Finn recalled the RGB values and hex codes of the cube’s color, painted over a solid 3D figure formed of six congruent square sides — one facing each direction. The dimensions of these sides were all exactly 10 cm x 10 cm, and together, they formed a cube.

In his head, he rotated the cube around slowly, just like he had done within the real object earlier. He pictured every speck of dust, the feeling of every side and vertex. He even captured the smell and taste of the cube to the best of his ability, which may sound disgusting, but was quite useful to a Shapeshifter.

Because he was blind in the real world, his other senses were all dramatically enhanced — especially with the help of the Ghost blood in his body. This made it easier for him than most to observe an object like this within a virtual space where he could, in fact, see, thus losing his one and only weakness.

“Once you have a clear image in your head, I want you to begin circulating the mana inside your body. I know you’re used to pumping out mana from your body for other Angelicas, but as a Shapeshifter, you have to keep the energy contained inside you and move it through your bloodstreams.

After seeing Finn stop moving as if frozen still, Melvia continued. “Note that this is very difficult, so-“

Pop!

Suddenly, Finn disappearered, having turned into a tiny red cube that fell onto the white floor shortly after. Melvia blinked.

“… What just…”

Finn canceled the mana circulation and he returned to normal in the blink of an eye, standing tall in front of Melvia once more.

“… Is that how you do it?”

“U-Uh, yes… but how did you…”

Naturally, Finn was able to do it this quickly thanks to Zelestria, his private little cheat code. Back in Project: Simulacrum, he wasn’t able to connect with her, but here, he was. The reason was most likely because there wasn’t as much programming — otherwise known as ‘interference’ — jamming the connection between Finn and her.

Yes, this dimension may be a virtual one, but it was still connected to the real world, rather than a whole new reality filled with complex art and shaped to be as realistic as possible, like Project: Simulacrum. This was proved by Melvia bringing the cube from the real world into this virtual space. The connection to Zelestria here was definitely weaker, but Finn could still feel it.

He now comprehended how to do it after experiencing her doing it once for him, and could do it on his own now. It certainly felt different from outputting mana from his hands, but the theory of using his mind to direct the flow of his mana was the same — just slightly more complex and difficult to actually pull off.

“… Luck, I suppose,” Finn replied after some hesitation. Originally, he had wanted to purposely fail a few times just to avoid rousing suspicion, but he couldn’t actually talk with Zelestria here due to the partial connection interference, which was unfortunate.

Melvia gulped. “Wow… in that case, you’re one lucky boy. But we’re not finished just yet.”

Saying this, she materialized an orange in her hands and tossed it to Finn, who caught it again.

“This is — as you can see — an orange. I summoned it from the real world outside, but don’t try eating it. It won’t work since your body here is still virtual,” Melvia said.

“Er… I see. But how are you able to bring physical objects into this virtual world?” Finn asked. His real question was, ‘how can I still feel the connection with Zelestria here, albeit weaker?’

“… Explaining that would take way too long. I’ll tell you about it some other time, maybe.”

Finn sighed, realizing it was definitely related to lots of technological concepts and perhaps even Angelicas he didn’t understand yet. Giving up on the matter altogether, he began inspecting the orange in his hands.

“Your next goal is to Shapeshift into this orange,” Melvia explained. “It’s a lot more detailed than the cube just now, so it’ll be harder. Don’t try fooling me by turning into a random orange that looks about the same size — I’ll know if you do.”

Finn nodded and repeated the same process he had done with the cube. It took longer to observe every detail, but when he finally did, he activated his Shapeshifter Angelica and began circulating the mana in his body once more — this time, on his own. He did it so quickly that he didn’t give Zelestria the chance to interfere. Since he couldn’t speak to her directly right now, this was the only method.

Zelestria, obviously, caught the hint and backed off, let him try it for himself. She also knew he wanted to become independent and stop relying on her as soon as possible.

After a few seconds, Finn’s body suddenly distorted, using his chest as the focal point. The image of him became wobbly, before getting sucked into a circular shape — almost like a black hole. Said shape then colored itself into an orange, becoming the exact object Finn had been inspecting moments earlier.

Both oranges, the original and Finn, fell to the floor. The latter wanted to groan in pain, but since he was an orange, he couldn’t. Melvia walked over and picked up both oranges, teasingly giving the right one a little squeeze. Finn felt it, but it didn’t really hurt.

Then, with a playful grin on her lips, she said aloud:

“Mm, what a delicious-looking orange we have here… I wonder how it would taste if I were to… peel it…”

Licking her lips, she dug her nail into the orange’s peel, and Finn groaned in pain. Figuratively. Oranges can’t groan.

“Let’s see if you shapeshifted correctly… by trying out the taste, of course~”

Bringing her tongue closer and closer, she attempted to lick the orange, peel and all.

‘This woman…!’ Finn cringed internally, but he couldn’t get away as an orange. ‘Damn…!’

But then, right before her tongue touched, she backed away and giggled softly. After looking back and forth between the two oranges for a while, Melvia smiled and gently set the shapeshifted one on the ground and rolled it around a bit for fun.

“Alright, you can turn back now.”

In a distorted animation of expansion, the orange on the floor turned back into the familiar figure of Finn, who nearly lost his balance the moment he returned to his normal self.

“Ngh…” Finn placed a hand to his forehead as his whole world was spinning, only calming down after Melvia grabbed his shoulder.

“Hehe, how did that feel?” She asked curiously.

After some careful thought, Finn shrugged.

“… Well. I felt like an orange. There’s not much else to say, really.”

Melvia laughed. “I suppose that’s true. Sorry about teasing you like that, by the way. Couldn’t help it.”

“It’s fine. Good endurance training, in case I ever end up having to actually turn into an orange or something similar in the future,” Finn replied calmly.

“I like the positivity!” Melvia exclaimed. “But… there is one final challenge I have for you, since you are performing so well. If you can do this, you’ll have pretty much mastered the art of Shapeshifting.”

Finn tilted his head in confusion as Melvia smiled sinisterly.

“Can you do it, I wonder?”