…

Although it was nighttime, Dante wandered, while trying to leave the forest. In his intoxication of those Evolved crocodiles, he had forgotten the basics of this place.

Never stay or be active in the dark forest at night. The day, which was already extremely dangerous, was even more so at night by many folds.

Dante had lost his way back and couldn't find a spot to hide.

*Wooohh!* *Roar!*

Predators had already started waking up, there were roars echoing everywhere and in every direction.

He had to find a spot fast or, he would mostly end up as monster poop. Luckily, he spotted a hole high on a tree, he closed in and, as if taking life on their own. His arms started squirming and wriggling under his flesh.

After a few seconds, his arms had become sharp scythes. He then felt his muscles become a little stronger as mana flowed through them.

He started climbing, even if he had never seen a tree in his past life, even less touched grads. Furthermore, he still easily reached the hole.

*coos!* *coos*

*whistle!*

Just as he was about to look inside and make himself comfortable, he heard whistles and coos..

As he looked inside, his eyes adapting to the darkness, he knew that owls didn't make nests.

It however looked extremely comfortable as there were a lot of feathers on the floor, making a sort of carpet and also containing the warm.

He looked for the sound of noise but couldn't see anything, it was visible near the entrance but after that, it was pure darkness.

A small flame appeared in his hand, he didn't want to use this as it would easily attract predators but, he had no choice.

The first thing he noticed were the blood traces on the feather bed. It looked as if something had struggled to enter or had brought food. What he saw next however was morbid.

An adult owl was vomiting blood out of its mouth, and the small baby owls would jump to try and eat more than the others. When I approached it, it didn't move.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Such a behavior was strange to even Dante, who had never seen a bird. A normal bird would stop feeding and then settle the anomaly in its nest.

Upon close inspection, he slowly turned to the adult owl's side and saw something even more morbid.

Its eyes were plucked out, from its beak, large amounts of blood and entrails were coming out.

{It must have been blinded in some fight or accident over food and somehow managed to return to its nest. Now blind, it didn't try to waste its efforts for nothing and decided to suicide and serve as a source of nourishment for its heirs.

What a noble cause…}

The adult owl however didn't look deadly fresh, it must have died a few days ago as flies were flying around it.

The baby owls trying their best to catch something out of their mom or the flies which were slowly devouring her. Even in death, it wouldn't be left alone…

Before he could throw that disgusting thing down there, the red tendril around his arm moved and left his sleeve. It then slowly crawled toward the corpse like a snake and entered by one of the already infesting wounds.

Confused, the red eyed boy just waited there patiently. After a few minutes, the corpse started moving, first its head did a 260 degrees turn and creepily looked at the Dante.

The boy, however, looked happy instead of terrified. The owl corpse then started trying to flap its wings but pitifully on the ground.

The boy then said in an annoyed voice, "What a shame that you have to learn how to do things. Can't you be like those pets in novels where they already hatch as snake gods or dragons?!"

The owl looked down, as if expressing its sadness and incompetence toward its Liege.

"Hahaha! Don't worry, I was just joking. It's already amazing enough that you can control a corpse. But couldn't you do it with the big lizards from before? Or maybe you're restricted by something?" As he said the last sentence, the owl rapidly nodded its head.

The baby owls, however, become even more frantic when they saw their mother become alive again.

As if annoyed by their cries, it got closer to them and was about to grab their heads with its sharp talon when two hands grabbed from behind and lifted it.

"No no no~, you can't hurt my new children~ Look at how ruthless you are at babies. Haah.. You should really get rid of that reflex of yours to butcher anything that moves." The boy spoke in a very amused and sarcastic voice.

The owl, confused, tilted its head to the side.

Dante then took a dagger, "These poor and pure souls, they haven't eaten anything for a long time. I can't let you just starve now, can I?" He then approached the dagger to his fingers and just casually cut three of them.

Making sure they would be able to digest then, he peeled the bones and gave each one of them to the three baby owls.

They started fighting for what was left, before they heard the voice say, " Come on, don't fight, I still have plenty of food."

…

After it was daytime, I brought them with me. Over the night, they had started acknowledging me as their leader or parental figure. We cozily slept while hugging each others.

They were very small, just slightly bigger than my palm. The adult owl however was pretty big, half my size…

It was either because I was very young or that owls in this world are bigger.

On our way back, they didn't do the slightest sound or movement. As if feeling that making a fuss would endanger them, which was true.

On top of my head, the adult owl was laid there comfortably. "Wait, aren't you supposed to not have a core? How come you can so freely stay alive?" My curiosity was picked.

The owl stared at me from above as I did the same. However, after a while, runes appeared before me.

-

Per Bonds 2/2 : [???], [Owl-(Parasite)]

{ You share a bond beyond the material level, you thus share the mana between the two of you.

To have a new pet, you just have to tame it. To have a new Per Bond, you need to have an absolute submission toward not you, but also toward your soul.

This here is an exception as my database is limited. However, I deduced that, it had already met the requirements long ago but was not in its normal mind.

It may have lost its memories, as most of his brain matter was left behind. In its old form, its main mission would have not been to be absolutely loyal to you, but to form a new core for you.

As it is not an entire being, it wasn't considered as a Per Bond. But now, it has met the requirements by parasitizing another being}

-

"Oh, so that's how it is." The owl tried to practice its flight, but only ended by breaking its wing on the ground. I shortly came next to it and healed it.

I then looked at the baby owls in my hands as a smile crept on my face, "We're going to have a lot of fun, aren't we?"

We continued to walk toward the closest human civilization building.

…