1 week later

Regarding my recent leveling, I have decided for the most part to ignore leveling the Merc Summon skill. Currently, just summoning the tier 3 beasts already taxes my mana heavily, and there is no specific race I want access to.  Also 100 skill points is just way too much. It would take me more than 30 levels to just max the skill which is quite preposterous if I do say so. 

I finished maxing the mana increasing skills of S. Mind and S. Mana, so all that's left are more utility type spells. Summoner is something I really don't need. Our current home, while not anything fancy, is nice enough. Atleast that is what my life summons say. Honestly, without proper beddings, blankets, pillows,......beds, I can't say that I wouldn't want an improvement in for my living quarters. I tried putting Sigrun in the space before. Interestingly enough, I tried communicating with her, but was unable to hear any reply. Bringing her back out, it seems as though she felt as if no time had passed since she first went in. She also couldn't hear my message. 

In this case, perhaps the summoner space works similar to my inventory. I can put perishables like food in my inventory without fear since when I take them out, they are as fresh as when I put them in. In my mind, I think that Inventory is a separate space in which time doesn't flow, so when I put some hot food in it, it still comes out hot since no time has passed. Perhaps summoner space works similarly. 

All in all, this skill seems to be mainly useful for either hiding my summons, or carrying them with me without the need for them to travel by themselves, or the need for any sustenance since their time is frozen. As such I haven't deemed the skill too important to invest in. 

Summons' Network on the other hand is an insane skill. I am unsure of how far the range is by now, but so far I haven never been unable to communicate with a summon except for summoners space. It is also very helpful in allowing my summons  to telepathically communicate with each other. It seems to work in both 1 on 1 and in groups chatting as well. 

The teleport skill isn't too important yet either since all of us are often busy hunting in our own squads and will reconvene at the end of the day either way. 

An important discovery to note, is that the mountain area is getting closer as we trek further. I've set Ciel on a personal scouting mission with a few summons to go ahead of our groups and travel all the way to the mountains to recon the area. We've made sure to keep in touch everyday she is gone. She has just arrived at the base of the mountains but is still busy scouting the perimeter. I ordered her to not enter just yet, as it is important for her to first look around the mountains from a distance. All sorts of creatures or traps could be lurking around either in the rocky ground to the hidden caves. Ciel has noted that there are some creatures, known and new, that travel from and to the mountains to the forest.  She reported, however, that the bulk of creatures making this commute are the Arachnids. 

Giant spider like creature, serrated black claws, ominous red marking on their body, and very viscous looking faces/mouths. Surprisingly Ciel hasn't seen any webs in the forest, but has seen them bringing prey wrapped in cocoons back into the mountains. Unfortunately that probably spells out that the mountains are not home to an intelligent civilization, rather there is probably a spiders' nest/den/colony. We both are currently unaware of how big the tunnels and caves of the mountain run and how big the spiders colony could be. Ciel has reported seeing several dozen spiders in her travels, but generally they travel alone and she unable to tell if she saw a new spider, or if it was the same one just making another round trip. 

Well, seeing as it took Ciel a week even at her speed which she is somewhat specialized in as a scout, it might take us a while to reach the mountains. Of course I could teleport myself to Ciel, then Recall all of my summons, but since Ciel sprinted towards the mountains, not only would we miss all of the exp treats along the way, but we may also miss something. Generally I have been traveling slower than what the fastest pace we could perform, mainly to have our groups spread out and travel in a fan like formation in order to both hunt more of the surrounding monsters, but also to survey the surrounding areas. Who knows if some travelers or people could be nearby, or if a treasure of sorts could be hidden in the foliage. A treasure...like cotton plants.... I mainly sent Ciel much further ahead, just because this landmark was the biggest chance of some kind of civilization appearing. I've ordered Ciel to try and send a bird summon over the mountains to see if there is anything hidden on the other side but it will take some time.