3 days later

Just from maxing out the S. Mana skill for that 25% increase to mp and mp regen boosted my mp from 200->266mp and mp regen from 200->279mp/h. Once I finish getting S. Mind for the Int and Wis increase, that will be the last skill from this class that increases my mana and mana regen. 

Deeper into the woods and forest we go. While traveling inwards from the start of my journey, this forest made evident just how varied and diverse its wildlife is. There are too many  different creatures for me to keep track of, so I have only made note of the ones that seemed familiar or at the very least the most notable ones. This included the orcs, goblins, and kobolds since they are the few that will stay in tribes or as large groups, in addition to how in tune their image and traits are with my...knowledge that I seem to have retained before I woke up in that desert with no memories. Similar to how I know what water is, I somehow know about goblins and their green and short bodies as well many other monsters in this forest. 

There are many creatures, however, that seem somewhat familiar, yet very new as well, such as a weird creature that seems to be a fusion of a horse and badger, owning a powerful and tall body, but with fur and a tail like a badger. Up till now none of these weird fusions or variants have posed a particular problem for my summons. Any creature that wanders alone is easy enough picking for a squad of my summons to kill, especially when each one is capable of handling multiples of its counterparts. A single tier 3, heck even a tier 1 wolf summon could handle a few grey wolves by itself. It seems that my summons are generally stronger than its counterpart in this land. 

The problematic monsters to hunt were mainly the ones that gathered into packs or villages, since their numbers could range from 20 to 100. Over time, as I have advanced from my beginning summoner class, my summons have grown even stronger, and even now a tribe of orcs would stand no match against a well prepared squad of my tier 3 summons. Heck Sigrun might even be able to solo a tribe by herself, although I’d rather not chance it. Even if my summons are powerful, I still opt to have them be grouped in squads when hunting, both in case a new and dangerous monster appears, and to be efficient. Perhaps the fastest way to hunt and cover ground would be to split each summon into its own single summon squad and hunt individually, but that would be both safe and less efficient in certain ways. 

Most of my life summons do not have strong scouting abilities, bar Ciel, and as such a beast summon with a strong nose or bird summon with keen eyesight can immensely help the hunting process. Also I hope to train my life summons to be capable lieutenants, overseeing groups of summons on their own. Although the skills I have gained as a Summoner have helped me order and control my summons, I am still just one person, one mind. I can only give so many orders at a time, so it would be great if I can delegate some summons to my life summons. 

Well...anyways...back to the point I was trying to make. Deeper into the forest, Ciel has reported a new “wave” of stronger monsters living in this layer. Wyverns, Giant Arachnids, and even Carnivorous Plants have been scouted by Ciel to be potential threats. Another point that Ciel made, was the woods have been slowly changing the further we go in. The trees are taking darker tones, the earth has grown harder, and the sounds of the birds and insects grow quiet. There are some mountains and hills much further ahead which is actually an amazing opportunity in my mind. Could there possibly be dwarves? An underground  or near civilization? Unfortunately Ciel has only been able to catch sight of the mountains, since they are too far to directly travel to and back for now. 

Even if not, a change of scenery will be welcome. I also would think that it would be worthwhile to both climb the mountain to take a look around from a high vantage point, as well as exploring some of the possible caves. Still, caves and the underground are very dangerous places to explore, so perhaps I will just send some expendable Merc Summons down and have them relay if they find anything of interest such as people, bones of people, gold, items, etc. 

Either way, I remind my summons to keep to their current squads and to relay to me if anything critical or new happens. With 280mp/h, I can effectively summon 9 Tier 3 beasts at a cost of 30 each. I tried evolving a tier 2 summon, but its drain on my mp regen increased to the amount specified by Elite Merc Summons. Basically a tier 2 beast evolved to a tier 3 increased the mana regen drain from 25 to 30. It works similarly with the other summon types. Now at first I thought that this method could practically invalidate the need for leveling up Elite Merc Summon since I basically have access to every tier 3 summon by summoning its tier 2 counterpart and evolving that, but not only does the mp regen drain increase, but it takes 200mp to evolve a summon to tier 3.  It would basically waste a lot of my current time using this method, but I will save the thought for later, I really need a specific tier 3 summon, other wise sticking to the rather cheap costing tier 3 beast summons seems most efficient and easy to use. 

With how cheap tier 3 beasts are, it makes one wonder if it is worth it summon the high costing races as a tier 2 demon is 125 and tier 2 angel is 160. A tier 3 beast would actually have a hard time against a tier 2 demon, and a tier 2 demons could outmatch multiple tier 2 beasts. So it is a small goal of mine to make a squad for each life summon of higher race type summons. The different races and their mana costs are all things considered quite balanced, although I still think that how much the cost increases from demon to angel and dragon is way to high. Even demons' cost should be lowered really. This skill is too stingy though.