For the time being though, while he was trying to take a breather, he should check out his status window. He levelled up in the middle of the last fight, and he hadn't looked at it since contracting the wisp.
[Ashton Garling] [Age - 23] [Coins - 691 -> 1187]
[Stats]
[Power - 9 -> 10]
[Resilience - 10]
[Speed - 12]
[Spirit - 14 -> 16]
[Classes]
-[Summoner - Level 4 -> 5]
-[Aether Sensitivity - Level 1 -> 2]
-[Channel - Level 2 -> 3]
-[Summoning - Level 1 -> 2]
-[Construct Summoning (New!)]
[Pen of Insight - Level 1 (New!)]
-[Elemental Summoning]
[Lesser Wisp - Level 1 -> 3]
-[Spirit Summoning (New!)]
[Backpacker - Level 1 -> 2 (New!)]
Everything was looking pretty good. It was annoying that his resilience and speed didn't go up with that level-up, but that just happened sometimes. Ashton's 'spirit' stat was the most important long-term anyway, and that was growing pretty steadily. His accumulated coins came out to quite the sum, too. Though, none of this was anywhere close to good enough.
Levelling got exponentially harder and harder, and since he was a summoner, levelling was most efficient when he actually made use of his contracts. But the wisp was the only combat summon he could really make use of right now, he needed a few more materials to get his hand on other elementals. But he didn't have the mana to summon the wisp without an offering at the moment, and he had to be smart about how he used his food, so he would just use the wisp in an emergency for the time being.
But at least he had other useful helpers that he could call on. Ashton clicked his fingers, and the backpack appeared mid-air, being put together from wisps of magic. With his phone, he had bought himself four weeks of this 'constant contract', where he could call on the Backpacker whenever he needed to without re-summoning. But when those four weeks were over, Ashton would have to offer a powerful or important item. It couldn't just be trash he didn't use either, but something that he was either genuinely attached to or used for a long time.
The stronger the attachment and the more special and unique the item was, the more time you could buy. But if he didn't renew the contract after those four weeks, the backpacker would keep all the items it was storing as 'collateral' until a proper payment had been made.
But until then... he could just call on the backpack whenever he needed to, "Can you get me my water bottle?" he asked, and the backpacker quickly obliged. It took off the backpack and quickly started looking through the bag, taking out the bottle a moment later.
It was much larger inside than the backpack used to be, around ten cubic feet total, hence why Ashton even made this contract. And with each level, the space in there would increase by roughly another cubic foot. You didn't even need to worry about sorting it properly. Each item took up its allotted space perfectly, like storing things in a game's inventory.
Ashton took a sip of water and gave the bottle back, asking for his knife instead. With this, he then went around collecting the magic stones, fangs, and claws that he needed, giving them to the backpacker.
"Urgh... How I wouldn't love to contract something that can dismantle monsters," Ashton put his hand onto his neck, stretching lightly. But right now, with just the three spirits he had contracted, his capacity was just below halfway full. Sure, he technically had the space he needed for a few more contracts, but he couldn't just waste it away with things that weren't absolutely necessary for the time being. Plus, he didn't know about that many more beings that he could summon with the specific set of ingredients and offerings that he had with him. The most important part he needed now was some proper ink. The few contracts that he made were largely just possible because he used way more magic stones than he should usually need.
Lower-grade magic ink wasn't that hard to make, he just needed to find the right place and tools to make it. That should be his goal for now. And while he was at it... the magic compass he had made should be able to lead him to some interesting opportunities as well.
He doubted that it was a coincidence that there was a 'Hidden Boss' sitting right above a mana well, after all. Ashton just had to get far enough away from the park so that he may be able to find a new well. They should be all over town at the moment.
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Once everything was collected, Ashton cleaned the knife up a bit and gave it back to the Backpacker, before sending the spirit back for now.
With his staff in hand, Ashton continued to walk. While he was looking for a mana well, there was an area he wanted to check out. If he walked a bit longer, he could get to the city centre and find tons of shops. They were probably overrun by monsters and people trying to barricade themselves, but there should be a few places he can get into.
Of course, there was one issue that Ashton had completely forgotten about. It had been a lifetime since he was last here, and it wasn't as though back then he particularly knew his way around. So there was just one thing he could do.
Looking out into the distance, he found a group of monsters gathered together, which had to mean one thing and one thing only: they were swarming people. Ashton quickly started running toward them. If he was too late, things might turn for the worst. Only that there were a ton of monsters. At least ten goblins, five ratmen, fifteen kobolds, and mixed in there, ahead of all the rest, was one of Ashton's favourites: the slime.
Of course, slimes were some of the most horrendous beings in the world, and he also hated them with a burning passion that couldn't compare to the heat of a thousand suns, but once they were dead, they could come in extremely useful. You could even turn some of them into food. Once their acid was neutralised, orange slimes were a particularly great treat. The only annoying part was that this was a red slime.
Their main diet consisted of metals and other minerals, though that didn't mean they weren't harmful to organic beings. But what it definitely meant was that if Ashton attacked it using his staff... the endcaps would suffer incredibly. A red slime's acid seemed to somehow seep into the tiniest cracks of any metal, and it was almost impossible to get back out without melting the metal down. So after a little contact, the endcaps would become useless.
"And just after I decided to call on the lesser wisp sparingly... Backpacker, give me the wisp's summoning circle and the... last sandwich."
The spirit appeared once again, running alongside Ashton while casually pulling the bag to its front to look through it, and then quickly handed the items out to Ashton. He had the spirit hold the staff for a moment and then pressed the sandwich onto the small, simplified summoning circle. He let his magic flow into the summoning circle and watched as the sandwich disappeared.
"Thanks for answering my call," Ashton smiled, as he gave the piece of paper back and took his quarterstaff. The summoning circle on the paper was useless now, but Ashton couldn't just throw it away to the side. He didn't know what to do if the wrong person got their hands on summoning knowledge. The Backpacker disappeared as Ashton smiled at the small wisp.
The moment he got into range, Ashton slowed down. He looked over at the pair that had climbed onto that bus, trying to fend off the monsters that flooded over to them, trying to reach up to them. With the red slime, they wouldn't survive there for too long.
"Just hold on for a second!" Ashton yelled out, using this to warn both of them, while also drawing in attention from the monsters. They turned around as he had hoped, and the first ran over toward him. The more instinct-reliant ratmen came first, but the moment they came close enough, Ashton directed the lesser wisp.
With a flick of his wrist, the first one's skull was crushed, with another, the second one went down as well. The barrage of monsters came at him, none of them able to come all too close, at least at first.
At some point, once a few of the monsters started getting into the range of his staff, Ashton started striking at them like that. His quite heavy staff attacks took care of those few stragglers with ease.
[You have killed a [Kobold]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 3 Coins]
[You have killed a [Kobold]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 3 Coins]
[You have killed a [Ratman]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 12 Coins]
[You have killed a [Goblin]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 10 Coins]
[You have killed a [Ratman]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 12 Coins]
[You have killed a [Kobold]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 3 Coins]
[You have killed a [Ratman]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 12 Coins]
[You have killed a [Goblin]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 10 Coins]
...
...
...
[You have killed a [Goblin]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 10 Coins]
It didn't even take a minute for Ashton to take down this group of monsters, of course saving the most important one for last.
"Backpacker, could you get me one of the empty bottles? The plastic one, please," he asked, holding his hand to the side. While wandering around, Ashton had managed to find a few things in the trash that seemed useful, such as these empty bottles. 'Plastic' wasn't a thing in the other world, or at least not in the way that it was recognisable to someone from earth. And since he knew that some types of plastic could be very acid-resistant, it was worth a try. He also found some glass bottles, but all of them had metal caps, so they were useless with this particular slime.
Ashton walked over to the oozing abomination, forming a fist to make the wisp shrink down. It seemed that, not only did its base size increase, but the degree to which it could grow and shrink also changed, being able to get even smaller than before. Which was why this was a great way to simply swoop into the slime's body and push out its 'core', forcing it out of the body. And just like that...
[You have killed a [Red Slime]. For your valiant effort, you are awarded 25 Coins]
'Neat~' Ashton hummed inside of his head. Of course, this was just a measly little level 1 or 2 slime at the very best. Stronger ones wouldn't be this easy, but with these, 'killing' them was easy as long as you had the right weapon.
"Sorry about that, I hope it wasn't too bad," Ashton said to the lesser wisp as it came flying over to him, placing itself into his palm. It was slightly shaking, "... Slimes are scary, I know. I won't make you do this again if you don't want to. I'll figure out something else."
Immediately, the wisp shot out of his hand and locked itself into position in front of Ashton. It wasn't able to speak or anything, but it was still able to get the point across: Even though it didn't like slimes, it would keep fighting them when necessary. Ashton smiled, rubbing his finger over the orb's surface, "Thank you. I'll make sure to give you something really tasty to eat next time."
The wisp's glow became brighter out of excitement, and Ashton was able to focus his attention back onto the ground. He couldn't let the slime's body go to waste.
First, he cleaned up the core, a small, roughly eyeball-sized orb that contained structures that were similar to a brain. It was a pretty good ingredient for certain potions. He threw it over to the Backpacker and started trying to scoop up the actual 'slime' left behind by the monster into the plastic bottle. It didn't seem 'perfect', but it could probably hold out for a while. Ashton filled up as many as he could with that sludge and put it into the backpack, and then watched as that pair climbed down the bus.
"Thank you for saving us," one of them whispered, not wanting to get more attention from hiding monsters.
Ashton stood back up and looked at them, shooting a bright smile back at them, "Of course! Though, I've got a small favour to ask in return," he explained, and could already see the pair growing nervous, "Do you guys know the way to Market Street?"
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