Chương 60: [1.60] Lovely Assistant (Part 1)

Gelic appeared in her apartment's Summoning Circle with a squelch. Her entire Puffball body was dripping from head to toe in a fermented muck, composed of only the finest rotten garbage that the world had ever seen.

"Unnappreaciatve, scuff-sucking, no-good, fritsing cheapskate." Such colorful comments about her most recent master continued as she carefully waddled to the bathroom, doing her best to not let her drippings paint the floor. She sat impatiently, grumbling to herself while the water coming out of her bath faucet warmed up a bit. When it was ready, she hopped into the tub and proceeded to rinse herself as thoroughly as she could under the tap.

All of her squirming could almost be interpreted as truly awful breakdancing as she jiggled herself and spun around every which way, making sure every crevice was thoroughly cleansed. Then when the initial layers had been purged down the drain, she filled the tub properly and began to soak with many of the chemicals and cleaning agents she'd bought prior. Somehow, this was even worse than her stink fest week after becoming a Demon. Gelic had just returned from a several-day long excursion at a landfill.

Her Summoner, Revice, a great and powerful Senior Summoner, which was apparently between a Summoner and High Summoner, had given the low-ranking Demon a simple task. Or that's at least how the woman had sold it after having tricked Divining Ear to lure her there in the first place. As it turned out, the ordeal was nightmarish, something she should have paid real people with real tools hefty amounts of money for. Gelic was tasked with recovering a computer hard drive from a landfill.

That really did sound like easy pickings at first, until she got to the place, only to discover it was a several acre rolling hills of trash. And apparently, the hard drive had actually been there for some time, instead of being recent rubbish like she had assumed. Originally, she'd thought it would be near the top of some stack, but nope! Even with her Order giving her a general idea of the hard drive's location, it was a Vissiem-damned pain in her ass. Oh, just for the record. [Hunting Nose Lv. 4] [Lucidity notably increased] [Gnostic Attunement notably increased] There were also a few Vigor increases. How many, she'd lost count, but not enough for a Worth milestone, so… whatever. Fat load of good the Skill increases did, though. Despite leveling twice, all she smelled was trash. And "smelled" was likely an exaggeration. Probably as an act of self-preservation, her nose basically stopped working a few hours into the excavation.

Only now that the filth was slipping away had her sense reactivated, all of her soap and cleaning supplies filling her nostrils. She kind of wished it would turn off again for a bit. Gelic did finally find the hard drive, buried seventeen feet deep into a mountain of garbage. She knew because she measured. She measured because it was such an absurd distance that she couldn't not. That was the only distraction, though, that kept her from completing her Contract.

Like a good little cronie, she'd reported right away to her master, bright eyed and proud for finally completing the arduous task set out for her. And what did she get in return? 75 Essence and a thousand bucks. Not freaking worth it! That had been the initially agreed rate, back when it still sounded like a reasonable job. Maybe if she'd been some sort of digger Demon, then sure, it would have been a fair exchange, but nope. And Gelic didn't even get a chance to renegotiate or speak at all, really.

Once Revice received the drive and paid the fee, the Senior Summoner Banished the Imp immediately. So friggin rude. Not even a word of thanks. It would have sounded silly, since the woman had her nose pinched the whole time, but the effort would have been appreciated. It had been a Bound job, too, which made it all the worse, and of course, Gelic failed to break it. What she could have done, though, was cancel the Order.

The numbers were reasonable, and even if she failed, she could have kept retrying when her MP recharged. But by the time Gelic had accepted that her situation was misery incarnate, she'd already done so much, deep in the muck, that she had decided to see it through. This awful Summons was the latest in a now decent line of low-paying jobs. She hadn't found any good ones since the whole heart delivery adventure.

After that, she'd requested Divining Ear find some that were a bit more simple and tame, but now she realized it had been scaled back way too much. After some much deserved kitty cuddles- [Transfiguration Lv. 7] [Beguilement increased] [Fraud Attunement increased] -the Demon was motivated and ready to work again. She was too annoyed to focus on art or anything remotely relaxing, and wanted to burn the emotions into something lucrative. Okay, I want something that will pay decently this time.

I don't mind if I have to work for it, as long as it is reasonable compensation. Ideally, it will be something tailored to my skills, either my natural talent or my Demon stuff.

"I am looking for an assistant for a few days." She immediately got a responding whisper.

"You must have Transfiguration, and the higher your Creativity, the better. Five hundred Essence for three days of your time. More can be negotiated if things go well." Well, that sounded like a delightful and reasonable chap. There was something about his voice, the way that he spoke, that made Gelic really want to trust him, intrigued by the man and what he would have her do. Three days, though… That would be cutting it close. As long as it didn't extend beyond that, everything should be fine. Alright, I accept!

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. [Bind resisted] [Obstinance increased] [Bind Resistance Lv. 3] [Obstinance increased] Hahaha, no more scuffy trash jobs for me! After her recent bad experience, Gelic was a bit too exhilarated about resisting being Bound, despite having no idea who she was working for or what they'd want. Freedom just tasted damned good.

"Hmm, you're not what I expected." Her new master approached with enthusiasm, no worry at all about her being unrestrained by his power.

"Erm, I can say the same." Gelic glanced around.

"Not what I expected at all." Handcuffs, racks, torture devices—all harmless props. So many props. Weird boxes, a whole mountain of playing cards, enough costumes to dress a circus. And the man himself was wearing a sparkliest, flashiest one of all, complete with silly hat and a twirly moustache.

"Are you a magician?!"

"That I am, little Cotton." Being recognized as such seemed to bolster the man's pride. He stood tall and flourished with his arms.

"You may know me as Ziesta, the Porter King! I earned that moniker by my amazing feats in the art of transportation, specializing in moving objects and people from one location to another in ways that appear impossible!" Ah, Gelic was slightly less interested now, though it still could be cool. She actually enjoyed magic quite a bit, but she was more interested in close-up street-style magic than grand spectacles with usually easy-to-deduce gimmicks.

In fact, in college, she'd briefly tried to learn sleight-of-hand tricks after figuring out she had pretty good hand dexterity and motor control. However, she wasn't immediately good at it, so she got frustrated and gave up, doubling down even more on art.

"So…" She thought she got the gist now.

"Really, you use Demons for your tricks, then? I didn't know magicians could be Summoners."

"Oh, most of the good ones are." Ziesta gave her a wink.

"But the majority don't know how to utilize them properly, making them glorified stagehands or for a bit of extra flashy flashy. No, that is not my plan. You will not be relegated to some unimportant cast member that no one sees. But before we go any further. What of my terms? Do you have Transfiguration?"

"Yup?"

"Then what about your Creativity level, Cotton?"

"Um, it's Talented," she relayed after checking her DGS screen to be certain.

"And my name isn't Cotton. I know I may look like a sentient cottonball, but my name is Gelic."

"Wrong, you are!" He wagged a finger in her face.

"For the next three days, you will be my lovely assistant, Cotton! Two for practice, then on the third, together, we will put on a marvelous performance. The venue is booked and the tickets are sold out! We'll split the revenue thirty-seventy if you want the cash, and I'll give you five hundred Essence minimum. So what do you say, Cotton. Will you be my assistant?"

"Uhh, sure." Gelic held out her small hand to his, which was snatched immediately and shaken vigorously.

"Then we have a deal!" [Contract accepted | Current Contract: Put on a good show]"Erm, is three days going to be enough time, though?" Gelic voiced her concerns after it was too late.

"I've never done magic before; well, besides Demon magic, I guess."

"Pish, posh, it will be no trouble at all!" the magician insisted.

"What I'll be having you do is nothing intricate, only basic things like walking around and going through a set routine of motions. That's what will take the longest, memorizing every step and repeating them flawlessly so you don't mess up the timing of the whole show. My previous assistant was able to learn it in a day and a half, and they were a bit less, mmm, lively than you are."

"But through my generous payments of Essence, they eventually evolved from a Gremlin into a Ghoul. After that, they couldn't stomach the spotlight any further, since many of your kind become a lot more reclusive and angsty during that stage. But it looks like you have a while to go until then, that could be good. Y'know, it's a bit weird seeing an Imp with—""Yeah yeah, I've heard it," Gelic cut him off. The comments about her knowing Transfiguration at such an early stage were getting old and repetitive.

Ziesta carried on.

"Point being, I am looking for a new permanent assistant. Until I settle on one, I'll have to make do with a revolving cast, and I've learned that three days is plenty of time for most, cutting it close for some, and a bit of an insufferable drag for a select few. Let's hope you're not in the last category. Ah, but if you have any special abilities that would help you stand out, do let me know."

"Erm, I'm very good at art!" Despite all of her special supernatural traits, Angelica was still proud of her Creativity the most, and he had asked for someone with a high caliber in that regard, so surely he'd appreciate it.

"Hmm, well perhaps I will have you polish up some set pieces, then." The man's mind wandered for a moment.

"But I meant more along the lines of something magical yourself." Yeah, she knew, but still wanted to boast.

"Hrm, I can eat poison without getting sick." For some reason that was the first thing that came to mind, but it wouldn't be the amazing spectacle he was hoping for. Sadly, her Skills, while useful, weren't very showy or impressive looking.

"Ah, well, I'm really bouncy, maybe I could do some kind of acrobatics." To demonstrate, Gelic began to pelt around the room, ricocheting at least a dozen times as she spent momentum before coming to a skidding stop back at her original position.

"Oh, and I can make ice, too. Though I'm not very good at defined shapes yet." She held out a hand, and a rugged sphere appeared in her palm.

"That was supposed to be a recreation of me, but it's just an ice ball."

"Hmm, what about snow, can you make that?" Her new boss was interested.

"We could definitely awe the audience by making it suddenly dust on them."

"Uhh, don't think so." She had to disappoint him.

"Maybe I could create really fine ice, and that would be similar?" Gelic let the solid ball roll away on the floor where it would inevitably make a slippery puddle later if not cleaned. She then held out her hand and began to sprinkle more solid water as small as she could make it. But what came out wasn't the powdery stuff kids loved to play with, but more like icy pebbles that quickly became a pile of cold gravel. It'd be great for cooling drinks, but not much else.

"Well, we'll work on your special performance pieces later." Ziesta wasn't nearly as disheartened.

"For now, let us focus on the most important part: your look! Show me what you can do, Cotton! Turn into my lovely assistant!"