The Foundation Mage [LGBTQ+ Kinky Progression Fantasy]

Vicktor waved to his fellow apprentices as they all departed in three different directions. Nora was led back outside where Alar was led off through a set of double doors and Vicktor began to be led towards a smallish door.

"Meet back here! Don't go anywhere without me!" Re'tai yelled from a half-turned head before saying something to the flagbearer. Vicktor couldn't hear much except that their goblin guide squeaked out the word "Magic!"

Vicktor was happy to only have to crouch a little to make it through the door as the goblin led him. He was small and thin, even for a goblin, his hair was only back-length, still long by human standards.

'I wonder what he did?' Vicktor thought before catching himself as he followed behind the man. 'Would I have looked the same?'

"What's your name?" Vicktor asked.

"Li-lek, tier one Mage, Material Guide, my fundamental principle is: From Seed to Sapwood!

"Good to meet you Li-lek, is that more of a combat specialty or utility or agricultural interest?" Vicktor asked.

"Combat... plants? Humans have those!?" The goblin had stopped at a small door with his green hand on the wooden latch.

"It's not like the beast tamers. We don't have any that move, but there are some that have combat purposes. Plants that grow quickly and make flammable oil, plants that make poisons, plants that fight undead, plants with thorns and wrap around legs."

"We don't have anything like that. Almost all agricultural products. We have cultivated a species of sunflower that produces excess oil, rice that holds onto mana better, and a few plants that are normally harvested once a season can be replanted in summer for a second harvest."

"Oh... Okay...", the small goblin undid the latch and yanked open the door, revealing a group of goblins crowded around something in a room that was half-open to the outdoors. Vicktor had to squat down to enter this room.

One of them turned and his eyes widened, "Human!"

Vicktor was half-way through the door, but managed to give a small wave at the group and grunted out. "Hey, my name's Vicktor."

As he squished through the small door, the assorted goblin mages walked over, their robes were solid brown with a few handmade embroidered symbols on the chest. It didn't seem to be a form of inscription. He was surprised to see that all of them had sandals on, nobody was barefoot like him.

Vicktor stood and looked over the goblins past them to the table covered in different kinds of soil. It was a very familiar sight to him, but it felt weird being surrounded by goblins and not humans.

"Soil identification lab?" Vicktor asked. “Did that one a whole bunch of times to really memorize it.”

Some of the goblins nodded, while others stepped back a little.

"Whats your rank and fundamental principle?" asked the goblin with the wide eyes, they had only slightly diminished. They honestly gave Alar a run for his money in terms of expressiveness.

"You would call me a tier-one mage. And can you keep a secret?" Vicktor smiled at the people, they were all half his size, but only looked a year or two younger than him in terms of facial development and babyfat.

Most nodded but one or two didn't. Vicktor shrugged.

'What's the worst that could happen?'

I CONSTRUCT OUR FOUNDATION

He hadn't meant to put much thought into it, but the words had power to them. Some of the piles of soil on the table slid apart and some dust on the floor was kicked in the air. One of the younger goblins trembled and almost fell to the floor, but managed to stabilize herself.

Vicktor used his earthsense to examine the goblins, all of them had elevated heart rates, but none dangerously so.

"What can you do with it?" asked a female goblin, her hair was dyed in orange, browns, and blacks.

Vicktor smiled, "I can harden and shatter rock and soil. There's a mental trick I use to be more efficient about mana usage. I can move soil around without imparting force. I'm not sure if its part of my manipulation techniques, but because of my barefeet, I can sense a limited amount of vibrations around us and partially feel the soil underneath the foundation of this building."

Almost everyone seemed confused except for the student who almost fell. That particular goblin immediately went and fetched a stool. As they sat, their breath shortened while their pulse quickened.

Vicktor knew the basics of what was about to happen, but it had been several years since he had seen it at the academy. It was supposed to be done by the most experienced mage, which unfortunately was him.

"Fundament fracture! Li-lek grab a nurse or healer!" Vicktor yelled, before running over to the panting goblin and pulling out his manaclay from his bag and slammed his arm down on the table, pulling the soil into a heaping pile in his hand. The thin goblin dashed away. Vicktor could hear a few goblins mention the name Rek-sha.

"I know this hurts, right into your soul." Vicktor started into the woman's watery eyes, "Either accept or reject the change. Rek-sha, I believe in you."

The woman nodded between pained rasps. Vicktor ignored the worried looks of the goblins around him.

"If you want to keep whatever fundamental principle you had, use it on this soil. Throw it, lift it, whatever. If you want something similar to my fundamental principle, work this into every shape you can think of, it doesn't have to be good, but you need to exhaust your ruakh doing so."

The goblin hesitated, her teeth gritted in indecision, moments passed as her breathing got worse. Vicktor flicked on his mage-sight and saw something wrong. The magic around the woman was sharp, writhing, alive... as two warring patterns fought within the poor girl.

"Choose! Rek-sha! CHOOSE NOW!!!"

Another moment passed as tears dripped down her face. Hesitantly at first, but then quickly she grabbed the manaclay and began to form it into simple shapes. Spheres, cylinders, pyramids. The two warring patterns in the girl continue battling, but one was winning, seizing more and more of the aura around her.

Tears burst down her face as she writhed, focusing on the manaclay in front of her, the shapes grew more and more complicated in her small palm, into knives, axes, and bones. Eventually they became more abstract. Small waves in a rippling pond and intricate grains of rice followed. One of the patterns was clearly winning down until finally the manaclay stopped moving entirely, halfway between a house and a tent.

Her ruakh was empty.

The woman was still weeping, but to Vicktor's mage-sight, something had clearly won. Her breathing and pulse normalized. Within several moments of silent breathing, she smiled at him and handed the manaclay back to him in a weak gesture. He took the clay and held her hand, comforting the poor Mage.

STONE DEMANDS FOUNDATION

Vicktor smiled, "Excellent job"

Middle-aged goblins burst into the room, mages and chosen alike. All quickly surrounded the woman as Vicktor stayed back and observed, but he knew she had succeeded.

Alar and Nora had already turned in for the night, but Vicktor was having his usual anxiety around sleeping in a new place as well as the trauma he'd caused Rek-sha. Her life would be forever different because of him.

He'd stayed up and tried to examine the culture of the brothel. He was sitting on the floor, with his back against a wooden wall that had been cleared for him.

Seeing the strangely clothed courtesans had been interesting, Vicktor had debated asking Master Tosk if he could acquire their services. He was worried about getting a proper trade for anything, he didn't really have much to part with besides some jerked meat.

"Hey, Vicktor, Mage of Humanity, wanna fuck?"

Vicktor turned, staring mouth agape at a goblin at eye level. "Huh?"

"I'm barely eighteen, well, it was right after the summer equinox." said the dark green woman who looked at the very minimum was in her late twenties. Half her hair was beaded in dark long wooden beads and the other half dyed pink, blue and platinum blonde. She wore a dress that resembled an open flame, short crimson waves matching with warm oranges and yellows. The waves of flame traced the pronounced curves.

She saw his eyes wander her body and said, "Re'ada', third tier Mage, material creator. My fundamental principle is: The Ember of Ambition Blazes. You've only been here a few hours, hopefully you've figured out what my hair means. Are you okay with that?"

Vicktor pushed back his shaggy hair and scratched at an ear, "Huh, you are quite pretty, but I don't want to cause another interspecies incident today. Also, I'm barely compatible with humans as is."

Her eyes gleamed with an inner heat, nearly white-hot. "Go ask Master Tosk, he knows who I am."

Vicktor felt a hand clap down on his shoulder.

"Hey lad, nice job with Rek-sha, we'll talk later. What does Re'ada want with you?" Master Tosk's voice came from his side. His master sat down next to him, sighing as his back hit the wood wall.

"Told you!" She yelled. "I just wanna fuck a Mage who remotely shares my age. Too many leering geezers. AND! If you are feeling nice, Master Tosk, I wanna visit humans and learn how to advance from them."

Master Tosk cackled as if by a joke that wasn't made, and relinquished his hand from Vicktor's shoulder. "Your father agrees to the first request. Young people I swear on the sun and stars. The trouble I used to get into..."

"I'm eighteen! I'm not young! I could be a grandmother if I wanted!" The woman pouted, it was a strange look, seeing someone seemingly in their late twenties pout.

"You'll get it after your first hundred years. But that's for time to show you, not me. I have to deny the second request at least in the short term." Master Tosk said.

"Hmph!" Re'ada crossed her arms. Vicktor tried not to notice how it accentuated her chest. Proportion to her body, they really were huge.

"You didn't let me finish, little firestarter." Master Tosk smiled. "I'll put you on a list, give it a few years, there's something in the works. You'll be notified, with a few notable exceptions, every sapient equivalent to tier three or higher. It'll take decades to properly shake out, but you'll have the time and your father thinks it'll be good for you."

"Hmph! How do you even know what he thinks" Re'ada kept her arms crossed, "fine!"

"No creation or destruction of life!" His master said before rising to his feet and departing to his room.

'Hadn't El-tek said something similar not a few hours ago? Old people and their old people fun'

Re'ada jumped, jets of flame burned underneath their bare feet, propelling them slowly upwards until she landed on Vicktor's shoulder, stabilizing herself with a hand on his head and a hand on a nearby chandelier. Vicktor felt a lot of heat on his shoulder.

"It's a brothel, Vicktor! It's made for sex! Let's go have some! Take me away from this boring place!"

"Well it's good that you are eager Re'ada, but I can't stand up if you are still on my shoulder." The warmth on his shoulder continued to grow in intensity.

"Carry me then!" The small goblin recrossed her arms.

"How?" Vicktor asked, smiling at the woman's antics

"Your choice, giant." Her voice had a certain warmth to it.

"As you wish." Vicktor shrugged the woman off his shoulder, sliding her down his forearm and onto his open hand.

Re'ada gasped.

Vicktor's shoulder still had some residual heat, but his middle and index were now particularly engulfed in a soft blaze.

"Well excuse me princess!"