The Cabin Is Always Hungry

LAST RESORT

Part 5

For the next two days, I scoured through the massive list of traits for my monsters. Since I only had one slot to fill for each of them, I had to make it count. This would be a part of them for a long time until I could unlock the fifth trait.

Once I was ready, I gathered the others by the boathouse.

It wasn’t a good idea for them to walk inside the cabin now that we’d set up the fake crime scene for the cops to find later. Plus, spending more crystals to clean up any of their messes was a waste of resources.

So, the lake it is.

I could feel their excitement. Today, they were going to receive some much-needed upgrades on their traits, plus a fourth additional trait, as promised. From creation, each archetype started with three monster traits that defined their features, attacks, and defensive capabilities, among others. Now that an administrator (and a guild) had sponsored me, they were kind enough to let me know that I could unlock nine additional traits in the future by either purchasing them with crystals and essence or by completing a hidden System quest. The latter I got when I completed my first official scenario and killed the cultists the System desperately wanted dead. A stacked and fully upgraded archetype would have a total of twelve traits, upgraded to the maximum level of twelve each, which would also cost more crystals and essence.

How many do I need for that? At least seven hundred essences spent on one archetype by the end?

I hated math in high school and barely made a passing grade in geometry. Fortunately, I had Oracle—my super calculator. Obviously, I didn’t have enough crystals to completely upgrade their sheets today, but I was determined to give each of them their fourth trait. After the work they’ve done helping me in the past week, it’s only fair I returned the favor.