I found myself materializing in a forest at twilight—but this was not the forest on our school’s mountain. The broad-leaved trees here were massive; a lot of them must have been over a thousand years old.
This must be the forest of the floating fortress, I thought. It seemed Mia had chosen this location carefully.
My MP was a staggering 1800, more than three times my usual amount. My head felt dizzy, as if I was drunk. I knew Mia had been right; I could only keep this up for about another hour at the most.
No time to waste. The enemy hadn’t seen me yet, so I needed to use this time to prepare. I set the timer on Mia’s watch for one hour and pressed start.
“Summon Familiar: Heavenly Turtle Nahan.”
A gigantic turtle, about five meters in length, appeared before me. Atop the shell sat a human upper body, distinct from the turtle’s face. The human part had dark skin and white hair, and was dressed oddly like a hermit in traditional Chinese attire. Its arms were crossed and its eyes closed in meditation. Then the lower face, the one on the turtle’s shell turned toward me. It bowed up and down in acknowledgment, its large black eyes gazing at me.
A raspy voice echoed in my mind, “Master, at your request, I have arrived.”
Nahan was one of the two familiars I’d recently formed an exclusive contract with, and he was especially skilled in magic. As I cast the usual support spells on him, I explained that we were in enemy territory and that the primary foes were ogres.
“Then this falls within my area of expertise,” Nahan said confidently.
“All right, let’s get started.”
The Heavenly Turtle cast Fly on himself and ascended into the air, and I followed. However, we stayed below the treetops. The huge trees provided excellent cover, which would come in handy for our scouting.
“This way,” Nahan guided, veering slightly to the left. His magical ability to detect living beings around us was superior to Mia’s Wind Search spell, functioning well even beyond natural environments.
“How many enemies?”
“There are sixteen, and they all seem to be ogres. Shall I initiate a preemptive strike?”
“Go ahead.”
Hovering at about five meters, Nahan began chanting a spell with his human mouth. Eight fireballs, each about a meter across, materialized in front of his human form.
“Rahhhh!”
As he shouted, all eight fireballs were launched, avoiding the trees and heading in the direction of the enemies. Seconds later, I heard a series of resounding explosions in the distance.
“Eight targets eliminated,” Nahan’s voice resonated in my mind.
Suddenly, I was in the White Room thanks to a level-up.
✦ ✦ ✦
Alone in the White Room, I looked around and sighed.
“Thinking about it won’t help.”
I sat down at a computer to check my status. My level had increased by one, meaning I’d reached Level 50. Good, now I could upgrade my Enhanced Summoning to Level 2.
After completing the upgrade, I returned to the battlefield.
✦ ✦ ✦
Back from the White Room, I directed Heavenly Turtle Nahan to begin chanting the next spell. The remaining ogres were charging toward us. Brave creatures, considering we’d eliminated over half of their number. In previous battles, mages had fled, but lower-rank ogres tended to stand their ground to the end. Whether these ogres were in fact brave or just too stupid to know what was happening, I wasn’t complaining.
As the remaining eight ogres came into view, I didn’t see any mages among them. Nahan’s magic was ready before they could reach us, and eight more fireballs incinerated the last of the ogres.
I leveled up again.
✦ ✦ ✦
I quickly left the White Room.
✦ ✦ ✦
I sent Nahan back and then immediately resummoned him using Enhanced Summoning 2. Now effectively a Rank 8 familiar, he likely had access to more powerful magic. I also summoned the remaining two familiars: the Phantom Wolf King Sha-Lau and the other of my newly contracted familiars, the Conquering Dragon King Kanarg.
With my enhanced abilities and my formidable familiars at my side, I was ready to face whatever challenges awaited in the floating fortress.
Kanarg, a gigantic serpent with a coiled body, bore a resemblance to Eastern dragons. His body was thick enough to swallow me whole without breaking a sweat, and if stretched out, it would easily be ten meters long. His forelimbs extended like thin arms, tipped with sharp claws, and his mouth was filled with razor-sharp fangs.
Kanarg’s magical abilities were limited to just two: a specialized flight spell for himself and a debuff removal spell. However, his direct combat capabilities were second to none. He could also spit acid.
In terms of frontline combat and pure destructive ability, Kanarg was superior to Sha-Lau. In our mock battles post-contract, Kanarg had dominated in close combat. However, Sha-Lau’s advantage lay in his lightning-fast movement magic, which allowed him to execute effective hit-and-run tactics. If Sha-Lau resorted to purely magical combat, leveraging his speed, Kanarg stood little chance.
Nahan was entirely specialized in magic, and without a frontline to protect him, he could be easily overwhelmed by Kanarg and Sha-Lau. However, with a defensive class like a paladin as a shield, he could hold his own even against those two.
Each of my three contracted familiars had unique characteristics, and it was up to me, the summoner, to best utilize their strengths.
Here in the forest of the floating island, ogres were roaming around in groups of ten to twenty. My task was to clear them out while searching for Azagralith using Nahan’s scouting magic.
After I quickly cast some support magic, we began moving. The enemies, unaware of our presence, stood no chance. With Nahan’s magic for bombardment and the combined assault of Kanarg and Sha-Lau, even Mage Ogres were easily defeated, and Ogre Captains couldn’t withstand more than three hits from Kanarg.
Kanarg located a blue-skinned Ogre Captain and pounced. The serpent’s forelimbs snapped out sharply like rubber bands, slicing through the ogre’s skin with deadly claws. Then, Kanarg’s thick fangs clamped onto the ogre’s neck, tearing out flesh. The Ogre Captain let out a death cry as it collapsed.
With Support Magic applied, Kanarg’s raw power could almost rival a Rank 9 creature, I mused.
This was incredibly reassuring. In a blink, we’d defeated two groups, with 21 ogres, three Mage Ogres, and one Captain reaching 54.
✦ ✦ ✦
And then, it arrived: the anticipated assassin, far from its usual fodder.
“Master, something massive is approaching,” Nahan alerted.
“Terrasaur Agnamu?”
As I spoke, a dinosaur-like monster emerged, smashing through the nearby trees on four massive legs. Over ten meters long, it had reptilian scales and a neck as long as a giraffe’s.
It was charging toward us like it wanted blood.
“I shall engage it,” declared the Conquering Dragon King Kanarg.
When the Terrasaur Agnamu extended numerous tentacles, Kanarg was unbothered. “Those are merely an annoyance.” He opened his mouth wide to unleash a stream of acidic breath. Caught in the powerful acid, the tentacles hissed and burned. The Terrasaur Agnamu screamed in noisy agony.
“Nahan!” I called.
“Yes, Master.”
With our exceptional coordination, Nahan completed chanting the necessary spell, a flame spear piercing the Terrasaur Agnamu’s thick scales, causing its blue blood to gush out.
“Coming through, Master!” shouted Sha-Lau.
The Phantom Wolf King collided with the giant dinosaur at the speed of lightning, causing the Terrasaur’s body to reel.
“Now, leave the rest to me,” Kanarg pronounced as he launched himself forward like a spring.
His sharp fangs bit deeply into the long neck of the Terrasaur Agnamu, while his forelimbs savagely gouged at its eyes, a critical vulnerability.
The once-formidable reptilian monster screamed in agony and fell to the ground, causing the earth to shake and kicking up clouds of dust.
This victory marked another level-up for me.