As Ajax and the rest of his unit made it back to the main campgrounds they reunited with the other two guard units that were thwarting flanks. They had an even larger success than we did as while their flanks were larger in number, they were also on foot and only contained one guard unit instead of two.

With all of us eventually being beaten back it still gave the main army enough time to capture and remove from the fight enough of the enemy conscripted that we were now even in numbers. A real success even if we are still a bit on the backfoot in a head to head fight due to their higher number of trained guards.

With the battle over we were all given the rest of the day to go back and rest for the next fight. Seeing how badly they lost this first round, while still maintaining the overall lead the commander was talking about a second fight where they change tactics might be imminent so we should get our rest.

Getting back to their tent Ajax and Tom find Kate there feeding Fluffy. By now Ajax has noticed that Fluffy must have eaten at least a few times her own body weight since he found her. He knows that this is extremely odd thanks to his previous experience on Earth so he decides to ask about it knowing it has something to do with magic.

“Do either of you know why Fluffy is eating so much?” he asked. “She must have eaten two times her own body weight since we got her yesterday.”

“Yeah I was worried about that too and asked some of the older healers earlier.” Kate fills in. “It has to do with being a true magical creature. Young and weak creatures like Fluffy here still need to use mana in order to keep up their abilities in time with their growth but are unable to generate their own mana. Right now she can still substitute food for mana thanks to her mother’s milk still being in her system but that will only last her for another month at best.”

“According to him her diet will need to consist of meat from other true magical creatures in order to maintain her mana generation until she forms her own core. It will also help if she keeps that up afterwards but won’t be as vital. Another option is to supplement a normal carnivore diet with cores from monsters. The amount of mana she needs to progress will also ramp up as she grows older. From needing one core a week now she will probably need one a day when she is around level fifteen and close to forming her own core.”

“How the fuck are we going to afford this? Even if we could find the cores to buy on the market, which is no easy feat, how will we afford them?” Tom laments the upkeep costs of his new bond.

“I think you might need to talk with Judy about this” Ajax suggested. “She might be in the best position to help you with this until I can get into a dungeon.”

Ajax, hearing about the requirements, also took out one of the few monster cores he had managed to pick up during the five years he spent training with Hatchet that he kept in an inside pocket warded against scrying. The old scout had insisted that he keep all the cores but not sell them as he might one day find a better use for them.

As soon as Ajax took out the core from the spatially expanded backpack Fluffy’s eyes locked onto the small crystal. She jumped up into Ajax's lap and became the friendliest he had ever seen her, with him at least, while occasionally sniffing around his closed fist containing the core.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Seeing her get nowhere with that approach she went over to Tom and started meowing while throwing glances at his closed fist.

“What you got there, Ajax?” Tom asks, getting a clear idea that Fluffy wanted whatever was in his hand through the bond.

“Hatchet took me hunting deeper into the forest during these past five years. I managed to gather around thirty monster cores during this time. He helped me take them down but insisted I keep the cores and not sell them. The closest I have been to facing a monster without him actually was Fluffy’s mother, though she hadn’t formed her core yet and her magic was a lot less concentrated than Fluffy’s is now.”

“That must be because she didn’t get enough mana while growing up.” Kate mentioned. “It should also explain why you were able to fight a magic creature around your level without help or using your own mana, they are usually very strong for their level.”

“I have about two dozen of them, they should be enough to last you for the next six months, but I suggest you send a letter out to Judy as quickly as possible, just in case this whole thing ends up taking longer than two months like it’s supposed to. You want to make sure you have a stockpile waiting for you as you return.” Ajax suggested as he fed the core to the purring cat.

A few minutes after finishing the core Fluffy’s mana signature spiked with strength showing that the core had its intended effect and that Fluffy had been a bit malnourished in terms of mana already. This made Kate think that Fluffy was an even stronger and more rare creature then they initially thought because of this incorrect magic reading and they fed her a second to make up for any shortage she might have suffered so far.

Rooting through his bag Ajax found that he had another twenty-five cores and decided to join Tom in giving them to the commander for safe keeping. They both knew that the spike in the magical potency of Fluffy would be noticed by all the other mages and were wary of their tent getting robbed while they were out.

“What is it now?” the commander complained when he saw them gather again.

“And what the hell happened to your bond?” the mage that was just about to leave the commander's tent after discussing his performance in today's fight exclaimed sensing the new potency of the cat’s mana.

The commander frowned deeply at the new discovery knowing that the cat, while rare as all magical creatures were, was not all that uncommon among its kind after being inspected.

“This is why we are here. We found out about Fluffy’s need for a mana rich diet.” Tom said. “Ajax has a few cores on him from his time training deep into the forest and we wanted to ask if you would be willing to hold on to them for the duration of this war.”

“You think someone would steal them from your tent?” the commander asked.

“I’m not suspecting people from our unit, but all the mages in the main camp got a good look at Fluffy yesterday. I imagine that quite a few of them would have no problem in swiping them from our tent and they are a necessity if we want Fluffy to grow into her full potential.”

The commander reluctantly nodded and agreed to hold the cores and give one a week to what he knew would soon become the unit's official mascot from the people’s reaction to her after only a few days. He was also very surprised to see that they had more than two dozen cores on them and understood why they might be a little paranoid with that much wealth being left unprotected while also advertised by the cat’s mana signature.

“You both best head on back to sleep. Tomorrow will be another battle and this time we will actually be fighting not just ambushing and retreating. The enemy thinks that we are overly wary and will try to get into a better position by bluffing a small charge with part of its force. We will hit back hard and try to use their new tactic to get a numbers advantage. “

“Why do you not seem happy about that, sir?” Ajax asked, seeing the frustration on the commander's face.

“Even if the plan works all it will do is give us a decent advantage, their troops will be close enough to reinforce before we get too much of a decisive lead. It won’t end this little war. It will for sure give away the fact that we have a bug in place. The chances that they won’t find it after this is practically none. I was hoping we would be able to abuse it to end this whole thing in under a month but it seems that’s not in the cards.”

All three of the people nodded along with the commander's words, they were also a bit saddened by the fact that more of their time would be taken up with this unproductive war. They all made their way out of the tent to get a good night's sleep before their first real battle.

“Oh, and one more thing” the commander called out as they were about to exit. “Why the fuck would you name a future shadowy killing machine Fluffy?” The cat turning to give him an incredulous look after hearing his name and comprehending some of the questions through the bond with Tom.