Chapter 86
[The Summoning skill's rank is increasing. Summoning: B+ -> A
The 'Summoning' skill has reached its threshold.
If certain conditions are met, you can temporarily summon the kingdom's forces.]
“Oh..?”
For a moment, I was so flustered that a stupid sound slipped out of me. Reading it closely, it was definitely the story Ophilia had told me before, but the text was so long that it startled me.
Give me a three-line summary.
“Mm, three lines, huh.”
As the Summoning skill's rank rose to A, it had reached its threshold. It said that, if certain conditions were met, I could temporarily summon the kingdom's forces.... Wait, wasn't this what I was talking about when I checked my skills right after awakening?
Still, I was the kingdom's princess, so when I heard 'Summoning skill,' I figured it had to be some super-powerful ability that would summon the kingdom's soldiers.
“I-it was real....”
The kingdom's forces... that sounds kind of like Ophilia, doesn't it? If they're only temporarily summoned, do they just help for a bit and then disappear? That's a little disappointing. If they're like Ophilia, then they'd at least be a person.
It feels a little wrong to summon them for a moment, make them fight, and then send them back.
“Brr, it's cold.”
I was standing there blankly in the middle of the bathroom with my body still wet, so I was cold. Even though the steam from the bathwater made it warm, I was naked.
ㅡpat pat
After wiping off the water and stepping outside, I found Ophilia sitting on the sofa, waiting for me to come out.
“Ophilia! Look at this!”
“Your Order Issuance skill has risen to S-rank. Congratulations.”
“Yay~~”
With makeup on and wearing a bathrobe, I sat in the vanity chair while Ophilia dried my hair.
“Ophilia, what are the kingdom's forces like? Would, like, 20,000 knights just appear?”
“The existence of 20,000 well-trained knights is a fantastical number.”
“Huh, really?”
For some reason, it was starting to feel a bit underwhelming? Not 20,000 knights? I mean, I heard the South Korean military has hundreds of thousands of troops.
“Knights are, by nature, an extremely small number of elite combat specialists. What Your Highness is thinking of would probably be soldiers.”
“Ah, I see.”
What I had imagined and what was real were apparently a little different. Knights don't just pop out like in comics; apparently, each one is ridiculously expensive to train.
“Ophilia, do you know about it? The kingdom's forces?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Please tell me too! I'm curious!”
Ophilia seemed to think for a moment, then gave a slight shake of her head.
“This is something that must have meaning only if you think of it yourself, Princess. I don't think I can tell you first.”
“Aww, really?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
It seemed like Ophilia was a summon too, so maybe there were restrictions on that sort of thing. Anyway, I was looking forward to it! I mean, maybe I could even use 300 troops to surround and wipe out more than 5,000 enemies.
Wait, wouldn't this one thing let me break through Silence Laboratory in no time? Tower-type dungeon structures may unfold another world inside them, but basically they have size limits.
If I summoned a hundred million soldiers and just went on a rampage, what would they do? Until now, the most monsters ever shown on one floor of the tower was around 35,000, right? And even that was said to be an ant army charging in with sheer numbers.
“Heeheehee, Ophilia! I feel like I've gotten super strong, don't I?!”
“You're much better to look at than you were a moment ago.”
“Right?!”
“Yes, now that you're clean, you look much better.”
“Hmph.”
* * * * *
“Mm-mm, I see, I see.”
The next morning, still feeling pretty pleased with myself, I opened my status window and checked the skill again. The phrase from yesterday's notification was still attached under Summoning, but there was one thing bothering me.
“What are these 'certain conditions'..?”
Normally, shouldn't they explain this sort of thing in more detail? It's not like I'm solving some riddle, so why do I have to figure it out?
When I made Ophilia before, I at least knew that stuffing in a bunch of metal or magic stones would solve it right away. But this one is too broad, so I can't tell.
“Mmmmmm....”
ㅡscritch scritch
I had just woken up, so maybe my brain wasn't working properly. Usually, scratching my stomach makes my head feel clearer, but this time it didn't work.
Maybe I should drink some cold water to wake myself up.
ㅡclick
“Ophilia. Ophilia?”
“Princess, are you awake?”
“Yep. I got up early.”
I couldn't tell whether Ophilia had slept at all, or whether she had just stayed awake the whole time. It was only 7:30 in the morning, so wasn't that incredibly early? Did Ophilia wake up around 6 or so?
“Do you sleep too, Ophilia?”
“Yes, I do. During pseudo-sleep, I can reduce the mana I consume.”
“Heeey, I see. Ophilia, what are these certain conditions? It sounds like you can summon the kingdom's forces only after meeting some condition.”
“To reproduce the original power wielded by the kingdom's main forces, you'd need a golem with equivalent output. Also, for you, Princess, there must be proper conditions for you to summon them.”
“Me? Hmm, is it what you said yesterday?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
That's the part where I have to directly imagine the kingdom's forces. Since she said it only has meaning if I think of it myself, I guess I'll have to study it a bit.
“The forces, huh....”
After gulping down cold water from the water purifier, I was definitely awake now. Ophilia said cold water isn't good for your health, but as a Korean, I couldn't help it. More than that, I needed to think about how to use the Summoning skill's new ability.
“Ah, right. Ophilia. If I have this, can I go to Silence Laboratory too?”
“If Your Highness becomes able to use the new ability stably, yes. I believe so.”
“Ooooh..!”
“But not yet. Recreating the kingdom's soldiers will consume a tremendous amount of mana. It won't be very effective if it can only be maintained for a short time.”
“Aww.”
According to Ophilia, I still wasn't at that level. The kingdom's soldiers must have been really strong. If that's the case, isn't Minyum pretty strong too? I can keep Minyum, Suri, Ophilia, and Puppy going for 24 hours straight.
Of course, they all do reduce their mana consumption by eating, meditating, and things like that.... Still, I should have a fair amount of mana, shouldn't I?
Maybe my skill's mana efficiency is worse than I expected.
* * * * *
“Hello!”
“Eve's here? Welcome. Ophilia and the others.”
ㅡbeep!
The last time I was in Britain, Minyum and Suri said they had sparred with hunters in Nova Guild's training ground. Apparently that got a really good reaction, and people were disappointed that Minyum wasn't there.
There are so many things you have to be careful about when sparring with people, right? If someone gets hurt and ends up with lingering effects, or has to sit out for a while, that's an immediate drop in combat power.
So, I came back to the Nova training room both to watch the sparring and to get some training in myself.
“Oh, robot friend. You're here again.”
ㅡclank!
“So this little one is the one from before?”
“That's right.”
“Oh? That one?”
There was a woman with deep red hair who looked like a hunter, someone I'd never seen before. She was Hunter Ju Hayoung, the captain of Nova's 3rd strike team. I couldn't tell from far away, but seeing her up close, I thought I recognized her.
She was someone who had made huge headlines a few months ago.
“Ah! I saw her on the internet!”
“Really? You know me?”
“Hmm... a little..?”
She's the one who, when an open gate appeared in downtown Seoul, drove a car straight at the gate, sliced off the car's roof with her sword, then escaped through the emergency exit. She plowed the monsters aside with the car.
“Ahaha, it was an emergency.”
“That's why Hayoung had to write an incident report.”
“Ah, unnie. Don't talk about that.”
Seeing her talk with Chaerin unnie, it looked like the two of them were close. Well, they were both captains in the same guild, even if they were from different strike teams, so of course they'd know each other well.
That's the problem with Nova. Even though they're clearly insanely strong hunters, the more people there are, the less noticed you become once you join Nova. Hunters with a lot on their plate get spread across different teams, and I guess there are fewer chances for them to shine.
Hunter Ju Hayoung is also a mid-to-upper A-rank sword user, so if she'd gone to another city she'd be guild master level, and yet here she is as the captain of the 3rd strike team.
Nova has it rough too.
“So, uh... you want to watch?”
“Yes! I want to see a real fight properly!”
The kingdom's forces were still hard for me to gauge, but according to Ophilia, they were so strong that I'd have trouble maintaining them in my current state.
So I figured I should watch how hunters of a certain level fought, to get a feel for it.
“Go, Minyum!!”
ㅡclank!
Today as well, in the biggest ring at the center of the packed Nova training room, a match was set between Hunter Ju Hayoung and Minyum.
One side wielded a long single-edged blade, and the other was a knight using a sword and shield.
ㅡBEEEEEP!!
At the sound of the sparring ring's alert, the two of them moved almost simultaneously.
“Uwoooor....”
A huge booster shot out from her back, and with a thunderous KWAANG, Minyum launched forward. She was basically a human rocket, a human missile.
Ah, right, Minyum isn't human.
“Minyum!! You have to win—!!”
“Princess, cheering is good and all, but please keep your eyes on how the fight is unfolding.”
“Oh, right.”
Hunter Ju Hayoung, who wielded a comparatively longer single-edged blade, kept backpedaling to maintain distance from Minyum, while Minyum closed the gap with blisteringly fast charges, firing two boosters at a time.
Even while doing that, she seemed to block incoming attacks with her shield... or so it seemed. Honestly, it was too fast to see clearly.
ㅡkreeeek..!
“Oh no..! Minyum's getting scratched!”
“It's fine. That level of injury will heal in no time.”
“Oh, wow.”
Since it was a sparring match, both of them had their output reduced, so it wasn't like shockwaves were bursting every time their swords clashed or anything. Still, Minyum's charging looked so cool that I couldn't help cheering.
“Aah! So close!”
Minyum's sword sliced through empty air, and she got countered with a heavy blow. If the output had been higher, she'd have been sliced clean in half and sent flying fifty meters away, but not now. Hunter Ju Hayoung, who knew that, must have handled it perfectly.
“Good job, Minyum!! It's okay—!!!”
After that, an archer hunter—I didn't know her name, but she seemed to be around mid-A-rank—came out and sparred with Minyum too. An arrow got lodged in Minyum, so I healed her too.
There was also a hunter with assassin vibes, or something like that? And I sparred with a tank-type hunter too.... The tank-type hunter just took hits, so it wasn't all that entertaining.
“Princess, are you getting any sense of it?”
“Mmm..! I think so..!”
As I stared hard at the hunters moving at insane speeds, it felt like my dynamic vision had improved. I'll have to go home and try it out in a game.
“The point is that you need to learn how to summon the right troops for the right situation.”
“I see.... That does sound difficult.”
Still, watching the sparring was fun. Seeing it in person had a completely different thrill.
“Ah, right, Ophilia. About going to Silence Laboratory... should I tell Chaerin unnie?”
“Have you decided to say yes?”
“Ah. Chaerin unnie is older, so replying with a casual 'yeah' would be a bit rude. I guess I should say, 'We'll go too.'”
“...Understood.”