“Earthquake.”

“ What?”

“I’m gonna try to make an earthquake. It’s just shaking of the earth, right? Vibrations? Sound is also just vibrations.”

“ … It is more complicated than that, but coming from you that’s worryingly convincing. As discussed, you will start weak and only increase with increase with my permission.”

“Yes, yes. Tell me when ready.”

“The drones are in position.”

Good! I get down on my knees, then slap my hands to the ground. I might have explained it as ‘just vibrations’ but I don’t think [Sound Magic] alone is enough for some proper shakin’ and quakin’. [Lithokinesis] and [Earth Sorcery] should be able to handle the rest. But let’s try with just sound first. Soundquake, go!

… But nothing happened.

So much for soundquake being OP. Well, I guess you need the resonating quake augment. But I don’t have that so let’s just use my earth-based magic to cause some motion. …now it just looks like I’m giving CPR to the ground. Wait, what’s the frequency of earthquakes? It’s pretty low as far as sounds go, but it should be higher than the two-to-three hertz I can manage with pushing the ground, right?

Ugh, how do I even do this? It’s not like I can feel the earth move or something and use that to resonate… ahh, whatever. No earthquake for me.

“So uh, it looks like I’m lacking an ability for being able to make an actual earthquake, and in hindsight my plan was a bit shabby. Next on my list are two targeted spells, mana lance and mana bow.”

Yep, mana lance is as powerful as I remember it to be, though with no wyvern threatening my life I settled for punching a hole clean through a boulder and felling the tree on the other side. “So uhh, I can probably do that like three or four times in fairly rapid succession. More if I get a feel for the power and use just enough to break the target.”

“ Did it fail?”

“Huh? No, it worked just fine.”

“ So you just conjured a bow and arrow with magic? And it is about as powerful as a normal bow and arrow?”

“Yep. Well, you could launch fancy magic arrows, but it’s really more efficient to just use them as spells, then.”

“ Couldn’t you have tested that anywhere?”

“Probably.”

“ So why did you test it here?”

“To have a comparison to my real bow.”

There is a creaking followed by couple crashes as I stand frozen, looking down the path of the arrow.

“ I was wrong when I said your magic bow and arrow were as powerful as a normal one.”

“In my defence, I expected it to get stuck in the first or maybe second tree. Not… that.”

“ And the other arrow you wanted to test?”

“Uhh… I… don’t think that should be used from the ground.”

Good idea or not, after the previous arrow, I really want to see how this turns out.

“ Lars! What are you doing?”

“I’m getting into the air so that I’m not using it from the ground.”

“ You are not allowed to use that until you explain exactly what it should do and how it works and I give you the clear. Is that clear?”

Oh shit, that’s the officer guy, he sounds like a drill sergeant. Proooobably don’t wanna piss him off. “Yes sir, crystal clear, sir!”

No reply.

Why are they not saying anything? Do they want me to explain? Let’s… just do that. “So uhh, this is kinda like the other one, or at least the basic idea is the same. That said the other one was meant to be ‘armor penetrating’ while this one should be, uhh, ‘high explosive’. Buuut it also uses the trick I think made the other one… overperform. And also it may or may not also have some of the same ability to penetrate.”

And yet another unnerving pause.

“ Head to the middle of the testing area.”

I pull the string back, charging the arrow’s shaft with a final bit of mana.

As soon as I let it loose it descends towards the unsuspecting ground like a small meteor. It hits the swampy ground with a gross sound, leaving a hole which is soon filled with swampy water and plant muck. Or whatever you call it.

And nothing happens.

“Uhm, do we treat that like live ordnance?”

The walkie talkie crackles to life, but whatever they say is completely drowned out by the explosion. I instinctively bundle up into a ball, but not before getting foul-tasting water in both nose and mouth.

I hack and cough to get it out, to no avail. Ah, the slime puppet is pretty close to water. I summon it and plunge my head into the gelatinous form. “Pffft!” Slime does not taste good. Or bad, for that matter. More like… stale water. Either way, making a water form would probably have been smarter.

“ Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Also, I think I know what happened. The swampy stuff dampened the explosion, but it also let it build up for a moment before exploding. Like a gas bubble in thick liquid. If you check the footage you’ll see the entire area bulging for a moment before erupting.”

“ We’ll look into that, but you look miserable. Do you want to end things here?”

“I am miserable. Well, a bit. And hell no I don’t want to quit yet. I have two more things I want to test.”

“ … And those are?”

“I wanna see how much I can smash up an area in short time, and I need one or more volunteers to test something mostly harmless. I’d like to do the smashing first to get out some frustration.”

“ You may… continue smashing the local area, but keep an ear out for the walkie talkie.”

“All right!”

I will smash and I will trash and I will crash the whole swamp down! …? That last part kinda fell away. That said, the swamp’s altitude has been lowered, though that’s because most of the swamp is no longer in the swamp, and holy crap, this area looks like a powerful nation decided it was an affront to democracy and/or had oil that needed liberation.

“Heh, me like.” I say to myself only, before pressing the ‘talk’ button. “Okay, I’m done. Hope you didn’t need this place intact. Also, are there any laws against being a living weapon? Because honestly I am a bit frightened by my power. Not that I wanna be jailed or fined for it.”

“ Please return to the control vehicle.”

“So one person -who claims his magic abilities are ‘not particularly powerful’- can decimate an area just as effectively as artillery in thirty minutes.”

He turns to me: “Lars, do you truly believe you are not particularly powerful?”

“No, uh, yes, errr… Yes, I know I am not particularly powerful. For one Leda has like ten times my magic power, and her range is one to two kilometers. You should’ve seen how my spells starts to fizzle and dissolve beyond, what, fifty meters?

Also, while I have spent a large portion of my time since the upheaval doing magic, the first time I properly tried to make something for destruction was in preparation for today. Even if I did do that from the beginning, it would leave me with like two month of practice. That’s not a whole lot.”

“We’ll take that into account. For now, can you help look through the footage and explain the various spells and… attacks you used?”

“Ugh, that’ll take a while. I’m gonna decline unless I get one or more volunteers for testing a ‘pressure’ type spell. In short, I create a field of mana to suppress you. It should be harmless but uncomfortable, and if you have practiced magic it should have less effect.”

After violating Tåke’s furry body with cuddles and assaulting her nose with smelly swamp-water for a while, I bring her with me home for the first time in a while, partly as an apology, partly to be around her more, and partly because I need a shower and then I thought of how nice and fluffy she becomes after a shower and being dried with some warm gusts. Mostly the latter two, of course.

The rest of the day is spent lazily and fluffily by the both of us, as the fur-drying trick works on my wolfkin form, too, though I looked rather comical until I combed my fur back down. The next morning is much the same, and then I head out for the fastest bit of money I will ever have earned.

The old man got here before me, as did a woman sent by the government to handle the legal stuff. Not that there should be a need for that, she’s mostly here to observe and ‘just in case’. At the appointed time we’re all called to a meeting room kinda room, where we meet the doctor and go over how things will be done. After that, the doctor brings the old man to his office for a chat.

They take a bit longer than I expected, but eventually I am called in to perform to the actual shapeshifting, before having to leave again. I wanted to do this one-on-one, but I can see the value of having a mostly impartial observer that can also offer guidance and help them make the right choices.

It could be said it reduces privacy, but since the doctor legally has to keep confidentiality, I am the ‘weak link’ here. I suppose I should add a confidentiality clause in the contract. I also don’t want others to learn my abilities (unless they pay me, of course, I think it’d be hard to copy my abilities by simply looking. The customer might figure out how shapeshifting works, but I considered that for the price.

When they finally exit, the doctor turns to me. “That was remarkably effective; all the indicators of health I measured improved significantly. The patient is fine and the procedure was successful.” The last part is aimed at the legal observer, who nods.

With that the first youth-rejuvenation procedure is done, and the professionals enter the doctor office to do same paperwork or discuss or whatever, while I go over how to handle the payment with the now more youthful man. Well, the agreement was something like a thirty year old’s body, with some minor cosmetic tweaks, reducing wrinkles a bit. So not young, by my definition at least, but as we exit the building he does a short twenty-meter run, laughing.

“Y’hello, Lars of Terra Arcana.”

“Ah, hello, my name is Sunee, I am working on the research project for non-human personhood.”

“Mm-hm?”

“I- we have an update for you. We have created the basics now, so you should be contacted by the government soon. They said they can use what we have now to give a provisional identity.”

“Oh, that’s nice. So, like, within a week or two?”

“They only said it would be soon, but I think so.”

“Okay. Was there anything else?”

“Uhm, it would be nice if you have time for more tests. I-I mean, Leda. We have more tests we want Leda to take.”

“Oh, that should be possible.”

I discuss possible times, but before we can reach an actual decision someone in the background interrupts. Apparently ‘soon’ switched to ‘ready now’. With that the plan is to do some more tests and at the same time handle the paperwork for making a person. At least I will be assisted by people who properly understands the law. On account of being in the process of making it.

Calls, more calls, more calls EVEN MORE CALLS! I appreciate the business, not that all of them are about that, and it’s not really that many calls, but more than three calls in a day? That’s a, what- usually I’d get one to three calls a month, so let’s go with one per ten days, meaning… 3/day divided by 0.1/day gives 30 times increase in calls.

Prospective customers aside and ignoring tele-salesfolk, there’s the call about Leda’s soon-to-be (provisional) personhood, which I figure I should get her something nice for. I have a few things in mind… I also got a call from one of the space… agencies? Uhh, business that does space stuff. Yeah, that. They apologized for not responding earlier, believing my email to be a prank at first, but were interested in hearing me out.

In other news my calendar has something for every single day the next week, which means I’ll be pretty busy. The week after that I will start off strong with probably doing a ton of paperwork for Leda, so that day will be fun, and the space people set up an internet meeting the day after that.

When it comes to (prospective) clients, there are a few particular interesting ones. There’s a swede who is considering a crash(-less, hopefully) course on flying and wants to buy a couple different products. They live a bit too far away for me to easily meet them, and seem unwilling to spend a lot of money on travel. I noted their interest, telling them I’d give them a notice if I were going to travel in their direction.

And then there’s some american guy who wants a sex change and more than enough money to fly me over and pay the price for a full-body change. I removed all but the minor price quotes for shapeshifting from the website, since the price paid will vary greatly by the exact changes people ask for. And how much they are willing to pay. And prices of similar existing services. And and and. Economics.

Anyway, there are a couple pods of sky whales around the US, including one which has been dubbed ‘Moby Dick’ because it’s big and white. It’s also a bit of a dick, and likes to destroy tall structures. Of course, once the americans noticed, they immediately set out to solve it a very american way, and there is now a procedure for ‘Reducing harm from large flying animals’ which involves flak cannons.

In other words, I figured I could combine those two to get some business done while maybe getting to see some sky whales. I posted a video on my channel describing Terra Arcana in fairly concise detail, quickly followed by one where I explain that I intend to travel to the US, so if anyone in the US wants to buy stuff, now is the time.

I have finally gotten to the point where I am fairly confident I know what I’ll do with the channel. I will continue with the monster girl showcase videos, which I have decided to classify as ‘entertainment’. I might expanding to other displays of magic, especially if the knowledge that it’s just my puppets makes them less interesting to people.

In addition to entertainment/showcase videos, I want a sort of series on magic, ranging from the 101 video to howtos and discussion/theory. Other than that I intend to post updates about Terra Arcana on it when relevant, maybe making some advertisement style videos. Finally, I want to post vlog-type videos which will be a bit of all of those.

For example, the one where I announce my trip to the US easily fits within the ‘vlog’ category. But other videos might be me rambling about some magic quirk or whatever, or just showing off something cool (that doesn’t go under the other categories). I think I will make the distinction in purpose as well as structure of the video, with vlogs being a bit looser on both fronts.

For now the goal is one video per week, and the first videos will each start or at least properly define/explain a series. From there I’ll see what gets views, what people like, and what the patreon supporters want. While the numbers have gone down, there is a pretty active Discord server and I mean, these people are paying me money for rather vague goals - I’d be stupid not to listen to their input.

Or I might ruin the system and have the viewers abandon me in short order. I have no idea what I’m doing or how it will go.