The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

Slash! Clang!

Iron against flesh, iron against iron.

[Halvargg] was flying everywhere, going in all directions as Aria too moved accordingly to reach the best results.

Her battle mode was constantly being tested with all the enemies that surrounded her. She couldn't afford to make a single mistake.

She squatted down to dodge one monster's attack, and used her position to propel herself towards another monster and slay that one down to the ground.

Clearing the space up was hard. The enemies kept crowding around her, trying to injure her in any sort of way.

They were mindless monsters, so they weren't deterred even after seeing their kin die right in front of them.

Aria's lips tightened all the time during her attacks. She didn't want to open her mouth because a slight mishap was all it would take for her to possibly ruin the balance she just struggled to gain.

With a shout, the monsters would be aggravated. With opening her mouth, the possibility of accidentally biting the insides would come up.

It was better to stay silent and keep repeating the same sequences she had been maintaining.

Her body was flexible, and she could twist into unspeakable positions just to safely reach her goal.

Up until now, she hasn't been injured yet apart from the fireball remnants that Ha-young managed to inflict on her.

Thinking about the girl, Aria sent a message towards Dianthe, asking if the recovery was going well.

She received a positive reply, but it seemed like Dianthe would still not be able to return yet as of now.

Aria's speed gradually increased as she picked up momentum from each of her strikes, maximizing her strategy to take on the enemies fully.

With her power recharged right up to the brim, she was able to withstand the fights much better, but it wasn't like she could waste all of her resources right here and now.

Aria had to be mindful of the next stages to come, which she didn't know the contents of yet. If she didn't conserve any energy, she would be faced with eventual doom if the next stage was too hard.

She couldn't even tire herself out too much. Apart from the System, her body also had its own tolerances. If she strained her muscles too far, then the consequences would come in harsh ways.

[<Skeletal Soldier> 13/92.]

The way the System's counter worked only included Aria's kills, but the end count would say the same. Which mean that if Yan took down 15 enemies by the end of the battle, then Aria's count could only peak at 77/92, leaving the remaining fifteen declared missing by the System.

Unlike the final dungeon quest, these checkpoints did not provide any form of experience to Aria and just served as a counter to her, so she did not worry too much about missing out those guys.

The skeletal undeads were of different shapes, with the majority being humanoid. However, everything got grouped up to the category soldier, which meant that the monsters weren't all that advanced to receive their own category name.

From the points given to her, Aria was able to perfectly calculate the best plan to get around the dilemma with ease.

She stalled and attacked for minutes. Within the fights, she could faintly hear the sounds of Dianthe's spells being activated, and Ha-young's pained sounds.

After a set amount of time, however, the sounds began to recede and slow down. The treatment was definitely having a positive effect.

Aria continued taking down the monsters. Yan and Rallaka too performed their duties.

At first, Yan was a bit shaken up because Ha-young was someone he was acquainted with, but upon observing Dianthe's effects for some time, he was finally assured and could focus on his own battle.

[Level C Skeleton Soldier <Mad>  successfully murdered.]

[Level C Skeleton Soldier <Mad>  successfully murdered.]

[Level C Skeleton Soldier <Mad>  successfully murdered.]

[Experience points increased by 2750.]

[Experience points increased by 2700.]

[Experience points increased by 2720.]

Aria sighed in annoyance when she saw that the experience she was gaining slowed down by a considerable amount. It was now only in the 2000s, compared with the first monster she took down of this kind, which yielded her around 5000.

It was the System's bad habit of purposely cutting her progress off.

When she checked with Yoo Jin in the past, he had told her that his advancement rate was basically the same even if he was levels above the monsters. It would only be affected by several hundreds, and that was after killing a lot of them.

Aria's System truly loved discriminating against her.

After several minuted, a blue spirit entered her line of sight. It was Dianthe, who began taking over the post she had left. She attacked the monsters with her waves of water slicers.

Although Dianthe's power wasn't enough to cut off the skeletons' bones with just a slicer, the monsters were considerably affected by it.

Aria grinned after seeing her spirit return.

"Is the girl alright?" Aria asked.

Dianthe nodded, focusing on the enemies once again and launching her attacks.

One point that had to be noted was that whenever Aria faced an advancement, then Dianthe would also feel some sort of change.

This clause did not apply to Rallaka, which was slightly strange because Dianthe was not even legally bound to her as a Summoner. The water spirit entrusted herself to Aria on her own accord without the help of contracts, whereas Rallaka was bound in a servant contract.

Logically, Rallaka should be the one to receive the benefits, but that wasn't the case.

Aria smiled, noticing Dianthe's fired up techniques. She too began to speed up.

Rallaka did not have as large of an an impact as Dianthe yet because he was not even wielding a thousandth of his original strength. The current him could only act as a simple distraction.

Compared to him, whose only way of advancing was to absorb life force, Dianthe was much better as she grew without a cost and at a much higher rate.

If put into perspective, Rallaka and Dianthe's dynamic was actually similar to that of Aria and Yoo Jin's.

With Rallaka resembling Aria and Dianthe resembling Yoo Jin in terms of progress rates.

As they maintained the same progress and charged through the enemy crowd, the monsters' numbers started decreasing.

They spent a total of around 30 minutes clearing everything up, but it basically turned into a mundane routine once they got used to it.

Slightly tired after the battle, Aria huffed a breath and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

Without even getting a good rest, she ordered Rallaka to start the absorption process in order to save time. She really hoped that he would advance soon.

Aria began walking towards Ha-young's way. Yan, too, began doing the same.

Upon reaching the other trio's location, she was met with an applause from Reina.

"You said that you prefer going into dungeons alone, but from what I can see.. it seems like you're used to fighting with teams?" Reina asked.

Internally, Aria laughed. Of course she was used to fighting in teams. She was once the leader of the world's most prominent research entity. The one that led the Unity's work.

"...It's troublesome, you know?" Aria answered.

Although she didn't mention a name, the 'troublesome' part was clearly evident from the fight they just had.

And that same 'troublesome' part was listening to their conversation right now.

Hearing that, Ha-young visibly shied away from Aria's line of gaze, wanting to hide. She was trapped in her own, decrepit shell and failed to recognize their difference in power.

Her fault was having too much doubt on Aria, which led to herself spiralling out of control in her little mind that had a vivid imagination.

Even after knowing that and her mistakes, she was still a bit unconvinced.

It was hard to accept. To think that one superior rookie was all it took to knock some sense into her head. She was used to the values of normal Hunters and found it hard to believe that Aria was any different from them since she was categorized as a B-ranked Hunter.

She couldn't help but suspect Aria's credibility and the work she displayed. She began thinking that it might all just be an illusion of power or something Aria had obtained illegally.

However, she soon grew to realize that Aria was B-ranked just because of her pure power. In terms of skills, she should be higher. Her calmness in battle and fast reactions. Her coordination with the spirits and the power they shared.

It was no wonder that Aria was brave enough to risk fighting more than she needed to. It was because she could afford to.

Envy. That was the main contender inside Ha-young's mind when she was observing Aria.

As a mage, she couldn't even be entertained with the idea of having a stronger magic power than Aria.

Aria could deal similar amounts of damage in much higher proficiency using her magic power, discarding the physical compartments the woman mixed up into her fighting style.

Even in her own game, Ha-young was beaten by Aria and her spirits.

Aria was very lucky in her eyes. Very, very lucky.

"So now.. what do we do?" Aria shrugged, at a loss on how to proceed on this matter.

Ha-young was definitely injured, but it wasn't like Aria wanted to just stop right here.

Aria's intent was clear.

Offering up two choices for Ha-young. Whether she would stay still until the dungeon was cleared or keep up with the rest of the team.

If it was the second option, Ha-young had to be prepared to not be a drag.

If she could do nothing but drag the team's speed down, then it would be better to leave Ha-young waiting idly.

Ha-young stared right into Aria's eyes and slid over to the others.

Everyone was waiting for her answer.