It was still early in the morning, and a light fog lay over the forest, so only a few rays of sunshine reached the cave's entrance. As always, Luna had already gotten food. Instead of fish, she got fruit and a deer today and was done with the preparations. A thin stone slab lay over the embers, whereupon the meat of a dear was roasted. The fire crackled and crackled, and a low hum could be heard. "Uhargh." A groan broke the mood. In the cave, Jannet slowly got up from her bed. The fever went away over the night, and all that was left was a slight headache. "How are you?" asked Luna, who immediately rushed into the cave at the slightest sound. "I feel great, discounting the headache," Jannet said while holding her head.

"That's good news, considering you almost gave up." Luna had a smile on her face. All her effort had paid off. The only thing that worried her was the dying forest. "I almost died?" Jannet yelled in surprise. It isn't every day you get told to your face that the course of the disease was so horrible.

"You were glowing like an oven. I was relieved when the fever went down yesterday night. But you should eat something first; after all, you haven't eaten anything for a whole day." Only now did Jannet realize how much her stomach was growling. Jannet tried to get up a few times but always failed. "Um, could you help me up; my body still feels numb." Luna, who had been crouching next to Jannet the whole time, laughed and pulled her to her feet. She supported Jannet with one arm and made their way to fire together.

Sitting on an oak log, Luna gave Jannet a stone plate with fruits and steak before she began to narrate the events that had taken place. They had eaten fish and steak the last couple of days, but Jannet was glad that Luna even provided these resources.

"So, where should I begin?" Luna thought out loud.

"Could you start after I became ill?" Jannet asked in a trembling voice. It seemed it was still hard for her, and she would need to rest a bit longer in bed.

"So after you became ill, I carried you into the bed. You were shaking like a leave; I cooled you down using ties from my cloak and wrapped them around your calves. But sadly, your fever would not go down. After your temperature rose too high, I decided to bite you and analyze your blood. It turned out that nothing was wrong with your blood. That's when it hit me. You see, every living being in this world has Mana in their body, so at first, I didn't even find it weird that your Mana level had average values.

"But you are not from this world, and Mana has the properties to change the body and increase compatibility. Although this is quite common, in your case it has sort of turned into a problem. It's not a problem if the body is adjusted a bit, but in your case, pretty much everything has been reworked."

"What exactly was reworked in my body?" Jannet was uncomfortable; she had no idea what was changed and how this would affect her life.

"Don't worry; it's not like you think it is. To phrase it carefully, your connection between body and soul is more present now. Maybe your DNA changed slightly, but your look will stay the same. Your next few days will be a bit shaky, and if your symptoms come back, I will give you the medicine. Do you have questions so far?" It was important for Jannet to know what could happen.

"You said you gave me medicine, right? What was in there exactly?"

"Good question," said Luna, and she took the leather pouch with the Fairy Flower powder from her belt and handed it to Jannet.

"Be careful; this is the only one we have. The Fairy Flower is a unique flower that has existed in our old world as well. Its characteristics are Mana's absorption of the surroundings to grow. Some say that fairies take unparalleled nectar from this flower. And white power gets distributed through the air. This unique flower can be used to make various kinds of products, but the powder is the most famous," said Luna. 

Jannet was silent the entire time. It was still hard to believe she was in a fantasy world. Her head was still dizzy, but she managed to continue listening.

"So where was I? Ahh, right. I diagnosed your illness and concluded that you could only survive if I found something that could absorb your raging Mana. So I looked around and regularly came back to change your ties. The pouch with the powder was a gift from a human group saved by me."

Jannet handed Luna the pouch, who stored it on her belt again.

"But we still have a problem. To the northwest lies a human city, but the withered forest would be between the city and us. The group of humans got attacked by an army of monsters. So first, I would relocate our resting place as soon as possible. If we want to travel toward the human city, we would have to go through the forest, and I don't know if you would survive that. The other option would be to go around the infection to the east."

Jannet was terrified. All this time, she was sleeping next to a monster hideout, and right now, she had no strength to flee if necessary.

"Don't worry; the monsters are active on the north side of the forest. They probably fear that humans are invading them soon and reinforce their defense to the north. I'd stay for another two days before we are going to leave. If the monsters show up earlier, we can react accordingly."

She looked towards Jannet, who had finished her meal and was starting to get tired again.

"You are currently too weak to do anything, so just rest and gather more strength. If it cheers you up, maybe I can tell you about magic and answer some of your questions." Luna tried to comfort her with a smile on her face. She knew Jannet was concerned about their situation and distracted her highly with magic because she knew how interested Jannet was in it. She could practically see the stars in her eyes. But before Jannet could ask, Luna continued.

"First, we get you into bed so you can rest properly." Before Jannet could say a word, Luna picked her up like a princess and carried her to the bed. Jannet had paled from their conversation, and Luna decided to give her some rest. Her body was still recovering, and she didn't want to burden her too much.

"So, what do you want to know about magic?" Asked Luna after Jannet lay in the bed.

 "Ähm. could you like start at the beginning? So that I understand the principle behind it."

"Sure, no problem. The simplest way to explain magic would be to bend reality to your will. However, that is only partially true; otherwise, I would have had access to magic in our previous reality. You might have heard it already, but to use magic, a person needs an energy source. This energy has many names. Some say magic-essence, while others use the term Mana. So, in other words, you give the mana directions to be executed. Your will over the magic is what bends reality.

"You've already observed that I'm not very good at using elemental magic. The reason for that is quite simple; do you want to take a guess?" Luna looked in Jannets's direction and saw how her eyes became heavier. It took her a while to answer.

"Mhh, you said you didn't specialize in it, right?"

"You know that Mana changes your body. I'm not sure what exactly changes, but the only thing that matters is that it does. If you specialize in one field, your body will be adapted accordingly. Your affinity grows stronger the more you concentrate on a certain area. This means you have to choose carefully. Due to the potential conflict between many magic fields, people rarely choose more than one. This conflict can occur even within one's specialization. Take fire and water, for example. A person that uses fire mainly will never be able to use water the same way. The one would weaken the other."

To visualize her point, she snapped her fingers and created a small flame, which she extinguished the next moment with water.

"Or a shadow mage that starts to use fire or light magic will encounter the same problem. But the highest drawback is that you split up your specialization. Imagine yourself with a bucket that is only half full because the other half is in your other bucket. So even if you try your hardest, there will be things you will never be able to reach. And if you want to use magic that is not in your field, you have to cast it with the intention of not dyeing yourself in its color. Did you understand everything?" Luna looked down at Jannet and saw that she was half asleep. She took off her cloak and put it over her.

'Why do I even tell her things when she falls asleep in front of my nose? Let's just save the existing fields for later or tomorrow. Hopefully, she can recover a bit more. Mhh, maybe I can even craft something with this.'

Luna looked at the skin of the deer before she took it into her hand and began to wave shadows into it. Slowly but surely, the animal's pelt started to move into a different shape. The leather lengthened and grew softer over time. From light brown to dark brown, the color altered. As more and more Mana was used to weave the shadows into the pelt, Swisspearls began to form on Luna's brow. The length of the leather increased. Arms eventually developed on both sides.

After nearly two hours, Luna finally had a thick coat with a hood that would hopefully keep Jannet warm. Although Luna had thought about constructing another garment, she preferred the concept of having one that could provide warmth for the entire body. Jannet was dressed in only her lab attire in comparison to her. It wasn't too thick, either. They would be ready if the weather turned colder during the next few days. After all, autumn was just around the corner.

Next, Luna took the torn strips of fabric that she used to cool down Jannet. She had no trouble connecting them back to her coat because the clothing they originated from was entirely constructed of shadows. 

'It would be so useful to construct clothing out of pure shadow, but sadly I can only do that when I am transforming into my true nature.'

Jannet awoke around the evening again. She looked a lot better and could take a seat position all by herself. Her face had regained color.

"Did you sleep well, my angel?" Luna asked carefully.

"Yes, I have. And I feel amazing. Could we continue our talk about magic?" Jannet got already out of her bed.

"Maybe you should eat something first?"

"Good idea," exclaimed Jannet and stormed out of the cave.

"Where is all this energy coming from so suddenly?" Luna was baffled. Jannet was still shaky on her feet this morning, and suddenly it looked like she was running a marathon. Luna made her way out of the cave and started to lite a fire. They would need to wait for the stone plate to heat up for roasting the meat. So she could use the meantime to talk about magic.

"Before I continue to talk about magic, I would like to analyze your blood one last time." Jannet, who was so energetic the entire time, froze on the spot. Her head slowly turned in Luna's direction before she gulped and decided to speak.

"In other words, you intend to bite me, correct?"

"You've got it. Don't be scared; it won't hurt you." Luna got up from the log she was sitting on and made her way to Jannet. She wanted to move away, but a firm grip held her.

"Don't make it worse by attempting to flee. You have to trust me."

Jannet took a deep breath and remained in the same position; she closed her eyes. Her entire body was tense, and her hands covered her neck. Luna slowly and carefully removed the hands before leading Jannet's hand to her head. A small bite on the finger was all Luna needed. Jannet sat there dumbfounded.

"You know, you could have told me you wanted to bite my finger." Annoyed that Luna played that up so dramatically.

"I know, but it was funny to see your scared face. But your blood looks and tastes great so far."

Meanwhile, the stone plate was getting warmer, but the temperature was still not high enough to roast the meat.

Luna noticed Jannet still had an annoyed look on her face. "How old are you, five? Get over it. Besides, I'm tired. I hardly slept when you were sick."

Only now did she realize how exhausted Luna looked. She was charged with so much energy that she hadn't even noticed the dark circles under Luna's pale skin.

"Thank you for taking care of me," Jannet spoke in a low voice. She knew that she was only a burden to Luna and was extremely grateful for all that Luna had done for her. She still didn't understand why Luna took such good care of her.

"Oh, don't worry; I enjoy having someone to talk to. I also always have a drink on hand in case I start to feel thirsty." With a big grin, Luna looked in Jannets's direction only to see a wry smile from her friend.

"Yeah, let's not talk about that. You wanted to tell me more about magic fields, right?" In the meantime, the stone plat had become hot enough, and Luna began to roast the meat.

"There are a lot of magic fields. Elemental might be the most common. But like other fields, elemental magic can also be split into different categories. Elemental mages frequently cast spells that primarily impact earth, fire, water, and wind. The same could be said of ice, light, and darkness, though you could also classify them differently. 

"Shadows are used by shadow or darkness mages, as the name implies. They can use them as they see fit after they manifest them. Weapons of all kinds can be made out of shadows. They use swords, spears, or grasping tentacles against their opponents. The user's creativity is primarily what limits them."

Luna took a short pause to take a breath, but before she could continue Jannet asked a question. In her opinion shadow magic had too many advantages, so there had to be a drawback.

"That sounds a little unfair to me. If they can do whatever they imagine, then how are you going to fight them?"

Luna turned the meat around before she continued.

"Like all fields, even shadow magic has a weakness. Shadow mages often combine unique abilities from dark and shadow magic to counter some of the shadow's weaknesses. If it is too dark, no shadow mage can use his specialty because no shadow can exist in pure darkness. So they combined it with the darkness element to use darkness the same way they use shadows. The so-called dark shadow mages are unbelievably powerful at night or in dark places. And I would suggest just fleeing if you cross paths with someone, with the exception that you can use a type of magic that can create light."

With the snap of her finger and a circular motion of her hand, she created a tiny flame that was sitting in her palm.

"A small candle won't do you much good since you can see it. The fire in my hand hardly emits any light and therefore cannot rid the area of darkness. A good fire mage can take down a shadow mage with ease. Pure shadow mages can be affected by light as well, but they are less susceptible to it than dark shadow mages."

Luna took the meat and placed it on a small stone plate before she handed it over to Jannet.

Her belly was already grumbling, and you could see her urge to eat something.

"Suddenly, shadow magic doesn't sound so great anymore," Jannet said before she used a fork from the stone to start eating.

"As I said, every magic field has some weaknesses, and you just have to know how to abuse them. That's why you always keep your specialization secret so that nobody can use it against you."

Luna took a fruit vom the ground and started eating it.

"I found your decision to hide your magic field stupid, but now it makes sense. Would you like a piece too?" Jannet had cut the meat into several pieces and held one in front of Luna's face.

"Thanks, so now to something I saw recently. Body enhancement, It's simple; just think about inhuman strength. And the last thing would be the rune mages and alchemists. They do exactly what you think they do. Rune mages construct runes to direct the magic in a specific way. Their powers are mostly used as traps, but it is not uncommon for them to engrave sigils into their bodies or clothing to boost their fighting power."

Jannet got goosebumps at the thought of having runes etched into her skin. She could not Imagin how someone could do that.

"Some magic fields are just unclassified. An opponent with unclassified magic is the most dangerous opponent you could face because you don't know what to expect."

Jannet was already finished with her dinner and just listened to Luna. She wanted to learn magic, but that would have to wait till she could sense the Mana inside her. The fire had already stopped burning. Luna and Jannet just sat on a log, close together, and stared at the stars. The night was completely silent, and a cold wind blew through the forest as the stars shined down on them.

Jannet abruptly felt pressure on her shoulder. She noticed Luna had her head on her shoulder, and when she bent over to look at her, she saw Luna breathing evenly with her eyes closed.

"Then it's probably me who will take care of you today."

Jannet got to her feet and lifted Luna into the air. It caught her by surprise that Luna was lighter than she had imagined. When she got inside the cave, she placed Luna on the bed to sleep and then sat down next to her. She used the garment that was lying around in the cave as a blanket for the two of them.

"Good night, and see you tomorrow."