The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

Chapter 20: Dealer Spirit

They followed the staircase, ending up in a much larger room than the previous ones.

There, they found one sleeping Large Goblin.

Approaching it carefully, Aria managed to land a blow without waking it up. Although it wasn't enough to kill the goblin, its health was lowered down by a lot after the critical strike.

It woke up in a heartbeat and started rampaging.

Aria sped up her pace and executed multiple blows, injuring the monster with haste.

Because she was in a much better position this time, the battle ended without a hitch.

After tens of enchanted strikes, the Large Goblin fell down.

[Level C Large Goblin <Mad> was successfully murdered.]

[You have gained 8990 EXP.]

Wiping off some light sweat from the acceleration, she watched as the corpse once again disappeared before her eyes, not allowing her with the slightest chance of touching it.

According to Jin-kyung, this one was the last guard before they reach the Boss.

It was like the area increased the more they progressed through the stage, for unknown reasons.

Even as they came down to the middle of the room, nothing was triggered. No monsters jumped out to attack them.

It was pure silence.

"Jin-kyung, what do you think?" Aria had [Halvargg] out in the open as a precaution. She was also in her fighting stance, keeping her sharp senses intact for ambushes.

"T-there's nothing..." Jin-kyung panicked.

Her ability picked up nothing, but she had a bad feeling, like something is lurking behind them with each step they took.

She tried to use her ability again and again, but it always failed to catch anything amiss.

Jin-kyung couldn't believe that it was just a normal room.

'Strange.' Aria also felt something wrong.

Her so-called 'danger senses' didn't tingle, but her feeling told her otherwise.

'I don't like this. I don't like any of this.'

It felt like a set up.

"Dianthe, are you detecting anything?"

In response, the spirit shook her head left to right.

'What would cause Jin-kyung's ability to not work?' Aria frowned, finding it unbelievable that Jin-kyung's magic, which was considerably powerful, could be interrupted.

They sat down in confusion. The long-awaited boss battle was nowhere to be seen.

Aria tried to search for magical interference, but there was none.

It was a plain room.

Even after they gained sufficient rest and were able to look around the room, it was the same.

No Earthen fragments, no monsters, no bosses.

"What.." Aria bit her thumb.

By the side, Jin-kyung was desperately trying to help using her ability.

'What could be the reason..'

Aria racked her brains.

For several minutes, she couldn't figure it out.

Then, one solution hit her. A strange one.

'What if the dungeon itself was the Boss?' Aria thought.

There was a possibility. An absurd assumption, but it was still possible.

With the uncertain changes inside the dungeons, lack of any special qualities inside the terrains, it was possible.

It would also explain Jin-kyung's inability to find out about the truth.

The truth was already in front of them, the very surface they were standing on.

There was only one question left.

'Why wouldn't it attack us in other times?'

Clearly, even from the first battle, this entity had the power to move the dungeon to its will.

Why hadn't it dealt any other dangerous advances other than the moving walls?

Why was it constrained to just that?

Regardless of the reason, she wanted to try out the theory.

If the boss was truly the dungeon itself, then she could find a way to hurt it from inside.

"Dianthe, help me out," Aria prepared herself to use magic.

All incidents that she went through had a similarity. The use of Earthen magic.

The Earth element. In Aria's mind, the boss in question was most likely going to be an Earth spirit.

If so, she could break the dungeon's balance altogether.

By injecting Dianthe's element.

She borrowed Dianthe's Water element, focusing it all on her blade. An enormous amount of mana was put in into the strike.

"Water Blade!"

With a loud chant, she stabbed [Halvargg] into the ground.

Immediately, the ground started to shake. Sounds of thundering rumbles appeared.

"The Boss wasn't leading the goblins... It was taking energy from them," Aria watched as the ground was reverted to its original state: a Spirit.

'Bingo.'

This was a spirit's mischief.

The disappearing corpses, the moving walls, the fact that everything dissolved back into the ground after being destroyed, everything made sense now.

They were facing the Boss the whole time. To be precise, they were standing on top of the boss.

A wicked boss who became the dungeon itself.

"Pain... Humans! Why... why.." The spirit bellowed.

Its anguish could be felt just by standing around the spirit.

Dianthe, who naturally had a sensitive psyche towards fellow spirits cowered in fear. The dungeon Boss was stronger than her, and the unnatural change in emotions influenced her own.

"Dianthe, go back!" Aria hurriedly commanded Dianthe to stay inside her summoning space until the chaos resided.

The dungeon Boss continued to wail in pain. Its roars was earthshaking, bringing turmoil into your own heart.

Jin-kyung was already crying. Spirits were highly connected with nature and life itself, and whatever it felt was shared throughout the environment. The Spirit's wrath shook her own emotions.

Aria was used to handling wrathful spirits, so she wasn't as affected as the girl. However, due to her declining power, the cries still bothered her.

Forcing herself to push through the maniacal spirit's agony, Aria stepped forward.

With each step, the dungeon platform broke down. The sturdy land began to form massive crevices.

In the first place, the dungeon was part of the spirit. And the only reason why it was able to maintain such a large room was because the goblins fed the spirit with life force.

Now that the supply was cut, the balance broke.

Each second, a part of the dungeon collapsed.

Aria knew that she had to hurry and settle down the matter.

With each step, she had to bear excruciating pain from the spirit's fluctuating emotions.

She stretched out her hands to grab the spirit. Crushing it in her palms , she begun the battle of control.

The spirit resisted Aria's attack, but ended up being unable to move after a long and arduous work.

"Piii!" The spirit turned into a small, radish-like form.

It kept crying, trying its best to struggle out of Aria's grip.

"...It's safe now, Dianthe," Aria notified the water spirit, who then went out of her summoning space and into the world.

Dianthe looked at the spirit with curious eyes. Her large blue eyes blinked repeatedly.

She began poking the radish spirit, making the other party elicit an annoyed cry.

"Dianthe, stop that,"

Dianthe obeyed and put her hands back in the right place.

"So... a Dealer Spirit, is it?"

"Y-you know me?! How... Weren't the humans..?" The spirit mumbled.

"You're not the one asking questions, I am. Explain, or else... I might use too much power accidentally," Aria tightened her grip.

The spirit moaned in pain, struggling as it repeatedly told Aria to stop.

"The Creator made me meet with the goblins! They wanted a home, so I granted the wish!! Intruder, you are being unreasonable!" A rich and supple voice echoed, crying out for unfairness.

"Wait, you responded to me?! Can you understand me?!" The spirit added, being even more confused.

Aria tilted her head at the sudden change.

She continued imprisoning the stray spirit with the help of Dianthe.

The spirit's current form is called the 'Light Form'. It is when the spirit runs out of energy and becomes to weak to maintain their strongest, most advanced form. It was no longer a threat to them.

After she was done, she asked for details. The whole story of why and how this dungeon came to life.

The Boss started to narrate the story.

The Boss' identity was something Aria had encountered in the past.

As she thought, it was a spirit type creature as well. A 'Dealer Spirit'.

Someone who exchanges an equivalent price for the asker's wish.

In this case, the Spirit was set up for a meeting with the goblins by the 'Creator'.

In exchange for a home, the Dealer asked for their life force. In order to mobilize the dungeon, the goblins had to share their life force.

Of course, it wasn't like they would die. On the Dealer and the goblins' contract, it was stated that the 'reward' would be to provide them with a home: which meant that the Dealer themselves couldn't kill the goblins.

The goblins' wish had to be fulfilled, or else the contract would be breached and the spirit would suffer.

The dungeon was unexpectedly sustainable.

The goblins' fertility rate was crazy high. This was used as a stimulant for the continuous life force supply, as the newborns would also be a sufficient target for life force extraction.

It was a mutual symbiosis between the two parties.

After understanding the story, Aria fell deep in thought.

'Then, wouldn't the Creator be the most suspicious here?'

To bring a hungry spirit towards goblins who needed a home, and further entrapping them within the spatial membrane called 'Dungeon Gates'.

'Who the hell is the Creator?'

Not once had she heard of such a title.

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