Chapter 90: Other Worlds

Chapter 90: Other Worlds

Two Weeks ago

“We need to talk about the ‘Realms’ section of the summoning system.” Isaac said, showing a slide that was just a photo of the relevant section. Right now, he was holding a presentation on the topic he’d ostensibly been looking into for the past couple of weeks, facing a conference room fuller than it had ever been. The team was there, sure, but so were Professors Chandler and Bishop, who were normally off doing their own thing.

Summoning List (Realm, Hunting Grounds Subtype)

Name

Material Cost

Mana Cost

Dark Forest

Tier 5 Circle, Lesser Space Elemental Core, 20 different Medicinal Herbs, 5 Tree Saplings, Glass of Water

2,000 (max. 10 people)

Floating Isles

Tier 5 Circle, Rock Shards, Grass, Soil, Embers, Raptor Feather

20,000 (max. 50 people)

Expanse of the Crimson Frost

Tier 5 Circle, Ice, Blood, Crystal, Antifreeze, Elemental Aspect, Fist sized Crystal

20,000 (max. 50 people)

Fragrant Fields

Tier 5 Circle, Ten different Nature aspected Monster bodies, 2 Bags of Fertile Soil, Volcanic Ash, 50 different Medicinal Herbs

20,000 (max. 50 people)

...

Bloodore Mountain

Tier 6, Stainless Steel, 1 Liter of Human Blood, 20 diferent Mineral samples, Bones, Obsidian Shards, Blood Related Aspect, Earth Related Aspect, ...

50,000 (max. 100 people)

Plains of Ash

Tier 6, Obsidian, Pumice, Volcanic Soil, Ash, 10 different mundane Ore Samples, 10 different Rock Samples, ...

50,000 (max. 100 people)

...

Eternal Wilderness

Tier 7 Circle, 10 different Aspects, Space Elemental Core, Elemental Source, Nature Elemental Corpse (minimum 200 mana summoning cost), 1-ton assorted monster materials (minimum 200 mana summoning cost each), 10 Crystals (at least as large as a ping pong ball)

100,000 (max. 120 people)

Graveyard of Endless Night

Tier 7 Circle, Gravesoil, Undead Aspect, Darkness Elemental Source, Bones of 20 different Species, Human Skull, Marble Slab

100,000 (max. 120 people)

...

Evergrowth Woods

Tier 8 Circle, Space Elemental Core, Four different Elemental Sources, Nature Elemental Corpse (minimum 500 mana summoning cost), 50 Crystals, ...

250,000 (max. 200 people)

Ancient Lands*

Tier 8 Circle, rock and soil samples, petrified wood, Samples of 100 different Dinosaurs, 10 different Fossil Pieces

10,000 (max. 10 people)

...

A Road Paved in Good Intentions

Tier 9 Circle, Greater Space Elemental Core, 1 liter of Demon Blood (minimum Tier 8), Leaf-Gold coated Rocks, Coal, Obsidian, Brimstone, ...

1,000,000 (max. 500 people)

...

(* rewards type summon)

“There are a few Realms there marked with an asterisk, which are a part of the reward-type summons, much like the Extradimensional Apartments some of us have. Most likely, they contain something akin to a nature preserve, but that is something we’ll be able to safely check at a later date.

“Those that aren’t rewards, the rest of these things, they almost certainly harbor some kind of danger. However, I believe I’ve figured out what they’re for.

“My hypothesis it that these so-called ‘Hunting Grounds’ create temporary, extradimensional, spaces containing a variety of monsters appropriate for the environment within, but mostly to guard the materials I believe can be found within.

“There are [Skills] belonging to crafting [Classes] that work with certain magical resources that clearly don’t come from monsters, even though they are currently our only source for preternatural materials. These ‘Hunting Grounds’ are the most likely place to find them.

“However, retrieving materials from these spaces will likely result in having to face some kind of threat, possibly even a wave of monsters that increases with the amount of materials retrieved, or a guardian that grows in strength based on factors such as time spent gathering or amount of materials taken.”

“What makes you assume that?” Chandler asked.

“Logic. It’s a concept commonly found in video games and the like, where abusing a certain mechanic to gather absurd amounts of materials results in having to face a great threat, and the [System] doesn’t give away free things either.” Isaac replied.

“But this isn’t a video game, isn’t it?” Chandler challenged.

“Nope.” Isaac said, popping the ‘p’ “But the underlying logic is similar in some cases. Like I said, the [System] doesn’t give away things for free, and neither do video games. Sure, in video games, these are often unintended exploits that then get hotpatched with a monster that manifests to kill those who use said exploit while the [System] seems to be a mature ‘program’, even if it is sometimes a little light in the instruction department, but it is still the same situation, in the end.

“There are magical materials there that will almost certainly not be free and unprotected, and I’d like to look into that.”

“Absolutely.” Bailey agreed “But this is definitely something that we’ll have to do with significantly greater precautions than normal, seeing as this is so very different from what we normally summon.”

“I agree.” Bishop said “With what Professor Bailey said about precautions, that is. I’m a little skeptical about your assumption that there is ‘loot’ in these Hunting Grounds.”

“Yeah, I can see that, but I do have strong circumstantial evidence that materials other than what we can gather from monsters exist, that we know of. During the general survey of [Skills] we’ve started doing, we haven’t found anything that would indicate that gathering [Classes] such as [Miners] or [Woodcutters] can create magical materials. It is theoretically possible that this might be a high-Level [Skill] no one has access to yet, but that is something we can only speculate on, this is something we can look at now.”

“Once we’ve summoned the Realm, where would you go from there?” Bailey asked, his tone making it very clear he knew Isaac had already made a plan for that, he was just providing him a prompt to present them.

“There are a few things I want to check for. First of is the search for the materials I’ve speculated are there, but that is only the start of it. After that, I’d like to ascertain where the threat that accompanies the opportunities lies, be it a horde of guardian monsters, a single powerful boss, the environment itself, or something I haven’t even considered yet.

It took a minute to pry Professor Chandler away from a bed of herbs, time which Isaac used to hand off his samples, and then, they were off.

The return walk took quite a bit longer as they, well, walked, and every so often, someone spotted something interesting that they just had to grab or otherwise investigate. The vastly reduced speed suited Isaac just fine, the longer this took, the more obvious the size difference would be.

“It’s down there.” Isaac said, pointing over the lip of the ravine at the beast, then frowned, hard “It’s gotten bigger. And I think the Stats are quite a bit higher, too. A Level in the mid-twenties, perhaps? We should probably take care of it now.”

“Well, ... heck.” Bailey said “But I think you can still get it easily? I think you’ll be highly unlikely to break that crystal by accident.”

“Belly flop of doom, again?” Amy asked, making Isaac roll his eyes, but he still jumped down.

The beast turned, took two steps towards him ... and collapsed, a massive, gaping hole right down the center.

Nature Golem (Lv. 22) has been slain. 375 XP gained

“All clear!” he called back up, and the others began to make their way down the slope using a variety of methods, ranging from levitation to mad scrambling. Bailey was especially interesting to watch, as he’d taken off his shoes and transformed his feet into a mountain goat’s hooves and clambered down with casual ease.

He took this time to check up on his notifications, seeing that both [Sneak] and [Stealth] had finally gone over Level 20. They were [Skills] he rarely used, so it had taken a while to improve them, but now that he’d had a reason to use them, they’d gotten pretty damn useful. His [Gralloch] [Skill] had also improved, though he wasn’t sure just why it had taken so long.

Stealth (common, Level XX)

Use magic to shield the user’s form from visual inspection, as well as muffling noise created by the user. Quality of shielding will increase at higher levels.

However, user’s expertise has increased the power of this Skill, allowing it to suppress the user’s smell and prevent the user from leaving physical traces while it is activated.

After countless battles where this Skill was used to stalk and eventually take down prey, be it animal, monster or human, it has evolved to reflect this, the process of the hunt. While in stealth, the user may instill a sense of dread and foreboding in his intended victims, ensuring they know there is something hunting them, and even create sounds and flashes of something in the dark at a distance to serve as a distraction.

Cost: 1 mana/sec, doubled while secondary power is in effect

Oh yeah, that was going to come in real handy if he ever went after another gang of nihilistic, idiotic cultists. He also resolved to not mention this new effect to any member of the team, there’d already been enough jokes about how similar his [Skill]set was to a slasher movie villain.

Sneak (common, Level XX)

Grants user basic knowledge of how to move stealthily, from avoiding making noise to reducing visibility. Higher levels of this Skill will allow the user to have an overall lessened impact on the world at large, to the point of near complete invisibility.

This Skill also has an active mode in which the User actively spends mana to reduce their impact on the world.

After countless situations where it was used to hide in plain sight to avoid public attention, this [Skill] has evolved to create a permanent (toggleable) effect that makes supernatural or attention-grabbing displays by the user less obvious. (This effect is powered by ambient mana, a lack of such will require the user to power it themselves)

Cost: 10 mana per minute

Another solid upgrade, and exactly what he’d needed. It wouldn’t stop people from noticing if he flew right over their heads, surfing on a massive Zweihänder, but it should prevent him from being noticed when he dropped down into the street from a nearby rooftop and the like.

Gralloch (common)

This Skill is quintessential for a hunter after the hunt is done. It teaches the User how to properly skin and clean a kill, separate out the important and valuable parts and reduces the risk of accidentally damaging any organs.

It also points out some basic uses for the harvested parts.

Eh, it was useable, but not the greatest. Still, an upgrade was an upgrade, wasn’t it?

“So, this thing was guarding that rock?” Bailey asked, then turned to Patrick “Can you tell what that thing is?”

“It seems to be connected to everything here, keeping up the dimensional barrier.” He replied after a few seconds.

“Once we’re done here, we should break it, since no one will thank us for leaving behind this mess for others to deal with.” Isaac suggested.

“You want to break the core of the realm we’re standing in, are you nuts?” Amy exclaimed.

“... we’d be doing so from outside.” Isaac deadpanned.

“But only once I’m done collecting everything.” Chandler said, looking up from the body of the Nature Golem for only long enough to meet their eyes as they turned to him, then went back to extracting random gunk from the corpse.

Isaac rolled his eyes but stayed put, guarding the man, while the others checked out the rest of the area.

Eventually though, finally, it was time to get out of here and break the damn place.

This left Isaac and Patrick standing in front of the portal, with the [Mage] lobbing bolts of plasma at the core and trying to direct them into the ravine from the top while Isaac played spotter. Patrick, unfortunately, couldn’t extend his [Aura] to the core as he needed it to keep track of the plasma bolt while Isaac had his locked solidly on the destination, even as Patrick was busy charging the next attack.

“Little to the left, and a meter closer to us.”

“That hit the far wall.”

“Fuck! ... half a meter to the right.”

Five minutes later, Isaac’s [Aura] clearly showed the crystal shattering into pieces and the ‘clear sky’ outer barrier flashed red, then began to contract, starting from the far side.

“That was easy.” Isaac shrugged “Let’s wait until that space is completely gone, but it looks like I was wrong about there being a danger.”

“See, now you’ve jinxed us, there’s going to end up being a large ass kaiju, you just wait.” Amy elbowed him in the side “Come on, valiant knight, you have to stand in front of us, this is your mess to fix.”

“Sure.” Isaac shrugged, summoned the Zweihänder and got into position in front of the portal. He thought about striking a pose, but then decided that would look wildly unprofessional to the soldiers watching in the distance.

The far wall kept coming ever closer, the realm shrinking more and more, until only a few square meters of space remained on the other side.

“Looks like there’s nothing going to go wrong.” Bishop said, putting down his crossbow “I guess it takes a while to close so everyone has the time to get out.”

That’s when the first Dire Squirrel appeared in place of the portal, which had just snapped shut. It fell apart in two halves a split second later, but by then, over a dozen more various woodland creatures were there, and they were pissed.

The strongest of these beasts was a stag with a gleaming white coat, sparks of power glimmering among its antlers, ready to be hurled at its foes, at least if it was given the time to use its abilities.

A few seconds afterwards, there was nothing left but a pile of shredded and burned bodies.

“The important question now is if the number of monsters increases if we retrieve more.” Bishop said “I must say, Mr. Thoma, that was some very nice deductive reasoning.”

“Thank you, but that was just my finely tuned sense of paranoia talking.” Isaac waved it off.

“Hey, does it look like there’s less stuff out here, like some grass and dirt vanished?” Raul frowned at the ground, pointing to several spots “It’s almost like someone dragged stuff out of there and ...”

He looked right at the bags of stuff they’d grabbed from the realm “Does it look like that’s just about the same mass as what we removed from the Hunting Grounds?”

A careful review of the cameras watching the portal revealed that he was, in fact, right about that.

“So what, stuff around the summoning circle gets drawn in to form the extra mass?” Bishop asked “Wouldn’t we have noticed if stuff all over the place vanished in your building as you kept summoning?”

“Well, the matter needed to come from somewhere.” Bailey said “We always knew that, it was just that we assumed that the mana invested created the matter that made up the monster. This is something we’ll have to investigate, thoroughly.”

“After Korea, right?” Isaac asked. Sure, this stuff was kinda interesting, but also boring, given how the [System] never tore matter out of anything that could be considered ‘a finished product’ or where it would cause something to crumble, be it a building lacking foundations or a mountain with new Faultline and it even actively avoided draining material deposits such as mines.

In fact, outside of Hunting Grounds that would often need to retrieve vast amounts of varying materials which they normally drew from an area as close to the entrance as was possible, it was almost impossible to notice the effect. Hell, they’d been summoning on campus for what seemed like forever and no one had noticed, it was that subtle.

“Still, there’s a whole lot of stuff we need to figure out with these hunting grounds, so how about we get to it?” Isaac suggested.

“First, we’ll retrieve different amounts of material, count the number of monsters that come out at the end, then see if there’s a correlation.” Bailey nodded “Then, we’ll see if we have more time to check out one of the other hunting grounds.”

Sadly, by the time they’d figured out everything about how the numbers scaled and the scaling could vary, it was already dark and the military ended up calling it off. Them missing a monster in the middle of the night would be a serious issue.

They did catch one of the jackalopes and locked it in a cage to be stored in a spare summoning room so they could see if these things could summon autonomously. Spoiler alert, they could, and even did so on a shortened, halved, in fact, timer, and the sooner they figured that out, the better.

Still, today and the occasional mad scramble to catch a monster that had decided discretion was the better part of valor and tried to run off into the wild had solidly convinced everyone of something: the Tier didn’t matter, hunting grounds were fucking dangerous.