Rue went back to her seat next to the forge, Dovam continued lecturing Rue about proper forge operations, hammer strikes, coal ratios, forge design and finally after the full day, smashing the chaotic pattern out of the metal she was given, they got to what the weird metal box was for.

"Alright, now we are going to enchant this box with a few select magics, if you can't do some... well it would be quicker to show you." Dovam said bags under his eyes and his ramrod posture on the verge of snapping.

He slowly pulled a series of paper sheets from a bag that was handed to Dovam mid session.

Obviously, Rue had broken down her own body to quicken its growth earlier, this being a poor decision... 5 hours ago.

Dropping onto the floor on her back, Rue almost feel asleep on contact with the flat surface before Dovam pulled her into a sitting position, "Oi OI ya can sleep later, just tell me if you could do this"

Rues eyelids fluttered in the prolonged pain of her disintegrated body structure, enough that she saw what awaited her. the paper held a series of geometric patterns, numbers and symbols that seemed to be wriggling under her gaze, but Rue was too tired to even bother to figure out their meaning.

"Um, it doesn't explain any of the intent behind what I am attempting to do, aside from that, the pattern is indicative of a fire element enchantment mixed with... space? element? I think, Uhhh this would be beyond even what my bulwark would allow in terms of raw energy required. other than that I would need to know what I am trying to create."

"Ah so you can't read that, my bad, wait a minute... the subsystem bangle should have translated it for you though?" Dovam said confused.

"Yeah uh no.. it said something about a legacy interface and a LOT of the features were disabled."

"........ You know what I am just not going to think about it too hard. So the purpose of this cube of hollow metal is to be a portable crucible or forge, minding that it would take more than even your enhanced capacity for mana this design incorporates refined mana crystals and monster crystals to hold enough energy to power itself for a short period."

"How do you refine them?"

"First you shave off the non-uniform growths of each crystal, then you stack the crystals together, once all the crystals are stacked together and infused with the energy of the specific user. that is the usual method to create larger mana crystal batteries, negatives, well it is locked to a single energy type and for you it is a little rare to get a second user and it is incredibly unforgiving in the precision required for the cuts in the crystals.

Getting a crystal that is a 10cm cube would be incredibly good, besides that the glue that binds the loose crystals."

"Huh, fair enough, So how do we start this part? If we sit here too long I will fall asleep."

"well before that." Dovam pulled a large bag out of the earlier pack, and placed it in front of Rue.

"Well, are ya going to open it?" he asked

"give me a bit." Rue opened the pack finding a large chisel and a substantial amount of crystals that flew through the spectrum of colours.

"This looks like I am going to fall asleep before I will finish this." Rue commented

"Well then, have a few sips of this then." Dovam replied handing a florescent magenta coloured liquid.

Rue looked confused at the frankly poisonous looking fluid.

"What is that? some kind of exotic poison?" she asked

Dovam blinked, looked at the strange magenta coloured drink and looked like he was thinking about something then he again held it out to Rue.

"technically yes, but it is a helpful poison." he replied finally.

Rue looked at him suspiciously, before shrugging popping the cork in the glass bottle and taking a sniff.

It was horrifically sweet.

her head recoiled from the glass container instinctively, once her head had stabilised she felt, awake, her eyes blinked with a second delay and she recorked the glass bottle.

"Alright, I'm awake again."

"Really? you look like if the room was any hotter you would be falling asleep."

"I can try to start the shaving process if you would like to instruct."

Dovam shrugged before watching Rue retrieve one of the larger pieces of crystal and the chisel.

"First." he held his hand above the chisel before saying "as user of mana I order thee, enhance the edge, power the sharpness, 'SHARPEN'."

The last word he spoke had a bizarre resonance to it, it was pleasant on the ears, but held the underlying defiance of nature within.

Rue felt a familiar energy flow into the chisel, and then it moved towards the edges of the chisel.

She felt the energy reside and stabilise within the edges of the chisel, hardening, for lack of better words.

"Was that proper magic?" Rue questioned excitedly

Dovam jolted a bit.

"y-yeah, I heard you did some pretty crazy stuff during the exam but nothing that classified as a spell."

"Classified?"

"yeah, a spell is defined as the optimised flow of energy to perform one specific effect efficiently."

"So what I am doing is kinda just playing with mana rather than any form of efficient."

Dovam nodded

"well that and the fact that you have such an absurd amount of energy and control at your age is rather more important than your efficiency, But back to the point, start cutting the crystals."

Rue turned her attention towards the mana crystal, looking closer at the structures of the crystal, She got an idea and started infusing her eyes with mana again, her Darkvision skill said that It was possible to do what she was attempting but it didn't know what would happen.

As the energy permeated the lens of her eye she focused her vision seeing the minute layers in the crystal albeit, very faintly.

"You said to remove the parts that were not aligned yeah?" Rue asked Dovam.

Dovam answered a second later "Yeah, uh, make all of the crystals have a matching crystal grain."

Rue began moving the chisel to separate the offshoot gem layers.

and began to refine the crystal into a uniform layers, occasionally Dovam would offer advice, correct the actions taken and appraise her work.

After another 2 hours Rue finished refining the crystals, several failures being given to Rue to use in other projects.

Dovam then pulled out a brown jar with a long stick attached to the lid.

Rue was rubbing her eyes since the effect she was applying was new it also brought new pain.

Dovam had actually caught a sight of Rue using energy in her eyes and sat there in a little panic when the small child's eyes were a bright red colour, they quickly turned back to the normal green emeralds but the sight was a little frightening.

"why did your eyes change colour?!" Dovam said with a concern tinged voice. he asked at the time.

"Lets me see closer to the crystal to make precise cuts." Rue simply said while rubbing her eyes.

|

Dovam then showed Rue the process of gluing the crystals together into a uniform structure.

The glue seemed to disappear even when Rue enhanced her vision she couldn't tell which crystals had glue or not... at least until she was looking at colour, even focusing on the 'gap' between these crystals there was no pronounced difference in alignment.

Truly as if the crystal was whole from the beginning.

"Now, put your own energy into the cube." Dovam instructed.

Rue nodded holding the cube in both hands, the cube was at least by dovam's appraisal a very good job done for the first time, 10cm cube give or take some, still unrefined so it wasn't squared up just yet so it would be a little shy of 10cm on each side.

Rue allowed the energy that was inside herself to slowly flow into the cube, and the cube drank her entire supply, and had room to spare.

Very useful considering just how wasteful the intended enchantment was going to be.

After Rue gave the crystal to Dovam, and he placed it into a black felt bag explaining that it would trap the energy to make sure the crystal can't reject it.

Rue just nodded and examined the carving blueprint, many of the carvings were of circles within hexagons within squares, some had numbers and a bit of it had writing that was still unreadable for Rue.

Before she sunk into a sleep she began to carve some of the material away for the enchantment.

but was quickly stopped by dovam

"damn, you look like you are sleepworking, go to the main desk, Trace can help you out with a place to sleep."

"B-buht am... not... done... yet." Rue said words slurring, it seemed that she would pass out any second, so Dovam grabbed Rue under the armpits and carried the small child, admittedly not too much smaller than he was, to the Guild desk.

Trace was there and looked positively exhausted, but her eyes lit up seeing Dovam carrying Rue over.

"Ah you brought her, excellent, Did it work on her?" Trace muttered in a hushed tone toward Dovam as he rounded the bend to enter the employee's side of the receptionist area.

"I don't know what kind of immune system the kid has but what I do know is that she can certainly resist the stuff very intensely."

Dovam replied with a bitter look on his face.

Trace's face shone a dark and concerned look "intense how?"

"She got a whiff of the stuff when on the verge of being unconscious and then propped right back up as if she had slept a night."

He swallowed some saliva before continuing "But then after she was done focusing she rapidly began to feel tired again and fell asleep in my arms on the way here."

"So, her 'performance' for the first day then?" Trace remarked with considerable vitriol

"Nothing short of an unparalleled workaholic with a malleable thought process, It would be tall praise to say she had talent, more that she follows the primitive advice in her heart and head more than me, and the scary part was that it worked, to an extend I suppose."

"Huh, alright, well a deal is a deal, hand her over please, the guild will take care of this." Trace said, with barely held back amusement.

Dovam rolled his eyes and passed the unconscious Rue to Trace.

For all that Rue had done today, it had been a little over a day and a half since she had escaped the sumps, so the exhaustion would be incredibly deep by this point and as cute as Rue was, she was still filthy, the medics didn't really get to notice since they mix chemicals all day and Dovam wasn't any better but both Trace and Abodan noticed that Rue wasn't clean by most measures.

Trace took Rue in her arms, holding the diminutive girl in a gentle princess carry, Trace herself barely contained the urge to hug and squeeze Rue by what lingering sanity a day of boring work had shaved off and the considerable smell emanating from the unconscious girl.

Dark and depraved thoughts floated freely through the Guild workers mind, the moment she had teleported in Trace knew that she wanted her, the beautiful brown colouration to her skin, complemented by the black hair, it gave her the look of a child sized cat.

A bag big enough to hold Rue was swiftly pulled out of a nearby closet and placed Rue into it. then went around the backrooms of the Guild hall.

Trace walked up to her locker and pulled out her work pack retrieved the clean outer garment, there were few female receptionists that worked as late as Trace did and tonight she felt so validated by this decision simply by the fortune to meet such an adorable doll like child.

Trace shivered in the cold room as she removed her work uniform, her plentiful bust swaying as the wraps used to contain it were removed.

Normally one of the more human like races usually had soft parts, but Trace was of a particularly hardy constitution, despite being well into her forties she looked as if she was at most twenty.

Her slender physique was the admiration of her peers, who tirelessly exercised and dieted in order to meet company standard.

Trace was slightly jealous herself, often finding herself racked by pains when she spent her days off with fellow workers, they ate so infrequently yet didn't feel like their stomach was attempting to eat them whole.

Her short hair coupled with abnormal physical size often made her the target of lustful gazes and questions.

But Trace hadn't cared about anything of the sort... until today.

Packing away the surprisingly heavy clothing and donning some casualwear Trace walked past the receptionist desk and retrieved her sleeping package.

Was a little unusual for Trace to have two bags, but most just assumed that she was carrying some leftovers, as her hunger was well known by some of the more, unfortunate male co-workers.

But that is a story for another time.

Trace wandered her way towards a favoured store of hers, greeting the owner in a personal way "Hey, Shitty gramps are you there?"

"WHO YA CALLIN SHITTY?!" an old voice came through, though far more energetic than what one would usually ascribe to the elderly.

A 140cm dark blue humanoid creature slunk out of a passage in the back of the store "Oh it is you, what do you want damn it?"

The gruff older sounding man asked.

Trace grinned a predator's smile "The good one."

The man's face froze up before he quickly pulled a crate seemingly as large as himself onto the counter.

"H-how did you?" he began "tututu... girl has her secrets, pleasure doing business with you, Melk." Trace ended the conversation before it could distract her.

Then Trace, with Rue in tow and a crate that could easily hold Rue with space to spare, made it to a rather nice apartment.

3rd floor, poor view, terrible connections and hardly ever got any maintenance, the only selling point that let Trace know that it was the place.

The bathroom was sized for her.

Considering that Trace was almost 7ft tall or 210cm, it was an impressively sized bathroom, specifically the bathtub and shower were practically swimming pools. Correction, heated swimming pools.

There was only really three rooms within the apartment, the bathroom, which incidentally had a cordoned off segment that had the toilet.

The main room/kitchen and the bedroom.

all sized for Trace.

Trace immediately stripped to the nude when she got inside and locked the door, she never liked clothing that much and the stares were kinda uncomfortable but it was mostly because of the guild that she ever wore them at all.

She then undressed her guest and peeled the lid off the crate, it was a large glass container filled with a yellow fluid that shimmered in the poor lighting, it was a special drink imported from her homeland, almost nobody had ever managed to get such a large amount like this. for her people this was a show if almost immeasurable prestige and award, to the people around her, it was slightly interesting piss, not literally speaking.

To most the taste of the cannibal mantrapper nectar was the taste of poor alcohol mixed with some energy.

While energy infused drinks were not common, they weren't exactly rare either. This drink in particular was a little spicy because of its infusion.

This was apparently harvested from a giant one, not to mention it was properly turned into alcohol.

The apartment was hardly secure enough to keep such a product, regardless of the actual thoughts on the drink.

Trace took the now nude Rue and bathed with the sleeping child, who didn't rouse once.

making sure that Rue didn't get drowned or awoken by accident, Trace had to take care to wash Rue properly and gently.

Afterwards Trace began cooking.

She had vegetables, meats of all kinds of monsters native around Bastern, some salt and some pepper.

Preparing enough for herself and a little for Rue.

The house was filled with the smells of steam and freshly grilled meats, vegies and some fruits.

All these additional smells and the gentle scrubbing that felt pleasant had woken Rue up, she was in Traces lap, her brown skin contrasting the lightly tanned skin of Trace.

As Rue groggily looked around Trace held a breath, then gingerly held Rue up.

"H-Hey Rue, how do you feel?" she said, slightly nervous

"Um, I feel tired, like, after i eat some bad stuff tired." Rue replied clearly able to think but having trouble with a body currently purging something.

"Hey Rue, would you mind if I could join you?" Trace asked timidly

"Join? Me? what?" Rue replied, not understanding what Trace was asking.

"Um, well Rue, ever since I met you this morning, I have felt like I want to keep you and protect you, so I thought that if I join your family then I could be closer to you." Trace explained awkwardly, as if skirting around the core of her wish.

"I don't see a problem with that, mostly, Big person was nice and thought the instructor's win was dumb, but I don't have a family to join." Rue said while she flipped between slightly awake and simplistic talking.

Trace seemed t squirm uncomfortably as she then let Rue sit on her lap, which immediately Rue slouched and lied down on.

her legs dangled down her knees as the cute face stared up at Trace.

Trace began "W-would you like some food?" gurgle At the mere mention of the word Rue's stomach voiced it's opinion and Trace smiled happily while holding a small plate for Rue. Rue took to the food like a dying fish to water, and ate an inordinate amount of food, which surprised Trace.

Trace watched as the small body ate and ate and ate until it was done, She had eaten half of what Trace herself was planning to eat.

This made Trace certain about her actions, "Rue, can I take you as mine?" Rue tilted her head and Trace facepalmed when she remembered her age. "Right you don't have parents and you are young, ok So when someone says that they want to make you theirs, or in my case mine, I ask that I am able to be with you in battle, at home or wherever possible so that we can be together and make a happy family."

"Um, I don't know about a happy family, but I do intend to fight monsters, can you do that?"

Trace grinned, prominent canines accentuating the ferocity of the smile "I have a few tricks of my own."

Rue looked at that grin, her eyes filling with emotion at the larger woman offering her support.

"Then yes, I will do anything to fight monsters and win!" the small girl said raising her hands up.

"Ok then, please drink this with me." Trace replied handing Rue a small glass full of a sweet smelling, yellow liquid that shimmered in the light.

Rue thought it looked strikingly similar to molten gold.

Trace then clinked her larger cup against Rue's and said "To the death." before downing the yellow fluid.

Rue drank hers before coughing a little.

Trace looked at Rue expectantly so Rue, in her little choked voice said "to the death."

Again a grin took over Trace, who began to drink the nectar in pace that Rue did.

after the full bottle was finished, Rue felt tingly and started to bury her face in Trace's abs.

"Woah, Rue, give me a warning at least."

"I feel, tingly and Trace is warm." She said clinging to Traces midriff.

Trace finished her half of dinner before walking over to the bedroom, Regardless that she and Rue were now mates she had work tomorrow, so she could fill her side of work.

feeling the warmth of her packmate against her made Trace feel hot and energetic as she lied down on the thick blankets covering a portion of the floor.

Rue and Trace felt each other's warmth, both felt the excitement from each other, both felt a burning emotion tease itself out of them.

They both enjoyed each other, and cemented their relationship deeply within each other. None would be closer to either than these two.

As new fire joined, the world turned, seasons changed and plans came to fruition.

On a distant mountain top two male creatures stirred.

"Stop this nonsense Akara'vel, it is madness to summon that demon!"

"Is it old man? You sought power your entire life, what is a little shortcut to greatness, if not the best course of action?" the younger of the two creatures replied the light of madness nestled deep in his soul.

"This isn't about power anymore is it, you are possessed to bring this elder evil into this world and for what? power? lust? Glory? That demon won't grant any of THAT!!!" the older creature shouted with gusto as a bolt of purple energy slammed into the wards of the younger.

"Tutut old man, I know your tricks, you taught me remember?"

"you dare use those wards against ME!?" the infuriated older creature screeched, his blue robes bellowed in some intense wind that didn't exist.

"You said it yourself, the mixing of the four elements is a fools errand, as your growth is pulled in four opposite directions, taking advantage of that dichotomy is simply the natural action." the younger creature sneered, his red cloak in tatters but unwavering.

And at last, the rift tore open space with a single creature stepping out of it.

"Ah, my servant has done well this time, I must reward him properly." the voice was distinctly feminine, one that was used to men falling and obeying at that, her tone was an alluring seductress, the tone just begged you to obey your craven desires.

The woman was around 160cm tall, thin in all the right places to appear attractive to most people.

the only parts about her that were concerning was the pallid white skin, greatly enlarged canine teeth that parted the carmine sea of her lips and the two beautiful horns twirling from the side of her head above the ear down back below the ear, holding the fiery red hair in a manageable sea of red.

The older man prepared his most powerful spells, techniques, reflexes, he would need everything his life had amounted to and a healthy portion of luck to even have a chance at succeeding against his disciple and the Crimson seductress.

The demon yawned at the subtle preparations the wizened creature made. "are you done preparing for your death?"

The older creature didn't respond.

the younger spoke from under his cowl " I can take him milady, there is n-" she put a finger on his lips "SHHHHhhhhh, let mommy handle this, it has been too long since I had fought for my food and I need you to be in tip top shape if we are to get off this mountain alive."

The young creature clearly wasn't expecting to be hushed in such a manner, but the insanity that burnt within made him squirm at his desired one's touch, he kissed the finger and lowered his head "As you wish"

The older creature felt appalled at the clear fanatism and desire exuding from his best student.

He began the incantation for his most powerful spell before he felt an unfamiliar warmth touch his chest.

His three left arms reached the source of the warmth, that being the crimson demon herself, had punched a hole in his barrier and he hadn't even noticed "Gah ho-" again a finger was pushed against lips this time the demon held the elder by the face "You don't decide if I get a worshipper or not, now if you would mind, I am horribly parched she said as her other arm slowly slid down his robes stopping around the gut portion of the chest and her other hand gently caressed his throat.

Before both hands became inescapable vices and tore the elder apart, showering her in his vital fluids.

She licked up the blood and bits that she was showering in before turning to the boy who unsealed her.

He removed his protective robe, exposing his horrid metamorphosis to the demon.

His head had shrunk to around the size of a melon, his skeleton had rearranged itself to closer match a human's, his skin was grey interspersed with pink and black.

He only had 4 arms, 2 being fused from the original six.

"I-I Created the potions to your speciation's, but I couldn't get the ingredients for the final one." he said nervously his mouth moving excessively as if he were unused to using his voice.

His devious mistress slithered closer to his nude form and caressed every inch.

Then she whispered into his new ears "Oh dear, that isn't a problem, we only need to do it once, and the final one was for in case you were irreparably ugly." she said stroking his new genitals, feeling them firm up to the desired proportions.

He let out a low moan as his servitude was engraved into his very soul.

"Now dearie, what poor town is on the menu, your offerings are seemingly never ending but I need a fresh taste every now and then."

The boy, no, Man said "There is a medium trade city to the south-east from here otherwise it is towards the naval city to the north, firebreak."

"Hmm, If i remember correctly, South east, Bastern isn't it?"

"yes, a surprising population for such a... Isolated city, but they are mostly self sufficient, often trading out energy crystals and various ores in exchange for luxuries."

"OOOOhh, I want to go into a large bath, that would really hit an itch I have been having."

As she said this she began to walk towards the south east.

her servant trailing behind the monstrous motions his new master did, on occasion being carried by his lord to his own immense shame.

Elsewhere in a rundown shop

"aye, kid you don't dismantling the shock bat corpses?"

"Yeah ya shitty robot these dumb bats are cut up, when do I get to kill another monster again?"

The mechanical human clicked his tongue and slapped the kid over the head.

"don't get cocky, you are a little shit and when you grow up you will be a big shit, Until you can aim to keep the materials clean you will be sniping birds, bats and rats, I don't give a shit if you hate it, do it properly and then you are allowed to hunt bigger prey, I might even be able to trust that you could get materials from it.

As the mechanical Being berated the boy it was producing ammunition, and tinkering with a third rate pistol.

The shop was dusty and in poor repair, boards were cracked, there were two benches and everything on sale was made cheaply.

"Humph, let me do my job and you wouldn't have to worry about this shitty place."

"another word and I fire you." the automaton said without turning around.

a feint aura surrounded the boy as he cut into the bats of unusual size.