I Just Wanted Friends, But My Summons Keep Eating the Bosses (ND)

​Night checked his condition. He realized he would not be in this strange state for long, and when the effects finally wore off, the process of eating skills might become exponentially harder.

​What to do?

​Who knew when he would enter a similar state again? From what he could guess, his body was currently going through some sort of metamorphosis.

​And the [Sin Of Hunger] was likely the catalyst. Or so he could only guess.

​Though he could eat records now, that didn’t mean he could peer into them and easily tell exactly what they were.

​When he tried, but he felt that attempting to understand the records was like trying to understand what made up water.

​You could define water, you definitely knew how it tasted, and if you had read or studied it, you might also know how water behaved in different situations and how it could be utilized.

​But none of this superficial information would allow you to truly understand how water came to be in the first place.

​Probably only a God could know how water came to be.

​And trying to understand the records felt exactly the same. He could not completely comprehend them nor read them, but what he could do was understand what was happening by observing the changes happening within his own body.

​It was the same way scientists tried to understand a phenomenon by experimenting, causing reactions, and observing the final results.

​For now, Night didn’t even need to experiment, since his body was already going through some sort of metamorphosis... or perhaps ’transformation’ would be the right word.

​By observing the ongoing changes, he could guess what was happening. And by observing those changes, he could deduce what sort of records he had actually received.

​Ultimately, his current situation had everything to do with him finally being able to eat records.

​Hmm... It’s like Body Modification, but much more like a body fusion...

​He observed how the Nightmare Mist was behaving with his human body. It was unlike before, when he had to summon the mist from his soul.

​Now I feel like I can use the Nightmare Mist just like that. It’s like Lucy and her shadows.

​I feel like my Main Body and my human body are combining. It’s as if there is no need to differentiate between them anymore.

​Maybe now, if I could check my status screen, it would probably not show Human/Unique Being (Dormant), but something else entirely...

​I also feel like I can switch between the Nightmare Domain state and my normal state at will.

​If that happened, then my strength will shoot through the roof.

​But for now, he had another pressing matter to focus on. Looking at the [Stone Creation] skill that stubbornly refused to be eaten, he sighed.

​What a pity.

​Since there was not much time left, he moved his attention to another skill: [Nightmare Domain]. He didn’t have much hope with this one. Since a Legendary skill was already so difficult to eat, eating a Unique Skill was probably impossible.

​Maybe in the future... he thought.

​But when his awareness came in contact with [Nightmare Domain], he felt an immediate reaction.

​What?

​Immediately, without any hesitation, he tried to eat the skill... and it worked.

​How?

​The skill was quickly consumed, and the process was even faster than with the Common skills.

​Is it because it’s a Unique Skill? What makes it so different from the other skills?

​He sensed the changes happening within him after he ate the skill, and he was dumbfounded.

​On the outside, he felt something pour out of him and fill the surrounding one kilometer in the shape of a massive sphere. Suddenly, he was able to perceive all kinds of things, and the sensory feedback was a lot better than Spirit Sense.

​Spirit Sense cannot even compare to this.

​He was currently wrapped in a cocoon of Nightmare Mist, and his Spirit Sense had been unable to spread outside when he tried earlier. But his Nightmare Domain seemed to have no such problem.

​And also...

​The Domain can perceive much more information than this. It’s as if... as if it’s purposefully filtering out most of the information so that I don’t die because my brain exploded.

​Then his awareness moved toward the other Unique Skill: [Summon Evolution].

​From what he could tell, this was a passive skill that naturally evolved his summons. If he or his friends wanted to, they could use it to choose the specific path they wished to evolve into.

​Can I eat it as well?

​With high hopes, he tried. Unlike [Nightmare Domain], this one provided some resistance, but not much. His ability to devour had also increased many times over after eating the [Nightmare Domain] skill.

​He gathered all his awareness, surrounded the skill rune, and pushed forward with everything he had.

​Nom. Nom. Nom.

​It took around the same amount of time as the Epic skill, but he managed to eat it. As soon as he did, his senses exploded. His awareness spread naturally toward the soul links connecting him to his friends.

​These were the links of Death, Lilith, Eve, Lucy, Sage, and Zero.

​But there were five new links among them.

​Sara, Blade, Vivianne, Death’s Mother, and the White-Scaled Ouroboros.

​Curious, he checked how each link worked. He suddenly felt like he could do a lot more with them than what he could do previously.

​And he felt like he could evolve his summons into much better versions of themselves if he tried.

​But to do that, he would need a lot of Energy Value (EV).

​Right now, after all he had devoured by accident, he definitely had a lot of EV. He didn’t know exactly how much because he couldn’t check while the System was down.

​But if he had to guess, it must be in the millions.

​And if he tried evolving all of them right now, almost all of it would be gone in a flash, and he would be back to his poor, broke self.

​Hmm. Why was I saving EV in the first place?

​Now that he thought about it, had been saving EV because, without it, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.

Using skills and upgrading them, keeping his friends outside the Soul Space, and paying the cost every time they used their own skills... everything cost EV.

​But Night had already eaten almost of his skills, and he could tell that from now on, he wouldn’t need EV to sustain his friends. Because he understood, he regenerated that much energy naturally.

​And come to think of it, there is a whole Devil Monarch corpse outside that I can use as a battery.

​Even after he had devoured with everything he had, there was barely a dent in Alze-beus’s corpse. By the looks of it, it should last him for a month, and maybe even more if he continuously devoured it.

​Let’s evolve them. As a Summoner, I can’t shortchange my friends and limit their growth.

​As soon as he thought of this, he immediately started the evolution process. He didn’t know the exact mechanics, but his instincts guided him, and the rest happened by itself.

​His EV drained rapidly as he felt Nightmare Mist appear around his friends, covering them in cocoons.

​Once this was done, he returned his focus to his remaining skills.

​He tried again to eat the Legendary Skill [Stone Creation], but the result was exactly the same.

​It seems I am missing something fundamental here.

​His awareness moved toward the Divine Skill [Fire In the Hole]. The result was the same. His awareness burned every time it neared the skill.

​From what he could tell, this Divine Skill was an escape skill. Unfortunately, in the previous fight, it was already too late to use it.

​Even if he had used it, this skill would only help him escape, and he had been unwilling to leave Sara and Blade behind.

If they had been connected to him like they were now, he could have brought them along, but now was not the time to cry over spilled milk.

​He checked his state outside. His transformation was almost over.

​He still didn’t give up, and he thought of various ways to eat the remaining skills. He didn’t know when he might get a similar opportunity, and maybe by the next time, it would already be too late.

Probably by then, these skills would be permanently stuck to his soul like parasites.

​It is often said, ”It is better to have a deadly foe than a pig teammate,” and these skills were definitely the pig teammates holding him back.

​Then, as if a light bulb went off in his brain, he thought of something.

​Can I communicate with the others?

​It was not possible previously, but after eating the [Nightmare Domain] skill... it should be possible now.

​He tried connecting with [Dream]. At first, it felt like he was trying to move an extra, shapeless limb. But when he focused and gathered his intent into a concentrated form, and moved it in the direction of the link he had with [Dream], it worked perfectly.

​So easy...not complicated at all...not complicated at all, he joked internally.

​[Dream]’s voice reached him almost immediately. ”What happened to my glutton baby? Finally thought about mommy [Dream]?”

​Night cringed.

He wanted to argue, but since he was short on time, he cut straight to the matter. ”Why am I not able to eat the Legendary Skill and the Divine Skill?”

​[Dream]’s response was quick, and she sounded exasperated and a little panicked. ”You tried to eat what????”