Author’s Corner: The votes are in, and the poll has closed! Once again, I’d like to say how surprised I was to see the votes being so close! I had honestly expected Technomancy to win by a landslide like Druid did in the class poll! Then again, I had expected that poll to be a bit more evenly matched, but Druid won by a vast majority. As promised, I have already deleted the pre-poll thread to prevent readers from being cluttered with non-chapter threads while they are reading. Now it’s just a matter of waiting for Falenel to get the funds, and he’ll be able to learn this new field of magic!

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With Sharon’s permission, I had Yang go over and play with her, while I used Yin to study her mana signature. Yang was predictably reluctant, but after some coaxing she agreed and flew over to nestle against the nearby elf. Meanwhile, Yin sat between my hands as she had the first time I studied her aura, waiting for that uncomfortable feeling she felt last time.

I don’t think I’ve ever really properly described what mana signatures are like, have I? Well, that’s because it’s a bit hard to explain. Remember how I said that analyzing that herb felt like feeling deep inside of it? That’s actually only a small part of it. The entire mana signature itself is like a massive array of various strands of light.

Each section of the array contains different patterns and colors, determining different things. For instance, the scales I got from the Great Boa are like a braided pattern of silver and green light. In order to copy that onto my skin, I had to identify my own skin’s signature, which turned out to be a series of straight, dark blue lights. Once I overlaid the two patterns across my skin’s entire mana signature, the Aspect of the Armored Beast would activate.

On the other hand, the bird wings had to be grafted on, rather than overlaid. Thankfully, a creature’s mana signature seems to vaguely match up with their body shape, which makes it easier. Strangely, the lovebird’s camouflage ability was an overlay like the snake scales, but was a graft like the wings. In essence, I was adding a layer of paint to my mana signature.

The texture, such as feeling the wet rose when I explored the herb, comes from a deeper exploration of the signature. Each part of the mana signature has a different feeling, usually related to what the signature corresponds to. So, the wings had the feeling of stroking feathers, while the snake scales were more rough. It was the mix of associated feelings that helped me remember the patterns more clearly.

And for those of you wondering, yes, I did inspect Celeste’s mana signature, or at least the one from my bracelet. It was strange, rather than the natural, gentle formations that were in plants and animals, the mana signature of my companion bracelet was rough. Not rough like the snake scales… more like jagged, as if I were staring at a crushed car in a wireframe view. I guess that was the difference between something natural and artificial.

Anyways, enough about my little procrastination rant. My point was that it’s difficult to truly understand an entire aura, but once you have, it’s not nearly as difficult to remember. And that rather helped me when analyzing Yin’s mana signature, because I already had pieces of the puzzle that I could fill in, her wings and skin. Using that as a starting point, I was able to much more quickly finish analyzing her aura, after only 45 minutes or so.

Once I had finished analyzing the aura, I had Yin go over and play with Yang and Sharon. For some reason, though, I could feel a sense of anxiousness from them as they watched me. I really hoped that they didn’t realize what I was about to do, and were simply putting on an act to have me hurry up! They shouldn’t be that smart yet, right?!

Shaking my head, I quickly dispelled that thought. I had other things to worry about right now. What I was about to do wasn’t grafting a mana signature onto myself, or even overlaying an aspect. I was completely changing my mana signature to match another. For that, I had to be very careful, because if I messed up the positioning of the mana, then I might end up with my foot in my mouth.. literally!

Thankfully, I didn’t find it too hard to reshape my own mana signature, so I just had to take my time. At this point, it was like shaping clay. If I was careful, and took my time, then I would get the result I expected. If I rushed it, everything would collapse.

The entire process took nearly five minutes, during which I felt almost nothing. My eyes were long since closed to concentrate, so I saw nothing different until it was over. Once it was done, I opened my eyes carefully, and saw two giant birds charging over towards me! Wait, they weren’t giant birds, that was Yin and Yang! I was suddenly tiny!

There was a ding in my head as a notification appeared, but I did not pay attention to it. Turning around, I attempted to immediately fly away, but I was not used to this body yet. As such, I fell flat on my beak after jumping into the air. I could only weep silently as my doom flew closer and closer… and then stopped.

After a few moments of not being molested as I had expected, I turned around and saw the two lovebirds collapsed on the ground, their heads down with their upper wings covering their faces. The two of them just looked so pitiful for some reason… and that’s when I noticed it.

I… I was not a male bird! Mini-me was gone! I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but I finally had a chance, so I immediately began the process of changing back into my half-elf form. This time, the process was faster, only taking one minute to complete itself. However, changing back and forth once had used almost my entire mana pool! It was also at this time that I noticed the windows that had appeared earlier.

Congratulations! You qualify for a Druid Sub-Class!Wild Shaper

Masters of their own bodies, these druids study the art of changing their forms to gain the abilities and traits of other creatures. Unlike other druids, these are not limited to beasts, but may also learn to harness the powers of magical beasts, and even monsters!

Advanced Class path: Xeno-Shifter, able to further extend their art to copy the properties of other sentient species, mixing and matching to create an ultimate form.Do you wish to accept? Y/N

Mana Signatures has increased to Basic

New Spell Unlocked!Form Shift - Nature Magic - ★★☆

Through arduous study of a mana signature, you are able to copy that signature and make it your own, assuming the identity of the studied beast.

Mana Cost: Form Dependant

While the second one had me a bit excited, it was the first one that I really enjoyed. Finally, I had started on the path to becoming a Xeno-Shifter! Naturally, I immediately selected yes and accepted the Sub-Class.

Sub-Class changed to Wild ShaperCongratulations for choosing your Sub-Class! Your Growth rate for skills related to this Sub-Class increase by 20%, and you have been granted a Sub-Class special skill.

New Skill Unlocked!Aura Sight - Beginner Level 1

Exp: 0%

The ability to perceive auras at a glance, by infusing magic into your eyes.

Seeing the two messages pop up after I chose my Sub-Class, I was even happier. Now, I would no longer need to hold an object or creature between my hands to study its mana signatures! Though, this likely didn’t let me detect the ‘feeling’ of the mana signatures, so it would be harder to memorize. Still, it shouldn’t be that hard right?

Before I had noticed it, there were two small birds nuzzling up against my head, seemingly glad I was back to being a man. And nearby, still sitting where she had been, was Sharon, who had a wry smile on her face. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she had managed to guess what had happened during that brief exchange. Though, any doubts immediately disappeared when she spoke.

“Turned into a girl bird, didn’t you?”

“Yup…” I let out a sigh, while propping myself up. I didn’t want to always turn into female creatures in the future. Especially if I ended up studying a female alien for my Xeno-Shifter abilities! I’d need to find some way to secure my manhood.

At this time, there was a light clapping coming from the edge of the grove. Surprised, both Sharon and I looked over to see Jarl there, accompanied by his usual wolf. However, there were also six horned rabbits, two young wolves, a small doe, and what looked like a white raven accompanying them. “Good, you’ve finally worked up the courage to take the next step.” He said, looking at me with an amused expression.

“You knew… didn’t you?”

To my question, he could only grin. “Of course I did. But it was too fun to watch your hesitation over it. If you want to know, the way to change a form’s gender is simple. Just study both a male and female of the same species, and find the components which determine gender. After that, just make sure you leave those bits unchanged, and you won’t have another gender accident.”

Well… at least he told me that part. I let out a tired sigh as I heard him talk. “So, I’ve got to ask… what’s the difference between animals, magical animals, and monsters?” I recalled that bit being mentioned in my notifications, so wanted to clarify. This entire time, I’ve been pretty much considering all animals as video game monsters.

He looked surprised at my question, however. Perhaps he hadn’t expected that we wouldn’t know? “Well, there’s really no harm in explaining. And the difference is pretty simple. Regular animals are those who have evolved naturally, and not had much of a reaction to the magic in their surroundings. Magical animals, on the other hand, have incorporated this magic into their evolution. Unicorns, for instance, are magical animals capable of manipulating water and light.

“It’s common for magical animals to have some special powers, by the way. And no, this forest shouldn’t have any in it. Now, monsters are a step further. They are races that, rather than evolving naturally, were spawned by magic itself. Slimes, for instance. In areas thick with certain types of mana, a slime might appear. But there are other examples as well, such as elementals, goblins, and even certain types of elves are all considered monsters by this standard.”

The last bit threw me for a loop. “Wouldn’t elves of any type be, at most, magical animals?”

He smiled, as if having expected that question. “If they had evolved, then yes. Though, sentient species are no longer classified as any of those three by these standards either. There are cases where the world will spawn a race which is very close to an existing race. Those are the ones considered as monsters. Though, out of beasts, magical beasts, and monsters, the latter are the most likely to gain sentience. I mentioned slimes and goblins as monsters, but there are also sentient goblin tribes, and even a race of slime people. Though their races started as monsters, they have transcended that level to become a sentient creature.”

I nodded, and began going over the information in my head. So it’s mostly dependant on the magic concentration, right? Low levels are found in normal animals, moderate levels in magical beasts, and high levels in monsters. And once a race gains sentience, they add a further layer of control to their own magic. That could explain why the races have different difficulties for my shapeshifting skills, I guess.

Now that he had finished explaining, he turned to look at Sharon. “And you must be the new apprentice Rita was sending. Your friends found me a little bit ago.” He waved his hands around to indicate the various animals around him. “Though, for the most part I would say you have advanced your training on your own far past the normal level.”

Seeing that he was about to start teaching her the basics of druid elemental magic, I decided to tune him out and begin cultivating my own three affinities. Later I can learn what I can from the wolf corpse, then see about learning new shapeshifting powers!