“Sorry?” Mia asked. “It is?”

“I just got a new quest. One with, I guess, ironic timing.”

“Another? You got another quest?”

“And it has a weird reward. What the heck is a ‘Guild Core’?”

“A Guild Core?” Mia almost screeched. She collected herself, though with some difficulty. She breathed in, then said, “Explain.”

Hazel did so. She detailed the quest and the reward. At the end, Mia stared at her.

“You have to be the luckiest person in the world. A Guild Core. This early. Level four. Unbelievable.”

“What is it?”

“An artifact that allows the formation of a guild.”

“Uh huh. Because that means so much to me.”

Mia huffed. “Look, it almost doesn’t matter, right now. But Guilds are ways for people to … I don’t know, organize. There’s a lot that go into them. A lot of reason to join one—and being able to make one of your own is an incredible benefit, both for yourself and for anyone who joins you.”

“Are you in one?”

“No,” Mia said. “There’s limitations to joining and leaving, and limited slots. It’s hard to qualify, and besides, I didn’t want to lock myself down.”

“Okay. So, what kind of benefits?”

Mia waved her hand. “Like I said, it’s not relevant right now. And likely not for some time. You won’t be finishing it for a while. With a reward that potent, it might be something you spend the next several months working on.” A troubled expression crossed her face. “If you don’t die tackling it, that is. Even if you’re lucky and blessed by the heavens, a quest for a Guild Core won’t be easy.”

“It has to do with the black crystal infection,” Hazel said. “You don’t have any guesses?” Her eyes went down to the recently slain monster, encrusted like most of the others.

“Not one,” Mia said.

“Huh.” Hazel shrugged. “Guess we’ll just have to keep an eye out.”

***

They didn’t have to venture through the Gray Stone Hollows for long before they bumped into the next development on the case.

It was a rather gruesome development, too.

“Oh, heavens,” Mia said.

“What the hell?” Hazel asked, just as shocked at what lay in front of them.

Hanging on the wall, glued down with blocky black crystal, was a woman. She was spread eagle, arms and legs pinned by the clumpy black material. She was unconscious, with only her head sticking out of the crystalline prison. Hazel couldn’t even be sure she was alive.

Neither Hazel or Mia rushed forward to try to pry the woman out, since even Hazel had earned some sort of self-preservation after her encounter with the Abyssal Melder. They didn’t know whether it was a trap. She didn’t see how it would be, but still wasn’t eager to rush in without at least considering the situation.

The woman had short brown hair, tanned skin, and a tomboyish face and build. The black crystal was only partially see through, but Hazel could see the woman was muscular, with defined arms and powerful legs. Trying to use the system to provide further information on the woman didn’t work; the usual ‘inspection request failed’ notification came. Which was good news, Hazel thought, since it probably meant she wasn’t dead. Otherwise she would just receive a corpse notification.

Against the monsters they’d been killing, the black crystal had refused to be inspected. This time, though, studying the clumpy crystal gathered around the woman, Hazel got a response.

Mia grabbed Hazel by the wrist and guided her away. Hazel hesitated, not wanting to just leave the woman hanging there, but she understood that Mia didn’t want to sit around and wait for something bad to happen. She wanted to talk first. Somewhere safer.

And, as expected, as soon as they’d gotten a good distance away, Mia spun on her, concern obvious on her face. “We have to do something.”

Hazel wasn’t surprised at the reaction. While Mia had shown a cool, measured response when first running into the woman, that was because she was an experienced adventurer. But that didn’t mean the succubus didn’t have a bleeding heart. She’d nearly gotten herself killed for Hazel—who maybe hadn’t even fully registered as a ‘real person’ to Mia, being a talking slime.

“Yeah. We do. But what?”

Mia hesitated. “You inspected it?”

“Essence of Corruption.”

“Exactly.” Mia chewed her lip. “More importantly, it’s an affliction.”

“Okay? What’s that matter?”

“Afflictions are a type of debuff. More relevantly, I have a skill that can dispel them.”

“You do?”

“But it ties into—well, all of those issues I’ve been mentioning.”

“Oh,” Hazel said. “You mean, with your class?”

“Yes. I have a potent cleanse ability. I received it early on. But I can’t use it.”

“Why not?”

Mia chewed her lip. “Again, it’s tied to … all those issues I’ve alluded to.”

Hazel tilted her head. She waited patiently for Mia to explain. She could tell it was coming.

Mia glanced away, rubbing her elbow. She huffed. “Look, this is going to be awkward, okay? Early on, I told you some of my foundational skills—which formed the basic shape of my class—I disliked. It prompted me to set out as an adventurer, hoping to change the path I was on. But a succubus’s basic skills … I’m sure you can imagine that they’re not meant for polite company.”

“Okay,” Hazel said. “That’s fine. You can tell me. I don’t care. Maybe I can even fix it.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Mia said. “And yes, I think you can. I was just letting the revelation sink in, and I suppose planning on the best way to have you change them.” Her cheeks colored. “And with this development, we need to handle it sooner rather than later. But, um. Like I said, it’s going to be awkward.” She huffed. “I’ll just show you.”

“Okay.”

“But don’t be weird about it. This is embarrassing enough as it is.”

Tapping the air, Mia brought forth a system screen—and in clearly legible text, Hazel read one of her foundational skills.

Mia was a succubus, so Hazel would hardly say she was surprised at such an ability.

“It regenerates through skills?” Hazel asked. “What kind?”

Mia flushed. “I’m sure you can guess.” She covered her face, then tapped the air again, revealing the second of her key abilities.

“Wow,” Hazel said. “Oh, wow.”

The implication sank in pretty much immediately. She had expected a lewd ability of some sort, because, again, succubus. But that wasn’t the problem.

“You said you hated this skill,” Hazel said. “Because—?”

“Because it requires a man,” Mia said. “Yes.” Her tail swished behind her, agitated.

All of Mia’s previous complaints clicked. Especially her allusion to how what a person wanted didn’t always result in what skills they actually got. Mia didn’t hate that her class had lewd abilities, which Hazel had halfway assumed, but rather, that it required a man. And Mia clearly preferred women. Women only, from the sounds of it.

“That’s … kind of messed up,” Hazel said.

“Truthfully, it’s not that odd,” Mia said, sighing. “Some people train their whole life with the sword, only to be given a class focused on archery.” She shrugged. “And this is the succubus equivalent. I prefer women, but I received a foundational skill focused on men—as a swordfighter might get unlucky by receiving archery skills to start them off. Besides, most succubi would be interested in, well, both men and women. So really, it’s my fault. I’m eccentric in that regard.”

“It’s definitely not your fault,” Hazel refused immediately. And she didn’t think the sword-and-archery analogy was really the same thing. Was there a sentient, guiding force behind this whole ‘System’? If there was, giving Mia an ability that only worked on men was … again, pretty messed up. She felt vaguely disgusted by the whole situation, and the AI, or whatever entity, if it existed, governed classes and skills.

And it summoned a whole lot of sympathy for Mia. What an awful situation.

But she could help, Hazel remembered, her eyes widening in excitement. [Skill Edit]. In her disgust, she’d almost forgotten.

“But this is an easy fix,” Hazel said. “[Skill Edit] will take care of that no problem.” Honestly, she was surprised Mia hadn’t asked her to do so right away. Why had she waited?

“In a few ways, yes,” Mia said. “Such a versatile ability can obviously solve my problem in a whole myriad of applications. Like I said, I just wanted time to think. And I’ve also been thinking about the easiest way to go about it.” Her cheeks darkened another shade, and she didn’t meet Hazel’s eyes.

“Oh?” Hazel asked. She didn’t follow, entirely.

“As in, the simplest change to make,” Mia said. “Since, yes, you said you could do something comprehensive, but also, there’s elegance in simplicity. And it would be cheaper for you. So. Why don’t we simply change ‘male’ to ‘female’?”

Hazel paused.

But that would end up with [Oral Harvest] still requiring, well, a cock. And for it to be ‘harvested’. Just, instead, a female cock.

Huh?

Then the biggest implication slammed into her. Mia had brought this up because she had a cleanse ability that used Ecstasy. So she would have to harvest from someone, in order to save the mystery woman. And the only someone here was Hazel.

So in order for that work, Hazel would need to grow …

“Would that even work?” Hazel blurted out. Her heart slammed in her chest, having starting galloping out of nowhere. Her stomach squirmed in excitement at the idea. It was actually kind of embarrassing how suddenly she’d been set on fire. “I mean, it still says ‘semen’ right? So?”

“Slimes can reproduce,” Mia said. “So I’m sure it would, um, qualify.”

“They can?”

“Shapeshifting races in general are versatile when it comes to breeding.” Mia finally met her eyes, only for them to go skittering right back away. “But yes. I do believe it would work. And it’s the most likely application of [Skill Edit] to take hold. It hasn’t been too long since you last used it, so it would have to be a light application of the ability. And we don’t have time to wait, since we don’t want to leave that woman hanging there. It said with each passing hour she becomes more ‘corrupted’, and who knows what that means? Or how long she’s been there? So, a simple change.”

Somehow, Hazel got the impression that those were justifications. That Mia had been wondering how to broach the idea to Hazel from the start, and this situation just gave her an easy, 'pragmatic' excuse.

From the start, she’d wanted Hazel to …

What?

Grow a cock?

Then let her pleasure it to completion?

Hazel felt suddenly dizzy.

“Alright,” Hazel found herself saying. “I mean, it sounds like as good a plan as any.”