NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 280: A Fresh Breeze in the World of Antiques (2)
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The owner was starting to seriously consider hiring at least one summoner, feeling like it would help him a lot. For a moment, he looked at Mira, his eyes full of expectation, but then recalled that she was an A Rank adventurer that was popular enough to have a nickname, so he could only imagine what it would take to hire her, and gave up.
But to cheer himself up, he glanced over to the locked box with the camera.
「Yes, I guess it would…」
Mira had some confidence that her advertisement would work, but was shocked to see the owner’s reaction was even more dramatic than she had expected. At least now she knew that she had left a strong impression with the owner.
「I guess another big part is that we wouldn’t have to worry about inns anymore. I know adventurers don’t mind camping it out recklessly, but we merchants have to prioritize safety a bit more when we travel. But if we could rest safely anywhere, we’d just go as far as possible each day and move much faster, so we’d save up on lodging costs and travel expenses. Having a spirit mansion would offer advantages on so many fronts.」
The owner knew what it was like to be an adventurer and a traveling merchant, so he felt like summoners had a wealth of untapped potential.
There was no better place to rest than a house. Adventurers were used to camping out in the wilderness when necessary, but merchants would travel during the day, making sure they could reach a city before it was dark and then spend the night there. Summoners had the potential to completely change that dynamic.
「I see, that’s all very true! I’m sure the demand for summoners is going to increase very soon then. You should try to hire one while you still can.」
Whether she knew the owner’s intentions or not, Mira said that with a voice full of pride.She had been wanting to see a renaissance of summoners, and now believed it would definitely happen after seeing the owner’s reaction. And it was not just this conversation that made her feel that way, but also the uproar she had caused in Haxthausen when talking about water spirits, and all the efforts of Creos in the Academy.
(But yes…I hadn’t thought about it before, but all of this is applicable to fields outside of adventurers too…)
Amidst her excitement to see what would happen with summoners, the owner’s words also made her realize that she had been too focused on only adventurers.
Then again, she was an adventurer herself and was a battle maniac, so it made sense that she had neglected thinking of other ways to make summoners popular. All she had thought was that the best way to bring summoners to the limelight was by making them look like the most powerful adventurers.
After all, the best adventurers in this world were regarded almost like heroes, so if a summoner stood there, then it made sense for everyone to start admiring summoners in general. Or at least that was what Mira thought.
But now she was starting to see different ways to accomplish that.
She had already seen or heard about spellcasters who worked in fields unrelated to adventurers. Like necromancers who used golems for taxi services, or exorcists who cleansed antiques for shops like the one she was in currently.
Things had changed a lot in this world compared to what she saw in it as a game. Not all spellcasters were fighting monsters for a living anymore. now understood that summoners, equipped with a variety of Contracts, could perform many specialized tasks beyond the realm of adventuring.
Cait Sith could help with criminal investigations, Garuda with aerial transport, the Korpokkurs could develop remote areas and create safe paths through forests, a King Sea Turtle could offer safe travel across the oceans, a spirit mansion would facilitate transport to nearly any location. The possibilities seemed endless.
Maybe focusing on those types of work would make summoners popular faster. As she began considering that, she quickly stopped those thoughts, realizing that she had started to think of summons as tools to make money. In a way, she was guilty of that already, like when she advertised obtaining large amounts of water, or the way she farmed Magic Stones, but she did not want to push it much farther.
She decided to change her mindset a bit, realizing that she needed to reward the summons for the work they did as well.
(Hmm…I’ll have to thank all of them eventually.)
While Summoner Contracts put them in a sort of master and servant hierarchy, they were friends first and foremost. So she decided that she would need to check with her own summons to see if she could do anything for them as well.
「By the way, I’ve been wondering, but are they common? Those spirit mansions you mentioned. Are they easily found?」
Once the owner’s emotions settled a bit, he began to think about it more rationally, and brought up something Mira had glossed over.
Everything Mira had said so far was to hype up summoners, and if everyone could do the same things she did, then it certainly would not take long for summoners to take over the world essentially.
But the owner, who was both an adventurer and a merchant, knew that it was almost impossible for such a good deal to exist. He had never heard of spirits inhabiting buildings before, not to mention that no one else had ever been able to identify the spirit in the sofa he had watched over for so long.
「Hmm… Well, I guess that could be a problem.」
She seemed reluctant to admit it, but she agreed that it was a downside. Sharing the shortcomings with the advantages was necessary to pass on accurate information.
It would not be good to make people dream of what they could accomplish without telling them of the long road to get there. After a bit of consideration, Mira decided that it was her duty as the forebear to not only show the goals for others to aspire, but the path and hardships that would lead there, so she began talking about how to find spirits, both in furniture and in houses.
「The first and most important step is finding them.」
Saying that, Mira took a short pause to organize her thoughts, and then elaborated. It was actually simpler than the owner anticipated. Depending on the person, it could be a hard task to accomplish, or something trivial.
「To put it simply, the way is to ask a spirit about it!」
Mira announced that with a decisive voice, looking directly at the owner. Then she explained that Primitive Spirits living in nature and Man-Made Spirits like those in furniture were built from the same fundamental energy, spiritual power. So if someone was friends with Primitive Spirits, they could easily tell whether a Man-Made Spirit existed in a given object.
「I see… Now that you mention it, that’s something I never considered before…」
The owner had been expecting some sort of complicated ritual or artifact that would sense spirits, but found it almost comical that he had not thought of simply asking other spirits.
「And a summoner can bring forth spirits wherever they are, making them a really good pairing.」
On the other hand, someone with little contact with spirits and without any friends who did, would find that method to be really tricky. At least spellcasters all had a connection with spirits, and that synergy was even stronger in summoners. So Mira announced that the easiest way to find Man-Made Spirits was by asking a spirit.
「I have a friend who is close to spirits…maybe I can ask him…」
The owner seemed to know someone with connections to spirits, and as he mumbled about that, he began to smile, feeling like it was worth going to see him after so long.
Now that Mira had explained how to find Man-Made Spirits, she explained the next important step, forming a Contract.
「So about forming a Contract and the requirements for that… I’ve actually never done it this way because of certain reasons, but these are the instructions the Spirit King himself gave me, so they should be accurate.」
With that, Mira detailed the necessary steps.
It was the same for furniture spirits like the sofa, and bigger ones like the spirit mansion. While finding one was an important step, what was more important to form a Contract was to have a strong bond with them to be recognized as deserving of forming a Contract.
The way to accomplish that was something the Spirit King had told her, as things were slightly different for her compared to the average spellcaster. It was similar to how Armor Spirits needed to be defeated in battle so they recognized a summoner as worthy of being their master.
Except that furniture spirits did not exist to fight, but to be commodities. That did not mean that just using them as such was enough, but they needed to be taken care of and appreciated properly first, and then they would allow a summoner to form a Contract.
That was the same with houses, one needed to live in them and enjoy living there first.
「So there you have it. Even if you find a spirit, you won’t be able to form a Contract right away. It’s important to earn their trust first.」 Saying that, Mira took a deep breath and tried to force a smile, before slowly saying, 「The issue is that it takes time.」
How long it took depended a lot on the personality of the summoner, and how well they treated the spirit. If all one wanted was to form a Contract, even if that was not the reason why such spirits were born, it would take upwards of a year.
But Mira insisted that it would never be wasted time. Spirits would always reward them back.
Even if someone acquired such an antique for the sole purpose of it turning into a summon, the spirit would be happy by being of use. And it was human nature to grow attached to items used with care for a long time.
「I know they might sound like complicated conditions, but they’re simple steps that anyone can follow. It’s no different to how workers grow to love their tools. And if someone finds an object with a spirit living within, it’s only a matter of time before they can form a Contract.」
Then, to finish things off, Mira added that if the owner was a summoner himself, then he would likely already be able to form Contracts with all the antiques around him, if they had spirits in them.
「I see…so that’s how it works. I would’ve loved to be able to befriend them and summon them as well.」
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