Author’s Corner: I would like to thank those people that have contributed to Operation: Fundraiser so far, both as donators and as potential song-writers. Some people I spoke with seemed worried about the timeframe for this, so I will clarify that now. Although I do not have a set writing schedule, since I just write when the mood hits me, I plan to finish up this arc in roughly 2 weeks or so. Until then, the details of Operation: Fundraiser are still valid, though some awesome people are trying to tell me not to pay them if they win. This is what I have to say to them!

Spoiler :

Now! With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter!

Having finished my talk with Celeste, I walked around the ship for a few minutes. To be honest, I was just procrastinating the continuation of my quest. But soon, something started to feel… wrong. “Sharon…” I called out to her on my comm. “Where is Yo? And Kismet, for that matter. They are being surprisingly… quiet. This scares me.”

There was a low giggle from the comm as she responded. “Yo was pretty upset, you know? She’s been getting hurt a lot recently. So while you were out of it, she started taking Kismet down to the surface to train. Don’t worry, they’re both in clone bodies, and she comes back up every now and then when he accidentally kills her.”

… “Ah…” I was now curious, so I made my way to the bridge.

“Captain on the bridge!” Someone shouted out before I had the chance to stop them. Yeah, that’s right Ackbar, I’m glaring at you. Suddenly, everyone stood up and turned around.

“...At ease…” I let out a low sigh, sending another glare at the smirking elf. “Can you pull up Yo and Kismet on the screen?”

As I asked, a large holographic screen appeared at the front of the room. On it, Kismet and Yo were fighting a seemingly fierce battle. The slime girl was already using more complicated strategies, despite it only having been about a week and a half. When it looked like she would throw a punch, her arm would suddenly branch out and form a dozen lances, all striking from different angles.

Of course, this was also the first time I had seen Kismet fighting, as well. The area around his feet in a ten foot radius had become pitch black, as if a terribly dark shadow was cast over it. The moment Yo stepped in this area, a spear or a sword would rise up from the ground. When she pulled back, he would pull the black weapon out of the ground and throw it at her.

Even when Yo formed a pair of identical swords in her hands, and fought Kismet while dual wielding, it was hard for her to land a solid hit. This was obviously due in part to his high level, but you could also say that Kismet was born for battle. He was originally a dungeon boss, after all. However, he also had trouble dealing real damage to her, as well.

At one point, he even picked up a giant rock from the ground to try and crush her. Instead, her body seemed to liquify, and split off in a dozen directions, before her body turned into twenty lances that surrounded him from all angles, each one connected by only a thin stream of slime. When that happened, he grabbed one of his dark spears. Tendrils of black energy shot out from it, before freezing over her entire body.

Rather than shattering her, Kismet simply jumped out of the encirclement and waited for her to thaw off before they started another round. I was relieved to see that he hadn’t suddenly become a battle junkie, but I was starting to think that Yo might be heading that way instead.

Either way, I was able to tell that neither of them were in any real danger, and Yo was making considerable progress…. Does that mean I can’t procrastinate anymore? With a reluctant sigh, I headed for the teleport bay to be sent back down to the lab. Once again, Yin had been chosen as the one to join me, and we got to work on creating Frankenstein’s Time Monster…. Frankentime’s monster?

Whatever, point is we got back to work. And after a long, boring, whole one attempt we managed to strike big. Seriously? If I had stayed down here for five more minutes I would have already been done with this quest?! Oh, wait, you’re probably wondering what I made, aren’t you?

Once again, when I set the formations, I set them arbitrarily. Because I was bored and trying to be funny, I set all eight to gather six hundred and sixty-six mana of the different types. I figured at the worst case scenario, I’d die and lose a level. But what happened, I could have never predicted.

Similar to the incident with the time moose, mana began pooling rapidly in the center of the large formation. But, if the reaction from the time moose had caused a swirl of mana, then this one was practically a tornado! I couldn’t even see through the dense mana that had become fully opaque.

Soon after the process began, I heard a high pitched scream. Out of fear, I quickly glanced over to Yin, who had been standing right next to me. However, I only found that she was also looking right at me, confused. The voice hadn’t come from either of us… and nobody else was down here.

The owner of the voice was not apparent until the mana faded enough for us to see the center of the circle. Inside, crying pitifully was a small girl curled up in a ball. Judging from her physical appearance, she did not seem any older than eight years old. However, she was by no means human. Atop her head were two white, fluffy pointed ears. More importantly, from behind her there was a long, thin tail covered in white fur, with spots of black at its tip.

Congratulations, you have made your very own fox-loli! And she is from a never before seen race, as well! Would you like to use this as your submission for your quest?

I ignored the message and quickly ran over to the shivering, whimpering girl. “Are you alright?” I asked, foolishly realizing that she was just born, and naturally has no way to communicate with me. In an attempt to communicate, I tried speaking through various mana types. Surprisingly, it wasn’t until I reached time mana that she showed some reaction. Even if that reaction was just to flinch and curl up into a tighter ball.

Sighing, I realized that there was no way I’d be able to communicate with her like this. As such, I used my Soul Arts to grant her the human and elven languages. “Are you okay? Do you hurt anywhere?” I asked again once I was done, trying to sound comforting.

She flinched again, but I saw her eyes open wide as she realized that she understood my words. Slowly, her mouth opened up and she spoke. “Wh...what… where am..I?” Her voice was small and light, and broken up to show her fear.

I looked around, not really sure how I should take care of this. “You’re safe.” Yin spoke up softly beside me, reaching out to gently stroke her hand along the kitsune’s long silver hair. “You’re safe..” She repeated again, even more softly.

However, at that moment, I felt a sudden rush of time mana. At the same time, I heard a scream, both verbal and through time mana. When I looked down, she had completely changed her position, but was now clinging to Yin’s hand. “Don’t… don’t go.” She pleaded desperately.

Yin seemed surprised, and almost pulled her hand back on reflex, but forced herself to calm down. “We’re not going anywhere…” She continued to speak calmly, apparently not sure what was going on herself. She cast me a look, but I just shook my head. Did she have a panic attack triggered by her sudden birth, or something?

“Can you tell us your name?” I tried asking, and she looked over to me confused.

“Name…? I...do I have one?” After I explained to her about the status window, in the hopes that she would have a name assigned to her like Kismet did, she furrowed her brows. “Stats… status… it’s… not working… d-did I do it wrong?” Her eyes had gone wide, and she seemed on the verge of panic again when Yin resumed petting her head to calm her down. Thankfully, she seemed particularly weak to petting.

You’ve got to give her a name, man! How can the system recognize something that has never existed before if you don’t at least give it a name?

I furrowed my brows, and tried to think of a name. I admit… I suck at naming. Just look at Yin, Yang, and Yo. “No, John. No more ‘Y’ names! Not allowed!” Celeste called out from my mind, but soon she also appeared in the lab.

“Fine… well…” I began trying to think of a name-- “I’ll call you Tokemi!” And suddenly the scared fox girl was embraced by the Deus Ex, trying to squirm her way out of Celeste’s grip while sending desperate expressions towards us.

However, a moment later her eyes went wide. “It… worked. Tokemi…” She gave a small smile, relaxing in Celeste’s grip as she seemed to read over the status window that suddenly appeared.

“What does it say for your race?” I tried asking, sending a small glare to Celeste, who just stuck her tongue out in response.

“It says… ‘Baishiro’... what does that mean?” She looked around, confused. Honestly, none of us knew either, even Celeste, apparently. I mean, it ‘sounded’ Japanese, but I wasn’t fluent in the language by any means, so I couldn’t be sure.

However, Tokemi just kept looking at us, as if waiting for an answer. “It means adorable.” Yin spoke with a smile, which caused the newborn monster girl to light up in a wide grin. However, another rush of time mana came surging in, and suddenly she was out of Celeste’s arms, clinging to Yin’s leg while trembling.

“That… is a problem…” I shivered as I realized exactly what was happening. For some reason, Tokemi was randomly pulling in large amounts of time mana into her body. This caused a time stop effect for her… and I knew all too well what that could do to a person. What made it worse was that I had no idea just how much she was stuck in time for at any given period.

“Celeste…” I looked over to the Deus Ex, and she nodded. If this girl was experiencing random time freezes, that was a problem that needed to be handled. Of course… we also needed to handle the issue of the baishiro loli being naked. Celeste, can you start a program to set me to start gathering time mana when it condenses like that? At the very least… she won’t be alone, and I might be able to pull her out.

Celeste nodded to me, but spoke into my head instead of verbally. “I need you to gather time mana on your own for a little bit so I can identify the variables.”

Following her instructions, I focused all of my effort on pulling in time mana, waiting for Celeste to give me the okay to stop. I waited for nearly ten minutes in my own little bubble, though time still seemed to be moving on the outside, at a fairly slow pace.

“That’s enough.” She told me mentally, and I stopped gathering the mana. Though, at the same time, I noticed that Tokemi was suddenly looking at me with wide eyes. Did she notice me pulling in the time mana? I asked myself, smiling to the girl and nodding. In response, she hid herself behind Yin’s legs shyly, barely peeking out to the side to watch me. Yin, having misunderstood the reaction, laughed lightly.

Ahem… now, as sweet as this moment is, you never did give me an answer! Do you want to register the cute loli as your final submission or not?

Huh? Ah… right, forgot about that. Looking down to Tokemi, and seeing that pleading look in her eyes, I can’t help but accept. Why would I want to keep making more monsters now? Now, I’m not a lolicon or anything, but we need to help her get adjusted to the world! Plus, since I’m the only one of us that can do time stuff, I’ve got to stick near her in case she gets one of her episodes.

Yeah yeah. Anyways…

You have completed your Quest!The Miracle of Life

Rank ★★★★★★ Creation

You did it! You created a completely unique monster, which has never appeared before in all of time and space! Now, originally the reward was based on the size of the monster... and a loli is pretty small. However, you created a sapient creature! The impact of that is much larger, so you get the maximum reward! Yay, you!

Reward: Title, Large Favor with Malthan

New Title Acquired!Creator of Baishiro

Increased relationship with Baishiro race.

You have created a new sapient species. As such, that species will always retain loyalty to you, even if others manage to create the same species.

I looked at the windows, and almost dismissed them. However, then I looked at Tokemi, and frowned. I should get something to help make her more comfortable around me, at least.

Malthan, about that favor… I think I’ve got an idea.

Yeah? Speak up. Or, think up. One or the other..

Can I get something that helps me absorb elemental mana types more easily?

Hmm… I think I can swing something like that. Let me talk to a few gods I know and get back to you. It’s okay if the item isn’t a chatterbox, right?

Huh? Yeah… I wouldn’t really want a talkative item. Already got one voice in my head that’s not mine.

Sweet, hold please.

I swear, I wasn’t annoyed until the elevator music began playing in my head. Thankfully, it only lasted about ten seconds before it was over.

Alright! So, I worked out a deal with the others. However, due to the scope of the item, we’re not giving it intelligence, nor will this item ever be able to obtain intelligence, so get that idea out of your head right now! Now, I present to you the Staff of the Minor World. Cue fanfare.

I did not need actual confetti to suddenly appear around me and fly into the air, shocking everyone in the room. That was totally unhelpful. However, the confetti then all froze in midair and swirled together in my hands to form a two meter long silver staff, with a jewel at the tip the size of my fist. This jewel seemed to radiate every color at once, and I could feel mana overflowing from within it. Not just one or two types, either… every element I could sense seemed to be coming from the gem.

Staff of the Minor World

This object was created as a collaborated effort by all of the elemental gods. If you melt it down for scrap, you will have their wrath to deal with. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Special effect: Elemental mana source(All)

Celeste suddenly turned to look at me, her jaw dropping slightly as she saw the information of the staff through my eyes. “You cheat character!” She called out in mock rage, while Yin and Tokemi looked on in confusion.