7.111 – EMPORIUM VIII

Of all the items Natalie had seen so far, this was the strangest. No question about it.

As far as the stats went, the Silverthread Bonds weren't quite on the same level as the mythicals. Which made sense since it was an epic. That said, two major boosts to a primary stat were nothing to scoff at. Even if half of the benefit was locked behind certain … requirements.

"Portal?" she asked, brow furrowing. "Like, it'll move something from one place to another? That type of portal?"

Not that there was another interpretation, but it was bizarre enough that she voiced the obvious question anyway.

"Yes, Mistress. I've had my eye on this item for a while. Such a unique set of effects, isn't it? I've never seen the rings out of storage and put in the gallery before. Maybe it's fate."

Natalie felt heat rising on her face. "I don't think I can rule that out." There were nonzero odds the dungeon had pulled strings to get this in front of her, or possibly the item had been outright fabricated with her in mind. "When it says qualifying encounters," she hedged.

"Sexual in nature, of course."

"Of course." She hadn't needed to ask. "But … with a portal? I don't even know how that would work."

Plenty of ideas were popping into her head, so it wasn't like she was actually struggling to understand. But it was so strange that her mouth continued to work on its own.

"I could demonstrate," the automaton chirped. "It has no binding effect, after all."

Indeed, the rings did not. Nor did any of her recent loot. While everything was too useful to sell off just for the monetary reward, it would make a handy payday at some point in the future.

But, uh. Natalie's brain caught up to what the automaton had said.

"Demonstrate?" she repeated.

The automaton bobbed her head happily. "If you're failing to visualize how it might function. It requires two people, so I would be your partner." She clasped her hands in front of her and twisted her foot into the ground. "My job is

to serve, even if you haven't seemed eager to take me up on that offer."

Natalie stared at her hostess.

Wait.

So all the hints—had been hints? She hadn't been imagining them?

It was just hard to convince herself when the automaton was so bright and cheerful and seemingly innocent … even if she had been stealing glances at the bulge in her loincloth.

Natalie didn't like making assumptions about strangers, especially ones acting in a service-type role. There was a reason she was being cautious. Especially since automatons shouldn't even be sexual creatures fundamentally. She didn't have—the right parts! She might have nipples, but there wasn't anything between her legs.

Not that Natalie herself couldn't have fun with just her hands, mouths, thighs, feet, and, okay, the entire rest of her body, but it was just a hard thing to come to terms with, knowing that this automaton had a sex drive. Or at least was interested in the act, in some way.

Or was Natalie once again getting overexcited? Maybe her hostess had meant those words in the purest sense. Testing an item fell in line with an automaton's expected duties, after all.

"Test how?" Natalie asked cautiously.

The automaton beamed at her. She picked up the two silver rings from their place on the pedestal. "With a practical demonstration, of course!" She thrust one out to Natalie, who hesitated for a moment, but took it.

Holding the ring up to the light, she found nothing interesting about the item. Plain and unadorned, like the description had said.

"You need to twist to activate," Natalie said, frowning. "How's someone twist a ring?"

"Grab the inside," the automaton said. "Like this." She gripped the interior of the ring with her pointer finger, the outside with her thumb, and made a twisting motion.

Sure enough, the ring shifted slightly, and a black void appeared. The inky darkness reminded Natalie of the dungeon entrance—the monolith guarded carefully in Aradon—as well as the various dungeon exits.

She did the same with her ring. The tip of her pointer finger disappeared into the void. She jerked away, dropping it into her other palm before she could see whether her finger had appeared through the opposite ring.

Weird.

"Just like that," the automaton said. "Works as a two-way portal now. See?"

She stuck a finger through in demonstration, and sure enough, the metallic appendage appeared through the ring Natalie was holding.

"Whoa," Natalie breathed.

Dungeon loot was incredible, giving all sorts of varied effects, but this was a first. Maybe super high level artifacts could do something similar, but Natalie herself had never seen an item play so casually with the laws of space—that was a domain of effects reserved to the dungeon itself.

She tentatively poked the automaton's finger, who giggled in response. She poked back.

"Here, try yourself."

She did so; when the automaton removed her finger, Natalie stuck her own in. An icy chill enveloped it as it passed through, but the sensation was brief and faded once she was fully inserted. There was a slight tingling at the base of her finger, the part that was 'severed' by the magical effect, but it wasn't particularly distracting besides how unique the experience felt.

The automaton smiled and tapped Natalie's fingertip playfully. "Cool, isn't it? Even I don't see items like this coming through often. It's truly a unique one."

"I bet."

"But this isn't what it's really supposed to be used for." The automaton grew bashful. "If you're struggling to imagine how it's intended to be used, as you said earlier, we could continue the demonstration?"

Natalie might have been in denial—more accurately, cautiously not wanting to assume interest where it might not exist—but there had been too many hints in a row.

Still, she played it safe. "I wouldn't mind," she said slowly. "Feel free to take the lead."

Open-ended enough that the automaton could assume an innocent interpretation of her words, but a blatant enough acceptance that if she meant what Natalie thought …

"My pleasure," the automaton gushed, holding her palm out.

Natalie gave her the ring, which was still activated. The automaton twisted it closed, the black portal disappearing.

"The other fascinating part is the resizing. Most equipment adjusts to fit the wearer, but not as intelligently as these. See?" She held three fingers together and hovered Natalie's ring above them. It resized to an oblong oval. She pulled it up and down a few times to demonstrate the perfect sizing.

"Or see?" the automaton continued, a hint of slyness entering her voice, bringing the ring to her left breast.

And sure enough—it resized itself to fit around her nipple. Not just that, but the other part of Adaptive Fit's description came into effect: it adhered snugly to her skin. The automaton removed her hand and gestured at how the silver band stayed firmly in place. She made a show of bending over and shaking her chest left and right, confirming it was securely affixed.

"Completely versatile," the automaton stated. "Of course, when I imagine the most typical use …" She took the ring off and dropped onto her knees in front of Natalie. "If I may?" she asked, voice taking a lilting quality, a hand tentatively questing out for Natalie's loincloth.