Chapter 72
“Heh heh, this mithril sword cuts through them like butter!”
Today was Allen’s day off. He let out a joyful shout far from the town of Granvelle.
The other day, he’d received twenty gold coins as a reward for driving Murder Garsh away from town and as thanks for rescuing the parent and child in the carriage. He added five gold coins from his savings and bought a mithril sword for twenty-five gold coins at the weapon shop.
Since he was still only nine, it wasn’t a very long sword. He’d had it made somewhere between the length of a short sword and a dagger. That let him keep the price down a little; a short sword would have cost thirty gold coins.
(Hmm, its outer shell is so hard I can scratch it, but not pierce through it. Still, I can slice right through the exoskeleton beneath its armor.)
As he tested his mithril sword on a tough Armored Ant, he compared it to the dagger Dogora had given him, which had cost fifty silver coins.
(Now I can recover the Magic Stone.)
He could now retrieve the Magic Stone he’d been unable to cut out the last time he’d killed an Armored Ant.
He climbed onto the back of an Armored Ant that stood three meters tall.
(It’s as huge as ever.)
Looking at the Armored Ant, he was reminded of something he’d been wondering about for years. He’d first started wondering when he was six.
The two-meter-long Alba Heron was so large it could be mistaken for a wyvern, yet it was a low-ranked D-rank monster.
Other questions had come to mind since then.
The Great Boar stood three meters tall, yet it had dealt Rodin a fatal blow in a single strike, even though Rodin had hunted them for ten years and reached a much higher Level.
After coming to the town of Granvelle, his questions had only grown.
The muscular, violent Goblins were D-rank monsters. Armored Ants stood three meters tall and shrugged off anything but the strongest attacks, yet they were only C-rank monsters. Orcs were two and a half meters tall and armed with weapons, making them formidable opponents.
And the B-rank monster Murder Garsh was so powerful that even knights and adventurers hesitated to face it. It was more than just formidable. It made sense that someone would pay two hundred gold coins to have it defeated.
(What is it? I can’t quite put it into words. I’ve only ever seen monsters in this other world, but somehow, they feel a whole level stronger than I expected.)
He was overcome by the feeling that he was trying to force something he couldn’t explain into words.
(Oh, right. There’s something I absolutely have to test today. Being chased by Murder Garsh gave me an insight I can’t afford to waste.)
He planned to take it easy on his hunt today because there was something he needed to investigate. Being chased by Murder Garsh for three days and nights had given him something he wanted to test.
Allen looked up at the sky. Several Bird E Summons were flying overhead, circling around. He’d always told them to alert him if they spotted a monster or adventurer, but now he’d also instructed them to report immediately if they saw Murder Garsh. He didn’t know where it had gone after leaving the foothills of the White Dragon Mountains, and it might attack him again while he was hunting.
Raven had told him that Murder Garsh generally didn’t attack villages or towns. It was a monster that appeared out in the field, on roads and the like. Hearing that, Allen had thought it sounded like a normal boss that suddenly appeared in an area with only weak enemies.
In the games he’d played in his previous life, a normal boss was one scattered across the field, unrelated to any event or story. Even if you defeated it, it would reappear. It was an enemy born of the development team’s playful whim: a boss that suddenly appeared where there were only weak enemies and took out players who hadn’t yet had a chance to grow.
Allen looked at the Bird E Summons flying overhead.
(Hawks, come down here, two of you. One of you, fly somewhere far away for about five minutes, then come back.)
Two Bird E Summons descended. Allen turned one of them back into a card and held it in his hand. The other Hawk followed his instructions and flew away from above him.
Allen began his experiment.
(Hawk, watch this.)
In front of the Bird E Summon he hadn’t turned into a card, he took a burlap sack out of Storage and showed that it was empty. Then he took a Mormo fruit out of Storage and put it in the sack.
He set the sack on the ground, then placed a Mormo fruit, some dried meat, and a dried sweet potato in front of it.
(All right, Hawk. Can you tell which one is in the sack? Pick one with your beak.)
The Bird E Summon that had watched him put the Mormo fruit inside easily picked it out.
(Good, you got it. Now, Hawk, come on out. Guess which one is inside this sack. Don’t just guess. If you don’t know, don’t choose.)
After putting the Mormo fruit in the sack, he summoned the Bird E Summon that had been a card. He had it guess what was inside.
The Bird E Summon, which hadn’t seen him put the Mormo fruit in the sack, easily picked it out with its beak.
(So you can tell.)
So far, the results were just as Allen had expected.
While they were doing that, the Bird E Summon he’d sent far away for about five minutes returned to him.
(Come down.)
He brought the Bird E Summon that had been far away down to the ground and had it guess what was in the sack, just as before.
(Guess which of these three is inside. If you don’t know, shake your head.)
The Bird E Summon that had been far away shook its head. It didn’t know.
(Good, good. You don’t know. Next, I’ll generate one.)
He used a Magic Stone to generate and summon a Bird E Summon. He strengthened its Intelligence so it could understand what he was asking, then had it guess what was inside the sack, just as before.
It easily picked the Mormo fruit.
(As I thought, a newly generated Summon can tell what’s inside, too. Now, Poppo, come out.)
He summoned a Bird F Summon, strengthened its Intelligence, and had it guess what was inside in the same way.
Unlike the newly generated Bird E Summon, it shook its head. It didn’t seem to know.
(As I thought. You don’t know. So being chased by Murder Garsh had its purpose after all.)
Allen had been pursued without even having time to sleep. During that time, he’d kept track of Murder Garsh’s position using Hawk Eye, a special ability of Bird E Summons. Perhaps Murder Garsh was intelligent, too, because it had started to chase after the Bird E Summons returning to Allen.
Murder Garsh, the chaser in their game of tag, had stubbornly done everything it could to find Allen.
As a desperate measure, Allen had decided that even if a Bird E Summon spotted Murder Garsh, it shouldn’t return to him. When he had a newly generated Bird E Summon check Murder Garsh’s location, it flew off without hesitation, as if it already knew where to go. That was when he realized what was happening. The life-or-death game of tag had brought him a major discovery, in addition to the gold.
Startled, Allen had realized he needed to investigate how the Summons’ knowledge and information were connected, and what they were connected to.
(All right, time to organize what I learned from that experiment.)
He’d had one Bird E Summon watch him put the Mormo fruit in the sack. Using a different Summon, he sorted out the conditions under which it could and couldn’t tell that the Mormo fruit was inside.
Conditions for knowing the Mormo fruit is inside
• Summoning a Bird E Summon that had been turned into a card
• A newly generated Bird E Summon
Conditions for not knowing the Mormo fruit is inside
• A Bird E Summon that hadn’t been turned into a card
• A newly generated Bird F Summon
(Could this be how it works?)
Further analysis
• All information experienced by a Summon is synchronized and updated when a new one is generated.
• Information is synchronized and updated only between Summons of the same type.
(This would be even more convenient without the 50-meter rule.)
The 50-Meter Rule
• Summons can only be summoned or turned into cards within 50 meters of Allen.
• He can only give them instructions for their special abilities within 50 meters of himself.
Allen looked at the Bird E Summons waiting for his instructions.
(You are beings who are always growing. You walk alongside your Summoner, gathering all the information you encounter and continuing to grow.)
He’d learned that Summons had wills of their own and constantly updated their knowledge. As long as their Summoner remained, they could transcend even death and continue to grow.