Being a Summoner on our Evolved Earth

(61)

Lucia woke up to find herself laying uncomfortably on the stairs. Aegis who had been watching over her; helped her sit up. 

"When it rains it pours..." Lucia sighed.

"What happened?" Aegis asked with concern.

"My soul got pulled back to my main body because I was getting beaten up pretty badly. I resolved the immediate threat..." Lucia explained.

"Actually it was your 60% soul and 40% soul temporarily trading places from what I observed." Aegis explained his findings.

"I see. Did you interact with the other half of me?" Lucia asked.

Aegis shook his head, "No, you were unconscious the whole time." 

"Well, I have confirmed that my body is being held in some kind of facility like Vivi said." Lucia sighed. "It's going to be troublesome to get out, the only good news is they said my mom is safe. Though it is likely they will use her as a hostage to control me..."

"We'll work on increasing our strength first, then we can slowly strategize on how to deal with that facility." Aegis comforted Lucia.

"I know, sorry for the wait. Let's keep going." Lucia stood up with Aegis and they continued up the stairs. "Now that I think about it, has this happened to any of you?"

Aegis shook his head, "No. I did have an illusion of being hit a few times early on in the first century after you were sealed, but I never got my soul pulled back."

"I also had an illusion of being attacked a couple times." Vicki thought for a moment.

Rikit nodded, "There was one time where I suddenly felt like the environment I was in switched, but it was night in both places. Wounds suddenly appeared, and I just thought I was ambushed. So I caught the creature that attacked me, ate it, and went back to sleep. When I woke up, the aching wounds had disappeared, but I was still hungry."

Ray shook his head, "Never happened to me."

"I guess this is my first sensation of it after being unsealed. Just how much torment has my real body gone through all this time?" Lucia lamented, but didn't pause her steps forward. She even pulled out a neutral crystal to start pulling mana from while also absorbing mana from the environment to speed up her progress as they traveled. 

Aegis noticed, but didn't stop her. Ray also noticed thanks to the new accessory. He could feel Lucia pulling in large amounts of mana like a vacuum.

Ray suddenly asked, "So uh, what tier are you guys?"

"Aegis and I are tier 6, Vicki is tier 5, and Rikit is tier 8." Lucia replied nonchalantly.

"Earlier Aegis, I mean Vivi mentioned you were tier 10 before, right?" 

"Yes, Aegis, Vicki, and I were once at tier 10. Do to circumstances at the time, we lost our strength and had to start over from tier 1 less than a month ago.

"What!? You went from tier 1 to tier 6 in a month?!" Ray was shocked. 

"We have some resources stocked up over the last century, and we know how to absorb mana efficiently. I would probably be higher tier if I wasn't using portions of my mana to speed up Aegis and Vicki's growth too." Lucia explained calmly.

Ray looked at her incredulously. 'What have we all been doing with our lives? So many people have trouble just reaching tier 2! This is what genius looks like right?'

"Increasing our strength just feels like forcing our bodies to be able to hold more mana. When the body finally can't take any more, we go undergo a physical upgrade during evolution sleep." Lucia analyzed, then asked "What do you guys think about what Vivi said, about becoming Gods?"