《The Curio Shoppe》


 Chapter 1 :Fortune and Misfortune are Good Friends

    In a well-lit parking lot of a college, in the late hours of a winter night, a young man scowled and tried not to curse out loud as he dropped his car keys for what seemed like the fifth time in a minute. It was the cold weather and his thick gloves causing it to happen, he was fairly sure, as he wasn''t very clumsy normally.He shook his head, and some strands of his thick, almost waist length blue-green hair slid to cover his face.


    The hair was quite obviously dyed, and you could see blackish-brown roots starting to peek out from his scalp, but none of that distracted from the face the hair framed. He had thick eyebrows, unmolested by dye or much beyond the occasional tweezing to shape them up and prevent a unibrow.


    These eyebrows were over large, brown almond-shaped eyes, which were above a nose that could best be described as romanesque, and a somewhat wide mouth with moderately thick lips, currently deformed into a frustrated scowl.


    His chin was prominent, but was neither pointy or square, more like the end of a rather rounded oval than anything else. He had an average body build, his shoulders and hips were not broad,yet not thin, and his long legs and arms made him appear somewhat larger than his actual height of 5 feet 10 inches. He was moderately fit, neither built like a statue or excessively skinny, though by the slight protrusion of his belly, the fat on his thighs and upper arms, and the slightly chubby cheeks that were held up by his high cheekbones, he could be considered to be a bit chubby.


    All detail about his body from the neck down, however, was obscured by his baggy black t-shirt with some video game related logo, his baggy sweatpants, and the beat-up oversized leather jacket he loved to wear during cold weather.


    Overall, his general physical appearance and his light brown skin suggested a mixed East Asian and European heritage, which wasn''t far off from the truth.


    This was Kellan Klein, a Computer Sciences student studying this field for, of all possible reasons, to pursue his desire to be involved in the development of video games. He figured he could turn it into a profitable programming-related career even if he couldn''t hack it as a game dev, and that seemed like a pretty solid plan to him. Unfortunately for Kellan, life had other plans.


    As he finally unlocked his car and prepared to head home, something tapped on his shoulder. He turned around quickly, and saw what looked like a bright-red skinned arm giving off a blood-colored light. Well, it was an arm, if an arm could be at least as tall as he was and about as thick as his waist. His eyes followed the arm to its source, what looked like...some kind of hole in the air, glowing with an eye-hurting rainbow of colors. He saw pretty much every color he knew in that rainbow, and a few that he had a sneaking suspicion humans didn''t have the visual range to see under normal circumstances.


    He tried to back into his car, stuttering out "Hey, I uh, d-don''t want any trouble!" as he went.


    This would have been a smart idea, except for the fact that the arm was much faster than he was, and the head-sized hands had clawed fingers. The obnoxiously glowing red arm grabbed Kellan and dragged him into the weird rainbow air hole, leaving behind nothing but an abandoned, unlocked car and the keys still in its door to indicate that Kellan or the arm had ever been there. As he was dragged through, the strange air hole, that Kellan now figured was some sort of portal, closed behind him, nearly severing the last several inches of his hair.


    Kellan was being unceremoniously pulled through a short tunnel that glowed with the same light as the strange hole/portal/he wasn''t sure what it was. He felt fear and anxiety spike within him, and his stomach began to churn. Oh man, a panic attack right now, before he had any idea what was going on or where he was or oh hey he''d reached the end of the tunnel. He discovered two things very quickly.


    The first was that the place he''d arrived in was well lit, and well decorated, but obviously still a cave. The second thing was that right in front of him, there was a very large red-skinned woman , whose body was on the same scale of size as that huge arm that had pulled him here. Looking her up and down and trying not to scream, he noticed she had a pretty face, a fairly muscular figure, and two large, sharp horns that resembled nothing more than the horns of a bull,atop long, curly black hair. She wore a dress made of what looked like some sort of fur or leather, and didn''t wear shoes. He figured that was because he feet were just as clawed as her hands, if not more so. Seeing the unfortunate mortal try to maintain composure in the face of what had to be worldview-shattering shock and fear, she smirked.


    Kellan, for his part, managed not to scream or start crying, though he very much wanted to. If all the media he''d experienced  and myths he''d heard of got anything right, this red lady was probably some kind of demon or monster, and she almost certainly intended to do mind-breakingly scary and traumatic things to him. With an effort of will that surpassed any he''d made so far, even the time he managed to keep down that horrific mixed drink concoction his friends had whipped up on his 21st birthday, Kellan looked the woman in front of him right in her yellow, slit-pupiled eyes. He tried to speak, to ask a question, but she spoke before he could get a word out of his mouth.


    In a domineering, authoritative tone, as if she was used to being obeyed, she asked "So, mortal, do you want to know why I grabbed you, and what you''re here for?You must have many questions." She smirked, seeming to enjoy his obvious discomfort.


    That annoyed him,and under the fear and anxiety, anger started to build. Just who the fuck was this red bitch , and why did she think he was her fucking toy or whatever? He had rights that weren''t supposed to be infringed on, rights that were supposed to be universal. Ah well, he figured that if even his government didn''t obey such basic rules, why would this demonic-seeming lady pay any attention to them?


    He growled out his next words, anger and fear obvious in his tone, like the battle cry of a cornered animal. "Who the fuck are you? Why did you grab me? What are you? Who are you? Where the fuck is this weird cave thing even at? What the hell was that portal thing?" his hands, not pinned to his sides by the giant hand, balled into fists.


    "Hehe, you''re clearly terrified yet you talk back to me? Even being able to tell that based on sheer body size and muscle strength alone, I could kill you more easily than you could crack an egg? Hmmph, you might be some a mortal loser from some lame weaksauce universe that doesn''t even have magic or cultivators anymore, but you''ve got one hell of a backbone, kid." The demon''s smirk gained a hint of genuine amusement. She wasn''t used to her captives, mortal or otherwise, being defiant in the face of certain death. It almost made her want to keep this kid around, just to see how else he surprised her.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    "Actually, I''m terrified and probably in the middle of a panic attack at the moment, but the sentiment is appreciated. Anyways, questions? I don''t want to die or be experimented on or whatever without having any idea who or what took me out of this world." Kellan''s voice shook, and he was unable to keep more of his anger and fear from seeping into his words and onto his face.


    The demonic woman raised an eyebrow. "Well, usually I''d kill you for talking to me like that, but you''re gonna die anyway so I''ll answer your questions. I am Lamia, a demon from the Myriad Heavens Cosmos, a universe a fair distance away from this one on the grand multiversal wheel. I grabbed you to drain your vital energies,blood and soul so as to help create the formation that will  open a portal home. You know, I''ve been doing this for thousands of years, slowly gathering the energy to heal my injuries. It''s gotten a lot harder with modern technology and you people no longer believing in gods and demons. I miss the days when all I had to do was shapeshift into some half-snake thing and birth monsters to terrify you people into sacrificing to me. As for the cave? Well, that you don''t need to know." She took a breath, though she hadn''t seemed to be even close to being out of breath. Was this for dramatic effect? Either way, he was royally screwed, and was pretty sure he was going to die.


    In that moment, Kellan gave up and went silent, the prospect of inevitable, painful death just to be part of the fuel for some demon''s attempt to get home getting to him on a deep enough level for him to shut down and stop functioning. He waited for the pain, for the end, to fade into nothing. He wondered if there was an afterlife? There probably was, given that Lamia called herself a demon and that everything she''d done so far, even her damn existence, was clearly supernatural. He''d find out soon enough, he figured. He certainly hoped there was one, he''d dearly missed his grandparents and his dog since they passed away in the same tragic accident a few weeks before he turned 18.


    *** SCENE BREAK***


    Kellan waited for the pain, hoping it''d be over quickly. Instead, he felt a sharp pain all over his body, and for a few seconds that stretched into infinity, he felt something leave him. He didn''t know what it was, but it felt important, it felt like losing it was the worst possible thing. It made the pain like a thousand tiny razors being dragged across his skin feel like nothing compared to the sudden emptiness he felt. To be honest, it felt a lot like a depressive episode, but one where his body was more depressed than his mind. It was just wrong, and he tried to grab onto what he felt leave and pull it back. He had no idea how, though, and he felt it continue to be pulled out of him.


    "So this is how it ends, huh? A slow, painful death I can''t even resist. I guess that''s fittingly pathetic for a loser like me." Kellan had a hard time getting those words out. He was already in pain and feeling empty, and those words intensified both of those feelings. Having said his piece, he was content to wait to the end while the Lamia laughed and drained him of whatever vital energy or soul or whatever that was leaving him. After all, if he couldn''t resist, he may as well go out peacefully and rob the demon of the satisfaction the torture he was going through would bring her.


    It was a nice last stand, all in all, but it was about to be interrupted. The cave walls shook,and some vases fell off a nearby shelf, somehow managing to not shatter on the stone floor dotted with cool-looking rugs made from animals Kellan had never seen before. Did tigers come in bright blue? Was that bear rug''s fur red? What kind of overly huge lizard was made into the couch cushions? Kellan wasn''t sure. He didn''t have much time to think about it, as Lamia stopped draining him and a look that was an odd mixture of annoyance and primal terror appeared in her eyes.


    Something that scared Lamia must be pretty terrifying and powerful, so I was somewhat perplexed when the ornate mahogany door Lamia had installed in the cave entrance burst into sawdust and the prettiest man he''d ever seen strode into the cave, staff in hand. He seemed to be of mixed East Asian-European heritage, like Kellan, and that was probably the most normal thing about his appearance. His entire face and figure seemed delicate and ethereal, his firm jawline and the cold anger in his eyes the only things about his appearance that weren''t soft and smooth. He had silver hair, bright golden eyes, skin like Kellan''s, and two horns atop his head, though they seemed smaller and more combat-focused than Lamia''s oversized horns that were probably mostly there for intimidation. he wore a blue cotton robe, cut to resemble that of a Taoist monk, and what looked like black and white sneakers on his feet.


    He held what looked like a short sword with a glowing white crystal in the pommel, and as he raised it to strike, his sleeve fell back and I could see patches of silvery scales on his arms. He said "It''s time to come home, Lamia. I wish i''d been able to find and track you earlier, but it took this long to even get here. You set up a formation powered with lives,drenched in innocent blood because you weren''t strong enough to get home and evade us, am I right, Planet Devouring Serpent Queen?" His expression was cold, and each word carried his disdain and disappointment with the demon in front of him.


    Panicking, Lamia did what she thought would be smart. She held a claw to Kellan''s throat, and her voice shook as she said "One move and the mortal gets it!"


    The pretty man smiled, and it was a sadistic, joyless smile. Moving faster than Kellan''s eye, and probably Lamia''s  as well, could see, he slammed the pommel of the sword into her forehead, and she screamed as her figure distorted and was sucked into the glowing stone with a sickening crunch.


    "She''ll be taken home for trial, and punished for her crimes. I can''t resurrect her victims, as this isn''t my territory, but I can help you."


    He waved his hand, and Kellan felt whatever had been taken from him had been restored. Hell, he felt better than he had in years.


    "Yo, uh, Kellan, I think your name is? I have a proposal for you. On my journey here, I was constantly scanning your universe, and I watched millions and billions of humans live, grow and age. So many of you dreamed of other worlds, other places.Your dreams in particular caught my attention, and the time differential between this cave and the real world is enough that it''s been a year and everyone thinks you''re missing or dead. I want to give you the ability to visit places you''ve dreamed of or heard of in stories and stuff, on the condition that you''ll help me gather samples of resources, abilities and stuff so that I can catalog how powers and stuff work in those places." The anger had fled from his face, and he seemed more embarrassed than anything.


    "I mean, it sounds great, but there has to be a catch. Is my old life completely gone? Can I go home again?" He asked.


    "Well, there''s no catch, per se, but you''ll be constantly risking your life. You can go home, but i''ll have to come up with a suitable cover story for your return and you can only go home on vacations, not permanently. Once you''ve progressed enough, though, you can bring your loved ones along and help them become strong and find place they want to go as well."


    Assured that he wouldn''t be some kind of Isekai protagonist with either no way home or no reason to go home, Kellan prepared to take the biggest leap of faith he''d ever taken.


    "Hell the fuck yeah, man, sign me up. By the way, what''s your name?"


    "We''ll begin the preparation process soon,after I take this monster home. My name''s Avarius Goldscale, and I guess you could consider me...a guardian angel, if dragons are a type of angel." Avarius smirked.


    Kellan was sure he''d regret this later, but at that moment all he could think of was a ridiculously pretty dragon man who seemed to switch between modern slang and formal, antiquated speech at the drop of a hat. Oh, and also the promise of exploring all the worlds he''d dreamed of since his childhood. This was gonna be fucking awesome!

 Chapter 2:Terms and Conditions Need Not Apply

    Avarius waved his hand, and the furniture and other nice stuff in the cave levitated into the air and flew towards him, vanishing when they got within about a foot of him.He led Kellan to the mouth of the cave,and he saw a chaotic mess of light, color, and well, stuff, floating in what seemed like the void of space, if space were multicolored and full of things.He looked around, and he saw things he''d never expected could happen in a rational and orderly universe. There were floating pieces of land, ranging all the way from landmasses barely bigger than a boulder,to full on floating cities and continents! He even saw the blurry silhouette of what looked like a planet in the far distance, though he wasn''t sure.


    All of these things were floating in this impossible rainbow space that seemed to go on forever, and it was full of life. He could see fish jumping in a pond on one of the nearby islands,birds flying through the air, bugs buzzing in and out of the cave, all sorts of creatures, large and small. Kellan was pretty sure he even saw some mythical and fictional creatures. All sorts of plants covered the floating islands,ranging from trees miles tall and hundreds of feet around to delicate little mushrooms and flowers. Also, there was water everywhere, whether directly on the islands, rivers flowing through the weird rainbow space with no visible means of support, and at least one spherical ocean that roamed back and forth between a cluster of large island and the nearby continent.


    How did this all work? Why didn''t these islands plummet or get attracted to that planet in the distance? Why didn''t the fish fall out of the floating ocean? Where the fuck was all this light coming from?


    Were there people here? Where even was this place? As he stepped out of the cave, Kellan looked around, again noticing just how ridiculously attractive Avarius looked, but also noticing that he was on top of a mountain, near the edge of an island that,while relatively small, was at least as big as New York City. Avarius turned and saw Kellan''s open mouth and expression of wonder, and smiled.


    He remembered when he''d first entered this place and been entranced by it, and that had been with the benefit of a well-cultivated mind and thousands of years of life experience in a world filled to the brim with magic and weird, interesting phenomena. He let Kellan soak in their surroundings a bit more, as he stretched out with his soul and his senses to locate a good place to prepare Kellan for the boundless future that lay before him. He slowly calmed down, and his open mouth closed into a content smile. This place was super fuckin'' cool, in his opinion.


    "Hey, uh, Avarius? What is this place, and where are we going?" Kellan asked, nervously playing with his hair as he asked the question, his blue-green locks wrapping around his fingers as if they were bandages.¡±


    ¡°Oh yeah, I haven¡¯t even told you the basics yet, have I. First things first, this place is¡­ the space between universes, where natural law is flexible and allows for things the natural laws or Heavenly Daos of universes generally don¡¯t. Those who know of it call it by a lot of names. The Primordial Chaos,The Between, Paradise, The Aetherium, and countless more. It doesn¡¯t necessarily have a true name. The Multiverse is like a giant wheel, with the Well Of Origin at its center and the infinite amount of universes that circle it are like, the spokes and the outside of the wheel. This place is connected to every universe and ultimately, the Well of Origin itself. What I¡¯m doing right now is finding a suitable place in it to get you set up to become a multiverse-traversing badass and explain to you what your duties and abilities are going to be.¡±


    ¡°Well, I guess that makes sense and isn¡¯t any weirder than the other shit I¡¯ve seen tonight. Wait, if the universe is infinite and keeps growing, and there¡¯s a infinite number of universes, does that mean this, uh,between place is infinite and always getting bigger, or does it shrink as more universes are born and grow?¡± This was growing increasingly weirder, and Kellan¡¯s list of questions to ask kept growing longer.


    ¡°It¡¯s infinite, yes. It grows a bit faster than universes do, keeping them equidistant from each other to prevent non-deliberate collision or fusion of universes. The boundless energy and matter that continually pours from the Well allows that to happen, and it is that raw power that is the basic fabric of the Between. This particular area of the Between is the part closest to your universe, and thus was the easiest hiding place for Lamia after she created a minor spatial tunnel to go to and from your home with it. Unfortunately, she destroyed that tunnel as soon as she sensed my arrival.¡± Thinking about Lamia seemed to make him an odd combination of ashamed and angry, and it showed on his face enough for Kellan to pick up on it. He mentally filed that under the growing list of things he¡¯d ask about later.


    Avarius¡¯s eyes suddenly lit up, and his right hand glowed with a silvery light as he drew a rainbow-colored door in the air with it. The door opened, and it resembled the portal that Lamia had pulled Kellan through earlier.It opened onto a sturdy-looking floating stone bridge that lead to a relatively small , subtly square shaped floating island, about 1500 feet long and 1500 feet wide. It was likely much deeper than that, as, from the vantage point of stepping into the portal, he couldn¡¯t see where the bottom of the island was. What was the point of going there, and where exactly was it he was heading? All he was sure of was that it was a lot further from home than the place he was now. Ah well, he wanted a life of adventure, and Avarius had promised him he could go home, so he figured he may as well take the risk.


    He stepped through the rainbow door, and onto the bridge.He noticed that the edge of the island was rapidly growing walls of sturdy-looking rock about 20 feet high, except a small gap where the bridge connected. Noticing a golden-brown glow around Avarius¡¯s hands, he felt thankful that this mysterious dragon-man was concerned enough about his safety to create a way to keep him from falling off the island, Hell, now that he noticed it,there was no way to fall off the bridge, as the walls of it were high and made of stone like the walls around the island. The rainbow door had changed color and solidified into solid mahogany wood, , with a small stone shack forming around it and the words ¡°Kellan¡¯s Homeworld¡± inscribed into the door in English.


    ¡°You saw that, huh? Yeah, you can make visits home later, and i¡¯ll figure something out about the time you¡¯ll have been missing. But before that, there¡¯s lots of stuff to explain and setup to get done. ¡°


    A simple shop appeared around the center of the island. It wasn¡¯t very big, about 10 feet tall , 50 feet long, and 50 feet wide,made of simple oak wood with a sloped wooden roof, like an old-fashioned general store. There was a simple but well made wooden sign hung above the door that said nothing but the word ¡°Shop¡± on it. As Kellan looked around the island, he saw a few ponds, pools, and a small lake forming, and a small forest spread rapidly, though it had a conspicuous lack of variety in the plants and only a few scattered berry bushes in terms of food. There didn¡¯t even seem to be any animals bigger than bugs around!


    ¡°Ok, so, what¡¯s the deal? What do I do? Why lead me to this weird little island that you made a bunch of modifications to all of a sudden? What does this have to do with the whole accomplishing my dreams thing?¡± Kellan asked, extremely confused by the entire situation.¡±


    ¡°Well, you¡¯re going to be traveling from world to world as a traveling merchant. You¡¯re going to buy, sell, and trade all sorts of things. You know those like, game system-esque things that are so common in certain genres of novels that help the protagonist accomplish stuff? Well, you¡¯re going to have one, and it¡¯ll be linked to your activities as a merchant. This place is your home base, where all your stuff is stored and you can use the various system functions and such more easily. When you touch an object or person, you can acquire a sort of¡­template to replicate the object with Merchant Points that you earn by selling things to customers, sending resources and items to the system warehouse, and acquiring new things to sell.¡± Avarius helpfully explained.


    ¡°Wait, does that mean I can clone people or like, mass produce Excaliburs?¡± Kellan asked, unsure if he should be excited about or terrified by the potential implications of that.


    ¡°Nah, when you touch a person you get, like, the template for their possessions, their genetic code, the ability to infuse living things with whatever unique bloodline they have, that kinda thing. Also, if you have a close bond with or a strong animosity with the person, you can get RPG-esque skillbooks that teach you their unique skills. You can sell those too, but it¡¯s kinda risky and you¡¯ll usually have to convert them into spellbooks or martial arts manuals unless the world in question has skill books, to avoid powerful beings trying to kill you for your secrets. As for the excalibur bit?You¡¯ll find out how things like that work as you unlock more system functions. For now I¡¯ve pre-loaded the system with some basics so that you don¡¯t immediately die when you hit your first world. ¡° Avarius paused to let Kellan soak it all in.


    ¡°Ok, but what¡¯s the benefit to you to set all this up for me? It seems like it just benefits me, mostly.¡±


    ¡°Well, like I said, I wanted to let you follow your dreams. I occasionally grab random , suitable people from different universes I visit and give them some sort of system or stupidly overpowered inheritance or whatever and see what they do with it,but in this specific case it¡¯s because I want to research the magic systems, natural laws, and so on of all these different worlds but don¡¯t want to do all the legwork myself. I guess you could consider yourself my apprentice, and you can call for me if needed.¡± The draconic man smiled in a somewhat self-satisfied manner.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s a relief to know that there¡¯s mutual benefit here and you¡¯re not just essentially granting me a brand new life without expecting anything in return.¡± Kellan said, and he did in fact feel relieved. Phew, this dragon dude probably wouldn¡¯t want to call in favors and any worry he¡¯d had about this being some sort of elaborate trick or trap was lessened,if not entirely purged. There could still be a catch, especially if he ran into those other apprentices that Avarius had mentioned.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    ¡°Well, there will be quests and missions and stuff, but they¡¯ll mostly be either stuff to unlock system functions or generated by your interactions with any given world rather than arbitrary bullshit with excessive punishments or rewards that would force you to act in ways you wouldn¡¯t otherwise. That kind of thing just leads to trouble and pointless drama you never wanted in the first place.¡± Avarius replied, something that looked like a gauntlet-style COMP from one of the Shin Megami Tensei games appearing in his hands. From what Kellan remembered, COMPs were wrist mounted computers that used the demon summoning program to summon and control demons, so what would this one do? It didn¡¯t quite look like the one in the game though, the screen was a bit bigger, and it had a silver-colored dragon inscribed into it, with the dragon¡¯s head on the palm and the dragon¡¯s body on the underside.


    ¡°Here,take this. This thing is the system¡¯s physical manifestation, and your way of accessing it while you aren¡¯t here in your home base, as well as a token of your apprenticeship to me so that you and my other apprentices can identify each other.¡± He tossed Kellan the gauntlet, and Kellan caught it and slid it onto his left hand,which it¡¯d apparently been made to fit perfectly. He grinned, pretty excited to try it out, and then his expression soured as he thought of something.


    ¡°Hey, how do I turn this thing on and what do I do if it breaks? Also, what powers it?¡± He asked, waving his newly gauntlet-ed left hand around, and then made a fist. Yep, it did feel like he was wearing metal on his arm, but the inside was soft and padded, probably some kind of cloth or plastic, it was light, and it didn¡¯t restrict his movement. Even if it hadn¡¯t been the key to living out his dreams, Kellan would have liked this gauntlet a lot.


    ¡°Hold your finger to the screen for thirty seconds and it¡¯ll power on. You¡¯re unlikely to break it, as it¡¯s incredibly durable and if it does break you can repair it with Merchant Points. The gauntlet runs off absorbing ambient energy, usually sunlight or heat or electricity or whatever, but it can also absorb energies like mana, qi, chakra,the ripple, and so on to replenish itself. In an emergency, you can even convert Merchant Points into energy to power it.¡± Avarius explained, happy that Kellan was asking good questions.


    ¡°Neat. I¡¯m gonna try it out. I assume the gauntlet has some sort of function that allows me to contact you if I need to?¡± Kellan asked, scratching his head. He enjoyed the feeling of slightly-warm metal against his scalp.


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s got a chat function with pretty much multiversal range. I¡¯ll add you to the apprentice group chat and I¡¯ll always keep an eye out for messages from you. Prepare for some tutorials once you get that baby running. They won¡¯t be super complex or anything, so don¡¯t worry.¡± Avarius smiled and gave Kellan a thumbs up.


    ¡°Well, thanks for doing all of this for me, I¡¯m gonna try this thing out now because I have nothing better to do.¡± Kellan held his finger on the screen, waiting for the gauntlet to turn on.


    ¡°Have fun with that, I gotta go set up your cover story and something to keep people from noticing where you go when you¡¯re here. I¡¯ll be in touch.¡± Avarius waved and disappeared in a flash of rainbow light, without even waiting to hear the goodbye that died before it made it out of Kellan¡¯s mouth.


    ********


    ¡°That was weird. I guess I¡¯ll see him again, though.¡± As Kellan spoke to himself, a loud bleeping noise was heard and the screen of the device glowed as it booted up. The startup animation was a small dragon rising out of a woven basket like a charmed snake, while a red-haired young boy played the flute..


    After the start-up screen, a prompt asking him if he wanted to turn on accessibility mode popped up. He was about to ask what that mode did, before he saw a digital button marked with a question mark on the screen. He pressed it, and a video began to play.


    On screen, there was a avery large multicolored ferret, at least the size of a mongoose. The ferret looked at the camera for a few seconds, then seemed to remember what the purpose of this was.


    ¡°Oh, yes! Accessibility mode on the boss¡¯s system thing. It allows telepathic communication with the system! The system will read any thoughts you intend to send it, as if you¡¯d spoken them out loud, and it¡¯ll announce any system notification inside of your head! ¡° The ferret spoke, her voice surprisingly deep for a rodent and vaguely feminine. Pausing, as if to make sure Kellan had understood.¡±You can essentially access system functions mentally, though things like browsing the system shop or anything that requires your full focus are recommended to be done manually.¡± The ferret raised one of her paws at the screen and waved. The video started to fade out, as if it was coming to an end.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s helpful, but does that mean it reads my mind? That¡¯s kinda creepy.¡± Kellan said, somewhat disturbed by the idea of the system reading his mind. What if it was recording them? Or worse, broadcasting them?


    ¡°The system does not read your mind and is incapable of doing so unless you allow it to. It will receive thoughts you intend it to hear in the same way cultivators of various worlds do when accessibility mode is turned on. If that¡¯s all, this help session is over and I have other duties to attend to.¡± The ferret seemed vaguely amused, but he couldn¡¯t be sure as he¡¯d had little exposure to ferret body language, let alone sapient multicoloured ferret body language.


    ¡°Uh, yeah, that¡¯s all , I guess.¡± Kellan said, shrugging. The video feed faded away, and he chose to turn on accessibility mode. A notification popped up on screen, telling him that accessibility mode had been turned on, and then he heard a strange, genderless voice that was neutral in terms of tone and carried no emotion. It seemed almost robotic, but it spoke too smoothly for that.


    ¡°Welcome, host! Would you like to initiate the Beginner¡¯s Tutorials?¡± The mysterious neutral voice reverberated in his head, and given what it said, Kellan figured it was the system.


    ¡°Yeah, go ahead.¡± Kellan thought towards the system.


    ¡°Warning:Tutorials cannot be completed withoutbin binding the sysytem to the host and activating the preloaded Basic Package the creator left for the host. System requesting permission to carry out said actions.¡± The system¡¯s emotionless voice seemed to grow a little panicked, as if it was afraid he would say no.


    ¡°Permission granted.¡± Kellan replied. He figured since it¡¯d help him anyways, letting the system freak out about the situation would be pointless and kinda cruel. It did seem to have some emotion just then, didn¡¯t it? That meant it was kind of like a person, probably an AI or something, and it¡¯d be hurtful to mess around with someone who just wanted to help. Besides, he wasn¡¯t sure how teasing it would even work. The system might just abandon him! If there had been anything he¡¯d learned from sci-fi, it was that artificial intelligences were emotionally vulnerable and should be handled with care.


    ¡°Binding system to host¡­10%, 20%, 50%, 98%.. done!¡± The system announced , its now cheerful voice carrying a small hint of smugness. ¡°Opening Basic Package. Shop Subroutine unlocked, host can now turn currency and items into Merchant Points and use merchant points to buy goods! Host gains access to the shop catalog to order shipments of registered items with Merchant Points, or to allow customers to directly use the catalog to purchase items with whichever currency their world uses.Host has also unlocked some basic options for consumables, daily necessities and gear, anything further will depend on the host.¡±


    The system paused, then continued to speak. Kellan was sure it didn¡¯t need to take a breath or anything, but he let the moment pass without complaint. ¡± Host should find these basic items quite familiar,as they are common to many of the games host enjoys.Certain items from Host¡¯s homeworld have also been templated for the catalog and also be acquired by paying shop points if it is something host has sufficient knowledge of.Anything else must be acquired normally.¡±


    Kellan looked at the screen of his gauntlet,seeing several icons, including a few that were grayed out. One was a leather bound book, apparently the shop catalog. Another showed a farm, and yet another showed some beakers and chunks of material, and was most likely related to Alchemy or something similar, he thought.


    ¡°Understood, I¡¯ll keep all that in mind.What¡¯s my beginner mission..thing?¡± He cupped his chin with his un-gauntleted hand, trying to look like he was deep in thought.


    ¡°Host will travel to a random world and complete a task. The specific task will be decided depending on which world the host arrives at and the host¡¯s opinions , knowledge,and feelings about its inhabitants. Host will receive free basic equipment and skills suited to the world upon arrival so as to ensure host¡¯s survival and the accomplishment of the basic mission. Rewards depend upon the world selected and the host¡¯s actions in that world. Be aware that the ways in which you change a world will affect your rewards.¡±


    ¡°Alright, well, let¡¯s get going.¡± Kellan said, impatient to go on his first adventure.


    ¡°Beginner Mission accepted. Activating world randomizer. Loading¡­loading. Scanning possible worlds where host should be able to survive with current abilities. Worlds that are too dangerous for current host removed from randomizer. World Selected: Primax Alpha 78.86. This world is very close to Mary Shelley¡¯s Frankenstein, but contains more mystical elements, including monsters from various folklore and theBelmontclan that were Dracula¡¯s enemies. Beyond the effects of such changes,the history and setting of Shelley¡¯s Frankenstein remains the same. Setting Dimensional Door to correct universal coordinates.¡±


    The door of the small stone hut glowed, and when the glow faded the engraving read, in large, bold letters :Mary Shelley¡¯s Frankenstein & Other Classic Monsters.Kellan approached the door, opening it to see yet another rainbow portal. He stepped through, waiting to see what was on the other side. He was puilled through yet another long, rainbow tunnel, and was spat out into an alley in what looked to beIngolstadt, Bavariaduring thelate 18thcentury.


    ¡°Welcome to Primax Alpha 78.86, host! System recommends finding an abandoned shop, market stall, or other base of operations while the system scans the host¡¯s memories to determine a suitable mission. System will dispense suitable equipment once the mission has been determined in two hours.¡±


    He had two hours to kill,huh? Kellan figured he¡¯d wander the streets and look for somewhere suitable before the mission was set. If he was lucky, he¡¯d find a young Victor Frankenstein who hadn¡¯t yet created life ,and if he wasn¡¯t? Then he¡¯d find a bitter, sad jerk whose thoughtless behavior had screwed up his life and ended others. He hoped he was lucky, or he might end up having to explain why a complete stranger had assaulted the eccentric but well-respected scion of the Frankenstein family. Though given that he wasn''t in Victor''s hometown, that meant that Victor had likely just entered college, and would probably be easy to find with a little searching.

 Chapter 3: A Ball Of Sunshine

    Kellan wandered the streets of Ingolstadt, waiting for the timer that appeared on his gauntlet to finish. Currently, the gauntlet had shifted form into a pocket watch so as to not draw unwanted eyes, so he was swinging it by its chain, waiting for something to happen. His clothes had also shifted into traveling clothes suitable for the time and place, a bit battered but not poorly made. He happened to wander near the university that Victor Frankenstein was currently studying at, and decided to look for the man once the timer ran out. He didn''t know how old Victor was right now, as he wasn''t sure of the year or anything much, as he didn''t know how to read or speak German despite his dad being of German descent and his grandparents having moved from West Germany to the US during the 1970''s.


    Right as the timer reached zero, and he looked down to check the mission, someone smacked right into him, knocking him down. The person fell right on top of him, and as he groaned in a mixture of pain and embarrassment, the system decided now was the time to speak up.


    "Ding! You have Templated (Henry Clerval!) Items unlocked: Skill: Spoken Languages (French, German, Romansh), Skill: Written Languages ( French, German, Romansh), Henry Clerval''s Outfit, Leather Wallet(Pouch-style), Pocket-Watch,Carac, Malakoff, Swiss Meringue. 1000 Merchant Points awarded for what has been collected, as well as for templating a major character of the setting.Any further items or skills must be unlocked through befriending Henry Clerval and completing quests or tasks he assigns the host."


    The man, who Kellan now knew to be Henry Clerval, stood up. He was around Kellan''s age, probably a bit younger. He was a rather beautiful man, with features more androgynous than Kellan''s, yet somewhat angular and masculine, almost statuesque, with his blond hair and bright blue eyes over rather average, yet nicely shaped lips and a strong chin. He was pale, a bit taller than Kellan himself, and very slim. He seemed sculpted, like one of those Greek statues.Kellan could understand why Victor Frankenstein had described him as a very pretty man in the novel, and he carried an aura of compassion and kindness that seemed as if he desired to reach out and hug every lonely and hurting person in the world. He reached out a hand to Kellan, who was still laying on the ground, stunned by both the fall and the handsome young man in front of him.


    Clerval opened his mouth to speak, and words Kellan didn''t understand came out. "Geht es dir gut?" it sounded like German? That''s right, being an educated Swiss man of the Era, Clerval probably spoke French, German, English, and Romansh. He was probably talking in German due to the fact that we were in Germany.


    "System, purchase the German and French spoken and written languages."


    "Ding! German and French spoken and written languages have been unlocked and matched with your proficiency in English! 400 merchant points deducted, 600 remaining."


    Kellan felt the knowledge flow into his brain in a weird manner, as if it had always been there. His mind went blank for a second as his brain rewired itself, retroactively changing his patterns of thought and language use the way only years of experience speaking and learning a language could. When Kellan''s mind returned, he took the man''s hand and used it to haul himself up from the ground.


    "What did you say? I didn''t quite catch it." He said, in frankly flawless German, or so he thought, anyways.


    "Oh my, since when does someone who obviously has Asian blood carry the accent of Britain''s American colonies when speaking German? Well, your features do carry some European as well, so that might explain it. I asked if you were alright, my dear man." He said, in English that was lightly french-accented. That made sense, people from Genova generally learned French as a first language and Clerval was, among his other interests in bettering humanity, a skilled linguist from what Kellan remembered of the novel. It''d make sense that he''d pick up on Kellan''s accent and trace it back to its source, as since his family were businessmen, he probably dealt with foreigners frequently.


    "Oh yeah, i''m completely fine. As to the ancestry thing,well, my father was a German merchant with the Dutch East India Company, Mom was the daughter of a Chinese merchant. They fell in love, got married, and Grandfather sent them to Massachusetts to set up a branch of the family company. But.. you, Henry Clerval, you can consider me a messenger from God." Kellan said this, because as he checked his pocket watch, he scrolled to a tab that had a book on it. It was one of two like it. One said Catalog and the other said Quest. In the quest tab, there was a quest that read "A Family Unbroken. Quest Description: Enlist the help of Henry Clerval to ensure Victor''s mental and physical health, and help him in the creation of his supposedly monstrous child. Guide him into being a better man and good father, and help him fight off any threats that might arise from his act of creation. Rewards: ????, Skill: Homunculus Creation,unlock Alchemy skills and functions including Alchemy Lab, further rewards depend on performance and connections with the denizens of the world. Accept Y/N?" Kellan hit yes. The quest now had objectives, all but the first of which were blurred out and couldn''t be read. The first one read "Befriend Henry Clerval and meet Victor Frankenstein by whatever means necessary."


    "Do you have any proof of that, sir? What would a messenger of God be doing in Ingolstadt of all places?" Clerval, though a very excitable and friendly man, was very intelligent, and would definitely not trust Kellan without some kind of proof. Of course, Kellan technically was under the employ of either a god or something very similar, but it was impossible for Clerval to know that. So, to fabricate some proof,he would use the system, as time to save Victor from his own stupidity was running low. He would start to create the monster soon, ignoring everything, even his own health. Perhaps randomly making something appear from thin air would convince him? He''d try facts first, though.


    "Well, I know your name and who you are despite having never met you, for one.Your father is a merchant from Geneva, and you somehow persuaded him to allow you to go to school. I know your best friend is named Victor Frankenstein, and he''s a student here in Ingolstadt as well. Do you require more proof, Mr. Clerval?" Kellan asked, dramatically purchasing a copy of Paradise Lost from the system and pulling it out of the pocket watch, which was obviously too small to contain it, as well as a small block of extra sharp cheddar cheese. That last one was due to hunger, but he was sure it added to the sheer oddness of the situation.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    His mouth hung open and his eyes went wide. "Mon Dieu! I am sorry for doubting you, sir! Anyone capable of pulling such big things from the face of a pocket watch must be supernatural in some way. What brings you to Ingolstadt?"


    "Well, Mr. Clerval, I am here to help. You see, your friend is about to undertake his life''s greatest labor, and if we don''t help him and ensure he doesn''t neglect his health, it will lead to bad consequences for everyone he cares about, you included. You''ve surely noticed that while he likes people and is generally good natured, Victor has a hard time actualizing his compassion and tends to be a bit self centered?" Kellan said.


    "Yes, Sir, I have noticed that. When we were children, Frankenstein often had to be somewhat pushed and prodded into thinking of others, but from there would pursue treating them right with the same zeal he had for learning. He just... isn''t exactly socially aware or capable, though he does possess the raw kindness and care that makes such a person.Knowing all this, you must indeed be the divine messenger you claim to be.By the by, what is your name?" Henry Clerval asked.


    " My name is Kellan Klein, Mr Clerval. Today, we must meet Frankenstein. From there, we go where the future takes us." Kellan said, grinning confidently.


    "Well yes, but if what you say is true, you must tell me what we need to do, what would happen if we didn''t, and we must make a plan to accomplish it. Follow me, and together we will look for my dear friend." Clerval began to walk, and Kellan followed. As they walked, they chatted, Kellan revealing some knowledge of canon and Clerval being suitably horrified. Together, they formulated a plan, involving a good diet, parenting lessons, persuading Victor to be less of a workaholic, and many other elements that would hopefully avert the disasters to come, or at least make their effects much more mild. The more they chatted, the more Kellan realized Henry Clerval was an optimistic, clever human-shaped ball of sunshine, and the more Clerval realized this seemingly insane mysterious stranger had a good heart and better intentions. Only time would tell where the odd partnership between them would lead, and what fruit it would bear.


    ***


    The two arrived at Victor Frankenstein''s apartment, and were greeted by the sight of a tall, thin, pale man , with rather scholarly features. His long, wild black hair held back into a ponytail and emerald green eyes peeked out from under thick brows.He seemed somewhat unhealthy, his pale skin lacking the rosy undertones Clerval''s had and his eyes had dark shadows beneath them, but he didn''t seem to be on the point of collapse , or to be sick. His eyes shined with curiosity as he looked at Clerval and then Kellan, and his gaze gave off a feeling, as if he wanted to pick him apart, learn his secrets and how he worked, and put him back together, better than before.


    "Clerval,my dear friend," Victor Frankenstein asked, his mildly deep voice a little strained," Who is this stranger of mixed blood you bring before me?"


    "Ah, my dear Frankenstein, this...friend is someone here to help you,you see. God in Heaven blessed him with knowledge of what is to come if you blindly pursue that little project that has just caught your fancy. You''ll neglect your health, neglect the family and friends you''ve already long neglected, and worse. So listen to him, and to me, Victor Frankenstein," Clerval practically hissed his friend''s name." and listen well."


    "You know about my project, Clerval? My desire to create life with my own hands and methods? I have mentioned this to no one and haven''t even written it down. Hmph, this man must truly be a divine messenger to know this not long after I have thought it. So tell me, agent of God, does your master approve of my dream?" Victor asked, his voice shaking. He was naturally suspicious and curious, but he knew Clerval would not lie to him and if this stranger knew his plans to learn to create life, he had to be who he said he was. So he had to know, did his own creator approve of his attempt to create?


    "Mr. Frankenstein, my name is not ''Agent of God'' , it is Kellan Klein. Yes, God does approve, but he wants you to do it as a responsible man seeking to be a parent, rather than a sorcerer creating life. You must learn about how people work, and how to raise a child. You must take care of yourself and your relationships, and be careful not to let your zeal for work prevent you from enjoying life. If you can do these things, balance this great work with being a good man, God approves." Kellan paused, taking a deep breath to calm himself. Speaking so formally was a bit of a strain., but the seriousness of the subject at hand and the utter awesomeness of what he was about to become a part of let him easily bear it." God will even provide me with useful knowledge that will help in these endeavours, though we will still have to do much research ourselves. Are you prepared to take on this burden in pursuit of your dreams, Victor Frankenstein?" Kellan smirked mischievously, like a grinning demon. He imagined Mephistopheles had a very similar look when he''d made his offer to Faust, but he supposed he could find that out later.


    "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! If even God approves of my labors, what do I have to fear as a man of science? Even if all the peoples of the world array themselves against us and nature itself rejects us, we will accomplish this great task together, Mr Klein."


    "Yeah, sure, but call me Kellan. Also, why do you and Mr. Clerval call each other by your last names?"


    "In that case, you may call me Victor. As to the question you posed, it is simply a common thing to address one''s close fellows in that way, though we do often use our given names in private company. Right, Henry?" Victor smiled, seemingly enjoying the lack of formality and straightforwardness of this stranger that had exploded his worldview in such a short time.


    "Yes, that is true, Victor. Since you have invited us to use your given name and extended the hand of friendship and partnership to the two of us, you may also call me Henry." Clerval-, no, Henry smiled, his gentle demeanor made all the more obvious by it.


    "That sound pretty good to me, let''s get down to planning and figure out how to proceed from here." Kellan said, the formality dropping from his speech while the tone of his voice got more serious.


    "You are quite an interesting fellow,Kellan. Your frankness and lack of unnecessary formality beyond basic decency intrigues me. As you said, let us get down to business." Frankenstein gestured to his two guests to sit down, and they began to make plans.Kellan quickly bought some books on biology,chemistry, psychology,anatomy and physiology, and childcare from the system. The former 5 had been things he''d taken classes on, and the last had been something he''d studied growing up to help take care of his several younger siblings. He didn''t take them out yet, but kept them ready in the system''s inventory. Altogether, they''d cost him about 100 Merchant Points for 20 different books.


    The three new friends discussed late into the night, planning how they would research different subjects, what was the best way to go about studying the human form and the human mind, how best to go about keeping themselves from submerging into the project to an unhealthy degree, and the like.Plans began to slowly take shape, and before they knew it, the three similarly aged men had drifted into sleep at the table.

 Chapter 4: Time Passes Faster Than Blue Hedgehogs

    The next morning, Kellan was woken up by the system speaking. "Ding! You have templated Victor Frankenstein! This templating was delayed due to host''s unconscious state, but sufficient duration of contact was made to acquire template. Normally, templation requires either deliberate touch or 5 seconds of accidental touch, but this was increased to 6 hours due to neither party deliberately touching the other and both parties being unconscious. Host has acquired Skills:Alchemical Genetic Engineering,Physics (Electricity),Biology, Genetics. Skills locked due to Host''s lack of understanding and Victor Frankenstein having not completely developed said skills yet. Study alongside Victor and build your relationship to unlock the knowledge host does not already possess! Host has acquired items: Victor Frankenstein''s Outfit, Victor Frankenstein''s Diary, Microscope(Compound), Frankenstein''s Locket. Unlocking the Microscope has unlocked modern Light Microscopes from host''s world. 2000 points acquired for templating of Victor Frankenstein and associated items. Further items possible if Host completes tasks related to Victor Frankenstein. " The system explained cheerfully.


    Hearing all this, Kellan felt a weight on his left arm, and saw the sleeping Frankenstein using his arm as a pillow. Frankenstein- no, Victor, looked innocent and peaceful, as if he had no worries or cares in the world. His shoulder-length black hair seemed to have wrapped itself around Kellan''s fingers, and Kellan carefully extracted them and slid his arm out from under the young man''s head. He hadn''t minded the sensation, but he''d just met the man, and it''d be weird for both of them if he''d just stayed like that. Sitting up, Kellan looked to his right and saw Henry peacefully snoring away. He got up and purchased two simple feather pillows from the system shop, costing 5 points each. He slid them under the two men''s heads, and decided to template Frankenstein''s furniture, cookware, and the like before heading out to get some food to make breakfast for the three of them. He checked the system catalog and among the other new items, apparently acquired a template for the local currency when he''d ran into Clerval, but the system hadn''t mentioned it. He guessed it sort of assumed he''d know that he could convert currencies back and forth or something? He bought a few Gulden and Thaler, the local currency, from the system at 2 points per Gulden and 4 per Thaler.


    Kellan walked through Frankenstein''s apartment, templating everything he thought would be useful or he''d want to sell, even visiting the cellar to see what kind of food was down there. "Ding! Host has templated Fancy Wooden Chairs, Fancy Wooden Table, Chef''s Knife,Silver Fork,Silver Spoon,Silver Table Knife, Ceramic Bowl,Chaise Lounge,Wooden Cup, Tin Tankard, Brass Cooking Pots (various sizes), Brass Cooking Pans (various sizes) , Water Barrel(clean), Pine Logs, Oak Logs, Wood-Burning Stove, Cotton Blankets, Goose Down Pillows, King-sized Bed Frame, King Size Feather Mattress,Herbs & Spices (Bay Leaves, Borage, Caraway Seeds, Chives, Dill, Juniper Berries,Marjoram, Parsley, Thyme, White Pepper, Wild Garlic), Chicken eggs(Augsburger,German Langshan,Vorwerk,Westf?lischer Totleger), Meats(Smoked Ham, Smoked Bacon,Bratwurst, Blutwurst, Bockwurst, Knockwurst,Landj?ger,Weisswurst) Vegetables(Kohlrabi,Savoy Cabbage, Turnip, White Asparagus,Parsley Root,White Radish), Fruits(Sanguinole Pear,Seaberry,European Raspberry,Cherry, Ananas Renette, Champagner Renette and Zuccalmaglio Renette Apples, German Tomato.)Host also templated like ten types of bread and cheese each, but their names are very long and the system figures you¡¯re probably sick of hearing this list by now. Gained 1000 points for sheer amount and variety of items. Continue templating more items to gain points and see else might happen!"


    "Well, I don''t think I need to go out right now. I''ve got plenty of food right here. Time to get cooking." Kellan grabbed several bratwurst, some eggs, several apples, some cheese, and a small loaf of Pumpernickel bread. He also purchased an apron and some cooking mitts, as well as a metal spatula, from the system, tied back his hair with a strip of leather and set to work. He had to start a fire in the wood burning stove, juice the apples while he was waiting for the fire to get hot enough, and then cook.


    Around an hour later, Kellan had three plates of sandwiches. The sandwiches had Bratwurst, cheese, and scrambled eggs on them, and the eggs had been seasoned with a little of the white pepper, some garlic, chives, and some salt Kellan had purchased from the system. He also had three wooden cups of freshly squeezed apple juice. Henry and Victor had woken 10 minutes prior, due to the smell of the cooking bratwurst, and eagerly awaited the meal.


    ¡°Victor, I think we got lucky. This new friend of ours can cook! I mean, you can somewhat cook since you¡¯ve been taking care of yourself for two years, but this man¡¯s food looks like it might even be as good as your family¡¯s chef!¡± Henry exclaimed, slamming his fist into the table in excitement.


    ¡°Yes, Kellan seems extraordinary in a lot of ways. Speaking of extraordinary, we might have to do something about his odd hair color though, I figure it¡¯s some kind of dye since human hair isn¡¯t naturally capable of that color but he¡¯ll stick out like a sore thumb, especially if we meet someone he can¡¯t pass it off as some sort of Chinese cultural thing to.¡± Victor said, jerking his mind away from the food for a second.


    ¡°I have ways of dyeing my hair back to its natural color, don¡¯t worry. Enjoy the food,gentlemen, we¡¯ve got a long day of research and studying ahead of us.¡±Kellan smiled as he served the food. He liked his hair color, but Victor wasn¡¯t wrong, and he could always dye it back to its current color later. The three hungry young men greedily dug into their food, excited for what was ahead of them. The Greeks, or the Romans,it was hard to remember which, had created a relatively non-toxic black hair dye made by fermenting leeches in a cauldron for two months. Kellan would do that, as he''d likely be in this world for a long while, given how long it''d take to create and parent the being the three young men were collaborating on, let alone what else might happen.


    ***


    As the three men settled into a cycle of studying,theorizing, relaxing,and somewhat casually living, they blazed through 6 months like a hungry goat eats through a patch of particularly tasty grass. Victor Frankenstein continued his studies at the college while spending much of his spare time working on the project, doing what he had in the books with the added benefit of slightly better tools to study the corpses the three took from graveyards or from people who had donated their bodies to science, as well as the greater knowledge base provided by the biology, psychology, parenting, and genetics books Kellan had brought. Henry immersed himself in his business and language studies, though now that he was part of Victor''s project he spent more time thinking about how artificial humans could help people and fit into his grand philanthropic plans than seriously applying himself to business. Kellan spent a decent amount of time buying and selling from an abandoned shop front he''d bought, to pass the time when he wasn''t working with his two new friends or ensuring Victor rested, exercised, and ate enough.


    With his and Clerval''s influence, Victor sent letters back and forth to his family, and after some initial bad feelings from going two years without any communication, they began to chat back and forth,Victor excitedly talking about his life, his father excited to hear that the usually awkward Victor had made another friend, and Elizabeth asking him to visit when the semester was over.The three men discussed this,and came to the conclusion that it''d be possible, as the two college students would have a month off of school and Kellan had enough points and customers to afford being able to close the shop for a month.


    They decided they''d all go, and so when the semester ended, they set off. This would be a somewhat brief respite from their grand endeavor, but it would be an important one. When the semester ended, the three men set off for Geneva by carriage, and arrived within about a week. The three men made a rather pretty picture when they arrived at the Frankenstein home. They were welcomed by an excited Alphonse Frankenstein, a curious William Frankenstein, and Elizabeth Lavenza''s gentle acceptance. Kellan didn''t really get why Victor loved her. She was sweet and delicate and cultured and all, but if that was all she was, she was kinda boring. The book hadn''t even mentioned if she had a sense of humor, or if she liked to verbally spar with people, or much about her, really. Hell, it hadn''t said much of Clerval''s personality either, so Kellan had learned about the man himself. He figured he''d do the same with Elizabeth. After all, real people are always less shallow than fictional ones, right?


    Victor introduced Kellan to his family, who welcomed the handsome foreigner with open arms. After all, they''d noticed that,with the attentive care of his two friends, Victor seemed to have bloomed. While he was still pale, he was no longer unhealthily so, and while still thin, he''d regained his physical health.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Most importantly of all, his manic pursuit of knowledge and of creating life was tempered by the responsibility he knew he''d have to face and time spent being dragged into enjoying the world around him. He''d strenuously resisted at first,but he''d quickly discovered that taking breaks and enjoying life let him maintain the proper frame of mind to work well and study well, and kept him much happier and healthier than his former unhealthy level of obsession. Aside from that, he found he legitimately enjoyed rest, relaxation,and entertainment, especially after Kellan took out some popular sci-fi from authors like Isaac Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke.


    He continually begged Kellan for more, but Kellan didn''t have very many sci-fi books as he''d watched much more sci-fi than he''d read, and he wasn''t ready to introduce these men of an era where most modern tech didn''t exist to the idea of television. His family didn''t know about that beyond the whole "this new guy is making sure Victor takes care of both his mind and body" thing, but it was obvious to them that Kellan Klein was a good-natured person and cared about Victor.


    Henry Clerval seemed the same ball of sunshine he always was, but the knowledge that he was participating in such a grand endeavor had made him more mature and responsible. He''d thrown himself into studying the childcare and psychology books Kellan had bought with abandon, and grew to enjoy historical fiction and fantasy novels. So far, Kellan had mostly restricted him to classic authors like Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, but he eagerly awaited an opportunity to return to his home world and turn these two young scholars into complete nerds.


    Kellan, for his part, had gained lots of cultural recipes and templates from the era, and made a few friends among the locals, though his heritage had meant he had to put up with a lot of racism and curious people asking why he didn''t wear the hairstyle and outfit of a Qing Dynasty merchant.He''d even been accosted in the streets by racists, drunken or otherwise.


    This had enraged the generally gentle Victor Frankenstein, and Henry had had to hold back Victor from trying to beat up people with everything from his own fists to broken wine bottles to a wooden walking staff he''d bought for the hiking trips the three men would occasionally go on. Kellan wanted to return home, to see his family and friends and deal with, if not necessarily less racism, less blatant racism. He knew that that would have to wait a long time, but he didn''t know how long, so he figured he''d have to make the best of his time in this world and hope that when he could go home, there wasn''t some huge time disparity.


    The three young men spent a few weeks with the Frankenstein family before they had to head back to Ingolstadt, and it was during that time Kellan discovered that William was, while a bratty and judgemental child, not necessarily a bad kid.He''d just need guidance. Alphonse, despite clearly still grieving for his wife, was a kind and caring old man, who, while he had little ability to tell a joke himself, very much enjoyed the jokes of others.Elizabeth, under the veneer of the perfect demure lady she presented, had a wicked sense of humor and a great love of philosophy,poetry, and literature.


    Kellan wanted to introduce her to some of the modern stuff, but the three young men discussed it and decided that it could wait until they told her about the project they were working on, which they''d decided they''d do at the end of the first week.After all, they couldn''t leave the love of Victor''s life out of the creation of Victor Frankenstein''s child, right? Besides that, Elizabeth was kind, smart,motherly, and capable, and would be a great help in raising the being they would create into a functional, happy person.She was, as in the novel, obsessively in love with Victor, and Kellan hoped that Victor, who apparently felt the same way, would treat her well. He''d even discussed this with him, with backup from Henry, telling him that if he loved Elizabeth he had to treat her as an equal partner and help her follow her own dreams like she helped him follow his with her constant support and care. This had lead Victor to want to bring her into the project, and to ask her what she wanted from the future. The other two agreed, happy to see Victor treat his so-called most important person as more than the "pretty present" his mother had called her.


    So on the Sunday of that first week, Victor got her alone in the dining room,with his two friends waiting just outside, and asked her the question he''d been meaning to for the last two years.


    "Elizabeth, I know you love me and want us to marry, but... what do you want out of life? Who do you want to be? What do you want to do? Where do you want to live?" He looked her in the eyes, the same intense emerald fire in them as when he talked about his desire to make life. He waited for her response as Kellan and Henry peeked from the door frame, not noticeable unless you looked closely.


    "Well, Victor, you well know that my dream is to be by your side forever but... I want to go places, experience things, work by your side. Besides that, I want to read all the books! I love stories and poetry. You know I love the countryside, and I do, but I want to see the countryside of every country and get to know what the people live like! I have dreams and ambitions separate from yours, as you have dreams separate from mine, but...can we work for our dreams together?" She admitted, shocked into an honest reply by the intensity of his eyes.She blushed from the sheer intensity of his gaze, feeling the weight of his feelings and understanding that Victor Frankenstein loved her with the same passion he loved science and learning.


    "I am glad for that, and I have an admission of my own and a request to make. You know how I have long been interested in creating life and understanding the secrets of the world, yes? With the help of Henry and Kellan, my studies have reached the point where I am on the cusp of creating life artificially. I want to do this responsibly, so Elizabeth, please come to Ingolstadt with me and help me raise the child I will bring into the world." His tone seemed pleading, and his expression seemed wary, as if he was terrified she''d reject him.


    Elizabeth stood up, her expression shifting from shock, to confusion, to a smug certainty, to a pure joy. She tackled into Victor, the chair he was in falling to the floor as she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest.


    "Of course, you absolute fool I could tell something important was on your mind from the second you came home!" She murmured happily into his chest, hiding her smile in his shirt.


    "You aren''t shocked by the idea of creating life? You don''t find it sacreligious?" Victor asked her, lying on the fallen chair with the woman he loved in his arms.


    "The way I see it, if God allowed you to discover this knowledge, God wanted you to create life and advance science. I do have one condition, though. I want you to marry me and have a child the natural way, while we build this artificial one with the help of your friends. If I am to be the mother of an artificial person, I must also raise a child that is purely my own." She happily nuzzled into his chest, thinking about the future.


    "Absolutely. When do you want to marry? Now that I know that this thing that might have come between us won''t, I want you by my side for the rest of our lives." He ran one hand through her hair, the other firmly holding her slim body against his.


    "One week, so that we can head to Ingolstadt together as a married couple when you return to college." She pulled her face away from his chest, and her ice-blue eyes met his emerald green ones.


    "Absolutely, my dear Eliza. A small ceremony, just a few family and friends?" He returned her loving gaze, his lips quirking into a smile.


    "I could ask for nothing more." She smiled and blushed, burying her face in his chest again.


    "Am I invited?" Kellan asked from the doorway,smirking at the rather sappy and adorable moment between his friend and his friend''s soon-to-be wife.


    Elizabeth yelped and sprung out of Victor''s arms. Composing herself, she nodded. Victor stood up, setting his chair back up, and Kellan and Clerval came into the room giggling like children. After some initial pleasantries, the four began planning Victor and Elizabeth''s wedding, and Kellan revealed his abilities, as he had to Victor and Henry. Elizabeth immediately requested poetry and fiction, which she''d get as wedding gifts, and decided to focus on the parenting and psychology books for her part in the project, though she had some smart suggestions as to the biology aspects and ideas for Kellan''s shop.


    For instance, she thought of the idea of taking advantage of the system''s ability to manifest things from seemingly nothing to set up branch stores in different towns and cities, and offered to help Kellan obtain useful things or things Kellan could make a lot of profit on due to their limited availability.


    Within three days, the wedding was planned and invitations delivered to all those who would be there.Victor regretted not being able to have Mr. Waldman come to his wedding, but was otherwise very satisfied with the guest list. Kellan coordinated with the wedding planning, providing much of the necessary refreshments, decoration and the like, persuading a priest to hold a wedding on such short notice,and the like. He was excited to see his friend married, and even more so to see how bringing Elizabeth into the project would throw him even farther off the course of canon.


    His quest "A Family Unbroken" currently had three objectives after the completed first one, the first involving creating the creature , the second involving preserving the lives of the Frankenstein Clan, and the third being ensuring the wedding of Victor Frankenstein and Elizabeth Lavenza went well. He was sure this would bring him good rewards, but he was also sure that the future held a lot of trouble he''d have to prepare for. Best to enjoy the good, easy times now while he still had them, and to build up his friendships with these odd, quirky, good people.

 Chapter 5: Its Alive!

    As Elizabeth had asked, the marriage went down a week later. The food was considered amazing by the few guests who had been invited, but everyone agreed that the best thing about that day was the happiness that radiated off the young couple.A smiling Alphonse walked an excited Elizabeth down the aisle to a grinning Victor. They were wearing traditional formal clothes for the time period, with loose shorts over tights, a vest, a wide-brimmed hat, and an undershirt for Victor and a high-necked dress for Elizabeth. As the priest went through the typical talk, people got bored, but got excited again when he got to the vows.


    The vows were simple and classic, fitting for the couple who were in a classic horror story.


    "I,Victor Frankenstein, take you,Elizabeth Lavenza to be my lawful wedded wife,I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love and honor you all the days of my life." Victor said, looking deeply into her eyes as he slid the ring onto her finger.


    "And you, Miss Elizabeth?" The priest asked.


    "I,Elizabeth Lavenza, take you,Victor Frankenstein, to be my lawful wedded husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love and honor you all the days of my life." She said, smiling and keeping her eyes locked on Victor''s as she slid the ring she held in her hand onto his finger.


    "So are y''all gonna kiss or what?" Kellan asked from his position as a groomsman.Henry, in his position as best man, and Justine, in her position as maid of honor, burst into laughter. This was quickly followed by shock and then uproarious laughter from everyone, including the priest.


    "Yes, what Mr. Klein said. I declare you to be husband and wife and you can kiss or whatever. Would you mind if I stayed for the reception? The food and booze are exceptional and even a priest needs to party sometimes."


    "No problem at all, Father. You seem like a pretty relaxed person for a Catholic priest." Elizabeth remarked.


    "Bah, if God wanted us all to be a bunch of stuffy prudes he''d have made us that way." The priest grinned and sat down, waiting for the wedding reception.


    This turned out to be a good decision,as the party got pretty enjoyable. There was a lot of drunkenness and silliness, including a mock sword-fight between Victor, the priest, and a rather confused Henry Clerval, as well as the priest breaking into some German drinking songs, but there was no actual fighting. There were, however, a surprising amount of drinking games and other party games, including charades, what seemed like a precursor to Telephone, and attempts to tell ghost stories. The festivities lasted into the night, but eventually,everyone made it home , inebriated and happy.


    ***


    A few days after the party, the three, now four, returned to Ingolstadt. After 6 months of further study and experimentation,they settled on the method of creating life and how exactly they would do so. It would involve blood , skin, and other sources of cells and genetic material from many donors, broken down through alchemical processes that wouldn''t have worked in Kellan''s home world, and re-formed into one unique individual by finding a way to make lightning strike the mixture, which would then form into a newborn homunculus that would grow into an adult in 1 year, while mentally maturing as quickly as he had in the original story, if nothing went wrong.This would, of course involve lightning rods to attract the lightning, or else it''d be a pointless endeavor


    They hoped nothing would, so to ensure to the best of their ability that things would go well, the group had run some successful tests with creating dogs, cats, rabbits, and other livestock or pets with the process. They would give them out to people who were looking for quality pets and livestock , who could be trusted to treat them well. They continued the animal experiments for another six months , testing their processes and observing the animal homunculi which they had sent out. They had decided to call them Animaliculi, by blending the word homunculus with the Latin word for animal, animalis.They''d create more specific terms when needed, but for the present, one overarching term would work.


    The dogs were a resounding success, loyal, adorable and loving as dogs were, though they had apparently goofed up enough to produce hyper-intelligent dogs capable of understanding language better than any natural dog, though their vocal cords prevented them from speaking.Fortunately, their owners wrote it off as good breeding and didn''t get freaked out by it, giving these intelligent and compassionate creatures the affection they deserved.The dogs were a bit bewildered at encountering normal dogs, but being dogs, treated them the same way dogs had always treated a particularly dumb or old or young or weak dog, with acceptance and firm hierarchy. They took even better to training than normal dogs, becoming capable of carrying out more complex tasks.


    Cats,despite becoming more intelligent in most cases, remained mostly unchanged, only different in that they took advantage of their higher capacities for learning and thought to do the same things they always had. Though a particular side effect of this intellect, the craving the company of other cats , as well as humans and other domestic beings had shown up, causing cats to act more affectionate, so that they could obtain affection in return. Of course, they were still territorial creatures. You can take the tiger out of the jungle, but you can''t fully take the jungle out of the tiger,after all.


    All around,the various animals had shown higher degrees of intelligence and capacity to learn, becoming less bound by their instincts and more towards consciousness and thought, depending on the baseline level of these factors in the original animal. The animals were also somewhat bigger in size, and the products that typically come from livestock animals were of higher quality. Kellan had templated the basic animals for his system, which had awarded him a sizeable bit of Merchant points and told him to keep collecting animals and plants to unlock related functions for his efforts. He was waiting to template the Animaliculi ,he''d want to see how the artificial human, who they''d name when he was born, turned out first so he''d know if it was useful or useless to do so, given that he''d already templated the original animals.


    ***


    After another year and a half of experimentation,Victor and Henry graduated, and the group moved back to Geneva, Kellan using his influence to open a branch store there as well. Kellan had foreseen this possibility and hired a local young woman, Aloisa Schubert, on as a clerk, giving her enough access to order what customers wanted and exchange for more when needed, without fully revealing the system''s secrets. When he went to Geneva, he had her take over the shop in Ingolstadt, and revealed a little more of the system''s capability to her to ensure her loyalty. Certain by now that her boss was either an angel, a sorceror, or a demon, the young woman worked hard to make sure the shop did well. The good wages he paid didn''t hurt, and the fact that he''d often distribute product or give temporary employment to people who couldn''t afford to feed themselves helped to ensure her loyalty.


    During their study, the group noticed that the animaliculi matured fast and grew strong, and their children, whether with other animaliculi or with normal animals, had either their enhanced capability or a decent portion of it. The rates of successful reproduction with natural animals were about 5% lower than between animaliculi or between natural animals, but that wasn''t going to be a huge issue unless a species already tended towards infertility. The hybrids, though sometimes less capable than their parents, definitely had the same characteristics as them,and over time would likely affect the different species of animals in both positive and negative ways. Reassured by this, the group began their attempts to create a homunculus, and proceeded forward.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    Within a few weeks, the mixture was ready, its appearance and the like selected through careful selections of blood and flesh donors for the genetic material, which included the four people working on the project, among others for the former, and many corpses that had been donated to science or left to rot for the latter. They waited for a storm, and didn''t have to wait long. Within a few days, a thunderstorm descended, and during it, lightning struck the roof of the lab the group had built onto the Frankenstein home with Alphonse''s permission, following the rod into the metal cauldron the mixture lay within.


    With a bright glow, the mixture glowed an electric purple, then a bright red, then finally, a soft pink, before turning into a large infant with thin, light tan skin with a carotene undertone,which was thin and pale enough to almost be translucent, like Kellan''s own had been as an infant, watery yellow, glowing eyes, flowing black hair, black lips, and shiny, white baby teeth.Overall, he was a cute, if odd looking baby. He appeared to already be at least 6 months old, which helped the group understand how he''d grow as rapidly as the animalculi.


    Victor appeared on the verge of freaking out, but this time, unlike in the original novel, he wasn''t alone.He scooped the baby out of the cauldron, and cradled him in his arms. The newborn opened his eyes, and cooed at Victor happily, staring up at the man he somehow knew was his father with eyes full of the pure, unconditional love and dependence all babies innately possessed. After a few minutes, he passed the child to an expectant Elizabeth, who kissed him on the forehead and returned the baby''s loving gaze for a few minutes before passing him to Kellan, who tickled the baby''s chin and let him grip his thumb with his surprisingly strong grip for a few minutes before passing him to Henry. Henry also played with the baby a bit before passing him back to Victor.


    "Well, Victor, you''re pretty much his primary parent since this was your idea and all, even though we did contribute a lot. What will his name be?" Elizabeth asked, with her hands on her hips. She was already about 3 months pregnant, and it had begun to show on her.The other two nodded their assent to her words,as without Victor''s passion, none of them would be here.


    "Adam. His name will be Adam Frankenstein, as he is the first of his kind, and he will be raised with all the love, guidance, and care the original Adam did not receive." Victor smiled at the infant in his arms, who babbled in excited baby speak, then went to grab some cloth diapers and baby clothes Kellan had prepared for the occasion.


    ***


    Adam quickly matured. Within three weeks of observing us and of careful teaching on our parts, he could speak English, German, and French as well as the average three-year-old who grew up in a multi-lingual home, and by a month he physically resembled one.This necessitated an explanation to Alphonse, who took it rather well, as he got a grandchild to dote on and he''d always figured Victor would find some way to defy the laws of nature, especially after the truth of Kellan''s status as a servant of God (technically true, if not the Christian God, ) was revealed to him.


    Adam often played with William, who was initially frightened by the beautiful , somewhat eldritch child but quickly learned that Adam was smart as his father and as kind-natured as Henry or Elizabeth, as well as unusually strong and fond of horribly awful puns. The Frankenstein family stated publicly that Adam was an adoptee with a rare medical condition that made him mature at a highly advance rate, which dispelled enough fear to not lead to the poor child''s immediate lynching. Within three more months, Adam resembled a six or seven year old, and had learned to write. By six months, he began to hit puberty, his growth becoming even more rapid as he played with William less and less. He was moody and morose, especially as he learned more about the world and that it wasn''t normal to grow as fast as he did, or to look like he did.He eventually found the group''s notes and experimental logs about the creation of the animaliculi, and himself in particular, including recent notes on his behavior.


    He cornered his parents and the two men he called his uncles one day, soon after Elizabeth''s child was born, a girl she named Caroline after Victor''s deceased mothe,r and asked for an explanation. The already five-foot-tall pre-teen cut a somewhat intimidating figure as he coerced the four into the lab he''d been born in, where the equipment still lay, as further scientific endeavors had been cut short by the difficulties of raising a fast growing , superhuman child.


    ***


    "Look, I love the four of you greatly, especially Mother and Father, but I have seen this lab, and I have read your notes. Why didn''t you tell me that I was a monster, a freak like that Caliban thing fromA Midsummer Night''s Dream? Why did you lie and tell me I was a normal person, like you?Am I just a toy, an experiment, a weapon to you?The other kids all look at me like I''m a freak, growing more like a weed than a person!" Tears leaked from his watery yellow eyes, and his voice shook,as if he was about to break out into a full-on tantrum like he had earlier in his life.


    Victor and Elizabeth were stunned and hurt by these words, and Henry had no excuses, but Kellan decided to confront the angsty kid.


    "Adam, your life may have began as an experiment to see if we could create a person, but that doesn''t make you less of a person, and it doesn''t mean we don''t love or care about you. You might have been born as a test, but we don''t plan to make you do anything you don''t want to. Though.. we will give any future homunculi a normal human growth period, it''s been exhausting cramming 12 years worth of your education and development into six months."


    The kid''s tears kept falling, but the sad, angry expression on his face lightened somewhat. "A.. homunculus? A little person? Like in those stories and alchemy texts? I''m not sure that''s entirely correct, i''m pretty tall." Adam grinned, proud of his awful joke, even in a serious situation.


    Victor spoke next, running to his son''s side and wrapping him in his arms. "Adam, you might have begun your life different from others, but you''re my son, and I will not ever abandon or mistreat you, or let others do so. In another life, another timeline, another Victor Frankenstein did, and it led to a lot of pain and tragedy. That Victor Frankenstein was no father, and did not deserve to be." Victor himself began to cry, the thought of losing Adam unbearable to him. Elizabeth rushed over, handkerchief in hand, handing the newborn Caroline to Henry while she wiped the tears of her husband and son.


    "Shh, shh, It''s alright, none of that''s going to happen. Uncle Kellan said we might have things to worry about, but those are in the future, and for now let''s just make sure you live a happy, healthy, normal life, ok?" She said, softly, one hand holding her son''s hand while the other gripped her husband''s shoulder with a firm grip.


    Adam nodded, and Victor silently unwrapped one of his arms from Adam to pull Elizabeth into the hug. Kellan joined in, and Henry set Caroline safely in her bassinet before doing likewise. Everyone slowly relaxed from the tense situation, settling into the hug for a moment that seemed to last both infinitely and not long enough. They broke apart, and Adam left the room, to go find William and play together while he could still enjoy it.


    ***


    As Adam grew, he resembled Victor and Elizabeth more and more in his facial features, and when the year of his growth was up, his aging stopped, leaving him looking like a 7 foot tall well built adult man with an eerily handsome face, which for all intents and purposes he was. He learned all the knowledge of his creation, and a lot of things besides, and was trying to decide what he wanted out of life. He was incredibly quick with learning, and quickly became proficient with most any practical skill and a good few artistic ones, as he applied the scientific method to everything other than interpersonal relationships, which he was extremely careful with. He would hypothesize, test, infer, alter his hypothesis, and test again. It was pretty effective, and earned him the respect of his family and the people of Geneva, though many people were alienated by his extreme capabilities and appearance, despite his gentle nature. Adam took it as well as he could, though he''d developed Elizabeth''s love for travel and continually begged to be taken places he hadn''t been, hoping for somewhere more accepting of his nature than 18th century Geneva.


    His parents acquiesced, and they set out with Kellan in tow on a tour of the known world. Henry stayed behind to help with his father''s company, but vowed to meet them when they reached Transylvania, which still existed as the Grand Principality of Transylvania rather than as part of Romania during this time, and would for another half century.Little did they know that taking Adam to Transylvaniamight not be the smartest choice. Kellan knew of what they might find there, and had prepared silver, crucifixes,stakes, and other things they might need, but figured that if they ran into a threat, they''d also run into some help, namely a certain clan of monster hunters.


    Knowing this, Kellan felt it was fine to let things develop naturally, especially as Adam, having reached physical adulthood , was extremely strong, and Kellan would soon template him. When they returned from their journey, he''d also template the animaliculi, but for now he figured that could wait for a while. His quest objective of creating Adam was complete, and only the last objective of protecting the Frankenstein clan remained. He smiled as the group of 5 set off from the Frankenstein clan''s residence, waving to Henry Clerval as Clerval watched them leave.

 Chapter 6:PLOT TWIST

    Darkness reigned in Dracula''s castle as the Dark Lord''s spirit slowly recuperated from his utter defeat at the hands of Richter Belmont and Maria Renard. By this point, the man who had once been Matthias Cronqvist, and had adopted Vlad The Impaler''s surname long enough that Bram Stoker had made his name as immortal as his body and soul ,had long grown tired of the endless cycle of death and rebirth. Dracula was truly tired, but he had to press on. Even after 7 long centuries, Elizabetha''s death was fresh in his mind, the unfairness of it all.


    With the knowledge of modern science Shaft and his many followers had found ways to transmit to him, he knew that disease was not random or a punishment from God, but usually just receiving an infection from being around the sick or the dead. With the endless time he had between his rebirths and his understanding of blood and life, he had come to understand that the prevailing miasma theory of infection was incorrect, and that disease traveled through air, water, food,the bites of animals, and a few other ways, though he was not entirely sure how that worked as the Dark Lord had little interest and even less equipment to understand the mechanics of disease beyond idle pondering to escape the endless darkness of the afterlife he had been consigned to.


    He knew God was not responsible for Elizabetha''s death, and had even begun to doubt God''s existence, but he could not let go of his pain, anger, and sorrow, and so Matthias Cronqvist remained Dracula, eternally raging at the Heavens and out to conquer the world, with the challenge of his eternal battle with the Belmont clan being the closest he experienced to joy since he had become the twisted,demonic shadow of the man he''d once been. His current plan was fairly devious, it involved Shaft possessing the current Belmont, a young man named Richter, and making him gather the pieces of his body to allow the Dark Lord''s resurrection, thus shutting down the threat the Belmonts posed and allowing Dracula to reign unopposed by anyone who could harm him. As well, he had never heard the last words of Lisa, and he carried a hatred for the humans who had killed her that was no less than the one he felt for God.


    Besides that, even if wanted to give up, he was bound to his dark contract with Chaos through the Crimson stone, and could never give up his fate as the Dark Lord. Though he would give everything to see his Elizabetha again, to simply be Mathias Cronqvist, soldier and alchemist, it was not his fate. After all, even one as powerful as himself was bound by the constraints of fate. As Dracula pondered, a bald spirit with a repulsive face and demeanor dressed in a mockery of a catholic priest''s raiments ,appeared before him.


    "Master, Master, I have news! The spirits of the dead have told me that there is a man, Victor Frankenstein, who can create true , natural life from its base materials,like a Devil Forger, but better! You can return to life, and with a stronger body than your original human form as a base, your dark powers will be even stronger!" the repulsive-looking priest babbled.


    The stunning news woke what was left of Mathias Cronqvist, causing the Dark Lord''s soul to resemble his original self, His gray skin became pale peach, his white hair brown, and his eyes a pale brown, his facial features softening into the handsome man he''d been in life before Dracula regained control, and the changes left as if they had never been. His thought whirled chaotically. His lost Elizabetha and his second love, Lisa, could be regained. If he could master the process of creating life and combining it with his own alchemy and magic, he might be able to call their souls to the bodies he would make. For this, though, he would require help, as he was currently naught but a soul.He knew just where to acquire it, however. This was going to be something resembling fun, he thought, and he figured he was unlikely to be wrong.


    "Shaft, gather dark beings of great power and bring them here, so that I may empower them to capture this Frankenstein and his creations and bring them here.Do well, and I''ll even have Frankenstein make you a nice, new body. How does that sound, my servant?" Dracula grinned fiendishly, baring his fangs.


    Shaft left, the ghostly priest grinning like a ghoul. His master would await the news and the visitors that would surely be coming. He knew where he should go. First,Egypt, then England and Wales, then Brazil, and perhaps France? Some of these beings weren''t monsters, but they possessed either the abilities, the mindset, or both to exceed as such, especially once empowered by the greatest vampire the world has ever known.


    ***


    Deep in the Amazon rainforest, a creature that appeared like a strange combination of fish, reptile, and human was swimming along the river that the forest took its name from. This was the being who was known to generations of horror movie fans as Gill-man, but he himself had no true name. When he was but a child, his people, the Yacuruna, had been systematically hunted down by men with guns. These men,superstitious fools who had heard the local legends of the dangerous, seductive fish-men, saw the truth of the legends: fish-men with a rather terrifying appearance, who they found monstrous, and, while no more violent innately than humans, were incredibly ferocious fighters when provoked. The men had purged the Yacuruna down to a scattered few who didn''t even know the others were alive, destroying their language and culture with them, and decimating the indigenous human tribes who, while they occasionally warred with the Yacuruna, did not commit genocide on them.


    After seeing his tribe die, Gill-man was left with a fear of weapons,especially guns, and an intense loneliness in his heart. All he wanted was a family like the one he''d lost, and someone special to love, like the indigenous human tribes he would occasionally watch going about their daily lives. He was a person too, yeah? He wasn''t a mindless, savage monster, just a lonely guy who''d grown up on his own, as anyone else who had survived the attempt to wipe out his people had. He couldn''t search too hard for what might be left of his people, as even though he was stronger, faster, and more durable than a human, there were all sorts of terrifying animals he had to hide from in the river and the rainforest. Still, he wandered the river endlessly, hoping to find signs of others of his kind.


    It was while he was roaming that the strange, ghostly human approached him. Gill-man had no word for a ghost, as he hadn''t learned much of the language of his people or any of those of the many human tribes in the area, but he could instinctively tell that this strange, untouchable thing was dead, and yet somehow still talked and moved and thought.Well, the shadow talked, but Gill-man couldn''t understand.He knew that the words were words, and could somewhat read the human''s expression and verbal tone, but he had no idea what the human was saying.


    Growing impatient, Shaft used his power of possession to read through Gill-man''s thoughts and pour a simple message into his head, comprised of image and intent. "IT was a heady flood of sensation and image, ideas linking together in Gill-man''s head in a way he had never before experienced, but it translated to something like this: You are strong. My master will make you stronger and give you whatever you want if you will serve him." As the message was transferred, it gave Gill-man an understanding of the concepts within, and he decided that he should. If he was lucky, maybe this mysterious Master could help revive Gill-man''s people.Shaft sensed Gill-man''s eager agreement, and stopped the possession, grinning as he used a portion of his magical might to make Gill-man invisible and fly alongside him as they headed to Egypt. Gill-man just grinned and enjoyed the sensation, excited for what lay ahead.


    ***


    Imhotep''s corpse lay still in his tomb, with his soul suffering in the Duat, the afterlife Egyptians believed in. Due to the spells on his coffin being broken and his having been buried alive, Imhotep had not been able to find his way to the trials all souls underwent in the Egyptian afterlife, and wandered along the same river that Ra''s boat went along daily, harassed by demons and lost souls. He longed to return to life, find his beloved Anck-su-namun , and make them both immortal. He would defy heaven and commit evil for his love, as he was sure she would do the same for him. Blasphemy was nothing when you could have eternal love, after all. As Imhotep lived out his hellish afterlife in the Duat, Gill-Man and Shaft approached his tomb.


    When they entered, Shaft floated over to the casket the Scroll Of Thoth was in, channeled his master''s power to break the curse, and took it out. Hmm, this thing was useful. It could restore life, but only if the corpse was mummified or otherwise well-preserved. Without a corpse to call back the soul, it was essentially useless! Still, Shaft could use this to restore his own life after he raised the man in the tomb, and raise his master from the dead if necessary, though Dracula would likely prefer to be raised right into a new,stronger body than reform his old one, if the situation wasn''t dire.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    He read the mystic words off the scroll and then hid it within the center of his ghostly body, which was a wise choice, as Imhotep''s casket broke opened, and the man stepped out himself, regenerated.


    "What do you ask of I, Imhotep, High Priest of Ra? Why have a priestly ghost whose power rivals my own and a fish-man who looks like a demon woke me from my eternal slumber?" Somehow, as many spirits did, he spoke the same language Shaft did. His master spoke Romanian, German, Hungarian, Magyar, Turkish, English, and many other languages due to having been born an educated man and spending centuries alive, and had taught Shaft many, but hearing an Egyptian man who had been dead for nearly 3000 years speak the Transylvanian dialect of Romanian as well as if it had been his first language was rather jarring. Fortunately, Shaft''s master had forced him to learn Egyptian, of both the archaic and modern varieties, so he could reply in kind.


    "Imhotep, is it? I am a priest of the Dark Lord , Dracula. He has sent me to gain your help in a great venture, to capture a man with the power to create new, stronger life from the basic stuff of it, and his creations.After all, if we tweak the process, it may be able to revive the dead into new, stronger forms." Shaft grinned.


    "And if I accede to his wishes and help him? What do I stand to gain?" Imhotep stared Shaft down. If he could snatch the scroll that had reanimated him from that spirit, he could resurrect his beloved, and not become involved in what could be a foolish venture that would likely anger opponents even he would fear.


    "Power greater than you now possess, and master will resurrect your loved one in a body stronger and more beautiful than she originally had. The legends did say you wanted to raise your beloved from the dead, yes?" Shaft grinned ghoulishly.


    "She died unjustly, and when I tried to raise her from the dead, that idiotic pharaoh buried me alive. I died in pain and sorrow,as the air within the coffin ran out and I asphyxiated. I spent millenia in the underworld, struggling to not be obliterated or become a demon. And you, a priest of evil, dare to dangle my one hope in front of me like i''m a dog, begging at your feet?" Imhotep''s voice gradually rose as he spoke, and the sand on the floor of the tomb whipped itself into a frenzy, gathering around Shaft and attempting to crush him. Shaft merely floated through the sand, laughing.


    "That might work if I still had my body, fool, but your magic has weakened after this long. It cannot affect me. However...I can destroy you. " He laughed maniacally as fireballs appeared and poised themselves to rocket towards Imhotep. "So what will it be, Priest Of Ra? Obeisance to a master who makes us both look like children, or a foolish, pointless death and return to your endless journey through that hellish afterlife?"


    Imhotep''s body collapsed into sand, and when it did, Shaft''s fireballs turned to ice and gathered around Imhotep, preparing to freeze him. Imhotep''s sandy form coalesced back into flesh, and he sighed. "Ugh, fine. I will serve your master, but there will be a reckoning between you and I, dark one. For I am the High Priest, and I serve no one whose glory is not greater than mine."


    "Enough talking, let us go. We have two more allies to gather and bring to the Master, and little time to do it in."


    Gill-Man, not knowing either of their languages, had stood and watched as the two men''s aggressive attitudes had risen, as they''d confronted each other, and as they reached resolution. This was smart, as either man could destroy him with their strong magical powers. Seeing shaft prepare to leave, he walked after him, and the three disappeared into the night.


    ***


    At the Lion''s Head Inn in Sussex,England, late at night, an Invisible Man was retrieving his notebooks from his room. Three odd strangers confronted him as he left. A tall Egyptian man, now dressed in clothing contemporary to his current era stared at the space where he was, as did a semi-transparent man in the garb of a priest. From the transparency and the aura of death and fear emanating from the priest, he was likely a ghost. The third figure was wrapped in loose-fitting hooded robes, with gloves and boots, and no inch of his skin could be seen. The invisible man stared back at the three strangers, and the stare-down continued for a minute before the priest spoke.


    "Dr Jack Griffin, I presume? The spirits and demons under my control told me you''ve developed quite a novel method of invisibility. How would you like true invisibility, that you could toggle at will, and great strength as well? All you would have to do is serve my master, Dracula, willingly." Shaft smirked.


    "You can see me, huh?The Dracula? Like, Vlad The Impaler who was rumored to be a vampire? I''m not stupid enough to turn that down. " Griffin smirked, his smirk unseen by all but Shaft and Imhotep.


    "Then let us go. We have much to do, and little time in which to do so." Shaft said, turning to leave.


    Griffin followed , as did the others. As Griffin examined his new allies, he wondered what exactly he''d gotten himself into. He''d just have to go where the wind took him and hope he hadn''t made a foolish decision. Even if he had, the power this freaky ghost priest had proposed just seemed too tempting to pass up.


    ***


    In Llanwelly, Wales, there was a werewolf. This werewolf, unlike the one who would become famous when Lon Chaney played him on the big screen, was a Roma man named Bela, the great-grandfather of the same Bela who bit Lon Chaney''s character, Larry Talbot. On the night of the new moon, Bela sat outside the caravan he traveled with, staring up at the empty space where his lunar nemesis usually was. He hated this curse. When the moon was out, he turned into a beast and lost control of himself, and he knew from the chaotic flashes of memory that the beast inside him had killed more than just livestock. He wanted freedom, or at least control of the thing he became under the light of the full moon. He''d managed to prevent much human death over the ten years of his curse by either hiding in the woods when the full moon came around or locking himself in his wagon and pretending to be ill.


    Enough of the elders of his caravan knew the truth to help him fake a disease, as did the woman he''d married. Their children were blissfully unaware that their father was a monster, and he hoped they''d never have to know. Even in this world where the Roma people, also known as the Romani, possessed great magical powers that they used to their own benefit and the benefit of those they traded with, they had no method to break a curse as powerful as lycanthropy, one that could only be broken with the death of the cursed person. Bela had once been fond of silver, with its associations with purity and the moon, but he could no longer stand to be too close to silver, much less bear the touch of silver objects.


    While he was sitting alone, mourning his own horrible fate, 4 strangers approached him. Bela saw a man in modern clothing who looked like a an egyptian, a semi-transparent priest, a hooded, robed figure with gloves and boots that covered all exposed skin, and a man wrapped in extensive bandages underneath his clothing.


    The priest spoke to him in Romani. "Ah, a scion of the traveling people has become a lycanthrope? It must be hard to keep yourself isolated and not kill when your caravan is so constantly roaming and meeting new people."


    Bela jumped, pulling a knife from his belt. "How do you know what I am? If you let that slip publicly, i''d be killed!" Bela said, pointing his knife at the ghostly priest.


    "First thing, that knife isn''t enchanted or silver, so it can''t do anything to a ghost like me. Second, it is the interest of a priest of the Dark Lord,Dracula, to know such things. " Shaft smirked. Threatening an obvious ghost with a normal weapon? Foolish.


    "So, you serve that vampire lord, huh? My people have heard of him, through others of our people who have visited the lands he roams during the times he fight that brave clan who dares to defeat him every time he returns. So what can you do for me, dark priest?" Bela slowly put away the knife, his expression wary.


    "Simple. Serve my master, and he will give you control of the beast inside, as well as giving you strength that truly befits the nature of your curse." Shaft grinned. Humans were greedy creatures, and even the most altruistic would bend and break when you gave them solutions to the things that haunted or burdened them. At least, that was what Shaft had seen during his life. Even he himself had once worshipped God before he came to see the truth of Dracula''s endless darkness.


    "Fine. I will serve your master. I have no interest in strength, but I must gain control of this beast inside or die trying." Bela begrudgingly agreed.


    Shaft smirked, Imhotep shrugged, Gill-man made no obvious expression,and Griffin just nodded. The five set off into the night. It would take some time to return to Castlevania, even with the magic of Shaft and Imhotep helping. Best to be quick, so that their master''s plan could go forward and they could capture Frankenstein and his creation as soon as possible.