“Today’s the day you’re gonna evolve into a new species, Puffster!”
“Cuurrrsss!”
On the fourth day of the game’s official launch, I was at Françoise the dressmaker’s place with a menu window open. I’d gone back to wearing the plain black dress I’d started with because the goth idol outfit (is that the right name for it?) I’d gotten from her was nearly down to zero durability from the Gigantic Dragonplant’s heat rays, so she was mending it for me.
Françoise looked like she’d seen a ghost when I told her I’d blown through my gear’s durability in a single day fighting solo against a boss ten levels higher than me.
I kinda thought I heard her mumbling, “What were you thinking, taking on such an opponent? And how on earth did you win? There’s something twisted about your approach to this game!” Hopefully it was just my imagination, because I’m not twisted at all!
“Oh, here it is.” I’d just found an evolve option on Puffster’s status screen. “So I just press this button?” I tapped on it, causing a new window to open.
✦ ✦ ✦
Puffster (living weapon) is ready to evolve. Please select an evolution path.
1. Living Dead
A skeleton cloaked in an aura of darkness. This is the form of a living weapon that began to resemble a living creature after longing for a body of its own.
Your monster will lose the ability to possess weapons, but will have higher attack power than an ordinary zombie.
This monster will also regenerate HP quickly and won’t die easily.
2. Shadow Weapon
A soul cloaked in a powerful aura of darkness. This is the form of a living weapon that began to resemble a death god after longing for the demise of its enemies.
Your monster will retain the ability to possess weapons and will gain the ability to create short-lived clones of itself with reduced attributes.
Your monster’s HP will be based on the possessed weapon’s durability, and it will die if the weapon is destroyed.
Okay, so I gotta choose between these two...
It seemed like an obvious choice since the living dead option looked like a downgrade. The description said Puffster would gain high attack power and regeneration, but he was already possessing a weapon with infinite durability, and his damage was usually boosted by my skills.
“I guess I’d better check with you first. What do you think, Puffster?”
“Currrss!” Puffster used the tip of his arrow head to tap the “Shadow Weapon” button without even hesitating.
There was a flash of bright light from Puffster’s body, then the dark miasma that always surrounded him grew in intensity until it became an inferno of shadowy flames.
“Nice! Great choice, Puffster! If you started out as a vengeful soul, then you’ve gotta aim to be a death god! A man’s gotta stick to his guns!”
“Currrss! Cursscurrrss!” It was like he was saying, “Heh. You don’t gotta tell me, boss! I ain’t turning into no stinking corpse. Ever since you and I went one-on-one, I’m only aiming for one thing—being the best weapon I can be. And you know I never miss.” Puffster Double Twin Mk II 2nd (I renamed him to commemorate his evolution, and it turned out pretty cool) was such an adorable little underling.
Now that I’d evolved Puffster (I was still calling him that for short), I figured I’d better do myself!
I reopened the same menu and tapped on the “class upgrade” option.
✦ ✦ ✦
To upgrade your class from summoner, please choose an evolution path.
1. High Summoner
The peak of summoner orthodoxy. Monsters will gain the ability to teleport back to you without need for the Summon Return art.
You’ll also gain the ability to combine rare materials with monster parts to create forbidden chimeras that can be summoned later.
* Only one chimera can be summoned at a time. Chimeras do not count toward the summoned monster limit, but a chimera cannot be summoned while another is in play.
The chimera will have very low HP and will always die after five minutes have elapsed.
A chimera is always at the same level as its summoner.
2. Summon Tamer
A specialized summoner class. Gain taming abilities and a greatly increased chance to make monsters into allies.
Also gain new arts for restoring monster HP.
Whaaat?! High summoners can make chimeras?! That sounds totally awesome!
“I don’t even have to think about it! High summoner, let’s goooo!”
There was some fanfare, then a message popped up saying, “Congratulations on upgrading your class! You are now a high summoner!”
Puffster got a new look when he evolved. I get nothing? What a letdown.
“Anyway, what really matters is the chimera crafting!”
I opened up a menu window to read more about it and saw that I could carry multiple chimeras with me, but the moment I summoned one, there’d be a countdown to its unavoidable death.
These poor creatures... But if I’m gonna be a champion of justice and take on evil players, I’ve no choice but to use them as one-shot munitions. Their deaths will be in support of the cause!
“Hmmm. So, if I use the rarest materials, I should get a chimera with higher stats. Good thing my pure luck build makes it easy to get rare items. And then the type of material determines the chimera’s main stat.”
I imagined that if I combined a ‘Stone’ with a ‘Rabbit Steak,’ I’d get a rabbit with stone skin for high defense, but it would probably come at the cost of the rabbit’s naturally high agility. Not every combination would be a good one. Also, stone rabbits wouldn’t be very cute.
“If these things are disposable, then I guess chimeras specializing as either damage sponges, status spammers, or kamikaze drones would be ideal. Now that that’s decided, it’s time to round up materials! And I wanna get Puffs 2 through 11 leveled up before the PvP event while we’re at it. I’d better fight a few bosses!”
There wasn’t enough time left to explore a high-level dungeon, but I could still visit the ones other players had already cleared. The online guide would even tell me where to find the boss areas.
Let’s get right to it! As soon as I get my gear back from Françoise, I’m gonna rampage through every dungeon!