***POV Jen***

“What is going on…” Jen muttered to herself, her slime mouth growing ever wider as her eyes remained locked on the terminal in front of her.

“Kekeke, it’s pathetic right?” Habbley, the owner of the terminal station, hopped across the counter towards the terminal Jen watched. He vaguely resembled a giant horned toad, with a strange mixture of slimy and scaly in his skin, but it wasn’t just his head that was horned; huge, razor sharp protuberances of ivory came from his elbows and knees, and both arms ended in 4 deadly talons.

Using his malleable tongue, Habbley gestured at the screen. “This is the final season of Earth. This is the shit that got them cancelled.”

Figures yelled back and forth across the screen, escalating in volume in order to be heard over each other.

“What are they trying to do?” Jen asked, still studing the characters in front of her with an extremely exacting eye. After all, this was the source of Predator, even if he didn’t remember it.

“Meh.” Habbley spat a glob of wriggling phlegm into the corner. “Politics. The real issue, why it lost itself, is that it seemed like everyone but the writers noticed that one of the main characters was losing its sense of self, but the screen writers tried to keep going like nothing was wrong.”

“Oh yea?” Jen honestly had no idea what he was talking about, but she wanted to stay a while longer, watching the proud men and women strut on screen.

“It’s tragic really,” Habbley said, hopping closer. Jen could tell by his tone that he relished this chance to talk on the subject. “It all started to go downhill when too many paradoxes were introduced at once. A longstanding character was challenged for the first time in its existence, and they decided to go in an edgy direction, letting it slowly die. Well, not die. But his strength slowly left them. When the ideas for plot ran dry, they created means to generate humans more quickly, so more characters were born.”

“Wait, weren’t the humans the characters.” Jenn was intrigued enough to look at Habbley.

He burbled happily. “Hehehe, people unfamiliar with the show would think so, but they were just carriers. The real characters, Integrity, Religion, Greed, and the like, lived through the people, but a single human is insignificant. The characters behind them is where the plot really develops. That’s why the most compelling characters were countries. But in the more recent seasons…”

Gesturing with his tongue, Habbley hopped towards the back. “Let me show you something.”

***POV Predator***

Sitting still in the darkness, I cast my mind backwards, attempting to recapture the combination of inquisitiveness and acceptance that allowed me to learn student of the arcane. Even if I was unable to progress forward towards learning some manner of meditation, Arcane Mastery could increase my mana pool size.

-Which is less elegant, but more productive in the long term.

-That’s an inelegant way of saying that mana size will be better for short bursts of mana expenditures, but will ultimately be more fruitful towards our growth.

-I hate you.

Before, I managed it when I was thinking about Mana as a type of will. Considering that, I kept my eyes closed, trying to picture that. Ultimately, I just ended up frowning; I was not a person with enough experience to try and picture will. So I began to think of possible objects similar enough to work.

The obvious one was muscle. Was it perhaps that easy? Was mana just a different type of muscle?

This I could picture with more success, and as my eyes remained closed, I constructed a muscular system around me made of glowing blue flesh. It emitted a soft light, and had the ability to control wind, ice, and lunar energy.

Focusing on those details, the color of my blue muscles cooled even further, becoming darker, nearing a navy color. Then I hesitated. Was this even doing anything?

The blue muscle system crumbled to dust around me. This was not the answer. I could somehow sense that this was a path that would lead nowhere. Mana was not simply another muscle that could be used to lift an object. There had to be an element of skill in utilization, I believed. After all, as your skill level increased, you had to spend less and less mana to accomplish the same thing.

-Doesn’t the same thing happen with muscles?

-Not exactly. Your muscles get bigger, but they don’t abruptly become more efficient.

-No that’s not true. I think muscles can become much more efficient from prolonged use.

-But over and over again? Mana is muscle size. But utilization continues to improve in a way that’s not like muscles at all.

-God I hope we aren’t as smart as each other, because you are an idiot. Look, mana utilization isn’t mana. You can punch harder by learning to punch smarter. That’s the increase in efficiency, and your muscles would remain constant.

The breath I let out of my mouth came out in a hiss. It was frustrating, but this was also a dead end.

What exactly was mana?

***POV Jen***

“What are these?” Jen asked curiously, countless tentacles swimming forward to pick up the small stacks of paper.

“Be careful!” Habbley’s worry was palpable. “These are mint condition! Grab them only at the edges, and try not to get any of you… juice on them.”

Deciding it wouldn’t help for her to get affronted at Habbley’s choice of words, Jen considered the objects in front of her. Brightly colored covered depicted strange, contorted humans in small bits of cloth. Their faces smiled in a strange, shiny way. Habbley had introduced the piles as “magazines” and casually mentioned that his was the largest non-professional collection of genuine Earth memorabilia.

‘Isn’t that just a way of saying it’s not a very large collection at all?’ Jen wondered to herself, but she had to admit that Habbley seemed to possess a ridiculous amount of the weird “magazines”. The warehouse behind the terminal station was not, as she had assumed, abandoned. Rather, it was unusable because it was filled to the brim with piled magazines.

“So….” Jen pointed a tentacle at a particularly peppy female woman on the cover. “What does it say?”

After squinting at it for a while, Habbley said, “Ah, 10 ways to get your man wrapped around your little finger.”

Nodding sagely, Habbley turned back to Jen. “An excellent issue. Many profound truths are contained therein. This was the medium of culture for earth, and…”

But Jen had stopped listening.

“Get a man wrapped around your finger…?” Jen’s body swayed back and forth, jiggling slightly. She tried to picture Predator trying to wrap himself around her tentacle, squeezing it tightly in the process.

“Teehee, Predator… your body can’t do that….” Jen imagined Predator, his eyes smoldering at her. Several small tentacles formed on her sides, waving slowly.

“Your body is…. So hard…. You aren’t squishy enough to wrap around me…” The side tentacles grew, flexing powerfully. Then Jen giggled.

“...yet….”

***POV Predator***

Rubbing my temples, I tried to brush him off.

“Don’t have time. Whipman demanded we get an early start on training, I need to go.”

Jerry gave me a strange look. “...no he didn’t. Don’t try and get out of it. Just listen real quick! I have some ideas on the deployment of our troops, and if we can pull it off…”

“Okay fine.” I said, glaring at him, using my superior size to tower over him. “But make it quick.”

His eyes were glowing like a man riding a high so good it must be illegal. “Yes yes, quick, but detail is important in this sort of thing, so-”

I sighed in resignation.

“-but first, here is the current troop report.”

I took the paper he offered me and looked at it.

Staff Sergeant Tim Staff Sergeant Drudge Lvl 24 Turnip Archer of the Blood Owl Lvl 19 Vineling Monstrosity Lvl 19 Bone Shaman Lvl 18 Gerard Kiefhart Reanimated Antpho Lvl 17 Murloc Captain Lvl 16 Ghost (x11) Lvl 15 TIckles Blighted Ghoul Lvl 15 Haeugh Murloc Chieftain Lvl 14 Skeleton Bear(x24) Lvl 14 Skeleton Archer(x6) Lvl 14 Shroom Bearer Lvl 13 Skeleton Archer(x22) Lvl 13 Skeleton Archer (x6) Lvl 12 Murloc Brawler (x23) Lvl 11 Murloc Trapper (x18) Lvl 10 Murloc Hunter (x49) Lvl 8 Murloc Slinger (x34) Lvl 8 Murloc Hunter (x129) Lvl 6 Boneling (x100) Lvl 5 Murloc Slinger(x430) Lvl 4 Black Bones Lesser Infernal Skeleton Lvl 2 Murloc Villager (x1892) Lvl 1 Total Combat Minions: 856

-....holy shit….

“Wait,” I said quickly, pointing at the report. “Exactly how many murlocs do we have on the path?”

“I don’t even know,” Jerry said, his eyes glittering. “But that’s part of my inspiration! They multiply when bleeding in fresh blood, and in the wake of the battle we fought a few days ago, numbers have surged. You see those Murloc captains? Thats a species that even the Haeugh had never seen before in his tenure as Chieftain. This is a chance-”

“What do you mean you don’t know? And aren’t these Murloc Captains a problem? They are stronger than Haeugh, what if they try to… I don’t know…. Rebel against him? And moreover, what do we do if the murlocs rebel against us?”

Apparently something I said got through to Jerry, because he froze and looked at me with wide eyes. But right when I was congratulating myself, he shook his head in a disappointed manner.

“How dare you make light of the peace brokered by Staff Sergeant Tim. Of course checks and balances were put into place to prevent such a thing from occurring! The murloc economy is reliant on…”

As Jerry continued to talk, my eyes glazed over. It wasn’t until 20 minutes later, when he asked me to summon skeleton bears today, that I finally snapped out of it. Yawning slightly,I wandered away, wondering where I was supposed to meet Whipman for training. And I still wanted to ask him how leveling works.

-Who knows, he might even know something about mana.

***POV Jenn***

“And this?” Jen asked, pointing to one of the lists with a tentacle.

“Oh,” Habbley mumbled, leaning forward. “Move your tentacle abit… ah, that says ‘Keep him guessing! Don’t be afraid to throw in a few white lies to make him wonder!’”.

Her jelly body trembling in eagerness, “And this one?”

“Always keep him waiting.” Habbley seemed to really share in her enthusiasm, and spoke the tips in a high pitched gurgle, rather than his typical one. Although perhaps it was just that she was finally sharing in one of Habbley’s joys.

“What does this one say?”

“Never let him give you attitude, always be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. He needs to know you might leave him to value you..”

“Oh my,” Jen said, carefully remembering these truths. “Is there any chance I can purchase some of these ‘magazines’ from you.”

“Well,” Habbley seemed torn and stood still for several seconds, but finally nodded. “Well, I’m sure its fine. Since you are such a fan and all.”

They returned to the main room, Jen holding several magazines. She gave him her credit chip number and he entered it into the machine, but Habbley frowned.

“Unfortunately… it seems like you don’t have enough credits to buy them all. May I recommend the May Bachorlette edition?”

“Oh, sure.” Jen said, making a mental note to use her sure fire way of making money again tonight.

***POV Predator***

Whipman was nowhere to be found, so I spent most of the day training the lunar mirror spells, with a good amount of results.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Lunar Reflection Lvl 2”. Lunar mist is slightly easier to compress. The amount of mana required to maintain has decreased. The speed of compression had increased.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Lunar Reflection Lvl 3”. The size of the Lunar Reflection you are able to control is slightly increased. The mana costs to form the reflection is decreased an extremely small amount. Mana costs to maintain a compressed reflection are significantly decreased.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Lunar Break Lvl 2”. Mana costs are decreased. Objects in the area of the reflected object will receive a small portion of the damage. Amount of damage dealt to the spirit is slightly increased.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Lunar Reflection Lvl 4”. Mana costs to maintain a compressed Lunar Reflection have decreased to almost nothing. The size of controllable reflections have increased.

The most important improvement was the ability to maintain the lunar reflections almost indefinitely once they were formed. Once they were created, they hung in the air around him. It was at about 5 of them that the mana usage became noticeable. Still, if I could prepare them prior to the battle, and just have them ready to shatter…

Unfortunately, manipulating them still required some delicate control, and shattering cost too much mana for me to be able to reliably level it. And the mirrors were only about as big as a small plate. The objects that currently could be reflected well weren’t exactly the targets I had in mind.

Still it was improvement. And as long as I was moving forward, someday I would reach the level of strength I wanted…

“Predator.”

I blinked and turned, surprised by the fact someone had come out into the marshy area below the castle to find me. “Jen? What do you need.”

I watched Jen roll closer, a pink flower stuck into the top of her body, making it look like it was growing out of her. Not that I was exactly sure that her slime body was healthy for a growing flower, but it was still an amusing picture.

“Oh, nothing, I was just coincidentally in the area.” She said matter of factly, stopping next to her.

I frowned at her.

-...well, whatever.

“Have you seen Whipman?” I asked.

“No, he-” Jen’s slime body froze, then slowly relaxed, spreading out over the ground. Then all at once the elasticity returned to her, bouncing her up.

“Uh, he’s dead. No, um, he’s shopping.”

I looked at her, my frown deepening. “What are you-”

“Don’t give me attitude!” Jen hurriedly rolled away, about 20 meters back towards the castle before for stopping, rolling around, and looking at me.

“Uh, Jen-” I said, not quite sure what was going on. Whipman wasn’t really dead, was he? Wouldn’t I be able to tell with Summon Lesser Dead?

“Okay, t-this is where you w-w-w-wra-wrap yourself a-a-a-a-a-round me, right? Do it.” Suddenly the air around Jen was filled with hundreds of tentacles, a seething mass of green flesh that seemed impossible to escape from.

-It always surprises me how many of those she can create.

“....what?” I said, completely confused.

***POV Jen***

After leaving Predator without answering his questions, so he would want more, Jen returned to her administrator’s quarters, in a space between the floors. She quickly drew several spell formations, taking care that her line were incredibly straight and neat.

“And now… a few so no one will know what I’m doing…” Jen added a few embellishments to hide the targets of her scrying. Satisfied, she activate the spell formation.

Jen looked through time, into the past, and saw the challengers that Kettle invested in.

“Hehehe, I’m a genius. Now I can be your… s-s-s-s-sugar m-momma, Predator,” Jen said, learning one of the new words she had learned from the Earth Magazine. Then she began placing bets on challengers, mirroring Kettle.

***POV Predator***

Fury +1

Fury +1

Confused and very annoyed, I returned to the castle. Jen had run away before I could get an answer about Whipman from her, yelling that she was late for her nail appointment. Before I began my nightly training for meditation, I wanted to stop and talk to Ashni, see if she could give me any guidance on the other Stances. I would train with her tomorrow in Thunder Stance, but…

However, when I arrived at the castle, I had to stop, frowning; it was completely empty. After some searching, I found a note stuck to the table in the dining area.

Going to the murloc village to practice some war games. No need for you to come. It will be tedious and boring. Below are the undead you should summon tomorrow and the day after.

-Jerry

Fury +1

Congratulations! You have reached 100 Fury. All stats +1 until the Fury degrades.

Fury +2

Gritting my teeth, I settled down for another long night. The silence stretched wide around me, extremely obvious after so long with so many minions surrounding me.