“So…that was interesting.” Rose stated, raising an eyebrow at her. Wichita wondered what she should say. What could she say? Not like she knew what had happened.

“The System gave me a new Skill.” she said, waving her hand in the vague direction where she had expected the ant to be. But there was only a tiny ant sized hole in the ground in there.

Wichita blinked, investigating the hole with mana sense. Looking into the hole with her mana sense. But she did not find the ant. The creature had apparently headed straight down. Even if she’d wanted to, she couldn't follow or contact it. Looking back, she could see why it headed off. The words she had spoken, it had taken them as a command. A ‘direction’ as the System had said. How had she not noticed that? Now the ants were gone.

So much for a power up. The ants may become helpful at some later point of time, but at the moment they were just gone. The only thing left was a lot of transformation mana. Hmm, transformation mana.

“Jace, come here, quick.” she ordered, turning around. Rose was looking at her with an exasperated expression on her face while Tully was giggling. Jace was just looking puzzled.

“Did you hear a word I said?” Rose demanded.

Wichita blinked in surprise. The girl had been talking? “Well, the thing is -”

“- Leave it.” Rose sighed, running her fingers through her hair, and then grunting as she encountered resistance, pushing her finger against her hair. Wichita wasn’t sure what was going on. Wasn’t human hair supposed to be naturally separated? Why did it look like it wasn’t?

“What do you want?” Jace asked, taking her attention away from her thoughts.

Wichita picked up a nearby stone, and then hovered it over where the ant had disappeared to. The change in species had given birth to an abundance of Transformation mana, something that was very rare in this forest. In the entire world really. Even the Arcana valued places with this form of mana. There were too many things that needed it and the supply simply wasn’t able to keep up.

An enchantment wove itself across the stone as she picked up another, just shoving the transformation mana into it. The forest was unlikely to let them remain here for long, better to store as much as she could.

Wichita picked up the first stone and held it out to Jace. “This is a testing stone.”

Jace looked at it. “Ok?”

“Just push your mana into it.” she said. “The transformation mana should be able to point out what you have affinity for.”

“How do I do that?” the boy looked a bit confused.

Wichita blinked in surprise. Of course, he didn’t know how to use his own mana. Heck, he probably couldn’t even sense it. How stupid of her to forget that he wasn’t an Arcana, magic did not come naturally to his species.

And she had little idea how to spark this ability in him. There were quite a few things that could work, but as usual, she did not have the resources to pull them off. There was one thing she could use, thanks to the transformation mana, but that wouldn’t actually give him the ability.

The traditional way for humans was to learn how to sense mana by others casting spells around them. Wichita could not provide that. The nearest thing she could do was the enchantment.

Sighing, she decided to start with finding out his affinity first. “This will be painful” she warned. “Try to feel what is going on anyway, it might be the easiest place for you to detect mana I can arrange any time soon.”

The boy’s face masked into fear so quickly that she wondered if there was magic involved.

“How much pain are we talking exactly?” he asked.

“I have no idea.” she admitted. “I am about to send a small amount of my own mana into your body. In other words, I will poke you. In doing so I will lose that finger and prompt your body to produce mana to react against it. Don’t worry, I will make sure to heal you up.”

What she didn’t say was that it was a waste of her own mana and the transformation mana that she would use in the process. Wait. Why did she have to waste transformation mana? Smiling at her sudden discovery, she made a slight change to the enchantment. The effect seemed to take.

“Are you ready?” she asked, and then promptly poked him while touching the stone to his hands. Jace’s eyes bulged, and he let out a scream that put the drake’s final screech to shame. What was it with people and beasts around her letting out such loud sounds?

Just a few hours ago, she was thinking she wouldn’t forget how loud the howling beasts were. Now she was wondering if they were even above average in terms of loudness.

The transformation mana was not, thankfully, effected by the scream. The mana surged, roiling within the stone as the enchantment took control of it. The principle was simple, it would guide the mana to transform into whatever Jace’s mana was most likely to transform into.

A person’s affinity was just that, a narrowing of possibilities their mana could turn into. The transformation mana would turn into whatever type of mana had the greatest similarity. A similar thing could be done with pure mana, and she had been inclined to do it, but that would be less reliable. Transformation mana was just a lot more inclined to, well, transform into the correct type of mana.

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“Is he fine?” Rose asked, glaring at her.

“Yes.” she said. “The healing enchantment has already done his job, and the damage was minimal to begin with. I just damaged his flesh a little. Inflicted a minor burn to be precise.”

“What?” Tully asked. Wichita shared her confusion.

“I do not know why Jace hasn’t stopped screaming yet.” she admitted massaging her ears as she watched the stone. Or more accurately, the lump of strange biological matter. The transformation mana had done its job. Wichita had a hunch that it was part of the reason Jace still hadn’t stopped screaming. The boy had taken several breaks to breathe, but had promptly returned to screaming.

Rose walked over to him and slapped him behind his leg. “Stop screaming, or I will stuff my shoe into your mouth.”

“That hurt.” Jace mumbled, massaging his head. Wichita noticed that he was using the hand she had ‘damaged’.

“What happened to giving me a warning?” The boy did not even bother looking ashamed about his outburst.

“Taking you by surprise reduced the pain you felt. If you had been prepared for it, it would have been much worse.” she said.

“Didn’t feel like it.” the boy was still glaring at her.

Wichita ignored it. “Did you feel anything?”

Jace cast a look at the transformed stone and then took one step away from it. “I don’t know, the pain was kind of overwhelming.”

“I suppose I shall simply have to poke you again.” she said. Jace jumped away from her, as if afraid she would do it right now.

“What?! I thought that was a one time thing!”

“Well it was. But you have Organic Magic.” she said. “That’s a very difficult type of magic to practice, but it can be pretty powerful.”

“And? Why do I have to get tasered for it?” the boy was feeling far more fear than he should have. Wichita had checked what her mana had transformed his skin into. Just a mild burn. Not the worst that could happen, certainly. There was a reason she had only used a single point of mana.

Why was he so scared then?

“No, but a couple more tries, and you should be able to sense your mana.” she said. “This is one of the easiest types of mana to start with.”

“Can I opt out?” he asked again.

Rose sighed. “Can we table this discussion? I have some things I want to ask, and this -” she waved her hand towards where she was standing, “- situation is not helping.”

“I am fine with that!” Jace replied before she could.

Wichita was not sure what the problem was. “If you won’t let me poke you, then perhaps you can try sensing the mana in the drake. The thing has some potent flesh magic on it. If you can sense that, then you could start learning.”

“Do I have to?”

“Yes.” she glared at him. “Or do you want to remain a deadweight with a trash class? Do you want to prove the System right?”

The boy grimaced at the body and moved towards it slowly. Wichita hoped he would put in some effort. Organic magic may have its limits, but it could be terrifying if used properly. The boy would have to train his pain tolerance, though. Practicing that magic was not for the faint-hearted.

Still, the experiment had worked wonderfully. Wichita hadn’t been sure she would be able to coax the affinity out, but she’d barely had to do anything.

Even if he didn’t remember it, his mind had felt mana now. If he had even a half-decent talent he should be able to sense the mana in the drake. Using his own mana in spells on the other hand would take a while. Sensing his own mana would be far more difficult, it was why she wanted to ‘taser’ him again. Even one more might give him the ability.

“So, what exactly happened?” Rose asked.

“What do you mean?” Wichita answered, still thinking about how she could help Jace along.

“What do I mean?!” Rose practically yelled at her face. “There was like an ocean of mana or something that attacked us! That cat just popped out of like nowhere and then disappeared right back in! Then you go and do that thing to Jace. I didn’t interfere cause like, it seemed important. But can you please tell me what the heck is going on? That drake was way worse than anything we faced before.”

Wichita had to admit, she had not expected Rose to blow up like this. “The ocean of mana was a Judgment. The System sends those to kill those who cheat at it. The Skill it gave me allowed me to form a custom class for a non-sapient living creature. “

“The cat provided me with the creature in question. An ant that was apparently on the verge of giving birth. After I gave it the class, it caused the birth of a new species. I got another level from it.”

“The change of species just gave me a resource that helped me conduct the test, that’s all.” she said.

“Oh.” Rose deflated.

“Is the cat a threat?” Tully asked. “I don’t think I could kill it. I tried targeting it with Sword Qi, but I just couldn’t conjure it. The Skill worked, but the Qi didn’t appear.”

Wichita took a deep breath. “I don’t know if the cat is a threat. I have felt its presence whenever the forest changed, but I don’t know what it wants.”

“And you didn’t think you should tell us about it?” Rose asked.

“I wasn’t even sure if the cat actually existed. The thing is slippery, I doubt I could sense it if it didn’t want me to.”

“So…now what?” Rose asked. “Do we have to be careful about something? Plan for the cat?”

Wichita took a deep breath. “I don’t think we can plan for the cat, no. But the forest is making things harder for us. I don’t know what we can do about it, but it is nice to be aware of it at least. But we should take advantage of whatever time it gives us to train up our Skills. Rose, you should try sensing the cracks in reality. Tully… I don’t know what will help you. Sword Qi is too valuable to waste practicing and I don’t think I can make you a sword.”

Turning towards the weakest member of their group she found him poking the drake. “Find anything?” she asked.

“There is something there.” Jace mumbled. “Not sure what, though.”

Wichita sighed. That was to be expected. The boy did not have the natural instincts of the Arcana, of course he needed guidance. Well, she could only hope that it was guidance she could give. At least the forest had decided that not to punish them for stopping in the middle of a corridor.