"A summoner's bond with their contracted spirits is important, you must always remember this. If you treat your contracted spirit poorly, then you will never understand what it means to truly be a summoner." Kolasia explained.
Reilei gave a small nod in response. She had no plans on treating this little one badly, After all, who could even think of harming something so innocent and pure?
After discussing the basic duties of a summoner, moral codes, and a few other things, Kolasia finally began to assist Reilei with her very first contract ceremony. She handed Reilei a small transparent crystal that was no bigger than one's finger.
"This is a Contract Crystal. Since you are still a beginner, you are unable to form a direct Soul Contract with your spirit, that's where the Contract Crystal comes in. It acts as a Pseudo-Soul Contract and allows even the most inexperienced of summoners to form a contract. Of course, it can not be compared to the real thing. However, at the very least, it allows a summoner to gain proper experience." Kolasia said.
Reilei listened closely and tried her best to follow Kolasia's words. To be honest, she originally thought that she would have a much harder time grasping the fundamentals, however, Kolasia was incredibly patient with her and did not mind going deeper into any explanations she gave.
Even though Reilei knew that the individual before her was not a real person of flesh and blood, she could not help but find herself being absorbed into the conversation and interaction with Kolasia. It really did feel like she was talking to an actual human being!
She found that every second that passed since she first logged on was a unique experience. One thing was for certain, this was not like any other game that Jin had tried to introduce to her before. Reilei felt that she could just take a stroll anywhere and find amazing sceneries to enjoy.
However, she was interested in learning more about this world that her son spent so much of his time in. That way, the next time a conversation came up about it, she would be ready to surprise him with her newfound knowledge.
The contract ceremony itself was actually quite simple and only required that Reilei pour her mana into the Contract Crystal. Once the reptile snake-like spirit in her hands felt the mana form within the Contract Crystal, it opened its tiny mouth as a seemingly miniscule droplet of purple liquid fell out and drifted towards the Contract Crystal.
The moment that droplet of purple liquid made contact with the Contract Crystal, it immediately caused the once transparent crystal to become a unique combination of purple and blue colors. The crystal emitted a faint light as it rested inside of the palm of Reilei's hands.
"To complete the contract ceremony, you must give the spirit a name." Kolasia instructed.
"A name?" Reilei took a moment to think about a name. This time, she would be careful not to repeat what happened to her not too long ago during her own name selection.
As Reilei examined the innocent-looking spirit, she noticed that there was this constant brightness hidden away within its eyes. If one did not look closely, it was something easily missed. However, for some reason, it was unusually bright in that specific spot inside its eyes! In the end, Reilei decided to keep it simple and gave the spirit a fitting name.
"I will call you Xiao Liang. Is that name okay with you?" Reilei asked as she held the small creature up to her eye level.
Mew!
The spirit swirled around happily in the palm of Reilei's hands.
"I'll take that as a yes." Reilei said as she used one finger to lightly pet Xiao Liang's head.
Kolasia smiled after seeing how well Reilei was already getting along with her spirit. The adventurers that came through this place seemed to usually brush her words off. They were all in a hurry to leave and few asked more than one or two questions. Therefore, she enjoyed someone like Reilei coming along and taking her time with the process. It showed that she had patience, something most others lacked.
After the contract ended, Reilei spoke with Kolasia for a couple of minutes before she headed off towards the spot marked on her minimap. It was a nearby monster field that had monsters in the level one to three range.
It did not take long for Reilei to arrive at the monster field. The first thing she witnessed was the sight of other players fending off beasts. Most of the player appeared to be in some kind of group and worked together to defeat swiftly eradicate their enemy. There were also a few players who were fighting alone against some of the monsters present.
Everyone stayed in their own small area and tried not to interfere with each other. As for Reilei, she searched around before eventually locating a little area that no one occupied.
Although Reilei was unaware of it, she had many pairs of eyes lock onto her the moment she came into view. She was a natural-born beauty, but after she received the Eight Lunar Cycles physique, her appearance had become even more refined and beautiful than ever before. Therefore, it was only natural that she would draw in quite a bit of attention.
However, Reilei was currently too busying going over all the information in her head to notice the looks she was getting.
"Let's see, I have to cast that and then… Wait, it's the other way around…" Reilei said to herself quietly. She took a bit of time to organize her thoughts and calm down. As she approached the monster, she became nervous since this would be her very first battle within RML.
Name: White Tusk Boar(Normal)
Level: 1
HP: 50 (100%)
The nearby players shook their heads inwardly as they watched Reilei's awkward movements and positioning. There was also the fact that she was a magic caster and yet she moved into melee range of the White Tusk Boar. In other words, she was a complete noob! Even the spirit she had looked so incredibly weak and fragile that one could probably step on it by mistake and kill it!00
This made some individuals who thought about inviting her to a party lose interest, however, there were still a handful of players watching and waiting for Reilei to make a fool of herself.
Reilei stood around two meters away from the White Tusk Boar. Since it was a beginner's monster, it did not take the initiative to attack as that was left up to the player. There was a look of determination in Reilei's eyes as she approached the monster with the summoner's orb in her hand and Xiao Liang rested upon her shoulder.
The players watching were surprised by Reilei's sudden change in demeanor. Maybe they had been too quick to judge her? However, nothing could have prepared them for what they saw next.
Woosh! Bang!
Reilei struck the White Tusk Boar and removed a large chunk of its HP in a single attack! But, it was not some magic attack or skill, nor was it her contracted spirit that was behind the attack, instead, she actually struck the White Tusk Boar with her summoner's orb!
Bang!
Reilei smashed her summoner's orb into the creature one more time as it collapsed in defeat. With just two swings of her summoner's orb, she had managed to defeat a White Tusk Boar! However, she did not stop there. She moved onto the next White Tusk Boar and repeated the same process. Using her summoner's orb, she was literally beating the poor White Tusk Boars to death!
What kind of magic caster fights like that?!
"This is a summoner?" One of the nearby players who watched the scene unfold commented. What summoner used their summoner's orb like a rock?! What's even more bizarre was that she was actually able to kill the White Tusk Boars with her attacks!
One had to know that a magic caster's attack, even more so for a summoner, was extremely weak by default. In other words, Reilei's attack should have been 10 points at most since she appeared to be a new player. However, to two-shot a monster with physical attacks as a summoner… Just how high was her base attack?
As the surrounding players look on in slight disbelief and surprise, Reilei continued her smashing spree as a blossoming smiled appeared on her face. Who knew video games could be so much fun?! She felt as though she could smash things all day! For some reason, it was quite refreshing.
Mew! Mew!
Xiao Liang, who was on Reilei's shoulder, appeared to be cheering her own which made the sight even more ridiculous than it already was.
Could it be that the small creature was actually the summoner and the player was the spirit? You're a spirit for crying out loud! Shouldn't you be fighting right now instead of just cheering her on?! Those were some of the things that drifted through the player's spectating mind.
The reason Reilei was able to subdue the creatures so easily was mainly due to two reasons. The first was the S-ranked skill she received called Breaker of Limits. Since she had the Eight Lunar Cycles physique, the system gifted her the same skill was Izroth who had just entered the beginning stage of the Heavenly Golden Body physique.
The second reason was due to a unique trait she received from the system. Although she was currently aware of it and believed that it was just something normal, it was really because of the massive amount of energy stored in her body and lying dormant thanks to Izroth ripping off a piece of his soul to preserve her life.
However, unlike Izroth who was still getting used to his new self as well as the fragmented memories when he first joined RML, Reilei had a huge advantage! Not only had the Eight Lunar Cycles physique and the energy within her body had time to fester and grow on its own, but she was already used to her own body and did not have any fragmented memories to worry about.
Therefore, she had unknowingly received something incredible from the system without even realizing it herself. Reilei currently had a nameless trait listed on her skills list. However, it was no normal trait. It was actually a unique Source!
…
Meanwhile, in Amaharpe…
Izroth was currently in the Amaharpe palace library reading through the massive number of books stored inside. Thankfully, he had perfect memory and was able to retain things after seeing them only once. Therefore, it was not difficult to read through the books within the library.
However, there were thousands upon thousands of books on the first floor alone! Izroth could not help but wonder if this was all actually carefully created by a few individuals in the real world or automatically generated by the system. Either way, it was quite impressive how detailed most of the books were.
During his time in the palace library, Izroth had discovered a multitude of interesting myths, legends, and general information about RML. He was no longer in the dark about certain things that should have been common knowledge to him.
The one thing that caught his attention was the contents of a certain hardcovered book with a purple-colored cover. There was no title on the front of the book nor was there the name of any author, instead, there was a strange symbol with the head of a dragon on the cover.
The contents of the book caught Izroth's attention because it talked about something that he needed to know more about. Or to be more specific, it talked about the legendary being known as dragons!
'Could this be the key to discovering that place? The Path of Dragons.'
Izroth stared at the purple covered book in his hands as he sorted the contents of the book in his mind.
