Part 7: Avatars

When they finalized their keeps, the ‘buildings’ instantly appeared in their respective territories. The massive two-hundred meter tall sakura tree materialized right in front of them, Azra’s silver keep could only be seen on his side of the holographic screen.

“Now that you have your keeps, it’s time for you to open the unit customization menu. It’s the seventh shortcut on the top of the screen.”

The twins were cautiously walking up that enormous spiral staircase when they heard their grandfather’s voice again. Azra sighed, grumbling “What the hell is all this shit about anyway?”

A separate screen appeared, which was similar to the initial tower customization menu.

“Every chess piece has two main functions. The first is a ‘tower’ and the second is a corresponding ‘unit’. For the king, there’s the keep, which is your home… And your avatar. I don’t know if I’ve told you this or not, but I’m an avatar of Sariel. However, my situation is a lot different than yours. I’m just a weak human representation of Sariel, but I have autonomy. The type of avatar that the two of you will be creating is basically just a robot that you can control. Later on you will be able to grant them their own intelligence, but for now, they’re mindless machines.”

Yuri furrowed her brows as she stared at her three choices. Then she said “Azra, I need your help deciding what to pick.” The tall boy and short girl sat down next to each other on the wooden stair, at least twenty meters above the ground.

[Goblin: A small and individually weak humanoid race. They reproduce quickly and are very agile. They have excellent manual dexterity and occasionally are very intelligent.]

[Sparrow Harpy: A small and individually weak humanoid race. They reproduce quickly and are very agile. Their intelligence is extremely low and they have no hands. They can fly rather swiftly, but their bones are very brittle.]

[Ratkin: A small and individually weak humanoid race. They reproduce quickly and are very agile. They have excellent manual dexterity and occasionally are very intelligent.]

“Wait, why are they all so pathetic?” Although the descriptions were vague, just the first sentence alone was enough to understand that humans were physically superior to those creatures.

“I’m sure that you’re both probably wondering why your combat avatars would be from weaker races than humanity… Well, that’s because you aren’t just picking an avatar. You’re also going to create a sentient species that will live in your territory. The avatar you create won’t be permanent, in fact, it probably won’t even survive your first battle. However, the race will stay as long as you can keep them alive. If you end up getting them all killed, then you’ll need to choose a different one later on. The weaker the race, the easier they will be to control. If you want to have an army of ogres, you need to have the strength to back up your position as their ruler.”

Part 8: Races

“You kids are probably wondering why… Why do you need to fight in the first place? What’s the point? I bet you brats would be satisfied if you could simply go out and explore the world a bit. Well, the fact is that the world is a cruel place. There are only four sentient races left in the whole freaking continent and they’re still killing each other all the time. I’ve been out of the loop for so long that I don’t even know what the current kingdoms and empires are like… But even within individual countries, there are smaller groups, which are often at war with each other. That isn’t even including all the bandits, brigands, mercenaries and slavers. This is only a single planet, in a universe untouched by the influence of other deities for eons…

“By the time you obtain all of the chess pieces, things might change. You aren’t safe and you never will be. However, it is much better to be a powerful target that everyone tries to reach, than an ant so weak that any random person could accidentally crush you.”

Azra sighed, muttering “It’s better to have an army and not need it, than to need an army and not have one.”

Yuri patted him on the back and asked “Do you believe that the racial choice we make now, will determine which races we will be able to unlock in the future?”

“Yeah, that’s most likely the case. If we use the stuff that Gramps told us in the past as reference, then I’d say that.. Goblins probably unlock Orcs and Ogres later. He didn’t really talk about Avians much, but there are probably a lot of different kings. The Ratkins might lead to other anthropomorphic animal people.”

Both of them had the same choices, so in the end, they could only unlock two out of three. Eventually, Yuri murmured “Flight could be extremely useful…” as she reached out with her right hand.

However, her brother immediately grabbed her wrist and retorted “What good are a bunch of idiots though? Plus, they’re obviously the weakest of the three… Their only advantage is their flying abilities, but can’t we just build planes? I’m picking the Goblins and you should go with the Ratkins. I know how much you love animals. Besides, the Avian races are probably considered anthropomorphic animal people as well.”

Of course, after picking the race, there were still plenty of other things to choose from. There were so many choices that the two of them spent nearly an hour just sitting there, getting devoured by mosquitoes, while trying to ‘perfect’ their first avatars.

Goblins had a wide range of possible skin colors. Not tones or shades, but actual colors. There were classic greens, fiery reds, icy blues, human-like beiges, greys and even obsidian black. They could have hair like a human or be naturally hairless, it was also possible to be covered in thick fur. The size and shape of their heads, hears, limbs, everything could be customized to an absurd degree.

The Ratkins were the same way. Many of their choices weren’t just aesthetic. It was possible to take away the eyes, in order to make their sense of hearing and smell much stronger. Having fur could protect them from the cold, but it would make them more uncomfortable in the heat. They could make them bigger, but it could shorten their lifespan and lower their natural agility. If they made them too small, then they could be killed even more easily.

Part 9: Scientific Curiosity

It started raining, so the twins decided to walk the rest of the way up the spiral staircase. If there wasn’t a railing, then it would have been incredibly dangerous. The stairs were fairly slippery, but they managed to make it to the gate within a few minutes.

Although it was closed, there was no lock and it wasn’t barred from the inside, so they were able to enter rather easily. The dining hall had no tables, chairs or any sort of decorations. It was merely an empty room.

However, since they spent their entire lives without furniture, they weren’t too bothered by sitting on the floor. There were a few windows where light was able to shine through, but even if it was dark, their holographic screens were easily visible.

As far as ‘bathrooms’ were concerned, neither the tree or the stone keep had any. Of course, there weren’t any bathrooms in their old home either. There were a few chasms or small cracks in the ground, which they would usually defecate or urinate into. They simply went outside and relieved themselves off the side of the railing when they needed to.

Those two never really had any privacy in their entire lives, so they were overly comfortable around each other. All of their knowledge was either from their grandfather, fictional novels or textbooks.

***

Finally, after nearly half a day, the twins had finalized their respective avatars. It was similar to designing a video game character, but the graphical detail was so close to reality that it was impossible to spot the difference with human eyes.

Yuri stared at her brother’s work and asked “Azra, why did you choose a female? Wouldn’t a male avatar be more effective in combat?”

He snickered, admiring the beautiful woman that he had designed. She was only a single meter tall and had grey skin covering most of her body. Since her blood was blue, her lips, nipples, veins and genitals all had an azure hue. Azra made her breasts relatively large compared to her tiny body, but they were still far from the maximum size possible. He gave her lithe muscles, which were barely visible and her buttocks was slightly plump. As far as the face was concerned, she appeared to be of nordic descent. Her eyes were dark-blue and she had long, straight white hair. As for the ears, they were pointed and curved outwards a bit.

“Umm, maybe if we were talking about humans? Even then, it all depends on what they’re fighting with in the end. Besides, when I was trying to make a guy, I kept making him more feminine until he looked like a girl… I figured I might as well just go with a female avatar and hope for the best. Why did you pick a male?”

Although Azra focused on creating an aesthetically pleasing avatar, his sister was focused on crafting a biological weapon. Her creation was four feet tall when it stood totally upright. It was covered in a coat of pitch-black fur and had a decent amount of rippling muscles. Most of the body was humanoid, but there was a long and thick, scaly obsidian rat tail extending from its lower back.

The creature had large talons on its cute pink hands and feet. Its head was also identical to a giant rat, with big rounded ears. The nose had long white whiskers coming off of it and the eyes were eerily completely black. However, its genitals were incredibly small compared to its body.

“Scientific curiosity. I have been female for sixteen years thus far and I wish for my experience as another species, to be as different as possible.” Yuri wondered “Should I give the avatar a larger penis? Is there any correlation between penis size and battle capabilities? Why have you decided to give your avatar such large mammary glands?”

Azra coughed a few times and quietly muttered “Uh, umm, I just figured… You know, if the enemies are guys, then they might get distracted or something-”

Yuri interjected “If you wish to mate with your female avatar, then you will need to make the hips and vaginal opening much wider.” Then she started giving him a bunch of other suggestions “Here, you will also need to dramatically increase the amount of vaginal elasticity. Now that I’ve taken a closer look at your overall design, I’ve noticed several problems. The original design for the Goblin had a significantly larger head, which you clearly altered in order to make the creature suit your sexual preferences… You will need to enlarge the head again, or the brain will be too small.”

 

Chapter 1: Sariel’s Guidance

Part 1-3
Part 4-6
Part 7-9
Part 10&11