CAW!
The loud screech signaled the return of my Death Hawk.
“Found anything?”
CAW!
“Nice. Is it a human settlement?”
CAW! CAW!
“No, huh... A monster then?”
CAW! CAW!
“Another no… Is it food?
CAW!
“Great! Lead the way then.”
CAW!
With a great shout, the Death Hawk once again took flight and flew northward.
Another downside to shadow necromancy is that it is much harder to communicate with your summons. For Beast Tamers, they are able to fully understand what their summons are saying, but for me, I have to use gestures to communicate with my summons.
As I got ready to leave the area, I gave a command to my already summoned Ice Wolf, Rock Golem, and two Assault Weapon Soldiers (AWS).
“You 4, I want you guys to roam the area and see if there are any other hostiles. Do not initiate any attack, but if they do attack… Feel free to do as you wish.”
With a nod of understanding, the 4 summons set out in different directions. My aim for them is twofold:
Firstly, it is to test out the general strength of creatures here. As seen in my previous encounter, the two humans are particularly strong against other humans but weak against monsters. Is that the general strength of this world?
Secondly, it is to allow my summons to gain EXP. If they do happen to attack my summons, according to self-defense I will be allowed to retaliate. And if they are too weak… I believe you can see where I’m going.
“Oops, time to catch up myself. Haste.”
Mana: 250 → 230
Power fills my legs as I take off in the Death Hawk’s direction. I wonder what it has found?
The landscape changes drastically. The green fields I was in previously blended into brown, as I found myself in a desert. The temperature naturally started to rise as I traveled.
“Hmm, what’s that ahead?”
I began to see shades of green and blue against the brown background.
“Is that… an oasis?”
My guess was confirmed as I got closer. The palm trees stretched out towards the sky, as the crystal clear water reflected the blazing sun. It was quite a contrast from the barren mono-colored landscape I was in for the past hour.
Looks like a good enough place to set up a temporary base.
“Summon Dwarf x2”
Mana: 800 → 200
“…”
“Item storage.”
I began pulling bottles of blue liquid out of my item storage. These are M2 potions, they help to regain mana upon consumption. It’s a very handy tool, especially during combat, but I guess it’s useful for situations like this as well. I continue summoning more Dwarfs, chugging a bottle after each summon.
“Summon Dwarf x2”
“Summon Dwarf x2”
“Summon Dwarf x2”
…
It took a while, but eventually, 24 Dwarfs were summoned.
“Ok, I want you guys to build a base around this area. I’ve got building materials which I am now unable to deliver, so feel free to use them.”
With grunts of approval, the Dwarves set off to work.
Dwarfs are humanoid creatures that specialise in building, mining, forging, etc. They’re pretty handy to have around. With all those benefits, I just had to add them to my collection.
If my memory serves me correctly, a village of Dwarves did put in a request to help fight off a Medusa terrorising their village. Medusas are able to decrease their prey’s magical resistance, before turning them into stone. I decided to use this opportunity to my advantage.
I joined a party planning to accept the request, and after a few hiccups here and there (you can’t blame me if the map I had just so happened to lead to a road destroyed by a landslide), we arrived slightly too late when a good majority of the Dwarfs were already turned to stone and killed. The party managed to defeat the Medusa, and claim the reward. As for me, I managed to get quite a number of Dwarfs in my collection, thanks to the reduced magic resistance. It’s a pity I couldn’t get the Medusa though, it had high magic resistance as befitting of a B-rank monster.
As I sat there reminiscing about the past, the current updates from my summons started popping in.
Ice Wolf has killed a human!
Ice Wolf has killed a human!
Ice Wolf has killed a human!
Looks like they started encountering enemies already…
But from the looks of it, the humans they encountered were of equal or lower strength than the two soldiers, since Ice Wold was able to dispose of them so easily.
No updates were seen from the Rock Golem or 2 AWS though, I assume they haven’t met any hostiles.
I decided to take a nap at the lakeside while waiting for my base to be completed. I have Death Hawk watching over me, so I’ll be safe. As I close my eyes, the waves of exhaustion finally hit me, and it didn’t take too long before I started snoring away.
“Sir!”
“Yes?”
Lieutenant Lee rushed up to Major Chen, out of breath.
“You… you have to take a look at this.”
“Is it urgent?”
“Very much so, sir.”
“I wonder what is it that frazzled Lee so much?”, thought Chen as he was led to the briefing room.
Chen and Lee were part of the People’s Liberation Army Ground Force, Northen Theatre. They are essentially the ones in-charge of Mongolian, Russian, and North Korean borders.
As the two entered the briefing room, they saw many stony-faced men already gathered. One of them, seemingly the leader, stretched out his hand towards Chen.
“Good afternoon, Major. I am Han, and we are here representing the Public Security Department. We are here to request your help for an… emergency.”
Chen shook his hand.
“What kind of emergency?”
It was rare for the Public Security to come to the military for help. And if they did, it had to be something big.
“Let’s just say… it’s something we haven’t encountered before.”
Han took out his laptop and pulled out a video. It was grainy and very shaky, clearly taken from a phone.
“Take a look at this.”
It was a video of a vegetable crop farm in a village. In the center of the field was a wolf. A very large wolf. Judging by the nearby house, one could estimate that it was around 2 meters tall.
“Wha… Is this real?”
“Just watch.”
The video continued. A brave villager, hoping to chase away the wolf, tried to shoo the wolf away by waving a hoe. The wolf did not respond and continued standing in the middle of the field. Frustrated by its inaction, the villager threw his hoe towards the wolf, hoping to chase it away. The hoe hit the wolf with a thud. With its thick fur coat, it was obvious that it barely felt anything.
But the wolf wasn’t so forgiving.
In a single pounce, it leaped towards the villager and used its claws to split his torso into half.
Ear-piercing screams could be heard as his guts splattered onto the field. The video quickly cut to the ground as the owner of the phone started running for his or her life. The wolf’s roar could be heard as it devoured another villager and another. A few seconds later, the video was cut abruptly.
The video transitioned to another video, this time taken with better quality. But it wasn’t about the wolf this time. The video showed a huge moving mountain, in a shape of a human. It traveled slowly, but trampled whatever was in its path.
“As you can see, both videos were sent to us two hours ago. We’ve sent people to verify these creatures, and yes they are not fakes. I’ve already lost 5 men. We need stronger firepower.”
Chen was speechless. Monsters? In this modern day and age? But Chen didn’t get his rank for show, and so after a brief moment of panic, he started planning his next move.
“Ok, I’ll have to get permission to move out first. More importantly, how far has this information spread?”
“It’s under control, the civilians who know are currently detained. We have already redirected civilian traffic from these two monsters as well.”
“Good, I’ll need you to follow me to explain this to the higher-ups. But I believe we’ll be able to move out in the next hour or so. Tell your men to continue monitoring the situation.”
“Yes of course.”
It took around 45 minutes for explanations to be done and permissions to be given. Chen quickly organised 2 platoons worth of men and gathered them in the helicopter hangar.
“Men! Today we will face an unprecedented threat! We will be the first, and possibly the only ones, to fight monsters! Yes, you’ve heard me right. We will be going up against actual monsters!
You have been selected because I believe that you will be able to adapt well while facing unknown threats. And more importantly, what we will fight here will remain a secret until we decide what to do with them.
We will be facing a huge wolf, Tango A, and a moving mountain, Tango B. Group Alpha will follow me to fight Tango A, while Bravo will be under the command of Captain Xiong and will face Tango B.
The public has been diverted, so feel free to let loose. We have tanks on standby should the worse happens. But I believe that there will be no need for them! Your orders are, to neutralise these enemies, but if possible to capture them! Move out!”
A collective “Yes Sir!” sounded as they boarded the helicopters onwards to their destination.
Sed, his rampage was short lived.