Scorch stands up a little straighter as he answers Sincere. "As the elected representative of the fire elementals for this week, I think it's only right that I should try out this ritual first!"

Not having much preference himself, Sincere shrugs. "Won election for another week, did you? Congratulations." Scorch beams, literally, although Cinder dims his moment a bit with a side comment.

"...Yeah most of us have stopped voting in those. But sure, if it goes wrong, better him than me!"

"Where's the faith, Cinder? Now let's get started, we're burning torchlight here!"

"Very well. I'll need a flat spot of ground and some space to work with, it shouldn't take too long to establish the ritual." Sincere looks around, waving at a nearby earth elemental. "Crumbs, yes? Could I ask for a little assistance with the leveling?"

"You got it!" The man brings over a few of his friends, and within a minute a large circle of the cavern floor has been completely smoothed out. Sincere then gets to work painting on the stone with an alchemical mixture, and occasionally adding mana crystals to specific points. As he works, Sincere begins to describe what he's doing, slipping somewhat into lecturer mode despite the low educational level of his observers.

"Now, the ritual requires both fire and earth mana of course, but given that we're deep within a mountain, we're already positively soaking in earth elemental energy. So as you can see here, I've only placed down two earth mana crystals, but we'll need eight of fire. Provided by Lollyp, incidentally, who was kind enough to convert some of our dungeon's basic mana crystals to these elementally-aspected types. She sends her regrets by the way, she wishes she could have joined us for this, however we yet only have the single 'tourist' slot available."

Scorch nods along, as if the circle makes perfect sense to him. "Well, hey, if this works maybe we can swing upstairs to thank her in person! Do we need to do anything ourselves?"

"You need only stand in the center of the circle once it is complete, and...there!" Sincere groans slightly as he rises from his knees, and points at the required spot. "Also...be prepared for some discomfort. I have not read anything indicating there is much pain, but a complete remaking of one's body can never be an easy process."

"...Right. Hey, Cinder, do you - "

"Nope! I'll be sitting back and enjoying the show, hot stuff!"

"Fine, fine. Alright...I'm ready. Lava me up, Sincere."

The demon nods as he pulls out his notes to review. "I'm sure it will be worth the experience. Now..." Sincere begins to chant the magical words to activate the runes, and starts guiding mana through the channels outlined by the circle. Scorch himself is part of the circuit, and the man shivers slightly the first time earth mana starts to run through his metaphysical veins. In some ways the process is very much like a magical blood transfusion, but one designed to change the actual blood type of the subject. The energies alternate, adding more earth energy to his form before stabilizing it with more fire mana, and bit by bit the man begins to...solidify. Stone seems to grow out of the ground at his feet, filling out the space outlined by his usual flickering form, and inch by inch the growth works its way up his body.

At first the stone appears grey and cold, but once it reaches Scorch's hips a second transformation begins to take place. His toes and feet begin to glow, and just as they reach a red hot their surface starts to crack open. Orange magma begins to ooze out, as if the elemental were bleeding, but rather than drip onto the ground it instead seems to flow across his surface, exiting from one crack and sinking into another. 'Discomfort' would seem to be a light word for the sensations the elemental is going through, but they don't quite reach the level of making him scream out in pain even as the stone grows up to his chest, then his head. As it reaches his top Scorch goes still as if he'd been turned into a statue, but once he's thoroughly heated across his entire body, his eyes also crack open, revealing glowing pits of intent lava within. His mouth opens with a cracking noise as well, and when the man speaks his voice is far deeper.

"This...wow. I can...I can feel the mountain! The tunnels around us, the earthers...it's like a whole new set of senses! I think it worked, Sincere!" When the elemental grins, the inside of his mouth is lit up by a glowing tongue. "I feel like a new man, and therefore, I think it's time I take on a new name! From now on I shall no longer be known as Scorch! You may call me..."

The man trails off for a few moments, and just before anyone can prod him to continue, he sags slightly. "Actually, no. Scorch is still pretty cool. Keep calling me Scorch."

Sincere has a bit of beaming moment of his own as he grins, relieved that his months of work have finally paid off. "As you say, Scorch. So it has worked indeed - and with far less personal energy required than I feared, though we'll probably need to replace the crystals every two or three tries. So...who's next?"

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It took about an hour and a half to magma-fy all of the volunteers. The 'kingdom' had expanded only slightly in the months since its establishment, with eight each of fire and earth elementals populating the small village. All eight fire elementals took part in the ritual, needing the ability to process earth mana in order to continue living in the mountain, but two of the earth elementals made the choice as well. It wasn't strictly a power upgrade for them, as it meant losing some abilities - like the option to merge into the mountain stone in order to hide or meditate safely. It did grant them some additional abilities as replacements, however, and, well...it 'looked cool', which was enough for a pair to sign up.

Only slightly tired out from all of the spellcasting, Sincere looks around with a measure of satisfaction. "And, there we go! Now, your fire-based abilities will still be somewhat weaker here than they would be if you were, say, living in a volcano. But your earth mana will be able to sustain you fully from here on out, no more need for mana crystals or feelings of going hungry. Does anyone have any further questions?"

The newly reborn Cinder raises a hand, glowing rock dripping from her arm as she does so. "Yeah! So, uh...now that you've finished the conversion project, are you, um. Are you still going to come visit us?"

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The demon smiles, touched by her concern. "Well, I don't see any reason why not. You are our neighbors, after all. Though perhaps Lollyp will begin taking over more, as she may have more to learn from working with you - earth elemental energy is still something of a weakness of hers. Our tourist spot may also begin to come into demand for other reasons as well...Taly actually has dibs on it tomorrow, as it happens. But if you ever get lonely, you're welcome to pay a visit yourselves!"

Cinder nods, her smile much more visible than it would have been an hour before. "You got it! And if you ever need something melted or burned, let us know - we owe you one!"

Sincere chuckles. "We're doing a decent job of that ourselves, for the moment...but I will certainly keep it in mind." As he waves that offer off, however, Scorch comes up to him with another.

"Well, we can repay you with this, at least. When our last scouting party came back the other week, they said they found an elemental who was...weird when they woke them up. Immediately went hostile, they had to put the dude down. We thought these might be useful for you, at least?" He holds out a hand, carefully carrying a few stone shards he'd retrieved from his nearby shelter. Sincere eyes them for a moment, doing a few brief analysis spells, before both his eyebrows rise.

"This...would appear to be the remains of a multi-aspect elemental, certainly. Lightning? No...fire and air, so lightning...plus...earth? Not a meteor elemental, however." Sincere smiles as he picks a piece up and examines it more closely. "My friend, it looks like what you found here, is the unconfirmed, theoretical...Magnetic Elemental."

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The next morning in Grassbrook, a pair of visitors knocked on the door to the Chapel of Bounty. It was, rather unsurprisingly, fairly deserted aside from the two of them at the moment. It wasn't a day of services, and even now the Church had few devoted worshipers in the region. Again, there were hopes that warmer temperatures in the spring would bring more immigrants, but very few of the local Challengers were interested in farming or starting families. Even so, the Bountiful Mother was about and ready to help the community as needed, and she answers the door quickly.

"Come in, come in, no need to knock, we're - Sely! Come in, and - oh, blessed Kahlia above! Taly!?" The dwarf's jaw drops as she recognizes the banshee, her gray skin and red eyes being rather distinctive once you got a good look under her hood. "What are you doing in town, lass!?"

"Wanted to talk to you about, you know, dungeon business. Just checking if I can come in, though - I'm not going to burst into flames if I step inside, am I?" The Rogue gives an impish grin, although her concerns aren't entirely unfounded, and the dwarf does actually have to consider it for a moment.

"Well, we're not so aggressively anti-undead as some churches, I imagine at worst we'd give you a bit of a stomachache, haha. But, ah, you have my blessing to enjoy our hospitality, for what it's worth. Besides, you serve Kahlia's favored dungeon, I doubt she minds your presence."

Permission granted, the sisters step on through the door, and sure enough Taly fails to spontaneously combust. Before she can say anything, Elance shuts the door behind them and resumes her earlier questioning. "So Taly! You're wandering around town now, are you? Does Alizz know about this? Does the army!?"

The dungeon boss nods. "They do, though you should have seen the look on the faces of the soldiers at the base camp when I walked down the mountain, haha! I could've probably slipped by them easily enough, but I don't want people to think I'm trying to sneak into town." She adds on a further comment with a wink. "After all, I might need to actually sneak into town later on, at some point."

Sely sighs and adds her own input. "As long as she doesn't create too much commotion, Alizz has allowed her into the district for 'official dungeon business'. Though to be honest we've perhaps been stretching that a little - Taly here's come to visit me once or twice before, under the guise of passing on messages to the Association."

"Well, I certainly don't mind your company. Is it, though? Official dungeon business, that is?"

Taly nods, her expression now more serious. "It is, though I don't mind catching up a little first, eh? Heard you got a new home address recently, right?"

"That I did, though let's have ourselves a seat and I'll make you some tea, shall I?" Elance leads the sisters into a back room, not far from her own office, and gets a kettle going before joining them at the small table. "New housing's still far too spacious, but that's the idea. Place is like having a small mansion, room for at least eight, and that's without the need for roommates."

Sely sits as she tries to check her memory. "You've currently got four staff in town, yes? Since we've hired Renter away from you a while back."

"Ach, no, Podge went back home a month ago. All of our visits to the dungeon aside from the first have been entirely peaceable, so the man did a few mercenary runs with other parties but aside from that he really didn't have much business keeping him here. So it's just me, Priestess Lilly and ol' Greenie, and...well." The dwarf gives a tired sigh. "I've put in a call for an enchanter to come down from the next town as soon as possible. The house is excellent, for new construction, but it badly needs some better soundproofing on the walls and doors."

Taly smirks, though neither of them seem sure exactly how to respond to that. "...Paladin Bluehair is that noisy a roommate, is she?"

"Well, it's her fault, but it's that danged Lilly making most of the noise! It gets any worse I'm going to take to sleeping in the chapel til that enchanter gets down here!"

Sely chuckles. "Well, it's good to know they're enjoying the new residence. And it may be selfish of me, but I'm glad that now they're just your problem instead of half the bunkhouse's."

"Yes, yes, life in the church is one of sacrifice." Sighing again, Elance changes the topic. "So, aside from the ability of my old friend to corrupt innocent elves, what is it you'd like to discuss today?"

Taly looks like she wouldn't mind hearing a bit more about that ability, but accepts the shift. "Well, you know about our, ah, fertility project, of course."

"Of course. I'm glad our fertility tests helped out with that big bunny man of yours, though we still haven't had any luck in putting together something for slimes, if you're looking for an update on that."

The Rogue shakes her head. "I was going to ask for Lollyp, yeah, but that's not the main reason I came down. We've just got a problem, sort of." She shifts in her seat, looking a bit awkward. "It's...look. We've been talking around this, over and over. We'd love to help out Xenia, and getting in further in Kahlia's good books is just good business for everyone. But...other than maybe Lollyp, which has multiple issues of its own...none of us want children. Not in any immediate timeframe, certainly."

Elance nods, prodding her along. "I expect you're not here to have me talk you into the wonders of motherhood - or fatherhood, as it would have to be, I imagine. Although I do have a speech or two I could give if that's what you're looking for."

"No, I'm not. Xenia's decided to try this from another angle...instead of having an existing boss aim to become a parent...what if we took on an applicant who already wanted that for themselves? Like, someone who's been wanting to be a parent, but was infertile beyond the Church's ability to help with normally? I know we haven't had a huge number of applicants as it is, and it could take a long time to pay off, but if you started putting the word out there, maybe it'd get results eventually. If six months or so go by and we don't get any bites, well...maybe we'll have another round of thinking to do then."

The dwarf just smiles as Taly speaks, her lips curving ever upward as she finally finishes. "Taly, Taly, my dear Taly. You think I didn't foresee this issue almost as soon you brought me in on this project of yours? Or, for that matter, recognize how enticing this might be to certain folks who might already be on the fence about applying for a spot?"

"Lass, I started spreading the word of the possibility two months ago. And there's already been an interest."