Chapter 478

After everyone had breakfast together, Leah, who had been forcibly dragged to her seat by Nana, shot off to the workshop the moment she finished eating.

The double Celestial Demon Tribe Creation experiment, to be conducted simultaneously with Jeanne and Nana, was put on hold for the time being because the material selection was not yet complete, so Nana headed that way as well.

And so Tatsuro and the others went to their usual experiment site.

They interrupted Sota and the others, who were in the middle of munching on the morning magical beasts that had come all the way to the beach.

“Having a wide yard sure comes in handy at times like this.”

“Well, it’s more like just a beach, though.”

Aito and Aika watched as Sota swallowed a large magical beast in one gulp, clapping and cheering with “Whoa!”

The Crocodile Squad seemed inspired by this as well, and a mysterious dining scene unfolded where they competed to see who could eat the most wildly.

Paying no mind to the scene, Tatsuro first thought about what to start with.

He had intended to think about it last night, but after all the back and forth with Ai, it was already breakfast time.

“Oh, your face is turning into Ero-ro’s.”

“It’s not. Anyway, I’ve decided. First up is our mascot character. After the dog and the killer whale, let’s make a panda.”

“Panda-chan!”

“Panda?”

“Panda!”

Leela and Ishtar, who had come to observe besides Cardina, Jeanne, and Athena who were accompanying, tilted their heads in confusion as if to say “What’s that?”

Aito and Aika, tired of the dining scene, came over here as well. Though they did not really understand what was going on, they raised their hands in excitement, thinking some fluffy creature similar to Mame would be born.

“Tatsu-nii, bring out Mame.”

“Sure. By the way, you guys really love Mame, huh. You should pay attention to Shachi-ta too.”

“Shachi-ta isn’t fluffy though.”

“I like him because he’s smooth and feels nice.”

It seemed Aito was not that into it, but Aika quite liked Shachi-ta. He wondered if their tastes differed slightly even though it was the same individual, when Aika’s words continued.

“But I don’t like that it smells kinda fishy. If it didn’t, I’d hug it tight.”

“Is that so…”

Aika-chan who refers to herself as boku liked that it was not fluffy, but the smell was bad. He thought it was more of an ocean smell than fish, but preferences are preferences, so nothing to be done. Tatsuro mentally told Shachi-ta “I’ll pay attention to you!” before taking out the magic egg that would become the panda.

The magic egg of the bear-type magical beast known as Golden Kumagoro, or Golden Defrustal, which grows golden crystals from its back.

“Grade is 6.8. If we synthesize it a bunch, we can raise it up to a max of 8.”

“You’re gonna make a grade 8 magical beast on par with Sota into a mascot? Feels a bit wasteful, though.”

“Even a grade 6 magical beast would feel pretty wasteful to use as a mascot, but being here messes with your sense of value, doesn’t it.”

“Then how about using the original for the panda as is, and creating the grade 8 one straight away to use as combat strength?”

“That might be good.”

Deciding to adopt Ai’s opinion, Tatsuro first used the Infinite Item Field ability to consume points and duplicate the original into two.

He left the two duplicates out, stored the original back, and duplicated more magic eggs for synthesis.

Repeating Magic Egg Forging, the magic egg that had been a 30-centimeter golden crystal orb transformed into a 50-centimeter rainbow-colored glowing crystal orb, completing the grade 8 magic egg.

Its beauty made even Ishtar let out words of admiration involuntarily.

“Amazing. It looks like a truly luxurious egg now. There’s no doubt a powerful magical beast will be born from this.”

“Stamp of approval from a True Dragon, huh.”

“It’s not that big a deal… but it’s definitely on a different level from the scraps lying around.”

“Well, we’ll know once we simulate it. There it is.”

Tatsuro duplicated the magic egg and took the extra one into the Strengthened Modification Ranch, then activated the simulator. The appearance and information for if it were hatched as is were displayed on a screen that popped up in the space.

“The image hasn’t changed that much. If anything, the golden crystal just became a rainbow crystal.”

“The size is about the same too. Well, it’s big for a normal bear, though.”

It was 6 meters tall. As always, crystals grew densely from its back, with a light brown furred bear body. But upon closer look, the limbs on all four sides were about three times thicker and more developed, and the claws extending from the tips seemed to have even sharper edges.

“There was an upgraded version of the golden one… I wonder if it actually exists somewhere in this world without being known.”

No one could answer that even if asked—just as Tatsuro thought that, an entity spoke directly into his head.

(That’s because there isn’t one now. It’s a magical beast that would be bad if too many were born pop-pop.)

(Um, is that you, Monster God?)

(Yup. Long time no see, Tatsu-n. You’re doing something fun again, huh. Nice, nice.)

(Is that so?)

(Yup yup, keep it up and revive the monster kids I worked so hard to create but aren’t being used at all. Bye bye.)

(Huh!? That’s it!? ………Hey, Monster God…… Seriously, you just wanted to say that and left?)

While feeling drained by the Monster God who said what she wanted and ran off, Tatsuro relayed the conversation to Leela.

“But that means it has appeared several times in the past, doesn’t it. Since I have no connection to the Monster God, it’s nice to hear such stories. Thanks, Tatsuro-kun.”

“You’re welcome?”

Even though he had not really done anything special, he shrugged at being thanked and decided to immediately apply enhancement and create it. There were about two other subspecies, but both had specs one step inferior to this form. He had not expected much from the appearance anyway, so no need to change it. After all, as long as it was strong, that was what mattered.

(But this time, I’ll pour in the Divine-Dragon Magical Power that I’ve gotten pretty good at handling through practice!)

(…He’s plotting something again with that face. Geez, Tatsuro is hopeless.)

To others, there was not much change in Tatsuro’s expression, but only Ai noticed the subtle difference and sent him a sharp gaze. Tatsuro noticed it too but returned a baseless “it’s fine, it’s fine” smile and began refining the Divine-Dragon Magical Power.

(Up until now, I’ve flowed the three types—magical power, dragon force, and divine power—separately. In that case, when divine power exceeded the tolerance, it would completely shut down and nothing could pass, but what would happen if they were all mixed together… I’m looking forward to it!)

He poured the refined Divine-Dragon Magical Power all at once into the magic egg inside the Strengthened Modification Ranch. The magic egg’s grade was high, so its divine power tolerance was higher than others. So the initial flow was smoothly absorbed by the magic egg, but it soon stopped passing through. However, there was not enough magical power, and the magic egg showed no signs of hatching.

(But unlike when it was only divine power, it doesn’t feel like it’s completely blocked. Maybe if I force it…?)

When not mixing the three, when it would not pass it felt like the entrance was completely sealed, but now it was like a fine mesh was stretched across, allowing a little to pass through bit by bit, so subtle that even he barely noticed. In that case, if he increased the output here and tore through that mesh, it might work. Thinking that, he suddenly increased the amount and slammed it into the magic egg.

(Take thiiiiis---!!)

With a snap like something blocking it had torn, the main current of Divine-Dragon Magical Power rushed into the magic egg all at once.

(—Crap.)

At an instinctual level, Tatsuro sensed that continuing like this would make the magic egg burst, so he hurriedly reduced the amount while pressing down to keep it from breaking and slowly poured in the energy to encourage hatching.

(Gently, gently… It’ll be fine. Your grade is high, so you should be able to handle this much.)

Honestly, the “it’ll be fine” had no basis from Tatsuro’s perspective, but it actually hit the mark surprisingly well. If this magic egg had been grade 7 or below, such a forceful hatching method would have caused it to burst instantly and return to nothing. However, having met the prerequisite of grade 8, and with the magic egg further strengthened by the Strengthened Modification Ranch ability, its potential tolerance capacity also increased. In fact, the energy amount alone had long since reached the level needed for hatching, but due to the foreign energy, instead of hatching or bursting, it was enduring through a process of transformation. Moreover, through Tatsuro’s own fine Divine-Dragon Magical Power adjustments using his Magic Brain, he poured it in while barely maintaining a state where the surface tension did not collapse, allowing this magical beast to be born into the world without breaking.

(Oh, something might be coming. Let’s gradually reduce the supply from here.)

As Tatsuro focused intensely to adjust the energy supply amount, he somehow sensed signs of hatching. So he slowly eased the supply while maintaining the delicate state that could burst if suddenly cut off, and eventually stopped it completely. At that moment, the magic egg, transformed by the massive over-supply, began to hatch. While curious about what form it had taken, Tatsuro first summoned the magical beast onto the beach where everyone was watching so he could see it with his own eyes.

“……Hmm? It’s gotten smaller, and all the crystals on its back are gone. And it’s turned into a polar bear… What did you do? Tatsuro.”

“Haha, no way Ai-chan, I didn’t do anything.”

“Why are you doing a fake Chinese accent!?”

As Ai jabbed at Tatsuro, who was whistling poorly and playing dumb, Leela ignored it and muttered while staring at the polar bear’s belly.

“There’s a strange golden pattern around its belly. I wonder what it means.”

“Who knows? We could probably figure it out if we called Leah.”

With Ishtar’s words, everyone once again looked at the polar bear, which was standing quietly on its two hind legs, tilting its head while gazing at Tatsuro. Its size had shrunk considerably from the originally planned 6 meters to about 2.5 meters. Its eyes were platinum-colored, and its fur was pure white with not a single stain. On its belly was a golden fur pattern resembling a six-petaled snow crystal. Other than that, it looked exactly like a polar bear, with no crystals growing densely from its back like mushrooms as before. Honestly, aside from the golden fur pattern on its belly, it was so much THE polar bear that it would not feel out of place in a zoo enclosure.

“The previous crystal bear looked stronger appearance-wise, but this one is definitely higher grade.”

“Peewee”

“Neigh”

“------”

It had become quite tame-looking to call a magical beast, but the unfathomable potential ability dwelling within it had Athena, of course, as well as Cardina, Jeanne, Amaterasu, and Tsukuyomi watching with bated breath.

“And doesn’t this wrapping, reassuring aura or atmosphere feel like that? Right, Tatsuro?”

Tatsuro immediately understood what Ai was getting at and looked at the race name displayed on the simulator screen that was still on.

“Yeah, this divine oppressive aura unique to divine beings… It seems like it has become an existence close to one possessing divinity…”

What was written there was “Half-Divine Beast Species.” It was an existence that had stepped half a foot into the divine domain, surpassing even the pinnacle of its own species, the Magic King Species.

“This is an unexpected harvest…”

Tatsuro grinned as he sent a passionate gaze toward the polar bear, which looked back at him with intelligent eyes.