The stew was good, and it gave Mash an opportunity to test his new affinity. He had a bowl of the stew in one of his hands and tried to focus on how hot it was. It was weird, but his new affinity gave him a better feeling for the temperature around him. He could also notice smaller changes in the temperature of the stew. As expected, it was dropping fairly quickly from the cold air outside. He wanted to raise the heat of just the stew. With a little help from Priscilla, he was surprised by how easy it was to change the temperature of something in his hand. His body was the source of the changes, it didn’t look like he could do it remotely.

The magic had to originate from his body. Thinking about it, he realized that all of his magic worked like that. It all originated from his body, but it didn’t need to be like that. He decided it was probably for the best considering how he typically fought. His transformations naturally turned him into a close-range fighter, so he never really needed to cast magic from a huge distance. His fighting style wasn’t likely to change, so learning a new way to use his magic wasn’t really that important.

The others had started eating the food, and Mash had received a fair bit of judgment for his decision with the egg. Red was telling him how eggs like that were usually valuable to beast tamers, or even just to raise a monster companion for battle. That was the typical use for monster eggs, but they all knew what he had planned even before he purchased it. Mash didn’t care for the time and effort involved in raising a monster for battle. It was not worth the time or effort in his mind. He gained what the monster would be able to do with a lot less work. Plus, he trusted himself and, to an extent, Priscilla more than he would a random monster. Even if the monster had comparable intelligence to Priscilla, he doubted it would be able to foster the same mental connection.

He noticed that some of the others were obviously feeling cold, and their food was probably turning similarly chilly. Realizing that he could help out, he warmed the space within his domain. Everyone was inside, though those closest to him felt the heat first. The snow melted around him and spread until an almost perfect circle formed around the group. The air was also warmer too. Jill was the closest to him, and she turned to him when the wave of heat struck her. She watched as the snow melted around her.

It was easy to track the movement of the heat, as the snow melted as it rolled over the ground. Mash was surprised at how efficient the magic was. Even raising and maintaining the temperature was rather easy. It wasn’t like he was trying to make it so hot that it burned anything, but he still expected it to use more energy. Especially with the otherwise freezing temperature of the place. Maybe the magic was just very efficient, but he could probably maintain this for hours if needed.

Actually, he could probably do it indefinitely by making some imitations of Priscilla that would use the magic instead. His treant form let him make wooden imitations that would generate their own mana. He tried exactly that. First, he partially transformed his hand to become like the treant form, and then he proceeded to make a few imitations from them.

[Can you maintain the temperature?]

He probed Priscilla as she would be the one to micromanage the imitations. There was a lot more involved in his question, but he didn’t need to send complex messages to get his ideas across. It was one of the advantages of having her in his mind.

[Yes, but if you want it continuously, you will need at least ten imitations.]

Her response was along the lines of what he expected. She planned to set up a rotation so that the imitations would have time to recover their energy. It was a good idea, and he had enough energy to make the imitations. It did use a lot of energy, but he managed to make the imitations. Once he felt their magic fill the space, he dropped his own. It grew a little colder around him, but it was definitely still warm.

“Did you just get a fire attunement?”

Red’s question surprised him a little. He wasn’t really paying attention to the others and had just been focused on exploring his new magic. Shaking his head, he responded promptly.

“No, it’s heat and cold. Not the same thing apparently. At least that was what Priscilla said.”

Red nodded and shared some more information.

“Yeah, it is something cooks would get. But how did you control the temperature so well? As far as I know, it should take months of training to control the range and temperature so accurately.”

Mash just shrugged his shoulders; he didn’t really know how to respond to that. What was he supposed to say anyway? That it wasn’t difficult, and he could just kind of watch what he was doing with his domain. It sounded like something arrogant, and he thought that it was mostly Priscilla’s influence. In his mind, he could feel Priscilla protest.

[It is not, you simply have a talent for magic. I expect you would’ve made a good mage had you gone in that direction.]

Another comment he didn’t really respond to. He was happy with the direction of his class and didn’t think he would change it even given the chance. The way he fought was thrilling and just plain fun. He couldn’t imagine standing in the back and using magic while being protected. Mages were also about preparation and patience. He wasn’t very good at that kind of thing either. It was probably something he should get better at, but he had other things he could do to improve himself. Like gaining new magic that would help cover his weaknesses. Although the heat wasn’t really one of those affinities. It didn’t really cover any of his weaknesses, but it would provide another avenue for attack.

“Is there a trick to it? I can’t really do anything fancy with my magic.”

Jill looked hopeful as she looked at Mash. She was probably hoping that there was a trick he was using. He shook his head and saw her excitement dwindle. Well, he couldn’t magically change reality and he didn’t have her affinities either way. He said as much too.

“No, but I also don’t know what your magic is even like. I bet it’s more complicated than what I’m doing.”

“We could test it, right? I mean if you eat my hair or something, wouldn’t you gain my affinity?”

Jill asked the question, that he had been avoiding. Although he hadn’t been considering something mundane like hair. His mind had gone to eating someone, another human being. That just felt wrong, and he still didn’t want to do it. Honestly, he didn’t really want to even think about the idea. Reluctantly, he replied truthfully.

“I don’t know, but like, I don’t want to eat people.”

Jill was fast with her retort though. It seemed like she wanted him to test the theory. She didn’t care about sharing her magic with him, and he could see that everyone was watching with curiosity.

“We could at least test it. And you ate the demons before, right?”

She cut some hair as she spoke and handed it to Mash. The idea of just eating a person’s hair was kind of nasty. However, Jill’s hair had changed from her advancements. It was always unnaturally perfect. Even after she had cut a little, it looked unchanged. The cut hair shone faintly with a golden light, and Mash reluctantly grabbed a single strand. The amount shouldn’t matter for gaining the affinity. He didn’t know if quantity had a correlation with strength, but it didn’t seem like it did. Frowning, he put the piece of hair in his mouth and swallowed it with a mouthful of water. It felt bad, but it wasn’t the worst thing he had ever eaten.

Nothing happened, and he sighed in relief. He responded quickly, not needing Priscilla’s confirmation. There had been no change, not even in his stats and he knew that it didn’t work.

“Nothing. I didn’t get a thing. “

He was cut short as both Jill and Priscilla suggested something else.

[You should’ve gained stats even if you didn’t gain an affinity. You need to try eating something else.]

“Well, I didn’t really think hair would work. You probably need skin or something.”

Mash hated that they were in sync. He secretly knew that something was up when his stats hadn’t changed, but he had been ignoring that detail. It didn’t escape Priscilla’s notice, and it seemed like Jill just wanted to press the subject. She seemed eager, and Mash knew why. If he could siphon skills or affinities from people, then there were a lot of new avenues for power. It was a moral dilemma and one that would be considered taboo or illegal. Jill didn’t seem to care, and neither did the others for that matter. The only other person that looked uncomfortable with the idea was Sarah.

“Luke, even you? Do you really think this is a good idea?”

His shoulders raised and fell.

“Not really that big a deal. I can easily restore whatever you do. And it would be good, though you should probably start with me. It would be nice to have someone else who can heal.”

Mash almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Luke was supposed to be the most morally grounded of them. Was it really not that bad? Was he just overthinking it? With how nonchalant the others were being it certainly seemed like he was being needlessly concerned. Why did he care anyway? He wasn’t a human anymore. He really didn’t think so, but he couldn’t help but doubt himself. Luke’s agreement with Jill really shook what Mash thought. With great hesitation, he agreed.

“Fine, we can try it.”

The words felt wrong even as he said them. They made him feel kind of disgusting, but he would at least give it a shot. It couldn’t be that bad right? With the words spoken, Luke walked over. He rolled up one of his sleeves. It was warm enough now that he wouldn’t be bothered by the cold. Was he planning on letting Mash just take a bite out of it? Nope, that was not something he was willing to do.

“Nope. If I’m doing this, just cut off a bit of skin from your hand or something.”

Luke didn’t say anything but opened his storage and grabbed a knife. Without any hesitation, he cut off a small piece of skin from his thumb. He healed it after and handed Mash the piece of skin. Mash’s hands shook a little as he grabbed the piece. It was softer than Mash’s own skin. He stopped thinking about it that way. That would only make the situation worse. Without thinking about it he popped the small piece in his mouth and tried to swallow it like a pill. Instead, he was overwhelmed with disgust, and couldn’t bring himself to swallow. The piece of flesh felt like any other piece of meat in his mouth. However, he was disgusted by the mere thought of it, resting on his tongue.

He knew he was going to vomit. Trying to stop it, he used magic to fill his mouth with water and pushed the piece of flesh down his throat. It was a forceful method, but it got the piece down. He felt his stats increase a little. The rush of power was familiar, but it was overtaken by a shudder. Then he bent over and vomited on the ground. The piece of flesh didn’t come back up, only water and spit poured from his mouth. He didn’t really care, and just continued to vomit. Luke who had been nearby put a comforting hand on his back and started smacking him gently. Eventually, he stopped and asked Priscilla the more pressing question.

[Well, did we get an affinity?]