ALL NOVEL Chapter 36: Discovery
It took Aoni several iterations to heat his body in front of the fire. Still, after a couple of hours of busy work, he had completed the task of gutting and bleeding each of the carcasses…but there was one thing the Lad hadn't accounted for…and honestly felt dumb for overlooking.
Having spent an extensive amount of time crafting a method to collect the blood, it was all for naught because now, each of the make-shift basins he had created was filled with a solid crimson block.
That's right; his one-track mind had forgotten that he was living in an arctic environment with negative 30-degree temperatures.
"Fantastic…what the hell am I supposed to do with all this," taking a deep breath through his nose, Aoni poked at one of the blocks of blood with his knife before eventually settling on dumping it all off the mountain.
'To do this, I first need to carve around the edges of the block, carry the hollowed-out log to the edge of the platform, and then…' part way through that thought, a sudden idea popped up in his head.
But Aoni quickly shook it away for a specific reason.
"Making a sled would only work if Glacia was strong enough to pull my weight." Tapping his chin, Aoni knelt beside the basin and imagined himself gliding down the mountain.
In fact, Aoni was so entranced by this thought that he didn't even notice the small bundle of white padding along and sitting down beside him.
"Gaoo?"
"AHHH!!" Jumping up like a fool, Aoni spun away and took a fighting stance.
"OOOOOooo GAO!" And much like himself, Glacia too freaked out thanks to the sudden outburst, however…
"AHHh HAHhahahahha!" from screaming due to the sudden appearance of his summon to clutching his stomach, Aoni burst out laughing because, in her fright, Glacia tumbled backward and sunk into the snow head first, leaving only her back legs poking out and flailing comically.
Feeling bad, and even though he couldn't stop laughing, Aoni still crouched down and helped the poor baby out. Unfortunately, all that did was make her pout because she clearly understood he was making fun of her.
How could Aoni surmise this, you may ask? Well, it's simple: she crossed her arms and faced away from him in a sign of defiance, making the Lad laugh even harder.
"Come on, Glacia, ha…ha…I'm sorry for startling you; come here, lemmie give you plenty of headpats and ear scratches."
"Oo, MMPH!" Surprisingly, even the promise of headpats and ear scratches seemed not to be enough, and with a grunt, she refused to look at her Lord in protest, causing Aoni's eyes to roll on their own as he went ahead and coaxed her with some ear scratches.
It took a few minutes of apologies and attention before the little ball of fur was back to normal, and he could ask some basic questions.
"Alrighty, were you able to find what you were looking for?" Aoni asked while looking over at Glacia, who was using his shoulder like a couch.
"Gaooo, ooOooO Gaaaaaoo." Acting as if she believed her Lord to understand her words completely, Glacia began babbling and waving her left arm, similarly to how Aoni does when he talks, causing him to stare blankly at her as he tried to understand what she meant.
"Gaoo gao ogao OoO GaooOo," she said, finishing up her statement with several head bobs. Although her babble meant absolutely nothing to him, Glacia's body language and excitement were enough for Aoni to confirm that she had indeed found something.
When he reached this conclusion, Aoni was left wondering about where to go, what to do, and how much she had found—these were all the things that would influence his next move.
In his heart, the Lad was hoping Glacia had stumbled upon some easily accessible mineral deposits. Still, given how strange her tracking ability seemed to be, a variable Aoni had determined by the wide variety of prey she brought back, he wasn't about to ignore the fact that it could be located underground or something.
"Okay, I think I understand, so you found some of the stuff I showed you…"
"ooOo," she replied with a nod.
"Is it close by? Or far away." Using his hands, Aoni made a gesture indicating distance by bringing them close together and then farther apart.
"Close…or Far."
"Close…or Far." The third time he repeated the phrase and gesture, Glacia Ooed on Close and grabbed her Lord's hands to stop Aoni from separating them.
"Got it, next question…" Picking her up off his shoulder, Aoni placed Glacia down beside him and walked over to the basin before picking it up with ease, thanks to his increased Attack Stat.
"Are you able to lift this?" placing the hollowed-out log back on the ground, he stepped aside and watched carefully as his summon walked up to the log, stared at it hard for a moment before winding up and punching the basin with such force that it rocketed off well over 20 feet away before coming to a stop.
"HOLY SHIT!" Too stunned at what just happened to bother scolding his summon for not simply lifting the log as he had done, Aoni looked at Glacia with a newfound curiosity.
It was like everything kind of just clicked into place, and he suddenly felt as if her bringing back almost forty kills wasn't that big of a task anymore.
Still, the question was, HOW?
Staring at the ball of fluff as she struck a victory pose, Aoni quickly opened his Summon's Display to see if there were any changes to her information, and what he saw caused him to feel the urge to sit down.
Summon's Display
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Flume Grade: ★
Territory Climate: Artic/Mountainous
Summon's Available: 0/1 (►)
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Links of Subordination: 1/2 (►)
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1: Infant Artic-GigantoUrsusPithecus
Glacia
Age: 1.5 Months
Gender: ♀
Potential: One Star
Grade: ★
Passives:
Artic Movement: ✫
Artic Tracking: ✫
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2: Hook Blade (L)
Vestr
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3: Hook Blade (R)
Austr
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Not only had Glacia's Grade maxed out at a single Full Star…but she had also, at some point, obtained not one, but TWO Passives, which were already at the OF-Step and with little space left in the center of the Star, Aoni could tell they too were about to max out into the Full Star Step.
It had to be said that unless a summon came out of the Flume with Passives, it was INCREDIBLY difficult for them to obtain any, so the fact that Glacia suddenly had two appearing on her Display was more than enough for Aoni to look at her as if she was an otherworldly being...which TECHNICALLY she was.