New Skill

"I see, so this is the effect of Sharing. Hm? Wait, is this even more incredible than I'd thought?"

A certain possibility popped up in Allen's mind, suggesting a massive change to what he was capable of as a Summoner.

'Can I use Sharing to make my Summons hunt far away from where I am? Can I make a hunting party composed solely of my Summons?'

Currently, Allen needed to run throughout the entire forest to do his hunting. As soon as his Bird Es would find a target, he would then run over to kill it. Rinse and repeat. The fact that he could give his Summons instructions from farther than fifty meters away using the Sharing skill opened up the possibility of hunting without him having to do all that running around.

What's more, Summons could remain Summoned for thirty days. If they could operate independently with no distance limitations, then Allen could continue hunting even when he was back at the mansion. This would be a complete game changer for his leveling up.

'Before I get ahead of myself, let's first check out how many Summons I can Share with at the same time. Hawkins, come out.'

Three more Bird Es appeared before Allen. He activated Share with all of them. Now, he was looking at a total of five fields of vision, including his own.

'So, no problems Sharing with four at once. Honestly, how do I not feel strange about seeing five things at the same time?'

He was feeling no strain at all from using the Sharing skill. He was seeing all the five fields of vision as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

'Honestly, this is less multiboxing and more parallel thinking. All right, I don't have any more Hawkinses in store, so, Tama, come out.'

Allen Shared the sight of each Summon that came out in turn. But then...

"AAARRRGHHHHH!"

Right after Sharing with the sixth Summon, Allen's head became racked by a terrible pain. It was so bad that he crumpled to the ground, clutching his skull. He disabled the sixth Sharing link in a fluster.

'Huh? The headache's gone. Oh man, I thought I was gonna die. So, Sharing can be disabled. I got a really bad headache with the sixth one. Does it mean the limit for Sharing is five? Is it five within the same rank?'

Although the pain scared him, Allen saw the need to confirm how many Summons he could Share with at the same time. He Deleted an Insect E card, then apprehensively Created and Summoned an Insect G card.

'All right, here goes. Share with Hopp— ARGH!'

A severe headache struck Allen once more when he attempted to Share with Insect E as the sixth Summon.

'Is five just a flat limit regardless of rank? Why is that?'

Along with Summoning's recent level-up, Allen could now call out a total of fifty Summons at any given moment. It would be an incredible pity if he could only Share with five of them. He pondered why five was the limit for Sharing. Since he did not have enough information, he took another look at his own Status.

'Just like Storage, Sharing can't be leveled up. At first glance, it might seem like this skill has no potential for improvement and that the limit will stay at five permanently. The thing is, I don't understand why the limit was set at five. What could be the reason?'

The gears in Allen's mind continued turning. Was this skill arbitrarily capped at five, or was there a certain condition that limited him to five for now? If it was due to a condition, then what was it?

'Would it go up if I leveled up more? I'm Lvl. 31 right now. Is it, like, I can Share with another Summon every six levels? What else? Wait a minute...is this where Intelligence comes in?!'

The moment Allen saw the Intelligence field on his Status, an epiphany came to him. That stat was currently 1,075 including the boosts from his cards. Perhaps this was the condition that determined how many he could Share with concurrently. This was a theory he could test without having to level up.

'If Intelligence really is the condition, it would mean every 200 points in Intelligence enables me to Share with another Summon. Let's try raising the stat. Ah, might as well do it with Rank D Summons.'

Since he had more slots and access to Rank D Summons, Allen decided to Create a few Bird D cards with the aim of bringing his Intelligence up to 1,200. If his hypothesis was correct, this should enable him to Share with a sixth Summon.

'All right, I've got 1,200 Intelligence now.'

Thanks to the buffs from the Bird D cards, Allen had reached the number he wanted. The Hopper that he had Summoned earlier was still there, right next to him.

'Okay. Hopper, Share.'

Allen had braced himself, ready to disable Sharing right away if he got another terrible headache. However, this worry turned out to be unwarranted.

He found himself seeing a perspective barely an inch higher than the ground, the lowest that he had ever been situated.

"Hell yeah! The sixth Share worked! It really is Intelligence! Sharing is tied to Intelligence! And it really is 200 Intelligence for each Share!"

There were few things as moving as proving one's own hypothesis. Allen whooped from the sense of achievement that washed over him.

About an hour later, he had figured out almost everything there was to know about the skill.

___

- Does not cost MP to use.

- Can Share with one additional Summon per 200 Intelligence.

- Shares consciousness with a Summon; can instruct it to use its Ability or carry out other commands.

- Cannot command another Summon through a Shared Summon.

- The only senses that can be Shared are sight and sound (taste has not been tested).

- The Summon has to be within 50 meters to activate Sharing.

- Sharing can be disabled even when the Summon is farther than 50 meters away.

- Summons with under 100 Intelligence cannot perceive instructions even while Shared.

- Shared Summons can be returned to card form from farther than 50 meters away.

- When a Summon is returned to card form from over 50 meters away, the card automatically reappears in a slot.

___

'And I think that's about it. So I'm not personally controlling the Summons, only giving them instructions. I don't actually take over their bodies.'

As Allen was only instructing the Summons he was Sharing with, there was a small time lag between him giving orders and the Summons carrying those orders out. His theory was that in order to shorten this lag, he had to consciously visualize what it was that he wanted the Summon to do.

'And last note to add to the list: I still get the XP when my Summons kill monsters more than fifty meters away from me.'

Allen had set up an impromptu squad of Summons and had them go kill a monster. As a result, his XP had gone up. He now knew that his plan to farm XP remotely could actually be realized.

'I see, so this is the reason the Summoning class has such high Intelligence.'

Last year in November, Allen had received a lesson with Cecil's magic tutor as a reward for his first year of service. At the time, he had been absolutely crushed to find out that he could not use magic. As it turned out, however, there was indeed a startling reason behind why his class had Rank S Intelligence.

He had learned from the tutor that using magic in this world required memorizing a countless number of very complicated symbols. This was a feat that would be impossible for a normal person, equally impossible as Allen instantaneously processing information from multiple fields of view. It was the Intelligence stat that made such impossibilities possible. Allen now finally understood the importance of Intelligence in this world.

'I'll need more time to work out the kind of things I can do using Sharing.

'All right, let's move on to examining the Rank D Summons now. I've got a shit ton of Rank D magic stones, so let's get through this pronto.'

Thanks to Sharing, Allen felt the scope of his powers as a Summoner practically blown wide open. Now he was moving on to discovering what his new Summons could do.