Chapter Seventeen: The Summoning Master

  The first key point of summoning a swordsman - absolutely never fight alone at any time.

  Consume 1 skill point, upgrade Moon Shadow Swordsmanship 1/5, proficiency C - Unlock Moonlight

  Consume 1 skill point, specify talent - Summoner's Awakening

  Summon Master First Layer Talent Unlocked: Soul Resonance (Character summons an additional spirit every 10 levels)

  Soul Call (Shared sensory with summoned items, increased duration of soul connection)

  Construct Coordination (can perform Double Spirit Fusion)

  Acquire permanent skill: Soul Resonance LV1 (Character can summon an additional spirit every 10 levels)

  [Summon Spirit +1]

  Just as the last line of system text disappeared, a huge shadow flashed across Roderick's eyes. But he didn't retreat, nor did he show any fear. On the contrary, Roderick raised his long sword and swung it forward fiercely.

  "Whoosh!"

  A greenish figure flew quickly from the sword blade and pounced on the incoming Stone Golem.

  Soul Bird.

  Roth's biggest problem right now is that he can't summon two summons at the same time, and unfortunately, as his weapon, Starseeker belongs to one of the summons.

  Generally, summoners and ordinary swordsmen are the same, only equipped with a "normal" weapon. Rod is an exception, although he has thought about using normal weapons, but he can't give up the attribute bonus of Star Mark. It's because of this property that Rod can easily destroy monsters that are roughly the same level as him or even slightly higher in the early stages and gain so much experience. However, on the other hand, this also makes Rod unable to adopt the "simultaneous attack with summoned creatures" method unique to summoners, and from the appearance, he looks more like an orthodox swordsman.

  This made Rod quite uncomfortable, but there was no way around it. If he were to summon the Soul Bird, then he would have to give up on Star Stigmata. However, this would put Rod in a predicament where he would be left without any means of attack. Although his main focus was on summoning creatures, one must not forget that the last two words of his title were "Sword Saint" and not "Mage". Therefore, Rod couldn't just hide behind like those spellcasters who did nothing but cast spells from a distance. However, if he were to use Star Stigmata, then he would have to seal away the Soul Bird. But fighting like an ordinary swordsman was not exactly a good thing for Rod either.

  Because Summoner Swordsman has a biggest weakness compared to regular Swordsman, that is its job penalty - all sword mastery -1.

  In other words, the authentic swordsmen's sword techniques can be upgraded to SSS at most. However, no matter how hard the summoned swordsmen try, they can only reach SS at best. Moreover, from the very beginning, the starting lines of both sides were different. All the initial sword technique proficiency levels of the authentic swordsmen are D, while Rod's summoned swordsmen can only start from E. This is the gap that can be said to exist in reality. From the moment he arrived in this world until now, Rod has been working extremely hard. If it weren't for his possession of the Star Mark and his understanding of the Dragon Soul Continent, he would have been defeated long ago. Because he had already become accustomed to having summoned creatures fight alongside him at all times, this current state made him feel an enormous amount of pressure.

  And now, with the "Summoner" talent revealed, he finally felt a weight lift off his shoulders.

  No, summoners don't have as strong individual attack power as regular swordsmen, but they were never meant to fight alone.

  Facing the soul bird rushing towards itself, the stone statue was stunned for a moment. It felt the magical aura on its opponent's body, but the unremarkable artificial intelligence couldn't determine what this thing rushing towards it was. Nevertheless, it still identified the opponent as an enemy and swiped down with one claw.

  But this time, the stone statue was empty-handed.

  Just as it felt its claws hit the opponent, the originally solid body suddenly disappeared like a snowball that had been scattered by someone, and was replaced by a weak air current that quickly flowed away from its paws, leaving no trace. But before the stone statue ghost could react, Rode had already caught up quickly, and then he grasped his long sword and swung it forward.

  A silver crescent moon shot out from Rode's sword and flew towards the target that had left a huge opening after missing its first strike.

  This is exactly the third skill of Moon Shadow Swordsmanship - Moonlight.

  Although it is similar to the Shattered Blade, both are techniques that condense sword energy for attacks, but their effects are completely different. The Shattered Blade's form is a forward thrust of a sharp blade of light, although powerful and highly penetrating, its range is too narrow, making it easy to dodge. However, Moonlight is different, with an arcing attack sweeping out in a wide arc, posing a threat to at least a large area in front, making it difficult even if one tries to dodge.

  As expected, facing the sword light that came rushing at him, the Stone Golem instinctively wanted to use its wings to dodge the attack, but it was still a step too slow and was hit by the silver-white blade on its right wing. Along with several small pieces of flying debris, the Stone Golem's body, which had been floating in mid-air, suddenly tilted and lost its balance.

  But it didn't end there, because just as he was about to maintain the balance, Luo De took two steps forward, and then his empty left hand swung down, making a strange gesture.

  The soul bird that had originally turned into a gentle breeze flashed past the stone statue's attack and appeared behind it, its body re-condensing with a loud whistle as it was wrapped in the swirling wind. The bird heavily crashed into the back of the stone statue, causing a strong gust of air to blow it away, making the already enraged stone statue let out an angry shriek. However, before it could express its anger, flashes of light blades appeared before the stone statue's eyes.

  One stroke, two strokes, three strokes.

  The whirling, fragmented blade struck the injured right wing of the stone statue with precision. Even the wings made of black jade could not withstand the continuous attacks that came one after another. As the stone statue suffered from these successive impacts, web-like cracks spread across its wings, and soon, accompanied by a crisp shattering sound, the hard-made wings completely shattered, causing the stone statue to lose one wing and let out a loud shriek as it crashed to the ground, smashing a moderate-sized pit into the bluestone floor.

  Overwhelming with numbers, deceiving with crowds, combining quantity and quality, this is the style of summoning swordsmen.

  Rode finally found the feeling he had during battle, and in fact if he had a normal weapon in his hand now, then after activating "Summon Master" he would be able to control two summoned creatures at the same time to attack, at that time it wouldn't just be two rare elites, even if the BOSS came he would have the confidence to wear him down to death.

  Unfortunately, there are no "ifs" in this world, and Rod also doesn't have a second Soul Core to awaken the spirit.

  So he had to give up the idea of pursuing a victory and instead retreated rapidly.

  Just then, the second gargoyle swooped down.

  Perhaps it was because of seeing its companion being injured, the stone statue's offensive was quite fierce. However, Rod had no intention of being foolish enough to engage in a hard collision with it again. Facing the black shadow that had previously made him look so miserable, all Rod did was tilt his head back and whistle. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew from the side, forcibly pushing away the black shadow that was about to attack Rod, causing it to lose its aim and roll around in confusion before crashing into the wall of the nearby church and stopping.

  Roderick would certainly not let such a good opportunity slip away.

  Under his command, a green whirlwind rose from the ground, flying birds spread their wings and dived at the enemy in front of them once again.

  At one point, the offense and defense suddenly reversed.

  The two stone statue devils that were proudly displaying their might in the sky just a moment ago now looked like drowned rats, while Rody, who was struggling to support himself under the heavy pressure earlier, suddenly turned the tables and began to sing a triumphant song, regaining the upper hand. He deliberately worked with the Soul Bird to forcibly separate the two stone statue devils, so that no matter what happened, they could always maintain a "two against one" situation, forcing one of them to be unable to come to the rescue in time.

  Although the scene had changed for a while, Rod couldn't get any further results because his power had already been consumed by more than half before, and although in the game, players can "full blood full state" resurrect on the spot after upgrading, but it's obviously impossible to give you such good things in reality. So Rod, who had leveled up to level 10 and opened up his talent points, only increased his spiritual power based on the original part that should have been enhanced.

  Relying solely on these methods, it was impossible to annihilate the two Golems. Moreover, simultaneously manipulating two summoned creatures consumed even more of Rod's spiritual power, and he had to be even more mindful of his consumption to avoid running out of energy. After all, the gap in their levels was too great, and the Golems' defense wasn't something to be taken lightly - previously, Rod's attacks had only managed to shatter one of their wings, without causing any particularly severe damage to them themselves. In this situation, if Rod were to go all out, it was indeed possible for him to annihilate one of the Golems. However, having consumed all his power, he would then have to face the other alone, unarmed and defenseless - anyone with a bit of brains could imagine how that would end.

  Now Rode's only option is to try his best to suppress these two annoying guys and wait for Liche and Meis to find that "Control Center".

  Otherwise, things will go back to what they were like just now.

  “———！”

  Although it had lost one of its wings, the gargoyle did not lose any of its menace. It crawled along the ground like a huge black stone dog, all four claws flying as it ran across the floor with an eerie ghostliness. This was what made these alchemical creatures so terrifying - if you thought they were just monsters that would strut their stuff in the air, you'd be sorely mistaken.

  Fortunately, Rod understood them deeply. Although he didn't think that just bringing the stone statue down from the sky would make him omnipotent, it still made Rod feel a lot of pressure relieved, after all, he didn't have to worry about his head too much.

  A dark figure appeared behind Rode, and the stone statue let out a mournful cry as it stretched out its right claw to dig into Rode's back. However, in the next moment, Rode dodged to the side, his sword flashing white as he parried the attack. At the same time, Rode stretched out his left hand, and the soul bird circling around him let out a clear cry as it spread its wings and flew forward, barely blocking another stone statue that was trying to attack him from the air.

  Although it is at the level of a soul bird, it still can't cause much harm to rare elites like stone statue ghosts. However, as a pure elemental creature, just blocking is not particularly difficult for it.

  As time ticked away second by second, Rode's inner anxiety grew more and more intense. He felt his body was getting tired, even his spirit was somewhat disheartened. This was the manifestation of his soul power being almost exhausted. Yet, inside the church, there was still no movement at all. Had they not found the control center yet?

  "Ah!!"

  A shrill gust of wind suddenly rose from beside Rode, causing him to be startled in his heart. He subconsciously dodged to the side and attempted to activate Shadow Flash, but just as he was about to dodge, his footwork faltered, and the skill that should have been activated lost its effect.

  The soul power is about to run out!

  This made Rod's heart sink, but at this moment he couldn't think of anything else, and hastily turned around to stab his sword. The hard stone claws and the white long sword intersected, making a piercing friction sound. The stone statue ghost quickly retreated after one strike, but Rod had no way to pursue it.

  Just then, suddenly, a voice came from behind him.

  "Mr. Luo! We found it!!"