After today’s breakfast I check on the wood projects again. I apply what will probably be the last layer of wood finish to the gunstaff-to-be. After finishing this little project, I’m going to the forest to look for more post-Upheaval plants, and also test out some things. Maybe learn some new abilities. A new class would be nice…

Hell yeah!

It works!

I look at the [Wooden Feather of Flight]. The description says ‘A wooden focus carved to the shape of a feather. It is imbued and inscribed to assist the holder in flying and flight magic.’ The somewhat vague [Inspect] description aside, my little project was to finish this flight-assist accessory.

Magic is fantastic, quite literally. While holding the feather my ability to hover, glide and otherwise counteract the pull of gravity with [Force Magic: Levitation] increases by a noticeable amount. I still can’t quite fly that way, but I can stay off the ground for longer, and my aerial control is better.

Adding on to that, from manipulating the air around me with magic I learned [Aerokinesis], ‘Air Moving’. The ability does exactly what one would expect. Since it seemed useful I promptly equipped it, and it levelled a few times on the way, to (4, Novice). And while doing so, I unlocked the [Aspect of Air].

That’s the third out of the four classic elements, so next up would be playing with fire. Safely. The next aspects I should try to get would be those for plants. From my observation, there seems to be three of them, Flower, Grass and Tree. An Aspect group? I guess Mist/Water/Ice would be a group as well?

I land at the Café. There’s only a couple Mist Wolves here right now, both companions to patrons. I can sense Tåke through our bond. She seems busy, but in good health. She’s… leading the pack? In a hunt? With the distance between us, the already basic information becomes confusing.

Whatever, they know how to take care of themselves and can do with some levelling. After all, they were in the mid level twenties when I… met them. They gained a few levels, Tåke herself was thirty-four when we killed the [Juvenile Basilisk].

I’m a bit curious as to what they’re actually doing, but for now I’m going for the plant aspects, while also looking out for post-Upheaval plants. I bet I could make potions or something with an alchemy type ability.

Aspects get! Aspect of the Flower, the Tree and the Ant. That last one took some ten minutes of studying an anthill. And a few minutes afterwards, as I was fascinated by what I could suddenly see thanks to the attunement.

I’ve also gathered the plants I was looking for. I dig them out by the roots and bring a little bit of soil, then put a small plastic bag around the roots and soil, tying it with rubber bands. Then the whole plant goes in a bigger plastic bag, with others of the same type. I’ve limited myself to three of each type, and have avoided plants I don’t think I can harvest safely.

Now, this takes up quite a bit of space, more than my backpack can fit, in fact. While attaching some of the bags on the outside is unproblematic, I have MAGIC now, so I empty my backpack. Then, I apply magic to it, with the intention to expand the available space.

…

What if I manipulate the magic instead of basically imbuing the backpack?

Ahh, if I do this… It works! Aaand reverts when I stop applying mana. Hmm, I would need a mana input and an enchantment to cast the magic for me. And probably a mana stone to act as a buffer/battery. I should also find out what happens if the enchantment fails.

Professor Oak’s word echo in my mind: There's a time and place for everything, but not now. So for now I’ll just do it as a basic imbuement and attach a small mana stone to it. I will continuously apply mana manually, but it should hold even if I stop applying mana for while.

I guess this would be spacetime magic? Depending on the game or story in question, it could be super-rare legendary magic or just another common thing you attach to every bag ever. The latter would mostly be games, tho.

The space doesn’t expand that much anyway, only enough to put a few more plants. Assuming the space will simply revert (possibly violently) if the imbuement fails, it should be fine, even if I will need a new backpack.

I learned the [Spatial Magic] ability from it. It’s not quite spacetime magic, but that’d probably be rather dangerous anyway. I mean, manipulating it would have quite significant effects. Then again, I suppose it is the ‘Lite’ version of that? I feel like I could do some impressive stuff once I level it.

Onwards, then.

After a bit more gathering I stop by a decent bathing spot. It’s a rock gently sloping into water. It’s also somewhat secluded and a distance from both the ‘entrance’ to the forest and the main road, so it’s usually free. Such is the case today, too, but then again with monsters and not the dryest weather…

I put my backpack under a tree, visible from the water, then take on the Wave Lord form. It’s hardly weather for bathing, but that’s not what I’m gonna do anyway. First off, I wanna play around with the Aspect of Water. In addition to that, since there’s a [Aerokinesis] there should be a [Hydrokinesis] as well, right?

I start by getting a feel for the area’s aspect. Unsurprisingly, there’s a whole bunch of water in the lake, but there’s also quite a bit of water in the soil. I also get a weak feeling of Water from the air and trees as well. I suppose that’s to be expected.

Next up, making sure to not have [Force Magic] equipped, [Aerokinesis] taking its place because of its similarity with the ability I want to learn. Thus, my current ability-set is:

Classes: [Proto-mage] - [Pack Leader(non-beast)] - [Artificer]

Abilities: [Inspect] - [Aspectian] - [Regeneration] - [Body Enhancement] - [Aerokinesis] - [Meditation]

...it feels so half-assed if compared to most loadouts seen in games and light-novels alike. No min-maxing here, if anything it’s a jack-of-all-trades utility build. Or jack-of-no-trades?

Actually, there’s that light novel about a guy who gets a girl avatar and then just slice of life his way through a VRMMO, often with no long-term goal(or goals at all). That setting had equippable abilities as well, huh. Well, I guess if you can learn just about any ability/skill/spell/whatever you would want a somewhat balanced build.

Now that I think of it, this [System] is quite similar to that in many ways. And the skill levels, as I see and hear them, seems to be ripped straight from a game about ASCII dwarves trying to survive and build a fortress. Then again, there was some talk online about perceiving stats and such differently, and the [System] translating.

I push away the idle thoughts as I push myself forward, onto the surface of the lake. I feel my body -that is, the part that is transformed into water- sink into it. Same as when I tested putting things in the misty part of the mist djinn form, it feels very strange, but not exactly uncomfortable. Unfamiliar, maybe?

I don’t sink far, and it seems I can move up and down as I want. I think I need a certain depth to hold myself up, any higher and gravity just takes me back down.

So I start moving forward. Then turn. And turn again. Hmm… I seem to have much more maneuverability on water than on land. As I glance down and wonder how deep it is, I am struck with a set of ideas.

First, I let myself sink so that the natural water almost wets my T-shirt. I should really experiment with the transformations’ ability to seemingly absorb what I’m wearing. I mean, I get a lot more freedom over how I can transform if I won’t end up with torn clothes or naked.

As low in the water as I can be without getting my clothes wet (the water still feels cold to my liquid lower body, though), I ‘stretch’ my lower body, down, down. It’s colder further down, huh.

“Ahh!”

There seems to be fish here, pretty big ones for a lake this size. Or maybe they’re post-Upheaval species. Whatever. My ‘legs’ are spread out in the water, over quite the area, in fact, and with the strange sense that comes with it, I can make out the general shape and size of things, as well as temperature.

Brrr, it seems that even in liquid form I can lose heat through my 'legs'. Therefore I quickly retract to the surface. I cycle mana to the colder parts while also gentle heating the water and my body alike. Mmm. That’s a quite pleasant temperature.

[Hydrokinesis], come to me! If it is anything like the air version (and actually exists), I should be able to learn it by moving and controlling water with mana/magic.

Ability unlocked: [Hydrokinesis]

That was fast? About one minute until I can equip it, though. In the meanwhile I head back to my backpack and grab the apple I brought for a quick lunch/snack. I also take out one of the larger bags with plants and drain the energy from the space expansion magic, just to be sure.

Not long after I have stripped off my T-shirt and are again surging across the surface of the lake.

Ahh, I feel ridiculously good right now, and I’m not sure if I should hope that is because of the form or not. On one hand, it’s a pretty strong effect, which implies I could have as strong negative effects from instincts from other forms, but on the other hand, damn it feels good to be alive. And boy do I feel alive.

Right, I’m calm. Calmer. A little bit calmer.

Next up: I want a method for underwater breathing. I’m thinking my two kinesis abilities should be able to help with that. Specifically, I want to trap a large bubble of air around my head and body. Like, astronaut suit size. And shape. It’s not enough air to stay underwater for very long, but it’s a start.

I could try to turn carbon dioxide back into oxygen as I breathe or some similar chemical trick. However I would need some way to measure the mix of chemicals in the air before I dare magically filter the air I breathe. After all there’s not much leeway there, and the right air mix is literally vital.

I start with a ‘dry test’, which makes me wet, as I make a bubble of water instead of air. I also leave an opening around my mouth to breathe. Moving around, the bubble at first falls apart, but soon I get the hang of it.

Right, step two: get wet. I draw a deep breath and dive through the surface with my eyes closed, opening them afterwards. The shock of the relatively cold water makes me want to draw a breath, but it’s hardly my first time playing in water.

Calming my mind, in part assisted by [Meditation], I stick my head out of the water. Since I was only under for a second or two, simply heating myself magically is enough to return my breathing to the deep, rhythmic breathing I’ve turned into a habit.

When I push water away from my body to form the body, I realise a secondary effect of the trick: insulation. Making only the briefest mental note of it, I submerge myself, now with a bubble around the parts of my body that are still solid.

Another effect is that the separation of air and water lets me see underwater. Well, it’s distorted a bit as the bubble changes shape, and this water doesn’t have the best visibility, five or so meters at best. It is improved when I magically light the water, apparently to the surprise of something which quickly made it’s escape to my lower left. Not such a brave fish in the light, huh.

Bobbing just below the surface of the water, the air bubble is still connected to the atmosphere. I quickly cycle the air, take a glance at my backpack, then lower myself another meter, cutting myself off from the air and already clouded sunlight above.