Claire had learned that sitting around for hours waiting for customers was very, very boring. She thus asked her mom for one of the books she'd offered after the demon summoning incident. She didn't have the motivation to read it until now. She didn't want to look dismissive to her prospective clients by reading novels on her phone, but reading a magic grimoire? That just added to her image.
Last day's contracts for SP yielded her a grand total of 0.51 Soul Points. That meant the warrior duo gained 8.5 total, before her tax kicked in.
This was odd, because her System Mechanics class taught her that points were always granted in whole numbers, and fractions didn't appear unless one had some sort of discount ability or had their soul damaged and lost points from that.
I wonder why the System measures SP the way it does. What is the base unit? It's been theorized that 1 Soul Point was the smallest quantity of the resource that could be utilised. No advancement option ever cost less than that, and it was unheard of for discount abilities to affect purchases below 5 points. There was no concrete proof of that, however, as anyone who had soul manipulation abilities usually kept that fact to themself, as well as any research on the topic they've conducted.
I should publish something once I know more about soul mechanics.
For now, though, what she was studying was "Basics of Rituals" by Clemence "Alastor" Mulligan. The overlong introduction helpfully informed her the author had spent his youth engrossed in the history of the occult, and then the System made such pursuits much more practical.
Rituals were an act of using mundane objects and symbols to imbue meaning into mana and weave the resulting slurry of concepts into a complex spell. It often overlapped with other methods of casting, particularly alchemy - for reagents - and runecrafting. On the art/science spectrum, rituals were quite consistent and rigid, slightly more "artsy" than runes.
"A ritual can be described as turning the mundane into magical through intentionality. Right words, right ingredients, right time, right place. The more purposeful the arrangement, the more controlled, and thus efficient, the resulting spell will be." The first chapter proclaimed.
Claire skipped ahead a bit to see an actual ritual recipe. She landed on the "Alarm" ritual.
Curiously, the reagent list was mutable. It was divided into a couple of sections, each one with a header like "home" or "boundary", followed by a few examples of items.
Okay, the headers must be those concepts to be imbued. And the actual reagents are examples, but not an exhaustive list... so presumably, anything related to the concept works. But how is the potency determined? How well the symbols represents the concept, of course, but according to whom? The caster? Local consensus? The demiurge, if it exists?
She knew of course she could just find out by actually reading the book in order, but she enjoyed trying to figure things out on her own before checking the answer for herself. Just ramming the material linearly was one of the many things that made school such a miserable experience. She would check the actual reasoning before attempting any rituals, anyway. Probably.
On the other page, there was the diagram for the ritual itself. Based on a large circle, it featured spots to put the reagents into, as well as fanciful shapes connecting various parts of the circle. A different color was used for arrows and text pointing out certain additional information, like "skip this rune when filling the circle with mana" or "focus on the target(s) you wish the circle to sense when filling this shape with mana".
There is so much room for variation here. This is going to be so fun to play with when I get back home.
The page ended with a challenge: "optional exercise: translate the ritual into a line protecting a threshold instead of a circle protecting an area."
Rituals don't have to use circles?! That opens up so many more possibilities.
"Excuse me, what exactly is the buff you're selling?" A prospective client interrupted her musings.
They wore a black robe with a matching cape. They held a long staff sculpted from wood and tipped with a small glass sphere that contained a red liquid. Their face looked like a cross between human and bat, not unlike Julliette, the gargoyle woman she worked with at Draxon Inc., except this mage' skin was white like premium toilet paper, and looked about as durable.
In short, they were some kind of vampiric mage.
"All-rounder buff strengthening body, mind, and soul. You can pay with Indigo or a percentage of SP you gain while the buff is active."
"Curious... is it [Mark of the Beast], then?"
Both Claire and Decker raised their eyebrows at that. Considering the sheer variety of classes, it was quite rare to come across the same exact skill between different people.
"Yes, how do you know? Do you know someon else with the skill?"
The vampire smiled. "I'm a diviner. My skills have provided me with the names of buffs and other resources I would find particularly useful for an experiment I've been planning, and your skill was on the list."
"Experiment? I take it you're not here to delve into the dungeon, then." Claire proved deeper, her curiosity piqued.
"No, I have already gathered the ingredients I require beforehand. Now, I need your support in ensuring maximal possible odds of success."
"In that case, I will insist you pay with money."
"Of course. In that case, I'll lead you to my laboratory." The vampiric diviner said, and turned around, assuming she'd follow.
"Woah, woah, woah. I'm not going anywhere. I got a business to run."
The mage turned back to face her again.
"Not to worry, I intend to buy out all your slots for the next few weeks."
"If you want your party to receive the buff, they can come to my stall here." She refused.
They shook their head. "I'm afraid the creatures that will be receiving the buff cannot leave my laboratory."
Claire narrowed her eyes. "What exactly are you experimenting on? How willing and sapient are those 'creatures'?"
"I assure you that I am not involved in anything illegal or morally reprehensible."
This was not a lie, but left a bit too much up to interpretation for her liking. Morally reprehensible to whom?
"So, no slaves, no sapients, and they don't suffer?"
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The vampire looked left, then right, then leaned in and started speaking in a much lower tone.
"They are homonculi. Synthetic beings, with nascent souls. On the brink of sapience, but with no will of their own. No desires. I've-"
The syllable died in their mouth. "I'm bound to secrecy about the specifics. The subjects will likely get damaged, but they will feel no pain."
Two thoughts warred in Claire's mind:
Fascinating.
This still seems really sketchy.
"Okay, so we will go to your lab. I'll place the mark on some of your experiments for a few weeks. I'll leave, you do your research, and that's that."
"Precisely."
"And this isn't a ploy to make me one of these 'subjects'?"
"Of course not." Ding.
Motherfucker- "Okay, now we have a problem, because you just lied to me. Please leave and never come back to my stall."
"What? No, I swear I don't plan anything untoward! Please, your help will be invaluable to my research!"
No lies there. It's one of those "technically not quite the truth" moments. Damnit.
"Okay, I think I see what happened. You aren't planning to force me to partake in your research, but you were hoping I'd get interested in it later on?"
They sighed. "Yes."
"Okay! Glad we got that settled. I hope you understand that this situation isn't exactly regular for me, so I wanted to cover my bases. Now, how long exactly do you want the buffs for?"
"At least two weeks, but if the subjects prove resilient, I might extend the trial."
What the hell are they testing? Some kind of poison? Nah, they wouldn't be proposing I partake in that case. Maybe some enhancement drug with strong side effects? But why would I in particular be interested? I guess we will see when I get there.
Claire focused her [Scribe's Cantrip] and conjured the contract detailing the terms they've already agreed on. She also added a clause that the vampire would ensure her safety while she was in the lab and on the way in and out of there. Just in case.
The mage read the contract quickly, grabbed then pen she provided, and signed it as "Carlos Varela".
Contract officiated.
"Alright, then, let's go. Decker, I'll call you later to discuss what to do with the stall, okay?"
Decker gave her a thumbs up, and so she packed her book into the backpack, and proceeded to follow the shady vampire man.
--
Carlos' laboratory was situated in the basement of a condominium a few streets away. The rent must be crazy. The whole basement floor, this close to the dungeon? No wonder he didn't even blink at the sum on the contract.
The floor was linoleum coloured to look like tiles, and the walls were painted Landlord White. There were several desks, chairs, file cabinets and blackboards. Most of the furniture had some papers with notes on it. A whole third of the open plan floor was sectioned off with some kind of thick, see-through plexiglass, forming a sort of animal pen, or perhaps a containment chamber, for the homonculi Carlos mentioned.
The ten creatures looked like malformed grey skinned humanpids. Their skin was covered in uneven tumorous lumps, their bodies and faces were asymmetrical, and they had no hair no genitals. From where she stood, Claire estimated the tallest one reached up to her belly button. Each one had a different number tattooed on their - its? - left shoulder. The numbers started at 15.
The homonculi wandered around their containment room and paid no attention to them entering the lab.
They are so unsettling. It's not the appearance, I've seen weirder, but the way there is nothing behind those eyes... I can see how Carlos was able to confirm they'd feel no pain. They look like they aren't actually alive.
Oblivious to her thoughts, Carlos walked up to the pen's door - also plexiglass - and pushed it open.
"Subjects 27, 28, 29, 30, step out of the chamber and form a line." He commanded.
The named creatures instantly stopped their wandering and obeyed the order with perfect efficiency, discounting the fact their uneven legs caused them to wobble as they walked.
"There you go, please place you Mark on them. The forehead, preferably, so I can tell them apart from the others at a glance."
Claire walked up to the homonculi with some apprehension. Her hand shook as she raised it to touch 27. A deal is a deal. She breathed in, breathed out, and put her hand on the artificial being's head. The design she created was a simple circle with a horizontal line going through it. She repeated the process with the other three, each one receiving the same symbol.
As 30's Mark settled, she felt the contract's hold on her loosen. Her part was done. Her phone vibrated, likely a "transfer received" notification from the bank.
"Return to the chamber." Carlos instructed, and the creatures complied.
"Okay, now that I'm involved, can you tell me what's this for? And why would I be interested beyond mere curiosity?" Claire asked.
"You're a demon." It wasn't a question, but claire answered anyway.
"Partially, yes."
"And so you require souls."
"Yep."
"My organisation also requires souls. I've been trying to develop a way for homonculi to grow full souls that we can harvest."
Claire's eyes went wide. That would make advancement so much easier.
Carlos walked up to a cabinet and pulled out several... epipens? Parts of them were transparent, and she could see they were filled with some sort of dark purple liquid.
"This compound's purpose is to convert the physical body into soul fragment precursor material, otherwise known as Soul Points." He explained. "These homonculi have been created with regenerative capabilities, and so they will hopefully be able to restore the lost mass and survive the process. If you have ways to heal yourself, you could also use the compound to gain a steady source of SP for as long as the compound remains in your body. In turn, I would gain a sapient test subject, which would produce invaluable data for my work."
Claire had several issues with this.
"Wait, if the homonculi gain more soul, wouldn't they eventually achieve personhood? That would put this experiment back into 'trials on slaves' territory."
"We already have records of homonculi who have achieved sapience. They remain incapable of feeling pain, and they cannot develop desires that run contrary to their initial programming."
"So they don't have free will. Which, again, slavery."
Carlos made a tsk sound with his lips, and thought for a few seconds. "Are there things you or I cannot conceive of?"
"Like what?"
"Well, if I could word it, I could conceive of it. My point is, there are limits to one's imagination, yes?"
Claire scratched her chin. "I suppose."
"Does that mean we have no free will?"
Claire nodded slowly. "I see your point. The homonculi simply have different limits to their imagination. They cannot conceive of desiring something they were not made to do."
"Precisely."
"That seems awfully convenient. How are you sure they don't just act like everything's fine, while on the inside they are horrified at being imprisoned in their own body?"
"Mind probing, mostly. The government is heavily regulating homonculus production to ensure people are, in fact, using test subjects fully incapable of experiencing suffering." He cleared his throat, and began speaking like on orator reading out loud a holy book. "According to the Atlantean Treaty on Live Research, the penalty for not assuring every being involved is either sapient and consenting or incapable of suffering in the first place is to become a test subject yourself." He then returned to his regular, polite tone. "I have made sure these trials are fully government approved and ethical."
"It must have cost a fortune to set this all up, then. The approval fees and all."
"Yes, hence why I wanted to enhance the test subjects with the Mark, so that their chance of survival is maximised."
She nodded. She still felt uncomfortable with the whole thing, but it was no longer an ethical concern, just one of feelings. The idea of "ethical lab rats' was... she couldn't quite put into words the way in which it creeped her out. He probably couldn't find volunteers. I know personally how hard it is to find someone willing to let their soul be messed with. The fact that he went into all the trouble to keep it all on the up-and-up shows both that it's extremely important to his organisation, and that they value morality. Or at least good PR.
As she wrestled with her thoughts, Carlos called all of the homonculi to step out, and injected each one with a purple syringe-thingy. The creatures shivered as the substance started coursing through their veins, but they made no noise of complaint. One by one, they returned to their pen.
Carlos locked the chamber, and turned to Claire, brandishing another injector -that's the word!
"So, would you like to take part in the experiment?"
"Fuck no. I don't have any healing factor, this would liquidate me from the inside."
He nodded, and stowed the injector away. "Very well, let me lead you out of here. I'll contact you in some time to discuss the potential extension of the contract."
