From the whirling lights, an even stronger force of presence erects itself. Both intimidated and excited I stand still, ready to glimpse into what new wonders magic has in store for me.  As the dust and lights fade away, I see a female knight. With a short bobcut of marble white hair, and a tall and fit build, she starts to kneel before me. 

"My lady, I this one pledges her loyalty and duty to you for all of eternity."

Although she had armor, a sword, and a shield at her side to classify herself as a knight, her armor was more of a multitude places upon her torso reinforced with a type of reinforced leather. Nonetheless her strict countenance gave off a feeling of maturity and sincerity. 

"What is your name, and what are you."

"I have no name, but this one is called a Valkyrie."

A Valkyrie? Like a female knight of the gods in norse mythology? Her combat prowess must be immense then."Then do you mind if I name you?"

"Of course, it would be an honor to be bestowed a name by you my lady. ."

Really now, the master part is actually pretty nice to hear not gonna lie, even if a bit bothersome for sounding so formal. "Would the name Sigrun be ok?" 

"YES! ah *cough cough" 

How cute, she actually started blushing and turned her eyes away. "Now then Sigrun, how loyal are you to me?" Honestly ever since I started thinking about meeting other intelligent begins, and using summons, I started to get more and more paranoid. If I die from my own summons then that's that, nothing can be done. Rather it is more of the act of betraying and having someone I may hold dear to deliberately use and hurt me that makes my stomach cold and churn with an uncomfortable grind. 

"Yes, as your life summon I am completely bound to you, our own souls are in a way interlinked in a master and servant relationship. If your body passes away, and you soul reaches the after life, I will perish with you as well. No matter what though, it in my nature as your summon to completely adhere to your will."

"How do you know all of this?"

"? I just know, like its a part of me. Same as how one might know to breathe." 

"What did you do before being summon?"
"I don't know"

.....

.....

I asked Sigrun more questions such as what does she know. She has a general knowledge so far as I can tell, very similar to myself. She does not know that the sun is a hot ball of gas, but she does know about monsters and magic cores. She knows of the Norse gods and their stories, but she can never recollect any of her personal memories like battling alongside the other Valkyries. 

Sigrun told me that she is completely loyal, and to be honest I don't doubt it. Normally one shouldn't believe others at face value, but since she is my summon, and from her disposition, I feel that I can trust her. I mean one would trust the mana arrows they use to not kill them, and Sigrun is literally one of my skills. I guess that I could try to give her tests, such as seeing if she would take advantage of me in some way, but that leaves a rather sour taste in mouth. I would rather just observe her for now while giving her the benefit of the doubt. Regarding any other intelligent non summons I meet, I would never be this easy on them. No way would I trust another human with my life without making absolutely sure they are trustworthy, but since Sigrun is a summon she should be different. Really now I feel as if since she's my summons something like hormones is making trust her more easily. Instinct it might called perhaps. 

"So Sigrun, as a Valkyrie, does that mean you can slay a god for me right now if it came for my life?"

"...Regretably I cannot. Because I have been materialized as your life summon, my own prowess is made to be in accordance to your own. I have some knowledge I shared from our link regarding the monsters in this forest, and I could handle half a dozen of wolves easily. I could fend off a dozen if needed, but until my lady increases her strength I will be unable to fully release my powers."

Well it would be reasonable to not get a literal god slayer right from the get go, but this still means that Sigrun still has potential to grow much further. "Sigrun, do you not require any of my mana." I noticed that Life Summoning did not consume any mana, and wondered.. wait...Over a dozen minutes have passed by and my mana has only requivered slightly. At 74mp/h I should have gotten more than a dozen mp back. I have 66mp max right now. I used 60 to Merc Summon 3 times, leaving me 6mp. I should be at atleast 18, but instead I am only at 8mp. I only regenerated 2 mp? Am I sick? Did I eat something poisonous?

OK, lets think. What affects my mana regen. My stats. Checking my stats they are normal, but wait. My mana regen decreased from 74mp/h to 14mp/h. So it lowered by 60? Why 60. 60, 60, 60 ... AH my summons! Looking at the three beast summons surrounding me, I think back how each cost 20 mp to summon. 60 mp in total was used, and my regen was lowered by 60mp. Dispelling the armadillo like summon, I notice that my mp regen went up 20 from 14->34. So every merc summon I have costs me its mana cost by the hour, thus lowering my mana regen. Well, its not the worse thing to have, although I guess that I can only mana 3 beast summons at a time for now. 

Looking back at Sigrun, "Sigrun do you not need any mana from me?" 

"No my lady, as your life summon I require no continuous source of mana from you. My being is linked to yourself, but I am able to regnerate my own mana compared to the your mercenary summons which require a source from this reality to sustain their existence."

So life summons are free sla *cough  helpers to have around. In that case, leveling up my Life Summon skill would probably be the best way to go. Increasing the amount of summons I can have at one time will increase my hunting and leveling speed, while leveling Mercenary Summon would only net me more options regarding to what type of summons I have access to. Unfortunately, the Life Summon skill should only let me get another life summon at the 10 and 20 level mark, which means that a lot of my skill points will produce no results for in between, but it is still probably the best option.

Mercenary Summon can bring forth beast,plants, undead, elementals, and spirits at the 1,5,10,15, and 20 level mark. Plants? Will I get a killer giant venus fly trap? Right now, I think that beasts would actually be the best summons for my situation. Mobility and hunting speed are key here. In the forest with uneven terrain and trees everywhere, having wolf summons would probably be the best kind of predator to summon. Well actually, maybe having more kinds of summons like Sigrun would be best. I'm amazed that intelligent summons like her are allowed. Maybe my other life summons will be like her, and I could have a whole country of demihumans as my army? Well, there are many problems still with implementing these new skills into my daily routine for now. Questions like how strong is Sigrun, would a nonintelligent life summon have superior physical stats, or is she able to act as a second commander for my summons are all ponderings I will need to spend time on. 

Finally, my other two skills. Recall and communication. Both of which are rather lackluster, but in my mind they are both critical skills to have. I can literally be a commander in the backlines, ordering my....companions around, and also have Recall as a back up option if enemies lock in on me.