Eliminating the last group was rather tiring. It took me almost an hour to finish them all. But the rewards were also worth it. I collected the magic stones and started moving.
'25 magic stones of 2nd Mortal Awakening, and 5 from 1st Mortal Awakening monsters.'
In the last fight against those 30 monsters, I didn't hold back in summoning boars to assist me and fight. It was to get an idea of how to fight against large numbers with active summoning.
I scouted the situation at the lake. Under the golden setting sun, the lake appeared like a paradise hidden on earth.
'123 monsters alive. Of those, at least 50 are 3rd Mortal awakening. Tsk, it's going to be tough.'
The evening had descended and so would night in a few hours. The next batch of monsters would likely come tomorrow at early dawn. That left me with barely 10 hours to finish everything.
'For my breakthrough to 2nd Mortal Awakening, I'll need to spend at least 3-4 hours in the lake. That leaves me 6 hours to get the work done.'
The pieces needed to conquer the lake were assembling in my head.
'6 hours aren't enough to prepare traps. The monsters aren't leaving the lake anymore too, even if I taunt them. It's most likely that the 3rd Mortal Awakening monsters are commanding them to stay put.'
Monsters gain intelligence from Master rank. But even before reaching that rank, they have rudimentary intelligence.
The reason why 3rd Mortal Awakening monsters were stopping the other monsters from coming after me had to be one of the two: They realized that I was dangerous after I eliminated 30 monsters horde or they don't think I'm worth their attention but don't want more monsters to die as it might enrage their masters, the ascended rank monsters.
'As I thought, this would be the last battle for the lake. I will have to finish them in a head-on clash.'
However, 50 3rd Mortal Awakening monsters were too strong for my boars to take on. Not to mention our forces numbers were roughly 1/4th of the enemy forces. If we fought head-on, I won't have enough MP to maintain a constant number of boars. Mana recovery wouldn't be able to keep up. It was barely enough in the last fight. Back then, the enemy forces were only twice as many as us and didn't have any 3rd Mortal Awakening monsters.
'No matter how I think about it, this is the only way.'
At my command, a black grimoire appeared in the air.
Name: Sol Lionel
Life Points: 16,251
Occupation: Summoner
Occupation Level: Level 3
Summon Capacity: 1000
Accumulated Life Points to next Level: 16,901/100,000
Skill(s) Unlocked:
Avenue(s) Unlocked: Insect Avenue, Beast Avenue, Plant Avenue
—
[Inscet Avenue]
Jet Dragonfly, Master (Locked)
Unlock Cost: 10,000 Life Points
-
[Beast Avenue]
Hound Wolf, Master (Locked)
Unlock Cost: 15,000 Life Points
—
'Which one should I unlock?'
The next battle would become incomparably easier if I had Master rank summons with me. There were a few problems, however.
Without unlocking the summons, I couldn't view their stats, skills, or description. Heck, I didn't know the star rank of the summons either!
From Master rank, every rank has 5 sub-ranks. The sub-ranks go from 1-star, the lowest, to 5-star, the highest. Stars represent the number of ranked skills an ascender has for that particular rank.
1-star means one ranked skill and 5-star means 5 ranked skills. The ranked skills have their own classification system too, but that wasn't something I needed to discuss now.
'I don't know what I should choose. Jet Dragon Fly, or Hound Wolf? Which one will help me better in the battle?'
The Hound Wolf seemed to be an attack-type summon like the Great Boar. It would help tremendously if I unlocked it. I also had no idea about the Jet dragonfly honestly. It wouldn't be funny if it turned out to be a scout-type in this situation where I needed a fighting-type summon.
'But can I even summon them? It takes almost all my MP to summon Day-time Night-time Daisies and they are 3rd Mortal Awakening rank. I doubt I will have enough MP if it's a powerful master rank summon.'
Ugh, this was hard.
But thinking too much was only a waste of time when I had no information to base my decision on. I swiftly made my decision and tapped on the grimoire.
…..
….
…
..
.
'36 boars, 41 daisies, and 15 baby tarantulas, five of those tarantulas are with Lumine. In terms of fighting force, all I have are 36 2nd Mortal Awakening Great Boars and myself.'
The evening was about to leave, giving way to the night. In the few hours between defeating the last group of monsters and starting the attack on the lake, I completed my deck by constantly using the mana stones to refill my MP.
My brows creased. 'Over 50 3rd Mortal Awakening monsters, and 100 2nd Mortal Mortal Awakening monsters are guarding the lake.'
A few more monsters started coming to the lake after the evening. Good news was that the monsters guarding the lake chased away the 1st Mortal Awakening who came to the lake. Bad news was they accepted 2nd Mortal Awakening monsters.
We were outnumbered by a large margin.
'If only I could use the Master rank summon to fight, sigh.'
—
Species: Hound Wolf
Rank: 2-star Master
Summoning Cost: 600 Magic Power
Housing Space: 50
Physique: 305
Magic Power: 400
Skill:
Description: Hound Wolves have a keen sense of smell. They are natural-born predators and when they smell a prey, the prey can no longer escape from them.
––
Hound Wolf had two ranked skills! Two!
…but it needed 600MP to be summoned.
'Sigh, there is no need to cry over spilled milk. I should rather think about reaching the 2nd Mortal Awakening. I will be able to use Hound Wolves then!'
The preparations were done. This was the best I could do without risking damaging my schedule. Taking one last glimpse at the grimoire, I released one great boar.
'Oh, it's the boar that I threw to kill the Great White Viper.'
The boar had received a scar over its left eye, so it was easy to distinguish from other boars. I jumped over it.
"Let's go."