Chapter 159: Culling Points(Bonus)
Right then, Eduardo appeared in the doorway leading into the living room. He had his Arcphone pressed to his ear, and his expression was one of visible frustration.
Ethan heard him mutter, "Come on, pick up..."
But after another few seconds, Eduardo pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it with a frown.
He had been trying to reach their contact within the DSB, but all attempts had gone straight to voicemail.
Eduardo sighed and turned toward Ethan.
The moment Ethan noticed Eduardo’s gaze shift in his direction, he quickly swiped the chat with Isabella away and pressed the power button to turn off the phone’s screen.
Then he sat up properly on the couch, adopting a more professional posture as he watched Eduardo walk forward.
Eduardo approached and stopped a few paces away. "Master Ethan, I’ve been trying to reach our contact, but he’s not picking up. I’ve tried multiple times now."
Ethan nodded. "I tried too on my way home. Same thing."
He paused, then continued, "I’m going to make an official report instead. Against this Harold guy. The one who diverted the letter should be in a cell right now, so we can always provide him as proof of what’s been happening."
After a brief pause, Ethan’s expression became more serious. "The only problem is, this is the number one guild in the country, and when I looked up that Harold guy, he’s S-tier...I’m unsure what real punishment will actually be given, if any punishment would be given at all."
Ethan sighed, the frustration evident in his voice.
"Do you want me to—" Eduardo began, but Ethan cut him off immediately.
"No." His tone was firm but not harsh. "I know what you’re going to say, and I expected you’d offer. But no."
He stood up from the couch and walked forward slowly until he was standing directly in front of Eduardo.
"This is the real world for me now, Eduardo. And there are some times I’ll prefer to deal with things myself."
Eduardo inclined his head respectfully as Ethan reached his side and placed a hand gently on his shoulder.
"But thank you," Ethan added quietly.
Then he continued walking past the butler toward the doors leading outside.
As he reached the threshold, he muttered to himself, "Moreover, I also intend to confront this bastard."
Then he walked through the door.
-
Ethan arrived at the open courtyard behind the manor. This was the perfect place to check out the rest of his system updates properly and put anything to the test if needed.
"First," Ethan began, "show me how this Culling Rite thing works."
[Culling Rite → This perk allows you to sacrifice summons to increase the potential rating of another summon]
[To perform Culling Rites, you need Culling Points. Culling Points are gained after a summon is sacrificed]
Another window expanded, showing the detailed breakdown.
[Culling Points System]
[Points Earned Per Sacrifice:
• Regular-class = 200 points
• Elite-class = 500 points
• Knight-class = 1,200 points
• Commander-class = 2,500 points
• King-class = 5,000 points
• Legendary-class = 10,000 points
• Emperor-class = 20,000 points
• Beast-class = 40,000 points]
[Points Required to Break Potential Cap:
• Regular → Elite = 400 points
• Elite → Knight = 1,000 points
• Knight → Commander = 2,500 points
• Commander → King = 5,000 points
• King → Legendary = 10,000 points
• Legendary → Emperor = 20,000 points
• Emperor → Beast = 40,000 points]
[Culling Bonus: XP Kickstart]
[When a summon’s potential cap is broken, they automatically receive 50% of the XP required to reach their new rating]
[Warning: Sacrificed Summons cannot be re-contracted, except when all key fragments are acquired]
[Culling Can ONLY be used on summons that have already reached their maximum potential]
[Cannot sacrifice a summon that has leveled up once before]
[Cannot sacrifice summons assigned to active duty or tasks]
[There will be a deliberate system confirmation to prevent accidents]
"Hm... interesting," Ethan muttered, his expression thoughtful as he read through each line carefully.
His mind went to Albedo, and a small smile appeared on his face. Even though he had never really admitted it, that summon had actually grown on him, even more than Nina.
In fact, he barely undid her summoning these days. Instead, he let her stay manifested constantly, sharing the guest room upstairs with the small witch, Rue. As of this moment, they were both fast asleep in that room.
In addition to Albedo and Rue, every contracted Legendary-class summon still had relevance to his operations.
That relevance would show itself when he and his guild marched into the A-ranked breach zone to clear it soon.
Nina was his powerhouse in direct combat. Joe provided long-range support and intelligence capabilities that no one else could match. Bierzim had devastating offensive potential. And Arael’s versatility with her Runic Chroma made her invaluable for both combat and utility.
As for Finn, the shooter summon was mostly a matter of personal bias. He was Ethan’s second summon after Albedo and his first male summon.
However, the rest of the summons had been of no actual use if he was being totally honest.
For starters, he couldn’t really deploy them in breach zones as high-ranked as even B or A-tier. They’d be slaughtered within minutes.
The best among the remaining seven summons were Knight-class, and unless they were fighting C-rank breaches at most, they were pretty much fodder waiting to be torn apart.
There was also the problem of their abilities not being exactly unique or irreplaceable.
In Albedo’s case, for example, she might be a lower-classed summon compared to the Legendaries, but her Short Distance Teleport and Stealth skills were such huge advantages that Ethan simply couldn’t do away with her. Those abilities had saved his life and that of others more than once.
But these other seven summons had nothing unique to offer.
For example, Nina already had fire affinity and vastly superior fire-based assault power compared to the Knight-class fire mage summon with the weird animal ears.
What was the point of keeping both when Nina did everything he did but exponentially better?
The saber-class summons were obviously beneath Nina as well in terms of raw combat effectiveness.
And the archer summon couldn’t remotely be compared to Joe. The hitman sniper would do a far better job in any long-range scenario, with precision and lethality that the Knight-class archer simply couldn’t match.
And yes, although these summons Ethan considered fodder all had potential ratings, none of them placed above Commander-class.
That was the same class tier of summons he was about to receive rewards for, once he put that 300,000 XP stockpile to use on leveling up his Summoner class.
To be fair, it wasn’t exactly a loss situation.
With that reasoning settled, Ethan came to his conclusion.
He mentally commanded the system to sacrifice the seven fodder summons, none of which were currently on any active duties.
[Confirmation Required]
[You are about to sacrifice the following summons:]
[- 2 Elite-class summons]
[- 5 Knight-class summons]
[This action is IRREVERSIBLE. Proceed?]
"Yes," Ethan said.
The system processed the command immediately.
[Sacrifice Complete]
[Culling Points Gained:
[- 2 Elite-class summons: 1,000 points]
[- 5 Knight-class summons: 6,000 points]
[Total Culling Points Earned: 7,000]
[Current Culling Points Balance: 7,000]
Ethan nodded in satisfaction. "Alright, assign the points to extend Albedo’s potential to Commander-class."
Another notification appeared.
[Breaking Potential Cap: Albedo]
[Current Class: Knight]
[Target Class: Commander]
[Points Required: 2,500]
[Points Available: 7,000]
[Proceed?]
"Yes."
[Culling Rite Applied]
[Remaining Culling Points: 4,500]
[Albedo’s Potential Rating Increased: Knight → Commander]
[XP Kickstart Activated: Albedo receives 50% of required XP to reach Commander-class]
[Albedo’s Progress: 3,250 / 6,500 XP to Commander-class]
Ethan stared at the notification with an approving nod.
If anything, advancing Albedo to Commander-class and pushing her even further would not only make her far more capable in combat against high-level monsters in breach zones and other powerful foes, but would also significantly enhance the potency of her Charm skill as she leveled up.
He found this development highly satisfying.
—-
A/N: 100 tickets Bonus complete✅
Next will be 150 tickets bonus
(i’ll be moving the third priv tier till i settle ticket bonuses atleast)