Being a Summoner on our Evolved Earth

Moving Forward(22)

Lucia focused on deep breathing after being picked up by Aegis so she could calm her crying.

"Aegis... Why did they attack me?"

"I don't know."

"Was I scary?"

"No."

"Was everything a ruse? Were they working with the bandits?"

"I don't know."

"... Are they dead?"

"Yes."

"I see..." Lucia sighed, "Being stabbed really hurts..."

"It does." Vicki interjected. Lucia glanced over and saw several shallow cuts over her scales from the battle with the bandits.

 "Sorry, I'll heal you now, [Healing Spring]."

"Thanks, and don't worry about those people. They aren't worth your regret and tears. How could those lowly humans understand your kindness and generosity! Humph, if Aegis hadn't beaten me to it, I'd have roasted those ungrateful people alive. Beasts have better gratitude than them!" Vicki finally spoke her hard thought out words of comfort.

"Maybe you're right. Since human's aren't grateful for me, then I'll help the beasts. If the beasts aren't grateful, I'll help the birds. If the birds aren't grateful I'll help the plants... I guess if that all fails, I'll just hide from the world and raise my familiars. There is no way I'm ever helping the insects."

"So do we still go to try trading in the human village?" Aegis asked.

"No, let's just look for some sharp rocks in the river we can use to make our own tools. Please let me down now Aegis, and thank you for carrying me."

"You're welcome Princess." Aegis gave a salute after putting Lucia down then he started scanning the surroundings for threats. Vicki started to move towards the water only to slip on a muddy incline into the water. She flailed about trying to reach the bank.

{Why is it so hard to swim? Help me!} Vicki shouted telepathically.

"[Recall Vicki], I guess she needs to learn to swim with her new body. [Summon Monkey]" Lucia smiled wryly as she saved Vicki from the river and summoned the little monkey to help instead. When the little monkey appeared it looked all around before running over to grab onto Lucia's pants.

"You disappeared earlier so I didn't get to offer you a name." Lucia bent down to grab the little monkey.

"What name?" He climbed up Lucia's arm excitedly.

"How about Arthur?" Lucia suggested.

"I like it!" Arthur cheered while bouncing up and down on Lucia's shoulder.

"Can you help me look for sharp rocks in the river please? You'll get mana as a reward." Lucia asked and Arthur nodded energetically. Lucia carried Arthur to the river's edge then carefully set him down and waded into the water to start looking. Arthur looked through the rocks closer to the surface since he was only around a foot and a half tall he couldn't go very deep. While staring at her reflection in the water, Lucia pondered, 'I guess heroes are the real fairy tales now... No public order, no social hierarchies or customs, just strength to rule huh... Not that I wanted to be a ruler, but being strong naturally makes me a possible leader.' She sighed and continued looking for rocks.

It didn't take too long to find three or four sharpish rocks and Lucia also grabbed some other stones to use for sharpening. Once they were done, Lucia picked up Arthur and passed him the ice mana sliver he made earlier, that she had now filled with mana.

"Here's your reward for helping. Don't absorb the whole sliver though so I can refill it later. In the future I'll need you to make one for me everyday so you can get bigger rewards later." Lucia explained while trying to drain as much water from her pant's legs as possible.

"Okay!" Arthur grinned happily while absorbing the mana from the sliver. Given the fluctuations in the contract, he wasn't far from second evolution already. 'The trouble is Aegis... I need to fuse him with another creature for him to be able to reach tier four and above... Given his specialties and past, he'd probably prefer a humanoid body.' Lucia continued to be troubled over this while they walked.

They spent the rest of the day walking along the river towards the mountains, while picking up sturdy looking sticks and plants that could be used as rope. By evening Arthur was ready to evolve so Lucia recalled him and summoned Vicki. She ran off to hunt after getting permission.

"Aegis, you're going to have difficulties reaching higher tiers if I don't fuse you with another creature. So I was thinking you'd want something with a humanoid shape, but I wanted to still ask your opinion." Lucia brought up the subject. Aegis put his armored hand to his chin in thought.

"It does feel like reaching fourth evolution is quite far even though I'm almost completely saturated with mana. What you suggested sounds fine, it's just that there aren't many creatures with humanoid shapes besides apes. I'll leave it to you my Princess." Aegis gave a slight salute and bow to Lucia.

Lucia smiled and nodded, "I'll do my best." A calm silence descended upon them as they finished talking, but Lucia didn't mind as she finished setting up a camp fire for Vicki to light when she gets back. For the first time in a while, Lucia had a peaceful night without nightmares or negative thoughts clouding her mind. Only thinking with optimism for their future. Over the next four days Lucia would try to summon a humanoid creature in the morning, then they'd travel for a few hours while following the river to the lake and heading towards the mountain. She practiced using spells without speaking and when moving during this time. Then during breaks and at night she tried different ways to absorb mana from the atmosphere to try to improve her own strength. It is true she grew stronger as she raised her familiars; but that was a slow process, probably because they were much weaker than her still. 

On the fourth night, a scream for help in the dark night woke Lucia from her sleep. Lucia sighed after realizing it was still dark out, then retrieved her staff. Her movements caused Vicki who didn't seem to hear the scream to wake up. The only things Lucia could see were lit by the light from their small campfire.

"Vicki, Aegis, can you both see in the dark?" Lucia asked while climbing to her feet and putting away her blanket.

"I can see." Aegis responded.

"I can kind of see. I have better sense of smell instead." Vicki answered.

"Aegis, which direction did the scream come from?" Lucia asked and Aegis pointed in the direction they had come from earlier in the day. Soon a adult man came running out of the trees frantically towards their campfire. Aegis stepped forward protectively in front of Lucia. The man had scraggy hair and beard and looked terrified. When he saw the armored figure before him he ran up to Aegis.

"Please save me! There's a ghost!" He pleaded while panting for breath. Then he looked up to see the soul flames burning in Aegis helmet like a face and fell backwards in panic. He then pointed and yelled "Another ghost!"