Alex went Oof. “I guess that counted as choosing to become a toymaker.”

  “Luna hasn’t been a very popur goddess for sometime. A hundred years ago there used to be big ceremonies if someone became a magical girl and even bigger ones for css milestones.” Ariel smiled and gestured to the altar.

  “I thought you just became a magical girl.” Alex gaped at the sea elf.

  “I did, I’ve only been at this for a little while.” The girl with gills on her neck spoke in a matter-of-factly tone.

  “But you’ve been alive for a century.” Alex couldn’t reconcile the two facts and it showed on her face.

  “You must not know much about elves.” Ariel took on a teaching tone. “While our nd dwelling cousins have left these nds, sea elves are still in the oceans. We age much slower than most races. Seventy five years is considered adulthood amongst my people.”

  “What do you do with all that extra time?” The bck-haired magical girl wondered aloud.

  “First, no long lived race would consider it extra time. There is a saying amongst my people. That any good idea stands up to scrutiny.” The sea-elf paused. “We take more time to reflect than most humans would consider reasonable.”

  “What do your people think of humans?” Alex shot a random question.

  “Myself? I would say that they are mixed. At times humans have been both oppressor and oppressed. There are humans who have been the greatest of heroes and the worst of disappointments.” She moved a webbed hand in a wide gesture. “But currently I’d say they are fastly becoming an endangered species. Whether they deserve that or not is up for debate.”

  “Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked such a broad question.” Alex felt a little overwhelmed by the philosophic answer. “Is it okay for you to be so far away from the sea? Is fresh water as good as saltwater? Does this world even have oceans with salt water? If you live underwater, how did you meet Funi?”

  Ariel ughed. “So many questions. First, sea elves can spend some time out of water. Usually a day is about as long as I’m comfortable with unless the area is very humid. Fresh water is just as good as salt water. The important thing is that it is clean and not stagnant. And yes, the ocean water is salty.” She looked at the other gemmed fmingo. “I met Funi on a shoal. She was inspecting a shipwreck after a bad cyclone and so was I.”

  “Were there any survivors? How did Funi not get caught up in the storm?” Alex asked. “Why were you following a ship?”

  Funi the fmingo took this question. “The demons were transporting humans on the ship. I was trying to keep an eye on them to see if I could make contact with anyone. With rulers banning my kind from entering their nds we don’t get chances often to spot uncorrupted humans.”

  Alex thought that many Funi was hoping to form a contract with a human but didn’t say that outloud. It might come across as being rude.

  “This might need some expining. Nobles can make cims to territorial waters adjacent to their counties.” Ariel expined. Some may do things like include several miles off the coast as their nd for fishing and defense. However, this only works if they can defend the cim. So if their cim overps with waters cimed by a higher level lord than there is some silly courtly conflict to resolve it. If the kingdoms have no diplomatic retions then it is a military conflict. No surface race has ever successfully held a cim against an equal level aquatic race’s cim to waters.”

  “Even with the demons’ help?” Alex thought this was kinda interesting.

  “That is an interesting case. There are some very powerful demons in this world and they can defeat underwater armies in a long drawn out war. But they don’t do that. Do you know why?” Ariel looked smug.

  “I know!” Fufi raised her wing.

  “Let Alex guess.” Funi chided the other bird.

  Alex hummed and thought for a moment. “It is probably the same reason Sakura didn’t want humans in her forest. The demons have a contract that lets them stay in this world and if they are not fulfilling it then they get banished back to hell.”

  Fufi cpped her wings together. “Correct.”

  “I would also add that the demons who could lead an army to fight the other races have little motivation to do so.” Ariel headed back to the exit of the grotto. “They want to maximize their time cultivating. They have already secured a group of humans to oppress and going above and beyond the letter of their contract to waste time with insects of opponents is a waste of their valuable time in their eyes.”

  The small group talked a bit more about magical girl adventures. After a while they headed back to get dinner with Bob and Martha in their farmhouse.

  “Hello Bob.” Alex greeted the pair. “Hello Martha.”

  The group gathered around the table in the farmhouse and set the dishes for a meal.

  “I’ve never met an elf before.” Martha handed Ariel a cup of tea. “Are there dietary restrictions your kind have?”

  Ariel shook her head. “No, I mostly eat fish and produce from the sea. But really we can eat anything a human can, just not as much.”

  Martha went to the kitchen and came back with a ptter of grilled trout. “We were able to catch some fish in that dam you set up. I was a little worried that elves might be vegetarian like nymphs.”

  “How is that thing holding up?” Alex took a sip of tea. “Is the plumbing functioning okay?”

  “Yeah, the dam is doing fine.” Bob put a grilled fish on his pte. “Merumeru plumber css lets her do some amazing things.”

  “A plumber css?” Ariel looked intrigued. “I’ve never heard of that. Is that a special evolution of another css?”

  “I don’t think so?” Alex looked to Fufi for confirmation. “I think we found her in a sewer and she’d always been interested in pipes and flowing water. One day she snuck into the dungeon and came back looking like a certain stereotypical plumber.”

  “Sounds about right. I thought maybe it was adjacent to mason because she’s always making bricks but I don’t think she uses css skills to make bricks.” Fufi gave her two coppers.

  “So how has your advancement as a magical girl been Alex?” Funi asked. “It sounds like you’ve had a whole lot of trouble.”

  “To tell the truth it was really a struggle. I was hardly gaining levels at all until just recently.” Alex slumped. “I got one level from a dungeon run but the rest is mostly because of a cursed doll I adopted.”

  Funi gave Fufi a look. “You are not doing a very good job of keeping your human from getting in over her head in the low levels. Didn’t Luna give you a secluded pce to train?”

  “Uh, about that.” Alex ran a hand through her bck hair. “It started out secluded but out of nowhere some unfriendly humans showed up not long after we started running the dungeon.”

  Ariel sighed. “I think I know what happened. I’ve seen this before when a human becomes a magical girl. I was able to spend most of my time focusing on training and running our cn’s dungeon but the other human magical girl’s I’ve met have their lives interrupted a whole lot more.”

  “Why is that?” Bob spoke with his mouth full.

  Ariel pointed up. “I’m not a priestess but as far as I can tell the deities py off each other.”

  “I don’t understand.” Alex was puzzled.

  “Think of it as a rock falling in a pond.” Ariel raised a hand and made a motion like dropping something. “A bigger rock will make more ripples.”

  “But I’m not a big rock. It is not like we are much of a threat right now.” Alex still didn’t get it.

  “Right now is the key.” Ariel pointed up. “In the eyes of the evil deities you could be the next magical girl Cosmos if given enough time to grow. As an elf I’ll never be able to threaten a tier 4 demon.”

  “Oh,” Alex felt the weight of expectations.

  “Can I see your status?” Ariel asked.

  Alex pulled out her phone. She had a pending notification.

  [New specialized css feat acquired!]

  [Possess doll:

  A portion of your soul can inhabit a doll allowing you to operate it like it is your own body.

  Cast time: 30 seconds

  Components: Drawing a suitable cute diagram under the doll in question]

  “Neat, I got a new skill from specializing.” Alex handed over her phone to Ariel.

  Name: Alex Parker

  Css: Magical Girl

  Level: 5

  Sex: Female

  Race: Human

  Strength: 11

  Constitution: 9

  Dexterity: 17

  Intelligence: 11

  Cuteness: 24

  Skills:

  Cleaning: 3

  Cooking: 2

  Dancing: 2

  Tailoring: 4

  Toymaking: 3

  Feats: Empower Doll

  Crafting: Force Imbuement

  Possess Doll

  Spells: Animate DollMagical Girl Transformation

  Lesser Grow Pnts

  Traits: Mental Resistance: 4

  The sea elf accepted the phone and looked to Fufi. “What’s this?” She gnced at the odd tile, reading it. “I’ve never seen someone with a system dispy like this. For most people it is internal or they have to use a shrine to view it. I was expecting us to have to go back to the grotto.”

  “That’s Alex’s phone. She brought it with her when she came from another world.” Fufi beamed proudly.

  “So you are human and from another world?” Ariel chuckled and looked at Alex. “Forget a rock nding in the pond. You are like a meteor creating a tidal wave in the ocean. No wonder things have been so tough for you.”

  “I haven’t caused any tidal waves to my knowledge.” Alex sounded unsure.

  “The deities know what is going on.” Ariel simply stated. “Any of them could destroy this world. But they choose to limit themselves. How do they limit themselves?”

  “I’m not exactly sure the details but by acting through proxies?” Alex guessed.

  “Mostly yes, but they act directly in some cases.” Ariel sipped some more tea. “A wave hits the shore and bounces back. Dropping a rock sets a president for other rocks.” The sea elf again made that weird rock dropping motion. “So the enemies of Luna will act in a way they think appropriate to the move that Luna made.”

  “Wouldn’t that just mean bringing more demons?” Alex scrunched up her face.

  “They can already bring as many demons as can successfully navigate the contract.” Ariel stated. “They would choose to do something more targeted. Like trying to shift fate against you to stifle your growth or eliminate the fry before it grows into a shark.”

  Funi gnced at Alex’s phone. “What she is trying to say is that looking at your kit it is a certain kind of magical girl. One that isn’t limited by things like how many spells she can cast before she runs out of magic.”

  Ariel nodded. “Exactly. My magic is focused on a boat. Singur. I’m not an admiral. You are limited by what toys you can make.”

  “Making toys is not easy. We constantly run out of metal for example. There is a lot of wood around here to work with but not much for metal. We keep running out.” Alex compined. She missed the dollmaker's workshop in the second dungeon.

  “Exactly, what you really need to shine is a functioning society. Mines, stone quarries, smiths, alchemists.” Ariel strongly procimed. “And the support of a noble css to tie them all together.”

  “Where am I supposed to find all of these things?” Alex lowered her tea cup.

  “Easy.” The sea elf grinned evilly. “You steal them.”

  Fufi and Fumi facepalmed in unison, a wing going to their head in embarrassment.