Author’s Corner: Yeah… I kind of feel weird not putting anything up here, so yeah… enjoy the chapter! It’s actually a bit longer than usual by a few hundred words!

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I hadn’t walked more than ten steps when two tiny forms barreled into me from behind, knocking me over and making me groan in pain. At the same time, a series of agitated chirps came from those forms, and I recognized them as the lovebirds Yin and Yang. Somewhat to my surprise, I was able to understand a bit of their chirping, in one way or another.

Apparently, they felt the sense of danger over my mental link, rushed over as soon as the fight was over, sensing that I was in pain. I couldn’t help but soften a bit towards the birds when I found out how worried they were about me, though at the same time I confirmed that the Aspect of the Armored Beast hadn’t deactivated when I was briefly knocked unconscious. On the other hand, my Aura Sight skill had been disabled, since it was something I had to constantly focus on.

Since I didn’t particularly feel safe before I arrived in town, I kept the aspect spell up for a while longer. First thing I’d need to do would be study the bodies of the two bears. Correction, first thing to do was spend my points from leveling up. I felt like I had enough wisdom for now, but my mana pool was lacking, so I spent all ten points in intelligence, bringing my mana up to an even five hundred. With that, I should be able to shift into a wolf, according to my estimates. I could test that out when I make my way back to the pond. Would also be fun to test out a combination of wolf form, snake scales, and bird wings. Would be like a tiny feathered dragon… sort of.

Either way, about ten minutes after I left the scene of the previous fight, I decided to take a rest. With my current mana regeneration, ten minutes was enough to recover most of my mana. One final Alchemic Heal spell rid me of the last bit of soreness from the fight, and after that I made a small barrier around myself with Earth Manipulation. Nothing major, just a wall to keep random mobs from charging at me while I worked.

With that done, I went ahead and pulled out the two bears. Two my surprise, I had managed to grab both a male and a female bear, which made me rather happy. Going by what Jarl had told me before, this would be the key to letting me control my gender when I shifted forms. As for what other traits I wanted to copy from the bears, I was hoping to copy their muscular frames to make myself stronger, but in order to do that I’d probably need to do a full shift. I wasn’t experienced enough to just single out muscle mass and add it to myself.

The first bear I studied was the female one, which had been the one unfortunate enough to burn to death. Then again, the other was unfortunate enough to die from a headbutt… I wasn’t really sure which one to feel more sorry for. Either way, I fully studied the aura for this bear over the course of an hour, before moving on to the other one. From there, I compared notes on the two, measuring where they were similar and different. After noting the differences between them, I looked at the male side of the differences, and compared them to the wolf aura I had studied, and finally my own.

Although there were some minor differences, I managed to identify four parts of the aura that were nearly identical between the male bear, wolf, and myself. These same aura components were completely different when compared to the female bear and lovebirds. Assuming my assumptions were correct, and yes that is quite an assumption, those should be the parts that determine gender.

As such, to test this theory out, I tried it on myself. Seeing how excited the birds almost got, I did NOT turn into a male lovebird, but a female half-elf. That lasted for all of a minute of me oggling my own chest like a mad person before I changed back, glad to be back to my own gender. Though, I had to admit I looked far more attractive as a woman than I had imagined. Now that I knew the trick of it, I would never again need to turn into a woman! Well, not unless there was a really drastic situation.

New Ability Unlocked!Gender Control - Nature Magic - ☆

For when you feel the need to stare at the opposite gender, without anyone else thinking that you're a creep, you can just transform and be a creep to yourself!

Mana Cost: 20

I did my best to ignore the rather condescending flavor text of the ability, not at all surprised by its low rank. Taking a moment, I inspected my inner grove for a moment, I found that the single blade of grass had already grown into a small patch, while the herbs I had planted were starting to settle in and absorb the nutrients in the soil. I couldn’t wait to harvest some blood weed and fireflower to see what the extra strength from the herbs would do for health potions.

With my work here done, I lowered the small earth barricade I had erected around myself and stood up, returning the bears to my inventory before making my way back to town. Hopefully, I could get what I needed now to get Technomancy, so that I could get started on that. On the way, I made sure to cultivate Plant Affinity, as it was currently the lowest affinity I had that affected my grove.

Once I arrived closer to town, I dispelled the Aspect of the Armored Beast, though I felt like I hadn’t quite done it right. Part of my skin felt itchy, so I inspected my aura and did my best to correct any irregularities. Once I had done so, the itchy feeling faded away, and much happiness was had. I was about to head back into town when I looked down to Celeste. “Celeste…?”

“Yes, Falenel?” She instantly appeared above my wrist, in a more casual hologram outfit than before, wearing a simple robe.

“You record everything I see… right?” I asked her curiously, and she nodded her head quickly. “So… when I look at something with Aura Sight..?”

“That’s correct, I have the visual representations for the auras stored in my memory. However, my hologram quality is not sufficient to properly display them in full color. I also recorded the sensations felt through your mana while you were studying various auras, however I lack the hardware necessary to reproduce such sensations.” She answered with a slight smile, and I nodded my head. Figures, would have been way too easy if I could have just studied the auras she recorded. Was worth a shot.

“Thanks, anyways, Celeste. Maybe eventually I’ll be able to get you some nice upgrades. We shall not always be poor folk!” I let out my inner eight year old a bit as I said that dramatically, earning a small giggle from my holographic companion.

“That’s fine. However, may I ask a question?” This caught me a bit off guard, because until now she had always simply responded when called. Seeing me nodding my head, she continued. “I am quite interested in the place you go when you… as you say it, log out? I can’t actually follow your mana flow when this happens, as it appears to go to a very remote location.”

This caused me to blink a bit, surprised. She was actually able to sense that my mana went somewhere else when I logged out? Of course, it would be useless to ask her where, since she already said she couldn’t follow it. “I guess you could call it my home world?” I said, trying to say what I could to answer. I mean, in most settings there is something bad that happens if you tell an NPC that their world is a video game. And honestly, I am not quite sure if this is?

On the one hand, it’s a video game. On the other hand, I am now actually a half-elf capable of using magic, and that is totally not something possible with current technology. I mean sure, they could have used nanites or something to supply a gene therapy while I was playing the game to change my physical characteristics to match the game. One company did that in the past, but was sued so fast the game died in a week. Also, even if that was the case, it would not explain my ability to use magic.

So far, there were two leading theories in my head. One, extra-dimensional entities invaded the world and are using the game as a means to open up a portal to invade. Definitely not a fun theory, but the most plausible of the two. The other one, is aliens. I mean, this is beyond human technology, but who’s to say that there isn’t an alien race somewhere out there capable of manipulating energy in a way we perceive as magic, and planted the game on our world?

No idea what possible reason aliens would have for doing it, so my bet was on the first theory. Of course, given my track record with ideas lately, it’s more likely that neither of those are right. Anyways, once I was in town, I went ahead and stopped by Harlan’s shop to sell off the two bears. Apparently bears are not nearly as good for trading as a Great Boa, since you can’t make anything special from their bodies, so I only got three silver from each.

That was still enough to bring my total earnings up to twelve silver, and I made my way to the mage spire. Once inside, I looked around for a familiar face, before finding Rita. Smiling I went over and greeted her. Somewhat surprised, she looked over to me. “Falenel, been a while since you came to town. Was starting to think Jarl had already sent you to the capital. So, what are you coming by for today?” She asked with a slight smile, wearing the same robes as usual.

“I actually wanted to learn another field of magic. A friend of mine said that could be done here, but a fee of ten silvers was required?”

She thought for a moment before nodding. “That’s right. So, what kind of magic are you interested in? Summoning would fit you quite nicely as a druid, or you could even go with Gravity Magic, or Barriers to keep you safe.” I shook my head, having already decided what I wanted. When I told her, she made a bit of a strange face. “Technomancy? Well, sure, I can understand how it would be helpful to any caster in this day and age. Most get cybernetic implants to handle the issue of memory, though. Alright, then, I can take you to the Tech-Mage instructor. Though, you won’t have very many chances to practice until you get to the capital, since we don’t have that many devices in the forests.”

I thought about practicing on Celeste, but dismissed it rather quickly. If I failed on an experiment, which was very likely I might end up breaking her. And I definitely did not want that. “Thanks, I plan to head for the capital before too long. Just need to finish up a couple things, and make sure that I’m done with my training from Jarl first.”

I had already put off leaving far too long in my mind. From my friends list, I could see that both my dad and Jacobs were already over level twenty. My hope was that my druid abilities would allow me to close the gap more quickly since they required so much time to practice.

With a nod, Rita led me over to a man wearing grey robes with a circuit-like pattern of black lines. “Malan, this is Falenel. He came in order to learn to attune to Technomancy.”

The man looked over to Rita and raised an eyebrow, before turning to look at me. “Did he pay the fee?” With a nod, I pulled ten silver coins from my inventory and handed them over. “Very well. I’ll attune to Technomancy for one minute and let you get a feeling for the magic. How you take it from there is up to you.”

I nodded again in response, and used my Aura Sight to watch for what he was doing. Like when I studied Celeste’s aura, what he emitted in the air in front of himself was a criss crossing mass of sharp turns and abstract geometric shapes. I cast a bit of my own mana into it to get a better feel for the magic, when a skill popped up that momentarily distracted me.

New Ability Unlocked!Mana Sense - Mana Manipulation - ★

This is the ability to throw your aura out to sense objects and other auras without the need to actually touch them or stare like an idiot.

Mana Cost: 20/Minute

Okay, will admit that it made me feel like an idiot for not having done this sooner. Would have been so much easier to study the fire element. Thankfully, I got back to my senses before the minute passed, and was able to get a feeling for Technomancy. Focusing on my own aura, I took a bit of time to attempt to manifest what I had observed. What I was used to doing with magic so far was wind and nature, soft shapes and patterns. This felt completely different,

After standing there for a few minutes, and earning a curious look from Rita, I managed to replicate the basic feeling of Technomancy. Though I still wasn’t sure if it was entirely right, the instructor seemed satisfied enough, as was the system when it awarded me the skill.

New Skill Unlocked!Technomancy - Beginner Level 3

Exp: 12.5%

This field of magic is widely hailed as innovative, capable of creating, controlling, and even assimilating technology with magic.

I was somewhat satisfied now. I doubted I would ever encounter a situation where I was in an environment completely devoid of both technology and nature. I’d always have one of the other to use, and even if I didn’t for some reason, I had my shapeshifting. Though, I was slightly surprised that it started out at Beginner Level 3 instead of 1. That was likely because I had done a decent job copying the aura.

Thanking Rita and Malan, I made my way back to Lisara’s alchemy store. As I entered, I saw that she was just finishing up with a customer, who had purchased a green potion and was happily leaving. From what I saw of her merchandise, that should be an antidote. “Hey, again.” I said to the woman behind the counter, who smiled as she noticed me.

“Ah, hello. What can I do for you today?”

“Actually came by to ask about a couple prices, and if they were affordable, maybe spend some money.” I smirked to her, which made her laugh lightly.

“Well, I shall certainly do my best to relieve you of your coin, good sir.”

“Thanks. First, how much is the recipe for a basic mana potion?” I needed this one most urgently, as I had already come up with nearly every other type of beginner potion there was.

“Thirty copper for the recipe.” I was relieved when I heard the price, though I almost choked when she said thirty, thinking she’d be asking for silver. Nodding with a smile, I asked my next question.

“And how much for a more detailed guide to plants in the area? I’m looking to find some with certain characteristics to use with my magic.”

This time, she had to think a bit longer to say her answer. “Well, there isn’t really a more advanced guide than what you bought before. If you were in the capital, you could download a database of plants, but for out in these forests there’s not that much. If you’d like, you can tell me what traits you’re looking for, and I’ll tell you if I know of any plants that match in the area.”

I nodded, and went over the list of things I wanted. “Well, first, I need something fast growing, that can produce a lot of seeds. I also need something straight and firm, and something with sharp thorns.”

She took another moment to process the information before laughing. “Oh, you’re looking for an arrow vine?” I just sat there blinking dumbly, not having expected her to know right away what I wanted. “Harlan sells seed pouches for those. This is a nature-heavy area, so lots of people want weapons they can grow with their magic. Especially disposable items like arrows.”

Of course they do. Why would I ever think that it might have been an original idea?