Summoned A Hundred Years Too Late

The growth of elementals has been at the center of many scholars’ life work for centuries. However, the search for a method to farm them has yet to bear fruit.

So far, there are only two facts we know for certain.

First, elementals grow in places where their element is present.

Second, they can consume elemental sources of the same type to accelerate their growth.

Unfortunately, even in the most favorable places, the natural growth of an elemental is too slow to make farming sustainable.

Excerpt from On Elemental Farms by John Husband.

Alexandra woke to a rock cracking against her skull.

She jumped up before she opened her eyes to the darkness of Leander’s tomb and Speck’s shadow limbs hovering above her.

“Speck! What the hell?”

“Revenge.”

“Get a grip. Your rock just melted a little.” She rubbed the bump on her head, wincing.

“Just. Bump. Same.”

Alexandra rolled her eyes. “I’m not arguing with you first thing in the morning.”

“Good,” Leander chimed in. “Because we have—”

“Shut up,” she cut in. “You could have stopped him.”

Anyway, she wasn’t going to argue first thing in the morning. She had more important things to do.

With a flick of her hand, she cast Rays Of The Sun with as little power as she could and focused it on her journal.

Quest Journal

Daily Reset: 06:00 | Streak: 114 Days | 10% All Stats, 10% Skill experience

Next Milestone: 250 Days

Daily Quests:

Take ten rocks to the head (1/10)“I hate you.”

“What have I done to you?” Leander asked, his voice faking outrage.

“Not you. This fucking system.”

Leander hovered closer to her. “Oh. Then it’s perfectly valid. Though for all its faults, it is the reason we can grow stronger.”

“What even is the system?” she asked.

Leander shrugged. “I wondered the same since I was summoned. The answer never came. I suspect nobody on Laika knows. Perhaps not even the divinities.”

Alexandra sighed. “Whatever. Speck, I need your help.”

“Why?”

“Alexandra, we must continue your training. Remember that I will dissipate in a few days.”

She looked in the direction of Speck’s source. “Hit me with a rock again.”

Leander closed his eyes. “I knew you were not all up there.”

“Look, I have a good reason. Come on, Speck. Nine soft hits, please.”

Speck materialized a shadow figure and grabbed a rock from his collection. “Rock. Favorite.”

“No, Speck. Don’t listen to this idiot,” Leander said.

The shadow figure’s shoulders sagged. “No?”

“Don’t take this away from him. He even took out his favorite rock.”

“Alexandra…”

“Leander, this is just my class art. I’m not thrilled by the prospect of getting hit in the head either.” Alexandra stepped closer to Speck. “It’s okay, buddy. You can do it.”

“Can?” Speck’s shadow moved with excitement as it raised its rock above her head.

“Softly!” Alexandra shouted, panicking a little.

Speck’s arm went down. The rock came with it. It landed on her head.

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She staggered. “Two.”

“Rock. Two.” Speck raised his limb again.

By eight hits she was sitting on the ground, ears ringing. “Last one, Speck. Make it soft.”

Speck raised the ninth rock and tapped it against her scalp like a knock on a door.

Take ten rocks to the head (10/10) -> Quest Completed: +10 exp, +1 CON

Daily Quest Streak: 114 -> 115

“Done,” she whispered. “Thank you, Speck.”

“Again.”

She raised a hand. “No, I think we’re done for now.”

“This has to be the stupidest thing I saw in my entire death,” Leander’s ghost muttered.

“Well, that stupid thing got me one point of constitution and ten experience. Worth it.”

“No?” Leander sat on the sarcophagus.

Alexandra rubbed her head. It was painful. If it were only the experience and constitution, she would agree with him. But her streak was worth a few hits to the head.

“Moving on,” Leander said, eager to change topics. “Now that you have a better idea of what a conceptual truth is, we need to work on hiding your core from the orders.”

Alexandra nodded. “I was thinking of doing the same thing I did for Light, but applied to my core, and without leaving a hole for the solar mana to escape.”

“Well, try it,” Leander said. “But be ready to stop at any moment. Your improved skill had enough power to melt a rock, and it was with a mere portion of your mana.”

Alexandra bit her lip. That old ghost wasn’t wrong. If she wove a shell around her core to reflect the mana inside without leaving a place for it to escape, she risked turning her core into a reactor.

Still, there was no certainty that her mana would act like that, so she tried anyway. She wove her mana threads around her core. With the support of Solar Manipulation and Sewing, the process felt natural.

Long before she could close the construct, she felt the heat in her core rise.

“There’s no point,” she whispered, letting go of her threads. “I can’t just trap my mana inside my core.”

Leander acquiesced. “Indeed, it would go against many of the sun’s truths. You can’t trap the sun.”

“Then what do I do?”

“You have to figure it out yourself,” Leander said.

“What a great teacher you make.”

“My favorite student is of a different opinion.”

“Ghost. Good.”

Alexandra ignored them and instead focused on how she could hide her core. What she needed was a way to obscure her mana without turning her core into a bomb. If completely trapping it wouldn’t do, maybe she could leave an opening. But then her mana would be forced through a single hole, leaving a dense trace that might be more noticeable than if she did nothing.

She tapped her foot on the ground. The inspiration for Rays Of The Sun had come from the clouds shielding her from the sun. But sunlight did travel through clouds, and so did heat. Yet it felt radically different from the searing sensation of being directly under the sun.

Perhaps there was something to explore here.

Not with her core, however. She couldn’t risk it going wrong. Besides, she had a perfect tool to practice with.

She cast Rays Of The Sun again, limiting the light to a low intensity and targeting a random spot in the wall, away from Speck.

Then, she covered the hole in the shell.

“Stop it right now,” Leander cut in. “Hurry.”

She listened.

“What?”

“I appreciate the fact that I am already dead, but I would prefer my tomb not being blown to smithereens,” the ghost said. “You can run those experiments in the lizard cave. It would be a good idea to shield yourself, too.”

“Oh.” She paused.

“Yeah.”

“What about the Gold lizard?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Try hitting it with your light. You can melt literal rocks with it.”

She scratched her head. “Ah, right.” She looked at her elemental. “Let’s go, Speck.”

“Go. Collect. Rock.”

Leander flew in between the two. “You’re not going anywhere, young elemental.”

“Rock. Need.”

“You’ll have your rocks,” Leander said as if it was the most natural thing in the world. “But you can’t go with her.”

“Why not?” Alexandra asked.

“Use your brain for once.” Leander sighed. “What do you think will happen to this poor darkness elemental when your light inevitably explodes? Just shining that concentrated ray on its source would be enough to kill it.”

Alexandra looked at Speck.

“Light. Bad. Rock. Good.”

“Sorry, Speck. He’s right.”

“Naturally,” Leander said. “I don’t want my favorite student to meet an untimely demise. Fate awaits, child of darkness. We can’t lose you just yet.”

Speck nodded. “Fate. Many. Rocks.”

“Exactly. Furthermore, if you want to stay with Alexandra, I’ll have to teach you how to survive on the surface.”

“Surface. Has. Rocks?”

“It does, dear student. Many rocks.” Leander laughed. “Many, many rocks.”

“Want.”

“Then, you see, you just learned about the boundless aspect of darkness, but what would you think if I told you darkness was omnipresent?”

“Yes. Omnipresent.” Speck formed a shadow figure to sit in front of Leander like he’d done the day before, and started nodding at his every word.

Alexandra looked between the ghost and the elemental, deciding not to get involved in their discussion. She sneaked into the passage leading to the lizards’ cave, turning off the brightness of her light as she went.

It was nice to see with her eyes for once.

As she walked, she thanked her lucky stars that she’d met Leander. The old ghost was helpful, albeit a little annoying. In a day, he’d taught her more than Raymond did in months. Clearly, her so-called friend hadn’t been interested in telling her about conceptual truths.

She’d been right to leave.

The cave opened before her, and Tracking caught the traces of a multitude of lizards ranging from Unranked to Silver. She didn’t spot the Gold yet, as this part of the cave was too small for the beast.

Thinking of the experiments she was planning to run, she decided to head to a place with more room. If Leander was afraid for his tomb, she should be concerned for her safety, just in case Rays Of The Sun blew up in her hands.

Contrary to her teacher, Alexandra was quite confident that it wouldn’t. But one was never too prudent.