Richard sent some mana into the wall and the hidden door popped out of the wall and slid to the side. Sofia looked inside the dimly lit long room; it reminded her of the simulation room in Zephir’s sect, there was weird machinery and large glass columns filled with colorful liquids.

“Alright, this is where the fun begins. Come in.”

Sofia followed the skeleton inside the new room. The door closed by itself when they were all inside, and the lights of the room turned on.

Oh wow. Are these monsters all alive?

Inside the glass columns were all sorts of primarily humanoid monsters, with a few exceptions. The row against the wall opposite the entrance were clearly human bodies, male and female, of different height and looks, floating naked in thick cyan liquid.

“Say… Are these people…”

“Oh, these are just my spares. It’s really a huge pain to get a full body working, with how my soul is now used to piloting skeletons only, but I do enjoy being able to taste food and such mortal pleasures sometimes, despite the extra effort required.”

“Shouldn’t you be able to sleep when you use these, then?”

“Sadly, no. It’s a constant effort for my soul not to get ejected from these. If I so much as start to tire, I’ll be yanked out of there faster than I can close my eyes.”

“That’s… I see. You use the female bodies too?”

“I do use the one on the far right sometimes, when I have a use for a smaller stature. They are mostly Flor’s though.”

Sofia looked to the right, it was hard to see with all the other glass columns in the way, but she managed to find an angle. The body Richard mentioned was that of a petite woman with short blue hair, not very different from Alith’s body shape.

Hmmm…

“Actually… Do you not care that I see them naked? It feels a bit indecent.”

“Heh, Skeletons are always naked, aren’t they? Anyway, that’s not what we’re here for, is it? Say, how does your skeleton do with multiple heads?”

Sofia looked at Pareth. “Never tried. Creatures with multiple heads aren’t that common…”

“If he can use them, a larger field of vision is always good to take. I see no reason why it wouldn't work. If not, getting rid of the extra heads probably won’t get in the way of your ritual. What about other appendages? Wings, horns, tails?”

“He has had horns before but never really used them, he mostly fights with a sword.”

“Cannot fly I suppose… That’s not ideal, though it would not be a huge issue for your upcoming trial. Tail is a maybe. He looks like he could get used to one. What about hooves? Reversed legs joints? Additional arms?”

“I mostly gave him regular humanoid skeletons until now… If you omit the rat and the chicken…”

“Unsurprising for a sword user. Did the boneplate mauler work well?”

Sofia nodded vividly, “Very well.”

Richard started walking around the room, observing the various monsters in the columns. “Hmm. Doing the same thing again is boring, though. But I supposed we could still use the bone plates, considering you want to maximize weight. Do I go with Mauler base? I think Hellspawn could be better…”

“Hellspawn?”

“It’s a hero-given name for a race of monsters that’s almost completely gone. I have a few originals left and plenty of copies. Nasty things can rip a level 400 apart with their bare hands and kick a hole through mithril plating like it’s paper. Their natural habitat is gone though, so the ones I have here are among the last.”

“What’s happened to them if they were so strong? A level 500 went out of their way to get rid of them?”

“Huh, no. Collateral damage. When I say their habitat is gone, I mean the entire continent.”

“Oh, the ‘Higher Races War’? I read about that in a book, there were not a great many details beyond the name and a mention of a wasteland continent.”

“This one exactly. Entire continent devoured by the black dragon’s rot. Nothing to do about it, nothing survived. Gotta give it to the Dragon, though, she definitely won.”

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

“So it was really about Grandma Erredis, huh. A whole continent gone... No wonder she didn’t want to say anything about it.”

“Excuse me… GRANDMA?”

“Oh right, she told me to say hi on her behalf. I kind of skipped over that part but the Dragon I told you helped me track down Saria, that was her. How do you think I got this Dragon-scale arm?”

“Well shit. You really know to surround yourself with all the most dangerous and unsavory figures this world knows of.”

“You included?” Sofia asked with a frown, not too happy about her extended family getting bad-mouthed.

“Damn right. Just take another look at the room you’re in, girl. This is a place where I breed monsters for their skeletons, not a wildlife museum.”

“I figured… Where are the hellspawns you spoke about? Nothing here feels like it would deserve that name. Aside from that disgusting siren near the entrance, but that’s a siren.”

“Hidden in parallel space. None of the stations here are big enough for the Hellspawns. Let me get that out. Stand near the wall or you’ll get caught in the switch.”

Sofia nodded and followed the instructions, following Mountain and Pareth to the nearest wall. Behind her, the entire room changed. The dozen rows of glass columns except for the one with human bodies disappeared, and in their place were only four with glass vats containing one creature each, floating in fetal position.

If Sofia had to describe those creatures, the first thing that comes to mind would be ‘mountain of ultra-veiny bulging muscles’ followed by ‘tri-headed bipedal goat’, and lastly ‘inordinately large hands’.

“I… This almost make the Phageids look cute.”

“The name is very fitting, isn’t it?”

“Without a doubt… Are these wings on their back?”

“Vestigial. Barely functional, but they can use them to glide for a few seconds. I’ll be removing them for you.”

“Pareth is getting a hellspawn skeleton, then?”

“Not quite,” Richard told her, shaking his skull. “I’m going to breed one of them with a Mauler. Well, it’s not that simple, but all you have to know is that the finished product will be half Hellspawn half Boneplate mauler. See, if you cannot alter the skeleton through ‘artificial’ means, then you only need to help push nature in the right direction. Thankfully for us, a lot of monsters can successfully copulate and procreate. The resulting offspring are often weak and infertile. I’ll take care of the weak part with alchemy, and we don’t have to give a fuck about fertility for a skeleton.”

“That’s… A bit weird. But also very clever… Isn’t crossing those with a boneplate mauler going to make them smaller, though? These are proper giants but the maulers are only about three meters tall.”

“Well yes. I estimate the final skeleton will be around four to five meters tall. We can go taller if you want, but that will be hard to maneuver in… Well, I can’t say but you know.”

“I’m surprised this much even got through the censors. The scribes have been lenient recently.”

“They really only censor the information that could give you an unfair advantage. It is mostly irrelevant here since I am taking all the decisions.”

“Hmmhmm. By the way, how long is this going to take? If you are starting from breeding, then the time for the monster to grow up… Won’t it be years before the skeleton is done? I don’t really have that much time…”

“Fret not, this will only take about a month.”

“Just a month?!”

“I have my ways. Besides, did you think the cross-breeding was all there was to it?”

“Is there more?”

“Why yes. Again, if you cannot ‘artificially’ alter a skeleton, what is to stop you from letting nature do the work while the monster is alive?”

Sofia thought for a second, “I know there are birth defects which affect bone structure, but that’s random, and the two I’ve heard about would not help…”

“That would be reliant on random chance. Artificially inducing them in a yet-to-be-born monster is not impossible but really tough work, even for me. No, what I have is something better. It’s the entire point of having this room in the first place: sickness!”

“Diseases affecting bones?”

“Yes. I have collected them all. Some I am working on altering myself. Increasing bone mass and density, brittle bones that explode in deadly sharp shrapnel, shortening or lengthening limbs. All things I can do. Most of the disease strains I have are actually useless for you, the one giving porous bones won’t help you, but I’m sure I can make something great here.”

“I don’t know if I should be scared or impressed. Porous bones sounds painful. I- I’m a bit lost for words.”

“It takes time to process genius,” Richard snarked, tapping on his temple. “If you have nothing else to add, I’ll be getting to work. Mountain will escort you out. Right, where do you want the final product delivered?

“I- Is the Moonlit Castle doable?”

“Vampire territory? Oh so, you’re really hanging out with the moon Saint and Oracle both, despite all these Sun essences? I see. Well, to each their own. I can certainly leave it there. Will your sister be there too?”

“No, she wanted to go for the trial early, she might already be at it, actually. Why?”

“I am much like Valy, in a sense, meeting new interesting individuals is a good way to pass time. If your sister inherited even half the craziness you did, she is sure to also be wonderful to converse with.”

“If it weren’t a disease-collecting-Lich calling me crazy I might actually take it as an insult.”

“Merely stating facts here. Do you know how many on this planet even dare address me this casually? And at level 249? Definitely square-skulled crazy.”

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