Yugioh Card Summoner

CH.387 Eline vs Challenge Room

“Eline, do you want to try?” I asked the cat-girl.

“... I … I think it might be too difficult for me.” Eline said.

“It wasn’t that bad.” Einar said.

“Maybe, but Master said you got an easy opponent. If I had to fight what Unika fought, I would lose.” Eline said. “So I don’t want to try these. Maybe an easier one.”

“That’s fine. We can go up a floor or two.” I won’t force Eline to try if she isn’t feeling confident. At the end of the day, she is a summoner and she won’t be able to use her summons inside. At least as far as I know. Well, I’ll quickly test it out myself. “I’ll do a quick test myself, then we can go up a floor.” As I said that, I once again opened the door to the challenge room using Dungeon Founder. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

---

My goal was very simple. I wanted to see if I could summon a monster while inside the challenge room. Unika said she felt some sort of block when trying to bring a tamed monster out of Tamer’s Paradise, so I want to see what happens with summoning, both using a card and with Advanced Summoning Magic.

As I made my way fully into the room, I waited for it to spawn my opponent(s), and after just a bit, three skeletal creatures stood against me. They were skeleton knights, basically humanoid looking skeletons armed with a sword and a shield. About mid C-rank and not something that should appear on floor 4. Floor 5 maybe, floor 6 yes, but not on floor 4. Well, at least not in numbers. I think one could appear on its own.

Well, they still shouldn’t be a problem to me, but I do need a bit of time for my tests, so let’s hold them still.

“Nightmare's Steelcage.” I activated a card and a cage of steel appeared around the skeletons, keeping them inside.

I quickly confirmed that the skeletons couldn’t break the cage, and after I was happy, I got out another card.

“I mean, I am fighting skeletons so…” I muttered to myself. “King of the Skull Servants.”

Yes, I know it will have 0 attack, because I have no Skull Servants in my GY. But this is just a test anyway, so it doesn’t matter.

… and it matters even less since King of the Skull Servants never appeared. The summoning failed. I tried a few more times, even testing other cards, including token generating spells, but they all failed to activate. So it definitely does seem like you can’t summon cards inside the challenge rooms. Now let’s quickly test out regular summoning magic.

“Appear by my side, Ice Dragon Himeśaila.” I tried to summon my monster. I felt the drain of mana that I expected, so I thought it would be successful, but as Himeśaila attempted to appear, something seemingly blocked her and forced her back. 

“... okay, so no summoning magic. It is just a waste of mana.” I deduced. I’ll summon Himeśaila later and apologize to her, just so she won’t wonder why the summoning failed. 

I then turned back to the skeletons held inside the Nightmare's Steelcage. I somewhat wish Unika was here so we could test if her Spell Destroying Shot could break the cage, but she isn’t, so we can’t. 

Well, at least I’ll get some practice against opponents that wield swords. I pulled out my own mithril blade and then deactivated Nightmare's Steelcage.

With a mix of my new Dark Chain skill and my Sword and Shield Technique, I was using my duel disk as a shield by the way, I quickly took care of the three skeletons and returned to where the others were.

---

“Welcome back. How was it?” Unika asked as I regrouped with them.

“I couldn’t summon, not with a card or using Summoning Magic.” I answered. “Summoning Magic does take the mana, but nothing will get summoned, while the cards just don’t activate.”

“Good thing I didn’t try to force Nitrum out. Who knows what might have happened to him.”

“Yeah. I kind of feel bad for Himeśaila since I tried to bring her out, but she was forced back. If I don’t remember, remind me to summon her later so I can apologize.”

“Why not do it now?” Einar asked.

“Caves and dragons, at least smaller caves like this, aren’t a good combo. Dragons don’t like tight spaces. Just ask Agunan.” I answered.

“... It is strange thinking this is considered ‘small’.” Unika commented.

“That’s what happens when you talk about big monsters.”

“Can’t she just change into a human form like Agunan can?” Einar asked.

“She can, but she doesn’t.” I answered. “Something about not liking that form. I never asked her to transform, so I’m not sure why she doesn’t like it, but I think it makes her feel weak.” I theorized. “But enough about that. Shall we go up a floor so that Eline can have her match?”

 

---

We quickly headed up a floor, avoiding monsters on the way. It isn’t that I didn’t want to kill them, but a group of over 10 adventurers just arrived in the dungeon, and I didn’t want to steal prey from them. They need the points, I don’t. And I even gain some points every time any of them gain points, so I’ll get points either way. Just not as many, obviously. But I don’t really need Generation points now that I have HomeBase.

Oh, and if you wonder why I know that more adventurers had arrived, well, I obviously had Dungeon Founder visible at the corner of my vision so that I could check on it every now and then. 

Once at the door of the floor 3 challenge room, I quickly activated Ground Collapse to prevent monsters from approaching us.

I then opened the door for Eline, while I also opened Dungeon Founder so that we could watch Eline.

The opponent that spawned to face her was not exactly what I’d call an optimal opponent, but I think Eline can deal with it. It was a large skeletal mink. Large mink is a low C-rank variant of the giant mink that Alice once took on, and this one was of course skeletal, like basically everything in this dungeon. I still question why this dungeon only spawns skeletal monsters, but I also don’t care enough to find out.

But as I said, the large skeletal mink wasn’t the best opponent for Eline, as it was quite fast and decently sturdy, but in return it had very low offensive power. This was kind of a problem for Eline, as she was mostly a mage, so she would have to cast multiple spells to deal with the mink.

Eline started off the fight just like her brother had, using Expanding Night to darken the room. It was a good plan, but sadly it wouldn’t be quite as effective as it was for her brother. The mink Eline was facing is dark attributed, so it was able to resist it better compared to the earth attributed mammoth, so despite the darkness in the room, the mink rushed at Eline and hit her with its bony tail.

Eline was pushed back a bit by the tail slap, but she stayed on her feet and focused. Dark Lightning then began crackling around her body and her staff, likely a defensive measure, as Eline began chanting a spell. She then avoided the mink’s next attack and with her chant finished, she let off a Wind Cutter spell.

It hit the mink, but didn’t seem to do much damage and Eline instantly started a second chant. 

The fight kept going like that. Eline chanting spells while avoiding the fast mink, while the mink would just tank the hits. Every now and then the mink would also hit Eline, but Eline didn’t take too much damage, and the lightning surrounding her also counterattacked when the mink made contact.

That was until one spell that hit the minks right leg and completely cut it off. This left the mink unable to move fast and Eline took the chance. 

“Dark Lightning Strike!” She called out as all of the Dark Lightning that surrounded her shot forward and hit the mink, ending its life.

---

“Sis!” Einar called as Eline returned to us. “Are you okay? Master! Heal her!” Einar demanded until he realized what he just did and quietly added “… please.”

“Don’t worry. I will.” I said, as I got out a card. “Soul of the Pure. Heal Eline.”

As the angelic figure appeared behind Eline, before cutting its own skin and letting its blood drip onto Eline to heal her, a group of adventurers reached the room we were in. 

I actually thought about avoiding them, using the secret passages to move around so that we wouldn’t be seen, but since Eline’s fight took longer than expected, we couldn’t make it into the secret passage in time.

I looked at the approaching adventurers, as I deactivated Ground Collapse. I didn’t have a reason to keep it up, and it does prevent Glad, Nitrum and Lumi from moving around. They are still monsters, even if they are tamed monsters. The only reason tamed and summoned monsters can move inside the dungeon is because unlike the absolute power of my card form Ground Collapse, the Ground Collapse that I installed in the dungeon is more of a suggestion to not go to specific areas.

“Brian. Is that really you?” One of the adventurers asked.

“... who else would it be?” A female archer asked. “Do you know other people that come to dungeons dressed like that?”

“Yeah. He is Brian alright.” A third confirmed.

“Good to see you too, Tye, Vivi, Alex. … and you two were … Arvin and Rhys, right?” 

“You have a good memory, Sir.” Arvin responded.

“I do my best, but it still isn’t perfect. So, what are you in here for? Just some monster hunting or maybe something a bit more exciting?”

“I was just about to ask that of you.” Tye said. “And who are your new companions? Didn’t Alice and Lucia live up to your expectations?”

“Don’t even imply that. You know fully well that they are way better than I could ever be.” I said coldly. “They are just busy with other things. Oh and I’m here to see how my workers matchup against the challenge rooms. And you know, to see if they can get the skill.”

“I see. Any success?” 

“... I think so?” I questioned, as I looked at Eline. She came out of the room with no reward, so maybe? “Eline, did you get the skill?”

After a few seconds of Eline probably checking out her status, she answered.

“Yes Master. I got it.”

“Well done, Eline.”

“Wow? She was able to defeat a challenge room? Wouldn’t they be difficult for someone so young?” Arving asked.

“It was difficult, but I did it.” Eline said with pride.

After a few more compliments from the adventurers, I asked a question I somewhat knew the answer to.

“What about you all? Any of you gotten Card Summoner? And what about you Alex? Is yours still level 2 or has it increased in level?”

“I got it.” Tye quickly said. “But then Zay didn’t even give me a dragon card. What a shame.”

“Well, I didn’t give him any, so of course he couldn’t give you one. Did you at least get Kuruma? It is kind of dragon-like.”

“No. I asked for Root Water as our party doesn’t really have much to use in situations where we need to fight strong water monsters.” Tye said. 

“But now that you are here, it doesn’t matter any more.” Tye said. “Sell me a dragon, please.” He said as he bowed.

“... seriously? Can you not do that?” Alex asked.

“What? You are one to speak with your armada of harpies and two dragons. Not all of us are that lucky.”

“You are still lucky. At least you have the skill.” Vivi said.

“... and this is why I used to be solo.” Unika commented.

---

After a bit more playful arguing about what is lucky and what isn’t, I relented and agreed to give Tye a dragon. I let him choose, but because I wanted to troll him a bit, the options I gave him were Petit Dragon, Baby Dragon and Fairy Dragon.

I mean, they are all dragons, just probably not the kind Tye was expecting.

“I shall take this one.” Tye said, holding Baby Dragon as he returned the other two back to me. “Thank you, Brian.”

“Yeah. No problem.” I responded, as I put the two other dragons back into the Collection. “But why that one?”

“It looks similar to the dragon you used in our summoner duel.”

“... you know just because it looks the same it won’t be as strong.” I pointed out. 

“Doesn’t matter. Thank you. I shall take great care of him.”

“You’d better. If I hear you let him die, I won’t give you another card.” As I said that, some of the color drained for Tye’s face. “That was a joke, by the way. As long as you use him well, you’ll probably get more cards from me. I mean, just ask Alex. Why did he get more cards? Because he used the ones he had well.”

“I see. I shall do just that.” Tye said.

---

We ended up wenturing deeper into the dungeon with Saber Fang, just because I had a ton of fun catching up with them. I did learn that Alex had gotten his Card Summoner to LV.3, so he now had a deck box. I gave him a few heal cards, three each of Red and Blue Medicine, just because he could easily hold them in said deck. They were also in toploaders, so repeat use was available. Their party should not need many lesser healing potions from now on.

I also watched as a few of them took on floor 5 challenge rooms. They struggled surprisingly much, even someone like Vivi seemed to have a harder time than Unika did. Maybe my Level Up bullshit is really that OP that my workers can overpower even B-rank adventurers.

For a test, I asked Unika to take on the floor 5 challenge room and she did, but she actually wasn’t better than Vivi, so I must have estimated wrong. They are both around equals. Unika is better with a bow, but Vivi can also use a sword with decent efficiency and she is better at magic than Unika, so that helps her balance things out. If tamed monsters were involved though, I think Unika would win. Sadly Unika didn’t get Card Summoner on her second try either, and I didn’t want to have Einar or Eline taking on floor 5 challenge rooms just yet. We’ll level up a bit more and try again in like a week or something.

As we kept talking about this and that, I eventually let it slip that I had made a real summoning contract with a dragon, which led to Tye once again being jealous, while demanding to see my dragon. I promised him I would summon her outside, and he almost demanded that we leave right then and there.

Lucky for either us or maybe more like them, Vivi took command and said that they would also hunt on the sixth floor, so we went one floor deeper before we headed out.

For the way out, I let them also use the secret maintenance tunnel. It isn’t something they can access, and if Christina ever hires them to be her guards, they’d learn of it anyway, so I didn’t really feel like it needed to stay a secret.

Once outside, after letting Glad and Nitrum stretch out their wings a bit, I summoned Himeśaila. Which, as you might have guessed, made Tye just a bit more envious than I thought was possible. 

On the other hand, Himeśaila was basking in all the glory Tye sent her way, so she was happy. She really likes when someone sings her praises. I guess she is a Hime (a princess in Japanese) for a reason.

After the gawking session was done, we began making our way back towards the town, until we were close enough that HomeBase’s teleportation beam could reach us. And when we were, I teleported my party back home.