Chapter 470: Summoning Methods

It was already nighttime outside. The gorgeous starry sky he had seen earlier was completely covered by thick, dark rain clouds. The downpour fell over the camp.

Thanks to Adrian placing multiple wide funnels leading straight into huge, durable Orichalcum-Granite bottles he had manufactured, he watched as the water droplets fell and smoothly rolled right down into the bottles.

Seeing his passive collection system working flawlessly, he couldn’t help but smile.

"Okay. I just need to wait now."

He turned around and went back inside his room.

Just as he walked toward his bed, he heard Aria’s voice inside his head once again.

’I have a specific magic spell that can stall my physical aging for a certain amount of time. This way, I won’t grow old while training under the time dilation.’

Adrian, this time, did not really have any reason to say no. He just sighed.

’Okay. But how do I explain things to Claire and Serena? You can’t just randomly disappear into my dungeon for weeks.’

’Well, you can just make a new plan,’ Aria suggested smoothly. ’You can tell them that you are going to explore the island and move around like a traveling merchant. Since you do actually plan on doing that anyways, you can just push the plan forward and do it a few days from now. Then you can tell them that you are going to leave me here under the protection of the Demon Chief so that I can train. You can make up your own reason for that, and I think they will believe that.’

Before Adrian could even poke a hole in that plan, she continued.

’Even if they don’t buy it, I can just use my illusion magic to subtly alter their perception and make them believe it.’

Adrian just shook his head.

’You are way too crafty. You are not holding back now, are you?’

’Well, you already know my biggest secrets. I don’t see a reason for holding myself back anymore. And I also believe that... well, I just want to help.’

Her voice softened considerably in his head.

’I want to help you with your goals, Papa. You have always been there for me. You have been there to protect me, to unconditionally love me. You fulfilled the one thing within me that I didn’t even realize I wanted. Deep inside, I really, really craved for affection. I just wanted someone who acknowledged me and I just wanted people to not hate me. But then I got much, much more than that.’

She paused, taking a slow breath.

’I got someone who truly loved me. You took such drastic, careful steps to not influence my growth. You purposely left the freedom of choice entirely with me. You went against your natural instincts just for my sake, which is something I respect a lot. But Papa, my life... this life that I am currently living, it is mostly due to you. I don’t want you to think that your thoughts are something that will force me into a certain direction. I want to be someone that you envision. I want to be the person who is the absolute best version in your eyes. I don’t care about others. That is what brings me happiness. Seeing you happy is what brings me happiness, Papa.’

Adrian shook his head slightly.

’It is not a good thing to keep your own happiness entirely dependent on other people’s happiness. You need to find happiness completely on your own. But I understand what you are trying to say.’

He smirked.

’So, you just said you will do whatever I envision, right?’

Aria immediately panicked.

’Don’t even think about telling me not to go into the dungeon.’

Adrian let out a genuine laugh and sighed.

’Yeah. You really are my daughter hehehe.’

He looked over at her playfully chatting with Claire while also talking to him using the mana strand.

’Okay. We will deal with that when the time comes. I will leave the camp in probably around two days or so. Once I get my hands on the techniques that these tribesmen use to get stronger and learn a little bit more about this liquid mana, I will head out.

’Okay.’

Adrian fully turned his attention to Serena, who was still sitting patiently on the bed.

"Why don’t we read this book that I found?" he asked, tapping the thin book he pulled back out. "It is actually related to you. Or well, it is related to your blessing."

Serena’s eyes immediately lit up. She smiled brightly.

"Really?"

"Well, yes. But I haven’t even read it yet, so we can both read it together."

As he said this, he quickly glanced at Claire. But she was way too busy with Aria. The two of them continuously giggled as Claire walked toward the door to look at the rain.

Adrian was glad that Claire wasn’t getting jealous or acting up over him spending time with Serena.

He happily got into the bed, pulled the blanket over himself and Serena, and placed the book directly between them so that they could both clearly read the pages together.

It took them around four whole hours to finish the entire book.

Unfortunately for Adrian’s patience, Serena was a very slow reader. But she also absorbed the knowledge much better than he naturally could. Luckily for Adrian, he had his own system passively recording and summarizing everything anyway, so it wasn’t that big of an issue.

Once they were finally done reading the last page, he looked at Serena.

"So, which one of these three methods do you think you would want to use?"

Serena frowned slightly.

"I don’t want to make a blood contract with otherworldly beings. Or well, the demons in this case."

Adrian shook his head.

"Talking about demons, I don’t think we should even call these guys demons anymore. Like it is written in the book, I think they are just some sort of different beings. I don’t know if they are actually otherworldly beings or just ancient beings native to this world. We just have no knowledge about it anymore."