The explorers had fallen into a heavy, somber mood for some reason.
They seemed to be feeling some sort of anxiety... but that didn't mean we were going back to the surface. We resumed our exploration.
Shortly after we started walking, I spoke with Hinata-san.
"Hinata-san, if special variants are going to keep appearing like this, I want to avoid exhaustion as much as possible. So... I'm sorry to ask, but could you do that thing for me?"
"Yeah, I understand. Of course, it's fine. I'll bring him out now, okay?"
Hinata-san readily agreed to my request and came to a halt.
She leveled her staff and concentrated. Before long, her magic skill activated.
"Monster Summoning—Gobu-taro!!"
Immediately after, a glowing magic circle surfaced on the ground slightly in front of her. It looked exactly like the summoning circles found in monster rooms, though the scale was different.
The light of the circle intensified in the blink of an eye. Then, after a particularly bright flash, a figure suddenly appeared in the center.
It was a humanoid monster, yet its height easily exceeded two meters. It was clad in full metal armor and equipped with a sword and shield. It was Gobu-taro the Goblin Knight... or rather, it wasn't!
It wasn't a Goblin Knight anymore. The armor, the shield, the sword, and above all, its massive size, made it clear that this was no mere knight.
It was the level 30 Goblin Guarder we had carefully selected and tamed on Floor 10 of the Shinjuku Dungeon.
『He's here! Gobu-taro!』 『Now we've got this!!』 『Monster Summoner Hinata-chan is so cute!』 『So she really can summon him even outside the Shinjuku Dungeon.』 『It's been quietly proven that summoning works outside Shinjuku too.』 『The Goblin Genocider activation trigger and Hinata-chan's meat shield has arrived!』 『Nice! Now Hinata-chan is much safer!』
The viewers of "Hinata Channel" were already used to this and weren't particularly surprised.
On the other hand, the people who had stopped to watch the summoning were staring at Gobu-taro with looks of utter astonishment. However, that wasn't because they were learning about Hinata-san's summoning for the first time—
"So that is the rumored summoning art...!!" "Hoh, it's my first time seeing it in person..." "Oh...!! If you could summon sea creatures, I might let you into my clan..." "She really can summon monsters..." "I'm so jealous~" "Damn that Cow Tits...!! Standing out more than me...!!"
They knew about the skill, but their surprise came from seeing it live.
Hinata-san had first debuted her Summoning skill during a DungeonTube stream on May 17th. Naturally, she went viral afterward. Clips from her channel spread rapidly, and people not only in Japan but all over the world were buzzing about the discovery of the skill.
Because of that, the fact that Hinata-san could use Summoning was now common knowledge.
By the way, these were Hinata-san's stats before we entered the Sendai Castle Ruins Dungeon.
―――――――――――――――― 【Name】 Mashiro Hinata 【Level】 50 Experience points to next level: 1,056,051,510
HP: 140/140 (10 up!) MP: 435/435 (10 up!) Strength: 40 (10 up!) Constitution: 100 Intelligence: 280 (5 up!) Spirit: 155 (5 up!) Agility: 80 Dexterity: 214 (10 up!)
【STP】 0 【SP】 3
【Skills】 Advanced Healing Magic Lv. Max, Mind Concentration Lv. Max, Fleet-footed Lv. 3, Charm Lv. 2, Divine Magic Lv. Max, Life Magic Lv. Max, Fire Magic Lv. 5, Holy Fire Magic Lv. 1, Saint Lv. Max, Healer Lv. Max, Monster Taming Lv. Max, Summoning Lv. 1, Basic Cursecraft Lv. 5, Basic Necromancy Lv. 5
【Titles】 Beguiling Beauty, Saint, Monster Summoner ――――――――――――――――
Allow me to explain how Hinata-san acquired Summoning.
On May 15th, the day we reached Floor 14 of the Shinjuku Dungeon, Hinata-san had somehow acquired the Monster Tamer title and its corresponding title skill, Monster Taming.
When we looked into the details of Monster Taming, we found some surprising information.
―――――――――――――――― 【Skill】 Monster Taming — Communicate with and subject monsters to your will. A magic skill that includes the following spells: "Monster Contract," "Monster Strengthening," "Monster Recovery," "Mana Transfer," "Sensory Sharing," "Thought Transmission," and "Contract Termination." ――――――――――――――――
The details of each spell were as follows:
"Monster Contract" — Consumes 10 MP to form a monster contract. Can contract with up to (Skill Level x 2) monsters. If the user possesses the Summoning skill, the limit becomes "(Monster Taming Level + Summoning Level) x 2."
"Monster Strengthening" — Consumes 10 MP to strengthen all stats of a monster except for HP and MP by (Skill Level x 5). If the user possesses the Summoning skill, the buff value becomes "(Monster Taming Level + Summoning Level) x 5."
"Monster Recovery" — Consumes 10 MP to recover a monster's HP. The recovery amount is (Skill Level x 10). If the user possesses the Summoning skill, the amount becomes "(Monster Taming Level + Summoning Level) x 10."
"Mana Transfer" — Transfers MP from the caster to the monster. The reverse is not possible. "Sensory Sharing" — Shares visual and auditory senses with the monster. "Thought Transmission" — Connects the consciousness of the caster and the monster to transmit thoughts. "Contract Termination" — Terminates a monster contract.
...Did you notice?
The descriptions explicitly mentioned the existence of a skill called Summoning.
When I imagined the capabilities of such a skill, I desperately wanted Hinata-san to acquire it. With only Monster Taming, the same problem that came with Charm would persist—you couldn't take the monsters out of the dungeon or move them between dungeons.
However, if Summoning worked the way I thought it did, those problems would vanish.
I would be able to activate Goblin Genocider in other dungeons. Even in Shinjuku, it would save me the trouble of taming and releasing Gobu-taro every single time or walking him all the way from Floor 7 without a teleportation circle.
However, she likely needed to max out Monster Taming and evolve the Monster Tamer title to get it. Even then, there was no guarantee it would work.
It was a risk for Hinata-san. She would be spending Skill Points on something that might be a waste.
So, I prostrated myself before her.
I implored her to raise her Monster Taming level, promising to give her the Skill Point Skill Orbs I had obtained through Goblin Tamer to compensate for the points used.
Hinata-san readily agreed to my "pure" wish. In fact, she even said she didn't need the Skill Point Skill Orbs. She told me it was fine as long as she could have the Skill Orbs dropped by Orcs instead.
That was definitely a polite excuse to ease my conscience. In the end, although we found the Orc Shaman's Basic Cursecraft and the Orc Necromancer's Basic Necromancy while exploring Floor 11 and Floor 15, Hinata-san hasn't used either of them.
We grinded until we got five of each, so her levels for those skills are at 5 now.
Anyway.
Hinata-san had accumulated 6 Skill Points, so she immediately spent 4 to max out her Monster Taming level for me.
The Monster Tamer title evolved quite easily after that. Whether the conditions were originally loose or whether the fact that she had been pretending to be a Monster Tamer on stream helped, I don't know.
Monster Tamer became Monster Summoner, and she acquired Summoning as a new title skill.
The Summoning skill works as follows:
―――――――――――――――― 【Skill】 Summoning — Allows the user to summon a monster with a summon contract anywhere. Includes the following spells: "Summon Contract," "Monster Summoning," "Monster Dismissal," "Limit Break," and "Contract Termination."
"Summon Contract" — Forms a summon contract with a monster already under a monster contract. Consumes no MP. Contracted monsters do not vanish even if they die; they can be re-summoned after a waiting period equal to their level. "Monster Summoning" — Consumes 30 MP to materialize a contracted monster. The number of monsters that can be summoned simultaneously is (Skill Level x 4). "Monster Dismissal" — Dismisses the monster. Consumes no MP. "Limit Break" — Consumes 10 MP to double the buff value of Monster Strengthening for five minutes. Cannot be reused on the same monster for 24 hours. "Contract Termination" — Terminates a summon contract. ――――――――――――――――
By the way, "Monster Contract" allows one to tame monsters of a higher rank than those affected by Charm. Currently, Hinata-san has several level 30 monsters under her control.
That should be enough of an explanation.
"All right, I'll direct Gobu-taro's aggro toward Takeo-kun now, okay?"
"Yes, please."
After summoning Gobu-taro, Hinata-san told him to be wary of me. I felt the aggro from Gobu-taro hit me, and Goblin Genocider activated.
Now all my stats are constantly doubled.
This meant I could hunt special variants without even needing to activate Fighting Spirit.
Time to hunt! I'm going to harvest so many experience points!!
―――――――――――――――― *Findings from Hinata's verification of Monster Taming and Summoning:
- Summoned monsters do not receive experience points or level up.
- Experience points from kills made by a summoned monster belong to the master, regardless of distance, as long as they are in the same dungeon.
- Summoned monsters are recognized as enemies by dungeon monsters.
- Once summoned, a monster remains until its HP reaches 0 or it is dismissed.
- Summoned monsters have individual stats; their HP and MP recover over time even when not summoned.
- Equipment for summoned monsters can be changed and will persist through dismissal and re-summoning.
- It is possible to strengthen summoned monsters using Skill Orbs.
- Bless or Holy Bless can be stacked on top of Monster Strengthening and Limit Break.
- Summoned monsters retain their memories; their behavior can be shaped by experience and training.