Others Summon, I Forge Beast Armor

”Don’t worry, Lilith, we will figure it out one way or the other. I’m sure of it,” Lucy said.

The same promise she had made to herself a thousand times since her growth plateaued, but Lucy was confident this time that things would change. Because she can now feel a connection with her summon unlike before.

Maybe Luke was right when he advised her to name her beast.

Since Lucy named the Malefic Spider, Lilith, a thread was born.

More threads make up a bond.

After all, once you give something a name, your feelings begin working in its favor.

But Lucy was sure this will play a role in her breakthrough from stagnation.

”Naming you isn’t the only thing I should do. I must care for you, respect you, pay attention to you, and treat you like you’re part of me, not an item in my father’s pet shop...”

Lucy placed her hand on the hairy body of the Malefic Spider to try and share a moment, but the spider itself wasn’t yet safe with her, so it hesitated, and that moment Lucy wanted never happened. That’s when she realized there was a lot of damage for her to repair if she wanted to connect with her beast.

〖You have entered the Third Phase: Generator!〗

This phase was a mechanical area containing generators that supplied electricity to this bunker. Some generators were still running, struggling to power the bulbs, causing them to flicker—while the dead generators fused to the skin of the monsters around, making them stronger.

Lucy used 360 vision to look around, seeing how tattered the place was, as if there had been a fight before she and Derek came in.

”Lilith, use Vent to scan as far as you can for any living thing that’s not a monster,” Lucy instructed, and the Malefic Spider obeyed. The hairs on its skin stood up, and something like air current came out, engulfing everything.

Unfortunately, the spider didn’t detect anything other than more monsters.

But since there were seven phases in this zone, Lucy didn’t discard her suspicion that she and Derek might not be alone. Lilith’s skill, Vent, can only go so far.

Meanwhile, Derek saw the little affair between Lucy and her beast.

He did not remember them being this close. What he remembered was Lucy summoning the spider only when it was time to fight, and even when fighting, she didn’t take it as a teammate, like how he took his slime, Mordred.

He also noticed she leveled up to Lv. 35

Derek himself was a Lv. 38 summoner, so he was impressed with Lucy, and he had to admit she was proving Ayn wrong.

In no time, they cleared the third phase and moved to the fourth phase, where they did the same thing. However, the fifth phase demanded that they fight with their summons.

Makeshift Hyenas walked along the edges, scanning. Their bodies were made from metal and iron too, with sharp parts sticking out. So, as they walked, those parts touched each other, and the sound was worse than their laughter.

Concrete Hounds were among them too. They were just feeding on bricks a second ago with their glass teeth.

Suddenly, a hundred screeches.

Wings like blades, and the coordination of a colony. The last monsters were bats.

As this swarm of monsters came, Derek wanted to meet them, too.

”Mordred, Pool Sludge, then dissolve them!”

The Abomination Slime was very fast. It left Derek’s shoulder for the floor, where it spread its gel. The hyenas and the hounds got trapped in the sludge, and the slime slowly engulfed them.

Teeth of glass and jaws of metal tried to bite Mordred, but the slime was malleable, so it was useless.

Derek grinned as his summon took control of the fight. He asked it to expand itself like when a star explodes. This sent something like a radioactive wave, melting any armor the monsters had and leaving them unprotected.

It also suffocated a handful of them.

Lucy thought it was her job to take care of the bats.

”Web the flanks, Lilith! Don’t let them cluster!”

The Malefic Spider pounced into action, borrowing Lucy’s confidence. It scuttled over rafters and pinned all the bats it saw, but when the bats started to cluster as Lucy warned, it spat venom, then shrieked so the shriek would control the air and the venom would spray and cover a bigger radius.

All the bats got liquefied while falling down.

Lucy saw more hyenas coming and alerted Lilith about them.

The hyenas wanted to use the darkness to their advantage and ambush Lilith while she was occupied with the bats. Unfortunately, Lilith sensed them because of Lucy.

The Malefic Spider then used Paralytic Gaze first of all. With Paralytic Gaze, her eyes induce brief paralysis when creatures—usually weaker than her—meet her gaze.

With Paralytic Gaze, she also gave herself some time to turn the offense on its head.

”Screech!” the Malefic Spider shrieked while hardening her legs and thrusting them like they were spears. Lucy was very impressed as her system appeared with popping notifications of Lilith’s kills.

Derek was also impressed by Lilith’s combat so much that his slime’s feats did not impress him when compared.

The Malefic Spider was so fast and versatile, and it was very accurate with its attacks, too. The spider has very big potential according to Derek, who considered himself to be a master of summons.

”It seems Ayn was wrong after all. Lucy Blackstone isn’t weak,” Derek thought. ”Maybe back then she was just disturbed by something else. Look at her now; she’s everything I want by my side. I must keep investing in her...”

〖Fifth Phase Cleared!〗

〖You have entered Sixth Phase: Underground Tunnel!〗

Derek looked at the system notifications that were indirectly telling them they were almost done with this monster zone.

So far, he had slain 150 monsters and got 40,000 pts, while Lucy got 35,000 pts after killing more than a hundred monsters, too.

Lucy was no longer in the race for Dux or Summa because she was around #40 on the leaderboard after missing two days. But Derek was still in the race and one of the biggest contenders.

With 40,000 pts more, he was now at 250,000 pts total, and he was keen on overtaking Scarlett, who was still at 370k since the first day.

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A/N: Thanks for reading!