The black sun hangs high

Chapter 118 "Eating"

In the world before Hugh, "a dog catching a mouse" was a very common idiom, and it was often used to end with "meddling in other people's business".

However, in Vanne, this proverb is clearly untenable.

At least for now, the hunting skills of the court hounds against rodents are deeply ingrained in their instincts. In the brief exchange, Hughes could tell that the hounds must have hunted the Earth Mother's minions quite often in the past.

Correspondingly, the fear of these Dark Abyss Hunters must have long been etched into the power and blood of certain beings.

Therefore, upon seeing the monster hunting him, the ratman spellcaster, who had mutated from a Black Sun Society mage, fell into complete chaos, and a large number of instinctive reactions not belonging to his body began to take effect.

Faced with the ever-approaching, amorphous figure, the ratman spellcaster began to use various spells twisted by the power of the Earth Mother in vain. However, no matter how powerful or effective these spells were, they could not hit the strange being that moved through the walls of the building and the darkness.

"enough."

As the ratman spellcaster had his arm bitten off by a hound that darted out from the corner of the wall, Hugh silently gave the hound a command in his mind. The moment he received the command, the terrifying shadow that was about to hide in the corner of the building to continue toying with its prey suddenly disappeared from its spot, and the next moment, it appeared from another completely impossible angle.

The ratman spellcaster screamed and reached for his spellbook, an instinct he once had as a human.

However, the hideous maw, capable of grinding solid flesh to pieces in an instant, bit down hard. Under the grinding of the sharp teeth and the terrifying force of the bite, the ratman spellcaster's only remaining arm was broken on the spot.

The hound shook its head violently, throwing off the thin arm. Then it opened its mouth, and a tentacle, which also grew from its mouth but resembled a long tongue, emerged and struck the rat-man spellcaster's head with the precision of a straw.

Hughes noticed that the Earth Mother's Blessed Radiance attached to the ratman spellcaster had no defensive effect whatsoever.

It was as if the shield that could easily block ordinary magic was just some kind of decoration.

To the ever-surging horde of rats, the spellcaster seemed to be equivalent to a "priest." Therefore, when the "priest" died, all the rats responsible for the attack immediately went into a frenzy. The dark yellow blessed light on their bodies began to spread uncontrollably, and that power seemed to become the sweetest bait, attracting all the rats to it.

Although the rats carrying the will of the Ernst family chose to retreat immediately, a considerable number of them were still "infected" by the power from the divine ritual.

In his previous dream, Hugh already knew that this blessing from the Earth Mother was what all the Families desired most. Therefore, when he saw those forces begin to spread toward his "own" rat swarm, he immediately mobilized his magic and summoned the running rats.

"squeak!"

Before its body had even fully formed, the running rat Sniggy was already filled with intense excitement and longing. It let out a series of screechs and, without waiting for Hugh's command, charged directly at the nearest blind rat.

Without the support of their kind, these rats, who had suffered merciless punishment in the past for "betraying" the gods, were no match for the "purebred" sprinting rats. Thus, the rat whose will belonged to which member of the family was unknown was immediately picked out by Sniggy. Its three tails easily pierced its target and then seized that bit of divine power.

Then it rushed off toward its next target...

The rats that were still under control quickly retreated, but Sniggy now had its sights set on the "traitors" who openly "occupied" the blessings of the gods. It charged toward the very center of the struggle, its three long, rapier-like tails launching rapid attacks and relentlessly killing its competitors.

As the battle raged and the power of the Earth Mother Goddess continued to gather, Sniggy's body began to show obvious changes.

At this moment, Sniggy's figure began to faintly overlap with the three-tailed giant rats that Hugh had seen in his dream.

Although it still has an insurmountable gap between itself and its "ancestors" who were huge and used as war beasts, many similar characteristics continue to emerge.

The first is body shape.

As the killing continued, Sniggy's body began to swell—this time, Hugh was certain that what was swelling was not just its fur puffing out as a bluff, but a real change in size. Although this progress was not very obvious, its strength was clearly increasing rapidly.

Then comes the desire to kill and fight.

Although the original Sniggy was equally warlike and bloodthirsty, it would still show strong vigilance and fear when it encountered an insurmountable enemy, and it would also let out a miserable scream when "death" came.

But this time was different. Facing the rat horde that had previously decimated it, the rampaging rat showed no sign of retreat. On the contrary, as the wounds on its body increased, its eyes began to change from their original dark green to scarlet.

Hugh hesitated for a moment.

For the sake of caution, he should immediately take control of his summoned creature's mind and disband it. However, this is clearly a crucial moment for Sniggy. If it can obtain enough blessings from the Earth Mother in this battle of the rats, it might have a chance to "recreate" the "glory" of the three-tailed giant rat.

As someone who has indirectly ridden such a ferocious war beast in a dream, a real three-tailed giant rat is simply too tempting.

Who could resist a magical mount with strange horns on its head, capable of breaking through enemy ranks on its own?
However, Sniggy's presence among the rats was so prominent that it had killed a large number of targets, which allowed it to successfully obtain a large number of divine blessings, making it the most conspicuous "target" among all the rats.

In this situation, even the blind rats, who also possessed the blessing and were under fierce attack, began to actively rush towards this alien species.

Verine carefully observed the movements of the rat swarm. She also noticed the changes happening to Hugh's summoned creatures. Combining this with what Hugh had said earlier, Verine immediately guessed what was going on. So she pursed her lips and immediately mobilized her magic power, beginning to cast some spells that she didn't usually use.

A soft buzzing sound rang out beside Hugh. He turned around in surprise and saw Verin silently imprinting magical runes in the air. After several breaths, the runes were completed and, under Verin's control, began to assemble into complex magical models.

Finally, as the magic was completed, the pale blue magic power quickly formed a constantly changing radiance in front of Vilin, and then, several different animal figures split out from this radiance.

With a simple gesture from Verin, the glowing auras of animals in different forms, such as cats, deer, and eagles, immediately dispersed forward and quickly chased after Sniggy's figure.

In an instant, these animal shadows disappeared into the frantically running rat that was relentlessly pursuing its target.

"Ok?"

As Sniggy's summoner, Hugh immediately felt the benefits of this magic.

With their help, the Runaway Rat's magic concentration, reaction speed, and the strength of its magical connection with itself were significantly improved. As the last ray of light, which seemed to be of some kind of bear-like creature, entered Sniggy's body, its body immediately began to expand rapidly.

"What is this? The speed of a cat and the strength of a bear?"

Hugh couldn't help but ask a question. Now he felt he didn't need to worry about Sniggy anymore, because with the help of these magic spells, it had begun to wreak havoc among its own kind. With a flick of its three tails, it could tear those magical rats in two. The scene was extremely bloody and brutal.

"The last chapter of the book 'Magic and Tricks' introduces this type of magic... specifically for magical summons."

While replenishing her magic, Vera slowly replied, "Although this chapter is theoretically optional, I remember saying that you should read the whole book, hmm?"

A familiar feeling of being questioned by a teacher washed over me.

It felt as if I had been randomly selected to check a project or assignment that I hadn't completed.

Hugh explained very calmly and naturally, "I've been very busy lately, and I've focused all my energy on learning how to use the spellbook... Miss Verin, you should have seen it, the results are quite good."

The surrounding rats remained silent as the two spoke.

These souls, who hadn't experienced ordinary life for many years, were very interested in the topics discussed among young people today, especially the communication style of Hugh and his companion, which seemed vastly different from the aristocratic youths they had in mind.

Vera glanced at Hugh, then nodded slightly, acknowledging his explanation.

But then she added, "The magic and rituals related to summoning creatures have always been a research gap in the Legal Council... Although the Legal Council has always had a department specifically responsible for researching the magic system of summoning creatures, as far as I know, this department has not researched any new magic for decades, so now, this type of magic has also been classified as general spells."

"Is it difficult to innovate this kind of magic?"

"Yes, because the effectiveness of magic and rituals varies greatly depending on the summoned creature. You should remember the medium summoning spell I used before, right?"

As Vilin gazed at the frantically running rats in the midst of the battle, she explained, "In fact, among the several magical creatures I can summon, only the 'Azure Raven' can withstand multiple different summon enhancement spells. The rest, most of the time, can only serve as scout pets."

"I understand. In other words, the spells that can enhance summoned creatures must be created specifically for the summoned creatures themselves. But even if they are eventually created, they will be difficult to promote because they are completely inapplicable to other types of magical creatures?"

"That's right. It is under these circumstances that many magic scholars believe that the known magic that can reliably enhance summoned creatures is actually related to lost evil magic, since the working principle of them has not been fully understood to this day."

When the topic of evil magic came up, Vera's speech quickened. She seemed to forget that she was in a strange and eerie underground floor, and that there was a group of rats fighting in front of her. Her eyes behind her glasses began to shine, and her originally gentle tone became more forceful.

“I would have thought this was just a cover-up by those summoning magic researchers to cover up their incompetence, but now I don’t think so anymore…”

As she spoke, Verin constructed another magic rune, and a new enhancement spell immediately descended upon the running rat, which made the seemingly tired Sniggy perk up once again.

"Mr. Hugh, the abilities you possess now must all be related to evil magic, right?"

Vera asked earnestly, "This rat called 'Sniggy,' that terrifying monster just now, and even the tentacles you used as lethal magic... they all seem to possess the characteristics of 'summoned creatures.' If they are indeed closely related to the era that created evil magic, then I can make a bold assumption: the so-called 'Mother Earth's' ritual is actually similar in essence to the summoning enhancement magic that has been passed down to this day."

"As we see now, the power of this magical ritual can change the form of living beings, enhance their strength, and even interfere with their thinking. In essence, it is a kind of enhancement magic that we cannot yet understand, and its effects are extremely powerful and terrifying. However, the scope of this magic is not only aimed at specific magical creatures, but also includes humans."

At this point, the female mage let out a soft sigh of relief, and unconsciously revealed a hopeful smile: "Mr. Hugh, I have a feeling... when your summoned creature successfully absorbs all the magic here, it may be able to reveal many secrets about those evil spells and the lost gods that are followed and worshipped by the Black Sun Society. I am looking forward to it."

Before the words were finished, a piercing shriek suddenly came from the swarm of rats.

Hugh immediately turned his attention to the running rat. Through the magical link between them, he was surprised to find that the magical concentration in his summoned creature had reached a limit.

It's about to burst from the magic!
...

Skiing yesterday
But he was too clumsy; he twisted his left arm when he fell.
So my typing speed has dropped drastically, and today's second update will be quite late ORZ
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(End of this chapter)