Self-Summon [Demon Summoning/Evolution LitRPG]

Gelic hurried, using her mental map from earlier to backtrack to where she’d seen the Toxic mist. Sadly, this is where she’d have to delete the Order about escaping the maze, meaning she wouldn’t get any Summoner Experience for it. But it was inevitable. She’d want the free Order regardless for tackling the monster just out of safety, and that’s what she wanted it for now too.

[Current Contract: Attempt to drink the fumes]

Yes, that was her big brilliant idea of how to get her Health back. Toxic Eater didn’t work for anything that went to her lungs. It had to go to the stomach. That said, anytime something was swallowed, a little bit of air went down with it. So she’d just have to try to swallow nothing but the gases in one big gulp.

Fortunately, it would seem her bug form was actually pretty well suited for the task.

She stood on the edge of the corridor, not stupid enough to actually dive directly into the cloud of Toxic, and instead was chilling in some mist that made her feel a little loopy. Not optimal, but she hopefully wouldn’t be there for very long. So she crouched down and stuck her proboscis straight at the bottom of one of the mushrooms lining the maze wall.

Because the gases weren’t actually coming from the fungi directly, rather vents at their bases, so the tip of her nose got as close as it could, and she made an attempt to swallow. With how the whole oral system worked as a Puck, apparently that actually let her cut off the incoming intake from her lungs entirely, as if she was sucking blood like a mosquito, and a second later, she found her stomach full.

“Yay it wor-bluck!” Despite being interrupted, it had worked, but her belly didn’t exactly like being filled as if they were bellows, and some of the Toxic gas escaped with an unpleasant burp through her nose.

[Active Skill: Poison Breath Lv.1 unlocked]

Huh, well that was a neat accident, but not something that would be immediately helpful, so she barely gave it any credence. Instead, she watched her Health climb, the number getting back up to the forties. Thanks to all the Poison Eater upgrades she’d just gotten at the restaurant, it was healing her even more than expected. If she was getting more levels from this, she wasn’t made aware, since it was classifying her as in-combat once more since the big lug blocking their path must be seen by the DGS as a definitive enemy, even if it wasn’t actively attacking.

She deleted the gas with Starvation once the healing stopped then went for another sip. Chug chug chug, the whole experience was kind of unpleasant, but it was very effective. Maybe she needed to figure out how to get concentrated Toxic gas to keep, oh, or better yet, maybe like compressed capsules of poison pills to minimize how much space they took up in Second Stomach. But that was a problem for another day.

She stopped the vent siphon when Health had reached the eighties. The regeneration had become minimal, and would be too much effort to push it higher, likely since her digestive system was refusing to recognize the gas as proper sustenance. Then she cast Starvation a final time, because she felt so insanely bloated, and feared how much her toilet would vibrate if she tried to pass it naturally.

“Okay, I’m back!” Gelic rejoined Gawk at the roadblock.

“That was fast!” Despite that fact, he still sounded excited for her return, though she’d never actually left his sight. “I tested Stunning Gaze on it while you were gone. Was kind of hard to tell, but it worked! Froze the Spawn for a few seconds.”

“Great!” She was ecstatic to hear that, despite having sort of seen the act, since her plan hinged on it. “It’s like you’re reading my mind.”

“Well, since it’s my only attack Skill, I figured that was the best way to help.”

That hit her with a bit more pride. Her friend was growing up so fast. He’d be beating up monsters all on his own in no time. “Okay, so here’s the plan. Keep hitting it with Stunning Gaze and then begin charging it immediately again. As soon as the Spawn is unfrozen, or better if you can know when the paralysis is about to wear off, shoot it again right away. Basically, I need you to lock it in place the best you can while I attack it directly.”

“Sounds good!” Gawk readily agreed. “But, uhm, what about my MP? It varies based on how long I charge it, but it will probably run out after too many repeated casts.”

“Well, do as many as you can,” she requested. “And let me know when you think you’re on your last two or three so I can high-tail it out of there. I don’t know how long it will take me to kill it, so the more time you can give me, the better. At the very least, I hope to critically injure it to the point it can’t recover, and then we can figure out a new tactic if needed. So start charging. I’ll jump in right after you fire.”

The beam of light exploded out of Gawk’s eye and surged to hit the Spawn. Gelic bunny-hopped her way forward, gaining speed and height with each bounce, needing it to reach the top of the monster’s head. With a final Jump Good, she landed on top of its literal mushroom cap and quickly got to work after giving herself a fresh Order. She held out both arms and created the largest icicle of her life, one that was as pointy as possible that ran slimmer than usual, with a purposefully very flat and wider head. After digging her hand claws into the ice nail, she rammed it down into the head of the Spawn with all of her Might.

[Critical hit]

[Active Skill: Skewer Lv.1 unlocked]

Her icy attack penetrated about a foot deep into the monster’s skull, if its head even had such a thing. Sadly, by comparison, it was just the tip of the ice manifestation. The nail still had several feet to go until it was flush with the mushroom cap. She tried to push down again, aching every muscle in her arms, but the damned thing wouldn’t budge. However, this had been within her expectations, and why she’d purposefully made the ice into such a specific shape. Since it was a nail, that meant all she had to do was hammer it down from the top.

Just then, the Slothful Spawn suddenly started moving again, making her almost lose her balance for a second. It reacted to the unfriendly attack, barfing out a roar for just a moment, before Gawk fired another shot and stunned it once more. Gelic used Jump Good to get onto the head of the nail and then Transfigured to a Puffball Imp. She didn’t have the natural strength to properly smack the nail down, so she’d lean more into the prowess of her previous form.

She bounced and hit the ceiling above her, which was only a few feet higher, since she’d left as little clearance as possible, just enough to wedge her small body between it back when she was unsure how deep into the skull the initial attack would go. After rebounding against the rock, she used an Airstrike to Plunge her way back down and Bashed her rotund body against the head of the nail. Since that didn’t break the Multi-Bounce chain, and in fact, added to it, back up she went, hitting the ceiling with even faster speed.

So the next Airstrike was even stronger, pushing the nail down a bit further into the creature. With each repeated strike, the momentum built, speeding up the process while inflicting more damage. What slowed it down, but never halted it, was the brief moments when the Paralysis wore off. That would always change the position of the nail slightly, from the Spawn’s shifting body, which was especially wonky to gauge because of her distorted perception. But thanks to Jump Good, she was always able to course correct and line it up again, something she was doing with every hit regardless because the head of the ice nail was quite slick, and she wouldn’t always rebound at the best angle.

[Active Skill: Pummel Lv.1 unlocked]

With that, the obviously enhanced version of Bash, her power increased even more once she incorporated it into Airstrike. A welcome gift, since that would spell the inevitable doom for this monster even faster.

There were two causes of concern with her overall tactic, however. First, was the increasingly shorter duration that the Spawn was stunned for. Each time lasted a second or so less than the previous Paralysis. The cause was obvious. Gawk charging the Skill was disproportionate to the effect. Ten seconds of charge only resulted in nine seconds of stun, as a rough estimate. And since he was firing again as soon as it wore off, there were diminishing returns each time.

And the second concern was its very unfriendly hand that was steadily encroaching on the top of the mushroom head with each moment of freedom. Since she was still seeing the world through Gawk’s Ocular Transmission, she could actually watch the monster clearly while her own line of sight would be a constant blur. Apparently, the Spawn kept some of its momentum of the swing trying to swat her each time it was unfrozen. That, or it was able to accelerate its limb that much with just a single moment of freedom. What happened to being Slothful? Or maybe it was just that good at going from completely lethargic to full-tilt in the blink of an eye.

“Three shots left, Gelic!” Gawk warned her, which she was thankful for, but it probably wouldn’t matter. Because three more moments of movement was likely how much longer it would take for her to be swatted out of the sky. But thanks to that mental math, she knew she should be safe to do two more bounces and then bail, inflicting as much damage as possible. A shame, though, since it looked like three more would be enough to drive the nail flush with the cap. Overall, embedding it so deeply would have definitely done a ton of damage, but the fact that she didn’t get to finish the job would certainly bug her a bit.

Oh well, she just needed to make these last two bounces count to put her in a better position for the fight to follow. After the first bounce, and coming down off the rebound for the second, she had to fight off an emboldened instinct that made her want to commit to the third. Seeing how close the hand was getting, part of her believed that she could get away with that third hit and still escape in time. It was stupidly risky, and yet… No, no, last hit then flee on the bounceback!

Except the bounceback didn’t happen. When her rump hit the icy nail for what would turn out to be the final time, she didn’t immediately rebound from the resistance. Instead, both she and her big icicle kept going, digging into the monster with one more powerful push, and apparently, that was the killing blow. It popped out of existence, and she ended up Plunging straight down, staking her big nail into the ground.

[You have been Paralyzed]

“Ahh, sorry, Gelic!” Gawk’s reaction time wasn’t as good as hers, and he ended up firing his last Stunning Gaze despite the initial target vanishing. And it just so happened to line up perfectly with her descent, an impressive snipe, honestly. Fortunately, her being stunned didn’t negate Multi-Bounce’s gravitational damage nullification, or that could have been a problem. It did break the chain, though, so she smacked against the ground and rolled a ways, crossing through the archway at the end of the maze with frozen body, completing her current Contract of beating the monster and escaping at last.

[Contract Complete]

[Lost 12 Essence]

[Gained 10 Essence]

[Essence Tip Activated. Gained an additional 2 Essence]

[Essence Tip Lv.3]

Huzzah, giving herself a bunch of easy Orders to train the Skill was paying off. As soon as she unfroze, Gawk caught up with her and they hustled to the manor so they could finally make the food delivery. It was a bit disorienting. She’d gotten so used to seeing out of Gawk’s perspective now, that her own eyes felt wrong once her vision snapped back to her own body. Of course, the messages in her head decided it was the perfect timing to bombard her all at once, right at the finish line.

[Poison Eater Lv.9]

[Starvation Lv.5]

[Bash Lv.9]

[Pummel Lv.4]

[Plunge Lv.6]

[Jump Good Lv.8]

[Multi-bounce Lv.11]

[Airstrike Lv.7]

[Might monumentally increased]

[Might has improved from Untempered to Pointed]

[Competence, Creativity notably increased]

[Vigor, Malice increased]

[Balletic, Destruction Attunement hugely increased]

[Balletic, Destruction Attunement have improved from Embraced to Intertwined]

[Pestilence, Fraud Attunement increased]

[Summoner Rank: Novice Lv.9]

Of all things she found strange, it’s that there were no further critical hits after the first. It must be that since she was hitting the nail instead of the Spawn directly, they didn’t count, even though it was definitely precise damage being dealt. Oh well, not a big deal, just likely missing out on some Competence increases, but she’d gotten plenty regardless.

Her concerns shook away when the manor’s door opened on its own. A small Demon, perhaps a Gremlin, in a bowtie made of what looked like poison ivy greeted them and waved the pair inside, clearly expecting them. And then they were greeted once more by the familiar voice of Ba Skin.

Spoiler

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