17: Creating Life

Jessica’s view

Seeing my two lovers getting along so well made me smile. So, delaying my new grand plan a bit didn’t bother me at all. Besides, it’d probably help to spend some time discussing the plan a bit more. It can be important to get the details right since they’ll need someone to watch over the dungeon, and monsters they can’t stand to look at is no good.

After discussions with the mayor and a few other people, we settled on a design that was one I knew pretty well: Like a centaur, except with a spider body instead of a horse one… except this really isn’t enough detail, is it? I mean, what kind of spider? There are many different types! Many different styles and shapes!

…

Smooth metallic exoskeleton? Detachable? … after much discussion and brainstorming with others the mayor chose… this isn’t really a spider at all! *sigh* this is something else entirely. Some sort of wearable spider mech; stick your legs in, and ride it around. Getting the interface system working right could be tricky… 

…

I decided to get to work on creating the main body first. A young woman who’d be the pilot of the spider-mech body.

“Isn’t she kinda small?”

“She’s the same size I am, Rev.”

“You’re tiny, Jess.”

“...”

Suddenly my new creation leaned over to kiss Revenna on the nose.

“I’m not too small to do that!” her giggle at the end was quite sweet.

“Eh? What kind of… Jess! What did you put in her head?”

“Uh… I dunno. I just wanted to make someone who’d understand us and be happy to help.”

“Rev, this isn’t the same spell as she showed us earlier.”

“I had to make some adjustments since talking with others led to changes in the plan, Sia.”

“Don’t worry, mom. I understand exactly what needs to be done! I do have a request though. Can you give me a sister? I’d rather not be alone.”

Being called mom gave me a weird warm feeling. 

“Uh, sure, Love. I’ll make a partner for you.”

Making a second spell construct lady wasn’t too hard, especially since I’d just done it, so it’s not like I had to re-plan out what I was going to create.

“Jess, this spell is slightly different!”

“It is? I thought I was casting the same one.”

“Don’t worry, Sia. Mommy’s an expert with magic!”

“She’s not even aware of what exactly she’s doing!”

“It doesn’t matter. If she wants something, she gets it! That’s how her magic works!”

“Ugh, you’re just as full of nonsense as she is. Magic fundamentally doesn’t work like that!”

… honestly, I don’t think I ever really paid enough attention to my magic to be sure exactly how it works. I get an idea, and try it out, and usually it works. Or sometimes it doesn’t, and nothing happens. Is it different for other people? Maybe I should’ve paid more attention to others in the past. I thought I constructed spells the same way others did.

“I just used formations for a humanoid body, understanding, joy, and service. Wasn’t this taught in class?”

“Some of this spell is obviously copied from other monster creation spells, but even the copied parts are altered. None of this matches the lessons we were taught.”

Well… I was pretty sure it’d work, and simply finished the spell and let it work.

“Sia, she’s never cast a spell exactly like it was taught in class. Even when she’s trying to copy a demonstrated spell, the formulation is always a little different.”

… I do dimly remember some teachers commenting on my work being very innovative… am I really misremembering all the spells I was taught?

“Sis!”

“Sis!”

Ah, they’re hugging. It’s like looking at a pair of twins. Their smiles are so sweet to see. 

“Okay, now I was hoping to get some feedback on the designs for the spider-mech suits. I didn’t want to just finish the design without your input, since you’d be the ones using it.”

“Yes!”

“Yes!”

…

Osia’s view

While Jessica worked on her new spider body designs for the two ladies she created, Revenna and I studied the design of the spell we saw her use.

“Comparing the spell design she showed us the first time, and this new one… the new one is smaller.”

“Well, it’s only the first half. She broke it up into two spells, Sia.”

“Yeah, but it’s too small. Creating an intelligent monster should require something bigger than this. Intelligence isn’t a simple or easy thing to build. This new spell is too small for it.”

“The old spell was big enough?”

“Yeah, though I suspect it didn’t do things any differently in that regard. The difference in size is probably just from the extra features and functions that’s not in the new spell.”

“The two ladies she made, really looked like real people. Acted like real people too.”

“Previous attempts at intelligent monsters were abandoned long before it became convincing.”

“Well, the sexy ones in the previous dungeon seemed pretty realistic.”

“Except for how they completely ignored anything their creator hadn’t created a response for. Haven’t you looked at the more recent logs? Some of them didn’t even know to dodge attacks from adventurers. I blame Jess for that.”

“What, because she got people so focused on sex?”

“Yeah. That was completely her doing. While there is a dungeon known for seduction and sex, it’s generally seen as the odd one out.”

“Oh, right, the succubus dungeon. That one’s… well… a lot deadlier than the dangerously honest one Jess had made.”

“Yeah. ‘cause not killing isn’t something dungeons are normally designed to do.”

“Do you think Jess will turn this dungeon into a non-lethal one too?”

“In the past I would’ve said no, however, those ladies she made..”

“You sensed it too, didn’t you? They are like Jess is.”

“They know too much. Whatever Jess did when making them is not something I’ve seen in any books.”

“I didn’t think you studied life magic.”

“I didn’t. I... uh… I was working on something specific, and while trying to figure out how to do it, found information on intelligent monster creation.”

“Were you trying to make a copy of Jessica?”

Her eyes shifted in a way that made it obvious to me, that the answer was yes.

“I could help if you want a love-doll.”

“N-no, I don’t need something like that anymore.”

“Because you’ve already got the real thing now, huh?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Geeze, I’m starting to think you’re more obsessed with her than I am.”

“I… might be. She’s just… so amazing.”

“You’re amazing too Rev. Don’t forget that.”

Revenna’s cute when she blushes.

***Author Note***

These past two chapters involved a lot of thinking on how magic would work in this setting. Up until this point, I’d not really put much thought into it. Now though… now I know that something weird is going on with Jessica. The fact that she was able to use magic, and use it well, back when she thought it was all a dream, means that she can instinctively do things that normal mages have to put a lot of time and effort into doing. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have felt like a wonderful dream.

Along the way, I also did a bunch of thinking on Osia, and figured out more of her personality and ambitions. Which was kinda needed, as up until these past two chapters, she’d been a pretty flat character.