My Summons Are Mythical Beasts

The surroundings suddenly went quiet.

Lucas looked ahead with a bit of apprehension on his face.

The two battling beasts suddenly stopped. Who won and who lost, Lucas did not know.

At the next moment, the snake's body suddenly moved.

It hissed at Spot while its tight grasp of his body gradually loosened, as if losing some strength.

The next moment, the snake's battered and bloodied body fell limply to the ground with a thud.

It was dead.

Spot proved himself to be extremely strong once more. He emerged victorious in that battle of strength and mutual destructive ferocity.

As he stepped out of the snake's coiling body, Lucas saw that the white fur around his neck was already quite bloody. If it was the blood of the snake or his, Lucas did not know.

Worried about his summon, Lucas ignored the new log that appeared on his grimoire and went to Spot to take a closer look.

"Are you alright, Spot?"

Woof!

Spot barked softly as if announcing that he was okay.

Lucas nodded his head in understanding.

As he observed Spot, though, Lucas saw that there was a huge bite mark on his nape.

He just hoped that the venom of the snake was not its main ability; otherwise, the venom might do a lot more damage than he thinks. He also hopes that the grimoire could somehow neutralize it as well.

Spot also seemed to have weakened a lot due to the snake's suppression. Coupled with his previous wounds, Spot looked as if he was already about to be done for. But he had always persevered and endured.

"Return inside and recuperate, bud," Lucas stated with a soft smile.

Woof!

Instead of returning, though, Spot instead turned toward the snake's body once more.

It was then that Lucas recalled that, different from when inside the dungeon, beasts in the outside world or in the wilderness will leave their bodies behind when they were killed.

The one who killed the beast would then be able to harvest their body for materials and even meat if it was edible.

Spot in his Hellhound Manifestation form suddenly lowered his head and bit into the snake's body. He tore its skin apart with his claws to create an opening wound where he bit directly into the snake's flesh.

He then began eating the snake's meat without ceremony.

And as if remembering something, Spot took a huge chunk of snake meat and put it in front of Lucas with a soft bark as if telling him to eat it.

Seeing the bloody and messy meat of the snake beast offered by Spot in front of him, Lucas could not help but produce a wry smile.

He had seen his fair share of blood and gore inside the dungeon already—even if they turn into particles of light a moment later—but being offered to eat it raw was something he did not want to experience.

He knew for a fact, though, that beasts meat, the higher grade and rank they were, the more nutritious they became.

At the same time, there was also beasts meat that got more poisonous the higher grade and rank they came from.

Usually, there were experts that helped eliminate such risks, like cooking them with special fires or with the help of contracted beasts. Each of them also had the ability to determine if the beast meat was poisonous or not.

However, Lucas doesn't have such an expert by his side at the moment. No matter how many times he studied the wilderness survival lessons, there were still a lot of things that he did not know of.

The bloody meat of the snake was already unappetizing enough; how much more if he was to eat it raw?

He did not have any equipment to make his own fire either; there were no such materials around that could help him create one as well. Heck, starting a fire in the middle of a wilderness was also not a good idea either.

But his stomach...

It has been growling and churning since earlier.

Spot might have heard it, hence the reason why he offered him food.

Since Spot had consumed and even offered it to him, then the meat itself must really be edible and not harmful to him.

'Still... Eating it raw...'

Lucas did not know if he would be able to stomach it.

Woof!

Spot barked at him once more.

He nudged the meat closer to Lucas, as if telling him to eat the meat already.

"G-good boy. Eat your fill, don't worry about me," Lucas patted Spot's head, appreciating his concern.

Still conflicted about being able to eat the meat raw though, he decided to check the logs as well as his profile page first.

[Name: Lucas Valen

Age: 17

Grimoire Grade: Unranked

Your next read awaits at empire

Rank: Iron Star 4 (141.33/506)

Spiritual Energy: 56/67

Beasts: Gentle Dog]

The first thing that Lucas noticed was the increase in his experience points. He recalled that it was only a little over forty when he checked it earlier. This proves that the snake was indeed a formidable opponent. It might be at the same level or even more frightening than the Dark Catowl.

The next thing he noticed was the amount of Spiritual Energy that was deducted upon summoning Spot. Now that Spot was already at Iron Star 4, the amount of Spiritual Energy needed to summon him for thirty minutes had increased to eleven.

Lucas glanced at the bottom of the page and saw the name and the level of the snake beast in the logs.

[You have killed an Bronze Grade-Bronze Star 1, Sylvan Serpent (100%): You gained 94.25 XP]

"A Sylvan Serpent, huh. Never heard of that one."

There were countless kinds of beasts that existed all over the world. It was only normal that he did not know of this beast that Spot had just killed.

Although he was surprised about its grade and star rank, Lucas actually thought that it was justified, considering that Spot had struggled to kill the Sylvan Serpent.

The Dark Catowl from before was also a Bronze Grade beast, but it was of lower rank compared to the Sylvan Serpent.

Spot has also struggled against the Dark Catowl before, but at that time, he was only at Iron Star 3.

With an increase in strength, Spot was now able to fight a higher rank than the Dark Catowl and even managed to kill it in the end. Although the fight was also a bit of a struggle, Spot was able to finish the Sylvan Serpent in a short period of time compared to when he fought the Dark Catowl.

At this point, Lucas was already used to seeing Spot fight and win against opponents with a higher rank than his own.

One must note that Ranks and Grades should go hand in hand to determine the strength of a beast. However, if the two were compared against each other, one could say that the Ranks were more important than the Grades.

Ranks determine direct combat strength, while Grades determine potential and talent.

Higher-ranking beasts were generally stronger, but those with high grades but of low rank could still best them due to the repertoire of skills that they originally had.

Such cases were rare, and usually, only geniuses were capable of such a feat.

However, for Spot, the rank itself seems to have lost its value and was not really that important as he could cross-rank and kill those above in rank just like the geniuses in cultivation levels he read.

Of course, such geniuses exist in the real world too.

In fact, Lucas considered Spot to be one of those geniuses as well. He might not have been one before, but he was definitely so after inheriting the Hellhound Manifestation from the system.

Guys like Hector and even those who wield and own at least Silver Grade grimoires were considered such geniuses as well.

From what he heard, a Bronze Grade contracted beast could already fight a higher-ranking beast with a lower grade already. As for a Silver Grade contracted beast, it was already a definite fact for them to be able to do so. They might even be able to fight two to three ranks higher than them.

The higher the grade of their opponent, the less they would be able to cross-rank, of course.

However, those of the Gold Grade... Lucas was not privy to such information, but from what he learned from the internet, they were deemed to be the best of the best and could fight at least five ranks higher than them.

This was also the reason why Lucas thought that Spot in his Hellhound Manifestation form was as strong as a Silver Grade beast of the same rank and was only a little hopeful that he was as strong as a Gold Grade beast.

Time and time again, though, Spot had proven himself to be stronger than a Gold-Grade beast.

If there was a higher grade after Gold Grade, Lucas was sure that Spot would transform into such a grade during his Hellhound Manifestation form.

For higher-grade beasts, crossing ranks was already a norm.

What was not normal though was the fact that Spot was still able to defeat the Sylvan Serpent even though it was already at the Bronze Star Rank.

One must note that in every major star, there would be a qualitative change to the beast and even to the summoners.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Being at Bronze Star 1, the Sylvan Serpent was countless times more powerful than the Dark Catowl, which was at Iron Star 9, despite both being of the same grade. Though there might only be a one-level gap between the two, the difference in strength was actually as massive as the gap between four full ranks within the same major star level.

Still, Spot was able to defeat the Sylvan Serpent after rising just one minor star rank.

That was also not something that Lucas could easily get used to.

Aside from that, what he could not get used to was the amount of experience points he receives from cross-ranking too much as well.