Freedom

By the time the two craftsmen returned, Sylvia had successfully completed two more triangle-clusters of tetrahedrals, during which she lowered her time per tetrahedral from just under two minutes to a little over one and a half minutes.

After a quick dinner during which Enelise had brought up how great it felt to finally take a proper order that wasn't just fixing existing weapons to a higher standard. That also meant that the money both of them earned had jumped quite a bit, and today alone they had brought back more than half of a telum.

When Sylvia brought up her increase in level to over 100, both of them were quite interested in what titles she had gained upon her essence growing. Their interest was really piqued when the topic came to her ability to manipulate her status. From what they knew then such a thing shouldn't really be possible to do.

Once the ability had been clarified, Enelise brought forth with a suggestion that Sylvia hadn't considered. "Actually, if you haven't already, then rather than tell Mikhail first, why don't you try to talk with that Harris guy first, or maybe even the branch master if you can? Maybe they can help handle the situation in a more discrete way." 

Over the past couple of days, her and Philip had been engaging in some small talk with adventurers in town to get their thoughts on obtaining items or abilities with unusual effects, and the general conclusion had been that adventurers had a mostly utilitarian mindset, especially the more experienced ones. Basically, if it could be safely used to improve their job, then there would be very little reason to do anything against it; a sentiment similar to both their own and the one held by the craftsmen they had talked to.

"So, rather than just revealing it to everyone openly after confirming that it'd be fine, you suggest that we limit the knowledge of the ability to those who may be able to help with the situation? That does make a lot of sense." Sylvia said, contemplating the idea.

Philip added to the idea: "Should it work, then it would also help with getting IDs for your other forms, since you won't have to worry about the matter of getting them registered as having entered the town. Going about it this way would also allow you to keep one of your cards hidden from most people, which is generally a good thing to have."

As they discussed the idea further, they developed an increasingly solid plan of action, including what to do in case something did go wrong, though their hope was that it didn't.

A bit later in the evening, shortly after Philip had retired for the night, Enelise pulled Sylvia aside. Just as she was about to ask what for, Enelise prefaced her next statement with "Before you say or ask anything, please hear me out first, and do know that I'm not judging you or anything like that." She could see the confusion begin to show on Sylvia's face as she nodded.

Heaving a big sigh, she continued, "You're not of this world, right? As in, you're from another one." She got her answer the moment the question had left her mouth as Sylvia began to look around frantically with dinner plates for eyes, though she did refrain from saying anything. Hoping to take off a little of the other girl's nerve, she smiled softly and giggled lightly.

"You'll have to get better at learning to hide when someone figures you out; your reaction completely gives away your secret. Regardless, as I said before, I'm not judging you for having kept it a secret, I would've done the same. I have no clue how you hopped worlds. Granted, I wasn't even sure that other worlds existed beyond fairytales and bardic stories until you just confirmed it. Though I suppose that doesn't even really matter at this point.

"I've had this theory brewing in my mind for some time now, and I just wanted to share it so you knew you wouldn't have to keep it a secret any longer." As she spoke, her soft expression became more relieved since her suspicions being confirmed allowed her to stop worrying about them.

The changing expression showed clear signs of helping Sylvia calm down, and in the hope of helping her friend relax, Enelise moved close enough to hug the other girl. "Thank you for trusting me enough to confide in me to the extent you did, despite this entire world has been new to you; I likely wouldn't have figured it out, at least not as quickly if you hadn't. And my promise from a few days ago still holds true. I'm going to do my best to help you adapt to this world."

With a relieved smile and tears forming in her eyes, Sylvia returned the hug. "Thank you… I'm really happy that you were one of the first people I met in this world. I was scared of what would've happened if I had told you the truth, as back at where I'm from, people who spoke of truly controversial ideas were rarely treated nicely." 

Having finally calmed down enough to accept the situation, the two girls were able to have a nice long chat about some personal stories, differences between the Earth and here, clarifications on some more differences of here compared to the Earth, and so on; not having to hide her origin made learning about the differences so much easier and less stressful. After an hour or more had passed, the time had come for the two to head to bed, and the time for Sylvia to reveal her ability to someone besides the craftsmen was looming on the horizon.

----

The following day, Sylvia made her way to the guild and continued her spear practice after quickly updating the status bit of her guild ID to reflect her increase in level, since she forgot to do so yesterday. The practice continued until they were only a few people left in the courtyard and she could get the attention of Harris.

It turned out to be surprisingly easy to get Harris to take her to a private room where they could talk. All she had to do was say that she wanted to ask for some guidance about one of her titles after reaching level 101 in a more private setting. Having seemingly sensed her nervousness, he had mentioned that she's not the first he has helped when it comes to unusual titles.

The room they entered was in the same direction as Harris had first come from back when she signed up, so when combined with the small casks and multiple wine bottles in the otherwise sparsely decorated room, she figured that this was his office; she couldn't think of anyone else who'd have that much alcohol in their office. 

Taking a seat behind the short desk, Harris gestured to a chair in the corner. "Grab yerself a chair, 'less ye'd rather stand." Once she had a chair, he followed up with "Go on lass, what's on yer mind?"

Sylvia took a second to gather herself before she began. "This relates to both my unusual amount of mana and a godly blessing, but more specifically a title that appeared due to their interaction with each other. Simply put, I have a limited ability to shapeshift."

"Shapeshifting ye say… Since you came to me like this, I assume it's unlike the limited degree of shape alteration from transformation and manipulation magic. Mind showing me the shifting?" From his tone, she deduced that he seemed more interested and curious than put off or on guard about it, which relieved her quite a bit.

"Alrighty then. Just keep an open mind." The moment those words left her mouth, she was replaced with Frank, and Harris' jaw dropped. "I hope you can now see what I mean with shapeshifting."

Though it took a couple seconds, the elderly halfling did eventually close his mouth and nod. "Indeed. This is very different from transformation magic; especially with how I couldn't sense any magic from ye. Though I ought to say that's one hell of an ability to gain at the first growth."

"That's because I didn't get it from that, though this ability was enhanced. Have you heard the rumor that I got lost in the forest before coming to the town, which shouldn't happen for an elf." Rumors of such uniqueness had a tendency to efficiently spread far and wide, so the halfling nodded and the youth continued. "That's because I wasn't an elf at the time of entering the forest. I was instead in my original form, Frank, which you see before you now."

From Harris facial expression, Frank could follow his process of surprise, to making sense of that situation, to realizing the implications of what was just said. "Hold on. Ye mean to say that yer racial ability can change as well?"

Frank gave a nod. "Though in return for that aspect, my shapeshifting is limited to a few forms that I have decided on, and they can to my knowledge not be changed. I can however acquire more forms, though I have yet to really figure out the conditions for that. The only things that remain constant between my forms are my mind, base stats, titles, and skills. Everything else can be changed to suit each form."

Following an expletive, a realization dawned on Harris, and it appeared that his many years of experience helped him cut to the core of the issue. "This sounds like a pain with ID cards. If the things that're the hardest to control are the exact same between all forms, then anyone paying even half a rat's eye of attention would become suspicious."

"That thing specifically ceased to be an issue from the moment I hid level 101, as I can lower the values shown for stats and levels and hide both skills and titles. If I hadn't gotten that ability, then I wouldn't have felt confident enough to even bring up my ability with an intent to handle it."

"Ye can change the visuals of yer status?!" The shock on Harris' face was on the same level, if not higher, than when the shapeshifting itself was revealed. "Even just artifacts that can manipulate the status before a low-grade have been the deaths of many. Even if it is from a title effect, do not reveal that part of the ability lightly; that degree envy or fear is not something ye want from the wrong folk, especially nobles."

Once he had ensured that Frank understood the importance of keeping that bit secret and why nobles especially should never hear of it, he returned to the previous topic. "So, if the IDs themselves aren't the issue, then what is it?"

"It's the bit about getting the IDs. Since I have to provide ID to enter town or show my status, I didn't want to take the risk of either having two new people show up in quick succession without an ID, or to get an ID without it being known that I'm in the city. This is because I neither know how that information is handled on the city and guild side, nor how suspicious it is to not have an ID around these parts."

"I can see how that'd worry ye. If ye'd just said that ye'd rather not show your ID, then the entering the city aspect would've likely not been an issue. The whole system is fairly lax, as its purpose is mainly to know if high-level people are in town. 

"It'd be a lot of work if the town master had to keep accurate track of everyone, especially with how fallible people have a tendency to be, though it's likely different in some of the larger cities, but don't worry too much while yer here. Also, the guilds don't share most of their records with the town master and vice versa without proper reason, so ye can just go and get IDs for yer other forms without worry."

It took Harris spelling out the trouble of record keeping for it to really dawn on Frank how his mind was still used to a world of the internet and computers when it came to how civilization worked. Though along with that realization, he also recognized that it'd be a gradual transition to break that habit.

They continued talking for some time after he had had that realization and it eventually ended with Frank returning to Sylvia's form and leaving to get Frank and Calysta set up with the guild; at least getting them E rank IDs like the craftsmen had. One of the things that Harris had mentioned was that while not common, it wasn't that rare that someone refrained from joining any of the guilds until later in life, even with a civilian ID.

When Calysta went to sign up, she was asked if she was looking to join the guild as a tracker or scout, an offer she quickly declined, excusing herself as just wanting to learn tracking, but maybe she could consider joining later on. She did not want to deal with another test at the moment, and especially not when she hadn't even gone beyond [Novice Apprentice Tracker]. 

Hearing her intent, the receptionist informed her that as long as she stayed within the building, she was free to read their books on the local wildlife and the outer edges of the forest. However, she had to respect that information about anything from tier 4 and up was limited to proper guild members. After thanking her for the heads up, Calysta went to make immediate use of the offer, focusing on the surrounding wildlife.

It took less than an hour of reading for it to feel like a whole new world of tracking had opened up to her, and that was without even having to attempt to actually track anything. Back when she had been tracking the beasts of the forest while living in the cave, she hadn't thought of much beyond trying to follow footsteps or sounds, but just the beginning of this book alone mentioned a plethora of other signs.

Besides the footsteps, it could be anything from creature scat to remains of their meals to even sensing remains of their mana, though that was a fairly advanced technique. Along with sensing the mana, it mentioned that skilled trackers could also guesstimate the level or mana of what they track quite accurately.

As it went over some basic techniques, it also gave an example of when it's likely to be the work of tracking compared to luck or unskilled reliance on a high perception stat. This section was split up into two sections: the local wildlife and the outskirts of the forest. When it came to the local wildlife, being able to find and track a beast down within half an hour was quite decent, while it'd probably take about an hour of just wandering about to stumble across a beast. The importance of this was clear when it came to finding specific beasts, since a tracker could actually track a specific beast, and not just hope to stumble across the right one.

When it came to the forest, however, it was a bit of a different story. In the outskirts of the forest where tier 0-2 monsters roamed, a beginner or competent tracker would probably take 15-30 minutes, while someone wandering about could easily take well over and hour to find something due to these creatures relatively high mana sensitivity, and it'd often be a carnivore finding them instead. 

At tier 3-4, a tracker should take 5-15 minutes, while 15-60 minutes would make sense for walking around. This stemmed from not only the higher concentration of creatures at those tiers and in less space, but also their often more territorial nature. And besides smaller critters, it's generally relatively easy to find for everyone to find the creatures they're looking for, since different regions of the forest seem prone to bringing forth specific types of creatures, to which the Adventurers' Guild can help find the correct region.

After making a mental note that she should get herself something for sketching footprints at some point, she decided to head out to the surrounding wildness to just try to see if she could use anything she had just read about, fully aware that her use of that knowledge would be surface level at best.

As she walked through the city on her way out, not only did she notice that she was getting a lot more stares than usual, with multiple of them feeling like small needles lightly poking at her, she also noticed the smell far more than she had before, especially from some of the alleys, and it wasn't particularly pleasant.

Luckily, she made it out without issue, her new ID working just as well as Sylvia's. Granted, it would've been weird if it hadn't worked. Once she was a bit away from the city, she began to just sprint along the already treaded path, enjoying the boost in physical capabilities from being a bearfolk to the fully, with the wind in her long, brown hair making her incredibly free.

Though when she had begun her sprint, she initially felt like her physical abilities were actually less than usual, but as she had pushed on, she soared in speed and reached her current velocity. It appeared that [Person of Many Faces] helped to naturally limit the use of stats to how they were altered to look, but not more allowing her to push through at any moment if she wished. Thinking back on it, it was probably something like this Aywin had noticed yesterday on the way back.

Over the next couple of hours, she veered off the path and looked around for any signs she could find of animals, making full use of her great sense of smell to guide her in the right direction. Though most importantly, she tried not to rely on her smell to get more than a clue where to look, but instead try to use what she had read about to deduce the path of the animal and if it had recently been here, seemingly without much accuracy.

During her time tracking, she made sure to never lose awareness of where the forest was, since she knew that she could always use her elven forest map to locate the way back home, not realizing that not learning how to navigate without an ability based mental map would eventually come back to bite her once she'd leave the area around the forest.

Over the next four hours she practiced her tracking, finding and killing a few smaller beasts, with the first one only being found when she tried to make full use of her sense of smell and hearing to track something down, just to get a feel for its effectiveness. While it was by far more effective, it didn't seem as effective for leveling the skill, as by the time she had found it, her |Tracking| level had yet to go from 20 to 21. It was only when she later on found one by trying to actively track it that it leveled up.

She had also run into other beasts, but nothing beyond tier 2, and both of them had been carnivores seeking her out, and not her tracking them down, so she didn't count them.

As the sun began to hang quite low, indicating the coming of the evening, she made a run for the forest, making full use of her 240 Strength for speed, 210 Endurance for stamina, and 320 Vitality for catching her breath whenever she felt like she had pushed herself just a bit too much. Once she reached the forest edge, she turned to Sylvia to get a sense of her location, before returning to her bearfolk folk form and dashing back; thereby making it back in about three quarters of an hour, rather than the full hour or more she felt it'd had taken as Sylvia.

Once back, she reentered the town and found a place to return to her Sylvia form after getting an E rank ID for Frank as well, after which she made her way back to the inn and chatted with Enelise and Philip, as they arrived shortly afterwards. Having shared what she learned from Harris, they agreed that tomorrow she should head back to the cave and get the remaining craftsmen to come to the town.