When Vela, the wolf girl first showed up, she immediately castrated the mage by shredding thatthoroughly with her hand-claws. Her twin brother Rolaf stomped his right wrist right after. Over and over with both of his paws. Shattering it completely.

The dungeon still wanted him alive. But these new wounds were too much for his current, lowest tier healing spell to handle. So he sent a message to Dara, his fox mom, to have her {Cauterize the shredded crotch, so he doesn't die from blood loss. Then give him a healing potion for the wrist, once everything else was taken care of.}

. .

. . .

. . . .

Once they seem to have finished their venting, the dungeon checked on the mage with Identify.

Name: Rex . Class: Magister (Mage) . Level: 63

Species: Human . Title: Stoner . Rank: A

HP: 184/655 . SP: 340/340 . MP: 76/1510

Attributes

Body: Str 44 . Con 50 . Tuf 50

Move: Dex 46 . Agi 50 . Spd 50

Mind: Int 150 . Wis 150 . Spi 0 (153)

Gen: Cha 30 . Att 40 . Luk 24

Bonus points: __

He specifically ignored the traits, skills and equipment. The first two being wholly unimportant right now, and the last he already knew: just the x4 Cursed Iron Collars. One on his neck, the second around his waist, the others as armbands. With everything else he had, removed to a pile just over to the side. Literally including the proverbial shirt from his back.

[It was 300 each to become an S rank mage. So he's already halfway there. It would be a shame to just end his quest cut short. But since I need him collared to be their slave.. What if I could make him my own slave without the collars? . . Yeah I probably could do that. 'Modify' him in several ways to be 'Slave,' 'Mine,' and 'Obedient.' Or maybe switch the last one for 'Loyal?']

[But while I've heard people ridiculously call things they don't agree with a 'slippery slope,' THIS actually is one. So I'll have to make certain absolute limits for myself. So I can't Modify someone to become my forever slave just because I feel like it.]

[Hmm.. Owns multiple beastkin slaves, Works in the beastkin slavery industry, or a Criminal deserving of Capital punishment. Only ever for one of these three reasons. And didn't mom just say the other guy personally led the slave raid that killed her(my) family? If that doesn't make someone a Capital Criminal, then what does? Annexing Crimea? Chemical attacks on your own country's civilians? Invading Taiwan?(this last one hasn't happened yet at the time this was written)]

[In any case, I can't get started on slavery-ing them until I can touch them directly.]

While he was busy in introspection, his mother Dara kept channeling his healing magic to the broken magister.

The swords-wolf asked the fox beastkin "Ain't you running out of mana yet? You ain't taken a single supplement yet this whole time."

"Well, it's not actually my mana. Except for the bit of fire. It's really my son, (bellyrub) the Hero here healing him. Using his Holy healing spells through me."

She then read aloud the next slab to appear "{!He's starting to wake up now, but not yet out of mana!" A potion for each of them then one last push! HURRY!} cutting herself off in the middle.

She swiftly pulls out from the mage's beltpouch a set of stoppered vials, handing one each to the rat, tigress and male wolf beastkins. Tossing the last to the female wolf. "Quick!" They all downed the mana potions and got back to work ruining the former slavemaster's body.

The mage, now feeling the new pain from fresh wounds, quickly wakes up. He casts an instant spell to hurl them all a few meters away. Included in that was the newly pregnant fox woman. Luckily not harming her or her fetus. Then he noticed that it was his 'loyal slaves' were the ones torturing him.

Following that, a quick spell to form manacles on each of those present. Chaining them all to the floor.

[Only 2 mana left now. Next thing he tries will be his last. It's already over. That was too close.]

When he tried to get up however.. First his groin was far too tender to move his legs by more than a sliver. When he looked to understand why, he screamed in shock. Eventually, he rolled over onto his knees to try to stand. But when he put his weight on his still shattered right wrist, it bent like it was made from jelly. Or more accurately, ground meats. Dropping him down onto his belly. His far too tender former bits slapping the floor and giving him an even worse pain than anything he had ever felt in his life.

With his adrenaline spiking, his remaining hand easily flipped him back onto his back.

"Why in all the hells would you all betray me‽"

"Be-" Vela was cut off by Pan. "SH!"

"ANSWER ME!!"

*heh*

*hehe*

With his latest order being defied, the battle of wills drained him of his final scraps of mana. Now the rising star among mages for the region was suffering mana burnout. And without any hope of ever recovering, at that.

"RRAAH!!" He brought his hands up to grasp his head. Forgetting for that instant that one of them was worse than useless at the moment. "G! G! GH! URGH!!" With his wrist hurting more now, even more than it had when he fell. He wouldn't be able to pick which of the three agonies was the worst.

The Hero Inventory-ported the manacles off from his mother easily enough. As they were 'connected.' But she had to go around to the others for him to do the same with them.

Pan the tigress sighed and shouted into his face "OH SHUT UP!"

Dara offered "The real question is: why wouldn't they betray you the first instant that they even could?"

"URG! CRU!! MNG!! ARK!"

Of course he ignored her comment. Even if he was in a state to listen, he couldn't have heard her through his own continued groans and screaming. It still hasn't registered with him that he 'must obey' the orders from these four former slaves of his. This was the real reason madam Jodie was made to eat that, to put it mildly, filthy slop. It was a conditioning exercise much like what the captured beastkins go through when they are first made into slaves.

In one arguement, he is already their slave now. As he is wearing the collars and has the runes.

For the other arguement, he isn't their slave yet. Because he has yet to realize and understand his own current plight.

"BA! J! KAA!! CH!"

[Regardless of whether I use 'Obedient' or 'Loyal' on him. It would be much preferred by anyone, compared to the current situation he's in. But still there would be a big difference between them. 'Obedient' would be for those who did badly enough to deserve severe punishment each day. While 'Loyal' .. could actually make them like being enslaved? Or at least they wouldn't mind it, so long at they 'are allowed the opportunity to serve our glorious Master.']

[It would be best used to scare straight the others I haven't gotten to yet. Maybe I could affect their morale enough for them to give up having their slaves? . . Nah, that's just wishful thinking. I know how most of those humans would react. I've been one myself for decades. Best case, I make the strongest ones into foot soldiers or secret agents and they help me push the rest out of 'our' land.]

"HK! NG! MM! BAH!"

[Butt, his constant screaming is getting annoying.] So he broke one of the earlier message slabs into pieces, to then leave them at the vixen's paws. {Everything else was taken care of.} {Then give him a healing potion for the wrist.}

She tried to shout over him at the others. "As much fun as it would be to just leave him like this. I want him to be quieter. One of you ready a healing potion for him. Wait until I fix everything else first though. I mean, my son fixes him."

She kneels near him, close enough to touch. The healing magics resume right away.

"Why not just kill him and be done with it?" asks the wolf girl.

"Me and my son need a magic tutor. And he more than qualifies."

"You have a kit?" The wolf guy asked, tilting his head.

"That's the part you missed? I will in five and a half months."

"Oh, congratulations! Who's the father?"

. . "I don't want to talk about it."

"OH! Sorry."

"Don't worry about that. Besides, whoever among you stays to protect us gets to play with him (points at mage) some more, whenever you like."

""I'm in!"" both wolves shout out together.

His pained cries have now begun to lower in both frequency and volume.

The tigress says "Alright you've tempted me."

. .

"And what about you?" The tigress asks the rat.

.."I need to take care of my wife and little ones."

"That's fine. I just ask you wait until it's safe for us that you leave. Tomorrow night would let him make you an escape tunnel."

"No need. Us scouts have ways of going unnoticed."

"Alright. I guess this is goodbye then. . I never got your name?"

"Lule." He says. Extending his bloodsoaked hand-paw.

"I don't think I'll be able to get a good scent for you right now. Anyway, I'm Dara. Pleased to meet you." she extends her hand toward him in return. He gives it a good couple of sniffs to complete the greeting ritual.

"Goodbye." He turns to the stairs to leave.

"Wait. We didn't distribute the spoils yet." She says, pointing to the equipment pile taken from Rex earlier.

"No need. I know everything he had. Everything there is either useless to me, or I already have my own. You four can take it all."

"""TAKE CARE!""" He nods back to his long-time companions then finally leaves, post-haste.

"So then, which mess do we take care of first? This one?" she points to the equipment pile. "Or this one." this time she indicates its former owner. Now merely blubbering incoherently instead of screaming his head off as he had been a few minutes earlier.

All three of her new companions point to the pile.

"First obviously, is his armor. Is this dragonhide?"

"It's a scalehide using the leather from a lesser drake. With the scales still attached. That made it good enough material for three mid-range stat enchants. It'll improve the wearer's strength, agility and speed each by twenty-four."

"We all already have our own. Take it."

"You're close enough to his size, except for your chest of course. The refit enchant should work fine."

"Thank you. I haven't had my own armor since my maw trained me as a six year old kit." memory-full tears come streaking down her cheeks.

"Then there's a mini crossbow. I've already got my own bow."

"And we're both melee fighters. Take that one too."

"It has a bunch of regular bolts in that belt's main pocket, with the specialty ones in the little front pouch. They're color coded by type. Red ones are alchemic fire, yellow is acid, blue alchemic frost and purple poison."

"Never fire the special ones into melee. In fact don't use the regular ones in melee either."

"Got it. Thanks. Then there's a few rings. Six. One for every other finger on both hands."

"We're not sure what each of them do, but we know they're good."

"You got the first couple of things, so let us split these up. That's two for each."

{Actually, my Identify says one of them is a signet for a secret society called "Xerwan Boyu" I'll set that aside as I'm sure none of you will want anything to do with it. The other five golden rings each increase a different stat by 10. I'll lay them each on the word for whatever stat they raise. Tuf Str Dex Luk Con}

"Shit, them? No way! They mutilate anyone they find who stole their signet rings! Then leave them to die hidden somewhere like an abandoned farmhouse's basement!"

And so they were properly sorted. Then properly distributed.

Pan the tigress claimed Con and Tuf. Rolaf got Dex and Str. Leaving Vela with just Luk.

But since Luk was just so much harder and rarer to improve, that actually left the other three adults jealous of her. The dungeon didn't understand their concerns yet though, so he kinda pitied her instead.

"Next is a mithril amulet. We're also not sure what it does. Sorry."

"Well then, why don't you decide?" She says toward the ceiling. "I'll draw a set of four arrows. Then you can put it on the one pointing to whoever you think would benefit most."

[A "meditation medallion"? the description says "User recovers MP faster". That definately helps the mage-iest one best. Mama for now, til it's my turn in a few years.]

. .

The dungeon waited patiently for her to finish. Then laid it upon her arrow.

There were still a few other items. A hidden dagger that went to the archer. A superb quality portable cooking set claimed by the tigress. A high quality bedroll they unanimously agreed to burn soon after. A pair of boots enchanted to increase running speed and reduce noise. But none of these digitigrade beastkins could use footwear of this shape, so they decided to let their original owner keep them. A pair of clip-on earrings that improve hearing by more than double. The swords-wolf got these. The fox got the spacial pack.

The pair of adroit gloves was harder to decide. They would of course be best with the archer wolf. But she declined, as she already had a pair that worked better for her. The fox, aiming for an archer class was the next-best choice. But she also declined, out of a sense of fairness. She already had gotten more of this stuff than anyone else. The swords-wolf was the next obvious choice. But he also declined. Arguing that the fox needed to be brought up closer to the average. So they wouldn't have to work so hard to protect her. This was accepted unanimously, as Rex's vote no longer counted.

The food? They'll sort that out later. Over breakfast.

This only left the mage's robe and underclothes. Those were ever so graciously returned to his ownership as well.

¤¤¤¤¤

Three weeks later. On a seemingly random hill. In an otherwise empty grassland.

A lone beastkin finishes carving a gravestone.

It reads:

Here lies Mirabetha

Daughter of Golinga Tribe

Wife to Lule of Golinga Tribe

Mother of nine younglings

Taken before her time

He carries it to the western face of the hill.

Placing it next to a mound of fresh-dug soil.

Laying it such that the carved side faces away from the grave.

So it can be read without standing atop it.

Next to this grave are four more smaller ones to the left.

And four more to the right.

Each with their own marker.

¤

He still knelt there as the sun set.

¤

He had not yet moved even when the sun rose the next day.

¤

When the sun began to set once more, he finally looked up.

The fire in his eyes even hotter than the celestial fireball reflected within.