It took me about 30 minutes and a few thousand mp but my scales where replaced. Once that came up I began to be curious about how exactly it will work once I regrow them in the future? Will the tempering progress be lost entirely?
At this point I nudge Ellie and write up that she can agree for now and at a limited number. The lady cannot take all my scales. Especially the one on my chest... Then I leave Ellie to her bartering as she then demands a full outfit and even weapon made out of scales almost instantly selling me out the moment she realized I'd be ok... But I stop Ellie and tell her to wait to have anything built for herself as I want to test the tempering thing along with making sure her outfits are better quality.
Once I've explained my plan to the little pervert she smiles and nods happily especially once I mentioned that the suitcase may need to become more experienced with crafting with scales before she can make things perfectly so she should let the others get the rubbish. Ellie developed a evil smile as she then began to barter selling off a part of my body to the suitcase without hesitation.
Their negotions went on for hours as Ellie continuously tried to up the price of each scale claiming emotional distress and that she won't let them torture me... It'd be more believable without that evil greedy look on your face little pervert. Eventually the negotiations were interrupted as the suitcase lived up to her name and was carried away beneath the arm of the little tailed loli at which point I swear she was puppeteering her butt cheeks as Sea named a price final price without a care in the word and left the room...
I fond myself rolling around in Ellie's arms silently laughing at the talking ass. While Ellie helpless accepted the price that Sea set, grumpily sulking at the edge of the pedestal laying back with me on her chest laying on her crossed arms so that her head would be above the water.
Looking to Ellie's lap and chest I realize she's perfectly covered... Looking around the room at the girls I notice the mist/steam along with the girls angles is perfectly blocking any nudity... Ha... Anime Censorship... It was at that point that Scarlett somehow ended up flying ass first at me and landing displaying everything and all the girls turned and many boobs became visible at once along with all of Scarlett... Scarlett immediately jumped up and ran after her attacker who turned out to be Malory as the two begin wrestling around in the water... the unfortunate Ellie yells about aiming better next time before laying back down like she's used to that...
So much for that, censorship failed...
Granted... Looking to the center of the raised area I note that the glowing nun has always been entirely displayed. Whilst I was noting that down I see her shift her sitting position blocking my view of her crotch and going back to meditating like nothing happened. Oh yeah... She can hear my thoughts... Don't be shy little milf nun you've already got so many daughters with different fathers your an experienced woman.
Cracking up internally I turn away from the glare I'm receiving from a pink faced nun.
------
A few days go by of nothing new happening having my scales regularly plucked.
I spend a good amount of time protecting my chest and genitals like a good Christan lady...
Or... Just to keep tempering my chest scales for Ellie while my genitals... Well they are sensitive... Also Ellie straight up punched the suitcase lady when she absentmindedly attempted... The sturdy suitcase simply moved on like nothing happened. She took the punch as a if it was a casual note and making sure to avoid my genitals from them on.
Inside the large fiery forge room I am laying on the table next to Ellie whose watching the suitcase make different things with my scales I was especially intrigued the first time I saw her turn my scales into a string... She claimed it was super easy... But she just crushed it up and stretched it out in a casual way which definitely isn't a thing anyone should be able to do... She went on a rant about the connective nature of my scales making it easier but she was way too technical...
Watching the 5 foot tall toned muscular suit case sitting in the corner happily using a sowing machine and occasionally delicately threading two threads together by hand with a needle... Is a bit striking... I mean she is a short but intimidating girlie especially after seeing her forge that scale mail in the corner or the other weapons/shields with a massive hammer and taking her hand in and out of a burning hot furnace touching the red hot metal like it was cool.
The suitcase is extremely sturdy...
Ellie eventually got bored of sitting and started bouncing around the room inspecting Suitcases previous works while asking what each thing is and who it's for. Suitcase answers without even looking or breaking her actions like she could see everything. Sadly I repeatedly had to mentally translate the suitcases real name to her proper title in my head as Ellie refused to call her anything but Elaine.
Elaine... She looks nothing like an Elaine her name is clearly meant to be Suitcase.
Granted I've never seen anyone store anything inside of her...
I have seen suitcase get thrown through a solid stone wall and come back like it was paper... Did I mention how sturdy and high quality this suitcase is?
It can be yours today just call --- --- ----, Now!!! Paying two individual installments of 99.95.
Wait... slavery is bad never mind, call off the shipments Jerry!!!
Having already lost my advertising job due to multiple counts of attempted human trafficking I move on from the joke and back to the real world looking to the new scales on my chest. Feeling them I realize they've fallen back to the Gaseous stage. Which is too be expected... Why would the universe give anything good to evil human traffickers like me?
*[MistScale] Level: 2 - Tempering Stage: Liquid - Progress: 15/107999 - 69 Gaseous*
Granted it is still being nice... ha... I apologize.
Despite an hour of pestering from Ellie Suitcase seems entirely unaffected by the excited girl as she finally finishes the last bits and pieces on the last piece of equipment Ellie had requested.
Looking to the new less furry hood on my little pervert I nod happily and crimb into the back of the hood and into the backpack and find the suitcase did the whole thing exactly to specifiction if anything it's better... Sure less furry but still got a extremely soft warm inner fur that's supposedly extremely resistant to everything and won't even burn as it came from a creature called a Ignus Fiend. Which turned out to just look like a really creepy wolf... Picture a 18 foot tall bipedal wolf with tongue like fingers and shark teeth. Creepy right? Well it's fur is beautiful and perpetually warm and supposedly won't burn to almost all fires and could even withstand a rank 4 firespell... Granted it won't block the shockwave or any penetrating effects you will definitely die but the fur will be fine.
After trying on the new outfit Ellie pulls me out of it nods to Suitcase like a boss before immediately squealing like a little girl and hugging Suitcase... She needs to work on her posturing skills...
Walking the now familiar path with a skipping like motion Ellie has managed to shave off a half of the time it normally takes her to reach the top of the "tower" to meet up with the fashion designer... She's a blue haired weirdo who has a scorpion like tail and is constantly wearing multiple accessories and beautiful yet revealing dresses... Her job is supposedly enchanter and she usually puts the finishing touches on all the groups gear she is also supposedly the second strongest girl in the group putting sea as the strongest... not even counting the sexy nun... Cause... No one measures up.
Sea is supposedly a stage 3 Masseuse... Which is a shocking class for the little loli who is basically a hulking monstrosity in disguise and is by far the scariest in the group... Supposedly her "mastery of the body" allowed her to train her body to insane degrees and is even capable of beating stage 4 warriors in a fist fight... The nun can still win in an arm wrestling match though...
At least that's what the loli suggested when Ellie was fan girling smoothly sailing into a adoring little sister at some unknown point. If only she didn't promise to beat them both up in the future... Which is weirdly a thing that made the loli happy...
As for the rest of the group they average around stage 2... Which is a surprising fact I learned about the lesbian duo. For one despite being a dragon I am entirely nothing more then feeble and weak before the ogre girlie well most of the girls. Scarlett is one of the only ones I can out do in strength... She is insanely fast and impossible to find without my mist when she is hiding and supposedly focuses entirely on shadow manipulation and her only body strengthening skill weakens her strength and defense more then what it should be as a stage 3 rogue but the skill she called Shadow's Light that she uses to strengthen her body is specifically making her lighter and faster so that she can blend into the shadows and run faster...
She explained all of that whilst lecturing Ellie on the different qualities of most body strengthening skills while Ellie was trying to further her own body skill... She called Cloud's Embrace... which is just as perverted as you'd expect from her... Anyways supposedly Ellie's skill doesn't favor any one thing except durability. Supposedly, her skin is becoming more resistant to everything rather quickly. Which is I guess a trait associated with scales. The one thing the skill seems to excess at is converting mana to mist and storing mist.
She also leveled up her body art and I found out her scale glows when it levels up. The pattern on it that weirdly resembling random lines shrinking suddenly then a new identical pattern appearing on the scale now with two matching patterns. Ellie couldn't quite see and spent all her time rubbing it smiling like an idiot and petting me with the other hand. Creepy...
It wasn't till later that Ellie informed me that she lied about her skill name with an ashamed face but refused to tell me what the real name was for whatever reason.