This is dedicated to a monster I used to rescue my younger brother's failing MR2 game with. He was a pure Zuum, and I named him Ikthya.

At the time, my bro had spent virtually all his cash, and he had less than 1,000 left, and no fighting-capable monsters. In desperation, I went to the market and got a little Zuum pup. Ikthya hated potatoes and liked to play. He was quiet and friendly. I felt badly because, due to a lack of funds, I was forced to feed him only potatoes. I don't think he took it personally.

When he was four months old, I was forced to enter him in a tournament. His loyalty was less than 15, and his stats weren't very good. To my suprise, he came close to winning. When he battled again the next month, he won. This, from a five month old!

For the next year poor Ikthya suffered. I couldn't afford to let him play, couldn't give him the things he wanted, didn't have enough to buy him mint leaves, and he ate almost nothing but potatoes. However, his loyalty skyrocketed, and he soon became a champion in his own right.

By age two, he was B class and winning steadily. I was finally able to begin feeding him fish instead of potatoes. He got the occasional mint leaf, and even got the occasional play session.

When he died at age 4 and a half, Ikthya had taken much more abuse than any other monster I have raised. He was deprived, overworked, and made to work when he was too young. He never went on an errantry, never enjoyed too many pleasures. Yet, he was a happy monster. His loyalty hovered around 85 for most of his 3rd and 4th years of life, and mannaged to get to A class without any other attacks than the ones he knew when I took him home from the market. He rarely if ever comitted Foolery, and when he died, his winning purse was over 45,500 gold.

I have had several monsters who would have buckled under that kind of stress and work. Many of my other monsters would have simply died of exaustion. Many more would have run away. I think that the Zuum is perhapse the most loyal, trustworthy, and good-natured of all the monsters. If you haven't raised one yet, you owe it to yourself to do so.

~In memory of Ikthya~

-- Justice (DemonCougar@hotmail.com), March 27, 2000

Answers

Wow. That's a lot of money.My first monster was a Zuum, and he stank. I don't know why. The End.

-- MegaMalletMan (MegaMalletMan@yahoo.com), June 23, 2000.

that's funny. my first monster was a zuum, and I stank.

-- torey luvullo (toreyluvullo@hotmail.com), June 24, 2000.

Man, you are one !GOOD! trainer. Hah! Now the world knows how adaptable Zuums really are!

-- Ramza Beoulve (gecko717@singnet.com.sg), September 26, 2000.