Welcome to Gaia! ::

Perhaps she had a point. Perhaps, she didn't quite understand what he had been doing.

Was he stalking her? Perhaps a small bit. When she had mentioned that she wanted him to know how to keep things secret, and also when she showed a keen interest in the kind of efficiency that he showed, the gear started turning in its head. And not taken him long to go on his phone as he he tried to keep her in his sights, searching up the name of her family, searching up her name, searching up her name and connection to other people at Crystal Academy. He saw an opportunity there.

While the Negaverse certainly had its own school, They had finessed control over that. Being able to get their hands in other schools had its validity of its own.

And this one? This one seemed like she was an opportunity.

When she turned around and threatened pepper spray, Adam rolled his eyes.

"I'm not stalking you, you can relax." Adam tucked his phone, and the evidence he had been searching her entire history, away. "You said you appreciated my secrecy and my efficiency. For the secrecy, it is certainly easier to get you away from prying eyes for another opportunity you may be interested in."

And if she said no, he had other ways of getting her into the fold. But it would be better to have her agree up front, because then when they would not have to sever her connections in order to make her useful.

While Cressida worked to defend herself, Adam appeared remarkably unbothered. He waited for her to decide he could speak.

If she decided he couldn't, he would decide she couldn't, either. It was a potential standstill that she did not realize existed.

That had its own use.

"This opportunity? This opportunity would quickly utilize the fact that you realized you needed to defend yourself. It would also utilize your own tendency to secrecy, and your own tendency to good connections." The thin smitk he wore perhaps would hint at the creepiness she was fearing he had, or perhaps it would hint at the opposite. Perhaps it would hint at the fact that he was aware of something she would be interested in, and perhaps she should ask further.

Perhaps she could be ready for more.

He needed to move to work on how to introduce this topic. There were multiple questions. Was she the type to do deep dives on MLMs on YouTube? Because if she was, a certain phrasing would make her immediately think that what he was trying to advertise was such. If she wasn't, he could work with that.

On the other hand, he could try to work out a phrasing that would not hint at any MLM connection at all. He could work on the phrasing that drew him in, the power that he could simply get by accepting the hand in his chest by Emilia's boss. A hand that had been connected to a man on fire.

He was not a man on fire, but as that man on fire had recently granted him another upgrade, he could certainly be close enough.

"Have you heard of any of the whispers of organizations in this area? Secret ones, ones that seem capable of power that can't be understood. Have you ever seen the monsters that slide through this area?"

Perhaps he would have sounded like too much of a creepy stereotype, but by the same token, there were only so many ways to introduce the absolute ******** his second job was.

"I'm deeply familiar with these things."

Of all the things, she thought he was a furry? Really?

"No!" It was likely that some of his comrades were. In fact, the monthly stipend they all got probably helped quite a few of them afford fursuits. Was it him? Absolutely the ******** not. He didn't make a habit of kink shaming, an a** was an a**, and he knew conceptually that it wasn't just a kink thing, but--

Anyway.

"And no, I'm not here to traffic you." Perhaps this was a bit of payback for her telling him to make a bank for the nerds. On the same token, her coming up with such a clap back fairly fast was a good sign of how quick -witted she would be as an agent.

... Hopefully an agent. Both of his recruits thus far had been senshi, and he couldn't recruit senshi. Not without one more boost of power that he dreamed of.

He digressed.

"Would it be easier to simply show you?"

Was it stupid? Perhaps. He felt pretty similarly about himself when he had finally accepted the offer to turn into something else, to get something else, even though he thought the whole damn thing was an MLM.

Perhaps it was a bit of an MLM. They did, after all, get paid more for gaining more ranks. It was reminiscent of some of the patterns of an MLM.

But she was agreeing, and that was the important part.

It wasn't hard for him to tap on his magic at this point. Being General Borax felt more natural than being Adam. In some ways. He had adjusted to the magic, he had adjusted the flow of power, and he was almost addicted to it. He had to have more, he had to.

And he needed places to expel that spare desire.

"General Borax like this. And you could be like this too, able to teleport," he teleported just slightly to the left, "able to possess magical weapons, able to touch what makes a person alive at all."

And if she said no? At this point, she was in too deep to back out as anything but a lieutenant.

"It's a fustanella. A traditional military garb of the Greek and Albanian people, as it turns out."

It had been long enough since he had gained this form that he no longer felt a weird sense of embarrassment. When somebody commented on an outfit. It wasn't a skirt, and he wouldn't even care if it was. The power that came with the genie shoes gave him more than the title for them ever mattered.

It represented something most could never dream of.

"That was real." As he summoned his trident to his hand, the smirk only seemed to grow. "This is, too. Magically granted to me."

Borax tilted his head.

"But see, I can touch souls. Draw from them. And relieve a person of them. You could, too."

If this was not such a wild thing, not so wildly out there, it would sound like an MLM, wouldn't it?

Speechless? Good.

Should he warn her that her weapon didn't start out that good? Well- "Yes, you will. Eventually. As you train. I'm a general, for my part."

Didn't need to tell her she might start with something nearly useless. His dip pen had still worked, just not as well as the spear or the trident...

"I can get you this magic," offered Borax, idly twisting the trident in his hands. It felt good. Really good. To be able to say he could recruit someone of his own volition without having to recruit Faustite was even better. Borax was under his own control. "If you want to sign up, you only need to ask."

Only needed to ask him.

... Though, honestly, if she said no, it wouldn't matter. Borax had a resolution to that, too.

"It'll probably feel a bit funny, the introduction, but you'll get started with what you need to get here."