When everything came back, all the feelings, there were so many things I wanted to do. I wanted to cry. I wanted to laugh. I wanted to die.

I wanted to do everything I could possibly do, but I didn't. I just laid down in a fetal position, while softly crying to myself.

Why, Why, Why, Why.

My mind was filled with why.

Why didn't I do it? It would have saved them! WHY AM I SUCH A IDIOT?! WHY AM I SUCH A FUCKING COWARD!?

I wanted to go back to the void. The void that had no feelings within it.

My feelings then became darker. Sadness was slowly disappearing, and with it gone, came anger. I wanted to lash out. I wanted to shout into the air around me. I wanted to kill.

My mind was again filled with why´s, but this time they were a little different.

Why didn't he do anything? He could have saved them! WHY IS HE SUCH A IDIOT?! WHY IS HE SUCH A FUCKING COWARD!? HE DID NOTHING. HE JUST WATCHED THEM DIE.

These thoughts didn't last long though.

It felt as if somebody had put their hand inside my heart, and was squeezing it with all their power. It hurt like a motherfucker on steroids. It felt as though, some kind of liquid was forcing its way through my body.

And suddenly it stopped.

Seems like I was finally unconscious.

While I wasn't conscious, I could still think like normal. Perk from my dad.

My thoughts were still focused on anger, and it took me quite a while to calm down from it. The reason I could calm myself, and not go to the brink of insanity, was one single reason

Jack. He could fix everything. He could bring them back.

If I stay with Jack, he will become more powerful. He has access to resurrection magic.

You have heard stories about resurrection magic so powerful that you won't even need the body, and it doesn't matter for how long the person has been dead.

If I stay with Jack, he can bring them back. He WILL bring them back.

That's when I realized something. This whole time, I had been looking inward. It was a meditation technique my dad had taught me when I was little. With it, you could ignore all your senses, so it helped a lot in meditation when you had trouble focusing.

Every time I had used it, there were these colored balls floating around. I never gave them much thought as they never increased or increased their sizes. But today it was different. There was a new ball floating around.

A giant golden ball.

I wonder what that is.

Eros was emitting a golden light from his body. I would probably have thought it was beautiful if I wasn't so shocked at what just happened. I could still feel the remnants. The best way to describe it was a phantom pain of some kind.

“Um, Hel”, I said, with surprise in my voice.

“What is it?”, Hel asks, in a distracted tone.

“Why is Eros glowing?”, I ask, with a hint of confusion.

“It seems like, your friend, has awakened his talent”, he said, with a little smirk on his face.

Seems like he is enjoying himself right now.

I was kinda surprised with Eros having a magical talent.

Though, I guess he would have a higher chance, of magical abilities, with his father being Moon Elf. I wonder what his talent even is. Do Moon elves have specific talents or are they equally specialized in all forms?

“Hey, Hel. What talent does Eros have?”, I ask in a curious voice.

“Light magic”, Hel answers bluntly, while still staring at Eros on the ground. While I wanted to go over and help him, I trusted Hel to do what was needed to be done.

“Light magic? Like, bending the light and making lasers?”, I ask as I did not know that much about the different kinds of magic.

“Glautru, explain to your ´student´ what light magic is, while I access his friend's condition”, Hel said, while continuing to study Eros.

Glautru signs, and begin to explain.

“Light magic is one of the talents with the most variety. While it can bend light, and make lasers, it can do so much more than that. It can make light auras that ward of ´evil´, empower people with the ´holy´ light, disguise people by altering the light around them, heal people with the ´holy´ light, create a portal where you travel through the Light Realm, and so much more. As I said, light magic is one of the talents with the most variety. Though, to do some of the things I said, you have to become a follower of a god” Glautru explained.

Most of the things I get, but how do portals fit into this?

“How do portals fit into the Light talent, and what is the Light Realm?”, I ask.

“Almost every element in this world. These worlds are only filled with that element, so the Earth Realm only has earth, the Water Realm only has water in it, and so on”, Glautru explained.

“Oh, okay”, I said, while beginning to walk over to Eros to see how he was doing.

He was in a fetal position while lying on the ground. I couldn't see the upper half of his face, due to his hair being in the way, but I could see he had cried. It seemed like he was asleep right now, so I didn't try to anything.

That's when Hel finished what he was doing, and began talking.

“Okay, your friend here is stable. He just needs some rest, and he will be fine in a day or two”, Hel said, while beginning to smile again.

He then begins chanting. After about 10 seconds something showed up. It was shaped like a normal human body but was made out of a gray fog. The only feature on their whole body was the two red eyes on their face.

“What are those?”, I ask.

“Those are soul manifestations. I use them to keep this place safe and clean”, Hel said, with a smile on his face.

He clapped three times, and the soul manifestation multiplied by three. Two of them went over to Eros and carried him out of the room. The other walked over to me.

“This one will show you to your room. If you need anything just tell it, and it will try to accommodate you as best as it can”, Hel explained.

“Okay”, I said and began following the soul manifestation.

The soul manifestation walked out of the room, and I followed it.

In the background, I could hear Glautru shouting something to me.

“Remember to study shapeshifting! You have the mana for the basics!”

When I walked out of the room, Hel´s smile faded.

“So, is he the one?”, Hel asks.

“I don't know”, Glautru answers.

While I was walking to my room, I began thinking about something. It had been bugging me this entire time, and I could not find an answer to it.

Why are there no windows here?

There weren't any windows at all. There wasn't any defining feature in these hallways, so you couldn't even differentiate them.

Maybe this place is just so big that I haven't had the chance to get to the edges of it.

It took about 10 more minutes of walking we finally stop in front of a door. The soul manifestation begins to stand guard outside the door. I go inside

The room has what you would expect. It had a bed, a bed table, and a normal table with a few chairs.

So, what to do now?

I couldn't think of anything, so I just decided to study. I pulled the Shapeshifting: The Basics book out of my bag sat down at the table and began to study. The book was 75 pages long, so I did not intend to read everything.

I began to read the book and did understand most of it. It only covered the basic stuff, but it was still pretty advanced for me.

How to shapeshift was pretty simple. To shapeshift into something you will need their pattern or more commonly known as aura. To see the aura of something, you need to use one of two things. Mana-Sight or Mana-Feel.

Mana-Feel was pretty simple, and it could be used by everyone who had mana. You needed to channel your mana into something while holding your connection to it. You then needed to fill out the whole pattern with yours. If you did it right, you could then feel how the pattern looked.

Mana-Sight was a little more advanced, but it could still be used by everyone who had mana. You needed to cycle your Mana through a few specific places in your eyeball. Not the whole eyeball, because if you did that, they would explode from the pressure. When you cycle the mana the correct places, you will temporarily gain Basic Mana-Sight.

I decided to only do Mana-Feel for some time. The small chance of making your eyes explode was not a chance, I would willingly take. Not for a long time.

Now, to test it out.

The next page was a warning to the dangers of shapeshifting.

When trying shapeshifting out for the first time, try to memorize the pattern of a simple creature. If it is of a simple creature, it won't be as complex as for example a human. You also should not try to shapeshift your whole body. Maybe a finger or a toe. Preferably something that can be cut off, if necessary.

The next two pages were something different. They each had a pattern. One was the pattern of a single claw. It would replace the nails on one of your hand with sharp claws. The other was the pattern of a wolf paw. It would replace your hand. Each of these patterns was for beginners as they both could be cut off without lethally damaging the individual.

Now, the choice between those two was really easy. I chose to try the sharp claws. I am not a person who likes the pain in any way And if I had to choose between cutting off nails and cutting off my hand, I would the nails.

The page with the pattern looked, at a simple glance, like it was completely blank. This was a test so that people could not skip the introduction. You had to use Mana-Sight or Mana-Feel to try the pattern out. Luckily I had read the introduction, and could easily find out what to do.

It was still very hard to do, but after a couple minutes of trying, I could do it satisfactorily.

Here comes the actual hard part. Remembering the pattern. Patterns are very complicated things. Every living thing has their own unique pattern, so it is understandable, but this was the pattern for a single claw!

It took me twenty minutes before I finally had the whole pattern memorized.

Now, to the actually interesting part!

To actually change your pattern was pretty. You just had to channel some of your mana to the specific place you wanted to change, and will it to exist. Then you had to will it to replace the pattern you wanted to be replaced. The only thing it required was an absolute focus.

The absolute focus was very hard to have in a session longer than 5 minutes. At the start of trying to shapeshift my nail into claws, I had trouble focusing for even 1 minute. When it began to show results my focus would deteriorate, and any work I had done vanished from existence.

It took me twenty minutes before the first nail had been replaced. After that, it became a little easier. For each nail replaced, it seemed as if my own pattern would accept the changes faster. It took me only 30 minutes in total to do every nail on my left hand.

Time to try these bad boys out!

The nails were extremely sharp. They could cut deep gashes on the table, without me feeling too much resistance. I also cast the Minor General Enhancement spell on myself to see what would happen. The claws sharpened a lot. They now could cut through the table like it was butter.

I began to realize how good shapeshifting was. With it, you could turn into every creature that exists. If they also have innate magical abilities, and if you can find out how they work, you can copy it onto your normal body. If you could find the right patterns, you could become godlike!

There was the problem, though. Patterns.

I can remember the wolf claw pattern, but what about a whole wolf body? Or a human body for that matter? How the hell am I supposed to remember it?

I try to figure out ideas on how to do it, but I can't think of anything that could help me remember everything. Except for one thing. Magic.

Seems like I have to ask Glautru for help.

And with that, I head out