I’ve been a magitrucker for all my life. It was my first job and one that I take pride in. Making my way down the long road at around 500 mph I watch the world blur as it goes by. It used to be illegal for us magitruckers to go this fast on the highway, animals would explode as we go by from the magic that propelled the trucks forward. The kingdom was sick of constantly getting complaints about how corpse-ey their highways were. So the king had enchanted fences brought up along the highway to try and keep the animals out. It helped, but I still had to clean some splattered dire wolf guts off the front of my truck every now and then. The wide array of screens and dials set out in front of me allow me to control my custom magitruck. The early days of magitrucking truckers like me had to make do with speeds under 250 mph, I cant believe how slow we had to go in those days. I shake my head just remembering how I could actually see the scenery pass without my enchanted goggles. The new inventions from the Waygrand kingdom have significantly increased the efficiency of the magitrucking business. They were the ones who invented the Grav-Shield. Without it us truckers would have to travel at low speeds to dodge obstacles and to avoid getting crushed by the force. Now, we can just plow straight through. It is so much easier.

I had grown my company from just me with my truck ‘Maybell’ to a huge powerhouse spanning multiple kingdoms. We had contracts to haul all sorts of things, from weaponry to large machinery. I ran the company for thirty years, just recently I gave my son the head seat of the company. I wasn’t exactly retired, I took a contract every now and then. Just to get back in Maybell and hit the open road again. At the moment I was about two days away from the Kingdom of Frevelia. I don’t usually make deliveries to the dwarves, but I had recently come into a large amount of a special ore that apparently no one could identify and they were extremely interested. I looked through the windows at the blurring countryside and forests as they sped by over the fence. Reaching an arm up I flip a switch on my goggles and they whirred to life as mana flowed through them. Activating the delicate circuitry held within. My vision gained a light blue tinge for a second before clearing up. The goggles enhanced the eyes and gave a temporary boost to the brain so that the user could process the information now being delivered through their eyes.

What was a blur was now just as clear as if I was jogging through. There was something off about the fence. I remember a while back before the fence went up, the mages guild were protesting the fence because of something called oversaturation. They were complaining that if you had that many magical devices arranged like that then the mana released by them would gather along the area. Such a chaotic force as mana gathering like that could only cause trouble. No one knows what that could cause, but they were ignored due to lack of evidence and because the king couldn’t be bothered to care.

With my goggles whirring on my face and improving my vision I could tell something was going on with the fence. There was a sort of blue aura around the fence, which was pretty normal, but the weird thing was that the aura was being pulled upwards. I could see trails of blue smoke-like tendrils being siphoned off and flying straight up into a cloud above. The cloud was heavy and dark, but it had a distinct blue coloration to it. ‘Seems like it will rain soon’ was the thought going through my head.

Right until I noticed the cloud wasn’t moving. Well, to my perspective it wasn’t moving. But that means that it was following me. With every slight turn I made on the road that cloud was still in the same position in the window. The mana from the fence still being pulled towards it.

*boom*

I jumped in my seat. ‘Damn that scared me, I guess it is going to rain’.

*boom*

*boom*

‘Okay….thats weird.’ I thought to myself, keeping an eye on both the road and the cloud.

*boooom*

*booooom*

The cloud’s shape started to change and warp with every explosion.

*Boom*

*Boom*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOOOOM!!!!!*

The truck lurched to the left as the cloud shot towards me out of nowhere. It hit my truck and I fought for control, but I knew at these speeds that I couldn’t do anything. So I just buckled myself in and hit the eject button. A safety bar shot down over me. I heard a series of clicks and all of a sudden, I wasn’t in my truck anymore. A light blue shield surrounded me, protecting me from outside force. I could see my truck smash and flip around, scraping up the highway crushing several fences as it careened off the road. It took running into a cliff to finally stop my truck. After the ejector lowered me to the ground I followed the destruction till I found my truck.

The cockpit was completely smushed, except for the magitech engine which was protected by the same blue shield that kept me safe. Which is good, a magitech explosion is something no one wants to be responsible for. It would taint the mana in the area and they would charge me for the mana cleanup.

I shook my head as I went over the damage. The reinforced wheels were all crushed and the trailer was almost completely folded in half. Which was weird, from what I could see the trailer had only scraped along the ground. I got closer to inspect the damage and I realized I was looking at my cargo. There was a huge hole right in the side. Some of the softly glowing ore was leaking out. I look up at the sky and the cloud is gone. Reaching up I realize I left my glasses on.

‘SHIT’

I try to pull them off but they wont budge, I didn’t even notice the mana being pulled out of me until now. Without the supply of mana from the truck the goggles were drawing it directly from my body. Which isn’t a problem for adventurers, however I’m a trucker. A civilian. I barely have enough mana to light my stove at home.

I remembered to switch just in time to pass out from mana exhaustion. As my vision faded the only thought going through my head was

‘didn’t I have more ore than that when I left?’

_______

I felt something pulling me, dragging my body along. I mentally check my body and everything feels okay for the moment. I could still feel the ring around my neck although it wasn’t hot anymore. I could feel some weird warmth in my body now. It seems centered in the middle of my body. This was weird but it felt kind of good having that feeling there. It seemed to radiate something that made me feel energetic. I try to remember what happened.

I remember getting hit with something and falling into the stone ring. After that all I can remember are short moments.

I see the stone rings spinning around me.

I felt an immense pressure and felt like I was shot through a cannon and went through a wall.

Something happened to my body, like I was being bathed in two different types of energy.

I pushed the thoughts to the back of my head, I was being pulled by something and I wanted to make sure it didn’t want me for lunch.

I opened my eyes and noticed two things.

I was in my original form. A flat squid-thing with thin tentacles. The creature pulling me was a wolf the size of a large Dobermann

Killing it wouldn’t be too hard though, luckily for me it already has some of my tentacles in its mouth.

I just grow them until it cant breathe and wait. After it finally stops squirming I start absorbing it. As soon as the body shrivels and disappears a message pops up in front of my face.

Dire Wolf absorbed

+25 biomass

Unlocked Dire wolf Transformation assistance