I returned to Safrah’s attic soon after. The two were still talking though they had moved to the workshop on the floor below. The dwarf was sitting at her workbench, a bunch of tools spread before her. She was slowly going through them and their use explaining it all to Vivi. A block of wood sat in front of her, cut into in many places to show examples. I greeted them with a hoot and retreated into the attic.

I would soon have to return to my real body to eat but before that, I wanted to absorb small amounts of the metals I purchased and see what I could do with them. My talons being made of steel was an improvement. I hoped other materials would also have their upsides. There was a little gold in my body that had moved to my eyes. That had happened instinctively after shifting my form back and forth once. I did not know what it did but it felt right. Now was the time to go from feeling to knowing.

I pulled a small bar each of gold and brass out of my storage. Picking them up with shadow tendrils, I moved the gold to my left wing. It connected to my body and my senses picked up the metal mana from my core flowing into the bar. It took only moments and the material was connected to my body. Immediately, order mana took over and pulled it into the form of my wing. I did not see what happened to the iron that should have been there. Maybe that was more of a conceptual material than actual metal?

I brought the tip of a tendril next to the gold and started poking it. It gave easily but as soon as I pulled away order mana restored my form. That seemed very handy. An automatic recovery function was very welcome. I wanted to know if it worked for my iron parts as well. It was a bit of a hassle but I managed to get one of my feet in position to scratch my wing by sitting down. My shadows just could not harm the iron. Actually damaging my body left me disappointed. I did not feel pain, but the injury was very obvious from the flow of order mana going to it. Different from the gold, though, this time it took almost ten minutes to heal just a surface scratch. The iron simply lost too much mana in the process. This also showed me another side effect of this self-healing. It created flux. And quite a bit at that. I went back to the gold and this time deeply cut into it. The gash of almost two centimetres took about two minutes to heal and produced the same amount of flux as the scratch in the iron. Interesting.

I kept a close eye on my flux storage but saw I had no reason to worry, yet. It would take a serious injury to produce threatening amounts of the stuff. Or a thousand tiny cuts in my iron body. Though my core also did a wonderful job of emptying the stuff into the void. It almost doubled the rate at which my flux dissipated.

Next was the brass. I knew this material was commonly used in alchemical devices. It was sort of the copper of magic, able to guide it in patterns while containing it at the same time. It was a bit confusing but brass somehow was isolator and conductor at the same time. I wanted to figure out how that worked but I was sure the dwarves already had a few ideas. With how much they used it in artificing, it would be weird if that was not the case.

Absorbing the material worked fine. There was a short moment where nothing happened when it touched my body as if my mana did not immediately ‘see’ it but once connected it merged without issues. Scratching it revealed it healed slower than gold but faster than iron. It also created a bit more flux than iron. I could barely see a reason to hold more of it in my metal form. Until I got to the next step. Manipulating the material within my body.

The iron and steel were not receptive to my attempts. No matter how I moved the mana in my body, they would only ever align to my original form. I could move them around and swap them with the glass parts or the other metals but that was about it. Gold was much more interactive. I played with it a bit turning my feathers into sharp blades and small balls. However, after dropping the mana I had holding the shape, it reverted quickly to its original form. I had a bit of fun with it, turning a part of my chest into letters. This might have been useful if I did not have the supersensory matrix already.

Then I got to the brass. It was absolutely amazing. It reacted smoothly to every prompt my mind gave it and formed whatever I wanted it to be. And it even held form for almost ten minutes before starting to revert. I was still limited in some parts. First, I had a lack of brass in my body. I could not make too large patterns. Also, while receptive, it was not capable of too precise a form. With gold, I could make sheets thinner than hair but brass needed to have at least a millimetre of strength in all dimensions. It simply would not go smaller. This was also the first time I noticed flux while shifting the metal of my body. With iron and gold, I had kept somewhat to my general body shape but the large discrepancies I could easily make with brass created a whole bunch of flux. Something like reshaping a talon to look like a human finger was not too bad but adding a whole new one nearly filled a quarter of my flux storage. I would have to be careful with this technique.

In the end, I could sort of turn my foot into a human hand but making an entirely new one somewhere else on my body where I could more easily use it was impossible. It also was not necessary. My shadows were strong enough to do most things I could use hands for. They were also much more versatile and had a much higher range. Yes. Tentacles were far superior. But if I ever needed a special tool, I now had a way to get it. Though using my body to work with metal would still simply absorb it. I could maybe find a way to prevent that but the mana flow that instinctively absorbed the material was too strong for me to stop. For now at least.

The last step of my experiments was what would happen to the material I absorbed if I shifted back and forth. The result would be something to look at later. The small amounts of brass and gold had made it to my eyes last time. I was expecting something similar to happen this time. The order mana seemed to find the best default spot for the material I had absorbed. I moved the gold and brass to form two patches on my chest and called it a day. Activating my Skill, I finally returned to my real body. While I enjoyed the other forms, this was who I truly was. The sensations were just a bit off when I was not made from flesh and blood.

My stomach announced it was time for dinner so I moved to the ladder leading to the workshop. Safrah had left at some point. I could hear sounds coming up from the kitchen. Vivi was focused on a piece of wood carving into it with her water claws. Those had transformed as well, taking a very specific curve to create a rounded shape. I found it to resemble one of the tools still laid out on the workbench. When the ocelot paused in her work, I called out to her with a hoot and connected to her mind.

“Having fun?”, I asked.

She looked up as if coming out of a daze. Her ears flicked and her tail swished slowly. She gave me a nod.

“I’m getting dinner, want me to hunt some for you as well?”

Vivi considered for a moment.

“Am good. Safrah has meat. I want to try her meal.”

I nodded.

“Enjoy yourself.”

With that, I left for my hunt.

On the next morning, the three of us found ourselves in Safrah’s living room after having a decent breakfast. I had some leftovers from the previous night’s hunt in my storage which would last me another two days while the other two had something prepared by the dwarf. Vivi seemed to enjoy the cooked and slightly spiced meat. It was not for me. I needed my food raw, preferably with a lot of blood and still warm. It was my main intake for liquid after all.

“We have a bit more time before our appointment at the library”, Safrah started, “so I thought I would tell you what to expect.”

When Vivi perked up as well she raised one eyebrow.

“Well. I didn’t know you would come as well but it shouldn’t be a problem.”

The cat nodded, satisfied.

“Our library is rather small compared to most dwarven cities. We are a small mining town after all. It still has most important texts the clans have published over the centuries. There are books on all kinds of disciplines. Mining, smithing, forging, carving, carpentry, artificing, brewing and on and on. All of those have at least some books on them. Though you will only be able to learn the basics a dwarf would be expected to know by the time they are adults.”

I tilted my head. Vivi asked the question that was on my mind.

“Dwarves know all that before being adults?”

Safrah chuckled.

“That… I didn’t say that right. Every dwarf that grows up in a clan will be taught the clan’s discipline. What they are expected to know by the time they are adults is typically published for anyone to peruse. Because when a dwarf turns adult, they have the option to leave their clan. If they want to learn a different discipline, they can apply for integration with another clan but they will need to know the basics of that clan’s staple crafts. Most of the dwarves that want to pursue a different discipline will be supported by their original clan until they are ready to be accepted where they want to go. Then there are those who have fallen from grace or just don’t know what they want. Those are the clanless dwarves. Most of the citizens of this town are clanless. There are two other places where clanless dwarves live. A mining city quite a ways north-east, close to the ork lands and a trading town at the border to human lands. Ah, sorry. I just got going there.”

“It’s fine”, I nodded. Vivi had lost interest but I was thankful for the information. So the dwarves were trading with humans? I was intrigued but it seemed to be far away. I did not want to leave yet. There was one question I still wanted to ask.

“What about you? Are you one of those who don’t know what they want?”

Safrah looked away, a little embarrassed.

“Mhm. Yeah. I like carving but… it never really caught my interest. Compared to the passion some of my cousins showed I knew I could never keep up. Even Vivi is more interested in it than I am. I picked up the job as a tanner because it pays fine but… I don’t really have anything I am passionate about.”

She looked increasingly uncomfortable and trailed off towards the end nearly whispering the words.

“Sorry. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

I gave her a light bow along with my apology. Safrah waved me off.

“It’s fine. I…”

She was interrupted by Vivi nuzzling up to her shoulder.

“You’ll find it” the ocelot comforted her friend. When had these two gotten so close? Right, when they spent the whole day together. I had to admit to myself at that moment, I was a little envious.