“With some creatures, their instinctive cultivation path is naturally dark. Spiders, for example, or crocodiles, and, of course, snakes. Their natural cultivation instinct leads them down an evil progression pathway, and they become what we call “putrefied” creatures. They gain intelligence and a level of deliberate cruelty that makes them incredibly dangerous and unpredictable.”

Selena had been nodding as she listened to this explanation, but now she took up the thread of the conversation. “There’s something else,” she said. “Snakes find it particularly difficult to advance along a putrefied progression. They don’t normally get above Level 2 or 3 at most. For a snake to evolve higher than that, it has to be able to feed on a huge amount of mana. In the same way that the dungeon feeds on expended mana to become stronger, putrefied creatures learn to feed on the mana and life force of their victims. That forest is a magical hotspot, with cultivators going there to practice magic. The Cobra must have learned to catch and feed on them, and managed to evolve itself beyond its base level on its own.”

I sat back in my chair. This was quite a lot to take in, but I figured we’d have to go deal with it.

“I’m concerned that the Technomancer might have something to do with this,” I said. “He’s known for exploiting young, naïve cultivators, and it seems too big a coincidence that this rare magical creature should be in the woods near here, and that he should be in the area, both at the same time. We need to get out there and destroy that monster. We’ll be able to harvest its core, too, and add a summonable version to the mansion’s database. It’s too good an opportunity to miss, and we might be sticking a spanner in the Technomancer’s plan of attack by doing so as well.”

“Will four of us be enough to take it on?” Selena wondered out loud.

Astrid looked at me. “Jeremy was one hell of a fighter before we even got to the mansion. Now that he’s merged with Kyrine, I’m sure he’ll be even more powerful. We can do it, I have no doubt.”

“Let’s talk to Kyrine,” I suggested, and turned my attention to our connection, asking her to join us. A moment later, the beautiful figure of the dungeon avatar appeared in the doorway.

I’d forgotten that Selena had never seen Kyrine in her visible form. When Kyrine stepped through the door and calmly approached the table, Selena leaped up so suddenly that her chair tumbled over and hit the floor with a crash.

“Kyrine?” she said, breathless.

“Indeed,” said the dungeon core, holding out a hand to Selena with a slight smile. “It is good to meet you in the flesh.”