The dragonling ran at me again, and with a thought I commanded it to halt. It screeched to a stop, snapping jaws just a few feet from me, then shook itself and came over to nuzzle its head against my knee, like a cat feeling affection toward its owner. I crouched to scratch its scaly ears and glanced up to see Astrid watching, looking impressed.

“The Magical Defense upgrade that the Dragonlings have received allows them to break through my spells and disperse them. That’s pretty effective.”

Astrid nodded. “It was hard for me to hold back, when it first broke through your Force Barrier,” she said. “But I’m impressed. You seem to be able to control the creatures with finesse, particularly since you’ve only just started experimenting with the summoning ability.”

“It feels almost like I’m a higher level than I was before, but I’ve not seen any readout to say so.”

We both jumped a little when Kyrine’s disembodied voice cut in. “You’re no longer a normal cultivator, Jeremy. Now you are a Keeper, and that is quite a different thing. Even a level 1 Keeper is much more powerful than a level 1 cultivator. Your base abilities will be stronger and easier to use than they would have been before our bonding. A level 1 Keeper has about the same magical ability as a Level 3 cultivator.”

I had basically just jumped two levels in a night. This was awesome. I grinned. “Well, that certainty explains a lot,” I said. “Let’s try something else.”

This time, I commanded two of the Dragonlings to attack a Force Barrier spell which I threw up. Together, they hurled themselves at the barrier, and this time their combined ability punched through my barrier like a bullet through brittle plastic. I hadn’t commanded them to attack me, just to attack my barrier. That was just as well, because this time when the barrier broke I was thrown six feet across the room and landed on my back with a thud.

The Dragonlings, content that they had fulfilled their task, sat looking pleased with themselves near where the Force Barrier had been. They didn’t seem affected at all by blasting through it.

“Oof,” I groaned as I hauled myself to my feet, rubbing my back where I’d landed. “Their Magical Defense is more powerful when combined, as I thought. That’s worth bearing in mind. See how they just blasted through my barrier as if it wasn’t even there?”

“Yeah, that was something else!” said Astrid, trying—and failing—to smother a grin at seeing me fall on my ass. “Are you going to do it again?”

“Keen to see me take a tumble again, are you?” I grumbled, and she grinned and chuckled openly this time.