*sob* "Finally... I did it," Hiro sobbed in relief as he collapsed towards the dew-covered grass after knocking down the 12th boney projectile in a row. It had taken him 13 agonizing hours of non-stop shooting, but he had finally done it. His body was covered in bruises, his fingers felt like they were about to fall off, and he thought one or two of his bones might be cracked from repeated abuse, but it was all worth it. After a full night of effort, the sun was peeking over the horizon to pay homage to the might of his determination and effort. Finally, he could hit the bones Erza threw at him, well, at least 90% of the time. But that was good enough for him. He decided as his face buried itself in the soft mounds that had suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Good job, Husband." Erza's gentle voice lulled him deeper into the abyss as her warm, strong arms wrapped around him, supporting his collapsing weight. It was weird; even her cold hard breastplate felt comforting right now. Vague musings about how even metallic armor could feel good when he felt this bad were the last thoughts to cross his mind as he descended into the pit of darkness that would lead him to Earth.
The difference was immediately apparent, and he wasn't sure if it was for better or worse. On the one hand, he no longer hurt all over. On the other hand, he was no longer in the loving, supportive arms of his waifu.
*Ugh* Hiro grunted as he hauled himself to his feet and looked around his much cleaner apartment and then down at his hands as he clenched and unclenched them. He felt like sh*t. He was in better shape, far better shape, than he had been in months. But still, he felt like sh*t. Slimy, flimsy, uncoordinated, weak, dizzy, pathetic.
Hiro shook his head and chose to ignore the feeling. Two days ago, he had cleaned all the trash out of his apartment because he couldn't stand how filthy it was compared to the grotto. Yesterday, he had given it a deep cleaning because he still couldn't stand it. Now he was starting to have problems with himself? Enough! He wasn't going to waste any more time on things that didn't matter when he had more important work to do.
Another Earth day, another 24-hour study session on wilderness survival techniques. Hiro was eternally grateful for his so-called drawback. Without it, he had no idea how he would survive in the middle of the forest with only his weapon waifus. Part-Timer gave him hope for a better, more livable future. Something no Power could possibly provide him. Now it was time to return to Kamitsuki.
"Wakie Wakie! Time to get back to trainie!" Was the first thing Hiro heard as he regained consciousness in his Virgel-based body from his over-exuberant waifu.
"Time out!" Hiro called out, making a T with his hands, as Kage was reaching down to pull him to his feet. Kagetora stopped and gave him a look that promised punishment if he didn't have a damn good reason for spoiling her fun.
"We've been working on my martial skill for over a week now. I was hoping I could try out my Monster Maker Power today since it's got a good charge now." He quickly explained.
"*Haaaaa* Yeah, I guess that would be a good idea." His drill-sergeant instructor reluctantly admitted, rubbing the back of her head.
[Yes!] Hiro silently fist pumped in his head. He had really had enough with being beaten and continuously abused for the last week. Moving outside, he sat down and got comfortable with his back against a shady tree and pulled up the Monster Maker menu he had glanced at yesterday while Kage stood a ways away on guard as she practiced her spearmanship. Erza, as usual, had already left for her morning hunt before he awoke.
The same four monitors and keyboards tinted brown from his earth affinity from yesterday reappeared before him, only now he had time to take more than a momentary glance at them. Except for the central screen, the top and sides screens were mostly blank, with only a title at the top of them. The left screen was titled "Personality Matrix", the right "Skill Matrix", and the top "Monster Management". On the other hand, the central screen had a long list of monster species along with various sort and search parameters and a large number 9 in the upper right-hand corner that Hiro suspected represented his current balance of Wild Points. Currently, the list was sorted by cost.
[Ok. The first thing we need is something to make hunts more efficient. The more monsters I make, the more food we will need to feed them all. If we are talking about hunting partners, then, of course, we have to choose man's best friend.] Hiro thought as he opened the monster species filter tab and selected canine and checked the group "6<12", "10<25", "20<50", "50<100", and "100<" options. After a quick buffer time, the list changed to show only different canine type monsters with a number in parenthesis at the end of their name representing how big the group was.
[Good, there is a discount for buying in bulk. Now let's see here. The cheapest option is a pack of 50 wild dogs for only 1WP. Too cheap. They would just be prey for the monsters here. Let's add a price filter. I have 9WP, and I'm going to want them to have ensured loyalty and add a few skills, so let's go with 4-6.] Hiro estimated as he added the new filters.
[Better. Hmmm, I can get 6 hellhounds for 6 or 12 Dire Wolves for 4. It looks like Dire Wolves are considered less than hellhounds since they don't have elemental powers or a physical boost from their demonic blood. Hmmm, let's go with the Dire Wolf pack.] Hiro pondered for a while to narrow the numerous choices down to just two options before finally making his decision. With his decision made, he double-clicked on the "Dire Wolf(12)" line.
With his selection, the list in the central screen was replaced with a slowly revolving image of three Dire Wolves. Below the picture was a box with several tabs listing physical modifications and variance ranges for the group, while to the left of the image was a collum listing STR, strength, CON, constitution, AGI, agility, DEX, dexterity, SPR, spirit, INT, intelligence, WIS, wisdom, CHR, charisma, and LCK, luck with two letters next to them that could range from F- to S+ to indicate their quality.
The first letter was lower and appeared to represent the monster's individual power, and the second letter in parentheses seemed to express their power as a group. By hovering over each stat, Hiro could see the details of what they affected. STR represented how much damage you could do at once by going all out. CON represented how much of a beating you could take and how much stamina you had. AGI described how fast and agile you could move your body. DEX expressed how precisely you could move your body parts. SPR represented how strong your spirit was, which affected your magic reserves, defense, and regeneration. Intelligence described how powerful any magic you cast was. Wisdom conveyed how skillfully and effectively you could use magic. CHR represented how good a leader you are. And LCK simply represented how lucky you are. There was also a plus/minus button next to each stat as well where he could use WP to modify them.
[I'll leave the physical modifications as is. That will really only matter once I start creating humanoid monsters.]
While the top screen stayed the same, and the central screen was an easy-to-understand RPG character creation screen, the left and right screens were far more complicated. They looked like complex three-dimensional webs of interlocking glowing nodes that shone with varying degrees of brightness in either green, red, or white. After some fiddling, Hiro found that the green nodes represented personality traits/skills that the monster(s) he was working on already had, red nodes represented ones that conflicted with the green nodes, and white nodes represented ones that they didn't have, but could be bought with WP. The brightness of a node showed how prevalent it was. For example, a bright white node could be purchased for 0.1 WP, while an almost black node would cost a full point. However, it always rounded up to the nearest full WP when calculating the cost. Also, while proximity to green nodes tended to result in brighter white nodes, it wasn't an absolute rule. For example, on the one hand, the craftsmanship cluster of nodes was close to the bright green teamwork cluster. However, the craftsmanship nodes were all dark red, meaning it would take 2 full Wild Points to take any of them. On the other hand, the wind and darkness magic nodes were a dim white despite being far away from any green nodes denoting that either of them could be taken for less than a full Wild Point.
The personality matrix was even more complicated, with green and red nodes influencing the white nodes around them in even more convoluted ways. Any change Hiro made seemed to change the entire layout of the matrix, with parts dimming and brightening in ways he doubted he would ever be able to understand. Thankfully, a drop-down menu listed several preset personalities such as Tsundere, Authoritative, Yandere, and Submissive. Each of which could be purchased for a full point initially and further preset options could be bought for slightly more or less depending on how they meshed with the current choices along with a random option that was free.
[I think I'll just leave the personality matrix as random for now. As long as I have Ensured Obedience checked, I don't really care what type of personality my hunting wolves have. For skills, let's give them shadow and body reinforcement magic, and sight, smell, and hearing enhancements. That brings my total to just below 7WP. Is there anything cheap that I can buy to fill the gap? Hmmm. Oh! Spirit enhancement is quite bright now. Granting them lightning magic has already increased their SPR, INT, and WIS by half a grade, but one can never have too much MP.]
"And! Drum roll, please!?" Hiro announced with great bravado.
{*TrTrTrTrTrTrTrTrTrTr*}
"CREATE!" He shouted as he pressed the create button on the top screen. He looked around expectantly for his new monsters, but nothing happened.
{Bwa Bwa Bwaaaaaaa~} Susie teased Hiro for getting excited over nothing.
Instead, a line titled "Shadow Dire Wolf Pack(12)" had appeared on the top screen. To the left of the name was a chibi representation of the wolf pack image that had been on the central screen before with shadows writhing around them. To the right of the name were columns for "Mental Condition", "Physical Condition", and "Distance" along with options for "Update", "View", and "Summon". All the options were greyed out except Summon, and "Not Summoned" was listed under Mental, Physical, and Distance.
"Guess I have to summon them first," Hiro murmured as his face turned a light shade of pink from Susie laughing in his head at his blunder. Quickly shaking the embarrassment off with a shake of his head Hiro quickly pressed the Summon button without any additional fanfare.
With a flash of light, 12 jet black wolves, the size of small horses, appeared in the clearing.
**AWOOOOOO** The twelve newly created shadow dire wolves threw back their heads and howled to the noonday sun announcing their arrival in this world. Hiro couldn't control his face as it almost split in two from the pride and excitement he felt looking at his monsters as they finished their howling and bowed their heads towards him, grey eyes shining with adoration.