“It’s a Flesh Muncher,” Astrid explained. “I was going to absorb its essence myself, maybe learn a new spell, but I’m more excited to fight against a new creature. I’ve been missing hunting monsters. The forest outside the mansion is not exactly brimming with powerful magical creatures, and Kyrine couldn’t summon more than a Magma Ape without a Keeper. But now that she has you to help her. . . this place is going to be overflowing with monsters.”

“I’ll need more creature cores before that can happen,” I said. “Not that I’m ungrateful. This Flesh Muncher looks terrifying, and pretty damn awesome!”

She gave me a look, as if appraising my toughness. “Are you up to going hunting for creature cores? Because you know that we could just get them for you…”

I shook my head. “No, I’d like to participate in the gathering of cores. I’ve never been much of a hunter, but I’d like to change that.”

“Well, that’s good!” said Astrid, looking pleased. “Depending on how far you’re willing to travel, we could get some pretty cool monsters. Though your priority has to be looking after Kyrine. The mansion comes first.”

“I understand. Anyway, the Frostbreath Cougars, Flesh Munchers, and Magma Apes should be enough to be getting along with for the moment. We can think about the rest later. Right now, I want to see what my current creatures can do. Kyrine? Can you absorb this new core?”

I looked up at the ceiling and lifted the Flesh Muncher core in the palm of my hand.

Kyrine didn’t respond vocally; instead, she simply absorbed the core. As before, I felt her presence for a moment, and then the core shimmered and dissolved into a little twister of green dust that swirled upward and vanished into a puff of green smoke. The whole process only took a couple of seconds.

Along the bond that Kyrine and I shared, I felt her shiver of pleasure at the act of consuming the core. I smiled, feeling an echo of the pleasure she’d got from our sex in that shiver. Our bond was an intimate thing, and it got stronger every time we shared communication along it.

The stat readout for the new creature appeared, and I swiped to bring it up in front of my field of vision.

New monster added to dungeon's database!