Walker's notifications went off, showing that he'd completed the subsystem assistant series's first task by assigning Rimi to it.

"Okay okay OKAY!" Walker said, each with a clap of his hands. "Let's do this! First up we have power and evolution. How are they going to gain these?"

Virgil answered right away with his favorite subject, "That is simple Walker. The magic from the Mana Trees."

"Yes! So, we already selected to modify the evolution system built by the alpha protocol with our new monster system, which means that this will have a direct connection to it. Rimi, pull up your screen and take a look."

"Looking" The small squirrel said as his eyes stared at his screen. "It says that it recognizes that Symphony has magic within its atmosphere." Then he turned to Walker and Virgil, beaming a 3D screen out of his eyes so they could view it.

"Yes! You were right Virgil, it should work."

"Of course." Virgil replied with an eye roll and more than a hint of smugness.

"Nope, I'm not going there. Okay, need to focus." He said with another slap of his hands. He began to pace back and forth in front of the two squirrels. He had always found that movement helps bring forth his thinking process the best. "When we modify the monsters, we need to create a focus point, a locus, for their magic to gather. The first step to them gaining power, has to be passively absorbing the magic in the atmosphere. Like a magical core or center or something. This way, it's slow and steady."

"Why do we not just have their skin absorb it?" Virgil asked.

"Because we want them to gain power in stages or tiers. If we allow monsters to absorb it straight into their skin in an undirected manner, it could first affect their brain or their lungs, or...anything really. We want something that can be controlled, so that we can use it to directionally focus their improvements and evolutions."

"Understood, I am sorry that I interrupted."

"No, no. We're spitballing again here. We're coming up with a system that makes sense, and has a ladder that allows the monsters to move upward gradually over time, so that we don't make another Slicer who just explodes in power. That's a good thing."

"The Slicer."

Walker sighed. "Shut up. Okay, you got that Rimi."

"Yes." Rimi said as his eyes darted across the screen. "I have assigned The Monster System to focus on a kernel-nel" He stuttered, attempting his own form of input into the conversation. "It is a type of seed I, uh, think, since the monsters will grow. Did I...do good?" He asked, looking between his two parents.

"You did very good." Walker replied with a smile. Rimi had nailed it. The term kernel was what he had been looking for, as core and center didn't make sense as some monsters could be asymmetrical, and identifying where to place the locus would be different for each.

"Okay, so we have a kernel. We need to tell that Kernel what to do. I'm thinking we call the unevolved monsters standard as a tier name. What do you think?"

"I like it." Rimi immediately responded.

"I do not." Virgil said testily. "This is going to define an entire portion of your world. You already have....Mana Trees....but standard? No. How about baseline."

"Ughh." Walker replied in disgust with a wide-open mouth, tongue hanging out of the side. "That's even worse."

"Unsouled?" Virgil tried.

"Boring, although now I admit standard is a bit boring as well. Blah, nope. What about classic? Since it's the first version of said monster."

Virgil shot it down immediately. Rimi sat there and let them talk it out, taking in their speech patterns as they bantered back and forth and learning better ways to speak to the primary assistant and his Creator. The debate, the argument really, took almost an hour. Virgil would appeal with a logical name, Walker would pull it apart as it is something they would have to deal with for perpetuity, and there was no way he was calling them origins for thousands of potential years. Then he'd make his own suggestion, only for Virgil to disagree with the root description of the word not truly describing what tier one means. They finally concluded on the one word that they both agreed upon.

"Fine, we'll call them common, like they do in video games. But don't think we're going to use that word as the starting point for everything in all of the systems we're building. Common human? Gross." Walker said in a bit of heat.

"Agreed." Virgil replied in equanimity. "Rimi, question. I do not have access to The Monster System an-."

"You don't?" Walker asked, confused.

"I do not, as it was not, and cannot be assigned to me. You have given it to another assistant."

"Oh. I didn't know that's what would happen. So one assistant per subsystem?"

"Indeed. As I was saying, Rimi, can the system be updated and have those updates still affect its subjects immediately thereafter in a continuous fashion."

Rimi dove into the system while Walker and Virgil both held their breath. This was a big part of Walker's plans for The Monster System. If they couldn't update the system after it already went live, their plan would be screwed and the monsters growth would be limited to when they first designed the system.

Rimi looked like he was reading something for quite a while, before saying, "Y-yes, as long as there is a physical connector for the system to find and update to."

Virgil took a deep breath in relief, while Walker unclenched his hands. "So, this Kernel will have to be something we create inside of them physically, not a simple application of selecting them in the overlay. It has to be built as a storage device that not only contains magic but also the rules explicitly given by The Monster System. "

"We have time to figure it out. Okay, Rimi. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to make....five tiers in the system for evolution. It's just a starting point for us. The idea here is for controlled growth. Once monsters are getting close to hitting tier 5, you'll tell us, and together we'll work on the next set."

"I understand." Rimi said, then started to add it in, creating a list within the system to identify the growth of monsters as tiers, with differing power levels and names. He told Walker when he finished and showed them the front page of The Monster System.

 

 

"Great job buddy, I appreciate you thinking forward and adding a few extra tiers for when we need them." Rimi's ears flopped around upon hearing that. "Okay, tier one is the easy one, as really it's just identifying them as common or a monster at a basic level. We need to build four more before we can make any monsters and assign the system their kernels. The second tier should be a jump in power, but not overwhelmingly. If it leaps up in too much strength, our sapients are screwed." Virgil raised a finger but Walker interrupted him. "Do not say uncommon."

"I withdraw my potential suggestion." Virgil acquiesced.

"I feel that each name after common should identify what it is gaining, so our sapients will understand what they might be facing. I don't want things to be so expected for them that it is always easy to defeat a series of monsters, but we can at least create a system that has clear expectations of the first few tiers. That's what the naming is for, and why they matter so much, at least for the beginning."

"Question before we move to name the second tier." Virgil said.

"Go ahead." Walker said, recognizing that Virgil normally had solid input for his thinking process.

"Do you want monsters to have an overlay system?"

"Uhhhhh. Why? Why would it matter?"

"It is about being as specific as possible with a system. Any outliers or openings have to be considered, and updates will need to roll out accordingly to fix any future problems. Access to the overlay system will, more than likely, confuse lower-intelligence monsters. Designating early on that they do not have access, takes away a potential future issue."

"I see your point. No, they won't need overlays, at least not until they gain rational thought."

Virgil raised a bushy eyebrow, "Will they gain rational thought?"

"We'll get there man." Walker said with a laugh, and another as he watched Rimi eagerly twitching his ears.

"Okay, so, the second tier. I'm thinking that they will be absorbing the magic in the air, and we need the kernel to directly affect them. What is that affectation going to look like? Ideas please."

"It is most likely." The resident magic expert said, "That magic will be directly affected by the environment it finds itself in. When it exits the Mana Tree and enters the air, it is still mostly pure, but once it settles or is directly controlled by something, it becomes attuned to it. Magic settling in the atmosphere becomes attuned to air. Magic settling in the ocean becomes attuned to water. So on and so on."

"What about the roots underneath?" Walker asked.

"That will maintain its purity as they are directly connected to the Mana Trees. Anything directly connected will receive a continuously pure magical supply." Virgil explained.

"And if I placed a large slab of metal directly underneath the roots?"

"Then it will gain in magical density, thereby strengthening the material over time. However, should it reach a certain threshold, unusual things may occur."

"Cool cool, that's what I totally knew would happen." Walker lied. "Okay, so they're probably going to be elementally charged."

"Not necessarily." Virgil burst his bubble again, almost gleefully pointing out his ignorance. "I've seen your experiences from your homeworld. You still think of the elements as earth, fire, water, and air. But you are not considering light, sound, gravity, darkness, and a host of others."

"Okay, but either way they're going to be absorbing mana attuned to these right?"

"Well, yes."

"Great! So it's the elemental tier." Rimi nodded and put that into the system as a name as Walker continued to speak. "We need to have the kernel absorb magic passively, to take it in and fill itself up, and then once it's full, to spill its collected magic directly into the monster based upon its attuning. For instance, if we created the Muys right now, with this system in place, and they absorbed magic from a heat source, they would gain access to fire magic or magic attuned to fire that is."

"Okay." Rimi said, still working on his screens. Walker continued speaking his mind, and felt like he was getting on a roll, "We should make it visual, like the system with its golden pulses anytime I get a notification or it scans something. Or even Mr. Harrison's staff pulsing red."

"Do you want its identify to update?" Virgil asked, trying to round out all the effects of the system for Walker.

"Yeah, but make it simple. If one of the Muys absorbed the fire magic, make it a Fire Muy."

"You're forgetting the s. Multitudinous Yellowfin Snapper. Muysssssss."

"Man, I'm using the S as a plural, it's weird when words in the singular end on an s."

"Whatever." Virgil said, always a stickler for the rules.

"Damn right whatever." Walker said back, although in a much quieter voice so Virgil couldn't quite hear him. Rimi let him know that he'd added everything into the system, including the name changes and pulses.

"Great! We need to do that for tiers three and four as well. Now, we have common and we have elementals, what is going to be number three."

"Wait, wait." Virgil stopped that conversation before it could happen as Rimi worked in the background. "You are moving too fast with a system of this kind of importance. How is the monster going to use its magic? Are they a wizard? Mages? It requires sapience to control magic in a formative manner, or at least years of instinct built up over time and generations."

"Good catch." He told his assistant.

A little rattled by what he had almost pushed through, Walker walked away from them for a moment. Virgil watched him for a moment then began speaking with Rimi about something while he took a stroll. He began speaking softly to himself, "Okay, slow things down Walker, slow things down." He was like this sometimes. He would get excited, dive deep into ideas, and forget to take all of the steps a good plan needs. Just like with The Slicer. Thankfully he had Virgil, who was always looking out for him. You would think one Cosmic-Destroyer-level of mistake would tell him that he needs to do things in a smart and planned way, but that would violate human nature. Walker had seen that plenty of times in his students. The juvie records, tough home life, and patterns that seem to follow almost genetically. He had to force himself to slow down, to REALLY think. He nodded, tried to imprint this moment in his mind for future reference, and walked back. "So, how is it going to use the magic? We have the kernel, it gets through a breakthrough, and then what." Walker asked, seeking their input. The two squirrels didn't say anything about him abruptly leaving, which was nice in a way.

Rimi raised his hand. At Walker's nod, he said, "What if we..uh...let them expand their kernel on the breakthrough, so it becomes a little bit more powerful. Then, we...."

"Go ahead." Virgil pushed. Walker wasn't sure what they had talked about when he was gone, but it seemed like he'd grown to like the little guy more since chucking him out of his throat.

"we...have that same kernel become attuned itself."

"For what purpose?" Walker asked gently.

"So that the magic it produces is always the same type, otherwise you could have a firey airfilled water Muy." Rimi finished out of breath, breathing like he'd just run up a hill. "If the kernel is attuned, it will always be the same. This way, they do not gain any other types of attunements, and they can only refill their kernel with either pure magic, or the magic of their own attunement."

"Smart thinking." Walker encouraged.

Virgil stepped forward saying, "That also means the importance of The Mana Trees just went up again, as they are the biggest source of pure magic in Symphony, and once every monster knows this, they are going to naturally want to be near them since their kernels fill faster by proximity."

"Yep." Rimi said with an air wiggle. He looked at his screens. Walker wouldn't know this, but he had already inputted dozens of pages of rules and information into the system to allow for his plans. He had spoken of it with Virgil when Walker was doing whatever...that was. Virgil gave him some pointers and they had talked a lot about magic. The Monster System was full of potential, and the more they worked on it and filled in gaps and problems, creating a unique program for all of Symphony's monsters to grow, the more attached he grew to it. He was starting to see it as a friend, who depended on him to take care of it and make sure it was healthy. There was nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with just--having a friend.

Walker, Rimi, and Virgil continued their work on The Monster System. After a thorough debate, they decided to limit the size of the kernel in the beginning, to about the size of a large pea, and allow the tier-two monsters to manifest their elements to the limit of their core. This meant, according to Virgil, that they could use their attuned magic in small bursts, like shooting a small magical fireball or extending darkness around them. Once they learned about their own breakthrough, nature would take its course, and their kernel would just feel like another extension of themselves. No more than a person with six functioning fingers learned to use them the same as the standard five-fingered model. They would also grow hungry to empower that kernel once they found their own limits, which is of course what Walker wanted all along. A perpetual war. Not one of genocide he proclaimed to the two squirrels, but one of empowerment. He still had another plan that could be put to use once the monster system was put in. Neither squirrel commented.

When they moved to the third tier, Walker said there should be a much larger growth as they've moved beyond the two lowest levels. His two assistants agreed and after careful deliberation, Walker had Rimi program the system to increase its kernel size by double and allow it to take a secondary attunement. He called it the upgrade tier, which of course led to another spout of arguing. Rimi gave his input every so often, feeling better and commenting more often as the tiff continued and they consistently listened to his opinions with respect. They settled on the transformed stage.

"Okay." Walker said once they'd finally nailed the third-tier's name. "The transformed stage will allow them to not only gain a second attunement, but mix them. Fire and earth equals lava, sound and air equals...actually, I don't know what that would equal."

"Resonating or harmonic." Virgil supplied.

Walker pointed a finger at him, "That! So each time they transform, they gain a second kernel, and once they fill it up, they can blend their magic together." He mashed his two hands together to explain it. "Plowy! Transformative. Fits the name."

"I understand." Rimi said. "But that isn't the explosive gain in power that you are looking for. It is more magic, that cannot be denied with double the size of their kernel, which was doubled between tier one and two. But, it does not truly allow them to grow. So far, the monsters will gain an attunement, and gain a little more magic and another attunement. There should be more empowerment for them to reach this far." He finished, feeling a deep need to make sure the future monsters he watched over were represented well.

"You are right." Virgil said with a nod. "We need to do something to them physically."

"Like what?" Walker asked.

They all sat there in the quiet for a long moment. Long enough that Walker actually checked the clock till the next battle and was blown away. They'd already spent five hours working on just the firs three tiers. They needed to move faster, but couldn't rush at the same time. He tried not to think about the progress other Creators must be making. He really hoped the next one didn't have a Slicer of their own or he was truly fucked. He continued thinking over the different paths forward, but thankfully Rimi had already come up with something.

"Why not also let the kernels begin to affect their bodies? Make the Muys evolve to have heat resistance if they're attuned to lava or fire. There is no point in using lava-attuned magic and being burned by your own power."

Walker snapped his fingers. "There it is! Holy crap they're going to burn up if we don't give them some kind of protection. But how do we do it?"

Virgil nodded as well, "A fine suggestion, but I am not sure as well." He looked at Walker as he said it, but was really watching Rimi from the corner of his eyes, waiting on his response.

"So we need to give them protection from their own attunements, annnnddd, what about physical enhancement?" Walker questioned while Virgil just quietly sighed and said, "How so?"

"Oh, Oh!" Rimi said with his hand raised. He put it down when Walker said he didn't have to do that. "Let the magic seep into their skin."

"Yes!" Walker heard Virgil say in an annoyed tone of voice. He was sure that the squirrel was mocking him somehow. "The skin. The skin."

"So you want to let the attuned magic seep into their skin to provide some form of resistance."

"Uhuh." Rimi agreed. "And, we can start changing them from there. The more their kernel fills up, the more magic is pulsing through them, and the more physical changes that occur."

"Okay okay." Walker said, getting excited as he began to picture it. "So in tier three, the monsters get a second kernel which lets them pick another attunement and combine them, then we let it seep into their bodies, toughening up their skin at first and moving onto organs like bones and muscles."

"That is a good plan, but you have a problem."

"What's the problem mommy Virgil?" Rimi asked.

"Please only call me Virgil." He said, miffed as Walker boisterously burst into laughter, high-fiving the confused smaller squirrel. "If you affect the brain, unknown magical results may occur. It will more than likely increase their brain size, thereby increasing their intelligence by a high degree, and offering secondary evolutions like quick thinking or strategic mind. The second attunement and bodily changes are already enough, you do not want to make them smarter at tier three as well or you have a The Slicer problem." Virgil noticed Rimi staring at his hand after Walker had slapped it.

"See there you go again." Walker grumped. "THE SLICER. It doesn't sound right. Anyways, I agree. So we make the changes to everything physical, but tell the system to disclude the brain. We can just include the brain in the fourth tier and that should be enough of a jump in power."

"Okay." Rimi agreed, finally taking his eyes off of the center of his paw, and started to build his future in greater depth. The page count had reached over forty already and the system was starting to become more balanced as they added stopgaps to prevent anyone trying to work around it. He hadn't told Virgil and Walker yet, but he was sure he would once it came up. His knowledge was....limited. He didn't know why he had information on some things and not enough about others. He didn't know why Walker had slapped his paw, or why he seemed to laugh so much, but he knew since he first opened his eyes about the alpha protocol and how it worked. He could've stopped Walker talking at any point during his introduction, but he wanted to see what the experience had been like for him, from his eyes. It had been enlightening, and just from seeing his bond with Virgil, where even when they were arguing they still did so with great care for the other's feelings, and he knew he wanted something like that. So he was working and thinking extra hard for him at every moment since Walker had given him The Monster System. This was his way to help his Creator, whether he wanted to be called that or not. He wouldn't let him down. His blue-tinged paws stayed by his sides as the system was built step by step. He showed them the front page.

 

"Huh, brown is a bit of an ugly color."

"It is a color of nature, Walker." Virgil reminded him.

"I guess, but it's also the color of doing nature's business if you know what I mean.

"That is the basest form of humor you know." Virgil said.

"Yeah, yeah. Why did you pick pink and yellow Rimi?" Walker asked.

"I don't know. It felt right."

"I can answer this," Virgil said. "Rimi does not receive updates the way that I do, and he is not fully connected to the protocol with its large assortment of information. He primarily gains knowledge in glimpses related to his assigned subsystem. When the protocol shows evolutions, it gives a weighted scale to the impact of them based upon the amount of, for lack of a better word, power they bring forth. For instance, The Slicer's extreme survival instincts had a red color, whereas advanced adaptative properties had blue. It is a color scale that moves with the ability."

"Basic is grey."

"weak is pink."

"Moderate yellow."

"Strong green."

"Advanced blue."

"Mighty purple."

"Extreme is red, and supreme is gold. Rimi is naturally reproducing similar colors in the tier system, which I approve of as it is only logical to follow a scale you already know and that has been tested to work well."

"So it's like a what...an instinct?" Walker asked turning toward Rimi rather than Virgil, but he only received a small-shouldered shrug.

"Somewhat, yes." Virgil elucidated. "This will come out in many ways. For instance, once you assigned the subsystem to Rimi, he became quite attached to it. He may not know why he is attached to it, but nonetheless, it is there. Similar to myself and the ecology subsystem. There is one key difference between primary and secondary assistants, however, I do not have limits to how many subsystems I can manage. My only limit is how much time I have to work with them."

"Okay okay. Are there higher rewards than supreme?"

"I am certain there are, but I am unaware of them at this moment."

"Neat. Okay, let's focus back up. We have the brain for Tier four, and probably ANOTHER doubling in kernel size. You said earlier that affecting the mind would make them smart."

"Much smarter, to a degree that they can be comparable to sentient beings like yourself. Also, because they will become sapient, I suggest you grant them the ability to name themselves as I believe they will have earned it. Reaching Tier four, by your standards here, will be quite difficult. Each increase in kernel size will also show an equal increase in the amount of magic needed to fill it."

"So?" Walker asked.

"So, if you ever want to see monsters gain the ability to reach tier four, you need to add more ways for them to gain magic rather than just passive absorption. It works fine in theory for the first two tiers, but thereafter it will fail. You would be looking at a hundred or so years before a monster reached tier four at that rate, and that is if they can find a location that offers both of their attunements in relative proximity."

"Hrmm." Walker said, pacing back and forth again. He knew the answer but was hesitant to say it, as it would further evolve his world into a warlike entity. Walker was sure Virgil knew this as well, but was pushing him and his delicate morality to accept it. If he told Rimi to add it to the system, it would solidify the way the world was going to work. If he didn't, the scales of his new system would break. He would have to create Symphony as one part harmony, and likely two parts conflict. He would have to add in things through other systems to balance things, like the class system and eventually a professional one as well. Something for people to do aside from constantly killing and dying. The mental anguish would be overpowering if all they could do was fight or die. Harmony required something more. A balance. Even more to consider. Just like when he returned from the battle with Blitzburg7, his mind was spinning with too many thoughts. He locked it down. Tight. Then pushed it away, re-focusing on what he had been thinking of just before his war plan reared its head.

The class system! He thought before turning back to the two assistants and saying, "We'll add them to the class system at tier 4." with an air of finality.

Virgil gave him a look of confusion, "What would that do?"

"Well, how did you think I was going to have my classers gain power? Killing monsters of course! If we add the tier fours to the class system, as Rimi here requested." He pointed at Rimi with his palm while the small squirrel's ears wiggled. "Then they'll have the ability to gain power directly from killing other monsters. That's a double-down on their ability to gain more magic for their kernels." He spread his hands wide in a theatrical fashion. "My grand plan! Monsters absorb magic throughout the world, but classers can't and shouldn't work that way. Monsters will be a product of their environment, but classers will be a product of the choices they make and the steps they take to advance. My plan has been to allow the classers to gain magic through self-evolution, one that allows them to target their own personalities and ways of living, and not force it upon them. The greater achievements they accomplish, the better they understand themselves and their role in the world, the more power they will accrue. They have to CHOOSE their paths, just like me. We can even add in the item system once it's up and running, give rewards for certain acts, and complete specific milestones we will build in over time. Those who want to fight can gain power, magic, and evolution through the conflict and absorption of different strength'd kernels and the monsters they slay. Those who want to be...I don't know....a Chef, can advance specifically through milestones that grant them the ability to evolve. It will be all interrelated through one overarching system!." He said with another arm spread and breathing heavily.

"First of all, Classer is a terrible name, but that only leads me to the second part, what will the system be called?" Virgil asked.

"God damn it." Walker said, putting his arms down. "I thought about the Walker system but that's too much ego even for me. Then I considered the Dante system but that's really just naming it after myself again, so why not take a page from our own world." Walker moved past them, so he could face Symphony, then began waving one arm quickly through the air as if to a large group of people playing music. "The conductor system!" He proclaimed to the world....or really just his tiny planet and two squirrels.

"With you as the conductor?" Virgil asked with a smile.

"Naturally. So, what do you guys think?" Walker said, already moving back to The Monster System and all of the roads it would lead to. "A brain, a name, and a class?"

"That is a lot of power, but I agree. I believe percentages will bring balance as not many monsters will hit tier four." Virgil said.

"Exactly! So, what do we call it?"

"What about the unique stage?" Rimi ventured with a hand half-raised.

Walker tried to be gentle in his response, "I feel that would be a good one, but it doesn't fully describe all of the additions we're putting in buddy."

"Okay." Rimi responded. He didn't seem to take the denial of his suggestion badly which was a good sign.

"How about Monarch? Like a ruler?" Virgil asked.

"Hrmmm." Rimi hummed with a small shake of his head. "Not all of them will want to rule."

But Virgil wasn't about to give up. He hadn't dropped a name on The Monster System yet and felt an intrinsic need to be involved. He looked at Walker who still seemed deep in thought then offered another option, "Then, how about Apex?"

"Oh come on." Walker said with immediacy. "Are you just trying to piss me off about The Slicer again?"

"No, but it does fit. They will be physically powerful by tier 3, two types of magic with one combined form, and quite smart. That sounds like an apex monster to me."

"Then, just for my own mental health, let's go with a synonym." Walker suggested. "Pinnacle. It satisfies what you're looking for, and they'll be naming themselves so we won't need it to specifically show up on identify, Rimi." He mentioned to the smaller squirrel. Rimi made the changes with a nod.

"I like it. Now, Tier five." Virgil said.

"Already decided." Walker threw out. The rest of what they'd talked about and entered into the system had led up to this moment for him. It was the first portion of The Monster System he had come up with, and he had only needed Virgil and Rimi to help him figure out all of the minutiae that existed in-between tier one and five. "We're going to give them a territory."

"What do you mean?" Rimi asked.

"I mean, if they've reached Tier five, they've been working very hard and few classers will be able to go against them. So, we connect them directly to a mana tree and establish that half of the landmass as their territory. Let them re-work it in their own image. Here I'll even give you an example. Let's say we have a tier two iron muy who works its way across a dozen years and reaches tier four. It renames itself to Frank, and Frank just loves axes and fighting. Alrighty then. He picks an axe class, evolves to become bipedal so he can control them better, and is entirely too much for sentients to fight against unless they're at a similar or higher level. Give it a territory, almost as a warning, to everything around it. Don't fuck with Frank. Let it continue to grow with its linked mana tree, so it doesn't feel like its progress is ending. That way it doesn't seem like the only way for it to grow is to go on a rampage across all of Symphony. Give it a chance....to be....something more. To gain something more, and be different. Build its own world in a sense."

"A mini-monster creator." Virgil said.

"Just that." Walker replied with a nod. "Hopefully it isn't a total dick."

"That requires another system, one that deals with territories." Virgil reminded him.

"I know! Isn't this fun!" Walker said with a huge smile. If Virgil didn't know any better, he would assume that smiling that hard would hurt a person's face. "Rimi said we could build in the milestones so that only the good ones really help, that's a solid plan. It will slow down any supervillain level of monsters from leveling up their class and getting too much power too quickly."

"Walker." Rimi's small voice said, "We don't have a territory system yet, so we can't interconnect them."

"What's the best you can do?" Walker asked as his smile turned into a frown.

"u-um." Rimi said, clearly nervous about the look on his face and his self-preservation as a subsystem assistant.

"Whoa whoa, calm down buddy. I know you're just getting started in life, but this frown isn't for you, but myself. It's okay. Now, what is the best you can do."

"Umm." Rimi moved through the sixty or so pages he'd built, flipping through them quickly while trying to see if one of the protocol's glimpses would save him from disappointing Walker and The Monster System together. Walker's idea was a great one. Allowing the monsters to continue to grow and yet warning the rest of the world that there is something powerful here, to not enter without thought. "I think....I think I can just call it a territory and leave a note that it must be linked to a territory system."

Virgil nodded beside him. "Yes, it is not perfect, but it is a band-aid that will hold until we get the territory system up. The alpha protocol allows this as not all plans can be established simultaneously, and they want the very best a Creator can do. We just cannot let any monsters reach Tier five before it is running, or the monster system could become unbalanced."

"Will you please remind me." Walker asked the two squirrels, receiving a nod from the smaller and two thumbs up from the larger. "Great! I even have a name for it."

"What's that?" Virgil asked.

"Demi-god."