Chapter 31

A Hungry New Class

I woke in darkness, completely immobilized, encased in a substance my senses told me was entirely solid pure mana. Somehow it seemed that air flowed through it freely, though it was quite thoroughly solid to the touch, and no light penetrated it. I felt a roaring hunger for mana eating at my soul. I was already instinctively greedily consuming the shell that held me. I knew without even casting my mind inward, that my primary core was less than half full.

My curiosity overrode my clawing hunger long enough to have a look at my new mana system. I had nine cores of different sizes all connected to my enormous pure mana core. Only my pure core was pulsing in tune with my heart, which seemed to be beating extremely slowly.

I followed one of the passageways in the large network of paths that led from my pure core. The one I followed wound its way through my right arm. Constant branches extended from it leading to exits for the mana into every inch of my body.

I noticed that each automatic pulse of my core thankfully resulted in only a negligible amount of mana leaving my core. It still meant that any time I wasn't actively consuming mana, I was losing it into my body.

I watched how the mana collected in my muscles for a moment. It was difficult to see the pure mana with any level of detail, even with my new, much higher stats. Wisdom seemed to be the attribute that let me sense mana more clearly, and I was getting much less of that per level now.

What I did see though was that when the mana was released, it sank into my muscle, and seemed to dissolve. I could feel very little result, with such a small amount, but I was certain it was doing something to help me.

I turned my attention to the cores surrounding my primary one in a circle. Each core had its own set of pathways, all of them were empty. The attached cores were dark, silent, and hungry.

The hollowness of my new cores was almost painful, not even a whisper of mana was contained inside them. I yearned to fill them all, it was absolutely intolerable for them to be in this state. I could tell I wouldn't be able to relax until they were all at least close to full, even the ones I was unlikely to want to use.

Speaking of being unlikely to want to use a core, I realized quite quickly that I had a death attuned core. The core was tiny compared to my other ones, but it existed. I decided since I was currently captive and unlikely to get up to anything dangerous in the next three minutes, after which I could rely on Dux to save me from myself. I would bite the bullet and fill that tiny core first.

My new class allowed me to eat any available mana, and to fill my cores at a small cost for conversion. If my primary core was full, it would distribute the collected mana into all of my cores with space evenly. But I felt how slow it would be, how if a core was not active I would lose almost half the mana in conversion. It seemed intentional, the System wanted me to use my various cores.

It was okay, I felt the urge to use them anyway.

My newly retooled instincts let me know how to switch my primary core easily.

Death mana still horrified me, my encounter with the wolf had left its mark. I felt my instincts pushing me to try it anyway, lending me assurances that the System would not give me an ability that it did not expect me to find a use for. My hunger, and a strong new impulse to utilize what I had been given pushed me to shift my core despite my fear.

I focused on willing my death mana core to be my primary core. I felt the tiny core start to pulse, while my pure mana core stopped beating. My heart rate spiked as I felt the void inside the core, all the energy fled from my muscles, I was overcome by a terrible sense of weakness. I began almost desperately devouring the solid mana around me. My class automatically attuned the mana to my selected core as I consumed it. At first the core's pulses, still timed to my currently out of control heart rate, emptied it as fast as it could fill.

The death mana began flowing into my mind and body. As it soaked into me, I felt my life leaving me. It was utterly terrifying at first. The full effect of the mana was not immediate, it wasn't like connecting to free floating mana. But it was still quite quick, with my core pumping as fast as it was.

I began to feel numb, both physically, and emotionally. Thankfully this caused my heart rate to slow dramatically. As the mad pulsing slowed my core started to fill, alleviating some of the strain that came from having an active, empty core. I began to feel the peace of death overcome me, then I felt myself transform. My heart stopped beating, my core continued with a slow even pulse. I stopped breathing, I no longer felt numb, because I no longer felt anything at all from my body. I wished I could see what I looked like, the lack of sensory feedback was disorienting.

A new awareness filled my mind, completely independent of the normal five senses. I was aware of everything within…. I realized I knew the exact number, just over 49 feet of me in a perfect sphere, or I would be if the warded wall I was only five feet from on one side didn't cut off my perception. Since my room was so large, and my bed was at the back wall, my awareness stopped just shy of my door.

I realized that the awareness was actually using my mana sense. I hadn't used the ability actively since I started seeing the mana without it, and it had apparently been upgraded with my class. The level of detail I was receiving was enough to have completely overwhelmed my mind just the day before.

I could tell what I looked like through my mana sense, the sense was strange, my mind struggled to process it as something like vision. My body had withered, everything about me looked sunken, sickened and decayed. My fur was patchy and thin, it hung from my body in clumps, the limp strands seemed longer than usual. My horns were larger, but cracked and missing pieces. My teeth, which protruded from my withered lips, were larger, sharper, but also cracked and decayed. My eyes were clouded, and bloodshot. My claws were rigidly extended and viciously long, they seemed to be the only things that showed no signs of decay.

I found I could force myself to move, my body was animated by the mana inside it, though I didn't have much space to move, and I had to fight the mana's impulses to even make the effort.

I only wanted to lay still, simply waiting for my core to fill. I had no urge to do anything. Even if I wasn't encased in mana I wouldn't have moved a muscle without good reason. My only desire was the intense need to fill my core, and that was being accomplished very well by lying in the shell and eating at it with my mana beast ability.

When my core was full, which happened very quickly after my core stopped pulsing so wildly, I had no problem shifting away from the element. I had no emotional attachments, not even to the mana that animated me. My only emotion from the element had been hunger, and I satiated that easily enough with the shell of mana surrounding me.

My next choice was Fire, my second smallest core, it was well over twice the size of my tiny death mana core. The choice was made because while inside this shell, the damage I could inflict on my surroundings was very limited. I somehow knew the shell of mana around me would prevent anything magical inside from escaping.

The moment I shifted my core, all of the sensations that had been missing were restored. My form thankfully shifted back to normal from the decayed corpse I had been. I was freezing cold, shifting to fire mana right away did not help the sensation. I found I had consumed enough of my prison to shiver uncontrollably.

With the fire elemental mana I felt the insatiable need for warmth assail my mind very quickly. I had to pull hard on the surrounding mana to make any headway in filling the core.

For a torturous minute I endured the sensation of searing cold, then my form shifted. I no longer felt cold, I was no longer made of flesh. My body turned to ash and fire. Most of me was loose animated embers forming a core for the fire. My claws and teeth were heavily compressed, and extremely solid. My eyes were brighter orbs of flame situated in a clump of ash and embers that vaguely resembled a jagged and fluctuating imitation of my skull. My form didn't bother to simulate any flesh or fur, I looked terrifying.

With the small space I had created by consuming the shell around me, I could only move miniscule amounts. That was a very good thing, because I wanted to burn the world. It was also a good thing that my primary urge was again, to fill my core by any means necessary. I knew if I could just get out of my prison I could fill my mana with glorious fire. But I only had the mana around me to burn.

The moment my core filled I felt a lurching sensation inside me. My fire core's pulsing came to a sudden stop, and my pure mana started back up without my input. It was jarring, and actually very painful. My Elemental form was just a hair slow in shifting me. Having the mana my form relied on to exist cut off suddenly felt like something had clamped down on my heart.

I was gasping and cursing up a storm after the pain subsided, but otherwise not actually harmed. It would definitely be best if you didn't rely on me for that, but I understand that you have to. You should do Darkness and Light quickly, while the cocoon is still around. The System was supposed to dissipate it already, but it tells me that it analyzed the situation, and decided that it was best if you use it up.

"Yeah, that's the plan, thanks Dux." I said to the already dissipated assistant.

Darkness went easily, there was no light in the cocoon, and I was completely hidden inside it. There was no one around to prey upon, so I just laid and brooded. I reckon I was more chuuni than dark knight, but I can't be blamed for how the mana makes me.

My physical form was reminiscent of what had happened in the arena when I played with Zeke, only far more extensive. My body turned completely incorporeal, I knew I could turn all, or parts of myself solid, and harder than the strongest steel if I simply desired it. My form resembled nothing more than inky blackness, it was barely perceptible to my mana sense as I blended into the darkness surrounding me. My claws and fangs had grown to lengths that would be comical if they weren't so razor sharp.

Every other part of me was in a constant state of flux. With the mana flowing through my mind it felt completely natural, my shape was a mere suggestion, I could bend and stretch in any way I chose. Gravity had no hold on me, I could move freely anywhere in darkness. As my core pulsed out more mana, the darkness became an extension of myself. I knew physical objects would be no barrier to me, I could happily exist anywhere light did not touch. The shell surrounding me was solid to me though, the mana proved impermeable to my form.

Once my core was filled, I made the switch from darkness on my own. It took a very firm application of will, but I accomplished the change without help from Dux. I did have to transition to pure mana before trying to activate the light elemental mana though. I couldn't even consider using light mana as a creature of darkness.

Light turned out to be very interesting, as soon as I shifted to the core, I began to glow. The glow grew brighter as I became more saturated with the mana. I was probably quite literally blinding by the time my Elemental form kicked in. But the light didn't bother my eyes at all. When my form shifted, I became a being of pure light. I was nothing more than an illusion that looked like myself.

I saw everything the light that came from me hit, which at this point wasn't much more than a hollow section my mana consumption had created within the shell the System had formed around me. I felt like it was silly pretending to be solid, so I became a light beam, and bounced around the place.

My bounces grew in speed until I could no longer keep up with my own movements. I tired of bouncing quickly and returned to being an illusion, on a lark I chose to take on the appearance of Angela in her 20's. I chose to be decked out in a cosplay she had made herself years ago, and had been very proud of.

I would have cried for her if I had the capacity for tears, because at that very moment I realized I wasn't her. My old self from Earth was more like a dear childhood friend that had passed. The old me hadn't evaded death by becoming a contracted soul. She died so I could be born, it didn't seem fair.

I wondered if the same thing would happen to me. Would my life be part of the foundation of memories for another very different person? I thought the answer would probably be yes.

I decided to drop that depressing topic.

I got bored quickly of playing with different illusion forms, having discovered the limit to my illusions was only what I could picture clearly. Light mana seemed to help me conjure mental pictures with astonishing clarity, so it was basically bound only by my imagination. I also discovered that I could glow at whatever brightness I wanted, but I would always glow.

I decided I should find out what my character sheet looked like with all the changes.

Name Angel

Race : Spirit Beast

Level : 60

Class : Adventurer (Bestial Mana Shifter)

Str 115 Con 120

Agi 100 Dex 71

Int 250 Wis 182

Per 153 Cha 53

Traits

Species Trait: Manavore

Species Trait: Bestial Instincts

Species Trait: Cat-Like Reflexes

Species Trait: Pride of the Apex

Species Trait: Bestial Form

Species Trait: Elemental Influence

Class Trait: Elemental Mana Crystallization

Boons

Mana's Friend

Mana's Student

Goddess Mark: Belua

Imposing Frame

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Sense Danger

System Assistant

Sense Mind

Abilities :

Mana Call

Enhanced Mana Sense

Elemental Core Creation

Shift Elemental Core

Elemental Mana Attunement

Expend Crystal

Minor Mana Manipulation

Elemental Aura

Personal Mana Infusion

Mind Control Assistance

Improved Assume Form

Forms available: Demihuman, Mana Beast, Stormhorn Ram, Oak Tree, Elemental Squirrel

Elemental Form

Automated Inspection

Contracts :

Belua:

Primary Objective

Integrate into human society

Secondary Objectives

Locate other spirit beasts

Convince spirit beasts to join civilization

Allowances :

● The goddess Belua has allowed you to tell anyone who needs to hear it that she has spoken to you, and ordered you to work with humanity, and to facilitate friendly relations between all sapients.

● The goddess Belua has allowed some hostile action against sapients, only if you feel it furthers the ultimate objective.

Warning : intentionally harming sapients unprovoked outside of the allowances will result in System adjudicated punishment.

I read every line and committed it to memory. I was amazed by the explosion of my numbers. It looked like the System spent almost all of my free points to get to the 250 Intelligence milestone. No wonder my pure mana core had grown so enormous, and I could easily handle the data from my enhanced mana sense.

I still didn't believe it truly made me more intelligent. I had noticed some System related information seemed to be fed to my mind when I wondered about things in the short time since my class evolution.

I tested it by trying to think of how much experience I needed for my next level, since Hoyt did say the System used numbers like that. I had no clue. Then I wondered about the reason why I was leveling so fast.

That got a strong reaction, it was light on details, but I knew it was important that I keep pushing myself . I also knew it wasn't directly associated with my contract, but if it wasn't handled it would ruin my efforts in Brightwood. I also knew that the imperative for it to be secret came from Belua herself, and my reward for the secrecy would be revealed when whatever it was happened.

I shook my head, that was a whole kettle of fish. I was definitely going to go along with it, but that was a tomorrow Angel problem. Today's Angel had more testing to do.

I tried to think of the range of my now "minor" mana manipulation. 24.6 feet, or 5% of my level plus my intelligence and wisdom.

I wondered what the range of Janus's fire aura was, got nothing.

My aura range was 49.2 feet, which used the same stats as manipulation, but was 10% of the result instead of 5%.

I wondered how my Assume Form could vary so much in mass from one form to another, hell, I didn't even have a body right now. The answer was that Assume Form converts mass to mana, and vice versa. The ability didn't cost me any perceptible amount of mana because once I'd used a form once, the mana to return to it was stored in the ability itself. I knew the very first time I took a form that required more mass it had a cost. I knew that every time I had changed to my Mana Beast form, and it was larger than before, it had taken mana directly out of my core to make the change. I simply hadn't noticed because changing my form was accompanied by some extremely distracting sensations.

I wondered about my mana crystals in my illusory form, the answer was complicated. The crystals were there, and still very physical objects. The pockets my ability had them in to make sure they didn't conflict with whatever elemental core I was running put them out of phase with the physical world.

All that is to say I think I figured out that the System gave me fairly detailed data on things that pertained to me. But it wouldn't let me look very far under the hood.

For instance, it irritated me that I didn't spontaneously know what the different elemental concepts actually did. I'd found out the hard way that several of the elements had more than one mode. Air could be fun, curious and playful, but it could also be vicious. Darkness was all about hiding from sight, or it was the terror in the dark. I wondered if all of the elements were like that. I felt the details start to surface, but there seemed to be something about the version of light mana I was currently channeling that kept it from pushing the information the rest of the way.

At that point I realized that my light core felt stuffed full to the point of straining a little, the mana I was collecting was starting to be diverted into my remaining empty cores.

I managed to convince myself that I would experiment with Water mana, which was the next core I planned to fill. My water core was huge, almost as large as my pure mana core. Life and Air were only slightly bigger than it. I chose it because I thought it would likely eat through the last of the shell around me. Also life, air and earth mana were always present in large quantities, practically everywhere. I could fill those easily by simply consuming mana with my pure core as primary. Since that would just send every element I consumed to its proper core. Without the need to alter them, the loss would be minimal.

Before I switched my cores I decided to try to aim for the quiet form of water's influence. I made my illusory form look like myself again, and imagined myself in a pose that I thought was comfortable.

I shifted my core, and found that I had missed the mark on comfortable. I quickly adjusted my tail which had been trapped underneath me at a painful angle, and settled down. As the water flowed through me, I became so focused on filling my core that I didn't note how my form changed until I was done.

Once my core was crammed so full of mana it felt like it was going to burst. I was able to shift my focus, I saw that I was a puddle of water at the bottom of the thin shell left after all my eating at my prison. I decided I needed to see how I could move in this form. It required something of a mental twist to change the mana running through me into something that would allow me to do so.

I focused on finding out what I could about this form to the extent that I could while still trapped behind a thin wall of mana. I found that I could make my body simulate any shape I was familiar with. It took a lot of focus to try for fine details like fingers, or a mouth and eyes though.

My body was made of mana infused water, controlled instinctively by the mana in it. With a slight effort of will, I could change my state, as well as temperature to ice, water, or steam. I could be a combination of all three as long as I kept the ice down at the bottom and transitioned to steam on top. I wasn't sure how that would be of any use, but I could do it.

I could become a golem made completely of ice if I wanted, though it became difficult to move like that, or a wraith of superheated steam. The steam wraith form could move very quickly if I allowed my form to grow amorphous. It took constant minding if I didn't want to disperse myself over a large area, and float away. Focus was something I had in large supply while under the influence of water.

I experimented with many possible shapes and combinations before I felt I had explored the form as much as I could while I was trapped.

When my focus on experiments was expended I simply focused on returning back to normal. That transition was the easiest yet.

I was starting to feel starving for physical food by that point, so I concentrated hard on filling my pure core with the remains of the shell.

When I finally ate my way out, the last of the shell disappeared all at once. I found myself standing on my bed.

I was immediately hit by a Samuel sized truck. He drew me into what could only adequately be described as a bear hug. He seemed shorter, and not a little bit either, maybe half a foot.

"What was that little brother? It's been two days! Nefen said he recognized it as a solid block of System mana… I have never heard of such a thing." The poor old bear looked worried as hell, and exhausted. "You look… like you earned a very good Class Evolution."

I shrugged. "I don't know, maybe? It's very different." I was taken aback by my own voice, the charisma milestone had changed it dramatically. My words came out as a smooth purr, it was relaxed and easy, still deep, it was the kind of voice you wanted to just listen to.

My astonishment must have shown on my face, because Samuel laughed. "Sometimes the System does surprise, perhaps it decided you had enough in the looks department to catch a female or ten already." My guild leader patted me on the back.

He didn't almost knock me over this time.

"So two days? No wonder I feel like I could eat a whole herd of deer."I said ignoring his comment about females, I was too busy to think about that. Yes, far too busy, that was the entire reason I changed the subject.

That and I was starving, my room has been emptied of mana.

Without warning my staff interrupted me by smacking me in the back. It wanted something very badly, I got the idea through the link that it felt it had been quite patient.

Living Wood Thorn Staff needs you to pick a trait.

1. Elemental Infusion

2. Size Shifting

3. Controlled Flexibility

4. Envenomed Thorns

5. Enhanced Autonomous Movement

6. Autonomous Spellcasting

Choices will reappear every ten levels.

It chose Enhanced Autonomous Movement.

"Before we go I want to ask, as your Guild Leader, what class are you now? You always were more physically gifted than your average Mage, but you look like you have become more of a fighter now." Samuel looked me up and down like a prized stallion.

I ran my hand through my mane, noticing while I did so that it was slightly longer. "It's called Bestial Mana Shifter, and yeah, you could say the system made me more of a fighter, my attributes per level are a little spread, but lean heavily towards the physical now."

The bear man looked contemplative for a moment."That is a new one, what does it do?"

I liked Samuel a lot, but I was starving, and my patience had abruptly worn out."It bites its guildmaster if it doesn't get food. You said it's been two days, Samuel, and I already ate all the mana in my room."

"My apologies little brother, perhaps it is best if you show instead of tell anyway. I'm sure you could use some practice with your new class. I believe Pierce and Ivo would enjoy the experience. I will set something up with them for the arena this evening. I will find you later if you have no objections."

I grinned wide, I had so much to experiment with. "No objections, I'll probably be spending a lot of time in the arena by myself today, figuring everything out. Unless there's a problem with that?"

"That is what it was truly built for. Would you like me to ask Nefen if he wishes to observe?" Samuel looked at me as he waited for my answer.

I thought about it, I really just wanted to let loose with my new abilities for a while, I wanted to try all my new forms in an open space. But I nodded. "Only if he hasn't got anything better to do, and maybe not as soon as I enter. I have a lot to get used to. Also, could you tell me how to change the setting in the arena while we walk?"

It was only as I considered leaving the room that I noticed my state of undress, it hadn't seemed to bother Samuel one bit, maybe in his homeland it wasn't uncommon for beastkin to roam around in the buff, or something. Either way I quickly summoned my clothing and jewelry.

As I started for the door, my staff danced around me, it seemed to be enjoying its new finer control of its movements. The way it could move with the upgraded ability made me think it would be better off controlling itself in a fight. My dumb ass sure couldn't make it move like that.

Samuel walked with me to the guild hall. I judged from the position of the sun that it was pretty early in the morning still, probably just an hour after the guild breakfast.

I realized as we walked that I was moving naturally, there didn't seem to be any post level clumsiness. I felt so confident in knowing how my body should move that I almost didn't even notice how weird that was.

While we walked, the guildmaster explained how to change everything inside the arena. It seemed that it had numerous presets you could choose from, but if you really wanted to, you could make your own setting out of a large catalog of objects it could simulate. The mana ratios and density could also be configured.

When we arrived at the guildhall, I saw Torill, and that kid Alexander relaxing on the couches with some books over in what seemed to be the mage section of the hall. Torill looked up, and waved at me with a bright smile. I waved back but didn't really stop on my way to the kitchen. Samuel left me to my own devices, and I got cooking. I just barely had the self control to avoid eating the meat fresh out of the freezer.

I also gulped down the local mana, calling it to come from further and further away in an effort to fill my three remaining cores.

I didn't bother to take my food out of the kitchen, and just ate things while standing over the sink as they finished cooking. My stomach seemed like a magic place, where things went in and simply disappeared, it continued like that for a long while. I ate more than could possibly have fit inside a person before I finally stopped feeling hungry. Then I kept eating, I couldn't stop myself until I had stuffed myself to the point of heavy discomfort.

All of my mana cores were full before my belly was.

I staggered back to my room after eating, I was suddenly desperately in need of a nap, the arena could wait a while. As soon as I locked the door, I shifted to my Mana Beast form without really planning to. I settled into a bed that was only slightly too large for me, and fell asleep instantly.