The notification that greeted me when I answered the System's call chilled my blood despite my newfound enthusiasm for leveling.

Congratulations

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

Level up × 26

Strength + 104

Constitution + 130

Agility + 104

Dexterity + 78

Intelligence + 52

Wisdom + 26

Perception + 26

Free stats + 130

I knew Belua had said she uncapped my leveling, but this was simply too much. It went well beyond my expectations. However, when I thought about it, I realized that I had done a lot in the time since I last leveled.

As the System mana crashed into me in a tidal wave, my mind rolled. A part of me eagerly opened myself to the mana, trying to pull in more, faster, while another part pushed against the emotions that I was well aware came from Hungry. The second part was terrified of the torture I had willingly and enthusiastically agreed to subject myself to.

Everything I knew about the creators of the System told me that they wouldn't have put limiters and safeguards in unless there was real danger involved.

The part of my mind that remembered that was filled with fear and regret. I could feel my soul straining from the conflicting emotions. Thankfully, my fears were answered by the System.

Uncapped leveling safeguard initiated.

Prepared mental space detected.

Moving subject's mind into prepared space.

I let out a mental sigh as I was pulled from my body, and landed on my old couch. I couldn't help but send a heartfelt prayer of thanks to Randy. Apparently the System had saved his mockup of Angela's old apartment.

The television flicked on, a familiar face on the screen.

"Hello there Angel, it’s a bit too early for this to be your milestone evaluation, isn't it? I'm not him by the way, just a fragment he left behind in this place, meant to keep him updated on your progress."

I blinked, looking at the image of Randy, a goofy smile on my face. It was nice that he wanted to check in on me. If it was anyone else, it would probably have bothered me a little. But I knew the god probably just wanted reassurances that I was okay.

I did wonder about the fragment though, the way it looked at me through the screen, its eyes taking me in. There was intelligence there. I didn't even get to ask about it, the fragment smiled at me and answered.

"I'm a nearly perfect copy of his mind, I only have the barest shadow of his power though. Just enough to do my job."

I felt a little bad, even if it was a copy, this was a version of Randy waiting around, with the sole purpose of keeping tabs on me.

"Oh don't worry for me, my awareness is minimal when you are not in this place. It's quite akin to sleep, there are a few things that can wake me, such as something going wrong with your soul. Also, I do have one other job. I'm to teach you the soul magic that you need to know to maintain your split when you go on to your next life."

I was happy to hear that, even if it was disconcerting to have my thoughts answered like I'd spoken them aloud. It was something I remembered the real Randy doing as well, somehow from him it felt natural. I wondered when exactly he was planning on teaching me.

"I'm sorry, I can pretend I don't hear your thoughts if you like, but I know you value honesty almost as much as I do. You aren't ready to learn yet. Soul magic is performed without the aid of the System. Once you have more experience manipulating mana with the System's training wheels, you'll have an easier time learning to do it on your own. There's no hurry, you shouldn't need it this life anyway."

I had questions, not the least of which was what he planned to do if I died before he got around to teaching me. But before he could respond to them, the System asked me to assign my hoard of free points.

I sent all one hundred and thirty points into Wisdom, the stat was low, and a better ability to sense and interact with mana would have helped me push away the deathly corruption. At least I thought so, Randy's image nodded at me.

"Good choice, it may be more than a little disorienting when you wake up though. I'd recommend resting for the day and not trying to use it very much until your brain adjusts."

It was fortunate that I had the next day off. I planned to spend the rest of the day reading up on the elements in the guildhall. Something I should have done already. I felt like I was probably attacking this life in the wrong order.

Doing before learning properly. Letting my instincts lead me around by my nose, even before my split. I sighed, a day spent reading sounded like a really good idea.

"Don't be so hard on yourself. You weren't given a start that I would have recommended for a new contractor, not at all. There is no part of this job that I would say is fit for a beginner. At the very least your first job should have allowed you to start a new life as a baby. Awakening your memories only when you had fifteen years growing up, picking up the common knowledge of how System worlds work."

The man on the screen looked angry.

"She could have hired someone with friendly Concepts to get someone who cared. Instead she loaded you up with enough instincts, and System drives to very nearly destroy who you were. Then she pushed you to level at a frankly obscene rate. Something I notice she's stepped up on instead of pulling back like I remember telling her to. When I report to the real me, there will be hell to pay."

"She asked this time, I agreed" I said without thinking.

"Angel my dear, I mean this in the nicest possible way, but that does not make things much better. You don't ask a child if they want to eat the whole bag of sweets. The child doesn't have the experience to know how that will affect them."

"I'm not a child. I know leveling quickly isn't the best, but what am I supposed to do? There's a dangerous creature that I need to deal with."

"Don't take it personally, Belua herself is a child in my eyes. But even to the eyes of someone younger, you are far too inexperienced with the System to make that choice. At this rate you will reach your next milestone soon, and do you know what will happen?"

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"I'll get a new class based on way too little data?" I ventured, it wasn't hard to guess.

"Yes, precisely. Have you been thinking about how you behave, what skills you use, where you put your stats? If you are going to be leveling so quickly you need a solid idea of how you want the System to see you. You've been approved for experimental classes, I guess Hash didn't think you had enough trouble. So the sky isn't even the limit to what the System can do to you when you hit a milestone." The man on the screen frowned, obviously not enthused by his boss's choice for me.

I shook my head, I'd been trying a little of everything since my last milestone. Trying to figure out what worked through trial and error. I didn't even know what the System was looking for when it evolved classes, beyond simply trying to make the class fit me better.

The image sighed. "Milestones are meant to trim the parts of a class that a person is resistant to, or lacks the talent to properly utilize. They are also meant to bring in functionality associated with non-class related activities you commonly engage in. The logs of your previous evolution indicate that it was primarily based on one fight. One where you shifted to your beast form and let the fire mana run through you to take down an opponent that vastly outleveled you. It shouldn't need to be said that having it base your whole class off of one fight because of a lack of other real world data is not optimal."

I thought about what he said. I liked the class I'd ended up with. Shifting my forms was a fantastic addition, it felt so wrong to be in one form too long, and so lovely to be able to change. I even had to admit I liked the rush that accompanied the influence of most mana types. I'd gotten used to putting limits on them so that I was able to control myself.

"I'm glad you are happy, truly. I almost don't want to remind you that the parts of you that hated it are currently off with my true self, doing their own thing."

I ducked my head, the man had a point. I tried to think of the non-class related things I had done. There probably wasn't much, most of my combat time involved using my class skills to the best of my ability. Outside of combat I didn't do much besides eat and… sleep. I really hoped that the System wouldn't work those things into my next evolution.

Randy's fragment let out a laugh. "Your night time activities are out of the scope of the System, thank the founders for small favors. Though, knowing those bastards I wouldn't be surprised if it was something they considered. Eating though, if it's notable, might be worked into your class. Using calories as fuel is a common enough occurrence."

"I did accidentally pick up hungry from a core I ate. So I'd say my appetite is currently notable."

The god narrowed his eyes. "Did you just say 'a core you ate' like it's something you do frequently?"

I really should have thought of that one. "Yeah, apparently mana beasts have a taste for cores. I can eat the Concepts and strengthen myself with them. I even seem to get stats based on what I ate."

The fragment's eyes widened, and he seemed to be looking deep into me. "Dear lord, no wonder mana beast parts are so exceptional for crafting. I can't see your body, but I can see what you've done to your soul now that I'm looking. It is as though you have experienced years of growth since the last time I saw you."

The man tapped the table he was sitting behind, he looked like he was mulling over the information. "You need to be very careful what cores you eat, I'm sure you have figured that out. But that is amazing. You could shave whole lives worth of time off of your ascension. You even have the opportunity to intentionally pick up Concepts that way if you find ones that you like. This may make the life worth all the hardship."

Intentionally picking up Concepts sounded terrible, the last thing I wanted was more things influencing how I felt. The almost envious gaze that the fragment had adopted when he mentioned the idea made me question that conclusion.

"Look, your contract requires you to make a name for yourself. You are going to have a lot of people with thoughts about you when you actually start focusing on your job. If you go looking for Concepts that counter the public opinion of beasts, you'll have some protection from some if the less savory ideas floating around. Kind is a good start, I'm not sure you knew how smart that was when you chose it. "

I nodded, the ability to be proactive, and choose Concepts that fit who I wanted to be was an opportunity I hadn't appreciated.

I spoke with Randy's fragment about various Concepts I might be interested in, and what elements might hold them. It gave me some ideas for Aspects I could channel while fighting too.

Water and Air both had Calm as a possibility. Darkness, Fire, Life, and Earth, all had a version of Protective. The list of things he thought I might like went on and on.

He did warn me that monsters with less aggressive cores were rare. As a rule, calmer mana was more likely to make a spirit beast instead of a monster. They also weren't likely to be problem monsters that I was sent after. I would have to seek them out.

After some time, as much as I enjoyed all the advice, I began to wonder why the leveling process was taking so long. It was a lot of levels, sure, but it wasn't like I was going through an evolution.

"I didn't think you would want to cut this short, the process is finished, your body is resting comfortably. I simply told the System to hold you here for the moment, so we could speak. I'm sorry I didn't inform you, I really should have. Honestly I have enjoyed being able to give you some direction. I suppose it's time though. Remember what we talked about, and remember to pay close attention to how things work when you use your System skills. See you later Angel, good luck."

I didn't have a chance to thank him before I was pulled back to my body.

The first thing I noticed was the sheer quantity of information that I was picking up from the local mana. I could feel the fine details of which Concepts were currently dominant, and felt just how I could push them to shift.

Before, I only felt the type, and relied on contact to feel out what I had been thinking of as its mood. Now I knew the air mana was mostly calm, the earth mana that was in the stone of the building was mostly sturdy, and so on.

The moment I moved, the air mana shifted to playful in reaction. I was somewhat sad to realize that the personality I felt from it was the mana's Concepts shifting to match the ones my body was build from. With my new senses, I could see how I could push it back to calm, or whip it into a frenzy by pushing those Concepts into my own internal mana.

I'd been doing that all along, I just couldn't see what I was doing. In a flash, I knew it was all because of Mana's Friend, it drew mana to me, and made it more likely to shift in reaction.

I felt like I had lost a friend, the air mana shifted from playful to soothing. It felt so real, it made me doubt the information the System had shared with me. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but I resolved to continue thinking of the elemental mana as something more than the bundle of ideas given power. The System was made by people after all. People could be wrong.

The thought cheered me up, and the mana instantly shifted back to playfully winding through my fur. I chuffed a laugh at its behavior. I didn't care what the creators of the System thought. The mana had personality to me.

After spending some time basking in the feelings of joy the mana exuded, I paid attention to my physical changes.

I had grown again, it wasn't as dramatic as the last time, I wondered what determined how much growth I experienced. I would have to figure that out eventually, it was inconvenient for my true form to be so huge.

I could shift smaller, but I would have to fight instincts that seemed very happy to be large. It was easier to simply shift to my demihuman form, it seemed to have maxed out at a relatively tiny eight feet tall.

I moved on from considering my size for the moment, and tried to determine what had happened to as a result of my Dexterity hitting a milestone.

It seemed that much like my Strength and Constitution milestones where they combined to make my body more dense, it had folded into my Agility milestone. I was perfectly aware of my body in space, and capable of moving it with precision.

It actually made getting up to have a look in the mirror much more complicated as I adjusted to it.

I looked much the same as I had before, perhaps a little slimmer, but my thick fur made it hard to tell.

After evaluating myself the old fashioned way, I had a look at what the System had to say about me.

Name Angel

Race : Spirit Beast

Level : 126

Class : Adventurer (Bestial Mana Shifter)

Str 400 Con 490

Agi 370 Dex 286

Int 432 Wis 419

Per 277 Cha 53

I purred a little seeing the growth.

Someday I would have to consider putting points into charisma. It would probably help with the goal of my contract. I wasn't sure I could justify it when I was being thrust into combat so often.

I sighed, and shook out my fur. The mirror and my instincts told me I was a handsome creature anyway. Torill seemed to confirm it.

My eyes widened as I realized that she had told me she would guard my door. I had no idea how much time had past.

I shifted to demihuman and ran to go apologize for forgetting.