A set of sunglasses

“Citrinas, I need you to help cast spells, since I’m WAY too weak to cast the spells that I need.” Verdi said as he began gathering the supplies he needed. Salt, copper coins, the silver nitrate crystals he used to make the film, and some glass bottles. While he crushed the glass bottles in a clay pot, he tossed the copper coins into another clay pot and wrote down three equations. As he wrote the equations, he stopped and scrapped them, noticing a typo in each of them as he tried to properly calculate what he wanted. Sadly, his expertise lied in ice magic, not wind or fire magic. He broke out in a cold sweat, slightly pressured by Citrinas’ stares as she patiently waited for him to finish his equation.

“Are you trying to melt the copper?" She asked after 5 minutes of watching Verdi scribble equations, discard them, then start anew. He stiffened, his ink quill freezing in place as he solemnly set it aside.

"Yes…" He grudgingly admitted, silently glaring at his pile of failed formulas. He’d tried to find a way to melt the copper in an efficient fashion, but the more he wrote the more confused he became. Manipulating temperature was something he was well accustomed with, but slowing down a molecule to disperse heat was significantly easier to calculate than having something vibrate faster in a random fashion. Trying to heat the metal through friction only made it worse. “Can you help? I… Don’t know how to heat something up.” He admitted as Citrinas sat next to him and began writing.

“Trying to heat something directly with formulaic magic requires way too much focus to be effective. It’s much easier to produce something flammable and light that up.” Citrinas explained as she began writing an equation, Verdi peering over her shoulder as she wrote. To his surprise, the usually taciturn arch-imago was unfazed by his intense staring as she carefully explained each step of the equation. As she wrote, more questions emerged in Verdi’s mind as he tried to make sense of the sheer calculations required to create a fire. It was only a few minutes after Citrinas wrote the equation that he realized how much prep time it took to conjure a fireball.

“Hold on, are you telling me every time you make a fireball, you gotta start a fire?” He asked, skimming over the formula and trying to wrap his mind around it. To cast a fireball, you’d need a high concentration of carbon dioxide and water to break the chemical bonds and create flammable gasses. You’d then need to compress the air along with oxygen, drawing in all the air in the vicinity to fuel the spell before launching it at someone. Not only would you require a mage with superhuman analytical abilities to make a fireball, you’d also need a massive fire to properly fuel the spell.

"Of course. Did you think fireballs just appeared out of nowhere?" She asked as Verdi stared at her coat, suddenly noticing the arsenal she was carrying in her pockets. As he took in the sheer scope of her weaponry, he couldn’t help but wonder if Fenri was officially the second most heavily armed member of the party. Flasks filled with flint and oil, bottles of water, healing potions, poisons, she carried everything you’d need in a battle and then some. Focusing closer, he could see that her coat was embedded with numerous monster cores that were disguised as buttons or gems, each one conferring some sort of protection to her. Then he noticed the knives she carried hidden within the folds of her coat, the enchanted blades capable of earning Fenri’s jealousy from their elaborate engravings.

The more he studied her, the more underdressed he felt compared to his two party members. The two of them were armed to the literal teeth and ready for combat at any given second, Fenri having her inventory hold dozens, if not hundreds of knives while Citrinas’ coat was packed with dangerous concoctions. This stood in stark contrast to his “combat” gear that he carried on his person. He didn’t have any weapons, alchemical concoctions, or enchanted gear. He had a cheap cotton outfit that had been repaired by his own hand over the course of their journey, a 1 liter canteen of water he carried on his belt, and a pouch on his waist that held both his money and some half eaten jerky.

“Anyway, we’ll start by burning the oil. We can’t just use it directly since nobody knows the precise structure of the oil, but we do know how carbon dioxide looks.” Citrinas explained, producing a bottle of oil and pouring it on a large, flat plate. Rather than grab a flint and steel, she reached into her coat and took out a metal Zippo lighter, the design a stark contrast to the rest of the world's tech. It was likely the result of some hero bringing the idea from their native world to Ruyanei. Flicking the cap open, she spun the wheel to produce a rain of sparks that ignited the lighter's wick. As she lit up the oil, she grabbed a large, glass lid that had two holes, one to let oxygen flow in and another hole to vent the carbon dioxide out through a nozzle into a bowl of water.

“Hm. Hey, Citrinas, if you can break molecular bonds with formulaic magic, why don’t you just turn the air around someone into something toxic or explosive?” He asked as Citrinas began writing a formula, somehow talking while calculating.

“Formulaic magic is strong and slow. By the time you managed to build up enough gasses to be toxic, your target would have noticed and walked away. With fireballs, we can build up power then release it all in one violent burst.” Citrinas explained as her elbow knocked the plate of burning oil over, the mage too focused on her calculations to notice her mistake. Verdi reached forward without thinking, catching the plate to avoid letting it spill on the ground as a few droplets of the oil hit his thumb. A few droplets the size of a pea. That was all it took.

“GYAAAH!” He screamed as his arm was set ablaze, the flames creeping up his elbow in the blink of an eye as his very blood was set alight. The flames crept up his arm, devouring him in a frenzy as Fenri sat up from her bathtub and reached to her waist. With a flick of her wrist, she threw one of the knives she kept in on her belt at him, severing the burning limb before it could reach his main body. Rather than thank the hero for her help, Verdi continued screaming as he felt both the pain of dismemberment and immolation at the same time, the limb continuing to relay sensations to his brain due to his odd biology. Citrinas ran to the corner of the lab and grabbed a jug of water, too panicked to cast a spell as she threw it onto his burning arm. They watched the flames die down ever so slightly, vapor filling the room only to reignite with a vengeance.

“GAH! HOW FUCKING FLAMMABLE AM I!?” He shouted in exasperation as Fenri threw another knife into his dismembered arm, a thread of piano wire tied to the base of it as she yanked his arm back, pulling it towards her. Grabbing a bowie knife, she stabbed his forearm and dunked his burning limb into her bathwater, the healing potions and his innate regeneration causing the limb to regenerate in the blink of an eye. Suddenly, he could see the arm beginning to grow another shoulder, the limb beginning to regrow an entirely new body. Before he could let them find out his final trick, he fished the limb out of Fenri’s bathwater and stuck it on his shoulder, the spare biomass dispersing itself throughout his body with no visible change. As his limb reattached itself, he slumped against the bathtub and made a fist, making sure everything reconnected properly as Fenri sighed.

"Fuck, you’re lucky I wasn’t carrying a fucking flint when we fought.” She noted, startled at just how severe his weakness to fire was.

“Are you okay?” Citrinas asked, worried as Verdi looked to his shoulder with a pained expression.

“My fucking shirt! That’s the 3rd one this week! Now I gotta go repair the fucking sleeve AGAIN! FUCK!” He exclaimed in exasperation, the pain a mere distant memory as Citrinas sighed, returning to her work and feeling foolish for thinking Verdi would be traumatized by any injury at this point. Igniting another bottle of oil, she converted the carbon dioxide to flammable gasses and vented it through a small tube to begin converting it to flammable gasses. Once the concentration hit critical mass, she pulled a small lighter from her coat and ignited it, a white-hot flame appearing and melting the copper coins Verdi had stored in a clay pot.

“Do you have a block of wood I can carve?” Verdi asked abruptly after the coins melted, wandering around the lab in search of the final component to his creation.

“Why would I have that?” Citrinas asked as Fenri raised a hand.

“Here, I got some.” She said casually, still sitting in the bathtub full of healing potions. “Inventory.” A block of wood appeared in her hand, the dimensions roughly 12 by 6 by 6 inches. Tossing the block to him, Verdi walked over to find that every last copper coin had been melted, the molten steel slightly worrying him as he kept his distance.

“Thank you.” He said to Fenri before looking to Citrinas. "I need some chlorine gas to be pumped through the molten copper. Can you do that?" He asked as the arch-imago nodded, dissolving salt in water and electrocuting it to release chlorine gas and hydrogen. While the hydrogen was allowed to vent itself through the fume hood, the chlorine was sent through some tubing into a collecting chamber. After a few minutes, she stopped electrocuting the water and used wind magic to pump the chlorine through the still molten copper.

"This enough?” She asked as Verdi did some mental calculations. After a few seconds, he shook his head.

“Two more times. After that, mix the chlorine with water to make hydrochloric acid, dissolve the copper chloride in the acid, then chill it so it precipitates out of solution. After that, mix it with some silver chloride while it's in the dark. Finally, melt the glass, mix the silver chloride and copper chloride into the glass, and then let the glass solidify into this mold to make a lens." He said as Citrinas grabbed a journal and began writing in a frenzy, committing his process to text before eagerly nodding.

"Okay!" She said, beaming happily as she got to work. Fenri continued to sit in her bathtub, watching her work before turning to Verdi, who was busy staring at the block of wood she gave him earlier.

“Do you need a knife? Cause, I got a spare crafting knife on me." She said, noticing how Verdi had done nothing but stare at the wood as though he were reading a book.

“Do you know how to carve wood? I thought if I stared long enough some random memory would pop up, but I don’t think I was an artistic person in my past life.” He said as Fenri sighed, making a fist with her right arm before moving both her legs, confirming that she was fully healed from her fight with Bell before stepping out.

"Inventory." She said, storing the healing potion on her skin into her inventory to dry herself off while puling a set of carving knives from her inventory. “What am I making?” She asked as Verdi bit his thumb and formed a model of what he wanted with his blood. The blood spread out in thin wires, slowly thickening until they produced a pair of thick rimmed glasses with a slot to insert glass lenses. It was far from perfect, but it was a quick job to get a quick lay. Since they had fought Bell in close combat, he had precise measurements of her head and knew that the current model would fit her like a glove.

“Make this. Please be as precise as possible when carving.” He requested as Fenri took the model, studied it and traced it with her fingers before carving the block of wood, her hands a mere blur as wood shavings piled up in front of her. A shave here, a cut there, it was almost mesmerizing as the crude block of dried wood was cleaved away underneath Fenri's blade work. Even Citrinas was silent, unable to muster the strength to interrupt the hero as she held up her creation next to Verdi’s ice model. To his disbelief, the two were identical down to the millimeter, Fenri’s hand-eye coordination almost on par with a master artisan’s.

“This good?” She asked as Verdi eagerly nodded, holding up a perfect wooden frame for his new glasses.

“Perfect.” He said before looking at her. “Can you make one more for me? I wanna see if Belsach is interested in marketing this with me later." He asked as Fenri pulled another block of wood and got to work carving.

"Fine, but you owe me.” She said as Verdi rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll make sure to give your cunt a tongue bath tonight.” He said, well accustomed to her demands as he watched a smirk form on her face, the hero silently excited to have another night of pleasant dreams.

"I didn't know you carved wood." Citrinas said as Fenri shrugged.

“Dad had me take sculpting lessons as a kid since that was the fad in the capital. Switched to wood carving since it was easier to do while on the road." She explained, tossing Verdi another hand carved frame. “Oh, by the way, you gotta sand these down and add a coating or else it’ll rot in a few months. I recommend using a...” She advised before going over a long winded explanation between using linseed oil and wax, then going into why the jarak bug’s gloss back in her homeworld had the best properties for protecting wood. As she spoke, Verdi used ice magic to form some sandpaper, sanding down the glasses before using the nitrocellulose he used to make his film to coat the wooden frame. As he set it aside to dry, he called Citrinas over to help speed up the process with wind magic, a task the arch-imago happily began as they waited for the molten glass to cool.

"When we win the tournament, can I commission a statue from you?" Verdi asked while watching Fenri carve the second glasses frame with interest.

"You’re better off hiring a dedicated sculptor. Making a life sized model from scratch takes weeks of dedicated work, but don’t fall for the scam of using an earth mage to sculpt one because...” She answered, the hero going into a strange tangent on why sculptures formed by magic always ended up breaking due to microfractures in the stone forming, that no mage could ever match up to a sculptor, and continuing to talk about the best tools to use without any further prompting. To Verdi’s surprise, she spoke about sculpting and wood carving with the same passion Citrinas held for alchemy. In a way, it was almost cute seeing the dour hero go into detail on something she loved other than sex and knives, her eyes sparkling as she explained to Verdi the proper way of handling a carving knife, and why drying out wood was vital for carvings.

“Can we put the lens in now?” Citrinas asked impatiently, interrupting Fenri’s speech on why verdure monster wood was terrible compared to standard trees. Rather than argue, Verdi grabbed the glass lenses they had formed and studied them, noting the crystals embedded within the glass. He could feel the crystals due to his strange body, but it was doubtful any human or monster could actually see the ultrafine silver and copper crystals embedded within the glass. Snapping the glass in place, he held it to the sunlight and watched as the once clear glass slowly tinted into a pair of sunglasses. Removing the glasses from the light, he watched as the glasses returned to normal, his auto-tinting sunglasses causing Citrinas and Fenri to snatch his second pair of glasses and test it out by the window, the two women transfixed by his little invention.

“Did you just make a magic artifact without a monster core?” Fenri asked, assuming the lens to be magical in nature as Citrinas shook her head, visibly excited as she began talking.

"It's not light magic, it's chemistry.” She said succinctly as Fenri stared at her with a raised eyebrow. Rather than get annoyed at Fenri’s inability to understand how it worked, she seemed excited as she explained aloud her theory behind the mechanism. “When the light hits the silver chloride, it turns into silver and chlorine to darken the glass. Conversely, when taken out of the light, the copper chloride offers its chlorine ion to reverse the reaction.” She explained before looking at Verdi like an excited puppy as she waited for him to either confirm or reject her hypothesis.

“You’re really smart. You guessed it on the first shot." Verdi said, his already high opinion of Citrinas’ intelligence increasing further. Her analytical ability was always staggering to him considering she had a sub 10 second cast time, but to see her instantly comprehend the mechanism behind the self tinting sunglasses was proof of just how brilliant she was.

“Why’s she the smart one? You literally made this.” Fenri asked as Verdi shook his head.

"I'm copying things someone else discovered. It’s something anyone can do. Plus, it’s not like I could have made this without her.” He answered succinctly, taking no real pride in his creation. He wasn’t a brilliant man, he was just using basic knowledge to produce something from what he could find. “Honestly, I’m surprised you haven't discovered this already considering formulaic magic requires you to understand chemistry and physics." He noted, suddenly realizing how strange Ruyanei was technologically.

They knew about atomic theory, about the periodic table, and even weaponized them through the use of formulaic magic. They were no simpletons, having a robust understanding of reality’s most fundamental building blocks, yet their technology was primitive to say the least. True, the dungeons restricted their logistical networks, but things such as mirrors, cameras, and even sunglasses could easily be produced with local resources as Verdi had proven. Rather than take offense to Verdi questioning Ruyanei’s tech level, Citrinas merely shrugged.

"Well, the elves tend to **** or abduct anyone who tries to innovate things they deem dangerous. Plus, the alchemist guild, trader’s guild, and craftsmen’s guild tend to kill anyone who they deem potential competitors in their monopolies, so nobody’s had the courage to invent anything or do any formal research into reverse engineering technology from other worlds.” She answered as though she were stating the obvious. Verdi waited for a minute, hoping she’d burst out laughing and call him an idiot for believing such a story. He then remembered Citrinas had a shitty poker face and was incapable of lying or sarcasm.

"And you just let them kill people!?" Verdi blurted out in disbelief.

"Well, it's not like there's hard proof they're the culprits, just rumors." Citrinas said with a shrug.

"I get the guilds wanting to keep a monopoly, but why are the elves killing inventors?" Fenri asked as Citrinas scoffed.

"Elves think that slowing technological progress will make sure the Brightest Night and Darkest Day doesn’t happen again.” She said with thinly veiled mockery as Fenri and Verdi looked at each other, assuming the other knew what she was talking about.

“What’s the Brightest Night?” The duo asked in sync as Citrinas sighed, visibly annoyed at herself for mentioning it.

“40,000 years ago, there was an incident where the night sky was illuminated and the sun didn’t shine during the day. Rational beings say a geomagnetic phenomenon like a solar flare and a solar eclipse occurred.” She said, indirectly referring to elves as irrational. It was odd to see Citrinas speaking of elves with such disdain, but when considering her passion for chemistry it made sense she would despise anyone who actively stifled innovation.

“And the elves?” Fenri asked as Verdi saw the arch-imago do the impossible. She was sarcastic.

“The elves say that the Ancients, the most powerful and intelligent civilization in history, created a weapon that altered reality itself and self-destructed with it, inverting day and night before breaking down.” Citrinas explained before scoffing. “Nope, their collapse wasn’t the result of internal strife, civil war, and a strained logistical network. It happened in a single day from a magic light.” She said as Verdi felt slightly miffed that she would use his style of talking to show her disdain for the elves’ religious beliefs.

“Hey, maybe the light was just them firing a super powerful light spell. I mean, Fox-bitch fired a laser so hot it blew up Kolderia.” Fenri offered as Citrinas shook her head.

“The Ancients kept the natives of Ruyanei back with a massive wall, and when the walls finally fell about 40,000 years ago, we found their cities empty and in disrepair. If they were attacked by some giant laser, the cities would have been rubble, not ruined by time. The elves are just trying to deny the fact that they collapsed on their own since they think they're the Ancients' successors.” Citrinas snapped as Verdi raised his hand.

“... Wait, are you telling me I have to stop inventing stuff because elves are religious zealots?" He asked, suddenly realizing the danger he was in.

“You can still invent stuff. In fact, you can do that as much as you want when this journey is over.” Citrinas reassured, calming Verdi down for a moment. Citrinas was a hero companion and nobility. There was probably some law or deal that kept nobility from being killed, and that might extend to her friends as well. He could trust her to deal with this.

“You just need to stay in my Domain, never tell anyone about what we’re making, and avoid elves.” She added cheerily, indirectly offering to keep Verdi locked in her proverbial basement as her sex goblin. It seemed time was cyclical, the arch-imago’s first idea upon meeting him doing that very thing. While Verdi silently tried to think of a way to be rich, famous, and not wanted by every guild and elf in the word, Fenri asked a simple question.

"Hey, Princess, is his camera considered dangerous technology?" All three of them went silent, looking at each other before Citrinas bit her lip.

"... We should tell Belsach to stop commercializing your camera." She said as Verdi groaned.

"He told me he already called up a bunch of people, and people have seen him carrying it in public.” He groaned as Citrinas **** a smile and patted him on the back.

"Maybe the elves don’t know." She said, trying to console the depressed alchemist as he sighed.

"I'll deal with it later. Let's just get out of here, fuck Bell, and call it a day.” He said, intent on forgetting literally everything Citrinas said in the past 20 seconds. He was going to get rich and famous or die trying. Upon hearing his plans, Citrinas’ previous excitement died down as she shook her head.

"I’ll pass. Varrick tends to be pretty good at detecting danger, so I’m going to avoid Bell." She said dismissively, walking back to the alchemy table and playing with the second pair of sunglasses, holding it to the light and smiling at the simple act of it changing color. It was almost adorable seeing the flat faced arch-mage show such childish wonder to his toy. Suddenly, Verdi felt a hand pat him on the head like a puppy as Fenri stood next to him, the hero still towering over him by a full foot.

"Varrick’s a moron. I spent the past 7 years ignoring him and I'm doing spectacular right now." Fenri said as Citrinas sighed, knowing better than to get in the way of the two nymphomaniacs as she pointed to the pair with one finger, banishing them from her Domain in a flash of light. As they returned to Belsach’s main guest room, Verdi sat at the table and set the newly made sunglasses in front of him.

"So, are we doing the seduction here or in the bar?” He asked, eyeing the statue of Belsach leering at the pair, the stone carving a perfect replica of the perverse hobgoblin. He liked Belsach, but he also knew having the statue in the room would kill the mood. At the same time, this was a private, well furnished room that had a sexual energy to it.

“We give her your gift and drink in the bar. Start with beer, compliment her art, then we work our way up to the hard stuff. She gets drunk, we get a room. I draw a cold bath to help her “sober up” and I scrub her down to get her hot and bothered. Then you-” Just as Fenri was ready to explain the intricacies of their seduction plot, the room itself quaked, the art adorning the wall falling to the ground in massive broken heaps. The statue of Belsach trembled, almost terrified as the shaking died down, the impact akin to a meteor strike. Screams were heard outside the room as Fenri pulled a knife out of her inventory.

“What the fuck’s happening?” She asked as Verdi closed his eyes, sensing what lay behind the walls. Everyone in the bar was running away, Varrick had his sword drawn, while Daria had taken on a fighting stance, her hands open like claws. Belsach… Was holding his camera and recording something. Focusing on where Belsach was looking, Verdi saw what was going to happen and tackled Fenri, shoving her out of the way as a gray blur flew past them at breakneck speeds.

A thunderous “BANG” echoed through the city as the stone walls cracked from the sheer **** of the blow. As it fell to the ground, the gray blur stood up and dusted itself off, its hood falling away as they were face to face with a woman with pale white skin and glowing red eyes. She had strawberry blonde hair and wore loose fitting clothing that hid her busty build, leaving her as a rather plain looking person at a glance. The only thing that stood out was the hammer and stake she clutched, both of them stained red with blood.

“... Hi Bell.” Verdi said, the vampire hopping back to her feet and dusting herself off in front of them

Author's note: sorry for the late chapter. I went on vacation. Also, I got into AI art.

Meet Eris

And meet Fenri