“HOLY SHIT THAT WAS INSANE!”

“Ehh, that was pretty restrained by Leda, actually.”

“She blew your arm off!”

“How did you regrow it…?”

“Well, magic. I’ve had worse.”

“What do you- worse?”

“Yeah, try being cooked alive by mana or feeling like your soul is being torn apart. Or something. It’s not a soul in the traditional sense, but hurt like hell either way.”

Huh, suddenly it got quiet. Hmm, looks like the staff is fine. Well, it was the other hand that was vaporized. Her mana is such a cheat…

“Has anyone told you you’re crazy?”

“Oh yes, several times, but I am certified sane, actually. Though at this point I’m not sure I agree with that any more.”

“Oh?” He says with that accusative, sarcastic tone.

“Well… I might be a battle junkie.”

“…That’s what makes you think that?”

“I’m joking. Mostly. I do think that I might be a battle junkie, though.”

“You think?”

“Yep. I like the thrill of a fight, but don’t want to hurt anyone and would very much like to stay alive and whole, thankyouverymuch, so I’m not, like, one-hundred percent battle junkie.”

“Isn't that what a battle junkie is?”

“I don't think so. Isn't it about hard battles? And… something else?” I trail of as I fish out my phone. “Hang on, I'm just…”

The others resume what I assume is a previous conversation while I quickly find the relevant TV Tropes page. Could've gone for Urban Dictionary, but it's shorter and I don't want to learn some fucked up meaning.

“Ah, you're right, it's pretty broad. But ‘someone who lives for the fight’ and ‘seeks a challenge’? I mean, friendly competition is fun but ehh."

At this point I’m not entirely sure what they’re talking about, but it’s got Leda fired up and in the spotlight, so I just watch from the sidelines.

It doesn't take long until they're satisfied, or rather, they were before Leda went all chatterbox, and she says goodbye with that same eagerness she does most things. “Goodbye, farewell, see ya, we hope to see you again soon!”

“Heh, where did you learn the last one?”

“From the videos!” She answers, until I give her a mental nudge. “That's what the sales girl in Mystical Magical Wonder Shop says at the end of each video.”

I make a mental note check that out as I make sure the headcount is right and then carry us home. The others are talking to each other a bit during the flight, occasionally bringing in me, but mostly staying silent after sharing their experiences.

They seem rather neutral about the experience and I don’t think they particularly want to do it again, but that's fine. I don't know what they expected, but the reason I invited the entire group was because I felt like I should follow up on my bad joke, and also to be polite. Was that the right choice?

I flip over the pancake so that I land on the other side. I prefer our own flat ones rather than the fat american ones, but these are much softer to lie on. And it’s not that they taste bad.

Nom!

Oh no, I took a too big bite, and now I’m crashing.

No, it’s fine, I turned to the side and fell to the next one.

-Sniff sniff- Are they cooking more? Ahh, no, it’s just Leda’s magical brilliance.

She’s diving towards uncooked pancakes with both forms.

Haha, her main body is too powerful, it cooked it to a perfect golden and harmlessly bounced off! Wait, her puppet got stuck inside the other one, and it needs more time before it’s done!

It’s okay, she made that annoyed raptor keen and is eating it from the inside.

Where’s the egg? I guess she left it back home. Don’t wanna make pancakes with that after all. Besides, she seems to more and more okay with not literally hugging the lil’ thing. It’s good that she takes care of it, but everything in moderation.

She left it behind when that whole thing with Philip happened, too. Though I guess that was an exception by emergency. As for other time, she might be competitive, but I doubt that alone is why she’s okay leaving the egg behind when trying to ‘beat me’. Is she okay as long as she can see or mana-sense it now?

I seem to have kicked of my covers. Still too damn hot, I’m amazed I managed to fall asleep.

I go wash my face and get dressed. Breakfast, ehh. I want pancakes now. Wait, that was a dream. What. The. Fuck? It’s been a while since I had such a vivid dream, at least that I woke up remembering.

Pancakes aren’t exactly a healthy breakfast, but at this point I’m pretty sure I could eat whatever I want -or nothing at all- and be completely fine. So screw it! I’m an adult and can make my own decisions! Even if they are knowingly bad. Which this one is (probably) not.

After doing the usual it’s still a while until I’m supposed to meet the cultivator group. While sunday is selling day, I don’t really have time for that. I hate it when I have too much time for one thing, but too little time to really spend it anything… Well, I can pass the time by creating some more stuff to sell.

I had some inspiration yesterday: Why not make portable barriers? There will be two kinds, an air (sound) barrier, and a mana barrier. The user will need to supply mana, but I think I can make it so that it has different settings for radius. Channel mana here for a small barrier, here for the next size, etc. Should make the air barriers slightly smaller so they can be used with the others.

Those products will need some improvements, but at least I have viable single-setting prototypes. I can use those to gauge interest somewhat. No idea if it’s really valid. I have no idea what I’m doing, and I know full and well that I wouldn’t stand a chance if it wasn’t for my fame (and/or infamy?) and the fact that I have very little competition, being the first to really make this stuff.

On the way to the meeting spot, I check the construction area, and their waste container has a bunch of bent steel rebars again. That means I’ll have to get up early tomorrow; if I’m there in time they won’t have scheduled a truck to pick it up and I can ask to take some.

The entire aikido group arrive at the same time, I guess they all happened to use the same metro line. Jasper is the first to ‘recognize’ me, and greets me with an incredulous “What the heck are you now? Some kinda insect queen?”

The form he refers to is… insect-y, and one of many I’ve tried out while bored. It’s not exactly aesthetically pleasing, though. “Nah, it’s… neither? Pretty sure it doesn’t have any of those parts.”

I revert to the my base female form, the one which he seems somewhat infatuated by. It’s a comfortable form. A bit lighter than my usual form, but I’ve gotten used to it. Besides, it clearly makes Jasper uncomfortable, which is fun to watch. Apparently I’m into that?

Since they can’t use mana they can’t really help me levitating, so getting to the magical forest is a lot slower this time. After all, I would rather not get arrested for manslaughter. Once there, sensei seems to have a plan, so I end up a spectator.

I watch for a little while, but at the fifth repeat of deep breathing followed by some kinda slow movement I figure I’m probably not going to learn anything and head out to find one of those hallucination-bulb plants. Hopefully someone will agree to help in an experiment.

They are pretty spread out, but nothing I can’t pick up with an enhanced nose, so I find one soon enough. I carefully cut the stem near the ground, the separate the leaves and the bulb, and throw the stem away.

I bring out some chemistry test tubes I bought for alchemy and carefully drain the bulb’s liquid into one. I seal it tightly and put it in a small plastic bag, just in case. Next I ground the leaves in a mortar and use some magic to draw out the liquid from them. That goes in another test tube. I dry the leaf-mush with some magic, then mix them with two parts I’d prepared, finishing the salve.

The salve is a bit… crude, but I think it should have the useful effects without the, or at least with reduced side-effects. That effect being seeing mana and affinities/Aspects/elements. Well it might be that it just induces a form of synesthesia where mana perception mixes with sight, but it’s cool and maybe even useful either way.

When I get back they’re still doing the thing, and I only watch one repetition before buggering off to kill some more time. I’ve found out that, while my mana only has a range equivalent to the radius of my mana bubble (fifty meters at most) with a staff, wand, scepter or other directional focus I can push that to something like a hundred meters.

Manipulating the mana bubble like that does mean the range in every other direction becomes abysmal, though. Add to that a self-contained spell, as opposed to a continuously channeled one, and I can make a spell go close to two hundred meters before fully dissolving, though it will rapidly lose power -and efficiency- outside my bubble.

Since they’re doing martial arts stances I kinda wanna do that as well, so I affix the spearhead to the staff and wave it around to warm up. And it is just waving it around, despite the ability I don’t really know what I’m doing. I have practiced enough to have decent control, but my technical skill is pretty bad.

Anyone who actually know what they’re doing could probably defeat me in an instant, but I don’t really intent to fight people, and the physical motion is not the main part of the attack. If I ever use this as a weapon, it will be against monsters, and the power comes more from the sheer versatility and power magic adds. I mean, this is just a magic staff with a spearhead attached.

Mediocre skills and so-so craftsmanship aside, I can do a frightening amount of damage with it, at least on my own puppets. Well, an Earth and Metal based puppet which can’t feel pain and weighs a ton or so. By varying how much I use of each of the two aspects, as well as others, I can make it tough, or more agile, or more -or less- of a lump of clay. In other words, it’s a golem.

Obviously I can’t bisect it or anything if I give it a metal hide over a rock body, but even then I can do damage to it with the spear and some magic. Better to just use magic, really. Hmm, I wonder how the cultivators would do against it? I can hide myself and make it walk up to them, see what they’d do.

Wait, no.

Pause.

This is one of those ‘think twice’ things, isn’t it? I mean, while I might enjoy fighting it, suddenly having what seems like a monster show up… That might be illegal in some way, but even if it’s not, I’m preeetty sure it’s not something people want me to do. Hmm, maybe I should sell golem fighting as a service? There will totally be people interested in a controlled fight/target dummy.

At least I can fight it, but since I control it I know what it will do, which is a bit confusing and not very useful for practicing actual fighting. It serves better as a ‘summoned creature’ or target dummy. Hm, is it possible to make a familiar? I could bet it is, and that someone has made one.

I could use a puppet kinda like a familiar, but it’s not the same thing. Maybe if I let it partially break free? A familiar is supposed to be pretty smart, though. Isn’t it technically supposed to be some spirit or demon or something taking a corporeal form in the mortal plane? Whatever, it’s not like I need one.

Is there any more forms I want to try making… no, I would need more aspects for anything new. I could practice using one of the weird ones…? Meh. I wanna hand-smithing again, dammit. Hah! Sounds like I mean smithing by hand. I guess I could take a quick trip back home to get some metal…

I would need to ask if they’re okay with that, of course. Hmmm… I think I could get away with murder, or just intentionally leaving someone to die (manslaughter?), by bringing someone to the mountains or another remote-ish place. I don’t want to interrupt the group, and it would be a bit of a jerk move to leave them here without asking or even telling them where I went. Even if I came back pretty quickly.

Smithing… I could make a ‘dead’ puppet and use that as material… but that feels so weird. It’s not as bad as having a puppet die or lose connection, but eugh! With it being dead I can’t reabsorb it, either. And I’m pretty sure consuming the metal by superheating it isn’t exactly efficient. Well, not that normally eating is efficient either, given that the body uses some. Also, poop.

Oh-oh-oh! I can do planning! I think I’d want a ranged weapon that works well with magic… A glaive, perhaps. The throwing kind, I don’t need another polearm. Yeah, that would be cool! And with magic it actually makes sense that they return to the thrower or fly in elaborate patterns.

Can’t make it too big, or I can’t carry it. Argh, I want to find out how to do a proper subspace storage, not just the one for shapeshifting! It should be possible; it must be. The one for shapeshifting seems to be full, too. At least it doesn’t seem to fill up any more? Well, it’s not like I need more, so it might be a mental/subconscious thing? Or maybe the [System] influences things?

Sigh.

[Aspect Magic] has too many mental barriers and rely too much on the [System] assist. I don’t think I could do even half of what I do, without that. Simply unequipping the class and ability makes things a lot harder. I mean, that doesn’t make it hard, per se, but-

Ah, #NewWorldProblems. Has someone made that a thing yet?

Uh…

What was I…? Speaking of shapeshifting not being hard, I should probably stop randomly shifting when bored. What am I now? Standard biped with a tail, smaller than normal, furred. Kobold again, huh. A dog-type (as opposed to lizard-type) kobold riding the shoulder of a golem, what a time to be alive.

At least I’ve overcome the ‘size’ mental barrier. Not that I want to become any smaller than I am right now. Don’t want to affect my brain. Or rather, that was the idea, but even if I don’t directly change the brain, my form affects my thinking. Why does it happen to some forms and not others? And why does it fade as I get used to the form, and then come back in a more subtle form?

Well, the latter is because I- Hmm, how to word this… I know what the reason is. I… start to… better… more… live it? Closer? Yes, closer. I become -closer- to the form. Not controlling it, but living it.

“Aaaargh!”

Huh, my kobold voice sounds weird. Why does stupid words not work. Err, of course stupid words don’t work. The problem here is really that I lack the words. Doesn’t make it any less frustrating, though. Well, the world is well underway making up new -or finding old- words to describe all the new things that happens, exists, and can be done since the Upheaval. I just need to wait and/or hasten it.

Oh yeah, glaive! Control it… Gotta admit I think the cool factor is probably higher than the practical use. But with magic, you can actually do fancy stuff with them, as opposed to the very anticlimactic throwing of a small disc which then just kinda falls to the ground. I mean, if you wanna play with frisbees that’s one thing, but…

Actually, what’s stopping me from making a glaive puppet? I can’t make it a very good weapon with shapechanging alone, but it’s not like it can feel pain unless I make it, and nothing stops me from smithing it the normal way. Err, normaler. Aside from that… it needs a mana core and will hurt badly if that breaks, but I’m not gonna use it in actual fight-to-the-death combat, so…

Nothing? Nothing is stopping me, merely hindering. I can deal with hindrances.