The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Novel

Davey was shocked that the girl knew Gnoass, the Earth Spirit King. In fact, he could not believe it. All Davey could do was laugh at the girl’s innocent request and said, “Gnoass is a bit busy, so you can’t see him now. I’ll show him to you later.”

“Eeeeeh! Whaaaaat? Uncle, don’t lie!!!”

“Alright, alright. I’ll show him to you soon. For now, let’s settle with Gnoum. How about Gnoum?”

Gnoum was the low-rank earth spirit.

“Gnoum? Will Gnoum be friends with Myuu?”

“Of course.”

“Then, I want to see! I want to see Gnoum!”

Summoning spirits should be done in a sequential manner. One should first summon a low-rank spirit and finish assimilating with it before summoning an intermediate-rank spirit. The same was true for summoning high-rank spirits; one had to finish assimilating with an intermediate-rank spirit before summoning a high-rank one. Of course, it was the same with supreme-rank spirits and spirit kings.

Although the time it would take for an individual to completely assimilate with their spirit would vary depending on their talents, this system should absolutely be followed. Simply put, one had to spend a great deal of power and time to summon higher ranked spirits.

For Davey, who skipped a lot of the process and forcibly created a way that did not conform to the system, a huge amount of power was drained out of him. However, considering the amount of power dwelling in his body, this much power being lost could be easily ignored.

The magic circle shone brightly as soon as they finished the spell. Myuu looked down at the magic circle in both awe and admiration.

After a moment, lumps of soil began to gather together inside the magic circle until they took the form of a little gnome. Gnoum’s basic form was similar to that of a human’s, but the roundness of its body made it look more like an animal standing on its two feet.

“Cu… Cute! Gnoum! Can you be Myuu’s secret… No! No! Can you be Myuu’s friend? A friend?!”

Perhaps the small gnome understood the child’s excited yell. After it completely took shape, Gnoum looked at Davey and Myuu alternately before flying up and kissing Myuu’s forehead.

“You’ll really become my friend?!”

A small and weak light was engraved on Myuu’s forehead after the Gnoum kissed her, gradually disappearing from sight. Now, only Myuu would be able to hear Gnoum's voice. With this, the contract, which was supposed to be impossible to do, had been completed.

—An elf that has not yet completed her primary growth has signed a contract with a spirit…

Elves were originally loved by nature. Simply put, their race had great talent for being an elementalist. In fact, even those talentless elves could still deal with and sign a contract with low-rank spirits.

However, elves also faced several restrictions. Only after passing through a certain period of growth, the primary growth, would they be able to receive the spirit’s blessings and be able to summon their spirits. The elves were a race that underwent a process of growth. Right before birth, they would be in their infancy. Then, they would undergo their primary growth, their secondary growth, their tertiary growth, and finally reach their adulthood.

Myuu was a young elf who had yet to undergo her primary growth. Young elves still in their infancy did not have the power to summon a spirit, let alone sign a contract with them.

“If you want to call for your friend Gnoum, all you have to do is hold the spirit stone in your hand and call for him in your heart. He will appear whenever you call for him.”

“Wow! Myuu has many friends now! Mom and Dad must have sent Myuu many friends from heaven, because Myuu has been very obedient and quiet!”

Red Ribbon, Blue Ribbon, Davey, and Gnoum were all Myuu’s friends now.

Perserque cried with her hand covering her mouth. She watched Myuu run around in delight after finally gaining friends.

Davey provided the mana to fulfill the contract, but for Myuu to be able to summon her spirit later, she would need to borrow mana until she was fully grown up. The item that would allow her to do that was the spirit stone, which was filled with spirit mana. The quality of Myuu’s spirit stone was quite high, so she would not have any big problems even if she used it a couple of times.

Myuu shouted her thanks to god while Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon jumped around, infected by Myuu’s happiness and excitement.

Davey watched the three children jump around happily before slowly saying, “Well, you came here to find me, so how long will you keep on hiding, huh?”

Davey’s voice suddenly turned somber, his relaxed and calm aura slowly disappearing.

“I heard that you came here.”

“Yuria.”

“I believe you already know the reason why I’ve come to find you.”

When Davey turned around, he saw Yuria Helishana approaching him with a bitter smile on her face and a fruit basket in her hands.

***

“Kyaaaaa! Come here!”

“Kyahahahahahaha! Catch me if you can!”

Yuria smiled brightly when she saw the three children running around happily. She said, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that child enjoy herself that much.”

“Aren’t underage elves supposed to be under absolute protection?”

“I don’t know how you know that, but…there’s nothing else I can say about that. Our race has a great tendency to reject half-elves, but it was not as bad as it is now.” Yuria sighed bitterly. Her eyes followed Myuu, who was running and playing happily. “Myuu’s mother was a normal pure-blooded elf. Her father was an ordinary human.”

Elven Guards were in charge of communicating with other villages and carrying important items around. These messengers were the only elves that could leave the forest freely, and it seemed like Myuu’s mother had been one of these messengers.

“On her way back to the Divine Tree from being dispatched on a mission, she met with a monster and was left with one foot in the grave. That was when she met Myuu’s father.”

An elven woman who had been on the brink of death and a human man who had rescued her from the grim reaper… This encounter had created a spark between them, which had resulted in the birth of the half-elf child, Myuu.

“Their family originally lived in a small village in the human world, but from what I heard, the village suffered from a bandit attack. Only Myuu and her mother were able to escape and seek refuge in the Divine Tree.”

“The child’s father… No, the answer is already obvious.”

“Yes. The problem came after that. Myuu’s mother, an elf, who voluntarily chose to leave the forest to continue her relationship with a human and even gave birth to a child, could not escape the World Tree’s wrath and punishment.”

Yuria had personally hidden Myuu away here. However, was that all to this story?

“Most of the forest’s residents here have grown tired of the World Tree’s ridiculous tyranny and extremely conservative views. If they were the only ones here, then Myuu might have been able to live in the village.”

“But from what I can see of your current situation, you all left her alone to live outside of the village.”

“It’s because of the conservatives. When I turned my back on the Divine Tree’s Land, the World Tree sent three elders to watch over me. You’ve already met one of them, right?”

Yuria was talking about Elder Condae, who was quite an overbearing and conservative elven man. She added, “There are fewer supporters of those conservatives in this forest. In fact, it’s safe to say that there’s no one here that follows them completely. However…”

However, the World Tree was backing these conservative elves up. Even if they crossed the line, the World Tree would interfere for them.

“The only thing I could do was to stop Elder Condae from trying to kill Myuu. For her to keep her life, we came to an agreement that Myuu has to live in a residence outside of the village and no one would interact with her.”

“So, you’re afraid of the World Tree’s retaliation?”

“The inhabitants of this forest are a blemish to the World Tree’s eyes. That’s right. In human terms, we’re traitors. However, even if they call us traitors, the World Tree has no justification to send their troops and subjugate us.” Yuria sighed, the words flowing out of her mouth in a calm manner. “That’s why everyone’s persevering…until I can summon a supreme-rank spirit.”

If Yuria succeeded in summoning a supreme-rank spirit, they could be free from the World Tree’s punishment and interference. On top of that, a supreme rank elementalist would have an additional effect, increasing and strengthening their influence as a high elf.

As a small tribe living in a small village without any power, these elves endured shame and injustice and had no choice but to hold their resentment in. They were only given a few choices to live and survive.

“All of the villagers know how Myuu was holding out on her own in this place. They are nice enough to help her silently. It’s just…they’re all cowards.” Yuria tapped on the basket in her hands before looking at Davey. She said, “This is the public opinion… From this point on, this is my personal opinion.”

Yuria smiled beautifully.

“Sir Employer,” Yuria called out, standing up from where she sat before kneeling in front of Davey. Then, she bowed her head and tried to say something.

However, Davey cut Yuria off before she could even do so. He said, “I’m actually in the middle of fishing right now.”

“…”

“But I’m a bit short on bait. Would you like to join in?”

Davey was confident that he would be able to catch every single one of them like yellow corvina. When Yuria raised her head to look at him, a faint smile was painted on her face.

***

The air was filled with solemnity as everyone turned to watch the huge magic circle in front of them. The magic circle was a supplementary magic circle which had been handed down since ancient times. This was powered by the elves’ spirit magic and was used to aid an elf in summoning a supreme-rank spirit. It functioned by providing the lacking affinity and mana through the help of others. The number of people who could help through this magic circle was restricted to around six people, but the help that they could provide was more than enough.

Aside from Yuria, who signed a contract with a high-rank spirit, there were seven elves who had signed a contract with intermediate-rank spirits. With Davey’s intervention and the help of five outstanding intermediate elementals, the magic circle was completed and ready to operate.

Under the elves’ countless gazes, Yuria lowered the wand inlaid with a spirit stone and slowly entered the magic circle. She stood right at the center. Then, she began an elegant and graceful dance, the spirit mana gently rising in the air.

“The spirits of nature…”

“Bless us.”

As if impressed by Yuria’s will, dots of light began to gather around her. For others, they might look like dots of light, but for Davey, he could see the spirits of nature in their own natural form gathering around the magic circle and blessing everyone inside it with their power.

“In compliance with the Origin’s Covenant,” Yuria chanted the spell quietly as she continued to dance inside the magic circle. “Your existence, a firm and solid part of nature.”

Everyone gulped as they watched Yuria politely call out the spirit through the ritual.

The supreme-rank spirits were called the master-rank spirits. They could immediately elevate a high-rank elementalist to another level. For elves that considered the spirits to be their companion for life, a supreme-rank spirit was a mysterious and miraculous sight, something that they had to watch with complete attention.

For a low-rank elementalist, they had to completely assimilate and communicate with their low-rank spirit before they could attempt to call out and sign a contract with an intermediate-rank spirit. The same process also worked for intermediate elementalists trying to sign a contract with high-ranked spirits.

—It’s unstable.

In the first place, Yuria and the elves’ ability to handle and control spirit mana was lacking. The conclusion of this summoning ritual was already a foregone conclusion. However, the biggest problem here was none other than the corruption that slowly ate away at the forest. Considering the fact that higher ranked spirits could only be summoned in a place rich and abundant with clean and pure spirit energy, the results were already obvious. This was especially since they were surrounded by corruption that was slowly progressing and devouring everything in the forest.

While Davey was lost in his thoughts, Yuria did not stop chanting. “In compliance with the Origin Covenant! In the name of the noble and pure Nature, I beseech you, the One Governing the Seas! Reveal yourself upon this lowly one that desperately desires to lay witness to your greatness!!!”

Yuria lifted the wand high up in the skies and cried out, “Ellestra!!!”

Yuria was crying out for the supreme-rank water spirit, the Water Dragon Ellestra. With her cry, the spirit energy wandering around the magic circle fluctuated wildly and created a huge vortex of water. Undeen, the high-rank spirit of water, appeared in the form of an adult woman and protected Yuria upon her summoning.

“It… It appeared!”

“My god! I never imagined that I would be able to see a supreme-rank spirit in my life!”

Even elves, who lived a life longer than humans, had never seen a supreme-rank spirit before. After all, these master-rank beings were a very rare sight. The elves immediately bowed down in worship once the water droplets began to take the form of a giant water dragon.

[In… com… pliance… with…]

Yuria’s face brightened when Water Dragon Ellestra’s voice, despite being garbled by some kind of noise, rang loudly in the area. Although she had not fully summoned the spirit yet, the fact that this supreme-ranked spirit had responded to her calls was already a big deal.

But what did they say about accidents? That they happened during unsuspecting times, right?