The minute I transitioned into the mindspace that had been made for me, I heard the 8 bit sound of a game that Angela spent far too much time playing in her early 20's, it was a perfect match for the apartment. I didn't quite have the attachment to the sound that Angela would have, but hearing it still touched something in me. I could almost feel the rectangular controller in my hands, I could almost taste the soda and chips we used to eat while playing when we came home from work.

I could definitely smell both those things. I heard a crunch and looked down from my perch on the back of the sofa to see Hash downing a handful of chips before washing it down with a soda. I looked over at the TV to see the game on the screen instead of Randy.

"Man you sure had some detailed memories of these games, this is one of the most complete though. Why couldn't you have been more into action? I barely got halfway through that one with the guy with the whip when it fogged out on me."

It seemed he was using the mockup of my old apartment while I wasn't there. I was a little jealous, I knew how much Angela liked those old games. I had access to her memories of playing them after all, but if I got my paws on them it would almost be like playing them for the first time.

I have to admit, I was more than a little annoyed to see him kicking back and relaxing while I was getting prepared to kill an entire forest full of monsters. I may have pondered smacking him in the back of the head. I knew it was a terrible idea, Hash had so much power over me, the last thing I wanted to do was piss him off. I settled for swinging my fluffy tail against the back of the couch in protest.

Hash laughed, and set down the controller. "So grumpy! You're usually such a nice kitty too. I'd totally let you play but it's not like you're going to be here long." He waved a hand and the System asked me where I wanted my free points, I went with perception again. Nefen's advice seemed to be working, at least a little. I felt like I was able to process all the information I was receiving from my senses a bit better, it gave me room to actually think.

"Here, this ought to improve your mood. I'll drop a little knowledge that you won't be able to hear from anyone else. It's a big secret! It's a major part of how we got the whole System to work!"

The fragment grinned at me, I wondered if the knowledge would cost me something..

"Nah! No cost. It'll be interesting to see if you can make use of it. Usually this kind of thing is beyond mortal reach. Call it a part of my little experiment."

I closed my eyes,and counted down from ten in my head. I did not love the idea of being a mix between experiment and entertainment for this guy, but I did want to know whatever secrets he was willing to share.

"Randy was to be a warlord in his first life, he was a nasty piece of work. That's a secret, he's probably frowning at me right now, he doesn't like thinking about those days."

That just made me respect the man more. I doubted that he'd have picked up the Concepts he had if he hadn't changed first.

"Bah, ahh well listen up, here's the secret. One Concept can be bound to another in a way that makes them constantly share influences. You can make it so that the influences only go one way. The connection can carry instructions and intent if you want to be really fancy. It's how the System works most of its magic. If you want to see it in action, look at your class."

I kind of knew that, I'd seen the mass of Concepts before. I hadn't been able to make out how the connections worked though.

"Ha! You already looked, but you gave up when it was a little confusing? Look again, I'll bet you see more."

He reached over and put a hand on my head, looked me directly in the eyes, and said, "You could do with being a little more curious though, it'll make you more interesting to watch."

My whole body shivered as I felt the Concept force itself into my mind. I tried to reject it, survivor tried to push it away, I knew what curiosity did to cats. It was no use, Hash's fragment had a shit eating grin on his face as the Concept attached itself to me just as thoroughly as kind or honest. I didn't have time to respond before I was pulled back to my body.

I wanted to shout at the asshole that I was already plenty curious, I just had priorities, and asking the people around me about every little thing I wanted to know was a waste of their time. I quickly made a rule that asking too many questions was unkind unless someone was literally there to teach me.

I was livid, fuming at what had been done to me. I wanted to be in control of my Concepts, it was the whole point of asking Belua for the right kinds of monsters. The fact that Hash could casually force one on me was horrifying.

Then I opened my eyes to a world full of wonder. I was lying curled up in Torill's arms, there really shouldn't have been anything special to look at, but everything was interesting. I wanted to get up and touch, smell, even taste everything. Despite the exhaustion that still clung to me like mud, my heart was racing.

There was so much I didn't know, for instance, what was the sleeping bag we were using made of? It felt like cotton, and it smelled like… Well it mostly smelled like Torill, but underneath her wonderful scent, there was something I vaguely recognized as "that smell cloth like that has." I growled silently to myself when I realized that my memories from Angela's life did not include any idea what cotton actually smelled like. Though that totally made sense, it wasn't like Angela had a good sense of smell.

I barely stopped myself from getting up and inspecting every little thing in the tent. I didn't want to disturb Torill's sleep, she had seemed just as tired as I was.

The first thing my curiosity led me to do was the simplest, I had a look at how my stats had changed.

Name Angel

Race : Spirit Beast

Level : 160

Class : Adventurer (Bestial Mana Shifter)

Str 536 Con 660

Agi 506 Dex 388

Int 500 Wis 453

Per 481 Cha 53

I smiled to myself, I could feel a new level of strength, even in the small cat form Hash had made for me. 500 wasn't a milestone, but it felt like I'd gotten more of a boost than I usually would. It was hard to tell when I was trapped in Torill's arms. I wanted very badly to test my true form's strength, but waking Torill was not an option.

After a moment pondering whether or not I could slip away without her noticing, I reminded myself that Hash had given me something to be curious about. I looked inward.

The masses of Concepts that built my body were interesting. I had already looked at them before but I spent some time inspecting them with new eyes. They were all connected together by strands of energy that I had just barely been able to detect before. After talking to Hash, the connections had become far clearer to my senses. I could sense how some connections were bindings that forced the ideas to only lend their influence to certain parts of me.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

The net of Concepts that managed my fur were kept from touching any other part of me by these bindings. It was a very good thing too, I really wouldn't want soft to touch any other part of my body.

The more I looked, the more it all made sense to me. Slowly, I began to be able to read the masses of Concepts like a book. It didn't take me long to notice how my body had been altered, I followed the source of the changes to the huge clusters of foreign Concepts that were stitched onto my existence.

I found my class, more specifically, I found Assume Form. It took me a lot longer to be able to vaguely understand how the ability worked by reading the connections between Concepts.

I wanted to keep looking, but I had begun to feel more and more uncomfortable, the longer I gave in to my curiosity. Pain had slowly started to become more and more distracting, I finally pulled my senses back when my mind had begun to feel fuzzy.

I heard the sounds of nightly insects outside the tent, at first I thought I hadn't taken very long to inspect my Concepts. I wasn't entirely sure why I felt so utterly terrible.

My body felt weak and shaky, there was a burning in my gut that went far beyond even my normal hunger. It reminded me of the times I'd been drained. Torill was also awake, she noticed my awareness immediately, and hugged me tight.

"Finally! What the hell happened to you? I couldn't get you to wake up. Belua couldn't move your consciousness to her realm for some reason. Nothing we did could get through to you. Something was shielding you from outside interference, and now my spirit is telling me that you have grown a new Concept on your soul?"

From the stress and worry in her voice, I could tell that I had been stuck inspecting the way Concepts were linked to each other for a long time.

"How long was I like that?" I asked.

I didn't hear her answer, as I noticed that mind speech had its own bundle of Concepts that seemed to be linked to my being in a much different way than my class abilities. I started inspecting how it worked, it seemed to come from my core, it was a part of what I was as a Spirit Beast. The Concepts I recognized as being System links didn't do anything more than monitor it.

I didn't get long to look before Torill started shaking me, I felt my bones grind against each other from the force of it.

"Don't you dare do that again! I've been watching you waste away for a damn week!"

I shook my head, curious was a very dangerous Concept. I could feel survivor roaring in my head that I needed to do something about it. Fortunately I had the answer.

"Hang on, I can fix this. I don't think this will take very long, but do not shake me again. I need to concentrate."

"Okay Angel, but I don’t know how long you have, you're really not looking good."

I didn't need her to tell me that, I was quite literally starving to death. I called the mana to me, and ate it all as it came in, it helped take the edge off, but it wasn't nearly enough to fix a week of deprivation.

Thankfully in addition to handing me a massive problem, Hash had also given me the solution. I wondered if that was the point, had he injected the Concept into me so I could learn? Survivor pulsed and my mind got back on task.

I mentally grabbed hold of the two Concepts, and using some of the energy I had stored in my body from the cores I'd eaten, I began to bind one to the other.

Survivor would help to keep curious from driving me crazy. I wouldn't feel the burning desire to know every little thing about things that did not impact my life. It would probably still be able to influence my mind to look into things that would make me better able to survive what the world threw at me. But it would never, ever be able to do so in a way that threatened my survival.

I heard Hash laugh. "Good job kid, that was great! It totally worked like I thought! No need to thank me. Mana beasts are so damn cool. I wonder if you'll retain that ability in your next life, or if it's linked to your existence as a mana beast. I guess I'll find out eventually. Damn but mana beasts were named wrong, fucking Concept beast is what you are."

I didn't have the energy to be mad at the fragment of an elder god that casually infected me with a Concept. It had been, what? A test?

"A bit of a challenge and a key in one kiddo. Don't worry, I won't be doing this type of thing very often. As a fragment, I just don't have the mental energy to shove around that the real me would. He'll definitely love this data though, even if I had to break the non-interference policy a little to get it."

I focused on calling more mana to myself. It never seemed like a pure mana diet was enough for me, even before I picked up hungry, but it was restoring my energy enough that I didn't feel like I was in immediate danger of passing out from hunger.

I thought about binding the offensive Concept to survivor like I had curious, but it still wasn't a part of me, not really. If I bound it, I'd be binding it to my soul forever. Similar could be said to binding it to any Concept associated with my body. Binding it would accept it as a permanent addition. I wanted it gone, and Torill had said that was something she could make happen.

After I'd been eating all the mana I could pull in for several minutes, Torill whispered "Are you done?" under her breath.

I nodded. "Sorry, I should have said something, I'm better now. I really wish I could tell you what happened, but I can't."

"How did you get that Concept under control? It seemed like it was really overpowering for you, but now my spirit says you have it under control?"

I tried to explain what I did. She didn't seem to understand a word of it, even though I was putting the information in mind speech. I suppose I should have been happy that it didn't hurt her. It was disappointing though, she seemed to desperately want to know what I'd done. In the end I had to put it down to it being restricted information, and I didn't have the ability to share it.

I was kind of curious why nothing stopped me from trying to tell her like it would if I tried to talk about earth. I just put it down to different levels of restriction. Oddly it felt like the information being unable to be understood by people who weren't cleared for it seemed like the more powerful restriction.

"I'm sorry Torill, I just don't think I can tell you."

"Yeah, that seems pretty obvious, damnit. But at least I know that something is possible. I wish I could sense them more clearly, but my Concept Sense works through the spirits, and they seem to be just as unable to spread the information as you are."

I nodded, I knew she had a problem Concept or two, being able to bind them would help her a lot. I wondered if it was something I could do for her, but it would have to wait, I needed to eat.

"I hate to do this, but I need to get some food, we'll come back to this later okay?"

She nodded, and carried me out of the tent before setting me down. She held out her hand, and like a minor miracle, meat poured out of thin air onto the ground making a massive pile.

"I had my spirit get you some food while you were in that trance."

I got to work eating. It felt like I would never be able to stop, and I did not, not until the meat ran out.

When it was gone, I pushed my massive head against Torill in thanks, at some point I had shifted to my true form. It had grown again, and I felt more than a little cramped trying to fit in the space around the tent. I was grateful that the statue people seemed to have disappeared. Though I did wonder what happened to them, and that little turtle.

"So what do we do now? We're late, should we head back to the guild? They will be worried. We can always come back here later, the tree isn't going anywhere."

I shook my head.

"We're already late, I hate to worry them, but that ship has sailed. I should only need three days at most to finish this. I'll go hunt down something to replace your supplies, then I'll get to work."

I shifted and launched myself into the air before she could argue. It was interesting that despite having eaten a small mountain of food, my belly seemed empty. I'd noticed that kind of thing before. When I was truly hungry, food didn't seem to make it very far before my body transformed it into energy in a quite literal way. I only seemed to have to digest things the old fashioned way when I over-ate.

Either way, I was off to get even more food. I'd definitely bring a kill back to Torill too… eventually.