"The final challenge — Shapeshift into me."
Finn blinked. "… Come again?"
"Shapeshift into me," Melvia repeated, slower this time.
"…"
This was certainly possible — at least, according to what Iris read out last night. All Finn needed to transform into another living organism was a strand of their DNA — for humans, hair worked best. But the problem was, even Shapeshifting masters have difficulty pulling this trick off, and it came with a risk too. If the transformation failed, the caster would be forever stuck as the person they tried morphing into, only as a deformed version.
Because Shapeshifting into another person also changed your personality and very identity along with it, Finn wasn't sure if being in this virtual simulation will help him.
"So? Up for the challenge?" Melvia taunted, folding her arms. "I believe you can do it, but if you don't want to take the risk, that's alright. Just keep in mind how useful this skill is."
After some slight hesitation, Finn made his choice.
"… I'll do it."
Melvia smiled. "Good, not afraid to take risks — you remind me of Bakris sometimes, hehe."
Saying this, she pulled out a strand of her hair and placed it in Finn's hand.
"Now, the process for Shapeshifting into a living being is somewhat different from the usual," she explained. "First, sit down."
Finn sat down on the pure white floor, awaiting further instructions.
"Now, I want you to expel mana from both your hands, shooting the energy waves against one another so that the strand of hair I just gave you remains levitated in between your two hands. Got that?"
Finn nodded and began working. He held his right hand above his left, facing down. It was almost as if there was an invisible ball between his hands. The strand of hair was on his left hand, facing up. He began by pumping mana out of his left hand first.
The hair strand immediately floated up into the air, propelled by the mana wave. Immediately, Finn began expelling mana from his right hand as well, pushing the hair strand back down.
Once the strand was about right in the middle of his two hands, he stabilized it there by controlling the mana output of both his hands so that they were equivalent. Melvia, witnessing this, nodded in satisfaction.
"Great start, but here comes the hard part — steadily increase the mana outputs of both your hands until I tell you to stop, but make sure they remain equal. If the hair goes out of the position it's currently in, the process will fail and you will have to restart."
Usually, Finn only had to change one hand's mana output, but here, he had to do both — which meant he had to make the mana in his body diverge and flow two separate directions, which was something he had never done before.
Luckily, Zelestria was here to help. She sensed Finn's need for assistance and began manipulating Finn's mana current, causing a steady stream of energy to flow down both his arms simultaneously and out his two hands.
"Good… perfect…" Melvia murmured, watching in awe as if this was a miracle. "Keep going."
By now, Finn had somewhat grasped the feeling of making his mana diverge and flow two separate directions. He took over from here, and Zelestria, who felt this, backed out. It was difficult to monitor both currents of mana at once, but Finn pulled it off, continuing to gradually increase his mana output. However, his total mana remaining was running dangerously low, and sweat began forming on his forehead.
"Almost there…" Melvia grit her teeth nervously, almost like she was the one doing this and not Finn.
Finn's hands began to tremble slightly from the sheer amount of mana being outputted from them, and the silver glow around his body intensified. He was practically a radiant silhouette of silver light at this point, but that wouldn't last very long at the rate his mana was depleting.
Finn could feel his energy running out, but he still kept on pushing. He already experienced first-hand just how horrible using up every last bit of mana he had felt from yesterday, but like Melvia said — he wasn't afraid to take risks. Shapeshifting into another lifeform was incredibly useful and could unlock countless infiltration, espionage, and assassination mission potential. Should a situation similar to Heartbeat arise once again, the squad will have a far easier time.
'At this rate, I can only hold on for about five seconds left…' Finn grit his teeth and thought in his mind, shutting his eyes tightly.
"Just a little bit more, Finn! Hang in there!" Melvia exclaimed, cheering him on.
'Tch… c'mon…!'
Three.
Two.
One.
"Okay, that's enough!"
Finn finally opened his eyes and panted heavily, relaxing his arms and nearly toppling over from the exhaustion. He noticed the strand of hair had disappeared somehow, and panicked slightly.
"The hair… where did it…"
"Don't worry," Melvia interjected, calming him down. "The strand of hair is supposed to disappear. In other words, you completed the first and hardest step successfully, Finn. Good work."
"… Hah…" Finn leaned back and spread his arms wide, lying on the simulated floor. He took deep breaths, trying to get his mana back.
"I never thought you would actually be able to do it… in fact, even I've never accomplished this before," Melvia laughed self-depreciatingly. "I've certainly tried — many, many times. But the sheer amount of mana required for this is absolutely insane. You only first joined the Ghost Hunter world a few weeks ago, and yet you have such a monstrous amount of mana. Just talent, I suppose."
"… I only completed the first step, and I'm already completely out of mana. I don't think this counts as me succeeding."
"Maybe," Melvia said with an innocent shrug. "But as you take down more Ghosts, grow more proficient in using Angelicas, and get stronger overall, your mana pool will also increase. Very soon, you'll be able to accomplish what I couldn't."
"…"
"Now, let's head back. There's really nothing left to teach you," Melvia said, dusting her hands off and placing them on her hips. "Just remember — to Shapeshift into something, you need information on them using your five senses. The more accurate, the better.
"It'll be difficult for you since you don't have sight, so transforming into specific things with great detail would be impossible, but there are work-arounds — namely, virtual planes like this where you CAN see. If we want you to Shapeshift into something specific, we can just show you what it looks like beforehand in a virtual dimension. But… yeah. That's pretty much it."
Finn nodded, standing back up slowly. "Thank you."
Melvia smiled. "You can pay me back by learning how to cook and whipping up a meal for me."
Finn wasn't too sure about that one, but he was grateful nonetheless.