Jericho closed the door. "Now then I have had quite a few different ideas for lyrics. I should work on that while I wait for Moira to come home. That and continue grinding the morphic body skill. Being able to split into four of me would be a great boon to my playing."
He logged into the game.
One of him turned into an elemental like before and continued using mutable body. The other him sat in contemplation.
♪ Our lives won't last forever, so we'll forever dance! This is our grand endeavor, to never leave this trance. ♫ Jericho paused.
"I know most line dances have lyrics, but does this composition really need it?" He paused. "Yeah, this particular one wouldn't feel quite the same without them."
♫ Our songs will sound forever, the notes already cast. The past will all remember, it will not be the last. ♪
"These lyrics sound fairly good. I think they fit with what Princess was wanting." Jericho sighed. "Let's keep going and see what comes of it. If she doesn't like it, I can find a different use for these lyrics."
♪ Hear the sound of our feet, our hearts are brought into sync! This is the pace of our beat, won't ever be brought to the brink! ♫
[Voice has increased in rank. Voice Expert 4/10.]
"So, skills do rise faster when you are making something new. That is twice now that I have had my music skills upgrade." He laughed as he thought back to his lyrics. "Well, they aren't the most outstanding sounding lyrics but I think they work great."
Glaw came forward. {Jericho, earlier you told your sister that I said something that triggered your earlier elemental and emotional turmoil.}
Jericho gave a nod. {I did say that. You did say things that triggered those emotional responses. I don't blame you though. You couldn't have known what you told me would have such an adverse affect.}
{Still, I am sorry. Can you tell me about it so I can avoid accidently throwing you into chaos again? We elementals are very dangerous to other things when we are in turmoil.} Glaw reasoned.
Jericho shook his head. {I won't talk about the specifics, but years ago, people very important to my sister and I were killed. It was my fault they died and a few simple actions on my part could have saved them. Your words to convince me to save Ken and Lux were not wrong but they hit on my guilt and regret. I am doing better now, you don't have to apologize.}
Glaw gave a nod. {I understand then. You are really close to reaching the stage of a true elemental. As a result, being in an extreme state can cause harm to those around you. I will do my best to not add saltwater to your wounds in the future.}
{Oh, that is good to know and thank you, Glaw.}
Jericho took some calming breaths before thinking about the task ahead.
A little while later…
[Mutable body has reached Adept 10/10. Upgrading to Expert 0/10. Expert bonus: You can change the state your body is in. You cannot change what you are made of. A water elemental can become any watery state.]
[Congratulations, you have become a Tier 3 Water elemental. You have gained the water elemental skills: Become Water N/A, Elemental Fury N/A, Skill Osmosis N/A, and Purify Water 0/10 Beginner. You have gained the Tier 3 water elemental skill line bonus skill: All water related skills will grow 5% faster while at the Beginner and Adept stages. You have gained resistance to water=Level*2 in your human form.]
[Become Water N/A: Turn into water. Become one with water. You can deactivate this skill at any time to return to your elemental form. Because mutable body is at tier 3, you can use this skill to become steam and ice as well.]
[Elemental fury N/A: When under the affects of any extreme or excessive states of being (Like rage or euphoria), attacks become more uncontrollable and significantly more powerful. This ability functions similar to a rage ability. The stronger your combat capabilities, the more destructive you become.]
[Skill Osmosis (Water elementals only): A skill requiring two Tier 3 or greater water elementals. While merged, Water elementals can transfer skill experience from one to another. They cannot transfer any skill experience that would erase a skill or reduce their elemental tier. The skill transferred must be learnable by the other elemental to work.]
[Purify Water 0/10 Beginner: Remove impurities from water. This is often used to cleanse tainted water sources. Currently only a small amount of water can be purified of weaker harmful impurities.]
Glaw sloshed over. {Congratulations, Jericho.}
{Thanks Glaw,} he replied.
{Now then, become whole again and enter your water elemental state. You should pay me back for all the help I have given you so far. That and most of this should be helpful to you as well.}
Jericho gave a nod, brought himself back together and transformed into an adult sized water elemental like Glaw. {Equivalent exchange, right? What do you want in return?}
Glaw merged into Jericho. {I know how much you hate combat, so give me your skill proficiency for Aqua slash and Aqua bullet first. If you keep these two skills weaker, the amount of damage you will cause when you return to an unstable state will be significantly lessened. We will discuss the rest after.}
{Alright,} Jericho replied. He focused on transferring his experiences with the two skills over to Glaw.
[You have used Skill Osmosis with Glaw.] [Your proficiency with Aqua Slash has dropped from 2/10 Beginner to 0/10 Beginner.] [Your proficiency with Aqua Bullet has dropped from 2/10 Beginner to 0/10 Beginner.] [Glaw has gained proficiency with Aqua Slash. Not enough experience transferred to increase the numerical values. Glaw has learned the skill Aqua Bullet 2/10 beginner.]
{What next?} Jericho asked the elemental inside of him.
{I wish to ask for something more than I should. I wish for you to pass on a small piece of your knowledge on how to play that instrument you played using mutable body and the wave like song that made Llyn stronger, but..}
Jericho put his watery arm onto his elemental face. He concentrated and received notifications once again.
[You have used Skill Osmosis with Glaw.] [Your violin skill proficiency has dropped from 2/10 Master to 1/10 Master] [Your composition skill, Water's Tears proficiency has dropped from 5/10 Beginner to 4/10 Beginner.] [Glaw has learned Violin skill 0/10 Adept and can learn tier 2 music skills. Glaw has learned the composition Water's Tears 1/10 Beginner. Glaw's Water elemental skill line is strong enough to cover the lack of necessary Music skill to play the piece.]
{Jericho this is too much and I was about to give a more reasonable suggestion.}
{Why is that too much?} Jericho heard Glaw give a water elemental equivalent to a sigh.
{The amount you are paying to me is too costly to you. But, I do have an idea that will help you and balance our exchange.}
Jericho felt Glaw concentrating on giving him something. Knowledge and skill flowed into him.
[Glaw has used Skill Osmosis with you.] [You have learned the Rare water elemental skill: Energy Tide 0/10 Adept.] [Energy Tide: You have felt the natural ebb and flow of both primary energy sources. You can convert MP into Stamina and Stamina into MP. The exchange ratio is 4:1. Adept bonus: The exchange ratio drops to 3:1.]
Jericho looked over the skill. {Wow, this is a really cool skill. But why do you think it will help? Most of my skills require both stamina and MP at the same time.}
Glaw emerged from Jericho. {Earlier, you were trying to use mutable body in human form. With this, you can convert your MP into the necessary stamina to maintain the mutations slightly longer.}
Realization hit Jericho. {Ah right, mutable body to try and help Princess understand the satyrs better for her dance requires a lot of stamina in my human form.}
{You should see if your plan works and how long it lasts.} Glaw suggested.
Jericho gave a nod, returned to his human form and focused on using mutable body on his feet and legs. Fur sprouted. His skin receded revealing hard hooves. "Ah!" The man fell over. "How do they balance with these feet?"
{Jericho, it might help if you get the knees in the right place and grow a tail like theirs. I think that has a lot to do with their balance.}
"Right." Jericho remained on the ground as he continued to reshape his lower body until he looked like a beardless hornless half-satyr. He took advantage of his new skill and converted his MP into stamina.
{Better, you still look very unstable but at least you should be able to stand now.}
Jericho tried standing again. He wobbled a bit but was able to catch himself before he fell over. "This is harder than it looks. How does Ken adapt so quickly?"
{It is because the instinct of how to move is in his blood. You are using a type of mutation ability. When we were back in the cavern and you grew two extra watery arms, it took you a bit to learn how to control them. Mutable body does not have the natural guidance his blood transformation abilities do.}
"Huh," Jericho voiced as he continued to practice.
[Stamina and MP have been depleted.]
Jericho's human lower body returned. "Well, with the help of the MP, it looks like I can roughly maintain it for a minute and a half." He sat down to meditate and restore his resources.
A notification appeared before Jericho.
[You have received an unblockable message from !Admin¡ Griffin Knight.]
[Reminder notice: Your meeting with Jeannette Long is scheduled to happen in 15 minutes. It is recommended you log out of the game in order to meet her. She likes to be early or on time.]
Jericho smiled. {Glaw, it looks like I have some important things to take care of. I will be back.}
{Alright,} the elemental replied. {It is interesting to watch how your water elemental skills affect your human form.}
Jericho logged off with a light laugh.
Moira came home from school. "Your meeting with that woman today, right?"
"Yep," Jericho replied as they heard a knock on the door.
© J Eranoth