Vex gave me a sweet goodbye and a promise to ‘communicate’ often once I got out of the dungeon. She also congratulated me on getting as far as I did and as fast as I did with zero help. She wanted me to get stronger before my promised relief came. I’m sure she would have tried to skirt a few more rules, but she was right about me being able to manage her avatar, and thus wanted round two. Did I dare defy a goddess? I did dare not.

  The fog receded, leaving me in the still, wrecked recovery room. It looks like I healed faster than it did. It was working, but slowly. I needed to create some more mass for Ink so he could create my make-shift pants, but I had an opportunity that was closing slowly. I could see from my vantage point the damaged section of the wall. The very magic of the room I had come to rely on was exposed for the first and probably only time. Ink finally trilled in.

  *cautious trill*

  “What are you afraid of, bud?

  *chaotic repetitive trills*

  “Woah…Calm down, buddy. First, we tanked a fireball. That’s a fucking achievment. Thanks for saving my skin by the by. That was a solid move.”

  *dutiful trill*

  “True, but if that was it, why didn’t you come out? Vex would have loved to meet you.”

  *terrified trill*

  “Of Vex? Nah, she wouldn’t hurt you. You and I are one now, and she has a thing for me.”

  *ominus awefilled trill*

  “Yeah, of course she is a real god. Her true form is better. Did you like her clothes? I designed those for her.”

  *descending trill*

  I think he passed out. It took a second to find where he was hiding in my body and give him a jolt of mana.

  *Anger awakened trill*

  “Funny buddy, but it’s no time for naps, I need you to work.”

  *Curious trill*

  “The magic for the room is exposed, and I can see the runes. They look way over my head, but we can’t let this opportunity go to waste.”

  I walked over to the exposed section of wall. I could feel the mana radiating from the stone. There were over a hundred runes in a repeating sequence. They were moving and flashing like the movie depictions of computer code. I was starting to wonder if our world had an influence on this one. I tabled that thought and focused on the runes.

  “Ink, can you see the runes?”

  *affirmative trill*

  “Ok, remember when you did the cool lines of marks beneath my eyes?”

  *affirmative followed by inquisitive trill*

  “Awesome, how good is your memory?”

  *Confused trill*

  *Understanding trill*

  What happened next was a complex task of Ink making himself a tattoo on my arm, and me correcting his mistakes. I could feel the knowledge seeping in, but no breakthroughs. After about four hours at it, I was confident the two of us could repeat the rune sequence of the wall. I wanted to get it done now because I was almost positive there wasn’t a monologue on the other side of that door.

  I had four things to do before going there, though. The first was to create more material for Ink. The leather was the most economical and comfortable. I was getting a better sense of how much time was passing. The leather and rune research took at least a day.

  The second was the hardest part, and that was finishing learning the coin materials. Being able to turn mana into precious metal was either trivial or a literal golden goose ability. After that, I wanted to focus on trying to create the coins and make the enhancement that made them magical. I knew the rune for the enchantment, but it was the process of getting it done. I had a chicken and egg quandary about it, but figured I would try both and see which worked or worked better. And lastly, I was going to make another fire grenade. I could still remember how off the first one was, so I was hoping to replicate its lack of intensity.

  I had two coins left, the white ones and the shifty ones. I, of course, went with the white ones first. I pulled one out and switched my vision onto it. I felt a familiar barrier. I was not looking forward to the death by a thousand taps to see the still fuzzy metal beneath it. I was just trying to find an optimum place to start when I felt one of my skills respond to my desire. I literally tore the magical rune protection apart. It's like once I figured out how to do it, it became automatic. Either that or my runic skill allowed me mastery over the skills I had. Regardless, with the protection down, the white metal gave up its secrets easily and answered my favorite hobbit question.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Materials Learned!

  Titanium

  Mithril - This is a magically enhanced form of titanium. Its nature resists alteration outside of specific magical means.

  I made damn sure ink learned that one too. Metals may not be his forte, but perhaps one day. It was time to start on the shifty coins.

  It still bothered me that I couldn’t find one of the coins. That bother was quickly forgotten as I drew the coin out. Ink went crazy. Not psycho crazy, but super, I want it crazy. His trills were super loud. I had to hot potato the coin from hand to hand as she raced through my body to get one. I’m pretty sure he even growled at me.

  I finally gave in and let him have one as a sacrifice so I could study another. He attacked it with the fervor of a starving dog. I had to contend with a literal golf ball-sized lump of thrashing goo in my hand. Thankfully, he was mindful enough to stick to my thigh when I wiped him off on my leg. I dove into the coin.

  There was no barrier, but I was not prepared for what I saw. There was no atomic structure I could see. Just a chaotic mess of undulating masses, the color of an oil slick. The masses were constantly shifting size and shape from sticky dough or cheese-like masses to cubic and hexagonal patterns of surprising regularity. I had no idea where to start making sense of it. What did make sense was Ink’s eagerness. This coin was made out of a material that acted like Ink. It wasn't him, but it had the same shifting tendencies. I needed a pattern. I tried to focus on one section, hoping to see a repetition of anything. I continued to stare but got nowhere. The part of me that could still see with my eyes could track the repair of the dungeon wall. Time was passing, and I needed answers. I’m not one for hopeless causes. That’s a lie. I was in this until the end. Finally, after what was probably a day, I resorted to my default….Force.

  I picked a small section in front of me, and I focused my will on it. I had the transformation aspect and this metal, no, this material seemed rife with he concept. I didn't know if this was true, but Mord had alluded to the fact that there was more to aspects than skills. It was knowledge and some mastery of the concept itself. Well, if I had mastery over transformation, it was time for the material to play ball. I grabbed the section in front of me with will and mana and forced it into a ball, a perfect sphere. It was a chain reaction; suddenly, spheres were everywhere. I flexed the sphere into a cube. Same thing. On the outside, the coin was a perfect one-inch cube of iridescent metal in my hand. I tried color next, red, blue, green, and even clear. I started to understand the idea of the material. It was transformation and something else, not chaos, but desire or need. I felt the information solidify in my brain.

  Material Learned!

  Metaridium- This shape-shifting meta-metal changes shape based on external influences. Its default state will blend in with its background

  No wonder my shape-shifting familiar went ape shit. It was a literal shape-shifting metal. I focused on the external influences part, remembering how it tried to hide in a stack of other coins, and when it went into the vending machine. I now knew this material, I also probably could ‘see’ the shapes and internal mechanisms of things like locks. Whew, that was going to be clutch. I focused on destroying the coin. Not because I needed to learn it, but because I wanted to see what happened.

  *angry trill*

  Ink was not happy as he watched the coin disappear into dust, and even the dust disappeared either into energy or into hiding. Some definitely went into energy, and I followed the flow. I watched the energy flow through my body into my loci. In the loci, it flowed up into the palatial stacks and settled in some of the empty donuts. It occurred to me that this is what Mord was talking about when he mentioned how what we did influenced our abilities as they formed. I decided to look through my stacks. I found little motes of colored light in each of the empty stacks. As I was looking, I also noticed that not all the stacks were empty. In fact, one was quite full. I traced it back to my Stout and Transformation combination. I hadn’t checked on the hot tub in a while, but a quick thought told me that its level had not changed. I also thought it might just be enough to fill said donut. It looked like it was cultivation time.