The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

The tentacles were of the same type. Thick, long, slimy, and without any creases.

The undead creatures with tentacles that she came across previously all had textures because of their grotesque tendency.

This creature, however, had smooth linings and slowed down whenever it won over something. Undeads were typically already quite slow, but the cluster did not just slow down in movements. Its senses also dulled down and even overpowered the <Flesh Hound>'s characteristic.

Adding a <Flesh Hound> into a <Death Cluster> was basically a terrifying thought to think about. It would create a ravenous monster that would never stop. If the other components were lower-ranked monster, it would've been fine, but if it contained high-ranked monsters with absurd powers, then what were they supposed to do when this deathly being chased them?

Luckily, the monster, albeit powerful, had these detrimental traits.

After being chased for quite some time, Aria had managed to make the cluster pull out a third tentacle.

She had learned to get used to the overbearing momentum and could now have short rests mid battle.

The cluster's attack pattern proved to be pretty simple and repetitive, which led to her having the opportunity to perfectly dodge the attacks and predicting most of its moves.

'It slowed down again.' Aria was now standing on top of the narrow path, catching her rest.

Her breath was uneven as she had just been flying about in trying to dodge its tentacles.

Just now, she had escaped the monster's eyesight and landed on the very path Ha-young was killed in.

She became reminded of the girl's remnants, which should still be loitering about in this area. She quickly dispersed her thoughts and the uncomfortable feeling she had.

Although, the monster had one negative criteria patched on to itself.

Its senses were worse than she expected.

'Does it have terrible eyesight?' Aria became confused and questioned.

She was currently facing the monster's behind. If it was just any more sensitive, then it should've detected her by this point, since she did not make any particular hard to see moves.

If it had a clear vision, then it shouldn't be at a loss when she went out of its sight. Its detection skills were also not superb, as proved by how it took the creature quite some time to relocate Aria.

If it had a great smelling system, then it could point out Aria's location after having been chasing her for all this time.

If it had superb hearing, then Aria's steps and breathing should be picked up by the creature.

Its senses were incredibly bad.

So far, the characteristic they have compiled amounted to the monster being not that threatening, but hard to defeat.

The reason being its impenetrable defense.

Like the plan suggested, the other team members have been trying to launch attacks at the monster, but they did no damage to it.

The attacks did not connect, but instead just got absorbed or bounced back. When Yan tried to slash through the cluster with one of his attack spells, a strong force actually repelled him.

Elgin turned out to be a master with small weapons. He was similar with White Fox, as he had the power to merge with the shadows and launch surprise attacks, multiple of them at once. He would be practically invisible if he got engaged in close combat in a suitable environment.

Reina tried her spells too, but none of them worked. It was like hitting the air, as no damage were done.

Thus, both magical and physical attacks did not work, leaving the monster roaming around freely with its endless vitality.

This gigantic thing was not only a strong attacker, but also had great defense capabilities.

At this rate, if they failed to find a way to harm the creature, then their stamina would run out first.

For this reason, Aria told the others to conserve their energy.

Because, as the point stood still, this room was not the Boss room.

This was not the end. There was still a continuation to this ordeal.

Realizing that their current set of actions were pointless, Aria decided to take a turn in her plans.

"I think I can defend on my own. Rallaka, get up in the air and just observe. If you find something, tell me," Aria commanded to save time.

They were pitted against a countdown that was their stamina. Unlike the mindless monster, Aria was actually starting to get tired.

"Got it," Rallaka quickly escaped from the monster's close vicinity and started his observation.

After confirming the situation, Aria continued the chase. The creature's endless pursuit was sickening.

However, one lucky thing was that the creature did not increase in power. It kept a steady approach and was easy to dodge after you got used to it.

Aria could only pray for Rallaka to hurry and solve the mystery before she would be doomed.

Just then, a few minutes later, the waiting halted.

As she escaped from one blow, her spirit came back to deliver a news.

"Master, what are the chances of this monster being an artificial creation?" Rallaka's voice suddenly interrupted her.

This was a theory he had formulated after going through his range of knowledge repeatedly and still not being able to detect what kind of creature it was.

Naturally, due to his experience and insight, he also knew that Aria was highly knowledgeable even though she was a dweller of this modern world.

The fact that both of them couldn't come up with any answer was abnormal.

However, after observing for quite some time, he came to figure out a pattern.

The tentacle shape, and the slowing down effect. It was similar to one of the most common pests.

A slime.

They had been looking at the matter through an established point of view- meaning that they selectively included only the monsters that were orthodox. Artificially added monsters, with complicated origins and abnormal characteristics, however, would be exempted of this filter.

"Artificial.. Are you thinking of a slime because of the clues?" Aria mumbled, thinking about the hypothesis. "..Wait, I seem to recall one crazy bastard who made a similar monster to this gigantic thing,"

"I do recall one bastard as well, and that's why I thought to brought it up. What a coincidence?" Rallaka replied.

"Rallaka, I swear to God, you can't possibly be thinking of that damned Leonis?"

"..Leonis, the necromancer who picked up a slime and became friends with it," Rallaka continued her question, gladly providing more detail.

"And somehow ended up influencing said monster and turning it into a half undead, which would render this situation possible if it was the same creature?" Aria began to piece out the story.

That could be it. Maybe it wasn't just their intuition.

Wasn't the unknown creature just a mutated slime variant?

The reason they hesitated to call it a slime was because of the abnormal characteristic and the fact that the slime species can not become an undead.

They had these things called cores inside their bodies, and that was what acted as the engine to their movements and actions.

Slimes were basically unanimated jellies if not for these cores, and that was the reason why when the slimes die, their cores remain.

Because the core was the slime's real body, and the jelly like substance was actually just a protective membrane that covered its body.

As such, once the slime is declared as dead, it would only leave its core. It can't move from that point on, which was why becoming an undead was impossible since it will no longer have its abilities.

Now, the abnormal choice.

The mutant slime Rallaka and Aria spoke about was Leonis' accidental creation he came across when a companion of his died. Because of his mentality and personality, he could not interact properly with another.

The only exception to that was the slime he kept close to him. An unnamed slime who he saved on a whim and ended up being followed by. This slime became his companion.

A slime's life was short, and their journey had to be cut off since the slime's life wore off no matter how Leonis tried to salvage it.

Due to undescribed circumstances in his journal, Leonis apparently managed to create a miracle, that is to bring forth a sinister undead creature who possessed the characteristic of said slime.

Later on, this creature was known to be seen traveling with Leonis.

"That's exactly it," Rallaka answered.

From this short exchange of words, however, Rallaka came to discover one more thing.

That Aria would have to had lived in the same time period as the one he was in.

His period of existence was vast, but Leonis' wasn't.

If Aria personally knew the details to Leonis' incident, then she must be of an important position just like him and existed when Leonis was actively present.

Then, it suddenly clicked inside his head. Aria Schreiner, the infamous Summoner who strove to chase an unexplainable, impossible dream.