30 Puppy Power

Over the next few days we had been doing around our camp rooting out all of the monsters in the area other than those seemed harmless, mostly plant eating monsters like the Tosser Rabbits. These creatures were mostly a trouble to deal with, and not worth the effort especially since our first task was to secure the area. On the fourth day, we noticed an anomaly amongst the creatures here and we were currently sitting around a fire to discuss it in full.

"They're becoming thinner, the creatures in this part should be plentiful but we've come upon less and less. Last time this happened there was a storm that swallowed up this area." Zack ate from one of the legs over top the fire.

"We can't just leave based on an assumption though, we both know they won't give me a refund and they don't let us alchemists outside the area that often." I sipped at a tea made from medical herbs found in the area.

"They make it harder for you guys who come from important background, yes. Maybe I can report things from here with the guild then come back?" I shook my head at Zack's suggestion.

"Other hunters have probably reported the situation, if there was danger they'd send a report through the stone they gave you." Every hunter had a stone with them that could receive messages from the guild they report to. This was put in place to make sure hunters weren't lost in a natural disaster or should another kingdom attack. "Plus you know my experiments have been failures. 37 monster cores have been used and I was only able to create one that fit my needs.

A man sitting with us at the fire grabbed at one of bigger pieces of meat, tearing into it with his sharp teeth a bit of the juices running down his jaw and fur. The man was five foot six inches in height and had a slick, yet muscular shape to his body much like an athletic swimmer. His eyes gave off an animalist yellow shine in the dark of his cloak, this was Luci.

He had stopped growing yesterday, but if you took off his cloak you could tell he was not human fairly easily. Four tentacles ran down his back widening at the end shaped like a flat diamond, these didn't have suckers but had hook like claws to attach, tear and pull in victims. Both his hands and feet ended in claws that could retract, much like that of a cat's.

He reminded me of a werewolf version of a displacer beast at this point, if it wasn't for the scales that ran over his body in certain areas. The sides of his chest, his spine, tail, and face were covered in a deep black bone scales. The face scales, were actually one solid piece looking like a mask over his head that only separated in the jaw area with its own separate jaw, in the middle of the forehead was a bright white crystal. The mask itself had a series of teeth on it as well to rend flesh and muscle. His armored tail ended in a double edged point, that could be used much like a sword.

All in all his whole body could be used as a weapon at some point. I had also upgraded his name since Luci didn't quite fit his current form. Lucif was his new name since he didn't want to lose the first name I had given him so we came to a compromise. As he swallowed the torn flesh, he looked to me, "We also need to find a way to hide Lucif, as Lucif can't change size or looks." He still hadn't gotten rid of his habit of talking in the third person though.

"Yeah I'm pretty sure I'd be investigated the moment they saw the ten beasts beside me trying to come into their city." I sighed, I hadn't quite thought they'd become so big. Lucif was the only one who changed to a humanoid form though.

"The forest is where fate wants us, the path to become stronger is coming to us and the forest is the best place to grab it." A small bird chirped, a crow with three legs and twice the size of a normal bird, much of them had taken the shapes of animals though highly modified to their own preferences. I still didn't understand why the crow needed a third leg and claw.

"Fate magic?"

"Yes my lord. Fate is strong in this area, it would be best to stay here for the time being." The crow squaked. The inside of the bird's beak had tiny serrated edges on it, settled on the inside so it's beak looked the same as any other when it was closed.

Ten of these creatures was my limit, I don't know why trying to make another one drains something inside me. I feel almost like the fire out of my life is gone when I start the spell, like my passion, my anger, all my rage just goes away. These spells used feelings as a fuel, I didn't want to overdraw my emotions since I didn't know the effects.

Not the little demons were big now, many of them stayed a small size taking after small creatures. The third I named was due to its intellect, naming it after the Norse god of trickery, Loki. It had taken a form similar to a fox, giving it a circuit for space, which requires the most calculations of the magics he had a floating cloth like material around his neck which could be manipulated to make many things including hands for delicate things, otherwise it looked like a scarf. With his space magic he has learned that he can freely make his body bigger or smaller to take the form of a fox cub, or a monsterous ten foot fox with little to no effort.

Checking on the system I sighed, only 3 more days until the castle was complete with the last tower going into place right now. I suspected that once the castle was in place something big would happen to the system but I couldn't predict anything yet. A strange wind was blowing, with my connection I could tell there was danger coming but I trusted Paschar's fate magic. His spells have been beneficial ever since I gave him the circuit.

With the system up, something was blinking in one of the tabs, I opened it up curiously.

'Ten Dogs have been killed by user, would you like to create a dog worker for 10 gold?'

"Yes of course."

'Dog Worker: Specializing I'm digging these creatures can be used to either dig out squares or till fields at twice the speed of others.'

A corgi suddenly appeared around the castle gates, and started running around and barking. With a chuckle I upgraded it five times for a 175 gold. A new order was attached to the dog, and I clicked it.

'Search function activated, state duration.'

"The same time it takes for the castle to finish."

'Three days, four hours, twenty four minutes added to search function!'