Chapter 737 – Augusta 10 – Golden Girl

Chapter 737 – Augusta 10 – Golden Girl

It turned out to be a she. After returning to the house, they managed to get into contact with one of the Australians raising these things. For once, it was a free exchange of information. Evidently, John was talking to an enthusiast, who was just willing to share her (judging by the name Judith) passion for the subject. Well, they were writing, not talking. Talking was downright impossible due to the time dilation. Writing was only slightly awkward.

The important things that he had learned were, for one, that Magryphs were notoriously hard to find and breed, but not that complicated to raise. If they were given a small share of shiny stuff, adequate housing and food, they made for loyal companions. They weren’t as tameable as dogs, but this was largely because they were less pack-thinking. Magryphs were considerably smarter and able to figure out who to obey and to what gain; given enough time, even adults could become loyal to partners. A raised chick definitely recognized someone as their superior.

As for power and size, Magryphs operated in a wide range in the former case, but did not have much in the latter. Magryphs could be anything between the power of an elite Abyssal fighter and someone of a low Primarch level, like John currently was. In that regard, the ones that John had faced had been top of the line. None of that power actually lived at the moment. In size, the smallest specimen ever recorded was 1,40 metres and the largest 1,60. Not even remotely close enough to be ridden, which saddened John somewhat. Riding on a gryphon into battle would have been pretty up there on the badass scale.

The Gamer had also posted a photo of the Magryph into the harem’s group chat and gotten a number of heart-eye emojis. Particularly his girlfriend seemed to love the looks of the small thing. Currently, the female chick was playing with Stirwin and Sylph. The tiny trio triumphantly tumbled over the table, until the Magryph slowed down and did nothing aside from guarding its pebble.

“Aclysia, we don’t happen to have cat food, do we?” John asked, since he got the recommendation that young Magryphs liked the dry pellets, after they got soaked in water. Of course, the answer to that inquiry was no, making John go down to the next item on the list. “How about minced meat? Bananas?” The later could be squished into a pulp and that would apparently do it as well. Meat was best, but Magryphs were omnivores.

“I am certain we have some minced meat. I will fetch it at once, Master,” Aclysia responded and marched out of the living room and into the kitchen.

“Do you plan to keep her?” Lydia asked.

“I am heavily considering it,” John responded and used Observe on the small thing. It was an unremarkable window he got in response, basically the same as he got for Observing the dungeon monsters, but with a lower level and synonyms for the word ‘baby’ sprinkled in here and there. Also, no Loot Table. “I have been given three options, right? And we both can agree that putting her in the Menagerie is a giant waste.”

“If I understand correctly, she would never grow up?” Lydia asked.

“She would essentially cease being a real being,” John responded. “The Menagerie creates animals that do not eat each other, are only friendly to each other and other people, and that cannot be eaten. They don’t procreate and if one dies, by being killed or because they’re part of a species that ages, they respawn. Sure, if they’re left alive, they show they have individuality, but they exist solely for the purpose of being cute.”

Sometimes, he felt a bit immoral because of that. However, it wasn’t like they were suffering because of it. Having the Menagerie was about as shady as using some chat bot program to get off. The entire purpose of the animals was to be adorable, that’s what they did and that’s what made them happy. It was just wrong to look at them as animals in the traditional sense.

As of this moment, the Magryph was different. “Sure, she was made from nothing, but now that she is something, throwing her into the Menagerie to have some variety in the cute spawns feels wrong.” Aclysia returned with a bowl half filled with minced meat. John took it and placed it on the table.

He had already positioned his other hand to keep the Magryph from dashing towards the bowl, but the chick just kept sitting there. Only its beak went from lowered to attentively raised. John pulled a tiny bit of the minced meat off and offered it to the bird-cat. The animal just opened her beak and left John to not only place the food in her mouth, but push it in there until the swallowing reflex kicked in. He was actually feeding a young bird that expected the food to be vomited down her throat, to put it in unembellished terms.

“Anyway, the remaining two choices are to keep her or sell her,” he continued on, while gently shoving more food down the Magryph’s throat. It was a very odd but also satisfying feeling. “The Judith woman said she would be interested in buying her already, every extra female and bit of fresh genes is apparently worth a ton... even if I am surprised that genes are even a concern.” He paused in his motion as the bird-cat lowered her head to signal she was still swallowing the previous piece. “I’m just going to assume you would take her as well?”

“I would be a foolish leader to not leverage my influence over you for the gain to my nation at some points.” Lydia shrugged. “I denied the necessity of a Magryph at the time, I still don’t subscribe to it, but a positive deal for a new asset and a content subordinate is something I would gladly negotiate for.”

“Right, so that’s something we could do.” John saw no reason not to sell the Magryph to Lydia over some Australian woman, even if that would drastically cut his profit margin. “As it is, however, I am being offered a new Class and the ability to immediately level that Class. From the Quest rewards, that’s doubtlessly the best one.” As nice as a Legendary item was, the Talon of the Ravenlord was made for a melee build, which John wasn’t. It was a temporary stay in his arsenal, so investing into it seemed like a bad idea.

“It’s the name of the goddess of sin in Dark Souls,” he told her straight-up. “Her holy animal is the raven, so it sort of fits.”

“I like Velka,” Gnome agreed, so did the other elementals, the maids and, although she found the reference unbecoming, Lydia. Shortly thereafter, the now named Velka fell asleep and John placed her on the couch. Their supplies wouldn’t arrive for another ten hours at least.

“Alright, now that she is asleep, let’s discuss this thing.” John reached into his inventory and pulled out the golden, softly glowing disk that Velka had sat on. It was the Legendary drop from Radiohead. Having gotten two in as many days was pretty lucky, even if he was almost guaranteed one of them. This disk was a bit less exciting than a live chimera, but the one Attribute it offered was exciting.

The long-term value of this was insane and he had Single Step to replace anyway. “Beatrice, eat this,” he decided quickly and offered it to the passive maid. Looking at it for a while, the short-haired maid said something unexpected.

“Request: may Aclysia have it instead?” Looking over to her elder, the passive maid added, “I am under the impression that she deserves a reward as recent decisions have left her with less than she deserves.”

That Beatrice decided to state her intentions so blatantly was pretty like her, to forego his orders in favour of being kind, however, was something new. The reason was the recent denial of Aclysia’s request to receive a Lover’s Will mark. Although the logical part inside John didn’t want to give this item to his weaponized maid, he looked over to Aclysia for her decision.

“I thank you for your empathy, Beatrice,” the older maid smiled genuinely, while shaking her head, “but I need no handout. I will get what I deserve in time. This is required so you can catch up to my number of Perks and be of better use to Master. This must take priority.”

“Understood.” Beatrice proceeded to take the golden plate without any more insistencing or questions. It appeared her empathy had been used up for that and her passive nature had decided that no further clarification of the matter was needed.

Seeing his second maid devour the item with a number of quick bites gave John another idea. “Say, Lydia,” he turned to the queen, who was looking over the sleeping Magryph, “you get a temporary power boost by drinking Mithril-mercury mixtures, right?”

“This is accurate.” Lydia looked at him, first just out of conversation courtesy, then with careful intrigue. The Gamer was well aware that he had a schemer’s grin on his face.

“Would it be possible to get permanent, smaller boosts by taking in raw, exceedingly powerful metals?” He pulled a Mithril and Elementium pebble each from his inventory. The silver-white and the golden pieces lay in his hands like pills.

“Under any normal circumstances, absolutely not.” Lydia raised one hand to her chin and stroked it carefully. “It would just be digested into mana. However, one could use martial art meditation techniques to funnel that mana into overloading magical circuits and strengthen the muscles. If adequate potential is present, this could be used to generate massive advances. Those same advances would come alongside considerable damage to the body tissue, however.”

“Which would be a considerable problem, if one left that damage to take root and lead to permanent crippling.” John only grinned wider as his plan came together. “A powerful healer would be required to steadily overlook the operation, someone that can immediately fix all ailments as they arise.” Undine flowed onto the scene, having heard her cue. “What do you say, is it worth a shot?”

“It’s not an unheard of procedure,” the queen thought out loud, “martial art prodigies have been known to go through training like that, utilizing outside sources of mana to quickly increase their own potential and overcome fighters with decades of experience in the span of weeks. Of course, I am no prodigy in the field, but with the help of Undine, my mistakes should be diminished...” Finally, Lydia nodded. “On a theoretic level, it should work. It depends on my ability to perform the meditation. Slightly less important than my bodily integrity, however, is the question if you truly want to part with these materials.”

That she hadn’t started with that just meant she already knew what his answer would be. “The way I see it, I’ll gain a more powerful and potentially more beautiful lover, so this is a worthwhile investment.” He grinned and gestured towards the door. “’Let’s see how this pans out in practice.”

Lydia sighed, “You know I am not you, right?”