How To Suck Honey With Extras [EN]: Chapter 7

Episode 7

9. The Flower of Attack is Ranged! (4)

Most small villages have communal hearths.

It’s difficult for each house to have and maintain its own.

There are also safety concerns.

Because of this, the hearth is always crowded if you don’t arrive early.

Having keenly realized this last time, I tend to arrive a little earlier than others.

“Hmm? What’s this?”

Heading to the communal hearth at my usual time, I tilted my head in puzzlement.

Quite a few villagers were gathered around it.

The murmuring is quite noisy.

“What’s going on? Did something happen?”

Did something interesting happen?

Slightly curious, I joined the crowd.

‘I smell an incident. Who’s the culprit?’

‘Come on, don’t keep it to yourselves, let’s share. What’s the point of neighborly affection? Keep the annoying things to yourself, and share the fun things.’

“Hmm? Is that Aileen?”

The one who reacted to my arrival was the village chief.

He’s sweating and looks quite troubled.

“Village Chief? Why is everyone gathered near the hearth?”

“Well, you see. It rained last night, didn’t it?”

“Rain? Ah, it did. It came at a great time.”

It felt like an intense downpour.

I was a little surprised when lightning struck.

The village doesn’t even have minimal lightning protection like lightning rods, so the thunder sounded really vivid.

So much so that I summoned Undine and had her make a fuss.

I was surprised, and Undine was surprised too.

Surprised. Surprised.

“What about the rain last night……”

Shower, lightning, hearth.

Isn’t that a bad combination? It was easy to guess.

“Could there be a problem with the hearth?”

If water gets into the hearth, it can’t be used right away.

Of course, to prevent that situation, it’s covered with a sturdy roof, and the villagers manage it together.

But the hearth shouldn’t be damaged by just that much rainfall.

But the village chief shakes his head as if he’s sorry.

“It seems it was struck by lightning. The hearth is broken too.”

“……Pardon?”

I looked at the place where the hearth was, where people were watching.

Wow, it’s really smashed.

The roof collapsed and was smashed, and there were traces of burning everywhere.

“Wow…… it really got struck by lightning.”

It’s the first time I’ve seen the wreckage after being struck by lightning.

When struck by lightning, it doesn’t burn, it gets smashed…….

I felt a chill for a moment.

What if this had fallen on the house?

Wow, even nature is dangerous here!

‘If I want to live safely, I need to become independent quickly.’

Startled, I examined the smashed hearth and reflexively made a sound, “Huh?”

“……Wait? Lightning?”

A curious villager speaks to me, but I brush it off, saying it’s nothing.

Meanwhile, my mind is working hard.

‘Lightning, broken hearth, and these fragments…… this is good, isn’t it?’

This will do!

A possibility filled my head.

“Lightning would be good!”

I finally saw a way.

* * *

I hurried back home.

I didn’t come back empty-handed.

In my hand, as I returned home, was one of the fragments of that hearth.

The most charred fragment.

“Let’s see…… a piece of stone struck by lightning.”

I unwrapped the bundle containing the fragment and carefully stroked it with my fingertips, giving a satisfied smile.

“This feeling! It’s quite useful.”

The reason I took this lightning-struck stone is because there’s a perfect use for it.

What I feel when I touch the stone is a sense of abundant natural energy emanating from it.

It’s a slightly tingling, static electricity-like feeling.

“It’s a good feeling.”

It’s a subtle sense of incongruity that I can feel because I contracted with a spirit.

“Since it was struck by lightning…… naturally, that energy is imbued in it.”

At the moment the stone was struck by lightning, a little bit of natural energy was imprinted on it.

This kind of object can be used as a material to summon spirits.

I can say I was quite lucky.

Because this kind of property doesn’t last long.

Maybe it won’t be usable after half a day.

“With this, I can use it as a material to summon a spirit.”

If I were to summon a spirit randomly, I could just draw a summoning circle and perform the ritual.

But if I want to summon a specific spirit, I have to put in that much effort.

The most suitable offering is an object imbued with natural energy.

In the case of water spirits, it’s clear and special water.

In the case of fire spirits, it’s an object imbued with the energy of fire, like coal.

And fragments of lightning-struck stones like this are also excellent materials.

The most certain thing as a material is a mineral imbued with a special energy called a spirit stone.

‘I can’t get a spirit stone.’

Even a royal family of a country can’t easily obtain it.

I know the source where I can get it, but with my current abilities, it’s impossible to go there.

I’ll die on the way.

“Anyway, I can summon a lightning spirit with this!”

After much deliberation, I had narrowed down the attributes of the spirit I would summon to two.

One of them is the lightning spirit.

‘Attributes with high attack power that can directly attack are important.’

Lightning, that is, electricity, is an attribute that definitely works on living things.

And the fast attack nature of lightning itself is also useful.

“This will increase the probability of summoning a lightning spirit.”

It seemed better to summon it quickly before the imbued energy disappeared.

I immediately prepared a summoning circle, placed the fragment in the center of the summoning circle, and performed the ritual.

‘Please…… please come out. Lightning spirit…… please.’

I try to imagine as much as possible the images I have of lightning or electricity.

I proceeded with the ritual while strongly wishing for it.

There’s no guarantee that spirits of other attributes won’t come out at all.

In the end, it’s luck.

First, the summoning circle began to react.

“Oh?”

Soon, light flowed out from the fragment, and that energy was condensed into one point.

Please…… please!

I stared at the light as if praying.

Finally, I confirmed a small spark popping from the light and cheered.

“It worked!”

I never thought it would really work.

While I was enjoying a strange sense of accomplishment.

The sparks began to pop more and more fiercely, soon swelling like a small ball and forming a shape.

And the lowest-grade lightning spirit was summoned.

“Huh? A lightning hedgehog?”

This lightning spirit looks like a hedgehog.

The characteristic is that lightning is protruding in the shape of thorns.

Will it hurt if I get pricked? Will it tingle?

It’s completely different from Undine, who has a fairy-like shape.

‘Is that appearance because of me?’

I think I read that the form of a spirit is related to the summoner?

But what does electricity have to do with a hedgehog?

Well, whatever.

“Tingly hedgehog? What’s your name?”

-Sprite!

“So, you’re Sprite, the lowest-grade lightning spirit……”

-That’s right! That’s right!

Sprite raised its head as if responding to my words.

-What’s the request? What should I do?

“It’s a contract. How about it? Will you do it?”

-I’ll do it! I’ll do it!

Undine seemed to hesitate for a moment, but this guy agrees while bouncing around.

A quick decision is good.

When I held out my hand, Sprite jumped up and pricked it with its electric thorns.

It doesn’t hurt.

I just feel a slight tingling sensation.

The spirit power continues as it is, and the contract is completed.

“Excellent……”

Satisfied, I nodded and immediately released Sprite’s summoning.

“Okay, the business is over, so go back. We’re closed.”

-Contract com…….

I feel a little sorry for the hedgehog guy who disappeared before finishing his words, but I can’t help it.

I’m busy today.

There are more spirits to summon.

‘Once you succeed in one draw, you have to keep drawing until you go bankrupt!’

I shouldn’t gamble.

I prepared the summoning circle again and took out the material I had prepared some time ago.

It’s a cloth-wrapped byproduct obtained by grinding herbs with anesthetic effects, boiling them down, and then simmering them.

If you feed this to even a sturdy man, he can fall asleep right away.

I’ll use this as a material!

“A catalyst to summon the spirit of sleep!”

Spirit of sleep!

There are countless attributes of spirits.

From easy-to-understand elemental attributes like fire or lightning.

Attributes like light or darkness.

There are also somewhat strange attributes such as steel, shadow, rock, and grass.

In other words, there are spirits corresponding to all concepts of all things.

The spirit of sleep is also one of those attributes.

‘But the more rare the attribute, the lower the probability of summoning it.’

That’s why I don’t have high expectations this time.

“Sleep spirit…… sleep…… hmm…… should I imagine a sleepy image?”

I tried to imagine sleep as much as possible.

……What would be good?

When I’m so sleepy when I’m working overtime? The desperation when working all night for 3 days in a row?

“Ugh……”

I feel like I’m going to throw up just imagining it.

Fortunately, the summoning circle started working again as if it was effective.

A strange, pure white smoke flowed out, and like a yarn, it clumped together and became a small ball shape.

Small eyes can be seen among the floating pure white smoke clumps.

Our eyes met.

-…….

But for some reason, it doesn’t speak.

I think our eyes met, but it closes its eyes right away.

“Hey, if you came out, say something?”

-…….

What, can’t you speak?

At least it doesn’t seem like it can’t hear at all?

Puzzled, I held out my hand to it.

“I want to make a contract. Are you listening? A contract, I mean, a contract.”

Fortunately, it seemed to be listening.

It moved slightly, like a fluffy cloud, and opened its eyes.

As if it just woke up.

“……Could it be, were you dozing off?”

It’s like the spirit of sleep.

“Anyway, a contract. Can you do it?”

Is it an acceptance?

A strand of smoke was drawn out from the body of the spirit of sleep and flowed into my hand.

With this, the contract is established.

-……Sandman.

A languid child’s voice was heard very faintly.

Is it the spirit of sleep, Sandman?

More than that, you can talk. Is that also a hassle?

-…….

The guy opened his eyes again and looked at me.

Is it telling me to tell him what to do quickly?

“I don’t have anything to tell you to do right now, so are you going back?”

When I said it was okay to go back, Sandman disappeared without hesitation.

I finished the summoning and sat down on the bed.

It’s quite hard.

If I had made a fuss like I was going to test my strength like I did with Undine, I would have fainted again.

“……Summoning is quite tough.”

I might have passed out again.

But it’s worth it.

‘Lightning and sleep…… there will be good applications.’

The lightning spirit with pure attack power is useful, but the sleep spirit is also useful.

Put them to sleep or make them mentally hazy to reduce the enemy’s combat power.

Monsters below the intermediate level are difficult to resist this ability.

Humans also cannot resist unless they use magic or simple aura [a subtle energy field that some individuals can generate].

‘At best, this will only work in the early stages.’

The higher the level, the higher the resistance, so it is very difficult to put them to sleep.

In the case of Sandman, the lowest-grade spirit, it is expected that the limit is probably an aura beginner who has just awakened their aura.

‘It’s a spirit for beginners.’

To put it in perspective, it can be said to be a power specialized in slaughtering the weak.

‘Still, with these guys alone, I can be guaranteed safety for the time being.’

In addition, thanks to the contract with the spirit of sleep, I also have resistance to sleep.

This is also a small advantage.

Because at least the probability of me being attacked by sleep is reduced.

‘At least this is the best combination to survive the early part of the original work smoothly!’

I stretched with satisfaction and felt a sense of accomplishment.