Shaking her head Mari refocused, there would be time to daydream later, right now she had things to do.
Mari bought 4 Common Monster Cores and then placed them onto the pedestal. It didn't take her long to choose the creatures she wanted to use as she had thought about it yesterday.
"First, the wolf." She told Nuit, "Let's give him a Nature Affinity as well." The hologram of the wolf began to change, his fur turned dark green and he grew to be twice as large as before.
"Hmm, I'm going to go with Forest Wolf. A wolf attuned to the forest able to traverse it unheeded." Mari decided. "It's a bit less grandiose than Forest Advocate but that's okay."
The new Forest Wolf shook himself out and then his image faded away and Mari knew he was back on the floor likely exploring his new body.
"Alright, next creature the Bald Eagle. I've pretty much covered the ground so let's do a bird now." Mari knew that Nuit couldn't yet speak but talking to her was comforting.
"Let's give her the Space Affinity. I know I said I would hold off on using it but I can picture a few interesting possibilities for a winged creature that can use Space." And with that, the eagle began to change.
First, she grew -as was becoming the norm - she was now roughly the size of a normal wolf. After that, her feathers turned black and seemed to shimmer but that was all that changed appearance-wise.
"I was thinking Star Chaser, once a normal Eagle this bird witnessed a falling star and chased after it desperately yearning for its light, and although she didn't succeed the star blessed her with the Space Affinity." Nuit barked curiously and Mari came out of her daze.
Back on Earth, she was well known for her daydreams. Growing up the real world always seemed so boring and predictable, to escape the gray of reality she would hide away within books, stories, and her own imagination.
Now for the first time, she was seeing her imagination reflect back onto reality, and it was wonderful.
"Sorry Nuit, got lost in my thoughts. We have one more to do so let's go with another bird." Mari scrolled through the bird section on the screen and landed on the Barred Owl.
"Right, let's go with Space Affinity again. I'm starting to like the idea of land monsters having Nature and flying creatures having Space." She informed her assistant.
The white and brown owl shivered as it grew, although not as much as the other monsters had Mari noticed. Looking closer the only thing that seemed to change was the owl's eyes, they gained an almost enchanting shimmer as if looking at the night sky.
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"I have the perfect name, Night Watcher. For this owl sees the wonder in the quiet emptiness of the Night and the power in the endless expanse of Space," As Mari named her last monster the quest reappeared as completed.
"Right, I wanted to check on the storm next. Do you want to go with me?" She asked Nuit.
With a bark and a tail wag the fox climbed up her body and perched on her shoulder. "Cool, let's go then."
Mari walked back over to the shimmering part of the wall she knew she had entered through and paused at the green shimmer next to it. For a moment she was tempted to investigate but shook it off, focus we have things to do, she reminded herself.
Stepping through Mari and her assistant returned to the world outside the RealmForge.
"Huh," She muttered and stared. The once terrifying storm had disappeared revealing a calm picture of serenity only marred by the land mass several miles ahead of her.
Mari stepped forward and spun in a circle and almost fell over as she got a good look at her forge. It seemed making her first floor had encouraged the tree's growth as while before it was roughly 5 stories tall it was now at least 7 maybe 8.
"I wonder how big it's going to grow," She mused and sighed turning away so that she could get a better look at her newly discovered neighbors.
It didn't look like an island but it could just be a very large one. Squinting didn't reveal much besides shadowy shapes of what could be buildings or maybe just rocks...
"There's not much we can do at this point, but at least we know that the storm is over." Mari sighed and smiled when Nuit nosed her check.
"No use stressing about it might as well keep working till we get visitors. But since we can see them, I'm sure they can see us." With that Mari reentered the forge.
"Let's see," Mari scrolled through her current open quests as she sat on the bed. "I don't want to open the floor till I see who I'm going to be opening for, so I'll wait for that. And I can't do anything about the second so that leaves us with making the second floor, but is that all I can really do for floor 1?" She frowned at the table and was only slightly surprised when another quest screen appeared.
Bring your floor to life! *Optional*
- Create a quest for the warriors that enter your floor. +100c
- Create 10 more monsters + 100c
- Create a lore for floor 1 + 200c
Excited, Mari jumped up and hurried over to the table accidentally jostling Nuit. "Sorry, Nu I got excited."
Once at the table, Mari clicked on the first quest and read the information aloud. "Sometimes warriors need a nudge in the right direction, to make a quest you need a reward which can be found in the shop -There's a shop?- and a quest giver."
Pacing back and forth she opened the third quest, "Be careful when making a lore as they can affect the growth of the monsters on the floor as well as the environment. Over time as the lore spreads outside the forge the effects will grow," Mari paused and considered that before continuing. "To create a lore the guardian must enter the floor itself and sacrifice at least 500 credits after they must verbally recite the lore they want to use."
"Nu! Isn't this amazing!" It was clear that Mari was excited as she practically vibrated in place, "Okay, okay, focus think. Make a plan."
Several deep breaths later she felt calm enough to think ahead. "I know for the lore I'll lose 500 credits and the quest said I would need to buy a reward, I also have to think of the second floor and I should probably save some for emergencies," Mari mumbled to herself as she rocked back and forth were she stood in thought.
"First, I should check this store out and see what the prices are like." She finally decided.