My Summons Are Mythical Beasts

In the middle of White Stone Cliff.

Asher waved his hand as a vine appeared to swat an incoming Clip Claw Spider as if he were swatting a fly. The Clip Claw Spider could not even react as it disappeared, turning into particles of light or experience points—if Asher could receive any from killing it, that is.

Unfortunately, he could no longer receive experience points after killing such low-level beasts.

Without showing any emotion, Asher walked forward and entered the shallow cave where he and his companions kept the injured Cliff Borne Ram.

Upon entering, he immediately noticed the ruin that was supposed to be a wall they had made to contain the beast.

Asher's eyes began to glow as the surroundings became clear to his vision. In his eyes, the cave was no longer dark but was as clear and as bright during the daylight instead.

After a while, Asher left the cave. His face remained stoic and blank, showing no kind of emotion, just like it had always been.

***

Lucas' eyes trembled as he felt coldness washing over his body.

He began to look around, afraid that a beast had been eyeing him from the dark once more.

The surroundings were dark, though, so he could only perceive what was a few yards away from him. Still, Lucas determined that there was no beast that eyed him this time around, to his delight.

And even if there was, Lucas was no longer as helpless.

Summoning his grimoire, he glanced at his reserved Spiritual Energy and was delighted to see that he had already recovered a total of twenty energy ever since he came here earlier. In total, Lucas now had twenty-nine, enough to summon Spot twice.

Recovering this twenty energy, though, was not easy, to say the least.

Due to his previous encounter, it took him a lot of time before he was able to enter the meditative state. And even worse, every time he entered and began recovering Spiritual Energy, he would wake up on his own due to paranoia.

The previous encounters had truly left a mark on him.

Just like what happened earlier. He had woken up as he felt cold and thought that a beast had been eyeing him once more. However, after checking for a while, he realized that he was being paranoid due to his earlier encounters.

Realizing that did not help him resolve the trauma, though.

This was already the fifth time that he had woken himself up due to it, and every time, he would feel as if he was being stared at by some beast, only to find out that there was nothing around him.

He had considered summoning Spot during the second time but decided against it after considering that he was still recuperating inside the grimoire and that it would just be a waste of Spiritual Energy if there was indeed no beast.

In the end, he closed his eyes to meditate, only to wake himself up midway, making his spiritual energy recovery a laborious and exhausting endeavor.

With that happening to him, Lucas did not know if he should be happy or not.

However, he persevered and managed to recover a total of twenty Spiritual Energy in the end of it. That at least was worthy enough for him to celebrate.

Unfortunately, such celebrations could only be done during peaceful times.

This time, however, was not as peaceful as it seemed.

As Lucas checked his grimoire and the state of Spot, the feeling of coldness washed over him once more.

The surroundings remained still, and the wind had not blown toward him.

It was strange to feel cold all of a sudden with no apparent reason.

Setting his grimoire aside, Lucas looked around his surroundings once more, trying to discern if anything had changed.

After a while, he frowned, not discovering anything in front. Enjoy exclusive chapters from empire

Just then, Lucas thought of something.

'Behind?'

Behind him was the Boundary Fog. Theoretically, no beast should be able to come from there, and hence he would not have to worry about his back.

'Theoretically…'

Lucas grimaced as he slowly turned around. His right hand had already tapped on his grimoire, ready to summon Spot, while the other was gripping the Armadon Tonfa, ready to defend or strike whatever may assault him.

However, a minute had passed and all remained the same.

There was no beast hiding in the fog, much less one that tried to attack him.

The Boundary Fog was still how it used to be.

White, steady, impregnable, and at the same time, harrowing.

At least, that was what Lucas thought before he discovered something unusual.

The Boundary Fog… it had already reached him.

The white fog, still intangible and inanimate, had somehow managed to crawl toward him.

Its edge, which was supposed to be at least two yards away from him, had somehow begun to embrace his body.

As if it wanted to devour him whole, the steady and intangible fog seemed to come alive and resembled life-like tentacles that were slowly pulling him toward its midst, wanting to devour him whole.

Lucas' eyes widened in horror and apprehension.

Without wasting any more time, he bolted out of the fog's reach and only stopped a few yards away.

The Boundary Fog seemed to have extended out, trying to pull him back, or at least, make him stay.

Lucas felt stifled as he shivered in horror and fright.

No wonder he felt cold earlier.

It turns out to be the fog trying to embrace him from behind.

This was the kind of embrace he did not want, though.

Unknowingly, the fog had already reached him and had even extended some tentacles as if to bind him in place.

If he was just a few minutes late to the realization, would he have been consumed by the fog, forever to be lost in its midst and without a hope to return?

Just the mere thought of it made him take a few steps back.

Now, his apprehension toward the inanimate fog became even more elevated than it usually was.

Wait, was it even inanimate to begin with?

What if it's actually alive? A beast, of some sort?

'No way…' Lucas scowled at the thought of it.

As he observed further, he sighed in relief upon seeing that it does not seem to be the case.

The Boundary Fog was truly inanimate; at least, that was how Lucas saw it.

Although he could not determine what it truly was, it could not be denied that it had indeed moved from its usual place and tried to embrace him a while ago.

In the meantime, Lucas wanted to believe it was a living thing, even if the documents say otherwise.

Looking at the Boundary Fog, he observed that it seemed to have stopped in place once again. If Lucas had not maintained a safe distance away from it when he began to meditate, he might have thought that it had always been there and had not moved closer to him while he was in a state of meditation.

Thinking back, perhaps he had not been paranoid earlier. It might have been his sense of danger warning him about the fog's danger. However, due to the documents he read about it, he neglected the thought that it might be able to harm him proactively and hence had unconsciously neglected its danger.

Not wanting to stay near the harrowing fog any longer, Lucas once again pondered where he should go.

The White Stone Cliff was a no-go. The place adjacent to it was where the bushy field was, and after that was where the beast that had chased him resided. To their side was the Boundary Fog, and the other side was the overflowing river that separated the outer and the core area of the dungeon, where even stronger beasts dwell.

For a moment, Lucas did not know where to go.

His original plan had been to move toward the Ember Ant area just after the bushy field. However, since that beast was there, he decided to retreat and recuperate near the Boundary Fog. After recovering some of his spiritual energy, he would then travel alongside the Boundary Fog and eventually reach the Safe Area.

Although he would still be technically returning from the same direction of the White Stone Cliff area that way, it was at least better than returning from there directly. And much safer if he continued toward the Ember Ant area, where that beast was waiting for him among those trees—at least that was how it was supposed to be.

But now…

'Damn it... Where should I go?'

No matter where he goes, there would be danger.

Lucas looked up and saw nothing but darkness.

Morning was still far from over.

In these hours, the beasts were even more active than they were during the day.

The Clip Claw Spider was like that; the Blood-Eyed Mole was the same; that beast on the tree, as well as the Boundary Fog that was supposed to be inanimate, had turned out to be able to move and had even tried to consume him.

Among all of them, the one that contained the most danger was the Boundary Fog. However, among all of them, it also seemed to be the least dangerous due to its slow nature.

It might feel harrowing and frightening, but by the way it was moving, Lucas could easily avoid it. Of course, if it could only move that slowly and was not just pretending to make him lower his guard.

Since this was his first time encountering such a thing, he did not know if it could still move even faster.

The others contained less danger than it, but all of the danger they contained was immediate and could kill him at any given time if he was not careful—that he was sure of.

After a while, Lucas gritted his teeth and finally decided to go with the original plan.

Go to the Ember Ant Area and exit from there to reach the Safe Area.

As for that beast, Lucas decided to let Spot confront and kill it.

'Spot, the spotlight is yours, buddy!'