A telling silence creeps over the hideout as the captives nervously keep their heads down. Meredith sniffles loudly as she desperately tries to hold back her tears, breaking the silence.

[You can get back to what you were doing now. Except for you, Eva, I have something I need you to do.]

Jellal lets the group rise before pulling Evangeline aside. The mission he gives her is incredibly simple: take Meredith to his room and help her fall asleep. Why did he ask Evangeline specifically? Since the two of them are both immature she’ll likely be more comfortable around her. Even though she’s lazy she’s still a powerful vampire that most of the captives would think twice before crossing. With her acting as a bodyguard there should be nothing to worry about.

Just to be safe he convinces Sif to join them as well. He may not be clear on how strong Sif is, but he does know that its intelligence isn’t to be underestimated. The fluffy Sif can also be used to calm Meredith down as well sating Evangeline’s desire to get close to it, killing three birds with one stone.

Evangeline playfully runs up to Meredith, grabbing her by the hands. Sif saddles up alongside her brushing past her legs. The pair skillfully distracts her from what just occurred while leading her away from the dining hall.

Watching the trio fade from sight Jellal also takes his leave back to the living quarters to train. A little over an hour later he walks to his room while taking a break from training. Inside Evangeline is using Meredith as a hugging pillow while Sif lies at the foot of the bed. As he enters the room Sif lifts its head looking over cautiously. Confirming there isn’t an intruder it sets its head back down and closes its eyes.

Jellal goes over to his backpack which is propped next to a wall at the foot of the bed. He pulls out the item bag he’d left inside before making a b-line for the treasure room. Upon arriving he finds his marker to continue searching where he left off.

With his second round of searching complete he estimates that he’s made it a quarter of the way through the room. His trip this time netted him a pair of baggy black pants that are only a little too big for him but still usable. He puts the pants, cloak, and gloves in the bag while leaving the junk on a crate to act as a marker before returning to the living quarters.

He makes a trip to the treasure room every other hour during his breaks from practice. Instead of going on every break like he had originally planned he made the trip on every other break. The time he gained was used to investigate the item bag’s space magic and play with magic to try to make it impossible to see his face when he’s wearing the cloak.

With a little inspiration from the shadow wolf he had fought previously he manages to make some decent headway in hiding his visage. Through his discoveries he’s hypothesized he won’t be able to achieve the desired effect with just shadow magic so his next step is going to be to mix in another kind of magic. The obvious choice is to use light magic to stop light from entering the hood but he quickly discovered he has a nearly nonexistent affinity for light magic.

His forays into space magic were helped along by the existence of the item bag. Even though he had made some minor progress he was completely stumped in his quest to find out how the item bag actually functioned. He had a general idea as to how the space magic worked but he was clueless as to how the bag etches it into the gem, or how the gem is able to a separate space within it. His dream of making a piece of jewelry imbued with space magic so he won’t have to carry around a bunch of lame bags seems more and more like a longshot as he researches.

His adventure with the item bag gives him an idea that’s just crazy enough to work. If he can use space magic to create a layer of space filled with darkness between the front of the hood and the outside world it should be possible to completely hide his visage.

As the wheels in his head turn he decides to finally check his status again to see if there’s anything new that could be useful in his experiments. Due to how easily he had been having it he didn’t bother to check his status. Thinking about it again, he has to admit willingly giving up on an advantage like that, even if only temporarily, isn’t among the brightest ideas he’s had.

‘I’ve faced some pretty tough enemies since the last time I checked so it should’ve changed a lot. Now that I think about it I don’t know what the average monster’s status looks like. Last time I ended up with Sawsmanship which seems like it was only meant to mock me, this time I hope I find something good.’ [status open]

Name: Jellal

Race: Goblin

Gender: M

Age: 0

Level: 36

HP: 1125/1125

DEF: 116

STR: 196

AGI: 249

MP: 790/790

MGD: 116

MGA: 99

Points Available: 108

Skills: Adaptability; Magic Eyes; Superhuman Strength; Magic Perception; Danger Perception; Concealment; Parallel Thinking; Sawsmanship; Battle Born; Berserk; Magic Manipulation; Healthy Body; Regeneration; Magic Synchronization; Agile Movement; Iron Flesh; Mercy;

Special: Named Monster; Heart of Darkness

‘I knew that bastard scum loving mutt of a con artist is messing with me! I could accept it as a coincidence that Sawsmanship showed up but why the hell is there a marked out mercy on my skills list? And what is with the special: Heart of Darkness? That fuckboy is planning something, I know it! First he reincarnates me as a goblin. Then the forest I’m in just so happens to be where the miasma is rearing its ugly head. Now there’s this Heart of Darkness nonsense as well. You can’t fool me you son of a bitch, I’m on to you!

Putting the potential tampering aside, how should I invest my points? I’ve let them stack up quite a bit so it should be enough to give a significant boost in whatever I add it to. I haven’t found any reason to increase my health so I can strike that from the list right away. If I don’t get hit I don’t need to worry about how high my defense is so those categories can get lost for all I care. I haven’t had any trouble with mana and how effective magic is can be greatly affected by how it’s used so increasing my magic abilities is also unnecessary.

That just leaves the good old physical attributes. Being stronger wouldn’t hurt. I would probably have to go through a minor adjustment period to get used to it but it shouldn’t be a big deal. Strength and agility go hand in hand with one another. If I have a ton of strength I may be able to run fast but a lot of good that does if I can only go in a straight line when I’m not walking. Being super agile also doesn’t mean much if I’m unable to utilize it to its fullest potential.

If I leave behind forty or so points it should be enough to give me a boost in one area if I really end up needing it. With the points I don’t set aside I suppose I’ll do the same as I did the first time and bring them up till they’re about even. The main problem with focusing physical abilities is whether or not my weapon can handle the strain. Using magic to shield it can only go so far since that’s not its specialty, but if I can figure out aura that would perfectly solve any potential problems I may run into in the future.

The real problem is finding someone to mooch an aura lesson off of. My perception wasn’t as good as it is now when I thrashed the bandit leader so I wasn’t able to figure it out. Hmm, I bet that geezer knows a thing or two about aura. I guess that’s just another reason to speed up my trip to the city.’

After cooling his head he returned to his cycle of training, searching the treasure room, and investigating various things. He continued the cycle all the way until Meredith came to get him for dinner.

Even though Meredith had time to calm down after everything that happened she still refused to go anywhere without her new best fried Sif by her side. Her usual bright demeanor seems to have gone missing after being betrayed by people who were in the same situation as her.

Throughout dinner her demeanor had a surprising impact on the atmosphere. There was no friendly banter. The usual lively atmosphere was replaced with a solemn quiet. Jellal may not like seeing so Meredith down and unlike her usual self but he personally quite enjoyed being able to eat a meal in peace and quiet.

Rather than return to his training immediately following dinner he made a quick pit stop to the treasure room. Moving about in the areas he already searched he did a quick scan of the contents in each pile before moving on. Halfway through the room he finally finds what he’s been looking for.

In an inconspicuous crate there’s a litany of dresses of all different shapes and sizes. If he were to hazard a guess he would put his money on it being a shipment to a clothing store that specializes in women’s clothes that the bandits ran off with.

Digging through the dresses he finds a white frilly dress with a pink ribbon sewn around the waist. Eyeballing it the dress looks to be bout the right size for a little girl of around eight making it the perfect size for Meredith.

Taking the dress with him he continues looking through the surrounding bags. His scouring pays off when he comes across a cloth doll stuffed in amongst an assortment of cloth and cotton. The bag also contains some yarn, needles, and thread likely tracing its origins back to someone with a hobby of making dolls.

The quality of the doll isn’t great. One of its button eyes hangs slightly loose matching a smile that’s coming loose at the seams. The yellow yarn hair is slightly dirty giving it a used appearance. The stitch job repairing a tear on its leg shows how it’s seen better days but it’s still better than nothing.

With the dress and doll in hand he leaves the treasure room and makes his way over to his room. He lays them out on her half of the bed, leaving the doll sitting up on top of the dress. After dropping them off he returns to the living quarters to resume his training.

A few minutes into his practice a smile floats to his face. His ability to control wind mana and magic has reached a high enough level that he can prepare magic in less than a second if need be.

Compared to a well-crafted magic it might pale in comparison, but being able to have it ready so fast is a major merit. It’s not like he has to use it the moment it’s ready, after all. If he can form the base structure in less than a second the rest of the time before he needs to use it can be used to improve its quality. In this way he can strike a good balance of quality and speed.

Since he’s reached his minimum standard for wind he can finally focus on other things. Focusing on shadow or space magic would be the most beneficial for the short term so they’re at the top of his list of things to focus on. Regardless of how annoying his status is he did draw a bit of inspiration from it. Rather than just looking into shadow magic it’s logical for there to be some sort of darkness magic as well, and if his status is anything to go by he should be exceptionally gifted at it.

His main concern with darkness magic is the dubious nature of his status. When he thinks of the things he’s gone through up until now he can’t help but think of it as a trap. His urge to research is locked in a battle with his paranoid nature leaving him at a loss for what to do.

‘That settles it. When in doubt ask somebody who knows the answer. Even if I don’t know someone that for sure knows about darkness, I do know a magician who should know a lot of things with regards to magic. I would be a fool not to use a resource so readily available to me. Putting darkness on the backburner until I feel like wasting time to ask Kira, I guess I’ll start with space magic. The ability to create separate spaces is already good, but if I can parlay that into some form of teleportation it would be more useful than ducking into and controlling shadows. Though on second thought, if I was able to move through shadows I would be able to enter town without too much trouble.’

Unable to make up his mind he started experimenting with both types. With the difficulty and time it takes to sense space magic he decides to once again put it on the back burner. This time he decides to focus on shadow magic until he can enter and leave the shadows at will, when he’s able to do that he’ll be able to switch over to space magic without hesitation.

He starts by sensing the mana. Next is getting his mana to match and resonate with the surrounding mana. No matter how he tries he’s unable to forcibly enter the shadows. He racks his brain trying to figure out what he’s doing wrong. Thinking back to his fight with the shadow wolf as a reference he remembers using his Magic Eyes to see the mana and where the wolf was hiding.

Focusing his mana to his eyes he can feel a slight heat on his eyes as the world starts to change. Vivid color permeates the world flowing through each other and mixing seamlessly. The scene is beautifully chaotic, yet balanced and stable. As he watches the various types of mana dance about intertwining and separating he becomes mesmerized.

‘How can so many different types of mana stay in harmony without clashing? Their properties should be different causing them to come in conflict with one another as they move through the same area, yet it doesn’t happen. Why? What am I missing? If they were all the same type of mana I would understand, but they’re not.

Wait! Maybe I’m looking at it from the wrong perspective. I’ve only been paying attention to how their different. So, what if I look at how they’re all the same. No, I can’t just focus on how they’re the same. If I did that I would be doing basically the same thing I’ve been doing.

I should look at it as if I know nothing about them then apply what I know after wards. So what do I see if I take away my previous knowledge? Harmony. Balance. They don’t oppose each other regardless of color or quantity. Hmm, they aren’t separate entities but small parts of a larger whole.

I see! I’ve been thinking about how different elements oppose one another but I’ve completely neglected their other interactions. If I look at fire mana as raw heat rather than fire then it makes much more sense. Heat is everywhere, rather than a physical thing it’s closer to a concept. Everything down to the smallest particle has some form of heat whether it’s from itself or an external source.

Different types of mana weave through each other, merge, and separate as if they’re all tiny pieces of one giant whole. I guess they’re like atoms that make up everything, except for them they make up mana. So in the end all mana regardless of type is just that, mana.

When I put it that way it makes a lot more sense to be able to synchronize and resonate with mana to control it. A person’s affinity should be related to how easily their mana blends with different types of mana to fit in with the greater whole rather than their ability to control it. Being able to manipulate it should be more like leading those that have become connected as a part of the same whole rather than truly bending it to ones will.’

Sitting motionless in the depths of the living quarters Jellal reaches a state of enlightenment. His eyes glow vibrantly as the mana around him surges. As he breathes the mana in the surroundings expands and retracts along with him becoming one living breathing entity.

Jellal lets go of his mana letting it flow freely and join the larger world. As his mana merges and passes through the mana surrounding him the opposite is also true. The surrounding mana, no longer forcibly blocked from entering his body, flows gently through him as if he didn’t exist.

Jellal grits his teeth as the massive flood of mana permeates his very being. Even if the mana is willing it doesn’t mean his body is accustomed to it. He realizes he can’t just let his mana become one with the greater whole but he himself must do so as well.

Closing his eyes he forces his body to stop resisting the mana. Cracking noises can be heard coming from his grit teeth as his nails dig into the palms of his clenched fist. His body slowly changes as his trademark adaptability works its magic. While adapting he feels the pain of being thrown into an exploding sun as his body is forcibly remade.