Mmm, stupid light. I turn away.

…

This position is uncomfortable, I stretch and twist a bit. I might’ve knocked down something with the end of my tail.

…

…

Mmmm... hold on. I open my eyes a bit. So bright. Ahh, who cares.

…

I lift my body from the bowl-shaped bed and stretch, making a small pop somewhere along my back. Bowl-shaped? I glance around, eyes half-open under the gentle noon light. Noon?

Thinking later, now wash face. I slither into the bathroom, turning on the tap with cool water, and splash my face. Much better. Wait, did I sleep in the living room? In the Serpent form? I mean, obviously I did. Must’ve fallen asleep.

Damn, I’ve slept pretty long. Hnn-ng~ I stretch and straighten my body, curving along a wall. Even though I feel well rested, I want to go and lie in the sun again. This form seems to make me lazy. Or at least likely to want to back in the sun. Oh well, I should do my morning routine.

Maybe I should’ve expected it, but damn I can eat a lot with this body. Some time during the night I unlocked a new class, [Shapechanger]. So far only [Aspectian] counts as a class ability, but I still feel like the class will be useful. Well, if I swap out [Pack Leader(non-beast)], it will free up one ability slot.

From the knowledge gained from the new class, I can glean a few interesting and useful things. For one, I have a strong feeling that the class would give some additional effect if set as the primary class. In addition, my earlier inference that there is essentially two ways to change form seems to be true.

The method I’ve used the most would be what I call transformation, which is changing the body to another form. As stated earlier, I don’t need to use any mana to stay in the form, and the form is permanent unless I actively change back.

The other is what I do in the elemental forms, essentially swapping my whole or parts of my body for another form. This way, which I call shapeshifting, because I ‘shift’ into another form/shape, has a lot of freedom in the kind of forms I can take. On the other hand, I have to actively stay in the form, which uses mana.

On that note, when I shapeshift, my body parts currently just shift into another form. However, I get the feeling that, with some improvement, I can use some form of [Spatial Magic] to store extra mass, or maybe even whole forms.

Obviously, the mass still needs to come from somewhere but depending on the form I want to use it for, it could be water from a lake or rain, or just food I eat. I have a sneaking suspicion my food bills will rise.

Actually, I could probably eat some monsters. Wait, do monster count under the hunting law? I mean, I’ve already killed a few. I suppose it could be a part of a monster hunter/adventurer licence. I should contact the military, I was supposed to contact them within two weeks and this is a good opportunity. I mean, the gunstaff is basically done. In fact, I’ll just finish it right now.

Quest Complete: Make a {magic gun}

Objectives:

Find out how to make a {magic gun}

Make a prototype {magic gun}

Make a real {magic gun}

Rewards:

Experience gained - Extra experience for used abilities.

Everything crafted

[System] recognition of weapon class {magic gun} increased

((Hidden Bonus)) [System] recognition of tool/weapon class(es) {autocaster} / {gunstaff} increased

Meta-ability: [Quest Giver - Rank 1]

“Heellll yeah!” I yell as light blue and violet orbs of light burst into existence around me, swirling around me before fading to nothing. That was curious, finishing quests actually has a visual effect?

Maybe it’s a good thing I went outside to test the gun, then. Not sure why it didn’t count as complete until I tested it, but I must say I kinda agree. On the other hand, I may or may not have frightened any onlookers what with the whole snake look. I did put on a T-shirt and scaled down my upper body, so to speak.

Wait, bonus experience? Oh damn, I’m power level one hundred and seven now. Maybe that’s what triggered the lightshow? I guess I’ll find out eventually. For now though, I want to try [Quest Giver]. There’s no one around, and even if there were, I’d probably scare them away. Personal quest, then. How about the water dungeon? I hereby give myself the quest: [Explore the Water Dungeon], objectives: Enter the Water Dungeon and see what’s there.

Personal Quest set: [Explore the Water Dungeon]

Objectives:

Enter the Water Dungeon

Explore the Water dungeon

Rewards:

Unknown

So that works. I’m usually not that fond of the sun, but mmm it its warmth feels good in this form. It’s not like I’m cold blooded, but I suppose the snake body will still do that. I should go back in and call the military. Ehh, I brought my phone out to document the gunstaff, and it’s quiet enough here. Beep boop telephone rings.

…

Instantly get to voicemail, huh. Maybe later, I’ll just bask in the sun for now. Hmm, let’s do something productive at the same time… Ah yes, I’ll experiment with spatial magic. If I can do something akin to ‘Inventory’ from media based on games, that’d be great. It’d also let me use bigger and maybe even smaller forms, too.

Drums start playing in a military fashion, then after a few seconds, a bell is struck twice and I accept the call, cutting of my ringtone.

“Yessh hello?” Oops, let’s make my tongue human.

“My name is Nina and I’m calling from the National Defence Research Establishment. You made a call earlier?”

“Ahh, yes. My name is Lars Eikeli. I was told to call this number within two weeks, that was a couple days ago. It’s about magic.”

“Lars Eikeli? Good timing, you’re on the list.” Uh-oh, what list? “There will be a hearing in ten days and we need the accounts of people who have experience with magic.”

After asking a few questions, I find out that ‘we’ in this case means the government, apparently they’ve already decided to find out about the [System] so they can decide on what must be done.

I’m not exactly into politics, but I must admit I’m kinda proud of the government for being at least halfway competent. They’re reacting to this pretty quickly. Well, it’s eight days since the Upheaval, and another couple days since magic was revealed. But on a political/bureaucratic timescale, that’s pretty fast. And they even seek more information to base their decision on!

I also asked if I could get another meeting, but she said she would need to send the request to someone else, and that I should expect an answer within two days. When I asked, she said I could call again if I don’t get an answer in four days, so I’m not sure how confident she is in the two day estimation. Oh well, they’re the ones who wanted me to contact them ASAP.

Interrupted by curious kids, among which I think I see one from last time. Really, I should expect kids to interrupt me if I experiment here. I can’t help but notice that the grass is dead, scorched or otherwise sticks out in quite a few spots. Woops?

Since they’ve already stopped me, I might as well have some fun. Serpent tongue, go!

“It’s you!” It is indeed me. This guy is the one I recognized from last time, and he gives me an awesome opportunity. I reform the scales on my body and face, then quickly move my upper body right in front of him. “It’sss me!”

He practically jumps backwards. “Ahhahaha, you sshould’ve sseen your face!” I reach out a hand to help him up from where he fell on his butt. “Sho, what’cha want?”

“We saw you, and you’re a snake, but you’re wearing clothes and have arms, and you were doing something, so we were wondering what you were doing!” Woah, there kid. Let’s not say that out loud, I’ll sound like some boring adult.

“I’m experimenting with magic. Actually, I can show you. Do you see this?” I hold up the gunstaff, to nods from most of the assembled kids and continued nervous stare from one boy.

I then pull out a mana stone seemingly from nothing. I actually just summoned it from the grass right next to my body. Of course, they don’t know that, so they look amazed, one even clapped a little, but quickly stopped when no one else did. I know that feeling… Not really, I’m the kind of person that rarely claps.

“I’m working with [Spatial Magic]. Oh, and I summoned the stone with [Summoning Magic] right now. What I’m actually working on is this!”

I touch the gunstaff to the mana stone, and with a soft pop it disappear - into a spatial storage in the stone. I toss the stone into the air, then suspend it there, quickly retrieving the content before it drains too much mana.

While I can seemingly store any object in any other object, the storage object should hold and conduct mana well, and the size seem to matter as well. Interestingly, that means I can conjure a vessel to store things in.

That said, when I stored the gunstaff in a similar sized conjured sphere it drained the mana and absorbed the object very quickly, returning to existence with a pop. Storing the mana stone, even in a same-sized vessel, was unproblematic, though.

I also found that I can use my own body as a vessel, and that conjured objects don’t seem to drain much mana for their size. So now I have one of the hexagonal shields stored in each arm.

I show off a few other magics to the kids before the inevitable question comes up:

“Can you teach meeee!”

“That’s not how you should ask, is it? I don’t think I should teach you unless I’ve talked with your parents first, but I could try to make you have scales.” I point to my arm, and remove and then regrow the scales to demonstrate.

He promptly holds out his own arm. Brave kid is brave. I should probably not do this, but I reeeeally wanna try. Besides, worst case scenario I just undo the scales. I grab his hand in my left, then hold my right hand over his forearm. I do the same I’d do to give myself scales, but to him instead.

There seems to be a little bit resistance at first, but once the skin starts showing the typical scale pattern and darkens, it goes away. A moment later, I let go of his hand to let him study the patch of scales he just got. He looks amazed - but he’s not even looking at the scales, instead having an unfocused look. Uhhh crap?

“That’s so cool! What’s the [System]? Do you use mana for magic?”

Definitely oh crap. I seem to have made him unlock the [System], probably by teaching him one of the mana skills. I hear a shriek and turn to the source, the nearest entrance to the apartment block. Oh, the parents from last time seem to be preparing for a barbeque. I assume the scream came from the woman who seemingly dropped a plastic bag she was carrying and are now in a mad dash in this direction.

Assuming she started the sprint where the bag lies, she would need to run fifty or so meters - less than half left now. I should probably stop her from harming me or getting hurt(on me).

“Ssstop!” Great choice of word, there, brain. I hope my open palms held out helps. Wait, the gunstaff is levitating next to me, is that what she’s reacting to? It’s pointing straight down, though. Oh, she’s athletic, nice high strides to get past my body, there.

“Are you okay?” she says to the kid, surprisingly little winded from the sprint. She glared at me with the parent ‘look’ when she passed, but now she’s just looking at the patch of scales at the kid’s arm, carefully touching them. She must have pretty good vision to see them from the door. Then again, the brown scales contrasts the skin quite a lot.

“Mooom, I’m fiiine! He just made me grow scales and then something weird happened!” Wonderful word choice, now I’ll have to spend a bunch of time describing the situation. I’d probably have to anyway.

“If you really are human, then turn into one!” I sigh in response to the still unsatisfied woman. Removing the scales from my upper body was not enough, Eirik and Katrine, the parents from last time, vouching for me was not enough, the other adult telling her she’s overreacting is not enough.

And of course, when I offered to revert the scales, that resistance from earlier stops me from doing anything. It seems like the boy is resisting the magic, and I said as much, but he says he’s not, and I don’t even know whether he could resists my magic, which at this point should be leaps and bounds beyond his, since he just unlocked the [System].

I look the woman in the eyes. “I don’t mind, but if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to grab some pants from my apartment first.”

She looks down my body before blood rushes to the surface of her face, presumably because she realize what I was implying. Huh, I can sense the thermal difference of the blood that causes a blush even if I can’t see it. I knew it’d be worthwhile to get used to the thermal sense. Not quite the use I expected, though.