Dimension System - Chapter 68

Hurrying into the spatial world, he was excited to see how the system was able to combine creatures. Before he could run off to the lab, his stomach growled, reminding him that he needed to get something to eat for lunch. Postponing his experiment, for now, Zanir headed to the restaurant.

Marcus, senior Lee, and the goblins were all sitting around a few tables that had been put together. Food and drinks were laid out, in between various charts and graphs. Even on their day off, they were pursuing what they loved. He could hear them discussing the results and reviewing why the system chose what it did.

While his men were trying to unravel higher mysteries, he headed into the kitchen to prepare something to eat. With the new ingredients, he thought of something that would combine them with the new world tastes. Instructing the system to begin grinding some cornmeal, he brought out a cast iron skillet.

Drizzling a little oil, and throwing in some garlic, he prepped the skillet. With the heat managed by the system, that wonderful garlic smell was brought out, as it carmelized just a bit. Bringing out some pork belly from the Fat Flame hogs, he started cooking them.

Soon, they were almost perfectly cooked. Using the cornmeal from earlier, he was able to use the system to form hardshell tacos. Building on the plain pork belly tacos, he didn’t have lettuce so he used shredded cabbage instead. A little olive oil and garlic, made a quick aioli dressing, although it was optional.

To complement the basic pork belly tacos, he once again used the system to help him prepare some potatoes. Slicing the potatoes into uniform pieces, they were fried, until they just started turning a beautiful golden brown color.

After adding a few new things to the menu, he grabbed a few tacos and some fries, along with a salad. Placing them all together on his tray, he brought them out into the restaurant. Seeing new food items, a few people hurried over to the kiosks to check it out. Even the alchemy team from earlier was drawn over, taking a rare break from their discussions.

Some people wanted to try the dish out, to see how it tasted, while others wanted to use the hard taco shells for other recipes. There were also people who just found out that new ingredients had arrived, so they wanted to study them for future cooking.

Stopping by his house after the meal, he took some time to chat with his parents and catch up with them. Speaking of catch, his dad was just coming back from fishing. He was glad to see both of his parents were very happy and enjoying the spatial world. Except, his dad kept asking Zanir when he was going to bring larger fish for him to catch.

Reassuring his father that he would keep an eye out for bigger fish, he left his home. Heading over to senior Lee’s tent, he entered the now unoccupied secret lab. If he was going to try and combine some of the animals, it seemed that the lab would be the most appropriate place to do so.

Activating the system interface, he brought up the options to combine animals. The first thing he noticed, was that he could only combine any two animals together. Unfortunately, that meant no chimeras or hydras for now.

Secondly, he noticed that the system would only use the full parts of the two animals. He couldn’t create extra limbs or mass, though he could move them around freely. Trying it out, he selected the bear and the eagle.

Seeing the default design, was quite frankly horrifying. The system just mashed the two animals together at a half and half ratio. Without any regard to form or function, he wasn’t sure it would even survive if created.

Separating the two animals, he saw each was one a holographic representation. Now he could play around, molding and sculpting something. The first thing he did was bring the wings over, attaching them to the bear.

Though the wings were large on the eagle’s body, on the bear’s, they looked way too small. Checking the display, there was a large red warning, indicating that the creature would be unable to fly or even hover.

Testing out an idea, he put the entire eagle into the wings, to see what the system would do. Melting together, it used the entire eagle’s body, making large wings on the bear. Amazed, he looked over to the display panel, only to see that the warning from earlier was still there.

Clearly, the bears were too heavy. Bringing up the design tools, he saw a toggle for aerodynamics. Turning it on, he saw a highlighted display of the bear, that went along with a color-coded scale. Reducing the weight accordingly, resulted in a leaner bear, that was able to fly.

Just barely being able to fly, however, wouldn’t cut it. These things would struggle to carry even a single grown man. Scrapping the bear, he studied the eagle holograph that was left. He needed something that wasn’t too heavy, something that was still strong enough to support his troops.

Going down the size list he ruled out the Big Horn cattle and Fat Flame hogs. Spotting the wolves, he stopped for a moment. ‘Could it be done?’

Taking the thought a little further, he brought up the selection, just to try it out. Seeing it automatically fuse into an abomination, he made sure to turn that feature off, since it just wasted time. From a clean slate, he worked to bring the two animals together, into a terrifying hybrid.

Starting from the body of the wolf, he brought the wings over. This time, they looked much more reasonable, but still needed slight adjustments to the positioning. Next, he brought the eagle jaws onto the wolf snout.

Melding the two together, it gave the creature a long, hybrid beaked snout. Combing the mouths together, was more than enough, to fill the entire length with razor-sharp teeth. Bringing out the best of both worlds, it had the eagles’ excellent vision, while retaining the amazing canine sense of smell.

Upon the system’s recommendation, he merged the eagle’s legs and talons with the wolves feet. Retractable talons were added to the wolves hind legs, allowing it to extend them when landing. Or when diving for prey. Once it landed, they could be retracted back inside the leg, allowing it to run in a normal wolf gait using all four legs.

Since he wasn’t an expert, he allowed the system to try fusing the torso portions together. It would be able to redesign the internal organs and other structures, so it could function correctly. Thinning out the fur, to account for feathers, the system ended up with a shorthair coat so the creatures wouldn’t overheat or shed.

With the majority of the creatures combined, he checked the panel and had to admit that the numbers looked good. Not only would they be able to fly, they could carry a goblin or even a grown man, albeit in light armor.

Checking the diagnostic tool, he saw several warnings and recommendations for slight design changes. Glad that he ran the scan before completing the creature, he made the necessary adjustments. Using up the few remaining parts of the eagle, he applied them to the suggested reinforcement areas.

The optimization resulting from a few design tweaks, combined with the reinforcement from the final parts, gave him the actual numbers he would be working with. If he was impressed enough with the earlier benchmark, he was now convinced.

Able to carry an armored soldier, these creatures would fill a crucial gap he was missing. He was one step away from having a viable aerial unit, at least to start out with. Too bad it was the hardest step in creating a new creature.

Staring at the display screen, he the final remaining field labeled: Name

Thank you, everyone, for the wonderful comments and suggestions posted on the last chapter. I tried to make the system have limitations so it’s not all powerful.

Anyways, what should we call these things?