I couldn't figure out the memory problem. There probably was a semi-permanent enhancement that could improve your memory, but there wasn't anything like that in the book. Maybe it was just too advanced for me.

Because of that, I had only one thing to do. Asking Glautru for help.

I had asked the soul manifestation, that was standing guard in front of my room, to guide me to Glautru and Hel. It had stood completely still in 20 seconds, and I had been thinking that I somehow broke it, but it luckily started walking back to where we came from.

While walking back, I noticed something. Sometimes when I looked back, there weren't any hallways. There was just a wall.

Probably just a security feature he has. It would make it very hard to find your way around this place. Still, it's pretty weird.

After 10 minutes of walking, we finally arrived. The soul manifestation began standing guard, as always, so I walked into the room.

When I walked in, Hel and Glautru were having, what seemed to be, a heated discussion, while talking in low voices, but they stopped when I walked in. They were sitting at a table you would normally see in meeting rooms.

“Is there something you need?”, Hel asked in a slightly irritated voice. It looked like he was a little angry.

“I just need to ask Glautru about some problems, with shapeshifting, that I am having”, I answer.

“While Shapeshifting isn't my forte, I should be able to answer some basic questions. What problem do you have with it?”, Glautru asked, in a with an almost condescending voice.

And with that, I begin to explain my problem.

“When you want to shapeshift, you have overlay your pattern with another pattern. It seems simple, but therein lies the problem. If you want to overlay your pattern with another pattern, you have to memorize the other pattern completely. The simple pattern like, for example, a claw takes me twenty minutes to memorize completely. Think about how long it would take somebody to memorize the pattern of a human body. I don't think I could even do it without over a month of memorizing. Now, do you think you could help me somehow?”, I ask, stopping my ranting before I began calling people out.

For just a second, Glautru and Hel show surprised looks at my rant, but their surprised looks slowly turn to know ones. Seems like I wasn't the only one with this problem.

After a minute or two, Glautru begins talking.

“Normally, people would just have to go trough painstakingly long hours of memorizing to learn any advanced magic. But, with your talent in shapeshifting, it seems like we have an opportunity in doing something new. Hel, do you still have that big piece of paper that Pratchett gave you”, Glautru says, with a considering face.

“You have to be more specific with that. He gave me a lot of papers”, Hel says, with a smile on his face.

“You know, that neuro enhancer he gave you. The one meant for advanced shapeshifters?”, Glautru asks.

“Oh, that one. Why didn't you say that from the start?”, Hel said while beginning to search some bag he had. And don't ask me where he got it from, because even I don't want to know.

He searched his bag for some time before he finally finished something out of it.

It was a scroll.

When Glautru had said something about a neuro-enhancer, I had thought it would be something I had to put on my head, and I would become a full-fledged genius with it. But it was just a scroll. I couldn't even sense magic coming from it.

Maybe there is some secret magic formula inside?

Hel put it on the table and gestured for me to come over.

“Get over here. You need to be right in front of it to work”, he said, in a playful voice.

I walked over there, with barely holding the excitement inside.

Then Hel began telling what to do.

“Delicately open the scroll. It is really old, and could turn to dust at a moments notice”, he said, with a slightly serious voice.

I slowly opened the scroll, while trying to touch it minimally.

The paper was completely blank. I looked like nothing had ever been written on it.

Is this the right scroll?

I didn't have the chance to ask, as Hel, once more, told me what to do.

“Put your hand in the lower left corner, and try not to move it around too much”, he said, with a hint of seriousness.

I did as asked, and then something happened that I had not seen coming.

The palm that was itchy. It felt as if somebody was slightly scratching the surface of it, and I really wanted to remove it, but I didn't. I did what Hel told me to do and just tried to ignore it.

Luckily it stopped after a while. Then, the paper began to glow slightly, and a pattern began to form. The kind of pattern you would use in Shapeshifting. While I could recognize it was a pattern, I couldn't recognize where it was supposed to be on the body. After all, I was still learning.

“What is that pattern of?”, I ask Hel. He begins to smile when I say that.

“This is the pattern of your brain. Well, your new, and optimized brain, to be exact. While it would be impossible, for you, to completely replace your brain, you only have to replace certain parts of it. There will be a lot of effects that will come from this, and not all of them will instantly be noticeable. Some of them are an Eidetic memory, decreased pain sensations, and increased perception”, he explained, with a smile on his face.

My brain? How is that possible? I only touched it with my hand and not my head. Does it scan the whole body or something?

“How does that work exactly?”, I asked, with a confused voice.

When I asked that, Hel laughed a little.

“If I knew how I would tell you. Nobody can understand how Terry´s works work. It looks like its magic, but it's something else entirely, and nobody has ever even come close to the perfection of his work. It's fascinating really”, Hel explained. Seemed like he was a fan.

He could have just said no to my question, but I'm not judging. He seems like a great guy. Now, to the problem at hand.

“While this pattern would probably help me with the memory problems, I won't be able to do it. It is still simply too advanced for me. While I do have the mana reserves for it, I won't be able to remember all of this”, I said, with disappointment in my voice.

Glautru sighed.

“Seems like he won't be able to do it without help. Hel, could you maybe ´buff´ him out a little?”, Glautru asked.

Hel seemed surprised at being asked that for some reason.

“I you sure I should do that Glautru?”, he said, with what seemed to be nervousness.

“Don't worry. If it comes to it, we could always revive him. The first time is always guaranteed to work. Well, it's like that when its Loco that does it”, Glautru said in a calm voice. Did he just talk about me dying with a calm voice?

Hel sighed when Hel finished talking.

“Fine, but if the worst happens, it's your fault”, he said, as he walked over to me.

He put his hand on my head and began chanting. While I am a little scared, I trust them enough to not needlessly kill me.

After about 2 minutes, he finished chanting, and it hit me instantly.

It felt as if my mind had before been a deep fog where you couldn't even think straight, and now it was as clear as day.

It felt good.

It felt great.

It felt heavenly.

I wanted to just revel in this state of mind, or as I like to call it, bliss.

But, there was one problem. Hel. He seemed to be talking to me, but I wasn't listening at all. I was just enjoying.

You should hear what he has to say. He could remove us from this bliss if he wanted to.

Oh, good point, mister a voice in my head. I slowly began to tune in on what Hel had to say.

“-that's if you are even listening of course. Glautru, maybe I should just shut it off before something really bad happens”, Hel said, with an almost worried voice. Why he was worried, I didn't understand. I was in top condition. I was in an even better condition than I had ever been. Wouldn't want that to change.

You should probably say something right about now.

Good idea.

“Don't worry, I'm fine. I just needed to collect my thoughts”, I said, while trying to show off my smile.

Hel and Glautru made a collective sigh.

“Great that you're okay. Now, if you could begin the shapeshifting process before you lose your mind, that would be great”, Hel said in a vaguely familiar voice.

“Oh, okay. Will get right on that”, I said, while showing a thumbs up.

What was it with shapeshifting I even needed to do?

You need to change the pattern of your brain to match the one on the table.

Well, that seems easy. Let's get right into the shapeshifting!

I looked over at the pattern on the table and memorized in about five seconds.

Now, to the actual shapeshifting. Here I had to actually slowly.

From the pattern on the table, and the pattern of my actual brain, I could perfectly see what to change. While it wasn't that big, it was definitely complex, but I could manage.

Careful now, don't do it all at once, or you may kill yourself mentally due to permanent brain damage. They probably can't fix something like that.

Good idea, voice-in-my-head. Why didn't I think of that?

I started with one single thread. I double checked if it was right, and then replaced it.

It felt as I if I heard a small click in my head when I did that.

Time for some more of those clicks.

A small patch of perfectly made brain matter replaced the older brain matter.

Felt more of those clicks at the same time. While this was better than one click at a time, I could definitely do better than this.

As I became more used to the process, I was able to accomplish the task faster and faster until, with a small jolt, I found there were no more areas that needed to be replaced. That was a good thing, as I had begun feeling a little lightheaded. My mind, losing the single track intensity that had propelled me to this stage, nearly couldn't keep me conscious, and I nearly fell over from the exhaustion that I now felt.

Glautru and Hel, seeing that I was falling, quickly went over to help. Hel holds me up and began to talk to me.

“Hey, are you okay?”, he asked.

“I'm done with the shapeshifting”, I told him.

And then I promptly blacked out.

I woke up feeling like shit.

Have you ever suffer dehydration, combined with losing a whole night's sleep? It's felt a lot like that. Every second, I could feel a pounding in my head. It felt as if somebody was trying to cave my skull in with a Warhammer.

I just want this bloody thing to end. Wait, I have magic! Magic can cure this, somehow!

I open my eyes, and the pounding increase tenfold.

Keep going! It won't end if you don't fix it.

I steadily sit up in the bed, while trying to get the sleep out of my eyes.

“Well, look who's up”, Eros says. His voice makes me jump, losing my balance, and falling out of the bed. This is some sick role reversal.

I was surprised at Eros being here. Thought he would still be unconscious for some time.

“Eros, good to see you. How are you feeling”, I ask him.

“I'm fine. Been awake for a few hours, and it is getting quite boring in here”, he said, with a smile on his face.

I knew he wasn't fine, but I didn't try to talk about it.

“How long was I asleep?”, I asked him.

“About a few hours. Two soul manifestations came in with you, and just tucked you into the bed. Glautru also came over and explained it to me. You should really be careful when using magic”, Eros said, in a kinda serious voice.

“Now that we are talking about magic, seems like you have become a mage. Congrats!”, I said, trying to change the subject.

“Yea, it kinda cool actually. It is a little irritating though. Can't seem to do anything, but make myself glow”, he said.

“That's cool. Can you show me?”, I said in a little-excited voice.

“Sure”, he said, while closing his eyes. He took a deep breath, and then he began to light up. It was a soft golden glow.

“That is cool. The glow matches with your hair”, I said, while staring intently at the light.

We didn't have the time to continue the conversation, as Glautru and Hel walked inside the door.

“Seems like the children have awakened”, Hel said, with a smile.

“It seems so. Jack, how are you feeling”, Glautru asked.

“I feel fine, except for a little headache is having”, I said, with a weak smile.

“That's just the buff running its course. It should stop in no time”, Glautru said, with a little smile.

“So, have your cognitive abilities improved?”, Hel asked, with curious eyes.

That's when I realized it. My cognitive functions had actually improved. I could almost remember everything that had happened these last few minutes perfectly in great detail.

“Yes, they have, actually. Seems like I have near-godlike memory”, I said, in amazement.

“Trust me when I say, you don't have near-godlike memory. You have a good memory, but nothing godlike. Now, I think there was something about you wanting to try out shapeshifting. What are you gonna be doing now?”, Hel asked, with a curious smile.

“Oh, yeah. I am gonna make some semi-permanent enhancements on myself”, I explained to him.

“Oh, that kind of shapeshifting. I have a few of those myself actually. Though, most of them are Satyr based”, he said, with a grin.

“What do you mean by Satyr based? Don't they have the exact biology of humans? What would you get from them?”, I asked, with a confused face.

“Wouldn't you like to know”, he said, while giving me a wink.

Oh. Well, time to go.

“So, I am just gonna work on Shapeshifting, so if you would excuse me”, I said, while walking out of the door.

The soul manifestation guarding the door turned to me as if to ask for my orders.

“Please, show me to my room”, I said.

It walked away, and I followed it.

When I was following the soul manifestation to my room, I began noticing things again. The walls looked like they were crawling. It would never go more than a centimeter out of the wall before going back in, but when it did it constantly, it was very creepy.

Was it always like that, or was I just beginning to notice it more?

The walk to my room took about 15 minutes.

The soul manifestation did what it always did, and stood guard on the outside of my room. I just walked inside.

The room had been cleaned up while I was gone. Wonder who did that. I haven't seen anybody here, so maybe the manifestations? Who knows?

I walked over to the table and sat down.

It's shapeshifting time!

While I knew that my memory had improved a lot, I wanted to test it out. I took out the shapeshifting book and flipped over to the claw that I had used previously.

I tried to memorize it and was amazed at how fast I had memorized it. It took me 30 seconds, and most of that time was using Mana-Feel to fill the pattern out! I quickly tested the pattern out, and it worked perfectly. No problems at all.

Before I started out with the enhancements, I wanted to be extra sure that I was ready for it. This time I was gonna shapeshift my hand into a wolf paw! It was the other beginner pattern, so it couldn't be too advanced.

This time I decided to test out Mana-Sight. While Mana-Feel was safer, it would take too much time to use it on the more advanced patterns.

I cycled the mana to the specific places in my eyes, and I was amazed by the effects of it. Everything changed colors. The air inside the room was silver mixed with white, the table was a dark green, and my pillow was a swirling grey. If I had to guess, the colors represented their own kinds of magic inside them.

Now, let's check out the pattern.

When I looked down at the pattern, I was amazed by the complexity. The paper was white, as always, and the pattern itself was pure black. While I was surprised at how everything looked, I focused myself on memorizing the pattern. With not having to feel it out it would definitely go faster.

I memorized the pattern in a minute. I would have done much faster if I didn't get distracted by all the new colors.

I tried out the pattern, and it was a complete success. My left hand turned into a big wolf paw. It felt a little weird to have a paw, but I guessed that it was the shape difference, and I would probably get used to it.

Now, to some serious shapeshifting.

I turned to the chapter about the semi-permanent enhancements and looked through them. While I wanted all of them, I couldn't do that. Some patterns needed to be in the same place, and others would just not be able to be in the same body. That was the reason that many people focused one taking from one single creature, and not multiple. While I wanted to do that, I could not. The book showed enhancements from a wide variety of creatures and had only one of each. Because of that, I had a limited a selection if I wanted multiple.

After a long time, I finally decided.

I decided on two different enhancements that would help me best.

Number one: A eye enhancement. I am gonna be out in the world again soon, and I would have to see monsters before they see me. Some monsters are adept at hiding like, for example, forest mimics, and if you don't see them, your chances of survival are very small. The eye enhancement from the book transforms the inner part of your eyes to those of a Shoggoth. I don't really know what a Shoggoth is, but they are supposed to have some great eyesight and can see through basic magic-disguises.

Number two: A general body enhancement. As I said before, I'm are gonna be out in the again soon, and the living conditions might not be the best everywhere. I wouldn't want to get sick because of some rain, right before I had to kill something. The general body enhancements from this book change a few things. It changes, for example, your immune system to massively decrease the chances of getting sick. For some reason, it also enhances muscle growth, so that's definitely a plus.

After memorizing the first enhancement´s pattern, I try to shapeshift. After 10 minutes of perfecting it, It works out successfully.

The eye enhancement works wonders, and I begin to notice things I had not noticed before. While before I only thought the walls moved in the hallway, It definitely moved into the room too. While it didn't move as much in here, as in the hallway, in here it looked like it was slowly slithering along. It was honestly creepy to look at.

I decided to just ignore the walls, and begin memorizing the second enhancement. This one was much bigger and even more complex. It would rebuild my body a lot, so it was understandable.

After the memorizing was complete, I began to slowly shapeshift my body.

When I started to get used to changing it, I slowly started to speed up. That was a big mistake. I replaced the nerves in the wrong place and felt a very great pain. Luckily, I fixed it before almost falling unconscious from the pain. I had to slowly start over, which was irritating, but I was not going to try to speed up this time, though. It would be too much of a risk to do it.

The second attempt was a success, and I could immediately feel the effects. It felt as if I was bursting with energy, and that I needed to do a million push-ups to have a chance of even feeling tired. It felt like that for a full 10 seconds before exhaustion hit me.

My mana reserves had nearly been emptied from that little shapeshifting marathon. I needed to get some rest.

I go over to the door and open it.

The soul manifestation is still standing there, guarding the room. It turns to me when I walk out, awaiting my orders.

“Would it be possible for you to bring me some food?”, I ask about it.

It stands still for a few seconds before walking away. I walk inside my room and wait for it to come back.

It takes it about 30 minutes before it comes back. The soul manifestation just walks inside my room, goes over to the table, places a plate with food, and promptly walks out.

I sit down at the table and eat the food. It was a few small pieces of meat with some baked potatoes on the side. Tasted good, but needed some salt.

After eating, I went over to my bed. I emptied my mana reserves and promptly fell unconscious.

I wonder what's gonna happen tomorrow.