I was carrying Iris toward the exit after several hours of training her in the dungeon. In the last round against the slimes, she used a bit too much mana and passed out by accident. Luna realized quickly and warned us, so we were able to finish off the slimes and protect her. We were halfway to the exit before she shifted awake again.

  Her eyes blearily opened and she blinked up at me a few times before she realized where she was. "What happened? Did I pass out?" she croaked.

  I paused to help her down to her feet again before handing her my canteen. "Yes, you used too much mana."

  She took a few generous gulps of water before handing it back. "S-sorry..."

  Luna smiled and patted her shoulder. ("It's alright. It takes time to learn how to properly manage your mana use. That's why we're training you on the first floor and not taking you deeper yet. You've done a good job so far. Mistakes will happen.")

  Maxwell nodded. "We've been in here a long time today. We're headed back now. Don't fret."

  Iris started crying. "Th-thank you for everything."

  Piper laughed. "Don't thank us yet. You're going to pay us back later, you know."

  Iris smiled. "I will... I promise."

  "Should we take a short break here? Or should we have Helena carry Iris the rest of the way out?" Aria asked.

  "I can walk!" Iris exclaimed.

  "Relax, kid. No need to get worked up," Aria said while patting her. "A short break then."

  All of us sat down and started eating some of our rations. I had forgotten how bad these taste. Iris was watching me quietly while eating some of the plain jerky we carried with us. I tilted my head at her. "Do you want something, Iris?"

  "Oh! Uh... I was wondering what your, uh, full wolf form looked like..." she said quietly.

  I looked down at the jerky before putting it back in my ring. If I showed her, I would be able to eat some of the leftover floral king deer meat I had. I hadn't been hungry enough to resort to eating the rats yet...

  "I think it's a good idea. She needs to see what you look like when you're shifted. Otherwise, she might panic if you need to transform into that form during a fight," Aria said.

  There were nods of agreement from everyone.

  "Alright then, give me a moment," I said.

  I stood up and took a few steps away from everyone before perking my ears to listen for anyone nearby. When I felt comfortable that no one was going to walk up on us while I was transformed, I nodded. Shifting had become completely comfortable for me now. I didn't even experience the slight vertigo from my perspective changing that I used to anymore. The smoky black fur of my umber hound form swallowed my armor and I was left there standing in my full glory. I looked at Iris with my glowing white eyes and she flinched back from me.

  Aria held her shoulders while I shifted, which seemed to have stopped her from falling backward when I looked at her for the first time. To make things a bit easier on her, I diverted my attention away and looked around the dungeon in my full form. Like my other experiences with mist, it was hard for me to see very far like this. The blindfold would help a lot on other floors where my eyes would otherwise make things more difficult for the others.

  "Are you alright, Iris?" I asked.

  "You can talk like that!?" she sputtered out.

  I laughed and awkwardly lowered myself to the ground to sit. "I can. Does speaking with you like this make you less afraid?"

  There was a pause. "I'm sorry..." she quietly said.

  I turned to look at her again. "It is a reaction I've unfortunately become accustomed to."

  Aria laughed. "When I first saw her, I called out to everyone that there was a monster behind them and Helena turned to look too!"

  I chuckled. "I felt a bit silly when I realized that you meant me." I turned to Iris. "Would it bother you if I pulled something out to eat? It's not the most subtle way of eating..."

  "No, I... It's alright. I'm not afraid," Iris said.

  "It's okay to be afraid of me, Iris," I told her.

  She shook her head. "No! You helped me and protected us on the trip. I don't want to be afraid of you. I'm okay. I'm... getting used to it."

  I laughed and pulled out some of the remaining floral king deer. I wasn't starving for mana, but eating some of the magic-filled meat was refreshing. I carefully tore chunks off with my teeth and ate slower than I usually would to avoid scaring the mousekin girl too much.

  "Do you still have the skull from that thing on you?" Maxwell asked.

  I paused and looked up at him. "I do. I kind of forgot about it until now. It won't be a problem when we leave the dungeon, will it?"

  He shook his head. "No, we'll tell them that you brought it in with you. No one would expect a floral king deer to be in this dungeon. I was just thinking that we should try to sell it soon. I don't think the magic affinity would help any of us, so it's probably best to sell it to someone who can make better use of it. Hopefully an enchanter that can also improve your armor."

  I finished up the chunk of meat I was eating and put the rest back into my ring before shifting back to my human form. After a moment of thought, I partially shifted my ears and tail back onto my human form. It would be good if I could get used to having them on all the time. Maybe I should try and get rid of the smoky effect on my fur, assuming I could even control that. That train of thought reminded me of something, though.

  "Hey, Luna. Weren't you going to experiment with that lightning magic?" I asked.

  She sighed and leaned back. ("Well, we've been so focused on helping out Iris. I was thinking I would wait on that. We've already been in the dungeon for a while today...")

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Maxwell shrugged. "After spending so long in the Fallow dungeon, I wouldn't mind spending some extra time on this. It won't be dark outside the dungeon for a bit longer."

  Everyone else gave murmurs of agreement. Luna smiled and came over to me. I pulled out the small box of lightning shards and opened it for her.

  ("Just one for now,") Luna said as she plucked out one of the lightning shards.

  "Do you want to look for a monster or are you just going to shoot off in the distance?" I asked.

  She pointed to one of the stone pillars. Arcs of electricity began to roll off of her to the ground for a moment before she got a handle on the mana. She held her arm out in front of her, and with the blindfold, I could see the mana coalescing in the palm of her hand. After a few moments, a sudden crack loudly sounded as the lightning arced between her hand and the far-off pillar, leaving a significant burn on the face of the stone she had been aiming at. I had been a little surprised to see her able to target a stone structure, but I realized that the mana created a bridge between the two points that let the electricity flow despite the stone not being a very conductive material.

  "Woah! That was amazing!" Piper loudly called out.

  Maxwell nodded. "That looked powerful. Perhaps we should test it on a monster."

  ("It doesn't even take all that much mana. Less than I expected after the poor conversion anyway. The hard part is controlling the path of the mana. But once it's aiming in the right spot, releasing it is nearly instantaneous. No travel time like fire magic,") Luna explained.

  "Is casting it silently difficult?" I asked.

  Luna shrugged. ("I have nothing to compare it to and I don't know any chants for any refined lightning spells anyway. I have to manipulate the mana directly rather than using a prebuilt spell formula. It's possible I could find a formal spell chant later, but right now I'm just using the power raw.")

  "Is that difficult?" I asked.

  She nodded. ("Kind of. It's not something that would make it impossible to do in combat, but it requires a lot of focus to do it correctly. I wouldn't want to attempt it in combat unless I've practiced enough to feel comfortable doing it reliably.")

  "So, is that lightning bolt the only thing you can do with it so far?" I asked.

  She tilted her head. ("Not exactly, but I'm not as familiar with the principles of lightning as you are. Did you have something in mind?")

  "Hmm... I think I'll have to switch to the rings to explain it to you." I looked over at my friends. "You don't mind, do you?"

  Everyone seemed fine with me talking with Luna privately as everyone continued their break.

  I turned back to Luna. ("Okay, in general, the way that lightning works is that energy moves from something positively charged to something negatively charged and vice versa. When you were collecting magic in your hand, you could think of it as giving it a positive charge. Then, in order to aim the lightning, you made your target negatively charged, and when you activated the magic, it created an arc that transferred the energy you collected in the direction of your target. Does that make sense so far?")

  Luna looked excited. ("I wasn't visualizing it that way, but if that's the true nature of lightning, perhaps that would increase the efficiency. Let me try that first.")

  I nodded and took a step back. From my perspective, nothing changed other than the fact that Luna was able to create the arc of lightning much faster this time.

  She turned to me excitedly. ("That was a lot easier! Hmm, to use a metaphor, before I was forcing the magic to do what I wanted it to. This time, I only had to make a suggestion, and it was happy to fulfill it. It was a lot more mana efficient and easier to target this way!")

  I smiled at her excitement. ("Great! Now, the nice thing about electricity is that it doesn't need to stop at one target. Lightning can arc to multiple things if the charge is correct. This time, try imagining two of those pillars are negatively charged.")

  Luna's eyes went wide. ("You think that would work?")

  ("I do, just be careful. Another way electricity can be harnessed is called a circuit. The lightning can wrap back around on itself. I don't know how magic could affect that, but make sure that your final target is the farthest away from you,") I said.

  Luna nodded and began to collect magic in her palm once again. This time I could see the mana collecting around two of the stone pillars off in the distance. With another loud crack, the lightning chained from one stone pillar to the other, leaving burn marks on both.

  "Ohhh! That was so cool!" Aria called out. "Your lightning magic is already looking powerful!"

  Luna turned back to me. ("What else?")

  I tapped my jaw and tilted my head. ("Is there a reason you're only letting the lightning out in a single pulse?")

  ("What do you mean? Lightning is only a flash of energy, right?") Luna asked.

  ("Well... Yes, lightning is a single flash of electrical discharge, but electricity doesn't have to be. You should try to maintain a continuous current. Think about letting the lightning flow like a river.")

  Luna nodded. ("Okay, I'll try.")

  When Luna turned around, she stopped to think for a little while. When she attempted the next spell, rather than structuring the magic the same way she had before, it was like she had gathered an entire cloud of magic around her. A lot of mana still collected in her hand but it wasn't as focused in one point anymore. There were a few false starts where she failed to get the magic to do what she wanted, but she seemed to be making progress.

  Finally, everything went right. She lifted her hand and aimed it at the two pillars again before activating the magic. An arc of electricity rushed from one pillar to the next and maintained the bright bolt between them. All of the leftover electricity poured out of the second target and arced into the ground around it, but Luna had been able to maintain a constant stream of electricity between the two targets for a sustained ten seconds.

  Luna was panting hard when she turned back to me, but she had a huge smile on her face. ("Helena! That was amazing! I didn't know lightning could do that!")

  I smiled and shook my head. ("That's because lightning is only one aspect of electricity. You're not using lightning magic, you're using electric magic.")

  ("What was that other thing you mentioned? A circuit?") Luna asked.

  I looked Luna up and down. She was out of breath and sweating. It hadn't even been that long since I saw my last example of mana exhaustion. She was too wiped out from what we've already done so far.

  "As much as I'd love to continue telling you about it, you might pass out if you tried anything else right now. Let's call it a day and we can talk more about the theory behind electricity later tonight," I said.

  Luna's ears drooped a little bit, but she knew I was right. ("Fine... But we will talk about this more! Your insight has been so helpful already. I would have still been fumbling around with the inefficient first version, let alone the other two things you taught me!")

  I laughed. "Alright, alright. I get it."

  Piper shook her head. "Shameless, these two just can't stop flirting." She was pretending to be reproachful, but I could see her smiling.

  Hello! More electricity! Helena is doing her best at explaining how things work to Luna to the best of her knowledge. I've always thought loose knowledge of how things work was always an interesting concept in isekai stories, but most make the characters a bit too knowledgeable for someone who was trying to remember things off the top of their head. I'm trying to strike a balance between things I think Helena could reasonably know while also allowing her to use modern knowledge effectively. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading!

  Here's a link to the community Discord:

  If you would like to support my writing on , you can read up to 10 chapters ahead there!

  Please leave a favorite and/or a rating so I can get my story in front of more eyeballs! If you really enjoy the story a review would help me a lot! I would greatly appreciate it!