The night passed with no much suspense after what happened, as it seemed what happened here was noted by the monsters here, and they started avoiding this place.

Arthur started to see monsters in new light after his pet experience with Don, as this meant monsters of fourth grade could think, and that meant they would evaluate the risks, like any human, and would refrain from going into pointless risky battles.

What Arthur had thought of was the limitation of higher grades monsters in this place of the forest. The forest was indeed large, and thus monsters would be arranged in territories, with higher grades monsters the deeper they walked into the forest.

However, he was thinking all night about their next move, should they continue going deeper, or return with the gains he claimed so far?

The main task he wanted from going here had been accomplished. He had raised his strength, owned a strong pet, acquired a team, and now he managed to make the team stronger.

He should return, but the only thing that kept him from doing so was the lack of nutrition in his clan. If he returned, then he would return to eat worthless food, and coming back here would be pointless, as he had more important things to do.

The meat he had right now was enough for him and the opened mouths of his team for a week at maximum, so after giving the matter more thought, he decided to go on another day and night of hunting monsters and cooking them, storing as much meat as possible.

Ouly had proven his doubts, as this little gluttonous man had eaten one fourth of his share in a single night, and it seemed he didn’t intend to stop until Arthur explained the future needs of this meat.

Ouly, unwillingly, restrained himself from eating more, as he wanted to enjoy the marvelous taste of the meat, but it was also bad if he returned to the village and ate the tasteless worthless food there.

The problem that appeared in front of Arthur was how to store the meat, and so he went again to the river, grabbed more rocks from there, and started making a huge amount of salted powder out of it. He then covered the meat with this salt, and left it to dry in the early sun of the morning.

Don, who ate three large pieces alone, sat at its guarding place like a loyal hound, knocking the bird more than once when it regained its consciousness. Arthur gave it a third piece of wolf meat when it was ready, and that aroused Ouly’s regret of having a pet, as it meant having another mouth to feed.

As the early morning appeared, with the refreshing air and that misty fog prevailing on everything here, Arthur started to travel again, gathering more necessities for his future cooking. As he was away, the sleeping members of his team were awake, and Ouly helped them to stand, eat some of their tasty share of meat, while narrating the thrilling events that happened during their sleep.

As Ouly’s expected, they were all interested in Don, and the possibility of the pet. When they all heard about Arthur’s arrangement, for the bird to be Lily’s pet or absorbed monster, they eyes her with envy, as they all suggested for her to adopt it as a pet.

It wasn’t heard of having a pet for a mage before, and more absurd was the presence of a flying pet.

Lily didn’t need their plea, as she already made up her mind the moment she heard about Don. She wanted to be special, and the presence of this flying bird was so mighty and domineering, much more than she had in mind about the strongest mages in the world.

When Arthur returned, he found everyone was awake. He smiled welcoming them as he said:

“Have you eaten your breakfast yet?”

“Yes, and Ouly told us about storing the food for later,” Madly said, as she was as annoyed as the others by this. The only thing that made them feel better was the fact their shares were much bigger than Ouly’s, who almost finished one third of his share in one night.

“Can I have this as a pet?” Lily suddenly jumped, like a little adorable girl, to hold Arthur’s hand, with pleading pitiful eyes that made her irresistible.

Arthur just laughed, as he went to the place of the leaves, while saying:

“We need to get its approval first.”

“I will go and ask it then,” Lily giggled, as she moved in wide strides, jumping with each step, towards the sleeping bird.

Arthur just sighed, helplessly, as he started to follow this kid, while he was thinking how he could help her convince the monster to agree.

The absolute rule of any monster in his previous world was the rule of strength, as weaker monsters would announce their allegiance to the stronger ones. Putting that in mind, there was one simple, yet effective way to get this stubborn bird’s approval.

Just as he was lost in thought, followed by everyone else who was curious to see what was going to happen, Lily had already reached the place of the sleeping bird, and then she started her trials to wake it up.

She tried to pat on its feathers, rubbed its head, even tried to sing for it, but the bird was completely lost in its sleep, until Arthur brought a bucket of water and splashed it over its head.

The bird shrieked loudly, as it glared at Arthur, then Don. Just as Don was about to hit it again, Arthur hurriedly said:

“Wait!”

Don stopped its fist, a couple of inches away from the bird’s head. Lily then used this chance as she said:

“My big brother here said that you can understand me, so listen up well. We are here to hunt and kill monsters, eat their beautiful meat after we kill them. see these rings of fire out there?” she, in a strange childish happiness, pointed out towards the rings of fire, or what was left of charcoal remnants there, “this is the fate of any monster that refuses to be our pet. See Don here? He is alive and kicking, eating meat as well as us and getting stronger. Don’t you want to be like it? or do you want to be the meat we all eat?”

Arthur was stupefied when he heard her words. He never thought this loli like angelic girl would be so convincing. The bird looked back at the places of cooking the meat, and then noticed the pieces of meat in the hands of everyone, as they were eating whole eyeing it with greedy looks, that scared it.

So, it screamed, but no one here understood what it said, except for Don, which patted the head of the bird, like consoling it.

Don had already gotten much stronger than before. After eating the three pieces of meat, its body got some enhancements, but its forehead didn’t grow a horn yet. Arthur knew it would take some time to make it grow a horn, but he didn’t have such time to waste.

He still needed to go back to the clan, attack that other clan who was coveting his clan’s lands, and then he needed to travel to the academy during one month from now.

He was already tight on time here, but he relied on the long journey to the academy, so he could train his pet, and also Lily could.

“Does he agree?” Lily asked, in a childish tone, as she spoke to Don like a human being. Don lowly roared before it nodded, which indicated the approval of the bird on the contract.

“Grant him a name, and then come you two after me,” Arthur said, as he went towards the place he stored the items for the contract and runes, then he started drawing on the ground around Lily and the bird, which lay still on the ground, surrendering to its fate.

“What is the name you gave to it?” Arthur asked when he reached the point of writing the name of the monster on the ground.

“I called it Birdy,” she said, while hugging the monster like a spoiled kid. Arthur just sighed, as he already foresaw the miserable fate of this bird.

He wrote on the ground the names, then he looked to Lily as he instructed:

“Ask him if it wants to accept being your pet.”

“Birdy,” Lily turned to look at the monster, “Do you agree on becoming my pet?”

Birdy roared, announcing its agreement. The blood and the runes glowed brightly, forming a protective dome that didn’t last for a minute, before it disappeared, revealing the ecstatic face of Lily.

“Are you successful?” Madly hurried to her as she asked.

“Yeah, I guess,” Lily said, before turning to ask Arthur, “how can I summon it?”

“Just say come out, and it would appear,” Arthur simply said, as he waited to see the new member to his team.

“Birdy, come out!” she yelled, as she raised both of her hands like a kid, while jumping in the air. A gale of wind appeared, with a fog emanating out from her body, to reveal the body of Birdy in front of everyone.

“Wow, you are so amazing!” Lily muttered in disbelief while she started to caress its feathers.

“Can you ride it?” Ouly asked the question that was in everyone’s head right now.

“I can try,” she said, before Birdy knelt to the ground, feeling the wishes of its master. Lily just clapped her petit hands, before getting over Birdy. Once there, she held the long strong feathers with both hands, while her torso and legs caught tightly over the sides of its strong body.

“Let’s fly Birdy,” she said. in a moment she was on the ground, and the next she was in the middle of the sky. Birdy was a very fast monster, that was indeed a great addition to Arthur’s team, who kept nodding his head in content while observing the first tour Lily took on the back of her pet.

‘It seems I need to work harder and find everyone a suitable match,’ he sighed to himself, when he noticed the envious looks everyone was giving Lily and her pet.