***

Redoubt 3-5 is one of the many bunker-like rooms adventurers use to regroup and recuperate while they're in the dungeon. It was located in the Inner Sanctum of the third level of Teth-Odin's dungeon, accessible from the from the series of escape tunnels that could fit two people abreast, but too narrow for most of the dungeon's larger monsters.

That didn't make the Inner Sanctum safe, as there were monsters small enough to fit through them, but they often fell prey to the larger ones that couldn't squeeze through. As The Whales made their way to Redoubt 3-5, there weren't any smaller monsters around except for the large otter-like creature which ingratiated itself with Ingrid.

"It's a swarm mouse, Ingrid, get rid of it!" the elf sorceress Siria said. It was called that because it was a magical creature composed of multiple rodents that could fuse together to form a larger weasel or otter-like carnivore. Now that it didn't see Ingrid as a threat, it had broken down to its constituent creatures that to Ingrid, Cecil, and Arek looked like chubby white ferrets the size of small poodles.

"They're friendly, Siria!" Ingrid insisted, hugging a swarm mouse which reciprocated by licking her hand.

"Cecil, talk some sense to Ingrid here!" she said, but a pair of mice had crawled into Cecil's Room and were huddled with him. "they're wild ani...are you teaching them how to use those things?"

"They look like a responsible bunch." Cecil replied, who was performing maintenance on his guns. The two mice were holding one of the smaller guns and examining it, chittering excitedly to the other. What was more perplexing was how they realized it was a weapon and was mindful of not pulling its trigger or pointing it at anyone. "... and besides, you live long enough with humans and you start to like friendly, fluffy, mammals."

Siria looked at Arek who shrugged "Humans are pretty easy to domesticate, any friendly mammal making the moves of friendship will cause them to bond with it."

"Domesticate!?" Kinu barked "What should we do? We can't let those things domesticate Ingrid!"

"Hug her I guess" Arek replied "putting your paws on her cheeks will definitely help."

"I'm not letting them go!" Ingrid's words were slightly muffled as Kinu's warm paws squeezed her pouting cheeks together "look at them! They're holding guns! It's soooo cute!"

"Get a grip, Ingrid!" Kinu was making those whining dog sounds that prompted Ingrid to give him a hug.

"Awwwww!!!"

"Is it working?" Kvaris asked, his tail wagging slowly.

***

Ingrid found that so long as one mouse remained outside, the rest of them could stay in Cecil's Room. She and the rest of the team also found that they were quite intelligent, with Arek remarking that they're nearly sapient.

"Sapient?" Kvaris repeated, not knowing the word.

"It means their level of intelligence is almost like people." Cecil explained as he was showing the Mice how to clear a jam on an AK assault rifle. Both he and Arek had decided that this was the best rifle for the Mice to use if Ingrid would allow them to be armed.

"Yup, arm them." She replied almost immediately, still cuddling one mouse. "Our fluffy friends need to learn how to protect themselves." her words were still slightly muffled as Kinu gave her a cheek rub, which made her purr.

"Don't worry guys, I'm not gonna lose my common sense from these little fellas, besides, they've been nothing but helpful!" she pointed at the campfire in the chamber, where a pair of Mice were helping Arek cook.

"Fine." Siria said "Anyway, what was this request regarding these... bullets?" She was examining a few of the live cartridges that was given to her by Cecil. "I do have a spell I could modify to shape metallic objects, we could also commission some smiths to make these..."

"....and that part is problematic" Arek spoke up, as he turned to face Siria, the mice with their spatulas got to work stirring the stew. "...it may cause a problem, not now, but later on if they figure out that it's for an advanced weapon."

"It shouldn't matter," the elf shrugged. “Ingrid herself pretty much explained how her power works, including how she's able to use Ether which none of us can do without setting ourselves on fire. There is a chance that somewhere along the line we'll be seeing wizards who can replicate her methods. Although if I were to be honest that could probably take a hundred years at least. "

The Gulan turned to Ingrid "What do you think, Ingrid? Ever heard of the Prime Directive?"

"I know my Sci-Fi...." Ingrid seemed to close her eyes in thought, or was just enjoying the affectionate attentions of her new pet mouse and the warm plushy paws of Kinu on her face. "What Siria said, I've already violated the Prime Directive."

"Alrighty then, no objections" Arek's mandibles clicked rapidly in thought. "Oh and we need the powder too. I'm guessing alchemists can supply us the materials."

"Powder?" Kvaris asked.

Siria held up one bullet "now assuming I got this right..." she pointed at the rounded tip "this part is the one that flies out of the barrel; the hollow shaft of the weapon. The rest of this is filled with an exploding power that makes the tip fly. So instead of a string of sinew launching an arrow, you have a violent explosion in a confined space...."

Kvaris continued for her "...and with that, the bullet goes only one way, straight forward. Interesting."

"But here's the fun part, firearms today have a mechanism that loads the next round, so all you have to focus on is just pulling the trigger to shoot, and aim. In other words, with just a pull of a trigger, it draws, nocks, and looses the bullet." Ingrid explains.

"You seem to know quite a bit despite not using them." Kinu remarked.

Ingrid paused for a while "...that's because before I became a Magical Girl, I was hunting SEEDs... that's the monsters in my world. I was hunting them with those firearms. Of course, I wasn't as effective as they were exceptionally resilient. When I became a Magical Girl, Cecil was helping me fight but eventually the SEEDs got stronger and tougher that the firearms we could use weren't doing much damage to them."

Cecil spoke up next "In theory I could channel my Mana into the bullets, but that wasn't an option since I was already doing that to maintain Ingrid's Raiment... she used to wear a fancy-looking dress to give her the powers you see now."

Everyone looked at Ingrid curiously, she shrugged again. "My Raiment probably fused with me when my body was reconstructed... oh right, Millarna told me to tell you guys to tell me to watch out for anti-magic fields because she suspects that my body is partially a magical construct, or I could be considered a magic creature of sorts."

Kvaris snickered "Sounds exactly like a Fae to me."

"Very well, back to the topic then" Siria tried to recap her previous question "It's settled, we can commission some smiths to fashion new bullets..." she paused, her eyes glinting with inspiration "even see if we can get Mithril and Orihalcum bullets for those really pesky monsters."

"Now, now" Ingrid waved her hands placatingly "don't try to think of making even stronger exploding power... you need to consider the toughness of these gun's barrels. I don't think we can make much to refit every barrel with those legendary metals.

"Just a few are necessary" Siria wagged her finger "You mentioned that prolonged shooting heats up the barrels and can potentially deform them, a Mithril blade can be dropped into lava and if you pull it out it'll only be warm to the touch.

Cecil and Arek nodded in agreement "That sounds like a good idea."

"Now, slingshotted stones passing through an Enhancement Lens is also feasible. Metal balls should be even more potent. So here's an idea, unless it really calls for it, Cecil, you and the Mice inside the Room should stick to using slingshots until you've confirmed it's a really tough enemy. While it does shoot at a slower rate than your gun, having three or four of you in there would more than make up for it. "

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"At which point, you only need to arm the Mice who aren't in Cecil's Room." Arek said. "that's a pretty good idea."

***

The trip back to the surface was mostly without incident, there were a good number of adventurers walking about, with the only tense moment was when the group passed through a few Grudge Bearers: undead adventurers that roamed the dungeon looking for monsters to kill.

They completely ignored the Swarm Mouse that clung to Ingrid's shoulder. Perhaps they thought it was some Tamer's familiar and left it alone. Others thought that Ingrid's formidable aura had caused them to lose whatever interest in the mouse as it was not worth losing their unlife for.

Back in the city of Teth-Odin, Siria, Arek and Kvaris headed for the "Harvesting Houses", they were also called "Dismantling Houses". As their names suggested, it was where monster carcasses were converted to meat and other by-products. Given the limitations of space at peak hours, as well as the limits of opening and maintaining an Item Box spell, and the sheer volume of monsters killed by Ingrid, they were going to be there for quite a while.

Meanwhile, Kinu and Ingrid, with Cecil in tow, headed for the Jormungandr Guild Hall in order to register her new pets. A quick detour to the market on the Kobold's suggestion had Ingrid buying some red scarves for the Mice to wear, identifying them as Familiars just in case they needed to run around by themselves.

***

"And would you like this bigger scarf for this other familiar of yours too?" said the elderly shopkeep to Kinu, wrapping a longer scarf around Ingrid's shoulders and neck. "There we go, it looks pretty nice!

"It does!" Ingrid remarked, admiring herself in the mirror.

"AAAAAH! IT TALKS!" the shopkeeper yelled in surprise, not having seen a Human before, assumed she was some rare monster that Kinu had bonded with. He wasn't exactly wrong and when they entered the store, Kinu was the one who did the talking. Also, when he put a scarf around Ingrid she lowered herself to make it easier.

While a scarf was put around her shoulders, Ingrid noticed a set of matching thigh highs and gloves, it turned out to have very tiny scales on closer inspection and was decorated with what looked liked embroidery of golden thread, forming patterns that reminded her of the motifs on her old Raiment.

"That's Deep Wyrm hide." The shopkeeper explained to Ingrid "Once you wear it, it reacts to your Mana, preventing it from deforming. Try it on."

Ingrid pulled one glove on, it reached halfway up her bicep and it was fingerless.

The shopkeeper pointed at the fluffy lining that now ringed her bicep. "that's from Catoblepas wool which helps conduct your body's Mana evenly across the glove." Ingrid flexed her arm and the leather gave way easily like she was wearing something light, despite the fact that the glove hugged the contours of her arm.

"Now see what happens if someone squeezes your arm" The shopkeeper tried to clench his fist around her forearm but the glove resisted as if she was wearing metal bracers.

"The scales and hide tighten and flex, and so you have a limb protection that highly resists severing and breaking without being stiff...and finally" he pointed at the decorative gems, there one at the back of each hand and one on each bicep area just where the glove ends. On the thigh high boots it was on the top of each foot as well as the other one just before it terminated halfway up the thigh.

"You can channel your Mana to each of these, essentially storing them for later use. Very useful for body enhancement magic or storing spells for situations where you need magic in an instant."

"I'll take it" Ingrid said, the protection she probably did not need and she was probably sure that these capacitor-like Gems would need to be replaced with ones of higher capacity, but she wanted them simply because it looked good on her.

"Why is it fingerless though? Wouldn't it be bad?" Kinu asked the shopkeeper, who shook his head.

"It's more efficient to channel Mana into your weapons through direct touch." he wagged his paw at Kinu. "A lot of people say palms are the best way but we think differently, as energy eventually flows into your extremities and that ends on your fingertips."

"I'm lucky I was able to find a set that fits me perfectly!" Ingrid said, walking around and flexing her now-covered limbs. "...or that's part of the enchantment?"

"It is." The shopkeeper said "it conforms to the wearer’s shape. Now normally I shouldn't be saying this, but if you pop those gems, they're easy to replace."

"Gods Bless The Aftermarket" Cecil said, "A wise man once said, a world that has an aftermarket is a world worth saving!"

"What's an aftermarket?" Kinu asked.

"Just some saying in my world." Ingrid replied, she turned her head to Cecil when he tapped her shoulder.

"Why don't we ham it up some more?" Cecil asked "I'm sure you can get a big gem-n-brooch for your all important core."

While Ingrid paused to think the shopkeep spoke up. "Shouldn't be too hard, it's pretty common for adventurers to have them sewn on their outerwear or welded to their armor, if you're willing to wait I could refit one to a smaller belt."

"Alright" Ingrid said. "I'll find some brooches for my Mice."

"Get scarves for everyone!" Cecil said "We're a team!" which caused Ingrid to laugh.

"I can't fathom Cecil wearing a scarf," Kinu remarked.

"Back then I gave him a hat, '' Ingrid replied, sorting through the merchandise to find matching scarves. "How come nobody ever mentioned to me of having themed clothing for our Team anyway?"

Cecil was going to say something but like certain times, looked left and right to nobody in particular and then just deflated and kept quiet. "...because most of your time in between accepting and doing jobs is spent training and working out your other abilities, and then there's times when Millarna was using you as a lab rat... except this time around she's the one setting herself on fire... also I pretty much gave up on asking to you to put-"

"Millarna's not gonna be able to use the Ether outside of getting Mana Burn." Kinu interrupted, which prompted Cecil to mutter a "...there we go."

"Can't blame me for trying." Ingrid said. She was conferring with the mice on what sort of brooch they wanted. "I thought Millarna was going to be able to get it to work but it really seems that it doesn't get past the point she turns into a fireball, any attempt to move around the Ether just made it worse."

"Alright, here it is!" The shopkeeper called from the counter. To Ingrid and Cecil it reminded them of a smaller pro-wrestler's champion belt but instead of the large styled buckle it was a crystal in the shape of a heart. "That crystal's a dud by the way, obviously there's no way I can source anything that big, but feel free to drop by and I can have it cut properly to fit that slot. Also, I adjusted it so the clasp is up front, I don't know what idiot thought someone's life-and-death gear had to fastened at the back."

"Probably some stuck-up perfumed nobles who got fifty squires." Kinu snickered.

"Yeah, well none of that pretentious rubbish goes in my store, these are real gear for real adventurers."

"...and Familiars," Cecil chuckled. As soon as Ingrid fastened the belt firmly around her ribs her favorite Mouse had climbed up and used it to hold on, now having a firmer grip around Ingrid's back. It deftly fastened a stylish-looking pauldron on one shoulder, its design helping it have a better grip on her.

The sight of Ingrid raising her arm a bit only served to further confuse the shopkeeper as he was still not exactly sure what to make of the Human. It seemed to act like other people, like a fellow adventurer, and then there's instances like these where it just lets itself get barded like some war-beast. The fact there was a talking slime didn't help, nor did her abnormally strong aura... after all, the point of being a tamer was having a powerful creature in your entourage.

It was only when the Human did the paying that his confusion was lifted. But seeing a Swarm Mouse ride its shoulder and the Kobold gentleman lead her by the hand made that thought waver.

***

"Hi!! I'd like to register my new familiars" Ingrid said as she approached the counter.

"Oh, Tixi Mice." The bird-like receptionist said when she saw the Swarm Mouse riding her shoulder.

"Tixi Mice? Cecil, Kinu, and Ingrid asked simultaneously.

"Yes, they're an endemic species in the Western Isles" the receptionist said as she petted the friendly oversized rodent. "Very intelligent too. They're not creatures from some Rift World, they're from here. These were either smuggled from their islands, or made friends with some sailors and brought here, additionally they could've just stowed away. Or, they could've been descendants of any of the above mentioned and formed a colony near or around the Dungeon."

"Well that's interesting" Ingrid said, the mouse was nuzzling her cheek as if to affirm she was the Tamer.

"That…is interesting" the receptionist squawked. Her head-crest of feathers rising with emotion "I'm quite a biologist myself and I can tell you, they don't do cheek rubs outside their own. You've been adopted."

“Wow! That’s good to know, at least means I’m probably considered their Alpha…uhh yes?” Ingrid said before Kinu tugged on her hand, causing her to lean to the side. "What is it... ooohhh" she sighed in pleasure as he put his soft paws on her face. "Soft toe beans are the best.... anyway" she straightened up "is there anything I need to do?"

***

The Whales had regrouped at a tavern near the Dismantling House, no doubt the proprietors set themselves up near this prime location to take advantage of the steady stream of Adventurers and the like. Siria needed to visit the Dismantlers a few hours later in order to get the current batches’ value as well as pull out another set she still had in storage.

The elf waved when she saw Ingrid and company push through the crowded tavern. She was now sporting a long red scarf, its flowy ends dramatically fluttering in the wind. Her limbs were armored in what was probably dragon leather; the type that was conductive to the wearer’s Mana flow like Deep, Mist, or Bronze Dragon hide she thought, since those were popular choices for those who engaged in extensive Body Enhancement Magic.

Then there was the channeling gems, although she (rightly) assumed that they were either duds or were long-overdue for replacement considering that she had just bought them. There were two on each limb and an extra gem strapped on her torso, which along with the single pauldron one shoulder allowed the Swarm Mouse to perch on her back conveniently.

“You’re going to need to replace those” Siria poked at the gem just below Ingrid’s sternum “That looks faded right now.”

“Fortunately, quite a lot of the monster’s magic stones were intact, you should consider using those as channeling gems for your outfit.” Kvaris said in between bites of a late lunch. The group scooted over so Ingrid and Kinu could sit down, while some of the mice hopped onto the table and began eating.

“So apparently when the Tixi Mice fuse into a larger animal it’s called an Ateroskar” Ingrid mentioned.

“Ugh!” Siria groaned “It was just on the tip of my tongue! But I couldn’t remember the name for that form…”