7 Fixed It For You (Part 1)

An hour or so later, Jess had retreated back into her room after grabbing breakfast with Mel. The other girl had excused herself to hit up the training ground before heading into work at the bar and the excitement was clear on her face from her impatience to get into the next tier. With Dru in tow, she had already left the apartment before Jess was even done with doing the dishes.

Jess sat cross-legged in front of Oz. Her shoulder-length purple hair was tied up in a ponytail as she was going into 'serious' mode and she picked up some clothes from Mel, sporting a striped white and blue shirt over a pair of overalls. She tried not to dwell too deeply at the extra fabric dangling over her chest.

<Well, what beast would you like to create to showcase this time's beast-engineering techniques?>> Oz spouted off excitedly and the cyan color in his orb flickered rapidly to catch his mood.

Jessie straightened her back with a hint of smug pride. "I'm going to make a Iron-Scaled Komodo! It's just in the Earth level tier, so that she can bind it and keep Dru at the same time. She can get a boost to her stamina like she wants and she get a nice Metal attribute with it! A little bit extra from yours truly!" She cackled with self-praise, a look most unbecoming on such a dainty-looking face.

<<Please, then! Start!>>

Jessie nodded, catching on to Oz's excitement as well as feeling her own and started drawing mana from Oz. The blueprints were already sprawled out in her mind and, with a dash of her fore fingers, she started drawing with the mana the glyph on the floor.

The glyph for beast refinement, or as it's called nowadays beast-engineering, is made up of three circles interlocking with each other. Independently, they are called the Spell of Form, the Spell of Function, and the Spell of Binding. In the Spell of Form, Jessie began drawing the composition of the beast in note of the arcane symbols she learned when she was young. She started slowly, focusing on her memories on the exact make-up of the Iron-Scaled Komodo. One wrong line would throw the entire balance out and she would have wasted a whole bunch of mana on nothing.

A double helix began to form inside the circle and coiled into itself as she continued jutting lines in pairs of mismatched lengths into the helix.

When she got into the zone, her body started to exude a blue aura. Her meridians pouring out its inner reserve of energy to bring her up to the next level, boosting her speed of thought as well as the dexterity of her hands until they became a blur as they swept over the Spell of Form.

This is one of the reasons why the cultivation of the beast engineer is important towards the work as well. The higher level the beast, the higher the level the cultivator has to be to create it. Without the boost gained by breaking through the normal limit, the calculating power and speed needed to birth the beast would need years provided the necessary tools at hand, if not down right impossible.

When she finished up the Spell of Form, she rotated over to the Spell of Function. This spell was what made the beasts so special after the Spell of Form, well, gave them form. This is where the cultivator connects the natural laws of the universe to give near-mystic abilities to the beasts. You want to give your beast the ability to breath fire? Or the ability to summon the winds to aid it in its run? This is where you would do so in the Spell of Function.

Of course, there are other limitations as well. The form of the beast matters. After all, Jessie thought, you can't just give a slug the power to breath fire, can you? I mean, sure, you could give it the power to emit flames in its trail, but that's another thing in itself. Without the two Spells working in tandem harmoniously, the glyph would also fail and she would again have wasted a whole bunch of mana on nothing.

Again, the higher the level of cultivation the beast cultivator has reached, the better of the comprehension of the universe to help imbue life into the beast. There is only so much one could learn from the rote scripts of textbook learning, as in the case of Jessie, as this was already pushing the limit of her own cultivation level.

Finally came the part of the Spell of Binding. The easiest part, but the most cringe-worthy for Jessie. She paused over this part as she hated it, but it was a necessary evil. It forms the contract between the beast and its contractor and helps keeps a balance of power between humans and beasts.

Still some go extensively into it, filling in the mana glyph with rigid runes that basically enslaves the beast to the contractor's will, killing the former's personality and will and turning it into a puppet for the latter. She opted for the basic humane contract. The beast cannot fatally wound another beast or human unless its in direct conflict of its own existence or the existence of its contractor's. The only way for the contract to end is if the contractor dies before the beast, thus nullifying the Spell of Binding.

Knowing Mel and her hot head, the fatally wound part was necessary since she does tend to start a lot of fights and Jessie's not going to leave her hanging with a beast that's just going to sit back and watch the show. She quickly formed the runes with the augmented abilities under her Rank 1 abilities and already it was tiring her. She was going to need a huge lunch after this to make up for her loss in energy.

… It's not just an excuse to be a fat ass, alright? She justified to herself mentally.

"There! Finished!" Jessie said as she sat up from her work and looking quite proud as she put her hands on her hips. "Time to bring it into existence!"

She slammed her hand into the outer ring of the glyph and began to force more mana into it, forcing the charge through the design to compose the Iron-Scaled Komodo into being.

The mana fed back into Oz in a closed circuit and slowly a figure began to squirm into form in the center of the glyph. When it was done 'gestating', the glyph itself disappeared into the beast's form.

The four-legged reptile got up unsteadily and then stuck its tongue out lopsidedly like a tamed dog.

However, Jessie widened her eyes at the sight of it and her mouth opened up in shock.

"What the hell is that?!"

For reference, a normal Iron-Scaled Komodo was about the size of a Komodo dragon (obviously). Unlike a Komodo dragon, its jaws are relatively bacteria-free, due to the sterile nature of its attribute. As another given part of its element, it has toughened scales with a tint of a dull metallic sheen and is as hard as steel, making it harder to penetrate its hide.

This one had the look of a Komodo, but the gleaming scales made it distinct of the nature of the beast from what Jessie knew. Its reptilian hide had a sheen that gleamed like polished silver and in the morning light pouring in from the windows, it even seemed to have a orange-reddish tint to it.

It even seemed much more alert to the placid look to what Jessie was used to seeing even in the Institute or out on the streets.

The beast was quite friendly, pulling itself close to Jessie like a big puppy and began rubbing its head against her shin, almost pushing her off-balanced as result. As a reflex from her love of beasts, she started petting it while still in her state of shock.

"What happened to you?" It was warm to the touch, adding on to her surprise.

Suddenly, she could feel the pregnant silence coming from the other individual in the room. Oz. She glanced over at the orb while still petting the reptile at her feet. The core's light had shrunken down to a glow at the center.

<<... It seems that I might have a hand to play in this, Jessie.>> Oz said.