Chapter 54

  Mentally exhausted as I was, I made my way towards the Mun Center, Guy on my heels, once I finished my discussion with Julius. As promised, the Keeper had been extremely forthcoming on all the information I asked about, save for of course anything about the other Traveler he’d encountered. From the little he did give me, the traveler had been here a similar length of time as I had, though he’d already hit tier 2 on his gauntlet and was heading North. Which, I figured, was as good a direction to head as any once I was done in Silver Springs.

  I knew already I’d be staying the night here. Evening was creeping onto the town, and the streets were lit with flickering lights powered by, if I had to guess, the Guardian Crystal. People milled about, with many still buzzing about the fight they’d witnessed earlier. There were television type monitors on the sides of some of the larger buildings, which were replaying highlights from the battle.

  I stepped into the Mun Center just as Julius’s Golden King crashed to the ground on the screen, the image then flipping towards Mikael’s hooded face, and his Frost Fox, with the words Winner!!! Flashing brightly. The fact Julius had been beaten was a pretty big deal, and even more so in such a manner. Continuing to prove just how rare such an event was, and how lucky I’d been to be there for it.

  “You know where to find me,” Guy said, catching my eye before he left me alone. I nodded and he moved off to speak with the other Traveling Guy in the massive space. There were still so many shops to explore, and things to see, but first and foremost, the floating crystal in the middle of the Mun Center.

  My hand was shaking as I lifted my gauntleted hand to crystal, the warmth reaching out to me, eager to connect. The stone hummed as power flooded into me, connecting me to the very world itself, as the list of actions appeared once more. First I healed my Muns, topping everyone off, even though I’d not had any of them faint during the battle against Julius. In fact, not only had they not fainted, but at the end of it, my Pride Cub and Graven had both hit level 21, with Cogberus about halfway towards that level.

  Then, I quickly shifted down to the Create Augmentation Crystals portion of the options. As I selected it, a new screen appeared in my mind.

  Select Materials for Transmogrification

  Beneath it, a sudden list of the items within my bag appeared, showing what I could, and couldn’t use as materials. In short… on my person, the only options I had were Mun Crystals. None of my clothing or food could be used to create an Augmentation Crystal, which, uh, made sense. Though, considering it showed everything, it made me think there were items out there, other than Mun Cyrstals, that could be used in the process. Interesting.

  I looked through my list of available Muns. Obviously the six on my gauntlet were out of the question. In fact, they didn’t show up at all. Then there was my Glitter-ish, did I think I’d ever make it into a Golden King? No. Was I going to give up? Also no. I figured I could level it up on the side whenever I was nearing maxing out my other Muns. Because why not?

  Stolen story; please report.

  I also had a couple Shimmer-Ish that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to let go of. Julius had told me about five different evolution paths for those particular things. His Wealth Cashfish and Shimmering Snapper were both evolutions of the Shimmer-Ish. So again, didn’t want to completely rid myself of them.

  Which left a Gem Beetle to use. Technically I had two Gem Beetles and a Gemzelle on my person, having sold all my Mun Crystals to guy last night, leaving me with only the Muns I’d fought as we neared Silver Springs. But, I liked the idea of having one of each Mun. That way I could level them up, and start slowly building a collection of all the Muns out there. The, er, collector in me demanded it. If I was being honest… selling the Abnormal Pride Cub to Sasha kind of ate at me, though I knew better than to go down the path of collecting the rare, special-colored versions of monsters… in games, that always led to a nearly impossible obsession.

  With only one option, and considering right now I was just testing out the feature anyways, I selected my Gem Beetle. There was a rush of warmth on my hand as light flowed from me into the crystal, and then back. The Gem Beetle was removed from my bag, and in its place I got an item that was listed as Defense Augmentation Stone Lvl 1 (Common)

  I rose an eyebrow at that. These could be leveled up? No one had told me that. Immediately I selected the stone, and there was a prompt to auto equip it to my gauntlet. I did so, and the knuckle on my pinky, an emerald green stone appeared. It was murky in color, and washed out, looking less like a precious gemstone and more one of those smooth little rocks you got from the visitor center at a national park, but I didn’t care. It was my first ever Augmentation Stone, and I was too excited to be picky about the quality of the stone. Besides, I’d already set my expectations low, knowing that realistically the stones probably wouldn’t reach jewelry quality gemstones till they were at least rare or higher.

  My baby Tier 1 Gauntlet, therefore, was too… basic to get to be super flashy. Another reason, to keep increasing the Tiers on my Gauntlet. Not only would it serve my mission to capture and train up all sorts of Muns in the world… but you couldn’t blame a girl for fashion hunting too.

  With the Augmentation Crystal attached to my pinky finger, I felt a tugging at my mind. Answering it, I focused on the stone, now in my gauntlet, and a new image appeared. It was a hovering version of my gauntlet, with a breakdown of its stats.

  Tier 1 Gauntlet

  Max Mun Level for Taming - 30

  Muns 6 of 6

  Augmentation Stones 1 of 2

  Current Augmentations:

  +1 defense increase to all Muns

  Okay… so, it wasn’t the best. I still wasn’t certain of the actual stats of my Muns. According to Julius, a more detailed breakdown of my Muns would be unlocked once I became a Tier 3 Tamer. So for now, I just got to see their HP and moves. But, still… I had a feeling 1 wasn’t that great an increase when it came to their defense. That being said… beggars couldn’t be choosers, and if I could level up the Augmentation Stone, did that mean it would increase as well? Because while 1 wasn’t that great a boon… if the thing could level up and increase the stats, then I might be a little more impressed. Baby steps for now, but the payout later, could be wild.

  Not to mention, I still had a second augmentation stone slot I could fill. Once… I got more augmentation stones.

  As tempted as I was to throw one of my Shimmer-ish into the…

  Nope, fuck it. I clicked on the Create Augmentation Crystals option immediately and threw both of the fish into feature. They were much easier to track down than the Gem Beetle had been after all. I’d get more tomorrow.

  The same warmth flowed over me, and a second later, I had another prompt, and two less Mun Crystals in my possession.

  Shimmer-Ish Augmentation Stone Lvl 1 (Common)

  Speed Augmentation Stone Lvl 1 (Common)

  Well… that was new.