up nearly all of the energy that I had stored from eating cores. I'd have to eat some more, tethering Concepts was not cheap. I wasn't sure what the energy did when I wasn't using it as a medium to bind Concepts, but I instinctively didn't like the idea of being nearly out of it.

In the minutes it had taken for proud, and heroic to form, Holy had fully incorporated itself into my being. I was glad that the two Concepts had formed so quickly, because I began to feel sick.

There was something inside me that was setting my new Concept ablaze. It could not be allowed to remain. It was horrible, repulsive, disgusting, it had no place being a part of me any longer.

My cores shook, I started to cough. I rolled off the bed, and ended up on all fours on the floor, retching. I shifted to a small version of my true form as the object that was making its way out of me was too large for my demihuman form to pass.

After one more hacking cough, my death core clattered to the floor like the world's most disgusting hairball. Though it had its uses, I had never liked death mana. With holy burning in my soul, I hated it. It was filthy, corruptive, it was fine for farmers and brewers to use in small quantities to do their jobs, but I had no reason to carry it around inside me.

I felt all ten of the death mana crystals housed in my body shatter. I gulped down the mana, though the taste sickened me. I couldn't allow it to contaminate my room.

I understood why it would be at odds with the Concept that people on a world created by Belua inhabited. She was all about love and life, fertility, and creation, every person on the planet knew that.

My darkness core shuddered next, there was a slight feeling of rejection there as well, but I felt Belua's presence, like a hand on my back, and it settled down.

I told myself that darkness wasn't unholy or corruptive. It could be scary, like a mother's wrath, but often it was comforting. The Concept seemed to respond well to that way of looking at things.

I sighed as I looked at the former piece of my magical ability sitting on the floor. I was sure I would feel its loss eventually, but I wasn't unhappy that it was gone. There was no way that I was going to attempt to replace it.

“Angel, what happened, what's wrong? Is that what I think it is?” Torill asked, sounding groggy.

When I turned to look at her I gasped. She was stunning, perhaps more beautiful to my eyes now than she'd ever been before, she positively glowed. But that wasn't the real reason for my reaction. Holy would take some getting used to.

I was inundated with information, some of it worryingly specific, some of it vague. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was happy with her path. she had said that she was fine with her class despite its flaws before, but now I knew it. I got the feeling that if she was having problems, I would know that too.

Because I felt how she disliked the show that she put on in public, how hiding who she was from people who were her friends in this life got to her sometimes. I also knew that I was doing the only thing that it was in my power to do already by being there for her to be herself around.

All of that information came to me in a flash, I tried to get a handle on how my new Concept had done that. None of it was news to me, but that sort of thing would be a major invasion of privacy if it happened with practically anyone else.

I was able to track the source of the information down to the miniscule hints of Belua's authority that had become a part of my aura. It was nowhere near as powerful as the real thing, thank the Great Mother, but it was powerful enough to help me do my job.

My job, I reminded myself and my new Concept, had little to do with helping people on their path. I'd gladly help people if they asked for it, but my mission was to show people that spirit beasts could act as adventurers. I felt the Concept shift to accommodate that truth, though I was struck with the sudden knowledge that I had been doing a poor job. Half of my guildmates probably had a hard time picturing me as a spirit beast.

“Angel, seriously, are you okay?”

I shook my head.

“New Concepts. One of them is acting up already. I didn't get a proper hold on it as it set in, so I think I'm going to be figuring it out for a while.”

I looked at the bruise colored orb on the floor.

“Apparently, death mana is unholy.”

“I can see why people would think that. Honestly I've never liked working with the stuff myself, and I've never had a life where working with mana changed me like it does you.”

“Yeah. Hey, do you think you could put that thing in a containment bag? I’m starting to feel like I should smash the thing. That would probably not be a good idea, I hear that cores can explode if they are cracked.”

Torill shook her head.

“I've heard of beasts blowing their cores when they were backed into a corner, but crafters cut open cores sometimes. I think they are only dangerous while they are inside a beast. As for storing the core, sure.”

My mate scooped it up like the filth it was, using the bag to protect her hand so she wouldn't have to touch it. I approved.

“I take it you want me to put this somewhere else.”

I nodded.

“Please.”

“Yeah, I can tell it's bothering you. I'll be back in a few minutes. Please don't go anywhere, we'll talk about the Concepts you got when I come back.”

“Of course, I'm not that foolish. I have to figure out how they are affecting me first.” The message was filled with annoyance.

“Sorry. I didn't mean to imply that you were.” She said with a frown.

I huffed as she left the room, but it didn't take me long to concede that my past behavior might have given her reason to worry, but by that time she was long gone. I would have to make it up to her later.

While I was alone, I took the time to groom myself in front of the mirror. I wished Torill was still there, it would be good to have someone to brush me.

Not a second passed after I had that thought before Thorn popped into existence with my brush in his hand. He began to groom my mane like it was the most natural thing in the world. I had a sudden realization that he had been missing since we returned from meeting the Voice. I hadn't thought of him once, I felt terribly ashamed.

“Where have you been? I'm so sorry I didn't make sure you were doing okay.”

“After we saw you safely to your room, I went back to town and handled most of the details of the sale of the stone-wood. They want to meet with you before it is completed, but I’m pretty sure I got a good price. The headman at the lumberyard looked like he was chewing on a lemon by the time I was done.”

“That's great! But I think Torill was supposed to do that.”

“She was, but she told me that she was worried that doing too well would ruin the image that she's trying to cultivate. So I did it instead. Handling your finances is one of my duties after all, my class is well equipped for it.”

“Okay, so what did you do after that? Where did you sleep? I'm sorry again that I didn't check on you.”

“It's alright, creator. It is, sadly, an aspect of my class to fade into the background unless I am needed. I was fine, I haven't slept, but that's alright. I just got done sleeping for a very long time. I wandered town for a while, listened to what people were saying about you, and… please don't be mad… I may have set some things in motion that you will be uncomfortable with. But they will make my class happier.”

“I don't like the sound of any of that. What did you do?”

“Well, you see, my class is a little particular about the status of my boss. Now, you're already sort of a ‘Lord of the forest’ which helps, but it would be way better if you had some demihumans pledged to you.” He paused, raising his hands defensively. “It'll help them, and you too! I promise!”

I sighed.

“Please tell me you didn't do what I think you did.”