Doro emerged from the ground and raised its arms in triumph. It was about to open its mouth and roar but Zachary quickly stopped it with a reminder. He didn’t want a repeat of the previous night’s commotion.

“You did great, Doro. I knew you could do it.” Zachary said.

Doro’s mouth curved into a smile.

“Rahaha…” Its laugh was deep and mellow. “Master… can I eat?”

It pointed to the two remaining pieces of earth quintessence, one being about half used. Zachary considered it briefly. He had half a mind to give them to Wander or Onkie. However, Doro was still the best choice at the moment. If they could gather more quintessence, they could possibly have another breakthrough and reach the Four Paths Adept Rank. At that point, he could summon all the adept ranks he had on hand at the same time. With such a lineup, he wouldn’t be afraid of most opponents or threats in the jungle.

Zachary patted Doro fondly, “Sure, have at it.”

Doro let out a low growl of appreciation and swallowed both rocks. Zachary wasn’t worried and let it enjoy itself.

“Where the hell did you find an earth elemental?” A familiar voice asked from somewhere above.

Jean-Pierre dropped down from a branch, slowing at the last moment as an inky black cloud cushioned his feet. After landing, his overgrown owl returned to a high perch, melting into the darkness.

“What? Are you jealous?” Zachary asked, “Your shadowless cloud is quite special too.”

“Oh? Are you interested? How about a trade.” Jean-Pierre said.

Zachary shook his head and laughed, “First, I don’t want to. Second, its soul bonded to you. It would be a waste of time.”

Trading summons wasn’t too common but it also wasn’t strange. However, such trades usually involved summoning cards or summoning orbs. After breaking a soul bond, the Ensouled in question would be unwilling to form another one for a long time.

Jean-Pierre shrugged, “Oh well, Your loss. Though, I suppose you deserve a little luck here and there... what with all the shit you've been through.”

Zachary frowned, not understanding what that meant. He eventually chose to ignore it and asked, “How are things looking for tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow? Same as before. Don’t think your breakthrough will make any difference.”

“I know.”

The two traded a few more pleasantries before each going back to their tasks for the night. Jean-Pierre was eventually relieved from watch duty by Carlos while Zachary tried to get some rest before it was his turn.

However, sleep was difficult to come by. His mind was filled with excitement from Doro’s recent breakthrough, thoughts of their gambit with the scorpion dragon, as well as the return of the navy ship in less than a month and the uncertainties that brought. He also thought about Yaoyao and Minah before his sleepy mind drifted to Katherine, Heather, and even Jean-Pierre.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The young man was strange and full of mysteries. Was he really a serial killer? How did he even get caught? With a summon like the shadowless cloud, he could roam the Old World without worry.

More and more, Zachary felt that this guy wasn’t a normal person.

The rest of the night passed in fits and spurts, alternating between unease and weariness. Before he realized it, it was morning once again as the sky started to turn from pitch black to a deep purple and gaining indigo hues.

Everyone quickly awoke and resumed their assigned tasks. Today was a critical day and they all knew it. Even the summons sensed the urgency of their masters.

Toby and the other mantis flew to the top of the trees and began hacking away. Shuhua’s monkey soon joined them, waving two mantis claws around like a drunken swordsman. Yesterday, they had created a clearing about fifteen to twenty meters wide. Today, they wanted to increase it by as much as they could.

Zachary sent Elmont to join the other treants in the ground party while keeping an eye on Doro. The earth elemental had greater strength than ever before. Its speed underground had improved. It also had sharper senses and could locate the pieces of quintessence much easier. As a result, it amassed a small fortune by midday, almost as much as it had gathered all of yesterday.

However, not everything was so wonderful. They weren’t making much better progress at clearing the jungle. There were simply too many trees, too many tough vines, too many thorny plants. They didn’t have enough lumberjacks or helpers.

Jean-Pierre was also constantly reminding them of the sleeping scorpion dragon. His warnings grew more and more concerning as the sun moved away from its zenith towards the western ocean. Finally, he called a halt to everyone just as his owl fled out of the cave.

A silence pressure fell upon the party as they understood that they could wait no longer. Even without words, there was a sense that hey were all on the precipice of life and death. So far, they had been preoccupied with carrying out the plan and hard at work. Now, it was the moment of action, to see if they could pull it off or if an enraged expert rank scorpion dragon was about to charge after them through the jungle.

“We’re out of time. We have to do it now.” Jean-Pierre said, his expression grave.

He looked at Heather and then at Zachary.

Both nodded.

“Withdraw your summons. Get ready!”

As Jean-Pierre spoke, he drew out a handful of summoning cards he had prepared. He raised the first card to his forehead. Amidst the flashing of light and energy as various summons were recalled all around him, a ray of white light shot out from his brow and took the shape of a giant mosquito. It was much larger than the one Zachary had seen before but it was still at the novice rank.

“Go, fly above the trees in a circular pattern,” Jean-Pierre ordered.

The mosquito showed no sign of reluctance and shot off into the air. It almost disappeared from view as its spindly body was lost amidst the foliage at the edge of the clearing. Up there, it wouldn’t take long for it to catch the attention of a roving seagull.

Jean-Pierre didn’t stop here. Three more summons appeared in quick succession. There was a spiky spider, a stag beetle, and a juvenile mantis. He ordered the spider to climb to the top of the barren tree on the other side of the clearing. The stag beetle joined it, taking a spot about halfway down the trunk. The juvenile mantis took a similar position on the other side, below the mosquito.

“Once a bug catcher, always a bug catcher.” Zachary teased.

“Shut up.” Jean-Pierre retorted but he still smiled.

The most difficult task, and the one that would require the most sacrifice, he had volunteered for it. They needed something to lure the giant seagulls to the clearing and into the cave. They could only do it with summons as living prey. It was most likely that those summons used as bait would be killed.

Now, all they could do was wait. Wait and hope that their gambit would pay off and nothing would go wrong.