The Dao of Magic

94 - Impetuous

"He..."
"Wha..."
"Wow..."
"Ew..."
"You go, Teach!" shouts Vox while whooping.

A very small, miniscule part of my psyche rebels at what I am doing. I shush that bigoted part of myself and continue to french kiss the fat, wrinkled face. The shell does not matter, I keep telling myself, it's all about what's inside after all. I wrap the figure in my arms while closing my eyes against the glow. I feel the soft, doughy flesh shift into soft, womanly curves. I get punched as soon as the change is done.

"Don't compromise this image, the mortals leave us alone when we take that form. And don't just start kissing me, Drew." I wince a bit at her use of my name but ignore it.

"I missed you too. Did you bring presents?" I indicate the large stitched sack filled with mana crystals we are standing on, not bothering to wipe the grin from my face.

"Phew, him kissing that old guy scared me half to death!"
"Aww, I thought I was going to see some man on man action."
"Shut up Tess, don't remind me of that gross image. I can never forget that. Why did I stick with a braincore?"
"I agree, Tess. That was hot!"
"Vox? Do you have something to tell me?"

I totally ignore the babbling group of students as I stealthily wrap an arm around Rhea's waist. I do it as naturally as possible while turning around. She does not react as I study the group of kneeling mages.

"That's the guy, Ket?"

Ket nods in reply to my question as I study his aura. The kneeling man has brown hair and a frame both skinny and pudgy. He feels sad, hopeless and dull. I start thinking about how to best do this, but the guy is obviously not happy in his current position and I don't want to take any unnecessary risks.

Rifling through my ring, I find a small medicine bottle. I pull the cork and extract small droplets, letting one fall on the skin of every mage here except one.

"Teach, what's that?"

"Just some amnesiac anaesthesia. I can't seem to shake this habit of secrecy," I reply to Vox.

"Ah, forgetting drugs..."

I jump down and stand in front of the still kneeling fellow, ignoring the slumped figures that now surround him.

"You are the only one that doesn't seem like a horrible person, wanna go do something else?" I try my best to project an air of possibility, a starting point with open roads stretching to the horizons. He looks at me with confusion across his face.

The mage then looks down, sighs very deeply and starts muttering to himself. "And now I'm going crazy. All I wanted was to be a farmer, but now I am talking to bearded gay person who kisses transforming legenda-"

"Perfect! Please become my gardener."

"Gardener?"

"Yeah, here." I want to get a move on, so I shove a mystical herbs and plants primer inside a piece of jade and push it against his forehead. Three threads of qi probe the three locations. His cultivation will be as dull as the person himself feels, his dantian reacts a bit, so a gutcore. I initiate the core forming process by shoving the mental image of his scanned body inside his dantian and pull him inside Tree.

I keep an eye on him as he starts stumbling around, gaping at the sight of Tree with its mana formation crown. The qi density in the air is ever increasing and he starts sprinting towards the bushes after only a few breaths. Ah, the horrors of starting a fresh gutcore cultivation with a body polluted by years and years of living.

Even through the huffing and puffing the guy is doing I see a light start appearing in his eyes as he looks at the lush foliage covering every square centimetre of ground inside the dimension. Then I realize that I am spying on a guy having horrible diarrhoea and snap my focus back towards my current situation.