Chapter 13: Building a Better Monster (II)

I reopen my laptop and press the power button. Since I closed it yesterday, it has been hibernating so it starts up rather quickly. I click on my user icon and type in my password to get to the desktop. As my laptop is resuming its suspended operations, a stray thought pops into my mind.

‘I can use my newly ill-gotten gains to finally get a driving permit and my driver’s license, and eventually a vehicle of my own. Maybe I can even get Jess to teach me how to drive, in order to spend more time with her?’

As my mind wanders in along those lines, the sounds coming from my laptop cause my mind to return to the matter at hand.

The introductory video that I say yesterday was playing again, but since I didn’t want to waste time watching it again, I closed out of it along with the rest of my internet browser. I look at my desktop image for a few seconds before open my word processor once more. As I stare at the empty document, I recall the structure and format I used to construct all my previous lease documents. With that in mind, I begin typing.

‘I now call this meeting to order. The Master of Discussion will be the Honorable O. Please go ahead.’

O: ‘Of course, Master. I shall start with the roll call, because we should have everyone in attendance for this. To start us off, Master?’

‘Here.’

O: ‘L?’

L: ‘Present.’

O: ‘M?’

M: ‘Still alive.’

O: ‘D?’

D: ‘Yes?’

O: ‘And last and certainly the least “*”.’

Oh? I’m actually invited for once to this little get together? I am shocked. Really I am. On a side note, I feel that you just insulted me.

‘I really hope you know what you are doing O.’

O: ‘Of course, Master. Even if we didn’t invite “him”, “he” would still show up. So by inviting “him” we can bind him to the rules of this meeting.’

‘Oh I see.’

Do you really think I will obey your lousy rules “O”?

O: ‘You will or you will be silenced until this meeting is adjourned. Unlike the others, I have little tolerance for interruptions.’

I would like to see you try!

O: ‘D? If you would be so kind as to take the minutes of this meeting?’

D: ‘Very well?’

O: ‘Thank you. Let it be on record that “*” will be unable to speak unless allowed to by me while this meeting is in progress.’

*: ...? …!?! …!

O: ‘You may speak *.’

*: What did you do? How did you do that?

O: ‘I am the Overseer. I oversee everything that happens within Master’s mind. Nothing escapes my notice and under the right circumstances, I can make my will law.’

*: What kind of bullshit is this? I…’

O: ‘*’s Right to speak is now revoked.’

*: …!

O: ‘Now that this is resolved, I shall state the remaining rules of this meeting. Any objections?’

L: ‘No Objections.’

‘No Objections.’

M: ‘No Objections.’

D: ‘No Objections.’

*: I object!

O: ‘Overruled. Since the decision is unanimous, let me continue.’

*: …! …!

O: ‘First: I will give people permission to speak as needed so there won’t be any interruptions when someone is speaking, unless of course, I allow it. Any questions, from anyone besides *?’

M: ‘I have a question, if I may?’

O: ‘Go ahead.’

M: ‘How will you know who needs to say something if we cannot speak?’

O: ‘A good question. The answer is quite simple. I can tell when someone wants to speak and when they do not.’

M: ‘But…’

O: ‘Yes, I can especially tell when someone lacks a physical body, so your worries are unfounded M.’

M: ‘I see.’

O: ‘Any further questions? No? Then let me continue. I reserve the right to interrupt anyone at any time, to say something or allow someone else to interrupt. Finally, this meeting will continue until I or Master says otherwise. Have I made myself clear?’

‘Yes.’

L: ‘Crystal.’

M: ‘Perfectly.’

D: ‘I understand.’

*: Fine.

O: ‘Excellent. Now that the rules are out of the way, let us get to the matter at hand. Last night, I had a discussion with most of you about how to construct our Royal Road Avatar’s body to meet Master’s specifications. We came up with quite a few ideas but the final say on how we actually build it belongs with Master. For now M can you please, remind us again what exactly our goal is and how exactly we plan on achieving it?’

M: ‘Of course. It would be my pleasure. As we play Royal Road, our ultimate goal is to achieve perfection. I know what I am saying may sound crazy, but I’m kind of serious, so listen maybe? In order to reach perfection, we must become the Ace of All Trades. However, as you should know there is nothing without its own problems.’

O: ‘Can you please remind us of these problems in case some of us have forgotten?’

M: ‘Very well. There are three main problems that we currently face. The first problem is the subjective-ness of the word “perfection”…’

O: ‘L, can you hold your comment until after he is done?’

L: ‘Yes I can.’

O: ‘M, please continue.’

M: ‘Yes. Where was I? Ah, I remember now. The second problem lies in the sheer amount of time this endeavor will require. Finally, the last major issue we face is that we currently do not have a body capable of surviving the endless amounts of grueling training we will be putting it through.’

O: ‘You may speak now L.’

L: ‘Thank you. M. On your statement that perfection is subjective, what do you mean? Perfection is obtained when all flaws are removed correct?’

M: ‘That is the subjective part of it. What constitutes a “flaw”? What one person may consider a flaw others might think of it as a positive trait that makes them “perfect”. For example, our fearless leader’s bad habit of trying to seduce members of the opposite sex when they take interest in him, may be seen as a character flaw in most of society, but in the underground portion, it would be seen as a boon for pimps and gigolos alike.’

L: ‘I see. Thank you for that example.’

M: ‘You are quite welcome. I do believe I’m finished outlining the three fundamental problems that stand before us. So back to you O.’

O: ‘Thank you M. So the first problem we should attempt to solve is how do we define if something is “flawed”? You wish to speak Master?’

‘Yes, thank you. This question is actually quite easy and I have spent much time thinking about it already.

O: ‘Then by all means, do not keep us in suspense.’

‘There are only two things that we need to consider “flaws” when it comes judging if we have reached perfection or not. The first is “incompleteness” in understanding, knowledge, mastery, ability, etc. There should be nothing we cannot do better than the best person in that field. We are not striving to be among the best, we are striving to be the pinnacle of skill, knowledge, ability, etc. in that field as well as every field. The final “flaw” is “complacency”. Just because we reached a certain level of skill, it doesn’t mean we can rest on our laurels and slack off. If we have reached it that means others will eventually reach it as well. We cannot be satisfied with only that level of skill, and must press on to reach an even higher level.’

O: ‘As expected of Master, naming the two “flaws” that can never truly be removed. All in favor in accepting these two things as “flaws” that we must remove from our existence with any means available to us in order to achieve our ultimate goal, say Aye.’

‘Aye.’

L: ‘Aye.’

D: ‘Aye.’

M: ‘Aye.’

*: Because it might be fun to see you struggle, Aye.

O: ‘Since we are all in favor, I hereby adopt that “incompleteness” and “complacency” be considered flaws while playing Royal Road, and we should use methods available to us to remove them from ourselves. Since the first problem has been easily solved, let us move on to the second and third issues which are the main topic of this meeting. L take it away.’

L: ‘As M stated earlier, the two problems that we must overcome is having a body that can survive what we do to it, and second enough time to do everything that needs to be done.’

O: ‘*? I do believe you want to say something?’

*: I do, but it probably makes no difference if I say it or not.

O: ‘Why do you say that?’

*: Because you guys already have your preconceived ideas on how to make the avatar’s body, so obviously you won’t listen to little ol’ me.

O: ‘Master? You wish to speak?’

‘Since we are all cut from the same cloth, if your idea contains merit, I am sure the others are willing to consider it.’

O: ‘So *, will you speak or will you continue to hold your tongue?’

*: Color me surprised. The one who threw me into this black hole is actually on my side? Is this opposite day or something? But fine I will speak.’

‘Don’t worry *, the feeling is mutual.’

*: Mutual hate is it? Wait a second. Don’t tell me you actually are in love with me and the whole reason you trapped me is so that nobody else can have me? I am sorry to disappoint you but I am only interested in women. Your tsun/yandere tendencies may work on others but they don’t tempt me one bit.

O: ‘Master, I understand you fury. But please hold it in because I do not want this meeting dismissed because of his poor taste in jokes. *, you shall cease with this line of conversation or I shall make you wish that your poor excuse for an existence will be very short indeed.’

*: I am sorry that you thought my joke was in poor taste, but it matters not. As I was thinking, which is what I do a lot being trapped in depravity and all, I remembered a certain “creature” from a manga I once read in my youth. This “creature” was called a chimera and it as created by mixing the DNA/body parts of multiple species to create something that was greater than the sum of its parts.

O: ‘You may interrupt him L.’

L: ‘By any chance are you referring to Full Metal Alchemist?’

*: That is correct. By having your avatar be a chimera, you can literally build your own avatar out of pieces of other races, or you can have it be born a freak of nature by genetically modifying it as an embryo. Whatever floats your boat, with that said, my spiel is done.

O: ‘Thank you for your input *. Whether we take act upon it or not is another matter. We shall start from the top and work our way down to let everyone else express their ideas on how to create our avatar’s body. D? Will you do the honors and start us off?’

D: ‘Very well. Over the years my lord has read a large assortment of books, novels, light novels, and manga. However, with L’s help I noticed a sizable portion (~20%) all contained a common monstrous race that filled various roles within the stories. I am, of course, talking about dragons. If I didn’t know better, I would have assumed my lord had a dragon fetish. Intrigued by my lord’s apparent fascination with them, I started my research.’

O: ‘What are your findings?’

D: ‘Dragons are a naturally durable race. Regardless of which story I read, they were difficult to kill unless it was another dragon or something that just ate through all organic matter, like in that one book series. Not only are they durable, but like the doppelganger they have a strength and speed that belies their appearance. Most of them are able to fly and all of them have a keen survival instinct. Their intelligence and base abilities are based on their species, and their color. Due to their resilient life force if left alone they will live a long time, however they are often killed by humans, other dragons, and various other stronger beings for some reason or another. Almost all dragons are capable of reproducing with any species but only some of the stronger ones are able to transform. So in conclusion, if we can get nothing else, we should have a half dragon / half doppelganger avatar.’

O: ‘Thank you D. Next up we have M, please go ahead.’

M: ‘Alight. My ideas are more based on what qualities we need our avatar to contain than how to get these qualities. As I said earlier, the amount of time it takes to reach perfection is no joke. There is simply not enough time in the world to fully master everything by taking baby steps. However, thanks to O’s in depth research into Royal Road’s game mechanics, I think we found a loophole that we can exploit, but…’

O: ‘You may tell them our findings. They will need to know if we are to complete our avatar.’

M: ‘I was going to tell them anyway, I am just unsure if I should give them the long or short version.’

O: ‘Give them the short version, and if they don’t understand then give them the long version.’

M: ‘Fine. The TL; DR: your race affects what skills you can learn, how fast you can learn them, and how fast they gain experience when they are used.’

‘So you are telling us that what we choose to be influences what we can be?’

M: ‘Correct. For example, if an elf and a barbarian both want to be a fighter, they both can but it will be easier for the barbarian to use a two handed weapon compared to a bow or two weapons. Alternatively, it will be easier for the elf to use two weapons or a bow than a two handed weapon. This is because elves have a natural dexterity that makes them more adept to bows or two weapon fighting, while the barbarians who mostly use only brute strength are more suitable for the two handed weapon.’

‘I see. So the race(s) we ultimately choose for our avatar will cause use endless amounts of grief regardless of our choice?’

O: ‘Yes, that is why most people choose human as their race because there are very few things a human cannot become and they are willing to sacrifice potential racial advantages for that freedom. Is there anything else you want to add M?’

M: ‘Let me see… … … Nope. I’m done.’

O: ‘Alright, let us move on to the next in line, L.’

L: ‘Thank you. Continuing on M’s topic, I want to mention a few races I want to include in our avatar because of their intrinsic racial affinities. The heritages, I suggest we consider adding are as follows: elven, dwarven, draconic as D mentioned, Doppelganger as our fearless leader wanted, humanity for their alpha sigma, oh right and an eighth grader.’

O: ‘I dread to ask, but why an eighth grader?’

L: ‘You didn’t know? The Chuunibyou is a very potent power source and if we add that to our avatar, its starting power level will be a little over 8000.’

‘I’m so proud of L, you are finally able to tell jokes now.’

O: ‘Wait. That was a joke?’

L: ‘Only the part about adding an eighth grader, and the stuff about Chuunibyou, I was being serious about the rest.’

O: ‘I see… Jokes aside, are you finished?’

L: ‘No. Instead of an eighth grader, we should include what is said to be an extinct race that were optimized for combat, the Heraim.’

‘What does a champion from league have to do with Royal Road?’

L: ‘Not Hecarim, the shadow of war, Heraim, the builders of the twelve Towers of Heroes that are spread across the Versailles continent, their locations hidden from everyone.’

‘Where did you learn that?’

L: ‘It was on the forums you skimmed over, I memorized what they said at that time, and I was actually reading what I memorized.’

‘That explains why I didn’t actively remember it then.’

L: ‘Yes, basically with the Heraim in our DNA, we will have their genetic disposition to be more optimized for battle than if we didn’t.’

O: ‘Is that all? OR do you have more to add?’

L: ‘That is it for now. I might think of more good ones later.’

O: ‘Alright moving on. *, D, M, and L all have had their chance to speak so I guess it is my turn to tell Master, my ideas. Any objections?’

*: I object on principle.

O: ‘Overruled on a technicality. So now if there are no more objections? … I shall begin. As I read through Royal Road’s game mechanics, I found nothing that required our avatar to be, how should I put this? … Organic.’

‘I do hope you plan to elaborate?’

O: ‘Of course Master. Explanation: There are several creatures within Royal Road that are “alive” but are not made of flesh and blood. The residents of this world call some of these creatures: elementals because the very elements make up their bodies. The other half are what we call constructs. They are animated objects made of various materials of any state of matter that have gained sentience and/or life in one way or another.’

‘What are you trying to say?’

O: ‘Answer: Master, I do believe that it is quite obvious, but for you, I will explain further. Continued Explanation: By having our avatar’s body made out of the elements we can directly draw power from that element, if we go down that route. If we go the construct route, we can build our avatar out of whatever we want and we will be the reason why it gained sentience.’

‘I see.’

O: ‘Addendum: I am currently unsure if such bodies would be capable of being further forged to increase their stats with any other means other than level or skill gain.’

‘If that is the case it would be unusable, but it is an interesting concept.’

O: ‘What that said, let us move on to the next phase of our meeting. I hereby grant everyone authorization to speak freely. Only one rule exists, when Master speaks, we listen. Interruptions are only allowed if Master allows it and you must personally ask if you wish to interrupt him. Over to you Master.’

‘Thank you O, and thank you everyone else for all the time and energy you put into this. Since we do not know the limitations the Royal Road A.I. will place on us when we actually start creating our avatar’s body, we should have at least three viable options. At the very least, just as D said, we need to be a half dragon, half doppelganger, and potentially Half Changeling instead of doppelganger because a Changeling is half doppelganger and half human. This way we can still have our Alpha Sigma. Any questions?’

M: ‘I think I can speak for all of us except *, when I say currently there are no questions.’

‘Alright then. If we are allowed to go a little crazier in character creation, I would like to add the races L suggested. The Heraim, the elves, and the dwarves, and be a chimera like * suggested. A six race Chimera, sounds fun right?’

L: ‘Yes it does, but you said “3” viable choices for your body, and you’ve only covered two so far, so what is the last one?’

‘As far as the last one is concerned, well you can say it will only be allowed if the A.I. really likes us, or I can get Zash to charm it, that is if Zash even works on A.I.s in the first place.’

M: ‘Please just tell us, the suspense is killing us.’

L: ‘Yes, you are killing us softly with your words.’

‘I guess I better hurry up then because I need I need you all alive when we start Royal Road. I am sure all of you remember the Mass Effect Trilogy?’

L: ‘You are telling us you want to be one of “them”? But aren’t they limited to one species?’

‘I am glad you realized my intentions, but I do not intent to be limited to one race. For those who haven’t guessed it yet, if the A.I. allows it, I want to have the body of a “Reaper”.’

M: ‘But sir, Reapers are a gigantic spacefaring race, there is no way they can physically do the things we need to do in order to reach perfection. Also they are said to be already in a state of perfection so there is no meaning in seeking perfection when one is already there.’

‘That is true, but I don’t want to be a normal reaper because that wouldn’t be any fun. What if we were able to get an incomplete reaper body, created with the genetic material from one of each of the races that exist within Royal Road? And instead of being created from highly advanced technology, it would be a product of magic and technology.’

M: ‘That doesn’t solve the size issue, sir.’

‘Do you remember the human reaper that was destroyed in the second game?’

M: ‘The incomplete one that the Collectors were gathering humans to make? What about it?’

‘Imagine if you would that it was complete but only smaller, the size of a human and the genetic material used to make it was 1 of every creature from the game Royal Road?’

L: ‘But then there wouldn’t be enough genetic material to create a full body, would there?’

‘No you are right, at most there would only be a skeleton. That is why I said an “incomplete” reaper. We can go about completing it as we go through Royal Road. Since we have the genetic material of all the races their affinities should show up within us, and if they don’t then we just need to … “eat” more of that race until it does show up and that will only further along our body.’

L: ‘We are what we eat, huh?’

‘In the most literal senses, but we cannot indiscriminately eat everything that moves that would be unwise as it draws the wrong types of attention.’

M: ‘Wouldn’t a skeleton made out of weird metal also draw the wrong type of attention as well?’

‘Of course, and that is where the doppelganger’s shape shifting comes into play.’

L: ‘So it’s all coming together huh?’

‘Almost, we still need an inexhaustible power source to provide power to move our monstrous body.’

L: ‘You’re not taking my joke about Chuunibyou as a power source earlier seriously are you?’

‘No, nothing as mundane as that. In Royal Road there is said to be a legendary metal called Helium, and I’m not talking about the noble gas seen in our world, that is capable of producing vast amount of divine energy, and more so when forged or sculpted.’

M: ‘So we are going to use a bar of metal for our power core?’

‘Close but still far away. It is said that the heart of a dragon is 100 times more powerful than a human’s heart. So I was thinking of having a dragon’s heart sculpted out of helium and given life to be our power source.’

M: ‘Wouldn’t that give us unlimited mana?’

‘Not really, the amount of mana it produces will probably only be sufficient to move the skeleton around, and not the completed body.’

L: ‘If that is the case then we wouldn’t be able to use magic because all the mana we have will be used to maintain our life force.’

‘Very true. Do you know what the “Hyperion Constitution” genetic mutation is?’

L: ‘It is when a person’s muscles are 10 times as dense as a normal person’s and it gives them the strength and agility of 100 people?’

‘Yes, that one, now imagine if our helium dragon heart was also affected by the same Hyperion Constitution?’

L: ‘… Oh my, that would be quite monstrous…’

‘What that we should have enough output to power our complete form, It will also envelop our body in a divine aura which means if someone were to see though our transformation and see our skeleton frame, they may mistake us for a divine undead. It will be hilarious watching as clerics, paladins and other users of holy magic try to turn/destroy us to no effect. If anything it will give our Alpha Sigma a chance to steal their magic. I am a bit worried that it may affect the way we can summon undead when the time comes, or maybe it will allow us to summon divine undead as well? Oh well, I motion to end this meeting here, as the lease documents are almost done. ‘

O: ‘All those who second this motion say “aye”.’

L: ‘Aye.’

M: ‘Aye.’

D: ‘Aye.’

*: Aye.

O: ‘Since the decision is unanimous I call the meeting adjourned. I will call you all back when it is time to discuss how we will go about reaching perfection.’

Continue Reading?NoTo the polls?