Chapter 8: May you have a wonderful summoning!

    And so I became a member of the Demon King's army.

　At this time, the existence of the demon race was already common knowledge, but the existence of a Demon King was not. The majority of the world was currently under the control of humans, so it was impossible to come up with enough power immediately to oppose humanity's rule. Therefore, the Demon King had been stealthily building up his forces behind the scenes.

　The Demon King's goal was to utterly destroy the human race and rule the world in their stead. There were no humans other than myself and the people I had brought along with me within the Demon King's army. This often left me in a difficult position, having to fend demons off with Dark Matter.

　My only purpose was to summon. As long as my wife and I continued to survive and I could keep on summoning, I didn't care whether the human race or the demon race perished. However, from that point of view, it would be troublesome if the human race were to be destroyed. It took a lot of skill to mine and process magic stones. The highly prideful demons were unlikely to be good at it, and it wasn't a task that could be managed by force alone.

　At the very first executive meeting of the army, I challenged the army's grand cause of the annihilation of the human race, which just put me in an even more precarious position.

　Fortunately, the Demon King had the power to read minds. He saw that my request was not borne of the spirit of compassion or charity for my fellow man, so he decided to honour my wishes and leave a minimum number of people alive. Besides that, I was given a warning by the Demon King over my thoughts of dosing the other generals who opposed me with Legal Slime Solution.

　When I had left to join the Demon King's army, I had brought almost all of the magic stones left with me, but my stock of magic stones was dwindling fast.

　There were no Mage Summoners among the demons, so there was no demand for magic stones. Thus, there was no established way of getting my hands on more magic stones. The thought of running out of magic stones and no longer being able to summon filled me with dread.

　I picked out a country that had a great number of magic stone mines and raised it as a high priority target for attack at the meeting. Most of the demons were sheer muscle-heads even though they had strong natural abilities, so it was highly likely I would have been able to persuade them to accept my reasoning. Unfortunately, the Demon King, who could read my thoughts, swiftly put an end to that.  Magic stones were a strategic commodity, so the countries with the most mines were some of the largest and most powerful in the world. I considered buttering up the Demon King with Legal Slime Solution first before trying to persuade him again, and received a sharp reprimand for it.

　I just really wanted magic stones.

　Around that time, after trying out various things, I felt there was a need for more synthesis of Slime. Apparently, Legal Slime Solution only worked well on the humans it was developed for, and had very little effect on the demons with different body structures. I turned my remaining magic stones into Slimes and made further improvements to the Perfect Slime. I was desperate. The amount of magic stones I had left felt equivalent to my own life span.

　Consequently, I created a new Slime. I named it Hypno-Slime. It was a terrifying Slime that could parasitize demons and then manipulate their thoughts and emotions. Without any hesitation, I formed a plan to make the best use of it.

　If it were possible, I would have liked to start with the lower ranks and gradually work my way up to the entire Demon King's army, but there was just not enough Hypno-Slimes to go around. I had no choice but to just plant one in the first aide, who was a senior member of the Demon King's army. I was half-killed by the Demon King when he found out about it. Even so, once the Slime had been planted, it would invade an important part of the target's soul, so it was impossible even for me, its creator and master, to remove it. The Demon King rebuked me, saying that he wished he had never recruited me as an ally.

　Even now, the Demon King did not get rid of me, purely because he could sense that I meant no true harm to him. All that drove me was the desire to summon. Meanwhile, my wife, who had been brought up to be devoted to her husband, continued to love me. I did not hesitate to push forwards.

********

　After repeated appeals, I finally received permission from the Demon King to invade a country ruled by humans. The other leaders around me, who did not know what was going on, mistook this as a sign of trust by the Demon King and glared at me hatefully. In truth, the Demon King was just sick of me. He probably thought that it would be better for his own ally to go forth and poison his enemies rather than poison his men.

　I immediately unleashed a deadly Poisonous Slime upon the capital of a major mining country, corrupting the water, earth and air, physically annihilating its core. At the same time, I sent a part of the Demon King's army to steal processed magic stones and bring them to the castle I had been given. No matter what else was happening, I needed the magic stones. I realised the stark difference between what the Demon King told me to do and what I was actually doing.

　There was no time. My stock of Slime was dwindling due to the large amount being consumed in the war effort. Increasing the turnover rate was critical, both to increase the strength of the army and to increase my number of summons.

　I conducted research with the magic stones I had snatched away and came up with a new summoning spell. The spell was named Ten Consecutive Summons. Thus far, summoning had had to be done one at a time, but this new revolutionary spell made it possible to summon 10 times faster. As before, all that came out for me was Slime.

　The world was once again engulfed in war due to my invasion of the human race.

　The Demon King had wanted to shore up more strength before launching a full invasion, but the damage I had caused so far was greater than expected, so he had no choice but to start the war.

　In the midst of all this, my Poisonous Slime tactics were extremely successful.

　The untrained general populace was easily overcome by the living poison, and they were soon followed by the warriors who lost heart watching those they should have protected die. I mass-produced tragedy as I mass-produced Slime. After destroying five great nations with the same tactics, my position in the Demon King's army was secure.

　I inflicted more damage upon the enemy than anyone else, so I became revered in the Demon King's army. Though I was also secretly spoken ill of behind my back, I didn't really care since I wasn't seeking approval and appreciation anyway.

　At first, the demons did not trust me because I was human like the enemy, but after witnessing my relentless attack on the humans, the other leaders in the army began to trust me. I used this trust to my advantage and planted Hypno-Slime on every one of them. Only the Demon King who could read my mind knew how dangerous I was. The Demon King thrashed me half to death again and again. Still, although the Demon King continued to steadily replace the leaders who had been infected with Hypno-Slime, I infected the leaders at an even faster rate. Moreover, even after a Hypno-Slime was planted, since I did not issue any commands, there was no way to know if the Slime had really been planted or whether it was even really working as it should. The Demon King was very cautious, but as the years went by and nothing happened, he gradually got used to the situation and became less vigilant.

　While the war raged on, I continued to summon repetitively.

　But no matter how much I summoned, I just could not draw a rare. Even as I stole control of the Demon King's army with Slimes, I continued to summon Slimes. It was a hell of its own.

　My wife wanted to try summoning, so I gave her the instructional manual for Mage Summoners and let her have a go. She summoned a Dragon right before my eyes on her first attempt. My wife looked apologetic, but I did not really mind as my state of mind was like Dark Matter. My love for her remained unchanged. That night, my wife made me my favourite dishes for dinner. I merely wept.

　Although the Ten Consecutive Summonses were not yielding good results, activating the spell consumed a great number of magic stones. Many mines were depleted, but this wasn't an issue as the number of nations we had destroyed and conquered was greater.

　Meanwhile, I had further enhanced my Slimes, and had ultimately created a Slime(?) of divine brilliance with human-level intelligence and a humanoid form. The Slime began speaking in a human tongue as soon as the synthesis was complete. It called me 'son of man'. I named it God Slime. The God Slime could manipulate all kinds of magic and had physical abilities beyond those of the demon race, but it did not have the power to ensure I would summon a Dragon. I felt like dying.

§§§

　My invasion of the human race was going very well.

　However, all things must come to an end.

　As I did what I was doing, I also had a child. And for the first time, my wife argued with me.

　70% of the world was already enveloped in darkness.

　The human race finally seemed to understand that it would not do to let the demon invasion continue to go unchecked, and the nations had begun uniting to fight back, but the situation was already beyond help. At this rate, the world would soon come to a point where all humans would be enslaved by the demons.

　With an apologetic look on her face, my wife said that this would be bad for the education and emotional development of our child. I nodded in agreement. It's not like I had any special feelings for the demons. My wife was my first priority, and we were still very much in love after all these years.

　My mind would be read as soon as I met with the Demon King.

　I skived off the executive meeting and headed towards the human's territory alone. So far, I had only controlled Slimes from afar so my face was not known, and it was not common knowledge that there were humans among the Demon King's army, so I easily managed to make my way into the country.

　After so many years, I made contact again with my cousin brother for the first time since the war began. My cousin was hailed as a former hero. His son had earned a name for himself as a hero as well, and possessed both a Silver Dragon and a Gold Dragon. I looked at my cousin and thought that some people just had it all.

　I was almost killed by my cousin. But in the end, he could not kill me. To begin with, he and I had never been on bad terms. I had become consumed by the darkness of the randomness of summoning and had abandoned my morals, but my cousin had always succeeded in his summoning and still retained his morality.

　I made a deal with my cousin. In exchange for destroying the Demon King, he would arrange for me to receive a new family register and a new living situation.

§§§

　I destroyed the Demon King. Most of my surroundings had already been infiltrated by Hypno-Slimes. The leaders of the Demon King's army who could match up to him in terms of power, those powerful demons, were all already my pawns. All I had to do was command them.

　Due to the risk involved, I wasn't present to hear the Demon King's final death cries in person.

　The world changed overnight, as if the war had been but a nightmare. The demon clans that had gathered under the banner of the Demon King collapsed after his demise and scattered.

　I released all the Slimes I had left into the wild. I ordered the Poisonous Slimes not to release their poisons, and made the Perfect Slimes and Hypno-Slimes leave for the deeper unexplored areas of the wilds.

　All the people under me dispersed to the various countries as refugees, and I went from being a senior member of the Demon King's army to being just a regular uncle with a beautiful wife.

　It seemed to me to be the end of a dream.

　I attempted a single summoning for the first time in a long while, and I obtained a Blue Jelly Slime.

　I turned to my wife, pointed at the Slime, and laughed.

§§§

　After that, I stopped summoning, as it was bad for the education of my child.

　I retired from being a Mage Summoner and founded a group to raise awareness about the dangers of Slime, and then became the president of the organisation.

　I compiled all the information I had on the Slimes I had summoned so far, and published a book once again after such a long time.

　With regards to Slime, I was always a step or two ahead of the world. I had conducted human experiments which normal people would have been unable to due to ethical restraints. I even knew how to create a god.

　The dangers of Poisonous Slime had become well-known during the war, and my book quickly spread throughout the streets. I earned the title of 'Premier Slime Scholar', and was invited by the military and schools to give lectures on many occasions. I created a method for countering the poisons of all sorts of Poisonous Slimes, and I received a prestigious award for my contribution to humanity.

　I had terrible luck in summoning, but it seemed my luck in other aspects was pretty good.

　There must have been a few people who recognised me and knew about my history, but no scandals ever came to light.

　My life was nothing like what it had been when I had been a millionaire, but I had enough to live a normal life.

　My wife and I spent our days raising our child, and in no time at all, a few years had gone by.

§§§

　One day, I touched a magic stone again after so long and was reminded of the past. I sighed.

　My son had already grown up and had started on his path to become a Mage Summoner. My wife laughed and said that blood will tell. I had no right to object to my son's aspirations. As a parent, I just decided to teach him how to do it properly.

　I held up the glittering stone in front of my son and modelled how to draw a summoning array. It must have had been over 10 years since I had last summoned, but my body still remembered how to do it.

　Before my son's shining eyes, I performed my first summoning in a long time...

　I summoned a Blue Jelly Slime.

　I sighed at this result, unchanged even after such a long span of time.

　If my son's passion for summoning was from my blood, then he should also only be able to summon Slime. Still, summoning was a wonderful thing, even if all one obtained was Slime. My whole life had been at the mercy of summoning, but I had never objected to or regretted that fact.

　Right in front of me, my son drew a summoning array with his unskilled hands, referencing the instruction manual the whole time. The light in the depths of his eyes made me wonder what had been going through my mind when I had first summoned in the past.

　And then, my son attempted his first summoning before me.

　The light emitted from the summoning was the brilliant 'gold' colour I had never encountered in all my years of summoning — the radiance which had  inspired me to become a Mage Summoner all those years ago.

　My son summoned a Dragon.

　It wasn't very big. In fairy-tales, dragons are said to be a large as mountains or fortresses, but the dragon in front of me was at most as big as my son, who was only 9 years old.

　Its wings were still small and immature, probably unable to lift the little dragon itself even if they were fully spread out, and its smooth scales looked like they could be peeled off just by plucking at them gently.

　As I stood there, speechless before its beautiful existence, my son turned to me and asked innocently,

"Dad, the way you draw the summoning array... isn't there something different about it? "

§§§

　Subsequently, my name was etched into the history of Mage Summoners as the creator of a new branch of summoning magic.

　Slime summoning.

　By making a slight adjustment to part of the usual summoning array, it was possible to limit the target of one's summoning to only Slime. Although only Slimes could be produced from this new branch of summoning magic, it was ground-breaking to have been able to direct the initially random results of summoning in any way. The only problem therein was that I had not noticed what I had done for decades. Nothing had stood out as strange or awkward, and the difference was so small that no one else had noticed or pointed it out before either. Most likely, I had only managed to summon a Demon that once back then because my hands had been shaking, affecting the usual way I had drawn my summoning array.

　I produced an illustrated book identifying all the Slimes I had summoned in my life. The first page of the book was, of course, the Blue Jelly Slime which had started it all, but page zero ― the back of the cover ― featured a message from my heart:

"What you need is neither perseverance nor a great number of attempts. 

What you need is the determination to examine yourself to see if any problems exist with you. 

Think calmly on whether summoning has become a goal in and of itself, 

and whether summoning is truly necessary before summoning. 

I wish all of you reading this the best of luck with your summoning."

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