Almighty Summoner System

Chapter 156 - Return

There was only a few minutes left before the duration of the punishment ended. 

Even though he felt safer than before being in the forest, he still wanted to go home immediately. It had already been almost twelve hours since he arrived at this place and he already missed his cute little Eva. 

A while later, Ban arrived at a wide flowing river. 

He looked at the duration and noticed that there was only a minute left before it reaches zero. Ban nodded his head as he went to the river to wash himself from the dirt and other stuff he smeared on his body to escape the pursuit of the beasts.

After he was done cleaning up, he was about to turn around and just wait for the duration to finish, but a commotion under the river piqued his attention. 

A huge shadow suddenly appeared under the river and as time passed, it actually grew bigger and bigger. 

Ban knew that it was a beast that was living under the river at first glance, but strangely enough, he did not feel that it was a threat, unlike what he felt from all the beasts he encountered so far in this place or 'Realm.' 

Nevertheless, Ban still decided to retreat a few meters away as he waited for the shadow to surface and reveal itself. 

A moment later, a glass-like and transparent shell suddenly appeared, followed by what looked like a shiny snake-like head. 

Growl! 

The beast produced a beastly growl as it started to walk out of the water. 

Now that Ban was seeing it up close, it's size was actually very gigantic, the same size of the beasts he encountered earlier when he still just arrived here. 

The gigantic beast slowly walked towards Ban.

Seeing the gigantic beast's action, Ban did not panic and feel scared, and instead, a huge smile actually blossomed on his face. 

An image about an abused turtle suddenly surfaces inside his mind. 

"Tori?!" Ban exclaimed in surprise after seeing the mountain-like barrier turtle.

He could not forget Tori's appearance. After all, he just encountered him not too long ago and even killed his Summoner for good.

The gigantic turtle, as if recognizing the name Ban spoke out loud, has its eyes widened in anticipation.

The gigantic turtle opened its mouth, almost like it was trying to speak. However, just before any sound could escape from that gigantic mouth, a System screen suddenly popped out in front of Ban's eyes. 

[ Congratulations for surviving 12 hours in the Monster Realm!

Ending Daily Mission Failure Punishment, A Big Surprise in 3… 2… 1...

]

Before the countdown could reach zero, Ban's eyes immediately blacked out as his body was sucked away by an unknown and unstoppable force. 

The gigantic turtle was surprised about the sudden scenario but after seeing that the human was no longer there, it turned around and returned to the bottom of the river. Who knows how long would it need to wait before it can be Summoned again, or before it could meet another human again, just like earlier.

Meanwhile, at the Summoner World, Ban materializes out of nowhere inside his room in the attic after the black hole spat him out. He fell to the ground butt first with a loud thud.

He looked around and instantly recognized the place. He saw Eva still deep in meditation as she cultivates while absorbing the Beast Core that now has many noticeable cracks on its surface.

Ban ignored her for now as he took a glance at the System screen in front of him..

[You have returned from the Monster Realm!

-Monster Realm, a Realm or a place where Monsters of all kinds dwell before they are summoned. 

-Monsters who did not die in battle but have become unsummoned after their owner dies or due to forceful unsummoning will return in the Monster Realm to rest, waiting for another chance to get summoned.

...

-You are the third person in this World who managed to discover the Monster Realm.

-You have survived the punishment, A Big Surprise!

-Calculating Rewards based on performance… 

-Distributing Rewards...

-Congratulations, you gained a Monster Egg for killing a Monster in the Monster Realm.

-Congratulations, you gained a Skill for killing a Monster in the Monster Realm. 

-Congratulations, you gained an Item for killing a Monster in the Monster Realm.

-Congratulations...

]

Ban felt dizzy as he comprehended the System messages in front of him. It contained a huge and major secret about the world and where the Monster's really came from. 

His confusion was answered by the mention of the Monster Realm, and how it works. He was now sure that the turtle he witnessed was an older or adult version of Tori. He felt happy for the turtle as he could finally produce that smile again. 

Ban did not waste his time reading all the System messages as he resorted to the easiest way of understanding them. 

"System, inject them directly inside my brain!" He ordered as he braced himself for the incoming surge of information. 

[Affirmative, Host!] 

The System also did not waste any time as it immediately heeded his instruction. The information that contained a major secret was injected into Ban's brain just like that. 

Ban frowned as his head actually hurt a little due to that. Fortunately, he was able to endure it and it finally stopped a while later, making him sigh in relief. 

He massaged his temple as he absorbed the knowledge and the information like a sponge. 

"I see… so that's how it was…" Ban said as he thought of the content of the recent knowledge he obtained. 

He got up from where he fell and went towards the window. He took a glance outside and noticed that it was still dark. 

"So it was real… if a human was in the Monster Realm, 12 hours in the Monster Realm are only 1 hour in this World. The ratio might even vary depending on the situation. Just like what happened to Tori, even with the ratio of 12 to 1, he should not be able to grow that big in the short period of time that he returned to the Monster Realm after being unsummoned." 

"I don't know how long he was already there, but based on his eyes, and with the Monster Realm's resources, his age should not be less than 50 years…." Ban muttered as he recalled Tori's massive size. 

He was very surprised and confused about it at first, but after obtaining that knowledge from the System earlier, his head started to clear from the confusion. 

And with that knowledge, Ban suddenly grew even more curious about that place. 

How do they get summoned? Who were the other two people who discovered the Monster Realm? Do they have a System as well? What if he managed to contract a Monster there, will he be able to take it back to the Summoner World? If so, will their strength remain the same?

A bunch of questions surfaced inside Ban's mind as his curiosity towards the Monster Realm peaked. 

However, he immediately shook his head a while later as he turned around to look at Eva. 

Her body was glowing with a golden light as the Beast Core in front of here was slowly breaking down like a glass. 

Ban smiled as he immediately knew what that golden glow implies. 

Eva was already trying to break through to the next rank. 

Ban immediately dashed towards her as he planned on assisting her on her ascension. Although it might be easy for normal grade Beast and Monster to successfully ascend, it was a different case for Elite and Lord Grade Beasts and Monsters. 

Ban immediately sat in a lotus position in front of Eva as he also entered a meditative state. When he was already in, he immediately activated Perfect Harmony to let Eva concentrate more in ascending while he assisted her in supplying the necessary energy to breakthrough. 

A smile unknowingly surfaces in Eva's cute face as she felt Ban's presence being there. Her confidence rose to another level as she kept on attacking the 'barrier' to break through to the next level. 

A couple of hours passed in the blink of an eye and Eva was still not done breaking the barrier. 

Ban noticed that any moment now and the Beast Core would finally turn to dust. 

And he was right, the Beast Core turned to dust as it's essence was finally emptied. Ban did not waste more time and he immediately took another Beast Core from his Dimensional Storage. 

He immediately replaced the broken one with the new and instantly started helping Eva absorb the essence to help her on her break through. 

After a couple of minutes, the 'barrier' finally started to crack and at this time, Eva started attacking it more vigorously.  The barrier that blocked her ascension did not last that long as it finally broke apart from her attacks.

At the same time the barrier broke, Eva finally left the X-Mortal Rank as she entered the F-Apprentice Rank Beast.