Why Did You Summon Me?

Suffice to say that after the revelation, the bald Northerner became deeply disheartened. As the Steppe Barbarians were unfriendly neighbors with the Northern nations, skirmishes regularly broke out on their borders. Hence, as the son of a renowned military authority, he was no stranger to the legends and feats of the barbarians’ trump card, the War God’s Sword.

Above all else, however, he knew better than to compare his skills with a famous nonpareil as Professor Attie.

The poor bald guy was so dejected, he abstained from joining his two teammates’ spirited discussion about their upcoming dinner plan.

His two new teammates were not blind to his brooding mood, and to their credits, they tried to cheer him up.

“C’mon, Shiny Egghead. Pouting like that actively hurts your handsomeness, you know?” The hunky Southerner began. “Look, these side quests are designed specifically to be ridiculously close to impossible — unless you’re as broken as Professor Attie, that is. Honestly, they’re little more than merits boosters, and to complete even one of them depends on how lucky we are. Hey, even those platinum-necklace bearing geniuses can’t promise that they could do even one of them!”

“Exactly! If you’re really goddamned lucky, you could even accidentally complete a gold-level side quest! True story, bro; a sponsored kid did that just last year,” the shorter student added chippily. “Man, his merits were originally way below the minimum requirement for graduation. Then, with a stroke of luck, that dude found a bloody Marked Beast’s Corestone… It totally turned the tables, because it turned out that was the objective of last year’s gold-level side quest. Boom! Just like that, he graduated with just the exact amount of merits as required!”

The bald guy listened quietly to his teammates’ attempts to cheer him up and finally nodded. Flashing them a forceful and objectively ugly grin, he finally said with a tinge of cordiality, “Dinnae fash yerself, I ken what yer telling me. Ah, ‘n’ please, I’m nae ‘Shiny Egghead’. Th’ name o’ this one is Wu’ke, a Northern warrior.”

His temperament had long been honed by both his training as heir to a general and experience as the leader of the Northern exchange students, so it did not take him a long time to steel himself and moved on from his dejection.

“Heh, you Northerners always have the more interesting names! I’m Joe, third-grader. Shield knight,” The hunky one took up his cordial exchange and immediately extended his right hand. [1]

“And I’m Morad. Second-grader. Pretty good with dual-wielding swords!” The shorter one offered.

After that, the three shook hands as a sign of alliance and the beginning of a momentary group.

Wu’ke quietly tucked his ex-treasure back into his storage pouch. He decided that instead of looking everything up from a book, he was better off learning from two seniors with actual experiences. It would be a far more effective lesson, and best of all, it was free.

As stated, the first challenge of the Trial of Parazonium was to survive. Hence, the first step was always to set up a base where one could return to rest and/or recuperate in a precarious environment.

As the most experienced of the trio, Hunky Joe displayed skills of a veteran hunter. He began scouting for footprints and trails left by wild beasts, carefully scrutinizing the surroundings and even sniffed the air once or twice as he tried to pinpoint the best location to set up camp.

“From my experience, it’s always safer to stay below,” he told them. “You can get some pretty tasty games down there, too!”

From a bird’s eye view, the rocky spikes forming below the plateaus looked like an ocean of flesh-tearing prongs, but the truth was far from it. If one went through the spikes and reached the bottom, they could easily see that it was similar to an average canyon. The only biggest difference between Mount Parazonium’s canyon and a typical one was that the former was fragmented by many random spurts of soaring plateaus and rocky spikes.

There were pros and cons for staying active on the highlands and plateaus , which is also known as the ‘Upper Level,’ or lying low at the bottom of the canyons, which is appropriately called the ‘Lower Level.’ The Upper Level featured wide, unobstructed plains allowing one to see for miles under brilliant sunlight and to move freely without obstruction. Thus, it was most optimum for fighting, but because it boasted more resources and spaces, the Upper Level was also home to many of the fiercest and most aggressive wild beasts. Worse, the roster of dangerous beings active in the Upper Level now also included the Jawflower X and its ilk.

The Lower Level, in contrast, was geographically complex. Due to the random outgrowths of rocky spikes — often in dense, concentrated fashion — the bottom of the canyons was generally dim and not easy on the eyes. Ironically, this geographical quirk became a reliable natural cover from the predators, therefore allowing many of the weaker beasts to thrive down here. To the students, this meant they could hunt for games easily in the Lower Level.

Unsurprisingly, students from lower grades tended to stick to the Lower Level while senior students, emboldened by their experience, favored flexing their skills in the Upper Level. Strategically, however, a team of three members who knew little of their teammates’ skillsets would do better to lay low in the Lower Level at the moment. After all, it would be detrimental to have the newly-created team forced to split amid the chaos caused by a wild Jawflower X suddenly appearing.

The trio started descending to the Lower Level by making short, controlled leaps down the spikes as if they were going down a flight of disjointed, disorganized stairs. Once they reached the bottom safely, Bald Wu’ke looked up and saw that the sky overhead was now replaced by concentrated thickets of rocky spikes allowing very little rays of sunlight through. It made him felt like he had just exited from a jungle.

As if to affirm that sticking in the Lower Level was the wiser choice, the team instantly came across a nest of Molebbits.

Molebbits were said to have evolved from regular rabbits, with their fur a deep shade of dirt-brown to blend with its preferred environment and their claws evolved to drill through hard rocks and earth like an armadillo. Molebbits were also larger and more muscular than their ancestors, which meant that they made tender, chewy games.

The three crept close to the nest and crouched motionlessly. As Molebbits were hypervigilant and would burrow themselves away the moment they detected any unusual movement, none of them dared stuck their hands into the opening of the nest.

Hunky Joe took one glance at the fist-sized hole and made a few signs with his hands which said, ‘Has anyone of you brought some matches?’

It seemed that he was planning to force the Molebbits out using smokes.

Bald Wu’ke shook his head before signaling the two of them to back away as he crept even closer to the hole. Balling his right hand into a fist, he activated his elemental combat chi.

In a flash, his right fist started bursting into visible flames. Before the Molebbits could even detect what happened, Wu’ke stuck his fist into the hole with lightning speed and released his chi in a burst.

A muffled racket escaped.

“Gee, are you trying to make us some charred rabbit grills?” Hunky Joe quipped tartly. He remembered from one of the lectures that these Northerners’ combat chi was famous for their explosive power.

As a response, Bald Wu’ke flashed him a coy smile. Then, he slowly pulled out a family of two large and three smaller Molebbits from the hole, all of them alive. The only visible damage these Molebbits bore from his attack was that their fur appeared to be slightly singed, otherwise they were unconscious yet alive.

Apparently, Wu’ke did not unleash his combat chi into a point-blank explosion. Instead, he diffused his chi into the earth around the nest, so when he released it in a jolt, it caused the Molebbits’ nest to quake so suddenly that the creatures were knocked out by the trauma.

Eyeing the Molebbits’ occasionally jerking legs, the Southerners managed to deduce Wu’ke’s technique as a look of genuine awe settled into their visages. They raised their thumbs in admiration, crying, “Holy s***, that is some amazing combat chi control!”

“Okay. You’d show us what you got so we better keep up,” Hunky Joe said spiritedly. “If something as timid as Molebbits made their nest here, it means that this place is probably free from large monster attacks. I bet there’s a water source nearby, too. This is the perfect spot to set a camp!”

He looked around carefully until his sight rested on an area of stony spikes growing out in bunches like unkept tree branches. “Just the right length…” he murmured under his breath, pointing at them.

He pulled out a long, single-handed sword from his storage pouch. With a loud cry, he leaped high onto a rocky pillar close to his target and infused his combat chi into his weapon before slicing a few of the finer rocky spikes like a gardener trimming young, outgrown branches. The spikes fell down below with a heavy thud as Hunky Joe worked.

“Ooh, guess I’ll have to make myself useful through manual labor,” Short Morad announced and started moving to one of the fallen spikes.

Hunky Joe may have picked the smaller spikes out of the bunch, but they were still as wide as several meters long in circumference. An average man would have to throw their arms around it like an embrace to really lift it up. Shockingly, though, the pint-sized lad had grabbed one of the spikes — which was apparently larger than he was — just by his one arm without even a slight sign of exertion.

Of course, due to the contrast in sizes, it also made him looked quite comical.

“So, Senior, where to?” Short Morad’s voice rang from underneath the spike.

Hunky Joe perched from his spot and took down a tomahawk strapped to his waist. Aiming at his desired location, he hurled it, plunging the blade into a plot of land enclosed by tall, wall-like rocky spikes.

The area looked like a natural fortress saved for one large opening, but if one could build a fence from the severed spikes, they would be able to create a makeshift patio protected by walls of sturdy granite prongs.

No sane person would honestly believe that mere tents would be enough to guard one against the dangers of Mount Parazonium. Not even a cave was safe — even with the entrance blocked, there were many creatures capable of drilling through the walls of the cave. Worse, one might even find the hellish face of the Hitman burrowing out from the wall.

Marking out a safe territory by using natural defenses like these rock spikes was the most fundamental of survival knowledge in the Lower Level. The spikes were so resilient enough that very few monsters could actually slam through them.

Even those that could would, undoubtedly, cause such a racket as they struggled against the prongs that the students would have been alerted in time to react and escape.

Short Morad understood Hunky Joe’s reasoning almost immediately. Panting quietly, he started moving the spikes to the destination much like an ant moving breadcrumbs. Once there, he promptly plunged the spike and stuck them deep into the earth. Then, without a moment to rest, he ran back to where Hunky Joe was and began again.

Bald Wu’ke quickly offered his help. To his surprise, despite Short Morad’s apparent effortlessness, Wu’ke could only move the spike after summoning his combat chi to aid his normal strength. Sensing no sign of similar combat chi usage from Morad, Wu’ke gawked at him in shock, not expecting the little man to be so much stronger than himself.

Soon, Hunky Joe’s job was complete. He jumped down from the pillar and joined the other two as they slowly built a fence of spikes guarding their patio, leaving only a very slim opening for a human to squeeze in and out.

Then, close to that entrance, Joe stuck a fine, long iron rod into the earth and bound a small bell at the top. It was to be used as a simple but effective alarm to signify the activities of large monsters capable of burrowing underground.

After setting up their tents and other necessary tools behind the fence, the team’s camp was finally set!