Ugh, I regret making the bag for her now. No, I regret, more specifically, the mostly one-sided discussion that led to her insisting to come home with me. I tried to explain my apartment is far too small for her, complete with my mental image of it, but she either doesn’t realize the difference in scale, or don’t care.

I mean, I did plan to bring one beast, Tåke, home to teach her about human society, and to hopefully get her [Aspect of the Human] by taking her to places with many people, but she’s a wolf, and can pass for a dog. If nothing else, she’s small enough to fit in my apartment and also not terrifying. Leda, on the other hand, is more or less a dragon, or will likely be as far as other people are concerned. Her size and looks are both nope, at least combined.

Okay, I give up. Time for damage control instead… ｢{Resigned, tired}You may come, but only if you can make yourself as small as me! And stay that size for a day!｣

After eating the rest of the moose, we travel home. Well, while I had planned on making my apartment a second home for Tåke, Leda was… If nothing else she agreed to stay in her smaller form pretty quickly. As in, she agreed to change form after the meal. After that we flew home, mini-Tåke in my harness and the egg hanging from Leda. She had a bit of difficulty taking off with it, but once in the air she had no problems.

We land on the lawn outside the apartment, and Tåke pops back to her full size, then shakes her body. Will she do that every time? With my new abilities taking off the harness becomes very easy. I quickly help Leda get off her own harness, as she looks around with great interest.

｢{Curious}Strange rock-stacks. Where is nest?｣

I return to my normal form, with the improvements, of course. ｢There.｣ I point and send a mental image of the location.

｢Lars//little one live in rock-stack?｣

I sigh. ｢{Resigned, tired}Come, I will show you.｣

I unlock my door with magic, not bothering to take out the key. Hmm, I really should improve the magical defences of my apartment. For now I just enter, gently placing the giant egg in the hammock. Tåke follows close by, and immediately start sniffing everything. Leda comes after, her wide frame clumsily passing through the doorframe.

｢{Curious, surprised}Lars’ nest small…｣

I just look at her as I close the door behind her. ｢{Exasperated}Told you.}｣ I take off my bag and armor, then head to the bathroom. ｢Both of you, wait here. Do not break anything. Do not mark anything.｣

I first rinse my clothes under the shower, before taking a shower myself, and finally brushing my teeth. All the while, I keep track of the two potential troublemakers. Tåke seems content just sniffing everything, and Leda laid down in the hammock after some trouble getting into it. Hmm, I’ll need a place for Tåke to sleep as well, though what I should do is to make a bigger, specialised sleeping area for each of them. As for how to accomplish that with the limited space I have, I’ll think about that on another day.

Flying, so far, so fast. Above the clouds. The little one is here, and plays with the whelp. We dance in the winds, the entire world below us. A human town there, a mountain there. We are above, and beyond it all. Only the vast ocean can compete, for we are free. The wind sings in our blood. Others have joined us. Some are human. Others are no longer human. Yet others have never been. The sky is our domain, and with the humans at our side, we go where the wind takes us.

…

The tall ones aid us, and the Den grows larger, stronger. They are teaching the Hunters to Gather, and the Builders to use trees. I am with the leaders. All of with a tall one on our side. We travel their territory, with their many dens. “Learn, study.” Says my pack mate. “We will teach you. Become what you are not yet.”

…

I wake up with a weight on my chest. Face-licker again? I open my eyes, only to stare into Tåke’s butt. “Uhh, ｢Tåke?｣” I call, and in response her tail swats my face once, then twice, before she stands up and turns around. ｢No licking!｣ I gently push her to the side, and she hops down to the floor. She leaves behind some fur, so I’ll have to air out my blanket.

How early is it anyway? 9:13… Too damn early, Tåke! Sigh. Well, I fell asleep early and actually feel rested, so it should be fine. I get out of bed and put on a T-shirt and some self-made, loose pants reaching to the middle of my shins. The white really doesn’t fit with the design. Hmm, white, a toga could look nice. Might not fit me, but hey. Yeah, let’s make that some time.

On the way to the bathroom I notice Leda. Right, she convinced me to let her come. Right now she’s just… I’d say playing, but it might be experimenting with the little array I set up to absorb mana and grow mana crystals. ｢You interested in [Enchanting]?｣

｢{Eager}Lars share! Leda learns!｣ She ‘says’ excitedly.

｢That’s a good idea. But first I’ll have to fix myself up, and then eat breakfast.｣

Tåke perks up at that. ｢Eat!｣

“｢Yes, yes, eat.｣” Wait, I don’t really have any food for a wolf to eat. I should probably eat some dog food. Oh right, I have the wyvern meat. ...will Leda be fine with that? I’ll see. For now let’s finish my morning bathroom routine.

Leda seems completely fine with that, as does Tåke. I’ll have to clean now, though… It struck me that if they are to be around people, they should probably have something to denote they are not monsters. For Tåke, a simple collar should work, though I have a feeling that will be… inadequate for Leda. To begin with, will puppets keep what they are wearing?

That’s easy enough to test, and I summon the fox puppet, tying a thick silk string around its neck. Unsummon - Silk is still here. Take two, and let’s actively try to bring the string now. Okay, that works. One question answered. It would be great if I found a way to shapeshift clothes, too. There’s certain freedom to wearing a kilt but, uhh, not the ideal choice of legwear when flying?

｢Learn [Enchanting]!｣

｢Wait until I clean up. For now, try to learn [Imbuing]. Try to pour mana into-｣ I throw her some silk. ｢that. Or pour an aspect into it.｣

Tåke is happily wagging her tail, stepping in the mess she made, which makes me less than happy. I stop her and clean her paws before letting her go. I should get a plastic tablecloth for them to eat on. And try to teach them some table manners, at least the most basic stuff like ‘don’t mess up my entire kitchen’

By the time I finish cleaning up, Leda has figured out how to imbue the silk, and I ability-share what I know about [Imbuing]. My wyvern companion seem to have a real talent in learning magic, but then again it hasn’t been that hard for me either. I sit down by the computer. It’s been a while, so I wanna check up on the online communities.

｢Leda, [Enchanting] is like [Imbuing], but with a spell.｣ I quickly teach her how to do the orb of light. ｢Try imbuing the spell into the silk. But first you should try to remove the imbuement.｣

She’s occupied, Tåke is lying next to me, content and relaxed. Does she not get bored? I suppose boredom is for a species who has the luxury of free time, to spur them to do something useful. For wolves, I suppose the living essentials would be enough for them to be content.

I open tabs for the usual online communities, as well as one to a Youtube playlist with various anime songs. Let’s start with the subreddit, that should have the most important info. They’ve made a wiki for abilities, which has then expanded to New World creatures and plants and stuff. I should check it out, might have something useful. And if nothing else I should be able to contribute. A discussion on ability skill levels, huh.

Apparently, people agree that abilities themselves can have different names to different people, and change over time, as well as mutate into similar, but slightly different ones. Skill levels seem to be all over the place in complexity. Some just have a vague feeling of Good vs Bad at the ability, where others have detailed skill level ranks.

Common for everyone is some level when you first learn the ability, ‘Unskilled’, then one or more ‘Beginner’ levels, then ‘Intermediate’, which seems to be the level most people can easily reach for hobbies. Then there’s an ‘Expert’ level, which is the kinda skill level you see in people who work in a related field.

After that it becomes unclear, as no one has gotten to that skill level after the Upheaval, though some people claim that there is an ‘Elite’ rank for those who are really good at something, and finally a ‘Master’ level. I experience skill levels according to the Dwarf Fortress skill levels, so I post a table of the skill levels and where they’d belong. Only [Aspect Magic] has reached Adept, and most are in upper Beginner or lower Intermediate, so I can’t say for sure with the highest levels but it would make sense like this:

Generic Name DF levels DF level names 0-Extreme beginner/Unskilled Level 0 Dabbling 1-Beginner Levels 1-3 Novice - Adequate - Competent 2-Intermediate/Hobbyist Levels 4-6 Skilled - Proficient - Talented 3-Expert/Professional Levels 7-9 Adept - Expert? - Professional? 4-Elite? Level 10-11 Accomplished - Great 5-Master? Levels 12-14 Master - High Master - Grand Master 6-Legendary? Level 15+ Legendary

As for the wiki, it has a lot of information on magic. Among it, it has really detailed info about elemental magic, which I haven’t learned. So basically, you have to chant, and include the element you wanna use, somehow, but other than that chants or gestures seem to be up to the caster. You have an affinity for each element, as well, and I wonder if my aspect affinities would carry over?

Well, let’s learn the ability first. Among the four classical elements, my strongest affinity is Air, so- ｢{Joyous, eager, proud}Leda//I made an enchantment!｣

I turn around, and immediately regret it as she trusts the glowing silk into my face. ｢Bright! {Reprimanding}Don’t shove it into my face!｣

She looks and feels completely dejected, like a five year old whose drawing you said was crappy. Sigh. ｢{Apologetic, proud}I did not mean it like that. Congratulations! You did well. Just, it hurts my eyes if you hold it too close to me.｣

She perks up at that, but holds it at a reasonable distance this time. ｢{Eager, curious}Share ability//[Enchanting]!｣

｢{Happy}Yes, yes.｣ I start sending all I know of the ability, which is among the more complicated ones I know. Wait, won’t she get [Artificer] if she also learns [Mana Crafting]? ｢{Curious}Now, try to learn [Mana Crafting]. Get the chitin from the bathroom. Use that.｣

Now that she’s occupied again, where was I… The wiki, elemental magic- Oh yeah, trying to learn [Air Magic]. It says a lot about how we perceive magic that waving your hands and chanting gets the most generic name… And if I don’t chant, I will just end up doing one of the other magic forms. Sigh.

“Oh Air, heed my call, create a gust!”

Ability learned: [Air Magic]

...I should have aimed away from my desk, but at least only some paper were thrown around. Okay, so a short chant is all you need. Well, presumably bigger spells would need more than just ‘Air, blow!” but I’m not about to test that inside. Or in the city. Or anywhere there’s stuff that would be bad if I broke. I really should contact Thomas about a place to test more powerful things. It’s weekend now, though. And then there’s the family barbeque tomorrow, almost forgot that…

For now let’s just contribute some of what I know to the wiki. It also seems like I’ve got replies to my post about skill levels.