I woke up with an incredible pain. It felt as if my stomach was trying to implode itself. I needed to find some food. This seemed to be the sole driving force behind my existence, my body’s single quest and purpose.

I hurry out of the bed and race towards the door with an amazing speed that I didn't think myself capable of. I open the door just before slamming into it, but still manage to trip, and fall on my face in the hallway.

The soul manifestation looks down at me, looking as if it's silently judging me.

I remember the pain when my stomach aches loudly. It's craving for any sort of sustenance.

I look up at the soul manifestation.

“Bring me the biggest platter of food that you are allowed to give me, and bring it fast”, I order it, with visible pain showing on my face. It felt as if my stomach was eating itself now.

The soul manifestation nods at me and begins running down the hallway.

I walk back into my room and wait for it.

After five minutes of waiting, the pain becomes worse, and my breathing begins to be rapid and shallow breaths.

I need to relax, or I'm going to go into shock soon.

I close my eyes and try to turn off any distractions there is. I try to take deep breaths and relax my whole body. Its work slightly, but the pain is still there.

After five more minutes of waiting, the soul manifestation finally comes back. It opens the door and brings in a giant platter of food. I don't even say anything to the manifestation, before beginning to shovel food into my mouth. Most of the time, I don't even chew it, and just swallow it whole.

After I ate almost everything on the platter, the beast that is my stomach is finally full.

This whole time, the soul manifestation had been standing at my side, while waiting for me to finish. It took the platter when I stopped eating and silently walked out the door.

Now, what to do? I don't really want to try out more Shapeshifting right now, so let's check out some Primal magic.

I took out the primal magic book and began looking trough. I couldn't understand many new things, so I decided to just upgrade every spell I have.

The weak elemental spells become normal elemental spells, the normal elemental spells become greater elemental spells, the minor enhancement spells become normal enhancement spells.

Time to test them out!

While I couldn't test the elemental spells out because of the damage it might do, I decided to only do the enhancement spells.

I started with the strength enhancement. When I tested it on myself, I could feel the tingling feeling a lot more than last time, but it was still something you could get used to easily. The strength gave me increased, by my estimations, almost twofold. Sadly, its duration the not increase in any way.

The next one, that I tested out, was the speed enhancement. Like the strength enhancement, when I tested it on myself, I could feel the tingling feeling a lot more than last time, but it was still something you could get used to easily. The speed enhancement´s strength did not increase in the slightest, but its duration increased by about 5 minutes.

Now, to the final spell for the day. General enhancement. When I tested it on myself, I immediately decided on not using it on myself. The tingling sensation that you felt when you used this enhancement increased twofold. It felt like a thousand bugs slowly crawling up your body. I even felt it in my mouth. As I said, this was not a spell that I was gonna be using on myself. Now, for the results. When the tingling finally stopped, it felt as if I was full of energy. For testing's sake, I tried punching one of the walls. It didn't hurt one bit. My skin had hardened so much, that I couldn't cut myself with papercuts. While I wanted to see if it could withstand a knife, I didn't have one on me. I couldn't use claws either, as they also became enhanced when I used the spell. Now, for the after effects. The weaker general enhancement spell gave you a surge of tiredness when its effects wore off. This one didn't, so that's a definitive upgrade.

Well, that's it for testing. What to do now?

As I thought about what to do, I heard a knock on the door.

“Come in”, I shouted to whoever was outside.

A soul manifestation comes in carrying a letter. He handed it to me and then walked out.

I opened the letter and saw that it was from Hel.

Dear Jack

Today we are having a shared breakfast in the meeting room.

We would enjoy it very much if you would attend.

From Hel.

Ps. There are pancakes.

While I had already eaten breakfast, I was kinda bored, so I decided to go. Plus, there were pancakes, so I kinda had to go.

I walk out the door, and into the hallway. The soul manifestation is standing guard, and when he notices me, looks over at me, awaiting orders.

“Show me to the meeting room, please”, I order it.

The manifestation begins walking, and I follow.

The walk to the meeting room only takes about 10 minutes.

I walk in and find everybody eating breakfast. Nobody is talking, so I just sit down at the table. There isn't that wide of an assortment of food on the table. There's are eggs prepared in different ways, something that looks like bacon, and a lot of pancakes.

I take a bit of each thing and begin eating.

It's only when everybody finishes eating, that anybody begins talking.

“So”, Hel says. “How did the enhancements go?”

“They went fine. Although, I was really hungry when I woke up today. Felt as if I had starved myself for months”, I said.

“That makes sense. When shapeshifting, your body uses a lot of energy to keep up with it. The bigger the shapeshifting, the bigger supply of energy your needs. From what I can tell, you have enhanced your eyes and a big part of your inner body. It would take a massive amount of energy to do that. That's the reason that some shapeshifters carry a lot of bags with food. They need to eat a lot more than normal”, Hel explained.

Well, that explains the hunger.

“So, Eros. How has the magic been going”, I ask Eros, with a curious voice.

Before Eros even had a chance to answer, Glautru did it for him.

“Give it a day or two, and he should be able to cast his first spell. While his mana reserves talent is quite high, it doesn't come anywhere near yours”, Glauture explains.

Eros looked a bit annoyed at Glautru, but he didn't say anything. Neither did I.

Hel snorted and began to talk.

“Glautru, you should really-”, Hel said, stopping mid-sentence. He looked to his right for a few seconds, before looking back at us.

“It seems that I have some matters to attend to. Looks like we have some unintended guest”, he said, and with that, he disappeared.

After a couple seconds of silence, Glautru coughed while beginning to stand up.

“´Cough´ You should both go to your room, and pack your belongings. It seems like we won't be here for much longer”, He explained, and then walked out the door.

Eros And I looked at each other for a second, before doing as he said. While we wanted to talk some more, we didn't Glautru.

We did not want to meet these unintended guests.

I followed the manifestation back to my room and began to pack my things. I didn't have that much, so it went quite fast.

Now, time to wait for the call.

And with that, I began waiting.

It couldn't take that long before we were supposed to go.

It did take long before we were supposed to go.

It was late afternoon before I finally got a knock on the door.

“Come in”, I said.

A manifestation came in with a letter.

It was from Glautru.

Get over to the Teleportation Room now.

Bring your belongings.

Glautru

I hurried to take my bag over the shoulder, and walk out the door.

“To the teleportation room”, I said to the manifestation.

It walked, and I followed.

The walk took about 10 minutes.

When I arrived at the room, the manifestation did not begin to stand guard. It just vanished.

I walked into the room. Glautru and Eros were already there.

Glautru noticed me first.

“Ah, good yours here. Go stand in the circle over there where Eros is standing”, he said, while pointing at where Eros was standing.

I walked over there and looked over at Glautru again.

He chanted a few words, and the circle began glowing.

“Now that the teleporter is charging up, I should explain why you need to get away from here. Some plane-traveling monster has found this place, and Hel needs my help to get rid of them. Because of that, I will be staying here.”, he explained.

Eros put his hand up, hoping he could ask a question.

“Yes, Eros. What is it?”, Glautru asked.

“Glautru, how will I learn light magic if I don't have any spells?”, Eros asked.

“Oh, I forgot about that”, he said, while beginning to search his bag. After a few seconds of searching, he finally found something.

“Here you go. That should last a year or two”, he said, while handing Eros a book.

“Thanks”, Eros said. Seemed like he was occupied with staring at the book.

“Your welcome. Now, are you ready to be teleported?”, he asked us.

After we both nodded.

“Good. Cause... here... we... go!”, and with that, we were teleported.

When we were about to be teleported, I expected something to happen. Maybe a few cool flashing lights. But, sadly, it was instantaneous. I did lose my balance and fall on my ass, though.

After getting up, I look around. We landed in the middle of a dirt road in the middle of a forest. It was late afternoon.

We were located on a hill, so I looked around to see if I could see any city lights in the distance. I couldn't.

That when I realized something. It was late afternoon, so it should have been dark. But it wasn't. It was as bright as in the middle of the day. Those eye enhancements really worked.

“Looks like we are in the middle of nowhere”, I said to Eros.

“Seems so”, Eros said. Seems like he made the same observation as I did.

I looked around again, but couldn't see anything man-made, except the dirt road. Well, we had two ways to go.

“Any idea on which way to go?”, I ask Eros.

He just shrugs.

Well, then I have to choose. I choose a direction and began walking.

While walking I begin thinking about a certain song.

On the road again -

Just can't wait to get on the road again

The life I love is making magic with my friends.