The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

Elephant Frogs had both an innately high Luck stat and the ability to naturally detect Luck, as a matter of fact, there were several grimoires that could be written using their skin as paper that granted boosts to Luck.

Although Qi Nan and the others knew some aspects of what the Elephant Frog was like, many aspects of magical beasts were not well-known or even studied, especially by ordinary villagers. Even Qi Nan, who had learned much alongside Hei Nan, did not know about this particular detail of the Elephant Frog.

The larger the Elephant Frog, the higher its Luck stat. When Stefan had wandered near it, although it normally would've thought nothing of a human, because of Stefan's high Luck stat, its instincts told it to consider Stefan the same as another Elephant Frog.

But, Stefan was clearly much smaller than an Elephant Frog. He was simultaneously very similar to an Elephant Frog and yet clearly not one. So the frog thought of him as being rather cute. As such, the Elephant Frog considered Stefan in much the same way that a human would a puppy.

So, when Stefan had fallen asleep on its belly, it had thought of Stefan in much the way that a human might consider a puppy who had happened to fall asleep in their lap while they were lying down - and did its best to not disturb Stefan.

It lacked the intelligence required to do so, otherwise it might have considered keeping Stefan as a pet. However, if Stefan chose to tail alongside it, it would not chase Stefan away.

There were stories of what the world was like before Liberomancy was invented and humans were able to use it to tackle the harsh living conditions they were subjected to. In some of these stories, certain groups of humans had survived in those conditions in the past by essentially becoming the pets of friendly magical beasts which were more intelligent than the Elephant Frog.

The Elephant Frog had completed its nap, and so had Stefan, so it decided that it had had enough and after letting out another croak. It then decided to hop back to where it had come from, away from the village.

Stefan, for his part, found himself suddenly struck by inspiration by the sight of that giant frog like a flash of lightning. He had been desperately seeking inspiration all this time, and upon seeing what he felt to be the majestic sight of the giant frog, it finally came to him right when he hadn't been expecting anything like that at all.

He now had an idea for a grimoire! He waved the Elephant Frog off as it retreated off into the distance, not even knowing if it could understand the gesture but not really caring, before turning around.

"So, why is everyone here?" he asked. "What's going on?"

The next morning, I had managed to finish the grimoire I was thinking of after spending all of yesterday and the morning locked up in the house instead of exploring the village, and my heart was pounding as I finished the last letter.

The sea blue color turned to a grassy green!

"Yes!" I said, pumping my fist. No one was there to see me, so I didn't really need to worry about appearing awkward.

My excitement grew as not only had I made another Rank Two grimoire, but it was one that granted the ability [Summon Elephant Frog], which was not just useful for filling up a slot.

Summons were creatures that were created with the help of Liberomancy. Many different people had various theories as to where summons came from. Some people said that there was a different dimension that they were summoned from, while others said they were created at the time of summoning via a Liberomancer's energy the same way that spells worked.

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None of them could be proved to be right, though I personally thought that the latter explanation was far more convincing.

Summoned creatures were creatures completely under the control of a Liberomancer. They could only stay in the world for a set period of time - I had been told that Rank One summons could remain for up to three hours or until they were destroyed, and this Rank Two summoning ability I had learned could summon an Elephant Frog for six hours or until its destruction.

One could normally only summon a creature of each rank once per day, and could normally only maintain a single active summon at a time. There were Liberomancers who chose to specialize in summoning, however, and they would naturally choose to try and memorize grimoires that increased the duration summons could be in the world or allowed them to control multiples of them at once.

Once the allotted time period was over, or they had been destroyed, the summons would vanish and could then only be summoned twenty-four hours after they had initially been summoned.

Liberomancers were, by definition, glass cannons. As such, whenever they went into combat, they would need a front-liner to take damage for them. You could send actual soldiers, but ran the risk of them balking and abandoning you during the fight. Anyone who would sacrifice their own soldiers with such recklessness would not find many people willing to fight for them. Not to mention, while the lives of ordinary citizens were not as valued as those of Liberomancers, they also couldn't be discarded like trash either.

There was no need for such concerns with summons. They were not long for this world anyway, and so could be sacrificed with ease for these purposes.

They did not need to be fed, and would always be in full health and stamina when first summoned, and so rarely needed rest.

It was like having a pet with all the fun and none of the responsibilities!

Back in Arconia, Rose had once shown me a Rank One summon she could use - a bird that somewhat resembled a pelican though had some other kind of funny name that I couldn't remember. I had seen them near the docks, but much like actual pelicans, they did not bother me or anyone else much so I had never paid that much attention to them.

"It can't do much," Rose said. "But, since I can control it, I can sometimes send letters back home using it." She then tied a letter to its leg and then set if off like a carrier pigeon. "Perhaps one day when I get married - I'll exchange letters with my husband like that! Doesn't that sound romantic?"

At the time, a customer had walked in mid-way through what she was saying and I had gone to help them. "Ah… yeah, sounds really cool!" I think she was a bit dejected that I hadn't paid that much attention to what she was saying.

I hadn't managed to make a grimoire that could create a summon at Rank One, but that was fine. Rank One summons were extremely weak as it was. And I didn't need to be able to make a Rank One summon to use Rank Two summons.

Now that I had this ability though, I couldn't help but try to test it out for myself.

I couldn't release something of its size within the boundaries of the village walls, so I went outside towards an empty area of wasteland before using the skill.

An Elephant Frog, very similar to the one I had seen yesterday, popped up onto the ground as if it had sprouted out of the earth.

I saw some panicked looks from the surrounding villagers - ah, in my eagerness to test out my new powers, I had forgotten to tell them what I was doing. Some of them may have even thought the frog from yesterday had come back to terrorize the village.

When Granny Qi had told me not to embarrass her in front of the other villagers - perhaps she had had a point after all, I realized.

Once I had settled that matter, I turned my attention back to the Elephant Frog. There was a mental link between the two of us - I didn't need to instruct it verbally to turn left, it just did so without hesitation the moment I thought of telling it to. The mental link also meant that it shared knowledge with its summoner, though with its intelligence I wasn't sure how much it could make usage of that kind of knowledge.

I also learned more about the frog by summoning it - so it was a creature with a very high Luck stat, and the larger the frog, the higher the Luck stat would usually be. By engaging in contests of size and Luck, it would compete with rivals for territory. That was probably why I had been able to 'chase it away' as the villagers now believed.

As for its combat ability, it was not as useful as something say, a bear would be. While it did have its large mass and could somewhat act as a living wrecking ball, its skin was rather soft and as such it was weak to claws, swords, and lances; basically anything that could tear it open. Still, it was rather fast despite its size, so it could be used as a vehicle to escape if all else failed. Not to mention it was capable of swimming and could also be used as a makeshift raft.

Several kids gathered around the frog once they realized that it wasn't going to eat them, and started using its stomach as a makeshift trampoline. It didn't look like the frog minded much, but that could be because I was restraining it.