Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?

"How the heck am I suppose to make these guys bodies that are stronger than what Smoking Mirror currently has?" Zhen Liu asked himself while staring up at the night sky.

After the three Tezcatlipocas agreed to help Zhen Liu and his allies in tracking down Smoking Mirror, the two groups decided to try and understand each other better.

Sort of.

Each of the three Tezcatlipocas had taken a shine to specific members of the group and we're trying to convince them to either become their avatar, or disciple or something along those lines.

Either way, it was somewhere along the lines of "We can teach you better tricks than what the Kaijin were capable of".

When this schmoozing started happening though, Zhen Liu used that as an opportunity to get some alone time by slipping out and going to the inn's roof to stare at the sky. Well, we alone as one could get with Kaijin on their person.

...

'Corpse Doll. Porcelain Doll. Are you two feeling alright?'

[We're fine, Caretaker,] Porcelain Doll answered first. [Just a little rattled in the brain is all.]

[Not to be mean, sister, but do you have a brain?] Corpse Doll asked in an innocent manner. [I only know I have one because my brain is made from several different cursed ones.]

[That has been a topic of debate among us since the moment were were born,] Razorstella interjected. [The general consensus is that the Kaijin among us that were made of organic matter probably have organs, while those of us with bodies made of inorganic matter probably don't have organs...maybe.]

[That makes sense,] Porcelain Doll & Corpse Doll nodded at the same time before coming to the same realization. [But...if that's the case does that mean Screamira has organs too? She's made of bones.]

[Uh...]

[I mean...]

[Also, Caretaker?]

'Yeah?'

[If you're going to need make the three Tezcatlipocas new bodies to fight Smoking Mirror, stronger ones at that, does that mean you're going to use organic or inorganic materials?]

'That...is actually more dependent on my cultivation stage than anything else.'

[Ah...so when are you going to breakthrough?]

'Er...'

...

Once again, Zhen Liu was reminded that he needed to level up, er, breakthrough.

Despite the fact that he had been regularly syncing up with his Kaijin, he had found himself to be at a plateau in terms of his development...which was technically normal.

The rate at which Zhen Liu had been progressing from absolute nobody to technical Aether Grandmaster was considered ludicrous by normal standards, since it would take other warriors months and years to progress as opposed to the days and weeks that Zhen Liu had been doing.

Alas, the price of this progress was that he was highly dependent on the cultivation development of his Kaijin, having to sync up with them on occasion, and even that wasn't working as normal for him.

Most, if not all, of his Kaijin were at the Aether Lord rank, hence why they were able to transform into [Taboos], the [Chaos] equivalent to [Astra].

The weird thing though was that even when synced up with them, his cultivation more or less stayed the same.

That is, until recently when he swallowed three [Cores] at once with a Universal-class flame chaser.

Once he did that, he could literally feel whatever bottleneck was trying to push against suddenly get a lot weaker and he felt that if he could just break that little thing he'd be able to become an Aether Lord too.

'Actually, I'd be a proper Kaijin Lord. Ha.'

But alas, when he thought that moment would come, all he got was a warning in his skull from someone or something that wasn't the usual voices.

______________

{Consolidating gains from core consumption...complete.}

{Cultivator has reached the necessary threshold to breakthrough, processing...denied.}

{Cultivator has been found to be disconnected from the [Library] and a majority of Kaijin. Please re-establish a connection or create three new Kaijin to accommodate new growth.}

{Placing limiter on cultivator's growth as to prevent wayward evolution...}

_______________

'Was that voice my inner one or something that was a part of the formula? I swear I heard it before...' Zhen Liu grumbled to himself.

He would've asked Logos and Pathos about this, but he was still cut off and he was fairly certain that those two were hiding things from him.

Then again, that could've just been the paranoid voice in his head that has been growing louder and louder without Logos and Pathos to provide a counter balance.

The Kaijin sort of help, but it wasn't the same.

Either way, Zhen Liu found himself in a weird scenario.

In order to breakthrough, he needed to get back to the library or make Kaijin.

The former would've been easy if his [Key to Nowhere] was working, but he had yet to find a suitable material to fix it with.

This meant he had to travel like a pleb over land or over sea, but that would take time that he may not have had at the moment.

The world kept spinning, even if he needed time to prepare for what was to come.

Technically speaking, it was easier for Zhen Liu to just create three new Kaijin especially, after recent events.

The raid on the [City of Mirrors] provided Zhen Liu with a fuckton of materials, the battle between the Goldenbacks and Silver-tongues had generated a lot of [Cores] that were of...okay quality, and the slain members of both provided Zhen Liu with a small collection of formulas and arts that could definitely be used to make Kaijin but they were also "okay" at best.

Nothing like the formulas and arts that were stored in the library's vast shelves.

As such, Zhen Liu couldn't help but feel that making Kaijin with only what materials could scrounge out in the open felt...wrong.

"Am I being too picky?" Zhen Liu asked himself aloud. "Or is it because I think of these guys as my children?"

Back when Zhen Liu was Thomas Lee, he had once learned of a practice known as "savior children", which he found incredibly fucked up.

He didn't want any of his kids to serve a similar purpose, and right now, he couldn't help but imagine the Kaijin created without the library's assistance as being as such.

"If I'm gonna make Kaijin on the field, I'm going to make them protos like Porcelain Doll and Corpse Doll, or I'm going to find the best possible...everything," Zhen Liu eventually concluded. "Or at least figure out what materials I can use to fix this fucking key of mine."

"I think I know of a place."

"Bah!"

While Zhen Liu was in the middle of mumbling and thinking to himself, Alicia had used that as an opportunity to sneak up on him.

The mix of light produced by distant torches, the stars, and the moon itself, seemed to dance in Alicia's hair, making for a rather breathtaking sight. Combined with her freckled skin, she was like an embodiment of the night itself at this moment.

"Mind if I take a seat."

"Go ahead."

Alicia dusted an area immediately to Zhen Liu's right for a few moments before taking a seat.

Once she was settled, she proceeded to share what information she had in regards to those aforementioned materials.

"I asked the Kaijin about your key, would've asked Jin Fang but she's still in Undertow, and I must say, that treasure of yours is made of some truly diabolical materials."

"Yeah..."

"You seem to have a habit of collecting cursed and evil things."

"Well, I'm blessed by having good people in my life. Gotta balance it out somehow," Zhen Liu retorted.

"Just good?"

"I would've said beautiful too, but that would've included my cousins and they're okay looking at best."

"Pfft! You're terrible."

"Thank you, I know," Zhen Liu teased.

"But back to the matter at hand, I think I know of a place near here that may have the material as you need to fix that key."

"Really?"

"Yes. Have you ever heard of [Malevolent Gold]?" Alicia asked as she pulled out a map from her pockets.

"Well, that's a charmingly ominous name. But no, I haven't heard of this stuff before."

"Well, it's particular type of metal that is especially useful for creating cursed aether treasures, or at the very least, ones that have a tendency to favor those with an attraction to darker things.

"Sounds about right," Zhen Liu noted as thought about his literal arsenal of cursed items. "Wait, is this a 'this material is in the possession of a superior sect or organization' situation? If so, I would like to stop adding more to the long list of enemies I've generated up to this point."

"Oh no, nothing like that," Alicia assured Zhen Liu. "[Malevolent Gold] is sourced from a place known as the [Hellfire Mountain Range], with the main mine having been long abandoned due to a terrible curse."

"...I beg your finest fucking pardon?"