“What do you mean you haven’t used it?!?” Roge angrily whispered, yanking over the offered screens and looking them over.

  “It’s… really hard to use, Roge,” Marge grumbled, grabbing back the screens and dismissing them. “Keep in mind, I’ve never used magic before. I don’t even know how I can begin using [Wind Magic] either.”

  “Okay… so the [Cervid Magic] shouldn’t be too difficult. Just keep using the [Nature Stride] skill and it should rank up. It clearly has to do with speed, and so you lean into getting faster, and it will assist you with that. And [Wind Magic]… I’m shocked you haven’t gotten it with [Power Shot]. What resource does that skill use?”

  “Flex. It uses up quite a lot too, so I have to manage my resource a lot during fights.” Marge was starting to give Roge a hard look, so Roge looked off to the side and coughed.

  “That might be why. You haven’t unlocked mana, so using wind mana wouldn’t be…” Roge trailed off, staring intently at the deer woman. “Have you tried adding wind to your… flex?”

  “I thought it was mana, though?” Marge asked.

  “I thought it was too. But it wouldn’t make sense if every species had to unlock mana in order to use their gifts, which are based upon magic. Maybe adding both magics to your flex resource is the way to level them both up?” Roge felt slightly uncertain as he said it, the facts making logical sense, but he had no proof of the concept.

  “We’re going to need an archery yard…” Marge grumbled, getting up and dragging Roge along a narrow corridor. “By the way, I am going to need you to make me some flex potions. Otherwise I’m going to run out too fast.”

  “Already ahead of you,” Roge grumbled, swapping around his crafting queue to put them up first. “You know I can walk, right?”

  “Sure. But this is payback for not asking about this sooner.” Roge sighed but agreed internally, feeling a bit bad that he’d forgotten to check up on the magics he’d unlocked in Hops and Marge. ‘I hope Hops is having a better time with it…’ he thought to himself.

  ~~~

  As soon as they were set up in one of the training centers with an archery target, Marge took out her enhanced bow and her quiver. Roge frowned as he thought of an oddity, loathe to bring it up at first before moving along with his question. “Do you get [Flex Manipulation] from another class?”

  “Oh yeah. It’s a dodging related class,” Marge commented, drawing one of the blueoak arrows and aiming it at the target. “It’s actually what I got first, because archery classes can’t be unlocked without flex.”

  She fired the arrow at the target Roge feeling a bit of wind due to the speed of the arrow. It thunked perfectly into the bullseye of the target, though Roge frowned as he looked at it. “Did you use [Power Shot]?”

  “Yup. Guessing you couldn’t sense it?”

  “Lemme see…” Roge mumbled, activating an effect he was a bit afraid of.

  Roge breathed in deeply as the sense hit him, closing his eyes at the barrage of sensations. It felt similar to when he pushed against something with his [Spacial Magic], but in all directions instead of just one. He could *feel* everything within his [Mana Manipulation] range, the grass having a silky feeling while the walls felt as course as sand.

  “Try it again,” Roge muttered, still gripping his head as he opened his eyes. He knew he’d get used to the sense quickly as his mind got used to it, and having his eyes open actually helped some more as everything he could feel in front of him had a visual reference to it. Marge once again fired a [Power Shot] into the training dummy, Roge grumbling as he once again felt nothing. “How does the skill feel when you use flex?”

  “Like my body becomes more flexible,” Marge replied, tapping her muzzle as she thought it over. “I feel an energy coursing through it, which gets added to my bow when I activate the skill.”

  “And has that energy felt different recently?” Roge asked, noting Marge’s thinking expression before she fired another shot into the dummy.

  “Yes, actually. It’s felt… smoother? Like it moves better and with more… speed?” Roge opened his mouth to say something before Marge held up a paw to cut him off. “I think you’re right. Speed is all over the cervid descriptions, so that’s obviously that magic influencing my flex.”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “Whenever I try and use only one magic type, I typically enhance the feeling of it before I use the mana.” Roge let out a bit of storm from his mouth, feeling the crackling, untamed magic that he’d enhanced to produce the effect. “From what I can tell, I can use mana to do similar things to flex, but where flex obviously enhances flexibility and fluidity, mana feels like it enhances the power of whatever I fuel it with.”

  “So… intelligence is tied to power and dexterity is tied to flexibility. That makes sense…” Marge prepared yet another arrow to fire, though this time she didn’t fire it immediately. “And wind is all about flow. Making something move in a natural way like air. So…” Marge let out a long breath, releasing the arrow at the end. That time, the arrow was obviously enhanced, Roge feeling the slipstream the arrow created feel a lot smoother. His eyes, however, were trained on Marge, noticing the box that popped up in front of her.

  “This feels like… cheating,” Marge said, staring intently at the upgrade box. “Is this how you feel all the time?”

  “Basically,” Roge shrugged, tapping his muzzle as he thought some more things over. “The only other skill I can think of that could use more wind is the [Nature Stride] one. That uses flex too, right?”

  “Not as much, but yes.” Marge grinned at Roge, flicking the screen away with a playful gesture. “But we’re going to need those potions if I want to continue. They almost done?”

  ~~~

  After some experimenting, they found that [Wind Magic] could indeed increase [Nature Stride], the description bumping up her agility modifier with the added wind. [Wind Shot] also had a better ratio of flex to damage, the shots fired into the dummy going in further and making the dummy move more. Roge wanted to look over the other class she had, but Marge declined, never once showing him her full [Status]. He assumed he was being rude, so he dropped it, the two going back to the gathering area to celebrate the deer woman’s success. Roge even put on some music in the background, grinning as he got a bump in his [Magic Tool Control] for the way he was using his wand. He soon spotted Hops and walked over to the elf, who was sitting alone at a table and writing something down in his journal.

  “Hey so… have you had any issues with your magic?” Roge asked.

  The elf grinned as he looked up, placing his chin on his hand. “I’ll skip the awkward sentence and go right to the root of it. I assume from you and Marge hanging out that she figured out how to use her new magics?”

  “Yup. They can apparently be used with flex.” Hops rolled his eyes as he wrote that information down, tapping his wand against the book when he was done.

  “Well if you’re making sure I can use mine, I’ve already ranked both of them up at least once. Turns out researching runes, which I was already doing, ranks up my [Elven Magic] pretty nicely. [Illusion Magic] is more useful with my rune inscribing skill, as it helps keep everything in shape. So I’m good on that front.”

  “Right. What was the description again?” Hops pushed over the screen at Roge’s request, the dragon kobold looking it over with a nod.

  “Pretty much perfect for you,” Roge chuckled, the elf smiling as he wrote some more things down in his book. “Have you noticed anything tangible with it?”

  “Well my writing speed has increased, and not just because I added elven mana into my drawing skill.” Roge blinked at that statement, momentarily blown away by the information. “My researching class also received a boost. It’s why I’ve been writing a lot of things down recently.”

  “You sure it’s not just because of me?” the dragon kobold asked, to which Hops smiled slightly at. “I’m glad that it’s been helping you. Now I just need to make sure Sean is using his correctly.”

  “Probably not if he has to link it to his exhaustion,” Hops stated, his eyebrows furrowing as he thought that over. “Or his health? He has both unlocked, but I don’t know if he could even use it with either of them…”

  “Only one way to find out,” Roge cheered, hopping off of the stool and looking around for the lion once again. He frowned once he noticed that Sean was nowhere to be found, shaking a disquieting feeling off as he turned back to Hops. “You want some time with Alton? He’s been spending a lot of time in my hoard for some reason.”

  “Sure,” Hops acquiesced, Roge activating the skill as he fell back into his hoard.

  ~~~

  “You really need to talk to him,” Hops muttered, giving Alton a piercing look. “He may not have figured it out, but I know that you’re hiding something from him.”

  “Shove off,” the minotaur grumbled, taking one step away from the elf before his next words froze Alton in his tracks.

  “He’s going to find out about the bond eventually.” Alton just gave him a fierce glare at that, the elf not backing down in the slightest.

  “Back room. Now,” Alton grunted, stomping his way towards one of the private rooms in the back before slamming the door open. “What did you figure out?”

  “That Roge’s [Static Mind] is causing an issue,” Hops replied, entering the room and softly shutting the door. “It’s fairly obvious that he should have more control over you, as doppelganger snakes normally have a lot more over their victims.” Hops sighed, looking a bit annoyed at the glare Alton was leveling at him. “It’s what you are, don’t deny it.

  “Once Roge had absorbed you, you should have been ejected into the doll, as far as I can tell. He should not have been able to absorb you both, as his skill was only rank one at the start. But it turning into a hoard skill most likely made a bond happen between his Form and yours.”

  “You’re not wrong…” Alton muttered, bringing up a screen before immediately dismissing it before the elf could get a good look. “It doesn’t matter, though. He’s been going on and on about how he’s going to get me a new body. He obviously doesn’t want me around.”

  Hops gave him a look that Alton had gotten frequently, though the elf tried to hide his slip up after a moment. ‘Everyone thinks I’m stupid…’

  “Oh yeah? Next time you’re both asleep, ask Roge about unlocking [Minotaur Magic]. I’m betting he’ll jump a the chance instantly.”

  “Then why all the talk of separating us if he doesn’t mind my presence, huh?” Alton asked, his muzzle forming a grimace as rejection flowed through him.

  Hops shook his head and looked up at the ceiling, clearly asking for patience. “Because he feels guilty for trapping you.”

  “Trapping?” Alton grunted out, the rejection simmering down a touch. “He didn’t trap me, that damn snake did.”

  “And what has he done with the snake since? I assume It got added to his hoard.”

  “He uh… barred it from the farm,” Alton muttered, looking at the situation in a newer light.

  “Exactly. He didn’t want it around, even if it couldn’t harm you physically. Because it could harm you mentally, by bringing up unpleasant memories.” The minotaur flinched as said memories tried to resurface, his hands trembling at the feeling of being trapped in his own body. “He’s trying to do right by you. He just assumes you want your old body and autonomy back, and so he’s trying to separate the two of you. But do you want that?”

  “No…” Alton whispered, shoving the old memories aside to focus on the new ones he’d made. “Not… having to be around people all the time… it’s…” He had no more words for the feeling rushing through him, even the current conversation draining his desire to be social. “I like having a place where I can just relax and no one can bug me. Being subject to his whims is a small price to pay to have no responsibilities. I don’t even have to worry about talking to a landlord anymore!”

  “That’s why you need to talk with him,” Hops said softly, his gaze kind as he looked up at the minotaur. “Tell him how you feel. How you’d like to stay by his side. Because you having your own body to inhabit is a good thing to have, but you need to see if he’d be okay with you staying. Only using the body on occasion. Because if he’s not okay with that, you can’t trap him with a bond between you two. It has to be his choice of whether you can stay as one, or be two separate individuals.”

  “I… I guess you’re right,” Alton sighed, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. “There are also other things I’ve been hiding. Upgrades I’ve been avoiding because they would tie us even more together. But… can it wait until after tomorrow’s mission? I don’t want to give him too much stress.”

  “We’ll have to stop him from ranking up the skill, but that should be easy,” Hops said, nodding along to Alton’s plan. “But once we get back tomorrow, you talk with him. Even if you have to do it during your dream. Communication is key here so both of you can possibly get something you want.”