"Eh? It's a bat? Why are its eyes blood-red?"
Nishi curiously examined the Vampire Bat standing on Cyan's shoulder and reached out to poke its small head with her finger.
The Vampire Bat shook its head and opened its mouth, revealing sharp fangs. The wings wrapped around its body looked like a black cloak.
"Vampire Bat… It seems related to vampires."
Mentioning vampires made Cyan think of Erni. Based on past experience, by the time she and Nishi left the survival space and returned to the real world, roughly half an hour would have passed in reality.
"Vampire Bat…"
Nishi's expression changed as she quickly withdrew her hand from the bat's head.
Cyan showed Nishi the Vampire Bat's panel.
Although it didn't have the built-in taunt like the Slime, it could fly.
The Slime was a magical creature that acted purely on instinct and lacked both Intelligence and Spirit attributes. In contrast, the Vampire Bat was much smarter than an ordinary bat and could follow commands better — for example, hiding and then suddenly attacking to harass enemies and create openings for Cyan and Nishi.
Spending 20 Spirit upper limit to summon a creature like this to assist in battle was a guaranteed profit. The only uncertainty was whether every summon would produce something useful. If it summoned something completely useless, there was no choice but to cancel the summon and send it back.
However, there was one thing Cyan wanted to clarify: when a creature summoned by Random Summon died, did it truly die, or did it return to its original world? This was very important. If death simply meant returning to its original world, then in some situations she could use summons as rearguards. But if death was permanent, she couldn't do that.
"Does a creature summoned by Random Summon truly die when it's killed?"
Cyan focused on the survival brand and asked about Random Summon.
[Creatures summoned by Random Summon are sent back to their original world upon death and do not truly die — provided the creature has a soul and self-awareness. Creatures without self-awareness or souls that die are truly dead.]
The survival brand's answer was clear. Only instinctive creatures without self-awareness truly died when killed. Creatures with self-awareness and souls did not truly die — they simply returned to their original world.
(Just because a creature has self-awareness doesn't mean it has a soul! Don't confuse the two!)
So that was how it worked. Creatures summoned by Random Summon wouldn't truly die. That made things much more convenient. If she only had a limited pool of possible summons at a certain value, there was a chance she might summon the same creature again in the future…
Building a good relationship with them was very important.
After thinking for a moment, Cyan came to that conclusion.
Fifteen minutes later, Cyan directly consumed 50 Spirit upper limit and performed the strongest possible summon that LV1 Random Summon could produce.
A figure slowly emerged from the summoning circle. It held a spiked club in its hand and wore chest armor. The gray-green skinned goblin muttered resentfully, "Can't those damn demon realm mages let me rest for a while? Getting beaten up nonstop isn't fun either!"
What is this? Some weird-looking kappa?
When Nishi saw the appearance of the creature that stepped out of the summoning circle, she hid behind Cyan and hugged her arm, warily staring at the strange being that kept grumbling to itself.
"Hm? Where is this?"
The goblin looked around blankly. When it saw Cyan, its eyes widened.
I just agreed to the summon without thinking…
I didn't expect the one who summoned me wouldn't be a demon realm mage, but this person?
She's really pretty… and it's a guy too…
The gloomy goblin suddenly received new information. His expression changed as he looked at Cyan with a flattering smile and rubbed his fingers together. "If you want Hedel to listen to you, you'll have to pay Hedel a reward."
[Summoned Creature: Mech Armor Hedel]
[Strength: 11 | Agility: 9 | Constitution: 7 | Intelligence: 5 | Spirit: 5 | Perception: 7 | Charm: 3]
[Stunning Strike (Passive): When Hedel attacks with his club, there is a 25% chance to stun the enemy for 1 second.]
[Combat Payment (Passive): Hedel requires 15 Survival Points per hour to fight for you. Otherwise, he will fight half-heartedly.]
[Rage (Active): Hedel's fighting spirit surges. Consumes 10 Spirit to increase movement speed and attack speed.]
[Throw Stone (Active): Hedel throws stones for ranged attacks. Stone flight speed depends on Strength. Consumes 5 Spirit to choose between Triple Throw or Spread Throw. Stones deal 10~25 damage.]
[Throw Bomb (Active): Hedel can throw one bomb every 10 minutes that deals 70~100 damage. Requires paying 25 Survival Points to Hedel as bomb usage fee.]
[Remark: A goblin contracted with demon realm mages. Although very warlike, his greedy nature is hard to change. If you want him to fight for you, you must pay sufficient compensation.]
Cyan looked at Hedel's panel and paid him 30 Survival Points as compensation.
"You're truly a generous person~!"
Hedel, who received the payment, beamed with joy and blurted out words of praise.
"Can you even use Survival Points where you're from?"
Cyan asked curiously after seeing Hedel accept the payment. According to where he came from, Survival Points shouldn't be usable there. So what did he need them for?
"When I return, the Survival Points you paid can be exchanged for money."
Hedel answered honestly. This was information the strange place had given him — when he left, he could convert the reward he received into money to take with him.
"I see. So we have an employment relationship?"
Cyan sorted out her relationship with Hedel. Compared to the direct control she had over the Slime or the closeness and trust the Vampire Bat showed her, her relationship with Hedel felt more like employment. She was paying (Survival Points) to hire Hedel to fight for her.
"Of course, beautiful young master. Hedel will fight for you!"
Hedel tapped the armor on his chest with his club, making a loud clang clang sound.
Sigh… First time in my life fighting for a man. I'd rather be summoned by those demon realm mages…
Thinking about the money, Hedel perked up and forced himself to ignore Cyan's gender.
"I'm a girl."
Cyan stared at Hedel with her silver-white eyes.
"Uh… Haha! Beautiful young lady! Hedel is willing to fight for you!"
After learning Cyan's gender, Hedel's tone became noticeably more sincere and enthusiastic. Fighting for a man and fighting for a woman were completely different! After all, those demon realm mages were all loli-shaped!
It seems both humans and non-humans are appearance-obsessed…
This guy… his attitude changed so much after finding out Master's gender.
Nishi played with her short blade with a displeased expression, seriously considering whether she should physically castrate him.
"My name is Cyan. You can call me Cyan."
Cyan looked at Hedel and extended her hand. Her expressionless face carried a hint of sincerity.
"I'm Hedel! The demon realm mages gave me this name. If you don't mind, just call me Hedel. Miss Cyan, is there anything I can do for you?"
Hedel looked into Cyan's clear silver-white eyes, which were like beautiful moonlight — free of prejudice toward goblins and shining equally on him. He rubbed his somewhat dirty hands on his legs, then took her fair, soft hand while ignoring the murderous glare coming from the side.
"Just call me Cyan. For now, I don't need you to fight. But next time, if I manage to summon you again, please fight for me then, Hedel."
Cyan didn't know if Random Summon would summon Hedel again next time. However, she had at least learned that spending 50 Spirit upper limit could summon a fairly strong, high-intelligence being.
High-intelligence beings probably all require payment to help me fight, right?
Otherwise, they have no reason to assist me. Random Summon doesn't have much binding power over them — it only makes them feel slightly closer to me?
Cyan, who had a lot going on in her head, thought through many things in a short amount of time.
"Cyan, isn't your summoning spell a designated summon?"
Hedel looked at Cyan in surprise after hearing her words. Only after speaking did he realize — if it was a designated summon, he wouldn't have been summoned either. Aside from those demon realm mages, basically no one summoned him.
"The summoning spell I have is Random Summon. This time it summoned you. Next time, I don't know if it will summon you again." Cyan couldn't choose what Random Summon would bring. She could only influence the strength of the summon by how much Spirit upper limit she spent. If she could designate the summon, it wouldn't be called Random Summon anymore.
"Is that so! Then I can only hope I get summoned by you again next time!" Hedel rubbed his nose and smiled. "Getting summoned by you means I get paid. Getting summoned by those demon realm mages means I don't get a single coin."
"Demon realm mages?"
Cyan had heard Hedel mention them several times and couldn't help but feel a bit curious about the "demon realm mages."
"They're a bunch of mages who live in the demon realm. They're always researching magic. Things haven't been peaceful in the demon realm lately. I just hope they stop summoning me just to get beaten up."
Hedel couldn't help but sigh at this point. Who could stand being constantly summoned just to get beaten up?
After talking with Hedel for a while and testing his strength, Cyan dispelled the summon and sent him back.
As for whether she would summon him again the next time she used Random Summon — that would depend on fate.
After leaving the training ground, Cyan and Nishi returned to their private room, took off their equipment, and changed into casual clothes.
Looking at the chess piece that Unabi had turned into, Cyan asked whether she could bring Unabi back to the real world.
Since the Unabi breed of horse existed in the real world, there was no need to disguise its appearance to bring it back.
After receiving confirmation from the survival space, Cyan released Unabi.
Unabi shook its head and widened its eyes as it looked around. Seeing fish swimming inside the walls, it walked over and pressed its head against the glass, staring at a fish swimming past before opening its mouth to bite it.
Nishi watched Unabi's actions and patted its back with a laugh. "Stupid horse~! That's fake. You can't bite it~!"
Hearing Nishi's words, Unabi stomped its hooves on the carpet, glanced at her, and walked over to Cyan's side.
"Let's go."
Cyan stroked Unabi's mane and focused on the survival brand.