Tears threatened to spill from my eyes. I was dreaming. I knew I had to be dreaming because I was all alone in the dungeon. It was impossible for me to feel warmth on my skin anywhere but in my dreams.

My tails were fluffy pillows that I hugged to sleep every night, but they did nothing to dispel the loneliness in my heart. A quiet flurry of activity surrounded me.

Silky fur pillows enveloped me from all directions. Strangely enough, each of these pillows had their own individual warmth. A sharp bark woke me from this strange fantasy.

I opened my eyes to find myself surrounded on all sides by Shadow Wolves. In particular, I was snuggled between Cheddar, the leader of the pack that I dueled yesterday, and (Black) Olive, Cheddar’s mate.

…Had I just gotten adopted?

I wiped the tears from my eyes and stood up. Cheddar took me to a section of the camp where there was a mountain of dead monsters. I was pretty sure that mountain wasn’t there when I went to sleep last night.

Cheddar motioned to the mountain of meat with his snout. Thanks to my [Taming] skill, I was able to understand what he wanted.

“I’m happy to cook, but in exchange, I want your pack to search for an exit or a strange object within your territory. Got it?”

Cheddar nodded and quickly sent its pack racing through the forest. If there was a strange object like a teleporter or an obvious exit, then I would be able to leave. Otherwise, I had no choice but to invade the other territory lord’s territories.

Cheddar stayed by my side with a sleepy Olive as I cooked the mountain of monster meat with my [Fox Fire]. While I had tasted the meat of many of the monsters in front of me, there were also a few new ones I was eager to try.

The pack came back while I was wrapping up cooking and as I had feared, there was no sign of an exit in their territory. I exchanged glances with Cheddar.

“We will need to find a teleporter or an exit in one of the other territories. I’ll try to negotiate with the other lords, but I hope you can back me up should it come to a fight.”

Cheddar barked in agreement while his mate remained silent. Olive had fallen back asleep at some point. I ate a sumptuous feast together with Cheddar’s wolf pack. I nearly cried again. I had missed eating with others like this. It was a lively meal similar to the meals I used to have with my parents.

After our meal, I gathered up the elite monsters in my territory and set off for the territory lord that was constantly in conflict with Cheddar’s pack. There were five territories total in the dungeon. Six, if you counted my territory.

The Six-tailed Red Fox occupied the center of the dungeon while the rest of the monsters occupied the four corners. I brought another plate of freshly cooked meat, but it proved to be useless.

The monsters within the White Widow’s territory skipped the pleasantries and went straight into combat. There wasn’t going to be any negotiations or duels this time, which suited me just fine. I hated spiders.

This section of the forest was covered in sticky spider webs. I could see why Cheddar had trouble taking over the White Widow’s lands. It was impossible to launch an ambush with all of the threads in the area. Unfortunately for the Boss of the spiders, webs burned very easily.

“Wow, look at it light up.”

I exclaimed in wonder as my blue flames spread across the forest in the blink of an eye. The web burning from my [Fox Fire] was a beautiful sight, unfortunately the White Widow didn’t seem to appreciate it nearly as much as I did.

A loud screech shook the forest and a massive, eight legged monster landed in front of me. As I thought, it was impossible for us to be comrades. Just looking at the giant spider drained my sanity points.

Much smaller spiders crawled out of the forest from all directions and I did the only reasonable thing possible. I killed them all with fire. None of its underlings could get close to me, forcing the boss to take action itself. All of a sudden, I had a giant spider leaping at me.

“Stay away!”

It was surprisingly agile for its size. I danced out of the way and shot my own [Fox Fire] at it. This section of the forest had quickly turned into a domain of fire. Its threads were its strongest weapon, but anything it spat out was quickly burned to a crisp.

Just the thought of getting close to the giant spider sent shivers down my spine. A lot of my stronger attacks that used my claws were immediately ruled out. How could I dare to touch it with my hands if I could barely stand looking at it?

Nevertheless, I was the natural enemy of the White Widow. Its size made it impossible for the White Widow to avoid my attacks. The fine white hair on its body quickly caught fire. Unlike the weak elite monsters, it easily continued fighting even while on fire.

The vitality of miniboss type monsters was truly fearsome. Even so, its fate was sealed the moment my [Fox Fire] blinded its eyes.

“Now, Cheddar!”

Cheddar jumped from my shadow to the White Widow’s shadow. With its body on fire and its network of warning threads burned to a crisp, it was completely unable to react to Cheddar’s surprise attack.

Cheddar’s claws carved a deep gash into the White Widow’s body. My [Fox Fire] eagerly entered through the gap in its armor and burned it from the inside out. The horrifying death keel of the White Widow sent all of its subordinates running.

Cheddar’s pack emerged from the shadows and cut down the fleeing monsters. My own tamed monsters hastily joined in too. The White Widow collapsed with a loud thud.

An intense wave of heat filled my body from the experience rush of the miniboss. [Gluttony] converted the wasted experience into ki, flooding my ki network with a fresh wave of energy. [Instinct] helped guide the energy to further refine the network and expand my ki channels.

“This was kind of easy, wasn’t it, Cheddar?”

Cheddar barked in agreement. I was surprised at how smoothly it went. It helped that my fire was a natural counter to the White Widow’s threads, but I was still shocked that the fight ended that quickly.

I was strong. Unlike when I first entered this dungeon, I could now fight toe-to-toe with the best. Nobody would think of me as an easy prey again. The heavy sound of something being dragged against the dirt brought me out of my thoughts.

For some reason, Cheddar was pushing the corpse of the White Widow to me. I paled when I realized the alpha’s intention.

“No way. I’m not cooking a spider. Absolutely not.”

Cheddar whined. Olive appeared by his side and gave me a pair of puppy dog eyes. As if that wasn’t enough, several other members of the pack showed up and pleaded with me. Eventually, I gave in to the pressure.

“Fine, but don’t expect me to join you.”

I utilized my [Fox Fire] to slowly cook the White Widow’s corpse from a distance, not willing to touch it with my own hands. Some parts of it had been charred by our earlier fight, but I thought I did at least a decent job.

The members of Cheddar’s pack dug in once I gave the word. I couldn’t bear to watch it, so I sat underneath a tree a distance away and looked off into the distance. Eventually, the impromptu feast ended. Cheddar came by and shook his head. My face fell at the disappointing news.

“So there is no exit in this territory either? Let's rest up and head to another territory in the morning.”

My plan to gather up all of the territory bosses was in shambles. Surely the next territory I entered would be more peaceful and not attack me on sight.

There were only two more potential allies left. I didn’t know anything about them as them. Even if Cheddar and I handled the White Widow rather easily, it wasn’t looking good for us.

I let my gloomy thoughts fade and focused on enjoying the present. After all, I was no longer alone in this dungeon.