The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

The thing Alena looked for. Obviously, it would be something to help with her curse. The System always gave rewards that were relevant to the specific <Player>'s usages, and Alena's case would be that different with this. She needed a cure, so the System could give her a cure as long as she grew just enough.

Alena was a bit hesitant, but she nodded slowly as Aria spoke to her about matters of the world. Since she was going to tackle on the dungeon, she too followed closely behind Aria to go to the training grounds along with her.

The two of them reached the place and began doing their own thing, with complete understanding of what each other would need. They both stretched their bodies in order to get it ready for battle. Then, Aria pulled out her sword and began hitting some of the training dummies with her strength.

Whereas Alena sat down on the floor, remembering to put herself in a comfortable position so that she wouldn't repeat Aria's mistake of getting cramps because she sat for an entire day in the same position. After assuming a good position, she waved Aria a little goodbye before closing her eyes and getting into visualizing her Tower with the key.

Her heart was pounding, as this would be the first time in a while that she was fighting alone. The first time she 'fought' on her own was when she had to face slimes, a weak monster that had varieties to a certain level but was still susceptible to her attacks. Compared to those, the monsters inside the Tower were described to be much more venomous and challenging, and they would be the perfect equivalent of one's maximum potential per level.

Even though she was still on the first floor, she couldn't slack. If she dared to let her guard down, it would be unknown if she could even see Aria anymore beyond this point. Gritting her fists as she prepared her mentality. she finally jumped inside the Tower and was thrown into the first level, where her enemies were right in front of her and ready to fight.

She was faced with hordes of ants crawling all over the ground in a disgusting manner. Even though their bodies were rather small, their collective steps were enough to create a buzzing noise that greeted Alena as she descended upon this first floor.

Feeling shocked, Alena reacted instantly and backed away. The distance between her and the horde was still a bit far, but their speed was much faster than Alena. If she stayed still, they would have gotten to her before she was even able to put back a fight.

"...Ilyin, freeze all of them for me!" Alena shouted, calling Ilyin out and summoning the Silver Slime to aid her in case something bad wanted to happen. She shrieked as one of the murderous hordes of ants got too close to her, much more than the distance she was comfortable with. Her running speed was caught up with, and they were about to attack and munch on her.

She closed her eyes, knowing that Ilyin would definitely make it and trusted the spirit. When she heard the stomping stop, she slowly opened her eyes and peeked through the narrow slits of her vision. She saw that her enemies had indeed been frozen to death, and there was no longer any life contained within their carcasses. No struggle, no nothing. There were no movements for the ants.

Alena heaved a sigh of relief as she finally stooped down and calmed herself down, sitting on the floor as she looked at the ants that gave her a genuine scare with disgusted eyes.

"Alena, this is just the first level. You may have passed this one, but there will be lots of other stages, those that are much harder than this. You must stay strong.. You will overcome it, just like this one. You will overcome all the trials that you come across... You will," Alena repeated her words, brainwashing herself into believing them and raising her self esteem up. Her hands were clasped up together as she frowned, the thought of having to fight and be exposed to pain being a harsh thing for her.

After convincing herself, she turned to face the spirit that ended the battle far more easily than what she though she would have to do. Although this was the first level, it couldn't be ignored that this was akin to the System's trial, and that each floor would naturally be quite hard to handle.

"Ilyin.. thank you for your help. You are truly my strongest ally," Alena made a solemn smile, looking at the spirit who was staring at Alena with curious eyes as she hovered over the dead monsters.

"Big sister Aria told me that the key to the next stage will be hidden inside the boss' carcass. I don't know where the boss is, but it should be one that sticks out from the rest of the crowd. Let's see.. It's hard to see when they are all frozen like this," Alena mumbled as she thought out loud.

Alena was actually a very frank, yet shy child. She had a lot of thoughts circulating inside her mind, but she did not dare to voice them all out and would selectively choose from what she had to say. When she was around others, she would think thrice before saying anything, and keep the rest of her chaotic mind hidden inside herself.

Ilyin looked at the confused child, who was trying her hardest to see past Ilyin's ice. After staying silent for a couple of seconds, she gradually approached the mounds of ice that she personally created, closed her eyes, and began looking for the thing that Alena had mentioned.

A different kind of carcass inside the horde. After looking carefully, she finally found out about the hidden boss inside the mountain of corpses.

Ilyin pointed to a certain spot, looking at Alena and conveyed her meaning through bodily gestures.

"This.. are you trying to tell me that you found the boss?" Alena deduced. It seemed likely. Ilyin was the one who cast the ice in the first place, so she should be able to detect the lifeforms inside of it.

Alena grabbed around the place Ilyin pointed to her and dug the chunk of ice out, melting it using the Silver Slime's corrosive elements. Although Ilyin could freeze things and cast icicles, she couldn't defrost her ice, which prompted Alena to give more specific instructions and be more careful in using the Ice Spirit's power in the future.

There would be monsters that she wanted to preserve, and if Ilyin ended up damaging it beyond salvation, then she would be extremely troubled. However, for now, the ants were of no use to her. Aria mentioned that she could take out the monsters' materials, but she doubted that she would be able to use gather any of them since Ilyin was her primary weapon.

Alena slowly dug out the next floor's key and debated with herself whether to continue forth or stop here and report back to Aria. She wanted to be extra careful, especially since she was still fairly weak. After debating with herself for some time, she was still unable to formulate an answer.

"Ilyin, what do you think? Should we continue forward, or should we stop here first?" Alena asked the spirit, who tilted her head as if she did not understand what Alena was talking about.

"Uhh... fight, or no more fight," Alena simplified her statement. She learned from Aria that Ilyin was indeed a high ranking spirit, but she was nothing but a mere child right now. Although she was supposed to have high intelligence to the point of being able to communicate with her with complete vocabulary, it was all dulled down and restricted thanks to her own power.

Ilyin thought for a few seconds before raising up her fists high. Her expressions were always emotionless, and even when angered, the spirit was unable to warp her face too much. It was as if the spirit's face was frozen up, just like her element.

"..I take it as that you want to continue, am I right?" Alena  questioned, looking at the spirit with questioning eyes.

This time, Ilyin nodded, giving Alena a much more convincing statement to hold on to.

"Then.. I suppose we can climb up a few levels before we go back," Alena mumbled, holding the key and thinking of the next level, the way which Aria had taught her when they discussed about the Tower.

Instantly, she felt a warping effect elapse. When she opened her eyes, she was already on the second floor, and her enemies were presented to her. She instantly got into battle mode and instructed Ilyin and the Silver Slime to be careful as they fought.

Their enemies were water snakes. A lot of them slithering on the ground, making the entire place wet and slippery.