Amused, I watched Nivra. My new pet is as timid as a Vixen-less Kitten. Wide-Eyed, she flinched at every sound, even though the entrance of every dungeon was a safe area. Mostly. Monsters wouldn't spawn here, nor would they wander in intentionally.

Nivra. A strange name.

I don't like it, but I'm not going to call her human, so she doesn't fit neatly into the pattern of my pet's names. I love using themes, especially since I'll end up with so many pets, animal names aren't going to be enough. I'll need to base names on more than species. Personality traits? Or I could name them based on their role or class. Colors. That's perfect! I'll color code them, so keeping everyone's names straight will be simple, even for new harem members.

"Violet!" I blurted.

My newest pet jumped and glanced around the room, confused by my exclamation. "It's your new name," I said to her.

Proving his naivety, the paladin said, "You can't do that. Her name is Nivra. You can't just change people's names whenever you wish."

I ignored him.

Frozen in place, Violet stared into my eyes while I stalked towards her. I was close enough to touch before she blinked and looked down. Consciously duplicating our interaction at the gates, I pressed a talon under her chin and forced her to look at me.

Deep need slowly joined the scent of fear. It was thick enough to drink, then self-loathing suddenly flooded the air, instantly choking down the beautifully intoxicating emotions that had raged within Violet moments before.

She rejected her own desires in disgust and that tainted everything I wanted to enjoy.

I'll teach her about her fantasies later. Now isn't the time. Everything must wait until the other champion is dead. Except for flesh shaping. I should boost her stats before we leave the safe room.

"Strip," I said, and she paled, smelling of horrified shock. After a moment, she flushed, and her arousal was thick in the air again.

Kitten hurried to her side and offered to hold Violet's clothing, so it didn't end up on the damp cavern floor.

Of course, a few seconds later, Violets self-loathing spoiled everything and crushed her building lust.

Unacceptable.

"Stupid, ignorant, bigoted, small-minded, pigheaded, dogmatic, prudish, sanctimonious, hypocritical, self-righteous, holier-than-thou, judgmental, egotistical, sexist fucktards." I snarled.

Terrified at my sudden rage, she froze in place, shirt in her hands. Her exposed nipples reminded me that bras didn't exist here.

The paladin made a strangled noise, and spun around, yelling for the gnome and necromancer to do the same, but I grabbed a handful of his thinning hair and dragged him over to Violet, and forced him to look into her cringing eyes.

"This," I screamed at him, "is what happens when society lets ignorant narrow-minded twits control their so-called morality. Just a few moments ago, Violet all-but-panted with desire. Being ordered to strip made her feel frightened and helpless, and that made her feel wonderfully aroused.

"It was beautiful."

"Then your training kicked in, and everything was replaced with self-loathing. And that," I yelled, "is what you've done to your women!"

He dared to look confused, "But, she shouldn't feel aroused by that."

I took a slow breath. Another. "Sexuality is a complicated thing. Being aroused by being forced, or feeling helpless, or from pain is entirely natural. I think it's been bred into you mortals. For millions of generations, men and women have been raped and abused. Eventually, the survivors, or their descendants, learned to take what pleasure they could from their miserable lives.

"Not everyone fits into your neat little box of 'one man and one woman having missionary sex, once a month, in the privacy of their own bedroom, with the lights out.'

"Some of us LOVE sex in all of its assorted variations! What she," I jabbed a finger at Violet, "finds arousing isn't anyone's fucking business except hers and mine."

He backed away as I hunted him down snarling, "The point isn't that Violet felt aroused, the point is that she was filled with self-loathing because of what she FELT when I forced her to strip.

"She believes her completely natural feelings are something to be ashamed of, and firmly placed the blame where she was trained to place it. On herself. Just. Like. You. Taught. Her."

His chest plate crinkled as I picked the paladin up with one hand, and pitched him into the wall on the other side of the room. Rock shattered under the booming collision.

Seething, I spun back just in time to see Kitten rip the last of Violet's clothing free, and drop silently to her knees.

Violet was nude.

Wide, terrified eyes flicked back and forth between my face and the paladin's crumpled form. He was half-stuck in the wall, held in place by the crater at the epicenter of his impact point.

Laughing, Vixen cuddled against my side, stroking my inner thigh. She was the only one that didn't reek of fear. I was grounded by the ever-present scent of her awe, devotion, and lust.

Vixen purred, "The righteous will see the wrath of My Queen, and they shall know true despair." We strolled back to Violet.

I pulled up Violet's stats. She didn't have any fighting abilities, and I wasn't impressed by her actions so far. Having a runecrafter was useful in the long run, but in combat, she was more of a liability than an asset, at least for today.

"Close your eyes," I barked, and Violet's eyes snapped closed with a yelp. After I finish, I'll let Violet see the changes all at once.

Violet jumped and let out a short shriek when I grabbed her chin and slid a finger along the inside of her mouth. I reformed her teeth, so they were perfectly straight and white. I stroked my hands along her skin, leaving flawless flesh behind. She shivered at my touch but didn't say a thing. Obviously, I had left an impression.

Sculpting her figure helped me relax the rest of the way. I didn't want everyone to be the same, so I made Violet less muscular than Kitten, and gave her a more substantial bust. I firmed it up nicely. Instead of Kitten's bubble butt, I gave Violet a heart-shaped one. After that, I removed her body hair, except for a landing strip between her legs.

In a word, I gave her a 'curvy' figure. Generous bust, petite waist, and full hips.

Then I gave her a facelift and sculpted her eyebrows with two quick strokes. After I brushed her tears away, I used flesh shaping to mimic makeup by altering her skin color. When I finished, she appeared to be wearing black eyeliner, with mascara and shimmering pale indigo eye makeup.

It was time to turn my attention to her hair.

Since she's a non-combatant, why don't I have a little fun?

When I finished it cascaded down her back and stopped a fingerbreadth from the floor. I stroked her hair, changing the color. Starting with dark violet roots, I shaded through to indigo by the time I reached the top of her butt. From there, I continued down until her hair ended with a bright shade of light blue.

I matched the color of her pubic landing strip to the shades of indigo her hair had at that height. Then I made her eyes medium indigo, and her lips dark indigo. Her new coloring brought out the undertones of her olive skin beautifully.

In the spirit of having fun with a non-combatants figure, I went back to her breasts and made them even more... bountiful.

A thought suddenly occurred to me. "Violet, what stat is most important to Runecrafters? Mind or Will?"

Violet licked her lips. "Both are valuable," she said, "The higher someone's mind stat is, the more intricate runes they can create. The higher will a runecrafter has, the more power they can infuse their creations with. For example, someone with a will stat of two would create a firestarter using the same rune that a runecrafter with a will of eight could use to create a wand of firebolts."

A note of pride enters her voice, "They say anyone can become a runecrafter with discipline and practice, but to become a first-class runecrafter, you must also have eight or more in both mind and will. I have what it takes to become one of the best."

I rechecked her stats, and she was right. Actually, she understated her stats. Both mind and will were the normal human maximum of ten, although all of her other stats stunk.

"Open your eyes, and take a look at yourself," I said. My mood improved as I watched Violet's slack-jawed self-inspection, so I pulled a mirror out of storage and handed it to her.

Her scent twisted amusingly back and forth between grudging delight and angry resentment.

I chuckled.

After a few minutes, I allowed her to get dressed. Her trousers fit well enough, although they were far tighter now. Forget buttoning her shirt, she couldn't close it anymore. The wide-open strip left most of her chest on display. Perhaps I went overboard, but they'll be fun to play with.

"Time to fix your stats."

She panicked. Violets rush of fear and confusion blasted away all semblance of being a weak little prey animal.

"NO!" she shouted frantically, "Don't do it! I know my other stats are low, but I don't need them as a runecrafter. Don't reduce my mind or will; I'll create amazing things for you!"

"Reduce?" I asked.

Using [Flesh Shaping], I quickly increased all of her stats by fifty, then split the additional fifty bonus points between mind and will. A toughness of fifty-three would make her much harder to kill.

"Who said anything about reducing?" I continued.

Then I pulled up Violet's stats and made them visible so all my pets could see them.

Violet fainted.

I grinned with delight.

Leaving Violet under Kitten's care, I approached Josiah. He and Wumtug stood near the paladin's corpse. I scented little more than fear from Josiah, but Wumtug's scent wasn't so simple. Yes, there was fear and anger, but the most potent odor was respect.

I scratched my favorite pet's head while I talked to Josiah and Wumtug.

"What must we do to complete the mandatory guild run?" I asked Josiah, getting right to the point.

With shaking hands, he pulled out a wooden container with a dozen small vials. "Everyone wishing to join the adventurers guild must form a group. Then kill a silver slime, and fill one of these vials to the halfway mark with its ooze. Then you must kill a giant cave spider, and add five drops of venom to the vial. Finally, add a pinch of bat guano from the boss's room in the center of the dungeon. Bring the results back to the adventurers guild in Gravestead."

I nodded and asked Wumtug if he still wanted to come with us. After a few seconds of uncertainty, he said yes.

Taking out his adventurers token, Josiah used it to form a group with me. Then he touched it to Wumtug and Vixen so that each of them could join.

We walked over to Kitten and Violet. Josiah made a choking noise, he stared at Violet's stats with bulging eyes. I swatted his head and snarled for him to finish his job and get out of our way.

Shocking my pets is fun, but I didn't care about some adventurer that was thoroughly outclassed by the weakest of them. Anyway, I'd never invite a male to join, so he was worthless to me.

I discussed tactics with Vixen. While we didn't fear any of the monsters in here, the enemy champion was deadly. We both thought Wumtum should lead the way, and Kitten and Violet should be protected in the center of our formation, and that I should guard the rear. Our only real disagreement was about Vixen's location.

Initially, I wanted her to stick close to me so that I could protect her from all danger, but Vixen argued that she should stay right behind Wumtug and protect him from the dungeon's normal monsters. If he died the first time a slime attacked us, then he wouldn't be available to draw the enemy champion's attacks.

Now, I regretted killing that foolish paladin. Good cannon fodder was hard to come by.

After deciding on our formation and marching order, the five of us left the safe area.

Wumtug led the way, closely followed by Vixen. Kitten and Violet made up the center of the formation, and I took the rearguard position.

Name: Violet

Level: 3

Race: Human

Gender: Female

Class: Runecrafter

Character Points: 6 => 12

Ability Scores:

Strength: 2 => 52

Agility: 3 => 53

Toughness: 3 => 53

Mind: 10 => 85

Will: 10 => 85

Special Abilities:

[Magesight II] - See the flow of magic around target.

New => [Powerful Existence] - Double character points gained on level up.

[Rune Carving II] - Inscribe a magical rune onto target inanimate object. Note: quality of object may affect rune quality.

Magical Spells:

[Clean II] - Clean target inanimate object. Range: Touch

[Inspect II] - Understand the properties of target inanimate object. Range: Touch

[Repair I] - Repair target inanimate object. Range: Touch

Runes Discovered:

[Grow] - Increase volume of target.

[Heat] - Output thermal energy.

[Light] - Output light energy.

[Link] - Links two or more runes together.

[Mass] - Increase mass of target.

[Pulse] - Convert energy output of linked rune into a wave.

[Reverse] - Invert output of linked rune.