Kaito stood over a pile of scrap brass, his internal calcutor running at full tilt. The Mk. I Restoration Chair required a structural frame capable of withstanding 500 Newtons of force and a specialized mana-conduit. He had the brass. He had the silver wire. But the core—the heart of the machine—remained an empty socket in his blueprints.

  He needed a high-grade, drained Mana-Crystal.

  A new crystal of that magnitude would cost fifty silver—money he didn't have. A drained one was useless to mages, essentially a hollowed-out battery, but in the hands of an engineer who understood the "API" of the world, it was the perfect vessel for a reguted feedback loop.

  He was reaching for his soldering iron when the heavy iron door of his workshop didn't just rattle; it groaned as if a mountain was leaning against it.

  "Workshop’s closed," Kaito said, not looking up. "I don't do walk-ins, and I don't do charity."

  "Good thing I’m neither," a feminine voice rasped. It was lower than Era’s, with a rough, predatory edge that made the hair on Kaito's neck stand up.

  Kaito turned. Standing in the doorway was a woman who made Garrow look like a civilized accountant. She was tall—nearly seven feet—with skin the color of bruised ste and eyes that glowed a faint, hungry amber. She wore leather armor that looked like it had been through several wars, and a massive serrated bde was strapped to her back.

  This was Xenia. The "protection" Garrow had promised.

  "You’re small," Xenia noted, stepping into the room. She didn't walk; she stalked, her movements possessing a fluid, feline grace that contradicted her sheer mass. She sniffed the air, her nose wrinkling. "Smells like ozone and desperation in here."

  "It’s called chemistry," Kaito replied, his voice maintaining its ft, clinical tone. "And you’re trespassing. I believe Garrow mentioned you’d be stopping by next month. My calendar is currently full."

  Xenia ughed, a sound like grinding stones. She reached out a cwed hand and picked up a delicate brass gear from his desk, spinning it between two fingers. "Garrow is a fool. He sees a human with a silver coin and thinks of rent. I see a human who can fix a High Elf Magistrate and I think of investment."

  She dropped the gear. It cttered against the table, but Kaito didn't move to catch it. He was focused on the leather pouch she had just tossed onto his workbench.

  It hit the wood with a heavy, crystalline *thunk*.

  "What is this?" Kaito asked.

  "Open it," she commanded.

  Kaito pulled the drawstring. Inside was a jagged shard of translucent quartz, roughly the size of a grapefruit. It was dull, devoid of the vibrant internal light that usually characterized magic stones. It was a "husk"—a high-grade Mana-Crystal that had been sucked dry, likely by a desperate mage or a botched ritual.

  [System Scan: High-Grade Drained Core Detected]

  [Compatibility: 98.4%]

  [Alert: Accept this item to finalize 'Ergonomic Restoration Chair' Blueprint.]

  "Where did you get this?" Kaito asked, his eyes narrowing behind his spectacles. "This came from the Royal Artificery. The cut is too precise for a battlefield find."

  "Does it matter?" Xenia leaned over him, her amber eyes inches from his face. He could feel the radiant heat coming off her skin—the "Monster Girl" biology in full effect. Her mana-signature was different from Era’s; it wasn't a pressurized leak, but a slow, burning fire. "Consider it a signing bonus. My brother thinks he owns you. I know better. I want 20% of whatever that 'chair' makes you."

  "The current business model doesn't support a 20% dividend to an unverified third party," Kaito said, his clinical voice cshing with her predatory aura. "Especially one who hasn't provided a single hour of bor or security."

  Xenia’s grin widened, revealing sharpened canines. She reached out and gripped Kaito’s shoulder. Her hand was heavy, her strength terrifying, yet she didn't crush him. She squeezed just enough to let him feel the lethality behind the gesture.

  "I’m the security, little engineer. The Guild is already talking about you. Captain Thorne has been asking questions about why a 'nobody' from the Rust District is taking private sessions with the Magistrate. If I’m not standing outside that door, the next person to walk through it won't be paying you in silver. They'll be using a rack to find out how your 'wand' works."

  Kaito processed the data. Thorne was an external threat. The Guild was a bureaucracy. Xenia was a local variable he could potentially manage.

  "Fine," Kaito said, pulling the crystal closer to his chest. "I accept the material. But the 20% is non-negotiable. I will offer 5% of net profits, plus a dedicated maintenance slot for your equipment. I assume that serrated sb on your back is prone to micro-fractures?"

  Xenia paused, her amber eyes blinking in surprise. She looked at her bde, then back at the tiny, defiant human who was already trying to "calcute" her into a ledger.

  "You want to fix my bde?"

  "It’s made of bck-iron," Kaito noted, pointing to a hairline crack near the hilt. "The mana-conductivity of that metal is atrocious. Every time you hit something with a magical ward, the kickback causes structural fatigue. I can stabilize the edge. It’s part of the 'protection' package."

  Xenia let go of his shoulder. She looked around the cramped, filthy workshop and then at the man who treated a monster like a broken machine. "You’re a strange little creature, Kaito. Most humans are screaming or begging by now."

  "Fear is an inefficient use of glucose," Kaito replied. He reached out and, with the same clinical precision he used on Era, pced a hand on Xenia’s forearm.

  She stiffened, her pupils slitting into thin lines. "What are you doing?"

  "Initial tactile assessment," Kaito said, his fingers trailing over the hard, dark skin of her wrist. "Your mana-emission is constant-burn. Unlike the High Elf, your vessels don't congest; they overheat the surrounding tissue. If I’m going to calibrate you ter, I need to know the exact thermal threshold of your epidermis before the wand causes a blister. You’re currently at 41 degrees Celsius. High, but manageable."

  He didn't pull his hand away. He slid his fingers up toward the crook of her elbow, feeling the heavy, rhythmic thrum of her pulse. For a moment, the predatory monster girl looked genuinely off-bance. The clinical way he handled her—as if her body were a high-performance engine that simply needed a tune-up—was more intimate than any crude proposition she’d ever heard.

  "I'll be back at dawn," Xenia said, pulling her arm back with a sharp, huffed breath. "If that crystal isn't in a machine by then, I'm taking my 20% out of your hide."

  "Make it noon," Kaito called after her. "The silver-wiring needs time to set, and I don't work well under 'dawn' lighting. It’s bad for the calibration."

  Xenia didn't answer, but her ughter echoed up the basement stairs.

  Kaito turned back to his workbench. He had the crystal. He had a "protector" who was likely going to be his biggest headache. And he had a System that was currently glowing with a new notification.

  [New Quest: The First Full Session]

  [Objective: Complete a Tier 2 Calibration using the Restoration Chair.]

  [Client: Pending...]

  Kaito picked up his soldering iron. The blue light of the System HUD reflected in his gsses as the first true piece of advanced technology in this world began to take shape.