Chapter 327

Tatsuro and Ai didn’t absolutely have to sleep, and they could function perfectly fine even after a month without it. However, the act of sleeping seemed to refresh their minds, whether it was just their imagination or not, so they usually took short naps. Waking up from one such nap, the two immediately began discussing Magic Egg Forging.

“The very first one should be something cute!”

“Cute, huh? Among the magical beasts we can experimentally create, one with a relatively decent appearance… Hmm—how about something wolf-like?”

“A doggy! That sounds great!”

“It’s a wolf… Well, close enough, I guess. In that case, we don’t want to keep corpses in our room, so let’s head outside.”

“Yep!”

The materials needed were ten of either the brain, heart, or Magic Stone of the desired magical beast. It was convenient that they didn’t need to collect the same type of material; for instance, five brains and five hearts would do.

This meant that, except for special magical beasts, they could gather two materials per beast—one brain and one heart. Special magical beasts, like golems or skeleton-types, lacked brains or hearts.

For wild golems, their core was treated as a heart, so defeating ten would suffice for materials. However, for skeleton-type beasts without brains or hearts, they’d need to go to a dungeon to collect [Magic Stones].

“Well, we don’t need skeletons right now.”

“They’d be fun for a test of courage, though!”

“That’d be a legit ghost…”

Discussing what they’d learned from the help function, the two stepped outside. There, Athena, in her small tiger form, was sunbathing and keeping watch in front of their Mobile Home. She trotted over curiously, and Ai scooped her up, holding her close.

“Let’s watch together, Athena-chan!”

“Gau~♪”

As Ai petted Athena, who squinted happily in her arms, Tatsuro took out ten hearts of Wolf Magical Beasts from the army sent by Henrikki, a former human Tree-Shaped Magical Beast, from his Infinite Item Field. He arranged them on a tray made from soil. The brains were unusable, as they’d all been pierced by Laser Cutter.

“This scene suddenly feels like some shady black magic ritual.”

“The hearts are still fresh since we stopped time to store them, so they look pretty… raw.”

Trying not to stare directly at the glistening, almost pulsating hearts, Tatsuro focused on Magic Egg Forging and raised his hand over them. The ten hearts melted into a liquid, blending together as the twelve attributes of Magical Power flowed instinctively from Tatsuro, mixing into the liquid in proportions suited for the beast.

(The sensation suggests Ice Magic has the highest ratio. It might be an ice-type magical beast.)

As he pondered this, the liquid gradually formed into a fist-sized sphere, solidifying into a Magic Egg with a grayish-blue hue.

“So this is the egg of that magical beast. I’d love to add it to my collection.”

“Hey, we’re hatching it, right?”

“Oh… right. In that case, let’s make one more.”

“Might be good to experiment with. It’s weird, though—mammal-like appearance, but it’s an egg?”

Since there were 23 Wolf Magical Beasts, they had enough hearts for another. Deciding it wasn’t much effort, Tatsuro forged a second egg.

“Now, we store these in the Strengthened Modification Ranch.”

“It’s like an Item Box for magical beasts.”

“Pretty much. Now, to hatch them in the ranch…”

Imagining the Magic Egg of the wolf in the ranch, it popped into his mind.

(I could project the Footage too, so Ai and the others can see—)

“Whoa, a Monitor popped up!”

“Gau gau!”

A rectangular Footage appeared, floating horizontally before Tatsuro’s eyes. He could choose to show or hide it from others and adjust its size freely. It seemed useful for visually simulating modification results. The Footage showed the egg placed alone in a snowy plain-like area.

“I think enhancing or modifying at the egg stage gives the most flexibility. What kind should we make?”

“A cute one! I want it to stay small, like a baby forever!”

“Can we even do that? Let’s see… Huh, we can!”

Before hatching, the body shape was quite malleable, and Tatsuro’s idea wasn’t rejected, going through smoothly.

“Yay!”

Using the ability to project post-hatching Footage, Tatsuro displayed a regular wolf without enhancements or modifications, then compared it to one with modifications.

“So cute!”

“Cute!”

“Gau!”

The unmodified version was a sturdy wolf, about the size of a petite woman, with longer fangs and stronger legs than a dog. In contrast, the modified version, designed to be cute and small, showed a 30-centimeter-tall wolf pup resembling a Shiba Inu puppy.

“The appearance is good. Next up—looks like we can tweak the skill composition too. If we hatch it as is, the skills it’ll have are…”

Without modifications, the wolf would hatch with Bite Lv.1, Scratch Lv.1, and Sniff Lv.1. As it grew, it was guaranteed to learn Swift Wind, Ice Walk, Ice Claw, Claw Attack, and Ice Bullet, with other skills possible depending on its actions.

“What happens if we enhance and modify it?”

“Based on my Stats strength, the enhancement rate changes, but honestly, I can boost it to its initial limit right from the start. Also, I can select some skills from the ones it could potentially learn.”

First, Tatsuro displayed a radar chart on the Monitor showing the current ratios of Ki, Magical Power, Strength, Durability, Speed, Magic Power, Magic Resistance, and Magic control. Speed was highest, followed by strength; Magic Resistance was lowest, followed by Magical Power. From there, he adjusted the ratios to enhance all stats to high values from the start.

“You’re making it pretty balanced. We could specialize it, right?”

“If we lower some stats, we can boost others higher, but since it can handle both magic and physical attacks, I thought I’d make it an all-rounder.”

“Hope it doesn’t end up a jack-of-all-trades, master of none.”

“It’s mainly for fluffiness, not serious combat, so it should be fine.”

“Oh, right.”

Thus, they enhanced it into a versatile type with no extreme Stats. Next, they added skills.

Starting with Bite Lv.1, Scratch Lv.1, and Sniff Lv.1, they included the growth skills Swift Wind Lv.1, Ice Walk Lv.1, Ice Claw Lv.1, Claw Attack Lv.1, and Ice Bullet Lv.1, plus compatible skills Ice Shield Lv.1, Ice Thorn Lv.1, Ice Resistance Lv.1, and Ice Breath Lv.1. There were more candidate skills, but the beast’s talent limit ran out of slots, so they stopped there.

“Now for the gift.”

“Gift? What can we do?”

“Besides the skill slots, we can copy one of my skills to pass on to it. But some skills become downgraded, can’t be learned, or exceed capacity, so not everything works.”

Checking his skills, Tatsuro found Magic Regeneration, Focus, Hardened Body, and Leadership were giftable, but the beast’s capacity allowed only one. It was fewer than expected, likely because his skills were unique. He glanced at Ai for her opinion.

“Hmm, since it has a lot of magic skills, maybe Magic Regeneration?”

“Then we should shift the enhancement ratio toward magic a bit.”

“Oh, right. How about Hardened Body then? It’d be sturdy enough to withstand close combat.”

“Hmm, the others aren’t super necessary… Alright, let’s go with Hardened Body.”

“Yep!”

Thus, they finalized a versatile wolf pup with 13 initial skills:

Bite Lv.1, Scratch Lv.1, Sniff Lv.1, Swift Wind Lv.1, Ice Walk Lv.1, Ice Claw Lv.1, Claw Attack Lv.1, Ice Bullet Lv.1, Ice Shield Lv.1, Ice Thorn Lv.1, Ice Resistance Lv.1, Ice Breath Lv.1, Hardened Body Lv.1.

“That’s everything we can do with the initial setup. Time to hatch it!”

As Ai and Athena nodded, Tatsuro formed a magical connection with the Magic Egg in the Strengthened Modification Ranch. Sending Magical Power through it would hatch it—but curiosity got the better of him, and he mixed in Dragon Force and Divine Power.

(Tch, both got rejected. Too much, maybe? Let’s reduce them a bit.)

Reducing the Dragon Force and using only a trace of Divine Power, he managed to push them through. The Magical Power filled the enhanced, expanded vessel of the egg. It began to glow, turning into shimmering particles that formed a wolf pup.

When the light faded, a pup with platinum fur appeared. On the Monitor, it turned toward Tatsuro’s gaze, yipping and wagging its tail.

“Huh? The simulation showed grayish fur, but this is super sparkly! Why’s that?”

“…Let’s call it out and see.”

“Yep, come on, Fluffy-chan!”

“Gau!”

Tatsuro felt something off about the pup in the Footage but figured seeing it directly would clarify. He summoned it from the ranch.

“Yip yip! Yip yip!”

“…”

“—Gau!?”

Overjoyed at being called, the pup ran energetically around Tatsuro, yipping loudly.

“Hey, Tatsuro, you did something when you hatched it, didn’t you?”

“Haha, I mixed in some Divine Power and Dragon Force!”

“‘Mixed in’ isn’t the issue! It’s cute, but now…”

Ai stared at the pup—a platinum-furred wolf resembling a Shiba Inu puppy, but three meters tall.

“It’s too big! It won’t fit in the Mobile Home!”

“But it’s perfect for fluffing!”

“Too much fluff!”

“Yip yip! Yip yip!”

“Gau…”

As the two fussed, the giant pup romped around noisily, while Athena sighed in Ai’s arms.