Chapter 636 - Mortal, Are You the One Who Summoned Me? (2/2)

As a Magician, Link’s trained eyes were immediately drawn to the structure of this bloody magic seal. He was stunned by what he saw. The seal seemed almost familiar to him. It greatly resembled the magical circuits that were found on the mysterious gear, the Astral Whetstone and the Book of Revelation.

This realm is within the mysterious gear’s vicinity. Is there some sort of connection between them? thought Link.

At that moment, a hoarse voice called out to him, interrupting his thoughts.

“Ah, almighty dragon, we are most pleased that you have answered our calls!”

The voice was speaking in a foreign tongue. However, due to the contract in place, whatever it was saying was automatically translated in Link’s mind.

Link followed the source of the voice and saw a wizened Magician with hair as white as snow in a black robe standing on one of the nodes of the bloody magic seal. Link was able to determine that the old man was a Level-6 Magician from the energy he was giving off.

He looks human. He also seems to know what I am. How fascinating. Link narrowed his eyes. The old man before him looked like any other human being from the Firuman realm. The only difference was that he had a wide forehead. His eyes were also especially small, and his features were primitive-looking.

The old man was not alone. There were six nodes on the magic seal. On each of them stood a Magician native to the realm. Every one of them looked human as well, barring a few differences such as their primitive facial features and wide foreheads.

The Magicians standing on the magic seal were marveling at Link, visibly excited about what they had summoned into their realm. The old Magician was practically on the verge of tears.

He bellowed, “Oh almighty dragon, we require your assistance. The army of Troym is at the gates of our kingdom as we speak. They are the sworn enemy of our great kingdom. We need your help to defeat them.”

Troym? Army? Link blinked at him. He somewhat understood what this was all about. He raised his head high up in the air to inspect the magic seal beneath him and saw that the ground was strewn with corpses. There were 4000 bodies lying on the ground, whose lives had been sacrificed to conduct the summoning ritual that had brought him here.

The corpses’ attire were different from the robes worn by the Magicians around him. Link figured that the ones who had been sacrificed were all prisoners of war from the Troym army.

In other words, these Magicians had sacrificed their captives in order to summon a powerful extra-dimensional presence like Link and hopefully turn the tide of war against Troym with the aid of said summoned presence.

Once he had made sense of the circumstances of his summoning, Link looked at the old summoner. He could clearly sense what the man was feeling at the moment, which was mostly excitement. He could also tell that his appearance had surpassed the old man’s expectations.

They were probably hoping to summon something else when they were carrying out their summoning ritual. I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It would also seem that I’m supposed to help them fight back the Troym army as part of the terms of my contract.

Everyone was staring at him with a mix of expectation and caution. Link remained silent. He then saw at least 5000 people outside the bloody magic seal. Most of them seemed to be military. There were also a few in their midst, dressed in resplendent garb. They looked royally important.

These Warriors must be the elites of this realm. However, most of them were only at Level-3, which was no more different than the time Link first entered the Firuman realm. Link would not be able to take on all of them at once if his power had been reduced to Level-7, as the game system had initially predicted before his entry into this new realm. However, with his Level-10 Pinnacle power, he figured he would be able to come out alright from a confrontation with them.

The Warriors looked at him warily, their nerves stretched taut as they waited for a reaction from him. Link could also see some of them trembling uncontrollably.

This was understandable. If Link had encountered a Level-10 Legendary master the first time he entered the Firuman realm, he would also be scared witless.

No mortal here would have any chance of surviving an encounter with a Legendary master.

He slammed his massive tail into the ground a few times. Boom! Boom! Boom! The earth quaked. Everyone in the canyon went pale. The important-looking people surrounded by their guards were completely petrified. Link could also see a few women fainting in their midst.

“Almighty dragon, do you agree to help us?” shouted the old Magician again. His voice was shaky. The circumstances of their summoning ritual were odd, to put it mildly. It had taken a peculiarly long time for them to complete the summoning process, and the thing they had summoned into their realm seemed to be more potent than anything they had ever encountered.

The old Magician had originally intended to summon a Level-8 or 9 presence. However, this creature before him looked exactly like the dragons as described in their legends. More than 100 feet long, it was as big as a small mountain. Its silver-black flawless dragon scales, its glittering eyes and that oppressive aura it was giving off were all telling him that he had summoned something with power beyond his imagination.

He was not sure if their summoning contract would even be able to restrain such a behemoth.

At that moment, Link was weighing his options. Should I accept the conditions of the summoning contract and help them take on an entire army? No, the contract’s terms seem lax. I could easily find a loophole and wriggle my way out of this. Also, only a fool would take on an army he had never seen before on his lonesome!

Right now, Link was only a bit stronger than the Red Dragon Duke Isendilan, whom he had defeated with the help of the Beastmen back when he was still a threat. Even if he was confident that he would be able to take on the entire Troym army with his current power level, there was just no guarantee everything would go his way. Also, as soon as Link completed his contract, he would still have to deal with the Dimensional Rejection. At that point, things would become extremely awkward.

What should I do? thought Link. A few seconds later, he finally arrived at a solution.

He lowered his head, slowly swinging it towards the old Magician. When his dragon horn was only 20 feet away from him, the old man could not take it any longer. His legs were trembling so much that he collapsed to the ground on his knees. He then cried out tearily, “Great dragon, please forgive me. I did not mean to offend you. Please forgive all of us!”

When there was a huge difference in power between a summoner and the summoned entity, the binding power exerted on the latter by its summoning contract would be extremely limited, and the contract could backfire on the summoner himself if he was not careful enough.

Seeing the pathetic pile of sobbing mess the old Magician was reduced into, the entire army in the canyon immediately descended into chaos.

Despite not knowing how summoning magic worked, when the Warriors saw the old Magician in such a state, everyone knew that the spell had failed. No one could work up the courage to stand up to the winged monstrosity the Magicians had summoned.

At that moment, Link opened his mouth. Due to his expansive body, his voice came out loud and sonorous. “Mortal, are you the one who summoned me?”

The question was directed at the old Magician.