Thanks to my… theatrics, security has been called. They look like they are ready to charge up here any time, but at least they are staying back for now. Better hurry up, then. I continue: “Moving on. I mentioned making magic items earlier. And I have an increasingly varied set of magic abilities. Why is this important? Because I want to sell New World goods and services. And you can’t stop me.” I catch myself and clarify what I mean. “Or rather, there are no laws and regulations to stop me, yet.”

I look over the audience. My demonstrations seem to have worked well. Maybe a bit too well, given that security were almost called on me. If they came up here, I would probably have stopped them from getting to me with magic, buuut that would also probably escalate the situation…

“The primary thing that I want to sell is [Aspect Magic] as a service. It is quite versatile, but the first thing I learned was to ‘take on’ and Aspect. That works for both elemental aspects-” I cycle through Mist, Fire and Water. “And animal aspects.” I take on the wolfkin form.

“Over time, I found a way to make new forms, stored in subspaces. I can transform into those, not by changing my actual body, but swapping which body is in ‘realspace’ and which is in the subspace. And then, I found out I can summon these forms without taking them on, like the Mistwolf here, as well as this fox, falcon phoenix-” I summon them, perching the bird on my right wrist and fox on my other shoulder.

“-and this.” I say, summoning the wolf serpent, which looks quite like an eastern dragon. “I call them puppets. They are full, independent… forms,” I absorb each of the puppets except the wolf and sneaky fox, which I hide under an illusion.

“-but each of them are me, or a part of me, and I control them.” I gesticulate with my left hand, movement also mimicked by the sitting wolf, which I made hard to notice using [Mind Magic] shortly after summoning it. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but it did.

“With this magic I can not only change my own body, but others’ as well. I have tested on willing people, and reverted the changes afterwards. Again, this is why we need some kind of regulation: Like with medical procedures things could go very bad. And that is what I want to sell: Changes to one’s body.” I draw a breath, starting to regret what I have done, since I might’ve made them make rules stricter than they otherwise would.

“Like piercing, tattoos and hair dyeing, I think there’s a group of people who would enjoy the self-expression this allows. I can also make magic tattoos with magic effects, so there’s that, too.”

I look at the guy I threw the wooden medallion to, he seems to have figured out what it was. Then again, he should be able to, since he has [Inspect]. It’s a [Medallion of lesser Protection], which does as advertised, protect you. Well, my kicks were enough to break the enchantment. The sneaky fox lands on his desk, to which he is oblivious. I make visible as it grabs the medallion in its mouth, flying back to me.

“Finally, I would like to tell you about the adventurer’s guild. Or monster hunter association, or something. The name is not important. My point is, the Guild is a place for those with powers -adventurers- to take quests, also known as tasks or missions, from those who need their power.

I’d like to note the Guild is generally found in medieval fantasy stories, and as such the typical examples are not directly applicable, but I still think the idea is valuable. In these stories merchants would go to the guild, requesting guards for a trip through monster infested land, or a village could request that someone get rid of a monster camp.

Quests can be categorized in multiple ways, which I have outlined in this document” I wave my papers. “-which I have given to my contact with the military, and would like to make available for everyone else somehow. It has more information on many things I’ve spoken about, as well as some I haven’t, like the obvious threat of monsters, and that we need better definition of a person, now that a person can take on animal forms.

In short, though, you have quests to get certain amount of something, like ‘Get me ten pelts of deer’, a general quest like ‘kill any monsters in this area’ and emergency quests, which would be applicable to the [Basilisk] and insect monster problem the first days.” I scratch my head. “My point being that the guild would give a channel from those who needs power to those who have it. And I don’t think our current military and police combined can fully contain the monster problem.”

“So,” I start, looking over the audience. “Any questions?”

Dumb, dumb, DUMB! I should not have done things like I did. At least I didn’t, strictly speaking, do anything illegal. I made a lot of people, uhh, displeased, though. At least they let me answer questions first.

No one spoke for awhile, then someone asked, in more diplomatic terms, if I meant to threaten people or was just stupid. My reply was ‘I’ll be honest; I realized it was stupid- just after doing it.’

I quickly apologized for going overboard, and explained I just wanted to make it clear that these powers can be dangerous, and that decisions should be made as fast as possible. After that people quickly started asking questions, though, including requests to elaborate on abilities, as well as to show them off. In a… less threatening manner, that is.

At some point someone wondered how the hell I got a gun, and I had to show it to to some military types. I removed the spellboards and mana crystals first, though. After that… Well, in simple terms, I’m at a police station now. I arrived in their car. I complied when it seemed likely that I’d get some sort of punishment, because I’m an adult man and I’ll accept responsibility for what I do, dammit. Also I should probably not make it worse.

Well, that could’ve gone worse. An interview (more like stern talking to) and a forced appointment with a psychologist in three days, and then every second week for a while. I’m fine with that - I don’t have to pay, and it could be good for my mental health to get some things off my shoulders, so to speak. I also have to send a request to Thomas, and by extension, the military, whenever I want to do a larger project. That said, they neglected to define ‘large project’, and I didn’t question it, so I’ll just assume anything large enough for them to notice it (or the after effects) is ‘large’.

Didn’t get much done yesterday, mostly because it turns out it’s stupidly hard to buy metal. Not things made of metal, but plain, raw metal. To melt and forge, which I should be able to do magically. Problem is, there isn’t anyone who sells ‘just metal’. I could by wire, or plates, which would be fine, but is pretty expensive. There are scrapyards and such, but apparently they aren’t that fond of selling to private persons.

Eventually I found one place that was willing to give me a bunch of metal scrap, mostly steel and aluminum, but also some copper. Picked it up just earlier now, it’s a bit more than I expected, especially considering how cheap it was. One mans trash, another’s treasure, I suppose. I figured I should experiment with it somewhere outdoors, and I found a nice rocky place with no vegetation just outside the city, in the fjord.

It’s a small island, which has a small jetty and three houses that I could see on Google maps. There’s a thin strip of land I think is underwater during high tides, which leads to a very small island, maybe sixty meters across the longest side. That island is almost all rocks with some grass, and combined with the literal ocean around it I should be able to melt metal with no danger to anyone else, nor the environment.

My trip here was uneventful, since it’s just a few minutes into the fjord, but the trip drew a good bit of attention. Turns out, people definitely still notice New World stuff, and a lot of hands and eyes were pointed at me during the swim. The usual jump-levitate movement drew some attention, but what really got people’s attention was when I took on my new aquatic form at the harbor and jumped into the water.

Based on [Aspect of the Seal], it’s no merfolk form, at least not the pretty kind, but the layer of blubber covering my body should protect against both cold and pressure, and like seals, I can hold my breath for a long time, even several minutes. I looked up how it works, and they essentially take up a lot of oxygen in the blood, and have mechanism for handling the excess CO2 and lactic acid that builds up from prolonged physical exertion.

Obviously, I tried this out by only changing my body with those specific traits, and went for a run. Aside from being able to hold my breath for at least a minute while running, I think I might be able to run a marathon. At the very least, I should be able to run a kilometer or two without my legs feeling like jelly afterwards.

I decided to make the tricks for lactic acid and CO2 buildup permanent changes to my usual form, though I elected to not mess with oxygen, given how it is linked to aging, what with free radicals and all that. But that’s not important right now since I have arrived at the island. Once I get to shallow water I revert to my usual form, clothed in the silk kilt and a sort of sleeveless shirt made of silk, which I can open on the sides for my wings.

Since the only things I’m wearing are those, the armbands and the magic bag, now upgraded with waterproofing enchantments, I must look like some character out of a greek myth. Heck, my pointed ears and orange eyes probably contributes. I adjust the bag to hang at my side, then take out some aluminium scraps.

Yesterday I prepared by figuring out how to shape stone magically, so the first I will do is to make a meter radius shallow bowl, as well as a small crucible. The ability is called [Lithokinesis], ‘stone movement’. While the other kinesis abilities have been a great help for figuring out how to use it, rock and stone is decidedly unmoving, and I doubt it’s the most effective way to shape rock. On the bright side, I got a new class, [Kineticist] from it.

In addition to the -kinesis abilities, [Kineticist] has [Mana Manipulation] as a class ability, which means I could possibly swap it with [Proto-mage]. I don’t wanna lose out on [Mana Perception], though, so I swapped the two classes, and equipped [Mana Perception] where I used [Aerokinesis]. Either way, I end up waving my hands in circular motions to make the bowl in the rock.

A minute or so later I have a smooth bowl to work over. If nothing else, the kinesis abilities have very organic-looking results. Next up, I grab a few first-sized rocks lying around, and gather them by the bowl. As I am about to shape and merge the rocks, I am struck by an idea: Since I went here to melt stuff anyway, why not try melting rocks? They probably have higher melting points, but are also much less valuable, and if I can melt them, I can melt the metals I have.

I planned around having a crucible, but my idea for a technique should work without one. First, I take one of the rocks. I hold it over the bowl with [Force Magic], the create a vacuum around it so that heat is not lost. Just in case, I cover my skin in scales of Earth, then take on Fire. With preparations done, I start heating the rock, continuously pouring mana into it, which I convert to heat.

It takes a little while, but with my enhanced sense as well as via the [Aspect of Fire] and my Serpent derived heat sense, I see it quickly heating up. Once it reaches a certain point, it first becomes glossy, then starts glowing red, then orange, and finally a bright yellow. At this point it starts losing its shape, only held together with magic, making it rounder and rounder. Once it becomes a perfect sphere, I feel satisfied, and let air flow to it, also draining the heat with magic.

A few minutes to melt, and about thirty second to make it cool enough on the surface to touch. The sphere looks almost like black glass, and is quite reflective. Since it’s actually pretty… Well, it is pretty, I put it off to the side, making sure it won’t roll away, so that it can cool to the core before I put it in the bag.

Now that I have a working technique, I start repeating the process with the other rocks. I heat one after the other, keeping the near-molten rocks in a vacuum. With five stones ready, I conjure a cup shape, large enough to put both my hands in. Then, I bring all the stones together, and melt them. Once I am sure they are all melted down, I cover the conjured cup in the lava, spinning it to make a uniform shape.