Chapter 63: The Big Plan

When he thought of the name Aria Schreiner carefully, he discovered that one of his distant memory contained this name.

There was a revered Summoner that lived in the lands opposite of where he typically resided in.

A heroic Summoner whose tales spread far throughout the lands. She had a goal to pursue, but amidst her journeys, she would also come to help the others as a perpetual cause.

This Summoner's name was also Aria Schreiner, but he had never travelled there to meet her in person, so he did not know what she looked like.

When he first met Aria, his attention did not catch this peculiar name of hers. It was no secret that Aria did not come from a noble family, and therefore had a common name and surname.

In addition to the current world's condition, where both of her names floated about without restrictions, Rallaka would not connect the two dots and immediately point at Aria as the Summoner.

However, as he continued accompanying her, clearly something was not right.

Despite being a dweller of the modern age, Aria possessed knowledge and skills that could not have been derived from just

Furthermore, she was actually cognizant of the fact that his identity was that of a Dealer Spirit, albeit not his specific legal terms. The term Dealer Spirit itself was not that secretive, but only those who delved themselves deep into the spiritual realms would know the inlaid information.

She was also knowledgeable in the contracts and rules of the spiritual world, which could not be taught by just simply learning from a book that contained those information.

With all the clues that have been surfacing, Rallaka began to question his own master's identity.

Not to mention, the fact that he had heard about the reputation of a powerful Water Spirit with powers to evolve who constantly accompanied the renowned Summoner.

Which in this case, could conveniently be Dianthe, the spirit who was much more intelligent and powerful than her own rank.

Seeds of suspicions began to rise within the Earthen spirit.

Aria's identity and her irregular abilities.

"Master..." Rallaka was about to call Aria out, but he retreated. "No, it's not time for it yet, I suppose," He refrained from continuing with his actions, as the more important thing here was the answer to taking down this creature.

"Hm? What was that?" Aria asked, trying to come up with ideas on how she could deal damage to the cluster.

"No, no. Nothing," Rallaka retreated from his advances.

Although she felt like Rallaka was acting weird, Aria decided to let it go. She kept thinking and thinking as she waited out the monster's confusion.

One thing that she picked up was that the monster was sure to become affected if she opted to move around its body quickly, since it would become confused with its bad cognitive areas.

However, that still wouldn't solve the matter of harming the creature itself.

What could she do to deal damage?

Then, after a few rounds of brainstorming, she came across one idea.

"Actually.. Rallaka, you are aware of that.. trait the slimes have, right?"

Aria gestured with her hands, clenching her fists and rapidly throwing it wide open.

Rallaka was confused as to what she was indicating to at first, but once he thought about it, he quickly figured out what Aria meant.

"..I know, but," Rallaka began to have bad premonitions about Aria's intentions. "Are you trying to..?"

"Of course! We can make it happen.. As long as you cooperate with us. Will you?" Aria flashed a confident smile at Rallaka's way.

"Oh God, no," Rallaka's bad feeling increased even more, feeling that a great accident was going to unfold.

"Oh God, yes!" Aria sped up, hastening her pace. She assigned her destination to be the other members' location, particularly Reina Alaster.

Time was running out, so any solution would be gladly accepted.

"Reina!" Aria called out, catching the attention of the exotic lady.

Reina raised a brow, retreating backwards as she noticed that Aria was coming right at her way- which meant that the monster would soon follow too.

She wished to have no contact with that disgusting creature.

Thus, she began running away.

However, as she ran away, Aria matched her movements and caught up with her.

"W-What?! Don't come closer!" Reina exclaimed.

Aria, however, paid no heed to this as she safely arrived before Reina with the cluster in tow.

Because the cluster was still actively chasing them after recovering from its temporary loss, Reina now also had to run away from said cluster.

As they both sped up their footsteps and began running across the whole map, Aria faced Reina and asked.

"Reina, do you have a binding skill?" Aria figured out a way to potentially win.

However, this process would take quite the complex process, and she might have to waste all the energy she just got back from reaching a new level.

It was necessary if they wanted to secure this win, as none of them had a high concentration of power.

Power can be described and tested using many ways. Each powerful person had their own field of strength, but it did not mean that all of them had to lean towards pure 'power' and brute force.

Agile people who can land multiple shocking blows like Elgin was powerful, too, but they needed something else for this cluster.

If Aria was not mistaken, then the correct answer to solving this puzzle would be to have a puncturing like attack make the cluster burst open.

Judging by the dominant characteristics, then the highest monsters inside the cluster should be the <Flesh Hound> and the <Undead Slime>. Those two clashed against each other due to their contrasting features.

However, the body was mainly taken over by the slime, with its attack measure being the tentacle and the absorbing quality.

Thus, looking at the matter from a clean slate, then the steps to taking down the creature should be to destroy its core. In this case, that was not possible. The core was too deeply embedded within the creature, who had a bountiful amount of membrane protecting its insides.

But that was their only chance of winning. To somehow destroy the core.

They couldn't take it down by repeatedly damaging the creature because all of their attacks were nullified.

Hence, Aria came upon the only (disgusting) way of doing it.

Smirking, her nerves were racing as she thought about the reality that was soon about to come. The fact that she was really going to do this.

Reina, who was catching a break from the hectic flight, looked over to Aria and raised a brow. Her bountiful chest was heaving up and down, her body tired as she was not someone who actively participated in harsh activities. "A.. binding skill?" she repeated.

"Yep!" Aria enthusiastically replied.

"Wait, wait. You're- you're not telling me to use a skill to bind that thing, right? What on Earth can restrain something of that size?!" Reina complained, wiping the excess sweat off of her forehead after the running session.

"You and your skills, obviously. Why else would I ask you?" Aria looked at Reina as if she had just voiced out an outrageous question.

"No, no, no. You must be thinking of the skill I used on the first stage, because I haven't shown anything else. But there's a mishap on your part. That skill.. is just showy! It's not something that you.. utilize for fights and all," Reina debated, refusing to give in.

"It is enough. I've figured out the identity of the creature. It's not that dangerous of a creature, it's also not that complicated to beat. You can do it if you utilize your magic carefully. I will lead it around.. For you to take charge in bully this thing to death," Aria assured.

"Bully?! Why are you talking as if this monster is.. is a weak slime or something?!" Reina rebutted.

"Bingo! Because... it is a slime," Aria gave a thumbs up to the woman as praise for having figured it out. "The unknown monster I talked about, it's indeed the slime we know,"

Reina widened her eyes, at a loss at Aria's announcement. "A slime? That? Impossible!"

"Well, it's the truth. What can I do? Like I said, the cluster can be made up of literally any monster, with the only criteria being that it has to be an undead. Originally, I did not assume the monster's identity to be a slime because slimes typically can't become undeads, but there are exemptions for this rule. Anomalies. As of now, there is a really, really high chance of the missing component being a.. slime," Aria explained.

"What.. do you expect me to believe this..?"

"You don't need to believe it, actually. I just want to borrow your power. When you restrained the first stage's monster, you restricted their movements through the shadows, correct? You just need to apply a similar effect to that cluster,"