Author’s Corner: Had some free time, so enjoy the chapter!

We weren’t in this city for long, since it was just a stop on the way to rest before the final leg of the journey. You try flying for sixty or so kilometers under your own power and not need a break! Though, I ended up sticking around to grab a bite to eat with Yin and Yang. Fun fact about gustwings, they aren’t vegetarians like lovebirds, so I had to get Yin some meat with her meal. I was a bit concerned about how I would feed her from now on, but maybe I could abduct a pair of rabbits and have them populate a small grove planet? I’d have to think about that next time I got to a planet that had them.

Once we were done eating, I sent the two of them back to my grove and set out towards the mountain on foot. Since Celeste said that there was a danger of wyverns attacking me in the air if I flew too close, I took on my wolf form and began running. I had learned my lesson already about not taking the advice of people who said that there were stronger things than myself in the skies.

Since I was running as a wolf, it took nearly an hour before I reached the base of the mountains, which were a vast series of towering peaks that rose up above the clouds. At least, that’s how it looked to a wolf. Alright, Celeste, let’s find us a cliff tiger.

I began activating my combat Aspect spells as I climbed up the rough stone slopes. First, the Aspect of the Armored Beast to give myself the armored skin, then Aspect of the Magic Breath to attune my breath weapon to the light element. These things have the magic ability to swim through rock, meaning they can have it slide off their body like water. Using earth attacks against them would likely be pointless.

So now, there was a scaled wolf running up the mountain, trying to draw as much attention as I possibly could. This is the right mountain, isn’t it?

“Well, the information didn’t specify a certain mountain. But maybe they are higher up?” The AI woman said uncertainly. Around this time, a new sound registered on my enhanced ears, the sound of something other than me scraping against a stone! I really needed to set up a sonar system for some kind of echolocation map. Maybe have it pass through Celeste so that she can arrange the data into a three dimensional representation, and I’m getting distracted again.

Oh hey look, there’s a big black tiger behind me. And another one… and another one… the hell? When did six of them get around me. I really need to learn to focus more. “No… they really did just appear out of nowhere.” Celeste confirmed that it was not me being distracted that was the problem here. “No, that’s still a problem.”

Anyways! Looking at the first tiger, I let out a wolf-like snarl, preparing to use my breath weapon. The tiger responded with a low roar. Oh look, we’re comparing to see who has the bigger bark! Laser breath to your face! Opening my mouth as if to roar, and I really did roar with it, I used my breath weapon to shoot out a… nothing? Wait, no, not a nothing. There was a red glow that appeared on the tiger’s body before it burst into flames and fell over. The hell? Wait… Carbon dioxide laser? Sweet! I had hoped for something more flashy, but I will take what I can get.

By the time I turned around, the five tigers had vanished. “Falenel, below you!” Celeste called out, and I jumped back as two of the tigers lunged out of the ground at me as if it were made of water. No, seriously, there were ripples and everything, it even formed back exactly how it was after they jumped out and dived back in. I didn’t even have time to launch an attack before the two tigers were back underground. A moment later, I felt something clawing at my sides, a few scales being scraped off. When I turned to look, there was nothing there.

Great, Falenel, you came to pick a fight on their home turf. I thought about a few possible answers to this, before deciding on a course of action. Step one, grow bat wings with Aspect of the Bird and fly into the air. Step two, change magic breath to fire element. Step three, wait for a tiger to jump out and attack where I had been standing, then roast them alive! Step four? Obviously, profit.

Sure enough, just after I moved, two more tigers jumped out to attack where I had been just in time to catch a face full of fire. They let out pained screams and dived back into the stone, likely extinguishing their flames. I need a step five…

Step five, laser death rain! I made five magnetic donuts filled with plasma, and lowered them down just above the ground. Soon, my pretties, soon you will be unleashed. The next time a tiger popped out, I had the nearest plasma bolt launch at it, killing the creature as I waited for the other four to surface. Celeste said twenty seconds… Did they run?

Using my X-Ray vision on my eye, I found that they indeed did not run. However, there was a cave system underground that they were hiding in. I could work with this. I landed down on the ground as softly as I could, and had my plasma donuts tunnel into the ground, moving towards their little cave. Don’t play hide and seek with the guy that can see you underground.

Once my little bundles of death were just above their cave, I created four more and had them follow down the same holes. That way, they could break through all at once. It was a bit distracting to control eight magnetic bundles at once, but still not nearly as bad as trying to rotate one at high speeds.

As soon as they broke through the ceiling of the cave, I unleashed Operation: Pain Rain. Naturally, this meant me shooting them all with plasma lasers. Thankfully I sent in an extra batch of death, because my accuracy was only about two out of three shots at this level of control. Still, that meant that all four tigers were quickly dispatched or rendered incapable of fleeing.

You have leveled up!

Now, for the boring part, scanning them and experimenting! Moving over to the one killed by my laser, I put a large paw on it and focused my Mana Sense to sweep through it for a few minutes, making sure that Celeste and I could commit it all to memory before stopping. Then it was time to shift into the new form.

Although I have the new body, I wasn’t sure which aspect of its aura enabled it to swim through the ground. Typically, the easiest way to figure it out would be to study the aura while it used its ability, but that wasn’t really an option for something that wanted to eat your face. So, the alternative was getting the ability yourself and studying your own aura while you fumbled around to get it right!

Dive into the ground… come on, Falenel, you can do this. Don’t be a chicken tiger… I took a deep breath, steadied myself, took another deep breath, and just said to hell with it before diving head first at the ground.

Falenel used Headbutt! It wasn’t very effective.-5 HP

Damn rock! Who said you were allowed to hurt my head?! I growled at it and swiped, but this time my paw actually passed through the rock. Seriously, Malthan? That’s just not fair! I groaned out loud, which sounded strange from a large black cat, and tried again. This time, I kept a constant focus on my aura as I tried to move through the rock. Come on, Falenel… You are a rock, be the rock… I could hear Celeste laughing in the corners of my mind as I closed my eyes and jumped again.

This time, I soon felt as if I had dived into a pool, cool water brushing against my fur. Considering I was a big cat right now, this felt very strange. Opening my eyes revealed nothing, but my aura was lighting up in certain areas that should indicate the racial ability activating. Scan scan scan scan scan!

I quickly memorized the pattern for the magic ability, before cheating and using my Earth Manipulation to get myself back out before I ran out of air. Next, I changed into my wolf form, and tried to copy the same aura aspects I had noted down from the cliff tiger. My light gray fur immediately turned black, but it was of little concern for now. Again I dived in, and again I found myself in the pool of liquid earth. Sweet!

New Spell Unlocked!Aspect of the Traveler - Nature Magic - ★☆

By studying the abilities of various animals, you have discovered the power to copy their magical means of transportation.

Mana Cost: Varies

I began dog paddling through the mountain, and went down to where I had left the four dead panthers. Once I was there, I returned to my half elf body and summoned Yo. “Alright, Celeste… how do we purify them?”

I had much less sentimental attachment to my slime than I did either of the birds. Worst case scenario, I lost Yo and had to make a new advanced water slime. It wouldn’t take much work to get it to the point where Yo is at right now. “Right! First, use your Mana Sense to latch on to the aura of one of the target creatures. Then, with your Soul Arts, pull out all of the memory, skills, and personality. The suggested way to do this was to filter it by grabbing a buffer zone in the aura, and holding firmly onto it while you pass it through the rest of the aura. Like squeezing a cloth to remove the water.”

I nodded my head, but didn’t know how to find the buffer zone in the aura. So, I just began poking around randomly until I found a part of the aura the did not show me any memories or emotions. I really did not need to see a mating scene… there is not enough brain bleach in the galaxy to scrub those images out. Anyways, once I had a hold of this part of the aura, I kept a firm grip on it and began running it through the rest of the aura, like Celeste said.

I should mention again how big and complicated an aura is. Imagine tracking a single drop of blood and moving it throughout your entire vascular system, then get it to move along your nervous system, and your respiratory system, and every other system. It took half an hour before I was done scraping off memories and the like. The aura now appeared pitiful, barely a fraction of what it used to be. However, it was essentially an entire buffer zone.

New Ability Unlocked!Purify Soul - Soul Arts - ★

You have learned how to purify the soul, removing the memories and personality of what it once was to leave only the purest essence.

“Okay.. now, to put it into Yo, you’ll need to use your mana to create a link between the slime and the tiger with your mana. Make sure not to let this link pass through yourself, or it will be tainted with your own skills and memories. Once you have the link established, siphon off as much or as little energy from the aura as you want.”

I nodded again, and sent out a strand of mana to Yo’s slime core, then focused to connect the other end of the strand to the tiger. It was rather difficult to not let it pass through my own body, since I hadn’t done that before. However, after a few moments of focus, I set the connection. Then, I began pulling the aura out of the tiger and pushing it into the slime. When I opened my eyes, there was a misty white light traveling along where I had established the invisible link.

“According to my estimates, the full aura that you finished with should amount to the first six levels. If you get the same result with all of them, and use the full auras, Yo should level up enough to become a mimic slime.”

I nodded, and honestly still had hesitation about using the full soul. But, at least I wasn’t using its personality or memories. Call me a hypocrite, but I consider that stuff important. Focusing on the task at hand, I continued pushing the aura into Yo until there was nothing left, but there was no visible reaction. When I scanned his aura with my Mana Sense and touched his soul, I found that there really was a large buffer zone now.

New Ability Unlocked!Empower Soul - Soul Arts - ★

You have learned how to transfer purified soul essence into the aura of another living creature.

“Celeste, is there any relation between the buffer zone and skill growth?”

“Hmm? Well, yeah. If you have a buffer, your skills will be able to increase more easily, because otherwise half of the effort has to go into strengthening your aura to support the increased skill. I thought that was obvious?”

I could only let out a sigh, shaking my head as I went around and repeated the process with the remaining three tigers.