The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

Chapter 111: First Stage

"Let's see.. I would have to contact all of my connections first. Although, I am certain that we can at least acquire ten or so in the next one week's time. It's guaranteed," Alena replied to the elder's question.

"Alright. Then.. I want to check out my Tower for a bit, is there anything else you want to ask of me before I go?" Hearing the child's answer, she began to plan out her schedule ahead of time. Since she wanted to compete with the development of the world, then she had to very carefully tread onwards and hurry.

"Ah, if you are planning to do that, then.. hmm, why don't you just use my training center from now on? It has living accommodations too, and since we are going to get busy training from now on.. Wouldn't it be easier to live in there? I also live there when I have to do extensive research, which is probably what I will be doing in the near future to figure out the item big sister has given me," Alena offered.

"A training center.. Huh? Well, it's a great offer... I will check it out, could you bring me there?" Aria asked.

"Right now, big sister? I am fine with it. I will call my subordinates over to take both of us there. It's several minutes away from here, a bit far from the hectic city area," Alena reached for her phone and began looking over her contact list.

"Yes, right now. It's better to speed things up. I will just be doing simple check ups within the Tower.. to see how it works. If it's possible, then I want to clear the floors like you said. A hundred floors, right? I will just clear the easy stages," Aria added.

"Then, we can go downstairs right now, big sister. My subordinate should be here in minutes," Alena said.

Indeed, once they reached downstairs, they went to sit at the reception area and only had to wait several minutes before Alena's phone received a phone call from someone named Roy. Roy was one of her trusted subordinates that has been serving her ever since she was a child. Although the subordinates were all issued by the Crofts to keep watch on her and were instructed to not be emotionally involved with Alena, Roy still showed some parental tendencies from time to time, demonstrating his loyalty. Due to his relatively high status, no one was able to question his actions and was let slide.

The two went inside Roy's car and headed straight for the training center, where they were dropped off at the inconspicuous entrance. The building wasn't all that magnificent, but it had quite the large size. A normal person passing by would've perceived it as a factory or a storage unit. However, it was all a ploy to hide the real extravagance of the resource contained inside the area. The building was designed with Alena's suggestions by talented architects, and was fully supported by the Crofts. It was largely divided into two sides, the research and the training area.

These two sides, however, weren't located above ground. They had to be accessed through taking an elevator to go underground. Building such a complicated structure was very hard to pull off, but this place was executed perfectly.

Aria got the chance to see various sites and branches of the building, but she was ultimately led to a large room that caught her by surprise with the absurd capacity it had. It was practically a whole stadium stuffed under ground. She knew that this was the modern world, but this type of building was impossible to form into reality back in her time due to structural problems. Especially something this gigantic and special.

"This is the training area, big sister. This place is enlaced with intricate defensive measures so that any damages wouldn't penetrate through. You may use your magic or full power in this area and nothing would happen, I can assure that. You may use this building as you see fit, I have entered your data into the system, so you should be allowed everywhere. I will send you a map of this place's interior to help you navigate through the building, or you could just ask anybody you encounter during your way," Alena instructed. "Since I have a new research material to work with, then I will just quickly go over to the research area and work on the item you gave me. It's a very interesting subject," Alena grinned.

Nodding in agreement, Aria saw the little girl off before she sat down in the middle of the area and began opening up her System and retrieving her Tower key. She felt that both of her spirits were already recharged and ready to fight, but Rallaka was encapsulated in a strange membrane. However, his reaction told her that if he was to be summoned, he could still fight.

Not wanting to hold back her curiosity any longer, Aria took the tower key and used her imagination to access the new feature. She imagined the gate opening before her and she instantly felt her consciousness began to warp, as if her entire being was getting sent somewhere foreign. It took a couple of seconds where she was blinded by the System's influence before she was able to regain her focus and vision.

Aria opened her eyes to a desolate cave that did not have any monsters in sight. This was out of her expectation, since she viewed the Tower as a more luxurious feature that would house higher challenges. However instead of getting sent to a fancy tower, she was dropped here, in a cave that she wasn't familiar with.

No, she was sort of familiar with it. It was a typical cave, and looking by the structural clues and resonating elements, this type of cave should house small and random monsters like slimes or things of that genre. Judging by the peace and quiet the cave had, this theory was further approved since it matched the characteristics typical slime caves had.

Aria had her vigilance high as she proceeded onwards. Her eyes swept through the surroundings, making sure no detail would escape from her eyesight and prove to be useful on a later time.

As she walked through the cave, her assumptions proved to be correct as she immediately encountered one slime hopping back and forth by itself. It was a clear blue slime, and it left a faint trace of glowing goo as it hopped in the cave trail.

Aria drew her sword and cut the slime down without compassion, wanting to see if it would trigger anything or yield her benefits just like in the real world. The slime's protective jelly burst open and the hit broke the core, effectively ending the slime's life going by the general slime principle of 'no core, no life'.

It was instant death.

To her surprise, the monster's death did not give her anything. Not only that, the slime's body did not turn into carcass, but instead shattered into fragments and burst into smaller pieces until it was finally gone without a trace.

Aria raised a brow at this phenomenon, but she continued onwards. Because it was presumably the first level, the challenges weren't that tough. She encountered tens of slimes here and there, but those little things could be slain with just one hit from her due to her current stats and skills. She didn't even have to use additional spells.

As Aria began to make her way through the cave, the difficulty began to increase as always. The slimes that were once able to be taken out in one hit became a bit more resilient and needed two hits. Some slimes had quite a good agility and escaped Aria's strike, although they still ended up being decimated by her in the same way as the others.

She couldn't say that the Tower was a good thing because it did not yield her anything, but she still felt her body and resource draining as she fought. She knew that the System was actually quite generous with rewards, and judging by the Tower's premise, the stage rewards shouldn't just be something cheap and not useful.

Aria ventured through the cave, cutting down slimes and even some bats from time to time. New monsters were introduced as she went deeper, but none of them could pose a threat to Aria.

Within minutes, without realizing, she was already at the alleged boss of the stage, a large sized slime. Unlike the previous slime, which she could clearly see the cores of, this one hid its core somewhere between its body.

Aria sighed as she identified the monster as a King Slime. The title King meant that it would be the strongest one of the pack, but in truth, aside from its appearance differences, the King usually worked the exact same way as the weaker monsters below it, so in terms of slimes like this, the King would still be vulnerable.

Aria was quite disappointed at the opponent matchup because she felt her nervousness fade away just like that for nothing.