“Are you really going to summon more monsters? May I ask you why? What’s the point? It’s not like there are monsters to fight.” Lua asked.

“It’s to improve my skill. By summoning different monsters, my skill will grow.” I told her.

It’s not exactly the entire truth, but at the same time it is close enough.

“Ah, so it’s just to gain experience with the skill. That makes sense.” Lua commented.

“Brian, if I summon different monsters, will my Card Summoner level up?” Alice asked.

“I’m not sure. Christina did level up hers while we were in the dungeon, but I’m not sure why.” I told the two of them.

“When did Mother even get the skill?” Alice asked.

“When I named her the dungeon master.” I answered. “Then she fought some monsters in the dungeon and the skill leveled up.”

“The lava golem, right?” Alice confirmed.

“That exactly.” I answered.

 

“Lava golem? Do monsters of such rank show up in the dungeon?” Lua asked.

“Well, one did. But I think it might have been an abnormality to test Christina’s capabilities.” I explained. “Oh, there was that sword-horn bull as well. And that thing was A-rank.” I added.

“A-rank? What did you do with it? Don’t tell me. You didn’t fight it, did you?” Lua asked.

“...I’m not sure I would call it a fight.” I admitted. 

“Good. Even you would run away from something that strong.” Lua said.

“... No. I took it down. But it wasn’t a fight. I just … used it as a test subject and then let my strongest monster loose on it.” I told her.

“... Brian, can you stop?” Lua asked.

“No. Can’t do that.” I don’t even need to ask what I have to stop. But really? Why do you underestimate me at this point? You know I can summon dragons, so why couldn’t I fight against an A-rank monster?

 

“Brian, this strongest monster, can you show it to me?” Alice requested.

“As in show you the card? Or summon it here?” I asked.

“Summon it.” She answered.

“Yeah. No.” I said. “It’s way too large and people would likely assume it is the lesser behemoth or something. I’ll only summon it away from people or in an emergency.”

“How large is it then?” Alice asked.

I pulled out the card for Master of Oz and showed it to her. 

“Well, this is what it looks like and it stands about 18 meters tall. Its head almost hit the ceiling in the dungeon.” I told her.

“But that shouldn’t fit in the dungeon, right? Those rooms weren’t even 10 meters tall.” Lua commented.

“Apparently the dungeon is still growing. And it is growing fast.” I told her.

“It still shouldn’t grow that quickly.” Lua said. “Well, then again, I’m not an expert on dungeons or anything. That speed just sounds abnormal.”

“Perhaps it is.” I said as I realized that without my cards there is no way a dungeon would grow that quickly.

 

---

 

“Now then. Back to the mission, I guess it would be a challenge, on hand.” I said to get myself to the right headspace.

“What are you summoning next?” Alice asked.

“I’ll just summon another ritual monster. Well, this comes first.” I said as I pulled out the next ritual support monster. Like with Sonic Bird, I had 4 copies of this card so I didn’t bother making a sleeve for it. If I like it enough, I’ll make a sleeve for a different copy. “Senju of the Thousand Hands.” 

 

A somewhat feminine statue with about 20 arms appeared. A little short of one thousand, but still impressive.

“MASTER. I. AM. HONORED. THAT. YOU. HAVE. SUMMONED. ME.” The statue spoke in a synthesizer-like voice. “PLEASE. SHOW. ME. THE. RITUAL. SPELL. YOU. WISH. TO. HAVE. A. MONSTER. FOR.”

 

The way she… is it a she? Well, I’ll just say she. Her face looks more feminine than masculine. Well, anyway. The way she speaks could get old fast. But I’ll tolerate it if I get some monsters out of it.

She was asking for a ritual spell. So Sonic Bird can bring me the ritual spell if I have the monster and Senju can bring me the ritual monster if I have the spell. And if I had to guess, I would say Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands should be able to do either.

I checked my collection for ritual spells I had that I didn’t have the monster for. I have Earth Chant and Contract with the Abyss, but they don’t name a monster, so they most likely won’t work. Curse of the Masked Beast would get me The Masked Beast and Contract with the Dark Master would get me Dark Master - Zorc. Both strong monsters, but slightly too fiendish to not be potential nightmare fuel. Thankfully, I had one more option, so I pulled it out and presented it to the 20 armed statue.

 

“WHITE. DRAGON. RITUAL. I. SEE. I. SHALL. MAKE. YOU. THE. MONSTER. YOU. WISH. FOR. MASTER.” The statue said before getting to work.

 

After saying that, the 20 arms of the statue came together to form a ball of light. Then all of its arms moved in unison, like they were building something. And then even more arms appeared. The new arms were ones made of light, and joined in with the metal arms to poke and prod at the ball of light.

 

“Brian. That statue? What do you think it's made of?” Lua asked.

“How should I know? I think it’s bronze, but I’m not sure.” I told her. “Why do you ask?”

“It just has a strange luster. I’m not actually sure it is bronze.” Lua said. 

“What else would it be? There is no way it’s some super rare magical metal. It’s not that strong.” I told her.

“Well, probably not, but consider what it is doing. It is making something out of nothing. That is not easy.” Lua said.

“Well, you do something similar with water magic, so it’s not that strange.” I told her.

“But water is different. Water exists everywhere and I just pull it to me.” Lua said.

“Yeah, no you don’t. Well maybe. But at the same time, just no. The amount of water just floating around in the air is miniscule. There is no way you can gather that and do something like filling up a bathtub. You create new water with magic. Or, teleport it from somewhere or something.” I told her. I’ve seen that video about Pokemon Evolution, where they spoke about how much water vapor is in the air. You can’t use that for anything more than tiny icicles. 

“... is the water magic I use somehow wrong then?” Lua asked.

“Probably not. I think it’s more that you don’t fully understand it. In all honesty, I can’t really say as I don’t know enough myself. But I know you can’t just collect water vapor from the air around you to fill up a bathtub. That would never work.” I told her. “It could be teleported to you. It could be the spirits doing it. It could be God for all I know, but it is not water vapor.”

“Oh. I see. Perhaps I should research this. Maybe I can get myself approved as a great witch or even a sage if I do.” Lua murmured.

“Be careful of taking on too many large tasks.” I warned her. “Becoming a sage and a doctor, while also curing the dhampirs’ blood curse. That’s a lot of things to be doing at once.”

“Yes. I’ll take my time.” Lua said.

 

---

 

“MASTER. I. FINISHED. YOUR. CARD.” Senju said as her arms of light disappeared and the ball of light she was working on dimmed down and revealed a card.

I walked up to the statue and received the card. I looked it over and it looked like a perfectly good copy of Paladin of White Dragon. Its card code is SKE-024, so it’s from Starter Deck: Kaiba Evolution.

“Thank you, Senju. Do you mind if I tribute you to activate the ritual?” I asked the monster, as I could actually communicate with it.

“YES. PLEASE. USE. ME. FULLY. IT. WOULD. BE. A. WASTE. OTHERWISE.” Senju responded. 

“Sorry and thank you. You did well.” I said to my statue.

 

“Now then. I activate White Dragon Ritual. I tribute Senju of the Thousand Hands to ritual summon Paladin of White Dragon.” 

As I activated the ritual spell, the blue card with a ring around it appeared. Senju then broke apart into four blue flames, lighting up the ring around the card. As that happened, I saw Senju’s card break apart and form a sleeve around Paladin of White Dragon.

After the ritual had completed, my ritual monster came from the card. A white dragon with a dragon rider.

 

“Master. What do you need me for?” Paladin asked.

I looked at paladin on his dragon. He wore a good looking set of armor. If I was alone, I would probably analyze it, so I could remake it later. But I have Lua and Alice with me, so let’s not.

“I’m sorry, but…” I was about to apologize for not having anything for him to do, but Alice interrupted me.

“Brian. Can he take me for a flight?” Alice asked.

“.. flight? I suppose so. What do you think, Paladin? Does that dragon have space for a lady?” I asked.

“I would prefer not to, if possible.” Paladin answered.

“Well, I won’t force you. But that also means I have nothing for you to do.” I told him.

“Are you certain? I can use my final ability for you.” He offered.

“Final?” I wondered, before I realized what he was talking about. “Of course. YES! Please do it!” I got excited when I realized what that effect does.

“As you wish, Master.” Paladin said before taking flight.

 

He flew up into the sky, before being enveloped in a bright light. The card on my duel disk also had a similar light around it.

“Brian, what is he doing?” Alice asked.

“You’ll see.” I said as I looked on in excitement.

“Is it safe?” Lua asked.

“Yes.” I answered.

“That is also quite bright. Are you sure we won’t get any unwanted attention?” Lua asked next.

… unwanted attention? … oops. This one's on me.

 

---

 

[Alice POV]

 

ROAR!

I looked at the white dragon as it let out a roar. Is this the white dragon Brian has? The one I’ve heard about. It should be, right. But why did the dragon rider turn into this dragon?

The dragon was, in a word, majestic. It looked like the descriptions of heavenly dragons in my books. The white scales shining in the sunlight. The large wings that carried it across the sky. The piercing blue eyes that looked like they could see everything.

 

“BRIAN! What are you doing? Unsummon that dragon, Now!” Lucia was yelling at Brian.

“Yeah, I probably should.” Brian agreed.

“Why? It’s not harming anyone.” I wondered.

“It’s a large dragon and we are right next to town.” Lucia said. “It will cause mass panic.” 

“... will it really? But it’s so beautiful. Why would anyone panic seeing something like that?” Alice asked.

“You need some common sense. Badly.” Lucia told me. “Like more than Brian, and that is really something.”

“... humph.” I turned my head. It’s not my fault. Father never let me outside before, so all my knowledge comes from books. And in books, heavenly dragons are never evil.

 

Brian ended up unsummoning the dragon before it got to do anything. I really want to ride that dragon. Perhaps Brian will take me when we are farther away from town.

 

---

 

[Brian POV]

 

I looked at my new Blue-Eyes. I’m super happy to have a second one, even if they are a little too situational. Sadly, I had lost my Paladin of White Dragon, but my new Blue-Eyes did inherit the sleeve from Paladin. Had I thought about this a bit more, I could have made a toploader for Paladin, and then I could have mass produced Blue-Eyes White Dragons. Well, I suppose my own lack of forethought made sure I couldn’t do that.

 

My new Blue-Eyes had a different artwork from my other. The other one I have has the ‘classic’ anime art style, but the new one has the Blue-Eyes standing in front of the planet artwork.

It also had the card code JMP-001, which means it is a Shonen Jump promo. I wonder if I’ll ever get them to my promo trade-in.

 

“I think we have to call it a day here. We need to head back into town and tell people that the dragon was my fault.” I told the two girls.

“Yes. We’d better.” Lua agreed with me.

“But I didn’t even get to summon anything.” Alice said.

“Yeah. But you summon Mana almost every day anyway, so why do you complain about it?” I asked her.

“I wanted something new.” Alice said.

“Stop acting like a toddler that wants a new toy.” Lua said.

“I’m not a toddler!” Alice yelled at her.

“Well you do sometimes act like one.” I agreed with Lua.

“You as well, Brian. Stop bullying me!” Alice demanded.

“Then stop acting like a kid.” Lua said.

 

… “Come on. Let’s go.” I said and walked off, while the two kept up their arguing. 

 

---

 

Before we even made it to the wall, a guard ran up to us.

“Brian. Is there an emergency?” He asked as he stopped.

“No. Everything is fine.” I answered.

“Then what about that dragon? It was yours, wasn’t it? Why did you summon it?”

“I was just showing it to Miss Alice. Sorry.” I said as I pointed out that I had a noble’s daughter with me. If she is going to be annoying, I’ll use her as a scapegoat. And no, not that spell card. 

“...” The guard was speechless after hearing my reason. “I see. Well, I suppose I can’t say no to Miss Watchman, but I would ask you to do it in a way that won’t cause any unnecessary panic.” The guard said.

“Yeah. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” I lied. There is a chance it will happen again. I need a way to summon a Blue-Eyes in a more discreet way. Perhaps Darkness Approaches would work for that. Laura did recommend it when I was thinking of ways to hide Christina’s Roc. 

“I’ll be summoning some more monsters, so if you see something strange in this direction, it’s probably me.” I told the guard.

“Ah. I see. I will go and report that.” He responded before walking off.

 

“Well, we got permission. Kind of. So let’s get back to it.” I said to the girls.