Becoming Monsters: In the Mirror Ch. 08

This is still a noncanonical fanfiction to the Becoming Monsters series, by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own.

Lucy has a Moment here, you will know it when you see it. Scene is inspired by artwork done by @Xel_Artz over on that funny bird app, you should check them out.

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Chapter 8: Taking Stock

The energies of the Acquisition took hold. As they flowed into Sarah, her body changed. What had taken the others bit by bit hit her all at once, her body suddenly arching with pleasure and power both. She trimmed and toned, her breasts and butt losing none of their size and softness. Her blonde hair gained some shine, even the color of her scales and eyes brightened a bit. Each change was individually minor, but in sum the effect was dramatic.

"What... what was that?" She looked bewildered as I looked on.

"The other side of this, what was in it for you. You are now, as best I can tell, a part of a power network with Lucy and Whitney." I pulled up my Status screen to check, and sure enough Combat Disenchant had replaced Purge in my power list. LCK and INT had increased, but oddly DEX had not. Perhaps the immediate bonus could only increase by one? I already had that from Lucy. "As soon as I Acquired you, the Racial bonus of all of your Attributes increased by one, except Perception and Health. If you enjoyed that orgasm, more like it are coming, since as Demons our Hunger pool is zero-sum. Whitney can get it by fighting, but Lucy and I can only feed through sex."

She looked astonished. "Vancouver isn't so amazing that I would have tried to go back at all if I had known about this part. I can literally feel myself doing better, it's intense. My family will understand once I let them know, we've been trying to get south for a while."

As I was pulling my clothes back on, my phone rang at me. Lucy was on the other side. "We were passing the superstore and they had a display of basic tools for alchemists and enchanters, some initiative to get more people to level it, need us to pick up a set?"

I looked back at Sarah, who had heard it and nodded. Boosts to Luck we're a heck of a thing. "Yeah, same if they have the basic materials. We have enough in the bank right now to get her started, should be self-sustaining once she does."

Sarah spoke up. "Make sure to get a decent wood wand base! Don't need anything fancy, but it's cheaper than buying bullets."

Which reminded me. "Oh, and a box of bullets." Sarah facepalmed. "Hey, not everyone has the mana pool to sling power bolts around."

"Got it, thanks love!" Lucy hung up.

Sarah, now dressed again, looked at me strangely. "You don't have the mana pool for it? What the heck kind of class are you? I've known Knights and Brawlers who learned wand-work, and their pools are miniscule."

"Yeah, mine is barely bigger and I have to use MP on my abilities." I sighed.

"I can make batteries. Just need ten dungeon Coins plus some reagents. Rechargeable potions... kinda. Not the greatest capacity, but you don't need that."

"Really? Which coins?"

"I practiced a bit on Bronze, but those are basically toys. Crystal would be ideal. Golds are decent for someone with a smaller pool. All ten have to be the same or it messes with the thaumium flow."

My heart thudded in my chest. "I'm sorry, did you just casually suggest I drop a hundred grand on a battery? I want you to look at this apartment and tell me what suggests that I can afford that."

She actually did it. She looked around herself at the apartment. "I mean, you're American Delvers, right? I know you have more than this!"

I sighed. This might be harder than I thought. "Alright, here's the deal. The home you are now at least temporarily a part of is barely making ends meet, and you being here will make that harder until you set up. I need you to contribute, we get coins and materials as byproducts of what we do, but you translating that to usable or sellable equipment will make this work better."

She stared. Her head cocked to the side. "I... see." She clearly didn't, not quite, but I let it slide for now. "I'll see what I can do for you all once I have a setup. You mentioned an inventory? If you give me a notebook, I can start looking through it."

"That, I can do." Pencil and paper in hand, I opened up the gear closet. Of course, first things first, the enormous sword and her ring. That ring... I was nervous even handling the bag, but she just pulled it out like an old friend, stared at it with furrowed brows for not nearly enough time before casually sticking it on her right forefinger.

I startled and scrambled backwards. Sarah, for her part, just gave me a quizzical look. "Jay, please accept that there is literally no pattern on Earth I know better than how this ring looks while blank. It's blank." She turned back to the sword and started taking notes, gesturing at me to leave her alone to do so.

This was going to take some getting used to. With nothing else to do, I got to cleaning up the rest of the apartment. It had been a bit, the last week had been rather busy. Reorganizing things, getting duffels set up for the guests, vacuuming, wiping down the table, all punctuated by seemingly-random exclamations from our collection closet. "How did they...?" "Really? Mixed together?" "WHAT?" I guess she was finding interesting stuff.

A knock at the front door interrupted my thoughts. The ladies were not back yet, not if they needed to dig through Enchanter kits, and I was certainly not expecting anyone else. The knock came again, impatiently. My phone decided to chime at me this time, a number I didn't recognize. Seriously, can the things requiring attention please come sequentially? I decided that the door was more important, and answered it. On the other side was a familiar, uniformed man.

"Officer! I wasn't expecting to see you today." The same walking stereotype I had been dealing with so often recently was standing at my doorstep. Alone this time, but I could see he was armed. I was finally close enough to read his name tag. Sergeant Mann, Paul.

"And I wasn't expecting to get five notifications of a demon attack on this street in particular, with you not being any of them. Didn't feel like milking more money from the OPP? Don't hold back on my part, it's no difference to my paycheck."

I got wary. We were not in range to hear Sarah's words from the closet, but Sergeant Mann's attitude was very different this time. Even without my ability to sense strong emotions directly, I could feel his suspicion practically radiating off of his body. I made a judgment call in that split second, and permitted myself to feel some fatigue and laziness where my Aura could pick it up. The officer felt it coming off of me, and likely got the feeling that I was dully incurious and unconcerned about his visit. That nothing here was worth him coming out. "Attack happened late last night, and we didn't see any witnesses. Given that it was another major demonic incursion, we were trying to gather proof so that we wouldn't look like we were faking it for the T3 bounty. I take it you got other videos or pictures?"

He gave me a long look. "You could say that. Alright, since I'm here, I'll also knock out your random inspection for Delver compliance. Need to see your paperwork along with weapons and materials storage, especially for your known firearm."

That meant the closet. Crap. Cover story time? Well, I could be 80% honest here. "All in the same place, but one moment." I led him to the materials closet, where we could both hear my latest guest rummaging around. "Sarah, coming in. We got inspected." I opened the door, thankfully Sarah didn't have the entire thing in chaos. "Sergeant, this is Sarah Castellán, an Enchanter friend who is visiting. She's conducting inventory and appraisal now for an equipment overhaul. Gun safe is here, weapon secure inside. Door and walls have standard lining, we have nothing that requires more. Here's the binder. Any questions?"

I had very, very rarely talked faster in my life. Sarah, for her part, got the point that silence would be best and just kept on taking stock. I had legitimately forgotten about some of those materials, not going to lie.

"That's a heck of a sword on the rack."

Crap. Thankfully it wasn't glowing. "Trophy from a fight. Couldn't bring myself to sell it, but it's entirely too large for Lucy or I to use in combat."

He nodded. Thankfully. Could have gotten ugly. "Tight ship you run. No citation, and getting a fresh inventory? I'm impressed."

"Officer, no offense, but I've had both pistols and rifles from your coworkers pointed at me this past week, in front of you. I have no desire to be classified as a rogue agent."

He laughed, a short bark of a sound. "Fair, fair. Swing by the station once you have your proof together, we can get that report filed. T3 is direct deposit, no need to duke it out with ice skeletons at a bank this time." With remarkably little further conversation, he left. I could feel myself slowly unclench when he did, unsure of what was going on. Something was really fishy, here. More so than usual for the authorities.

That's when I remembered. My phone. It had gone off, I should probably check that. To my surprise, it had gone off twice. Must have been distracted. For some reason. The first was a request from the Guild Hall, someone had shown interest in bringing a Sorceress on a delve and wanted to contract ours. Guild called Golden Age. Go us. Lucy would have a blast. Literally.

The other, though...

"Hay, it's Candi from PTA. John said a bunch of monsters were popping up near Fort Seilacoom, 5 hits in 3 days!"

That was well south of the city, further than the Guild Halls. The portals almost never went that far. Five attacks in three days was epidemic levels if they were any kind of actual threat. How would we be able to respond to things out there, though? I didn't have a car, and even if I did I couldn't afford to go drive an hour for the chance that nobody else got to it first. I sent back a thanks.

"Oh, almost forgot! Had a pig, he said they were looking for an Inc who worked the rental rooms."

My blood ran cold. A police officer looking for an Incubus who did sex work. Not exactly a common demographic. There might be a second one in Seattle somewhere, but if there was I hadn't met him. Translation: SPD was looking for me, specifically, for reasons unknown. Presumably no warrants, though, or Sergeant Mann and I would have had a very different conversation.

I knew that I had less than zero desire to drop by the station for any reason now, though.

My musings were again interrupted by the front door, this time more welcome by far. Lucy was carrying a couple of heavy-looking grocery bags. Whitney had four bags in her left and two from the superstore in her right... and by her stance, those two outweighed the four by a solid margin. I grabbed Sarah to help organize what we got for her, I knew just enough to know I didn't want to touch any of it.

Sarah, for her part, had a rapturous expression, like a child who got exactly what they asked for their birthday. What had looked like a plain wooden dowel held her particular attention, she was holding it like she was afraid it would disappear if she let go. "How did you ever find ROWAN wood in decent quality? I've actually been looking for this for a bit!"

Lucy smirked. I understood immediately how she had found it, and that the acquisition of it had probably involved some light flirting and nothing further. "Pay full price" was also likely not part of things, even though she publicly wore our wedding ring.

I helped Lucy get the groceries put away, Whitney lugged what appeared to be a tiny, portable work desk to one side of the couch and did the heavy part of setting it up. Enchanting in the living room was probably not ideal, but it was the only space we had if we wanted to be able to actually eat.

Raw milk, protein bars, eggs, butter. What we were now stocking was ridiculously calorie-dense and protein-packed. Chicken and fish went into the fridge, a couple more spices hit the shelf. "This trip was pricier than anything we've done in a long time, but I figured a bit of a treat was in store after this week."

I heard Whitney from the living room then. "You mean I can have it?" followed by a scramble to the gear closet.

I stuck my head out. Sarah saw my inquisitive look. "The sword is enchanted for impact, it weighs fifteen pounds and carries momentum like it's sixty. I can't exactly use it, but she can, and I don't want to risk disenchanting it unshielded. As long as I'm here, she might as well, right?" Whitney was hugging it like a teddy bear, so I wasn't about to say otherwise.

"Alright. Lucy, I got a contact for a guild that wants you to do a delve with them. Whitney, given you have a real weapon now, you might want to tag along again. I will go as well, Guild Leader and all. Sarah, you have the choice to tag along or stay and..."

"Stay."

"... finish your setup. Okay. Everyone get equipped."

It didn't take long. Say this about Sarah, she was organized beyond anything Lucy or I had managed. She had even labeled containers with sticky paper that I was 99% certain was not in the closet when she went in. I chose not to question that too closely. We improvised a sling for the giant sword, a proper one could be acquired shortly. I did add one piece to my normal gear, though. My gun. I was feeling a bit more nervous than usual for some reason.

The ride there was uneventful, but the camp was buzzing. It didn't take long to figure out exactly what. George Godfrey was the name on everyone's lips. Some kind of rising star, finally back in armor after getting severely ill. Some guild's main tank, apparently, and as we walked into the main hall for a meeting I rapidly figured out which.

Golden Age. The people we were here to see. An actual, literal Knight in shining freaking armor was waving at us from a table that was laden with a very hearty lunch fit for a dozen. He had one other person at the table, a rather slight man with thick glasses, carrying parchment. When he boomed out his greetings, he sounded like he belonged on a beach, holding a surfboard. "Guild Leader Kithkin! Just the man I wanted to see! And you brought the whole guild!"

Dude. Do you ever speak a sentence that doesn't need an exclamation point at the end? I had been inside of a quieter lightning bolt less than a week ago. Thing is? He looked kind of familiar. Tall, blonde, and broad. His nose had obviously been broken at some point, and pale scars dotted his fair skin. Wait. No. It could not possibly be...

"Hold up, you're the guy I helped at the hospital?"

"The same! Soon as I got back on my feet and saw you guys were contracting, I KNEW we needed to get your people in!"

The scribe had been jotting notes of some kind, but looked at us. "Uh, George, you think that's a good idea? I mean..."

"Of course it is! No mistaking it! Gotta ask, guys, classes and levels? Specs? I'm up front, so I gotta know how much punishment I'm taking!"

The scribe still looked nervous. I decided I'd break the ice. "Well, I'll start, though I'm not likely to be down with you all. You can call me Jay, Level 8 Mirror with Scan and Cursebreaker. You rather appreciated that last bit." This got a chuckle.

"Really? Is that what finally dealt with things?"

"Yeah. Wiped out my mana pool to do it, and hospital mana potions taste worse than their cafeteria food." That, at least, caught some chuckles.

We went around the table as we enjoyed the good food. The Hall had never forgotten its roots as a Faire, and the meal leaned heavily on portable proteins, shaved ice, pickles, and roast corn. The scribe turned out to be named Allen, and he was the unfortunate combination of having a Warrior class without the stats to support it. Still, he'd gotten in good with this bunch.

I heard the footstep from behind us. "These? These are who you think are going to help us next week?" I looked behind myself to find three humans, in light gear. Rogues? Duelists? Something of the sort. Anything was possible, but I didn't see any primary strikers.

George frowned. "Hey, the JV team needed some artillery, this Sorceress is up your alley and I'll be down there to frontline as I get back into things."

I saw what was up immediately. It was always the same thing. Only one thing for it. "Let's shortcut the discussion. You think all she's good for is sex, and don't believe she could possibly be good at delving despite the fact that she's been Guilded since the guild system became a thing. George, is the dueling circle still open around here?"

Lucy looked at me with a slightly panicked expression. My mouth was signing a check she'd have to cash. Before she could say anything, though, George practically boomed "of course it is! Gonna place a wager on this one?" I dropped five Golds onto the table. The trio behind me got very quiet, very quickly.

Looking at them again, I reached for their emotions. None of them were feeling particularly confident. Just racist scum. "Tell you what. Two of you can take on the two of my strikers. I'll make the same bet for each. Sound good?"

It was too tempting for them to pass up. The match drew an audience, too. I'll give their Skirmisher credit, he knew how to fight casters. Dove right in and tried to get in my wife's face. His main problem was that she knew better than to mono-focus Fire, and that the camp was standing on a Ley Line. Before the word "fight", my wife had been pulling power in from the surroundings. The might, determination, and violence of it had flowed around her like a whirlwind, illuminating her in a golden light.

Lucy could have legitimately ended him if she had decided to go for a kill, instead she deflected his attack with a suddenly-manifested plane of energy, then threw him telekinetically upwards far enough to give her time to plant a Fireball under his path of descent. He landed in an undignified, smoldering heap.

The other match was a bit shorter. Whitney swung the new sword hard enough to launch their Specter entirely outside of the ring. His Intangibility class ability was apparently a bit weak to magic weapons. While he didn't smolder, he did make a heap much like his friend.

The crowd cheered. It had been a bit, apparently, since they got some fights that weren't over major grievances or limited to foam weaponry. Helped that both of them were objectively hot, one supernaturally so. They did not need to know that both of the ladies had given the few moments of their fights their all, not willing to risk embarrassment or the contract. All they needed was to see a couple of overinflated egos taken down a notch or three. Me? I was grinning like a Cheshire Catfolk. Especially when the traditional 5% share of bets placed went to the Guild of those being bet on.

"Sorry to give your healers extra work, but I felt the point needed to be made. And I needed the ten extra Golds. Hope it didn't come from the Guild coffers, but I'm not apologizing if they did."

"Worth it, bro! The JV team got a new Cleric who needs to grind a bit, anyway. I'll make sure those three aren't on Monday's Noon run, they need a break after that!"

Noon on a Monday? Yeah, that tracks for a tertiary team trying to get experience. "Excellent. I know the camp standard loot share system, that works for me. Specifically including reagent shares. Minimum of one Gold per hour of their time, per person you're contracting, and standard contracts?"

His scribe was suddenly busy writing this down. It was generous, as such things go. We weren't making specific demands, just wanted a fair cut. Left a bit up to chance, and locked myself in low for the month. Didn't matter to me, really, I needed them to get levels and ability progress. Any income was just to keep the lights on and the Enchanter happy. "Oh, one more thing. I am, at present, the only person who knows how to detect and rid the curse that laid you out. If you suspect someone has it, that's going to be pricy... but not as bad as what happens if the curse is allowed to run its full course, and a REAL discount from what a medical specialist is going to demand."