I walked carefully forwards into a small alley, stalking my pre- er test subject. I had been scouring the streets of New York for this monster for almost two whole days. I even got a skill to prove it, Tracking Lv1, which basically just helps me track things through small mental suggestions, showing me what to look for and where I should go.

I got the skill this morning after a few hours of trying to find a monster and it has been actually difficult to use. Imagine trying to hear someone whispering instructions on how to build a nuke from across the street. Hard to understand, very hard to pick up on, and just a pain to try doing what the whispering voice is saying in the first place.

Eventually I actually managed to pick up on what my new skill was trying to show me, but it took me the better part of the afternoon along with the morning. I was surprised that it took me this long to find another monster, because when I went hunting two days ago, I was almost immediately attacked by the harpy, but the last two days it's like they all went on vacation.

I eventually found one though, the one that I am now slowly trying to sneak up on, sending some Spirit Energy through The Constructor that is on my right hand, getting ready to restrain the monster so I can bring it to my lab, which is actually just a cordoned off corner in the storage room.

My capture tactic for now is to try to sneak up on a monster while wearing Masatr to hide my scent and make a very thick bubble wrap like construct around its body from the Constructor around the monster to try and contain the thing. I wasn't exactly sure if it would hold for long, but I did some testing after I made The Constructor and found that currently I could make a pair of handcuffs that I couldn't break with a few seconds of preparation and emptying my newly stressed reserves four or so times beforehand. So it will be hard to pull off in a fight, but it should work on a target that doesn't even know I am there until I harden my construct.

In fact the preparation time is so bad that I actually spent ten minutes following the monster before I approached it, just so I could get what I thought was the bare minimum to trap the thing.

But now I am ready. I think. ‘Let's go’ I thought to myself as I stared at the small, dog shaped monster in front of me in the dirty alley, shaping a form fighting casing around the hellhound, compressing it into a five inch thick suit, while it is digging through trash bags and rotting crates.

‘Thank the gods that this thing is a young one…’ I thought as I strained my mental muscles to make its cage. Just as I was about to finish the young hellhound stiffened, as if sensing something was wrong, but it was too late for it. “Solidify!” I shouted, concentrating on hardening the construct, causing the monster's new shell to appear around it and giving me a migraine from the command.

The hellhound barked wildly, trashing its head to try and escape, but my construct held firm. Well, kind of. As I watched with bated breath, I could see the construct shake and then… Oh, yup I am fine. It just fell over onto the ground.

I chuckled and walked closer to the chained up monster and lifted it back onto its feet, careful to avoid its snapping jaws as I did so. “Wow!” I said as I lifted up the monster, “You need to lose some weight!” I told the hellhound. It was very heavy, especially for something the size of a dog. It was almost too heavy to carry, and I had the blood of a god flowing through my veins along with doing a strict exercise routine daily.

Not that that meant much when you were twelve. I might have been strong for my age, but I doubt I could beat most athletically competitive teenagers or young adults in terms of strength.

Still, let's get working. No time for idle thoughts, I need to get this thing to the lab. I sighed, summoning the gateway to the Soul Forge in the alleyway, causing the glowing doorway to snap into existence between crates and trash a few feet to the right of me.

I stepped to the gateway and twisted open the handle before turning to the snarling hellhound, that had somehow fell over again. I chuckled once more before stepping beside the monster and wrapping my arms around the hellhound's waist and heaving it up into the air with a groan. I wish I could just make the construct float the dog monster inside the Soul Forge, but I haven't even gotten a construct the size of a penny to float into the air on its own yet.

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I heaved and stumbled into the Soul Forge with the hellhound in my arms, struggling against its weight as I brought it through the entrance hall and into the left hallway before stopping in front of the storage room door. That was closed. I grumbled before setting the struggling monster down and opening the storage room/lab door open with a squeak and of the hinges. I winced at the sound of the hinges, I needed to grease them again…

Gritting my teeth, I lifted my test subject into my arms again and walked inside the room. In the room, there are the usual shelves along the left side of the room with the material ring rack, but across the room, I had my lab set up. Well, ‘lab’ is being generous, it's just a metal table with a large steel cage along the entirety of the right wall behind the table with a rough door big enough for a huge man to fit through comfortably. The cage is of course what the hellhound is going into, but the examination table was just for decoration. What kind of lab doesn't have a creepy metal examination table?

I walked to the table and set the monster down before unlocking the cage door and walking back to the hellhound, avoiding its panicked jaws and ignoring its yelps and barks before placing it in the corner of the cage and quickly walking away and out of the cage and locking the door behind me. I stepped back until I was roughly nine feet away and watched while the construct dissolved before the dog monster started breaking through it and finally shattered its full body straightjacket after less than two seconds and started pacing in its new home angrily.

“Test subject acquired.” I muttered to myself as I stared at the creature pacing around the small interior of the cage, growling at me.

I need to do several tests on the hellhound, firstly I need to test if monsters actually have a healing factor, and if so, what prevents the healing factor, secondly I want to do some physical tests, just to see how strong it is and some other things. “Well… I guess I should get started…” I said frowning. This was not going to be fun. For the hellhound that is.

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I sat at the examination table quietly looking over my notes from my few hours of study on the hellhound while said hellhound sat in the corner of its cage, whining in a low tone as it licked at a few cuts.

My time experimenting on the hellhound wasn't pretty, but I knew that it was necessary.

The results of my experiments speak for themselves as to how necessary they were. So it turns out that monsters do have a healing factor, at least when injured with mortal materials. My testing of the healing factor was pretty much just me making small cuts with long thin spears made of various materials, but it was the only method I could think of to test the monster’s healing factor.

I had tested over three dozen materials on the monsters, and the results were all the same. The cut healed after ten seconds. Except for three notable exceptions. The first exception is mythril, the second exception is constructs made with the Constructor, and third any material that has Spirit Energy flowing through it. Mythril made a lot of sense for me when I was testing it however, as celestial bronze was most likely a non-mortal material, but the other two exceptions surprised me. I hoped that spirit Energy constructs would be able to harm monsters permanently, but I still wasn't sure why it did, until I found out the third exception and remembered Imperial Gold.

Imperial Gold, or Enchanted Gold, is just normal gold that was enchanted, and it is used by the Romans to kill monsters. This means that enchanted materials in this world can prevent the healing factor in monsters, probably because of the Spirit Energy inside of it. The going theory is that Spirit Energy or anything with Spirit Energy can permanently harm monsters and prevent the healing factor.

This is good news for me, as I can use non-mortal materials for my weapons or channel Spirit Energy through a weapon of mortal materials, despite the healing factor and I can just use it against a monster like normal. Though annoying and slightly more costly, both mentally and with my Spirit Energy reserves, it shouldn't be a problem in the long run.

It is getting late though, so I need to get going to the orphanage. Especially because the gateway out of the Soul Forge is in an alley several blocks away from it. I have the first day of school tomorrow…

I stood up from my stool and walked out of the storage room with a sigh. “It's a bit more chilly in here than usual…” I noticed absentmindedly as I walked out of my lab. Then I walked into the entrance hall and froze before exclaiming “Shit! I forgot to close the door!”