The Golden-Haired Summoner - Chapter 28

“Inside that cave lies a treasure that has been passed down through generations in our tribe. It’s a green gem that resembles the forest.”

“A treasure passed down through generations? Why would you want to show something like that to me?”

“Well, there’s an old legend about it. Supposedly, a spirit is sealed inside that gem. According to the legend, a long time ago, someone entrusted the gem to a certain tribe. After they acquired the gem, the tribe always won wars and disputes, and strangely enough, wherever they went, food became abundant, and crops thrived.”

“Hmm?”

As I listened to Anel’s story, I tried to identify the peculiar energy inside the cave.

It was a strange feeling, a kind of life force that seemed to be alive and breathing…

How should I describe it?

Unlike the distinct clarity I felt with Pein or Adol, this energy was vague and unclear.

It felt so familiar, yet elusive enough that it was hard to pinpoint exactly what it was.

“They say the reason was because of the spirit sealed inside that gem. The spirit is said to bring abundance to nature. Once people found out about it, many tribes fought an unprecedented war over that gem. The winner of that war was our tribe. That was over a thousand years ago.”

“A spirit that brings abundance to nature?”

“Yes, for our tribe, which lives in the forest, it’s more valuable than anything else. The problem is that no one knows how to handle the spirit sealed in the gem. The shamans tried everything, but it was no use. They didn’t want to bring in an external wizard either. So, the gem has been left in that cave for a thousand years. Whenever we have droughts or when it doesn’t rain, people pray to the gem in the cave for rain. Even after a thousand years, our people still believe in the gem’s power, waiting for the day it will protect us.”

Hmm, I approached the cave.

The feeling became clearer, but even so, I couldn’t quite grasp what it was.

“…Sister, you want me to summon the spirit from that gem, don’t you?”

“Yes, Geenie, you’re a summoner, right? You can do it, can’t you? If you summon that spirit, it’ll be a credit to me, and the villagers won’t look down on Aini anymore. Please, Geenie.”

“Alright. Let’s go in first and figure out what kind of spirit it is.”

I bent down, pushed aside the string adorned with feathers and bones, and stepped into the dark cave.

The cave was filled with vibrant energy.

Rai, still standing outside the cave, perked his ears as if trying to identify the spirit’s presence but then shook his head in confusion.

[The forest’s energy is too strong, Master. I can’t tell.]

I closed my eyes and focused on finding the color of the energy.

A deep green, with a faint scent of fresh grass!

A writhing life force!

“This… It’s not hidden by the forest’s energy, it’s assimilated into it.”

[Assimilated?]

I spoke confidently.

Usually, Rai was the one to figure things out first, but if my guess was correct, this was definitely…

“Yes! Judging by how the energy is merged with the forest, this must be a forest spirit.”

[Hmm, I don’t think so. The forest spirit is one of the highest-ranking spirits in the natural world. Humans wouldn’t be able to create a spirit stone for a forest spirit, Master.]

With Rai’s words, I reconsidered.

Now that I think about it, a forest spirit would indeed be a spirit of the highest caliber, belonging to the spirit king class in the natural world.

A forest spirit governs everything in the forest.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that it can control earth, water, fire, and wind.

Moreover, unlike the common elemental spirits, natural spirits are far more difficult to summon and control, probably by a factor of several dozen.

Just look at the difference in mana consumption between Undain and Adol.

Not to mention, a forest spirit would be in a completely different league than spirits specialized in a single attribute like Adol or Pein.

“Ugh, I was getting excited for nothing.”

[But it does seem to be under the command of a forest spirit.]

Listening to Rai’s words, I ventured deeper into the cave.

Rai also entered the cave, his body emitting a faint golden light in the darkness.

It wasn’t bright, but enough to illuminate the surrounding terrain.

This was one of the abilities granted to Rai by the Gold Dragon Heart, and as expected, it was proving to be worth its value.

“Geenie! Are you okay? Should I come in too?”

After walking for some time into the cave, I faintly heard Anel’s voice from outside.

I turned around and saw her pacing near the entrance of the cave.

“No! I’m fine. But Sister, please go bring Aini!”

“Aini?”

“Yes! Hurry!”

“Ah, alright!”

Although I still didn’t know the spirit’s exact identity, I couldn’t afford to have Sister follow me inside. That would make it difficult to contract with the new spirit.

So, I found a suitable excuse to send her away.

It took about 15 minutes to get here, so it would take her 30 minutes to come and go, right?

I needed to finish the job within that time.

I quickly picked up the pace.

The deeper I went, the darker and narrower the cave became.

Perhaps because I was inside one of my worst enemies—a cave—my body gradually tensed, and my heart raced wildly.

Was it claustrophobia?

No, I could bear it as long as it wasn’t too dark, so maybe a fear of the dark?

Or was it a fear of enclosed spaces?

I couldn’t exactly define it, but it was clear that remnants of my previous life’s trauma were still strongly affecting me.

The trauma of dying in that tunnel had left a deep impression.

[Master?]

“Hmm?”

[The spirit stone… There’s more than one!]

“What…?”

Despite my confusion at Rai’s words, I concentrated on the faint energy I could now feel.

Was it because I had gotten closer to the spirit stone?

Or maybe because Rai had mentioned it?

I, too, could feel it now.

There were two similar energies overlapping as one.

They seemed alike, but there was a clear difference between the two.

Both were brimming with life force, but one was calm and refined, while the other was more vigorous.

The difference was so subtle that it was hard to describe in words.

[See? Two, right, Master?]

Nodding at Rai’s question, I hastily began to run through the narrow cave.

Rai followed close behind.

Thud. Thud.

With each step I took, the energy of the spirit stones became more vivid, palpable against my skin.

The surrounding life force surged around me.

Before long, I found two green glowing spirit stones, proudly displaying their presence.

Found it! Spirit…

“What the…?!”

Just as I was about to reach the spirit stones, I was startled.

There were two spirit stones, both similar in shape and color, but there was a hole drilled through the center of both!

Through the hole ran a thick decorative string.

What in the world?!

[It’s… a spirit stone necklace.]

With trembling hands, I lifted the spirit stones and examined the hole carefully.

Then I noticed that the delicate spirit pattern engraved at the center of the stone had been damaged due to the hole drilled through it.

At least this one was better.

The other spirit stone had a hole that completely pierced through half of the spirit pattern, leaving only a semicircle.

If the spirit pattern on a spirit stone is damaged, it’s no longer a spirit stone!

“What… What kind of idiot did this to my spirit stones?!”

My initial joy at discovering two spirit stones turned into anger when I realized that they had been turned into a necklace.

Who dared touch my precious stones without my permission?!

They’re unusable like this!

Fuming with anger, I almost kicked the cave wall but barely stopped myself.

After all, I’d learned the hard way from hitting Rai before—kicking a solid rock would only hurt me.

[Ma-Master! What’s wrong?]

“Look! There’s a hole in the middle of the spirit stones! And the spirit patterns are damaged, both of them!”

[You can just fix them.]

I stopped trembling with rage at Rai’s simple and straightforward answer.

“…You can fix that?”

[Of course! Fixing this is like mending a rusty lock. You just need to restore the spirit stones to their original form, the one they remember.]

I knew it, my Rai was amazing.

Had I mentioned that I thought bosingtang [1] was better than snake stew?

Without saying another word, I handed the two spirit stones, now turned into a necklace, to Rai.

“Alright, fix them.”

[Yes, ahhh.]

Rai opened his mouth wide.

He wanted me to place them inside.

I tore off the worn necklace string and put the two spirit stones into Rai’s mouth.

He gulped them down.

I wasn’t surprised. After all, I had seen the same scene many times when he restored the durability of the ice spirit stone every day to form the contract with Pein.

Though, back then, he was a snake.

Obviously, this was much better than back then.

He could have fixed the stones without eating them, but this method used less mana and was faster.

This was why Rai and I usually employed this method.

Especially now, with the abundance of mana.

In the past, Rai would have needed my mana, but now he had about a thousand times the mana stored in his own body.

All I had to do was wait patiently while Rai spit out the spirit stones.

Rai rolled his golden eyes around for a moment, then spat out the two spirit stones onto the ground.

I picked up the spirit stones and examined them carefully. The hole in the center had vanished, and all the other scratches and marks had disappeared, leaving them looking as good as new.

One was a deep green, and the other was a lighter shade of green.

Holding the two spirit stones in my hands, I found myself happily contemplating which one to summon first.

Then, suddenly feeling generous toward Rai, who was unusually cooperative today, I showed him the two stones and asked.

“Hehe, Rai, which one do you think looks more useful?”

[Hmm, I’m not sure. But aren’t you going to contract with both of them, Master?]

I had planned to let Aini contract with one later, but for now, my own contract took priority.

And now that I knew there were two, I was even more inclined to go ahead with both contracts myself.

“Yes!”

[Then summon both at once.]

“Ah, I see! That works!”

[Pfft. Master, you’re more cautious than you seem.]

Seeing Rai snicker, I considered hitting him, but since he’d been helpful today, I decided to let it slide.

After all, I had two spirits to contract with now.

I needed to finish the ceremony before Sister Anel returned.

I did feel a bit sorry for her, but making the contract ahead of her wouldn’t do any harm. Even if it did, I could always restore the durability later.

I placed the two spirit stones on the ground and stepped back a couple of paces.

From my experiences contracting with Adol and Pein, I knew these spirits might be dangerous.

But was my concern unfounded? As soon as I infused mana into the stones, they began to tremble faintly, as if caught in an earthquake.

Then, they abruptly stopped.

Two large and small glowing orbs emerged from the two spirit stones.

The larger one, from the deep green stone, and the smaller one, from the lighter green stone, entwined and floated into the air.

The larger orb transformed into a small fairy with leaf-like wings.

She had long, deep green hair flowing down her back and wore a dress made of flower petals.

She looked a bit like a low-level wind spirit, Sylph, but she had a more vivid and composed presence.

If Sylph was a little fairy, this one seemed like an adult fairy.

The fairy moved her small lips and spoke.

[Are you… the one who summoned me?]

“Yes, I summoned you. What kind of spirit are you?”

[I am the spirit of plants. From wild grass to trees, ancient trees, and sacred trees, I dwell in all living plants.]

A plant spirit, huh?

That was exactly what Sister Anel had been hoping for.

But then, what about the other one?

I turned my gaze to the spirit that was still in the form of a glowing orb, unlike the plant spirit.

But that spirit was no longer there.

Just as I was about to search for it, Rai called out to me.

[Master, what’s this thing doing?]

The spirit I was looking for was circling around Rai and occasionally attempting to ram into him.

What on earth is it doing?

“Hey, what kind of spirit are you?”

Realizing that I was addressing it, the spirit, which had been ramming into Rai, flew toward me.

Then, in a baby-like voice, it answered.

[I’m… the spirit of animals.]

An animal spirit? Does that even exist?

I searched through the knowledge I had about spirits.

But I had never heard of an animal spirit before.

“Animal spirit? What can you do?”

[I can control animals, understand their language, and talk to them. I can even enter their bodies, but… I can’t do that with this animal.]

The animal spirit spoke in a babyish, babbling voice.

Interesting… It can control animals?

At least I understood why it was ramming into Rai now.

Rai must have heard as well, as he nodded in agreement.

I became curious about why Rai, unlike before, hadn’t been able to identify the spirits’ true nature until the very end.

“You couldn’t figure out the identity of these spirits until the end this time. Why is that?”

[The animal spirit is the exact opposite of my attribute, Master. Same with the plant spirit. I specialize in non-living entities.]

“Hmm, really? I see.”

It seems Rai doesn’t know everything about spirits.

Now, I need to come up with names for these spirits if I want to form a contract. But since they’re spirits that aren’t even mentioned in the books, I have no idea what to name them.

If it were a tree spirit or a forest spirit, I might have had a clue.

The plant spirit seemed to be higher than a tree spirit but lower than a forest spirit.

[Will you contract with me?]

[Will you contract with me?]

Both spirits asked at the same time, as if they had planned it.

“Of course. That’s why I summoned you.”

[Very well. You are more than worthy to be my master. I will serve you with all my heart. Please give me a name…]

[Great! I’ll make you my master. Give me a name.]

This part was always the hardest.

Coming up with names for spirits.

At least with Pein, I had prepared in advance, so it was easy. But this time, I didn’t have any names ready, since the contract was so sudden.

What names would suit a plant spirit and an animal spirit?

“Hmm…”

[Master! How about “Planty” and “Beasty”? Or maybe “Leafy” and “Clawy”? What do you think, Master?]

I don’t think I even agonized this much when I was teaching Magi the 5th-circle magic formulas.

Rai’s suggestion wasn’t bad, but since they were my spirits, it seemed only polite for me to come up with their names myself.

As I wracked my brain for names, an idea suddenly struck me for the animal spirit.

It controls animals and can communicate with them, right?

“Animal spirit! I’ve decided your name.”

[What is it?]

“Since you’re the spirit of animals, you’ll be called Tarzan—no, Cheetah! And for the plant spirit, you’ll be Tarzan.”

I was really pleased with the names I had come up with.

Originally, Tarzan would have fit the animal spirit, but since Cheetah was more animal-like, I switched the names.

Plus, Tarzan and Cheetah are an iconic duo, aren’t they?

So, naming them together made sense.

Yes, perfect!

Of course, I didn’t choose these names just because I couldn’t be bothered to think of others.

[Very well. My name is Tarzan. What is your name, Master?]

[Great! My name is Cheetah. What’s your name, Master?]

“My name is Geenie Crowell!”

Oh, how lovely! You’re the first ones who haven’t complained about your names.

I smiled in satisfaction.

[Master? What about “Planty”… and “Beasty”?]

“Forget it!”

Rai hates the idea.

After contracting with Tarzan and Cheetah, I picked up the two remaining spirit stones from the ground.

“Hmm, what should I do with these?”

With this, I had now discovered a total of four spirit stones.

Adol’s spirit stone had crumbled when he was summoned, and I had purposely destroyed Pein’s stone.

In this world, I was the only one who needed to summon the ice spirit.

I’m the type of person who prefers to keep good things for myself rather than share them.

[Aren’t you going to destroy them, Master?]

As Rai suggested, I could just destroy the stones, but these particular spirit stones were tied to my life savior, Sister Anel.

And her daughter, Aini’s future, might also be at stake, so it wasn’t an easy decision to make.

After a brief moment of contemplation, I alternated between looking at the two spirit stones before finally tossing the animal spirit stone into Rai’s mouth.

Rai swallowed it without hesitation.

“Let’s just give this one. The plant spirit stone should be enough to bring prosperity to the forest.”

[Not that it matters since they can’t use it… Spirit stones are exclusive to summoners. You’d be better off absorbing it yourself, Master.]

“Aini has the potential to become a summoner.”

Aini was a cute girl with silver hair and emerald eyes, more adorable than beautiful, much like her mother, Sister Anel.

She was the daughter of Anel and Kenta.

A girl with the potential to become not just a summoner, but a powerful spirit wielder.

She might even become my rival in the future…

Should I just crush that potential now?

[Come on, do you really think that kid will become a powerful spirit wielder? And by the way, spirit wielders can’t use spirit stones. They develop their mental power, not mana.]

“Then I’ll make her a summoner.”

I responded casually and turned around.

Since I had finished my task, I wanted to get out of the cave as soon as possible.

But when Rai didn’t follow, I looked back.

[Ma-Master, don’t tell me…!]

“What?”

Rai, still standing in place, looked up at me with wide eyes.

[You’re not thinking of taking that kid as your disciple, are you?]

“A disciple? That’s not a bad idea. I was thinking of crushing her potential, but… maybe I should nurture it instead?”

Clapping my hands in excitement at Rai’s suggestion, I smiled.

But Rai, having opened this line of thought, panicked and yelled.

“No way! I absolutely oppose it, Master!”

“…Why?”

[I don’t like kids.]

That’s your reason?

How picky, for a spirit.

“I don’t like kids either. But I’ve always wanted to train a powerful summoner.”

[But that child can’t do it, Master. I don’t think you’ve noticed, but she’s already started gathering a bit of mana in her dantian.]

I froze at Rai’s words.

Gathering mana in her dantian?

That’s a technique used by swordsmen…

Come to think of it, hadn’t she already begun learning dual-wielding swordsmanship?

Wait. How did Rai know that?

“What? How do you know that?”

[I can see it.]

“You never mentioned that!”

[You never asked. Besides, I’ve only been able to see it recently. My abilities have improved as your power has increased. I think it started around the time you contracted with the higher-level spirit? Around then, I started noticing it.]

You can see the amount and location of mana within a person’s body?

Normally, this could only be detected by high-level magic users performing a mana scan or by highly skilled swordmasters directly manipulating a person’s body to sense mana without scattering it.

Rai spoke as if it were no big deal, but this was clearly an extraordinary ability.

I could hide my mana, but to be able to detect someone else’s without touching them…

That was something beyond my imagination.

“So… does that mean she can never become a summoner?”

[Not impossible, but very difficult. Typically, a summoner gathers mana in their solar plexus, not their dantian. The locations are completely different.]

“Still… it’s possible, right?”

[Technically, yes, but… the kid already has a mana hole in her dantian! Humans can’t have two mana holes!]

***

Footnotes:

[1] Bosingtang (보신탕) is a traditional Korean soup that is made primarily with dog meat, along with various vegetables and spices. The dish is considered controversial, especially in modern times, as cultural attitudes toward the consumption of dog meat have shifted both within Korea and globally. Historically, it was believed to have medicinal properties and was consumed for its supposed health benefits, particularly to enhance vitality and stamina, especially during the hot summer months.