[Monstrous Instincts: A monster is not like a human. Similar to an animal, it is born knowing how to fight and survive. Grants the owner of the Skill instinctive knowledge in these areas. Non-transferable Skill.]

  [Monstrous Senses: A created monster does not require all of the sensory organs of a naturally born beast. Grants the owner of the Skill the ability to use all senses possessed by the monster’s creator. Non-transferable Skill.]

  Well, those make sense, James thought. He guessed that all his creatures actually had those Skills, but he hadn’t been shown them, because they were implicit or hidden for whatever reason. Maybe I have some implicit Skills too. Well, of course I do. I know the System doesn’t list my ability to drive a car or something. The real question is, why am I getting access to additional information now?

  James opened up his newly leveled up Talent first.

  [Monster Patriarch: You are the first of your kind, but far from the last. Your natural vitality overflows into a natural capacity to create and manipulate life from your own organic matter. Your power extends to strengthening these life forms and fostering their growth. Generates Skills “Monster Generation” and “Monster Control.”]

  Yeah, I think that description might have changed somewhat… Although James could not be certain, he didn’t think the bit about “strengthening these life forms and fostering their growth” had been a part of the description originally. At least neither Monster Generation nor Monster Control had ever hinted that he could do those things.

  I guess I should read the descriptions for the Skills it generates too.

  He opened up Monster Generation and Monster Control.

  [Monster Generation: Create new monsters from parts of yourself or anything that contains traceable amounts of your biomass. Designate biomass within, or recently connected to, your body, hold the design of your monster and which of your Skills you wish it to inherit firmly in your mind, and inject sufficient Mana and Stamina to give it life. Effectiveness scales with all aspects of your personal power.]

  [Monster Control: Dominate the minds of monsters created from your biomass. Freely fuse and separate monsters with each other or temporarily reabsorb them into your own body. No cost. Effectiveness is uniformly high but scales with all aspects of your personal power and inversely scales with power and intelligence of a monster if it surpasses the creator.]

  Well, the Monster Generation Skill seems pretty much the same, as far as I remember—actually, I don’t remember it saying it was possible for me to control a monster more powerful than me before—but besides that, basically the same. Monster Control has clearly developed some, just like Monster Patriarch. Now I can temporarily reabsorb my creations into my body? That’s massive. And I don’t need a separate Skill to fuse monsters with each other anymore. I can do it “freely,” which I’m guessing means they won’t be able to resist at all. Hopefully that will also mean it’s less painful for them?

  James smiled and tried to shake his head in amazement, though that ended up being more of a slight head wiggle, since he was still almost fully crippled.

  All right, let’s see about the new Title I got from upgrading the Skills and the Talent—or I suppose specifically from creating the Blood Slime.

  [Monster Progenitor: Your living creations are many, and you have created such diverse life forms that at least some have never been seen in this universe before. The System has judged that you show the most potential among all humans to become the forebear of new Races of creature and thereby shape the direction of the new world even beyond your death. As a potential progenitor of monstrous creatures, enjoy a faster rate of improvement in your Skills and Talents specifically dealing with creatures that are not members of your own Race. Unique Title.]

  The System believes I’m going to create new Races of creature? James thought. Well, I guess I already have, but I never imagined that would be my legacy in a million years. I prefer to think of my son and any future children as being the future…

  He decided not to look the gift horse in the mouth. What was more important than questioning the System’s reasoning was considering how all of his new Skills would synergize.

  He looked toward the foot of the bed. Gathered around his body, and all around the sides of the bed, or clinging to the walls or the ceiling, his monsters had filled the room. They dwelt in stillness, awaiting his command.

  James silently ordered them all to fuse, and it was as if a pair of great invisible hands had come out of the walls and suddenly shoved them together. Monsters were hurled bodily from each side of the room toward the middle, until before James stood a heaving, writhing mass of flesh, every creature wriggling as they were merged into a single body.

  That lasted for only a few seconds before the creature’s form smoothed out and then assumed the shape that James envisioned: his own.

  Standing at James’s full height, boasting a cocky smile and a malevolent glint in its eye—probably features of James’s usual facial expression that it copied through muscle memory—the combined creature stood on top of the bedspread, looking down at its master. James could feel the weight of it. Though the creature shared his basic form, it was actually noticeably heavier than him, since it was composed of creatures that weighed a little more than his current body weight.

  James had a moment of nervousness. He knew he had a boosted capacity to control creatures stronger than him with his improved version of Monster Control, but it was one thing to read that and another thing to be faced with the first creation of his that he had ever seen that might one day rival his power. This creature was imposing.

  Ever since James had become the Fisher King and gained the Dominion Skill, he had been able to sense other Rulers’ auras. He also had a boosted capacity to sense presences generally, and his senses within his own territory were impossibly powerful and precise.

  And what he sensed in front of him was a creature that could easily kill him in his current, vulnerable state. The monster had almost entirely the same Skill set as James—only a few Skills like Dominion had seemed too impracticable to transfer to a monster, since James’s own body was not stable enough to contain that Skill with all his others.

  It had a tangible aura that gave even the Fisher King a slight sense of pressure.

  A single bead of sweat materialized on James’s left temple.

  His mind was pulled away from nervousness and toward anger. Was the creature deliberately leaking aura in an aggressive way at its master?

  Greetings, father. The thought rippled out from the fused creature’s consciousness and into James’s brain. Or should I call you master?

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  The creature stared at James, its expression shifting from the arrogant smile that James imagined he personally often wore when dealing with enemies and those he wanted to impress to a more confused look.

  James was a little surprised that the creature was speaking to him. Universal Language Comprehension was among its Skills, because everything but the kitchen sink was among its Skills, but he had not thought about how much Intelligence the aggregated creature would possess—or the fact that such Intelligence would naturally lend itself to the capacity for intelligent thought.

  Where did it even learn the idea to form words? James questioned dully. If it’s like a human, then it should be a newborn baby, not a second me with an underdeveloped version of my personality. There were so many things he could ask, but he was tongue-tied for a moment, just staring at himself.

  There are so many consciousnesses inside of me, the creature added telepathically after a moment of no response from James. There was a hint of suffering in its tone. So much self. I feel as if I know nothing, but I know you. You are my creator. My…

  It searched for the proper word in silence.

  I’m your Doctor Frankenstein, James thought darkly. But he did not allow the thought to communicate to his creature through telepathy. Every exchange between them was important to get right in this early stage.

  “Your progenitor,” James said, using the System’s word. He projected firmness. His Will and voice were literally all he had just now, and he would use them to good effect as he always did. “I am the progenitor of monstrous Races in this universe. Think of me as sort of like your god.”

  “G-god?” The creature spoke the word as if it was unfamiliar with either the concept or with the use of its tongue—and James realized this was the very first time this creature had ever spoken aloud in its short existence.

  “So you know how to speak?” James asked in a friendly tone. “I am pleased with you, my child. I had little reason to believe you would be capable of this much Intelligence when I decided to temporarily merge my existing monsters into one creation. In retrospect, it makes sense, given how much I invested into your component creatures.”

  “Component creatures.” The monster nodded thoughtfully, an expression of relief on its face suddenly. “So, I am not one. I am many.”

  “Yes,” James said. “Your purpose, when you exist, is to be my gathered strength, concentrated into one form to accomplish my goals.”

  “When I exist?”

  “Exactly. Your instructions are to use the Invisibility Skill—” This was the reason James had fused the creatures at all, to give all of them access to the Blood Slime’s Invisibility and one of the other creature’s Shapeshift—“and leave this apartment. You will remain invisible as you exit my territory, and avoid unnecessary contact with any life forms you encounter within my region. Once you leave the Fisher Kingdom—that’s the area marked by my aura—you will unmerge into your component creatures and hunt as those separate monsters. At some point, I will probably seek to combine your components again, but I think having many creatures separately gathering experience is more effective than simply training one large creation. At some point, once you are outside of my territory, I will send your components further instructions on where to go next.”

  The creature continued to look relieved. It greeted the news that it was ordered to defuse with a nod and a smile.

  “Thank you for the direction, mas—er, progenitor. I will not fail you.”

  James returned the smile. There was a tension that had hung in the air for him, which dissipated. The creature walked along the bedspread to the window, opened the window, then turned back to James.

  “Any further instruction before I go, progenitor?” he asked, still smiling placidly.

  It’s getting harder to believe this thing is composed of me, James thought. If I woke up in that body, with those Skills, and was told I was the creation of this guy lying in a bed, clearly unable to move and relatively powerless—although I guess I could use my Hypnotic Shriek on him—I would just walk over to him and crush his throat under my foot. “Fuck you, progenitor. That’s what I think about your commands.”

  James was aware it was still possible that the creature could do exactly what he imagined, but that seemed to be the furthest thing from its mind. He felt not a trace of resistance to his orders. His best guess as to why was that the creature was actually eager to unmerge. Too many consciousnesses dwelling in one body, even if they were inarticulate, was unpleasant.

  So it was looking forward to the pleasure of nonexistence.

  Still, the Fisher King had to force himself to maintain his smile, as he said, “No.”

  “Very well.” The monster bowed, activated Invisibility, and disappeared completely from James’s sight. James heard motion pass through the window, saw it close, and then felt that the room around him was finally empty.

  At last, the bead of sweat that had hung on James’s temple, clinging to his skin, trickled down his cheek and onto the bed beside him.

  James felt an enhanced awareness of how dangerous his Monster Patriarch Talent was—and how potent. Anansi had said it would be his bread and butter Talent for a reason.

  Now that all that’s over with…

  There were still hours to kill before James imagined he would call the meeting, and he even had some resources left to burn. Not a lot, but he might as well use what he had. Then he could sleep and regain some energy.

  He reached out with his powers to tell Mina that he was done.

  [Mina, I finished my experiments. I’m probably going to do one last thing and then take a nap before the meeting. I won’t have a good sense of time while I’m asleep, and it’s just going to be an ordinary nap at first. Could you wake me up, sometime after most other people will have gone to bed?]

  He heard her soft footsteps approach the door.

  “I will, James,” she said quietly. She stood there in silence for a moment, and James wanted to thank her, but he kept having the strange sensation that he knew she was about to speak. Finally, she said a simple, “Don’t overdo it, all right?”

  That’s all I do, he wanted to reply. And I definitely crossed a strange line this time… The image of the nameless fused creature floated back prominently to the forefront of his mind. But saying any of what he was actually thinking just now would be the opposite of reassuring.

  “I’ll let you help me figure out when I’m overdoing it,” he replied gently, in a voice just loud enough to carry through the door.

  He sensed that she was nodding on the other side—and then, of course, realizing that nodding was pointless, she spoke again.

  “That works for me,” she said. “Get some rest, and I’ll make sure I wake you up in time to eat something.”

  Then she was gone.

  I hadn’t even thought about eating, James realized. The sun shining through the window was surely giving him some energy thanks to Solar Recovery, but he noticed, now that he checked, that he was still hungry. I must be quite empty inside. I fed everything I had in me to that thing that left through the window.

  “Well, one more thing, and I guess I’ll ask Mina for a sandwich before my nap,” he whispered to himself.

  Dominion.

  A wave of power rose from within his body, crested, and shot outward. James directed it to move disproportionately in the direction of the turtles and the Fisher Expeditionary Force rather than the army. He wanted to bring the turtles’ land under his control as soon as possible.

  Once the energy had departed his body, he opened his mouth to speak—and the world faded to black.