Genius Chapter 7: The Summoner

Chapter 7: The Summoner

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

When Su Mo logged back into the game, he discovered that all the fish from his stall had been sold out. He checked the stall details and found that aside from the initial few, the rest of the fish had been bought by an account named ScarletFruit16’.

“What the hell, so expensive!” 

“Weren’t the fish in Newbie Village selling for just over 1 gold? How come this stall is 3 gold?”

“Should I buy it?”

“Yeah, go ahead. I’ve been fishing for half an hour and haven’t caught any. If I can’t get some soon, how will I leave Newbie Village?”

After clearing out his inventory, Su Mo bought two packs of pet food for his little rabbit and noticed a new stall near the lake. This new stall, run by ScarletFruit16’, also sold fish, with only two left, priced at 3 gold each.

“Interesting.” Su Mo mused. He had calculated that the quest rewards in Newbie Village were far greater than the money he earned from quest scenes. The price of 1 gold 50 silver per fish was quite acceptable to most players, so he never worried about his Little Spirit Fish not selling. However, he hadn’t anticipated that someone would flip these quest items for double the price in the relatively poor Newbie Village.

With his Newbie Village quests completed, Su Mo was ready to move on to the sect headquarters for the main questline and select his profession. Having previously reviewed the job descriptions during character creation and briefly researching afterward, he decided on the summoning branch of the Sacred Spirits Sect.

At level 15, characters could learn two basic summoning techniques. Following the prompts, Su Mo allocated his skill points, and new skills appeared in his previously sparse skill bar.

“Zephyr Hawk Art…Solitary Wolf Art…” Su Mo read the skill descriptions while distributing his skill points.

Just as he was focusing on his skills, he received a party invitation from ‘ClearWindIsHere’.

“Have you chosen your profession?” ClearWind immediately opened the voice chat upon entering the party and was stunned to see Su Mo’s sect symbol. “What the hell, why did you choose the Sacred Spirits Sect?! That’s a trash profession!”

Su Mo remained indifferent, continuing to study and allocate points to his skills. “It seems straightforward.”

ClearWind groaned, “What’s straightforward about it? Summoning is the hardest profession in “Celestial Horizon”! The healer branch is also known as ‘Luck-Healer’: if you’re lucky, you’re a super healer; if not, you’re a team wipe hazard. You chose this sect, and now you can’t switch to any decent branch. This character is done for!”

In gaming terms, a “trash profession” is one considered weak or underpowered, often the least favorable choice. The crucial point was that in “Celestial Horizon”, players could only switch branches within their chosen sect, not change sects altogether.

“Celestial Horizon” featured five major sects: Mountainless Blade Sect, Billowing Robe Pavilion, Serene Essence Temple, Flaming Thunder Mountain, and the Sacred Spirits Sect. Each sect had different branches based on skill points and weapon choices.

Among the five major sects, the Sacred Spirits Sect wasn’t known for its offensive prowess. It had only two branches: summoning and healing. The summoning branch had limited support capabilities and unimpressive attack power, focusing on summoning techniques that required high mental acuity and rated at five stars in difficulty. The healing branch had unpredictable healing output, dependent on luck, leading to it being nicknamed the “secondary healer” of “Celestial Horizon”.

Both branches were underwhelming, resulting in the Sacred Spirits Sect consistently ranking at the bottom since the game’s launch.

Su Mo shrugged, “Is that so? The official description seemed fine to me.”

“What’s fine about it? You need to check the forums on StarNet for detailed class evaluations.” ClearWind had chosen a melee class in the Mountainless Blade Sect, which was highly regarded and easy to play, “Which branch did you choose?”

“The summoning branch,” Su Mo replied.

ClearWind was speechless, “…” ClearWind sighed, “Bro, you might have good luck, but your choices are terrible. Even choosing a healer would be better than summoner!”

Su Mo continued assigning skill points, “Really?”

“This branch is a nightmare. The more summons you have, the more you have to control, and each summon has its own skills. It’s like multitasking on steroids.” ClearWind was genuinely distressed. This was an account with a Soul Rabbit, yet it was wasted on the summoning branch of the Sacred Spirits Sect!

Su Mo had his reasons. The summoning branch required high mental acuity rather than physical prowess. Although “Celestial Horizon” was designed to be fair, innate muscle memory played a role in close combat, especially since martial skills were mandatory in most schools. Su Mo had no formal combat training, just some lightweight exercises meant for health. In a serious close combat scenario, he wouldn’t stand a chance.

Su Mo’s personal preference leaned towards speed. The Sacred Spirits Sect offered speed bonuses and short casting times, requiring balanced attributes. Summoned creatures had their own attributes and were linked to the player’s base attributes, providing a 150% enhancement. This, combined with his Myriad Palace Insight skill, which had random attribute boosts, made the summoning branch a suitable choice for his current needs.

Su Mo said, “Just playing casually.”

ClearWind sighed, “A game without ambition loses its soul.”

Su Mo glanced at him, puzzled, “Aren’t you leveling up? Do you need something from me?”

“I’m off today, so I’m focusing on leveling up,” ClearWind replied, looking at Su Mo, “What about you? Done with your profession quests? Want to head to the main city and grind for a double experience together?”

Su Mo checked the time, “I’m planning to log off soon.”

“So early?” ClearWind was surprised, as it was only ten o’clock.

Su Mo had been online for over four hours. “Yeah, you go ahead.”

—

In the real world, curtains partially blocked the light from the hovercar beams below. Suddenly, the room lit up with a click, and a man walked in, loosening his tie. “He turned it down?” he asked.

“Yes,” came the reply over the phone. “The student said he had plans for the holidays. Director Liu recommended another student, so it looks like he won’t be joining our project. The research institute’s other projects will probably take him.”

Yu Zhen massaged his temples slightly. “And the servers and the main AI? Everything’s running smoothly?”

“Rest assured, the loader is functioning perfectly. We can hand it over to the operations team next week if everything goes well. The updated schedule has been sent to your terminal. As per your instructions, we’ve halved the activities for the second half of the year. Are you sure about starting your vacation next week?”

“Yes.”

His assistant quickly hung up. Yu Zhen glanced through the terminal’s notifications before taking out two chip cards from a drawer. The cards bore the elaborate “Celestial Horizon” logo. He inserted one into the loader, entering the holographic world.

In the main city of “Celestial Horizon”, the streets were bustling. The Flaming Thunder Mountain archer, bearing the ID ‘ReturnToSimplicity,’ ¹was standing by the warehouse NPC. 

Soon, a flamboyantly dressed male healer ran over, “You didn’t tell me you were logging in! Weren’t you supposed to come online tomorrow?”

Yu Zhen took out the materials from the warehouse. “I logged in on a whim. How’s the alt account I asked you to level?”

The healer, ID ‘HealsFor25000,’ had worked with Yu Zhen before and now ran his own studio. Yu Zhen often collaborated with him, sourcing materials and gear. Recently, due to his busy real-life schedule, he had entrusted his two accounts to HealsFor25000 for leveling.

“The alt just left Newbie Village. I didn’t touch anything else since you didn’t specify,” HealsFor25000 said, “Finished the quests and got a skill suitable for Serene Essence Temple. This alt should either be a Taoist or an Array Master.”

“Celestial Horizon” had an authorization login feature, and two weeks ago, Yu Zhen had temporarily authorized HealsFor25000 to clear the newbie quests on his new account.

Yu Zhen replied, “No problem. Just send the materials to my account.”

“Will do. By the way, you asked me to keep an eye out for a Healer quest. A Myriad Palace Insight skill dropped in Newbie Village a few days ago, but I haven’t gotten the specifics. The player is a newbie.”

“A newbie?” Yu Zhen queried.

“Yeah, pretty bizarre. He also caught a Soul Rabbit. The forums have been buzzing about it. A lot of people tried to corner him but failed. The player’s ID is momo, and it seems he hasn’t chosen a profession yet.”

Yu Zhen remarked, “Healer quest skills are usually special and not tied to other professions. If he keeps playing, he’ll figure it out eventually.”

HealsFor25000 quickly transferred the materials to Yu Zhen’s account. Yu Zhen checked the recent game updates on the forums before logging back into the game. “Celestial Horizon” was controlled by the main AI, and its exploratory gameplay was driven by player actions. While fixed content was planned by the game developers, the primary allure lay in the exploration mechanics.

This exploration was based on historical records and enhanced by the main AI’s predictive capabilities, offering unique gameplay experiences. Yu Zhen found this aspect particularly engaging, as pushing the boundaries of the game world was far more interesting than merely playing the game.

***

In the evening, there were more players online in Celestial Horizon. During this period, the level was temporarily capped, and more and more people were playing the game, making it common to compete for spots in the wild monster areas.

Not far from the faction’s base was a wild monster area near the main city, for levels 15-23, with many people farming monsters. At that moment, there were two teams farming in the central area of the wild monster zone. Shortly after they started, another team entered the area.

The newly arrived team had a yellow guild emblem above their heads, with a bright candle symbol. 

“Damn, why are Eternal Flame’s people here!?”

“Speechless, are they here to clear the area again? Can’t they let us farm at night?”

Celestial Horizon’s server leaned towards free branching, generally assigning players of the same level range to sub-servers to facilitate leveling. Once players passed level 40, this boundary was removed to protect new players. Therefore, high-level players over 40 could not attack lower-level players in the sub-servers, but players below level 40 had no such restriction.

Eternal Flame was a well-known war guild in the main server, frequently engaging in point-snatching activities. Neutral players dared not provoke them, and newbie players were no match for them in skill. Usually, when they cleared the area, others had no choice but to leave, fearing retaliation later.

Recently, a batch of new members had joined the Eternal Flame guild. Under the guidance of the guild management, they occupied the wild monster areas at night to farm monsters, which had been going on for about two weeks. They hadn’t come to farm in the past couple of days, so the players thought they were done, but unexpectedly, they came again tonight.

The team was fully assembled and directly targeted the team in the middle. Among the Eternal Flame team was a high-level player at level 35. The team was fierce and unreasonable, quickly driving away the two teams in the middle. Those who didn’t leave were attacked.

The level 35 player was fully equipped, making it easy to handle these players who were not even level 20.

“Damn, this is too much.”

“Forget it, let’s go do quests. Better to avoid Eternal Flame.”

“Endure it, there’s no need to fight them. Dying in the wild will cost us levels!”

The Eternal Flame team drove away the two teams in the center of the wild monster area. The leading level 35 swordsman noticed a few scattered players still farming alone.

Someone in the team said, “There are two more over there who haven’t left. Should we clear them out?”

Clearing the area meant driving out all teams except their own, allowing one team to farm five points of monsters, which sped up farming and leveling.

In a remote corner, there were just two players, obviously not in the same team, each pulling a few small monsters to farm.

“There’s an Array master, and the other one is… a summoner?” The swordsman glanced over, “Who still plays summoner?”

Author’s note: 

Su Mo: When playing games, just play casually. Don’t take it too seriously.

Addis Note: This is taken from a way later chapter, but here is the list of sects and their professions:

Celestial Horizon listed five major sects and 11 professions.

Flaming Thunder Mountain encompasses warriors, marksmen, and assassins.

Serene Essence Temple encompasses array masters and Daoist priests.

Billowing Robe Pavilion encompasses healers and mages.

Mountainless Blade Sect encompasses physical swordsmen and magical swordsmen.

Spirit Sanctuary encompasses summoners and clerics.