Roughly half an hour later Mari stepped back to admire her creation, the table now showcased a vibrant forest filled with a thriving ecosystem. From the bugs to the birds, everything she could find and would fit within a forest climate she added.

  "What do you think Nuit?" She asked and picked up the fox who had been sleeping at her feet.

  "Ah, I forgot to look at your status earlier. Sorry Nuit, I think I'm still a bit overwhelmed." Mari apologized and nuzzled the small fox.

  "Let's see," She frowned and held Nuit up and stared into her eyes with intense focus imagining seeing her status, assuming it was like a video game, "Status - Nuit."

  "Not much there yet, but that's okay we both have a ways to go," Nuit yawned and blinked tiredly. "I think the only thing left is to make our first monster," Mari sighed as she scratched Nuit behind her ears.

  One click later Mari was holding a small grey marble. "I guess this is a Monster Core, It doesn't look like much."

  Nuit sniffed it but quickly lost interest and jumped out of her arms, Mari watched as she made her way to the bed and curled up.

  "Right, what am I supposed to do with this? How do I make a monster?" She asked the room.

  The answer, it seemed, was to put the core on the pedestal that rose from the edge of the table. Once the core was in place another screen appeared showing all the creatures she had on the floor.

  Mari scrunched her nose up and huffed, so far a lot of this seemed to function on the hope that the recipient would figure it out. After considering the screen for a few more minutes she shrugged and selected a male deer with large antlers.

  A new screen with the live image of the deer appeared next to a small list of her affinities.

  "I'm guessing this means the affinity I choose is the one the monster will get," Mari mused.

  Considering that she currently only had Nature and Space affinities, it only took a few minutes to go through the pros and cons for each.

  Nature made sense as it was the Environment of the floor, also a deer with a Nature affinity would be cool, maybe it would be able to control plants.

  Space on the other hand, Mari had no idea what that would do. In the future she might experiment with it but as she was just starting out...

  With Nature selected the grey core gained a green tinge and lifted off the pedestal, a moment later it popped away and Mari watched as the deer was hidden from her sight by a bright green light.

  When it faded away the deer was changed. First of it was larger, closer to the size of a moose than a deer and his antlers grew. His fur gained a mossy appearance, and his antlers gained an almost wooden look.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Mari considered her new Monster for a moment, "Forest Advocate, a deer chosen by the forest itself to protect it and the creatures within." She decided.

  Mari lit up and closed the screen to take a look at her finished floor. After admiring it for a moment she yawned and wondered if the storm was done.

  She made her way over to the bed and curled up under the covers with Nuit, "I'll check the storm later, today has been exhausting."

  Mari was woken by an insistent beeping noise that seemed to grow louder the longer she lay unmoving and ignored it.

  She growled in annoyance and sat up glaring at the room and the multitude of screens that appeared.

  Mari glared tiredly at the screens and groaned flopping back onto the bed. Was this what the next several years were going to be like? Constant bombardment with quests and to-do lists?

  With a long tired whine simply for the sake of complaining, Mari sat up and looked through each quest carefully.

  "Let's do the monsters first, then check on the storm outside." She mused to Nuit, "After that, we can open up the first floor and see what happens."

  Nuit licked her hand in encouragement and waged her tail. "Let's get to work," Mari made her way to the table and eyed it looking for her first monster.

  She found him grazing with several other deer and hovered her finger over him to pull up his status screen - something she had learned to do the day before.

  Pretty good for her first Monster, Mari decides and hovers her hand above the monster pedestal hoping that a way to buy more Monster Cores would offer itself up.

  Sure enough, the screen she was looking for showed up.

  Mari whistled in at the cost of the more powerful cores and wondered just how powerful a Divine Monster was.