20

She looked up at me with a befuddled look on her face. It was understandable as I had kidnapped her, but I had decided to put my best foot forward.

Gesturing, I conjured a pair of chairs and gestured for her to take a seat. As she shakily climbed into the chair opposite me, the Grimories' power grew.

I felt the energy grow around my bones, slick like vines, and soon the magical calcium I was made of bend.

Lounging in the chair I felt my body stretch in ways previously impossible, and as Sarah climbed into the chair, I noticed my new vision could pick out the pores on her face.

It seemed the new ability also increased by eyesight, which, combined with Clairvoyance, was incredibly potent.

Giving a fake cough, Sarah cracked a nervous grin before speaking.

"What do you mean by a job?"

"It's fairly simple." I replied, "I just need access to your power. You'll work for me, and in exchange, I can grant most of your desiers."

Tapping her fingers on the arm of the chair, she peered at me through lidded eyes before voicing her question. "What do you mean most?"

Spreading my arms back, I spoke with a grin in my voice. "I'm not an all-powerful genie, I am fairly strong, but some wishes are out of reach."

Scrutinizing me with her green eyes, she started to nod slowly. "Ok, say that I am willing to work for you. What do I get?"

Leaning forward, I clasped my fingers in front of me as I peered into her eyes. "As much money as you need, no maintenance tinker tech for personal use as well as my protection and the possible fixing of your power.

Blinking, she leaned back in her chair as her eyes widened. "You're serious; you can, or at least believe you can, fix my power."

Nodding, I decided to let her think it over. "You'll have to stay here until you make your choice. Take all the time you need."

As she started to muse over my offer, she piped up. "What happens if I refuse?"

Standing up, I spoke over my shoulder as I walked back towards my Grimoire. "I'll simply wipe your memories of this interaction and drop you back at your base."

I, of course, had no intention of doing that. While Lisa's personality made her a bitch her power was much too valuable to discard.

I would be forced to use powerful hypnosis, most likely while in Castle Brunstud, to get her to work for me, which was still far from optimal.

Picking up the Grimoire, I ensured my minions were watching her. I doubted she would try to attack me but better safe than sorry.

Reading the new headline that had appeared, the power was reasonably straightforward but nonetheless potent. Enhanced Dexterity did as it said.

It increased my dexterity, allowing me to be more nimble and quick and sharpening my eyesight. Not very flashy, but still helpful in getting out of a tricky spot.

As I was flipping through the page, Sarah stopped taping on her chair arm and stood up, clearing her throat to catch my attention.

Spinning my heel, I twirled up before looking at her. Slightly nervous, she spoke. "I'm going to accept your offer."

Grinning, I strode forward for a handshake while speaking. "Wonderful! In that case, I doubt you want to stay here, so follow me, and I'll show you to your new home."

Nervously she followed behind me, only stopping to shoot a slight glance at Komainu. It wasn't long before we were on the streets of Brockton, and she had gotten over her fear, or at least enough to ask me questions.

"What are your plans?"

Tossing a grin over my shoulder, I spread my arms out as if encompassing the whole of Brockton Bay. "I want the Bay."

Seeing the shocked look on her face, I chuckled before expanding on my statement. "Fixing it; you should have seen the look on your face."

Grumbling, we continued walking for a few more minutes before arriving at my apartment. The landlord would most likely be confused why we hadn't shown up in a few days, but it wasn't our problem.

Opening the door with the regular shoulder check, I gestured to the slightly run-down place. "Here is where you'll be staying for now."

Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the cash I had on me, amounting to around three grand. Pushing the bills into her hand, I continued speaking.

"Consider this your advance payment; use it to buy what you need, phone, clothes, food, so on and so forth. Let me know if you need more money."

Taking the money, she nodded, then opened her mouth as if to ask a question before closing it. Striding back towards the entrance, I peered into her eyes and applied a touch of Hypnotism as I left.

I wasn't an idiot; I doubted she would actually be working for me, so a nudge that would prevent her from thinking about ditching me would help.

Besides, even if she tried to fight back, it would be a one-sided curb stomp due to the difference in strength. Walking back to my lab, I looked around the city.

While not much had changed from my other incursions, people did seem to be better. They walked about with less cowering, and gang signs were starting to be removed.

With the capture of Lung and the Empire, most people started feeling hope. While there were countless other small gangs, they could now be fought with the PRT, not on the back foot.

I doubted it would last long; you would have new people coming to Brockton. The two options were Accord due to his dealings with Coil and the Butcher because they had been kicked out years ago.

As I opened the door to my lab, I felt the Grimores power swelling again. Staggering in, I felt pressure on my skull like somebody was trying to open it with a hammer.

Information filled my head; I now knew the proper way to forge a mace or brew a healing potion on par with the ones I received from Healing Potions.

This new power also synergized with Sorcery - Enchantment. While not as powerful as gaining new dots, I could see the flaws in my previous work that now stuck out like a sore thumb.

Grimore's were something else I knew how to make, not the Grimore but something similar. Just by parsing the information, it seemed like this was the basis for my Grimore.

Even without the other benefits, I now only needed a tenth of the materials that would make the same quantity.

The power did have a shortcoming; I could, for example, make Gáe Bolg, but I needed the proper materials, and good luck getting sea creature bones on Earth Bet.

That was the issue; I could make items approaching divine quality with only a fraction of the time and materials spent. I still needed the materials, and Earth Bet was magicless.

Tapping my foot on the floor, a bit of Dust spilled out of my pants, and I froze. I knew from Endless Legend that Dust could make magical items instantly.

Letting Dust fall out of my sleeve and on the floor, I let it pile up before crouching down and touching it with a finger.

I decided to start with something relatively simple, a healing potion; the first step was to make a glass vial, which was pretty easy. The next step was more challenging as well as much more expensive.

Picking up a handful of Dust, I poured it into the vial, and as it passed through my fingers, I focused on how to brew a health potion.

From grinding the petals and tossing them in a bubbling cauldron to adding a dash of crystals, I focused.

After what felt like forever, I saw the Dust spill through my fingers changes. The Dust was now a ruby red liquid and had soon filled the vial.

Brushing the remaining Dust off my fingers, I took a sip of the liquid and grinned. It was a health potion.

This was huge because I naturally gathered Dust. I could, with enough time, craft extremely powerful items.

There were two cavitates; the first was that the more powerful or magical significant the base goods were, the more expansive it would be to create from Dust.

The second issue was that when crafting from Dust it was prohibelty costly. Just creating that potion had cost me around a day worth of Dust.

I could solve that issue by transmuting Dust to the base goods then going from there. That did hit with the Tinker issue.

To craft something like Gáe Bolg, I would need tools that could forge bone of that caliber. To make tools of that caliber, I would need tools able to create potent tools so on and forth.

I was currently at the beginning of the Tinker loop, and it caught me in the worst time as well. If I had gotten this sooner, I could have sat down for a few weeks to a month in order to get set up.

As it was now, however, I didn't have the time to sit around and build; I had hired Lisa, new parahumans could be arriving in the bay any day now, and if I were seen buying even the basic supplies, I would have the PRT kicking down my door.

I could start with the simple tools, conjure a forge, and the essential tools. I would just need to keep an ear out for new problems I needed to solve.

Holding my hands in the air, I started to gesture as if directing a band. I know how to craft anything I wanted to set my mind to, and so the new items were easy to see in my mind.

Soon enough, a plethora of craft tools was set in the corner. Everything from a forge to a mortar and pestle was created from Dust.

It had taken most of the Dust I had gotten from the past few days, so I wouldn't be doing any excellent crafting soon, but the basics were essential.

My next step would be imporving my tools. It would have been too costly to create enchanted tools, so I would need to enchant the tools myself.

The first thing would be the forging equipment, such as the anvil, tongs, and hammer. Those would be the easiest to acquire materials for.

The Boat Graveyard and the Trainyard would be sources of high quality material and my newfound skills would allow me to make increadible thin armor that, when combined with some Dust and enchanting, would be incredible armor.

I got to work by letting a few pinches of Dust settle on the anvil. This was a mix of Master Craftsman and Sorcery - Enchantment.

Focusing, I focused on what an anvil was. It was the surface weapons. They were forged on, where metal was shaped and birthed into anything.

It held against anything from the sing-song hammering of legends being made. To the simple taps of a horseshoe being fixed.

My focus slipped for a brief moment as Grimore's power grew. I got no new power, but the sensation was distracting nonetheless.

As I leaned back, the Dust seeped into the anvil as it shifted slightly. Checking my mental clock, I was surprised that it had taken me a few hours to enchant the anvil.

Peering at the said anvil, I saw its new enchantments. It could resist much harder blows and reduce errors made when forging on it.

Not awe-inspiring, but still a reasonably good enchantment for my first time. The next step was the forge itself. I had just enough Dust for that.

Powers Gained

Enhanced Dexterity

You are graceful and quick, able to move with great dexterity and aim with deadly precision. Your eyesight is also clearer and lets you take in more details than you could outside of your Magical Girl form. This can be bought multiple times, letting you keep up with a long-term firefight even as you're being juggled in the air.

Master Craftsman

You are a master of crafts and trades, from weapon-smithing to alchemy and more. This gives you the requisite knowledge, experience and skills to create and craft any item that you want, with the right materials. The items that you make tend to last for a long time without maintenance and are unlikely to break before their owners, along with it only costing a tenth of the original materials to make without sacrificing any quality and beauty. With enough time, research and materials, you can recreate any magical item that you can get your hands on with the same quality. The items that you have already made can also be mass produced by you at a faster rate and even less materials than before. This skill doesn't give you the ability to make items at the height of a god with a similar purview but your breadth of applicability should be broader. Through, with enough time and experience you could reach the level of a god's purview but it would take decades with only this perk.