Yugioh Card Summoner

CH.609 Portal Exploration Squad: Return to the Monster World

[Unika POV]

I had recovered from my evolution, got to spend some time with Brian and the others, and now I was ready to return to the monster world.

Stella was pushing me towards the Solar Mountain, as it is her domain, so that might also influence us, but Brian ensured me that Uṛanta was watching over the mountain. And between Brian and Alice’s visits to the mountain, it should be safe. Alice visited the mountain like Brian did in CH.606

Our group this time was one member short. Sadly Indigo couldn’t spare the time, as she was busy with her clan. So I suppose in a way we traded Indigo for Stella.

… That makes it sound like I don’t want Indigo here. I do wish she could be here, but then again, I’d want Brian, Alice, Lua, Cailie, Wilma and even Janina to be here. 

Janina might not show as much love for us as she does to Brian, but she does care about us, and does show it. I think it is just her being a dragon and one of the oldest beings alive. She probably just doesn’t know how to show love.

Once we got to the Solar Mountain, Stella manifested herself from our body and got to work making sure no intruder had attempted to take over the mountain. It didn’t take her long, despite the union making her weaker than she was before it. 

Janina told us that it is because the System is a limiter. It only allows one to grow so fast. Which is a big reason why the dragons don’t use it, despite it having been offered to them.

While Stella secured our territory, the rest of us looked over the top of the mountain. It was mostly as I remember, but the large crystal gem that was here had been reduced to almost nothing. 

Brian did tell us about it. We had used that gem to form the egg shell that protected us during our evolution. Thus the size of the gem had been greatly reduced.

The gem had been unnamed, so Brian named it the Gem of Refraction. It could be used in place of a magic stone in staves that boost light magic, and by casting Light Magic through the gem, the spell would split into seven different colors, before converging at the target.

It makes those spells nearly impossible to dodge or even block. And Brian said you likely could use those kinds of spells even without a dedicated staff if you learned how to. He promised he’d work on a few spells like those while I was on the second exploration.

I focused back on what was happening here. I asked Eline to summon Mufasa, as he could use Earth Magic. I asked the lion to level out a portion of the mountain top, as I wanted to set up a small house there. Brian had built one for me and it was in the part of his Storage I could access.

So after Mufasa had leveled us a spot, I took out the building and we secured it in place.

Brian called it a small temple or a large shrine. They were something from his old world and apparently some deities were said to live in them. And those temples and shrines are guarded by spirits, including Kitsune and other fox spirits. It made it feel like a fitting home away from home for us.

After she returned from assuring that our land was safe, Stella saw that we had put up the building and she was happy with it. She then told me that we should move my fox summon, Silon, and the rest of her litter to live here instead. They could act as our servants and could take care of the mountain while neither of us is here.

I agreed that it sounded like a good idea, so I agreed to ask Silon. Ask because I didn’t want to force Silon to move. I only command her when I summon her, not while she is just living her life.

But that will wait for tomorrow. I set up the travel house for the others while Stella and I slept in our new shrine.

The next day, as we were flying across the skies towards the lands where Silon lives, Uṛanta approached us and matched our speed, flying right next to our ship. I had Einar take control of the ship and got outside so I could talk to the dragon.

He didn’t have much to say, just wanting to confirm that I had returned safely to this side. Brian had already summoned him to HomeBase so he had been reintroduced to the new me, this was just to see that the portal really is safe to use.

I think Uṛanta still doesn’t understand Brian. Safety is always the most important … okay, very important even if not the most important, to him. And when one of us six is involved, it is the most important thing. He’d make protective equipment for Janina if he actually could make something more defensive than her scales. He already has made her emergency teleportation and healing items.

I chatted a bit more with Uṛanta, thankfully he knew languages other than draconic, but eventually he pulled away and we kept on our way.

It didn’t take too much work to convince Silon to move, along with her pack. So we loaded them all up onto a ship and flew back to the Solar Mountain.

We helped them by digging some caves and caverns for them to live in, before heading back to the top of the mountain to rest for another night.

On our third day of trip two we headed north. Uṛanta had told us about the icelands that are that way, and we might find Himeśaila there.

It only took us one summoning of B.E.S. Big Core MK-2 to reach places where the temperature was a lot colder than the warm climate the portal was located near.

During that stop, Mer, the Flower-folk, made contracts with some of the cold climate plant monsters. Cold climate plant monsters were apparently really rare, so Mer didn’t have a single summoning contract with one and was quite happy to have established one. 

On our second flight of the day, we reached the frozen lands. And they were just that. Ice everywhere. We didn’t even know if there was ground below all of this ice, or if we were on top of a frozen ocean.

The monsters here were also very ferocious. The lowest ranked monsters we saw were C-ranks, and they were rare. B and A-ranks roam these frozen lands.

We weren’t sure if it was a good idea to set up camp here, but we did so anyway. Luckily Brian overbuilt our travel house, so we were warm and safe on the inside.

Fourth day, we made our way towards the frozen mountains. Dragons love mountains, so if Himeśaila is here, that is where we will find her.

I found an ice fox on the way, which is just a C-rank monster, but I still wanted it, so I made a contract with it.

We did find some dragons, including some ice dragons, during our investigation of the area, but despite us beating some of the dragons, they didn’t want to answer our questions and we were unable to locate or confirm if Himeśaila lives in this area. I’ll still note it down on the map, as Brian will probably get these dragons to talk.

But, as we were heading out of the frozen lands, I spotted something interesting down on the ground. A fenrir running across the lands. Which in itself would already be amazing, but this fenrir was wearing what appeared to be a collar. And I know only a single fenrir who wears a collar.

Sure it could be a fenrir who has somehow obtained one, but at the same time, it could be Nir. So I stopped the ship and disengaged the invisibility. I then fired one of the weapons in the air so that the fenrir would hear the sound.

If he is Nir, he should know Brian’s ships. If not, we can just leave.

But luckily for us, the fenrir didn’t attack after seeing the ship, instead howling as he called out Brian. And that confirms that this really is Nir. 

I beamed us down and we feasted with the giant wolf. He was happy to get some food on this side, and while we ate, he told us about some of the area masters he knew.

The main one he knew was the ice giant, a golem like monster living under the ice. Most of the monsters have never seen it, but Nir knew a secret route to the ice giant, thus he had seen the sleeping beast. He had even attempted to wake up the monster, but despite putting his all into it, he couldn’t break the ice the giant was sleeping within.

There was also a world treant some ways away, on the edge of the icelands and Nir had heard some rumors about a powerful spirit-like monster that looked like a ghostly human made of ice.

I marked all of that down in my exploration book before thanking Nir for all the info with even more food. Sure we couldn’t confirm the identity of any of the area masters, except that giant, but it was still good information.

We then continued our way towards the world treant. Mer wanted to try making a contract with it. I would say that is foolish, but I’m one to talk. I ignored most things as I was heading for Stella, someone I knew was aggresive. We don't know how the world treant will act, so I should let Mer have an equal chance at doing something not that smart.

The world treant was luckily non aggressive. And it was massive, as is to be expected of a world treant, but I didn’t really realize how large they are. 

I’m somewhat used to Brian’s ‘god’ monsters, as I’ve seen them when I’ve visited the Factory. It is so convenient to be able to just go there whenever I want, instead of having to use the Factory VR.

… that reminds me. I never introduced my System Support. Naturally I named him after the person whose voice it took. My father, Oku. 

And while the other girls weren’t able to meet their System Supports in the Factory originally, Brian’s Factory has been leveling up quickly now that it has more users. To the point where Cailie and I, despite both of us only having Basic System Supports, can both see our System Supports in the Factory.

My reunion with my father was tearful, but I quickly realized that he really wasn’t my father. He was just someone looking like him. But I was still glad to call him Oku.

In the end, Mer was unable to make a contract with the world treant. The mana cost was simply too high for her. It was massive, but I could pay it. Then again, you can’t expect everyone to be level 250.

But Mer did manage to get a contract with a frost treant, an A-rank treant that can use Ice Magic.