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Chapter 157.2: Operation Crossing The Bridge 2
『Simple Summoning Circle』：Calling forth familiarity using the simple version of the simplified summoning circle. The reason the magic circle looks so eerie is that it is a kind of curse.
『Skeleton』：Basic form of familiarity. The reason for its black color is a curse.
『Tuning Wave(Echo)』： A method for subordination or mutual understanding by tuning one’s mana with the other party. It is the basis for spirit magic.
While such an explanation appeared in my mind just like the usual curse’s explanation, it felt different to me for some reason. I mean, these three skills were supposed to be a 『Summoner』’s skill.
「Is this the basic skill for summoner?」
Awesome!
In short, the 『Fool’s Cane』 allowed me to use the basic skill of the vocation of the skull that I fixed on the cane.
It might allow me to learn more skills from the other vocations as I kept using it despite being a shaman, a feature similar to growth type cheat… But since my vocation was originally a weak vocation, I didn’t think that I would grow into some sort of TUEE character despite all the new skills I got from the cane.
There was also a high possibility that I could only use the basic skill of each vocation, even if for example there was a mastery level of each skill, it was nothing more than how skillfully I used that said skill. In the first place, my experience had told me that I shouldn’t expect something easy like growth type cheat since my vocation was the kind of vocation that gave me a new skill after surpassing trial and tribulation.
But of course, it didn’t mean that I should just dismiss the effect of basic skills since even if it was basic, it was still a useful skill depending on how I used it.
「’Kay then, let’s try this so-called summoner’s power.」
===
「… Yup, these guys are small fries after all.」
I led those thirty black skeletons for a field test and as a result, more than half of them were lost against six high zombies.
「GARURU, GAGAGA」
「KISHAA~」
In the end, it was the combination of Rem and Arachne Rem that defeated the zombies.
I’d expected this result to some extent, but I’d never expected for them to be this weak.
「Or rather, they’re way too weak… it seems their inside really isn’t Rem.」
And as if to affirm my suspicion, Rem the first gave a hand sign as if telling me that I was right.
The black skeleton called with 『Fool’s Cane』’s summon art was slow and way too fragile. I mean, Rem who accompanied me all the way until this point had reached the point at which she could move way faster than those black skeletons even in her black skeleton form. Well, I couldn’t deny the fact that high zombies’ power and speed were above the black skeletons, but their movements were too monotonous, defeating them should be fairly simple for the black skeletons.
And yet, those high zombies wiped the floor with my thirty black skeletons whose movements were more or less similar to wild skeletons.
「As if, they’re basically wild skeletons painted black, nothing special except their BLACK color.」
As expected, Rem was the only familiar-like existence for me. Created by the combination of 『Vile’s Clay Doll』 and 『Corpse Doll of Resentment』. Maybe because the “corpse” part was the derivation of “clay doll”, the content was still one and the same Rem but… maybe because the black skeletons weren’t an existence that was created with a curse or summoning arts, their content might be a completely different existence. [TL: corpse doll(屍人形) and clay doll(泥人形), the difference is only by one kanji.]
Which made me wonder, just where did they get their own ego. If I’ve to say in a more familiar term, the black skeletons summoned by the cane, their low specs body aside, looked like they were also being controlled by shitty game AI.
Will they grow like Rem if I trained them in the same way as Rem? But then, I got this feeling that trying to prove that was a waste of time.
「They are just powerless skeletons with nothing but numbers as their advantage…」
If we’re talking about the merits of the summoned skeletons, they were cheap and easy to summon, a readily available bait or sacrificial pawn.
But of course, Rem was more than enough to assume that role, she could even think for herself. Things would be easier for me if the content of those black skeletons was Rem.
「It was a convenient skill for withdrawal and pre-emptive strike though.」
Well, it might be possible to erase all the summoned black skeletons at once with something like space magic though.
After I summoned the first batch of the skeletons, it was possible to un-summon them after they finished their duties, and re-summon them again in a flash- in short, re-cycling. Naturally, doing that would still consume my mana but, only the mana needed to deploy the summoning circle.
But there was a single fatal weakness of this strategy, which was already obvious from my field test.
「At least, bring your weapon back too dammit!」
Yes, the thing that came out of the summoning circle was really JUST a skeleton. In the field test this time, I used Arachne Rem as our baggage carrier which included weapons such as swords and spears for the skeletons. However, when those guys got unsummoned, only their bodies vanished, leaving their weapons behind.
This is just my conjecture, but the summoning circle could only materialize something made from mana. Since those skeletons were created with summoning arts, it was possible to return them to their mana forms and assemble them again. But the equipment that I gave to them was left in the place where they vanished since it couldn’t be converted to mana. In short, storing physical matter not made from mana in a summoning circle was impossible.
「Dammit, as I expected, Tendou-kun’s item inventory is fu*king cheat.」
He could literally throw everything into that golden magic circle. Including that 『King Sword』, his main weapon, the materials he gave to me, literally everything. It was an extremely wonderful skill with limitless capacity.
It might be possible to upgrade 『Simple Summoning Circle』 if the level of summoning skill got upgraded. And if that happened, I might be able to create simple storage for physical items.
「Welp, let’s forget about that for the time being. My main objective right now is how to utilize what I’ve in hand…」
First, I had a rough grasp about the effect of 『Simple Summoning Circle』 and 『Skeleton』which left me with the last of the three skills- 『Echo』.
「In short, I could turn any monster into my subordinate as long as my magical power is strong enough.」
Isn’t this the so-called tame thingy?
Another game-like skill huh. Sure enough, 『Summoner』’s playstyle was something along the lines of using this 『Echo』 in taming weak monsters first and gradually moving on to stronger ones as they gained more masteries of their skills, which in turn increased their combat potential.
「Trying this skill on a strong monster might be difficult but… it might be possible if I try this skill on high zombies.」
It had been a while since I did this kind of experiment since that time when I was experimenting with poison. Arachne Rem was really useful during this kind of experiment.
「WOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!」
And then, she captured one of those zombies who raised a death cry in less than thirty minutes.
Since it’s more powerful than goma, she wrapped that zombie into a cocoon thread and hung it upside-down on a tree.
「Well then, it’s experiment time, Hung man-kun.」
I was facing the hung-up high zombie, poking 『Fool’s Cane』 at it.
===
One hour later, the zombie that was hanging upside-down on a tree branch had already transformed into what you might call a “lump of mysterious meat”.
「,,, Failure huh.」
The high zombie’s taming attempt failed. It was an utter failure.
I could invoke 『Echo』 with no problem. The problem was its effect, it was simply too weak.
「Dammit, it doesn’t work on such weaklings, I guess taming is pretty much impossible.」
Or rather, I was simply unsuitable for this magic. Or else, it might be just how unique mind-type magic was. Since its effects were hardly shown, it was really difficult to gauge the effects of this magic.
If I’d to explain the effect of mind magic, I guess it would be like paint.
The main function of this magic was to paint my enemy’s mind with my color. As long as I could paint the majority of my opponent’s mind with my color, I would pretty much succeed in turning them into my subordinate.
In short, paint it my color!
「If it does not work on high zombie, I guess it won’t work on govu either, and I don’t think it’ll work on red dog and goma either.」
Wait a minute, doesn’t that mean that there was no monster that I could tame?
「Y-You must be kidding me right…」
Oioioi, this magic can’t even tame monsters despite being a skill that is supposed to be able to do so, just what kind of shitty game is this!