I move most of the skewered pieces of meat a bit further from the flame, with the intention of them staying warm without burning, and eat the last one. Now that it's cooked the taste reminds me of chicken, I suppose. But much gamier, and with added smokiness. Once I'm done with the piece my gaze wanders to the others, then I shake my head.

"Keep those for Lara, stupid brain. . . Though I forgot to ask if it's okay for people to eat monsters." I stretch my arms out overhead and yawn slightly. "Now, back to making help. Kamaitachi should still work, they just wouldn't listen. So I just need to make them smarter?" Seems fine, but maybe I should take it a little further than that.

Five, medium sized, kamaitachi based, humanoid, C-Rank monsters. One good at cutting up and cooking monsters, one especially good at combat, and the other three good at cutting down trees and construction. Oh, and make the claws retractable, so they can use their hands more easily when claws aren't that helpful.

I feel prickles along most of my body and silver beads shower down into my shadow. Then my shadow stretches out into five points in a semicircle in front of me. The shadow swells up at the five points, and five, very human-like figures rise out of them. In fact, they look fully human, just with tiny little weasel ears, tails, and very long claws. Their hair in various shades of brown and white, with one of them having silver hair. They are all a bit shorter and have slighter builds than me, though they're much more human looking than I am. And, naked. . .

My face grows a bit warm and I look away. Eventually I glance back. Four of the figures, three females and a male, look totally unabashed about their state of undress. The last, another male, the silver haired one, is trying to cover himself with his hands. Though he seems hesitant to get his claws near himself down there. I jolt slightly and wrap my tail back around my own waist to cover myself. Upon seeing that the silver haired male tries to cover himself the same way, though his tail is only long enough to hold in front of his crotch rather than wrap around his waist multiple times like I do.

"R-right. It would be pretty awkward to work like this. Maybe I can specify that my humanoid creations have clothes on when I make them? For now, lets just. Make something to wear out of these big leaves." I walk over and gather leaves from one of the trees I'd already cut down. When I come back, I find that one of the females, with a patchwork of white and brown hair, has wandered off to the Croc Ogre's corpse and started cutting into it with her claws. Guess we know which one is a chef.

The silver haired one is looking at me, and more specifically the leaves I'm holding, hopefully. "How do we cover ourselves with leaves?" The remaining three are looking around at the trees thoughtfully at this point. I set most of the leaves down, look at the one I'm still holding, shrug, straighten out my tail, and wrap the leaf around my waist in its place.

"Bit like this? We'll have leather to work with later. That should be better. And longer lasting." I fiddle with the leaf a bit, then poke the stem through part of it, tie the stem into a knot, and turn the leaf so the makeshift fastener is at my left hip. Silver hair grabs a leaf and quickly copies my action.

Oh, names? Or, Miss Suna made names seem more important than I thought. So maybe I should just name one of them? Guess I'll go with the combat one, so if it makes them stronger they'll have better chances? I decide to go through and identify them. Surprisingly, going by skills, the silver haired one is the obvious combatant.

The others had somewhat different skills. The three woodcutters have; Claw Transformation, Construction Reinforcement, Tool Claw, and Woodworking. The chef girl has; Blade Claw, Butcher, Claw Transformation, and Cooking. All of which are normal Skills. I mutter to myself, "Why does the fighter get a unique skill?" I stare at the display further. "And why are they Bestial Humanoids instead of Humanoid Beasts?"

Eeeh. Whatever, it sounds like it amounts to the same thing in the end. While I was thinking the silver haired one made the others put on leaves as well, even covering the females' chests. Guess he's the most responsible, on top of being the fighter. Best choice for sure. So I spend a minute thinking up a name.

I walk up to him and tap his shoulder. When he turns to look I offer a slight smile. "You seem like the best choice to keep the others in line. So I'm going to give you a name. How does Ginro sound?" Unlike Suna, nothing about his appearance changes, and I don't feel any different. Didn't feel anything when I named her either, but I was distracted.

"I don't know, if that is a good name." He looks down uncertainly, then shrugs. "But I will accept it. Either way."

I reach up and pat his head. "Alright. Well the others are already starting their own things, and seem pretty oblivious. So be sure to keep an eye on them." I step past him and clap my hands to get their attention. "Alright everybody. I'd like your help with some things. You," I point to the Chef. "Can keep doing what you're doing. If you know a way to preserve some of that for later, that'd be great. If not, I guess just cook a lot of it?" I point my thumb back towards the simple campfire.

"Ginro, you keep your guard up and alert me if anything too dangerous for you to take care of shows up. As for the other three, help me cut down and even out some trees. Like that pile of logs over there. Once we've got, eeh. Like a hundred logs? We'll build a house out of them." I wave my hand and lead the way over to a nearby tree. "I can cut down trees by slashing them with my claws, but you three might need to figure out how to use your Claw Transformation and Tool Claw skills for it."

"Also, make sure you watch out for falling trees. I guess, shout 'Timber' when a tree you're cutting starts to go down. So that everybody else knows to stay outta the way." I try to think back to anything I might have learned about cutting down trees, but not much else comes to mind. However, thinking of that leads me to another idea. "Huh. I wonder, could I? But they're not pine trees. . . Well. I have to try."

The three Woodcutters are looking at me after that last bit. "Ah, uhm. Sorry, but could you guys stay back for a bit? I just thought of something I want to do." I dash over to a somewhat smaller tree on the edge of the clearing with a bit of space between itself and any other trees. "How do I go about this?"

I stare up a the tree, then stand on my tiptoes to grab ahold of the tree as high up as I can reach. My arms don't quite reach halfway around the trunk. "Okay, now just. . ." I dig my claws in to assure my grip, and pull downwards. Which just causes me to lift myself up. "That's not it." I kick my feet idly a moment, then lower myself back down.

I pull my claws back out and grab a bit lower down, then brace my feet against the base of the tree and pull it outwards instead of down. There is a low groaning noise as it starts to lean towards me. "Nyaha!" With that bit of progress I get excited and pull harder, my claws shift a tiny bit when I do, but I manage to maintain my grip, so I keep at it.

I manage to get it to about halfway down before the angle and my position get awkward. "Nice start, but how do I get it the rest of the way down?" My tail flicks around against the ground. I scoot to the side slowly while hanging on. Once I get far enough to put a foot back on the ground, said foot sinks in and I lose my leverage.

My hands slip, my claws tear out of the wood, and the tree springs back upright. Meanwhile, I fall back, I end up sitting on my tail, which is coiled up a bit, almost forming a cushion. Little uncomfortable though. Before I collect myself enough to deliberately stand back up, my tail flicks hard, tossing me back to me feet. "Whoa!" My arms flail as I try to regain my balance.

When I steady myself, I look up at the tree with a mix of emotions. Triumph from the near success, irritation from falling short, and glee from thinking I could find a way to do it. And, an odd excitement I can't quite place. "That was awesome! How should I try next? Pushing? Ah, no. The ground is too soft?"

I shake my head. "Right, got more important things to do anyway." I turn to face the Kamamimi, then wave energetically. "Okay, I'm done messing around! So let's get to work!" I ignore the tree I had been trying to bend, given that it's thinner than the two I've already cut down, and head for a larger one.

I show them how I cut down a tree, brute force and slashing repeatedly. This time, I make it a point to pay attention to when it starts to go down, and I shout, "Timber!" when it does. Then they help me remove the branches. One of the woodcutters, the brown haired male, speaks up. "How do we use those skills you talked about?" I scratch my cheek and shrug. "Then, what tools do we need to make our claws into?"

"Ah! That I do have some ideas on. Normally you'd use an axe or saw to cut down a tree. An axe is one big blade that you hit the tree with repeatedly to chip away at it. Guess you'd put your claws together and sort of jab at the tree? And a saw is a bunch of pointed teeth that you drag across the tree at the same spot. Kinda like, this?" I hold my claws just a bit apart and drag them side to side against a branch to saw at it. "So probably make one claw really long and give it a lot of points along one side. And I think the axe method requires more strength than the saw method."

Once we're done cutting up the tree, I have the three of them try to move one of the logs themselves. When all three of them work together, they can carry one of the ten meter logs, but if it's only two of them they can only really roll it. I nod a couple times. "Okay, looks like that at least can work. But it seems like it's faster if I do it myself."

So I carry the remaining logs to the pile while they try to cut down another tree. During the process, they figure out their skills, and one of them takes a moment to talk to Ginro and the Chef about it. While we're at it, my attention seems to wander from task to task, but at least they're all productive. My favorite is still cutting down trees, though stacking logs is a close second. We end up going past the hundred log mark and clear up to about two hundred, with the intention of building a second cabin for the Kamamimi.

Once we reach that point I raise my hands up and wave them around. "Okay, lets stop there for now on the trees. Now, first thing, or I think first thing? We'll need some flat sections of wood for floorboards and roof, er, something. I don't think it'd be shingles. Well, whatever you call it, we'll just put angled boards on the roof so water can run off if it rains."

I point to a log. "I think, your tool claw skill is the best way to deal with this next part. I could probably carve the logs into boards, maybe even make them pretty even, but I'm sure I'd waste a lot of it. You guys, or rather, two girls and one guy, could use your claws as saws and cut down the length of a log to make a lot of boards from each one. I think. It's also important to get them all thickness, and same width. Though the width and length might need to be cut down some places when building."

I dust my hands off. "Well, you can try as many times as you like. Plenty more trees around here, after all. Now, I think I'll try pulling these stumps out to make more of the clearing usable, while you work on that." I walk over to the nearest stump and grab it, digging my claws in and trying to lift. My feet sink into the ground a little, but the stump raises up as well, causing much of the soil underfoot to surge, so I keep at it, aside from changing my foot placement to avoid the larger roots.

It isn't long before I hear a sawing noise, so I spare a glance to see how it's going. Looks like they decided to cut it into a square cylinder first. Guess that's a start? I shrug and pull harder on the stump. There is a snapping, tearing noise as it lifts away from the ground, must have lost a few pieces, but good enough.

I drag the stump out of the clearing heading south, just looking for some random place to dump it. After a mile or so I come across an odd sight. Another clearing, with what I can only describe as a large house made of hardened mud. Or rather, a giant mud hut? Whatever it is, it certainly is unusual. ". . . Who would build a mud hut in a forest?!"

An aged female voice pipes up to answer. "That would be me." There is a rustling noise off to the left, a ways away from where I entered the clearing. "Mud is easier to work with than these stubborn trees. If you must know." A moment later a person emerges. Contrary to her old sounding voice, she barely looks middle aged, I think? Full shapely female figure, black hair that doesn't seem to be graying yet, taller than me, and probably fairly muscled, from what I can see. The main thing that makes her look old is the deep smile lines on her face. She's wearing a sort of, short sleeved black robe that is tied close to her body by a sash.

"A-are you, some sort of forest witch?" I drag the tree stump between us, a bit on guard in response to the strange woman with the stranger house. She pauses, and squints, at the stump, rather than at me. Then she shakes her head and looks up.

"I suppose, but how would you feel if I asked if you were some sort of forest monster?" She crosses her arms and looks down on me in a haughty manner. "Perhaps, more to the point, why are you dragging a piece of a tree around somebody else's house?"

My left hand moves up to rub the back of my neck, and I lift the stump off the ground with the right. "Well, I didn't mean to wander here, specifically. I was just, looking for somewhere to throw away the tree stumps, since leaving them in the ground would just have them in the way. . ."

She bursts out in a round of rowdy laughter. Not very witchy, more, country woman. "Yeah, yeah! Wouldn't want to trip on an old stump. Keh-ha!" She seems to try and laugh again at the end, but breaks into a cough. She sets a hand on her collarbone and takes a deep breath. "Phew, sorry. I have a hard time breathing right when I get worked up. Anyhow, if you don't want it, break it up a bit and leave it here. The roots are the best part for smoking meat. Oh? Come to think of it, you said stumps?"

"Ahhh, yeah. Me and some of my, friends, are trying to build houses. But, if the roots are useful, I might want to keep some to work with? Er, guess we don't have a smokehouse." I start breaking the roots off from the bulk of the stump. "Say, if I bring meat and more roots, could you smoke some of it for me? And I guess you could keep some of it? Right. Is it safe for people to eat monsters?"

"Eha, yeah that's fine. Essence is only potentially dangerous if it gets in our blood. But, there's no need to hold back so much. If you're looking to barter, ask for more." I glance down to change my grip, then when I look up again I've lost track of her. Suddenly, I feel an elbow poking my ribs from the right. "And maybe offer more~" I swear I only looked down for a second. "Real talk here kid, the forest has been all abuzz since yesterday, and I can tell just from looking at you, that that is because of you. Give this old witch some decent monster scraps and she'll accommodate you quite well."

I, can't keep up with this lady's pace. Ughhh. "I don't, know what else I might need? . . . No, I guess there's probably a lot, and I'm just not thinking of it yet." I pull my hands apart and there is a loud cracking noise. When I glance down, I see that I just split the stump itself, instead of pulling a root off of it. I drop one of the halves and continue pulling the roots on the other. "There's something. Mrrr. At the back of my mind. Ah, I'm sure it'll click in a minute."

"Well, take your time. For now though, I can build a smokehouse at your place? Maybe get a look at those friends of yours while I'm at it." Without waiting for a response, she nods, then darts into the open doorway of her house. This time I had my eyes on her, even so it was a little hard to follow the motion. Wonder if I'm that fast when I dash around?

After a few minutes, I've finished breaking up the stump. My tail twitches at my side as I stare at the pile of roots and wood bits. She wanders back out a short while after that, and my gaze moves up to look at her. She now has a small black leather pouch on her waist. "What would you like me to do with all this?" She points towards a large clay pot next to the front door. "Ah." I gather up most of the bits in my arms and dump them into the pot, then return to pick up whatever remains. "By the way, we should introduce ourselves, right? I'm Typhon, or rather, I tend to just go by Tai."

"Meiron the Im-er, no real need for the epithet I suppose. Meiron it is." She rolls her hand and points in the direction I came out of the woods from, which I take to mean that she wants me to lead the way. I nod and start walking. "So, do you always wear leaves?"

I huff and my tail bats a tree as I walk by, striking hard enough to crack the bark. "No. At least, I don't intend to. I just haven't got proper clothes yet." I adjust the leaf slightly. "And no, I don't need you to provide them. I intend to make them myself from tanned monster hide."

"Suit yourself, monster leather can be decent lightweight armor, no reason it can't be casual clothing too." She fidgets a bit restlessly, and looks around. "Is there a reason we're going this slow? Kinda nice in a way, just a pleasant walk through the woods, but a waste of time."

"I dunno. I'm used to walking at this pace I guess?" I scrape the claws of my right thumb and index finger together. "I'll try running some other time." Nothing else comes up during the walk, but her eyes go wide, and she looks around the clearing when we reach it.

"Oh ho hooo. A Croc Ogre? Can't be more than a few of those around here. Quite the chest wound, probably ate the heart? Course that'd be the best part from your perspective, bit of a shame though. Make sure to get it off the ground or outta your space before it starts to rot or you'll be up to your ears in mushrooms." Then her gaze settles on the piece I hung from a tree, and her left eyebrow twitches. "That, really should be cut into smaller pieces if you're trying to dry it out."

"Well, I don't know what I'm doing a lot of the time. Just have some ideas to try, at best?" Ginro is approaching, keeping his eyes on the new person. His eyebrows are furrowed, and his claws seem sharper than usual. Meiron stares back, then she blurs as she rushes forward and grabs him by the scruff of his neck. He hisses and squirms around trying to claw at her, but she seems to perfectly move away each time his claws draw near. "Aaah? Calm down. I'm pretty sure she doesn't mean any harm. That said, you should ease off too. Just grabbing somebody like that is a little, . . ." I trail off, uncertain of what to call it.

She lets go of his neck and takes a step back, though her gaze sticks close to him. He straightens back up and shakes his head. Finally she speaks. "You almost never see monsters this close to humans. Especially for monsters that aren't former humans, or at least former members of other humanoid races."

"Riiight." Probably better not to tell her about my skill. "Can you actually tell that they're not former humans just by looking at them?" Ginro looks dejected about being manhandled like that, so I walk over and pat his head. "Don't let it get you down, we'll do combat training later. I've got to get used to myself too, after all." He smiles wryly, then nods before running off to help the Chef continue cutting up the Croc Ogre.

"Of course I can tell. Former humans always have 'Cursed' as one of their types. Cursed monsters essence is a bit different. Heck, if you have the Essence Sense skill they even look and feel different. Normal monsters tend to radiate light, cursed monsters radiate darkness. Though dark attribute elemental monsters also do that."

"It could be interesting to learn more about that, but business first, for now?" I wrap my tail around my waist, mostly covering the leaf and scratch my cheek as I try to get things back on track. She chuckles, and starts digging around in her fanny pack. Then she pulls out a metal syringe, screw on hypodermic needle, some kind of cord, and a glass bottle. The syringe looks similar in size to a ten CC plastic one, and the bottle is full of a shimmery but mostly clear liquid.

"Alright then young man, where would you like me to build it?" My eyebrows furrow at the items she brought out. She seems unaffected by my gaze as she attaches the needle to the syringe and jabs it through the cork like cover of the bottle. "Or is it fine to just put it anywhere and you'll just build houses around it?" She pulls the plunger up about a quarter of the way.

What is she doing with that? I shrug and look around. "I guess, that's alright. I'd say, we'll probably build close to the center of the clearing?" Hang on, there's something. . . AH! "That's it! Magic! That's the thing I couldn't think of! Can you teach me how to use magic too?"

"Huuh? Why's a monster need a human to teach them magic? For that matter, magic isn't really a teachable skill. Well, I guess Runic magic can be taught, but I'm hardly an expert in that. I specialize in Elemental magic." She draws the needle out of the cork. "I guess, I can at least tell you what I know, after making the smokehouse." She puts the bottle back in the bag, then walks to about the center of the clearing.

"Okay, so you'll build about here? A little away from here then." Her focus seems to be halfway to the edge of the clearing from the center. She nods, then looks down to tie the cord around her arm with a knot I don't know. She carefully lines the needle up with a vein that pops up, then jabs it into her own arm before pressing down on the plunger. 

It makes me kind of uncomfortable that she can just, do that herself. But I guess it'll be interesting to see her use magic. She pulls the needle back out, tugs on one end of the cord, causing the knot to fall open, then separates the needle and syringe before putting the items away. I haven't noticed any difference so far.

After a couple minutes she speaks up. "That should be enough time." She closes her eyes and hums slightly, then faint iridescent patterns appear on her arms. The pattern on the right looks a bit like waves, and the one on her left looks like scales? That doesn't make sense. Mud construction, so maybe water and earth? Which could make those, rocks?

The patterns on her arms glow, then she gets down on one knee and touches the forest floor with both hands. The earth seems to ripple, moving from where she is to where she was focused before. A moment later the earth surges up about ten feet. The great mound shifts around for several seconds, then finally much of the dirt and mud sinks away, leaving a large, elevated mud hut with a single, minimally sized door and several small air holes around the base.

"Alright, now all you'll need is some kind of fire resistant leather to cover the door when smoking meat. It's got stone racks and hooks, and a small vent near the top to prevent too much smoke from building up. If that girl who is cutting up the ogre has the cooking skill, she should be able to tell how much wood to use." The patterns on her arms have faded quite a bit. They're not as bright, and now barely reach past her wrists.

"Would Inferno Boar hide work for that? I haven't tanned it yet, but I already have some idea how to do it." Her expression seems to imply that it should be obvious that that'll work. But she nods anyway. "Alright then, magic?"

"Sure sure, but first, I'll help myself to some of that ogre's blood, okay?" Despite framing it as a question, she doesn't wait for an answer. She runs over at a, somewhat normal speed. Once there she jumps up onto the corpse, and pulls out a different, larger syringe and needle. Then she jabs it into an open leaking vein before drawing the plunger back all the way. After that she pulls out an empty bottle and cork, then ejects the blood into the bottle. She repeats that until the bottle is full, then shoves the cork into it. She holds the bottle up and shakes it around. While she's doing all that, I walk over standing about ten feet away from the giant corpse. "Ahh, pretty fresh. Probably killed in the last few hours?"

After putting away the bottle, she looks over the wound more then pauses on the exposed ribs. Her finger traces the areas I bit through while my instincts were in charge. "I was thinking of asking for the bones when you were done butchering it, but it looks like you might be more interested in eating those too." Her head tilts, then she blurs and appears right in front of me. "What are your teeth like?" Her hands approach my face and I lean back.

"Whoaaaaokay. Calm down. Have you never heard of personal space?" Her hands twitch, then curl into fists which she quickly moves behind her back. But she is still staring down at me expectantly. My left eye twitches, but I sigh and open my mouth for her to get a look.

"Ohh. About as metallic looking as your claws and horns, but a lighter shade of silver. Or maybe, a platinum color? And I thought you'd have fangs like a large cat, but instead they're all sort of triangular, and more interlocking, like a single layer of shark teeth or some such?" My eyebrows furrow, then I close my mouth and step back slightly. I poke around my teeth with my tongue, feeling out the shape. She's right, they are all wedge shaped, and do line up perfectly. How did I not notice that before? "Guess you hadn't put much thought to it yourself huh?"

She chuckles, then holds a hand up and makes a beckoning motion with her index finger. She walks away from the corpse, then puts her left hand on the ground. The soil rises up and hardens into two simple chairs and a table. She pulls out a chair and sits in it. I tilt my head, then sit across from her.

"Alright, now what do I know of magic that I can teach you? That is still odd. Trying to teach a monster magic. Tsk." She leans back in her seat. "For starters, magic should be innate for monsters, though I guess, for sentient ones, it might not be so easy to use without being taught?"

"The humanoid races mostly use magic by taking in monster essence. There are a few states it can be in. Raw Essence, or basically, monster's blood, which is the most unstable state, not recommended for direct injection. Refined Essence, which can be extracted from monster's blood in a state that when injected, allows humans to gain the monster's innate magic, as a skill. And, Purified Essence, where any relation to the original monster is broken, which is the most stable, and typically used as fuel for the magic skills humans use." She pulls out the bottle of shimmering liquid for a moment as an example.

"Beyond that, it can also be concentrated to carry greater amounts of essence in smaller containers before being diluted back to a usable state. Though both concentration and dilution require heavy duty equipment that I don't have in my mud house. Oh, and if it's pressurized during the concentration process, it can become crystalline. Crystallized Essence is often used when creating magic tools."

"As to how magic works for monsters, well, I don't know how they use it, but I can explain what sorts of magic some monsters have. Each monster type has its own corresponding magic type. And the monster's rank determines how great the effect is." She gestures towards me. "You clearly have both the humanoid and beast types, yes? Humanoid monsters use Psychic magic, which can allow them to move things without touching them, or connect to the minds of others. Beast monsters use Reinforcement magic, which further strengthens their already powerful bodies, making them stronger, faster, or more durable."

"So I should be able to learn to use those then? And, that Runic magic you mentioned that can be taught?" My tail unwinds from my waist and wraps around one of the chair's legs as I lean forward.

"Runic magic has its origin in Mystic monsters. It works quite a bit different from other magic types. Each rune has a specific effect, and the runes can be chained together to combine the effects or produce different outcomes." She holds her right hand up and draws a strange character in the air, a circle with a dot in the center, then the figure becomes a ball of light. "I went out of my way to learn the runes corresponding to the ten elements, since I consider them my specialty. But I don't know any of the others. From what I understand, each rank of monster has ten runes, the elemental runes are in the E rank. On the bright side, Mystic is one of the Sentient monster types, so you can connect with them using your Psychic magic, and learn the runes that way."

I hold a hand up, a gesture she seems to find amusing. "Sentient monster types? So, humanoid and mystic, possibly more. How many are there?" Oh, hang on. The Wisp Foxes are Mystic. I'll ask Suna about the runes later.

"Can't say for sure. Not all monster types are likely to be well documented. But again, I'll say what I know. Humanoid, Mystic, Demonic, Angelic, Draconic, and Ancient monsters are all sentient." My ears perk up and my eyes go wide, then I turn to look at the Croc Ogre. "Aha, yeah. Probably. Though based on the location, I'm sure it attacked you first, so don't feel too bad." She snickers. "Besides, it had to have been a pretty stupid individual to attack you. Just because a monster can think, doesn't mean it will."

She claps her hands. "Right, more details on monster types. From what I know, monsters can have up to three types. Though their magic tends to be more focused if they have fewer. And the order of the types can say what they are more of, and also shows which magic will be their strongest type. Plus the wording sometimes changes based on where it appears in the order. For instance, A Humanoid Beast vs a Bestial Humanoid. The Humanoid Beast would be more Beast than Human, where as the Bestial Humanoid would be more Human than Beast. Or how Draconic would just be Dragon if it's the last one in the order. So, the last one in the list is their main type, right?"

I think a moment. "That, explains a bit. I guess. What about the magic those other types use?" Her gaze wanders to the side. "Oh, you don't know all of them?"

"Well, not off the top of my head. Like I said, I prefer elemental magic. Though that itself can be broken down into the ten elements, so it's plenty to use." She huffs. "Anyway, I can see if I've still got a book on the subject and tell you more later."

I sit back, then sway side to side slightly. "Ah, do you know what magic Chimeric monsters use? I've got another ally that has that type that isn't here right now." Might as well see if she knows what Oct can do.

"That one I do remember. The answer is, nothing. It's unique like Mystic. The Chimeric type doesn't have a magic associated with it. However, it can cause 'Mutation' in their other magic types. So if they're a chimeric beast, since beasts seem to be the theme around here, they would use some unusual variation of Reinforcement magic. Though it's almost impossible to guess what the specific mutation will be."

I furrow my eyebrows. "Would that mean pure chimera couldn't use magic at all?" I'll have to watch out for that when creating monsters if so.

"I, don't think a monster can be just a chimera? Since the whole idea of a chimera is something made up of other things, it should at least have animalistic traits from types like beast or reptile?" She looks thoughtful now. "If you ever see one, try to catch it so I can study it though. That would be, quite the oddity."

"Ahem, right. . . For now, I think I have enough to think about. I'll certainly have to practice to figure out what I can do. Meanwhile, is there anything else from the Croc Ogre you'd particularly like? I may be a bit of a glutton, but for now I'd prefer sticking to just eating the meat."

She stands up abruptly enough to knock her chair down. "Really?! In that case, I for sure need the horn, and some of the organs perhaps?" She starts muttering to herself, something about whether the Croc Ogre was male or female? I'd prefer not to think about that, thanks.

"Ahem, right. Just, take that up with the Chef? Or, I can at least break the horn off for you. Since it might be a little tough for the others to handle?" I carefully untangle my tail from the chair, then stand up and walk over to the corpse. I approach the head, which really doesn't look pretty from this angle, then jam my right hand claws into the skull, just over the base of the horn. I tear at it, taking the horn out from the root. Then I hold it out to Meiron. "Here, take it. I'm, gonna go pull more stumps." Once she takes hold of the horn, I walk off to the next task I've given myself.

Chaos_Sinner777

When Meiron was talking about Tai's fangs, I was meaning they're like Viral's fangs from Gurren Lagann, more so than a typical shark. Speaking of, I just found out that he is a "Shark-type beastman with feline genetics". Fun. And, I notice that I just created another battle junkie who also loves clothes. Is that some weird fetish I didn't know I had? Also, is that an alright name for their race? Kama meaning scythe and Mimi meaning ears, makes it a little weird, but since Kemonomimi is animal ears, and in this case, Kama is sort for Kamaitachi which is scythe weasel. I was using Tsumeitatchi or claw weasel, since they have claws on all of their fingers, instead of individual scythes per limb, but then I was thinking more and wanted to go with the animal ears angle? Also also, Kamamimi has too many "M"s in it. Man, my author's notes end up all kinds of disjointed from how much I want to talk about that I couldn't cover in the story.