I was exhausted, but I didn't let that stop me from listening to what Torill had to say about the giant tree in the middle of the forest. The thing was a monster, both in size, and in the fact that at some point a mana crystal had formed inside it. Legend had it that the tree had been around from the beginning, when Belua had created all life on the planet.

Apparently as the mana settled from the flurry of creation, a large amount of earth mana settled where the tree had grown. The end result was the great stone tree.

For the first century the tree was a curiosity, and nothing more. A unique sight in the middle of an otherwise healthy forest, a tree that was made of stone, but still grew.

Then someone tried to cut it down.

The story says that a noble wanted to decorate his banquet hall with furniture made of stone-wood.

First he sent lumberjacks.

They failed to so much as scratch the stone bark. They said that it was no longer a tree, their skills did not work.

Then he sent his strongest soldiers armed with axes. Their high strength allowed them to cut into the tree, but they had to retreat as the earth around it began to strike at them.

After that, they realized that it was a monster. It was known that monster plants existed, but the tree had never struck out before, so they thought it couldn't be one.

A group of the strongest adventurers in the area were sent. They never returned.

Scouts were sent to find out what happened. They returned with a tale of miles of forest having turned to stone. When one of them tried to enter, he had turned to stone before their eyes.

They sent mages and researchers to try to find a way to block the petrifying aura that permeated the forest. They failed, the tree was too strong. They could block the aura at the edges of the stone forest, but it became overwhelming as they ventured closer to the great stone tree.

The tree was, and perhaps still is, the most powerful creature in the area. It was too powerful, they thought it would not be able to survive much longer in the tier one mana zone.

Even monsters are not immune to the sickness that happens when their mana is too powerful for the area. They usually instinctively leave. The tree, of course, did not have that option. So they expected it to eventually break down and die on its own. So they left it alone, and warned everyone against venturing near.

It defied their expectations. Over the years, the stone forest grew. Earth elemental monsters gathered in the forest in great numbers, either having been attracted by the aura of the tree, or created by it.

Monsters that should, by all logic be in the throes of mana sickness were observed by seers to be living happily in the center of the forest. Steps were taken to prevent the further expansion of the aura, but they only slowed it. Eventually it stopped on its own, but not before a nearby town had to be evacuated.

From time to time, adventurers are sent to cull the monsters on the outskirts of the forest, but none venture to its center. None can, anyone powerful enough to do so would be too powerful to make it to the forest.

Torill cursed Belua's name a little when she finished telling me the legend.

"I know why she wanted me with you. Spirits are just about the best thing you can call on to protect you from auras like that. The problem is, I don't know what it will cost. If the creature she's sent you after is the tree itself… I probably will be in no condition to help once I've paid the price." Torill looked a little frightened, it made my heart lurch to see it.

"Can I pay it instead?"

"No offense, Angel, but I doubt you have enough of their kind of currency for this. Besides, I'm not much of a fighter in this life. Anything I'd do to fight for myself would incur sizable experience penalties, and asking the spirits to fight for me would have me paying a cost anyway. We can’t both end up in the middle of the woods with no idea who we are or how we got there. And only a vague idea of what our plan was, and that we mean anything to each other."

She had a point. "You said you liked your class, I still think it sounds terrible."

"You know why I'm happy with it, silly. I hate how it works when I have to ask for anything big. I'm not crazy. But I think that's how it's designed. The spirits can do amazing things when given a conduit to act in the real world. Having the cost be something utterly terrible makes you only do such things when you really need to. I'm absolutely certain that the spirits would be perfectly happy to take payment in mana. But that is one of the few things I cannot give them."

"I thought they only took memories?"

"They usually do, they are creatures of thought that live out of phase with the physical world. Most of them don't really understand things that exist outside the realm of the mind. But the powerful ones will sometimes ask for things like senses. I had one request the use of my hand for a week once. That was an interesting experience."

"I don't know if I could agree to something like that. It sounds a little terrifying."

"It's not so bad when you get used to it. The spirit was actually pretty nice, and didn't do anything too strange while I was around other people. It just wanted to feel things for a while."

I yawned despite myself.

"Can we continue this in Belua's realm? I'm not sure how much longer I can keep my eyes open."

"Oh, of course, let me just give some instructions to my servitor spirit. It will wake me if anything dangerous comes anywhere near us. Knowing you, you probably need to level again, even if we haven't hunted since you leveled, you learned a whole lot about magical theory. That'll definitely be worthy of a reward in the System's eyes."

I chittered out a squirrelly curse as the System pinged me when I thought about it.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Congratulations

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

Level up × 14

Strength + 56

Constitution + 70

Agility + 56

Dexterity + 42

Intelligence + 28

Wisdom + 14

Perception + 14

Free stats + 70

Safety features enabled, transferring consciousness.

After a brief pulling sensation. I was on Angela's old sofa. I was looking forward to talking to Randy's fragment about Hash.

Before I could open my mouth I noticed that he was staring at something behind me with wide eyes. I heard the popping hiss of a soda can being opened. From behind me I heard a somewhat unwelcome voice.

"Damn kid, he managed to mine some really intact memories of this pop. Your original self must have had a lot of it."

I tried to turn to look, but ended up falling over as the realization struck me that I hadn't appeared in my demihuman form. I was an extremely shrunken version of my true form. I was about the size of a large housecat from the looks of it.

The man behind the sofa laughed.

"You've been thinking of that cat as your true form pretty naturally lately, so I took the liberty of making you a bit more comfortable."

I was not happy with the change. My big mana beast form felt natural and comfortable. But it wasn't convenient for holding a conversation. Even with all the strides I'd made, mind speech still took a lot more effort than simply talking. Being so small also didn't feel right for this form. I hissed, and my ears flattened, expressing my displeasure without words.

He laughed again, harder.

"You know neither of us need you to talk, why are you upset?"

I growled, it was not my normal deep rumble, but a much less intimidating sound, befitting my form. He knew why. Anyone who didn't need words to have a conversation with me would know why.

"Stop tormenting the poor kid, Hash. What are you doing here? Why would you bother leaving a fragment?"

While Randy spoke, I hopped onto the back of the couch to get a look at Hash. I don't know what I expected, having only ever heard his voice, but a short young man with shaggy black hair who was barely out of his early twenties was not it. The worn jeans and t-shirt with a generic skull on it did not scream "elder god" to me.

That prompted another laugh from the guy, he smiled exposing sharp fangs, but otherwise ignored my mental questions about how he chose to present himself.

"I'll tell you all about it when the kid's done leveling. The details would bore the poor thing."

I received a prompt asking about my free points, before I could properly form a thought about how knowing more about his purpose would be anything but boring for me. It seemed this visit would be pretty short. I had to change mental gears to make sure the System didn't misinterpret a stray thought and give me something other than the perception that Nefen had recommended.

Then a bowl was placed in front of me, it smelled divine. I couldn't stop myself from lapping it up. Despite my desire to argue with Hash, every ounce of my attention was consumed by it. It was just warm milk, but since it had my full attention, I could easily sense the Concepts that Hash had somehow managed to imbue every drop of it with.

It was in no way an unpleasant experience, if you didn’t account for the fact that it was obvious that Hash had only created it to shut me up. It tasted so good I couldn't even find it in my heart to be mad.

I heard the men talking, but the strong soporific Concept contained in the milk made my mind too cloudy to understand their words. I was already asleep when my leveling process was completed.

My eyes opened in Belua's realm, strangely I was the small cat that Hash had turned me into. I wondered if my body had changed to match, it was well within the capability of Assume Form to alter the size of any of my forms. I'd never really tried to do it to such a large degree before, my instincts usually got in the way, but I knew it was possible.

I shook my head, it didn't matter, I'd just ask Belua to change me back to my demihuman form once I made sure Torill had put me somewhere with enough space for the shift. I doubted she left me on the ground outside the tent when I fell asleep after leveling. Speaking of which, I tried to check my level. I wasn't sure if it would work in Belua's realm, but it popped into my head just fine.

Name Angel

Race : Spirit Beast

Level : 140

Class : Adventurer (Bestial Mana Shifter)

Str 456 Con 560

Agi 426 Dex 328

Int 460 Wis 433

Per 361 Cha 53

My perception wasn't nearly high enough to hit the half of intelligence plus wisdom that Nefen had recommended, but I hoped it would improve things. I couldn't tell in the room Belua set aside for me. There was little to perceive in the Conceptless space. There was very little sound that I did not make myself. When my mind focused on that fact, the sound of my own blood pumping became deafening.

I grumbled to myself, and hopped from the bed. Being small was nothing new to me. My sky terror form was about the same size as Hash had made me. My squirrel form was smaller still. I still flicked my tail in annoyance.

I looked at the addition to the little cabin Belua had given me. There was a doorway to an entirely new room.

It was filled with canvases, paints, and paintbrushes of all types and colors, along with every sort of tool for painting I could think of, and some that I didn't recognize. All of my annoyance was forgotten.

Angela had respected the hell out of artists, but painting had never been a passion of hers. I wasn't sure if I'd have been all that interested in it myself, but the pure look of happiness that Torill had on her face when she mentioned trying to teach me made me want to try it. Anything that made her that happy was worth spending some time on.

I heard the rustling of sheets when Torill appeared in the realm, and trotted out of the room to greet her.

"What's with the tiny form? Don't get me wrong, it's almost as adorable as your cub form, but it really took me by surprise when you shifted while leveling."

I forgot about Hash's little rule, and tried to answer her honestly. Her eyes glazed over for a moment.

"Oh, that's weird, I wonder why it would think you would be comfortable like that. Oh well, you're in the tent with plenty of space for you to shift to anything other than your true form, so go ahead."

I tried not to think too hard about the fact that whatever Hash had done had changed what she thought I said. There was nothing I could do but try to be better about not prompting that type of action again.

After a quick prayer to Belua for a form change with special attention paid to having the more dexterous human-like hands I had experimented with earlier. I smiled and took Torill's hand. Dragging her along for once to show her the new room. She practically squealed with joy when she saw it.

She spent the night teaching me how to paint. My efforts were painfully bad, but her encouragement, and the very real happiness in every movement of her body made me keep trying.

After several hours, with her showing me techniques, I painted something that wasn't a complete mess.

"You see? Anyone can do it! Especially with these amazing stats that the System gives us."

She hugged me, getting more paint in my already colorfully adorned fur, I spared a thought to be glad I wouldn't have to actually worry about cleaning that.

I heard her mumble into my chest, "It sounds strange, since it was such a big part of my original life, but I forgot how much I loved this. Thanks for reminding me."

It was definitely a night well spent. We could worry about how to tackle the stone forest in the morning.