When I arrived back at Kassandra’s room from the emergency summon, all of the other girls had left already, not expecting me to return that quickly.

Kassandra, who had remained, was quick to seize on the opportunity presented to spend time alone though. She rapidly stole all of my clothes before ordering me into the bath to clean up from the fight while she worked her magic to heal the wound in my leg.

As I was hitting the adrenaline crash from the fight at that point, I didn’t argue with my loving noodle. I let her look after me for a bit before returning the favor.

Several times.

Only when she was properly exhausted did I relax and drift off to sleep myself.

Waking up in my apartment when her summon ran out wasn’t fun, but it was part of this life I was living.

Staring up at the ceiling of my shitty apartment, I heaved a heavy sigh.

Wish there was some way to bring the girls over to this side so they could visit Earth. Cortha is cool and all, but I think Kass would lose it over something like the Internet. I know Rieka would have fun poking around shops for clothing styles. Both of them would be interested in books here too…

I sighed again, looking around the room once more at the dingy walls and cramped expanse of the room. This was not the kind of place I’d want to bring either of my girls over to, and the neighborhood sure as hell made it less than welcoming.

So change it.

The thought floated up out of my subconscious like a bubble through water. I continued to stare blankly at the ceiling for a long moment before my resolve hardened and I sat upright.

A glimmer drew my eyes to the small bowl of pearls glimmering on the kitchen counter, and I smiled.

I’d done the research, I just needed to apply it. Now I had a means to earn a living, and more if I applied myself. I just needed to source metal to get started. This wasn’t going to be a quick process, but I had a way out.

A way out of being poor, a way out of this apartment, and a way out of this cycle of self loathing I could feel myself slipping back into.

First, though, I needed pants. Because of course, I had left my other pair behind in Kassandra’s room after wearing her out.

<><><>

Dipping my hands into the freezing stream water, I grimaced and shifted in my rubber boots. The South Platte river near Denver is never a warm one, and it was getting on towards fall and winter now.

I’d had to drive around a bit before I found a spot that would work for my idea. I needed something that wasn’t on land managed by either the Parks and Recreation or privately owned.

So it took a bit of research online to find parcels along the river that were managed by the county and then somewhere that I could park and leave my old truck for a while.

For appearance’s sake, I’d brought along one of those plastic gold pans you can buy from the sporting goods stores in town, a little shovel, as well as a small jam jar to hold anything I found. Then I’d parked my truck, donned the battered pair of rubber boots, and waded down into the river.

I’d slipped immediately.

After soaking myself from ankle to mid-chest in the freezing river, my irritation was already riding high. Thankfully, no one had been around to witness my mistake, so I just shook the water and just shifted my skin underneath my clothes to be more dense and include insulation to make the most of it. I was already soaked now, so I had better find something to make it worthwhile.

The bit of research that I’d done online before coming out here told me that bends in the river were some of the best locations to pan for gold, as sand built up there and would ‘catch’ the gold as it came downstream. Since I wasn’t looking for nuggets, and even just gold sand would work for this idea, this was going to be my best spot.

I sloshed around until I found a spot that looked good, where the river bottom wasn’t too deep and there was a dense accumulation of the banded black and brown sand I was used to seeing in rivers, then dipped my hands into the water.

I’d had practice working with my magic while cold, from the times I’d assisted Kassandra while she was practicing her magic. Being a portable heater for a cold-blooded lamia while she practiced ice magic was definitely an odd experience, and it had somewhat prepared me for the distraction of freezing hands to go with my freezing everything now.

Digging deep into myself, I found the mana where it sat waiting inside my Mana Reservoir power. The energy stirred sluggishly at first until I got it moving and gave it direction. I let it settle through the water and into the sand beneath me.

I had my parent’s old wedding rings on a chain around my neck, having brought them for just this purpose. Using the two gold rings, I gave the mana the ‘scent’ of gold and then turned it loose to search.

Like before, when I’d fixed up the soccer field at the park near my apartment, my mana sank into the ground and spread out. It oozed between the grains of soil and sand, permeating everything like water soaking through a beach.

Ironic, given I was standing in a river, I know.

Beneath my feet, I could feel a number of different metals react to the energy, but none were what I was looking for at first.

Pipe. Nails. Jeez, that’s a lot of nails. Glad I have boots on. That feels like wire… I thought, sorting through the sensations with my mind.

Since I was looking for gold specifically, it was easy to sort everything else out into ‘not gold’ and go from there. The general shapes of what I found formed in my mind, and I was dismayed by how much garbage was actually in the river.

Maybe if I have time and mana later, I can call all this metal together and get it out of here. Wouldn’t be worth a ton, but the scrapyard might buy it and actually put it to use.

A glint of bright metal, like the taste of an unexpected sugar crystal, caught my attention and pulled it away from thoughts of cleaning out the creek.

The tiny glimmer tried to fade back into the background of the creek, but I gently wrapped my Manipulate Element around it and gave it a tug. It was stuck beneath several inches of sand and mud, but I had a plan.

Carefully, never losing hold of the mote, I began to urge it back and forth like rocking a vehicle stuck in the mud or snow. It worked to agitate the area around the mote without disturbing the bed of the river too much.

I almost lost it when the speck finally popped free and the current of the river tugged at it. I was able to draw it over and settle the shimmering grain into the plastic bowl in my hands. Only then did I open my eyes to survey what I’d found.

A tiny mote of shimmering metal, smaller than a grain of rice but glittering yellow against the dark green plastic of my pan, sat there under the water, stirring ever so gently as the current rippled over the pan.

“Bingo.”

<><><>

Gold panning is hard work. At least it would have been if I could not literally call gold to me.

It took another hour before I’d exhausted my mana. A fair bit longer than I had expected, but the ambient mana did a solid job of refilling my reserves while I worked. Another bit of evidence pointing towards the idea that there was rather dense mana on Earth, as I had suspected.

By the time I’d drained myself down to dregs, I was pulling bits of gold from more than a foot down in the river bed.

The bottom of my jam-jar was now coated in a thin layer of shimmering gold flecks, flakes, and tiny nuggets. The largest piece I’d found sat off to one side in the jar like a little hill poking out of a glittering desert: a nugget about half the size of a raisin. I felt rather good about the time I’d spent.

Again, my improved mental scores had gone to work, allowing me to spread my focus out. Once I’d gotten the hang of finding and dragging out the bits of gold, I’d been able to build up speed until I was liberating almost a dozen small fragments at once.

When they were all free of the earth and in my pan, I’d just dipped the jam jar into the water and ordered the gold into it. The swirling scarf of glitter diving into the glass jar had been mesmerizing for the handful of seconds it’d spent moving.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I came back to the stream several times in the next three days, exhausting my mana as often as possible while I sorted through the metals there.

I’d have felt bad if I saw signs of anyone else using the stream to pan for gold as a hobby, but my boot prints were the only ones I’d seen in that time and the grass grew high on either side of it with no evidence of passage.

In three days’ time, I gathered nearly two ounces of gold sand from the river and I was rather proud of it. There was more in the sediment both there and further up or down the river, but I’d scraped a good portion of the easily found metal up.

I was still waiting to hear back from the CPA that Jameson had put me in contact with. She was apparently preparing paperwork to get me set up as an amateur jeweler and waiting for licenses to clear. While I could start selling pieces online without the licenses, she’d advised me to wait. So instead I concentrated on building up materials for now.

Every night before I went to bed, I consolidated the sand I’d found into small nuggets that I thought of as my ‘ingots’ for now, each about the size of a grain of rice. There was no reason to make them larger yet, as I could pinch bits off for whatever setting or the like as I went. I kept them in the same jam-jar as the sand, which I hid in my sock drawer for now.

The Tuesday after the abortive meeting attempt with the other summoners, I was just getting ready to head out the door for one last scrounging session in the river before training with Cerebaton, when I felt a gentle buzzing sensation on my right arm.

I quickly checked my bond tattoos, muttering another thank you to the System for the gift that had been my Contact Contracted Companion power. The tattoo that linked me to Rieka reacted when I tapped it, and my princess’s noble voice entered my ears a moment later.

“Liam, I know that you normally train tonight, but I just got back from my time with my mother. I would really like to see you. Do you think I could tempt you into skipping off for once? Kass said to just tell you I was naked and then summon you, but you know how our little lamia is.”

“Hmm, get my ass kicked by Cerebaton for a few hours or go snuggle with my girls?”

I snickered at the thought and dashed off a message to Cerebaton that I was going to be unavailable tonight for training, as my girls needed me. It wasn’t a lie or even a bit of deceit. I just wasn’t telling him what they wanted me for.

“I’m good with that. You know I’d always come when you call me regardless of the situation, Rieka. What time did you want to make this happen?” I sent as a reply, drawing on the power while focusing to send the message over to my princess.

My hand was already reaching for the door-knob to continue my trip down to the truck when a flare of light around the edges of my vision preceded a message from the System.

Power Contact Contracted Companion has achieved Mastery 1000/1000.

New Powers available in the System interface.

Congratulations, Traveler.

“Huh, wicked cool,” I muttered with a smile.

I had been using the ability quite often and as a result, it had grown in mastery rather rapidly.

Closing my eyes, I rapidly flipped over to the Powers tab to see what new abilities it had unlocked. The Guardian track was separate from the others and it had two options illuminated next.

Ward Companion (Minor) - Cost: 400 SP - Erect a ward around one of your companions that will alert you to potential threats to their person. Ward lasts until it detects a threat and discharges. This spends the mana used in its construction to warn the creator.

Requires physical contact to cast.

Intervene (Minor) - Cost: 200 SP - What true guardian is unwilling to put themselves between their charges and danger? Activating Intervene (Minor) will immediately interpose the caster with a friendly unit and danger. This ability does not require mana to activate.

Cannot target unfriendly units. Cooldown of 10 seconds between uses.

Both abilities expanded further down their line with new options. I couldn’t argue with the fact they both looked useful. There was still plenty of SP left over after the emergency summon from Rieka, and the idea of the System being able to warn me if something went wrong with them made it a no-contest choice. I selected both abilities and activated them, a shimmer of color filling them in as I felt the energy flow into my body.

Another message flashed across my vision in response to selecting the powers.

Congratulations Traveler on selecting your new powers and advancing down the Guardian path.

I opened my eyes and took another step towards the door. I was already mulling over how I would practice these abilities to get them mastered as quick as possible. This Guardian track that the System had opened for me was showing potential already.

The flash at the edges of my vision was the cool, black-light purple I was used to as my hand touched the doorknob and I snorted as the message scrolled over my vision.

Rieka Coldeye has sent a non-urgent request for your presence regarding repaying her debt.

Transit? View summoning?

I didn’t hesitate in hammering the Transit option.

Just as it had been no question that I’d rather spend time with my girls than getting beaten up by Cerebaton, it was no question that I would rather go immediately than put it off and slosh around in an icy river again.

When I was yanked through the dimensional barriers this time, I caught glimpses of a massive city surrounding a soaring tower built with impossible architecture. Flashes of magical fire or lightning popped and snapped from the very bricks of the construction before being absorbed back into the tower. Far in the distance from the great city, I saw the rolling edge of a great forest that seemed to stretch on forever. And then I was gone again.

Landing on hardwood, the taste of chartreuse on my tongue, I had time to recognize my surroundings as Rieka’s room.

Half a second later, I was struck from the right by a platinum blonde missile moments before a red-haired one hit me from the left.

“Liam!” both of my girls chorused in time, with Kassandra bursting into giggles as she burrowed her face into my neck. Rieka just hummed happily, burying her face in my shoulder and squeezing me close.

“Hello my ladies, how are you two doing?” I asked, wrapping an arm around each of them.

The dual impacts had nearly combined to knock me on my ass, but I’d been practicing being tackled by Kassandra for quite a while now. Rieka didn’t weigh enough to throw me off by much, so their double teaming attempt had failed.

“Good,” chirped Kassandra, her eyes twinkling behind her slightly askew spectacles when she pulled back. “I spent the weekend talking with the other three. Jane and Shayla are on board with joining our team for the project and will be ready to summon you tomorrow for the bonding. Rachel isn’t part of the summoning class, though, so she’s not in as much of a rush. She did want me to remind you that.” Kassandra paused to clear her throat before continuing in a more refined tone, clearly mocking Rachel. “That ‘you did promise me you would train me on earth magic when you figured out more.’”

“Goof,” I pulled my dwarf lamia in for a kiss, using the arm wrapped around her waist. Kassandra made another joyful noise and dove in wholeheartedly.

The redheaded troublemaker was doing her usual attempt at becoming my belt, but due to the dual-tackle from Rieka, she was also wrapped around my wolf-eared princess.

Rieka didn’t seem to mind, shifting so that her head was just leaning on my shoulder so she could look up at me from one eye. I felt the gentle stirring of her tail against the arm I had around her, the fluffy appendage clearly as excited to see me as she was.

“I’m doing well too, Liam,” Rieka said once Kassandra was willing to release me from the kiss. “She rewarded me with even more infused metals for the ‘gallantry in the face of overwhelming odds’ during the bandit attack. She was going to give me a lot more, but I asked for these instead for you.”

Rieka’s hand dove into the open top of her shirt and my mind immediately followed it into the gutter before she produced a clear glass vial filled with a dozen shimmering crystals that looked familiar.

“A bit of a leg up before the competition, as we only have four more weeks to train,” Kassandra giggled, reaching across my chest to tap one fingertip against the glass. “Honestly, the queen just having unaspected mana crystals on hand to just give away… You would think she might be spying on us to know you needed them.”

“My mother is observant, and remember I did contact her for advice on this as Liam’s mana remains obstinately unaspected despite his use of earth magic.” Rieka held the vial out to me, her eyes dancing with amusement.

I glanced down at the glass vial, then to my two armfuls of smiling women, and then back up to Rieka.

“Can you hang on to that for me? I’ve got something a bit more important in hand right now.”

My words caused both girls to blush, though with Kassandra it was just a bit of pink on her fair cheeks that made her mess of freckles even more apparent. Rieka’s pale skin turned a deep rose, though. Which deepened when Kassandra let out a rather sexy little growl and squeezed the two of us together tighter.

“I think he’s got the right of it, Rieka,” Kassandra husked as she leaned in to press a kiss to the side of my jaw. “Didn’t you say you made a down payment to him while you were on the side of the road? So naughty to do that in public and then just leave him hanging.”

“Kass!” Rieka hissed, her blush now extending down her neck. “I told you that in confidence!”

“And I haven’t broken confidence. Liam knows quite well that you copped a feel while your mother stood less than a dozen feet away,” Kassandra shot back at her friend, mischief sharing space with arousal in her sparkling eyes.

Rieka bit her bottom lip, her ears lying flat as she shot me a guilty look. Her tail didn’t even slow down behind her, and I could feel her nipples hardening through her shirt.

“It’s okay, Rieka. I don’t hold it against you,” I started to say.

“You should hold it against her. That’s the first step to getting it in her after all,” Kassandra butted in. “Come on, Rieka. You know that Liam is up for it. You can feel it as much as I can.”

I wanted to protest Kassandra’s lewd innuendo, but she was right. Having both my girls cuddled up to me like this and the content of their conversation, it had me to the point I didn’t think I could get harder. Kassandra decided to prove that thought wrong a moment later, though.

“And if you think I’m skipping off and missing it this time, you are dead wrong. I’ve been a good friend and shared him, but now I think it’s time for all three of us to bond.”

The innuendo in the air was thick enough that it almost dripped off of her words. In fact, if the heat I felt against my hip was anything to go by…

I forced the thought out of my head and focused my attention on Rieka. My wolf-eared princess was chewing on her bottom lip, but the desire in her eyes clearly warred with her noble upbringing.

I saw the moment that the noble upbringing failed. I also felt it as Rieka began to grind against me. Kassandra did as well, because she let out a happy squeal while bouncing on my hip.

“I’ll get the sound-sealing spells!”