I am starving for magic content.

I am starving for it so much that I cheered upon reaching Epsilon's part.

So yes, you get magic research disguised as Epsilon's bonding time… Though considering what he did, it's clearly +10 Bond.

Cid was looking at his slime suit and thinking.

Back in time when he was developing it, he was amazed at its versatility. As long as you have enough control, you are able to do almost anything! Weapon? Sure. Armor? No problem. Stylish clothes? As you wish.

Now, however, one important flaw was revealed. The slime by itself is one of the weakest monsters. Therefore, their potential limit is not that high.

Over the years his own slime suit had… evolved, if he can say that. As it bathed in his mana, it has grown accustomed to his signature, being able to take more and more of his mana.

But now, Cid has grown too fast and too high. Slime suit was no longer able to sustain his power. Sure, it could still regenerate, given enough mana, but that same mana slowly broke it down. Shadow Mana was outright incompatible with it… Well, no, technically compatible, but attempt to use both normal world's mana and Shadow Mana resulted in slime suit breaking down.

And in fight with Serpent it was shown to the fullest: his suit almost evaporated. Especially the part that he used as swords.

He has outgrown the suit. A shame, really. He has grown on it… Hell, he literally grew up in it! Yes, he was sentimental, so what?

In short, he needed to find a way to continue using it, be it upgrading the suit itself or finding a suitable material replacement.

Hmm…

"My Lord, may I enter?" a melodic voice reached his ears.

"Sure."

Speak of the slimes…

Epsilon slowly entered in all her slimy glory as her unnaturally bouncing breasts attracted his attention. Upon noticing his gaze, she pouted slightly.

"My Lord, I wish to…"

"Finally receive my help in body department, huh?" he smiled at seeing her shaking brows.

Epsilon inhaled, forcibly calming herself down.

"Yes, Lord Shadow, that's what I want to do."

"Alright, then lie down here," he nodded at the comfortable bed near him.

Elf blushed and shyly walked over to the bed. After receiving a confirmation nod from him she lay down and closed her eyes.

Cid sighed, facepalming.

"M-My Lord?" Epsilon shakily opened one eye.

"Slime suit. Get rid of it, it's not gonna help here."

She looked at him, shocked. Upon seeing his serious face she collected herself and let go of her slime.

Her true body revealed itself as slime flowed down to the floor: small, petite woman, a good head shorter than what she painted herself to be. Her big, sultry curves were nowhere to be seen, instead revealing plain as a board chest, short legs and somewhat thin thighs.

Epsilon tried to cover herself with blanket in shame.

"Relax, Epsilon. Hmm, you know, I can now see why you have a complex about your body… Especially considering how stacked everyone else are…" Cid murmured, to Epsilon's neverending grief.

"L-Lord Shadow…"

"You know, how about you tell me why, exactly, couldn't you grow like them while I calculate what to do?"

Epsilon went silent for a moment.

"Back before getting Curse…" she started as Cid looked over her body structure, "I was a heir of the noble family. A very high-standing noble family, to be exact. I received everything I ever asked. I was hailed as a prodigy. Then, Curse took place, and everyone I loved and trusted threw me away."

"Yes, I heard that when you were telling your story for the first time," he nodded and focused on her bones, his eyes red due to activated magic vision, "how does that relate to your body, though?"

"Oh, that's very simple," she chuckled sadly, "every woman in my family has been petite. Either that's a curse or something else… I don't know."

"Interesting…"

Cid looked over her muscles and bones.

How does growth go? In short, that's a result of hormones. However, many other factors also decide how your growth goes: your sleep schedule, whether you lead a healthy lifestyle or not, the environment… Lots of stuff, really.

However, there has to be one important thing in order to grow.

Your bones' growth plates have to be opened. If they are closed, no matter how many hormones you take, you will not be able to grow an inch. Moreover, the hormones you take, having nowhere useful to go, will instead harm your body: growing organs that are not supposed to do so like your tongue…

Why is he talking about that? Well, it's directly related to Epsilon.

After Epsilon's reveal back then he decided to check over every Shade.

All other Shades were well-developed and their body system were functioning perfectly; moreover, they still had room to grow.

Epsilon's growth plates were closed off and her hormonal system was being inhibited. And that started about a year and half ago, if he's correct. About the same time his own magic finally mixed in with Shades' bodies.

This is not normal. At the age her plates were closed, every other human/elf would either enter the phase of the most intensive growth, be in the middle of it, or might have finished it if they are early bloomers.

Epsilon was not an early bloomer. She was not in the middle of her growth. But her plates were already closed.

"My Lord?" her worried voice reached his ears.

"I have found the reason," he replied and focused over, "the situation is as hilarious as it is sad."

"…Please, tell me."

"To say quickly, every child has a growth period. The time you grow the fastest is during your first years, then you growth is somewhat linear until your teenage years, then you experience another growth spurt. After that bones' growth plates close off in your twenties and you can no longer grow naturally."

"You say in twenties… But…"

"Indeed," Cid sighed, "yours closed off almost two years ago. The only thing that prevented them is my remaining mana. After it dissipated, well…"

"Then… what? Can I no longer grow? There's nothing we can do?" her eyes grew moist.

"Who said that?" he looked at Epsilon incredulously.

"But you just said-"

"I said that your growth plates closed off, indeed. But seriously, after seeing me crafting a new body for Violet you still think I can't fix something that easy?"

"No, my Lord, of course I wouldn't!… But that will just open these plates up, right? I will still have to grow?"

"Yeah, I'll have to forcefully quicken your growth process. It's gonna hurt like hell, and you will need lots of energy to sustain through that, but…" Cid made a "so-so" gesture.

"But, what?"

"But I can just pump the energy into you and craft stuff with Blood Magic. Again, it's gonna hurt, and you might not be able to stand that, but that's the only way I can see right now."

"…Please, do it, my Lord."

"You sure?" he eyed her.

"Yes, Lord Shadow," she met his gaze with the most determined look.

"Alright, get ready, I am starting now."

He slowly reached out to her bones with his magic and covered them in his mana. Epsilon shuddered at sudden interjection, but otherwise stayed still.

"I will try to reduce the pain as much as possible, but otherwise…" Cid shook his head, "Ready?" Epsilon nodded at him.

Then she felt pain.

Cid forcefully injected his magic into her bones and forced the growth plates back open. He noticed how something tried to oppose his actions, probably it was really a curse? Interesting, but he has no need for something like that. Just a quick research he did already explained everything to him.

Of course, just opening the plates is not enough. After all, after bones' growth is done, these plates are replaced with solid, sturdy bone tissue. And Epsilon had exactly such case, which forced him to reach out to her Astral Body once more in order to find how, exactly, were her growth plates placed.

Cid slowly tinkered with her bones. Not only that, he also looked over her muscles and magic system. And just as he expected, each time he opened a plate, something immediately tried to close it off. But with each plate he came closer and closer to understanding how, exactly, this 'curse' worked.

Whenever body enters an age where it can close growth tissues properly and replace them with bone tissue, 'curse' immediately manifests, and hormonal inbalance occurs, which tricks the body into doing so.

Of course, there was no actual curse: it was just unlucky genetics, mixed with some kind of left-over magic. Something similar happened with her… curves: instead of properly developing her feminine features, her body poured every last bit of energy into her magic. And while, yes, that made her one of the most gifted magic users, it also caused dismay to her, since she didn't know how to counter that.

In short, nothing he couldn't fix. Painful? Yes. A bit hard and challenging? Maybe. But nothing he couldn't do.

After he finally finished opening plates, he could go onto the next step: pushing the energy and forcing growth.

"If you need a breather, just say so, because after we start with growth process we won't be able to stop until I am finished," Cid gave Epsilon a warning.

"No, please continue," she looked up at him with a mixture of emotions he couldn't quite comprehend.

"Sure, I guess," he sighed and started channeling the energy.

Honestly, it was a bit harder than molding Violet's body… Hmm, he will need to check on her after the reward time ends…

When he made a new body for Violet, Diabolos Hand (her hand actually, as funny as it sounds) had more than enough material to create a new human body, even if he made multiple mistakes. He had a room for experiments.

Here, he was deficient on materials. He only had Epsilon's own body, and he needed to get new materials from somewhere in order to grow it. The only other suitable material would be his own body… Hmm, actually, why not? He can regenerate easily, right?

Cid carefully removed a part of his spine's muscle, allowing a new one to grow immediately. His magic slowly filled the still fresh meat as he slowly cleared replaced any and all marks of it being his own flesh with Epsilon's DNA, in order to prepare it as a material.

'Good thing she lies on her stomach.'

He injected her with his magic once more and created a stable channel between fresh flesh and her body.

As Epsilon dreamed, she could feel something entering her body. Something… strange. She also felt her body feeling funny all of sudden, as if her feet that prior to that were right in the bed suddenly found themselves dangling from its corner… Hold on, why is it a bit hard to lie on her chest? It's as if something lies beneath it…

Epsilon woke up. Her eyes blinked tiredly. She slowly looked down only to realize that she was, in fact, lying on her chest. Her big, perky breasts, actually… Which she wasn't supposed to have.

"Done, you can get up and cover yourself back in slime suit," a somewhat tired voice sounded from the side, "Phew, working on material deficiency surely is a new… Hmm, but I got valuable experience!"

She rolled over to see her beloved Lord wiping his hands with a napkin. Then, memories of what happened waved over her.

She immediately started touching her breasts and hips to confirm that she, indeed, now has a body that Beta would envy. And the body looked exactly the same as she did with her slime suit.

Epsilon raised her gaze to look at her beloved Lord. He quirked a brow as she summoned her slime suit to cover herself up.

This time, she merely commanded it to mimic the usual Shadow Garden uniform. She did not need to calculate how her breasts should bounce each time, how her hips should move… No, everything was done naturally. She only needed to control the shape of suit itself, her body has done the rest.

She needs to learn this type of magic. Later.

Now…

She stood up and walked closer to her beloved Lord.

Then, both of them realized something.

"I… may have gone a bit overboard…" Cid started as he looked up to now-one-head-taller-than-him Epsilon.

"No-no, my Lord, it's exactly everything I have dreamed of!" she shut any complaints by pressing his poor face into her now-developed breasts, "And I still have an hour and half left!"

"Wure…" muffled sounds pleasantly tickled her breasts. Real breasts.

She carried him over back to the bed, purring.

Needless to say, he received a lot of cuddling time with her.

Though even her pride was not able to stand in front of his now apparent cuteness as she immediately gave up on being the dominant one…