Esmeralda always considered herself to be a bit of a cosmopolitan woman.
Raised in one of the premier enchanting guilds of Aslo, rising to the near top of her class, mastering almost every trick of her trade, Esmeralda was somebodyone that even the prideful nobles had to give a modicum of respect. Because she was good at what she did.
But then, a new world opened up, this “Terra”, and one of their Pathways entrances fell within the cluster that contained her own city's nearby entrance. So, when the adventurer's guild came calling, not a guild like her own, but the guild, and asked her superiors to send somebody that could handle the enchanting needs of a new town, Esmeralda was the first pick.
Because Esmeralda was good at what she did. Not great, but good.
Maybe if she was younger, maybe if her superiors thought she had more potential, or hell, maybe even if she was just a bit less well-rounded, they probably wouldn't have picked her. Maybe she wouldn't be in this backwater town, sitting in a plain wooden shop plus house combo, sitting on an admittedly decent chair that she had to purchase from the natives because, even without magic, it was still comfier than the half-assed work of the town carpenter.
Esmeralda was told that she had earned their trust. She was told that this wasn't permanent, that once the town finished developing she could return. She was told that this was a great opportunity, to build a foundation in a city that would one day likely become a hub of transportation and commerce. That was all true, even, but at the same time, it didn't help her now.
The adventurer's guild was known for doing things “right”. Which meant, effectively, this town would be a training barracks for the native population for the next few decades. Teaching the natives how to defend themselves was all well and good, Esmeralda would even agree with such measures normally, but that was when she wasn't forced to take part herself.
The entire situation rankled her pride.
Every time she stepped outside the door, Esmeralda felt like she was walking into a den of barbarians. A not unreasonable comparison when looking at some of the adventurers and adventurer-trainees she shared the city with. Which is why she now spent most of her time in her shop, reading to escape her problems.
Lost in the wonderful world of “The Witch and her Wyrmling”, Esmeralda startled as she heard the door to her shop open. 'Who is it now? It better not be that little punk coming to flirt with me again.' she groaned. It should have been too early for the adventurers to start spilling out from their weekend classes.
Looking up, she gasped as a tall, nearly transparent human stepped lightly into her shop. Esmeralda saw her life flash before her very eyes, all of her days spent studying, all of the groveling she did for her superiors at the enchanting guild, and all of the books she never had the time to read, as a beautiful pair of glowing cyan eyes looked back at her. The flashbacks ended a moment later when the creature turned away, ignoring her completely, instead focusing on the trinkets that lined her shop.
As somebody who had focused most of her life on the study of enchanting, Esmeralda had little more than a layman's knowledge when it came to monster hunting, leaving her to immediately assume the creature in front of her was some kind of ghost. Intangible creatures usually only spawned in areas with an environment that suited them, and the most well known of these environments was that of the undead. Ghosts and other undead thrived in areas filled with resentment, resentment so strong that it left its mark even on the very mana that filled the surroundings.
'What in the world is the adventurer's guild doing?' she wanted to scream, knowing that any such environment nearby should have been a top priority to cleanse.
Only after the ghostly young woman shut the door to her shop and then stepped over to a nearby shelf, reaching out and picking up one of her basic Firestarting enchantments to examine, did Esmeralda notice her mistake.
'That... that thing... is a physical creature?' she realized.
Brushing off her shock, Esmeralda looked closer and noticed that her unexpected visitor had a slight blue tint to it, rather than the usual pale white one would expect from ghostly creatures, and carried a large, metallic looking core within its chest.
'It really is a... normal physical creature!' she sighed with some relief.
Of course, normal was only a matter of perspective. Any monster that had the intelligence to interact with humans in any other way than trying to attack them on sight was a rarity. Even in her old, bustling home city, such an encounter would be a once in a decade experience. But the fact that she could confidently place it into the physical category of monsters allowed Esmeralda to calm herself.
Intangible monsters were known to develop intelligence far more often than physical monsters, and yet between the two, even a child would know that physical monsters were the less frightening of the two.
After all, there was an old adage Esmeralda remembered from her childhood that said “What would a monster do if it gained a sentience?... Why, whatever it wants, of course!”
For a physical monster, that could be anything. Perhaps it would want to eat you. Perhaps it would kidnap you. Perhaps it would talk with you, or even help you. Or maybe it would simply walk around your store and examine the items you're trying to sell while pretending you don't exist...
For intangible monsters, however, particularly the most well known category of the ghostly types who were born in areas of great resentment, their desires tended towards vindictive, sadistic torture, misery, and death.
'If I just give it what it wants, hopefully it won't harm me!'
The creature continued to inspect her wares, moving on from the Firestarters to the Floating Sparks, a slightly more complex enchantment meant to help beginner adventurers in darkened areas.
None of the wares displayed in the front of her shop could be considered great by Esmeralda's standards. Most were nothing more than small, practical enchantments designed to cater to low level adventurers and their needs, while her better work was kept in the back. The creature seemed interested in all of them regardless, moving to the next trinket on display, the Coldstones.
“Excuse me...” she said, trying to project confidence in her voice. “W-what... what do you want?”
The creature turned to face Esmeralda, tilting its head slightly in apparent confusion. 'Oh, good going Esmeralda, why don't you antagonize the monster that was peacefully ignoring you!?'
She powered on despite her chagrin, “Ex-... excuse me, you can understand me, right?”
To both her surprise and relief the creature nodded its head in agreement.
'Definitely intelligent then, if that was ever in doubt. And not apparently hostile, either.'
“Are you... can you speak?” Esmeralda continued, hoping to open up a dialogue now that she had its attention.
This time the mysterious creature shook its head no. 'Damn, if it just had some kind of spoken language I could... oh!'
“Please wait here a moment!” Esmeralda yelped, jumping up from her seat and running into the back office.
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Esmeralda rummaged through a couple boxes of her old work, with particularly complex enchantments and very niche effects, created during her training to improve her skills and never sold due to a lack of interested buyers. At the very bottom of one of the boxes she found what she was looking for, a simple looking earring with a bead of mithril as the adornment.
Returning to the front with a smile, she found the creature waiting where she had left it, still looking at her with confusion. Esmeralda raised the earring in front of her, presenting it to the creature and exclaiming “Here, try this one!”
Esmeralda couldn't help but gawk as the transparent woman's hand came closer, gently reaching out to pick up the earring from the palm of her hands. 'A slime?' Esmeralda wondered, as she finally got a closer look at the substance that made up the creature's body.
'I didn't even know slimes could gain intelligence! And what kind of slime even is this? Ignoring the fact that it somehow took a human shape, the color looks far too light to be a water slime, and I've never heard of a core like that' she continued to question, examining the perfectly symmetrical, heart shaped, metallic core floating inside the chest of the gooey figure.
The slime stopped looking at the enchantment and raised another eyebrow at Esmeralda, before she realized that it didn't know why she had given it the earring.
“Ahem...” Esmeralda cleared her throat, before launching into one of her lectures “That is an Earring of Translation. But not just any Earring of Translation! It's an Earring of Translation that allows you to translate not just your voice, but even your intent into words for others to understand! All you have to do is place it on one of your ears like so” Esmeralda pointed at one of her own earrings “for it to take effect!”
The slime hesitated for a moment, before reaching up and placing the earring onto its own ear. Esmeralda felt a brief pang of envy as the earring submerged itself into the slime's ear and held its position easily. 'I had to hire a healer to help with my first earrings because I don't like pain' she grumbled to herself.
“Hello?” a nondescript voice seemed to ring out from nowhere.
Both the slime and the woman looked up in surprise before Esmeralda exclaimed “Haha, see! It works!... I mean, I knew it would work. Haha.”
Of course, she had tested it before herself, but enchantments didn't always work perfectly when unknown variables were added, and an intelligent slime creature was definitely a variable that Esmeralda had never expected.
“Isn't my work great?” she bragged “It's perfect for you!”
The slime hesitated to respond, but nodded back appreciatively, before answering “Yes, it's great. But... I don't have any money on me.”
Esmeralda opened her mouth in genuine shock at the response. 'So it already understands the concept of money? I guess I was mistaken about it being a freshly spawned monster. No wonder the adventurer's guild is letting it wander around.'
The slime reached up to return the earring before Esmeralda waved it off “Ah, that's not necessary! It's a... a gift! Yeah. A gift for my new friend! Uhh...”
“I'm... Clarity” the slime added.
“Yes! A gift for my friend Clarity! I'm sure you'll put it to good use!”
“I see... thank you?” the slime cautiously responded.
'Aha! I've made a friend!' Esmeralda silently cheered, before correcting herself 'Ahem, I mean, I've managed to befriend an intelligent monster. Even the instructors back home would be jealous!'
Of course, most of that jealousy would come from the gossip lovers and rumormongers of the city, as intelligent monsters capable of integrating into society were seen as something akin to celebrities due to their rarity, but that couldn't dim the bit of schadenfreude Esmeralda felt towards those lousy superiors who sent her out here.
“Right, I'm Esmeralda! The finest enchanter in town!” She said pridefully. “Well, I'm also the only enchanter in town, but even back in my old city I was pretty good. I even hosted nobles somet- Wait! I'll be right back.”
Cutting herself off, she rushed into the back of her shop again, leaving Clarity standing there in confusion once more. Esmeralda returned about five minutes later, carrying a teapot and several cups in her hands, only to find Clarity had gone back to browsing through her enchantments.
“Here we go! Tea! It's only natural to share tea when you're hosting important guests! My old boss would kill me for forgetting that!” she explained, pouring tea into both cups as Clarity examined the tea cups curiously.
Happy to have captured the goo girl's interest, Esmeralda encouraged “Ah, these leaves are my favorite! Their taste is wonderful, you should try some!”
Looking up from the cups, Clarity frowned slightly, before placing a single finger inside the cup.
'Did I do something wrong? Was I too pushy?' Esmeralda feared upon seeing the cold reaction.
Esmeralda watched the tea disappear, seemingly sucked up by Clarity's finger and dissolved into nothing, before the slime simply replied “... I can't taste anything.”
“Oh” Esmeralda mumbled. “I'm sorry, I didn't... Ah, I know! You must be interested in the enchantments!” Propped up by the slime girl's renewed look of interest she continued “See! Look here, on the teapot, there's a hot enchantment to prepare the tea, and then here and here on the cups, this is a warming enchantment and this is a cooling enchantment, so people can choose how they wish to drink by pushing one of these two buttons on the handle. Neat, right? I made them myself!”
Esmeralda puffed out her chest when Clarity nodded.
“They're really impressive. I've tried making enchantments” Clarity admitted “but mine aren't nearly as good.”
“Ah? You make enchantments too?” Esmeralda exclaimed in shock. 'When would a monster get the chance to learn about enchantments? Was I wrong to assume it was new to society?'
“Would you mind showing me one?” Esmeralda asked. “Maybe I could give you some advice.”
Clarity glanced away, seeming to consider the question while looking around the shop for something.
“Ok!” the slime agreed, walking over to Esmeralda's desk and picking up a plain, wooden cup.
Esmeralda pushed her specially crafted eyeglasses up to the base of her nose, preparing to observe the slime's actions. They were enchanted to improve one's ability to see mana flows, and were vital for any aspiring enchanters. At Esmeralda's level she could recreate most common enchantments without them, but they were still quite useful for experimenting with new enchantments, or for picking up on another's use of mana.
She couldn't help but gasp as the mana in and around the cup seemed to come alive, swirling around at Clarity's touch, quickly forming into a small mana barrier that filled the walls of the cup and even extended in a dome above it, forming a complete vacuum of manaless air within. The entire process took no more than a minute.
Clarity handed the cup to Esmeralda as she continued to stare in awe. Even now, outside of Clarity's grasp, the mana within the cup remained steady. Even the dome of mana in the air above the cup remained in place, though it was markedly less sturdy. Esmeralda waved the cup back and forth, watching as mana was pushed away and the vacuum within remained manaless.
“This... this is amazing!” Esmeralda exclaimed, causing Clarity to smile. “But... it's not enchanting” she continued, dampening the slime girl's excitement.
Esmeralda began to explain “I... I don't mean it's bad. It's very impressive actually... It's just... well... by definition, this can't be called enchanting. This is more like... long term spellcasting. This is essentially just a spell, and the mana is holding itself together through the magic you imbued it with. At least half of the power is wasted trying to maintain the spell's form, and it will probably only last another few hours. Proper enchanting involves weaving threads of mana into certain materials, tying mana and matter together, allowing the full power of the magic to be applied to the effect you want to achieve. Enchanting requires quality materials, but average enchantments can last years, good enchantments can last decades, and great enchantments can last centuries. Some can even last indefinitely, although only true masters of the craft know how to create those.”
Seeing the slime girl look down after hearing her explanation, Esmeralda couldn't help but console her “But don't worry Clarity, your mana control is incredible! Enchanting has always been a matter of knowledge, which isn't something anyone is born with, even as a monster! With your mana control you're practically half way there already! I'm... not supposed to share my guild's advanced techniques with outsiders... But I could give you the basics, and share some tips with you!”
'And if I end up sharing some of the advanced techniques later, that's the guild's fault for sending me out here in the first place, hmph' she added mentally.
“Really? Thank you, Esmeralda!” Clarity replied excitedly, grabbing Esmeralda's hand in gratitude “That would be great!”
Of course, it was at that very moment that Esmeralda's shop door swung open roughly.
They both looked over as a trio of adventurers walked into the shop. Esmeralda failed to keep the annoyance off her face. Clarity didn't appear to be particularly happy to see them either, and the three who entered had looks of shock on their faces.
“It's the ghost!”
“It has the shopkeeper!”
“Oh my fair maiden! We meet again!”
“William, shut up! We have to save the shopkeeper!” shouted the one who always pestered Esmeralda for discounts on her health and beauty related enchantments, pulling out a bow in the process.
“Stop! No fighting in my shop!” Esmeralda quickly warned them.
“Ms. Esmeralda, are you sure you're okay?” asked Sarah, the one Esmeralda recognized as the least annoying of the trio.
“I'm fine!” Esmeralda returned “Tell your friends not to attack Clarity.”
“Clarity? What an excellent name!”
“William, please!” Ava turned back to her leader.
“Ms. Esmeralda do you know that thing?” Sarah asked cautiously.
“Of course” Esmeralda stuck up her nose pridefully “Clarity is my friend!”
That statement caused all three to go silent, before Ava broke the silence by stating “Well, we're still going to have to report it to the guild master.”
“... Huh?” Esmeralda began to get an uncomfortable feeling at that statement.
“Ah that's right!” William exclaimed, finally pulling his attention away from the beautiful slime woman in front of him.
“I'm sorry, Clarity! We have to report you to the guild master for the reward money! But dinner's on me if you're interested” he winked, before turning around and running out of the shop, quickly followed by his two party members.
“Quick, before anyone beats us to it!” echoed behind them.
Esmeralda turned to her new friend, desperately asking “The adventurer's guild does know you're here... right?” and hoping the answer would be positive.
Clarity merely looked back at the door and replied “Well... I think they do now.”