Yugioh Card Summoner

CH.194 Hunting Competition

(So, Laura, what do you think happened with Lua’s clothes? Are they still held by that skill? They are, right?) I now really wanted to know. What kind of skill just makes your clothes disappear?

(May I answer that?) I heard Mia’s voice in my head.

(Yes. Maria, please explain it to us.) Laura gave permission.

(The Princess’s Grace, a part of her new skill, transforms her current outfit into something more fitting of a princess, while keeping all of its usual stats. I tried to warn her about it, but she still activated it.) Mia explained.

(... so her adventuring clothing transformed into that dress?) I confirmed.

(Yes.)

(That’s an interesting skill.)

(I’d agree. There are no records of such skills.) Laura added.

(They may be unique skills only, so we can’t access those records.) Mia said.

(Will it do that every time?) I asked.

(No. It only forces that effect on the first time, or if a princess outfit is not available in the skill. But as she now has one, she will be able to change to it at will.)

(But she can make new ones, right?)

(Yes.)

(And she can use anything while she makes them?)

(Anything she can normally wear.)

(Including things like full suits of armor?)

(Yes.)

(And the dress will keep the stats of the equipment used?)

(Yes.)

(... holy. That is OP as anything.)

(I know you might think like that, but it really isn’t.) Laura interrupted. (She will still have to get the initial outfit or armor that she uses as the base. It only changes the appearance of the outfit she wears. Right, Maria?)

(Yes. While it is useful for making her pretty, it really isn’t that powerful all things considered. And as the skill will always make a dress on some level, it won’t even make it that much easier to move in.)

(Yeah, I guess.) I admitted. (But it should be better when fighting humans and other such species, as seeing a princess like that makes us think she is defenseless.)

(Yes. I’ll make sure she knows that trick.) Mia said.

(But other than that princess dress, what can her skill do?) 

(Two things. One is the Dhampir Order. It can be used to command other dhampirs. While it isn’t guaranteed, it does make them more likely to follow her orders. And wearing an outfit made by Princess’s Grace increases the effectiveness of that skill.

The second is Thrall Creation. She can turn weak monsters into her thralls and they will follow all of her commands. And like with the Dhampir Order, having Princess’s Grace active increases the power of Thrall Creation.)

(Just monsters? Not humans?)

(At least not as of now. Perhaps she can when the skill levels up some. And as of now, the most she could do is a D-rank monster.)

---

A little while later, Lua came out of the room dressed in the clothes I made her. I really hope she won’t accidentally transform these into a dress as well, as I can only remake the full set one more time. Well twice if I fly over to the dungeon. I really need to go hunt some monsters just to absorb them into my Dungeon Founder. Or maybe hunt them first, then fly over to the dungeon and then absorb them, so I won’t suffer the penalty for doing things remotely. And we were going to visit Christina tomorrow or the day after that anyway, as she did ask for us to drop by every now and then.

Some of the villagers, especially the males, were a bit disappointed that Lua was no longer in her dress, her hair wasn’t even done up anymore. That quick change skill seems super useful, honestly. I wonder if it also keeps her clothes clean. If it does, it’s even better than I thought. And I wonder how many outfits she can store with it. And can she only store one casual outfit and a few princess outfits?

Also, would one of my cards give a skill similar to that when installed? Hidden Armory, maybe, but I don’t have access to it yet. Enchanting Fitting Room? Probably not. Tailor of the Fickle? No. That would only switch your clothing/equipment with the equipment of someone else around you. Useful, but not what I’m after.

… Wait. I just had a stupid idea. If Tailor of the Fickle really swaps my clothes with the clothes of someone else around me, could I..?

(There is a chance that would work. I can test it, if you’d like.) Laura offered.

(Thanks. If it does work, I might get some OP equipment for free.)

(It likely won’t work that way. Your clothing will most likely go back to normal after the time limit, unless you can somehow transform the equipment you borrowed from your monster into your own.)

(... like Lua with her new skill? We might be able to get an OP princess dress for Lua. … or we could just make some more blood iron or vampiric steel, make something from it and then have Lua turn that into a princess dress.)

(Or we could use the armor of Vampire Red Baron. It is a mix of both blood iron and vampiric steel.)

(... yeah. I suppose so. Let’s test it out first. If it works, we can offer that for Lua. And Lua has to accept her new status as a princess. Otherwise it won’t help her.)

---

“Let’s go! I’ll make sure to hunt more than you can.” Ria declared as we entered the forest surrounding the village.

“I don’t think so. You might know this area better, but I’m stronger, so I’ll kill the monsters faster.” Lua responded.

After I admitted to Lua that I was a bit low on Generation points because I made her the clothes, she said we will head out to hunt something so I can get some more. It would also double as a test drive for Ria’s new gauntlets.

And Ria just had to go and turn it into a competition. It was going to be her against Lua and the winner would be the one that hunts down monsters worth more points. Simple.

But I still don’t know why. There wasn’t even going to be any kind of reward for the winner.

“So, the rules.” I began. “You can do anything, except steal each others pray, attack each other, sabotage each other. You get the point. Any technique is fair game, as long as you don’t attack the other competitor. Is that understood?”

““Yes!”” They both responded.

“I’ll be in the sky in Gradius, so if you get in trouble, I’ll come and help.” I added. “Are you both ready to go?”

““Yes!”” Another positive response from the two.

“Good. Then get ready, set, GO!”

As soon as I gave them the go, both of them ran into the woods. I’m honestly interested in which one of them will win. You might think Ria, as she has the homefield advantage and she is a close range fighter, but Lua is stronger.

Anyway, I guess I will see. I need to get into position and make sure nothing bad happens to them. 

“Gradius.”

I jumped into my spaceship and took flight.

---

Both of the two girls seemed to have somewhat similar battle plan, because as I spotted them, both of them had summoned a monster, or monsters. Lua was running through the forest flanked by Vampire Sucker and Vampire Vamp.

Meanwhile, Ria had run up to the opening we used last time when we took flight. She summoned her Firebird and was now flying in the sky, trying to spot bigger prey. I just hope she won’t bite off more than she can chew.

Lua was working steadily, taking down any monsters she happened to find on the way. She would also send her two vampire’s out to scout, increasing the speed at which she was taking things down. But still, her prey was quite weak. D-rank and under.

As for Ria, this far, her prey was just one striped tiger, a C-rank monster. 

---

“Okay. Let’s check them out.” I said after the hunt was over and we had regrouped. I wasn’t going to absorb them yet, just shove them into my inventory and absorb them tomorrow when I head to Alewatch to have tea with Christina. But Laura would still get me an accurate enough of an estimate so I could judge the competition. 

Lua had hunted a lot. To the point where she had completely filled up her magic bag. Not her fanny pack, but the one that was once carried by Rico, which she kept after Prime Rib broke up. Her final prey was 9 goblins, 4 forest snakes, 6 giant rats and 3 kobolds. 

For Ria, there was the striped tiger and two winged deer, called a sky deer. All C-rank monsters. The sky deer were actually considered quite dangerous, as they can use wind magic. But they are only C-rank, as they don’t attack unless you get too close, or try to take over their grazing grounds.

“Alright. The points are in. Are you two ready to hear the results?”

““Yes.”” 

“The winner is, by fifty points …. Ria!” I announced.

Lua got 2550 Generation points in total, by Laura’s estimate, while Ria’s three C-rank monsters were 2600 Generation points. About as close as you can get it. Just one more goblin and Lua would have won.

(That would have actually tied them. She would have needed one more kobold to win.) Laura specified.

“... I won?” Ria didn’t seem to believe the fact that she did.

“Congratulations.” Lua said, not seeming to mind that she lost.

“I WON!!!” Ria yelled out as she jumped about 10 meters into the air and struck a pose.

I know people can do that, but it still looks strange. Even I can jump up about 4 meters.

---

“So Ria, how were the gauntlets?” I asked her as we were returning to the village.

“They were alright. I can’t rip things that well, as I can’t move the blood iron yet, but I think I’ll learn soon. And my punches are way more powerful with them.”

“Good. Then just more practice and you’ll get it in no time, I’m sure.”

“But holding the card while I was punching things was really difficult. Do you think something can be done about it?”

“Yeah. I’ll see what I can do about that. I might be able to make a bracer like my terminal that can hold one card, or even a full duel disk. I just need to experiment with it a bit.”

Another good thing I learned was that Ria had not run out of mana this time. Sure she was a bit low, but not almost out. The level ups on her Fast Mana Recovery had apparently helped.

---

Ria was riding her high from that victory all the way until we left the village. Some of the villagers were a little disappointed that their princess Lua didn’t win and ended up saying things like : “She held back.” “She didn’t even call on us.” 

People get way too competitive over nothing.

While the others were eating lunch, which was Spike Seadra by the way, Lua took me to the side and thanked me again for her new clothes.

She also asked if I was serious about Ria winning, or if I did that to make her feel better, but after I reassured her that Ria did actually win, she seemed a bit let down. I’m sorry, but it was the truth. Laura was the head judge, not me. I was just the announcer. 

She then quickly explained the change to her system mission. It was basically the same, but the reward section had changed a bit.

Now it said that she would have to teach at least 13 of the 17 villagers true blood magic, and once she reached that, her Dhampir Princess skill would level up to LV.2. By the way, Ria did count towards the thirteen and currently the status of her mission was 5/13.

---

We left quite quickly after lunch and made it back to the city. There, we dropped of Agatha before making a quick stop at the adventurer’s guild. There I dropped off the papers Agatha gives me to show that I’ve completed her escort quest.

Like last time, I got some questions about how I could do it so fast, but I just told the guild that I have a super fast golem carriage, aka. Overdrive. With Overdrive, you can get to the village in under an hour, so it isn’t really that far. But, of course, if you go by horse or carriage, you have to consider the horse/horses. They can only run so fast and for so long. And you’ll have to feed them and get them water while at the village, as well as allowing them to rest before you come back. 

Well, that’s not my problem. Buy an Overdrive from me if you want to travel faster. First you’ll have to get Card Summoner though. And I don’t think I’ll let Overdrive go for cheap either. And the Overdrives I sell won’t come with Machine Conversion Factory or 7 Completed, so they won’t be as comfortable. Those cost extra. 

---

After we got back to the manor, we did our usual daily stuff. Aka. some magic practice, I filled in the ‘diary’ that I needed for Ria and hanging out with my girls in the factory.

I also spent a bit of time trying to explain telekinesis to Paulina. Apparently, she had gotten her mana control to LV.10 a few days ago and wanted more examples of how telekinesis is done. I had to act as Laura’s mouth to explain as much as we could.

In theory, telekinesis is simple. You just surround the object you are trying to move in mana that is under your control, and move the mana. Then the object follows. Simple, right? Yeah. It’s not. Go on. Try it. Exactly, you can’t. Simple doesn’t mean easy. 

I guess if I were to compare it to something you might do back on earth, it would be like trying to move water, with just your hands. No buckets or anything.

Actually, that isn’t even correct. More like trying to move air with your hands. Sure you can cause a tiny whirl, but nothing that would ever move an object. Well, maybe a piece of paper.

Or should I compare it to electricity? I don’t know. What do you compare it to, as earth has no equivalent thing.

Then it was just level ups and going to sleep. For me, it is still going into Inventory. Just one more day and it will be LV.10. And for Ria, True Blood Magic to help her control the blood iron.

“Ria, your Card Summoner leveled up.” I told her after I confirmed that the level ups had worked.

“It did?” She asked and seemed to confirm it herself. “It did! Yes!”

“Congrats. But I wonder why?”

“Maybe because I fought the monsters with Firebird?”

“Oh yeah. You did. That could be it.” Maybe fighting something with a monster, or commanding a monster to fight another monster is required or something. Alice, Lua, Alex and Christina had all done it before their skill leveled up at least.

But Ria used Smashing Ground. Wouldn’t that count?

(It may not have, as she didn’t have Card Summoner at that time. And it might be limited to only happen when done with monsters. In fact, using spell cards might help people level up Card Summoner.) Laura theorized.

(... well, I did give Alice Pitch-Black Power Stone yesterday, so if her Card Summoner levels up again, we might have our answer.)

“Anyway. I’m proud of you. You did well.” I complemented Ria as I got into bed.

“Thank you. Good night, Brian.”

“Good night.” I said as I switched off the lights.