“So… you want us to do what again?” Asked a small teal-skinned fairy, Tammy, as they snacked on a cupcake with several other fairies that were enjoying the same cake. They seemed happy enough, so they were rather confused by the question that Red was asking of them. Not that they didn’t appreciate the question, it was just something that they hadn’t been expecting.

“For the last time, I am asking what would be something nice for you all to have that would make the dungeon a better experience for you. I get that you like the food and don’t mind how things are right now, but there have to be some things that you could see as an improvement in the dungeon.” Red said with a bit of exasperation, showing that he was getting tired of this. As much as he wanted to improve the dungeon, some of his residents were less than helpful when it came to improvements.

“Uh… well I wouldn’t mind a pet.” A yellow fairy, Marigold, spoke up as she finally managed to come up with something that Red could do work with. A pet was something that he could do, and there was no reason not to give more creatures to the top floor of the dungeon. He brought up his menu and began to look through all the monsters and animals that he had. The creatures were still his smallest category, but there was something that he had been wanting to do.

“Alright, I can do a pet. Give me a second because I need to try and test something before I can make a proper animal.” Red said with a smile as he looked at the monsters he had gotten from Velua’s bag when he had absorbed it. He selected that one of the Felidasps to spawn, waiting to see what would come of it.

“This isn’t a pet?” Marigold asked as she ran a hand through her short curly bob as the creature began to take shape out of the mana that Red was using to create it.

“No, but hopefully it will be once I am done with it. It’s a bit more… aggressive than a normal pet should be.” He said with a smile as he watched the creature take shape, enjoying the curiosity from the fairies as they watched the new creature take shape. While he was trying not to be impulsive when it came to life, this was something that he had been wanting to try. Make something dangerous just a bit more friendly by pulling mana from it. If he did this right then the Felidasp would turn into a cat, if he did it wrong then it would potentially make some kind of fuzzy wasp. He waited a few minutes for the monster to spawn, listening to the fairy’s idle chatter. He knew all of their names since the words appeared over their heads when he looked at them. However, he was trying to be better about seeing them as more than just fairies. They were not a swarm of enemies to send at attackers, or mindless dolls that would do whatever he wanted. They were as much people as his Leadership were his friends.

He was pulled from his thoughts as he heard a horrible noise, having not expected that there would have been such a visceral noise from a creature like that. It sounded like a mix of metal scraping against itself and a cat hissing in rage. He turned to look at the Felidasp and his eyes went wide as he looked at an amalgamation that couldn’t have been made by the hands of any forgiving god.

It had a pair of front paws like a cat that led up to a slight feline torso and head. Protruding from the cat’s mouth was a pair of vicious mandibles that clicked and rubbed against one another as it looked at Red. It had four eyes, two of them were small wasp eyes that could have been mistaken for black bumps on the area between its other set. The feline eyes were predatory and stared up at him with a look of curiosity. The fur was orange, and at the midway point of its spine, it was covered in thick chitinous plates of black and yellow. Sprouting from the first plate were a set of six wings that had enough strength to lift the entire abomination into the air.

At the end of its long tail, where fur jutted up from between the plates, was a two-inch long stinger that dripped with a purely ugly venom. Red could still see the mana that made up the creature and was reaching for the invisible cords as he thought about how he could try and change it. Before he could grab onto the strings of mana there was another noise that he had not been expecting. ”EEEEEEEE! Oh my gods he is so cute!” Shrieked Marigold as she rushed up to the Felidasp and wrapped her arms around its neck. She pushed her face into its fur and nuzzled closely as it began to give out a clicking purr at the attention.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Red lowered his hands slightly as Marigold fawned over the Felidasp and all of the others began to crowd around the horrid creature and begin petting it all over. “Uh… I was going to turn that into a cat.” Red said with a frown as he tried to get the fairy’s attention again, having not expected this kind of reaction from them.

“A cat? No! They’re nasty, smell bad, and worst of all they hunt down fairies! This beautiful baby boy doesn’t need to be turned into a cat when he is already perfect!” Tammy said happily as the lot of them all fawned over the horrid mermaid that they seemed to find the most darling creature in the world.

“Do you think you could spawn more? I want one!” “Me too!” “We would love to fly around with them!” The fairies all began clambering for Red’s attention so that he could spawn more of the awful little terrors. He had never gotten any of his creatures to be so excited about new summons, there was the one time with Addison but he preferred not to think about the worms that much. The strange little things gave him a headache and was able to do horrific things. ”Fine, I guess we are just going to do a spawner for all of this and get you some more of those things.” Red said with a sigh as he shrugged, knowing that he didn’t have any other option. He liked cats, but whatever the hell these Felidasps were, they were not the sweet little kittens that he loved in his old life. A shudder went down his crystalline spine as he thought about whether these things had grubs or kittens. Either way, he assumed that it involved a lot of slime that made his stomach churn at the thought.

He looked at the spawner and was surprised by the low price, apparently these things were considered very low-tier monsters. He accepted the price and placed the massive hive up in the branches of the tree. He assumed the fairies would want to be close to their new best friends, and he didn’t have an issue with that so long as it wasn’t in his face. This was just one of those things he didn’t focus on, like how the witchlings got all of the ingredients that they used for their recipes.

“Alright, so… you’ve got pets now! I’m glad that this all worked out in the end. Uh… have fun?” He asked as he raised his hands and summoned about five more of the cat wasps to make sure that they had plenty until the spawning got to where the fairies were satisfied with what they had.

“Thank you, Red! Best dungeon core ever!” Marigold said with a smile as she waved before she began to get on the back of the beast, seeming to be able to sit on it rather comfortably. Perhaps they would get used as mounts, however that wasn’t very useful when it came down to practical combat.

“Alright. So that’s the general fairy population that I did something nice for. I gave Pheobe a nice kitchen, gave the crawdads and lobsters some good houses, permitted slimes to wallow within oak holes that have undesirable chemicals, and now gave the fairies pets.” Red said as he listed things off for himself and thought about it.

[Perhaps it is time that you head over towards the military and see what you can do to help the foot soldiers?] Ras asked as they appeared in front of Red, giving an offer to another group that he had not given much thought to.

While Red had given his close friends plenty over the past month, the larger groups were often overlooked. The Soldier Fey were almost at the size of their own faction within the dungeon, and Red hadn’t done anything with them since he had promoted Arabella. As much as he was proud of how she had expanded her skills, they had been doing nothing but drills and the same maneuvers for ages. He had to figure that the soldiers were getting bored and Arabella was getting stretched thin.

“Yeah, you’re probably right, Ras. The military has been a bit… undervalued when it comes to things. Especially with the fact that I am leaning away from using them as an actual fighting force.” Red said with a frown as he thought about it, knowing that he now had people with a job he no longer needed.

[Correction. That was for those entering from the world outside, we will still need military force if Lotus is going to connect us to the Fey Faraway.]

“Huh… that’s a good point, Ras. The thing that I signed said that there could still be wars and stuff with other fairy groups. Should we expand the military then?” He asked, giving a genuine question to the box that seemed to load for a long moment. It had only been around him for a day at this point, but already he saw the value in their opinion.

[I believe that is a question best left for Arabella. She is the one with the most experience with the military.]

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” He said with a nod as he floated over to the western part of the floor and looked at the Soldier Fey doing their combat exercises. He looked around until he spotted the military tent that acted as Arabella’s place of lodging for the moment. It was torn down quickly if someone came into the dungeon.

He floated into the tent and stopped in his tracks as he saw that Arabella had herself in a tornado of glass shards, cuts across her face and hands as she seemed to be trying to control it. She looked at Red with wild eyes, shaking as she tried to keep the swirling mass from ripping her apart.

“I can explain…”