Alden was led inside a rather sprawling building. His guide, a slim young woman who couldn’t be much older than he himself gestured towards the extensive rooms in the back. “You’ll be working with Researcher Yanthan. As a research assistant your job will be to help him with setting up the various experiments, recording down the results, and occasionally some field work. In between assignments you may use lab resources for your own projects-if, however, your work suffers to said projects you will be restricted. Researcher Yanthan will fill you in on more details about the research you will be working on. Questions?” Alden cocked his head a moment before asking, “How much can I use in my projects? Resource wise I mean?” She considered the question a moment before answering. “General rule of thumb is anything approaching 5 silver is a little steep. Gold is definitely off the table. Any other questions?” He shook his head. All his other questions had to pertain directly to the research after all. “Good. Here you are. Research Yanthan is in the back.” She dropped him off before a solid oak door, an emblazoned bronze plate with the word LEAD RESEARCHER at the top and below that in smaller letters was Yanthan. He took a quick breath and knocked brusquely on the door. “Come in!” Alden entered, grunting slightly from the wait of the door. Inside was a mess. Documents were spread everywhere, files open, partially open beakers and chests on every available surface and then some. The man was equally as frazzled as his work room, hair spiked all over the place, clothes in disarray, stains all over his coat and jacket. He looked up and his crazed eyes lighted up upon seeing Alden. “Ah! You must be my new assistant. Good, good, follow me we have work to do.” He swept out of the room, picking up some documents causing others to fall down from their precarious stacks on the floor. He seemed to not notice, just ushering Alden out the door like a whirlwind. “Ah, ah, yes, yes, I see. We must start immediately, no time for chatting. We are attempting to ascertain the reason for why mages with an affinity for their own species can do so much more than beast mages. You are a beast mage correct? Of course you are, I see that lovely chicken looking as fine as ever. No matter, you will be expected to clean and prep the equipment, take notes, and identify possible issues with the experiment. Ah, yes, here we are.” Alden just blinked in confusion as he was herded into a stone room with an absolutely massive heavy oak door with glowing enchantments emanating from it. Inside were rows upon rows of stone tables filled with paperwork and beakers as various researchers move to and from, a constant dull murmur reverberating through the room. “This is the general assistant’s lab. Here will be where you revise the documentation for publication and where you may conduct your own experiments if you wish. Now if you’ll follow me, we have some work to do.” With that Alden was once more swept out the door as they headed for the next room.

“Watch their movements. Write down not only what they say but also what they do. Their voices and comments only paint half the picture, you must be able to paint the other half for the reader. Researcher Yanthan is particularly bad about this so you must be extra observant. Continue writing and I will show you what I have written and demonstrate where you can improve.” Liam advised, sitting next to Alden in the testing yard. Alden had thought that there might have been some resentment at him being placed under the lead researcher-and to be fair there was a minor amount- but the majority of assistants were glad that the position was filled. It seemed that researcher Yanthan had a reputation that only the most insane or dedicated assistants were fated to fill. Most of the other assistant staff seemed to consider the former more likely to work with the constantly confused researcher. Liam was part of said staff, assigned to help Alden get up to speed with his work as it were. It was day two and Alden could confidently say that it was some of the most interesting work imaginable. Right now, Yanthan was currently dissecting the pet of a bird mage, who had been killed in some type of monster attack. Alden as part of the assistant staff was to record down the materials, experimental process, notes during the process, and results at the end. They sat a good 5 feet away, dressed in protective leather clothing and gloves. Researcher Yanthan was particularly adamant about proper labware. While Alden had noticed that most other researchers considered his precautions extreme, they knew better than to argue with the man it seemed. “Subject’s internals are remarkably healthy, no key bacteria or parasitic infections. In addition, the body appears to be in excellent condition, no major breakdown of organs yet seen. I am now beginning to analyze the breast muscles of the creature. It seems that the muscle is highly-“Alden refocused his idle thoughts and continued writing. It wouldn’t do to miss anything on his first go around after all.

Roughly an hour and a half later Alden sat next to Liam, comparing notes on the dissection. “This is good, good notation. Seems like you kept up with his key comments. Something you will want to add is denoting when in the operation he switches tools. In addition, try to be specific with the terminology. Researcher Yanthan usually proofreads his own work to make sure that the key points are correct but one misplaced or misspelled scientific term and confusion can and will ensue. As for the rest of it you did an excellent job. I would say your connection and writing may even a bit better than mine- but only by a bit. Now this paper here,” He gestured at a relatively blank piece with only a heading, “suggests your different ideas for the research. Usually, one of the researches will go over it at the end of the week or month. Or quarter. Just depends on how their own research is going. Now that you’ve got that down, meet me tomorrow and we’ll go over setting up the lab.” Alden just nodded, still considering the last sheet of paper.

Stolen novel; please report.

Alden slowly fell into a rhythm slowly feeling out the new job and understanding what was expected of him. As he kept working, he also kept thinking. Every day he would take out his journal and make notes about his performance and things to improve on. He was a firm believer that a single improvement a day-no matter how small- would lead to monumental improvements later. No matter what, Alden wanted to excel at what he did. It was a urge, a drive, a passion, something that was demanded and needed from him. At first these improvements were small. For example, the chemicals used to clean the tools left an odorous smell and filament on the tools. Alden simply found a cleaning agent that was less foul and left no film. Another would be the fact that they ate whatever they had gotten from the occasional shipments from the quartermaster- often the researchers would complain about the food. Alden just asked about getting some fresher meals. He had to sweettalk the quartermaster a bit, and promised to help with some of his former’s duties as a supply clerk but he managed. He placed scent absorbing enchantments at the dissection rooms-with permission of course- so that the smell was contained. Slowly but surely the researchers became happier, more at ease, more comfortable. As a result, the assistants became more relaxed, not so tense. A few even asked Alden to teach him- which Alden was more than happy to oblige in. His noes about the experiment mostly stayed about the operation- the lack of a repeatable method each researcher used to conduct themselves, the differing lab safety equipment, more. One day however, he began writing an idea that had been germinating in the back of his head for a while.

At the end of that week Researcher Yanthan told Alden to meet him in one of the research rooms- this one containing a simple mana beast variant of a wolf. He was slightly worried-why else would they break routine like this- but not enough to seriously cause him a large amount of concern. He was still slightly curious and nervous however, when he entered into the wall. The space was filled with plants, with one half of the massive room walled off. Behind the bars paced a large wolf, dull stone covering parts of its body. In front of the cage researcher Yanthan hovered, taking notes on a sheet of paper he carried. At the sound of the door, he whirled around, a grin on his face. “Alden! Come, come. I wanted to talk to you about your role.” Alden nodded, slightly hesitant as he approached, stopping a few feet away. “Yes sir?” Alden asked, as Yanthan took a few more notes before setting down the paper on a stone desk near him. “Yes, I wanted to talk to you about this.” He held up one of the papers that contained Alden’s suggestion about the experimentation. “To be frank the idea is fascinating. Hard to test, undoubtedly, but fascinating, nonetheless. I’ve already talked to a few empathy mages about aiding in our research and they’ve been receptive.” Alden breathed out a silent sigh of relief, thankful it was nothing bad. He had found that he quite enjoyed working at the research station. “Unfortunately, your current role is far too limiting for your obvious talents. Therefore, you will be promoted to a junior researcher. Probationary, of course, but I foresee good things in the future.” He looked down at the paper, a distracted look on his face. Alden took the chance to ask a question. “What about my pay sir? Will there be any increase?” Yanthan turned to look at him, still distracted, “Yes, yes, of course. Now as a junior researcher part of your duties will include doing relevant research to the subject on hand. I’ll put you in charge of the empathy mages when they arrive.” He looked at the wolf, a look of concentration on his face. He was like that for a solid five minutes before Alden slipped out the door. He shook his head as the stone sheet shut fully. He definitely hadn’t got used to the weird yet.

Alden sat down at his research desk, a week later, poring over the results of the most recent experiment. At his side sat Liam, organizing the data. When he had been elevated to junior researcher and required to pick an assistant he had thought about Liam. Fortuitously for him, the researcher that Liam was working for had been driven insane by experimenting with modifying his own affinity senses. Well fortuitously for Alden at least; not so much for the researcher driven insane. He made a couple of notes on the data, making notes for the conclusion he was going to make later. Liam broke the silence that had fallen on them while they worked. “What’s the consensus?” Alden glanced up from his paper before looking back down. “Good. Data is relatively sparse, but it appears that considering the emotions and mental state of the creature allows for greater modification.” Liam nodded, humming thoughtfully. “It’s obvious in hindsight. So much of the magic depends on familiarity and without understanding the culture and mind of the creature you are missing out on the majority of what they are.” Alden nodded making a sound of agreement. His original idea had been to include the mental and societal aspects of the creatures when making changes. That had led to the current set of experiments they were creating and monitoring. Alden looked up and smiled. Things were going much better than he could have expected.