Heavy Metal

"That is a lot of coins… how did I even get so many?"

Rusty glanced at the display screen, his visor fixed on the coin counter. The previous time he completed his mission, he received only ten summoner coins. This time, he had sixty-seven. It was far more than what he earned before, yet he did not understand how he gained it or how to keep increasing the points.

"Hm… what is this little thing here?"

While checking his summoner points, he noticed another odd symbol. It looked like several sheets of paper stacked together. By now, he understood the system well enough, so he moved the cursor toward the icon and selected it.

"Summoning log? I do not think this has anything to do with wood…"

A new window opened with the title "summoning log". The name confused him for a moment, but he quickly understood its purpose. His visor scanned the entries and revealed a list of numbers.

-Gained 3 summoner coins for watching over your summoner as they sleep.

-Gained 2 summoner coins for increasing your bond with the summoner.

-Gained 1 summoner coin by spending time with your summoner.

There were many similar notifications. He earned coins by performing simple, vague tasks. Just by spending more time with Gwen and staying close to her, he had gathered far more resources than before. In the previous trial, he stayed with her only for a few hours. This time, he had been with her for nearly eight days.

"Although this bond thing is a little vague and there is no explanation for it…"

Most of the coins came from increases in his bond with Gwen, but he had no idea how that bond grew. Many points seemed to relate to guarding her during the humanoid period or protecting her from direct harm. There were also strange numbers next to each entry. He did not know what they meant, but when Alexander approached, he offered some insight.

"Those must be the dates. They show the day, hour, and minute. Only the year is missing."

"I see…"

This was an interesting turn of events, and he immediately went into the shop section to see what he could buy with the coins he had earned. Just like before, he could increase Gwen's stats directly and allow her to summon different kinds of living armor monsters, ones that belonged to the E plus rank this time. However, he had more options than that, since a new section had appeared for him as well.

"Increase storage space capacity?"

His gaze settled on the first option, which promised an expansion of his stash. One of his ongoing problems as a summoned monster was that he could not use his full storage area. He could not carry more than one or two replacement weapons, even though there were many items he wanted to bring with him.

There were various shields available, some heavier and wider than others, and not always suitable for every situation. His last fight against the Bear Wolf had made that clear. His shield had been a medium-sized one with little bulk, which made it hard to defend against heavy attacks.

"This is an interesting addition; it seems that it might be possible to enhance your abilities in that summoner world to reflect the ones you have in the real world."

Alexander commented from the side and brought up two important points. First, Rusty might be able to bring resources over to restore his body and alter it with different loadouts just as he normally could. Second, he mentioned the summoner world and the one Rusty came from originally.

"Is that an entirely different world? What exactly is it?"

"That is a good question, and one I cannot really answer."

Alexander did not seem ready to explain, so Aburdon spoke up.

"The possibility of different worlds existing has been discussed by scholars before, although it might simply be an elaborate illusion. Who says that world is different from the one we came from? Just like this soul forge, it might have been created for a purpose, nothing but an illusion."

"An illusion made for what purpose?"

"To strengthen you, Rusty."

Rusty nodded, although he remained unsure about what Aburdon meant. Could Gwen and her friends be nothing more than illusions like those in the training chamber, or was he being sent to another place entirely?

"It could also be another continent. The world is vast. For all we know, the soul forge is sending us to another region. Time works in mysterious ways in the soul forge as well. It may even be another time period."

Alexander speculated further, only making things more confusing for Rusty, who had not seen much of the world at all. Nevertheless, Gwen and the others felt real to him, so he would treat them as such. With that thought, he examined the options once more. As he had suspected, there was a way to unlock his loadouts, but he was still a few points short.

"It's there but…"

The option he had hoped to see was finally available, but there was one major problem.