The private room in the back of the Adventurers' Guild was less a "room" and more a stone-walled broom closet with a table that leaned at a five-degree angle. Kaito didn't mind the ck of luxury; he minded the dust. Dust was a conductive contaminant, and in a high-voltage mana-recalibration, it was the difference between a satisfied client and a localized electrical fire.

  "Sit," Kaito commanded, pointing to the unstable wooden chair.

  Era, the High Elf Magistrate whose signature could authorize the execution of a city block, stared at the chair as if it were a pile of refuse. Her violet eyes were flickering now, a strobe-light effect that signaled her nervous system was minutes away from a total bckout.

  "I am... I am not sitting on that," she gasped, her hands gripping the edge of the stone table so hard the rock began to frost over.

  "You’re currently emitting enough ambient thermal energy to boil a kettle," Kaito noted, checking the brass dials on his Mk. I Calibration Wand. "The chair is made of seasoned oak—a natural insutor. If you stay standing, you’re going to ground through the floorboards and blow out the Guild’s lighting crystals. Sit down, or I’m charging you for the property damage."

  With a pained groan, Era colpsed into the chair. The wood creaked under the weight of her magical density.

  [Objective Update: Begin Calibration]

  [Status: Client Stress Level - 98%]

  [System Note: Data Points are generated based on the volume of stabilized 'Excess Intent'.]

  Kaito stepped behind her. He didn't see a woman; he saw a malfunctioning cooling system with a catastrophic bypass leak. He reached out, his fingers cold and clinical, and brushed her hair away from the nape of her neck to clear the primary access point.

  Era flinched, a sharp intake of breath hissing through her teeth. "What are you doing?"

  "Accessing the primary intake port," Kaito muttered, his eyes tracing the glowing violet veins beneath her pale skin. "The C7 vertebrae is the main junction for elven mana-flow. Yours is currently hitting the thermal limit. That's a bad sign, Magistrate. It means your soul-buffer is full. If I don't bleed off the pressure manually, the wand won't be able to sync with your frequency."

  He pressed his thumb against the base of her skull. The heat was immense—like touching a car engine that had been running for twelve hours straight.

  "Ah!" Era arched her back, her fingers digging into her own thighs. The sheer sensation of his cold skin hitting her overheated nerves caused a visible shudder to roll through her frame. "It... it feels like ice. Too much ice."

  "It’s called a heat sink," Kaito said, his voice as dry as a technical manual. "I’m absorbing the surface-level static. Now, hold still. I’m going to initiate the first pulse. You may experience some... involuntary vocalization. Just try not to bite your tongue."

  He pressed the tip of the brass wand against the small of her back and pulled the trigger.

  The wand hummed, a low-frequency vibration that resonated through the stone walls. Era didn't just scream; she made a sound that was half-gasp, half-sob. Her body went rigid, her head throwing back as the wand began to draw the congested, "dirty" mana out of her meridians. The gss tip of the device began to glow a violent, angry purple.

  "Pressure dropping," Kaito narrated, eyes fixed on the flickering needles of his device. "Bypass valve opening. Your 4th and 5th nodes are severely restricted. I’m increasing the frequency to 400Hz. Brace yourself."

  "Wait—Kaito, stop—!"

  He didn't stop. An engineer doesn't stop a pressure-bleed halfway through just because the boiler is making noise. He pressed the wand firmer against her spine, sliding it upward.

  Era’s dignity dissolved in real-time. The magical relief was so intense it bordered on the erotic—a total flushing of the "itch" that had been driving her mad for weeks. She slumped forward against the table, her breath coming in ragged, wet hitches. The frost on the floor began to melt, turning into puddles of lukewarm water.

  "Internal temperature stabilizing at 37.5 Celsius," Kaito said, pulling the wand away. He tapped the gss tip, which was now pulsing with a steady, calm light. "Calibration complete. You’ll experience some mild lethargy and a significant increase in thirst for the next two hours. Also, your mana-sensitivity will be heightened. Try not to cast anything rger than a 'Light' spell, or you’ll give yourself a migraine."

  Era stayed slumped for a long minute. When she finally looked up, her violet eyes were clear, but her face was flushed a deep, embarrassed crimson. She straightened her silks, trying to regain her Magistrate persona, but her hands were still shaking.

  "That was..." she started, her voice breathy. "Unorthodox."

  "It was efficient," Kaito corrected. "You paid for a result. You received it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a deadline."

  "Wait," Era said, standing up on shaky legs. She looked at him—really looked at him—for the first time. "Who taught you this? No priest or healer in the Capital works like this. You treated my essence like... like plumbing."

  "Plumbing, circuitry, it’s all the same," Kaito said, packing his wand into a ragged leather satchel. "Flow is flow. If you need a follow-up, my shop is in the Rust District. Look for the sign that says 'Kaito’s Systematic Solutions.' But next time, the rate is ten silver. This was the introductory price."

  Era opened her mouth to protest the price hike, but a surge of pure, clean energy rippled through her, making her toes curl. She simply nodded, turned, and walked out of the room with a gait that was far more fluid than when she’d entered.

  [Quest Complete: Prevent Liquidation]

  [Reward: 50 Data Points]

  [Blueprint Unlocked: Ergonomic Restoration Chair Mk. I]

  [System Note: Data Points can be spent on 'Auto-Assembly' or 'Advanced Materials'. Current Bance: 58 DP.]

  Kaito didn't celebrate. He checked his watch. He had twenty minutes to get back to the Rust District before Garrow arrived.

  ***

  The Rust District lived up to its name. It was a byrinth of corrugated iron, rotting wood, and the smell of sulfur from the nearby alchemical runoff. Kaito’s workshop was a converted basement beneath a colpsed tannery. It wasn't much, but it had a heavy iron door and a reinforced lock—neither of which mattered when your ndlord was a seven-foot-tall Hobgoblin with a penchant for "colteral collection."

  Kaito reached his door just as a shadow fell over the alleyway.

  "You’re te, Little Human," a voice growled. It sounded like gravel being put through a meat grinder.

  Kaito turned. Standing there was Garrow. He wasn't just a thug; he was a Hobgoblin dressed in a surprisingly well-tailored pinstripe vest that struggled to contain his massive, corded muscles. Behind him stood two smaller goblins carrying a heavy iron crate—the kind used for transporting "biological specimens."

  "I’m exactly three minutes early, Garrow," Kaito said, reaching into his pocket. "The sun hasn't touched the horizon yet."

  "Sun’s behind the smog-stacks," Garrow pointed a thick, green finger at the sky. "In the Rust District, that’s sunset. And my client at the College is getting impatient for a fresh liver. He heard yours was... well-educated."

  Kaito pulled out the six silver coins he’d just taken from Era. He held them up, the metal gleaming in the dim light.

  Garrow’s yellow eyes narrowed. He snatched the coins, biting one to test the purity. "Silver? From a rat like you? Who’d you rob, boy?"

  "I didn't rob anyone. I provided a service," Kaito said, his clinical voice never wavering. "That’s your rent, plus the interest from st month. We’re square."

  Garrow spat on the ground. "Square? You’re never square, Kaito. You’re occupying prime real estate. My associates think your 'engineering' is a front for something more lucrative. They want a bigger cut. Next month, rent is ten silver."

  "That’s a 100% increase," Kaito noted. "There’s no economic justification for that."

  "The justification," Garrow leaned in, his breath smelling of raw meat and cheap ale, "is that I haven't put you in the crate yet. But keep making that shiny silver, and maybe I’ll send someone to... protect your interests. My sister, Xenia, is looking for work. She’s not as 'patient' as I am."

  Kaito didn't blink. "I don't need protection. I need a functioning power-grid."

  "You’ll take what you’re given," Garrow ughed, pocketing the silver and signaling his goons to retreat. "See you in thirty days, Little Human. Try to stay in one piece. You’re worth more that way."

  As the hobgoblin disappeared into the fog, Kaito let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. His hands were steady, but his mind was already calcuting.

  Ten silver a month. Plus materials. Plus the System's demand for Data Points.

  The Magistrate was a resource, but a single session bought goodwill, not loyalty. Goodwill was a depreciating asset.

  He unlocked his door and stepped into the cramped, dark workshop.

  He looked at the 50 Data Points sitting in his HUD.

  "System," Kaito whispered. "Analyze Blueprint: Ergonomic Restoration Chair. Can I build it using the scrap brass from the Guild’s discarded mana-mps?"

  [Analysis Complete.]

  [Materials Required: 12kg Reinforced Brass, 4oz Silver Wire, 1x High-Grade Mana-Crystal (Drained).]

  [Potential Revenue Increase: 400% per session.]

  "I need a crystal," Kaito said, sitting down at his workbench. "And I need a way to keep Xenia from killing me when she inevitably shows up to 'protect' the business."

  He picked up his tools. He had a month to turn a basement into a clinic, a wand into a medical suite, and himself into someone too valuable to be sold for parts.

  "Efficiency," he muttered to the empty room. "Everything else is just noise."