"I don't have many options now, and I didn't have many in the first place…" Gaius thought. "It is time to scare the crap out of those guys. No point in holding back."

The next day, Gaius stared intently at the sky and waited for the right creature to show up. It took a while, but eventually, a rather big bird crossed the sky in that area, and it was quite fast…

Gaius mustered all the mana he could use and made the sphere he created rotate faster than usual… and then he fired.

The mana sphere's rotation made a high-pitched sound echo in the village. Some people heard it, but soon they forgot about it when another bird fell in the middle of the place.

The Hawk was added to your summoning list.

Gaius sighed in relief when he saw that notification, but soon he had to begin to play dumb since another commotion started because of another dead bird in the village.

Hawk Lv 0 (00/1000)

Cost: 300 mana

Charge: 00

Summoning Bonuses: Luck + 01

Health: 30/30

Mana: 20/20

Stamina: 30/30

Strength: 04

Endurance: 02

Adaptability: 04

Magic: 02

Resistance: 02

Wisdom: 04

Dexterity: 03

Perception: 03

Luck: 04

Free points: 00

Gaius ignored the fact that another animal that existed on Earth also existed in that world and focused on its parameters. He had more important things to worry about, after all. They were pretty good, and since it was actually an animal with decent hunting abilities, Gaius expected a lot from it. Still, he had to wait until the next day before he could summon it.

"Sorry for asking you to do this, but you will have to look for snakes and eventually bring one half-dead here… bring as many different types as possible," Gaius said. "I guess rats will also do… I will be counting on you! Welcome to the Gaius Summoning Corporation."

The villagers were too busy with their work and the visit of the soldiers to care about anything else, so they didn't even notice when Gaius summoned a hawk in the middle of the village…

The next day, Gaius noticed that the amount of experience he was getting increased a lot. As expected, killing snakes was a convenient way to get experience. Still, the hawk failed at bringing any of them half-dead.

"I guess it couldn't be helped, given that I told them to focus on surviving each battle," Gaius thought. "Still, I need some snakes… I can't tell the strength of demons, but I don't think that level-ten animals can face them."

Gaius wondered if his options would increase if he had the chance to get one of those so-called demons. He had never seen one thus far, so it didn't seem like they could be used in any shape or form.

"I bet a horse can be useful…" Gaius thought when he saw one of the few horses in the village pulling a wagon. "Still, killing one will cause a lot of problems for the owner, and summoning one will be even more insane. I guess the best option is to kill one of the enemy's horses."

Gaius was a bit surprised at how ruthless he could be just by thinking about protecting that place… In his previous life, he never thought of killing animals, but now it was a necessity that he couldn't afford to ignore.

"Killing the enemies and soon summoning them will probably be more effective at scaring the enemies, but I still don't know how the people here are going to react," Gaius thought while imagining how much mana he would need to summon a human. "Considering what I saw until now, they probably will come at level one, so ordering them shouldn't be hard, but their strength will be limited."

You have leveled up.

You obtained 05 status points.

Two days later, after leveling up, the hawk finally brought a green snake. At first, Gaius got spooked since it suddenly fell from the sky, but he was glad since, thanks to the hawk, no one noticed that. So, Gaius killed it with his magic bullets and then told the hawk to get the corpse. People frowned when they saw the animal flying so close since it was unusual, and they frowned even more when they saw it grabbing a snake.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

The Poisonous Snake was added to your summoning list.

Poisonous Snake Lv 0 (00/1000)

Cost: 600 mana

Charge: 00

Summoning Bonuses: Poison Bullet Lv 00

Loyalty: 100/100

Health: 30/30

Mana: 35/35

Stamina: 35/35

Strength: 03

Endurance: 03

Adaptability: 02

Magic: 05

Resistance: 02

Wisdom: 05

Dexterity: 03

Perception: 04

Luck: 04

Free points: 00

"What?" Gaius was left speechless when he noticed that the snake granted him an ability.

While the people were surprised by the previous events, Gaius was surprised by what happened to his system… He thought that he could only get parameters from his summons. Still, when he checked his mind, the knowledge of how to create a poison bullet was there… it was missing something, though, and he couldn’t tell what it was.

Gaius was itching to test that, but he couldn't summon the snake now… he also wondered what was going to happen since it was at level zero. Still, he soon found the answer when he focused his eyes on the status screen of the creature.

Poison Bullet

Damage: 10 x level of the spell + magic of the caster per second for three seconds.

Cost: 10 MP

Distance: level of the spell multiplied by three.

It looked like Gaius couldn't use the spell now, but it had a lot of potential since it could cause damage over time based on his magic. Still, it would take a while before the snake could level up and make the spell even more useful…

Once again, Gaius had to wait for another day to summon the snake, and the day of reckoning was finally approaching… the tension in the village was rising as well.

"What are we going to do?" Kaira asked while sitting in front of the table with her hands covering her face.

"I don't know. No one wants to fight for these lands, and no one wants to fight other people's wars," Zairus replied while looking at his broadsword in the corner of the room. "We can't enter further into the demon's territory without risking some serious casualties… things will only get rougher over time if we do that."

"Other regions?" Kaira asked, already imagining the answer to her question.

"Most of them have been taken by other lords," Zairus replied while shaking his head. "Only those that are too dangerous or unsuited for farming have been left behind and are ignored. Even those who don't have many soldiers can claim many lands when they have relics or money to hire mercenaries or bandits. Many foreigners are coming to work nowadays… I suspect that guy is one of them."

Gaius was listening to the conversation while looking at the village. By "that guy," his father was probably mentioning the long-haired guy. That kind of person and attitude really rubbed Gaius the wrong way. So, he was really thinking about how he could deal with that guy without giving his underlings a reason to start a large conflict.

In any case, the atmosphere wasn't good… it looked like everyone, even Gaius' parents, was going to follow a dangerous route and let others dictate their lives for them. Gaius didn't want to live that kind of life.

Over the next few days, Gaius felt like sighing… no one made any kind of preparation. They had already given up on their freedom. Gaius couldn't blame them since they lost a lot due to the wars and didn't want to lose even more. He didn't know how wars changed people, so he couldn't say if they were wrong or not… still, he didn't want to live the life of a slave…

On the day that the group of soldiers returned, the whole village waited for them at the center of the place. Gaius was in front of the group with his family. Thanks to that, he finally realized that everyone had given up… it seemed impossible to live in that world without letting others control their lives. Their pride wasn't more important than their lives, and that was why they made their choice to obey.

"... We will follow the commands of Lord Ekirenton," Zairus said with his head down and clenching his teeth.

"Good," the long-haired guy said with a large grin on his face. "As vassals of the lord, you have some obligations from now on. You have to pay half of your production as taxes every month to the lord. You also need to send boys who are ten years old to his town to receive proper training to become soldiers and guards. You need a force of at least two hundred strong to be ready to deploy in times of war. If you fail to follow those agreements, the whole village will have to pay ten percent more in taxes for each infringement."

"... Understood," Zairus said with his head down and while biting his lips.

Gaius could feel the frustration of his father as if it were his own. Paying half of their production was already too much. They didn't have that many men able to fight either, so they had to train those who weren't. If the lord had known how much they had to fight to protect themselves, he wouldn't have asked for that much.

The people started going back to their homes, and it looked like no one was going to rebel. It was probably impossible to do that… they weren't going to risk their lives for the sake of their pride or their village.

Gaius sighed. At that moment, he had the feeling that he wouldn't be able to do anything else other than prepare for the worst… even with his magic and the summons he was developing, he wasn't sure if it would be enough to escape that situation. He had to become stronger before he could face those who ruled the world around him.