On the outskirts of Mifune City.
After observing the surroundings, Touko said to Naoki, "Alright, there shouldn't be any problems here. Begin, boy."
"Before that, allow me to ask."
Naoki turned to face Shiki and Gray.
"Gray is fine, but why did Shiki come along too?"
"Any objections?" Shiki glared back at him sharply, "Just looking around, seems interesting, won't bother you."
'Just standing here is bothering me, you know.'
With great difficulty suppressing a strange embarrassment, Naoki let out a soft sigh, then took out the magic catalyst Touko had prepared for him from his bag—a piece of bone.
According to Touko, it was a bone she had scraped from the body of an ancient creature in the North Sea when she was traveling. Since she had never thought of how to use it, and it was too small to make a puppet, the bone had just been lying around.
'Ancient creature of the North Sea... obtained while adventuring with the Golden Wolf Lugh?'
'Speaking of which, that Phantasmal Species golden wolf named Beowulf, it seems it lived in Misaki Town after the end of the Mahou Tsukai no Yoru story, I wonder how it is now after ten years.'
'If possible, I'd also like a Phantasmal Species as a familiar.'
While thinking so, Naoki continued to take chalk from his bag and draw on the ground the magic circle needed for the summoning magic he had long memorized.
"Need to draw a magic circle too?"
"This is essentially a kind of ritual after all. But once the puppet is done, I can carve the magic circle inside the puppet's body, so I won't need to draw it every time."
"Exactly how many functions are you planning to install in that puppet?"
Touko threw out a listless retort, then began to observe the summoning magic circle.
'Basically the common type, just with some modifications... oh, exchange magic? Exchange between the real world and the hidden world, thereby opening a narrow gap to the Reverse Side of the World, quite a good idea.'
Drawing the magic circle didn't take much time. After the last stroke, Naoki held the bone of the ancient creature and stood in the center of the magic circle, then in a heavy voice recited the incantation he had thoroughly memorized.
"O ye fairies dwelling in another world, in the name of Natsukawa Naoki, once again I extend my invitation to you, sincerely inviting you to come to the outer side of the stars."
"The first element, earth. The second element, bone. The third element, twilight."
"Arise from beneath the ground, return to the real world from the land of the dead—Fairy Summoning."
As the last syllable of the incantation was spoken, the magic circle instantly emitted a dazzling red light. The solid ground in an instant transformed into a clear surface like water, colorful light gradually spreading from the other side of the surface to this side.
This was the gate through the Sea of Inner Stars.
And the next moment, whether it was an illusion or not, Touko and the others simultaneously heard a clear laughter like bells.
'This voice...'
'Like a child...'
'A fairy?'
At that moment, countless points of earth-brown light rose from beneath the surface, like arms winding around the bone in Naoki's palm, quickly pulling him beneath the surface.
Then—
*BANG!*
The ground suddenly cracked, and an earth-brown shadow very nimbly spun several times in the air and landed in front of Naoki.
It was a giant wolf whose entire body was made of stone, emitting a faint golden light all over its body, almost as big as Naoki.
"Ueeh..."
Touko's expression instantly turned gloomy when she saw the wolf.
'Why does it resemble Beowulf... because that bone was a fragment of Beowulf, there are remnants of his mana there... damn it, it reminds me of bad memories.'
Scratching her head vigorously, after discarding all those thoughts, Touko calmed down and began to observe the stone wolf.
'This is a product of summoning magic, a fairy variant. So that's how it is, it does have a resemblance to Beowulf, possessing characteristics of a Phantasmal Species. Because it mutated from a fairy...'
From the level of mystery, this stone wolf in front of them should truly surpass modern Magecraft, although its combat power might not be expected, but without a doubt, it was an embodiment of high-level mystery, a natural enemy of modern Magus.
And while Touko observed the stone wolf, Naoki, as the summoner, felt more.
A faint, indistinct connection was established between the two when the stone wolf fully materialized, but compared to a familiar that could be fully controlled, Naoki felt this connection was very fragile.
'That's right, I only summoned it, not its owner. In that case, if I'm not mistaken, Aleister's notes mentioned that before summoning, a wand should be used to stabilize it... that's the same as a necklace.'
Thinking of this, Naoki crouched down and reached out to touch the stone wolf's head.
However—
"Auuu!"
Howling loudly, the stone wolf immediately ran away from Naoki, and instead approached Shiki, rubbing its body against her legs very affectionately.
Naoki: "..."
Shiki: "..."
Gray: "..."
Touko: "Pfft! Boy, this summoned beast of yours... doesn't seem to listen to you very much, just like my familiar used to... pfft!"
"This is really... Shiki, it seems it likes you a lot?"
"Is that so?"
Glancing at the stone wolf leaning against her legs, Shiki suddenly drew her knife, and with the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, she stabbed it right in the head.
Seeing the stone wolf instantly die, Shiki suddenly felt disappointed, "Tch, just this much for a fairy variant, I thought it was something special. Boring."
"So you came along just to see if you could kill my summoned beast?!"
"It might have been a bit interesting if it couldn't be killed."
"You..."
Picking up the bone of the ancient creature that had fallen to the ground because the stone wolf had disappeared after being killed, Naoki returned it to Touko, "How was it? Teacher, the summoning magic."
"Hmm, a very good magic system, I think its development potential is very high. But to reach the level you expect, I think it still needs a lot of effort. After all, the puppet you want to make involves too many systems."
"I think so too..."
"But because of the summoning magic, I have another idea. This is just a promotion to the 'Festival' rank anyway, how about you use your research on summoning magic as your promotional material?"
Research summoning magic?
"After all, this is the most you can research in a short time. You've only just learned the basics of puppets, but you can already use summoning magic, so just continue your research in that direction."
"In that case... that seems alright? I'll try."