Chapter 454: Chapter 449: There are no bad summons

Sofia followed Everelle past a long straight corridor and into a huge round coliseum. Several rows of seats overlooked the arena, all filled by silent Sunless Drones. In the middle of the round coliseum was a square platform, and there was a small ritual circle on two of its sides.

That’s a lot of drones… Forget the twin-headed amalgam, this could be the birth of a hundred-headed amalgam.

Everelle pointed at the ritual circle, “This is where we’re going to stand while our summons fight. But more about that later. Let me first explain the rules!”

“Just to clarify, what happens if we lose?” Sofia asked.

“In that case, I’ll gloat about how I’m the stronger summoner, then you’ll be thrown out of the dungeon with no rewards, and that’s about it. If you win, it’s like you defeated the boss, I’ll even give you the regular imprint and all.”

“Alright, sounds good. How do we do this?”

“Well, there are quite a few rules, so let’s get through each game element one by one. Starting with the orbs.”

“I already get what they’re for, more or less.”

“You get to put your summons in them. We each have an identical set of orbs, the summons we put in them will be our fighters. Each of them has a card draw value, with the weakest orb having a value of 6 and the highest a value of 1.”

“Card draw?”

“I’m getting there. So, each time you use an orb to summon a fighter, you get to draw that many cards. If you bring out your weakest summon, for example, you draw six random cards at the end of the round. I’ll get to what cards are for later.”

“Alright… So if I put Pareth in the strongest orb summoning him makes me draw one card. So far so good. Then it’s just duels?”

Everelle shook her featureless head, “Not quite, so to explain the goal of the game, we will both have ten health points. When you lose a round, you lose one health point. The first to zero health or first to have no fighters left loses the game.”

“So you can lose a round without the summon dying, I imagine? Is it timed?”

“Again, not quite. See the square arena? The fights will happen there. If your summon leaves the arena, you get to reuse them later, but you lose the round. Else, the victor is decided by death. Also, fighters are not allowed to leave the arena for the first ten seconds of a duel.”

Sofia detached a bit of her bone armor to write the rules on. “To be honest, I expected something simpler. But this is still fine. Then what about the cards?”

“Cards can be played during the rounds, and they allow you to use special actions, such as using your own skills to help the fighters, or creating obstacles in the arena for cover, for example. You can only ever have three cards in hand, so if you draw six at the start of the round, you need to throw out three of them right away. You can also keep them between rounds if you want.”

It sounds like managing the cards is just as important as having good summons, and knowing which summon to use when is also crucial.

“I’m starting to understand how this is supposed to play out. Are we done with the rules?”

“Almost. Two more rules. First of all, you are not allowed to interfere with the duels in any way except by giving orders or using cards. No magic, nothing, your passives will all be deactivated. If you cheat you instantly lose the game. And, secondly, when you summon a fighter, no matter if you win or forfeit the round, if it lives, you cannot use it again before you use all the other available summons at least once. This is called the summon penalty rule.”

Sofia finished writing all the rules on her small bone slate.

“I think I have a good grasp on the rules. But I have a few questions.”

“Yes?”

“Do you already know what the card effects are, and can I have some time to decide what to summon?”

“Yes to both. You will get a private room to summon your fighters and store them in the orbs, I won’t get to see what you choose. The cards I designed myself so I already know them, some of them have random elements, though, and which ones we draw is also completely random, so while I have a slight advantage, this should be fine. I have also never actually played the game so…”

“I see, it’s fine, you are the boss so I did kind of expect you to have a few advantages. Also I see the black fog has disappeared, is that normal?”

Everelle giggled, “Yes, the dungeon restrictions need not to apply here, the others will also be lifted in a bit. Ah, also, last precision, you can only put your summon in the orb. No giving them items or anything like that.”

Done with the explanations, Everelle brought Sofia to a large side room under the rows of seats where she could take her time to summon her ‘fighters’.

“Well, guys, how do we do this? Pareth goes into the strongest orb, right?”

“Yes!” Bookie approved. Pareth, who had grown back to his usual huge size, seemed to agree as well.

Sofia nodded, “That’s one orb settled, then, I’m counting on you. Now to fill the five others.”

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Sofia needed to think carefully. The weakest orb allowed to draw six cards, so it was a powerful tool to help win the following round, but the round where its 200 mana summon was brought out was almost a guaranteed loss unless Everelle also used her 200 mana orb at the same time.

The order in which I use the orbs is also important, since you have to use them all before reusing them, every round after the sixth will follow a predetermined pattern…

“What we choose now will decide what happens next. Bookie, any suggestions?”

“I have an idea or two but I think you know best, Sofia!”

“Let’s hear it, we need to be smart about this, and there are a few things we need to test with the orbs before we can decide. The game has already begun.”

Orb list :

Orb 6 : 6 Card draws - 200 Mana Capacity - ???

Orb 5 : 5 Card draws - 1000 Mana Capacity - ???

Orb 4 : 4 Card draws - 25 000 Mana Capacity - ???

Orb 3 : 3 Card draws - 50 000 Mana Capacity - ???

Orb 2 : 2 Card draws - 100 000 Mana Capacity - ???

Orb 1 : 1 Card draw - 100 Million mana Capacity - Pareth

Sofia walked out of the preparation room with only Bookie at her side. She had deactivated her armor and was wearing her party dress from her time at the academy. A belt of bone was slung over chest, holding the six summoning orbs. Of course, she still held her scepter with her dragon-scale arm, but these she never really took off.

The Sunless drones in the audience were all still silently looking from above, and Everelle was waiting in her own ritual circle on the other side of the square arena.

“Nice style!” Everelle called out from her side of the arena, “But that won’t help you beat me!”

“Let’s see about that!”

Sofia stepped into the ritual circle on her side.

Immediately, the background music changed into something more intense. A system window appeared in front of Sofia’s eyes.

[DUNGEON MASTER EVERELLE WANTS TO DUEL!]

[YES/NO]

Of course yes.

The lighting changed in the coliseum, the seats were plunged into the shade while strong lights shone onto Sofia and Everelle. Meanwhile, Bookie looked just happy to be there, shaking his skull to the music.

[Choose five non-summoning skills to be shuffled into your card deck!]

[0/5; you have 4.58 minutes left]

With these messages, cards representing Sofia’s skills appeared in front of her. They all had cute pictures but no description or title. On the other side, Sofia saw Everelle tap five times in the air, she had decided on her own skills in a second.

Interesting.

My skills are pretty easy to recognize from the drawings.

Except this black card. What’s that?

Oh! Could it be [Heat Death]? That’s a must!

Sofia tapped on the black card and it disappeared.

[1/5]

Alright, alright. Next, Runeforged Overlord and Bone Dominus. That’s three.

This leaves two slots… Angel bolt is a strong contender, graveyard and Erredian rot as well, Blessing of the deep could be alright and spine too, but I think they’re a bit weaker.

Let's go with bolt and rot.

Sofia tapped on the card with a drawing of blue lightning and the card with a wasteland covered in black rot.

[5/5]

[Cards confirmed. Deactivating auras.]

Sofia felt her magic being tampered with, her mana could no longer escape the confines of the ritual circle.

[Raising command tower.]

The ground under the ritual circle shook, and it rose. Sofia and bookie were now on top of a three meters tall pillar overlooking the square arena, metallic guardrails also appeared around the ritual circle. It was the same on Everelle’s side.

Finally, two big Sunless amalgams appeared in the arena. Their shape shifted and morphed until they resembled a giant Sofia and a giant Everelle. They walked to take place near the respective person they copied.

What are those for?

As Sofia thought that, a counter appeared above the Everelle-shaped amalgam.

[10/10]

Looking at the amalgam on her Side, there was a similar counter.

Bookie said out loud what Sofia just understood, “It’s the health points!”

A stack of illusory cards appeared in front of Sofia with a small message above it.

[Remaining draw : 0, please select your fighter for round 1]

Everelle spoke to Sofia from her tower on the opposite side of the arena. “The sound transmission module is on so we can speak normally, no need to shout. Are you ready, Sofia?”

“I’m more than ready. I’ve already picked my first fighter.”

“Great! Then grab your orb and let’s fight!”

Everelle’s own summoning orbs were floating around her, she raised a hand and an orb flew to it.

Sofia grabbed the third orb on her belt.

Orb 3 : 3 Card draws - 50 000 Mana Capacity

A countdown appeared in the air in the middle of the arena.

[3]

[2]

[1]

[THROW!]

Sofia and Everelle threw their orbs into the arena. The music’s tempo was kicked up a notch, and with two flashes of light, the fighters appeared.

On Sofia’s side, the three Skeleton Templars. On Everelle’s side, a single tiny humanoid Sunless. It looked like one of the homunculus, and had a white sunless eye on its torso.

The fighters could not fight yet, Sofia could feel the templars being unable to move while the orb’s enchantments brought it back to her hand.

“Right, Sofia, one last thing, there’s one spell you’re allowed to use anytime. You can use [Identify].”

The restrictions on the fighters were lifted, and the battle started. Sofia identified the small Sunless.

[Orb power 5 - 1000 Mana - lv. 299 Sunless Architect]

The small Sunless rose an arm and the Templars’ charge was stopped by a tall wall rising from the ground.