The first three days passed in a blur. Quiet talks while Kaden held Trella close. A short explanation of why his chest was metal instead of flesh. Trella attempting to kill the Assistant when it buzzed in to clean Kaden’s boots. He left the farmhouse occasionally to tend the Dungeon or [Field Harvest] the wolves Trinity brought more out of habit than as a challenge.

But on the fourth day, Trella roused herself. “I’m never going to be ready for this. I thought it would be a blink. Instead, it wasn’t oblivion and it wasn’t an afterlife. I dreamed of you. Broken, odd dreams.”

Kaden recounted his dream of talking with his father. “Is it possible it was real?”

She didn’t answer quickly. “I don’t remember that, but it was real enough for you.” She dressed in the remains of her [Shadow Blade] equipment, which still bore the damage from the battle with Jagi, and joined the others for breakfast.

Eclipse actually sat in her lap, which, for the [Shadow Cat], was nearly unheard of. And the stories began to flow. Well, sort of.

“Kaden slept with Sara!” Eve shouted. “I’ve been worrying out how to tell you and I decided the truth was the best.”

Trella looked back to Sara. “If you’re bored, I loan him out on Mondays. Can we focus on the important stuff? Druids? Demons?”

“I thought it was important,” Eve said under her breath.

Vip whined and licked her hand until Eve picked her up.

After another day and a half of constant interruptions by Sara and Ashi, Kaden finished his story. “So, Oberix made a critical error. She gave me a vote. I voted for her to surrender.”

“And everyone else went along with you?” Trella asked.

Kaden found his answer in the floorboards. “Something like that.”

That was all he wanted to say.

“I understand.” Trella’s answer was almost a whisper. “When we were fighting Jagi, and he hit you with the wand, I saw you disintegrate. I saw your ashes. I knew you were never coming back. It was the [Slaver] class. It had lurked there, waiting. And I knew the Sisters would kill me. I didn’t care. All I cared about was punishing Jagi in a way that he would never recover from. Mistress Scylla warned me it would happen and I still fell for it.”

Kaden had no answers. He could only hold her until the sorrow passed.

Trella stood and stretched. “I’m at least four levels behind all of you. I feel…thin. Not in my body, but in my soul. I want to do things. I want to see things. I want feel, whether it’s happy or sad or pain or pleasure. I want to grow. And I want to do it with all of you.

This was what Kaden had been dreaming of. “I can’t wait to show you Vichor. I have business there. A favor to ask the King. And Omnor, without a war? Blightfall is incredible. And you have to meet Olidar. And…I’m going to sell the Darkling’s Fangs to the Sisters. This isn’t a trade. If they want them, they’ll need to pay. Gold is good. Unless they have a dragon. In that case, I probably want the dragon.”

Kaden had plans. [Beast Form] would be his.

“I want to see this Demon’s Daughter Naski.” Trella didn’t ask. “Also, I probably want to kill her for what she did to you. You don’t need her anymore. I want to be the one who looks her in the eye and then stabs her Core.”

Trella’s time dead hadn’t dulled her edge.

Kaden went outside. “She’s cut off from the Demonic Hierarchy. That’s my best guess about why the [Shield Tree] doesn’t destroy her.”

He double checked the soul binding and forced her from Inventory. Naski had shifted back to her female form, wearing torn rags. She grinned with shark teeth at him. “The Obedience Binding on me is broken. Now—”

Kaden willed her to be silent.

The Soul Bond pulsed and the demon fought against it. “I’ll kill all of you. I’ll hound your souls through the afterlife. First you, then everyone…” Her voice went silent as [Soul Binding] enforced his will.

“You’re ugly.” Trella said. “But you helped break the binding on Kaden, so, there’s that. I’d kill you, but I doubt I’ll get much.”

Naski struggled to speak, growling and shuddering.

Kaden shoved her back in Inventory. “When Sevin brinks Skully back, I’m going to have him open a portal to Mortis’s domain. Nasi is going to Mortis. I hate her, but I won’t keep her captive. It feels like torture, and not even a demon deserves that.”

Vip sniffed the ground where Naski had stood and squatted, peeing on it. *Slow*.

“She is what she is,” Kaden said to Vip. “Let’s go into town. Mr. Dervish is desperate to make tokens and he’d really like me present. We can eat at BirchHome so Eve doesn’t feel like she has to cook.”

“Eve likes to cook,” Eve said. “But I do want to see if they’re following my [Recipe] correctly.”

###

Since it wasn’t required that Kaden be sitting or even paying attention for [Leader of the Pack] to work, he spent the time at Dervish’s Summoning Services observing the Beasts. “How’d you catch the [Drake] again?”

Mr. Dervish strolled over in his yellow silk suit, with Mika, his darling (and giant) milk spider following behind. “Didn’t catch it. It comes back.”

Kaden nodded to the shield. “Mind deactivating that?”

“Hold on.” Trella spoke up. “If you’re planning to get roasted by a [Drake] I have objections and unlike Ashi, I will make you listen.”

“I make him listen,” Ashi said.

Sara’s scoff wasn’t quiet. “Sure you do. I have to go to the Guild for some Party updates. Trella’s been dead so we have to prove it’s actually her soul that came back.”

Mr. Dervish had deactivated the containment.

Kaden activated [Soul Binding].

You have bound a Beast (Drake).

[Wrath of the Furnace] was still too powerful for him to use without Mana Shock but it would always be a last resort. Kaden sent a mental image and let the [Drake] swoop out the door. “Whoops. It got away.”

“It’ll be back,” Mr. Dervish said.

It might not. Kaden had sent it the image of FangWood. Of it hunting in the countryside and roosting in the woods until the [Shield Tree] grew tall enough. It wanted to be free and he could allow that. “How high do you think my Soul attribute would need to be to store a Beast like that?”

Mr. Dervish stared. “Did you bind it? How?”

“We need to talk. Ashi, stop provoking the [LandKraken],” Kaden called.

She kept tossing small orbs of solar mana over the walls of its cage, which it batted back, less because it liked to and more because it was hoping to catch her off guard and smash one. “Do not command me so. It is enjoying the game.”

Ashi was second tier.

She’d survive learning.

Kaden kept an eye on her through the transparent floor while he talked with Mr. Dervish, sharing logs and asking questions. “How do I prevent rupturing my soul? And how do I know if a Beast would do so? Suridev can look like a lizard and a Dragon is impossible. How did you know I could draw in Trinity that first time?”

“There’s a few advantages to being the Summoning Saint. That gut feel is one of them.” Mr. Dervish studied Kaden. “You should be putting attribute points into Soul. Not for the mana, for the capacity. At fifty when your tier multiplier hits you’ll be ungodly. For now, bring them by and ask. We should be able to work out combinations. Your dog costs nothing. She was your first Summons. The Rock Gobbler isn’t just heavy with weight, it’s the sheer mana reinforcing its shell. Trinity is—I don’t know what she is. Never seen a Beast like her before. I know you can’t handle that Drake at the same time as Trinity.”

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

Kaden drew the [Thornling] from his soul. “This was used on me in Omnor. I killed the summoner and bound it. Sara says they’re illegal.”

[Thornling]

Few live to see a Thornling when they encounter one in the dark woods. What begins as a painful prick becomes agony that covers their body as the Thornling feeds, drinking mana from their victim to eventually spawn new Thornlings who attack scavengers who come to feed off the corpse.

Level: 0

HP: 10

Mana: 10

Skills: Thorn Cage

[Thorn Cage]

Extend a living wall of thorns that grows into the target’s flesh, impeding movement and inflicting pain. Damage is minimal but pain is maximal, and paralysis will leave them helpless.

“Illegal ain’t the right word. And forbidden don’t mean much to Adventurers. That kind of Beast leaves a mark. It don’t just kill, it cripples as it does. Not many Beasts I’d call evil, but it’s close.” He shook his head. “I don’t even want to sell it for you.”

Kaden pulled it back into his soul. “I understand.”

Mr. Dervish paused to read a scroll. “Four percent higher success rate this time. No increase in rarity, but that might just be random. I’ll pay you in gold to come in when we’re forging full summons—or if I am.”

“Sara has a five percent efficiency bonus for employees and all our Party are employees. If she hired you to summon permanent summons would you get your bonus and hers?” Kaden had wondered about loop holes like this.

“Don’t think I’ve ever tried,” Mr. Dervish said. “That ain’t how I’d experiment, though. We’ll see. You having dinner at BirchHome?”

“And meeting some friends.” Kaden stopped. “What did you decide about Professor Treadle?”

“He’s alive. He’s not being imprisoned, tortured or forced to work. But he’s being watched, so carefully. We’ll make decisions in time.”

That was enough for Kaden.

###

He didn’t mean to go to the Mage’s Tower, but the messenger bird that swooped in upended his plans. Kaden headed straight there, checking in at the ground floor for the Necromancer’s level, then using a staircase to go through the Tomb & Gloom set that gave most people what they expected.

“That’s one nice skeleton,” Kaden said as a set of the walking dead lumbered toward him. “Who did this work? It’s good quality. Except for that knee.”

The lights blazed brighter, and the skeletons halted, then stumbled back toward starting positions. Fria, the Necromancer most often in charge of greetings, rushed to wave. “It’s you, I figure we can save the wear on the skellies. More man-hide?” Her tone was hopeful.

“Sevin sent me a message. He’s here with a pet of mine and I need a favor from him.”

“You know him?” Fria waved excitedly for Kaden to follow out of the mock tomb and into the endless sunny field where most Necromancers studied or relaxed.

There in the center of the field, Skully hulked over [Bone Behemoths], roughly the same build as a tomb champion, though Skully’s ribs were each smoth and curved, like a dragon’s fangs had replaced the bones.

“Skully! And Sevin.” Kaden greeted them both.

His undead pet wasn’t smoking black ether, which probably meant Serta was enjoying possessing Oberix.

The mana stones embedded in Sevin’s bald head flashed as he bowed. “I come bearing Duggarn’s thanks. We stopped the Blight Surge. Barely. And my thanks for forcing Oberix to release me.”

That hit Kaden harder. “I wanted to save you both.”

“Serta says that was never Fate’s design. But she likes the body she’s posessing even more than Skully.” Sevin motioned to the undead. “I had to make repairs. I hope you don’t mind.”

With the motion came the mental feeling of being handed Skully’s control. The jaw-ribs were fantastic, but before he could try anything else, he wanted to test something.

You have bound an ENTITY (Skully).

Kaden relaxed as the binding took hold. It was so much more natural to direct Skully this way. “There, that’s better. I have a request.”

“You want the services of the High Priest, to speak to your parents?”

“No,” Kaden said. “I want you to open a rift to Mortis. I have a Demon I captured. She’s been cast out of Hell’s hierarchy and I was using her to break a binding, but she’s an intelligent being and I won’t torture her.”

Seven called for space. “Stand back. [Lethal] damage is not something to risk.”

That seemed sensible to Kaden. He watched as a white rift in the air opened and color began to bleed. The necromancers gathered here cheered and shouted in awe. Perhaps this wasn’t a power all had?

Kaden forced Naski from Inventory and dodged the swipe of her claws as he crushed her attack on him with sheer will. Then, one grudging step at a time, she moved closer and closer to the rift. Near the edge, she snarled in rage and fought, shaking against the Soul Binding.

A skeleton charged, tackling Naski through the rift, which surged blinding white—and snapped shut. Kaden was left blinking. And bleeding just from the presence. And that was before the cries of shock rose up.

Sitting on the ground was a perfect silver Demon Seed. Kaden picked it up, studying the veins outlined in the orb of metal. “She’s gone?”

“Mortis refused her. Or refused all of her,” Sevin said. “My sister would know for sure what he said. I don’t know what that is. I just know whatever it is came through his domain and out the other side. Nothing does that except Centurions, unless it’s by Mortis’s will.”

Unlike before, the Demon Seed felt inert. Asleep.

Kaden mentally reached out.

You may not bind this ENTITY yet. (Incompatible state).

He slipped the core into Inventory. “Thank you for returning Skully. I’ll keep an eye out for high quality bones. Do they have to be human or do Beast bones work?”

“If it has a mana core, it has enough mana to be worth working with. Otherwise, no, Beasts tend to have terrible bones. I’m going to stay in Verona a while. The Necrosium here is…disappointing. Dannae wants me to harvest clippings from Skully and I can’t stand to be in Omnor right now.” Sevin paused, almost lost for words. “Life is a funny thing. People believe Necromancers don’t know that, but we appreciate life even more.”

It was definitely time to appreciate life.

Time to find the owner of the next Inheritance.

Acquire Dragon Scales and [Beast Form].

But most of all, it was time to be with his friends. His lover.

A small gray dog came zipping through the streets, crackling with lightning as it circled him. *Fastest Fast Ever.*

Kaden listened with [Beast Soul]. “I figured that would happen. Did Eve heal Ashi afterwards?”

*Fast.* Vip raised her paws and Kaden picked her up to let her rest her head on his shoulder.

*Love*, he sent, as he stalked through the streets. Ashi and Eve stood outside the guild, arguing loudly over something. Ashi wasn’t glowing and Eve hadn’t drawn her Blood Moon staff, so they’d work it out.

Sara came bounding out, followed by Trella. “We have an assignment!”

Trella [Shadow Stepped] through the group to stand beside Kaden. “The Guildmaster was going through records. There’s a dungeon in the Othelian Dunes that hasn’t opened in centuries, but it consistently gave out shields—and only shields—as loot. Level twenty five monsters. Easy for you, a good warm up for me.”

It sounded perfect. “When do we go?”

“There’s a sandstorm over the only working FarPortal,” Sara said. “I’ll want to grow some aquamelons. Trella can use [Create Water], but we should come prepared for anything. Where’s Trinity?”

That was truly worth showing them. “We’ll have to go back to my Dungeon.”

A FarPortal trip later, Vip was tearing through open fields toward Echo Lake, where Ashi froze the water and slid across like magic. Trella used [Shadow Step] to appear on the island, while Kaden—and Sara—had to watch their balance. The Guild’s attendant shook his head. “It’s locked. It’s been locked for days and no one know why.”

“I’m here to fix that.” Kaden made a great show of moving his hands in circles and chanting “pineapple pineapple pineapple” in Vichorean before touching the dungeon door. “Now, if this explodes and you still have a head, call a Healer to resurrect us.”

The attendent leaped onto the still-frozen water and scrambled as Kaden unlocked the door and stepped in. It was exactly as he expected.

Blood and gore everywhere. He’d shifted the Dungeon, despawning everything except the center room for now. In the long grass, Trinity stood, covered in wounds, each of her three heads looking another direction.

“Come.” Kaden barked the order aloud. From one side, the grass parted, and an adult Emerald Hydra emerged. Emerald Hydras were thinner than Trinity and shorter, but no less than six heads covered the body, and if any of them were cut off, they’d grow back nearly immediately. Each head had needle-like teeth and jaws that ratcheted down, so slicing an Emerald Hydra’s head off was a great way to leave yourself incapacitated.

And then there was the problem with just how fast they healed. The only way to kill one was to prevent it from re-growing and cut all the heads off at the same time. It stood three feet shorter than Trinity and still every head glared at her with either admiration, longing, or hatred.

On the right side stood a Cerulean Hydra. It had only two heads but who needed more than two heads when one head breathed out vapor, streams of water or snow, and the other pure cold? Its scales were less hide and more solid ice. Thicker than Trinity, each head alone was a match for Trinity’s blind head.

“Where did you get these?” Sara asked.

“When we went to Vichor, I gifted some of the spells we took to the libraries. This was Ashi’s mother’s exchange for them. I found the door locked and them in the dungeon. Ashi, did you have anything to do with that?” Kaden looked to her.

“It is difficult to answer this question,” she said.

Which wasn’t a no.

As Kaden watched, the two Hydras approached, rubbing their heads against Trinity like cats.

“So cute!” Trella whispered from outside the dungeon door.

One of the Hydras snarled at another and Trinity rumbled, one step away from a battle. Kaden sent a command to all of them. “You really don’t want to know how they settle arguments. Let’s just say when you didn’t see Trinity for three days, she was learning that three on one is a hard battle even for her.”

He pulled, taking her into his soul, and the dungeon began to shift and reform, taking on the new design he’d laid out. A battle through a pitch black cave with a Cerulean Hydra lurking among the stalagmites? Or a slog through a set of dense jungle rooms with vipers and boas and an Emerald Hydra? And for those who survived, a final trio of terror.

It wasn’t the sweeping Beast Dungeon he dreamed of yet.

It was a start.

“Potions. We’re going to need a lot of potions,” Trella said.

“Spells,” Ashi said.

“Supplies,” Sara answered.

Kaden looked to Eve.

She shook her head. “All I need is Vip. And you. Weapons? Armor? A venomous dragon?”

Kaden shook his head. Everything he needed wasn’t a thing. It was a who, and they were all here. Everything else, he’d handle.