Why Did You Summon Me?

Baiyi locked himself in his Magus Lab all through the evening and night, his head buried in his research.

At this point in his life, the only reward Baiyi fancied was knowledge — how much had he learned, especially on subjects he had not understood enough. On the other hand, things like power, powerful weapons, money, influence, and authority meant nothing to him.

His latest adventure — crossing paths with the Grandruler, being transported to the seemingly familiar but different World of Moon ¹ , finding his way home, and being handed the Grandruler’s Law Fragment — seemed to have yielded no significant reward, not counting the two loli Heroic Spirits he had abducted. After thinking about Grandruler’s frighteningly skillful use of the small Law Fragment, the theories he learned from the senior savant on the World of Moon, his contact with the Law Fragment in question, and the knowledge of Spatial Anchors he had just learned about, Baiyi felt a new light being shed on his understanding of the Laws of Space.

However, the enlightenment Baiyi had received was not as profound as he had hoped. He had a hunch that he was on the precipice of an even greater discovery. This feeling was like an itch he could not scratch. If only the War God himself could just let on a little bit more! Baiyi knew that he would learn even more about the Laws if that talkative god could say something meaningful for a change.

However, Baiyi knew that what he had learned so far was all the help he would get from the War God. Although the War God seemed to have trouble shutting his mouth, his real nature was far different from what he let on. Baiyi felt that trickery would not work on the deity.

“No matter. If what I’m thinking now is correct, hmm…” Baiyi murmured to himself as a small stream of mana seeped out from his fingertip. He used it to scribble something in the air, and faint, pale-blue curves and lines appeared in midair.

This was not a magical formation, neither was it a rune. It seemed like a combination of both, with some Magecraft-like magic tossed into the mix. Millenia worth of knowledge that humans had on magic contained nothing related to Baiyi’s scribbles, making it seem like gibberish. The scribbles resembled a failed attempt at drawing a formation or a rune. Someone from Earth would think the scribbles unintelligible that is normally found inscribed on Taoist talismans.

For a time, Baiyi stared at the scribbles with a grave expression. Then, his eyes wandered around his lab and fell on an ore on his desk. It was something he had excavated from one of the many micro-realms he had visited. He had initially intended to appraise it, but the Grandruler’s attempt at conquest happened.

Baiyi grabbed the ore and chucked it at the pale-blue scribble.

Surprisingly, the ore disappeared into it!

“Oh s**t! it actually worked!” Baiyi’s exclaimed in joy.

In truth, this scribble of his was a product of his current understanding of the Laws. Baiyi intended for the scribble to a Transporter Formation. He was still surprised that it worked, as orthodox knowledge dictated that Transporter Formations could only work if they were drawn precisely and unambiguously, using a variety of SRRR-level materials. How could a random scribble in the air possibly achieve results?

The scribble was not Baiyi’s crude attempt at drawing; It was something he had written in a moment of enlightenment. When Baiyi had been musing on what he had just gleaned from the Spatial Law, a sudden inspiration struck him, not unlike the way the Eighth Walker’s Gnosis of Nature worked. The little scribble was a result of Baiyi’s subconscious, innate idea of a Transporter Formation. This was the reason why the scribble resembled magical glyphs formed naturally more than it did man-made magical texts.

“Okay, but where did that rock go now?” Baiyi thought out loud. The scribble emanated very faint pulses of energy, not enough to leave a mark on whatever object passed through it. Baiyi had not left a tracker on the ore before he chucked it into the scribble, so he had no idea where the object had ended up.

“Let’s try again,” he muttered and grabbed an ink bottle from his desk. He placed a wisp of his psychic energy on it and tossed it into the blue scribble in the air.

The moment the ink bottle entered the scribble, Baiyi felt the wisp of psychic energy vanish, and a few moments later, it reappeared somewhere outside his lab.

Baiyi assumed that the location was where the ink bottle had been transported to.

“Well, it seems like the ink bottle wasn’t transported too far away. I guess your range is no better than standard spatial magic spells, huh?” Baiyi mumbled.

His words were no complaints, though. Improving the efficacy of current spatial magic spells was not his current objective. What mattered to him the most was that he had done something that, before now, could only be done using standard magic.

His heart swelled with pride. If all the scribble could do was transport objects to a location close by, all the better. This made it easier for him to observe the objects!

Baiyi searched his lab for expendable items to use for his experiment. After leaving a wisp of psychic energy on each of the items — quills, paper, decors in his lab, beakers, flasks, etc. — Baiyi hurled them into the scribble, one after the other.

When Baiyi ran out of objects to throw into the scribble, he began to search his drawers. He found a small, wooden statue and tossed it into the scribble.

“Alright. Now, all I have to do is to locate my stuff and document their locations. After that, I should be able to discern the underlying pattern and mechanism of this transportation method!” Baiyi mumbled to himself as he searched for a quill to record his observation.

Baiyi froze when he remembered that he had chucked them all into the scribble. He pulled out a gel pen, which he had bought at a mall in the World of Moon, from his storage pouch and began to write the locations of his objects on the surface of his desk. As he did that, he tried to decode the scribble’s transportation pattern.

Baiyi had gone very far on this when the sound of his basement door being slammed jolted him from his work. Before he could react, the door of his Magus Lab was kicked wide open.

‘Who is the brave little jerk itching for a fight, huh?!’ Baiyi looked up, visibly irritated.

It was the Warrior Walker, who looked even more livid than he did. Her eyes were wet with tears; it was as though she would burst into tears at any moment.

Baiyi had never seen her so close to tears; after all, the woman was renowned for being reticent and fiercely independent. The Warrior Walker was the least clingy of the three Huffing Piggies. She was not as bold as Lady Assassin Walker, neither was she as risqué as the Fairy Walker.

The Lady Assassin Walker was like a young girl that had tasted the sweetness of love for the first time; the Fairy Walker was like a newly-wed wife, who could not wait to make every day her honeymoon; the Warrior Walker was like a life partner that had stayed by her man’s side through thick and thin, and she did not need to engage in displays of intimacy to prove her love.

The Warrior Walker had never been the emotional type, neither was she ready to give Baiyi any fanservice — the sort an average otaku would dream of — unlike the other two. To her, these things were unnecessary.

At this moment, however, the steely beauty was uncharacteristically close to tears! Stunned, Baiyi was about to ask her what was wrong when the Warrior Walker hurled something at him and stormed off.

“What the….?” Baiyi picked the object up and saw that it was the wooden statuette he had used for his experiment. It was already broken in two.

It was then that some memories came back to him. The ugly, crudely-made statue had been crafted by the Warrior Walker; she made it after descending into this world for the first time. The wooden statue was an effigy of Baiyi.

She had gifted him this about ten years ago. It was the first gift he had received from the frosty lady. It was not given for any remarkably memorable occasion, which was why Baiyi had forgotten all about it.

He now understood the gravity of his action, though. With the broken wooden statue in his hand, Baiyi ran out of the lab and tracked the Warrior Walker. He finally found her crouched under a tree, crying quietly with her arms around her knees.

Baiyi acted on instincts. He rushed forward and pulled the Warrior into a hug, after which he wiped her tears and apologized profusely, explaining himself as much as he could.

The Warrior Walker listened to his explanation before shoving him away. She glared at him coldly and said, “And you somehow find it apt to use this as one of the subjects for your experiment.”

“I was, well, desperate , so I got quite ahead of myself and tossed everything I could find into it,” Baiyi scratched his head and flashed her an embarrassed smile. He quickly pulled out the statue and added, “But look! I’ve fixed it!”

The statue did seem to have been fixed, but it was shorter now. The Warrior Walker was just about to point that out when Baiyi showed her another wooden statue. He had modeled it after the Warrior Walker from the broken half of the original statue. This one was also unrefined. It was ugly as the statue she had made for him. One could tell that this statue was modeled after the Warrior Walker because of the frosty expression it had!

“Check this out! I made some adjustments,” Baiyi said, tucking the statue of the Warrior Walker back into his pocket. He then handed her the statue of himself.

The implication was as clear as day. The Warrior Walker rubbed her eyes clean and snorted coldly, “Hmph!”

Seeing that she had calmed down, Baiyi breathed a sigh of relief. “So, about this statue… How did it get to you? Is it because the new transporting portal isn’t as stable as it should be? Or do you reckon there are some errors somewh—”

The Warrior Warrior shot him a mean stare before he could finish. She said nothing and walked away, vanishing into the late night.

“Aww, what did I do this time?” Baiyi murmured to himself helplessly. Having figured out that his little trick was not enough to appease her, Baiyi returned to his lab a little dejectedly.

He placed the Warrior Walker’s statue on his desk and once again buried himself in his research.

The next morning, someone knocked on Baiyi’s door. It was Nota, whose hand was being held by Attie. They had come looking for Baiyi.

“Hmm? You two are up early. Is something troubling you?” Baiyi, who was scribbling furiously at his desk, did not look up at them.

“I’m fine, Mentor. It’s, um, Anna,” Nota replied.

Baiyi looked up, and his eyes spotted a bump on Little Anna’s adorable head. She held a thick, black ore in her hands as she fixed Baiyi with a grimace.