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Chapter 404: Summoning

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav

In the ancient myths of Orlodiodan, the world was created by a group of giants who covered the skies and shook the earth. The Eternal Thunder tribe of the Ghostwind Plains, meanwhile, worshiped a colossal mythical beast.

It was said that this beast was so massive it was capable of striding across the entire Ghostwind Plains in just fifteen seconds. Its claws and fangs were so sharp that even mountains were unable to block its attacks. Whenever it roared in anger, the plains would quake.

“Let’s not discuss myths anymore. The Eternal Thunder tribe’s culture is primitive. They even have cave paintings and hieroglyphics. Most of their records are passed down via word of mouth. Around here, their Tiger God’s authority outstrips even the Creator Goddess.”

“...Of course, what their myths claim is absolutely impossible. But from our final measurements of the divine beast’s bones, its original body must have been more than ten times the size of an Immemorial Dragon. Basically, its length was over one hundred meters... some of the records must be real. It would have been capable of casually swallowing a whole dragon. Such a terrifying monster.”

This plain had been turned into an archaeological district. Numerous digging teams were hard at work, searching for the remaining bones. Once they were found, I would be able to reconstruct this behemoth of a monster.

What I did in all this was use the most basic soul-summoning spell, which would sense the connection between the bones. I then guided my subordinates to dig up the remaining hidden bones.

“This feels like a big jigsaw puzzle game...”

Timlad’s exclamation was quite appropriate for his age, yet he was becoming more and more of an important person in my faction. Countless inconceivable technologies were developed by him. Even I didn’t know just how far his scientific research had progressed. However, it was definite that he had far surpassed himself from the same time in the game’s history.

“Ha, if this is a jigsaw puzzle, this sharp bone must be a rib bone. Even the rib bone is so much taller than me. How frightening.”

“...Honored mage, this isn’t a rib bone. It’s the little finger’s fingernail.”

“What?”

The one making a ruckus was the old child, Kaid. The dragon who brought him had left him behind without caring about how he would return, so Kaid stayed here and refused to leave.

“So... when it stands up, it’s basically a moving mountain? Nothing could possibly block a single attack from it. If even the battle pet is so tremendous, just how large is its master, the Titan Giant?”

“...I know. If it’s at all possible, I don’t want to fight the Titan Giants head on.”

Even though the elements were becoming more balanced and the seal was decaying at a much slower rate, the Titan Giants’ return was inevitable. Their incarnations were already capable of cavorting around in the mortal plane, so naturally they would wreak havoc in Dragon World. Anyone who tried to prevent them from breaking free would become their mortal enemy.

As for transforming this giant beast into an undead? On one hand, it would help us to better understand the Titan Giants’ true strength. On the other hand, it was an irresistible top-level material that no undead mage would be able to resist.

“As long as I can reanimate it, even if it’s only a skeleton soldier that doesn’t know anything apart from basic attacks, it’ll still be an almost undefeatable existence. Yins... just how ridiculous is he?”

Normally speaking, a creature’s power was proportional to its body size. And its body size would naturally be related to the conditions of the creature’s environment and world. Nature was cruel and would forever eliminate those unable to adapt.

This sounded rather confusing? Let me just jump straight to the conclusion, then. Under the same conditions of oxygen, gravity, temperature and so on, most creatures wouldn’t have significant differences in how they worked. Lions, tigers and elephants were in a way quite similar in their own right.

Living creatures had necessary conditions for their existence. In the world of Eich, an environment rich in magic would be required for gigantic creatures to exist. If the environment drastically changed, such creatures would no longer be able to survive. Basically, even if I raised a giant war beast, its heart and internal organs wouldn’t be able to adjust to the current low magic environment. It would likely have a very short lifespan as its heart would give out without the support of sufficient magic.

There were some that seemed like exceptions, such as the giants and the dragons. But they followed the rules as well, as they originated from the immemorial, great immemorial, or even older generations. And they were capable of existing mostly because they weren’t pure beasts—they were magical beasts capable of using the power of the elements.

There were plenty more examples in the planes connected to Eich. Deep sea Megaink Octopi, the Giant Sand Worms in the Earth Elemental Plane, the half-elemental creature Skyworld Whale and so on. However, the fact they were able to grow so large was largely related to their physical structures and environments they lived in.

These ancient existences were typically accoladed as having Gold or Diamond Bloodlines. They were naturally born with the ability to use magic. Their very bloodlines contained magical mysteries, allowing them to instinctively use their natural talent. This was something other species couldn’t match no matter how hard they worked.

However, such benefits were a double-edged sword. Powerful magical existences were accustomed to living in a high Elemental Tide environment. Now that it was a low magic generation, they found it incredibly discomforting. Just like how humans would get drowsy when they had low blood sugar, dragons would become drowsy with an insufficient concentration of magic in their blood. Only the most ancient existences knew that back in the immemorial generation, dragons didn’t have this habit of sleeping for several decades or centuries.

As the magic in dragons’ blood decreased, it also became more and more difficult for them to reproduce. The more powerful a creature was, the more difficult it became for it to reproduce.

As for angels... angels here weren’t exactly the same as angels in legends from my previous world. Instead, these angels were the first-generation creatures of Order. Since they were the purest creatures of Order, they had even higher requirements of the environment they lived in. The end result was that the entire angel species disappeared from the mortal plane. Of course, it was highly likely that the angels would return once the Elemental Tide sufficiently increased.

However, this divine beast ex-Tiger God before me broke the fundamental rule of environmental requirements.

First of all, this creature was an individual, not a species. Not only that, judging from its physical structure, it was no different from the current day Eternal Thunder tribe at all except for scale. Its feet had hooks on it to help it climb trees, and its right arm had wear and tear normal for a long-term sword user. Considering that even in the immemorial generation there would likely be no ridiculously tall trees that it would need to climb, a frightening conclusion was now in front of me.

“Perhaps this mountainous ‘Tiger God’ was just an ordinary Eternal Thunder tribe member in the past. Yins forcefully twisted its basic physical structure to make it so tremendously huge... Have we learned why this creature died?”

“None of its bones have obvious injuries. Nor has the quality of its bones seemed to decrease. When considering the Eternal Thunder tribe’s legends... the most likely possibility is that it starved to death.”

I furrowed my eyebrows upon hearing this. This sounded rather strange, but upon closer analysis, it was plausible.

A gigantic body would require a massive amount of energy to sustain itself. Once this battle pet lost its master and its subordinates, its hunting and survival instincts would be insufficient to keep up with its energy needs. All the prey it worked so hard to catch wouldn’t even be enough to fill a crack in its teeth. Naturally, it would starve to death.

“...Making a normal warrior become a mountainous magical monster. This is the true power of a Titan Giant?”

Back in Oak Town, I had witnessed Yins the Fourth Titan’s ability to tame beasts. A normal albino lion instantly became a SemiGod divine beast. And if Yins was freed from his seal, his true power would be even more ridiculous.

Of course, I didn’t believe that it would be so easy to create such warriors. Otherwise, the legends wouldn’t be about “The strongest warrior under the creator Titans.” If it was that easy, the legend would be about “warriors,” plural, with an ‘s.’

“Is there enough mana stored in the magic batteries?”

“...Plenty. The Elemental Tide’s density here is high. The energy batteries are operating at full efficiency. Plus, the mages are injecting their own mana into the batteries, so the mana recovery rate is higher than the rate of usage.”

A good horse would need a good saddle. An undead mage’s undead summoning had its limits. With my current level of mana, reviving such a level of monster would suck me dry into a zombie.

But I previously had mage towers constructed here. If I used a mage tower to amplify my magic, I could use the mage tower’s stored mana to pay the mana cost in my stead. Of course, a typical undead mage would instead use a Soul-Summoning Tower, but normal mage towers’ magic amplification properties and mana replenishment worked for me as well.

Summoning a bone dragon required one to be at a Legend lich’s level. In theory, my Gold rank mana reserves wouldn’t be capable of summoning even a single normal skeleton. Even with a mage tower supporting me, it wouldn’t be anywhere close to enough. But I was someone who once reached the peak, so I knew how to take shortcuts.

“I can’t afford the full payment? I’ll pay in installments then.”

I wasn’t giving Kaid an excuse when I said I couldn’t leave. Currently, I, the mage tower and this tremendous beast’s skeleton were invisibly connected. At every moment, my attention was in high tension. My magic and my mind were magnified by the mage tower as I utilized its mana and continuously summoned this skeleton as an undead.

Normally, an undead mage summoning an undead creature would require a mental connection and a one-time payment of mana. It would either succeed or fail. However, I changed this process to a continuous state, so that the one-time payment became installment payments where I paid mana every second.

Every single second, I was being bothered by a constant headache from the mental burden. It made me want to go to sleep, but I knew that the moment I went to sleep, not only would this summoning fail, but I would also take the backlash of this spell’s failure. This particular undead summoning was on the scale of a forbidden spell. If I took the full magical backlash of its failure, I would instantly die.

“As expected, the mental burden of casting such a spell makes me want to go to sleep...”

“This has nothing to do with the mental burden of casting this spell. Your soul has been repeatedly strengthened by reincarnating so many times. By now, you’re at the level where you can ignore the side effects of reincarnation. You’re almost fully immune to all mental magics. This tiny amount of magical burden couldn’t possibly affect you. Any ordinary undead mage would be on the verge of their soul collapsing after casting a forbidden spell for so long, yet you’re still so lively. That’s the best evidence that you’re still far from reaching your limits.”

As the silly cat had the title of ‘All-knowing,’ her conclusions were typically no different from the truth. However, I still felt that things were strange.

“Then why do I feel so uncomfortable all over, with my head splitting apart? Why do I only want to sleep—”

“You idiot, that’s because you haven’t slept at all. This is a normal physiological reaction! Any normal person who doesn’t sleep for four consecutive days and nights will be no different from being on the verge of death. The fact that you only have a headache and want to sleep means that your physical body far surpasses an ordinary human’s.”

“...Oh, I see.”

Alright, I suppose it was true that going for too long without sleep would affect one’s intelligence. Even though I tried to intentionally act dumb with my response, I was indeed accidentally quite foolish.

“How many more days will this take?”

“...With the current progress of the digging and your spellcasting, it should take another three days. Keep going at it. Haven’t you noticed that your magic power is increasing? Good luck.”

Using one’s magic to the utmost limit would place a burden on both the soul and physical body. But keeping this state constantly without dying would be helpful in improving one’s magic powers. However, since this was far too dangerous, no ordinary person would risk their life and attempt such a thing.

“So you’re saying I’m constantly in a state of using my magic to its limit?”

“Yes, and you’re simultaneously in a constant state of casting magic.”

Without a doubt, this was both a trial and an opportunity. I had a mage tower supplying me with tremendous resources, my past experiences about the soul and being at the peak of power, and a large number of mages all injecting their mana for me into the mana reserves. Without any of the above, this experiment would have long since failed. Since I had now reached this point, abandoning it seemed like far too much of a pity.

“...As long as you complete this spell, at least your magic power will increase to the next power level.”

“So my magic power will be at the level of Legends? Alright, I’ll keep going. Still, I’m a little bored. How about singing a little song for me, Harloys?”

“Meow... Meow meow meow meow... The kitty song! Did you like it?”

Harloys had closed her eyes and was waving her paw cutely, intentionally meowing in an adorable and soft manner. While she acted cute on the surface despite being more than ten thousand years old inside, I was busy recording this scene with a memory crystal.

“Hehe! I’m going to show this to all our old friends. Everyone shall learn about how the Banshee Queen forgot her past after turning into a cat. What will you pay me for this memory crystal? Hey, why are you biting me!?”

“Roland, you bastard!”