Chapter 29

A Very Good Mood

My eyes snapped open, and I woke up all at once. I was in my demihuman form again but my tail was somehow right in front of my face, my body was curled up in a way that I could have sworn should be anatomically impossible.

I rolled onto my back and stretched, as I rolled, I was surprised to feel myself getting tangled up in a blanket that had been placed over me after I fell asleep. I felt so relaxed. I lay there, staring up at the branches above me, watching the mana moving, listening to the songs of the forest, simply enjoying the moment.

"Oh good, you're awake. Would you like to explain why you felt the need to start the leveling process right in front of me? In the middle of the twice damned forest of all places?" Nefen's voice carried irritation, but when I turned my head to look at him, his eyes and body language held concern.

"Well, uh…" I ran my claws through my mane, momentarily embarrassed. I remembered everything about my time in that little squirrel form. It didn't bother me too much, it wasn't much different from riding the mana. It was kind of interesting, seeing the world so differently.

"I'm sorry if I acted kind of strange, apparently something went wrong. I got a…" My throat closed up like it did when I wasn't allowed to say something, but this had nothing to do with my contract. It was clear though, the System was preventing me from mentioning the Error. I didn't remember the message very clearly anyway, I had been too sleepy, and too muddled to read the whole thing.

"When I changed to that form, I think I lost consciousness partway through. Apparently shifting while hurt isn't a great idea." I scratched my chin. "I guess I messed up? My brain wasn't working so well. The System fixed me though." I shrugged and smiled, all was well now. I wouldn't have wanted to stay like that, but it was over.

"I see, and when it fixed you, it automatically applied your levels from the previous fight I assume. Makes sense." The Elementalist nodded. "Mistakes happen, you should practice with that ability, the more you use something like that, the quicker the process becomes. I timed your shift to Mana Beast form before the fight with the Ashcloaked Wolf. It took you four seconds to fully change."

I nodded along as Nefen spoke, a smile still plastered on my face, he was so darn nice, giving me this advice. I felt like he really cared, why else would he time something like that!?

"I don't know why you're smiling like that, if that Wolf had charged its flame breath as fast as it could, or worse, simply decided to charge you, I would have been forced to intervene. If I wasn't there, you would have risked death." The half goblin spoke sternly, he looked very disappointed.

I smiled wider, a big dopey grin on my face. "You care! It's so nice to have someone care." I said, because I could see my smile was confusing him.

Nefen ran his hand over his head, brushing his ears back over his shoulders. His face turned a slightly darker shade of green.

"I simply don't want to lose another member of the guild to an idiotic mistake. I do hope you take my critiques to heart. Are you feeling alright? Your responses seem… off." He started off trying to look so stern, but by the end his eyes were filled with worry.

I giggled, my tail thumped the ground behind me. "I'm feeling grrreat." I burst out in a belly laugh at my impulsive impression of a marketing icon that had no place in this world.

I threw off the blanket that was covering me, and jumped to my feet, bouncing high into the air as I did so. I was grinning and laughing the whole time. I relished my ease of movement, and joy filled me in a way reminiscent of when I lost myself to the air mana. "I haven't felt so good without riding the mana since… since forever!"

"I see, perhaps this is an aftermath of that failed form change. I'm happy you are feeling so good, but I do hope whatever this is wears off." He paused, taking me in as I bounced around our camp. "Perhaps you might consider putting on your clothes. We should head back to the guild, I would very much like to get there in time for dinner. We can discuss my other notes when you are less… easily distracted."

My eyes widened, I hadn't even noticed my lack of proper coverings. The breeze felt so nice! I realized, even if I didn't really feel any shame, no one needed to see little Angel hanging around. I giggled again at the mental appellation as I conjured my garments.

I just stood there for a moment, feeling the breeze and the accompanying happy tickle of mana, and enjoying the complete absence of the constant doubt and worries that usually ran in the back of my head every waking moment. My instincts seemed to be mostly missing as well, I felt so free.

The world looked so beautiful, there was literal magic in the air. I wanted to enjoy this feeling, it was a gift.

By this point my mind had been influenced by outside forces often enough that I recognized what was happening. I just didn't care, I was full of good feelings, and I didn't have to worry about the mana pushing me to behave in any sort of way.

My musing was interrupted by Nefen, who had collected the blankets, and done something magical to remove all traces of our camp."Well, come on then Angel, we still have a walk ahead of us. Do stay close."

We walked back to the guild in silence. I listened to the birds, and watched the mana. I took brief trips running ahead, just to feel the breeze I created as I bounded through the trees. I knew I was acting like a drunk fool, but my mind actually felt quite clear.

My staff bobbed along with me the entire time, floating just behind me. At one point we entered a clearing, and I had a brilliant idea. My staff went along with it.

It floated horizontally about a foot off the ground, and I tried to step on it. Sadly, it fell under my weight immediately, and I landed on my ass. I sat there laughing while Nefen looked at me like the fool I was currently resembling.

The kindly half goblin man just waited for me to be ready to move again, despite how much he obviously wanted to get back quickly.

When I got up I picked him up in a hug, thanking him for waiting. His face turned an extremely dark shade of green, and after I set him down while he made a show of smoothing his robes, he told me. "Think nothing of it, really, I mean that"

I just grinned and skipped through the clearing waving my hand through the mana, and seeing it respond with little gusts of wind, much to my amusement.

"Great Mother, save us from Wild Mages in a mood." I heard my guildmate mutter.

I just laughed, and sent some air swirling around him playfully. The air mana went along with my every motion happily. My mood matched it so well, I didn't even need to connect with it.

My joyous state of mind was still going strong hours later, when we made it to the town gates. I could tell Nefen's mountain of patience was wearing down a bit by that point. He practically ordered me to behave myself.

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I snorted a little as I put my hands behind my back, and tried, and failed to whistle.

I spent the rest of the walk to the gates trying to make my feline mouth produce the sound.

Once we got there, I did manage to behave calmly. I even reigned in my smile so it wasn't showing the poor human guards my full assortment of pointy teeth.

My friend Callum came out to greet me at the gates. I asked him how he'd been, he seemed a little put off by my cheerful demeanor. But he told me everything had been fine, and he was glad I seemed to be getting on well, then he waved both Nefen and myself through.

I noticed one of the guards at the gate had one hell of a shiner as we moved on. I wondered if it was Jaff, from the way he stared at me like he hoped I'd spontaneously combust, I kinda bet it was. I did a little wiggling finger wave, and smiled wide at him as we passed. Nefen smacked my hand for that.

As we walked through town I peered over the walls of the various guilds with new eyes. I was seeing beauty in practically everything. Whether it was the artistry in the creations on display with some of the tradesman guilds, or the simplicity of function that existed in others.

By the time we reached our guild's gates, the sun had set.

I went to give Nefen another hug in thanks for being so patient, but the man put up a barrier! So I just said thank you from a couple feet away, while laughing.

When I went to leave, the little green man said, "Not so fast, I can't have you wandering off like that, it wouldn't be responsible. You'll have to come with me while I cook dinner."

I grinned at him. "I'd love to help you cook!" I said, enthusiastically.

"Do you even know anything about cooking?" He asked skeptically.

"I can learn!" I replied.

The poor man sighed, looking resigned to teach someone who was currently behaving like a hyperactive kitten, how not to burn things.

It went better than either of us expected. I might have been emotionally high, but I could stay on task when one was given, and I was totally happy to do just about anything he wanted. He did however put me exclusively on vegetable duty when he caught me eating some uncooked meat.

By the time dinner was prepared, I realized the world had stopped looking so shiny. I was still in a good mood, but I seemed to be slowly coming down from whatever the System did. I was a little sad to see it go, if I'm being honest. Happiness is a hell of a drug.

Ivo showed up right as we were carrying things to the table. He smiled brightly when he saw me.

"Angel! It's good to see you! And in such good spirits, how nice!" He let out a laugh, he sounded like he'd been hit with the same feel good stick as me. I could smell a little alcohol on him, but he looked far from drunk enough to be that cheerful without help.

I grinned at him. "Yep! I feel great tonight, it's System fuckery, but I don't give a damn where it came from, it's so nice."

"I can feel it!" Ivo said, "man, it's like the System gave you the good stuff. But uh, maybe don't call it fuckery, someone might get offended." He waved a hand back and forth.

I nodded, I understood, these people probably put the System on a pedestal. It practically ran their lives, it sure seemed to run mine.

I had to ask Hoyt about what most folks thought, next time I saw him. It had so much power to influence everything about you. I imagined they saw it like another god. It seemed both less and more than that though. In my brief brushes with Belua, I felt some of her emotions, the System seemed to completely lack those.

We piled all sorts of food on the table, a lot of it was firmly in the protein category, but there were a few pastas too. We hadn't cooked all of it that night, some of it came out of whatever magical storage Nefen had. It was piping hot, and in huge vats. We portioned that out into more reasonable dishes, and Nefen put the vats back into storage.

The only reason I wasn't drooling all over the food as we placed it out, was just how many bits I'd liberated while cooking, even after being put on vegetable duty, to Nefen's annoyed glares. I was still plenty hungry though.

Soon enough people filed in, Pierce made a beeline for the spot next to Ivo. He had a foul look on his face as he walked in, but soon relaxed, and even started to smile.

I took the seat next to Torill again. When she walked in she beamed radiantly at me. I blinked, realizing how pretty she was, and smiled back.

"Hi Angel! I'm so glad you came to dinner! How was your first mission?" She said, with her normal enthusiasm.

"Oh, I think it went okay, I made a couple stupid mistakes, but it turned out… I killed the monsters anyway." I let the words tumble out of my mouth, feeling unaccountably flustered.

"That's good Angel, don't feel bad about mistakes. We all make mistakes, at least you can learn from them, right?" The beautiful demihuman said, earnestly.

"Uh, yeah, I'll sure try!" I responded with a smile.

"Deeetails!" I heard someone yell out from across the table.

I turned from Torill's brilliant smile, to see Janus grinning at me from across the table.

"I wanna know the details! But first, I heard you had fun with Zeke without me!?" He put on a mock hurt face, and mimed jabbing himself in the heart. He looked over at Zeke who had just sat down. "How could you do that to me, my friend? Have you no shame?"

I saw Zeke actually start to crack a smile, then he deadpanned "Oh yeah, it was a laugh a minute, you don't know what you missed. I was crushed, burned alive, then engulfed in terrifying elemental darkness while your playmate slowly bled me." He grunted. "I got two levels out of it though, so it wasn't all bad."

Martin sat down next to Janus while Zeke was talking, and felt the need to chime in. "Two damn levels? Sign me up, I'd face way more than that for two whole levels. I call dibs on next."

Nefen cleared his throat. "Angel's fight card is full for the moment Martin, and you are far too high level to see many gains from training him yet. You know the System does not like to reward beatdowns."

"Well I can train him properly then, bet he could use some exposure to elemental lightning. Never too early to get that kind of experience." Martin nodded enthusiastically as he spoke, absolutely trying to convince the universe that he was right.

The Elementalist hummed. "With Angel's staggering progression, perhaps he will be ready to spar with you next week. He probably won't be able to sense mid tier elemental mana properly even then, Mages require quite a lot of levels before that. I won't say he wouldn't benefit from it. Though, now that I'm considering it, you may have a thing or two to teach him about using charged bolts, he seems to have a rather potent ability in that area."

"Absolutely! Any time, I really am sorry about the other day Angel. I was drunk, and… uh… I've got a shit sense of humor?" Martin said, looking not quite as apologetic as he seemed to want to.

I smiled at him, sweetly, showing all my teeth. "We'll see, I guess I can forgive you for now, I can have a shit sense of humor sometimes too."

The rest of dinner went well, I put down so much meat I wondered if my existence would have an impact on the local farming industry. I told the story of my hunt, and I even shared what I could of the aftermath.

People chimed in with bits of advice from time to time, most of it was pretty obvious. Like inspecting the damn monsters, every. single monster. every. time.

They all seemed shocked that it hadn't crossed my mind. Nefen stunned me by telling me that the big wolf was level 87. So far above my level I shouldn't have even considered engaging it in combat. He had only let it play out "to give me a learning experience." Which didn't work out how he intended, since I actually killed the giant flaming dog, granted the way I ended up after sure taught me a few things. He let me know that he had been prepared to kill the thing in an instant if I had ever been thrown off its back. He had almost killed it after I ran off to try to lure the wolf into a better position.

The others shared a few stories of mistakes they made early in their careers, even Pierce told a story. The quiet one who was always drinking at the end of the table actually chuckled at a story that Janus told, about getting his axe stuck in a monster one time. He stage whispered that, that was why he used two now. The poor scared kid didn't contribute at all, but I could see him listening.

When I headed to my room for the night my mood was still cheerful, but it didn't seem like the System's influence anymore. I had a far too full belly, a night of good conversation, and a warm bed to curl up in.

When I laid down, I felt the System pinging, and groaned. I remembered something about delaying the level up process in the error notes. It was time to endure the System's ministrations again.