Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: The Talking Bear
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Want to go home?
The hunter placed at the center of the summoning circle decomposed and vanished.
The remains of the survivors who had entered the dungeon and died, along with the undead, all disappeared as well.
And then a brilliant light poured out...
The summoned beast should have emerged, but why wasn't it appearing?
No matter how long he waited, the summoned beast didn't come out.
Wondering if he'd missed something, he double-checked, but there were no mistakes.
The summoning circle was perfectly drawn, the placement of the corpses was exact, and he'd memorized the incantation flawlessly.
Yet strangely, the summoning circle only emitted bright light, and the ritual had stalled.
It was like a bug where the cutscene got stuck buffering and wouldn't progress.
If the guy who became a sage through summoning magic didn't know, who was he supposed to ask?
Summoning magic was a field that relied heavily on luck to begin with.
But even Human Lover said this was the first time she'd seen a summoning stall midway like this.
Normally, if there was a problem, the light would go out entirely and the summoning would fail.
Or an unwanted summoned beast would pop out, and that would be the end of it.
This kind of endless bright light was an abnormal phenomenon even for her.
Why had this happened?
Ah, I see.
They were super excited.
So, with 40 statues, he'd unintentionally thrown an extravagantly warm welcome.
And since Earth had abundant, pure mana, summoned beasts flocked here?
In short, from their perspective, this place was like a resort.
They were all going crazy to be summoned.
It felt like various conditions had aligned just right.
Too many statues could be a problem too, huh.
He hadn't considered that.
He'd made over ten times that many, causing the issue.
Of course. Human Lover's world probably didn't have magic printers.
Hand-carving them one by one, she wouldn't have the leisure for this many.
Anyway, he now understood why this had happened.
But now it needed to either definitively fail or produce something—either way, reach a conclusion. He had no idea how.
He posted a new thread, seeking help from the other sages in the gallery.
Time to borrow the power of collective intelligence.
Materials insufficient?
He'd offered the hunter. Human remains and undead corpses too.
And made 40 statues on top. If that wasn't enough, that was a problem in itself.
Potion Addict's point clicked immediately.
Like adding more rice because there wasn't enough, only to now lack side dishes.
For now, the current summoning circle's portal was too small.
So, enlarge the portal, add more gacha fodder, and pull.
What on earth would come out? It was terrifying and thrilling.
Bingbing fleeing midway through the ritual was nagging at him, breaking his focus.
Please be nice...
"All done..."
He inscribed the summoning expansion ritual Human Lover had taught him.
Then he dragged over the remaining 6 undead and placed them precisely.
This should let whatever was stuck slip into this world.
Soon, the undead remains vanished.
The summoning circle's light grew brighter, then changed color.
It shifted from plain white to gold, then purple, and now...
"Rainbow?"
Rainbow colors? He'd never heard of that.
Human Lover had never mentioned this color either, which meant...
'6-star incoming!'
According to his own grading system based on Human Lover's teachings:
White, blue, orange, gold, purple—in that order for better pulls.
So, conventional summoning topped at 5-star!
But surpassing that to rainbow?
Was a divine beast really trying to cross over?
"..."
The summoning circle's light faded.
In its place sat a massive polar bear.
Big. Really freaking huge.
Was it normally this size?
Okay, so this was normal for the species.
But this one looked way too ferocious.
Lots of scars on its body.
No idea how it got them, but it looked exhausted.
"Uh, hey. Hi? Welcome."
As he greeted it, the beast surveyed the area, staring down at him.
So he extended his hand first, waiting for it to approach.
This was the method Human Lover taught.
For mammalian familiars, letting them sniff your hand first helped them feel at ease.
"Wha? Uh. Huh??
What? Why was it talking?
Communication with familiars was possible.
But could they speak the summoner's language like this?
With Bingbing, it was always him adapting to Bingbing's language.
Here, the ice floe waddler was adapting to his.
A 6-star ice floe waddler was on another level!
"Huh? Food? Uh, hang on."
The ice floe waddler(?) demanded food as if it were the most natural thing.
Then it shoved through the ruined church like it was nothing and plopped down, refusing to do anything else.
He sensed something off from that brazen attitude, like it was trying to assert dominance over the summoner.
Nothing like this in Human Lover's familiar encyclopedia.
Speaking human language casually was weird.
Being that arrogant to a summoner was weird.
Was that really an ice floe waddler?
Something was wrong!
That wasn't an ice floe waddler!
He'd thought it was a 6-star ice floe waddler. Nope.
Now an unidentified super-giant premium polar bear sat before him.
This was genuinely scary.
If not an ice floe waddler, what the hell was this thing?
"Bingbing! Bingbing!!"
-Kwaaack!
Bingbing wouldn't even come near.
Shaking its head from the treetop, crossing wings into an X.
Right, Bingbing had known from the start.
That something weird was crawling out...
"...Fuck."
The thing disguised as an ice floe waddler yawned boredly, smacking its lips.
Its teeth were enormous. Getting bitten by those would shred limbs.
Its forepaws were huge too—one bad hit and he'd be crossing the Jordan.
"Uh, yeah. One sec."
He immediately uploaded footage from the summoning to the gallery.
The rainbow light bursting out, and the 4-meter polar bear emerging.
No one in the gallery knew what that bear was.
Meaning it wasn't a common species.
Maybe the only one of its kind.
And in summoning lore, a unique individual without a species meant...
So the bear was a divine beast.
But weren't divine beasts unable to leave the spirit realm?
He'd learned summoning a divine beast instead of a familiar was near impossible.
Why did it succeed?
Normally, a disciple surpassing the master might spark jealousy.
But Human Lover was so bright and cheerful—lucky break.
At divine beast level, a proper contract was needed.
Send it back before things got ugly, or make the contract...
"Hey."
"No, not that. You're not an ice floe waddler, are you?"
Cautiously, he used the premium familiar recall ritual Human Lover passed down.
The basis of any contract started with establishing the dominant position.
Normally, the divine beast would ask to go home first.
But this situation was different.
This was Earth, after all.
Mana overflowing absurdly.
And pure, unpolluted.
Plus, for a polar bear divine beast, eternal winter here.
In short, telling it to go home would make him the aggrieved one, not the bear!
"Sorry, but I need a summoned beast that'll listen well. Demanding food right off the bat on first meeting? That's rude."
As he chanted with hand outstretched, a powerful wave repelled the divine beast.
Keep pushing, and it'd return whence it came.
Had to threaten firmly while it was off-guard.
If the bear stayed alert, he might get countered.
"You're not! And it's ice floe waddler! Whatever! No deal! Go back to your world now!"
The divine beast's body half-phased into the spirit realm.
It started groveling pathetically, sensing the crisis.
"Don't need it!"
"Protect me. Let me hug you to sleep. Don't whine for food. And..."
"If not, back to the spirit realm. But no second chances if you go now? Another bear takes your spot. Fine by you?"
The divine beast fell into deep agony.
Accept his terms and contract.
Or return home.
But after tasting this land, could it really go back?
Eternal winter year-round.
Mana so saturated breathing recovered it.
Ultra-pure, no filtering needed.
Once tasted, no returning.
"No take-backs. No changing your mind later?"
The divine beast nodded!
Contract success!
What. That was easy?
What was its name again?
Gromur? Gru-something? Whatever.
From today, you're Bearmeal.
His heart fluttered already at the thought of hugging Bearmeal to sleep.