Protecting the squad was fun. Tiring, but very entertaining. Typically, Fang simply meandered through the woods, stalking and killing whatever critters he saw at a leisurely pace. But now that he was moving with the group, he was killing on a schedule. He was familiar enough with the local prey that he could easily sneak up on them while moving at a running pace, especially when he used Dimensionless Stride. While the skill was active, his whole existence was muted. His footfalls were muffled, his passing never cracked a twig or rustled leaves, and his whole body turned slightly translucent, with the patterns of the foliage behind him showing through to add a little bit of extra camouflage.

Swooshing around with it was far more fun than using Dimensional Dexterity as well. Teleporting would not only end the hunt right away, it would also deprive him of his wonderful sunshine. In contrast, Dimensionless Stride took barely a trickle of sunshine and allowed him to hunt just the way he always had, except faster and better.

Not that Fang wasn't already the fastest and best before the skill evolved. He was just also perfect now.

Between his natural hunting prowess, his knowledge of the local fauna, and his abilities, exterminating the wildlife from the squad's path was neither too draining nor too tedious; it never ended though. He didn't even have time to eat any of his catches, apart from nibbling on some of the sunshine-rich critters to replenish his reserves. He did occasionally bring some to his humans when they took one of their breaks. They needed to eat and replenish their energy.

The first time he had brought back a kill, the party didn't notice him blurring out of the underbrush. At least, they didn't notice until he dropped the limp corpse of the rat on Lillian's leather boots. When she looked down, Lillian stared at the rat for a few long seconds, uncomprehending. Fang looked up at her expectantly. Then Lillian let out a shrill, piercing shriek that drew stares from the entire party. She lashed out with her leg in shock, nearly punting Fang across the forest in the process. Of course, the speed of her panicked kick was no match for his incomparable feline dexterity, and he easily ducked out of the way.

Unfortunately, Charlie was not nearly so nimble, and when Lillian's startled flailing sent the rat carcass hurtling towards his face all he managed to do was move the apple he was eating slightly to block it. This simply resulted in the apple being knocked out of his hand, and the dead rat slamming into his face. His mouth was open, halfway between taking a bite and an exclamation of shock; when the rat hit, it wedged itself firmly between his teeth, giving the impression of a very surprised man biting into a very fuzzy apple.

Charlie looked around with a blank expression for a moment. Lillian looked utterly mortified at what she'd done, with hands over her mouth, frozen in place. Fang was glaring at Lillian, though Charles was no expert on feline facial expressions. Alex appeared to be torn between laughter and disgust, his face going through some bizarre expressions as it contorted between the two. Angela wore a shocked and sympathetic expression, which Charlie recognized as the face she made while resisting the urge to point and laugh.

Charlie bit down. The group gasped as one at the sight of blood spurting and dribbling down his chin. He opened his jaw enough for the rat to slip free of his teeth, but he closed his lips as it did, giving the impression he had bitten off a chunk. He mimed chewing with a thoughtful expression as he formed a crimson magic sigil behind his back. "Hmm. Tastes like chicken. Slightly gamey, with earthy overtones. Not bad really, you should try a taste." As he spoke, his magic guided the blood out of his mouth and off his chin, down onto his robe where the cleaning enchantments could do their work. He reached down and picked up the rat by its tail, brandishing it at the others. "You want some?"

Little drops of blood splattered on their boots as the rest of the party stepped back. Fang licked up a drop that had landed on his whiskers. When the only reply was various exclamations of disgust, he shrugged and turned to his pack, dropping the rat, before using a flash of mana in his off-hand to push the carcass behind the bag and down into the leaves, giving the illusion of dropping it among the rest of his food. He slung his pack back onto his back and leaned over to pat Fang on the head. "Thanks for the delicious snack little guy. You be sure to bring lots more for your mast- familiar. I'm sure she'll be grateful."

The group packed up and moved on, continuing to banter and rib Charlie about his willingness to eat anything. They continued to walk through the entire day and well into the evening, until the darkness grew too much for their pitiful human eyes, at which point they were forced to stop and set up camp.

Fang didn't know what the fat one had said earlier, but he appeared to show proper gratitude for his assistance. Soft enough to comfortably lay on, and showing proper respect… Maybe this one should have been his first pet. The white one had the pleasant mana, but that scream had hurt his ears, and she hadn't eaten his gift. How was he supposed to make her comfy to lie on like the red one if she didn't eat? Humans were terrible hunters, there was no way she would be able to hunt enough on her own.

It didn't really matter. The fat one would be his next pet. Then he would have a pet for sitting on, and a pet for giving him premium quality sunshine. Over the course of the day, the concept of three began to bubble up once again in the back of Fang's mind. If two pets were good, surely two pets plus another one would be even better. Then he could have one for napping on, one for giving him sunshine, and one for…

However, Fang couldn't come up with a third need a pet could satisfy. Perhaps prey like his marble, which never died. But then they wouldn't be a pet, they would be prey. A pet for petting could be nice, but he was training the first two to do that anyway. A hunting partner would just steal prey from him.

With his train of thought stalled, Fang's thoughts drifted back to the things he knew he wanted. A nap, which could wait for later when there was less prey. Hunting, but the group had already stopped for the night and he had done quite a bit of killing throughout the day; he was due for a break. That left sunshine. This deep in the forest the waning light of the setting sun was weakened even further as it cut through the thick canopy, providing little warmth to Fang. Luckily, Fang had a handy source of gourmet sunshine. He put his paws up on Lillian's pant leg and insistently mewled, "Heal me. I desire sunshine."

Lillian was momentarily taken aback as Fang's concept of 'sunshine' was beamed into her brain. It was unexpectedly deep for what she had come to think of as a mindlessly aggressive predator. It was a compound idea of warmth, pleasure, relaxation, power, and… moving-from-one-place-to-another-really-quickly? Did this little beast have a movement skill that required mana?

She started petting Fang as she watched Alex finish lighting the campfire. She laced a bit of healing mana into her touch the way she had been taught. There had not been many lessons on training wild magical beasts, only a few days out of a year. It was usually tossed in haphazardly as a break from more serious and practical topics.

If the class was behind schedule it often was often skipped entirely, considering how much of it was rendered moot by the familiar binding spell. Still, she was glad she had learned about it, since it made Fang start rumbling contentedly. Plus she got to practice her fine mana manipulation at the same time.

Once everyone was settled in around the warmth, Lillian asked the group, "Hey, aren't mana-based movement skills pretty unusual?"

Fang's ear perked up. He could tell when his familiar was talking about him. She said something about how his blink and ghostly running were unusual. That almost translated to the same thought as the "Uncommon" which popped up on the blue boxes, but it was also different. Fang disliked words that meant the same thing but different. Much better to have the same word mean a lot of things. Far easier to speak that way. The feline language had perhaps five words in total, which firmly cemented it as the best language in Fang's opinion. That was the only opinion that mattered of course; everyone else was just wrong.

Charlie responded first, as usual, "Yeah, most movement skills rely on stamina. There are a few which use mana, but they are usually for unique species like a beholder's levitation, or Common skills which have undergone several evolutions. Shadow Stepping for example, can evolve from Stealth." He replied as though he was reading from a textbook, getting all the words right but utterly bereft of any interest in the facts he regurgitated. Actual curiosity returned to his voice when he inquired, "Why? Did you unlock a new evolution? I didn't think you had any movement skills, weren't you going for a pure healer skillset?"

Lillian shook her head. "No, not me, my famil- mas- Chairman Meow." Her use of the forbidden name earned her a set of claws dug into her lap, but she carried on talking and petting with barely a wince. Fang would break her of that habit eventually. If he was unlucky, she might even teach the behavior to his other pets. That could not be allowed. Lillian continued, "I think he has a movement skill, and I think it uses mana. It didn't feel like stamina, but it's hard to tell. Or maybe I'm wrong and he doesn't have a movement skill at all…" Lillian trailed off in uncertainty, then scritched under Fang's chin to tilt his head up for eye contact. "Can you secretly fly?"

Fang looked at the human. Did she think he was a bird? Was she purposefully insulting him? He might have to lower his appraisal of human intelligence further, and that was saying something. He kept it simple.

"No."

Despite the simplicity of his actual meow, the contempt in the statement certainly came through. Lillian flinched back, stammering incoherent apologies. Fang nuzzled her hand and commanded, "Cease your apologizing and resume petting."

His mighty will was obeyed, and the night went on. There was some further discussion of his abilities, but he didn't care to follow it, simply luxuriating in the feeling of his pet's pleasant sunshine trickling through him. His own sunshine didn't grow much in the process, but it felt very nice, and that was what truly mattered.

Fang spent the morning of the next day much the same way as the previous, hunting down and slaughtering everything in the party's path. By the middle of the day though, the novelty had worn off and he was tired. He made his way back to the party through the treetops, where he had killed his latest bird. He spotted the party and climbed over towards them. He needed a napping spot, and he needed to keep up with the group. There was one simple way to do this.

Fang sauntered along the branch until he was directly above the party, then wiggled his butt and leapt down. He landed right on the soft one's shoulder and took a steadying step around onto his backpack. He stepped up onto the other shoulder and rubbed his cheek on Charlie's, marking him as belonging to Fang. He maintained perfect balance even as Charlie jumped in surprise, then he settled down on the backpack. He propped his head on the soft one's soft shoulder to get a nice view. "Continue walking Bed. You may pet my head as well," he meowed, and Lillian translated.

Charlie and Lillian shared an equally confused look, and Charlie attempted to shoo the sleepy cat off of him. This only resulted in Fang rubbing his face on the shooing hands, purring contentedly. Eventually, the blood mage gave up and continued walking. Fang purred, satisfied with his taming of his bed. He settled in for a nap, lulled off to kitty dreamland by the rocking of his new steed.

Fang slept until the party broke for the day, and spent the night basking in the warmth of the fire. It reminded him of sunlight. It didn't make his own sunlight as warm as sunbathing, and it didn't feel as pleasant as his pet's healing, but variety was important.

Fang had a pleasant night's sleep. The squad was busily planning something. It sounded like they intended to kill some things, which sounded just silly to Fang. Humans didn't hunt. Maybe they were planning to attack some of those cans of bloodless meat his humans used to give him. He didn't care enough to try to translate Lillian's thoughts, so he simply napped the night away.

The next morning he rode on his trusty steed again. This time there was no questioning his position. It seemed Bed had learned his role. Fang was still napping off the weariness of his hunting spree when the group stopped in front of a large, dark cave. Fang could feel the mana wafting out of the grey, rocky opening, flowing between the stalactites that hung like monstrous teeth from its ceiling. The mana didn't feel like sunlight, but it made his own warm in response. The party readied their weapons and magic, and they crept towards the opening.

They had found the dungeon.