7834 Exp available, 25 cycles till next payment

  Zelda's hand hovers over the injector. I pay exp for this and a word from Dagnit caused it to spread anyways. She sends a message to Grant asking if this stuff is actually doing what it is supposed to. She closed the medicine cabinet and stared into her eyes. The black sclera, the pupil that is thin and stretches from top to bottom as a slit, a corona that hugs it as a light blue. Used to be brown.

  Mail Notification: Is the Suppressor Bullshit

  Dragon Blight progression has been known to be jarring. Usually due to the psychological state of the subject. Acceptance or suicidal thoughts can lead to large changes. After a certain point biology will break down, the body is no longer able to sustain both half of the life form. Has there been a change? I can not wait for the new scans.

  I would advise continuing your treatment. It is a sort of biological stasis spell. Enough to stop incremental encroachment. But not emotionally driven ones. If there is concern about mental issues, I can direct you to research on human regulator implants. There has been some recent advances in

  Zelda stops reading. She doesn't delete it but finds she has her answer. She does the practiced routine. A click and a pinch in her left arm.

  -50 Exp for Dragon Blight Suppressor Dose

  She pulls out the contact case. A new addition to her routine. She places them on her eyes. The pupils are actually smaller. No longer spanning the entire visible portion of the eye. She sighs. How much to get normal looking ones. She heads out of her apartment.

  -----

  A plate of eggs, sausage and toast is placed in front of Zelda. Why does she never ask what I want before ordering?

  “I smell your anger, what is it?”

  Zelda simply ignores Dagnit, her heart clenches. Seriously? She looks up.

  "You always order food without asking what I want.”

  “Ah but you only desire those week bars. Your opinion on food is woefully non-existent. When I have fed you more pet, then I will ask you your opinion on the matter.”

  Zelda has a feeling that day won't actually come. After a bit and a second plate, Frankie climbs into a chair. Being half my height must be annoying here, everything seems made to accommodate human dimensions.

  “Ah new eyes, much more fetching than before. How soon till you are covered in scales.” He says.

  I look at the small lizard man. “I rather have gapping wounds on my face than more scales.” The words sour his mood. I feel better though.

  “Now, now, pet. Don't be hateful at Frankie. His primal urges are just as valid as yours.” Zelda glares at Dagnit which elicits a laugh.

  “I have it on good authority that Frankie's primal urges are deranged and not valid at all.” Flocks says from behind Zelda.

  “Oh from who?” Frankie challenges him.

  “Your mother, she whispered it to me as she was preening my feathers.” Flock crows.

  This caused Frankie to leap at the bird man. The short lizard man flying over Zelda head to tackle the birdman behind her. She turns to see a trading of blows.

  “First blood only boys, I hate to waste mana on stupid taunts.” Dagnit shouts out.

  Zelda turns back to Dagnit. “How much do these contacts cost? I like to get them in a human shape.”

  Dagnit tilts her head, “That is a human shape.”

  Zelda rolls her eyes, “An Earth one, it's too close to dragon for my liking.”

  “Truly, Arth humans have no warrior eyes among them?” Zelda shakes her head, “I feel that is a rather unfortunate evolutionary turn. I must look into this.”

  “About my question?”

  “Hmmm, O yes, about a hundred exp for plain ones. The ones you wear are a hundred times more.” Dagnit says while looking off into the distance.

  “Wait what? Why?”

  Dagnit refocuses on Zelda, “The ones I gave you can have glyphs added. Seems your genus lost two eye cones at one point in your evolution only gaining back a third recently. Most fascinating. Do you see more colors now, pet?”

  Zelda blinks at that, “I don't know. Is there a way to test?”

  “Flocks, display your plumage.” Dagnit commands.

  “That's rather personal, Dags.” Flock says while holding Frankie's fists in his hands.

  “You were willing to show Frankie's mom it, why not Zelda?” Dagnit purrs.

  Frankie gives a side eye to her, but gets off Flocks to go give a complaint to Dagnit. Flocks in turns stands up and removes his breastplate. His torso is a myriad of colors. Zelda's eyes quickly look from one spot to another. She sees new colors she has no words for.

  “It's so much, I can understand Frankie's Mom's desire.” Zelda's comment elicits a laugh from Flocks. The feathers fluff out.

  “Is this just a mess with Frankie cycle?” Frankie says in consternation.

  “Ah pet, your bonding with the others. Good.” Another purr from Dagnit.

  “Who's bonding, I'm ready to throw fists.” Frankie grouses back into his seat.

  “That counts as bonding for you.” Flocks rejoins after putting his armor back on. He takes the final seat. The cafe table was becoming rather crowded.

  “Now that you're all here, I like to officially welcome our newest crewmate Zelda Smith.” Dagnit says with a voice of ceremony. Wait, crewmate not party member?

  “I don't remember agreeing to such.” Zelda frowns.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “You don't want to be part of my crew?”

  Another clench, “Fine, yes. Can you remove this curse already?” Zelda grouses.

  “It will wear off when it's not activated for a day.” Dagnit says blithely. Zelda pales. She is going to keep asking personal questions to keep me under her thumb. Dagnit reaches over and strokes Zelda cheek, “I see you understand, pet.”

  Zelda swipes at the cat's hand, only to catch air. She settles for glaring at Dagnit. It only elicits another laugh.

  “So what does a technologically backwards bring to the table?” Flocks asks.

  “Glad you asked, this lovely pet has space aspect mana. She will save us on fuel costs if she learns not another thing. And I aim to make sure she learns more things.” The other two nod their heads while Zelda sits there confused. Space mana can save on fuel costs? “On that note, we need to actually progress my pet. Since she is hopelessly in debt, we will be splitting key costs and loot with her.” There was a bit of balking from Frankie and Flocks, “Now, now, I know she initially joined us cause she was stupid enough to volunteer to Frankie's poor joke. But she is a crewmate now. The quicker we can get her space spells the faster we start cornering requests from the corps.” This mollifies the two while leaving Zelda further confused.

  Instead of asking for an explanation she simply voices her main issue, “What does any of this have to do with what I want?”

  Dagnit looks at her with pity, “Listen pet, you ain't killing Dragons without level, gear and a dedicated fleet, not ship, fleet. You're not going to do that with the debt you got. I'm offering ya a path out from under that thumb and into your fantasy.” And under her thumb.

  -----

  Zelda looks at the prices of all the skills here. Nothing is below two thousand. She frowns. Dagnit drags her to a small corner. It’s a single display. She looks at the Calico.

  “Not one of these is below seven thousand.” Zelda grimaces.

  “Space magic is rare, pet. Just see if any of them catches your fancy. The more we flex your aspect the more efficient you will be.” She purrs out.

  A sigh, Zelda looks at her looming bankruptcy. The first was Zip: teleport an object from one point to another in line of sight. The object maintains velocity. The other, Stretch: Distance between two objects grows. Isn't that an instant win? Aren't they both?

  She turns to Dagnit, “Wouldn't [Stretch] just kill anything?”

  Dagnit looks at the description, “Sure if you could overcome the anythings innate and active resistances.” She sees Zelda's confusion. “Alright, everything innately resists magic types. Some types better than others. If they’re living they have a natural mana aura that further resists foreign mana. Since you have nothing in ability, you ain't separating heads from their necks. I suggest Zip. At least moving physical projectiles will be something that always works.”

  “About that, can't I make an infinite speed attack by constantly zipping.”

  Dagnit rolls her eyes, “One, I suspect you will manage four casts at most with this thing. Second, you still have to visually see the object. If you gravity boost to the speed of light how you are going keep your eyes on it.” Zelda frowns at that. That still leaves a lot of room for speed.

  -7000 exp spent at Red Deliverance Corp Subsidiary Magic Depo

  Learned the Spell Zip

  -----

  “Why couldn't we have killed more Kobolds.” Zelda fumes.

  “I'm tired of them, pet. ” Danit scoffs.

  Zelda never wanted to return to the Oddity Laboratory. The first time was bad enough. Now she faces a creature with ostrich legs, a serpentine neck that ends in all teeth and two antennas. Her only solace is that the area they were in is not as dark as the first time.

  The head darts forward and meets Zelda's shield. A satisfying clang rings out. She darts forward and stabs at the body. Better that, then attempting to swing at the agile neck. It cuts but the creature slams into her side with its neck. Damn it, so close. Zelda pulls to the side and gets her shield between herself and the cursed thing. Are they just watching again? She throws her sword at the contemptible thing. It easily dodges it. It doesn't dodge the second time it falls from the ceiling. Just a nick. The sword is back into her hands as she charges forward. The creature is confused as it stares at the ceiling looking for its second assailant. Zelda shield crashes into the creature as she stabs.

  Gain 8 Exp from party kill

  Zelda slumps over her now dead opponent. She gives a side eye to her party members, “I thought joining the crew meant actually fighting together.”

  Flocks walked over, “You had it handled.” He starts removing teeth.

  Zelda pushes off the corpse and sits on the ground as he works. “So what are the teeth used for.”

  “Abrasives, decent sandpaper material for smoothing down surfaces.”

  Zelda quirks an eyebrow. “We fight weird leech chickens for sandpaper?”

  “What's wrong with sand paper?” Frankie scoffs.

  “Just figure there were plenty of other things that could be used other than…this.”

  “Maybe but since these things get killed often it's convenient to use their teeth. Hey I don't question the crafters if they are offering ten exp per set of gruesome." Frankie says flippantly.

  “How're you doing on mana, pet?”

  “Bout tapped, making gravity spikes is not yet in the cards.” Zelda huffs out.

  “I'll take the next blasphemy. Make sure to watch and learn.” The cat woman says.

  Zelda gets up and follows Dagnit. Another chicken leech is in the room. Dagnit wastes no time, she charges forward, low to the ground. The leech face darts forward. It misses as Danit pulls to the side. Her tail whips out a catches the leg of the beast. What follows is a rather odd centrifugal manuever that results in Dagnit swinging onto the back of the leech chicken. The sword comes down onto the spine and the creature dies.

  Gain 8 Exp from party kill

  “Learn something, pet?”

  Zelda grimaces, “That your style and mine are completely different. What was I supposed to take away from that?”

  “That tails are awesome, of course.” Dagnit dead pans.

  “I guess…wait no, no you don't. Don't you dare.”

  “Dare what, pet. Ask you what you think of my tail?”

  The glare from Zelda causes Dagnit to laugh. Zelda unfortunately feels her heart clench. She is doing this on purpose.

  “Have I not changed enough?” Zelda bemoans as Flocks starts prying more teeth from the latest kill. Dagnit shrugs.

  Frankie comes up and brings the bag to Flock, “Eh, could do with more scales.”

  Zelda rolls her eyes. Dagnit on the other hand thinks on that, “Not a bad idea, considering your style is slow, plodding and stab them from behind a shield. Dragon scales could easily protect your vitals.”

  “Could we not discuss how I should let the blight ravage my body more? Like literally, I'll die if my body decides being cold blooded is a good idea.” Zelda shouts.

  Dagnit winces, “Sorry Zelda, that was rather unfair. We shouldn't be stressing you on this.”

  Frankie also murmurs an apology.

  “Are we sure Dragons are cold blooded?” Flocks asks.

  Zelda's eye starts to strain.

  -----

  Actually gained positive exp for once. I only killed three of the twenty though. I need to pull more weight.

  A bowl of ice cream is placed in front of her. Before Dagnit can say it, she does. “Ice cream, I know Dagnit. Not exactly a nutritional meal.”

  “Ah but this fortified. Like your week bars but not made to work for he who waits below.” Dagnit says solemnly.

  “He who waits below?” Zelda tilts her head.

  “Dags got a billion gods, that one I think robs joy from the unrepentant.” Frankie explains.

  “Pretty sure she just makes up half of them.” Flocks adds.

  Dagnit glares at Flocks while Zelda takes her time at ‘nutritional’ ice cream. She is unsure where her balance is but she is starting to not care.

  -----

  Zelda lays in her bed. Dagnit didn't attempt to worm some new truth into her tonight. She brings up her new access to Havenport vids.

  The dragon section is meager. The galaxy has a swarm of these things and no one cares to do anything about them. She doesn't select any of them, instead she navigates to all things magic. She selects a vid.

  To form an aspected mana core one must first condense their mana to a small ball of mana. Holding that ball of mana is necessary while your body refills with mana. It is best to go from full to empty multiple times. Each condensing grows the mana core more. You should feel a tipping point where no further mana can be pushed into the core. At which point moving the solidified mana will either break the core, if malformed or ignite the core. Creating a core can be fraught, depending on the type. Broken cores tend to release their mana violently. It suggested forming a wind or holy core first to avoid a fatal failure.

  The vid ends and Zelda wonders again if Dagnit has her best interest at heart. Stupid thought, she has her own interest at heart. It was the cat's idea to form a space mana core after Zelda lamenting only being capable of three zips. Whatever, it's only ten thousand exp if I blow up.

  Zelda pushes her mana down. A small ball. The mana condenses. And condenses. What should have been a ball was now a point of mana. Zelda eye twitches. I don't think this is right. But her mana reserves are empty, so she waits. While holding a single point of space inside her body.