Experiment

"Heh heh heh, a mithril sword cuts so well!" Allen chuckled excitedly.

On this particular day off, he was once again far outside of Granvelle City. The other day, he had received a total of twenty gold for driving the murdergalsh from town and saving the family of a high-class inn's owner.

Allen had used this money, together with the five gold from his own savings, to buy a mithril sword.

As he was still only nine years old, a full-length sword would be too long for him to wield properly. He had therefore asked the weapons store to make him one halfway between a short sword and a dagger. Luckily, the owner was willing to lower the price from the original thirty gold since he used less mithril for the shorter weapon.

'Hmm, the armor's really tough, so I still can't penetrate it directly. But the body inside is so soft I almost feel like I'm cutting through air.'

Allen was currently testing out his new sword against an armored ant, comparing how it felt against the sword he had received from Dogora.

'With this, I can now loot magic stones from armored ants.'

The last time Allen had killed one of these monsters, he had had no other choice but to leave it virtually untouched, magic stone and all. This time, he clambered over the three-meter-tall body once more.

'Damn, you really are huge.'

When looking at the armored ant, the strange feeling that Allen had felt about the monsters in this world ever since he was six washed over him again.

He had almost mistaken the albaheron—with its wingspan of over two meters—for a wyvern, only to be told later that it was merely Rank D.

The great boar, which towered at more than three meters tall, had almost killed Rodin with a single blow, even though he should have raised his level quite high after ten years of hunting.

This strange feeling had only grown stronger when Allen came to Granvelle City. The muscular and vicious goblins were, again, only Rank D.

Armored ants reached three meters in height and were protected by shells impervious against common weapons, but were Rank C.

Orcs, which were two and a half meters tall and had enough intelligence to use weapons, also had the same ranking.

And as discovered recently, the Rank B murdergalsh was capable of killing both knights and adventurers with a single stomp. Its very name evoked terror and, understandably, the reward for killing it went all the way up to two hundred gold.

'It's just...I can't quite put my finger on it. I mean, it's not like I'd ever seen monsters before coming to this world, but it's like...they're all one notch stronger than what I expected them to be?'

Unfortunately, Allen's attempt to articulate this indefinable feeling did not work out.

'Never mind, I can think about this later. There's something that I really want to test out today.'

Allen had decided to lower his kill quota for the day to make time for looking into something he had discovered while being chased by the murdergalsh for three days and nights.

He looked up at the sky and saw Bird Es circling above. He had instructed them before to immediately inform him when they spotted certain monsters or adventurers; those instructions now included the murdergalsh as well. After all, Allen had no idea where it had gone after he lost it in the foothills of the White Dragon Mountains. There was a chance that it might head back to attack Granvelle City again while he was out hunting.

According to Raven, the murdergalsh mainly popped up on the open roads between settlements, almost never launching a full-out assault on villages or cities. Allen recognized this behavioral pattern; it was the same as field boss monsters inside games.

Field bosses were powerful monsters unrelated to the main story or events that constantly roamed about the open areas of a game. After being killed, these bosses would simply respawn. They had a tendency to suddenly show up in areas where low-leveled players gathered and would wipe them all out. Technically, they could be considered the products born of the game developers' playfulness.

'Two Hawkins, come down. Another one of you, fly around for five minutes, then come back.'

One of the Summons flew off in a random direction as two others came down. Allen reverted one of them into card form. This was the start of his experiment.

'Hawkins, look at this.'

Allen showed the Hawkins that remained on the ground a jute bag, making sure that it saw there was nothing inside. Then he took out a molmo and put it inside the bag. After that, he took out another molmo, a strip of jerky, and a dried potato, lining them up on the ground.

'Now, Hawkins. Which of these did I just put into the bag? Peck at the answer with your beak.'

The bird that had been watching Allen throughout the entire process chose the molmo without hesitation.

'Okay, good job. Now, you come out.'

Allen called out the Hawkins he had turned into a card earlier. This one had not seen him putting a molmo into the jute bag.

'Tell me which of these items is inside the bag. Don't guess—if you don't know, don't choose.'

The Hawkins that had been in card form also chose the molmo without hesitation.

'I see. So you really do know.'

This result was exactly as Allen had expected.

Just then, the bird that had flown five minutes away returned.

'Come on down. Okay, good! Now you tell me which of these is inside this bag. If you don't know, shake your head.'

The bird shook its head.

'All right, so you don't know. That's fine. Next, Create.'

Allen used one magic stone to Create a new Bird E and Summoned it. He raised its Intelligence through Strengthening to give it the ability to understand speech, then asked it to also guess what was inside the jute bag.

It immediately chose the molmo.

'As I'd suspected. So even the newly Created one knows. Now, Poppo, come out.'

This time, Allen Summoned a Bird F. Once again, he Strengthened it, then asked it the same question.

Unlike the just-Created Bird E, this Bird F shook its head.

'So you don't know. Hmm, I guess being chased by the murdergalsh wasn't a total waste of time.'

Allen had run nonstop for three days and nights, forgoing even sleep. During that time, he had used Hawkins's Ability, Hawk Eyes, to confirm the murdergalsh's location. The monster that served as "it" in this deadly game of tag doggedly kept on Allen's tail, doing everything in its power to find him.

Somewhere along the way, it figured out that the hawks that flew up every now and then would return to where he was and therefore started following the birds in turn. On the ropes, Allen came up with the idea to order Hawkins not to return to where he was after locating the murdergalsh.

When he Created a new Hawkins and told that one to go search for the murdergalsh, to his surprise it took off as if it already knew where the monster's location was.

Seeing that, Allen made a mental note to properly explore how the Summons shared and passed on information and knowledge.

'Let's sum up what I just learned.'

Allen had put a molmo into a bag in front of only one Bird E. The Bird E that he subsequently Summoned from a card as well as the one that he Created from scratch knew what he had done, whereas the one that had been out the entire time and the newly Created Bird F had no idea.

'So it's basically like this, then?'

___

- A Summon's knowledge is synced to the most up-to-date version whenever it is Created or Summoned.

- Knowledge is only shared within type and rank.

___

'It'd have been so much more convenient without the fifty meter limit, but I guess there's no point crying over it.'

___

Fifty Meter Rule:

- Summons can only be called out from and returned to card form within fifty meters around Allen.

- Summons also need to be within fifty meters to receive the order from Allen to use their Abilities.

___

Allen looked at the Bird Es staring back at him, awaiting orders.

'So you guys are constantly being updated, huh? In other words, you're continuously accumulating knowledge and growing together with me.'

Thanks to the deadly game of tag, Allen had received in this discovery a reward that he considered much more valuable than any amount of gold.

The Summons were conscious and were continuously adding to what they knew. As long as their Summoner, Allen, remained, they were existences that would continue to learn and grow in a process that surpassed even death.