The only sound for miles was the rhythmic clink of metal on stone from my work. I was just thankful I was hidden from the suns blazing heat by a few meters of earth. I had maintained a pretty steady pace with this pickaxe, but in spite of the relative smoothness of my work, my mood was still pretty closely matched to the atmosphere of this dark tunnel.
Occasionally I would accidentally catch a glimpse of myself in the water bucket next to me and really wish I hadn’t. It was a reflection of a man’s face that had been weathered by age, his hands wrinkled, and his back crooked. It was not the look of a man who had aged gracefully. My grey robes were in tatters and covered with dust and dirt. The lantern hanging from my waist completed the look; old, worn, and barely functioning well enough to illuminate a few meters in front of me.
My whole body was uncomfortably drenched with sweat, and my arms were burning with the strain of just keeping the pick moving. My blistered fingers were also making their complaints known. My breathing sounded so wheezy, I was genuinely surprised this old body hadn’t given out yet. I couldn’t stop though, at this point my body wouldn’t recover even if I did, it was too tired, too hungry and too thirsty, and I was just too damn old. I was dying one breath at a time. If I stopped to rest for even a second, I wouldn’t be getting up again. If I stopped I died. If I kept going I had a chance, so I swung my pick.
Over and over, I ignored the sensations in my limbs, until finally with a loud noise, a small part of the dirt wall crumbled in front of me. I involuntarily gasped in disbelief before scrambling to peep through the small hole, as I lifted my lantern in a desperate attempt to view into the gloom on the other side.
Inside I could barely make out the silhouette of a small structure in the center of the room. I recognized it though. I had seen it a thousand times in my research notes.
“Hu……hahah, ahahahahah”, even in my exhausted state I couldn’t help but laugh with ecstatic glee.
I picked up my pace as I brought the pick down again on the cracked wall, ignoring the renewed screaming of my tired limbs as I hacked away at the final barrier, seeking to widen it enough for me to comfortably fit through. It didn’t take me long to make a big enough hole for me, but each swing of the pick was a renewed agony. I practically danced a little jig as I passed through the breach into the open cavern.
“Hahahahahah! I knew I could do it. A lifetime of work, doubt and monotonous searching but I fucking did it! Fuck you Glassmont academy of magic!” I bellowed as well I could with my tired lungs.
After being wracked by a bout of coughs I regained my wits and quickly got to work. My fingers shook as I grasped the necklace that was concealed around my neck, calming myself with its familiar touch just before I lifted the chain over my head and admired the attached empty flask for a second before I disconnected the simple container from its chan and placed it into the cavity of the small structure in the center of the cavern. It was a bit small for the cavity and fit imperfectly and I briefly feared that it was incompatible.
My fears proved unfounded as instantly the gloomy air of the cavern lit up in technicolor as streams of light swirled through the air before diving into the flasks open top. The steady streams of light condensed within the flask, mixing together into a blinding white liquid that slowly filled the flask to the top. It was almost anti-climactic how efficient it was, I couldn’t even sense a shred of mana in the air, yet there it was, glowing in front of me.
“Such a small thing…” I chuckled, amazed at the sheer power condensed within the flask; in just a few seconds it had managed to produce, refine and store more liquid mana than the entire continents mageholds could produce in a year. Hell, I could still remember a time when condensed liquid mana was just a theory. The magical mastery of mages prior to the ‘World Sundering’ surely were on a whole different level to what could be produced now.
Now for the hardest part of this whole exercise, I took a deep breath as I prepared myself mentally for an ordeal that would take hours of focused concentration. With shaking hands I slowly moved forward and cautiously grasped the flask.
The feeling was instantaneous as my entire body was filled with the flask’s power, my magical circuits practically sparkling within my soul as they attempted to process so much raw mana. It was only a lifetime’s practice and preparation that stopped me from being immolated on the spot but magical circuits were still beginning to fail under the strain, each one cultivated by years of practice and completely irreplaceable via conventional healing; and I could feel it deep within my soul as they began to short out one by one.
I began my work as gradually I slowly started to redirect the mana’s flow, a little bit at a time over the course of hours, as if redirecting the flow of a roaring river, I turned the flow of mana so that instead of it flowing into me and trying to dissipate through me into the air, I redirected it so that it entered my body, flowed through my mana circuits, and then moved invisibly through the air and back into the flask, creating a circuit between me and the flask.
Linking us permanently.
The relief as I finally created the circuit between us was also instantaneous, magical circuits that had died of mana overload moments or hours before restoring themselves just as quickly, thicker and stronger than before. I supposed in some ways I had just made myself some kind of pseudo living lich, complete with a life sustaining mana phylactery. I was now a being of living magic as much as I was a man. A living magic core.
The feeling of the power flowing through me was intoxicating, all my previous tiredness had dissipated, in fact my whole body was tingling with untapped energy. As I looked at my hands I saw that the wrinkles of a lifetime had completely disappeared, leaving behind only smooth pale skin that I knew was far smoother and healthier than anything I had laid claim to even in my youth.
With but a wave of my hand, I conjured a mirror into the air in front of me; the obscene mana requirements of converting energy into matter requiring not even a full drop of energy from the flask.
I looked into the mirror in shock. Still loosely wrapped in my tattered rags, the body before me was that of a blonde youth, perhaps just on the cusp of adulthood, petite with slime delicate limbs and blemish less snow white skin. It was a body that that could have been called both handsome and beautiful in equal measure. I supposed some comparison could have been made to an Aelfir, on account of the delicate features, emotive blue eyes and slight sharpening of the ears, but such a comparison would be like comparing a candle to a bonfire.
I recognized it surely as the face of my youth, but changed, as if someone had inclined to shape it such that my features would be loved universally. I knew surely it was a face and body that would heat the blood of many a maiden, married woman, and even convince a few men to perhaps once make an exception to their gender preference. It was beauty and handsomeness that could only be engineered supernaturally and all the more enticing for it.
Only my eyes hadn’t truly changed, now beautiful I supposed, but still carrying the weight of my years causing me to give off an aura of agelessness.
After a lifetime of being painfully average in the looks department, and the last few years as a nearly decrepit old man, I was tempted to jump up and down in glee, but I reined the impulse in. Although I was genuinely happy, the urge to jump up and down wasn’t one I would have felt as a man in his sixties, causing me to wonder if the youthful urge to jump up and down was a result of me now inhabiting a younger body. I would need to keep an eye on my urges in order to check for abnormalities in future.
Right now I had work to do and all the power in the world to do it with.
“Now then, let’s see what we can do.”
I dismissed the mirror in a puff of multicolored smoke. Next I chanted a short spell to create some floating light orbs and had them float out to spread evenly across the cavern. As I properly took in my surroundings I shook my head in dismay before chanting to cast a longer spell. When I finished my chant, the cave, that had been more or less been an uneven looking natural cavity, began to change as it smoothed itself out until the walls and floor were a smooth grey brick that reminded me of my home mageholds own walls. With that done I chanted again and the room spread out until it was a spacious hall with a high ceiling. The small flask was sitting in its alcove in the center. I surveyed my handiwork for a second before deciding that it looked kind of underwhelming, and with a flick of my hand had a chunk of floor rise up so the flask was sitting on a large stone alter. I added in a few arches and pillars and it was all suddenly looking a lot more impressive.
Happy with that for now I moved onto the next task. I bit into the flesh of my finger, wincing slightly as I drew blood, before using the bleeding digit to draw a magic circle on the cobblestone floor. Standing back I began my chant. It was a longer and a more complex spell than the one to change the room but still not even close to the difficulty of linking with the flask and would only take a few minutes. As I chanted the light orbs around the room flickered slightly and inched slightly closer to the circle until I said the last syllable at which point they snapped back into place.
Indeed, it would seem as if nothing had changed at all.
I projected my voice across the room as commandingly as I could; sadly I think a lot of the intent was lost because my new body was younger and noticeably more high pitched than my old man voice. I would probably have to add a reverb or something later. “I know you are here. This trick may work on the foolish and naïve, but I know the spell worked and I have no intention of lowering my wards to check anything.”
After a few moments of stillness the air within the circle shimmered and where before there had been nothing but empty space, now stood a beautiful raven haired woman. She was beyond a shadow of a doubt the single hottest specimen of feminine beauty I had ever seen, and I wasn’t deliberately looking for the features I may not even have noticed the horns or tail.
“Sorry, it’s been a while since anyone has had the mojo to summon me. Like at least a few hundred years, you can’t blame a girl for hoping a few of the tricks of the trade had been forgotten, especially with a cutie like you on offer. I assume you were the one who called me?”
The woman’s voice sounded like the tinkling of a bell. Involuntarily I wondered what she would sound like screaming in ecstasy. I firmly shut that thought process down as I had to focus on the summoning, and not on my recently revived teenage sex drive. It didn’t help that her words were supplemented by the musky scent of female arousal that I could smell even from where I was standing.
She truly was as beautiful as only a creature designed for seduction could be, pure black hair that framed her vibrant green eyes and pouty red lips. The succubus was wearing something that would be clothing by name only. It seemed the series of crisscrossing leather straps and belts only feature was to emphasize exactly what was beneath them. The look was completed by her long and glossy black hair that trailed across the delicate white skin of her neck.
What was really drawing my attention though was the large pleasant swells of breast flesh that were attempting to escape from their leather prisons.
“That’s right.” I said as calmly as I could, drawing my eyes away from her tits with sheer of will.
“Well thanks for that. How about you just erase this little circle and I can show you just how thankful I am.” The succubus said as she leaned forward and coquettishly moved a strap slightly to the side, exposing a slight hint of pink before moving it back.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
I resisted the urge to groan at how unsubtle that was… and nearly effective.
“That won’t be happening. If I erase that summoning circle, you would be able to act freely. At which point you would probably rape me, suck up all my mana reserves in the process, then use that to sustain yourself long enough to find someone else and repeat the process until someone managed to banish you or you ran out of mana. No, I think erasing the magic circle comes after a contract is formed.” I explain as calmly as possible. It was important I stayed on point.
As soon I said that she dropped the coquettish act and collapsed bonelessly into a sitting position on the stone floor. It was a rather lewd look, but I was pretty sure at this point it was more of a subconscious thing. When she spoke again it no longer sounds like the tingling of bells and was more akin to what I imagined to be the husky voice of a veteran, but still young and enthusiastic whore.
“Oh come on, live a little. I’m pretty sure that if you have even a hint of the mana capacity I’m sensing then I could probably fuck you for the next five years and not have a problem.”
I gave her an unamused look. I supposed she was right in that she really didn’t pose a danger to me. If she burst forth from the circle right then, I could turn her into charcoal with a wave of my hand. Still, there was no point in taking unnecessary risks.
“So what do you want me for then? To destroy your enemies? Sleep with you? Sleep with your enemies? Sleep with you and your enemies? Personally I’m really hoping for the last one.”
She gave me a wink at the last bit, and I had to use my magic to discreetly suppress a blush. Damn teenage hormones and relative lack of experience with the fairer sex for a number of important reasons! I had done well thus far, but it was only now occurring to me that I was actually talking to a sex demon. A female sex demon. Who I could get to do whatever I wanted. For a man whose entire life had been spent looking at women from afar, the difficulty level of this encounter was suddenly ramping up.
Focus.
“Umm. I actually want you to help me build a dungeon.” I said, accidentally letting a bit of my nervousness slip in the process.
The succubus sat up now, seemingly interested in more than just eye fucking me for the first time since the conversation started.
“You want me to help you build a dungeon? Me? The succubus?” She pointed at herself incredulously.
I nodded eagerly, as I opened both arms wide to gesture at the whole hall. Now I was back in my zone, talking about a subject I had great interest in and very few opportunities to discuss.
“Yep, I want a labyrinth so deep, wide and dangerous that it would be unassailable; a fortress that could rival even those of before the Great Sundering. I want to make a ridiculously big dungeon in order to rule the world as the king of the underground with all the women, power, money and women I could ever desire.”
The succubus instinctively began to massage her temples.
“Ok, I get it. You said women twice by the way, but by all means build an underground dungeon… and then summon me to be a floor boss or something, or even the big boss. It isn’t like I was never used in those roles when dungeons were still around. But to make the dungeon? Just what do you think I am!? If you want something to do that kind of work go hire some dwarves or make some golems, hell you could even enslave some goblins! But why summon a succubus!?”
Ah, I saw we had a slight miscommunication, so I jumped to correct it. It occurred to me later that I might have been letting youthful exuberance get the better of me at this point.
“No no no, I’m still going to use those guys for all the digging and stuff. No, what I need you for is to show me how it’s done. It’s like you said, you have been used as a guardian for dungeons before. That’s what I need. I need someone to show me how to place the passages and rooms, set up traps and recruit monsters, tell me what they eat and how to get it, that kind of thing.” I elaborate.
She still seems dubious, “…Ok, I get that, but why a succubus? There are plenty of other demons, golems and angels with lower mana costs who were around back then. Hell I’m pretty sure there are some pretty sad humans who spend their whole lives studying dungeon remains.”
Alright she raised a fair point, and I didn’t bother mentioning I was one of those aforementioned humans. Hell, I was probably THE dungeon expert.
“There are three reasons I chose a succubus, and not say… a Valkyrie.”
I raised a hand with three fingers, “Firstly, I don’t trust anyone, ever. I got this far by lying for most of my life. I have a good portion of my life as the librarian for the Glassmont magehold, and I have spent that entirety of that time scouring that library for how to find this place and then actually use it. I’m pretty sure that as we speak, my adorable student aids in the library still think I’m on my two week holiday to the countryside. No, I don’t trust people because I’m a liar and a cheat through and through, and I expect the same of just about anyone else. That’s why I chose a demon over a human. A demon has to be absolutely obey the words of his or her contract. I can trust that. I need one person I can absolutely trust.
Secondly, while I could have chosen a different kind of demon, what I really need is an advisor and not a warrior. Demons for the most part are hulking masses of muscle that really just want to kill everything. You succubae on the other hand tread the line between excessively dangerous extra-planar monsters, and good conversationalists.
And the third reason is that… I really really want to have sex with something. Like a lot. I’m pretty sure a Valkyrie or a Fire Goddess would object quite vigorously. Also, after sixty years of celibacy I really want to start with a bang if you get what I mean”
I was definitely not stammering in red faced embarrassment at the end of that explanation. The sex thing is important, because… I’m a virgin, as is just about any mage that can do more than fling one fireball before falling over. The mana science is complicated, but essentially the giving and receiving of intimate pleasure essentially corrupts our mana pools. If a mage loses his or her virginity, then about half their mana pool goes with it, and a small bit goes each time they are intimate thereafter.
It’s not so much about the sex as it is about the exchange of pleasure between two beings. This means ‘sex’ does include blowjobs, handjobs, anal, and for a few poor particularly sensitive souls, kissing. This is discovered each year by a few new students at the magehold just prior to their expulsion on account of their now dismal mana pools.
Low and behold the real reason there are so few mages in the world. It was kind of sad that humans were some of the most prolific mages in the world because we are the only race with a small percentage of members who’s love of fireballs outweighs their love of intimacy.
However with the flask constantly refreshing and cleansing my mana pool that was no longer an issue for me. Which I will admit is not an insignificant reason why I started this whole venture back when I was sixteen year old who had just been told he had to choose between the ability to fling fireballs and touching breasts for the rest of his life. Now that I could have both, and a youthful body to enjoy them, I fully intended to enjoy myself as much as possible for the foreseeable future.
In days past I wondered if it was proof of mental instability that I was willing to utilize an ancient superweapon formed from the primordial powers of chaos, just so I could form a harem and rule my kingdom as a nigh omnipotent mage lord.
Ignorant of my internal musings, the succubus looked at me agape for a few minutes, and then she laughed. A deep fully belly one that lasted for some time. I would have been more annoyed if it wasn’t for her jiggling doing such wonderful things with her best ‘features’.
“…I see. You’re an interesting guy. I suppose you’re lucky you’re cute, or I would probably be more ambivalent about this offer, but you’ve managed to intrigue me. Alright sign me up.” I got the distinct feeling she was just signing up because she wanted to sleep with me but that most assuredly was not a putting me off. I took out a sheaf of paper from within the folds of my loose hanging robes and used a little magic to float it to the sex demon.
“Ok then, just read this and sign at the bottom thanks. I already signed it so it will be binding as soon as you make your mark.”
She caught the sheaf of papers in one hand, “You already have a contract written out?” She said with bemusement as she began giving it a read over, “I’ll give you that you are definitely prepared… but what the hell is all this!? Just how much stuff is in here!?”
She was right, their was a lot of stuff in there, but as she said, no had summoned a succubus in hundreds of years so I had to do almost all of my research second hand. I was pretty sure a lot of what I had written was redundant but I had to ensure it was completely airtight, and I had a lot of time to go over it in the last few years.
“Sorry, but I really didn’t want to take any chances. We have time though, you can spend as long as you want checking it, I’ll wait.”
“Ah, it’s really hard to read, these look more like chicken scratches than letters…Look there’s even an ink splodge here!” The succubus loudly mumbled complaints while reading, and I shuffled my feet and pretended to ignore the complaints about my penmanship. No one at the library ever complained; though that might have been more to do with me being well known to have been a front runner for the position of archmage before I declined the position.
“Whatever, it’s fine I guess, though I wish you gave me a bit more leeway on what exactly constitutes ‘consent’, takes all the fun out of it.” She grumbled before driving a finger into a sharp fang and placed the bleeding digit down on the contract.”
“On my name, Radella, I swear to lend my contractor my power and knowledge in accordance with the words of my contract.” She intoned solemnly.
Now that she had told me her name and agreed to the contract it was safe for me to say my own.
“On my name Lasmes Aldrah, I pledge to follow uphold this contract to the best of my ability and knowledge.”
In reality my part of the contract was essentially just that I supply Radella with mana for the duration of her stay, and that I wouldn’t intentionally cause her harm.
In response to my words the contract shone for a moment for disappearing a burst of sparks and the smell of ozone. The whole process was actually pretty simple, but no less binding for it. If I attempted to violate the contract my own magic would act against me and stop me.
“Alright with that done can you let me out of here.”
I nodded and erased the magic circle with a gesture.
“I look forward to working with you Radella.”
It was only a moment after I said those words that I realized my mistake. Radella was a horny sex demon, and I was physically a supernaturally attractive young man. One who had already expressed a desire for sex with aforementioned succubus and thus had given ‘consent’. Truth be told I had always hoped my first time would be either romantic, or failing that with me fully in charge of a beautiful submissive harem girl.
As it stood I watched as time seemed to slow as Radella spread her wings and leapt at me with the clear intent of taking me on the cold concrete floor like the dirty-boy slut I was, and I really didn’t have the willpower to say no as I watched those beautiful pale orbs of hers sale through the air towards me.