Zack’s influence extended a decent way past Thumper’s boss room. At his behest, the dire hare scooped his core up off the front desk and carried him through the meadow, through a new door erected at the back. It wasn’t that Zack didn’t like being around the others, but he didn’t exactly feel safe being so exposed like that.
He had yet to see his integrity value drop below a hundred percent, but that didn’t mean he was willing to risk it just yet.
The mall beyond Thumper’s boss room still looked like a ruined building. Zack quickly got to work shoring up the walls and the floors. He cleaned away dirt and grime, absorbed wild plants, and soon enough had the space looking better than new. There were still a few monsters lurking about, but with Thumper around to protect him, Zack wasn’t too worried.
“Over there,” Zack ordered, nudging the hare towards a nearby shop that was long since abandoned. It wasn’t much larger than the meadow, and it was filled with cheap wooden stands. The remnants of old electronics could be seen sitting on pedestals. Zack quickly absorbed them, and was delighted to see he received some new patterns. Phones, smart watches, and even tablets were added to list of available patterns. They were all non-magical in nature, but that was a concern for another time.
The electronics dealt with, he absorbed the wooden tables next. Unsurprisingly, they were all cheap chipboard. Zack mentally shrugged as he added the material to his collection. He doubted he’d ever actually use the stuff, but everything new he gained contributed towards his overall level.
Finally, Zack was left with an empty room devoid of contents or life. Thumper sat eagerly in the glass doorway, Zack’s core resting on the ground before him. Zack flung his consciousness out into the room and gave it a once over.
“I think this will do nicely, don’t you?” He asked the rabbit.
Thumper brushed his face with his paws but said nothing. Zack sighed, already missing the company of his friends. He’d need to figure out how to make talking monsters sooner or later to avoid going stir crazy. It might be no better than talking to himself, but at least it would be something to talk to.
Now that he had space for a lab, Zack was eager to experiment. He hadn’t done much in the way of playing with his patterns since making Thumper, so he was curious about the limits of his power.
The first thing he did was conjure a slime. He had the pattern just sitting there, unused, and was eager to see what he could do with it. It was a relatively simple creature to summon, too, which meant low in mana cost. Zack overlayed the pattern with the world, and a large snot bubble appeared in the air. It hovered for a second, before plopping onto the ground with a wet slap.
The slime lay there in a daze for a second, before pulling itself back together. Two beady eyes floated in its mass, looking around curiously. It slid over the tile floors, leaving a thin trail of mucus in its wake.
“Gross, but effective I guess,” Zack muttered. “I wonder what special powers you have?”
As a test, Zack conjured a pencil and dropped it into the slime. The creature wobbled in momentary surprise, before it kept on trucking. The organic parts of the pencil rapidly dissolved, while the inorganic material simply floated in its mass. After a few seconds, the wood was all but gone, leaving graphite, aluminum, and rubber behind in the goo.
“Interesting. Slimes have acidic qualities.”
Curiously, Zack absorbed the slime leftover from the creature’s wake.
[Recipe Learned]
[Lesser Organic Acid: Level 1]
[When applied to organic material, this acid will eat through it.]
[Cost to create: 3 mana]
“Interesting,” Zack said again, reading over the recipe a few more times. “It’s like slimes are… living potions?”
The slime panned its gaze curiously up at where Zack’s disembodied consciousness hovered. The creature wobbled in place, as though acknowledging the question. Zack promptly reabsorbed it as an idea started to form in his mind.
Once again, he overlayed the slime pattern in the world. This time, he held on to the image and studied it.
[Slime]
[Level 2 Monster, Aberration]
[Equipped Recipe]
[Lesser Organic Acid: Level 1]
[Cost to create: 2 mana]
“Oh ho? That’s interesting. So, what would happen if I were to…”
Zack equipped the Lesser Healing Potion in the slot normally occupied by the slime’s organic acid. Almost immediately, the pattern shifted and changed. What was previously a bubble of snot became a bright red color. The eyes grew larger and more cartoonish in design, giving the creature a friendly appearance. Zack winced as the mana cost tripled, but then considered it.
“At six mana, a slime filled with healing potion is more efficient for me to create than potions outright. A potion of equivalent value costs ten mana to create.”
Zack had the mana to spare, so he spawned the healing slime. As before, it appeared initially as a bubble, before splatting on the ground. To Zack’s surprise, it was bigger than before—roughly double the size of the acidic slime. Those large, friendly eyes blinked around curiously, before landing on Thumper. The dire hare sniffed the air curiously, but made no attempt to run away as the slime charged for him.
To Zack’s delight, rather than attack, the cherry-red slime started cuddling his hare. Its eyes closed in joy as it rubbed itself against Thumper’s blue fur, turning it sticky with potion. Curiously, Zack absorbed some of the slime left behind, just to confirm what it was. He was unsurprised but equally delighted to find that his experiment worked, and it was the very same healing potion he equipped to the creature
“That’s really cool,” Zack said, zooming in close to get a better look at his new creation. “Though, it might be better to use the topical healing potion.”
Zack reabsorbed the slime, quickly drying out Thumper’s fur for the rabbit’s comfort. Then, he overlayed the pattern once again. This time, as he went to apply the topical healing potion, he paused. An idea was forming in his head, and he added one of his new modifiers to the mix.
The result was a slime whose shape wasn’t as solid as the previous two. Its insides bubbled loudly as it looked around, before spotting Thumper. This time, as it charged for the bunny, Zack issued and order.
“Thumper, please pop the slime.”
The bunny obeyed, lowering his horn to take the slime’s cuddle-charge full force. The slime’s eyes bugged in surprise as the membrane holding it together ruptured, and the carbonated concoction within exploded from the hole in a rush of fizz. Thumper was showered with healing potion, and he looked up at Zack’s consciousness with a frustrated sneer.
From head to toe, the rabbit was drenched with sticky red bubbles. The slime had deflated like a balloon, leaving behind a semi-transluscent film that had once been its outer shell. It looked like the scene of a massacre, and Zack couldn't help but laugh. Thumper was naturally less than impressed with the matter, and shook his body in an attempt to rid his fur of the potion.
"Sorry, buddy, let me get that for you," Zack chuckled. He quickly purged the rabbit's fur of lingering potion, then tidied up the red splatter and dead slime too. Within seconds, the room looked much less like a crime scene. “That might not be the best test, anyway. Let me make another one. While I do, Thumper, I need you to hurt yourself.”
Thumper cocked his head, as if to ask a question, but he didn’t disobey. He lifted one paw to his mouth and bit down. Instead of blood, though, his body leaked green-blue mana.
“Oh, dammit, I forgot about that,” Zack grumbled.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Thumper wasn’t technically a living creature, but a construct made of mana. Zack wasn’t certain the healing potion would even affect him the same way it would a person. He considered it for a few minutes, debating whether he should try to call Alex back, before deciding against it. He didn’t think his friend would appreciate being experimented upon the same way Thumper would.
As a test, Zack respawned the topical carbonated healing slime and allowed it to charge Thumper once more. As expected, it cuddled against the hare injured paw. He stared at it hopefully, but even once Thumper was thoroughly coated in healing potion, it didn't seal the wound shut again.
“Damn, I’m sorry, buddy,” Zack apologized. "I really thought that would work. I mean, it's just healing potion, right?"
To his surprise, the hare… shrugged. The human-like gesture caught him off guard, and he mentally frowned at his boss monster in confusion.
“Are you… intelligent now?” he asked.
Thumper cocked his head, as though considering the question, but made no gesture to confirm or deny it. Zack half considered that maybe he was just talking to himself, and Thumper was responding because Zack was expecting an answer. It wouldn’t be the first time the mob behaved on its own out of expectation rather than order.
“Well, I guess we can worry about that later. For now, I’m going to store these healing slimes. They’re too cost intensive for me to make with spawners. I’ll have to figure something out for them later.”
Thumper licked his paw and once more brushed his face as the slime vanished in a puff of particles. Zack considered trying to apply potion to the stooltoads, just to see if he could make healing mushroom frogs, but decided against it. The stooltoads were already more expensive than the other monsters in his dungeon. He didn’t need to add more to them just yet.
He did, however, want to try his hand at making something new.
So far, his dungeon was very idyllic in its contents. His first room was a meadow filled with cute little bunnies and carnivorous flowers. Zack was secure enough in his masculinity not to feel embarrassed by this fact, but it left him longing for something a bit more traditional.
“How about… Goblins?” Zack muttered. He remembered Alex mentioning that goblins were real, and hoped he wouldn’t offend anyone by making them. The moment he considered that, though, he realized that it probably would be seen as offensive to make goblins a random mob type.
“Hey, Akashic System, you there?”
Zack didn’t have a direct query, but the system’s presence in his mind was reassuring all the same. He could feel its awareness drift towards him, like a telepathic Google waiting to hear his question.
“What sort of races do humans turn into?”
The Akashic System was silent for a moment before the answer appeared as lines of text across his vision.
[Variant human evolution has resulted in multiple different humanoid races. The most common amongst these are elves and dwarves, followed by orcs, goblins, and ogres. Other races have been recorded, but they are considered rare and only occur under extenuating circumstances.]
Zack considered that for a few moments. Along with the words, images of each humanoid race popped into his head. Orcs, elves, and dwarves all looked exactly how he expected. Orcs were big and green, elves slender with pointed ears, and dwarves stout with long beards.
Ogres, on the other hand, were massive. Somewhere in the ballpark of nine feet tall and built like brick walls. Their skin was rocky in texture, with hair that looked more like moss on their bodies.
Goblins were equally different. Zack expected large noses and gnarled faces, but was surprised to see anything but. They had long pointed ears that stuck out at the side, but their faces looked… well, like a normal human’s. Sure, they had vibrant green skin, but they didn’t look like cartoon caricatures.
Despite the variety in their appearances, the different races all looked ultimately like humans. Two arms, two legs, and the same number of holes. There weren’t any extra appendages, like tails or wings. Zack considered that briefly, wondering why only the proportions and skin colours changed rather than something more dramatic.
It was a question for another day. For now, Zack concluded it would be a bad idea to villify a group of people that were considered a common humanoid race. Goblins were out of the question for monsters in his dungeon. He still wanted a group of humanoid monsters to work with, though. He racked his brain for a moment, before an idea appeared.
“Hey, Akashic System, do kobolds exist?”
The answer took a few moments to appear, but Zack was surprised when it did.
[Kobolds can refer to two three different species of creature.]
[Option 1: Kobold is an alternative word for Goblin in some cultures.]
[Option 2: Kobold is a rat-like creature that burrows underground.]
[Option 3: Kobold is a reptillian creature subservient to dragons.]
“Ooh, option three, please.”
[Kobold]
[Level 1 Monster, Dragonoid]
[A subservient race of creatures. Kobolds have a symbiotic relationship with dragons. In exchange for their service in its lair, kobolds receive a dragon’s protection and can grow stronger off its ambient magic. It is not uncommon for kobolds to take on aspects akin to their dragon masters. After a long enough period of service, a kobold might evolve into a juvenile dragon itself.]
[Cost to create: Unavailable. You presently lack the perk necessary to create this monster.]
The pattern that flashed in Zack’s mind certainly matched the description. The creature stood hunched over on slender legs. It wasn’t much taller than a goblin, and reminded Zack of a bearded dragon with the ridge of scales lining its chin and throat. It was red in colour, with bright yellow eyes and thin, dextrous hands. A whiplike tail trailed along behind it.
Zack wanted to make one, but system reminded him again that he lacked the perk necessary to do so. He couldn’t even properly internalize the pattern. He wondered if he needed to absorb the creature outright, or if he could learn patterns from the system itself. That seemed like a possibility, though he wasn't entirely sure what perk he needed to access the pattern, or how he could go about gaining more.
There was also an alternative he could take. He could just make the pattern from scratch. Thumper was proof enough that if Zack put enough effort into the act, he could just as easily create a monster without needing a base to work from.
As he had with his first bunny, Zack started with a simple shape: a cube of grey matter hovered in the centre of the room. He spun it arround a few times, trying to get a sense of how best to start. Once he was satisfied, he started sculpting.
It was hard work, modeling from scratch. The kobold was a far more complex shape than Thumper initially had been. Unlike his bunny, this creature had dexterity in its limbs that Zack wanted to emulate. Thin fingers and toes. Delicate claws and sharp teeth. Intelligent eyes and a mobile neck.
It took him several hours to create something that halfway resembled the picture in his mind. The shape was crude and blocky, making the would-be kobold look like something out of an older video game era. Zack spun around it, taking in the various angles.
“The shape isn’t too bad, but it needs a little… Something,” he grumbled. Mentally, he wished he had a button to increase the polygon count, the same way he did in his old 3D modeling software.
Then, he remembered that he wasn’t using software. This was all him! He willed the polygons to increase, and they obeyed. Sharp edges softened, spikes grew more defined. Within a few minutes, Zack was satisfied with the way his experiment looked.
He spent another hour just messing with the shape and texture, refining the way the scales overlapped with each other. Finally, he had something that satisfied him.
He wanted to apply materials next, but he didn’t have anything that approximated flesh. Instead, he applied the topical healing potion to the kobold, and watched as it turned cherry red. Its eyes and belly were a bright, friendly pink in colour. The mana cost was a prohibitive ten points, but that was fine for something he wasn’t sure he would even use.
Satisfied, Zack internalized the custom pattern, and then overlayed it once more in the world. With an exertion of mana, he spawned the new monster.
Unlike the slime, the kobold staggered as it appeared. It looked around curiously, its nostrils flaring as it spotted Thumper. Then, it noticed the cut in the rabbit’s paw. Carefully, worried it might to try harm it, the kobold shuffled forward. When it drew close, it lifted a hand to the injury, its fingers glowing a soft red colour.
Zack watched in amazement as the wound closed. Did this kobold, made with the healing potion built into its pattern, know a healing spell? A quick glance at its stats confirmed Zack's suspicions.
[Known Spells]
[Lesser Accelerated Heal: Level 1]
[Spell, Healing]
[Heal up to 5 points of health, at the cost of the caster’s mana and the target’s stamina.]
[Cost: 1 mana, 1 stamina per point of health healed.]
Had he fists, Zack would have pumped them in the air. Instead, he puppeted the kobold and had it cheer instead. The little dragonoid hopped about in delight. Zack had assumed it would take a lot more to get a monster capable of using healing magic. All it had taken was combining patterns and recipes together to get monsters capable of that power.
The kobold had a small mana pool to draw upon, though. Coupled with the fact its spell drew upon the target’s stamina, it wasn’t the most useful healer in the world. Still, having a monster capable of healing was better than not having one at all. That meant the kobold could stabilize people in an emergency, giving someone enough time to chug a healing potion.
That mana cost was a problem, though. Zack would need to deal with that eventually. For now, he quickly conjured some clothes for his newest mob. Given the kobold’s cute, friendly appearance, Zack decided to lean into those qualities. He made a puffy pink robe with a white cross on the front, and a large hat to go with it. The outfit gave the creature a cartoonishly rounded appearance, accenting the friend-shaped features already built into the mob. He hoped the obvious medical symbol would help inform adventurers that this kobold was a friend, not a foe.
“You need a name, don’t you?” Zack mused. “I guess I could just call you a Medibold, since I’ll likely need more than one.”
The Medibold nodded eagerly, clapping its hands in delight. Zack reabsorbed the new monster, thankful that the clothes didn’t add to its mana cost. He was equally grateful that this new monster was different enough from its base form not to overwrite the pattern in Zack’s mind. He could easily assign new Medibolds to spawners, once he figured out a way to make them stronger. For now, he could manually spawn the Medibolds as they were needed.
He did just that, spawning one in the meadow and sticking it in a corner near the entrance. He placed a sign nearby identifying it as a friendly healer who would help people in danger, but only in emergencies given his limited powers. Then, Zack gave the Medibold a few basic triggers. If an adventurer was knocked out and nobody could get a potion to them in time, the Medibold was to stabilize the adventurer and then escort them out of the dungeon. If specifically asked for healing, the Medibold would provide as much as possible—within reason so as to not eliminate its ability to stabilize someone in an emergency.
It wasn’t as good as having a dedicated healer, but it would go a long way to ensuring the safety of returning customers.
“Now that we’ve got some healers dealt with, let’s make something a bit more dangerous…”