Grass, third tone.
Li Pu wasn't swearing.
Because standing in front of him was indeed real grass.
More precisely, a grass golem.
Its entire body was interwoven with green grass.
With hollow eyes and a gaping mouth, it didn't seem to have a nose or ears, and there were two conspicuous tufts sprouting from its head.
All in all, it looked quite dimwitted, not particularly intelligent.
[Grass!]
With a loud, resounding call, the grass golem lunged forward and hugged Li Pu.
This gesture made his heart warm slightly.
It felt like he was transported back to his childhood when he would hug his grandfather like this.
This summoner's beast was like a grandson.
[Ding-ling!]
[Summon success.]
Only he could hear the notification, echoing in his ear.
After the world's metamorphosis, every summoner received their own system panel.
"Congratulations, from today you are officially one of the Summoner Corps."
The bald old man smiled as he watched Li Pu step down from the platform with the grass golem.
"Thank you, teacher."
Li Pu nodded.
[Grass!]
The grass golem also expressed its thanks, though it always felt a bit awkward.
[Please name this summoned beast.]
Just then, the second prompt sounded.
Names are important.
Li Pu rested his chin on his hand, lost in thought.
The bald old man knew this was the naming stage, so he didn't interrupt.
After a while, Li Pu had an answer: "On the boundless grass, year by year it withers and flourishes."
Hearing this, the bald old man clapped his hands with a smile: "Good poem."
Li Pu: "So, I'll call you Grass Golem."
The bald old man's smile froze, his movements paused: "Such a... terrible name."
The grass golem raised its hands in celebration: [Grass!]
...
After leaving the Wind Listening Hall with the grass golem, Li Pu found a spot by the roadside and sat down.
With some unfamiliarity, he used his mind to open the relevant panel.
[Grass Golem]: LV1, Wind Listening
[Strength]: 6, F
[Attribute]: 10 Wood
[Ability - Gratitude]: Provides an additional boost when giving feedback to the summoner
[LV1 Grass Fist (F)]: The grass golem throws a punch with slightly more force than usual
[Inscription]: None
"..."
After looking over this panel, Li Pu was silent for a moment.
His grass golem seemed a bit special.
Specially weak.
Let's talk about this [Ability - Gratitude], a unique capability of the grass golem.
Every summoned beast has its own unique ability.
Unique abilities cannot be upgraded and are much harder to acquire than skills, often closely related to the summoner beast's species.
For various reasons, the Federation restricts normal people, especially minors, from gaining too much knowledge about summoners.
But since his grandfather was a summoner, he grew up learning some common knowledge through osmosis.
After establishing a relationship with a summoned beast, summoners receive a certain degree of physical enhancement.
This is why the physique of a summoner far surpasses that of ordinary people.
However, the strength of this enhancement depends on the summoner beast's own strength for feedback.
Although the effect of [Ability - Gratitude] seems appealing, Li Pu actually doesn't feel much different now.
This suggests that even with [Ability - Gratitude], the feedback provided by the grass golem is exceedingly weak.
And grass-type summoned beasts are notoriously weak.
So the grass golem's unique ability is tantamount to nothing.
At this moment, Li Pu felt quite disheartened.
Because the current situation seemed like the worst-case scenario.
His plan to get expelled was completely foiled, not to mention he summoned such a weak beast.
To put it plainly, he had purely suffered a big loss.
Getting expelled, becoming a failure, wouldn't have to face arranged marriage.
Not getting expelled, becoming a failure, still having to face arranged marriage.
Clearly, the latter was much more unpleasant, nobody would be happy.
"Well, let me take a look at other things first."
Li Pu shook his head in resignation.
In fact, the grass golem wasn't everything, there was other information waiting for him to confirm.
That was the summoner's talent awakened upon becoming a summoner.
Every summoner gains a unique talent upon awakening.
There are many types of summoner talents that can enhance summoned beasts in various ways.
So quite often, the power of the summoned beast depends on the summoner's talents.
As he clumsily navigated the panel again, after a while Li Pu finally found the relevant section.
"This..."
But when a stream of information flooded his mind, he hesitated.
His summoner talent seemed rather interesting!
[Friend of Magical Beasts]: You can bestow skills related to magical beasts upon your summoned beasts
According to the feedback from the information flow, Li Pu quickly grasped all the details of this talent.
Specifically, the important points can be summarized as follows:
1. By consuming items related to magical beasts and Crystal Coins, he can bestow his summoned beast with a skill.
2. The bestowed skill can ignore the summoned beast's attribute/type/species requirements.
3. The method of bestowal is divided into Acquired/Fusion/Sacrifice.
4. The same type of magical beast can only provide one chance of bestowal.
Analyzing them one by one, starting with point 1.
What magical beast-related items are, Li Pu was temporarily unclear.
But he knew about Crystal Coins, a type of currency unique to summoners, fabricated by purifying through special means, containing unique energy.
As for point 2, though abilities can bypass attribute/type/species transferance, if compatibility with the summoned beast is too low, it can't be used.
For instance, giving a wing-related skill to a grass golem, since it lacks wings, this skill is effectively zero.
Point 3, Acquired lets the grass golem instantly learn a new skill.
Fusion combines the new skill with the grass golem's existing one, creating a new skill.
This function likely also considers compatibility between new and old skills.
The last, Sacrifice, directly provides the new skill as nourishment to the grass golem itself, making it rapidly stronger.
For point 4, Li Pu temporarily didn't understand yet how the "same type of magical beast" was defined, looks like only during actual operations will he get clarity.
Nonetheless, however "only provides one bestowal opportunity" is determined, he wouldn't suffer any losses.
Because the number of skills a summoned beast can possess is capped.
He wasn't worried about having too few skills but rather concerned about the grass golem not being able to use enough skills.
"Now it seems I might be getting strong..."
After digesting this information, Li Pu couldn't help but exclaim.
With this summoner's talent, it seemed even a waste-summoned beast like the grass golem might become formidable.
If the grass golem grew strong, then wouldn't he also grow stronger as well?
After thinking for a short while, his expression changed.
"As expected, one should broaden their mindset."
Li Pu tapped his temple with a finger.
A brand-new plan was thus born.
If he becomes strong enough, and then defeats his grandfather, wouldn't he not need to go on blind dates anymore?
...
...