Others Summon, I Forge Beast Armor

「Luke Kingsley is the first student to reach 1,000,000 pts!」

「Luke Kingsley has attained the title Supreme Venerator of Trials!」

The message was broadcast to every student’s Token.

Everyone saw it.

”A million? Wasn’t the winner last time only five hundred thousand? So he doubled it?”

”Luke Kingsley? The Kingsley heir who got disowned? Doesn’t he not even have a Beast?”

This is unbelievable!

Shock, envy, disbelief. Some students admired Luke, but most were the opposite.

The last champion of the Joint Term, 500,000 points was his final score after the Trials, so it’s a surprise Luke doubled it. Even if they announced him the winner right now, no one would argue.

Who could go toe to toe with him?

Prince Derek?

Unfortunately, Derek had his points deducted and then disappeared.

However, Derek was secretly improving his beast behind closed doors.

He lost to Luke in this Trials, but there’s a lot to go for the rest of the term. He’d be stronger by then. This debt, he was keeping track of.

So the question is: how did Luke Kingsley, the disgraced castoff stripped of his own family’s name, without a Beast to his name, get first place by a landslide?

Could it be... that the mysterious armor he wears is really that powerful?

Everyone is filled with mixed emotions about him. Today is the end of the Trial. When Luke emerges, will he be greeted with heroic applause or an ambush from the shadows? No one can say for sure.

...Near an abandoned factory, Rake Cooper’s party also received the news.

Rake glanced around — his teammates’ faces weren’t looking too good. With what Luke had just pulled off, fighting for first place wasn’t even worth the effort anymore.

”Don’t forget, we’re stronger than over a hundred other students,” Rake said. ”No reason to look so down. This Trial, we ran steady. No casualties, no injuries, no enemies made, no trouble stirred up. That’s how you’re supposed to play it. Trust me, the Best Team Award is ours to lose.”

”Really? What kind of reward?” Tabitha asked.

”Beast supplies,” Rake said. ”Enough to make your Beast stronger. If we’d gone reckless like everyone else, we’d have nothing right now. That Award’s exactly what I’ve been aiming for. The ones who become rash and more desperate end up empty-handed. My goal from the beginning was this award; just follow my lead, and you won’t go wrong.”

Tabitha clapped, smiling.

Her Lantern Moth getting a share of supplies beat that plain Summoner Supplies any day.

The more she thought about it, the more she felt Rake had the best insight.

Handsome too.

She stole uncountable glances at him.

She was thinking that after all these days together, maybe he’d started warming up to her too.

”Looks like someone’s not too pleased with the good news,” Rake said, raising an eyebrow at a spot not far away.

On the spot was the fourth teammate, Borg, and his beast, the Rot Tortoise.

Borg sat atop his Rotten Tortoise, brow furrowed, meaning he was lost in his thoughts.

”If I’d forced everyone who owed me to hand over their Monster Zones, our Points would’ve been higher,” Borg said.

”Sure,” Rake agreed. ”But even if we got them, none of us would’ve touched a million points. That Luke Kingsley is really something.”

”But he’s the one who jumped out to stop me,” Borg snorted. ”I’ll settle the score with him sooner or later.”

Tabitha couldn’t help but remind him: ”Actually... the one who overtly stopped you was Prince Derek, from Rubverton’s High. He’s the one you should be after.”

”Not your place to lecture me, commoner,” Borg replied. ”You want me getting myself killed? That monster’s not one I can touch. Luke Kingsley looks a lot easier to handle.”

With that, he turned and walked off while his Rot Tortoise followed him.

Tabitha swallowed nervously, startled by his words.

Meanwhile, Rake shook his head.

”Luke Kingsley, easy to handle? Friend, I think you’ve got that dead wrong,” he thought to himself.

*******

Over on Luke’s side, a few Monster Zones remained. He would clear them all and then call it a day.

He was confident of winning this trial.

But he had something on his mind.

Scarlett.

She hadn’t made a sound since day one, so something was wrong.

She told him she’d found the Black Sun Origin Realm, and then there had been no word from her. Luke was afraid she’d gone into the Black Sun Origin Realm alone.

The Origin Realm was dangerous.

She had her Phoenix Beast, but Luke didn’t think she’d come out alive. Besides, it was a Hell-level Origin Realm.

Luke, with his beasts, arrived at a monster area. The smell of blood filled the air. They wanted to fight, and so did he.

This area contained five types of monsters. Blue-tier. Quite a few of them.

Berserk Flame Ape Zone: roughly two hundred, foul-tempered.

Iron-Plated Rhino Zone: around a hundred fifty, near-impenetrable defense.

Venom Mist Spider Zone: about three hundred, ground soaked in poison.

Coal Wolf Tribe: a full four hundred, blindingly fast.

Shadow Bat Swarm: the largest count, over a thousand strong.

He chose one to fight first. The Berserk Flame Apes. This kind of monster was tough; it would be perfect as a punching bag for Bo and Lan, a good warm-up.

But this time, Amigo displayed a skill Luke had never seen before.

Amigo has been holding back all this while, so this came as a surprise.

The Heavenly Immortal Tortoise closed its three eyes, calming its mind, and after a while of meditation, an aura of cyan-gold light came out from its body.

”Master, I’m using the Primordial Assimilation Technique,” Amigo said proudly. ”Simply put, my Spirit can link directly with this area’s Zone-Consciousness. It connects my mind to the mechanics of a place. Once connected, I know everything within it—the creatures, the environment, the structure, the weaknesses. I can pinpoint a point that can cause the entire area to collapse. I can also communicate with the mechanics. And of course, I can negotiate with the Zone-Consciousness too. Once I’ve fully assimilated it and made myself the Zone-Consciousness — the difficulty here becomes whatever I want it to be. Not just one Zone, either. I can Assimilate several at once. Forests, planets, even an entire world — as long as it has a consciousness, I can link to it.”

Luke listened, a bit dazed, not quite following the reasoning of it all, but he didn’t stop Amigo from proceeding.

And it worked...

For the first two Zones — the Berserk Flame Apes and the Iron-Plated Rhinos — Amigo used the first method.

When Luke arrived, Amigo instructed him to cast a spell on a statue within the area. The spell exploded, and the area was emptied in a second, all because Luke struck a very important part of the monster zone.

The second one was the same.

Luke fired just one shot at a hidden pillar with condensed Aeon, and all the Iron-Plated Rhinos were instantaneously disintegrated.

For the remaining monster zones, Amigo used the second method: dropping the difficulty.

When Luke walked into the Venom Mist Spider and Frost Wolf Zones, he found the monsters standing there like they didn’t know what they were doing or how they got there.

Amigo removed their hostility by interacting with the mechanics of their monster zone and overriding those very mechanics to his will.

The monsters were left dazed with empty eyes and innocence like newborn babies.

”Bo! Lan! Charge!”

At Luke’s word, the Primordial Twin Form Dark Dragonlord slew them like chickens.

〖You killed a Beta-rank monster!〗x250

〖Luke Kingsley, the first student to reach 1.3 million points!〗

”So that’s all the points I finished the Trials with,” Luke said to himself.

Afterwards, he looked at Amigo and smiled, saying, ”Not bad, you. That trick’s absurdly overpowered. No wonder you’re the Heavenly Immortal Tortoise. So by your logic, sitting right here, you could reach out and affect somewhere else entirely—even another world?”

Amigo tilted his head back, snorting with pride. ”Naturally. Back in my day, this turtle’s reputation preceded him—”

”Bo! Lan! Get him!” Luke suddenly barked.

”An ambush?!” Amigo shrieked in fright.

Bo and Lan pinned him down from the left and right in a way that prevented him from retreating into its shell. The dragons were faster than Amigo could react, leaving him helpless in captivity.

Meanwhile, Luke raised and coiled it around the Olympus Serpent’s poisonous vines.

The Olympian Serpent was a Mythical-level creature, so its abilities should be sufficient to harm a Mythical-level Amigo.

Thud!

The spear pierced Amigo’s neck, and the poison seeped in completely.

”Traitor!” Amigo howled.

”Quiet down. Don’t scream,” Luke said as he pulled out the spear, watching the tortoise bleed.

It hurt to see his own beast bleed, but he wanted to see for himself if the immorality was real.

Amigo, spraying blood, began muttering deliriously: ”Blood... spraying everywhere... soaking my shell... pooling at my feet... ah! Death! You’ve come... and now you’ve gone again...”

After chanting for a long time, he didn’t die.

In fact, minutes passed, and Amigo was still very much alive and kicking.

That poison was the most potent of the Olympus Serpent’s; no living creature had ever withstood it—yet Amigo hadn’t died.

So the Immortality really was true, after all.

Satisfied, Like knelt down to heal the wound.

This healing technique was one Seraphina had taught him, and he was grateful to her.

However, he did not speak of it to Amigo, because if Amigo ever found out he was being healed with a technique taught by that Empyreal Angel he couldn’t stand, the tortoise would lose his mind in no way 1.2 billion years can.

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A/N: thanks for reading