Chapter 20

I walked away from my encounter with Hermes, slightly confused, but I decided not to worry about it too much. No matter what actions I personally take, Hermes will always be formulating his own plans and opinions, so it was useless to worry about it. Instead, I just made my way back to Babel while concentrating on the summoning circle I need to make to summon an elemental.

"Great Sage, do you know what summoning circle I need to make to summon an elemental?"I asked mentally, deciding to ask the expert before I start doing all the work, only to find that the answer has been in front of me the whole time, 20 hours in.

[Affirmative]

"Great Sage, I could kiss you," I said, happy that I didn't have to do a ton of work.

[Impossible]

I just laughed at the response and continued on my way. Since Great Sage already had the knowledge of the magic circle I need to use, that just leaves me to either draw it or carve it. Drawing it would be a one-time use, but it won't leave a mark. Carving it will allow me to use it indefinitely, but it will permanently be carved in the apartment. In the end, I decided to go for a one-time use circle this first time. After making my decision, it didn't take me too much longer to reach the apartment and head inside. All the lights were out, so I stayed quiet and quietly walked over to the cupboard where Fortuna keeps her dyes.

I quickly removed a bowl full of red coloring to use during the process of drawing the summoning circle. Once I had the bowl, I quickly made my way to my room and looked for a suitable place to perform the ritual. However, once I stopped to think about it, I realized that the amount of magic I use will certainly wake up everyone nearby. So, I placed the bowl in my storage and made my way out the door after writing a small note for Fortuna, telling her that I will remain in the dungeon for a while longer. Then, I quickly ran down the floors of Babel, activating Formhide as I did so. I thought about doing the summoning on the first floor, but that would attract attention as well, so I went deeper.

I didn't stop until I was on the eighth floor. I saw the dungeon open up much more, with patches of grass growing on the floor and moss covering the walls. I made my way to a far corner of the floor and cleared a patch of ground, preparing it for the circle. Once everything was ready, Great Sage relayed the information on the creation of the circle to me. I got to create it as soon as I knew what to do. I dipped my fingers in the paste inside the bowl and began to trace the circle on the ground. It took me about an hour to complete the circle, but it only felt like a few seconds has passed for me.

"What next?" I asked Great Sage as I stood and dusted myself off.

[Imput your magicules until the gate opens and a Greater Elemental answers the call]

"Alright," I said, placing a hand on the circle and pouring my magicules into it.

The circle flashed an even deeper shade of crimson as my magic power began to fill the circle. My magic flowed around the entire circle, lighting the entire thing up like a Christmas tree. Once the whole circle was lit, the magic began to pour upwards and form a gate. Reality itself seemed to be torn apart as a hole in space began to appear. This was also around the time that I began to pant and sweat due to my magicules getting drained at a rapid pace. Luckily, I didn't have to fuel the gate much longer as a form came through the gate and landed in the circle. I had to crane my neck to look up at the nearly three-meter-tall War Gnome that had answered my call.

I had to admit that the War Gnome looked pretty badass. It was clad in a full set of plate armor and carried a shield that was as tall as I was. It also held a large straight sword that I couldn't help, but notice was also the size of my body. I grinned as I looked up at the Greater Earth Elemental. The reason that I had gone with a Greater Elemental instead of a regular Elemental was due to their intelligence. Greater Elementals are intelligent compared to the pretty much non-existent intelligence of lesser Elementals, but that also means that they can reject a summoner they don't like.

(Image)

"Noble Elemental of the Earth, I have summoned you to aid me in my many battles against monsters of this dungeon. If you agree, then dwell within my body," I said, gesturing around to the entire space around us to emphasize the dungeon.

(A/N: I don't exactly remember if Greater Elementals can speak, but I'm pretty sure they can mentally communicate at least)

The War Gnome gazed at me for a hard moment before it nodded and faded into the mist that surged forward and merged with my body, "I will aid in your battles for as long as there are monsters to fight," I heard the Elemental speak in my mind.

"I humbly accept your aid," I said mentally, "I apologize, but I believe that I lack the magicule capacity to name you,"

"It's not a problem, most lack the power to name a Greater Elemental," The elemental responded as I watched the summoning circle disappear.

"How about I call you Regulus as a nickname? Also, are you male, female, or...?" I asked since I didn't want to refer to my new companion as the War Gnome or the Elemental.

It paused to consider for a moment before agreeing, "That is fine with me, and it doesn't really matter what gender you refer to me as since I have none,"

I smiled and nodded as everything settled into place. I was pretty certain that any of my summoned Elementals or Daemons would count as an extension of myself, according to Excelia, so this was a great way to gain much more excelia in my mind. I quickly tested the power of Regulus by reaching my hand forward, sending my intention to him mentally. Then, watched as he cast his Extra Skill: Earth Manipulation, through my body. The ground before me quickly changed as jagged spikes exploded out of the ground.

The best part of having a contracted spirit is the fact that they can cast their skills and magic through the body of their contractor without the contractor having to focus on it. So it's basically two being fighting from the same body, two beings that can be doing completely different things at the same time from the same body. There is also the option just to manifest Regulus's body directly and have him aid me in the battle directly. I smiled widely as I began to head deeper, ready to repeat the act of gathering and butchering monsters as many times as it takes until I am able to max out my stats.

I quickly cloaked myself back in Formhide after I took a few minutes to rest and recover. Then, I was off toward the 12th floor. I readied triple the amount of bait that I used last time to gather the monsters to me. I was planning to get every monster on the 12th floor after me this time. I was even more confident now that I had Regulus at my side as well. Before we began the battle by tossing the bait, I quickly asked Regulus something.

"Once the monsters are dead, can you remove the stones in their chests with Earth Manipulation?" I asked mentally, since this was one of the main reasons I wanted an Earth Elemental instead of a different type.

"Yes, I can do it," He responded, making me nearly jump for joy since the most annoying part of killing monsters would now become the easiest part.

Once that was done, I quickly threw all the bait and watched as the metal giant appeared beside me. Regulus redied his blade and shield as I placed my spear on my back and readied my fists. As expected, the horde that came charging toward us was much bigger than before. 'This time, I'll at least get close to maxing out my stats,' I thought as Regulus and I surged forward ourselves. Most of the monsters targeted Regulus immediately since he was the bigger target, but his blade was like a scythe harvesting bloody stalks of wheat. Every swing of his blade ripped apart multiple monsters, and any attacks were just deflected and blocked by his massive shield.

I surged into the monsters, blasting them with electricity and enhanced punches. Whenever I encountered a particularly tough monster, I would pull my spear off my back and rip through the monster that had been giving me some trouble. Behind me, Regulus manipulated the earth into small sharp shards that he fired off like bullets from a machine gun. Monsters screamed as they were hit and ripped apart by the rock shrapnel, giving me the opportunity to sprint through their ranks and rip out throats, and blast the downed monsters with jagged bolts of electricity.

I couldn't help but notice the efficiency of the massacre increase tenfold now that I had some help in dealing with the monsters. I could help but gin widely as I jumped high into the air and crushed the skull of a silver back with both my fists as I landed. It had been around three hours since we started and now there were only two or three monsters and a field of corpses. Just as we finished those last few monsters, I felt a large group of adventurers approaching.

"Regulus," I called urgently.

He understood my request and quickly returned to my body, already starting to gather the tide of magic stones toward us. I opened my Spatial Storage as he manipulated the stones to rip free from the corpses and enter the storage. All the while, I felt the large group get closer and closer. I had purposely come in the middle of the night to summon Regulus and hunt to avoid people, but it seemed like maybe it was later than I thought. I had no time to use Clean Wash to rid myself of the massive amount of gore clinging to my body.

Now that the group was close enough, I calmed myself slightly, recognizing the banners emblazed with a jester or clown standing in front of a card or something similar. Long story short, it was the Loki familia. 'Not just any members of the Loki Familia,' I noticed as I focused in with Magic Sense, 'That's the A team, isn't it,' I thought as I saw Fin leading a group of familiar people. I instantly understood the situation once I put all the pieces of the puzzle together and dug through my memory a bit.

"They are returning from an expedition to the deep floors," I said to myself in understanding once I saw them and remembered that I had heard people talking about them going on an expedition.

I only grabbed my spear and was in the process of putting it on my back when the high ranking members of the Loki familia turned the corner and spotted me.