The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

Chapter 104: Tower Start

"..I see," Aria nodded. Rallaka's statement made sense, and it was better safe than sorry. She retracted Dianthe's movements. Rallaka was much more knowledgeable than her in the inner workings of spirits as he was a former high ranked spirit himself, even though he was reduced to the state he was in right now. Their current working plan was also the result of Rallaka's thoughts.

"Thankfully, I didn't absorb the dungeon's energy yet. If I did, then this situation would have been much more complicated," Rallaka said. "The mana distribution in this area is quite high, so her condition will be maintained a little bit longer. While we wait for her struggle.. I suppose we can stay alert and prepare for the worst case scenario,"

"En," Aria hummed, laying the child's body on the ground as her gentle eyes swept over her. The child was cold, as she still felt the freezing sensation even if her mind was currently inside the summoning space. Aria covered the girl's body with her clothes, but that didn't do much.

"I will take a look at my status now," Aria sighed. She had actually achieved a new level when she finally took down the Queen Bee. Even though the amount of experience points weren't all that shocking, it was enough to propel her to next stage.

She was now sitting prim and proper on the tender level of 30. Like the previous times, every tens of levels, there would be an advancement like thing where she could drastically change something within herself. Those advancements were documented into stages. On the tenth level, she reached Stage 2. On the twentieth, it was the Stage 3. So now, naturally, on the thirtieth, once she confirmed the level up statuses, she would receive her next advancement.

Everything had been hectic, so she hadn't planned to open this new gift right now, but since they were given time, Aria decided to face her status.

Stage 3. Previously, when she advanced, features were unlocked. On the second advancement, those features were bettered, and their effects were increased. Now, about to step into the third stage, what would happen?

Aria gulped, slightly nervous as the System always presented her with options that she wouldn't ever think of achieving.

The reason she was so particularly nervous about this was not miniscule at all. Unlike the previous occasions, where it directly entered her into the next stage, the System asked for her permission this time around. This made her wonder what was hidden behind the question marks that plagued the System's notification.

Would it be a hindrance, or a massive helper?

"Accept.. the advancement," A bit hesitant, Aria pushed on with her decision and commanded the System's options.

Then, it began. Her permission was the trigger to the start of everything. The scale of the effect that was produced turned out to be much more than she expected, confusing her even after she had prepared herself for the upcoming change.

First, there was a loud beeping noise that flashed through her ears, making the organ ring painfully even after the sound had ended.

[Advancement accepted. Breaking into the third stage. Blockage detected. <Player> permission given.]

[Seal detected. Unlocking the seal. Condition detected. Conditions have been fulfilled.]

[Moving the world into Stage 3.]

[Changing <Player> data..]

Several similar, repetitive notifications began to ring throughout Aria's vision, making her confused and flustered over this entire experience.

"Huh?" Aria gaped in shock. "What? Ha? Wait, wait, wait-" Aria fumbled with her words, not able to form any concrete sentence as she stared at the several popping announcements in shock.

"My head hurts," Aria closed her eyes off immediately, trying to shield herself from the pain and bracing herself. "For God's sake..." she mumbled under her breath, clutching her head as the System kept sending notifications on her way.

After a few minutes, the ringing finally stopped. The barrage stopped. Aria began to open her eyes, but the sight that greeted her right then and there was much more surprising.

The notifications were all clearly displayed before her right now, arranged in a list type of text.

Aria was able to scroll through her vision and capture each notification's content.

[Congratulations. You have advanced into the third stage.]

[Congratulations. The <Tower> feature has been unlocked for all the <Players> as a result of the fulfilled conditions.]

[Congratulations. You have received the key to your personal <Tower>: Code 007.]

[You have been bestowed with <Basic Knowledge of the Tower>.]

[Unlocking <Tower> settings and implementing the branch data into the main base..]

[Initializing control...]

[Materializing stages, rewards, punishments, and other components..]

[Merging stopped. Successful connection formed. <Player> Aria Schreiner has been accepted as the first <Player> to unlock the Tower function. You will be bestowed with rewards. You will be bestowed with a special title.]

[Congratulations. Your first seal has been unlocked.]

[Congratulations. Your ability as a Summoner has been unlocked. You are now able to assimilate yourself with Summoning skills.]

[Congratulations. As part of your reward, your first spirit: 'Igna' has been unlocked.]

[Second Job <Summoner> added to the title.]

[Congratulations. You are the second person to have a Second Job. For your achievements, recognition will be given. A special trait will be added randomly into your Tower. A special chance will be added to your Tower. It will be revealed once you step inside the space.]

There were so many words of congratulations, each notification containing important contents that Aria had to check over more than twice just to make sure that she was seeing the right thing and not just hallucinating out of all the stress that she compounded during her short stay with Alena.

However, the most important thing was the last part. Igna's name. The fiery spirit that she had obtained in the past. In truth, except for the constantly evolving Dianthe, Igna was the first high ranking spirit that she obtained. It was also not through normal means, because the spirit was desperate and had to form a bond with Aria no matter if he liked it or not.

Thankfully, he later expressed gratitude towards Aria as he truthfully began to aid Aria in her journeys not just out of their contractual bond, but also because he wanted to. He wasn't the strongest spirit she had, but this bestowal would certainly change a lot of things in her ways of fighting. It unlocked so many paths for her.

And the Tower, of course. The Tower that had been informed to her previously through Alena's special power.

"It finally appeared?" Aria was in a daze as she checked the notification over and over.

Alena told her that the start of the Tower features would probably be in a short while, but she didn't expect it to be this soon. Alena's words gave her a larger time prediction range. Furthermore, by the sounds of the notifications, the Tower was actually unlocked because of her. Because she, as the <Adapter>, possessed these stages.

It also said that the world was progressing into 'Stage 3', mirroring her own progress. It made Aria wonder if the world was actually revolving around her progress as a <Player>. This theory couldn't be confirmed because it was such a wide statement, and they were currently inside a closed off dungeon and wouldn't be able to actually see what happened in the outside area.

However, if her guess was correct.. Then this 'Stage 3' actually implied the beginning of the gate outbreak that Alena mentioned previously. There was one thing that Alena guessed wrong, and that was the reason for this outbreak. If what she thought was truly the correct guess, then the monsters were actually spawned to 'adapt' to her. The world 'adapted' to her. The System, too, began to 'adapt'.

Stage 3. It was much more monstrous than she thought it was.

As Aria's eyes started to tremble with the new discovery, overwhelmed with all the news. She took out the aforementioned key that she received and observed. It was a golden, old-fashioned key. Like a key to a medieval gate. It was relatively larger than the normal sizes, but still easy to hold in your hands.

Aria couldn't believe it. <Adapter>. That was the title bestowed to her by the System.

It wasn't only her that was adapting. Her surroundings were also adapting to her.

Laughing maniacally, she regained her confidence that had been stumped previously by the System's harsh requirements for her. Because she progressed at a much slower rate than the others, she actually thought that she would be hindered a lot. However, with the revelation of this concept, she was happy. Ecstatic.

"Rallaka, keep watch on Alena," Aria commanded as she began to inspect the perks she received with great interest.

"..Okay," Being a member of the Summoning space himself, Rallaka already felt the new addition to the team. It was a high ranking fire spirit, which made him question how the sudden addition was made.

He followed Aria's orders without complaints and watched over Alena, whereas Aria was stuck in trying to figure out more information, scraping the notifications and checking herself in great detail.