Once I was back in the game, I called my parents. I’m not a typical whiner, but when you find out you’re no longer human, that’s something you tell the folks, right?

“What’s up, dear?” I heard my mom’s voice a bit more clearly over the link this time.

“Well… I’m not really sure how to explain this… But… have you heard what’s been going on in the real world?”

“What do you mean?” My dad was the one that spoke up this time, obviously confused. Guessing they’ve spent all their time in here, and haven’t bothered to go to the net community to hear the news.

“Extra long story incredibly short… the game turned me into a half-elf.”

“...Yes, we’ve been over this, we know what race you chose.” He still sounded a bit confused, and was clearly a bit dense if he didn’t get what I meant, or maybe I just wasn’t clear enough.

“No, I mean out there. In the real world, I’m still a half-elf. Still a druid, still able to grow wings out of my back and use all of my magic… Apparently everyone that has a Seed is being turned into their game character. Even got a call from the police to make sure I was okay.”

This time it was my mom’s turn to chime in. “The police, dear? Why would they bother calling you?”

“Apparently Manifest Industries has gone off the radar, and they are getting reports of every tester changing. Since I was the only one in Oakland, they gave me a call.”

I could hear the concern in my mom’s voice as she logged out, but since she was just going to the net community, the call didn’t drop. Fun fact, when someone in the net community is on a call with a game that has time dilation, the home of that person adjusts to match the game. “Oh, dear, it’s true.”

“What, really?” My dad was obviously surprised by this. “How is that even possible? I mean, it’s just a game, right?”

“Not anymore, it looks like.” I sighed, shaking my head. “I’m just hoping it ends with players getting changed and people getting magic. I mean, if it’s just that then we should be able to make all the amazing things they have here in the game. But if monsters start showing up, too…”

There was a slight gasp, I’m not sure from who, but it was my mom that spoke up next. “What are you going to do, then?”

“Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Until I know that monsters aren’t going to start appearing in my home, I’m going to train here and get stronger. Besides, it might be cool to be able to use magic in the real world, you know? Should have seen the look on the officer’s face when I suddenly grew wings.” Unfortunately, thinking about that reminded me what Jarl had said the next step in training for Xeno-Shifter would be… and since I thought about it, Yin and Yang perked up and looked at me expectantly.

I could hear a chuckle coming from my dad. “Well, we’ll let you get to that, then. There might be other testers that haven’t logged out and learned about these changes, so we’ll go spread the word and see if we can’t get their attention.”

Part of me was concerned about this. Essentially, they were going to play a massive scale whisper game. You know, where you can whisper to someone that you like apples, and they pass it along in a circle, but by the time it gets back to you it turns into something obscene. And that’s when you start with something as mundane as ‘I like apples’.

Anyways, back to the game. I had a few hours left until it was time to sleep, so I devoted them to increasing my Wind Affinity. Maybe after I had the basic seven affinities all at 5% I would go with the next step for Nature Magic. At least then I’d be able to save my chastity against these damned birds.

By the time I had gotten to sleep, my Wind Affinity had only increased to 4%, though I felt like it was on the verge of a breakthrough. When I woke up, I immediately resumed training, deciding to prolong breakfast until I had gained the ability to manipulate wind. Speaking of which, I had never tried to test out my Earth Manipulation either. I’d have to at least get familiar with both of them before I was able to use them to hunt.

About two hours after I had woken up, I was finally greeted with the message I had been waiting for.

New Ability Unlocked!Wind Manipulation - Wind Affinity - ☆

Through focus and the appropriate use of mana, the user is able to manipulate the air around them.

Okay.. now for a bit of practice. There was something I had wanted to try now that I had the ability to more freely manipulate wind. Even though it was still only a half-star rank, that should be more because of a limit to the power I can exert.

Sending out a bit of mana, I attuned it to the wind like I normally would for Wind Magic or cultivating Wind Affinity. This time, I was able to pull in much more air with far less mana than when I only had the former skill. I was also able to control it at a greater distance, which is what I needed most. In a way, it felt in part as if my mind had merged with the wind, letting my control it as I would any other muscle, though with more difficulty.

Having confirmed this, I pulled out my bow and quiver from my inventory, and aimed at a distant tree. Using my Wind Manipulation, I set up a thin gust going from my arrow to the tree, and fired. Like I had expected, the arrow perfectly flew along the corridor of wind, piercing into the tree. It even seemed to gain speed after being fired.

I waited for a system message saying I had learned something new from that, but I received nothing of the kind. I was a bit surprised to find that such an act only took a total of 20 mana to achieve, which was about 5 per second. But, this was only really useful for hitting a stationary target, so I kept practicing.

My next ‘wind corridor’ only lasted about 75% of the distance between me and the tree, but still seemed to be good enough to work with. I was a few inches off in my accuracy, but still would be considered a good shot, and it was better for sniping since the target wouldn’t feel the wind on them. Next was something I was a bit curious about after my first two attempts. This time, I set up a winding tunnel of wind, with the goal being the side of the tree I had just targeted.

When I fired the arrow, I watched it moving through the path I had set up, gaining a bit more speed at every curve. Unfortunately, about three turns before the target, it had picked up enough speed to shoot out of the tunnel of wind without following the rest of the way, making it miss its target.

Even though this failed, it was still quite good. It went through several turns before ending up shot out of the tunnel, which meant that I would still be able to use it. Sadly, by now my mana was being drained a fair bit by creating and shaping the paths of wind, so I’d need to recover… after one last test. And this one was going to be a doozy.

After I collected the arrows that I previously fired, I went back to my firing position, and nocked another arrow. Like before, I created a wind tunnel roughly 75% of the distance to the tree. But this time, I also tapped into my Wind Magic, and cast Lesser Spiral Arrow. Waiting until I could feel the spiralling winds moving around the arrow, I then fired it into the corridor. There was a slight tearing sound as the two magics interacted, but the arrow nonetheless flew through the corridor at a blinding speed.

For a little while, it looked like I had managed to overcome the accuracy issue behind this spell, at least until it exited the corridor I had established. At that point, it immediately went off course, and crashed into the side of the tree. And then kept going… having left a small hole where it impacted. It seemed that the increased acceleration from the wind corridor combined with the penetrating power of the Lesser Spiral Arrow gave it a rather terrifying destructive ability. If it could be properly aimed, it would be devastating…

Unfortunately, aside from extending the corridor all the way, I had no method to further increase the accuracy of the arrow. And when I went to try to retrieve it, I found the arrow I used had been shattered on impact with a stone roughly fifty meters away. This made me even more reluctant to use that tactic, though it did give me the idea to make arrows with Plant Affinity if I managed to get that to 5%. Then I could simply load the arrows with poison and launch them.

This idea had me wanting to practice Plant Affinity right away, but first I needed something to eat. Today would be my first time hunting wolves, and the only reason I wasn’t going for rabbits was because I would have to pass by the wolves’ territory anyways to get back to them. “Celeste, which was is town?”

I had long since forgotten which direction town was in, and could only rely on my companion AI to guide me. And, as requested, she appeared as a hologram above my wrist. Though, this time she seemed slightly older than her previous appearances, and a bit more developed. She was standing in a safari costume hunched over a holographic map. “Hmm, let’s see… that way!” She pointed with a wide grin, and a glowing arrow appeared above her.

Your Companion AI has developed a new Skill SoftwareCartography - Basic

Through repeated use of calculating distances and directions, your companion AI has gained the ability to chart maps based on your travels.

Well.. that’s useful. I noted how her ‘Skill Software’ didn’t have levels or experience, just the tier. But this also meant that, given enough time and practice, Celeste would be able to develop utility skills of her own.

Taking off my shirt, I put it into my inventory and activated Aspect of the Bird. Though I wasn’t particularly adept at flying, I was able to go up to the branches of the trees. From there, I just needed to glide from one branch to another, while using Wind Manipulation under my wings to guide me.

Thanks to this method of travel, I was using a bit of mana with every jump, but also took a few seconds between jumps to recover it. By the time I was nearing the wolves, five minutes had already passed. Yin and Yang were both happily circling around me as I clutched my bow, looking down at the wolves below. Thanks to using Wind Manipulation in small amounts, I was able to prevent my scent from being carried down to them.

I didn’t need to be too worried here, since wolves can’t fly. As long as I didn’t do anything stupid like jumping off, I could pick them off one at a time until I either ran out of arrows, or that big snake above me came in for a-- wait, what?

Looking up, I saw a rather large snake, its body as thick as my waist, wrapped around the branch above me. Its eyes were passively looking at me, its tongue slithering out every few seconds. Why the fuck did I not notice that before? Glancing around, even Yin and Yang had apparently fled from the immediate area.

Think fast, think fast. Could be poisonous, but I have an antidote spell. More likely to be killed by a lethal bite or it constricting me to death. Would rather neither of those happened, to be honest. Too close for me to pull my bow on it, too high up for Earth Manipulation to help. Can’t hide, snakes see heat, or was it movement? Damn, I should have paid more attention in class, this is going to hurt. My mind was going at a mile a minute, while the snake just continued to stare at me, as if it hadn’t noticed that I saw it. Perhaps it didn’t see me as a threat? Either way, it was looking at me like I was food. I was the one that was supposed to be hunting here, dammit!

I’d have tried poisoning it, but if I killed it then I was eating snake today! I didn’t want to poison my own meal. If I didn’t kill it, well.. then I’d be in trouble and wouldn’t have the right to complain anyways. If I lost a level now, would I lose my class? I didn’t really want to find out. So, I very carefully put my bow and quiver back in my inventory, showing the snake that I was just a harmless winged half-elf.

Then I pulled my dagger out instead. Me Tarzan, you meat! Coating my blade in mana, I lunged at the snake. I didn’t really expect the mana to do anything, but several games I had played before used this as a method of strengthening melee weapons, so I could only hope. Seeing my lunge, the snake hissed at me before its jaw opened almost impossibly wide. The thing looked like it wanted me to jump directly into its mouth!

Well, who am I to pass up such a tempting offer? I haven’t played it sane so far, so why start now. Using the wind on my wings to guide myself, I stopped right inside the massive mouth, planing my feet on its jaw. As it tried to snap its jaw shut with me inside it, I quickly raised my dagger up to carve at its upper jaw.

I heard something cracking, and was fairly certain it was me. Had I been thinking, I would have remembered that snakes exert a much more powerful force closing their jaws than opening it. While my dagger had managed to cut through its mouth, and even stab into its brain, I still considered myself on the losing end of that exchange.

You have walked into the jaws of death... and survived.-90 HP, Broken bones(Arms x2, Legs x1)

Fatal Blow inflicted.

You have leveled up.

Pain… it hurts. I unhesitantly began casting Alchemic heal on myself over and over, crying out as my bones were forced back into their positions before they were able to mend, and once that was done, I triumphantly crawled my way out of the snake’s mouth. Which way is the exit?