The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

Aria turned to her spirits one more time and did their routines.

"Rallaka, absorb," she ordered.

Like feeding her pet, she told Rallaka to draw out life force from the carcasses.

One thing that worried Aria was that both Rallaka and the [Conquer] function of her System needed life force. She was afraid that she would fall into the hard debate of either leveling up Rallaka or her own [Conquer] feature.

She hadn't received major impacts from the feature, but she could see that Rallaka had the potential to be a great ally. That was why she chose to give all the carcasses that she had gained to Rallaka.

To propel him enough to when he could gain a body.

Rallaka could start to absorb energy from the world itself once he gets a body. His constitution as a Great Spirit allowed such a thing.

Aria had great expectations for the spirit's help, but the ending was still uncertain.

Aria was afraid that if the process took too long, she would be forced to gather materials in some other way. She couldn't keep sustaining her own needs with these obscure dungeons that were in the gray area if that was the case.

Materials were also used by humans in various ways. They were not as sought for as the dungeon runes, but they still had value. Certain crafters required certain ingredients. However, since their main goal today was to test out the workflow, the materials were not picked up. Besides, Aria could just tell Rallaka to absorb only those she and the spirits had slayed.

"How close are you to getting a body?" Aria asked.

"..Very close," Rallaka answered after checking with his own constitution. "Probably by the end of this dungeon, even."

Ever since he tagged along Aria to subjugate all those dungeons that followed after he joined the entourage, he had been receiving a continuous supply of life force.

Inside his body, he processed the energy and worked hard to eventually form a concrete body out of all those.

He was an expert at this process, so it was relatively a smooth task for him.

He could feel that his being was starting to change. All those monsters he absorbed made him gain a considerable amount of life force.

"Good. We'll continue feeding you, then," Aria nodded in approval, excitement brimming inside her as she thought about how Rallaka will have a huge progress.

She began cleaning herself and waited as Rallaka drew out life force from the dead monsters.

She checked her status and saw that she was just thousands away from gaining a new level and was instantly motivated even though she was fatigued. She could withstand another round of fighting with no problem at all as long as she didn't go all out.

"..I've been wanting to ask, but what's with you and your spirit? This absorbing thing.. you're absorbing our results too," Ha-young raised her hand and asked with a loud voice.

She had observed Aria and her spirits' exchange for quite some time for a distance, and still couldn't fathom it.

Those who controlled spirits usually did not have as much chemistry as Aria did.

Aria conversed with her spirits just like how she would with another human being. Ha-young wondered what made the woman special.

Aria's gaze was drawn back to the team, who were waiting upon her.

"To my spirit, the corpses can be turned into fodder that'll be recycled inside his body. It's basically absorbing their components," Aria explained shortly.

Ha-young looked at Aria's nonchalant attitude and wanted to voice out her complaints.

"Are you sure that you're not doing any illegal things? Forbidden magic, perhaps?" Ha-young hated to admit it, but Aria was better at fighting than her.

Especially in this case, where you had to possess a large stamina bank to survive until the dungeon's ending. Aria was quick and efficient in getting the job done, as she maneuvered through the crowd with her spirits and cleared out the enemies fast.

"Forbidden? What is?" Aria raised a brow, starting to get annoyed at the girl's clear opposition of her.

Don't tell her, one of the victims of her 'borrowing' in the residence was this girl's acquaintance? Of course not.

"That.. you and your spirits!" Ha-young pointed to Aria and the two floating spirits.

Now, Aria was ticked off.

"What? Me and my spirits, what about us? What is forbidden about us? Elaborate further. Surely you're not just accusing us out of nowhere?" Aria walked towards Ha-young with slow and composed steps.

Behind her, Dianthe swirled in the air and followed her master.

Seeing the beautiful, yet intimidating spectacle that is Aria and her spirit, Ha-young stepped backwards.

Each time Ha-young moved back, Aria moved two steps faster.

Within no time, Aria stood in front the girl and asked again. "Are you going to state your point or should I retaliate right now?"

"Y-You dare!" Ha-young tried to back away, but because they were standing relatively near the walls, she had little to no space to escape now that she was cornered by Aria.

"I dare. It's so easy to kill you off just like how I did with all those weak monsters," Aria threatened the girl, making sure that she wouldn't try to insult or start unnecessary stuff up. "Watch your mouth. I dislike confrontations, but I won't stay calm forever," Aria warned before turning around and going back to Rallaka.

After being released off the pressure, Ha-young glared at the woman, biting her lips in frustration.

To Aria, Ha-young was just a naive young girl who did not know better. She wasn't planning on taking any real actions on her.

Watching as Aria calmly walked back as if nothing happened, Elgin scuffed. "She's the same case as you when you first met me,"

"I'll take that as a compliment~ I'm liking Aria so far, you know?" Reina answered back with ease. "Besides, just like me, she has the power to warranty her attitude. I don't see why she should be stopped. She's just going to soar further and further from now on,"

"Whatever you say," Elgin snorted before walking towards Aria, wanting to get a good look at the spirts himself.

______

"Done," Rallaka said, giving the cue to Aria that confirmed his readiness for the next progression.

Aria nodded and turned her head towards the other members,

"Can we move on now?" 

After Rallaka's absorption process ended, Aria asked the group. Of course, her question was met with a positive answer since coming out of this place as fast as possible was key.

This time, she led the group. She walked up to the stage's exit calmly, with the rest following behind her.

After passing through some paths, she finally reached the third stage.

Now, there weren't only undead humanoids, but also crawlers and a little more advanced creatures.

Looking at the itinerary, Aria confirmed that none of those monsters would pose a threat towards her.

Getting ready to pounce into the packs of monsters, Aria focused herself to maximize her capabilities using as little cost as possible.

Her advancement was near. She probably only had to slay ten monsters or more.

'..Judging by the monster, the boss could be a necromancer of something of that sort.' Aria deduced.

Necromancers were beings that devoted themselves to mastery over life and death. To learn such skills, they too had to tread upon the thin line that separated life and death. Thus, typical necromancers would also originate from an undead descent.

Although necromancy was not too fondly looked upon because of its usage and costs, to master the art itself was actually quite a harsh feat to do. However, upon mastery, you would be able to make use of the corpses you come across that fulfills certain qualifications.

Those who knew necromancy and those who mastered necromancy were different. Because this was a B-ranked dungeon, Aria suspected that the final battle will be against a Lich. Spellcasters that were undead themselves. They would be classified into beings who 'knew' necromancy depending on their level of skill.

As for the current dungeon, Aria had already concluded the gist of what the boss would be. The stages she had faced so far were only troublesome, yet weak creatures that wouldn't pose as much threat as more aggressive ones. The undead was a hard weapon to use precisely because of their mindless way of fighting. They couldn't think for their own, and you had to master necromancy to a specific level if you wanted to instill a strategy into their inner workings.

Of course, high-leveled necromancers could control them, but they usually focused on obtaining higher-leveled summons as well as their mental capacity would not be wasted as much with a few talented individuals rather than a massive army of dumb monsters.

Speaking of necromancy, Aria was reminded of one person that she met during her past travels. A particularly memorable figure that had once intrigued her.

A stoic man who mastered necromancy for a heartwarming reason that ended up in a tragedy.

His goal was to achieve the unthinkable for a regular human. It was to bring back his beloved wife, someone who had died for his sake.

To revive a loved one, a human being that has been long dead, there needed to be some heavy costs.

The man mastered necromancy with the outstanding determination he had. His story was always a painful one to tell, but he never gave up.

Aria remembered that when she first met him, he was already halfway to achieving his supposed 'end'.

He didn't care about the costs he had to pay.