"...And then, Makeena took me to this back alley restaurant, but it was actually really decent. I'm always really surprised at how wierd places she search through just to find somewhat decent meal," Mika told me with sparkling eyes about her former co-worker.
Me and Mika came from same small village, which is also the reason why we were always such a good friends. Mika is one year older and when her crest revealed, she came to the town to work in the adventurers guild, but in actuallity her crest is called [Sacred archer] it's a rare crest which combines holy powers with marksmanship.
We are currently on carriage to Almarion dungeon city. As the city is on way to capital, the carriage is full of people.
"Um, Mika... could you perhaps not push against me so much?"
"If I distanced myself from you I would be inconveniencing the person on the other side. I know! Try putting hand around my shoulder that can help!"
"How exactly?!"
"Like, this!" Mika's sudden attack made us practicaly sharing one seat. "See? Like this we can save a lot of room for other passangers and I get to feel your muscles!"
"So that's what you really want!"
When I looked around, I got to see the older passangers smiling at us warmly. 'They must think we are lovers on honeymoon...'
Just the thought made me super embarrassed. 'I mean sure, Mika is cute. Heck, maybe the cutest girl I ever saw, but to me she is like older sister if anything I hold her in high respect--'
Suddenly, Mika started poking me in my cheek, "Is something the matter?"
"Mu, I just felt like you were thinking something really inappropriate."
"I wasn't!"
The road was going on and on until we reached our stop point, a fortress in the forest. The fortress was usually empty, but right now, soldiers from the kingdom were in it so we could stay the night with them.
"So tell me Flake, what kind of monsters do you have? I already know Mossy and Aku, but you must've formed contract with other monsters right?"
"I-I did..."
"So tell me, I want to know!"
"Well... they are both F ranked... and really weak..."
"Don't fidget so much and speak, I won't laugh! Promise!"
"Well, one of the monsters is slime named Ruth and the other one is Vox bird named Void."
"Aren't those birds rare? I heard they can evolve into really powerful S rank monster."
"They are, but this one is still weak so it will take a long time before he will be able to evolve. And he don't have to evolve into Noir Crow as there are other possibilities for evolution."
Both of their levels, is five.
Name: Ruth
Race: Slime
Level: 5
MS: 3/10
Skill: Absorb [F], Disolve [F], Regenerate [E], Water magic [F]
Name: Void
Race: Vox Bird
Level: 5
MS: 3/20
Skill: Dark vision [E], Feather strike [F], Wind magic [F], Fly [E]
Name: Mossy
Race: Moss golem
Level: 15
MS: 10/50
Skill: Harden [E], Throw [E], Nature magic [D], Earth magic [F]
"Hey, aren't they rather awsome? I mean Void can even see in night as if it was a day!" Mika got little happy about the info of my summons.
"I won't deny that they are amazing partners, but summoning them takes a lot of energy, I usualy can't have more then two of them summoned at one time."
"What is your summoning skill rank anyway?"
"Well... it's actually... C"
Name Flake Flameburst
Race: Human [25%]
Level: 30
Skill: Summoning [C], Magic manipulation [D], Daggers [D], Bow [C], Magic adaptation [E], [???], etc.
'I look completly human so why does my Race column says 25%? People with mixed blood are usualy written as Half-elf or Half-dwarf, why do I have those percents?'
"C rank is quite high... maybe it's becouse of your unique shaped crest?" Mika pointed at the heart shaped crest on back of my non-dominant, left, hand.
"I also thought about it. Well, all of my summoned beasts were very docile when I summoned them for the first time... uuuuh, I want to summon something cool and strong..."
"Ya a summoner kid?" one of the guards called me out.
"Yeah why?"
"Well, we got some monsters today and we already took what we needed from them so you can have the rest if ya need it. But ya should go there fast 'couse pals gonna set them on fire any minute."
"Can I ask about the monsters you subjugated today?"
"Good to hear ya interested. They are Kobolds and Goblins, also some wierd chick got between them."
"Thank you, I will go there right away," I bowed to the guard and left for said pile of monsters with Mika in tow.
"Ahem, excuse me, your friend send me here, saying you have some monster corpses I could use for summoning."
"Eh? Oh a client. You must speak 'bout Dollan. Ye, take what ya need."
"Thanks."
I kneeled before the pile and cut of few goblin hands and few Kobold ears. Next I checked the chick, the first guard was talking about... 'huh? It's still alive, but it fakes it's condition?'
I placed my hand on the body of the chick and activated summoning circle. It was a success.
Name: [none]
Race: Night hawk
Level: 1
MS: 0/100
Skills: Fly [F], Dark magic [F], Lightning magic [F]
"Night hawk huh? Who would have quessed that you are really strong A rank monster," I whispered to myself.
I stood up with the chick in my hand, constantly supplying my mana in order to hasten it's natural healing abilities.
"Thanks for everything," I bowed to the guard and returned to Mika.
"What is that bird? Is it something unique?" Mika smiled and looked at the little bird in my hands.
"Yeah, it's Night hawk."
"Wait!"
"What is it?"
"This is your first time contracting higher ranked monster right?" Mika grabed my free hand with big smile.
"Yeah, it's first A ranked monster, why?"
"Well, I never met summoner adventurer who could contract monster higher then their summoning skill! You have C rank skill, with your Summoner crest you should be able to summon and make contracts with B rank monsters at best! How could you succeed?"
"I-I don't know, really. But now, I gotta give him some medicine."
I opened my Item box and took out Monster healing kit (MHK).
The difference between human healing and monster healing is that you need different materials. For races of man (Humans, elves, dwarves, etc.), the basic ingredience is [Sacred water]. Sacred water comes from springs in center of mana sources, which are natural openings of Mana veins inside earth.
Monsters on other hand are healed by using [Dark elixir]. Dark elixirs are made from powdered magic stones with addition of [Wet mushroom] and [Black water], that is same as Sacred water, but it comes from Miasma sources, aka dungeons.
"Can I help you with something?"
"I already stopped the worst injuries so now I only have to make that Dark elixir."
"Can I help with that?"
"Sorry but no. During the process I need to pour my mana into those ingrediences in order to make the little guy's body accept them."
"Oh yeah, I heared that summoners share their mana with the summoned beasts. So it works like that huh?"
I nodded and started grining the D ranked Dark magic stone. After it became fine sparkling black powder, I added Wet mushrooms and continued grinding until it became cream-like paste.
"Fuuu... Now just to pour Black water in it and we are finished."
"I only have one bottle left huh? Well I will need to restock in Almarion's dungeon..." I took out some vials I had prepared beforehand and pour the finished Dark elixir into them.
"From that one little bottle you got fifty vials? How's that possible? They are same size!"
"It's becouse of the Wet mushrooms. When it's in highly moist environtment it expands. But remember that it's still a plant monster, so it's body can be harvested for materials. Said materials expand moisture when they are mixed with black water. Also, by infusing my mana into it, the black water will take some characteristics of it, which in turn will make it easier for my monster to ingest it."
"Is... that why beasts never eats food prepared by those who aren't their master?"
"Most of the time, yes."
"So they can eat from others too?"
"Speaking strictly about food, yes. But if you try to infuse your mana into them you will most likely get attacked."
I took the Night hawk back from Mika and made it drink the elixir. The moment the last drop disappeared in it's beak, it's body started to glow with faint purplish black light.
The hawk opened it's eyes for the first time and looked directly into my eyes. Thanks to our connection I felt it's loneliness of having it's family massacred by stronger monster. Patting the hawk gently, I let it listen to my heart. The hawk started to calm down.
"[Summon Void]" I let out my other bird monster and lead him to the hawk.
Void looked little confused in the begining, but soon became happy at meeting new friend.
"They look so cute together," Mika smiled warmly.
"They really do. I know, you shall be known as [Tana]," I patted the hawk as I gave it it's name.
After canceling both of their summonings, we went to sleep. We are still in first half of the journey, we'll probably arrive in Almarion in one week time...