The magic ball game is simple. Simply put, you throw the ball to each other, and if you drop it you lose. Well, we play with a semi-solid ball of mana, meaning you need to supply mana or it will dissipate(and you lose) and to even catch or throw it. Of course, it tends to devolve into making it harder for others to catch by giving it only the bare minimum of mana, throwing it high up or very quickly, making it glow brightly or just adding another ball to the mix.

It can get pretty hectic, and through trial and error we’ve added rules such as ‘no forcefully dissipating the ball’, ‘no affecting the ball unless it’s very close’, ‘don’t use magic (directly) on other players’ and of course ‘don’t try to injure anyone’. Leda’s friend(?) picked up the game pretty quickly, despite being kinda crappy at manipulating mana.

He started to struggle once the uh, advanced portion of the game started, but managed to stay in the game surprisingly long, and even took out Tåke with a clever feint. His friends just arrived, and shortly afterwards I managed to take out Leda with a two-ball trick, winning the game. Woo! Not that any of us would’ve stood a chance if she didn’t have to use mana through her puppet.

Done playing, I tell Leda that I plan on going to the wolves at the eastern forest. It seems she’d rather play with her ‘new humans’ than come with me. Well, that’s fine. I mentally tell her to be careful so she doesn’t injure anyone, or to at least heal them afterwards, and leave as Leda and that kid teach the other kids how to play the magic ball game.

Hmm, what should I do if the whole selling magical services thing doesn’t pan out? Maybe I should make some job applications, just in case… Meh, not until the end of summer, at least. And if all else fails I can make a female puppet and sell (the view of) that body. Uhh, that might actually work…

I mean, the porn industry tends to be ahead of the pack with new technology, I bet the same will be true for magic. And with the ability to literally change your body to suit just about any fantasy, I bet someone will make a killing on that. Ignoring the ethics, you can even have multiple puppets, and they don’t even need to be human…

But let’s not become the person who’s famous for that. At least, let’s make that the last resort if I have too many bills and not enough income. Actually, given the popularity of monster girl anime and such, pandering to that market could earn you a bunch of money in a non-sexual way. Well, without any exposed genitals. Being tied up by a spider girl is probably someone’s wet dream.

Or further distancing myself from questionable ethics, I could do some regular old entertainment, showbiz style. How would I even do that? With shapeshifting, illusions and some other magic I could probably make massively popular YouTube videos, but from what I hear you don’t earn that much from ads in your videos anymore. Ahh, I still have that Patreon, I should probably check it when I get back home.

In fact, I should make some more videos. Maybe I should film the inside of the water dungeon? That might pique people’s interest. Maybe I should add live performances to the services I sell? Or how about something people can participate in… Flying is very fun, and I bet people are willing to pay, but I’d need to shapeshift people or teach them how to.

Hmm, yeah, flying lessons could earn me a bunch of money. If I advertise it as something you learn, like a driver’s license, I can probably charge a decent day’s wages for a two-hour session. And I can anchor the price in the price for magic tutoring and assisted shapeshifting, since it will basically be that with something extra.

I would want to make a brand, though, since people are bound to copy it if I succeed.In fact, many of these things will be copied almost instantly if I succeed. Well, most of them are bound to happen eventually, anyway, so I should try to milk the market for all its worth and worry about the long term later.

Oh, we’re here. Yeah, I should be able to earn quite a bit if I play my cards correctly. So when I get back I have to check my Patreon and the website, and I should do some planning. I touch down behind Tåke’s wagging tail and add a note on my phone, just in case. Let’s see how the wolves’ den have changed. “｢Tåke, I will look around. You can do what you want.｣”

She takes a moment to process my message, then goes off to socialize with the wolves, which looks a bit odd in her wolfkin form. I’ll probably have to wash those clothes later. Oh well. I enter the caves of the den and look around. There’s quite a few rooms that are in use, with the smaller rooms being ‘private’ rooms, as I had intended. They’re even scent-marked, which is pretty clever.

The pack- can you even call them that with these numbers? Were they humanoid I’d call them a tribe. A decently big one, too. They have started forming sub-groups, mostly what seems to be family units. They’re a bit more liberal than most humans with the makeup, having anything from a male and a female to five females and a male or two of each.

Yeah, whenever all these pups are born, there’s gonna be a lot of wolves around. I really hope there’s progress in the uplifting by then. At the very least they should’ve gotten to the point where people in general see them as more than just a curiosity or rather friendly ‘monsters’.

I don’t wanna bother walking the entire caves, so let’s do a sweep of mana instead. Oh, there’s a wolfkin girl over there. Seems like a shapeshifted human. Wait, that’s Hilder, isn’t it? That- was her name, right? Hilde, Hilda… Hmm, pretty sure it was Hilde.

She’s in one of the closer small rooms. The room is scent-marked by her companion, but there’s also a strong smell similar to, but distinct from, the wolves. Her wolfkin form is in heat, huh. That must suck. Well, if it got too bad she’d just revert to human form. “Hey, how are youuuoh-”

Her face reddens beneath the thin fur as we both freeze, eyes meeting. As my eyes threaten to descend I politely step back and turn around, and she quickly resumes putting on her underwear. “Uh, sorry for intruding. Though, why were you doing that here?”

Her voice is low, almost drowned by the sound of rustling clothes. “It’s okay. I was playing with Trilli.”

I feel my face take on a doubting expression. “Playing?”

I can practically hear her turning even redder. “Nonono! Not like that! I can’t have a dog, but Trilli is like a dog! So I’ve been playing with her here!” She takes a sharp breath and calms down a bit. “She likes it when I transform into a wolfkin, but all the wolves…”

“...are in heat.” I finish for her. “Yeah, they affect me more than enough even when not in my wolfkin form, and I would say I can’t imagine how it’d be to actually be in heat, but I don’t need to imagine.”

It sounds like she’s dressed now, and I turn to face her. “Aren’t you a man?” She says, face still a healthy pink.

“Well, yeah. You do know you can transform to either sex? Uhh, that’s not how I found out. With magic I can make a ‘mind bond’.” Air quotes. “I accidentally made one that was too good and felt how Tåke felt.”

I make a grimace and scratch the back of my head. “Tåke has been needy lately, which was getting really annoying, but I’ll admit: After she had been through that for almost an entire week, I’m amazed the only problems I’ve had, if I can even call them that, is an occasionally wet floor and a somewhat clingy companion.”

Hilde’s face has returned to it’s previous tomato state. “But uhm, does that ‘mind bond’ use [Mind Magic]?”

“Yeah, do you have it?”

“M-hmm, but I can only read someone’s overall mood. Like, if they are happy or angry.”

“Oh yeah, it’s like that for me as well. Without the mind bond, at least.”

“Oh. Is it hard to make a mind bond?”

“Hmm, not really, now that I know how. I figured out how to do it with Leda, uhh, my wyvern companion. She’s pretty smart. Like, she can speak and is playing with some kids now. Or has she- nevermind. I can just show you using a mind bond.”

“Is that safe?”

“As far as I know, yeah. So first I’ll make a mana link, which will essentially connect our mana pools. I will then make a mind bond from my side, and I want you to reciprocate it.”

“How do I do that?”

“Oh, with the mana link you should be able to sense exactly what I do with my mana, It’s fairly simple, but necessarily easy.”

Making the link is exceptionally easy. So easy, in fact, that I am a bit surprised at her weak magic defences. “Try to break the link.”

It takes a moment, but then the connection breaks.

“Hmm. Now try to stop me from forming it.”

I try to reform it, but I might as well have tried to link to a wall. “Okay. I thought it was a bit too easy to form the link, but I guess you just let me form it. This is how you form the mind bond. Do the same and connect to me.”

As expected, it’s not so easy that she can do it instantly, but once she learns the trick, or rather finds her own, the bond forms.

｢[Excited, curious, aroused]This is so weird, it’s like I can read his thoughts. [Curious, aroused]He said he could feel what his wolf felt, I wonder how sex would be if you did that? [Aroused]Maybe I could get him to hook up with me. [Annoyed, aroused]No! I just fingered myself, why am I still so horny? He’s a bit weird, but I bet-｣

I am unprepared for her torrent of thoughts, but block them as soon as I can.“｢[Amused, scared, aroused, worried]OKAY I’M GONNA STOP YOU RIGHT THERE!｣” I take a deep breath. ｢[Amused]First order of business: You need to return to human form.｣

She reverts to human form, and without the hormones and pheromones this will hopefully be a lot less distracting, for the both of us. With that done I share what I know about how the mind bond works, and having had sufficient time to calm down I do as I had intended with the bond, and share my memories of how I gained it, starting from the sudden ambush by Leda herself.

As I transmit the battle I notice Hilde often mirroring the emotions I feel in the memory, but also feel myself reflecting her emotions as she reacts to what happens. I wound Leda, and she feels relief, but then the male attacks, and she mirrors the fear I felt. Through the mana link I feel her starting to channel mana as I charge the final attack, and stop the memory to give her a little warning.

She seems surprised at what was maybe a subconscious action, and I ‘resume’ the memory, which seems to last an eternity. I feel a bit of fear, wrapped in… sympathy? As I take out the male, only to find myself plummeting to the ground. I skip from having defeated the male wyvern to having taken on the Wyvern aspect and dispelling my concealment.

She feels my mix of fear and curiosity, reflected in the wyvern, and feel awe as I get close enough to truly take in the size of the massive beast. The next part, with me healing her is a bit blurry, as it has been every time I’ve recalled it. I am still not quite sure how I was not eaten, though I think it was a mix of me having taken on the Wyvern aspect, her intelligence, and her not wanting to risk the egg.

Then comes the part where I realise she’s intelligent, and that we can (at least somewhat) communicate. Aside from my warning the entire memory took only a few seconds to share. ｢I’ll give you a moment to digest things.｣

She stares intently at the dirt wall for a moment.

“Okay. ｢Continue.｣”

｢Fair warning: The next part is how I learned how to make a mana link. The method was, uhh, painful. I won’t transmit the pain, but if you’re weak to those kinda things…｣

She seems to recall the damage I too in the fight, before telling me to continue, not as much in words as with an idea. I continue, sharing the memory of the pain I felt from the mana burn, now painted as a warning in my mind, then the first true connection between my mind and another. I think the sheer foreignness of Leda’s mind shine through, judging but Hilde’s reaction.

I let the memory fade to the back of my, and possibly her, mind. Then, I share the small discoveries I’ve made along the way, sharing [ - : Ability Share] with the ability itself. I finish by sharing my discovery of that state of synchronicity and controlling her body, before remembering why we even got to the topic, and share my memory of accidentally diving too deep into her senses.