The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

Chapter 19: Testing the Waters

"Don't worry, I won't tell," Aria chuckled, laughing at the girl's flustered expression.

"Sorry... Savior-nim,"

Jin-kyung became fidgety, her eyes avoiding Aria at any case.

"What are you sorry for?" Aria raised a brow, not knowing why Jin-kyung had an apologetic look.

"I must've been a huge burden for you..."

"What are you talking about? Did you know that I had to choose out of three paths whenever I asked you to shout? If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't know which path was right," Aria extended her hand to pull up the sitting Jin-kyung.

Jin-kyung still looked unconvinced, but accepted the hand and stood up.

"Now, it's time for you to contribute. Could you lead us to the next battle?"

Aria wasn't going to blindly look for the next monster. Jin-kyung's ability was a godsend if it really worked the way Aria thought.

"Ah... yes!" Knowing that Aria didn't have her ability, Jin-kyung got excited.

She had a chance to help! Feeling giddy, Jin-kyung manifested her mana and cast her spells.

A small ball of light appeared in front of them. It had a golden tinge to it.

'Golden... Arcana magic?' Aria's brows creased, but it was quickly hidden.

Arcana magic was something that gave birth to the Holy element and many more.

It was named 'Arcana', because it was literally filled by mysteries.

If the Holy element's purity started at the white color and peaked at a bright yellow shade, Arcana magic was on a completely different level.

A blinding golden shade.

This Arcana element used to be something exclusive to a certain tribe, but procreation happened and diluted versions of the magic appeared.

Originally, it was estimated that Arcana bearers only numbered in the thousands, but after several hundred years passed, the diluted version users were in the millions.

It was separated into three elements: Holy, Light, and Nature.

All had a white to yellowish glow when cast into a spell, but none of them could compare with the original Arcana magic's prowess.

After the separation, Arcana magic users rarely appeared. The three elements' reach started to spread further, ingraining itself within society.

Although normally Aria would guess that another element was in use, this time she had to reconsider.

With the emergence of so many new things, there could be a possibility that the Arcana magic was revived.

Lee Jin-kyung. A girl bearing a long lost magic.

'How interesting.'

To think that the first few people she interacted with would be a <Player>, followed by a Arcana magic user.

"This is it, Savior-nim. It will guide us to the place," Jin-kyung good more comfortable with showing Aria her power.

It may be too quick for her to gain trust in her, but Jin-kyung always had a good intuition. Usually, she could differ between genuinely good and bad people just by their first interactions.

She was inclined to believe Aria.

Furthermore, she had something to say to her.

'The incantations are a bit messy. Some words are put there for nothing. It hinders her, actually...' Aria judged the ball's existence.

She could list tons of flaws, but it worked for the current situation.

Jin-kyung had a massive potential, since she was gifted with Arcana magic. However, she didn't know how to use it correctly.

'Although I don't know too, technically.'

Aria only studied from the written theories, not real people. She couldn't wield the Arcana.

'Judging from her words, it seems like she has a team behind her.'

Jin-kyung didn't want to tell her about her power at first. If she's this clueless in using the Arcana, that would mean that she didn't understand the extent of the magic, at least not at much that she'd try to hide it.

Arcana on the lower levels was nothing different than normal magic.

Then, the one behind Jin-kyung was quite intriguing.

Dropping the matter for the time being, the two followed the moving ball of light. They walked a fair distance, making twists and turns until they were faced with a rock.

"...How conspicuous!" With the way the rock was placed, one would immediately suggest that there was something behind its existence. It didn't even bother to hide anything.

Then again, the way to get here was complicated. The correct path was hard to trace, and they only made no mistakes because Jin-kyung's helper was there.

"What do you think about this rock?" At this point, Aria couldn't belittle Jin-kyung's prowess.

She was the real deal.

"Beyond this is a staircase.. If you break the rock, I think the blisters would fall into the path and block it," Jin-kyung gave her input on the matter, touching the rock lightly.

To be honest, Aria also thought the same. The amount of obviousness displayed by this gimmick was too much.

It was practically inviting the invader to break it, but those who knew that there was a staircase behind it would beg to differ.

"Then what do you think we should do?" Aria wanted to keep testing the girl.

"...Wait a second," This time, Jin-kyung hesitated a lot.

'The harder the problem, the harder it is to come up with a solution, huh.'

"We can chip at it slowly, but that'd take a while... Why don't we.. Ah! Maybe your spirit can look for traces,"

'She figured it out.'

Aria also thought that it might be the same scenario with the previous rooms. That there were fragments that could destroy the rock, since it was obviously created and placed here.

She just wanted to test Jin-kyung, but the reaction levels went above her expectations.

'Fast.'

Jin-kyung's ability activated fast.

"I also wanted to do that," Aria summoned Dianthe, telling her the instructions she needed.

Like before, she showed the room's elemental composition. Just as expected,

"Where do you think the fragments are?" Aria asked, even though the answer was right before her eyes.

"Hmm... Three fragments.. Somewhere in the upper left, middle right, and on the rock?"

"False. There are four. The last one is on the ground... right here," Aria walked a few steps backwards, kneeling down on the ground and pointing to a place.

Dianthe assisted Aria's movements and destroyed the fragment on the ground beautifully.

The Earthen shard disappeared without a trace.

"Ah! Sorry..." Jin-kyung lowered her head, embarrassed at her failure.

Aria almost wanted to laugh. She was only able to discover this things due to Dianthe, whereas Jin-kyung relied on herself.

Jin-kyung really didn't understand her worth.

No wonder whoever is behind Jin-kyung wanted to hide her power. Everything about her was valuable.

"You did good. Dianthe, destroy the other three," Aria commanded.

Dianthe went ahead and did her task, approaching each fragment and destroying them.

The moment the last fragment got destroyed, sounds of rumbling ensued.

The gigantic rock started shaking. Cracks formed on its body and sand drizzled out of the object.

The process lasted a total of three minutes. The rock practically vanished into nothingness. No residue was left behind, everything was absorbed back into the ground.

A staircase was revealed behind it, just like what Jin-kyung predicted.

"Any other info?" Aria made sure that everything was in place before stepping in.

The staircase spiraled downwards, and the path was narrow. It wouldn't be a joke if the ceiling collapsed on them when they were climbing down the stairs.

"It.. should be fine. Nothing seems off," Jin-kyung's ability gave her vague expressions of what she wanted to search, but even that was enough.

'Then the last thing to worry is..'

The boss.

How much stronger would it be?

Just like the previous dungeon, the disparity between wolf packs and vampire bats compared to the boss Red Ogre was groundbreaking.

What would happen after she beat the one last Large Goblin?

Would she turn back, or just charge through everything like always?

Aria contemplated for a second but soon moved forward.

It could be dangerous. But at the same time, she knew a lot about goblins.

A lair full of goblins meant that the boss was probably going to be a goblin too. Or something that could make lower goblins listen to them.

Goblins were picky with their leaders. Usually, the ones who could make them submit were higher goblins, orcs, ogres, and similar monsters.

Outside of that scope, lower goblins tended to act haughty. It wasn't like they didn't realize how weak they were, it was a matter of useless pride.

This made goblin exterminations predictable. There are only a select few possible options on what their leader was.

People were able to prepare for the eventual boss fight.

And so, as Aria moved closer to the center of the dungeon, she recollected her battle memories, the ones where she had to face goblin swarms.

If she wanted to become stronger, to gain her past level, she had to overcome adversities thrown at her way.

She was confident that at least her life would be spared.

Thinking about the incoming huge EXP injection, Aria shuddered in happiness.

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