The cell phone made a soft beeping noise then shut down. Scott had tried several times to contact his mother. She had not answered, and he did not know what to do about that other than leave a message.

“I hope she’s alright.” He tossed the phone aside casually.

He powered up his computer and waited for the decrepit device to properly boot up. The laptop was only a year old, but it ran about as fast as a ninety year old man.

Several minutes passed in silence before he was able to coax his computer into acquiring an Internet connection. “I told the girls that I wouldn’t be back till tomorrow morning. Might as well pay my bills and do some shopping.”

The aggravating technological device puttered along and tried to freeze up a few times, but he managed to pay out his monthly bills. Afterward he also sent a few hundred dollars to his mother to help with her expenses. His bills were a little behind due to his recent troubles, but that was fine. He barely lived in this house anymore. At the moment he was merely keeping it up out of pretense.

Email was checked, and he blocked a few pornographic websites from sending him spam. Why would he need pathetic Earth porn when he could have as much amazing demi-human ass as he wanted?

The thought of demi-human ass reminded him that he had money to spend. He shut off his computer then used his beta tester privilege to call up the auction site via his menu system. He was greeted with a message prior to actively entering the site.

Hello! Welcome back to Alterra Auction Unlimited!

Since this is the first time that you have logged onto the site recently, you should notice a few changes. The most impressive change is the ability to check the auction site while you are actively living in Alterra.

Please enjoy your time here and happy shopping!

“Well, that’s good news.” He clicked through the site for a few minutes, but did not notice many changes despite the message that he had received.

Scott sat there for a moment and thought about his next moves. He had one hundred gold coins. That was not an obscene amount of money in the world of Alterra, but the dollar conversion was high right now. He could quite the game and live comfortable for a very long time on that money. “No way in hell I would do that, not after everything I’ve been through.”

He shook his head and moved on to his next thought. Jameson had tried to set him back on track. Scott knew what he meant after checking the books more carefully. They included basic skills such as equipment maintenance and cooking, but there were also two important books.

The master of monster girls called up his inventory screen and found that it was empty save for the skill books. He drew out the two books that had caught his attention. In his right hand, he held the Gunner’s Hand-Guide. In his left hand, he held the Field Commander’s Guide to War Volume I.

Scott placed the books on the table then picked up the skill book for mastering firearm usage. He opened it up and immediately received a prompt.

Would you like to learn the skill: Firearm Mastery?

Yes | No

“Yes.” He said it at the same time that he clicked on it. A bright light flared around the book, and then a stream of energy flowed into him.

You have learned Firearm Mastery! Due to your familiarity with firearms in general, your skill-level will advance twenty percent more quickly. You will also be able to perform maintenance on them with ten percent greater capacity.

“Sweet! I hope guns are more useful now. Scarlet did not think much of them before...” Scott knew the power of firearms on Earth, but he had not seen many on Alterra. They did not seem to be popular with anyone except for the city guards who manned the town gates.

Scott rubbed his chin for a moment then checked the firearm section of the auction site. Guns were certainly expensive weapons, but they were also plentiful. They were either more common, or even less popular than he had thought. He checked through the offerings then frowned. “What’s with this? Such basic names; pistol, heavy pistol, light rifle....Sheesh. They used to have names similar to weapons from here.”

He let the names go and started to look at stats. They all had a high attack rating, so he did not understand why people disliked them. Maybe it was the expense? You could reclaim arrows. You could not reclaim spent ammo-charges.

After reading through a few comments, both good and bad, he understood. Ranged weapons that were not thrown could not have their damage modified by player stats. Higher agility would allow you to aim better and possibly do the maximum damage, but stats did not increase the basic damage of the weapon. At some point, you would be able to completely resist a shot from a firearm or even punch harder than the damage from a gun.

“Interesting, they completely redesigned firearms to work using Alterra’s crystalized magic technology.” Firearms used to work using gunpowder, while a few ‘magic’ guns existed that would be used like beam weapons or low-end spell casters. Now firearms worked using the same kind of technology used to create endless water, and other things. They utilized an interactive series of specialized crystals to create and then propel ammunition forward with great power.

Another thing that seemed to annoy people was a restriction on taking firearms from this world to Alterra. The firearms in this world became inoperable there, and firearms form there became inoperable here. A sword or knife worked the same in either location, so people felt this was favoritism and gun hate.

“If I ever become strong enough to fight better without a firearm, I’ll just consider that to be a great day. Right now, I’ll take a gun.” Scott had decided to be practical. He would still train his hand-to-hand abilities and perhaps a melee weapon such as a sword or spear. Firearms would help him beef up his level quickly. He could worry about back training later if it proved necessary.

Scott looked through everything that he could find on site and purchased a weapon named “Black Super Light Shotgun”. It was a lightweight low-recoil semi-automatic shotgun with an attack rating of one hundred twenty. It could be fired eighteen times on a single charge. Why weren’t we funding this?

It was not an elegant weapon, but it did have a high attack power despite being a low-end shotgun. Of course, it looked a little odd and more than a little badass. It had a pistol grip and a fore grip, and no stock. Despite the low-recoil rating he needed a strength rating of eighteen in order to use it effectively.

Shotguns were good for their push back effect. This one could push back medium sized creatures. It also required less accuracy than a handgun or rifle. He would buy a handgun and a rifle later, but the shotgun seemed like a good weapon to start out with. The main detractor was its effective attack range, after all. Even on Alterra, Shotguns had the lowest effective range out of all firearm options.

“Well, I just spent fifty thousand dollars on a shotgun and one hundred shotgun ammunition crystals. Too bad I couldn’t just buy a shotgun here and take it there.” The commenters had been clear on that tactic being unworkable.

He picked up the other book and opened it up. Doing so allowed him to learn a passive ability called ‘Boost Morale.’ Whenever he was in charge of a party, they would always start a battle with improved morale. Mental based negative status effects would be reduced by ten percent automatically.

The other skills were learned in short order. He acquired cooking, equipment maintenance, and first aid. The skills were perfectly suited for someone who will spend most of their time in a party.

Scott thought about his situation for a moment. He needed equipment for both his own uses and for the girls. Further, he needed more girls! His class was that of a monster trainer who had decided to devote his time and effort to training demi-humans. His main skills focused on that factor almost exclusively. He could not afford to run an army at the moment, but he could form a squad.

“Scarlet did tell me to get more girls... Though, she also had a fit when I brought back Mina.” Of course, Scott suspected that she’d had a problem with that mostly because she had missed him and had been horny and alone while he had enjoyed himself thoroughly. Neither of the girls seemed to actually care if they were in a harem.

Running an army of horny monster girls could be a problem. He only had so much penis to go around, after all. “I’ll have to stand firm. Heh, firm... When my army gets to be too big, the common soldiers will have to just share me... The generals and commanders will be allowed quality time.”

The logistics of using sex as a proper reward for excellent service were quite disconcerting, but he would not think about it too much at the moment. He needed to build a squad before he could turn them into an army, after all.

“I have a flyer, and two tanks.” Scarlet was both at the same time. Mina did not know much about fighting, but as a minotaur she would be obscenely strong and have a natural instinct for it anyway. She would learn quickly.

“What I need are a medic, heavy ranged firepower, and a scout.” He could honestly use several of each, but one of each would be fine.

He took a deep breath then logged into the pet section. Immediately, images of naked demi-human girls and even the occasional human popped up. There were also monsters such as the horned rabbit for sale, but his powers and skills were primarily focused on demi-humans. Common monsters did not interest him at the moment. Though, that might change in the future.

The pricing bothered him greatly. He checked the weapons section again then returned to the pet section. He frowned. “How can these girls be worth less than a simple steel broadsword?”

Pets had been quite expensive before. Was there something wrong here?

“I should check the forums to see if anyone is talking.” He looked over the site forum then found a few different threads related to pet ownership. A smirk slowly rose upon his lips.

The smirk turned into a grin then a cocky nod of the head. “So, that’s it!”

After the changes were made to the system all of the supposed pets had grown drastically in intelligence. Unlike Scott, none of the other beta testers had skills specific to taming and training demi-humans. A typical monster trainer, and even those were rare among players, could not use their skills on demi-humans with as much effect. “So, the poor lil players keep losing their pets because their sex-slaves wised up and run away, now?”

Since it was useless for most people to try and keep demi-human pets, people were selling them at a lower price on the auction site. He suspected that the lower expense would change in a few months when Alterra was opened to the general public.

The monster trainer profession might become more popular. It was no longer ideal for training demi-humans, but it did offer a few skills that could work in that direction. Right now, he had a total monopoly on the proper skill-set, but he would need to act quickly to secure his status in the future. No more weepy-eyed bullshitting about human rights and all that.

“Now, do I buy a few pets?” He did need more people in his group, but how would Scarlet and Mina react? The cost has lowered, but even the least expensive demi-human was set at a starting bid of twenty gold coins. He also had lingering concerns about how much this seemed like slavery.

He thought back to conversations he’d had with Scarlet. Demi-human girls came to the human world in order to find strong mates. There were few male demi-humans, and most of those were found in undesirable races such as goblins. Many races had no males at all.

“How would a monster girl who wants a powerful mate react if she was purchased and ordered around by a level one scrub who she had never met before?” Scott considered his spoken thought for a moment. He did not need to think long on that topic. He would be crushed like a bug. Mina was only a few levels higher than he was when he had acquired her, and had only been interested because she wanted to be bred. Basically, she had been in a state of perpetual horniness and Scott had enthusiastically aided her in removing that status.

“Wait... but that changed, didn’t it?” Scott checked his information. He was right! If he acquired a new monster girl, to hell with calling them demi-humans all the time, they would automatically revert to level one. That was one of the main differences between his current class and a basic monster trainer class.

Scott acquired a goofy expression. “Dark Lord of Alterra, huh...”

It had just been a weird little thing to say, a fun expression. However, now he could see the possibilities. Defeat or buy a monster girl and then add her to his battle harem. Train them properly and watch them grow. Oh yes, that did sound lovely. Let the other players be knights or mages. He would become the lord of the sexy monster girls!

He checked the offerings thoroughly. “Oh, hell yes...”

Scott immediately made a bid on several girls who were close to the end of the auction. Sure, it felt weird to buy someone. However, that was something that he could deal with later. If they absolutely did not want to be part of his growing army, he’d cut his losses and set them free after they earned back the money he spent. Sure, it was a justification. Did it matter? No, not really.

An hour passed and he managed to acquire one the girls that he had bid on. There had only been a handful of bids the entire week that the girls had been up on the site, but at the last minute a few people had popped up to bid snipe.

“I just spent the equivalent of three hundred eighty thousand dollars to buy a naked girl for my harem... Either this is awesome, or I’m garbage...” He still had mixed feelings on the concept to be honest. On one hand, he could give the girl an interesting lifestyle. On the other, he was a douchebag. The two did not actually have to be exclusive states of being, so he decided that he would just meet the girl and see what happens.

He read through the purchase agreement then nodded. He would need to visit the auction house in Ervice if he wanted to claim his new pet. The money was taken immediately out of his holdings, but he had up to one week to claim her.

“Better remember that for the future. Only use the auction house when I’m near town.” It would be the same for anything that he purchased in the future. The auction was anonymous now. The auction house existed in most towns of a decent size. You would place items up on auction through a physical auction house location in Alterra, and then anyone in the world with access to the system could bid. Locals could even buy things if they went to their local auction house and made a bid.

They were all linked together as well. If you put something up for sale in one town, locals in the region could buy it. However, players could purchase it through the auction site anywhere in either of the two worlds involved.

“I’ll buy our equipment in town, I think. The prices are deadly right now unless you want girls and guns...” Who did not want girls and guns? Seriously, what was wrong with these people? Sub-optimal or not, it seemed like an awesome lifestyle.

Hell, now that he was being honest with himself... He had managed to acquire the best possible class to change his life. If he was going to go off on a tangent and live a real life power fantasy, it might as well include big guns and an army of sexy monster girls who wanted to do his bidding. The future certainly promised to be interesting if nothing else.

Scott smirked at the screen. “I went through absolute shit for this game. Nearly died for real, several times... Even turned into a bit of a wuss for a while... Still, it might be worth it.” While everyone else was playing a quirky massively multiplayer roleplaying game, he would be doing his best to play a real time tactical RPG.

He could not help but laugh in a sinister and perverted manner. Would he be seen as a hero or a villain? Who cared? He had guns and monster girls. It was time to get to work.

*****

The sights and sounds of the city were lively. In fact, everything was lively and active. Scott could scarcely believe how much the tiny town of Ervice had changed in twenty-four hours. There were a lot more people, for one thing. Some of those people were not human, for another.

A buff man wielding a massive spear trotted past accompanied by an oversized wolf with horns. Surprisingly, they were both wearing a version of the town militia uniform.

Scott walked down the street and peeked into store windows. He also watched couples walking by on the street. Demi-humans were everywhere. Before he had gone home the only demi-humans in town, other than Scarlet and Mina, were a handful of forcefully bonded workers at the saw mill. Now there were elves baking bread, amazon warrior maidens patrolling the streets, and cat-tailed dancers performing stylish dance moves on a nearby street corner.

“What the hell?” This was the end result of the changes to the world? Demi-humans and humans were living side-by-side in peace? He had expected that they would constantly be at odds. Before the change, demi-humans were considered powerful and evil monsters hell-bent on capturing and subduing humans as husbands and trophies.

He walked along the crowded streets and took it all in. His reverie was interrupted by a familiar voice. “Hey, Scott! You’re back from your trip?”

He looked toward the origin of the voice and saw Mr. Oldman, the farmer he had purchased Mina from. “Uh, yes. How are you today?”

“I’m right as rain. Your advice about taking it easy in my old age paid off! I sold the last of Mina’s milk and bought a specter.”

“Bought a specter?”

Mr. Oldman, the elderly farmer gestured to his left and said, “Don’t be shy Avery.”

“Hello, sir. I am Avery, Avery Specter.” A translucent girl faded into sight next to the older man. Scott could not help but stare. Despite the fact that she looked like some kind of ghost, she was quite beautiful.

The old fart slapped his knee and pointed at Scott. “Yep, I knew that would get you! Avery is going to be my nurse maid for my remaining years.”

The specter made a soft, embarrassed, noise then smiled. “Yes, he has a kind spirit.”

“Well, that’s wonderful.” Scott was genuinely happy for the older man, even if he had no idea why they were even talking. Mr. Oldman had been acting like he and Scott were well-acquainted. This particular conversation was the first that he recalled having with the man outside of a quick negotiation for what it would take to buy his cow, Mina.

“Oh, the demi-human auction is open for business now, obviously! I know you must be eager to see what you can find there!”

“Uh, thank you. That’s good to hear.” Scott tried to disregard the shudder he felt when he heard the words demi-human auction. His skin had felt like it was crawling with insects. His power base would rely on having an army of monster girls in the future, but he was still not one hundred percent on board with the ownership angle. Perhaps there was a better way...

The older gentleman continued to banter with Scott in a friendly way for several minutes then they parted ways. While they chatted amiably people would occasionally wave to Scott and call out things such as, “Hey, Scott!” or “Check it out, it’s that trainer.”

The strange level of recognition and general welcome he felt from the townspeople was almost ridiculous. What had happened? It was like he had led an entirely different life without knowing it!

“What is all of this?” This strange new Ervice made him feel like he was experiencing his first day in this world again.

Scott decided that he needed to get off the street before he attracted further attention. He had been gawking at his surroundings like someone who had never seen a city before. He immediately set off to find the motel he had been using as a base. He hoped that it would still be there.