Every time I called Audrey, it felt like tearing my own hair out, a handful at a time. Between summoning and leveling, it had become abundantly clear that any significant gain would involve varying degrees of discomfort.

But this was in another league

If I were to attempt to put it into words, imagine looking down at your finger and finding a thick cuticle. You grab it and start pulling. Not to the side, but straight up and back. The flesh splits like a dermal zipper, only instead of eventually thinning out somewhere close to your knuckle, the ribbon of displaced skin grows thicker instead, trailing up to your second knuckle, the base of your hand, and eventually, your wrist and arm.

And imagine, after all that tearing, looking down at the bloody mess and thinking that you should really even things out.

An image assailed me. I saw myself in the midst of a blizzard, mocking the wolf, laughing maniacally at her pain. An oblong shadow towered over me, blotting out the sun. Audrey tensed at my side and dug her vines into the ground, fully prepared to attack the invader.

The voice in my mind was angry and sibilant, more likely from a snake than a wolf.

“You dare to summon me?”

Another psychic attack bounced off my defenses. This time, I was greeted with the image of the wolf mauling a User who pressed the wrong button on the elevator, chasing him into the back corner and ripping into him gruesomely. At first, I was concerned that the User was Brett. With the sheer quantity of blood and gore, it was hard to make out any definable features, but this man was considerably shorter. Probably not Brett.

It took a long moment to decide what to do. The wolf sounded and felt far too angry to reason with. Eventually, without turning to face the creature, I took a piece of raw beef out of my inventory and held it out to Audrey.

“Meat?” I asked her.

Her eyes flitted to the small portion of steak in my hand, then back to the new summon. “N-n-now?”

“Yes,” I stuck the treat further out towards her. “We’re done here. You did well.”

“This is anything but done,” the wolf hissed.

Very slowly, Audrey waddled over to me, never looking away from the figure that loomed behind me, and ate the meat out of my hands. I felt a burst of air and felt an impact inches from my skin, and a resulting yelp. Audrey jumped.

I patted Audrey’s head. “Do you want more?”

Audrey stared at me, then back at the wolf. “Mmm… later?”

Never thought I’d see the day.

I gathered Audrey up in my arms. She quivered, and her vines lashed on to me tightly, but with the new armor, I could barely feel the pressure from the thorns.

A bead of sweat dripped down my back as I turned.

The revenant wolf was smaller than its arctic counterpart. That isn’t to say it was small. Even on all fours, its head came roughly to chest level. Its white fur was replaced in a vibrant combination of silver and navy-blue. All that aside, its teeth were the real kicker. Its primary fangs were complimented by a secondary set that were thinner, needle like, almost transparent. And dripping with clear liquid.

Venom. As if this wolf needed to get any scarier.

I observed all this from the corner of my eye, visibly paying the wolf no attention whatsoever as I walked by it, inches away. Teeth snapped at me, bouncing off the invisible forcefield.

“What are you thinking for dinner tonight?” I asked Audrey, stifling a yawn. “Turkey, or mutton?”

“Which one… is the bird?” Audrey said, growing less fearful by the second.

“That would be turkey.”

“Turkey, then.” Audrey confirmed.

“Cease this childish farce!” The wolf roared. It left deep imprints in the dirt where it landed, directly in front of us.

Audrey stuck her tongue out at the wolf, her fear abandoned now that she was being carried.

Despite every lizard-brain instinct I had screaming for me to run, I stood my ground, looking at the wolf calmly. “What farce?”

The wolf growled. “You summoned me for a reason. Stop pretending as if I am an errant pup, and you intend to leave me here.”

I shrugged. “That’s precisely what I intend. I was hoping, if I brought you back, you’d be reasonable. But this was clearly a waste of time. I have other monster cores, so it’s on to the next one.”

“Then why is your only summon a parasite?” The wolf hissed.

“Audrey here,” I patted her head, subtly lifting her above the wolf’s head, so it was clear where she sat in hierarchy, “Was my first summon. She’s been incredibly helpful, and I’ve rewarded her accordingly.”

“Meat,” Audrey added, attempting to help, “Endless meat.”

“And while I have many cores to choose from, I only have two slots. You were by far the core with the most potential. Highly intelligent, incredibly strong, with elegance to spare.”

The wolf stood a little straighter, subconsciously puffing itself up.

“But you’re too caught up with bygones to be useful.” I shrugged, and continued the walk to the elevator, leaving the wolf sputtering behind me.

”We have… other monster cores?” Audrey asked silently.

”No. But we’re pretending like we do.” I responded through

”Ooooh.”

“You draw me away from my pups. They die, in my absence. Then you use their suffering as a means to distract me. And you have the gall to call these transgressions bygones?” The wolf asked, her voice overcome with rage.

I turned then, and dropped the facade. The wolf’s mind was in enough turmoil that slipping through her mental defenses was easy. The strain from summoning and casting over and over began to take its toll. I showed the wolf everything, from my first foray into the dungeon, to my trip up the elevator, to the close call with the gnolls, to my utter panic at the realization I would have to fight her.

She staggered backwards, sitting down with one massive paw jutting out to the side.

“They were always going to die,” I said plainly, not bothering to mince words. “And it’s not because you were a bad mother, or because I took too long to get there. The system needed you angry—enraged—and allowing your litter to die in a manner you could easily blame on whichever User staggered onto the floor was the simplest manner of achieving that.”

If they were ever alive in the first place.

I pointed to the plant in my arms. “Audrey’s in a similar boat. She’s not as clever as you, but she’s learning, and she also has many questions about why she was manipulated to be an obstacle in my path.”

“The big meat.” Audrey glowered.

“And like I told her, on this very floor, I won’t force you.”

The wolf cocked its head. “You would release me? Truly?”

I shook my head. “The last thing I need is a slave. I want summons that will work with me of their own free will.”

The wolf considered my words. I held my breath, and waited for her decision.