"THE TEST BEGINS NOW"

I bolted off in a random direction, hoping to put as much distance from me and this place as possible.

'Try and find a place where we can be alone. We need privacy for this. I want to sort your strength out before we enter any sort of combat.'

 I nodded in response and started running. I was glad I had my enhanced stamina; I was able to run at full speed for a good 15 minutes.

'We can stop here.'

I slowly ground to a halt amongst a group of trees.

'i think we are far enough now’⁰

'wait, let me check.'

I stopped and focused. I started combing through my internal catalogue.

'There they are' i focused on them, and I felt an odd sensation on top of my head, and then my hearing briefly disappeared, only for it to suddenly come back with increased fidelity. I put my hands to the top of my head, and yep they were there. I definitely had wolf ears. I listened carefully for anything that sounded out of place.

'I think the coast is clear. Wow, I can't get over the fact I can grow wolf ears like that.'

'You can experiment with more appendages later, but we have something more important to deal with right now.'

'Yeah, my strength.'

'we need you to take control of it. Because having emotions rule your strength is bad for us.'

'I understand. What do you need me to do.'

'you need to understand what s going on first. In your body, you have a well of mass.'

'mass?'

'Yeah, remember a while back I said anything you eat gets converted into strength.'

'Kinda.'

'Well, it's doesn't matter. I'm going to explain it again. Whatever you eat gets converted into a mass that you can use to augment your body. This mass is stored inside you. As of now, you've been subconsciously drawing on that mass in your anger. Well, that changes now.. your going to learn how to draw on that mass yourself.'

'So When I shapeshift, does that use mass.'

'for smaller stuff like the ears, No, it won't. But if you wanted to generate something large, let's say dragon wings, you will draw upon that mass.'

'makes sense. So how do I draw in this mass.'

'That's for you to figure out. All I can give you is the theory because I've never had this problem. You forget you weren't born with these abilities like me. You were given them. You don't have the instinctual knowledge that I have. If I were to suggest how you start, I would suggest meditating.'

I decided to sit down and cross my legs and close my eyes. I tried to focus on something. Honestly, I had no idea what I was supposed to do here. I sat and meditated for what felt like ages.

"BAH, this is too hard; Alexis, can you give me some more ad-"

I opened my eyes to find myself in a familiar nothingness

"It's been a while since I was last here. Alexis!, Where are you?"

I stood and waited for no response. It looks like I will have to find my own way out. I swam around in the vast nothingness for lord knows how long. Wait, does time even exist here? I pushed that worrying thought to the side and focused on the problem at hand. Alexis mentioned a well of mass, so am I looking for a hole, maybe? I looked around, trying to find something, but there was only Nothing. Wait, Nothing could it be? I focused on the nothingness inside of me, and I could feel it move it was hard to describe, but I just knew it was flowing somewhere. I focused on where it was flowing and started swimming as fast as I could until I saw IT. It was like Alexis said. It was a well, well to be precise, it was a hole where all the nothingness was flowing into. I got as close as I could, but something told me it would be very bad if I fell in there. But one thing I knew was that this was it. Now, what do I do? I'm at the well. How do I draw mass from this? I mean, could it be as simple as. I stuck my hand out above the hole. Nothing happened. Of course not why would it be that easy. I paced around the hole,  thinking about how I could get my mass from this hole.

"ARGHH, THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING. IT'S MY BODY. MY RULES. IT SHOULD JUST GIVE ME THE STRENGTH"

Suddenly a small amount of black goo came up from the hole, only for it to suddenly fall back into the hole.

Okay, so that was something. My guess is that was the mass Alexis was talking about, but what did I do to summon it. Is it just as simple as asking for it?

"can I have some mass?"

Nothing. Of course, that wasn't it. Maybe I have to be more assertive about it.

"I demand you give me more strength!"

Still Nothing. What did I do that time? I pondered what I did to get the black goo to come up. Is it not giving it to me because I'm asking for it? Which if you think about it, makes a lot of sense; who am I asking here? This mass is mine; I don't need to ask for something that is already mine. I walked up to the hole and looked down at it. i put my hand above it. I relaxed and focused on only one thing. Using what is mine.   

"IM TAKING MY STRENGTH"

The words rang throughout the vast nothingness. Then black goo started flowing out of the hole in large quantities. I grabbed hold of it, and it started flowing into me.

 I felt my body firm up. "This Is amazing. All this power I was sleeping on."

"Haha, well done. I'm so proud"

 I turned to where the voice came from, but as soon as I did. I found myself back in the woods as soon as I did.

Who was that? It didn't sound anything like Alexis or anyone I know, for that matter.

'Your back. Took you long enough.'

'Yeah, sorry. How long was I out for.'

'about 5 minutes, why.'

'5 MINUTES felt longer than that.'

'well, don't dwell too much on that. I wanna talk about the most exciting part. You've figured it, haven't you

'Hehe, yep, let me show you.'

I drew upon the mass, and I felt it collect in my body. I sent all the mass to my arms, and I watched as my muscle got more taught and stiff. I walked up to a tree and gave it a punch. The tree splintered and then immediately gave way. I jumped out of the way as it fell to the ground.

'that's some power you got there, but you lack control. But we can work on that. Now let's get out and dodge. we've definitely drawn some unwanted attention

I nodded and started running. Now I can really start hunting.