It once again sprinted right at Ashton, but this time he had a moment to mentally prepare. He directed the wisp right at the orc, striking straight at its knee. At the last moment, he moved away from a fist to an open palm, increasing the size and force of the wisp. Ashton could practically hear the orc's knee shatter, and as it buckled under its own massive weight, he moved in closer and swung his staff right at the side of its face.
Though its skull seemed to crack open, and blood poured down its face, it wasn't something lethal just yet. Ashton tried his best to continue the momentum with just one hand to strike at the orc again while he had the chance, watching as the monster reached out to try and grab at him.
Ashton expected this. Tons of the corpses around here had their limbs torn off or crushed, so he knew that the orc would try to grab at him. And if it managed to do so, he wouldn't be able to escape without serious injury. But still, Ashton wasn't able to react in time, at least not physically. For some reason, moving his body away fast enough just wasn't something he could do yet with this untrained, lazy body.
But he could move his hand a lot faster than his whole body, and immediately directed the wisp to fly into him. Though he tried to make the wisp slow down, the impact still hurt a lot, and caused some pretty big bruises, but he would be able to recover an injury like this easily with a little bit of time. Either way, like this, he was able to use the momentum the flying wisp could generate to push himself away faster than his body could move on its own.
Once a bit of distance was built and the orc was surprised it hadn't managed to grab onto its enemy, Ashton made the wisp shoot back forward right past its hand and into its chest, specifically, its solar plexus. Orc anatomy was fairly similar to human anatomy, after all, so he knew this would work.
The orc, having its wind knocked out of it, gasped for air, a moment which Ashton used to push his staff as deep into its mouth and throat as he could. If it hadn't buckled due to its injured knee, he wouldn't have been able to even reach it at this angle.
With a grin, he pulled back his arm as far as he could, and pushed it forward in a fast and swift motion similar to a jab, making the wisp hammer down on the other end of the staff. An uncomfortable crack sounded out as the orc's body went limp, falling to the ground as its spine practically shattered.
[You have killed a [Hidden Tutorial Boss]. For your extraordinary effort, you are awarded 100 Coins and a [Common Weapon Selection Box]!]
[Class | Summoner - Level 3 -> Summoner - Level 4]
[Contract |Lesser Wisp - Level 1 -> Lesser Wisp - Level 3]
[Skill | Channel - Level 1 -> Channel - Level 2]
Ashton took a deep breath, squatting down onto the ground in front of the orc's body. He glanced over at the wisp, watching its body grow in diameter by two inches at its base size. One for each level.
As he was there, taking a breather for just a moment, he also saw a goblin, the last of the bunch that neither ran at Ashton right away nor was thrown by the orc, just standing there, shivering. It would have been just a step outside of his range a few seconds ago, but now... Ashton pushed his right arm out to the side, making the wisp shoot forward at the goblin's face. As it fell to the ground and Ashton got another 10 coins, he was finally able to relax.
"Fuck me..." he sat down on the ground, pulling off his backpack. It was digging into his injured left shoulder. While he took off his jacket and pulled his shirt to the side, Ashton could already see a deep bruise forming. The wisp was carefully pushing into his right side, as if concerned for him. He smiled a bit, running his hand over its smooth surface, "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Thanks, by the way, I don't think I would have survived that without you. I guess I'm a lot weaker than I remember being."
Ashton got out the first-aid kit from his backpack and started treating himself while he still had the time, just applying some salves and bandages to himself. As he did, he decided to focus inwardly for the time being to check out some things. What he was looking at was something that wasn't directly shown on his status screen. Things like his mana capacity, his contract capacity, and his connection to the wisp.
Ashton was looking at his 'vessel' which had expanded before and also right after the fight. One's vessel was determined by a lot of factors, which was mostly shown through the 'spirit' stat. There were a lot more things hidden in that number which he couldn't see through at this time, but at the very least it seemed as though his base compatibility for mana wasn't different with this body.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
If he had to put it strictly, he used up about half of his total mana during that fight. Of course, using the 'channel' skill used up a lot of that. But that was also a tough fight, and Ashton should recover this much in an hour or two.
But now, he had to focus on the far, far more important part. His 'contract capacity'. This was the real thing that would make or break any summoner. It really was just what it sounded like - how much space Ashton had within his soul to form contracts with other beings.
The stronger the being, the more space it would take up in his soul. Luckily, if the contract levelled up, that didn't mean that it started taking up more space, though. Rather, it was the opposite. The closer he would get to his summon, the less space it would take up. Plus, by levelling up his class and skills, and most importantly his spirit stat, the capacity should grow more. Right now, he figured the wisp took up about 5% of his capacity. And as he looked at the traces of that being within his soul, he could also tell how much time he had bought himself with that sandwich offering earlier.
Having it use its magic drained more of that, of course. With it staying here just floating around, Ashton should be able to keep its company for another ten or fifteen minutes. That was enough for Ashton to relax a little. Plus, there was something else he wanted to check out.
He looked at the wisp and focused for a moment, and a system message appeared in front of it.
[Lesser Wisp - Level 3]
[Familiarity - 6]
[Type - Elemental]
[Grade - Lowest]
[Abilities]
[Aether-Born]
"Already at 6 familiarity, huh?" Ashton looked over the small screen. That was a lot more like what he was used to seeing on himself back then. No precise stats, just the basic information that the summoner needed to know about their 'tool'.
Particularly the familiarity and abilities were useful information. Familiarity basically described how well a summon cooperated with their summoner, and to some degree even affected how effective the 'offering' was. At '100' familiarity, it was even possible to keep certain summons with you indefinitely.
As for the 'Aether-Born' ability at the bottom, that was just the basic ability of all elementals. Of course, it was slightly different for each. Salamanders would have 'Flame-Born', Undines would have 'Water-Born', and so on. It just described that they had control over that element, allowing them to use magic of that domain and such. It was weird seeing it from this perspective. Especially because when Ashton was first summoned... he didn't have any abilities. Not even basic ones like this that basically every other summon had. But that was what his summoner looked for. Since Ashton didn't have any basic abilities, he could be pushed into any direction that they wanted.
"Urgh... just thinking about it makes me want to vomit," Ashton groaned, wiping away the system window in front of him. He had something else he had to check out - how his status improved after three level-ups.
[Ashton Garling] [Age - 23] [Coins - 471 -> 691]
[Stats]
[Power - 7 -> 9]
[Resilience - 7 -> 10]
[Speed - 8 -> 12]
[Spirit - 10 -> 14]
[Classes]
-[Summoner - Level 1 -> 4]
-[Aether Sensitivity - Level 1]
-[Channel - Level 1 -> 2]
-[Summoning - Level 1]
-[Elemental Summoning]
[Lesser Wisp - Level 1 -> 3]
That wasn't the worst stat growth in the world. Of course, it was random to some degree, and he didn't quite know the actual growth correction of the Summoner class, but it was clear that it was skewed toward the Spirit stat at some level. He should figure it out with time, though.
But now, he stared over at one of the status windows that wasn't closed yet. The one that declared the special bonus reward for taking down the hidden boss. Until he claimed the reward, that window would just keep floating there, annoying the shit out of him. So, Ashton held out his hand, and watched as particles of light came together above his palm. A white box the size of a Rubik's cube dropped down, with a simple sword symbol on the front.
It was heavier than he thought it would be. He never actually held one of these before.
Ashton pressed his thumb onto one side and applied some pressure, and could quickly feel it give, as if he pressed a small button, and another system window appeared.
First, he saw a long list of different weapon types. Swords, daggers, bows, axes, halberds... there were so many that it was almost nauseating to scroll through. That was apparently the worst part about these selection boxes with a broad type. But this early on, it only made sense to give people that many choices.
Luckily, he knew what kind of weapon he needed. It was annoying, but 'common' items were physical, mundane objects that existed in this world. It didn't include magical items, so he couldn't get his hands on something that actually helped his summoning yet. He was hoping for a magic staff, or maybe even a wand, but no dice. Though he could get something that he could use as a base for such an item later.
He unfolded the 'Staff' section and looked through. When Ashton focused on each separate entry, he could see a small description and image associated with this specific weapon. Since these were basically just regular objects from this world, there were no stat-bonuses or any sorts of use-requirements. He was basically just dealing with more sturdy and specialized weapons.
"Anything's better than a broomstick, I suppose," he whispered, finally selecting the weapon that was most like what he was used to. A roughly 8-foot staff made from hickory, with a steel cap on each end.
As Ashton selected the item, the white box fell apart into those white particles again, quickly multiplying and turning into the form of the staff that Ashton selected. The weight became much, much more intense. But it was also way more comfortable. Heavier, sturdier. Something that Ashton actually felt like he could use in a fight without trouble.
With his shoulder wrapped up and a new weapon in hand, Ashton got up from the ground. He stretched lightly, looking around at the corpses of the goblins and the orc laying around.
"Guess I've got some more collecting to do, huh?"