There was no time like the present. As I got redressed, my mind focused on the collection of mana buried behind my right lung. I can pull and deposit mana whenever I want, right? And if I overload my mana, it’ll cause my hair to grow really fast again?

We have no evidence to prove otherwise.

I focused on the feeling I felt whenever I shot my gun. Instead of letting the feeling pull the mana down my arm, I pulled it out of the battery. As I pulled more mana, I watched my HUD display that my mana rose to three hundred percent and the top of my head itched.

Even more strangely, I could continue to hold the mana and move it around. I didn’t instinctively “let go” of it once I pulled what I wanted. The first few strands of hair tickled my ears as the realization crept across my mind. I can use magic.

I held out my hand and imagined pushing the mana into it and then out. A swirl of black mist flowed from the seams of the plates on my hand and clung to them. The mana felt cold and empty as I stared into it.

If I can still feel the mana, and my status says I had the manifest and shape as my two powers, this is obviously manifest. That means I can make it into whatever shape I want.

I imagined molding the shadow magic into a small carving of a rabbit. It wasn’t as simple as imagining what I wanted, as the shadows clumped together for less than a second before losing all definition.

Concentrating on the shape of the rabbit, I shaped the shadow magic into what I wanted. Each bit of mana had to be forced and held in position. Slowly, but eventually, the mist responded to my will, taking on the delicate contours of ears, whiskers, and a cute button nose. The shadowy figurine sat in my palm, its form seemingly tangible yet ethereal.

A soft chuckle escaped my lips as I marveled at my creation. The rabbit, although made of shadow, held a certain charm in its details. Its eyes, though void of color, seemed to convey a special gleam.

“Aren’t you the cutest little thing?” I mused. I raised it closer to my face, studying the shadowy rabbit figurine. So I can make it into any shape. I likely won’t be able to make any guns or other weapons yet. Or will I?

With my other hand, I pulled my gun out of the bag of holding and opened the chambers. They were empty. I held the little shadow bunny next to the chambers. Like I had before, I forced the mana to take a new shape and hold it. This time, I made it into the shape of a bullet. The bullet was larger than the chamber, so I tried to split it into two, but I could only get one to hold its shape at a time.

It’s like I need two minds to concentrate on two objects.

Even though one didn’t hold its shape, the shadows still conveniently clung to my hand. I slid the shadow bullet into the chamber and instantly lost the connection with the mana. I hummed as I closed the chambers and prepared to fire at the ground.

The familiar pull of mana fed the gun as I pulled the trigger. The bullet punched a deep hole into the ground. A smile spread across my face as I stuck my finger in it and didn’t feel the bottom.

“Oh, ho, ho.” I turned to the exit. “I’ve got to show Shadara this. She’ll be so jealous.”

I scooped up the bag of holding and exited, nearly bowling Shadara over.

She caught herself and turned to me. Her eyes instantly went wide. “Rina? Is that you?”

“Yeah, yeah.” I held up my hand, the shadow magic still swirling around it. “Shadara, I can do magic. Isn’t that cool? See?”

I manifested more shadow magic into my hand and shaped it into a small puppy figurine.

I held it up to Shadara’s face. “See?”

“Hold up, calm down.” The panther woman pushed my hand down. “What did you do to yourself? What happened? You said you’d explain.”

Why isn’t she happy? This is so cool. I am doing magic. Real-life magic. Wait, if I show her I can fill my gun with it, that’ll impress her. It’s got to.

“Watch this.” I opened my gun and then pushed the shadow magic into each chamber one by one and closed it up. “And the cool part is that they work.”

Shadara clapped her hands on my cheeks. “Rina, calm down. Your hair is growing!”

“Oh.” I forgot about that. I pushed all the excess mana back into my battery. “There. Okay, sorry about that. I was just so excited.”

She smiled. “I get it. It’s been several years since I practiced my first spells, but I still remember the rush of doing something so life-changing. But I’m not aware of anyone who has a side effect when they use magic. Why is your hair so long? And wasn’t it white before? Why did it change?”

“My hair grows when I have too much mana in my body.” I froze. Change? “What?” My hair reached down to my butt. I reached around and pulled a handful of hair—midnight black hair.

Orange!

The lycanthrope DNA may have altered your hair pigmentation. Or it could have been another mutation because of the corrupted shadow magic you’ve absorbed. We have insufficient information to determine the cause. But it looks good on you.

Did you just have an opinion about my appearance?

We are attempting to improve morale by giving you a compliment. You ordered us to work on our interpersonal skills. So we are.

I scrunched my face and pinched my eyes while groaning. Great… my AI is learning flattery.

“Rina?” Shadara placed a hand on my shoulder. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

I didn’t open my eyes as I ran my fingers through my hair. Is it thicker too? “Be honest with me. Does it look good?”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Shadara sputtered a laugh. “You’re kidding, right? I’m biased when it comes to liking the color black. You make it look good.” She ran a finger through my hair, tucking a stray piece behind my ear. “It’s so beautiful. I don’t think I’ve seen hair that black before. The length is a little impractical, but nothing a pair of scissors can’t fix. It really makes your eyes pop. Although they don’t need help in that department, given how much they’re glowing now.”

I started feeling light-headed. Rather than passing out, I sat down. Let me guess—you don’t know why my eyes are glowing too. Let me also guess that they are black now too!

They are still the same bright green as before. But also, please do not panic, as they do not glow enough to provide significant illumination. And you are wrong. We know why your eyes are glowing.

Your synthetic eyes run on mana as much as they do energy. This isn’t a problem since your mana regeneration is more than enough to cover the upkeep cost. They are more sensitive to the quantities of mana in your body.

If you keep the ambient mana coursing through your body away from your eyes, it will dim slightly. But the effort required isn’t worth it unless stealth is a priority. You have more important thoughts to keep your mind on.

I’m not getting away from it, am I? So will they keep getting brighter as I increase my mana capacity?

No, and no.

So why now?

There is a maximum they can illuminate, and you have reached that.

“Rina, speak to me.” Shadara’s voice broke through the haze around my mind. She was shaking me. “Hey, don’t block me out now.”

“I…” I hung my head as I lost whatever words I wanted to say.

Shadara sat next to me and wrapped an arm around me. “Shh. It’s okay. I can’t imagine what you’ve gone through. Take your time. I’ll be here.”

I hugged her and nestled my head on her shoulder. She’s always so warm and comforting. “I’ll tell you, but can I first just think? I don’t know how to say everything.”

Shadara leaned her cheek on my head. “Words don’t always come easy. So please, take your time to consider them. It’s no problem. I’m not going anywhere.”

After letting my mind settle from the two new, unplanned, minor alterations, I took a deep breath. “I guess I’ll just start with the big one. There’s a mana battery in my chest now.”

Shadara didn’t respond. She just curled her tail and relaxed it. “Okay.” Her voice sounded so distant, despite her proximity. “And your arms and chest? They sound different when you move.”

I held her tighter. “Well, I’ve upgraded my arms so I can do this.” For a brief moment, I removed my right arm from her and extended my arm blade. I quickly retracted it and resumed holding my furry friend. “And knowing that mana batteries explode when damaged, I wanted to make sure I don’t explode. So I now have a bunch of plates under my skin for added protection in my chest.”

The beast woman nodded. “Is that it?”

I nodded. “Yeah. You saw the magic earlier. So yeah, that’s everything.”

Shadara patted my shoulder. “Thanks.” We sat together for a moment before she spoke again. “So, do you want to get some armor now?”

I gave her a quick squeeze before releasing her and standing up. “Oh, and uh, I spent most of my money. I’ve only got a little more than fifty thousand shards left.”

Shadara smirked as she shook her head. “That’s not too bad. We’ll see if we can get something before we go and figure out how to get some more on this level.” She stood up and waved for me to follow her. “How much did you start with, by the way? If you don’t mind, I can't remember what you said.”

I lowered my head as I walked behind her. “More than seven hundred and fifty thousand.”

Shadara stumbled for a step before regaining her composure. She slowed up and walked beside me. “I’m sure it was all well spent.”

I hope so.

I pulled the lengthy mass of hair out in front of me and started to braid it. Even though I had no proof, I couldn’t help but believe I had done something stupid, and Shadara was judging me for it. So I attempted to block those thoughts out by concentrating on braiding my hair into a four-strand weave.

In seconds, I had a perfect braid down to the tips. I’ve always been good with my hands, but not like this. The coordination in my hands was unreal. There wasn’t a single mistake or pause. My fingers moved exactly how I needed them, and I didn’t have to see them to know their exact location. I pinched the last bit between my fingers and pulled it in front of me.

Shadara glanced back at me and smiled. “You look good with that hairstyle. Maybe you should keep it like that. The braid will help keep it out of the way in combat. We’ll need to find a clip for you, but that shouldn’t be too hard.”

We walked towards the center of the camp, where several plums of smoke wafted skyward. After clearing a row of tents, we saw several open-stall work areas with roaring forges. I stopped and gawked as more of the beast people lined all the work areas. Most of them held weapons and armor while talking to the vendor or standing in line. But a few of the ones not doing that were standing in the center, like they were watching for something to happen.

One shop stood out from the rest. There was a distinct lack of patrons standing in front of it, and no smoke came from the chimney.

“Hey, look, over here.” A high-pitched voice called out from the empty storefront.

Shadara looked at each other, silently asking if the other had heard the voice too. Then we looked back at the abandoned store. There was a slight buzzing by my head, and a bug flew towards my face. Instinctively, I swatted it away.

“Ow.” There’s that voice again.

I turned to Shadara. “Did you hear that? Bugs don’t talk when you swat them.”

“Who are you calling a bug?”

The two of us looked down at the source of the squeaky voice. On the ground lay a ladybug-esk person. They were the size of a ladybug and had the red-with-black-spots wing covers, but they had a humanoid body covered in black chitin.

I squatted down and tilted my head as I stared at the bug. “The bugs talk here? And they’re so weird too.”

The little bug stood up and pointed at me. “Stop calling me a bug.”

“Then what are you?” I asked.

They crossed their four arms. “A pixie. Isn’t that obvious?”

Shadara grabbed the collar of my coat and yanked me back. “Don’t touch it. That’s bad luck. It’s bad enough that you hit them and then insult them; don’t do anything else. Pixies have a reputation for stealing everything from you. And they’ll steal things you didn’t know you could lose, like your favorite color or even the ability to hear a certain sound like bell chimes.”

I took a step back.

The pixie fluttered up to Shadara’s face and poked a tiny hand at her nose. “That’s not true. I wouldn’t do that.” Their attempt to intimidate the panther woman didn’t work. It probably had to do with the fact that they were a whole five inches tall.

I took another step back. “Wouldn’t. But you could.”

The ladybug person dropped their arms. “Well, theoretically, yeah. But what am I going to do with your favorite color? I can’t sell that. And don’t even get me started with the thing with the bells.” They held out their hands. “Look, how about we start over? I forget all the horrible things you said about me and the even worse things you called me, and you agree to listen to my sales pitch.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Do you have a name?”

They puffed out their chest and held some kind of heroic pose. “Chaddestmaximous.” He held out one finger. “All one word. But you can call me Chad if that’s too much for you. The best enchanter of magical bits and bobs on this entire war zone of a floor.”

Okay. Could he have a more conceited name? Magical? Shadara has magical armor. Maybe I could get some myself. Did he say something about a war zone?

Shadara grabbed my shoulder. “Don’t. Let’s get out of here before something bad happens.”

I pried her fingers off me. “Let’s at least hear him out. Magic equipment sounds useful.”

Shadara glanced back at the pixie. “It is. But what about the cost?”

“Is that what this is about?” Chad interrupted. “Look, cat lady, don’t get your tail in a knot. I’m not like other pixies. The only things I trade in are physical objects or currency. Shards in this world work well enough. All the esoteric stuff, not my thing, never has been.”

Shadara visibly relaxed as the fur on her neck seemed to flatten. “Fine. Sorry for saying those things. I shouldn’t project all those stereotypes on you like that.”

Chad snorted, which, for his size, sounded more like a sneeze. “Oh, do that to any pixie you meet. It’s safer for you that way. I’m just an oddity. But next time, maybe not be so vocal about that. Other pixies have earned that reputation for the rest of us.” He turned and flew towards the empty storefront. “Follow me.”