“Ugg…” Zachary wanted to respond with something smart but he could only manage a groan.

All coherent thought disappeared as a furious headache hit him. He had expended too much Eternum during the river crossing and too quickly. His vision became dizzy from the pain. His body shuddered from an additional wave of nausea that washed over him without warning.

“What’s wrong?” Katherine asked.

She wiggled around on top of him. This didn’t help at all as it felt like she was pushing directly on his stomach.

“… need to throw up.” He mumbled.

“What?”

“I need to throw up!” He said and pushed her off.

Ignoring her aggrieved expression, he rolled over and heaved his breakfast back out.

Katherine didn’t say anything else. She rubbed his back as he remained bent over, coughing and spitting everything in his stomach back out. She disappeared briefly and came back with water from the river, held in a bowl made from a large leaf.

Zachary didn’t protest and drank several mouthfuls. Afterward, he let out a long sigh. His head still throbbed but he felt a lot better.

“Sorry, it’s my soul wound.” He said.

“I assumed as much.” She said, “Still, that was very impressive, what you showed off back there. The combination of a long-range recall and a rapid resummon. It's rare to see either one in the adept rank.”

“Yeah…” He mumbled through a pained smile.

He was a little proud of his performance. The only problem was that both techniques required a tremendous amount of Eternum as well as control over it.

For a long-range recall, he had to find the exact location of his summon from afar using acute soul sense in order to activate the recall. Then, he had to use his soul force to protect the soul bond as it returned. This was especially challenging in the water and without direct visual contact.

As for a rapid resummon, it was even more difficult. The act of summoning and recalling were complete opposites. When taking a recall, the Ensouled expected to return to safety and get a good rest. Pushing them back out with a resummon not only required a large amount of Eternum, it also went against the spirit of the soul bond, creating resentment in the relationship. For misbehaving Ensouled, a rapid resummon had a high chance of failing as the Ensouled was more likely to ignore the command and remain inside the card.

Speaking of which… Zachary looked around hurriedly for Hammer. The wounded crab was in a sorry state, lying half-dead on the river bank. One claw was gone as well as two legs. The shell that protected its back had also suffered a break, exposing its vulnerable insides. Its mouth moved weakly, expelling a few bloody bubbles.

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He found the right card after a brief search and finally recalled the hard-working crab. Inside the summoning card, its condition would not get any worse. There was even a chance it could slowly heal based on specific physical attributes.

“What are you going to do with it?” Katherine asked.

He flipped the card in his hand, “I won’t give up on it so easily like Jean-Pierre did with his bugs. Hammer is resilient and crabs can generally regrow limbs and shells. I think it can recover.”

“With a rapid resummon, aren’t you worried about a weakened bond?” She asked.

“I don't know, let me see.”

He held the card to his forehead and sent Eternum into it. This energy went directly to Hammer, helping it regain its vitality and improve self-healing. Afterward, he received a small response from his summon.

It was not as obvious as a wave of Eternum or anything. Instead, it was more like a warm feeling one would get on a summer day or after a cup of tea. It was Hammer’s feelings and emotions.

There was a lot of pain. It had suffered against much stronger opponents. Other people may assume that things like crabs couldn’t feel pain because they did not have an expressive face or the ability to voice their suffering. But since he was a summoner, he had to at least know this much about his summons.

‘Hammer, you did well,’ Zachary sent silent words of comfort through the bond, ‘I wouldn’t have been able to survive without you.’

‘Ka… Ka…’ Hammer responded weakly.

There were no coherent words, just feelings and emotions. At the novice rank, this was the limit between them.

It was mostly a sense of satisfaction. The crab was proud that it was able to block two attacks from powerful adept rank seagulls. All Ensouled were intelligent. Although crustaceans were not known for their brainpower compared to other Ensouled, they still understood enough about the battle. In its mind, it had won a great battle and indeed it had.

Zachary chuckled and sent a wave of his thoughts through the bond, ‘Haha, good! I will make sure to heal you back to full strength. And I will help you get stronger. If we meet those seagulls again, you’ll have your revenge!”

‘Kack.’ It replied with an agreement.

It was not afraid. Because Hammer was simple-minded, it feared nothing, not even death. It was just the way it is, the strong and silent type, always reliable. It also developed a grudge against the ugly flying rats that wounded it. It would get its payback sooner or later.

Zachary withdrew his consciousness and looked back at Katherine, “I think Hammer will be fine. I will heal him.”

He rummaged through his supply bag and took out his summoning cards. He had started with twenty and that number grew to thirty-four after looting some dead bodies. However, after two weeks in the jungle, he only had nineteen left over. The expenditure was far greater than he had expected and he had to be more careful from now on.

His lineup was also problematic. He currently had Boba the brown boa, Blue the jungle bird, Arrow the poison frog, Onkie the furry pig, Hammer the crab, Dream the rainbow fish, Sugo the seaweed slug, and Whiskers the overgrown catfish. There were too many weaklings and too many aquatic beasts.

He tossed around the remaining contents in the supply bag, making a series of clinking noises. He took out the culprits, four spare anima crystals he had. He made a face. It wasn’t enough and he would have to gather more.

He chose a clear, attribute-less anima crystal. With Hammer’s card in one hand and the crystal in the other, he pressed them together and entered a meditative state, directly feeding the wounded crab pure Eternum to speed up its recovery.