I had been wandering the village outskirts, hunting animals to gather food for the Dragon Lady, who was soon to hatch.
Assuming the Dragon Lady would favor meat, I resolved to prepare a variety of cuts well in advance.
“What if, after all this meticulous preparation, she turns out to prefer fruit…?”
Lacking any prior knowledge, I was simply preparing based on my best guess; if she were to prefer fruit over meat, then the provisions would simply go to my other summoned beings.
Alternatively, I could just cook the food and offer it to her that way.
Offering cooked food provides bonus experience, a benefit that is surprisingly substantial; even if a summoned being doesn’t have a specific preferred food, a cooked meal grants experience comparable to their favorite.
The drawbacks, however, are the high ingredient cost for each cooking attempt and the risk of all ingredients transforming into ‘food’ (charcoal) upon failure. Beyond these, there aren’t many other significant disadvantages.
‘It’s fortunate my cooking doesn’t invariably result in burnt offerings, unlike an alchemist’s touch.’
The world of ‘Everyone’s Summoner’ encompasses not only summoning magic but also the art of alchemy.
Naturally, the “alchemy” I referred to wasn’t the traditional kind, but rather the culinary alchemy that transforms perfectly good food into charcoal.
Had my culinary skills been abysmal, I would have been forced to feed my summoned beings at a significant loss of experience.
Incidentally, even if ingredients turn into charcoal, it’s not a major issue, as it can be used as fuel for subsequent cooking. There’s even a strategy to intentionally burn recipes that require minimal ingredients to produce charcoal (as fuel) and then use it to achieve a ‘Great Success,’ thereby minimizing potential losses.
‘Yet, is it truly necessary to fret over experience loss when feeding them? After all, couldn’t this game’s leveling system simply be viewed as a form of affinity?’
‘…No, wait. It’s more than just an affinity system. Higher levels also yield greater amounts of gold, don’t they? It’s been so long since I last focused on leveling up, I’d completely forgotten…’
Having not summoned a new being in such a long time, this detail had slipped my mind: the higher a summoned being’s level, the greater their gold production.
I had forgotten this because I habitually maxed out every new summoned being the moment they arrived…
“Speaking of which, it’s already been a week. How quickly time passes!”
Just yesterday, I was certain there were still two days remaining until its hatching.
Yet, here I was, realizing the Dragon Lady’s summoning stone was on the verge of hatching. Time truly seemed to fly.
I certainly hadn’t used an Omni-Document. Although no one had asked, I was adamant that I had not.
I truly hadn’t used an Omni-Document.
“Summoner, be honest with me. Did you truly not use an Omni-Document?”
“I told you I didn’t!”
“As far as I remember, today is only day five, isn’t it?”
‘If I say I didn’t use it, then I didn’t. Why are you interrogating me so relentlessly?’
…Truthfully, I had used an Omni-Document.
Frankly, even the longest summon in this game typically didn’t exceed five days! A full week, and that only if luck wasn’t on your side—how could anyone possibly wait that long?!
“Hmph, fine. Here, take this.”
“What’s this?”
“It’s a blueprint for a Dragon-attribute habitat.”
“A ‘habitat’? Please, call it a home.”
“Once it’s constructed, you’ll likely agree it’s more of a habitat than a mere home.”
“At the very least, just call it a house.”
“…Fine, it’s a blueprint for a Dragon-attribute *house*. Satisfied?”
Yes, perfect. Two thumbs up!
“Sigh, alright then. In any case, it doesn’t require an exorbitant amount of materials, so you should be able to construct it quite swiftly.”
“Right, thank you. Now all that’s left is to pinpoint the perfect location.”
There was no shortage of potential building sites. Having completed the seventh stage of expansion previously, and only two days after returning from the dungeon, I had already initiated the eighth stage.
The gold required for expansion had now soared into the hundreds of millions, yet with a staggering thirty billion already in my possession, it presented no significant challenge.
‘Perhaps I should deliberate a bit more on the next land expansion. What if it demands ten billion gold?’
“So, where should I build this…”
“Isn’t there an abundance of land available?”
“That’s certainly true. But wouldn’t it be more aesthetically pleasing if we built it with care?”
“…Is that so?”
“Indeed it is.”
Clearly, the Wandering Merchant was oblivious. The true endgame content in these types of games was always customization and decoration.
“If you insist, then so be it. Oh, I recommend constructing the Dragon-attribute house over there; I believe that location would be a perfect fit.”
“Is that so? Then I’ll put my faith in your judgment.”
Placing my trust in the Wandering Merchant’s suggestion, I unrolled the blueprint and laid it down at the designated spot.
“Materials… 1000 stones and one tree?”
“That’s not a lot, is it? You’ll have it built in no time.”
“…Do you honestly consider a thousand stones to be ‘not many’?”
“…Isn’t it a rather small amount?”
“Then pray tell, where does one procure those thousand stones?”
“What? Can’t you simply go to the mine and quarry them?”
“To claim that having to mine a thousand stones from a quarry is ‘not many’ is absurd; that is, in fact, an enormous quantity.”
“Hmm… wouldn’t it be done quickly if you brought your summoned beings along?”
“Are you seriously suggesting I subject my precious summoned beings to such strenuous labor?”
“On the contrary, I imagine they’d have an abundance of energy for such a task.”
‘That’s true, my summoned beings are remarkably strong, after all.’
Just yesterday, I had played with Cat-Dog and Aengmu, and despite our vigorous games, neither of them showed the slightest hint of exhaustion.
My summoned beings were brimming with vitality, while I, on the other hand, was utterly spent and collapsed. Was it simply their youthful vigor?
Indeed, it wasn’t limited to Cat-Dog and Aengmu; Kkongkkongi, Ppireusi, and all my other summoned beings undeniably possessed greater stamina than I did.
Still, I harbored no desire to drag them to a mine and compel them into labor.
Unless my summoned beings expressed a desire to go, I would never, under any circumstances, force them.
“The mine? Excellent! I had nothing else planned, so let’s go.”
“You’re heading to the mine? Take me with you!”
“Summoner unnie, are you going to the mine? May I join you?”
‘Had they always enjoyed going to the mine? I certainly hadn’t anticipated such enthusiastic responses from my summoned beings.’
Thus, I found myself heading to the mine, accompanied by Saessak, Liqueur, and Seokyung.
Unlike the dynamic challenges of a dungeon, a mine was truly uneventful.
One simply wields a pickaxe and strikes at the rock.
The rock then fragments, yielding manageable pieces of stone, occasional copper ore, or various gems.
Each mining attempt typically yields two or more stones, copper appears sporadically, and the drop rates for various gems differ by type.
While no official drop rates have ever been disclosed, I distinctly recall rumors among players suggesting the rarity increased in the order of Silver, Gold, Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, and Obsidian.
In those days, I had found mining utterly dull and dismissed it without a second thought. Now, ironically, I was voluntarily heading to the mine simply because I had nothing better to do.
“But why are we going to the mine?”
“The mine? Oh, we’re going because there’s nothing else to occupy our time, aren’t we?”
While it was true that I needed materials for the Dragon Lady’s new home, stones could easily be purchased with gold, making a direct acquisition perfectly feasible.
However, purchasing them with gold incurs a slightly higher cost, so unless the need was urgent, a trip to the mine was far more economical.
“Unnie, are you terribly bored these days?”
“Yes, I’m incredibly bored these days; there’s truly nothing to do but work or sleep…”
I was so utterly idle that I found myself wishing for more work to do.
The village itself simply lacked engaging activities, didn’t it? I wished I could create something.
“Then how about we all go out and have some fun later?”
“Huh? Go out to play?”
“Yes, you have nothing to do precisely because you’re always cooped up at home, don’t you? So, why not step outside and engage in activities there?”
Seokyung’s logic was simple: if there was nothing to do at home, one should simply go out and have fun.
‘Why had such an obvious thought never occurred to me?’
She was absolutely right. If boredom struck at home, the solution was simply to venture outside and enjoy oneself.
‘Sigh, is Summoner Unnie truly a fool, or merely ignorant?’
“Saessak? Aren’t ‘foolish’ and ‘ignorant’ essentially interchangeable terms in that context?”
“Why, Unnie? Are you unaware of how foolish you’ve been lately? It’s genuinely concerning.”
‘W-what…? Saessak just said something harsh to me…?’
“Sob, sob, Saessak must have turned dark. To say such harsh things to Unnie… This Unnie is truly saddened…”
“…Unnie, crying crocodile tears won’t work on me.”
“Oh, really…? No, that’s not it… Saessak, do you realize how much your personality has changed?”
“…Has it really changed much?”
“Yes, it has! The Saessak I knew was incredibly gentle and adorable, but now your speech and actions are much more prickly, yet you’re still a cute Saessak!”
“…If Summoner Unnie says both are cute, then nothing has changed, right?”
“No! It’s different! There’s a huge difference between gentle cuteness and prickly cuteness!”
Gentle cuteness stems from a pure heart and kind words!
Prickly cuteness, on the other hand, comes from a cool yet warm heart!
That alone makes for an enormous difference!
This isn’t the Saessak I know! Give me back the Saessak I know!
“Um, Summoner Unnie? Let’s just calm down and head to the mine, alright? Saessak, perhaps you should stop now too?”
“…I’m sorry, Summoner Unnie has been acting really strange lately, and I was worried… I guess I got a little heated without realizing it…”
“No, Saessak, you did nothing wrong. It’s because I’m such an inadequate summoner… I’ll try harder…”
Fortunately, Seokyung intervened, allowing Saessak and my argument to end amicably with a reconciliation.
‘I definitely wasn’t intimidated by Seokyung’s voice and reconciled. No, I simply ended it because I decided any further fighting would be pointless.’
“Unnie, you didn’t reconcile because you were scared of my voice, did you?”
“U-uh? What are you talking about? Absolutely not!”
“…Actually, I was a little scared… Seokyung-ssi…”
“…Oh, really? I apologize if I frightened you.”
Yes, indeed, our summoned beings look so wonderful when they’re harmonious.
“Alright, shall we head to the mine now?”
