My stomach twisted violently. It was a physical protest that felt incredibly painful for this five pound vessel. This hunger wasn't just a normal rumbling. It was a primitive demand to feed or die.

Furthermore, my head was still throbbing from the Mana drain when I raised my first Vassal earlier. My large mental capacity felt like it was crushing this tiny Chihuahua's skull every time my magic energy hit a low point.

I looked at the old Goblin beside me. It stood perfectly still with its shoulders slightly hunched, gripping the bone knife tightly. Even though its mind was bound to me, I could feel the lingering predator instincts within it. Its gaze darted around constantly. It swept through every shadow in the cave tunnel we passed with a vigilance that ordinary undead did not possess.

My ears twitched. I caught the faint crunching sound coming from a pile of bones in the corner of the cave ahead of us. Something was greedily gnawing on the leftover carcass. A sharp, fishy odor assaulted my nose. It wasn't a rotting stench like the Goblin. It was the smell of wet fur and dirt.

A rat. No, it was a giant Cave Rat the size of a fully grown cat. Its fur was coarse and black, and its eyes glowed red in the darkness.

This was a much more reasonable prey than that diseased Goblin. I was disgusted by the thought of eating raw meat, but my Chihuahua stomach felt ready to pounce. However, with a Strength attribute of 1, I knew charging in directly was suicide.

Through the invisible connection in my head, I sent a single absolute impulse.

'Attack.'

The Goblin lunged forward. The Cave Rat responded instantly. The fur on its back stood on end, and it leaped with surprising speed, aiming straight for the Goblin's knife wielding arm.

The rat's jaws locked onto the Goblin's wrist with a brutal bite. The sound of crunching bone was sickening. If it were still alive, this Goblin would have screamed in agony and dropped its weapon. But as a Vassal, destroyed flesh meant nothing.

Without hesitation, the Goblin used its bitten hand and the furry body hanging from its arm as a counterweight. It swung that arm and slammed the monster's body hard against the stone floor.

Smash!

The moment the rat's jaw loosened from the impact, the Goblin's left hand shot out to choke its neck and pin it to the ground. A second later, the dull bone knife was driven repeatedly through that black back until the high pitched squeals faded into silence. Fresh blood stained the mossy cave floor.

[Target Neutralized: Cave Rat, Level 2]

I stared at the rat's corpse and then turned to the Goblin beside me. I had defeated a Level 9 Goblin and now a Level 2 rat. Yet my status showed absolutely no signs of changing.

If defeating monsters didn't grant experience automatically, then how was I supposed to level up?

I summoned the system screen again and examined my status details more closely. There, on the bottom row that I had previously missed due to my panic, was an additional note.

[User can also extract the life essence of the target.]

I approached the rat's corpse and pressed my front paw against its wound.

'Absorb,' I commanded in my mind.

Instantly, tendrils of dark purple energy crept out from my front paw. The energy seeped into the rat's flesh and forcefully pulled a cluster of pure essence light back toward me.

The light absorbed into my skin's pores. As that warm sensation filled me, I also felt a pulse travel through my mental connection straight to the Goblin's head. The gaping wound on my host's muscles slowly closed.

[Cave Rat Essence Assimilated]
[Level 2 Reached]
[Maximum Mana Increased: 50 to 60]
[Stat Increased (Random): Agility +1]
[Available: 1 Free Stat Point]

[Status Window]
Name: Luke (Host: Biscuit) | Level: 2
Vassal Slot: 1/2
Attributes: Str 1 | Sta 2 | Agi 7 | Int 12
Free Points: 1

A strange sensation washed over me. The coldness in my chest faded as a portion of my Mana recovered, and the pressure in my head eased significantly. Along with that, my consciousness expanded. I could feel a new Vassal slot opening up.

This was it. Without wasting any time, I stared at the rat corpse I had just drained.

'Arise!'

Nothing happened. Instead, the system screen blinked red.

[Error: Invalid host. Essence has been depleted.]

I snorted harshly. Damn it. So a corpse that had its essence drained could no longer be resurrected.

From a dark crevice in the cave ceiling, the sound of claws scratching against stone suddenly descended rapidly. Two Cave Rats lunged down from above, drawn by the smell of fresh blood.

They leaped almost simultaneously. The old Goblin reflexively stepped forward to block the tunnel, but he was overwhelmed. With one crippled arm, he couldn't handle the agility of two monsters at once. The first rat immediately sank its teeth into the Goblin's thigh, while the second rat clawed at his wrinkled chest.

I had to intervene, and I couldn't rely on my canine physique.

I issued a lightning fast command.

'Ignore defense. Kill the right one!'

The Goblin obeyed my instruction without a single shred of hesitation. He completely ignored the rat on his left that was tearing his thigh muscles apart. Instead, he used both of his hands to pounce on the rat on the right. He choked it with all his might, threw himself to the ground, and smashed the monster's head against the stone cave wall repeatedly.

Crack!

The right rat's skull fractured and its body stopped thrashing.

But the price was incredibly steep. The rat on the left managed to tear off most of the Goblin's thigh muscle right down to the bone, forcing my first host to drop to his knees helplessly.

[Target Neutralized: Cave Rat, Level 3]

This was the moment. I acted faster than my fear. I locked my eyes on the rat corpse my Vassal had just killed.

'Arise!'

The remaining Mana that had just recovered from leveling up was immediately sucked out. A clump of dark purple energy shot from my paw and infiltrated the dead rat's head.

[Host #2 Successfully Bound]

The dead rat's body jerked violently. Its eyes emitted a dark purple glow. Without wasting a single second, I ordered it to lunge.

The surviving enemy rat was just preparing to leap at the kneeling Goblin's neck. It was completely unaware of the threat coming from behind. The Vassal Cave Rat pounced and sank its deadly fangs right into the nape of its former comrade.

The monster squealed in panic, thrashing wildly to break free. At the exact same time, the old Goblin used his remaining strength to stab his bone knife directly into the wretched monster's stomach. Silence descended once more as the final rat bled to death.

In front of me, two Vassals stood motionless, waiting for my command.

My stomach twisted in pain again. I stared at the last remaining rat corpse.

'Absorb.'

The residual energy entered my body.

Silence. There were no system notifications.

I needed larger prey than mere rats to level up now.

Its essence was gone, but the meat was still intact.

My human brain screamed in disgust, but my survival instincts roared much louder. Slowly, I lowered my snout, tore into the flesh on the rat's neck, and began to chew. Fishy blood soaked the fur around my muzzle. It tasted horrific, but my canine body responded to it like a feast.

I stared at my tiny, filthy, blood stained paws. I should have reacted with the urge to vomit.

But what I felt was the exact opposite. There was a faint, satisfying hunger. These animal instincts were starting to take over.

To hell with morality. In this pit of hell, only fangs did the talking.