After consuming Skyler’s Core, Clair went over to his corpse and began to eat him.

Melakios was freaking out. Why was Clair eating Skyler?! Maybe she needed food?

“I’ll go get food! You can stop! I’ll be back!”

He rushed out into the forest to grab some animals. He already had 15 fanged rabbits, 12 sugar badgers, and even 8 blood boars, but he got lost. The sun was already high in the sky when Melakios finally made his way into camp.

What greeted him was a massive creature that resembled a hippogryph, but instead of hooves on its hind legs, they resembled a cat’s claws. The tail was not hairy and looked whip like. The neck was longer and the head looked rounder than a hippogryph’s. The beak was curved and not pointy.

It wasn’t a hippogryph, but an actual Gryphon!

But Melakios wasn’t scared, since this was Clair. She had changed! And in a big way, too. If she was the size of a war horse before, now she was the size of a war elephant! Was this because of Skyler?

He could sense some of Skyler within Clair, but only if he searched for him. Instead, Melakios felt that it was more than just the Soul Core. Was there something else? Wait, his corpse! Was there something there that helped Clair transform?

Clair was resting and didn’t look up when he walked by. She was probably really exhausted from the change and dangerous events.

He decided to let her be.

He pulled out the Dying Sorrow Core and thought about consuming it like Clair did to Skyler.

“You don’t want to do that. Clair could do it because she herself was the same as Skyler, but these are Demons. I had trouble just gathering the minimal positive energy from them. If you try and absorb them as you are now, no doubt they will rip you apart.”

“What should I do?”

“I remember tales of men from the northeast in my world that would live off the energy of the world. A bunch of nonsense, if you ask me. But, since you can manipulate souls, you might be able to begin with smaller creatures and such.”

“Oh, like the lizards and rats?”

“Precisely. This would be a good place to train what with all the beasts and monsters.”

“Right. Just treat it as a training moment.”

“That’s the spirt. You can learn from anything, as long as you pay attention.”

“And while I’m practicing absorbing souls, I could also make Soul Items and Weapons and such.”

“Uhh, okay try not to bite off more than you can chew. Take it slow. Practice the small stuff before moving on. Why not try making Soul Cores more before trying to make Items and Tools. That might need more steps than just focusing.”

“Got it. I’m going to train, see you later, Mr. Alkelios.”

“Hah, I will still be here if you need me.”

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Several months later.

“Hey! We finally found the edge of the forest!”

A young boy covered in furs walked out of the Wandering Forest alongside a massive Gryphon.

The Gryphon shook its head and squawked out a reply.

“I know we could have used you and flown out. But that defeats the purpose of training! Come on, there’s a town over there!”

The two began to run down the hills to the gate of Gloss City. Not that they knew what the name of the city was. They thought it was just a town, after all. The things someone who hadn’t actually been anywhere his entire life comes up with.

“Halt! What are you doing?! Get back up! We’re under attack!”

The lead guard of the gates turned to his men and yelled, but upon turning around, the boy and beast were already there.

“Huh? No, we were just racing to the gate. Is something wrong?”

“What?! You own this Gryphon?! Wait, you’re a human! How did you get into the Demon Realm?”

The guards at the gate were scared stiff. If a hippogryph could beat some Lords, a Gryphon could beat even some Counts! Gloss City was ruled by a Count! This was like an attack by another city! And this beast was under the control of a human?!

“Hmm? No? We are just friends. And I was raised here my entire life.”

Are you saying this human is on equal terms with a Count leveled beast?! What kind of insanity is this?! And raised here his entire life? Doesn’t that mean he is stronger than normal humans? Most would get sick of the atmosphere within a week, get bedridden within the month, and ultimately die within the season! No human made it to a year within the Demon Realm!

“Get Count Furfur, he needs to see this.”

“Yessir!”

The other guard left to get the Count while the Captain stayed behind to keep watch over the suspicious couple.

“Is this going to take a while? I’m hungry.”

“The Count is a busy man. I doubt he would rush this way so quickly.”

“Alright, then we can just eat out here. Come on, Clair.”

The two sat off to the side of the gate as Melakios pulled out the carcass of a Terror Turtle.

As he began to make turtle soup, he heard the captain shout out,

“How the hell did you hunt down a Duke leveled monster?!”

“Very carefully,” was all the boy said.