It took the Dragonling only about 30 seconds to bite through the tough stem that joined the Muncher’s head to the rest of its body. The stem snapped with an audible crack just as the integrity of my Ensnare began to wear off, and the head of the monstrous plant fell to the mat with a thud.

The Dragonling leaped away and did a victory lap, spitting out ragged bits of the Muncher’s stem. Astrid gave us a round of applause as I held up a hand, to reabsorb what remained of the dead Muncher.

“Well, that worked,” I said to Astrid. I was about to turn away when there was a satisfying “ping” sound and I felt a command center notification requesting my attention. With a wave of my hand, I brought up the notification. The Dragonling had gained a new ability.

Dragonling’s Wood Resistance has increased by 10%

Dragonling’s Wood Resistance is now 10%

“Wood resistance,” I said, looking at the new stat readout. “That means that the Dragonling is now partially resistant to plant-based monsters?”

Kyrine didn’t speak, but I felt her agreement come along our connection to me, and I knew that I was right. I wondered what other kinds of plant-based monsters I could gain. Were there perhaps creatures in the woods nearby, other semi-sentient plants which had harvestable cores? Or would we have to trade for cores to get some monsters from some more exotic places?

It was a question I had never previously given much thought to. Plant-based monsters were not particularly popular with hunters, having fairly low value harvestable goods and fairly high risk. It was rare for cores from plant-based monsters to ever come through the shop, though it did happen on occasion.

I was about to ask Astrid the answer to that question when I saw another notification about the Dragonling pop up.

“What’s this?” I muttered, accepting the notification.

“The evolutions for the Dragonling are available!” I said in surprise.

“That means you can upgrade and level up your monsters by having them fight each other? Awesome!” said Astrid, coming forward to look over my shoulder at the command center readout.

“Looks like it. That’s great, it means that we don’t have to wait for adventurers before we get high-level creatures for the dungeon.”

“Which one will you choose?”