Madman’s Retirement

After boiling in the pot with the appropriate ingredients, the condensed milk slime was now relatively large, being the size of an average car. The slime was now a milky white, and appropriate, had that same milky smell that boiled milk has, inviting one to taste.

Grant did just that, dipping his cupped hands in, and slurping the condensed milk up.

Satisfied with the taste of the thick, syrupy substance, Grant cupped another handful, this time offering it to the bear in charge of stirring.

Receiving it gratefully, the bear dipped a toe(finger?) in, and sucked on its paw, tasting it carefully.

"Delicious" it declared, and Grant merely smiled in return, before beckoning to the kobolds and the shroom to come taste accordingly.

And they too, enjoyed the taste.

The slime didn't care of course.

Few slime races were actually sapient enough to recognize pain, save a few variants and a few higher slimes, none of which the condensed milk slime fit into. And even though they do recognize pain, they don't quite register it the same way other creatures do.

Maybe down the line, but for now, it was merely a low-mid tier monster.

It was what Grant needed now though.

Taking one last handful, this one instead went into a magic tool of Grant's own making, a large fanny pack with multiple pockets, each for their own pocket of ingredients.

In slide the condensed milk as it slid into one of the many empty pockets, as magic hummed in the fanny pack, seeking to identify, and reproduce.

Any good beast tamer recognizes the benefit of purposely manipulating the outcome of an evolution, and one way to do is by giving them magic tools which may alter the way they live and function.

For example, a fanny pack with more ingredients for a beast to use when cooking for example.

"Ursa Major, look what I got you!" he said as he waived around the fanny pack around for the bear.

The bear looked at the fanny pack mostly confused more than anything.

Grant laughed, seeing the little unaware hill billy, who knew nothing of humanity except that which it was taught up to this point.

"It's a portable ingredient pack, that way you don't have to rush over to the shelf for certain ingredients. Look, here's flour, milk, honey, eleven herbs and spices, lemon, shreds of coconut, and a few more that you might find useful for quick cooking."

No more had to be said, for the bear was already interested, quickly wrapping it around it's waste, leading to a very interesting sight of a bear wearing a fanny pack around it's waist.

Clearly excited to play, it quickly thanked him before roaring at the kobolds and the shroom to follow him back into the kitchen, with the slime happily squelching along.

Well that was done.

Should he cultivate a little more, and gain more qi circles? Maybe he could start adding in drows and dravens.

Grant paused before shaking his head. No, not yet. The shrooms being released into the wild alongside 2 new variants of kobold were probably already a lot for the planet to process. Maybe next month.

But maybe he could get away with adding those roomba turtles, considering how harmless they are...

Shaking off those dangerous thoughts, Grant eventually settled on splitting the land in twain.

Currently everything was essentially one large body of land; Pangea if you will without the appropriate water.

Essentially it was just one giant chunk of land.

Maybe the korvold progenitor would find herself more satisfied if she had two bodies of land to explore.

Cr-ack

With a good crunch of his knuckles, he set off to begin once more crafting his small world.

The one large chunk of land became two, as the world heaved and groaned, like a continent sized division of cells. Of course, nothing died, for under his guidance, life moved appropriately under his command, and those that fell, whether they be too young to move appropriately, too old, or even too clumsy, were guided by the roots of the tree that formed the core of the small world.

And thus, the land split, leaving a gaping wide maw of land between the two pieces of land, which nothing dwelled in, soon to be fixed.

The tree alone sat in this gap.

Of course, this attracted the attention of all the progenitors in the making, whose territories were being drastically changed and reorganized.

The shroomfather merely looked on, before lumbering off, perhaps to train.

The shroomwolf progenitor also did not care, merely regarding it as a change of scenery, for the hunt would remain the same.

Canuck's eyes glittered as she watched the land change once more, and more geographical locations slowly grew into existence.

Fanfare was... rearing the cockatrice eggs? Whatever, if he finds it fun, so be it.

A'Tan was constructive as always, commanding his people to relocate, choosing to remain as a singular group, to make their decision after witnessing the final result. A smart and thankfully competent move. The others were obviously less active, and he could even see the korvolds following the axobodls, because their progenitor was...

...busy.

The gap had widened appropriately, and thus came his first major body of water.

A sea? An ocean? Neither really, when there are only two major landmasses.

Obviously it would start as salt water, with some of the rivers and other minor bodies of water finally finding an outlet to pour into.

Next came the ocean fish, the starfish, the coral, all the surface level stuff.

The ocean wasn't deep yet after all, so nothing like whales or krakens yet.

Still, the fact that he had managed to begin creating the ocean again was a good step in the right direction.

Once it was deeper then he could start bringing in the heavy hitters, but for now he wasn't planning on going to a fishing trip, so it was fine.

Alright, that was enough for one day, time to tuck it in.

After that Grant finished up for the night, wondering how he should take care of the minotaur's departure.

---

Grant had been sopping, 2 days later, as well as hawking some of the baked goods to passerby's, when he felt a light tap on his leg.

Looking down, he saw a very familiar looking little beastkin.

Little Ben O'Leary.

The boy still looked a little ragged, but there was some more meat on his bones.

Good.

Crouching down, he faced the child again.

"Look at you, little man! You're looking better now, aren't you." he joked.

The boy gave him a confident little grin, nodding his head before asking.

"Candy! Please!"

Well, demanded.

Fake grumbling, Grant whipped out a bundle of lollipops alongside a chocolate bar, handing them to the child.

"Remember, too much candy isn't good for you! So make sure to brush your teeth carefully." he reminded the kid merrily.

The kid nodded, drooling all the while, and began eating the lollipops immediately.

Grant couldn't help but give the kid a quick look over, confirming his suspicion using appraisal.

Indeed, the kid had used the alternative.

And if he had used it...

"There you are Benny!" exclaimed the father as he ran over, shaking the kid.

"What were you thinking, running off like that! What if someone had tried to take you, or lure you with candy."

"Ahem." Grant coughed awkwardly, bringing Marcus' attention to him.

"Oh, benefactor! No I didn't mean it like that!" he stammered, as if looking for an excuse, before being interrupted by the roaring laughter of Grant.

"No need, no need! I was just messing with you. Ben really shouldn't have just accepted candy from anyone."

Grant gave Marcus a quick appraisal.

Indeed, the both of them had changed.

The two of them had been wolf beastmen, with the gray hair and the father being taller than the average man, around 5'9 maybe.

But now, the man had grown, as had the child. It just so happened that in the father, the growth was more pronounced, with the muscles being tauter, and the hair thicker where it was.

Their jaws were more pronounced as well, and Grant could detect the teeth themselves were sharper.

Looks like the direwolf blood kicked in after all.

Looking at the two, Grant had a thought. A small thought really.

'Hey, I think I know what Granite could do for me.'

---

Do you know what's really fascinating? 

Mixing ancient bloodlines with modern ones. 

Functionally, it's no different from awakening a bloodline, but it's fascinating to watch the old be brought into the new age. 

Or how they mix. 

Ancient beastmen exist of course, but ancient is vague in such scenarios, because that raises the question of what is considered ancient. 

Humans have been around for millions of years, so at what point do you consider something ancient? 

Gone for 50,000 years? 100? 

So technically, there are ancient beastmen, and some were stronger than the current generation, much like Neanderthal's were stronger than the current generation.

And much like humans, some beastmen have bloodlines that contain traces of these superior individuals. 

But there is something interesting about making beastmen that did not exist originally. Or mermen, the point still stands. 

Like there are already sharkmen, but megaladon mermen are kind of like giants to people. They're absolute monsters in the current age, and because they're mixes, they're not to huge, and quickly became a viable race on earth. So oopsie on my part, because now a whole colony of them exists. 

Of course, awakening ancient bloodlines in the fragile bodies of men is not an easy task, and places immense risk on them, but negating risk is possible if the ancient blood is diluted, and mixed into an elixir. 

It still hurts, and the pain still carries the risk of death through shock. 

But for some, the change to become an ancient beastman is well worth the risk.

-Grant.