When I stood I was faced with the realization that my Mana Beast form had grown far more than I had anticipated in the time since I ate the cores and it had to be the cores that did it. I always seemed to gain some size when I leveled, but this time went far beyond the norm. I had become so large that I had almost outgrown my room. I was very grateful that I had so much open space.

I was too large to get a look at myself in the mirror, too large for my giant bed. Torill looked like a child next to me. My head was bigger than she was. I could stand in the open area, but with the mana shell around Thorn, and Torill standing at my side, I would be hard pressed to turn around.

Thankfully I knew I could use Assume Form to change my size. But I lamented the fact that I never felt quite as comfortable as when I allowed myself to shift to what my instincts indicated was my real self. I sighed, at least I was used to being uncomfortable. The memories that belonged to my part of the soul from my first life were full of much worse discomfort than I'd be experiencing now.

"We'll have to talk to Samuel about getting you an expansion. He will probably be forced to charge you for it since expanding past a certain point costs extra mana. But it should be well within the building's capabilities since so few of us are living here."

My ears perked up at that, I didn't know how I would pay, but I still hadn't received any money for my wolf hunt, so perhaps that would be enough.

"You may have to put up with it until the System is done with Thorn though, I don't think that you can expand a room when someone is inside. Do you know how long it'll be like that?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. I hope it's soon though. I miss them, I got used to their emotions always just sort of being there in the background."

"Nothing to do but wait for it to be released then. Are you ready to go see Krassus now?"

I nodded as I shifted to my demihuman form and Torill helped me get my mane in order quickly. I was purring uncontrollably by the time we left the room to go see the berzerker. I wasn't looking forward to facing someone with a class like that in the arena. I knew he was lower level than me, but if he was anything like Pierce, I had to assume he would be able to punch up.

As soon as we walked out of the door Torill was dragging me by the arm with a shining smile on her face.

"I'm so glad you're as new as you are! This way the poor man can get some painless levels! I hope you don't mind, but I gave him some ideas of things you probably need to learn."

It quickly became obvious that Torill was leading me to the guild's small pond, which I thought was an interesting location to meet the Berzerker.

"Painless? You mean we aren't going to fight?" I heaved a sigh of relief.

"Fighting is important, and I'm sure you could use all the practice you can get there. But there are other things an Adventurer needs to know. Come on, I won't spoil it." Torill tugged me along faster, we were practically running by the time we reached the pond.

The burly man was sitting cross legged at the edge of the pond, he didn't seem to notice our arrival. He seemed so deep in meditation that I didn't want to disturb him.

Torill had no such misgivings, which was evident when she cheerily belted out, "Krassus! I brought Angel!"

The man's head snapped to look at us, for a moment I thought he was going to be angry at the interruption, but he actually broke into a grin. "Great! That's great! Thank yah kindly Torill, yer a peach!"

"Ahh, I'm glad to help! I'm so happy to see you so cheerful since that admin came around! Now I'm going to leave Angel in your care, I hope everything works out great!" Torill released my hand, hopped up to peck me on the cheek, and pranced off before I could respond. I watched her go, and had to fight off the silly impulse to follow after her.

"Lady's got yah good don't she?" Krassus asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah, I think she does." I responded, without taking my eyes off the departing form of my fellow contractor. She was such a different person in public, I wondered how much of who she was outside was for show.

"Well let's get started then, I don't want to keep you from her any longer than yah gotta be."

I heard him stand up, and pulled my eyes away from the place where Torill had disappeared around the corner. The man looked happy, he had a smile on his face, but I could sense signs of stress in him behind the expressions.

"I'm sorry we disturbed your meditation."

"Naw, kid, yah ain't disturbed me one bit. Truth is I kinda hate meditatin' it's just… if I'm gonna get fixed, I gotta drop the drink, and meditation is the only other way I know that can silence class shit fer sure."

"Drink does that? I mean I understand how meditation would work, but alcohol, really?" I would have thought that drinking would make it harder to summon the willpower to resist the impulses that the System saddled us with.

"Yeah, drinkin' works, triggers some sorta System safeguard from what I hear. All I know is if yah get good and sloshed, the System won't try and make you do things. It's a messy solution though, and it fucks yer levelin'. I've got a lotta levels tah go 'fore I get me a new class, so I can't let the easy way slow me down no more."

I couldn't help but consider for just a moment whether I wanted to take up drinking, there was a large part of me who would be ecstatic to receive fewer levels. Of course, whatever it was that I had to fight at the end of the month was a concern, but Dux had recommended level one hundred, and I had reached that point with time to spare.

Stolen story; please report.

I almost didn't care what Belua had wanted for me at this point. I tried not to hold on to my resentment of what she had done to me, but it was difficult. I probably wouldn't be able to forgive her, but like Randy said, holding onto anger was like keeping poison in my heart. It would only hurt me, the goddess was so far beyond me that I couldn't even stand up to the Concepts that she passively emitted.

I wrestled my brain back to the topic at hand.

"How badly does drinking impact your levels?" I wasn't really serious about gauging the viability of using that method. I just wanted to know.

"Ah? Well, I can't rightly answer that, I reckon it depends on yer class, and yer reason for doing it. It's right complicated, see, spend a night drinkin' in celebration after a hunt and yah might actually level slightly faster. Spend yer days drinkin' cause you wanna stop feelin' the call to adventure and you'll find yerself losin' levels if you do it long enough."

The man's eyes suddenly glazed over, and I saw his muscles tense up, he was still and quiet for a moment. Then he shuddered, and squeezed his eyes shut. "Dammit," he growled under his breath. "That there's what I avoid. Class shit. That admin said that it's a side effect. Fragmented Memories it's called, supposed to help me, he said. Takes the memories from my rage times, an' breaks em up, clouds em. Serves em back to me over time."

Krassus ran his hand over his short cropped hair. "Man said my class is one of two I coulda gotten, meant to protect me from myself. Rage is mine, he said, not the System's. Class actually helps me keep a lid on it, and vent it in the right direction. What it does tah the memories is supposed to prevent a feedback loop where the rage just goes on forever. Idea is that flat erasing memories is bad fer the mind. Causes somethin' the man called soul strain, since the soul doesn't forget, it'll just keep trying to remind you of what yah lost. Fragmented Memories is one solution to avoid the strain. Guy said it gives something for the soul to serve up, reduces the stress on it."

I flinched when he mentioned soul strain, I knew for a fact that I had blank spots from time to time. I tried not to think about them too much, but if what he said was true, those blank spots probably contributed to what happened to me.

Krassus seemed to notice my flinch. "Let's talk 'bout somethin' else. Like how I can help yah. I reckon you've had 'nuff fighting lately, and you've outleveled me by a fair bit, me bein' only seventy-eight and all. So I thought I could show you a few things every adventurer needs tah know. I reckon you know how to survive all on your lonesome in the wilds just fine, given what yah are. But do yah know how to do it like we do?"

I shook my head, Angela never even so much as went camping once in her life. I could probably do fine in the wilds if I followed my instincts, but that was all.

"I would definitely like to learn, I think that would help a lot." If nothing else it would make any long excursions I ended up taking more comfortable.

He led me to a lightly wooded area nearby, and talked me through how to select a place to camp. Then he showed me how to clear an area and make a fire pit. He insisted on teaching me how to make fire without magic, and that took a while. I had grown much more dexterous with all my stats but my experience trying to create a fire via friction let me know that I didn't have my strength as under control as I thought I did. I broke more than a few sticks.

When I did get the fire started I was surprised to find I struggled to do anything with it. My instincts rang all sorts of alarm bells. Perhaps that was my problem with fire mana. I knew that a big part of the Aspect I touched when I channeled mana was my own expectations. If I was instinctively afraid of fire, it made sense that the Aspects I touched would all be so vicious.

My pinned ears, fluffed fur and clenched teeth did not go unnoticed by Krassus as I fought my instincts in order to follow his instructions and get the fire properly established. Once the fire was going, I couldn't stop myself from backing away from it.

Krassus looked at me with concern, and spoke in a quiet soothing tone. "Yah know, I don't know yer stats, but I reckon that fire can't even singe yer fur. Yah really gots naught tah fear."

I nodded, "I know," I spoke with an unintentional growl in my voice. "Knowing doesn't help."

My instincts made me want to get away, or to call on water mana and extinguish the flames. I had to force myself to breathe slowly, my heart was racing. It was a simple campfire, and as Krassus said, I could probably sit on the thing and remain unharmed. But knowing that meant nothing to my instincts. I wanted to prove to them that there was no danger, but having moved away, I could not force myself to move closer.

"Well, that's somethin' to work on, now ain't it? Can't move on tah my next lesson if you don't get over that."

I wanted to get over it, but I wasn't sure I could. Maybe before the split I would have had a better chance. I clenched my fists at that thought. I was not my instincts, there was more to me. I knew there was. I repeated that in my head, over and over again.

I took a step forward, my heart rate went through the roof, pure mana spilled out of my body in an uncontrolled mist as my core pulsed in response. Grass grew at my feet, wind rushed in, causing the fire to gutter, and embers to fly. I growled at myself for my lack of control of the mana in my core, and for my lack of control of myself.

I forced myself to take another step closer, it was harder to do with the wind blowing the flames toward me. I wished I could communicate with it, to tell it to calm down without switching my core. It was reacting to my fear, but I had no way to tell it that its reaction wasn't helping.

I had to back up and get my emotions under control, the grass at my feet had reached my knees, and foliage was starting to grow around the fire. Water mana was starting to get in on the action too, as it started to condense out of the air, wetting my fur, and the area around me. It hadn't condensed any near the fire yet, I wasn't sure if it could.

I had to back away pretty far for my instincts to allow me to calm myself. Once I did, the elements calmed as well.

I stood still for a while, half meditating, before I tried again. This time I focused on my instincts, and tried to treat them like I had learned to treat the Concepts when I channeled mana. Fire was frightening, I agreed, it was. Not all fires. A campfire was not the same as an enemy wielding fire magic. Campfires meant safety and warmth.

I closed my eyes, and walked toward the fire, I reached out with Sense Concept, looking for the campfire. I was certain I would find some very nice Concepts there, and I did. I let out a sigh of relief when sensing the various ideas that people strongly associated with Campfires caused my instincts to pull a quick turnaround.

I let out a sigh, it was disconcerting to feel my instincts suddenly so convinced that this fire was a good thing, when moments before they had been telling me to run. The reversal was so complete that I felt the impulse to lay down for a nap once I got close enough to feel the warmth.

"Well that was somethin', yah good now?" I heard Krassus shout from some distance away.

"Yeah!" I responded, "I'm good now." I yawned wide, the fire really was making me feel at ease, I felt myself start to purr softly. I wanted to lay down so very badly, my day had been trying, and the battle against my instincts had taken what must have been the very last dregs of my mental fortitude. My eyes began to feel heavy as I tried to resist the new impulses.

"Good, I bet yer gonna like the next lesson."

Something tantalizing reached my nose, and I perked up enough to notice that the Berzerker was approaching carrying a deer carcass. I licked my lips at the sight.

"I'm gonna show yah how to clean and cook a kill so it's fit for human consumption."

All thoughts of napping fled, as my brain became focused on the food that was being held in front of me. I ate so much just hours ago, I filled myself so much I was fairly sure I'd begun to actually develop some fat. It didn't matter, there was food, so I wanted it. My stomach growled.

He showed me how to prepare the deer in what he assured me was the proper way. Some of the parts that he removed and told me should be buried away from camp looked absolutely edible to me. Though I did know that I would have found them disgusting not long ago. When he told me to dispose of them, I walked them some distance away, and ate them instead. I was still licking my hands clean when I got back to camp. The man raised an eyebrow at me, I shrugged.

He showed me several ways to cook over a campfire, making me set them up and take them apart before putting the spit he had me make back together to actually cook the deer.

Watching it cook was as good as torture, and by the time he proclaimed it edible it was almost time to go to the guild hall for dinner. He sliced off a portion for himself, and looked vaguely disturbed by the speed at which I consumed the rest, bones and all.

We walked to the guildhall together.