Chapter 47

A Private Feast and Discussion

As we headed to the guild's compound I clung to my companion and thought about how amazing it was to fly. By the time we landed I ached to do it on my own. I already could, if I channeled air, but I still needed to figure out how to do that safely.

I was sorely tempted to try looking through the web again. I resisted the urge, telling myself that nothing I had seen when I looked earlier was good enough, and a couple hours wouldn't make a difference. It was getting close to dinner time anyway, and I was always hungry.

I had to force myself to shift back to my demihuman form, I didn't really want to, but showing up to dinner as an animal would be weird. My skin itched under my fur, the body that I had gotten used to presenting to the world as my own seemed wrong somehow.

I clenched my fists, closed my eyes and forced myself to just breathe for a little while. I focused inward, sensing the Concepts at work inside me. More parts of my class seemed to be actively powered than when I had looked inside previously. I made an attempt to discover what was happening, but when I did so, I felt a sudden searing pain close in on my mind. The pain disappeared when I mentally withdrew. I was assailed by the knowledge that I wasn't strong enough to be looking at that, and I needed to stop.

A large thin clawed hand landed on my shoulder out of nowhere causing me to instinctively shift to my Mana Beast form and spring away. When I spun to look at what had touched me, I saw a tired emaciated looking bear man.

Samuel had a look of surprise and betrayal on his face, as he gazed at my form. The man looked worn, and positively skeletal, he looked like I did when I was suffering from the repercussions of mana debt. I lowered my head, embarrassed at my instinctive reaction, and concerned by the state of his body. The poor old bear looked confused, so I trotted up and headbutted him in the chest lightly, careful not to injure the fragile looking man.

He laughed and patted the side of my head. "Little brother, did I startle you? And are you showing yourself like that in public now?"

I chuffed at him and leaned into his hand, I didn't bother answering him just yet. It was good to see him, even if I was worried about the fact that it looked like he had been starving for months.

He understood my body language well enough that I didn't need words. He scratched my neck, burying his clawed hand deep in my mane. "Yes yes it is good to see you too, if you keep growing so quickly I will not be able to call you little brother any longer. But are you sure you want to be outside like this?"

I surprised myself by licking the man affectionately, and rubbing my head against him, as he scratched my neck. It wasn't until he stopped that I was able to assert the self control to back up and shift back to demihuman. The change felt slow, and had to be forced.

"You look terrible, what happened?" Were my first words.

"I overexerted myself a little in a chase, Nefen and I found the creature, but it did not seem to want to fight me. Unfortunately it outlasted my reserves. I will be eating well tonight, do not worry. Now, tell me, what was that about? Last I knew you were hiding that form." He narrowed his eyes, and put his hands on his jutting hip bones.

"I was, but Pierce pointed out that my class would explain away my forms, so I've decided to go along with it. I had meant to only use that one for serious fights, but something feels odd all of a sudden. It's as if this form is wrong somehow, I'd rather be anything else, and my other forms are not enough. It's like there's a hole in me that I need to fill, but there's nothing around here to fill it. I am barely holding this form right now, I don't know what's going on, Ivo said something about a class imperative?" I squeezed my eyes shut, talking about it made the impulses so much worse.

"Go to your room, we will have dinner together there, I will have Nefen deliver it. I want you to do your best to tell me everything that happened today while we dine." The gaunt and tired looking man patted me on the shoulder, and walked off, trusting that I would follow his orders.

I made my way to my room as quickly as I could, my movements were stiff and stilted as I tried to make it there before I shifted, what I would shift to, didn't seem to matter. I made it about halfway there before I gave in. I chose the ram form purely because it was large enough to work the doors, and I rarely used it, which currently seemed like a crime.

My companion tried to lift my mood by sending me happy images of earlier today, when they used me as a mount. I snorted a laugh, suddenly feeling much more relaxed. I trotted the rest of the way to the apartments, suddenly very glad that the doors were large enough to allow for that half giant former guild member Samuel told me about.

I was able to work the handle with my mouth, which should have probably felt awkward, but seemed quite natural. My hooves clicked loudly on the floorboards as I walked down the hall. Thankfully I think everyone was already in the guildhall for dinner, so I avoided questions.

Once I was inside my room, I walked up to the mirror, I'd never really looked at myself in my ram form, so I was curious. I looked only slightly like the dark furred and nimble stormhorn rams I had seen in the web of life, and received this form from. I hadn't tried very hard to get the form perfect, and it showed. My fur was white, and shaggy, the white was interrupted by thick black stripes. My fur was much longer and thicker around my head, neck and chest, it seemed as though having a mane was an important part of my new identity.

I didn't look at all nimble, I was thickly built, stocky, and heavily muscled. My tail was long, thickly furred and almost reaching the ground when I let it hang. My ears were too big, they only vaguely looked like they belonged to a ram. My mouth looked wrong too, when I pulled back my lips, I saw why, apparently I kept a set of sharp fangs along with the more herbivorous front teeth.

My horns were huge, coal black monsters, they coiled around the side of my head ending in sharp metallic looking points that faced dead ahead, and seemed ready to skewer anything I rammed into. Which I knew wasn't exactly how they were meant to grow in nature.

I picked up a foreleg and examined my cloven hoof, it was probably larger than it should be, and definitely sharper. The tips were like knives, ready to cut anything I decided to kick.

All in all, I was definitely not a normal sheep. Something about that made me proud, like I had taken the form and made it mine. It wasn't right, but it was perfect to my eyes.

The saddle and harness that my clothing had turned into even seemed stylish, the gems from my jewelry were enlarged, and worked into the straps that went around my chest.

As I was finishing my self inspection, I heard Samuel declare through the circle on the door that he was coming in. He waited a few moments before letting himself in.

The scrawny man was lugging along a folding table since my room was lacking in the furniture department. The way the legs folded out looked like it was an invention straight from earth. I wondered how whoever created that had gotten around the no modern inventions rule.

Samuel looked me over, and whistled. "Now that is an interesting shape, little brother. I think I know what it came from, but I barely recognize it."

Nefen entered a moment later, letting himself in without warning, and somehow locking my door behind him. I supposed he, like Samuel, had the magical version of a skeleton key to the guild. He started walking towards the table that Samuel had set up, but stopped short. He scrutinized me, I swished my tail, and held my head high and proud.

"You certainly have a special shifter ability, I noticed it before, but you don't like being one thing do you? I don't think you ever get a form quite exactly right."

I snorted at the half goblin, somewhat offended.

"Perhaps I spoke incorrectly. You alter your forms to suit yourself, instead of using them as they appear in nature. Does that make you happier?" Nefen looked annoyed at me for some reason.

I snorted again, this time with amusement.

"I'm not entirely sure that I brought the right kind of food for that form though, what I have is suitable for your more feline aspect. You'll have to shift anyway, since Samuel informed me of what you told him, and I thought I should hear what's going on with you as well. Unless something extremely fortunate has happened in the last day or so, I doubt your mind speech is up to the task."

I sighed, I really needed time and a person to practice that with. It was strange, because it seemed to be much easier to speak to some people than others. I could talk almost too well to Ivo for instance, but with him I often transmitted far too much extra emotion.

I watched as Nefen placed two large wooden chairs, seemingly making them appear from nothing, he similarly placed a cloth over the table. I suspected he had some sort of hidden inventory, ability, spell or item. I dearly wished I had such a thing, being able to soul bind things did not count, it was permanent, only worked on things I could wear and was far too expensive mana wise.

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Nefen then started manifesting steaming hot food onto the table. The quantity of meat he laid out was staggering, the man had to pause and cast a spell on the table so it would not collapse under the weight of it all. Before he was even finished, I knew there was enough food to fill even my prodigious appetite. Once the table could hold no more, he declared that there would be more once this was eaten.

I looked over at Samuel, who seated himself with great haste and began shoveling meat into his mouth with his bare hands. Nefen sighed and sat down in another chair near a spot he had left open, he conjured a small plate of pasta and some silverware for himself.

"Well come on then, shift, have a seat, and eat before our glorious leader eats it all. You can talk while you have dinner, he just needs to refuel a bit. The man never does like using his class to its fullest, and it bit him today."

Samuel paused in his consumption long enough to grumble something about how the little half goblin wouldn't like being so heavy all the time either.

"Be that as it may, we all have to live as our classes dictate, I don't know why you've been resisting it all this time. Our young friend here is learning how powerful class urges can be first hand after all. Come on, boy, don't stare, it's rude." Nefen gestured to the last open chair pointedly.

I nodded, and forced myself to shift. It helped that I convinced myself that the food was off-limits till I was in the correct form.

We ate in silence for a while, I kept up with Samuel, following his lead, and not bothering with table manners. I enjoyed eating so freely.

Eventually the table was emptied, I was mostly full, but Nefen replaced everything that had been eaten.

Samuel was looking far better, he was back to his usual body weight, as if he didn't need to bother actually digesting his food before it got put to use. He grumbled a thank you, and got back to eating what was set before him.

Nefen looked at me, and gestured at the food. "Are you done eating? Ready to tell what happened today, so we can get an idea of what your class wants?"

I pulled some more food over to my place, I was almost physically incapable of not eating when there was food in front of me, no matter how full my belly was.

I told them everything, from my new skills, which I glossed over as being able to get an idea of the influences that made things function the way they did. Nefen questioned me on how that worked. I tried to be as vague as possible, talking about feelings, and ideas that came to me when I used my skill. He nodded, and said skills like that were rare, but he'd read about them, and the new skills probably had little to do with my current problem.

I nodded and continued, talking about my testing in the arena, and my experiments with Pierce and Ivo. I talked wistfully about how we planned to head over to the hunters guild in the morning to try to see if I could find more forms. Talking about it made me want to jump out of my seat and head there right this instant, but I controlled myself.

"Well." Nefen said. "I think we can guess what happened then. Classes can be a bit needy sometimes, and unpredictable when they are new like yours. Belua and the System have a path for us, set when we reach age fifteen, or in the case of Beasts, not long after they attain sapience. If we stray from that path, we find ourselves, shall we say, prompted, to behave in line with our class goals. This is obviously not what happened to you."

He looked over at Samuel, who was still shoving food down his throat like a man possessed.

"Sometimes we can ignore parts of our class just fine, so long as we haven't strayed far, the System will not bother to correct us. But when those parts have attention called to them, they will assert themselves strongly. This, I think, is something both you and our friend here are feeling. Though you haven't had your new class for long as far as time is concerned, twenty levels is seen by the System as a lot of progress to make without utilizing a core function. The act of experimenting with the forms you did have, followed by the idea being put in your head of expanding your repertoire triggered the part of your class meant to make use of such things into a sort of overactivity. You'll be fine, just do as you have planned. I can help you sleep when we leave tonight, you'll likely need it."

I nodded, though I informed him that I was already receiving pings from the System to level up.

"Go on then, we'll watch over you. It's a Guildmaster's duty in some cases anyhow, and we both still qualify as your guildmaster."

I looked at my door, and told him about my mana problems. I knew I had a habit of consuming a lot after I leveled, and I had already consumed nearly everything inside since the door was locked.

"Ahh, I should have predicted that, the wards are simply too tight for your needs. It's less secure to let in outside mana of course, but come here. I'll show you how to alter your ward, you should still be able to see mana at work, yes?" The green man hopped off his seat and walked over to a seemingly blank portion of my wall, next to my door.

I nodded and walked over, my full stomach making itself known as I moved. I was ready to nap, I wasn't sure how much I would need Nefen's help getting to sleep. I flicked my mana sense on for the first time in a while

There wasn't much to sense, I'd eaten the room into a mana desert during our feast. I could sense the mana in the enchants on Nefen's robe, and the skin tight mana barrier he had covering him. I could also sense a strange form of mana working in Samuel. I could feel some of what it was doing, the food he was continuing to shovel into himself never reached his stomach, it was being converted to energy and directly stored on his frame. He was growing rather rotund now that I looked at him, it looked like fat, but it was in a form much, much easier to retrieve energy from. Still, I couldn't blame the man for underutilizing that particular ability.

"Eyes on me, watch my mana, you see this carving here? You put mana in like so, to activate the interface, and this node here is responsible for blocking mana transferal, we alter it like so, and… there!" I watched what he did, there was an almost imperceptible, even with my senses, carving on the wall that activated with his mana's touch. I followed along, and when he twisted his mana in the carving, the carving moved to fit. Then it was like a dam was opened, and mana flooded into the space. "Mana will be able to come in, but not leave now. It should still block anything with intent behind it, but it's not quite as secure as a full barrier. Now go, level up."

I nodded, and allowed myself to follow my impulse to shift into my Mana Beast form, before hopping onto my bed. Once I was comfortable, I clenched my teeth, and answered the System's call.

Congratulations

For taking novel actions in accordance with your new class, you have been rewarded by:

Level up × 10

Strength + 40

Constitution + 50

Agility + 40

Dexterity + 30

Intelligence + 20

Wisdom + 10

Perception + 10

Free stats + 50

I groaned as the System mana did its work, it somehow didn't seem as bad this time, it was still rather uncomfortable, but perhaps I was getting used to it.

When the prompt from the System came for my free stats, I allowed it to choose again, because why not? It chose everything else for me.

I should have looked at my stats, because I obviously was pushed into a physical milestone. I let out a pained groan, as my body felt like it was being eaten by the mana, and spit out in a stronger form. Every inch of me, inside and out went through a torturous change. My consciousness remained clear through the entire process, while I mentally cursed whoever designed the System. Perhaps I shouldn't have thought about how much easier the leveling had been.

When it was through, I checked my status.

Name Angel

Race : Spirit Beast

Level : 80

Class : Adventurer (Bestial Mana Shifter)

Str 210 Con 250

Agi 180 Dex 131

Int 340 Wis 207

Per 173 Cha 53

"That was certainly something to observe, I'd wager it was a Constitution milestone from the way it touched every part of you. That's good, even your fur will be more resilient now, though I'm sure it was unpleasant. I've only ever hit the first milestone for that one, and it was… memorable."

I was tempted to swat Nefen. It looked like the system had set me up to hit even more milestones when I hit level 90, if I allowed it to distribute my points again. I was not looking forward to that, I thought about just shoving all my free points into Intelligence next time. It actually wouldn't be a bad choice, more Intelligence meant larger cores, almost all my stats had some impact on my cores, but Intelligence was the biggest.

The System helpfully let me know that hitting the wisdom milestone would allow me to speed up my mana saturation without accidentally expelling mana in the process. It would also increase the range that I could call mana from, and make me more resistant to foreign mana intrusion, all of which sounded very useful.

Agility would make me more nimble, and grant me the ability to more easily move with control at great speeds, even in non-corporeal forms.

I heard Samuel clear his throat, and looked over to see that he had finished all the food that had been set in front of him. The poor man didn't just look fat, he looked like he was covered in a layer of blubber. When he stood up, it looked like he shouldn't be able to move.

He looked depressed at his own state. "I'm still hungry." He whispered. "I do not want to eat any more, but I am still hungry, Nefen, I think you explained the situation well enough." His sad eyes turned to me. "This is why you should not neglect any of your abilities, little brother, even if you actively dislike them. What you are experiencing is just a taste." He licked his lips after saying taste, then shuddered.

As he walked out of the room, I noticed that his weight didn't seem to affect his movement at all, if anything, he seemed lighter on his feet.

Nefen watched him go, his lips formed a hard line, and his brow furrowed. "He wanted you to see what it did to him, you know, he could have just let you see the results. But I'm not sure how much of an impression the gorging left on you, since you seemed intent on emulating him. I think he forgot his audience didn't quite have the human standards for decorum that we've grown accustomed to. I suppose I should increase our food budget again, and perhaps give you a storage device like he has so you don't have to show everyone how much of an appetite you really have. Have you been starving yourself?" His question sounded rather like an accusation.

I put a paw over my face, and nodded slightly. I was always hungry now, always eating mana, but there just wasn't enough around to support me without putting focus into calling more to me. I needed more food than I wanted to eat in front of people if I didn't want to have to spend an hour or so a day focused on calling mana.

"Alright then, I'm going to use some magic to force you to sleep till morning. I suspect you already feel drowsy from the food, but we wouldn't want you waking in the middle of the night in your condition."

He waved his hand over me, I saw him work a spellform, my eyes drooped shut and I was transported to Belua's realm.