Chapter 11

  “Just walk up to the crystal, and place your gauntlet on it.” The mayor directed me. I did as he said, the massive thing easily the size of a car, though, well, crystal shaped. As my left hand reached out towards it, I could feel a strange hum coming from it. Not like the buzz of electricity, but more like the deep, soul-resonating type vibration that would pulse through your body from a low frequency gong. The gauntlet on my hand warmed as it grew closer to the crystal. Once it touched it, a spark jolted from the crystal, through the gauntlet, into my mind, as a connection was made.

  I stayed aware of my surroundings, but at the same time, a well of information flooded into my mind. The only way to describe the feeling was like pulling up your character sheet or inventory mid game. I was still able to move, breath, all of that, but my focus was now on a screen of various prompts.

  Welcome, Tamer

  The prompt said at the top. I scanned it quickly, licking my lips as I did.

  Please select from the below Mun Center Actions

  Heal Muns

  Inspect Muns

  Create Augmentation Crystals

  Fuse Augmentation Crystals

  Craft Amplifier

  Modify Amplifier

  Summon Muns

  Trade/Sell Muns

  Store Muns

  Shop

  This I could work with. This was everything I’d ever wanted in a monster taming game. My one stop shop for all things Mun. A few of the options, obviously, weren’t relevant to me right now. But… that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to select them to see what other options were presented to me. First things first though, I selected the Heal Mun’s option. I felt a flare of heat around my wrist, all six of my Mun Gems glowing for a brief moment, and then, the light dimmed, and the heat faded. There was no other sign anything had happened, but I figured the crystal had done it’s job. Selecting the next option, Inspect Muns, confirmed as much.

  Current Muns Equipped to Tier 0 Tamers Gauntlet

  Gear Pup Lvl 8

  HP: 28/28

  Gear Pup Lvl 8

  HP: 29/29

  Gear Pup Lvl 8

  HP: 27/27

  Springer Lvl 6

  HP: 33

  Springer Lvl 5

  HP: 31

  Calfer Lvl 10

  HP: 51

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  I noticed, as I looked over the Mun’s, that when my attention hovered over each, a mental tug triggered in my brain, telling me instinctively that there was more. I focused on the first Mun, my very first ever Gear Pup, who, interestingly, had less life than the others, now that they were all level 8, thanks to the calfer battle. As I focused on it, a new ‘screen’ appeared in my mind.

  This showed a full animation of the adorable little thing, that I could mentally twist and turn. It once again showed his Level and HP, though annoyingly no stats such as attack and defense. If those existed, I guessed in this world, they were hidden. Still, the discrepencies in their HP, and the damage they did with their attacks, told me such things did exist. That aside, the page wasn’t completely devoid of new information. There was a brief description about the Gear Pups, that I immediately read.

  Gear Pup – Man’s Mechanical Best Friend - When man’s best friend and machine meet, the adorable, impossibility is a gear pup. These creatures have developed a symbiotic relationship with the living metals and machines of the Machine Mountains. Loyal to a fault, Gear Pups will never betray their Tamers. In the wild, Gear Pups form small puppy packs, keeping each other safe until they grow strong enough to evolve into proper Cog Dogs.

  I closed out of the gear pup information, the description confirming what I’d already figured. They could evolve. It was just a question of what level, which I figured the mayor could likely tell me. Overcome with curiosity, and figuring there really wasn’t a reason not to, I decided to check out my other Muns as well. Because, why not?

  Springer – Over-wound Serpent – Springers are capable of striking faster than any of the other serpent type Mun found in the wild. Composed of tightly wound metal unique to the Machine Mountains, Springers are ambush predators who use their quick strikes and agile, nimble bodies, to take down their prey. A successful Springer will eventually trade speed for power, to evolve into a Coilosus.

  Just as I’d confirmed, the Springer was the first stage of the Coilosus. That made two Muns so far that evolved into a second form. Was that their final form? Did Muns only evolve twice? I didn’t have enough to go on, but already I was starting to try and piece together everything I may need to know to thrive as a Tamer. Not because I wanted to save the world, mind you. I was going to avoid that cult bullshit like the plague. But because I wanted to push myself, and find and train and evolve all the Muns I could. Smiling, I opened the final one. My Calfer.

  Calfer – Fire Starter – Calfers are the juvenile form of Bullows, capable of producing flames of intense heat, but lacking in the control and efficiency of their grown counterparts. Because of this, Calfers are notorious for catching the prairies in which they graze on fire, as they search for their favorite food… molten metal. Calfer’s will use the flame between their horns to melt down parts of Springers and Gear Pups for a quick snack, making these herd animals a lot less docile and cute… and more opportunistic arsonists.

  The smile feel from my face as I closed out the descriptor on the Calfer. That… was not cute. The idea that the calf that had stumbled across my path was a creature that actively went after Gear Pups and Springers in order to… eat parts of them, did not give me warm and fuzzies. It also put the murder cows at the top of my ‘to defeat with zero hesitation’ list for training. Not only were they higher level than the gear pups and springers of the area, meaning they’d give me the best experience for leveling my Muns, but now I knew defeating them would keep the adorable low leveled wild gear pups from having to face such a terrifying demise. Even if in the long run they were immortal and would just turn into Mun crystals after taking too much damage. It was the principle of the things… and I couldn’t imagine how traumatic such a fate would be, even if they did ‘respawn’ from it after a few hours. The world of Mutopia was showing me already that there was definitely a… wild cruelty to it that I was going to have to get used to if I wanted to succeed on my Tamer journey.

  Which was fine. I could harden my heart in that manner. As long as, of course, I wasn’t having to beat up any more puppies.

  I swallowed as I closed the window, and started opening the others, skimming them quickly, knowing full well they weren’t things I could really access just yet. The Gear Pups existed in this world… and were just adorable puppies. Were there kittens as well? Would I someday have to face other adorable little baby versions of animals I’d loved back home? If so… well, I should try to make sure I was as strong as possible… so the battle would go quick, and I didn’t make them suffer any more than they absolutely had to.

  I would not, ever, be the Tamer known for beating up on little baby Muns for fun… outside of Calfers. Because I needed to train, and those bastards signed their own death warrant the moment I realized those arsonists ate Gear Pups. My trio of good boys were friends, not food, and they were going to make every Calfer around town pay. Speaking of… I pulled my hand away from the crystal, my vision flickering for a just a moment as I completely rejoined all my senses and the real world itself. It was time to restock my items, finish whatever tutorial task bullshit the mayor had for me, and then, time to power level some Muns. With a Tier 0 Gauntlet, Muns up to level 20 would obey me, and I intended to get mine to at least level 15, before I left the safety of Cogni.