As Tsukuru flew back, he saw his health bar go down by another sixty percent, leaving him with only 20% of his health left.
Eventually, Tsukuru's body lost all of its momentum, and gravity took over.
Tsukuru fell flat on his back, crashing onto the concrete platform from a high height.
Tsukuru's eyes widened, as pain coursed through his body as he impacted, and cracks formed on the concrete all around him.
Tsukuru let out a groan of pain.
As he looked up, he saw his health bar go down by another ten percent, leaving with just a sliver of health.
"Honestly, I should be glad the fall didn't take more than that." Tsukuru muttered in a pained voice, as he clutched his gut.
Tsukuru then heard the heavy footsteps of the Minotaur.
Soon, Tsukuru saw a massive shadow overcast him.
As he looked up, he saw the Minotaur looming over him.
She looked down at him with a vicious smile.
She reeled her right arm back, and plowed her fist into his gut.
Instantly, Tsukuru exploded into pixels.
When Tsukuru regained consciousness, he found himself in the dark room again.
He looked to the left, then to the right, and then let out a deep sigh.
"Damn it!" He muttered.
Just like the day before, this was his second attempt at trying to defeat the Minotaur.
An attempt that he had failed.
Muttering under his breath, Tsukuru brought up the Battle Arena's Exchange Corner, in an attempt to salvage at least something for today's attempt.
It was finally time to unlock the Hobgoblin's Summon Race.
He scrolled down towards the bottom of the screen, and tapped the rectangular bar.
"At least I finally have enough BP to unlock the Hobgoblins now." He added, bitterly.
He jabbed the "Hobgoblins Summon Race" a bit harder than necessary.
Instantly, it lit up bright, and an electronic beep was heard.
A System screen appeared in front of him.
[Would you like to unlock the Hobgoblin Summon Race?
Costs 10 BP
BP: 10
[Yes] [No] ]
Tsukuru pressed "yes".
The "yes" option lit up brightly, and an electronic "beep" was heard.
Instantly a set of two System messages popped up in front of him, overlapping each other.
[Hobgoblin Summon Race has been added to your Video Arsenal.
1 Pawn Grade Hobgoblin has been added to your Video Arsenal.]
[You have received one Basic-Tier Hobgoblin Spear.
Basic-Tier Hobgoblin Spear has been placed in your Weapons Tab.]
Tsukuru then dismissed both that screen, as well as the one for the Exchange Corner.
Tsukuru then flicked his finger up, bringing up the System's UI.
He navigated though it, bringing up his Status Screen.
[Name Hikiko Tsukuru
Race Human
Level 6
XP 136/3200
Title Little Rookie
Ability Video
Ability Level 2
_____________________
HP 35/35
MC 60/60
_____________________
Strength 11
Stamina 14
Agility 12
[Stat Points: 1] ]
Tsukuru immediately thought about putting the Stat Point into his Stamina.
As he did, he saw the number tick up from "14" to "15".
"Finnally." Tsukuru muttered.
Then, Tsukuru remembered that the Stat Point wasn't the only point he got from Leveling Up.
His smile widened.
He dismissed the Status Screen, and returned to the System's UI.
He then pressed the "Summons" icon.
The icon lit up, and an electronic "beep" was heard.
The "Summons" screen then popped up in front of him.
Like with Inventory and Weapons Tab, the "cover screen" of the "Summons" Tab, which showed all his Summon Races consisted of a series of squares.
However, unlike the "grid" pattern of those two, the squares in the "Summons" screen were separated, with space between them.
The squares were also rounded, as well.
The screen currently showed five rows of five squares.
However, in the first row, only the first three squares had images, showing the faces of the Haunted Knight, the Harpie, and the Amazon, respectively.
The last two squares were grayed out.
The only other square that was colored in was, strangely enough, the last two squares on the bottom row.
The squares showed the face of the Dark Elf and the Hobgoblin respectively.
Seeing this, Tsukuru narrowed his eyes.
'It seems the System differentiates between Summon Races that I actually create, and ones auto-generated by the Battle Arena.' He noted.
Tsukuru pressed the third square.
It lit up, and an electronic "beep" was heard.
A new System screen popped up in front of him.
[Would you like to create an Amazon?
Costs 3 Summon Points
Summon Points: 3
[Yes] [No] ]
Seeing this, Tsukuru smiled.
"Yes." He replied.
The "yes" option lit up, and an electronic beep was heard.
Instantly, Tsukuru's vision faded to black.
A moment later, Tsukuru found himself in the dark room that was used for the "Creation Process" for his Summons.
The room was completely black, illuminated only by the complex, glowing, light-blue magic circle on the ground.
Instantly, the glowing, light-blue sword appeared in the air above the magic circle, hovering in the air with its blade pointed downwards.
The sword split apart into five.
The five swords then spun in the air for a short moment, spinning like a sort of "wheel".
They then dove downwards towards the magic circle.
Each sword perfectly hit the five smaller circles in the magic circle's intricate design, shattering on impact.
As they did, the smaller circles lit up.
Slowly, the light began to spread along the magic circle.
It was like water being poured into an intricate design carved into the ground.
When the magic circle was fully illuminated, a low, electronic "hum" was heard.
Pixels began to appear above the magic circle.
The pixels built up upon themselves, like a 3-D printer creating layer after layer or a design.
Like all of Tsukuru's Summons, the figure's shape was that of a humanoid female, and reached roughly shorter than Layla's height when it was done forming.
There was a bright flash of light.
When it faded, Tsukuru's new Summon came into view.
She had dark-tanned skin, with an athletic build, like the Hobgoblins.
She also had dark-purple hair that reached halfway down her back, and green eyes.
She had a thick cluster of bangs that reached down the left side of her face down to her cheek, completely covering her left eye.
Her entire body was also covered in cream-colored tribal tatoos that looked like wavy lines.
On her face, one of these "lines" could be seen going across the bridge of her nose, with two more being seen under her right eye.
Covering her upper torso, she wore a low-crop, sleeveless top.
It appeared to be made of dark-brown fur, like the pelt of a Beast with light-tan fur adorning the top.
The "top" only covered the bottom half of her breasts, leaving the upper half exposed, and stopped just short of her abdomen.
Like with the Hobgoblin's "attire", this appeared to resemble a "bra" more than proper clothing.
Like with the Hobgoblin, the Amazon wore a loincloth made out of the same dark-brown fur.
However, it had a long, bushy tail of a beast hanging off of the back, revealing it to indeed be a Beast's pelt.
She also wore detached sleeves that reached from her biceps down to her wrists.
Like with the "top", these sleeves were made of the dark-brown fur, with the light-tan fur at the very top.
She also wore leg warmers that covered her legs from just below her kneecaps to just above her ankles.
They were also made of the dark-brown fur with the light-tan fur on top.
Covering her feet was a pair of sandals made of brown leather.
While the Amazon had originally appeared in a rigid poster with her arms crossed, she soon pulled her arms apart, and wrenched her left arm back.
He clenched it into a fist, and slammed it down into the ground, as if she was punching something.
A resounding shockwave occurred, shaking the whole room.
A moment later, the "announcer" voice spoke.
"You have created an Amazon!" It replied.
A moment later, Tsukuru's vision faded to black again.
When he opened his eyes again, he was back in the Battle Arena.
Instantly, a System screen popped up in front of him.
[You have successfully created a Pawn Grade Amazon.
1 Pawn Grade Amazon has been added to your Video Arsenal.]
Tsukuru smirked in satisfaction.
He dismissed the System screen.
Tsukuru then pressed the "RETIRE" screen, and logged out of the VR Pod.