You Take the Job (Good End?)

Maybe it wasn't the most exciting choice, but it was the safest.

Working for Drew Robertos was a pretty sweet gig for you overall. Yes, you had to make some calls to your sister and family explaining that you were moving out, rather suddenly in fact. However, between Amazon and USPS you were able to get all of your stuff delivered to the small bedroom that Drew had behind the shop.

Over the next few months you learned a lot. Drew was eccentric and a bit crazy, but had explored more places in the world than you thought existed, picking up a variety of trinkets, artifacts, and even a small amount of magic. You learned that a lot of magic had basically gone to sleep; after George the Dragon Slayer had killed so many of the ancient beasts, many of them had gone into hiding or deep slumber. As dragons produced a fair amount of the natural magic in the world (much like a plant brings in carbon-dioxide and breathes out oxygen, dragons absorbed air, gold and virgins in order to give off mana), without them, magic had waned, allowing things like the Industrial Revolution to eventually occur.

Of course, that mean the remaining magic existed in things like relics and artifacts, things that generated or contained their own sources of magic, much like the Ifrit Statue. Inara's statuette had also been sent to you, along with your other belongings, but within Drew's shop, she wasn't able to manifest. Something about an artifact Drew had picked up that prevented certain magics from affecting him or things within 30 feet of him or things he owned.

Drew was, of course, fairly wealthy from his travels, meaning he had enough money to pay for a shop that should otherwise fail, and even pay you a pretty good wage, comparable to your old job as a restaurant cook, but not as good as the one you had at the bank. Still, it was enough for you to send money to your sister and save up. Since you were basically stuck in the shop, you didn't have much to spend money on, so the future was at least promising.

After several years, you eventually learn enough about magic to wield Drew's Peacock-feather lampshade hat, which was more to handle than you would have otherwise thought. Without Drew's instruction, if you had tried to wear the hat, it would have done some rather peculiar things that are best left undiscussed. Once you had the hat on, you could see the threads tying you to the idol. Drew also loaned you "Yuen's magical scissors" allowing you to finally cut yourself free from the ifrit that could have otherwise turned your life into a sexual nightmare of corruption, depravity, and sin for both you and those you care about.

Finally free, Drew offered you the chance to go and explore some ancient ruins of your own. "I'll fund your expeditions, of course, but this is far from the only idol containing an ifrit. You've proven your commitment to doing things right, to learning, to not taking the easiest route. There's a rumor I'd love for you to check out; something from King Solomon that might even allow you, now that you have an understanding of how to wield basic mana and mana-infused tools, to control that ifrit without the negative side-effects. What do you say?"

Your life isn't anything like you would have expected, but you avoided Inara's temptations, avoided meeting cute big-titty goths, sexy nuns, or bimbofied schoolgirls. Congratulations, I guess?