“Hugh...” Matt mentally shied, content, happy as could be looking over the results of all of his hard-won labour as he awaited Bob’s arrival.

  With its cave walls and egged rooms, each being at least 5 square feet long in size if not shape, and the small cavern tunnels that connected every one of them. His new home or dungeon, as Bob called it, was now as large as he could conceivably make it for the time being, without using up all of his energy in one go that is, a thing he had promised, to himself and bob both, never to do ever since Bob had explained he would die if were to happen.

  ‘Soon, soon, I’ll be able to finish it, and then I’ll finally get to see the sky again. Another planet's no less. How cool will that be? Seeing another planet's sky. God, I hope this works. I don't know what I'll do with myself if it doesn't……...’

  “So you're excited,” Bob asked finally arriving, immediately pushing Matt out of his head and back to the world that was reality, immediately after being let through Matt’s mental shield, having mentally tapped across the bond several seconds prior, knocking on the door as it were, begging to be let through.

  ‘Ugh, Why does he have to keep asking me that, of course, I'm excited. Why wouldn't I be, who wouldn’t,' He thought, somewhat annoyed that Bob had to after all this time to even ask that question.

  “Yep”, Matt said, drawing upon his excitement as he said the words, careful as to keep the slight amount of fear that he felt to himself. Hiding it behind the mental box that Bob, and the system, called a mental shield.

  “You're sure?” Bob said, feelings of uncertainty rippling to Matt from throughout the Bond.

  “Yep”. Matt carefully sent back, sure as he could be with such a monumental task ahead of him.

  “Ok master, if you say so”. Bob said though Matt could still feel feelings of uncertainty flashing from across the bond.'Dam, I'm never going to get used to this am I'

  “So shall we start, Master?” Bob asked a few seconds later.

  “Yes, let’s do this”. Matt said and went to do something, something that he'd wanted to do ever since Bob had first taught him how to access his status, granting him the ability to see all the skills and abilities that the system granted to him as a dungeon core. Activating the skill that would change his world forever. ‘Create...,’

  ‘Monster’

  ‘Yess, yes, I know,’ Matt thought, having already gone through this process 3 times before, his eyes moving downwards to the list of different monster types that now lay before him, his eyes eagerly looking at one monster in particular.

  ‘Bug’s’ Matt thought/said, selecting Bugs as his creature of choice without an ounce of hesitation or regret, having made up his mind the very second he’d sighted them in the list so long ago.

  “Aghh, what have you done master?” Bob said, seemingly infuriated, showing signs of emotion, something that Matt had never known him to do in all the time that he had known him. “I thought we agreed that you would select the creature or Trent archetype, not the bug archetype!”

  “No, I only said that I would consider it, I never actually agreed to anything,” Matt said, having spent many restless nights in turmoil, considering all of the choices that Bob brought before him, only to finally realize that despite everything else, despite the benefits of the others, despite all their many weaknesses, that he just loved the little bugger's far too more not to chose them. “So yes I selected the bugs so what? Sue me!”

  “But master, there so weak. You do realise that right?”

  “Yes, but so what, it was my decision to make, and I made it, live with it," Matt said, eagerly returning his attention back to the list before Bob could say another word.

  ‘Hmm, what should I create first’, Matt thought, slightly surprised and a bit amazed if he was, to be honest as he looked up upon his list of creations, unsure of what to create first as they all just looked as mesmerising as each other.

  ‘Spider’ Matt thought, randomly selecting the spider as his monster of choice, having made the decision after some deliberation on his part, feeling a rush of energy leaving his core, an extremely small spider of about 2-3 inch’s height instantly appearing directly below his cory diamond-shaped body.

  ‘Agh, that not what I wanted, not what I wanted at all, but still, he thought looking over the small size of a spider, annoyed that he’d wasted so much energy creating this small spidery thing.

  ‘Perhaps I could…’ Matt thought an idea coming to mind only to suddenly be interrupted mid-thought, a sudden feeling that he knew all too well interrupting appearing out of nowhere, that of a small tiny mental tap originating from Bob’s side of the mental Bond. 'Ugh, What does he want now,'

  "let’s see shall we" Matt, annoyed yet curious as he cautiously pushed his newly formed mental shields strength as low as he could possibly make them without leaving himself too vulnerable to any sort of mental manipulations that Bob might try.

  “Thank-You sir”, Bob promptly said as soon as he was suddenly let through Matt's mental defences. “I think I have a solution to your problem, sire”.

  “How so?”

  “Well, have you tried making them bigger?”

  “Wait, I can do that?” Matt asked, shocked, the possibility having never come to mind. As it would never have been possible back on earth.

  “Sure you can, why, Oh, yes, I forgot,” Bob said, pulling Matt’s hopes down only to bring them back up again with his next set of words. “, You were born on an energy Zero planet where dungeons don’t exist. Dirt was it. Oh, what a silly name for a planet. Why would anyone name a planet that, when there are much better names like Juno or Zest or Gian or, or....." Bob said going off into yet another of his educational but ever so tiresome rants modes of his.

  "Bob!”, Matt mentally shouted back as loud as he mentally could, stopping Bob in his track's before he could go into yet another full-on rant.

  "Sorry, master", Bob sent back, a sense of sudden sorrow flowing through Bob’s side of the bond.

  "It's Ok. Just tell me, how do I do this? How do I increase their size? Please..." Matt asked, stretching the please as far as he could take it, eager to start. As if he could do this. It would make everything that he'd gone through worth it.

  “Simple”, Bob said, stretching the conversation as he liked to sometimes do, irritating Matt to no end. Finally, though after a lengthened pause, Bob opened his mentally filled obtuse mouth and finally spoke… “You just need to force more energy into the monster and it will naturally begin to grow,”, Bob said, mentally projecting the steps that he would need to make it happen. ", Though master you should know there are risks"

  "Like what?" Matt asked.

  "The mutation not having the desired effect, the spider could change in unexpected ways, and even if it does work, well chances are master that the spider won't live beyond a year at most, but it's better than nothing"

  “Ok, let's do it'' Matt sent back. Not put back the least by Bob's words. Unwilling to let anything stop him from achieving something that he had only dreamed about since he was a young grad student. Directly changing the genetic code of another being. Though naturally, he had at the time thought to use science, not magic, to achieve his goal, but this would work just as well he guessed.

  immediately beginning, imagining the energy as strings of white light, just as Bob had taught him, as began to draw his energy out from his core and out into the world. Dispatching the golden strings out into the small mega spider that stood below him.

  Casually watching as the small black spider slowly began to grow. Growing bigger. And bigger. And bigger. With every single second. Till finally, having reached the size of a small bear, its growth imdaitly stalled to a crawl before finally stopping altogether as Matt, having used a vast amount of his energy, quietly cut the energy off before he could drain himself dry.

  ‘Hmm, notifications’, Matt thought turning his attention to the blue screens that even now stood before him, him having seemingly ignored them in his effort to create the ever gigantic Gia-spider that stood before him.

  ‘What the!’ “Bob you never said anything about this!" Matt yelled, shocked, annoyed that Bob had forgotten such a key detail.

  “Oh did I not say, master”

  “No Bob, No you didn’t”

  “Oh sorry,” Bob said, replying with the same neutral-like speech that he always seemed to use whenever they conversed now back.

  “Why not...!”

  “Because you never asked, master,” Bob said, acting like the robotic figure that Matt had always thought him to be.

  ‘Hahh, you little, sometimes, I just want to rip you…..’ Matt sighed, taking a sharp mental breath, instantly starting the steps to get rid of his anger before he could do something that he knew he would instantly regret later, starting his usual count as he did so.

  (1) hah

  (2) huh

  (3) hahh

  (4) huhh

  (5) hahh

  ''6"Huh...Bob what should I do?”Matt asked, breathing his last breath, taking his anger out on him, looking over the notifications again just to be sure he hadn’t missed anything.

  “I don't know, Master. What do you want to do?”Bob asked back.

  “I Don’t know, I really don’t know,” Matt said, unsure, uncertain of what he should do. 'On the one hand, I could just name the dam thing and be done with it. Or I can just leave it and let the system destroy this beautiful creature, this, this, this Giaspider, Haha, Giaspider I like that...That’s what I should call you’ Matt thought, instantly coming to a decision then and there.

  ‘And just in time too,’ He thought mentally typing in the words Giaspider with his thoughts the clock at just 2 seconds short of extinction.