“It’s not enough,” Bee said.

  “I didn’t realize we were making it that big,” I replied, looking at the four fingers she’d made.

  One was made from the frog meat and had the wizard’s hat on the first of its three joints. The next was the same color as Skippy and there were eyes running along its sides, as well as tentacle-like whiskers sprouting from the finger-tip. The third was a normal finger, except golden and with a sharp nail. The fourth and last was literally covered in the skin of the orderly monstrosity that’d been used for its construction, with the gleaming bald dome as the second joint and the wide-eyed face located where the nail should’ve been. The stitch pattern on the fourth finger also made it clear where the skin of the arms and legs had been joined to the rest of the ‘fabric’.

  Bee hadn’t even spent a lot of time to make them, and it was mildly disturbing how efficient and well-practiced she seemed.

  “Only mildly disturbing?” Panda remarked skeptically.

  As I studied the fingers, a window for the entire monstrosity appeared, though the fingers were not yet joined together to form a whole.

  [Monstrosity in Progress]

  Event Monstrosity

  This work-in-progress Monstrosity is missing the following features to be considered functional:

  - A central body

  - A safe word

  Components:

  ‘Frog Wizard Finger’

  +1 to Athleticism

  +1 to Magic Defense

  +Swamp Lord passive

  ‘Void Whale Finger’

  +4 to Vitality

  +10 to Defense

  +Black Pond Traversal ability

  ‘Greed Demon Finger’

  +10 to Luck

  +6 to Strength

  +Golden Aura passive

  ‘Smiling Insanity Finger’

  +2 to Wisdom

  +Asylum Chains ability

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “Each finger has a special power,” Panda noted.

  Bee nodded, clearly proud of her work.

  “Based on the finesse with which components of a Monstrosity are constructed, special powers may be attached,” Mammon told us. “That little lady there is unsettlingly good at this stuff…”

  “Do you recognize where the golden materials come from?” I asked him.

  The Greed Demon put his clawed hand to his chin and studied the six-meter-long triple-jointed golden finger.

  “Is that…? No, it can’t be…”

  “It is,” I told him.

  Mammon made a face. “Gargalob’s intestinal tract… That’s just bad taste. You even got some half-digested food in there. You’re lucky that Greed Demon poop doesn’t smell. If it had been a Sloth or Envy Demon’s intestines, you would all have likely perished from the odor by now.”

  I frowned and looked at Bee.

  “We were in a hurry, so I just grabbed whatever I could get my hands on!” she protested.

  “It’s a finger made of demon shit…” Panda said, following it up with a deep and very tired sigh.

  I looked through the skills associated with each finger.

  [‘Swamp Lord’ x ]

  Passive

  I like frogs.

  They sometimes twitch after being skinned and killed. Yes, in that order.

  I’m not really sure why a pointy hat makes a certain frog the lord of their swamp, but since they’re associated with swamps I suppose that makes them adherents of Papa, and they are kind of fish like in appearance.

  Still, if you’re hungering for some frog, I don’t think he will be upset if you eat one.

  You’re the Lord of the swamp, and the swamp goes with you wherever you travel to.

  [‘Black Pond Traversal’ x ]

  Ability

  I’m surprised Papa allowed you to have this ability. He keeps it tightly guarded amongst his spawn and adherents. I used to be able to do it, until he took it away, but I have other means of traversal now.

  This version of the ability isn’t quite as strong as the one possessed by Skippy, but it is still quite powerful. Be careful about where you use it, because once you have created a black pond, you can’t get rid of it again.

  Create a black pond and travel through its depths to reach another place.

  [‘Golden Aura’ x ]

  Passive

  I hate Greed Demons.

  They really like living amongst sapient creatures, which are the most fun to hunt and eat, but do you know how many teeth I’ve chipped trying to bite into a gold-encrusted statue that was flesh-and-blood a moment before!?

  And don’t even get me started on trying to eat one of these demons…

  They’re just a disappointment all-around.

  You exude the atmosphere of an emperor of ages past, turning all of your surroundings into gold over time.

  [‘Asylum Chains’ x ]

  Ability

  Imagine an insane asylum, but instead of insane people on the inside, it’s just a bunch of sane people being kept against their will!!

  …

  Oh…

  Hmm.

  Apparently, this was already a thing in your world before the GREAT GAME.

  Are you sure you guys aren’t the baddies?

  Manifest chains of physical insanity to bind a target, but only for as long as they retain their sanity.

  “These skills are actually quite strong,” I muttered.

  “Meow!” Lordie exclaimed.

  “No, you can’t ride it yet,” I told him.

  Bee nodded. “We need a lot more material to complete my masterpiece!” she exclaimed excitedly.

  “What happened to all the stuff we brought?” Cooper asked.

  “I was about to ask the same thing,” Chris said.

  “I used it all!” Bee replied cheerfully, clearly on some kind of Monstrosity DYI adrenaline high.

  “Is this kind of like a ‘sausages have more than 100% meat inside them’ scenario?” I asked.

  Cooper and Chris both looked at me in confusion. “What?”

  “It happens when the weight of the meat from before and after the sausage is made is lower, usually because of drying processes reducing water,” Bee blurted out. “Anyway, let’s go, there’s more material for us to harvest!”

  As she sprinted up the steps, I glanced at our team mates, as well as little James. “You guys stay here.”

  Cooper and Chris both sighed in relief.

  “It’s my turn now!” James exclaimed. “It’s not fair they get to go and I don’t!”

  Chris sighed. “We overheard you mention Balloonia when we were spectating, and he really wants to go.”

  “Trust me on this, you don’t want to go there,” I said.

  “It’s the place that John was talking about when he made those weird sounds on the train, right?” Chris replied.

  “Yeah. So, you know it’s going to be fucking weird as hell.”

  “Well, enjoy your trip,” Cooper said. “I think I’ve had enough adventure for today. And tomorrow…”

  “Same,” Chris replied. “I was inside a demon’s asshole. Not sure it can get worse than that…”

  “A clown guy turned me into a balloon,” Cooper said with a frown.

  They both paused and then they shook each other’s hands with wistful smiles.

  “Why are you bonding over clearly traumatic events?” Mammon asked them.

  “It’s just a thing humans do,” Panda told him.

  “Maybe that’s why there’s much less infighting than the Showrunners predicted,” Mammon muttered to himself.

  “You’d better find Bee before she goes too far,” Panda told me. “She was really in a hurry to get out there…”

  I waved goodbye to the others and ran up and out of the base.

  I apologise for the weird schedule changes suddenly, but I'm just stupidly busy at the moment and getting two different chapters for two different stories out on the same day turned out to be more than I could handle right now. Once I'm done with my finals project, I will hopefully be able to write a lot more on book 3. It has about 30-40k words left before being done, and I'm really hoping to be able to wrap it up in January.