“I, I got something else too…”
Yeon-hee wiggled her fingers and mentioned she had a newly activated ability.
It seemed a bit of a stretch to hesitate while talking about it, but I liked this side of her.
Fiddling—
“Ahh— Not the ears… Not today.”
Out of habit, I touched Yeon-hee’s ears, but today she gently pushed my hand away, as if trying to keep her distance from such actions.
‘Maybe today it’s a bit much.’
I thought it was understandable to feel that way after going through what we just did.
“Umm, for the ability I got this time, there are two…”
Either way, the two abilities Yeon-hee told me about were truly astonishing.
The first one, Preset, was an extension of an existing ability, so it wasn’t surprising, but the second ability was intriguing.
‘Shaping…’
It meant the ability to create forms using various materials, but it seemed to carry a slightly different meaning for Yeon-hee.
“I can now merge my summoned creatures together…! For now, I can only combine the same type, but I think I can eventually mix different types too! Isn’t that an amazing ability?”
She had the ability to fuse summoned creatures!
“Clap, clap, clap!”
“This is different from strengthening existing summoned creatures; after some time, they revert to their original forms! Thank goodness their consciousness isn’t damaged.”
“Tap, tap, tap!”
Back when I was first summoned, another Skeleton Soldier had also been summoned. That ability was different from when I had materialized him to boost my strength.
The ability to combine summoned creatures for a certain time and later separate them.
‘If I combine Dotti 1, Dotti 2, and some sandy orc sorcerers with the remaining orcs… what kind of monster will that create?’
Suddenly, the enormous Giant Skeleton I met in Nargul’s dungeon came to mind.
‘Come to think of it, there were indeed unusually large ones.’
When the keyword “shaping” was mentioned, memories of fighting the Orc Legion Commander in my past life became clearer.
There were several powerful summoned creatures that mercilessly tore apart the Orc High-Rank Warriors, who formed the main body of the Orc Legion, and the commanding orcs directing them.
Once a memory came back, it branched out and showed me even more expanded memories.
‘There were golems as well…?’
There were a lot of summoned creatures yet to be revealed, making it clear that the future had indeed changed.
‘Why didn’t I use that ability—’
“But there’s a reason I couldn’t use this ability right away.”
I was about to ask why she hadn’t used it.
“It can’t be used immediately; after setting up the combinations, it takes a day to activate.”
Nod—
‘Got it. [Essence Devourer] also needed some time to activate; maybe it feels similar. Still, if we set it up just once, we can easily fuse them later.’
“For now, I’ve designated the Lizard Squad with the most numbers of the same species. If I have time tomorrow, I plan to summon them. If twenty of them all merge, surely a powerful creature will emerge, right?”
“Clap, clap, clap.”
Bringing forth the fused summoned creature would be hard to do in the city, so I decided to test it out in the dungeon.
– Your level has increased. Choose three stat boosts.
– Level…
I had taken out the trio and had leveled up by three points.
The system wasn’t one where you simply gained experience from killing hunters. When defeating villains, Blue-eyed creatures, or those related to Evolution Stones, enormous experience rewards were earned, making this possible.
====
[Flame Sword Mage – Infernal Boneblade Pyromancer Lv.63]
Strength: 265(+9) Agility: 318
Health: 349 Wisdom: 300(+9)
Magic Power: 538 Resistance: 72
Sense: 135(+9) Recovery: 82
====
This time, I planned to invest in Strength instead of Agility to see if there was any meaningful difference.
And since Yeon-hee hadn’t used any of the blue summon scrolls since she hit level 48, she had quite a stack built up.
“I have twenty brown summon scrolls and five blue ones.”
‘…… When did that build up? The brown ones were acquired from leveling up and working in Nargul, but why are there already five blue summon scrolls? I think I’ve leveled up at most three times.’
“Oh, I got two more when I made followers.”
‘Cha Jin-hyuk, that guy… This is on par with a Golden Goblin.’
Thinking to put Cha Jin-hyuk at the top of my recruitment list when the opportunity arises, we entered a wider, abandoned building that felt deserted.
‘I need to check out the presets and use all the summon scrolls now.’
Yeon-hee had a strangely odd habit of hoarding summon scrolls, so I had to push her.
‘There’s no reason to save those summon scrolls…’
So, I convinced her to use them all this time.
‘I can’t just rely on her. I need to take some initiative.’
She made a face as if she was reluctant for a moment but then nodded.
‘We need to be ready for whatever might happen. There’s no reason to save up in this situation, Yeon-hee.’
“Everyone, come out!”
First, I checked the Preset ability, and in a moment I was able to see thirty summoned creatures surrounding Yeon-hee in layers.
‘Wow— that’s faster than I expected. I’d believe it if you said they were hiding beside her and just revealed themselves now.’
At least, there shouldn’t be any accidents where lower-ranked hunters could ambush us.
‘Still, that’s not enough. Honestly, I could breach through that alone.’
Yeon-hee’s summoned creatures usually had high Health. The only ones with decent agility were Nefie and Chehwa; the rest tended to be slow and served as meaty shields too often.
So, I was thinking of completely decking them out with the Rune of Thorns when we run through the C-rank dungeon.
They could fulfill their role just by getting hit by enemies.
‘But if monsters equipped with runes merge under [Shaping], what happens to the runes they’re wearing? If they all apply, that would be amazing.’
If a combined Lizardman wore 200 Rune of Thorns and solely used Provocation skills while enduring, it’d look like I’d get to watch a show of the enemies committing sub-suicide.
Of course, if the merged summoned creature was treated as a single entity, such instances wouldn’t be permissible.
Yeon-hee also looked thoughtful, observing my reaction.
‘She must have realized something from this experience.’
Having gotten through this ordeal, she’d definitely grow in some way, so I’d just wait and believe.
“Okay— I’ll start.”
Nod—
Then Yeon-hee began to use the summon scrolls for the first time in a long while.
First, the brown summon scrolls.
“……!”
With an unknown incantation that awakened me, one by one, the parchment scrolls disappeared, creating a small portal.
The brown summon scrolls were already fixed to Orcs.
Still, I hoped at least one of the twenty would summon a higher-grade monster.
“Th-this can’t be real…”
‘Wow… How can this happen?’
Yeon-hee created a miracle where every one of the twenty scrolls summoned only Orcs.
The summon scrolls had a low chance of summoning a higher-grade creature. After Ran had been lucky with his summoning back in the beginning, not once had it triggered since.
‘How can my gacha luck be this bad… It’s impressive in a way.’
“Uwooooh!!”
“Kwaoohhh!!”
At least two being summoned as Orc Apprentices was a mild consolation.
‘Summoning Orc Sorcerers to fuse would be amusing.’
Despite my interest in the summoning process, Yeon-hee looked like she was on the verge of tears.
“I… I guess I’m not cut out for this. Huhuh-”
While I rubbed her shoulders from behind to cheer her up again, I looked forward to the upgraded blue summon scroll now that she’d surpassed level 60.
“Okay— let’s go.”
Yeon-hee also steadied her feelings and held up the blue summon scroll, glowing faintly.
‘Ooh… just by the look of it, it seems on a different level from the previous ones.’
The energy emanating from the parchment scroll had a significant difference from the brown summon scrolls.
‘Anyway, I’ll fix it to orcs, but… you never know.’
The Orc Dungeon had become the top-tier dungeon in the C-rank since the disappearance of Nargul Dungeon, and the single strongest summoned creature at C-rank was the Werewolf, but since Orcs were rated almost the same, as long as a Werewolf didn’t show up, there’d be no reason to take anyone else.
However, having a few creatures with solid support abilities like Ddak-ddak or Dotted One wouldn’t hurt in any way, so I was hoping for a higher monster to come out.
The incantation was longer than usual, and finally, the summoned creature’s figure started to emerge from the portal.
Swoosh—
First, a bushy tail came into view, impressively fluffy.
‘Ah— well, this guy isn’t bad at all.’
The first to be summoned was a ‘Dire Wolf.’
Big enough to be on par with Lizardman 1 when standing up, it had a gleaming silver mane that looked incredibly stylish.
Despite being named after a creature reminiscent of those that once lived in this land, this creature possessed fearsome claws and remarkable magical prowess.
The large palm-sized horn protruding from its forehead was the source of its abilities. The lightning bolts it unleashed from that spot were incredibly deadly, infamous among C-rank hunters.
“Wooow! Wang-wang is Dad!”
‘This guy shouldn’t be compared to Wang-wang…’
“Awoooouuu──!”
The Dire Wolf cocked its head to the side when it saw Yeon-hee before howling at her, showing its affection.
“Hehe— so big and cute!”
In less than a minute after their meeting, Yeon-hee was already submerged in the Dire Wolf’s fluffy fur while it affectionately licked her. This showed a brief glimpse of the bond between a summoner and their summoned creature.
“It’s big and cute, so how about we name it King’s Ear?”
‘… That’s a bit much, isn’t it?’
Her horrendous naming sense was showing itself again like it always did.
I shook my head and suggested calling it just Dire.
“Hmmm… That’s a bit too common. I get it for now!”
Yeon-hee momentarily postponed the naming and then pulled out the blue summon scroll again.
‘Just hope it doesn’t end with only ordinary creatures again.’
Having hit rock bottom in my expectations after twenty-one summons, I was already feeling anxious.
Hooong—
But this time, a distinctly different portal formed, stirring expectations.
‘What the heck is that?’
“Wooah… Il-wol.”
After she finished the incantation, Yeon-hee trembled and hurriedly clung to my side, so much so that even the summoned creatures fled behind me.
The jet-black portal grew higher and higher until it reached the ceiling of the building.
‘It definitely won’t be C-rank; she’s finally summoned a creature one rank higher.’
This was the first summoning to trigger again since the extremely low chance of success since Ran was summoned.
‘It’s too big…’
A creature with four pairs of black wings, as big as the portal, emerged.
The creature was one I had never seen before.
Kwaaaang─!
The immense body slammed against the ceiling with force, and it looked like it was remarkably similar to ‘Residue of Chaos.’
‘Is it in the Drake family?’
Overall, it appeared that way, but an aura encased in shadow emanated from it, giving it a very special presence.
“It’s called Corrupted Shadow Drake… what do we do, Il-wol? It’s corrupted!”
‘What kind of summoned creature has a name like that? Is it okay?’
The creature, with wings flickering like smoke, turned its head to look down on us.
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