After Allen and Merus spent so long focusing on gaining Skill Experience together, the awaited log entry finally appeared on the grimoire.
'Synthesis' Skill Experience has reached 10'000'000'000/10'000'000'000. Synthesis has reached Level 9. Summoner has reached Level 9. The Grimoire's extended functionality has reached Level 8. You've obtained the [Growth] Skill. You've gained two [Skill Name Unannounced] (Sealed) Skills.'
"What happened?"
Cecile noticed something happened with Allen, so she asked him that from next to him.
"I've Leveled Up Summoner! It finally went up!!"
Allen stood up and exclaimed in a loud voice while clenching his fists in joy.
He quickly stuffed the remaining Lucoman into his cheeks and ran off to his room without chewing them, just like a child that rushes to finish dinner to play a game.
There were a lot of things he had to experiment with now.
His companions just sighed and watched him go, knowing that was how Allen always behaved.
(There were a lot of things on that log, so I guess I have a lot to experiment with again.)
In his room, he looked at the log entry again, noticing something new on it.
Then he opened the Grimoire and checked his stats page.
(Huh? What does this mean?)
Allen was surprised as he looked at the Grimoire's contents.
He decided to summon Merus there, since he would understand that better.
'What happened? Ohh! It finally Leveled Up!! I-I'm free! I did it, I DID ITTT!!'
Merus quickly realized Summoner had gone up in Level, his expression quickly clearing up.
He raised his hands to the skies and fell back on a nearby couch.
He rolled around for a bit, eventually staring blankly at the ceiling.
His eyes were filling with tears, but they could not really form before they vanished in the sea.
He felt even more freedom than Drescalay who had been taken out of jail.
"...I actually wanted to ask you a few things."
(I guess it's safe to talk to him now?)
'I see. Ask anything you want, but you can't take my break away!!'
Allen had promised him he would get a break as soon as Allen hit Summoner Level 9.
"I know, I'll keep my promise."
'So, what do you want to know? I believe I already told you, but I was turned into a summon while the A Rank summons were still being worked on.'
(Hmm, this reminds me of a reclining Buddha.)
Merus was lying down on the couch on one side, holding his head up while his elbow rested.
It reminded Allen of the statues of a reclining Buddha, which existed in Japan and Thailand.
Merus was just trying to take a more comfortable posture.
Allen also recalled seeing his dad rest like that while watching TV during the weekend.
The Fish A's Awakened Skill [Mimic] could not be used on Merus.
He still looked like a handsome guy with curly brown hair.
Maybe that was part of his heavenly charm.
Now he claimed that he did not know anything about S Rank summons.
He knew the concepts used for summons of A Rank and below, but he did not know what the God of Creation Elmea ultimately decided.
The A Rank summons were still being built when Kyubel attacked and he became a summon.
"I know that. It's just that there's so much sealed this time. Why are my Skills sealed in the first place, actually?"
Allen looked through his new stats now that Summoner had reached Level 9.
[Name] Allen
[Age] 16
[Talent] Summoner
[Level] 93
[Strength] 3815 + 2000
[Mana] 6060 + 12060
[Attack] 2124 + 2800
[Endurance] 2124 + 4400
[Agility] 3951 + 6200
[Intelligence] 6070 + 15060
[Luck] 3951 + 2000
[Skills] Summoner (9), Create (9), Synthesis (9), Strengthening (9), Awakening (9), Growth (1), Grimoire Expansion (8), Inventory, Fast Summon, Equivalent Exchange, Command, Kingship, Sharing, Delete, Swordsmanship (5), Throwing (3), (Sealed), (Sealed)
[Experience] 1000'000'000'000 / 100'000'000'000'000
-Skill Level:
[Summoner] 9
[Create] 9
[Synthesis] 9
[Strengthening] 9
[Awakening] 9
[Growth] 1
-Skill Experience:
[Create] ~3000'000 / 100'000'000'000
[Synthesis] 0 / 100'000'000'000
[Strengthening] ~2500'000 / 100'000'000'000
[Awakening] ~1200'000 / 100'000'000'000
[Growth] 0 / 1000
-Summons Acquired:
[Insect] Seal A B C D E F G H
[Beast] Seal A B C D E F G H
[Bird] Seal A B C D E F G
[Grass] Seal A B C D E F
[Stone] Seal A B C D E
[Fish] Seal A B C D
[Wraith] Seal A B C
[Dragon] Seal A B
[Angel] S A
[ - ] S
-Holder:
[Insect] A x 7
[Beast]
[Bird] A x 10
[Grass]
[Stone]
[Fish] A x 50, D x 3
[Wraith] A x 5
[Dragon] A x 4
[Angel] A x 1
[ - ]
(Even the new summons are sealed, and I have no idea what type of Skills I got. Maybe it's all still unfinished?)
He did not even know the names of the two (Sealed) Skills.
Pretty much all S Rank summons were sealed as well.
Merus had told him before that going from summon concept to design and skills took a lot of time. Thanks to Merus' help with gaining Skill Experience, his surplus of Magic Stones, and his increased free time for half a year thanks to Allen's Army becoming self-sustaining, Allen's Summoner Skill had Leveled Up rather quickly.
Maybe he had been so fast that the features of the next level had not been complete yet.
Allen wrote down his own progress in the notes of his Grimoire.
-1 year, 0 months: Grimoire obtained, Summoner Level 1, only H Rank summons available
-1 year, 10 months: Summoner Level 2, Synthesis obtained
-3 years, 0 months: G Rank summons obtained
-5 years, 11 months: Summoner Level 3, Strengthening Skill obtained, F summons obtained
-7 years 9 months: Summoner Level 4, Inventory Skill obtained, E summons obtained
-9 years 10 months: Summoner Level 5, Sharing Skill obtained, D summons obtained
-12 years 9 months: Summoner Level 6, Awakening Skill obtained, C summons obtained
-13 years 11 months: Summoner Level 7, Fast Summon Skill obtained, Command Skill obtained, B summons obtained
-15 years 3 months: Summoner Level 8, Equivalent Exchange Skill obtained, Kingship Skill obtained, A summons obtained
-16 years 0 months: Summoner Level 9, Growth Skill obtained, two Sealed Skills, S summons obtained
'...Allen, you're already way past what any human can realistically achieve. Do you even realize that?'
Merus looked doubtful at Allen, baffled even though he was a messenger from the Divine Realm.
"Hm? So A Rank would be enough to defeat the Demon King?"
Merus had become a summon around ten months before.
He had told Allen various things since then.
Allen remembered most of it.
"Yes. Those in the Divine Realm were doubtful that anyone in Hell Mode would ever reach Summoner Level 9. That isn't even necessary to defeat a regular Demon King after all."
The Demon King's power was the reason why Allen was allowed to continue growing stronger than any human normally could.
Demon King was a Talent amongst demons that appeared rarely, and whoever obtained it would be filled with endless greed and attempt to take over the world.
Every time a Demon King appeared, the world was plunged into chaos.
Usually a Hero would fight the Demon King.
Helmios was such a Hero.
Allen, Helmios, and the Shura King Basque were all selected like that.
Depending on a Hero's Level, Talent Level, equipment, number of party members, Talents of party members, and formation, they would have varying results against the Demon King.
Usually there was a 50% chance of defeating the Demon King.
To have better chances, in Normal Mode, one would need the Hero Talent of 5 Stars, max out their Level and Skill Levels, and wear full orichalcum class equipment.
A party with Talents of 3 Stars of more, with 8 members, could only reach a 50% chance.
There was a 50% chance of winning, so losing was also a 50% chance.
If they lost, the hero's party would be defeated, and the world destroyed.
The Divine Realm had prepared Allen so that at Summoner Level 7 and armed with B Rank summons, he would have a 50% chance against the Demon King when fighting alone.
(So at Summoner Level 8 I could easily defeat the Demon King alone. Even though the Demong General Razel almost killed me.)
The stats of past Demon Kings were around 10'000 and 20'000.
A Rank monsters had stats around 3000 and 6000.
The Demon General Razel seemed more powerful than that, strong enough to be considered a post end-game boss in Allen's past life.
Not even Fast Summon was enough to defend him, and Dogora was actually killed once.
The only reasons why they were able to defeat Razel:
-Helmios' Extra Skill was extremely effective against Demon Generals
-The Extra Skills of Allen's friends were also very powerful
-Allen had already reached Summoner Level 7 thanks to his obsession
-The Spirit God had used the Spirit King's Blessing on them.
'Since your Talent has 8 Stars, you get proportionally more stronger when you Level Up than other Talents.'
"So my stats scale a lot more than a Swordsman or a Sword Saint's would."
The number of Talent Stars determined how much stats scaled with each Level.
That was why Kurena got leaps and bounds ahead from Dogora when she Leveled Up compared to him, since he had a 1 Star Talent, and hers had 3 Stars.
Allen's 8 Star Talent made him get exorbitant stats with each Summoner Level.
Summons were ranked similarly to monsters, but the summons were clearly stronger than their monster counterparts.
And now he had more than ten of such summons which he could summon multiple of at the same time.
'But somehow we haven't defeated the Demon King yet, even though you should've been able to when your Talent Level reached 7 or 8. To get more power, you also need to put more work.'
(Well, it makes sense that I need a higher level to learn more Skills. A game where only Levels get you Skills sounds boring too anyway.)
Allen remembered that other games would also lock powerful Skills behind specific conditions.
A game where you could just farm experience and get everything sounded boring too.
He recalled a game he played as Kenpii, which was played by ten thousand users, and there were skills with such low chances of appearing that one could spend an entire month trying to obtain them.
"So I should be able to defeat a regular Demon King already, and if I want more power I need to put in comparable effort for more Skills."
The world demanded a price for everything Allen wanted.
Gods would never hand out Skills or power for free.
Makris, who was once a merman, had to turn into a Sacred Fish to obtain power.
'That's about it. Though I'm not exactly sure of what it is that you lack.'
The current Demon King had used some tactic to obtain overwhelming power, leading him to command Demon Generals that were as powerful as post end-game bosses, causing a despairing situation for humanity.
Allen had been brought to contrarest that, but that did not mean he would obtain immeasurable power unconditionally.
(So I have to pay a price. Though hmm, let's just try to summon an Insect even while sealed and see what happens.)
Allen created a Summoner Level 9 Insect summon.
'Insect S summons are sealed.'
"Oh, at least it told me something. I guess this proves Summoner Level 9 summons are ranked as S."
Allen muttered aloud.
They were sealed, but this proved that they were S Rank summons.
Though the new Angel type summon was not sealed, and showed as S, so it was easy to assume that applied to the rest as well.
(I wonder what the conditions to create them are? Angel S isn't sealed, so I wonder what response I'll get if I try that.)
All Allen knew was that he needed to investigate more.
Angel S was the only new summon that was not sealed.
Allen leafed through the Grimoire to the Synthesis Page, and tried to create an Angel S.
Only Insect and Beast summons could be created directly.
The rest needed a loop of Creation and Synthesis.
If Synthesis failed, then some sort of warning would be logged on the Grimoire's cover.
That could sometimes help to figure out how to unseal something.
'H-hey.'
Merus seemed like he wanted to say something, but Allen ignored him and turned him back to a card. He used it together with a random Dragon A card, and some S Rank Magic Stones obtained from the Iron Golems.
"Synthesize an Angel S summon. Hm? It's not responding."
This was the first time there was no response.
Whether it succeeded or failed, the Magic Stones and some mana would be lost.
Still, Allen decided to check the Grimoire's cover.
"Wha-?!"
Water caught in Allen's throat.
He thought he was just tired, or his eyes had gotten dry, even though that was impossible underwater.
Thinking he was seeing wrong, he blinked rapidly before looking at the log entry again.
'To summon an Angel S summon, another S Rank summon is needed. Or to Create it with Synthesis, please offer a fixed amount of Sacred Beads.'
(I need Sacred Beads for this?)
The one item he was desperately hunting for was also needed for Synthesis.
Then he also noticed something even more important.
All the new systems obtained from his new Summoner Level had similar numbers the Magic Stones he needed before.
"Hm? What? I needed 49 A Rank Magic Stones for an Angel A summon. Does that mean I need 49 Sacred Beads to summon an Angel S summon?"
Allen muttered his thoughts to himself.
Such was the bleak reality revealed by the new log entries on the Grimoire.
Allen would need to pay an immense price in exchange for the power he so dearly desired.
