TRPM 317

chapter 317

To get straight to the conclusion…

“Ugh…!”
“…This isn’t very efficient.”

Yeon Mirae and Sophia, who had contracted with their familiars and merged with them, were instantly regretting their decisions.

In Yeon Mirae’s case, she had summoned a demon-type monster to enhance the power of her magic, but the monster couldn’t withstand her magical energy and ended up being destroyed.

Sophia, on the other hand, had summoned Skoll—a creature from myth that swallowed the sun and brought darkness to the world—to maximize her stealth abilities. However, all that happened was that the surroundings became darker; her stealth itself didn’t improve significantly, so the efficiency wasn’t very high.

‘There’s the option to replace them with other familiars…’

There might be another familiar that could handle Yeon Mirae’s magical energy, and another that could enhance Sophia’s stealth. But even if they summoned such familiars, the efficiency would still drop. In these cases, it was partly because the familiars weren’t compatible with them…

“Huff… huff…”
“…Even maintaining this state is exhausting.”
“It seems that when you two merge with a familiar, your energy efficiency drops.”

Above all, the familiars Yeon Mirae and Sophia contracted with immediately began to drain their energy wildly as soon as they merged.

‘It seems that when Alex and Lee Ha-eun merge with their familiars, their magical energy and aura consumption actually decrease…’

For some reason, Yeon Mirae and Sophia experience heavy consumption of magic and mental energy when they merge.

“…Could it be because Alex and Lee Ha-eun are mages?”

The sample size is small, but that’s probably the cause. In other words, merging with a familiar isn’t a great idea for non-mages.

‘After all, the familiar contract magic circle was originally designed with mages in mind.’

Alex had designed the familiar contract circle so that even non-mages could use it, but its roots were still in magic. So it makes sense that non-mages have poor compatibility.

“That means…”
“Even if merging with a familiar helps enhance a mage’s physical abilities, it doesn’t do the same for others.”

Of course, merging with a familiar isn’t always beneficial for mages either. Just as with Alex, they might not adapt to their strengthened body, and although merging consumes less magic than simply summoning a familiar, it still uses some magic. So it’s not entirely positive.

‘If there weren’t such drawbacks, the Awakener system would have said so back then.’

When Ryu Ah-young and Ryu Ah-min introduced a new paradigm of their abilities, the Awakener system displayed this message:

【The overall strength of humanity has rapidly increased due to users Ryu Ah-young and Ryu Ah-min.】

Experts claimed that simply presenting that paradigm increased humanity’s overall strength by about 3%. Then what about merging with familiars? If there were no drawbacks, it would be like all mages in the world becoming stronger at once. The Awakener system would have issued a message at least that significant.

‘The fact that it didn’t means this merging technique, while impressive, isn’t that groundbreaking.’

It’s unfortunate, but there’s nothing that can be done. I let out a sigh.

“…Shall we face reality now…?”
“…Yes…”
“…Alright…”

Yeon Mirae and Sophia nodded in agreement. Our gaze then turned to Lee Ha-eun, who had just merged with Sarang.

“Does anyone know where that form comes from?”
“I think I’ve seen it in game advertisements before.”
“Same here.”

Lee Ha-eun, who had merged with Sarang—so, Fenrir—looked like a humanoid beast woman character from creative works… specifically, adult-oriented ones. Alex seemed awkward as he averted his eyes, and Ha-eun herself was blushing and covering her body.

‘…All the important parts are covered with fur… presumably Sarang’s…’

It was quite a provocative appearance. Ha-eun’s size had increased during the merge, tearing all the clothes she had been wearing.

“While Alex’s merge with Fafnir was like wearing it as armor, Ha-eun grew in size during her merge with Sarang, causing this mishap.”
“I guess we should make her wear clothes with size-adjustment magic from now on.”

I said this while using Verbal Command Magic on Ha-eun’s torn clothes lying on the floor:

“Repair, Cleanse, Dry.”

The clothes returned to their original state, and the dirt that had fallen on the floor disappeared. The temporary moisture from the cleaning also vanished instantly. I handed the clean clothes to Ha-eun:

“Here. Use some illusion magic to cover yourself, then unmerge and change.”
“I… I can’t.”
“…Hm?”

Ha-eun shook her head.

“…I can’t use magic in this form…”
“……”

This was a significant drawback. In other words, when merged with a familiar, she couldn’t use her original abilities.

‘Isn’t this basically a defective technique?’

Alex’s low magical skill made it a minor issue for him, but for an archmage like Ha-eun, being unable to use magic was serious.

“…I’m sorry for creating such a flawed technique.”
“No, you don’t need to apologize.”

Alex wasn’t really at fault. He didn’t design the technique intending these drawbacks, and even I hadn’t realized that Ha-eun couldn’t use magic until I noticed it.

“This technique is purely for Alex, then.”
“…There may be others it suits, but yes, primarily for him.”

That didn’t mean teaching Ha-eun the merge was wasted. She now had a last resort she could use when physical power, not magic, was desperately needed.

“Geon-woo…? Let’s do this quickly…”
“Yeah, alright.”

I decided to create a temporary changing room so Ha-eun could unmerge and change clothes.

“Private Room.”

Using Verbal Command Magic, I raised the ground around Ha-eun to form a small room.

“…Geon-woo? Why call it a private room?”

Ha-eun asked, seemingly unhappy with my choice of words.

“Just… those two words came to mind first.”

Technically I could have used the three-character word for changing room, but my magic works better with two-character commands.

Ha-eun unmerged and changed clothes in the “private room” I made, then broke the temporary walls and walked out.

‘There was no need to break it…’

I had planned to restore it to its original form, but she simply smashed it. She seemed a bit annoyed.

“But Master…”
“Hm?”
“Alex was supposed to tutor me during his vacation, right? Teaching me to merge… I learned it in just one day. What should we do?”

True. Honestly, I didn’t expect that. Who would have guessed learning the merge would be completed so quickly? Even Yeon Mirae and Sophia succeeded in just a few attempts.

‘It’s definitely not an easy skill.’

Of course, Yeon Mirae, Ha-eun, and Sophia were exceptionally talented. Yeon Mirae and Ha-eun’s abilities were far beyond Alex’s baseline, and Sophia was also above Alex’s level, though not as high as the other two. Plus, Alex was a good teacher. Their understanding of the merge principle made success much easier.

‘Anyway, since the goal of teaching Ha-eun the merge was achieved, there’s no reason to continue tutoring.’

Changing my mind after just one day felt a bit abrupt, though.

“Let’s tell Ha-eun’s mother that the tutoring was just for today…”
“Wait!”

Ha-eun interrupted.

“Can’t we say I’ve been tutored the whole vacation?”
“……”

Ha-eun glanced at us anxiously. If we told the truth, her mother would probably sign her up for a regular academy anyway.

“Ahaha… I understand, but…”
“Hmm…”

Seeing Ha-eun’s desperate expression, Yeon Mirae, Sophia, and Alex looked a little embarrassed. They understood her feelings but felt uneasy about lying to her mother.

“I’ll leave it to Master.”
“……”
“It’s better for the artist to decide, anyway.”

After a brief hesitation, they naturally left the choice to me, meaning Ha-eun’s “fate” was in my hands.

“…Hm? Geon-woo…?”

Realizing this, Ha-eun tried to plead with a pitiful expression, shaking me.

“No.”

Of course, it had no effect.

“I understand it’s hard to go to the academy during vacation, but just say you don’t want to go.”
“That… I can’t.”

It seemed Ha-eun could lie to her mother but couldn’t outright refuse the academy.

‘From what I’ve seen of Ha-eun’s mother, if Ha-eun said she didn’t want to go, her mother would have listened.’

Does Ha-eun not know this? Or is she doing it on purpose?

“…Alright…”

Perhaps judging that Ha-eun wasn’t lying, she accepted my words.

The next day.

Yeon Mirae and Sophia, who went to the Iron-Blood Guild, rested in Yeon Mirae’s private room.

Since Yeon Mirae had no obligatory tasks unless there was an emergency, and Sophia had already finished all her duties, they had some free time.

“Looks like it’s almost lunch. Shall we eat at the guild cafeteria?”
“Wait. First, Fafnir’s meal… Ah…”

At lunch, Sophia reflexively tried to feed Fafnir but stopped. Fafnir was Alex’s familiar. Alex was on vacation as a precaution, so Fafnir wasn’t at the guild.

“Heh… Completely spoiled, huh.”
“Yeah.”

Yeon Mirae chuckled lightly and asked her:

“By the way, what was that document earlier?”
“What document?”
“The one you took to the guild master separately.”
“Oh, that.”

It was a support request from the Night Eagle Guild.