The dull, ashen shard materialised at the epicentre of the Willow of Arc, shattering into innumerable fragments. These pieces began a mesmerising dance, first coalescing into a perfect circle before spiralling inward, crafting an ever-intensifying vortex.

Astonishingly, the clouds violently collided again, as if on the verge of a battle to the death. Nevertheless, this phenomenon remained confined to the sky, not affecting the ground or the wind that swayed on the ground, and the thunderbolt appeared ready to strike.

The vortex, once a sombre grey, now blazed with vivid hues of orange, yellow, and...

Inhale! Inhale!

A sharp intake of breath revealed an unmistakable scent emanating from the vortex, accompanied by its newfound colour.

"It's ablaze!"

In the very next instant, the thunderbolt reached its zenith within the cloud, hurtling itself towards the vortex. I sealed my eyes against the ensuing brilliance, only to be met with a thunderous collision as the bolt merged with the vortex, unleashing a silent, seismic roar.

Ding!

I began looking through the status window that had popped up in front of me, but then I heard a 'thud,' and following that sound came a voice.

"Greetings, Master. I am but your humble servant. Sincerely grateful for your summoning. This humble servant asks for his master's understanding and wishes that the master will bestow me a name." I looked at the source of the voice—a bald individual standing in front of me, bowing 90 degrees. His bald head had continuous dotted circles on it, going parallel from his forehead to the back of his head. He wore typical orange monk clothing and had a whip with a shiny and sharp glint tied to his waist. He had a slim build with not many muscles protruding.

"At ease. Tell me what you can do, and I'll decide on a name for you."

The Shaolin Carpenter released himself from the 90-degree bow, and with just a slight bow, he began speaking, his voice gentle: "Master, this humble servant of yours can craft wooden shields that even metallic weapons can't pierce. This humble servant of yours can also sculpt artefacts with gentle abilities, and last but not least, this humble servant of your master can chop trees like butter. Master, this humble servant believes that as his cultivation progresses, this humble servant will be even more useful."

"So, my humble servant, can you fight?"

The monk raised his voice a little, though it still sounded gentle: "No, master, this humble servant of yours despises fighting."

"Okay. Alright. So," I pointed to all the trees that were within the dimensions of the Layer Cryptor and spoke, "how much time will it take you to clear them all?"

The Shaolin Carpenter glanced around, his dark eyes darting around every corner, and spoke a moment later, lifting his neck to look at me, "An hour, master."

"Good, very good." I nodded in satisfaction. It felt awesome when things were this easy and smooth. In a good mood, I gave the carpenter his name, "Cary Liquidator."

I gave him the last name too 'Liquidator', which had immense significance in my life, not this life but previous.

Cary smiled and bowed 90 degrees, expressing his thanks. I ordered him to cut down the trees, as he was not strong enough to move them. After he was done with the wood-cutting work, I told him to be the watchman for the tribe, as almost every barbarian was exhausted. He left for his job.

"Who was that, and what's with this bizarre lighting?" I heard Alcatraz's voice as Cary left; he was standing beside me.

I glanced to the side, realising that only he was standing there with his face cleaned but still with some patches of blood marking different parts of his body.

"How many went to rest?"

"11, and Tharl and the others, well, they are shocked by what's happening, but I told them to stay away as you do whatever the hell you are doing."

"Well, it's complicated, but in simple terms, this broken stone can summon creatures."

"What does that mean?"

"Like I said, it's complicated, so in simpler terms, that baldy over there is our servant."

"So, the man is a bald human and he's our servant, and this stone-like structure can summon, meaning call forth someone, so do they come from Maker? Is there anything else that we should be aware of?"

"Well, you could say that the Maker created him and sent him to us via thunder in the sky." That was a good question because I didn't know a thing about the system or how all this was possible. But how the Old Hag had reacted sometimes made me question if the Maker was behind this. However, that was a mystery to solve later, and I didn't give a crap about it all if my life was going to be this easy-summoning, building things, cultivating, and making my summons strong.

"Alcy, let's summon an epic-ranked one. Shall we?"

Alcatraz raised his eyebrows but stood quietly, waiting for the theatrics to happen.

But before proceeding to summon next creature, I looked at the blinking interface that was hanging and blinking at the right side of my vision.

Ding!

'I get it, so basically all the summoned creatures will share the same cultivation level as mine, and they won't be able to advance to a higher realm unless I do. Essentially, they will be limited to the same realm as mine, but they can cultivate up to its last stage.'

'Well, that's urging me to cultivate but it's not like I will not cultivate.'

'For easy life one must strive and persevere a little hardship.' Words of the Buddha, or maybe not.

"Yes," I answered.

The purple shard also materialised at the epicentre and shattered into countless fragments, denser than before. The fragments formed a bigger circle than last time and then formed a vortex larger than last time.

The clouds clashed violently and more relentlessly than last time, and thunder tipped at the zenith of the clouds, bigger and stronger looking than last time. And then it happened—the vortex turned from purple to orange, began burning, and filled the air with a strange scent. The thunderbolt thundered down, and we all sealed our eyes at the sudden bright illumination, followed by the silent, violent roar.

'So, this will be a normal procedure for the summoning; talk about drama. Well, we should totally forget about hiding now; this summoning is screaming our location.'

Ding!

Those were some of the most insane and domineering names I had ever heard. I understood that I had struck gold, or even better than that.

After witnessing the insane status window, I finally looked up.

"Holy...!"

Melons, tellons, dellons, cellons-whatever you called them, she had it all. With her whole body naked and only covered by her long feathery obsidian wings, her delicate, fair, creamy porcelain skin shone in the moonlight cascading on her. Her face, devoid of emotions, gazed at everyone below.

Her eyes landed on me, and momentarily she looked stunned. But the next instant, she flew into the air, her obsidian wings opening wide and flapping. With gentle flaps, she came elegantly but swiftly towards me and knelt on one knee before me. No dust arose as she descended.

"Master, your humble servant greets you and asks you for your forgiveness for not greeting you earlier." Her soft yet fierce voice, filled with guilt, reached my ears.

As she knelt in front of me, I could discern her features properly. Her physique was majestic, with perfect curves, and her porcelain body had no imperfections. However, her most beautiful aspect was her obsidian long-feathered wings that protruded from her back. If one wing was to be stood properly, it appeared to be the same height as her, which was smaller than Alcatraz.

"I forgive you; stand up." This wasn't an act; I genuinely forgave her for her mistake, the mistake of looking down on her master.

She, however, didn't stand and once again spoke, "Master, thank you for your forgiveness. Please bestow a name upon me."

I had already understood that summons would ask for names, so I quickly looked at the interface and decided. I looked at her and spoke, "I'll name you Rave Liquidator, and Rave, I have got a task for you."

Rave stood up, cupped her hands, and bowed, saying, "Thank you for bestowing me with the name, master. Please address me with the task you wish for."

"Look there," I pointed.

Ding! The Radiant Lotus Enclave appearance has been equipped.

The town hall, which looked like some banged-up ass, began changing its appearance. Though it was still a single-story building, the town hall now looked taller, resembling a cultivation abode in Chinese cultivation novels. Lanterns hung along the sides, and it had a long front door.

As the appearance changed, Alcatraz had his eyes wide in surprise, but he settled himself calmly. Rave, on the other hand, wasn't particularly surprised. She again looked at me, and I continued. "Your task is to cultivate and become as strong as possible for tomorrow's battle. Go into the town hall and begin your cultivation."

The moment I mentioned cultivation and the battle, her soft face with a small nose and sharp eyes had its muscles along the line clenched, and she replied, "Yes, master. Your wish is my command. I'll reach the last stage of the first realm by the end of this night."

"That'll be even better."

With a fierce look, she gracefully took a step back, bowed, and flew towards the town hall. As the appearance had changed, I didn't know why, but the air felt much purer, and it felt uplifting. It also felt denser, and I somehow felt the reason for this was the second effect of the Radiant Lotus Enclave appearance. The town hall collected five times more qi than the current town hall level allowed.

Both summons were doing separate things that were beneficial for the tribe.

"It truly is miraculous."

"It's our Maker. Do you expect any less?"

"No, never. I would have been disappointed if that was the case." He paused a bit and, as if he were hesitating, continued again, "Sky, is there anything that will make us stronger than those who were able to slice us effortlessly?"

I eyed Alcatraz. Barbarians were ridiculously physically strong, but they were still hunted down and were on the verge of extermination.

Why?

Even being this physically strong didn't make them invincible.

No, it didn't.

The main reason was that even though humans were far weaker than barbarians physically, they had something that barbarians didn't, and that was 'mana, the energy that humans used in various ways to become strong. I had seen the fragments of Skylar Reigns's memories, and in those memories, there were knights that used various magical arts and slashed barbarians in half like slicing butter.

"I have, in fact, and soon we'll be the ones slicing them."

"That's refreshing to hear." He smiled, but not his eyes. They seemed to be conceiving of something ruthless.

"Oh, by the way, what's your plan for tomorrow? Oh, no, no, I nearly forgot to tell you."

"What?" I eyed him while guessing what he might have forgotten.

"So, the vines that we connected and used as a navigation source at night."

"Yeah, what about it?"

"There was something different about it on the other side of the river. I mean, the moment I crossed the river through the wood bridge and kept holding the vine, the vines felt different. It was as if it were more energised, or you could say even the environment there felt livelier. Even the barbarians who were stationed there had reported me that they felt as if their bodies felt a tingling sensation, and it felt as if both sides of the river were different somehow."

I processed what he just said and nodded.

"Well, there's nothing that we can do now, but I'll keep that in mind."

"Of course, I thought you should know. So... what's the plan for those captured bandits, and how will we find other bandits? What's our fighting strategy against them?"