“Race you to the downed tree!” Torill said, with enough cheer that I wondered if we were being watched again, before darting off into the forest.

I watched her go, she was moving pretty fast, darting through the trees. I yawned before taking my time to stretch, arching my back and tail. I really enjoyed the complete lack of tension in my muscles. I lifted a paw and flexed exposing my claws, I felt my newfound strength even in that simple motion.

I sighed, planting my paws on the ground. I'd stalled long enough, Torill was probably halfway there at the speed she was moving. I crouched down, and in a test of my enhanced body, leapt into the air with as much force as I could muster.

The earth compressed under my feet as I launched like a rocket, I was high in the sky when I felt myself hit the apex of my ascent. Holding my forelegs out to the side, I shifted to my sky terror form. Once again the shift took more mana than expected, three quarters of my core were gone in an instant.

I sucked in the local mana like mad, refilling my core. I couldn't help but note how watered down it tasted after having experienced tier two mana. I hoped it would pass, but I had a feeling that the exposure to higher tier mana had changed my tastes forever.

As my flight took me towards the flattened area that was once the home of the great stone tree, I was happy to see that it was no longer flooded. It was evidence that my setup in the river had broken down as I intended it to.

There was something new next to the trunk of the downed tree, a large flat cart, and Torill was sitting on the back of it.

“You took your time! Look what I got you!” She patted the wood beneath her.

I could see enchantments covering the surface of the cart.

“That thing looks expensive.” I remarked as I landed next to her. The ground had become a slurry of mud and stone fragments, and it felt disrespectful to land on the tree's fallen body.

“It was! But it will be worth it! We need to get those petrified people to a temple, and of course, there's your prize for this hunt.” She gestured to the tree. “The woodworkers in Brightwood will love it! And it'll help show people what you've done.”

My heart hurt a little at the idea of selling the tree to people who would tear their body apart to make furniture. In the end, I'd be doing just what the noble who destroyed a young spirit tree's life had tried to do. I sighed.

“Someone is going to use it up eventually either way. You might as well be the one to profit. Besides, it will be good to get your name out there as a Legendary monster slayer. You'll get much better jobs with this kind of confirmed kill.” She scratched the back of my neck, just behind my crest.

I ducked my head, part acknowledging what she said, part ducking away from her touch. She removed her hand quickly.

“So I need your help loading that thing up. I could do it, but I'm saving my energy for later.”

I looked between the giant trunk, the decently large cart, and her. I didn't even feel the need to send the question. The trunk was many times the length of the cart, and many times the weight I could conceive of lifting in any form.

She giggled, and waved a hand, sending out many streams of mana to small enchanted objects that had been placed at intervals all over the tree. I wasn't sure how I hadn't noticed them, but then again I wasn't very fond of looking at that particular kill.

The trunk shrank to a size that would just barely fit on the cart.

“Yes, those also look expensive, but you will be adding them to the cost of the tree. Now, do you think you can lift that up somehow?”

I looked between the tree and the cart, judging the distance. I tried to judge its weight but sadly I had no idea what it would be with the enchanted objects holding it in a smaller size. There wouldn't be much point to the enchanted objects if they left the weight as it was. From what I'd learned about spacial mana, however, how much weight it reduced was somewhat independent of how much it reduced something's size.

I did the simple thing and asked Torill.

“I don’t know, I bought the most expensive ones they had, and set them to their maximum level. They have embedded rechargeable mana crystals, they are supposed to last a week at full load."

Remembering how much the rechargeable crystal I bought from Hoyt cost, I didn't want to consider how much Torill had spent on the things. There had to be at least twenty of them. I stared at Torill.

"You are handling the sale of all this. I can't even begin to guess what you think the tree is worth if you've spent this much already."

"Ten percent of the profits, in addition to paying back the money I spent yesterday."

I snorted. I knew I'd need money eventually, but I wasn't entirely sure what I'd do with it if I had a lot of it. "Fine, deal."

I sighed, looking at the mud below. I imagined my paws coated in the stuff. I was heavy, so I'd probably sink down a bit in the stuff.

Torill's tinkling laughter assaulted my ears. “Oh boy, don't wanna get down in the mud? What kind of adventurer was I dating? What sort of beast are you?”

I stared at her, and hissed. “I don't see any mud on your feet.”

“Yep! You're right! I'm a hypocrite! I used levitate when it started getting muddy. I'd bet there's something you could do that'd be just as effective.”

I cocked my head to the side, and realized how silly I was being.

Hopping off the cart I shifted to my true form, and switched my core to the now familiar earth Aspect that the tree had shown me. It felt strange to channel earth tinted versions of Concepts I already possessed. Either way, I landed with a large splash of mud, a lot of it just happened to hit Torill, none of it stuck to me.

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I scampered off to hop to the opposite side of the fallen tree, it moved easily when I put a paw on it. I pushed it towards the cart. Rolling it on the muddy ground felt insanely disrespectful, but then, the tree was probably already on its way to a new life, so maybe it was okay.

When it came time to lift it, I shifted to my demihuman form. Hands had their uses, after all. I was expecting it to be more of a strain than it was as I crouched and slid my arms under the petrified wood, and lifted it onto the cart.

Torill had me help her adjust how the trunk was positioned, and we strapped it down. I wasn't quite sure how she meant to get the cart out of the area, I wasn't even sure how she got it in. It wasn't like there were roads to the stone forest.. But she was quick to let me know that I'd been volunteered to both pull the cart and clear a path for it.

“You're big enough, you can totally just make a path.” She said, like it was nothing.

She even produced a self adjusting harness that she'd bought especially for me. I gave the enchantments on it half a day before I destroyed them, but it wouldn't matter much. Thankfully the doomed enchantments were only active when the harness had to change sizes.

My instincts weren't too fond of the harness, or being tied to a cart, and neither was I. They did, however, understand carrying a kill home, so they didn't fight too much. Happily, the harness was well padded, and literally magically fitted to me, so it was as comfortable as such a thing could be.

As I, as Torill put it, “made a path,” the woman sat on the cart and used magic to make the whole thing hover a couple feet off the ground. It seemed to take every bit of her concentration to pull it off, but it was worth it, I didn't have to worry about making my path flat.

It took a day and a half of constant work, but we eventually made it to something that could pass for a road. The beast of a cart I was pulling took up nearly the entire path, and I would constantly be walking through branches if I didn't shrink myself. It was still better than nothing.

Sadly I'd turned out to be right about my effect on enchantments, the harness had lost its enchantment near the end of the first day. It was still a very nice piece of equipment, and I was considering binding it to myself so I could shift with it.

Once we reached the road Torill said something about wonderful timing, and began setting up a tent. When I looked at her in confusion, she smiled.

“My debt has been paid, what has been borrowed will be returned.” The words sounded formal, official, like she was repeating something that had been said to her.

My ears perked up, I was looking forward to things returning to normal. The dissonance between how much I cared for her, and how she constantly seemed like a stranger had been grating on me every time I looked at her. I was honestly surprised it had been three days already, but I did lose a lot of time sleeping.

The spirit had fled my body when I started eating the tree's core. I hadn't even noticed it at the time, I wasn't sure what it had done to its connection to me, but I think it had suppressed it somehow. I'm pretty sure that for something that was made entirely out of Concepts, watching me eat the core had been quite terrifying.

Torill invited me to join her in the tent since the return of what was, was likely to be a bit disorienting. I shifted to demihuman to do so, and it was a good thing I did too. Torill needed me. It seemed newly restored emotions were intense. I spent the rest of the day holding her. It didn't hit me nearly as hard as it did her, but I still didn't stop purring the entire time.

Torill didn't say a word the entire time, she didn't need to.

The next morning we parted for long enough for her to take care of her morning needs, and me to hunt something for breakfast. We hadn't eaten well for the last couple days, my hunger still had yet to return, though I was beginning to sense the Concept healing itself. I'd also noticed that the harness was beginning to feel slightly loose.

After breakfast I finally asked if she had picked up the monster cores.

“Of course! Even if I didn't know their value to you, those things are worth money. Do you need one?”

I nodded.

“I'm thinking of binding this.” I said, as I held up the harness.“ I don't know if I'll need it again after this, but I'd like to shift to my ram form for the rest of the trip. It would be less frightening for people once we get on a real road.”

Torill shook her head.

“Don't do that. Maybe go smaller, but you should start displaying what you are more often. You're not the scruffy wild thing you used to be, and you're no longer weak enough to have to worry about a single attack taking you down.”

I lifted my head, mildly offended. “Scruffy wild thing!?”

She smiled, her real honest, gentle smile. “You wouldn't have recognized it in yourself, but yeah. You were constantly scanning the world around you like you expected monsters to leap out of every corner. And let's be honest, the way the air mana constantly ruffles your fur is cute, but it didn't used to leave you looking well kept.”

“Ah.” I said, as I ran a hand down my arm. My fur was amazingly soft now, and so sleek it seemed to settle itself down whenever the air mana let up in it.

“It also doesn't hurt that anyone who looks at you can feel how you are a kind, honest, protector, who is strong, and tough when they need to be. Sure, some people will probably claim that you are using an ability to put people at ease. And some people that think those things make you weak. But I don't think anyone will worry about you being a monster.”

“Even if they think I'm one bad day from turning into one?”

“When you think about it, isn't everyone?” Torill asked.

“I'm not sure I agree with that, I've had a bunch of bad days.”

Torill hugged me.

“Yeah, I know. You have, and you still managed to pick up the Concepts you did. I don't care that you got to cheat and choose most of them for yourself. You chose those! I don't think I'd pick up kind, honest, or protective. They sound like trouble makers.”

I nodded. “Oh they are, for sure! But at the same time, I kind of picked them because they fit who I want to be anyway.” I looked down. “I know those choices are a little childish…”

“They are sweet. You know, I flirted with you before, but when you suddenly manifested those Concepts and told me you'd picked kind from a list and honest resonated with you. That was when I decided to really chase you. I bet that admin offered you some Concepts that would have granted you actual power.”

I shook my head. “You give me too much credit. The other choices were heroic and empathic, if I remember right.”

The look on her face was priceless.

“Okay, you may be right, I think I'd make the same choice as you. Heroic is powerful, it makes you stronger, faster, just plain better at everything. It even makes you attractive no matter what your charisma is. Catch is, people with that Concept don't often live long enough to enjoy it. They are drawn to conflict by their Concept, and can't help but try to intervene, even if they know it's futile. And empathic? You've met Ivo. I wouldn't take that Concept for anything. That admin really didn't give you much choice.”

I shook my head. “No, he didn't. But I think I'd have still picked it if he also offered things like strong.”

“I think so too.”

We cuddled for a while after that, eventually I got around to binding the harness. The way Assume Form worked with my bound items made it so the harness would fit every form perfectly, though I wasn't sure what I'd use it for in most of them.

Torill had just helped me hitch back up to the cart when the turtle finally showed up with a horde of mobile plants carrying the petrified adventurers.