Chapter 339: Proof of Determination... Part-4.
Chapter 339: Proof of Determination... Part-4.
All summoners can personally use the power of their primary summon without needing to actually summon the beast on the field. This is basic knowledge.
This gives a summoner a decent amount of defensive capability.
Typically, the primary summon for most summoners is the first beast they have ever summoned in their lifetime.
Some summoners also change their primary summon if the original one somehow ends up breaking the contract and ends up going back to the spirit realm.
Although it's rare, it happens sometimes.
But even in these scenarios, a summoner can still only use the power of one beast without the need for summoning.
Summoners are weak as individuals; their strength lies in group fights.
Thus, to make up for their total defenselessness, they use the power of their primary summons when the need arises.
They generally use this power to stall some time so that they can summon their beasts in the meantime.
This is also why most summoners maintain their primary summon as a shield- or tank-type beast, which can provide them with high defense and buy them time.
The same is true for Liam; Ellie not only actively protects him with mana barriers, she even keeps her shadow magic ready at all times.
When an attack hits Liam, the shadow magic immediately activates, nullifying the attack without Liam having to do anything.
Unless you are as broken as Rio and Link, it's really near impossible to breakthrough Ellie's strong barriers for the lower or same-ranked awakeners.
But things are different at the moment.
If Liam had been able to use Ellie's help, he could have already rushed to the top of the mountain by now.
As a dragon, the powers brought by Ellie are just too brokenly overpowered. Ellie alone can defeat all of Liam's summons together without much trouble.
Fortunately, she is his primary summon; otherwise, just summoning and maintaining her in the field would have consumed insane amounts of mana.
'This brings us to a question that has been bugging me all along.... What is the real difference between a primary summon and the others?'
'Why is it that you don't need any mana to maintain your primary summon, but the others need mana just to be present on the field?'
'Why is it that you can only use the powers of your primary summons and not the others? What's so different between them?'
Sitting on the fallen tree trunk, Liam couldn't help but think about various questions that have been bugging him for years now.
Originally, Liam also used to think of his summoned beast as a tool, and even Ellie was nothing more than a close friend.
However, after he stopped caring for Kira and moved on from her, he started taking better care of his summoned beast.
He started treating them as if they were his family!
His real family members already hated him a lot, so Liam started to compensate for that aspect with his summoned beasts.
And ever since then, Liam has been thinking about these few questions in his mind, but he has yet to find an answer.
But now that he's stuck in a dilemma where he might fail for the first time in his life, he has no other choice but to think of some way out.
After thinking a lot, Liam came to one conclusion.
'Ellie is my primary summon; I summoned her using the latent mana that I had in my body before I awakened properly...'
'All the other summons were summoned by using the mana that I had after awakening... This is one of the biggest differences between them...'
Thinking about this, Liam frowned a bit and then thought,
'No, this isn't it... Usually, all summoners summon their primary beast after awakening... I only did it early because of that magic circle at home, which was able to draw out my latent mana...'
'But this isn't it... There is no real difference in summoning; mana is just mana. Even if it was just latent mana, it wasn't much different...'
Liam couldn't help but discard this idea.
If summoning with latent mana was any different than usual, Liam would have had different conditions from other summoners.
But no matter how you look at it, he's fundamentally similar to other summoners, no matter if he's summoned a dragon or not.
Other summoners can also use the power of their primary summon, and he can too.
In other words, the only benefit he got from summoning his primary summon earlier than others was that he was able to establish a better friendship with Ellie and learn to control her powers more.
There is nothing else that is different in a fundamental sense.
He's just as much of a summoner as others.
'In other words, the problem is not with the summoned beasts; the problem is within me instead!'
Thinking this far, the light in Liam's eyes started to return.
'Yes! The other summons are not that different from the primary summon; they are all the same! The thing that is holding them back is myself!'
All summoners in the world end up thinking that the primary summons are fundamentally different from the other summoned beasts.
It is extremely difficult to realize that the problem is not with the summoned beast, but with the summoner himself.
The only reason why Liam was even able to realize this truth is because he has faced many 'conditions' and he himself wasn't sure that these conditions meant anything much.
First of all, Liam had insanely high latent mana in his body since birth, and he summoned a dragon on his first try!
He summoned the legendary level summon on the very first try and shocked the world with his brilliance!
Just like how all swordsmen dream of achieving 'Sword Intent', all summoners dream of summoning a 'Legendary' beast one day, but they can't do it even in a whole lifetime.
Being a summoner depends mainly on luck and talent.
If you can't summon a strong beast, then no matter how hard you train and how diligently you work, you are going to be weaker than the summoners who have literal dragons in their
arsenal.
Liam didn't lack anything; he had perfect conditions. He had an insanely high latent mana, decent luck, and peak SS rank talent.
He was born to become a dragon master from the very start!
The second condition that Liam faced was that he started to think of his summons as his
family.
Most summoners treat their summons as tools; Liam used to do the same, but he figured things out and turned over a new leaf due to Rio's indirect interventions.
And the last condition that Liam fulfilled was that he figured out the fact that all summons are fundamentally the same.
He was able to do so because, unlike others, he summoned his first summon with latent mana, and yet it was not much different than others.
Fulfilling all three conditions of having talent, having a good grasp of his summons emotions, and having a realization of the truth, Liam had proved his excellence.
At that very moment, Liam realized the true fundamentals of being a summoner, and he figured out that, to make all his summons equal, he himself would need to improve. His summons are not the problem; he himself is the one who is lacking. Realizing this fundamental truth was as difficult as it could be; no one since the descent of mana in this world has ever realized the real meaning of being a summoner.
In that brief moment of 'Enlightenment', Liam touched the power that all awakeners dream
about.
Just like Rio, Link, Lia, and Riya... At that moment, the very 'Laws' of the 'world' itself blessed
Liam with a legendary power!
[Ding! You have achieved 'Enlightenment!']
[Ding! All conditions met!]
[You have fulfilled the conditions and have come into contact with the power of the 'Laws' of the
'World'...]
[Ding! You have realized the 'Truth' of being a 'Summoner'!]
[Ding! You already have a legendary summon... hidden condition full-filled!]
[Ding! You have awakened the legendary skill, 'Mana Field'!]
Meanwhile, in the sky,
Themes suddenly felt a strange fluctuation in the air, and before he could even think about it
much, he saw dark clouds gather in the sky.
A massive beam of brilliant light fell on Liam, and Liam started to float in the beam with his
eyes closed.
Even the mana in the area trembled and praised Liam for his brilliance.
Seeing all this, Themes's eyes widened in shock, and his jaw nearly dropped to the ground. 'E-enlightenment!? What the actual f*ck!? Is getting enlightened so easy nowadays that you just sit on one spot for a few minutes and get enlightened all of a sudden!?'
'What the f*ck just happened!?'
Themes was speechless. He was originally thinking that Liam was perhaps trying to give the
other participants a head start and would soon start moving too.
But he had never, in his wildest imaginations, thought that Liam would sit there for a few
minutes and suddenly get enlightened!
Getting Enlightenment is an 'extremely' rare phenomenon; you can consider it a 'Blessing' given by the 'world' itself!
The people who have gotten 'Enlightenment' in the annals of history can be counted on one hand! They are so rare that you only see them once in a millennium!
What Themes didn't know was that just a year ago, Jin also achieved enlightenment; if he had been to the outside world, he would have known about it.
...
Author's Notes.
Yo! It's your beloved author here! Finally! After so much foreshadowing and so many
chapters, we finally reached the level where Liam had awakened his legendary skill.
I have been foreshadowing his legendary skill since the very first time I mentioned 'Mana Field' being equal to 'Sword Intent' and 'Dao Rhythm'!
Finally, all conditions are met! Liam has attained the status of a true summoner!
Question of the day:
Were you able to predict this from all those foreshadowings?
(Tell me in the comments.)
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story.
Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.