Being a Summoner on our Evolved Earth

Rest (6)

Lucia applied pressure to her bleeding wound on her left arm after finishing combat. Being injured had caused her to feel frustrated by her lacking ability. She could heal anything other than humans in the game after all. When she herself gets injured, it is very dangerous, especially without medicine and bandages. Lucia felt like cursing at her recklessness when approaching the mage all casual and confident. In a bit of desperation, she decided to try healing magic on herself.

"[Healing Spring]" The mana coalesced in her fingertips as light wrapped her wound with the texture of bubbling water. To Lucia's joyful surprise, her healing spell actually worked on herself! She didn't have a good view of the wound, but she could feel her skin and muscle twitching as well as a slight itchiness. After half a minute, the half inch deep cut was healed with only a faint scar left, and even that was slowly disappearing. Lucia let out a sigh of relief after confirming that her healing magic worked on herself. The prospect of being able to heal anyone was definitely preferred. 

With a relieved mind, Lucia went over the loot, two cores from the recent opponents. The mage's robes that it wore were too tattered to be anything other than rags so she didn't take them. All along Lucia had been collecting the armor pieces from the soldier's they came across, other than the two in the arena. She had about four sets of breastplate and helmet saved up by now. This time she also picked up the rusted sword and buckler. Then instead of moving forward, she went back to the room she first woke up in. It was a quiet trek through the narrow bland tunnels. Only the echoing footsteps could be heard. When they entered the final hallway leading to the awakening room, it wasn't there, but it went straight to a transformed bedroom instead. Instead of just a stone bed and mirror, it now had a wooden bed, desk, nightstand, mirror, a small wooden divider, and pedestal with a small cloud of white fog floating over it. Lucia was surprised to see the new additions, in the end though the fog was the most attention grabbing. 

The fog sensed her curiosity and moved to form a question. "What would you like to know?"

"Is there a limit to the questions I can ask you, like how many, or for how long?" Lucia asked this to determine the importance of her questions. 

"Five questions a day as long as you are in this dungeon, in this room, I can answer all types of questions."  The fog responded immediately. 

"Is this entire dungeon undead based?" Lucia needed to know this.

"The first floor absorbed a mausoleum, that's how there are so many undead. The other floors each have their own specialty." 

"Which floors have creatures that are edible or food?" Lucia definitely didn't want to only eat jerky for her whole stay here. 

"Food is rewarded when clearing each floor. Floor's five, fifteen, and twenty have edible animals that you are familiar with. There are some animals on other floors that are edible, but may have negative effects when eaten like poison."

"This is the first floor, so shouldn't the exit to the dungeon be on this floor?" Lucia tried her luck with this question.

"The entrance is sealed until previously stated requirements have been met. This room lets you travel to all levels as it is your home during your stay." The fog even added relevant information to the question.

"In your opinion, what is the best way to raise summoned creatures in this dungeon?" Lucia wanted an outside opinion that was aware of the current rules of the world.

"Each creature has a different starting point based on the amount of mana that it can absorb before evolving. By filling it with mana that is either from you, or external sources like mana crystals found in all living creatures, you can fill its maximum potential at its current level. Like using a full water balloon versus a half filled water balloon. Also the quality of the materials used in evolution is secondary, as the difference in quality only results in minor boosts. Most creatures will not grow from constant exercise or learning until they awaken their spiritual wisdom. Combining creatures that have undergone at least three evolutions each raises the chances of unlocking spiritual wisdom. Spiritual Wisdom is guaranteed by the sixth evolution." 

'I see, so instead of needing my creatures to experience combat early, I just need to fill them with mana and procure the evolution materials.' Lucia concluded the major difference between the game and this new reality.

"Why does it feel like my memories about anything besides the game are sealed?" Lucia only just realized as she was trying to think about if she had family.

"To keep you from experiencing emotional breakdowns we have sealed your memories relating to people  you care about. This was your last question for today." The fog waited until she finished reading then went back to its pedestal.

Lucia was dumbfounded, her memories were sealed to keep her emotions in check... 'That isn't fair for us...' Lucia didn't feel comfortable about this, but she couldn't do anything about it either at this point in time. She sighed and went to the divider to take off her leather armor that had started to feel heavy. Under her armor she still wore a dark green tank top with black shorts. She put the armor and staff in the backpack and then hugged it in her arms as she flopped onto the bed. She didn't feel safe in this room without a door, so she thought of asking her soldier to guard the door. As she lifted her head she saw her skeletal soldier already taking its position in the hallway watching out for invaders. 

'Did I just order it with my mind?' Lucia questioned, then tried thinking another command, 'turn 180 degrees please.' The skeletal soldier turned as she instructed in her mind without complaint, not that it could complain... Lucia didn't keep ordering her skeletal soldier around and properly climbed in bed this time. Thoughts swirled in her mind now that she wasn't tense and distracted. Including the time before the raid in the game, she'd probably been awake for twelve hours already. She should be exhausted, but her mind had a tendency to start thinking only when she was laying down to rest. 

'We caused all this... We're at fault for changing the world and throwing everyone's lives into chaos... What's worse, we aren't even allowed to help them, instead being trapped in here. Having power and not being able to use it is frustrating... I can't rush out of this dungeon like others can. I have to raise up a powerful summoned creature first. I'll probably be one of the last out of the dungeon. If I have family, I hope they are safe. It's going to be lonely in here, at least when I was gaming I still had people to talk to.' The more Lucia thought, the more upset she felt, but she was powerless to stop her spiraling thoughts. 

'I'm really useless... A healer that isn't available to heal the injured in desperate times... I'm weak at combat too. I got injured by a second evolution skeletal mage.' As she started thinking about skeleton type monsters, her thoughts changed to her own contracted one. 'Should I even bother raising my skeletal soldier? It would take a long time to raise it to its max fifth evolution. Then I'd still have to fuse it with something else to get spiritual wisdom. First evolution is from zombie to skeleton. Then from skeleton it can become a soldier, archer, or mage. After that soldiers become knights, then royal knights, and finally kings. However, there is a mutation evolution that requires extra materials for the evolution I want.  It would become a Living armor that is stuck at its third evolution, but it is excellent fusion material with most other creatures. 

When living armor is fused with another creature that doesn't naturally have armor, it becomes an armored variant with strong defenses. 'So I need to pray for luck in my random summons for something worth raising. After all, I don't want to be labeled a necromancer when I do get out of here.' Finally sorting out her simple plan for the future she started to calm down. Lucia felt her eyes getting heavier, and finally fell asleep after half an hour of thinking.