The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

"Stay there and don't move for now," Aria instructed.

Ha-young weakly raised her hand and offered her a thumbs up.

Aria nodded and stood back up from her squatting position, going back to where Rallaka was standing above.

Rallaka was still in the middle of absorbing the life force from the carcasses.

With each absorption, Aria could see Rallaka's progress. She could feel the difference, although it wasn't that significant.

As long as Rallaka could break through his bottleneck and advance to the next level, he should face a huge change.

Aria was expectant.

Rallaka was currently in a dazed state to focus on his process, so Aria did not bother him.

After a few minutes, Rallaka finally snapped out of his dazed state and saw Aria currently standing in front of him.

His eyes scanned to the back, where Ha-young was laying down and clutching at her arm to handle the pain.

He understood that some things had been resolved.

"How is your progress?" Aria asked.

"It's going well," Rallaka replied. He had just finished devouring over half of the energy, there was still another half to consume.

The perk of absorbing life force was that you would be given a higher amount as the monster's level and strength scaled up.

In this case, a <Skeletal Soldier> wasn't the highest monster ever, but for a spirit like Rallaka, whose powers were all stolen and had to be restarted from the very first, it was still a huge resource.

Of course, in just a short while, these types of monsters will become just as meaningless as a <Blue Wolf> to Rallaka. But for now, it was very significant.

"Do you think you'll advance with this?"

"Honestly... maybe?" Rallaka was also excited.

Although he had objected to using crude methods like this since it was beneath him before, he was now settled down. He had the strong desire to regain back his powers.

Now that he was freed from the dungeon, he began to want the glory he possessed in the past. To retrieve all that honor.

"Oh?" Aria widened her eyes.

The heat was high. Sooner or later, Rallaka would advance, but to think that it would happen in a dungeon they borrowed from another entity rather than their own was a bit strange to think about.

"I'm not sure, but it should be near.. I'll go back to absorbing. The rest should be quicker since I've gotten used to these resources," Rallaka replied.

"Mmm," Humming in agreement, Aria decided to leave the spirit alone and go back to the rest of the team.

________

"We will have to wait for my spirit, is that alright?" Aria inquired.

The team almost unanimously answered with a solid yes, except for one.

Elgin raised a question. "You know, the things Ha-young said before, although I don't agree with most of it.. There is one thing that I do want you to clarify upon,"

Aria tightened her lips, looking over to the man. "Do tell," she replied.

"Your spirit.. is it a malicious one?"

"Rallaka? That Earth guy over there?"

Elgin nodded. Even after observing Aria's fights for the past few stages, Elgin still couldn't comprehend from where Aria's spirits came up from. It was unlike the previous Hunters he had seen before with similar abilities.

"Hmm.. Malicious, huh? That depends. A spirit can change its nature depending on its will, it's not something I can decide. Rallaka is a spirit I contracted using.. not so normal ways. That I can tell you. His identity, along with Dianthe's, however.."

Aria dragged out her speech.

She had bestowed upon him vague knowledge that wouldn't harm her even if it was revealed. But more than this would be too much.

In truth, she herself wasn't completely sure on her spirits' identity.

The world of spirits was something too otherworldly for her to comprehend.

Not even Aria could learn everything about the realm after contracting so many high-ranked spirits in the past.

The only thing she knew was that a high-ranked spirits would even have the capability to bring forth their own realm- a space.

She was most curious about Dianthe. Because at this point, with the amount of interaction they have had, Aria was almost completely sure that the current Dianthe was connected in one way or another with her past spirit.

"Captain, don't you think everyone has their own secrets their not allowed to share?" Aria smirked, refusing to share any more.

"That is... of course," Elgin was looking forward to hear what Aria had to say, but he had been cut off to only these vague pieces of information.

Although he was left feeling a bit frustrated, he indeed couldn't force Aria to speak up.

Shrugging helplessly, he chose to drop the matter before things escalate to a bad situation.

They were all waiting upon Rallaka to finish his process.

Even as a former Great Spirit, his speed could only be higher than average, but not instantaneous.

A few minutes passed as they waited for the spirit to continuously take in the life force drawn from the dead corpses.

Waiting and waiting, the team was very patient.

After the five minute mark was hit, Rallaka soon broke off from his bubble of thoughts.

"I'm done!" Rallaka exclaimed, feeling quite ecstatic.

It was because he felt a change rupture inside him.

"Did something happen?" Upon hearing his words, Aria rushed to his side and asked.

"I don't know.. but something happened. This is strange, though.. this shouldn't be the advancement level according to my kin's levels,"

Aria frowned hearing his words. She began to formulate what could've been the cause.

'Does the System have anything to do with this?'

Aria was quick to suspect the System. It was because both Dianthe and Rallaka's contracts was most probably only possible because of the System.

For someone who wasn't jotted down as a Summoner, she could still create the Summoner space for where her summons laid down at. She could summon and order those she contracted.

Could it be that Rallaka had ties to the System now that Aria took him as her own?

If so, what were the System's plans for Rallaka in the future?

Even so, Aria couldn't just shrug off the happy feeling they managed to bring out due to Rallaka's advancement.

"Does this mean that you will be able to draw energy in every second?" Aria made sure to ask.

According to her knowledge, that should be the case, but she asked just in case.

"Wait," Rallaka replied, checking it right then and there. After inspection, he was indeed able to draw in the environment's energy and convert it as the basis for his own foundations. "I can do it! There are potentially other features as well.. Wait I will check and tell you what I find,"

"Beautiful!" Aria complimented.

______

Since Rallaka's process ended, Aria wanted to go back on track and continue their mission.

"Now, we can proceed to the next level," Aria said.

She looked over to Ha-young, whose face had gotten better after some rest. No longer was she crying, even though some jolting pain was still present.

"Are you alright?" Aria gave an awkward smile, extending her hand to pull up the girl.

"I am.. sorry for troubling you again," Ha-young sighed, taking the help and standing back up. She used her staff, which was lengthy enough to be used as a pillar of support for walking.

"It's no worries," Aria was starting to see some good qualities residing inside Ha-young. The girl, albeit a bit rash and immature, had moral values and principles that shone through her bad qualities.

They then walked towards the steps that led up to the next stage.

What would it be like? Would it be hellish, or of normal difficulty like the previous ones they have faced?

What would be their enemy?

With many thoughts embedded deep within their minds, they all proceeded to the next level with different goals and resolutions.

______

Upon reaching the next stage, they weren't greeted with a barrage of monsters, but instead, a lonely area.

There was no living creature that showed up.

"What is this?" Aria frowned at the new environment.

The next stage was no longer on a solid and dry ground, but instead a swamp like area.

It wasn't that deep, and was more muddy than watery. However, it was still a hindrance to quick movements.

Aria had a bad feeling, but she suppressed it as she observed the new sceneries, not spotting a single enemy.

She told the others to wait behind her.

"Rallaka, could you throw some stones in the middle?" Aria asked.

Her goal was to try and provoke any creature that would respond to touch.

Doing it herself would be much more dangerous, but since Rallaka was a spirit that had flight abilities, he would be able to do it with ease.

The Earth spirit readily followed the order and went straight to the area's center. There, he began to produce rocks that he threw down into the water.

It became submerged in the short swamp, but nothing happened even after a few seconds passed.

Aria was still not convinced by the strange matter.

"Try other places. Dianthe, please do the same thing as Rallaka. Trigger the ground in any sort of way,"

The place was likely to be a trap with how it was presented. There must be some sort of mechanism that worked behind the place.

Rallaka and Dianthe went to execute their orders, taking care of the ground patches step by step. They peppered each area with their magic, but still- nothing happened.

Feeling that something was off, Aria's danger sensors told her that there was something more to this matter than just a simple mechanism.

However, since the System's pop up hasn't came up yet, this stage should still be a mid boss and not the dungeon boss.

Grumbling, Aria was at a lost because she couldn't think up of a reason on how to explain this matter.

If there was no monster to beat, then what would be the objective?