The brown slimes were rapidly dying. His acid was strong. Stronger than the slimes’ acid. However, it was no use. All slimes were advancing on him in the tunnel, and he was trapped.

He used his skill again on the white slime facing the city. My wolves with slimes were in position outside the tunnel. Even if he broke through, they would shred him.

What! Someone else had shown up, killing my wolves with rock spikes shooting out of the ground. I rushed my wolves in at him. Michael couldn’t be allowed to escape. He had to pay.

The slimes missed as they leapt off the wolves’ heads. The man used his sword to cut them apart, but his sword melted. Michael rushed out of the tunnel, stepping in the blue slimes. Yes, suffer!

I enjoyed watching with my wolves as his feet melted. Just one bit of pain I needed to pay you back with before I finally killed you. That was when he leapt on one of my wolves. I couldn’t tell what he was saying. I winced as he crushed the wolf’s head. That had been unpleasant to experience.

That was when I began to lose control over my most distant summons. What was going on? One summon broke away completely. I looked around myself. We were making good progress across the grasslands.

I focused. The energy was denser here than in the city. My tethers to my summons were struggling to maintain themselves. Each tether was tied to the level of the monster I summoned. The weaker monsters used less energy so had thinner tethers.

The connection to more of my monsters snapped. Dammit. I had no monsters that could intercept Michael. He had escaped. At least I had critically wounded him.

“Did you get him?” Nox asked.

“No. Someone came to his rescue.” I thought I heard her curse under her mask.

“Middle eastern, middle aged?”

“Yes.”

“Naran,” Nox hissed out. “He used to run the city of Truth as its Lord. He defected and Michael took him under his wing. But this isn’t good. Michael will be coming for us.”

“I injured him and forced him to retreat to the plaza.” He was going to get a restoration. I had lost my chance. Well, if the first time failed, I would just have to gather up more energy and summons and try again.

“How badly? Did he lose a limb?” Nox asked.

“His feet were melted a bit.” There were other minor injuries, but that was the only serious damage I had inflicted on him.

“We should leave. You spot any pursuit?” Nox asked. I wasn’t about to reveal my limitations to her.

“No pursuit, the tunnel is still blocked off.” The level 2 white slime was still under my control. I needed to see how far the tether would extend.

“Good. If we can reach the edge of the summoner ants by tonight, then we should reach the city of New Cairo by tomorrow evening.” She glanced over at the people pulling the cart and walking with us with slimes at our head. Then at me sitting on the cart. I gave her a stare back daring to say anything since I had level 2 scorpion and several wolves with slimes under my control around us.

A person showed up as we crossed over a hill. “Hey there. Woah, a large group. Monsters?!”

“Acid Shot.” The person died screaming. I looked at Ruth or Nox. I didn’t know she knew that skill. She had two skills. She was not to be underestimated in the slightest. I noted other people in the distance, poking out of the tall grass, quickly move away from the screams.

“Who was that?”

“A grinder clearing level 1 monsters outside the city. If we run into anymore, kill them, but we don’t have time to chase any of them down. We have to keep moving.” I frowned, but she was right. I needed time to prepare for when Michael got a restoration and came after us.

“We could take them hostage,” I suggested.

“We don’t have the time or the food for that. Let’s keep moving. We need to cover as much distance as possible. Only once we are past the summoner ants, will we have some safety.” A monster that summoned other monsters, now that was interesting. The cart pullers and the few remaining people with brown slimes on their heads began moving again.

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I could control the blue slimes that came from the white slime. Would I be able to summon summoner monsters and then have an exponential army? The thought made me smile slightly and took away the annoyance of the tether limits I had encountered.

We quickly went through the grasslands, due East without incident. When we reached the next zone of deadlands, I felt my tether snap to my level 2 monster remaining in the city. The energy also was thicker in this zone.

I could summon a large amount of level 2 monsters and attack the city from quite a distance. I considered doing just that. Then I glanced at Nox. I couldn’t allow her to see how summoning was performed. While she was an ally, I didn’t trust in the slightest. I had no doubt she would kill me if she had the chance.

Unfortunately, she was just too useful to kill, for now. She used Acid Shot and killed a giant scorpion, picking up the crystal it dropped. I considered all the crystals in the cart. She would probably want a portion, but I would keep most of it. Still, I had done all the work, what had seen done? Just complained and worried.

Once at the city I would need to control the store. From there I could send people out to kill monsters for me or starve to death. Nox would be able to leave on my behalf, but everyone else there would have to obey or die. She could act as my eyes outside the city and bring me information.

From there I would build up my power and slowly spread outwards. But I couldn’t do negative energy training while keeping my summons around. Perhaps forming an elite and loyal personal guard. I would need to monitor their stats carefully.

Yes, that would be ideal. They could take skills and provide another layer of defense and attack. But I would lack the control I had over my summons. If they left the city, I wouldn’t be able to keep a summon with them.

That was when I had another brilliant idea. I thought it over as Ruth kept clearing and advancing. When we reached the teleporting striped meerkats, we slowed down, but we slowly made our way through them losing only two people and a couple monsters. Ruth was completely unharmed when we called a stop for the night.

There were five people left, or five test subjects. Time to run some experiments. “You come here,” I pointed at one of the people. They got up from where they were sitting on the ground and came over to the cart.

“Swallow this.” I handed them a level 1 crystal. They looked at it and then at me.

“Please. Please no.”

“Swallow it or be melted.” The woman began to cry as she swallowed the crystal. Nox had stood up and was watching intently. I focused on the crystal inside the woman. I reached out and put a hand on her chest.

I focused and gave a similar push I gave for the powder process and summoning. The energy was stirring a bit, but quickly stopped. The energy was leaking out. It was why summoning required circles of powder, to reflect the energy of the crystal back on itself.

I got a flask of water and put some blood powder of the same crystal type as the one I had fed the woman. “Drink,” I handed her the flask and she drank. I focused and felt the energy suspended in the liquid disperse into the woman. Similar to how other people reacted to the drug.

I reached out and touched her chest again. I focused and gave a push with my energy.

“AHHHH!” The woman let out a blood curdling scream.

“Dammit! That might attract something,” Nox said, but I didn’t pay much attention to her. I was far more fascinated by the transformation happening in front of me. Physically, the woman was convulsing on the ground and screaming. What was far more interesting was how the energy was exploding inside of her and merging with her flesh.

It was like she was becoming closer and closer to what a monster came across in my senses, a dense bundle of energy. Moving away from what a regular human came across as, a space devoid of energy. In the city I hadn’t been able to tell the difference, but out here with these people and using Nox as a comparison, the difference was clear.

In a matter of seconds, the energy stilled. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. Where there once was a woman, now there was a human shaped slime. There was a tether, but there was no energy draw. Instead, I could sense through the hybrid, and there was more.

There was pain, suffering, fear, but those feelings coming through the tether were quickly disappearing. Instead, there was nothing left behind.

“What did you do?” Nox asked in a shaky voice.

“I have created a hybrid. It is far better than just summoning a regular monster.” I began to move the hybrid about. The slosh of liquid in the human shaped slime casing was interesting. “The properties of a human and a slime.”

I couldn’t make it speak, but everything about it was so much better. It was a complete upgrade to my old summons. “You come here.” I gestured at a man.

“No! I won’t become that!” He ran away. The brown slime engulfed his head. The gurgling screams were quickly cut off.

“You come here.” I pointed at an older man. He let out a long sigh and walked over. “Swallow and then drink.”

“From all those I may hurt, I ask forgiveness. To all who have hurt me, I grant forgiveness. So, I return-AAHHHHH!” I ignored his pitiful ramblings and began to turn him into a hybrid, this time I was using wolf crystals and powder.

How utterly brilliant of me to discover this! Fur sprung up all over the old man. His legs became digitigrade. His head turned into that of a wolves. A werewolf! I could feel the last screams of his consciousness and ignored that.

I flexed the powerful body. “Grrrr.” It couldn’t speak, but it could growl. I had the monster walk around a bit, getting used to controlling the new body. It senses were amazing. What was even better was the no energy cost. I needed to make. An army of monsters. I glanced at Nox, I wonder what would happen to someone with skills and stats.

Hmm, she still had her uses. For now. If I could use level 3 crystals on her, that would be the best. I would create an elite to always guard me.