2 A Passing of Years and Growth

{Progenitor System

Level - 3

Create +

Combine +

Improve +

Creatures Created - 2

Creatures Killed - 86

Creatures Combined - 3

Creatures Improved - 17

Monthly allotment of creations available - 1

Monthly allotment of Combinations available - 0

Monthly allotment of improvements available - 1}

I frowned at the screen for a moment. Eight years. It took eight years to get to level three and manage what I have in terms of success. I should start with the level I suppose. A reiteration to refresh my own memory. Repetition is the foundation of life and habit.

With the increase, minor though it is, in level for the System I managed to improve success chances. Success chances were a hidden stat it seemed as well. Without the ability to either judge or see that chance I played Russian Roulette with the lives of the animals on my parents' farm. Which leads me past a lot and directly into the 'Creatures Killed.' I didn't actually fight and kill any monsters, that kill count is the result of failed creations, combinations, and improvements. One in each every month for eight years. One-hundred and eight chances in total that proved to have disastrous results.

The only good thing is I learned from each failure. I was fairly confident in judging when a success would actually happen now at least. It would still take trial and error to perfect the feeling involved. To backtrack a bit I had just succeeded in improving one of my parents' more dangerous creatures, or monsters. This world seemed to switch between the terms fluidly. For now, I'll stick to creatures. Moving on from that tangent then, the creature I had improved is a canine creature that is somewhat uncommon in our region. Lupine is the name. Wolf-like in nature and appearance. Where they differ from actual wolves is they don't live in packs choosing instead to live in solitary mating pairs. They do mate for life and are territorial as hell, however.

{Lupine

Level - 4

Female

Str - 4

End - 5

Spd - 3

Int - 2

Skill - Lone Hunter

Description - A relatively uncommon breed of the canine variety. May be improved extensively.}

This particular Lupine was my personal pet. One I had chosen from a litter three years ago. The fact I could walk into a den of one of the more dangerous creatures on my parents' farm had both shocked and terrified them. They were baffled when I selected a single pup, this young female, and walked out without coming to harm.

The bafflement was well founded as well. These creatures had been known to kill their farm hands after birthing a litter of pups because of their protective instincts. It's why they tended to wait months before separation began.

In my mind, it was a simple fact of being more dangerous. An animal, no matter the breed or species, instinctively will try to keep themselves from being overly harmed. This is because if they are hurt extensively then they will not survive long in the wild. Beyond that, I had spent my years earning my 'place' among the creatures of the farm. They respected power, confidence. Basically, I had dominated them one by one in a manner all creatures understood, by staring them down and making sure they knew that to attack me would result in them being hurt badly enough that they would join me.

Of course this only really worked on the smaller beasts, not that the Lupine was truly small since it stood at five feet when fully grown. Regardless of the methodology, the Lupine were all submissive to me to a degree. I still had to play it smart during that period of time, and I made sure to only take one, the one with the highest potential.

I had learned that the descriptions actually gave me a hint toward their potential as a whole. I had only seen three so far, however; minimal, average, extensive. I truly feel that I am missing a few but it would do for now. I had also just improved my little Lupine, or Saga as I called her. Patting her massive head while she looked down at me panting I couldn't help my smile at her. She was a beautiful specimen with mottled brown and white coloring and a single black streak on her nose.

I had improved her a total of three times and with those improvements, I had increased her endurance, the equivalent of natural defensive capabilities, her intelligence, and finally, I had improved her with an ability. The ability part I had only learned about after reaching level three.

Lone Hunter as an ability seemed to passively increase her hunting abilities. Things like tracking, sneaking up on prey and taking them down. It was minimal, but the abilities seemed to have both stat requirements and level requirements. The screen when it was pulled up never showed everything. I could only assume it dealt with the level of the System itself making it incredibly frustrating.

"Go on and play Saga, bring back something new and I'll give you a really nice treat," I whispered into her ear while rubbing her neck and shoving her away playfully. She let out a soft growl and then bounded away from the farm, toward the empty fields that separated the farm from the dense forest and the dangers that lurk within.

I watched her go for a moment, marveling in the sheer power of her muscles as they worked in tandem to move her. This had been a game we started playing when I was sure nothing local could kill the one pet I had actually taken as mine. She would go hunting, hone her skills naturally and bring me back new creatures or something unique. Her increased intelligence was a boon in that regard.

I focused back on my screen and sighed a moment. Thankfully my overly doting mother wasn't around to hear it. She took some sort of sick pleasure in pointing out all of my audible or visible signs of emotion. I had only succeeded in creating two creatures that were unique beyond compare for both their utility and sheer weakness.

I had multiple quests over the years that granted me bonus traits to add to my creations. These were both positive and negative traits. It was interesting, I actively had to balance the pros and cons for the creatures. I did find it fun, though my version of balanced appeared to be at odds with the System. Alas, my glorious babies that had turned to dust were gone forever. What I had succeeded with were wondrous creatures though.

{Parasitic Armor Beetle - Matriarch

Level - 2

Female

Str - 0

End - 6

Spd - 1

Int - 1

Trait P - Create Armor, Symbiotic

Trait C - Parasitic, Weak, Bound to Host

Description - A Parasitic beetle that must bind itself to a single host. The creature cannot survive without its chosen host. Able to create a bio-organic armor (coverage based on level) to protect the host. Devours Hosts blood frequently. Able to be improved extensively}

{Gold Thread Spider - Matriarch

Level - 2

Female

Str - 1

End - 1

Spd - 2

Int - 2

Traits P - Gold Spinner

Traits C - Limited, Feeble, Blind, Single Birth

Description - An incredibly weak and timid spider capable of spinning gold thread. It is limited to a single thin strand a day, or it perishes. May only birth one spider a month. The creatures are subterranean and blind. Able to be Improved Extensively.}

The best of those two creatures is obviously my personal parasite beetle. The creature burrowed into my flesh when I made it a while ago. It leaves only to lay its eggs, which I just release into the world as I wish. The beatles aren't really a concern after all. I did give one of the offspring to Saga, however. She had tried to bite me because of the pain, a quick punch to the nose stopped that. Mostly the shock had.

The spiders were very, very different though. Those were my future emergency funds in the making. I had set the Matriarch, the first, into a large enclosure in my own little area on the farm, or my room, where she has birthed three other spiders and they were spinning golden thread in their hallows for me. A single thread amounted to pretty much nothing, but it would add up over time. The first one had already made enough threat for a single gold coin, about the cost of a single Horned Rabbit, so it wasn't too bad. Playing the long game there and with the beetle embedded in my body.

I wasn't sure about how the levels worked yet. Experiments point toward it being based on their stats. The stats improve naturally of course, through training, battle so on and so forth. Improving them was the best way for that, however. I was obviously not keen on simply improving Saga or my two creations so I test it all on the animals on the farm or that Saga brings me.

The Combination options proved more difficult. The one time it worked was on a paid of male Horned Rabbits and they had single-handedly improved the quality of all Horned Rabbits on the farm through mating. It was interesting and I couldn't figure out why only that one time had worked. It would take more tests to truly figure it out. Always testing so I could master this new skill as I had begun mastering my own body through training.

I closed the screen and shrugged my shoulders, easing the tension in the developing muscles there and along my neck. Looking behind me toward the Lupine stables I could see my father working with a few of the pups. The Lupine was primarily sold for guards in the town twenty miles south of us or to the army during times of war to be used as expendable shock troops against enemy creatures.

That part pissed me off, but it saved manpower as well. Reality told me it was needed, as did rationality, still didn't mean I had to like it though. Turning my gaze from my father I saw mother in the other large creature stable, the Frackles. It was a really strange name for what amounted to armored rats the size of fucking rhinos. Each weighed several tons and had armored plates instead of fur. The funniest part was they were herbivores and timid beyond all compare. They were mostly used in the same way cattle had been used in my last life. It was actually somewhat funny to realize I was eating what amounted to giant rat each night. The fact they tasted like chicken just made it funnier.

I was ten now, the age when most children were forced to choose an occupation of some sort, apprenticeship really. I'd made my choice three years ago during a trip into town that I had been allowed to join. I had managed to slip away and explore a bit, finding what amounted to an Adventurer Guild. I would join them as a 'Beast User.' Something like Tamer if I went by RPG classes. It would allow me to take on very interesting missions to help improve Saga's tracking abilities and test the theory on training in a certain way making improvements in that direction more likely to succeed.

When I informed my parents, my mother had threatened to do everything but hogtie me and have a Frackle sit on me. Father had only looked at me in that manner he had since I was two and displayed behaviorisms and habits well above my age.

In the end, we had come to an understanding. I would be allowed to join the Adventurer Guilds training program, which would be where I went at my age regardless, but if I failed in any way I would be denied the option. I had accepted. The fact the deal fired up my competitive nature and desire to win had a lot to do with that as well. I was fairly certain mother planned to kill my father over that in the end. Later that night, after the initial conversation, I think she had been planning to replace me with another infant. That worked for me as well. It hadn't happened yet though.

Doing several stretches to warm up and loosen my muscles I started my jog. My body was still a ten-year-olds so lifting like I wanted to would only harm me. Running was about all I could really do without damaging my growth and body. Running worked everything if done right though, so it still worked out in the end.

"Are you ready to leave tomorrow boy?" I looked up from my cool down stretches to see my father leaning against a fence post while he watched me. As always he was an average looking man, wide and sturdy. He was filled with what I knew to be 'farmer muscle' where everything was compacted and hard. It made him look like he was out of shape when he was nothing but hardened muscle.

"Yes" was my singular answer. He watched me a bit longer before letting out an explosive sigh and rubbing the back of his head.

"Look, boy, I know yer different but yer mama needs some assurances. Something to show you give a Frackles shit about her. She's been nothing but doting over the years and you leaving terrifies her."

Ah, that explained why he was talking to me right now. He wanted me to comfort mother somehow. I grimaced at the notion. I'd done it once before without realizing it. It had made her feel better during that period of time, but now she was always hunting for some display that she mattered. The problem was that neither of them really did to me.

"Don't grimace boy! Just do it, for your mama." I eyed him a bit more then. My father was a quiet man but he seemed to know how to get me to do shit. Could it be a form of mutual respect? Didn't matter in the end. I could cave this once if it meant less of an issue when I finally joined damn Adventurer Guild.

"Fine," he nodded at my answer and then walked off. Being a child was fucking annoying. I was old enough to join the 'workforce' here but not old enough to actually be on my own. The lack of power aside I was still unable to realistically make it on my own in this world.

I took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled to finish my the cooldown and turned toward the forests where Saga had gone off to. She was late, normally came back after an hour or two. I was debating on whistling to call her home when I managed to catch a glimpse of movement along the tree line.

It was Saga, I couldn't make out anything but her figure but she seemed to be pulling something? The thing she had seemed to still be alive based on her staggered running. Apparently, it didn't like being carried in a fully grown Lupines mouth. Not like I could really blame it for that either. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be inside one of those massive maws either.

I have to admit that it was comical to watch. A five-foot tall canine carrying what looked like a child in its mouth while it stumbled and bounced around trying to stay upright...wait, child? I groaned aloud at the idea that Saga had abducted a child. Please, please don't be a child.