“That is a lot of coins… how did I even get so many?”

  Rusty glanced at the display screen, his visor fixed on the coin counter. The previous time he completed his mission, he received only ten summoner coins. This time, he had sixty-seven. It was far more than what he earned before, yet he did not understand how he gained it or how to keep increasing the points.

  “Hm… what is this little thing here?”

  While checking his summoner points, he noticed another odd symbol. It looked like several sheets of paper stacked together. By now, he understood the system well enough, so he moved the cursor toward the icon and selected it.

  “Summoning log? I do not think this has anything to do with wood…”

  A new window opened with the title “summoning log”. The name confused him for a moment, but he quickly understood its purpose. His visor scanned the entries and revealed a list of numbers.

  -Gained 3 summoner coins for watching over your summoner as they sleep.

  -Gained 2 summoner coins for increasing your bond with the summoner.

  -Gained 1 summoner coin by spending time with your summoner.

  There were many similar notifications. He earned coins by performing simple, vague tasks. Just by spending more time with Gwen and staying close to her, he had gathered far more resources than before. In the previous trial, he stayed with her only for a few hours. This time, he had been with her for nearly eight days.

  “Although this bond thing is a little vague and there is no explanation for it…”

  Most of the coins came from increases in his bond with Gwen, but he had no idea how that bond grew. Many points seemed to relate to guarding her during the humanoid period or protecting her from direct harm. There were also strange numbers next to each entry. He did not know what they meant, but when Alexander approached, he offered some insight.

  “Those must be the dates. They show the day, hour, and minute. Only the year is missing.”

  “I see…”

  This was an interesting turn of events, and he immediately went into the shop section to see what he could buy with the coins he had earned. Just like before, he could increase Gwen’s stats directly and allow her to summon different kinds of living armor monsters, ones that belonged to the E plus rank this time. However, he had more options than that, since a new section had appeared for him as well.

  “Increase storage space capacity?”

  His gaze settled on the first option, which promised an expansion of his stash. One of his ongoing problems as a summoned monster was that he could not use his full storage area. He could not carry more than one or two replacement weapons, even though there were many items he wanted to bring with him.

  There were various shields available, some heavier and wider than others, and not always suitable for every situation. His last fight against the Bear Wolf had made that clear. His shield had been a medium-sized one with little bulk, which made it hard to defend against heavy attacks.

  “This is an interesting addition; it seems that it might be possible to enhance your abilities in that summoner world to reflect the ones you have in the real world.”

  Alexander commented from the side and brought up two important points. First, Rusty might be able to bring resources over to restore his body and alter it with different loadouts just as he normally could. Second, he mentioned the summoner world and the one Rusty came from originally.

  “Is that an entirely different world? What exactly is it?”

  “That is a good question, and one I cannot really answer.”

  Alexander did not seem ready to explain, so Aburdon spoke up.

  “The possibility of different worlds existing has been discussed by scholars before, although it might simply be an elaborate illusion. Who says that world is different from the one we came from? Just like this soul forge, it might have been created for a purpose, nothing but an illusion.”

  “An illusion made for what purpose?”

  “To strengthen you, Rusty.”

  Rusty nodded, although he remained unsure about what Aburdon meant. Could Gwen and her friends be nothing more than illusions like those in the training chamber, or was he being sent to another place entirely?

  “It could also be another continent. The world is vast. For all we know, the soul forge is sending us to another region. Time works in mysterious ways in the soul forge as well. It may even be another time period.”

  Alexander speculated further, only making things more confusing for Rusty, who had not seen much of the world at all. Nevertheless, Gwen and the others felt real to him, so he would treat them as such. With that thought, he examined the options once more. As he had suspected, there was a way to unlock his loadouts, but he was still a few points short.

  “It’s there but…”

  The option he had hoped to see was finally available, but there was one major problem.

  Even if he combined what he had earned now with the rewards from previous summoning missions, he still would not have enough summoning coins. This was discouraging because he only had one chance during each evolution. It meant he would probably need to wait until the next one before he could unlock this feature.

  ‘What else can I get?’

  Rusty asked himself as he continued browsing through his available options.

  This choice was easy to understand, although he had no idea how much extra storage it would actually provide. The next option interested him more.

  The description did not explain the amount of the increase, but Rusty assumed it would extend the distance at which he could operate. His current range was within one hundred meters. If he upgraded this, he might be able to double or even triple it. With a wider range, he might have been able to protect the flag during the previous mission, since stepping outside the link range had been the main issue.

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  This option was also unclear, so he asked Aburdon and Alexander for help. They believed it would improve Gwen’s healing and allow her to supply him with mana more effectively. In other words, it would turn her into a far better source of mana for him and allow him to use more skills.

  That seemed to be it for the options that could upgrade his side of the store, at least among those that were currently unlocked. He noticed several locked choices that appeared grayed out with text wrapped in something that resembled chains. They blocked him from seeing what the options actually were or how to unlock them. He could only assume that they would reveal themselves once his bond with the summoner increased or once he earned enough summoner coins.

  After skimming through everything, he returned to the section that displayed Gwen’s upgrades. Unfortunately, there was still no option that allowed her to summon D-rank creatures, although the steel living armor variants were available. They cost only ten coins, which made them an easy decision, but another option caught his attention.

  The bronze living armor variants Gwen could summon now had an improvement option. The same was true for the iron variants. That meant he could spend a few coins to make even the older summons a little stronger.

  “With these, she should be on the level of those two without my help.”

  The two he meant were Eldric and Aldric. They were weaker than Aranea, but the spider user did not seem hostile toward Gwen, so there was no reason to worry. With these two upgrades and the new steel armor, she would have more than enough strength to survive the B-class trials without his help.

  “Why is this here, though?”

  The strange techniques he had encountered during the summoning mission were listed here for some reason. He had questioned their usefulness before, and he had assumed that merging with Gwen would only weaken him. The second skill seemed even more unusual because it required the summoner to ride on top of the summoned creature. He currently had a humanoid shape, which did not suit the role of a mount.

  ‘Wait, was he thinking about this too narrowly? Who said I needed to stay in a humanoid shape?’

  Rusty thought deeper about the idea. In the past, he had been given the option to switch to a form that combined human and horse traits. He had ignored it at the time, but maybe it had been a valid choice. He could create his own loadouts and change body types whenever he wanted. Nothing stopped him from crafting an armored bear form similar to the creature Bartholomew Woodward rode. He might even be able to create a massive spider body or a simple horse form. The only limits were his imagination and his crafting skill.

  ‘I’d probably have to study these monsters more, but perhaps… I can do it?’

  His head was filled with Alexander and Aburdon’s memories, which was likely why the humanoid shape felt most natural to him. That did not mean it was his limit. His skills allowed him to control detached body parts which hinted that his body was essentially a blank canvas he could reshape. If he wanted to become a creature with four arms and six legs, it might very well be possible. Now that the summoning mission was complete, he could finally start experimenting.

  “The possibilities seem endless. I wonder if I could make myself look like Gleam. I wonder how she would react.”

  “What is endless, my dear Rusty?”

  Aburdon asked as he spotted the excitement in Rusty’s tone.

  “For my craft, my thoughts were limited. I can be much more than a simple humanoid armor.”

  Rusty shouted, looking toward Aburdon with strange enthusiasm.

  “Is that so? That is wonderful. I only hope you remember to make a body for me first.”

  “Ah…”

  As soon as Aburdon mentioned it, Rusty remembered the amount of work waiting for him. He needed to create his usual two suits of armor, the Wraith and the Goliath. He also intended to craft a frame based on light for Alexander and another based on darkness for Aburdon.

  “There is so much to do.”

  “Quite. How about we make my body of darkness fir…”

  Before Aburdon could finish the sentence, Alexander interrupted him.

  “Do not make a body for him, Rusty. He cannot be trusted.”

  “Why, Hero, you wound me. I would never betray my dear Rusty, and you know it.”

  “Haven’t you tried to run away multiple times already?”

  “How silly of you. I was only trying to explore.”

  Rusty’s peace had come to an end. The chatter of the teenagers had been replaced by the bickering of his two guides. He did not mind very much, since his thoughts were drifting far from them. His head was full of ideas. The powerful Bear Wolf and even the immense arachnid he had seen were tempting forms to build, but first he needed to establish the baseline for his new body and consider new weaponry that could make use of the two enchantment talismans he had received.

  While his guides continued to argue, he opened the summoner console. He upgraded Gwen’s current summons and gave her the steel variant as well. He decided to save the rest of his points, since he was aiming for that loadout slot.

  With that taken care of, it was time to return to the crafting chamber. This time, he had more to accomplish than ever. In addition to creating armor and weaponry from enchanted high steel ingots, he also needed to prepare a new mixture for a version of the ingot that would maximize both light and dark energies.

  "Luckily, in here I do not need to smelt everything."

  With that reassuring thought, he began to work. He had crafted like this many times before, and he was still dealing with steel, only now it possessed a higher level of magical purity thanks to the improved iron ore used in its creation. The rest of the process followed familiar steps, so he settled into his routine without hesitation. His time in this place was always limited, and he intended to make the most of every moment.

  Hours became days, and days slowly stretched into weeks as he continued to shape and refine his materials. His inability to sleep, eat or grow tired proved to be a great advantage, allowing him to recreate his usual set of body frames with steady and unbroken focus.

  The Lesser Strength Enchantment Talisman was used on a piece of equipment this time around. The enchantment boosted his strength stat by a flat ten. The Lesser Constitution Enchantment was then implemented into his Goliath frame, making it boost his health even more and making it even more of a moving behemoth.

  Once all the usual work was finished, he finally had some time for experimentation. His first task was to create Mana Infused Darkness Steel and Mana Infused Light Steel. These were entirely different from the twilight ingots he had been given earlier. The process required ordinary steel ingots, which had to be infused with either dark or light elemental mana, since the twilight metal could no longer be altered.

  This was not his first attempt at such work, so after a few trials, he produced several rough samples that he eventually refined into standard quality. The results were not perfect, but they were sufficient for the puppet armor he planned to make for both of his guides.

  With the two samples completed, he finally had enough material. Thanks to his system, this alone would allow him to recreate shells for both of them later. They would resemble his old forms, as he did not want to spend time creating something more unique. What he truly wanted was to research and experiment with other types of frames, especially ones similar to the summoner mounts. Perhaps he could even build something that could soar through the sky like his friend Gleam.

  “Still so much to do… but also so exciting!”

  With this goal in mind, he hurried into the library to study how other monsters moved. Only through further research and repeated experimentation would he be able to imitate body structures that had been perfected through evolution.