There was a reality where people thrives as Summoners. Everything in their life worked because of the Summoned Entities that they have.
On this specific world, anthropomorphized monsters in the form of female became a mainstream summoning unit for every Summoners in this world due to their unlimited potential, and many benefits that the Summoner could get.
Yuca Meidill, Apprentice Summoner, was blessed with a summoning talent, but had the misfortune to have the talent to specifically summon monsters itself.
In a world where summoning monsters that weren't capable of growth, and summoning anthropomorphized version of them with unlimited potential, her future was already set to be dark if she tried to pursue the path of a Summoner.
She felt so hopeless, and was considering quitting this profession when she got a chance encounter on a shop. This chance encounter would change her life, and change the status quo of the world.
Enjoy the story of Yuca Meidill and her band of unknown monsters as they fought and rise from their position, rocking the whole common sense of this summoning-centric world, and later being embroiled with a lot of conflict and chaos.
(Being crossposted on both spacebattles and royalroad)
Hello, this is Levelgap, and this is my new story. I originally plan to write this story in tandem with Doubling Everything. Like Doubling Everything, I have an extensive amount of drafts and plotlines written for this story.
The setting of this story is that of a magical fantasy world where many people relies on their summoned beings to almost everything in their life. Most of it through combat or something else. Their preferred summoned beings were mostly in the form of monsters anthromorphized into female human versions of it.
Basically, this is like Pokemon, but it's all waifus.
The twist is that the protagonist is incapable of summoning any of these waifu versions of these monsters. Instead, due to her own affinity, she could only summon creatures that are actually monstrous in both appearance and behaviour.
True monsters were extremely underestimated because of many reasons, mostly being considered a worse type of summon than the female version ones.
The protagonist will have a chance encounter just when she felt hopeless, and there her life would change.
If you are getting interested with that small summary, then find out more on this chapter.
This story will incorporate a mix of high fantasy, Xianxia, Isekai, and eldritch horror elements within it. It's just how I designed the setting of this world, so I hope you find it fun too.
I hope you find this story good too, and I'm sorry for making another one. I'm trying to make my brain active with creativity. It's been getting dull lately mostly because of work -_-
Anyway, hope you have fun!~
Soleil City, one of the larger cities of Lumiere Kingdom, was known for it's wide variety of magical products and resources for Summoners. On the northern half of the city, there were different types of shops and stalls that sold anything that a Summoner was looking for.
The streets were busy with hustle and bustle. The barks of stall owners calling out for those passing by and people talking or whispering each other resounded in a cacophony of noises. It was a perfect picture of a busy commercial district.
Within one of the busy streets of this city, there was a young teenager with brown hair who walked on the streets with slumped shoulders. Her face was lowered and her expression dark as she trudged the streets with low energy.
"I'm really useless to this type of career..." She sighed. "Maybe I should really think of another profession to pursue?"
This young woman whose expression felt as if the world had fallen upon her was Yuca Meidill. She was an aspiring Summoner, who studied so much until she got to an age where she could finally summon.
In this kingdom, people became Summoners at the age of fifteen. It was because it was at this age that they had enough magical foundation to handle a contract with a single Summoned Entity.
A Summoned Entity, or the Summon, was a being that originated from different types of realms or legends. They could be created by the aether itself, or maybe they were an inhabitant of a world unlike this one. Regardless, Summoners were capable of calling upon this otherworldly beings to aid them.
This world thrives due to the Summoners. Through Summons, both the Summoned and the Summoner got stronger together through their bonds. This was a part of the contract as a Summoner.
The economy and industries of the world ran smoothly because of the great Summoners and their eminent Summoned Entities. Most of these Entities were top tier ones who could be considered Gods by the common men.
Each Summons had a variety of things they could do, and they had a certain sense of intelligence in them which made it possible for a Summoner to communicate with them.
Yuca was one of it, though she felt hopeless. It's been a few months now since she became a Summoner, though she felt ashamed of her own talents.
Each Summoners would have their talents revealed at the age of fifteen. It would be done on a ceremony called the Rite of Passage. The church, the school, or any of the lords that ruled their domain, depending on the specific rule of the country, would let people at the age of fifteen to touch an artifact that would unearthed the hidden potential within their body.
This magical artifact wasn't easily mass produced, and so only those who was on important positions possessed it. It's only purpose was to awaken the talent and affinity of a single person. It only worked on humans.
Every people have magical talents, though there were some who were incredibly attuned to Summoning. Surprisingly, Yuca was one of those blessed who had an affinity to summoning.
Sadly, her specific affinity was Summoning Creatures. It was a talent from the Summoning branch that made her incredibly attuned to Summoning monsters of any kind. Despite the incredible explanation behind it, it wasn't a good thing for the people of this world.
As stated, Summoned Entities grew along with their Summoner. The type of growth that was being told here was on the pure, raw strength and their potential itself. It wasn't about age at all.
People preferred summoning humanoid creatures, mostly those who had the form of a female human, as it was proven that they had the greatest potential out of every creatures that could be summoned. As for Yuca's case, she was incapable of summoning that type of entity. She was incompatible with them.
Even if she tried a loophole and contract a stray anthropomorphized creature, it would simply fail. That's how incompatible she was at humanoid creatures. Her talent specifically was looking for real, monstrous entities. The likes that could be considered real monsters.
She had compromised by summoning goblins and orcs, as she could easily summon those and make a contract with them, but they were easily defeated when she tried dueling the others who were on the same grade as her.
Combat between Summoners was a common thing, and there was a ranking on it. She was a student on a school that had a ranking system on it, and those who were on the higher ranks could acquire better resources that would gave them advantage to their own advancements.
Unsurprisingly, she was dead last.
That was because unlike anthropomorphized female entities, monsters were incapable of growth. Since birth, true monsters were stuck on their strength. Their power was dependent on what type of species they were, and they would need to evolve to even become stronger, which normally took thousands up to millions of years. Something impossible for a normal human like her.
There was also another reason why she was incapable of fighting those of the same grade as her. People who summoned these anthropomorphic monsters could share their abilities with their summoners. It was because their form could resonate with their bond through their contract that they could share abilities with each other, making the Summoner strong alongside their summons.
True monsters were incapable of it. Their traits were incompatible with a human. Trait sharing was only possible if the summoned entity was close in appearance to their Summoner. It was also the case for the Summoned Entities to their Summoner.
It was impossible for her to win regardless of how much she struggles.
"... Last time. I'll find another Book and try again. If nothing changes this month, I'll think of changing class into a Bookmaker!" She pumped her fist and hyped herself up.
Book of Summons, or shortened for Book was a magical tome Summoners used to summon entities from another realm. It was impossible for Summoners to summon an entity without knowing what kind of entity they were looking for, so the Book of Summons were indispensable for Summoners when it came to summoning new Summoned Entities.
The Book of Summons contained magical formulas that made it easier for Summoners to summon beings from another realm. Instead of aimlessly summoning beings through their own Mana, they could guide their Mana using these magical formulas to summon specific creatures indicated on the book.
Monster summoning books were incredibly cheap, so Yuca managed to buy at least three. These books were the common monster glossary, which included normal monster variants like goblins and orcs. Now she was looking for something else.
She walked through the streets popular for it's stalls that sold commodity for Summoners. The Candice District was a stall haven, and this particular street catered for Apprentice Summoners. Though being stalls, shops like these wasn't guaranteed to be at the same location everyday.
She got to the usual spot she bought her Book and frowned when she saw that the old Bookmaker's stall wasn't there anymore. The spot had been taken by a beautiful woman who sat behind her wooden stall. On the finely crafted wooden stall, there were different types of magical reagents, books, and other magical objects.
"Ugh... whatever. I just hope this woman sells Book cheaply!" With that she walked towards the purple haired woman who was just done handing over a herb to a hooded guy.
"Thank you for your patronage!" So the woman said before she turned her gaze at the young summoner. "Hello. Are you interested in my products?"
"Yes..." She glanced at the books around. "Do you have any books for monster summoning?"
"What kind of Book are you looking for? I have many monster summoning books you can choose!"
She was a bit surprised at that. Bookmakers were incapable of making different types of Books. The old man she bought her book in the past was a Bookmaker who specialized on making summoning formulas for goblins and orcs. Most Bookmakers were like this, so asking for the type of Book they wanted wasn't suppose to happen.
"... Sorry, not trying to be rude but are you a Summoner?" So she got into her own conclusion as she asked that.
Only Summoners would have an array of Books for different types of entities. Though this was only done by apprentices, as they were still looking for their preference in the future. Based on the age appearance of this woman, Yuca thought she was selling old Books that she doesn't need.
The woman smiled mysteriously. "You can say it like that." She shrugged.
She discerned that she won't explain anymore than that so Yuca dropped it. She was just curious so she wasn't going to pursue it.
"... Okay. I'm not really looking for something specific, so I guess any monster is fine."
"... I see." The purple haired woman with beautiful amethyst eyes narrowed her gaze, and there was a sly intent behind the smile. "I think I might have the book just for you!"
She reached out to somewhere below her stall, and quickly handed a very thick book to her. Yuca looked at it, raising her eyebrows when she noticed that there wasn't any title or designs on the book. It was just a thick leather bound book.
She opened it and was quickly met with a realistic depiction of fire. Below was a word that she couldn't understand.
"Paraph?" She looked up, wanting any clarification.
The woman simply smiled. "It's a sentient fire from the Fire Realm. It's one of the entry level monsters on the Phantasmal Creatures."
"Phantasmal Creatures?" That was the first time she heard that term.
"Well, just think of them as a really cool variant of Summoned Entities." Without missing a beat, the stall owner simply explained.
"... Uh, then what can it do?"
"Anything a fire does." The woman shrugged.
"... Okay?" She was still confused, but the smile of that woman made her give up questioning. She felt the woman wouldn't give her straight answers. 'Well, it's not like I am picky. This is the last time, and if nothing changes on this month then I will seriously consider becoming a Bookmaker!' Having decided that she took the book. "How much for this?"
"It's free."
Her eyes became wide when she heard the woman answered casually.
"Uh... what?"
"It's free. That book is very suitable for you."
"Are you sure?" Now Yuca was a bit nervous.
"Yes."
"But, it's a Book of Summons. It's not so cheap as to be given away willy nilly, even if this is just a Book for monster summoning!"
"Of course not. Nothing in this world is enough to afford that book." She huffed. "But call it fate. I'm entrusting that book to you because I know you can use it to it's full potential."
She frowned at that. "... I lack enough money to afford my own spare clothes, but that doesn't mean I will just take things for free. It's a common rule among Summoners and Mages alike that not everything is for free. So I will pay for this book, whether you like it or not!" She took her pouch on her waist and opened it.
It only contained a few silver Pols, which was the currency of this kingdom. Though she doesn't want to be stingy, so she took ten silver Pols, which was almost all of her allowance for this month.
"I see, so that is your choice." The woman smirked. "Well, if you are going to do that anyway, I might as well add something to make your purchase worthwhile."
Yuca tilted her head in confusion. There was a sense of contradiction with what the woman said, like how invaluable this book was, though she decided not to think much about it. This was almost all of her allowance, so if the stall owner decided to add more stuff to her purchase she shouldn't be rejecting it. She was paying now instead of just taking something for free.
In addition with the book, the woman gave her a few normal ingredients for a mushroom stew, an apple pie, and a bottle of grape juice. She doesn't know what's the use of any of it, but she took it anyway as she was feeling hungry.
As Yuca left the shopped, the woman simply gazed at her receding back amongst the crowds with a certain glint in her eyes.
"Have fun with the book, Yuca Meidill." After Yuca was done with a surprisingly delectable array of meals, thanks to the stall owner, she sat on the bed of her dorm and read the list of monsters from her book.
She was surprised how many pages the book had. She was already at the ten thousandth page, and it looked like she was still at the start of the book. She had an inkling that the book might have been enchanted or something, as otherwise it couldn't possibly contain this much pages even with how thick it looked.
The book was separated by many categories. Each categories were further separated in more categories. There was the main category, the Phantasmal Level, and then there were the sub categories, which were called Realms.
She barely got to the Phantasmal Level 5 before she closed the book and started on the first page. She was just skimming through and having decided that she wouldn't be able to see the last pages, she goes back to the first. She already tried turning to the last page and the book simply became stuck, as if it had a will of it's own.
The subcategories from Level 0 were incredibly vast. The subcategories were termed as either Fire Realm, Water Realm, Earth Realm, Wind Realm, and a lot of elemental realms like nature, dark, light, time, etc.
Each of these realms had different types of realistic monster depictions with their name on it. All of which were unfamiliar to her. So she goes back to the very first page, which listed all the Fire Realm creatures.
"Hmm... I'll try summoning this Paraph first and see if it will help me as a Summoner."
She looked at the artistic depiction of the monster, and then the magical formula beneath it's name.
Summoners and Mages were trained to memorize things. By training their magic on specific parts of their body, they could enhance the capabilities of those parts. The first thing they were required to do was to enhance their mind so they could memorize a lot of things.
"This formula looks so complicated. All of the patterns were different than the usual circles for summoning." She muttered under her breathe.
On a circle of summon, each patterns had a meaning. The pattern would either be for summoning, connecting, finding specific types of monsters, and the like. People would usually add a moderator to turn the summons into humanoid versions of them.
She closed her eyes and controlled the Mana within her body. Forming the circle of summons based on the magic formula written on it. It took her long, as the circle was too complicated but she managed to complete it.
'Two circles with one hundred twenty eight patterns on each of these circles. It's like I am summoning a Superior Entity!' She frowned. 'Well, it's just a monster. Regardless of it's rank, it can't surpass entities that can grow...'
The summoning circle she had formed with her magic was finally done, and she poured more of her Mana to activate the circle. She was surprised when it took more than what she was hoping for. She had an abundant amount of magic due to her universal talent of Summoning Creatures, so she could summon a lot of monsters. Though she was used to summoning goblins and orcs, and the amount of Mana it took her was negligible to the amount of Mana she had.
This one was different. It took her half the amount of Mana she had, which was a thousand times more than the goblins and orcs combined when she summoned those.
A bead of sweat fell on the side of her cheeks as she felt the circle responded. She slowly opened her eyes as the summoning took place, her opened eyes quickly narrowed as the light formed into an ambiguous form.
The form solidified, and then she saw the flickering form of a fire. A floating flame comparable in size to a torch flame.
She felt the bond between them through a telepathic link. She knew, deep within her heart, that this one was the creature she had summoned.
"... This is the Paraph?" She muttered in surprise.
It looked honestly underwhelming to her. Despite having taken the same amount of Mana as a thousand summons of both goblins and orcs, it's form doesn't inspire any confidence to her.
"... Ahem, can you understand me?"
First of all, she tried talking to it. Summoners had a link with their Summons. Regardless of their own language, they would still understand each other.
The flame flickered for a moment before suddenly it shined brightly. She gasped when it suddenly moved on the air excitedly. Creating trails of bright orange on the room as it did so.
"... Oh, so you can." With their bond, she managed to understand what it was trying to convey.
Along with being able to understand her, the Paraph looked incredibly excited about everything.
"What can you do?" She saw the flame flickered for a moment before it hovered close to the window. "Uh... you can spread fire?" She raised her eyebrow at that.
That was what she understood from it's intent. It only answered that it could spread fire. She doesn't know what kind of fire it was going to spread. The language comprehension between summoner and the summoned was not that perfect. It could only convey words and concepts that a person could understand.
She shook her head and looked outside.
"Hmm... it's still a bit early, so let's go out and test what you can do." Half an hour later...
Screams resounded, and many professors with their beautiful summoned entities were running around and using their water-related magic and powers to put out fires.
In the middle of it all was Yuca Meidill and her summoned entity, the Paraph. The majority of the western part of this academy was being burnt to the ground, and all of it was because she was trying to test what the Paraph could do.
"... It truly spreads fire!" She exclaimed, surprised and nervous at the same time.
That was her first experience with a Phantasmal Creature.
And that's the first chapter done. I decided to end it there, because it is getting long.
Before people asked, I would like to make one thing clear as this type of story usually goes on a cliche progression. No, Yuca won't get a summon that's entirely human with some anthropomorphic features. She can only summon monsters, and that is what she can summon on the foreseeable future.
If she ever got the power to summon something close to a waifu version of a monster, it might be either a monster disguising as a human girl, an illusion, or some other reasons that won't necessarily make their true appearance as that.
I hope I make it clear. See you later!~
If you want to support me, you can go to my Kofi account here.
It was evening when Yuca finally got back to her dorm. Her shoulders were slumped and her body tired as she flopped to her bed like a sack of potatoes.
"Ugh... It's over. I don't have a future anymore..." Her soul felt like it was slipping out of her mouth as she said those words in despair.
Above her was a floating fire who moved languidly. It's brilliance from awhile ago felt like a lie as it looked dim. Yuca turned to her side and glanced at the summoned entity for a moment before she sighed.
"Stop being depressed. It's not your fault." The sentient fire lit up.
She could understand why it was depressed. Through their connection, it didn't understood what it did wrong, but it felt her panic and distress mostly when the school professors called her to the headmaster's room to reprimand her.
It couldn't protect it's Master because she stopped it from doing so, and also tried to convey that the people who were scolding her stood on top of her. The Paraph at least knew of the concept of hierarchy, so it finally relented though now depressed.
"... Well, I only need to pay my debt and then I can get the benefits from this school again. I think I can do that with you on my side!" She sat up. "That's right, you can use fire effectively. I'm sure there is something in the school board that we can do!"
The School Board was a place in the school where the school gave students persistent assignments that they could do. If they managed to submit the requirements for these assignments, they would be given compensation from the school itself.
Of course, being a school, they won't give something that was impossible for a student. Teachers catalogue everything first before they put it on the board. If an unreasonable assignment had been put on the board and it costs the life of a student, the throne or the ministers would be notified and the teacher or staff in charge of it would be punished severely.
These assignments were put by school to train students as a Summoner. Being Summoners, Apprentice Summoners needed experience in many things like work and combat. Even with the mainstream of summoning female entities, there were still many types of summoned entities so they needed all kinds of work, and the School Board had it.
Yuca's words held a certain hint of seriousness in it. Her words indicated her determination to work together with the Paraph. The Paraph also noticed it.
"... You have a decent power, so I am considering making you a Familiar." She muttered.
A Familiar. A term used to a summoned entity that was put on a permanent contract by the Summoner. There was a difference between just summoning an entity and putting it into a contract.
A Summoned Entity could only sustain it's entire existence through the magic provided by their Summoner. They would return to their own realm if the magic runs out. This was unlike making a permanent contract which solidifies their existence to this world, cutting them off on their realm and truly making them a part of this world.
There were pros and cons to it, though for a Summoner, simply summoning someone was enough. Turning them into a Familiar would put a burden on them. It also meant something important for a Summoner to turn someone into a Familiar. It would mean they were commiting anything they have to that single entity for their entire life.
Unlike a Summoned Entity who only took the required Mana for their brief existence in the world, by turning a Summoned Entity into a Familiar, the Summoner would truly be bound by that Summoned Entity, and the Summoner would provide for that Summoned Entity, including a shelter and their Mana.
It was that kind of commitment that most Summoners couldn't do. Summoners became summoners because they wanted to become strong, be independent, and many other selfish reasons. Even Yuca had her own ambitions.
Yuca felt like the Paraph might be strong enough, that she was willing to turn it into a Familiar. It was unlike the orcs and goblins which she simply summoned. It would exist permanently on her side.
"I want to be a famous Summoner. I thought it's impossible with my talent, but seeing your capability, I think I might have a chance!" She muttered before she looked to the corner of her bed. She reached out and take the book hidden below the pillows. "And there were many creatures listed in this book. Maybe with this book, I might become popular, and then acquire a lot of wealth and even position. Wouldn't that be great?"
The fire brightens for a moment, before it moved around excitedly. She nodded with a smile.
"So you just want to explore this world. That's fine." She sat on the edge of the bed and then urged the sentient fire to go in front of her.
This was the first time she was going to do a binding process. The binding process was simple. She only need to use twice the amount of Mana for summoning the creature. She had already recovered that amount before coming here, so she could do that now.
It was also a good thing for her to make a contract. Her mana capacity would grow depending on what type of Familiar they had, and how many. She was still at the First Magical Foundation Stage, which was a stage for starting as a mage and any magic-related professions. This stage focused on reinforcing the body through magic, and expanding the metaphysical magic container within their body to produce more magic.
She wasn't doing so on goblins and orcs because she was hesitant. The growth of the Summoner depends on the type of creatures they were contracted to. If she tried making a contract with a goblin, then her growth would end up on the high ceiling of the goblin kind, which was incredibly low. She had more Mana compared to a goblin, so she couldn't possibly put a limit on her potential.
If she tried making multiple contracts, that would be akin to suicide. Making the same summons as a contracted familiar would only net the Summoner diminishing returns. To give an example, if the first summon of that race gave one hundred percent additional for potential growth of the Summoner, then the second summon of that same race would only give seventy five percent of potential growth to the summoner. It goes quickly until nothing would be added anymore to their growth.
Which meant it was useless.
A Summoner could have multiple Familiars, but they did so on different species. That was a way to acquire more profits than simply putting their potentials into decline.
Of course, not every Summoners could benefit on contracting any monsters. They need compatibility with it, or else their body would reject it. Summoners who had an affinity with water would obviously summon a water type creature, unlike summoning a fire type creature which wouldn't even give them any potential and might even cause a backlash on their body when they tried trait sharing.
Fortunately for Yuca, she was compatible with any monsters. They simply have a limit to their growth unlike anthropomorphic monster girls, so she was hesitant. Now that she had proof that this sentient fire was strong, she thought it wasn't a bad idea to make it her first contract.
She begun the formula for the binding process. The magic circle for it was simple, so she quickly managed to form it with her magic. After that she urged the magic to enveloped the both of them.
"In this binding contract, I, Yuca Meidill, pronounced to the world that this being be my Familiar. I bestow the name of Para to this humble creature!"
The binding process was a success. She felt a sense of tugging within herself. It was linked to the floating fire in front of her. Even if she closed her eyes, she knew where it was located.
"... That's your name now, Para." She said. Her heart beating for a bit at this new sensation.
She was surprised. She could feel their bond. The bond had expanded her limited potential. It's so much that she felt that she could quickly reach even the next level after the Magical Foundation. There was also something within her that was added. On the potential that the Paraph had given her, there was a new affinity within it.
"Wait... I got Fire Affinity!?"
It was surprising. Monsters couldn't share their traits. Their potential was also limited. Though she could feel the talent that was given to her. With a simple self-analysis, she managed to learn that it was a fire related trait.
"It's not just Fire Affinity. There were other fire related traits within my talent pool." She gasped for a moment. Her heart beating faster.
Acquiring a new trait from a summoned entity so far in human appearance was impossible. It couldn't happen unless if there was a really special circumstance within them.
"... Is this also because of my affinity with monsters?" She wondered.
She looked up and saw that the sentient fire was lit brightly. The room, despite having taken off the fire on the lamp, still looked brightly lit with it's excitement.
"It looks like you feel happy being bonded with me."
She couldn't feel anything changed on it with their bond, but she thought if it was happy it might be because it got a boon with their connection. That was how mutual contracts between the Summoner and the Summoned were.
"Okay! I'll sleep early so we can do some jobs tomorrow! I still need to pay my debts on this school..." Her happy mood quickly fell as she recalled about it.
Though she doesn't want to blame the Paraph. She was the one who asked it to show what it could do. Grandshire Academy was one of the large Summoning Schools on Soleil City. It was close in fame with the two biggest Summoning Schools of this city which were the Zantark Academy, and the Obscurite Academy.
Early in the morning, on the wide halls of this school, many people glanced or whispered on each other as they looked at the brunette and her floating fire familiar.
"Isn't that the one who burned the west side of our school?"
"Just when did she get a monster that strong? What kind of summoning circle did she use?"
"I thought it was Lady Falhart's Fire Spirit who did it. I didn't thought there is a monster who can also do that!"
"Did she really summon it? She's just at the First Magical Foundation Stage, so it's impossible to summon a strong monster like that!"
"Even though it's just a small flame elemental, it can burn the west side of this school? Is it really easier to burn the structure of this Summoner's School?"
Many more were whispering to each other, gossiping about her. Her face was red as she could hear them despite their hushed tones.
'Ignore them. I just have to face forward and do some assignments!' She thought to herself.
It took awhile for her to get to the School Board. She decided to find an assignment first before she goes to the cafeteria.
On the School Board, there were several students who crowded the large wooden board filled with parchments plastered around it. When she arrived there, there were some who glanced at her and at her summon before they simply snorted and returned to looking at the board.
She waited for a moment until she had a space to get closer and read one of the assignments on the board.
"Let's see... any fire related works... oh, how about this Para? You just need to use your fire!" She pointed at one of the parchment.
It was a request from a blacksmith. They needed fire elemental creatures to help them power up the Hellfire Furnace. It was an artifact used by Arcanesmiths to create other types of magical armaments or artifacts.
Para gleamed, and then spun around her. She smiled at it's excitement.
"Tsk. So there are still idiots in this school who makes contracts with monsters? What a disgrace!" Her smile quickly changed into a frown as she turned to the girl who said that.
It was a haughty looking lady whose nose was so high up her head as she gazed down at her with a frown. Along with this lady was a few high class girls who stood besides her.
Yuca gazed at the girl for a moment before she widened her eyes in realization as she noticed the level of power within this girl.
'Ugh... Fifth Magical Foundation Stage. I can only bow my head...' And so she did. "Sorry, we'll be going now..." She tried to leave the place along with her summon when suddenly she was blocked by that girl's followers.
"Stop! Who gave you the permission to leave?"
'Tsk!' She almost clicked her tongue, but decided to hold it as she turned back to the girl. Now that she looked at her carefully, she noticed that the blonde haired lady wore a pendant with a symbol on her chest. That indicated that she was a noble. 'Such misfortune!'
She was used to being ridiculed, being someone who had a blessed talent on summoning but with the unfortunate affinity to monsters only. She was expecting for this person to also throw scathing words her way while she left. She didn't thought they would actually bother to stop her.
"Hmm... you look familiar." The girl said before her eyes widened in realization. "Aren't you that fool who burned the west side of this building?"
"Yes... do you need something from me?"
"Ha! Talking back to me? So shameless!" She huffed. "No, I want you out of this school! Your very existence tarnished even my own heritage! To be with the same school as a loser who made contracts with monsters makes my skin crawl!"
That, Yuca, couldn't let go. "Well, I'm sorry if my talent is trash! But that's no way to talk to me! I won't leave this school!"
"Hah? And who are you to defy me? I am from the illustrious house of Galvant! A house of great Summoners! As the heiress of that house, I can get anything I want! And that includes your presence on this school to be taken off!"
"Dream on! I won't let anyone dictate what I can do!"
The two of them glared at each other. Before the others quickly raised their hand. Yuca knew they would get violent so she tensed up.
"Do you accept a duel?" The Galvant girl suddenly suggested.
"Bring it on! If I win, you should leave me alone!"
"Hah, as if you'll win with that puny ember!" The girl smirked.
Yuca glared at the girl. Her fists were clenched and her shoulders shook in anger.
She could only accept the duel. Duels between Summoners, Mages, and any people with magic-related professions had an unspoken rule between them. It was a principle between them to always respect the essence of conditions and rules stated on a duel.
It was an important rule that every mages and summoners followed. It was like a Knight's code for them. The pride of the Summoners were staked on this duel. The newly repaired dome was crowded once more. Despite having been amongst the burnt area on this school, the staffs and their earth elemental familiars easily managed to recover everything back to normal.
This place was a field for students to fight each other. There were many rings that they could use, all of which had runic symbols on the edge of the circular ring for the barrier to function around it. This had been done so the audience wouldn't be harmed as the two combatants fought each other.
Yuca stood outside too. This specific duel was a duel between their Summoned Entities. It wasn't really a true battle between them, but rather a showcase of their strength as a Summoner. A Summoner's strength came from their Summoned Entities, so their familiar's victory would be considered their own victory too.
A Summoned Entity was considered the extension of the Summoner itself. Any of it's feat would be attributed to the Summoner.
Only a few watched their battle. Others were more focused on the battle taking place on the larger ring.
Yuca doesn't really care. She just want her Paraph to win so she could start with her assignment.
"Hmph! Your only going to use that small ember as the combatant? This will be trifling!" The girl huffed as she formed a magic circle, summoning a water elemental.
It was a beautiful girl whose entire body was made of pure water. It was a water elemental girl. A common summoned unit.
"I don't need to use Bleu. A simple water elemental girl is enough!"
Yuca gritted her teeth. Between Summoners, using a creature that hadn't been in a contract yet was an insult to a Summoner who was using their contracted familiar in a duel. It essentially meant that their foe doesn't mean anything to them.
"Hey... are you insulting me? Haven't you heard, my Para has burned the majority of the west side of this school! I think you shouldn't be underestimating me too much!"
"Hmph. What can a small fire elemental do to a water elemental girl?" The girl simply snorted.
Having seen that the girl was intent on further insulting her as a Summoner, Yuca decided not to bother and start the duel.
"Para! Defeat that water elemental girl! Use everything you can!"
Actually, Yuca was also nervous. Fire elementals couldn't contend against water elemental creatures. They were weak against it. The Paraph was made entirely of fire, so it was easy to imagine what would happen if a water elemental got in contact with it.
'No! I'll believe with my fire elemental! It managed to burn the majority of this school, so I think it might be able to hold on for a long time...'
She actually didn't believe she would win. She only hoped her Para survived until the Galvant Heiress became fed up and let her give the win. It could spread fire around, so she wanted to use that as distraction.
The noble lady simply scoffed as the battle started. She didn't tell anything to her summon as she was confident that nothing could hard her water elemental girl. She wanted to show Yuca just how futile her struggle was, and get her kicked out of this school as she felt insulted. It was that kind of pettiness that made her smirked at just imagining it.
The water elemental girl gazed at the small ember of fire, tilting her head as she haven't gotten any orders from her Summoner. Para on the other hand flickered for a moment, before it let out a pulse of heat around it. She noticed that, so the water elemental girl raised it's arms and produced water around her, covering her body with a dome of water.
The Paraph then flared after that pulse. It's small torch-like flame suddenly turned larger. The whole ring lit up, which alerted the many students who were busily watching the other combatants on the other rings. Even those who were still in the middle of the duel got curious at that and stopped their duels for a moment to watch it.
Yuca's foe gasped and covered her eyes due to the sudden brightness, and almost anyone couldn't really watch as the intense radiance of the flame makes it's impossible. It was like a star itself had lit up on this world. They could even feel the heat that even with the barrier around the ring, they were already sweating a lot and those who were nearer felt their skin being scalded.
The only one who was unaffected was Para's Master, Yuca Meidill. Her eyes were stuck on what was happening on the field, unperturbed by the radiance of flames that burst forth and burned everything within.
That was right. She saw how the Paraph simply bursts, and turned the whole surrounding into a blaze of inferno. Fire formed on the air, on the ground, and even on the edges of the barrier. She could watch it all without being affected by it. Once again watching in awe at the sheer prowess of the Paraph.
"... Wait, am I seeing this right?"
She only thought that Para could simply spread fire magically. It was still fire, and she couldn't feel any magical influence on these fire. She was surprised when that fire got in contact with the water elemental girl.
In a brief moment it touched the dome of water, that dome of water bursts into flames. Large fire, small fire, every form of fire was formed on each particles of the water. It turned water into fire itself. Of course the water elemental girl ceased to exists, it's substances that made it up now also fuel to the fire of Paraph. That water elemental girl's essence returned to whence it came, not even knowing how it got turned into flame on this material world.
"Para, that's enough!"
Seeing the barrier that was letting out steams and cracks around it, Yuca knew it was dangerous. Her call stopped the Paraph who was immersed on spreading it's kin to this world. It's large body turned small, though it was indistinguishable by the amount of flame that burns everywhere within that ring.
It easily managed to pass through the barrier, and spun around Yuca in excitement. Yuca could somewhat convey that it was happy as it managed to spread more of it's flame. She simply smiled, though a bit awkwardly as she was more surprised at the fact that it could defeat a water elemental that swiftly.
'It's fire is not even magical in nature. How come?' She wondered to herself.
It took awhile before the noble lady noticed that her vague connection with the newly summoned water elemental girl was gone. She only learned about it when Yuca said it herself.
"Impossible!" The noble lady exclaimed, her face darkening in shocked and denial.
"Now that I win, you should leave me alone! That's my condition for winning!" Her words seemed to have struck something on the noble lady's nerves as she gritted her teeth.
"Eurgh... Fine! In accordance to the rules of this match, I, Suila de Galvant, will not bother you anymore!" She said that with greeted teeth, her eyes narrowed on her way.
Having gotten her word, which was heard by the public, she finally decided to leave before another troublesome thing happened. As she left, the others who watched could only mutter to themselves.
"Did you see that? She managed to defeat a Summoner five stages higher than her!?"
"That's Suila de Galvant, right? The Princess of Blue, Suila de Galvant!"
"No way. Even if she only used a normal water elemental girl, that water elemental girl should still have a boost with Lady Galvant's magical prowess! How come that first stage monster summoner managed to defeat that?"
"Much so, with a fire elemental!?"
"Hey, look at the ring! Am I weird, or is the fire getting stronger?"
"Shit! It's breaking the barrier on that ring! Call the professors and the staffs!"
Many immediately panicked as they finally noticed that the fire wasn't letting up. It was getting stronger and stronger.
In the end, the staff was involved once more and they quickly contained the flames with their different types of treasures or high level summons.
Along with this was another rise of popularity. Yuca doesn't know it, as she quickly left the place.
This is the second chapter, and it followed the cliche of showing off the protagonist's summon to some random character. It's pretty popular on webnovels I read about this, so I decided to try my hand on it xD
Hope you have fun!~
If you want to support me, you can go to my Kofi account here.
Wyrm Forge was the largest forge in Soleil City. Located near the Grandshire Academy, it was a forge where many crafters, both mundane and magical, gathered to create wondrous weapons and armors.
The only Arcanesmith who had achieved the Fifth Arcane Expansion Stage on this region owned this forge. Even the royal army came here to ask for artifacts to be personally made by him.
Due to this, many aspiring crafters came here in hopes of becoming his apprentice. Different mage and summoner's schools also wanted to be friendly with him. Which was why the school allocate some of their students to help the blacksmiths here.
So it was also obvious that Yuca wasn't the only one who entered the backdoor when she presented the assignment she took on the School Board. There were other students from Grandshire and even other schools like Zantark and Obscurite. There were other students from other mage schools, though mages and summoners were obviously separated as putting them together in a single room would make things messy.
Since the sudden surge of popularity of Summoners, the practice of magic itself had gone into a decline. It was easier to become stronger through summoning than learning magic itself. So those who pursue magic hated the people who chose the easy way.
So while she noticed some teenagers in magician's robes awhile ago, she was sure they were led to another place while they as a Summoner was put in another.
As they entered, Yuca immediately felt the sudden shift in temperature. Unlike outside which was a bit cold due to the approaching winter, the interior of this room was pleasantly warm. She felt rather refreshed as she felt it was too cold.
"Ugh... so hot."
"Get used to it. Forges with magical furnaces are always this hot!"
"I shouldn't have taken this assignment!"
She perked up when she heard that and glanced at the students along with her. She was surprised when she saw them already taking off some layers of their robes, and sweating up a lot. She also felt a few of them directing a glance her way with a raised eyebrow, though they didn't spoke to her and just simply followed the worker to the furnaces.
'Hot? I don't feel hot at all...?' Yuca was confused about that, before she quickly realized what was happening. 'Right, I have Fire Affinity now. Maybe I got resistance to heat too?'
Around them was the sound of hammer hitting metal. The sparks that flew on the air as burly men slammed their tools to their craft busily focused on their work while the students helping out to this shop for an assignment were led to a place much deeper than the workstations of these men.
Yuca could sense Mana being manipulated from each of their swings, which made her realize that they weren't just mundane blacksmiths but rather Arcanesmiths. She simply glanced around and doesn't pursue her curiosity, as she wasn't that interested.
'Well, we are going to the Hellfire Furnace. Normal blacksmiths can't use it...'
Passing another room, they finally arrived on a very large room where billowing fires were contained on enchanted brick metal furnaces. It's size almost taking half of this court-sized room, and the heat was intense that the others were already summoning their girls and creating heat protections around them.
Yuca was the only one who felt rather refreshed at the heat. It was like a gentle breeze of summer to her. It doesn't even irritate her skin.
"This is the Hellfire Furnace. Just pick a spot and do your thing." The man who led them here said in a noncommittal manner. It was an attitude that doesn't exude any confidence on them at all.
This was the first time Yuca took this kind of assignment. She normally summoned orcs and goblins so she took construction jobs or any jobs that included heavy stuffs whenever she goes for an assignment. It was why she doesn't know that blacksmiths on Wyrm Forge doesn't really expect anything to them, mostly if it came to heating up the Hellfire Furnace.
"Huh...?" That's why she was curious why the Summoners along her weren't angry after they heard those words from the blacksmith.
Summoners had a lot of pride. They were the symbols of the peak of this world, so most Summoners held a certain amount of arrogance in them. She frequently encountered Summoners who got angry at the most simple things, even going as far as throwing a tantrum just because the soles of their shoes stepped on a dusty floor.
She glanced around and saw that their heads were lowered as they quietly walked to their preferred spots on the furnace. The furnace had a lot of hatches that they could use to pour any types of flame they could use. These people simply started ordering their summons to pour flame on these hatches after it was pulled up.
She was unaware that these people frequently took this job as they had fire elemental summons. These students who frequently took this assignment repeatedly fail at even raising the temperature of this furnace by a single percent. It was because this Hellfire Furnace truly lived up to it's name. Mundane fire would simply be converted into little bits of pure flames that could burn even steel in an instant.
A high tier fire element could reliably raise it's temperature, though no students who had that kind of summon would come and take this assignment. This assignment was usually taken by students who had weak combat capabilities. Duels and combats were another way of acquiring points and resources to the school, so stronger Summoners would always find people to fight with.
Yuca followed along and then stood on one of the hatches. It automatically opened, causing a strong essence of fire element to brushed against her body. She took in a deep breathe, her eyes widened a bit in surprised at the rich fire essence that the hatch released with it's billows of heat.
"Wow, I think I can take inspirations here and meditate!" She exclaimed before she looked to the others.
She noticed that the others were truly meditating. Sitting on the ground with a magic circle beneath them, absorbing the fire essence that the hatches released.
Meditation was the most common way of comprehending the laws of the universe. By emptying their mind of disruptive thoughts and simply focusing their senses on their surroundings would they acquire insights as to how things happened and advance on their comprehension, along with their magic level. By absorbing these elements that they have comprehended, they would make a breakthrough to the next stage, further making them stronger as a Summoner.
"Para, spread your fire inside this hatch. I'll meditate here until our time is out."
They had been given limited time to do this. Many students wanted to get inside and pour fire on the Hellfire Furnace, so they weren't given all day just to stay here.
With that decided, she erected a magical circle commonly used for meditation. This circle was made not just to absorb the elements around them easily, but also to tap into their bond from their Summoned Entity so their comprehension of the element became faster.
As she begun with her meditation, the Paraph bopped on the air for a bit before it hovered close to the hatch. Then without word, it hopped within the hatch, much to the worker's surprised who was near them.
"What the? Is that monster idiot? The flames of Hellfire Furnace purifies everything within it into pure fire!" He shook his head. "How stupid. This is why newbies are so..."
He stopped when he noticed something. The hatch where the Paraph entered suddenly flared with incredible heat. It was much hotter than awhile ago. Pure fire essence left the hatch, and as seconds passed, high quality fire essence was spouting out of the hatch. It even spreads on the other parts of the Hellfire Furnace.
The others had noticed when the heat became unbearable for them even with the protection of their fire aligned summons.
"What's happening, why is it so hot!?"
"What a high concentration of fire essence! But, I can't bear this heat!"
"Ouch! I quit! I don't want to be here anymore!"
Many stood up, their body became red and feverish due to the unbearable heat that quickly surrounded the whole room. They immediately leave with their body steaming hot, others practically running due to the feeling of searing pain that covered their body.
The workers who originally worked here could also feel it. Despite having been used to the heat made by the Hellfire Furnace, they were now sweating a lot. Their bodies that had been trained by the fire essence around was useless by this pure essence of fire.
"The Hellfire Furnace's temperature... it increased!?" The worker exclaimed in surprise. He watched the only remaining student who was still meditating near the flaring hatch in awe. "Who is this girl!?"
As the others were dumbfounded and panicking, Yuca was more immersed at her own meditation. She didn't managed to meditate with her summon yesterday because she wanted to do some work, but now that she did, she was surprised to find that she could easily absorbed the fire essence around her, and circulate them within her body. She also found it was easier for her to filter out unwanted elements from the essence and just take what she needed for her talent to bloom.
'Amazing! Is this what having a familiar do?' She wondered to herself, as this was the first time she meditated with a familiar.
She had already reached her peak when she didn't have a familiar yet. So she was stuck at the First Magical Foundation Stage. Now that she had a familiar, her potential expanded greatly. She quickly felt a sense of explosion within her consciousness, and then her whole body felt so light as she stabilized the essence and Mana she circulated on her body.
"Second Magical Foundation Stage..." She muttered as she opened her eyes.
She could feel it. Due to feeding her fire affinity with the fire essence around, she could feel her fire innate abilities became stronger. She also got the general boost when she made a breakthrough, like her mana capacity that was doubled, along with the general increase in capability to her physical and magical abilities.
She let out a hum. A smoke filled with the warmth of fire essence escaped her lips after that.
"Wow... I can use fire elemental magic with this amount of potential within my body!" She exclaimed.
She felt excited. This was the first time she focused on a single element, though she felt it was worth it. As she progressed on her path as a Summoner, she would soon get her dream of a luxurious life and being the greatest Summoner of all.
After she calmed down from her excitement did she finally noticed her surroundings. She just realized that her Para was still within the Hellfire Furnace. Despite the intense flame that bursted within the industrial artifact, her eyes could easily distinguished between what was normal fire and who was her familiar in there.
Then she looked at her side and saw that every students that was along with her was gone. The workers were also staring at her wide eyed shock.
"... Uh, what?" She tilted her head in wonder. Within the Headmaster's Office of the Grandshire Academy, the Headmaster herself, Emeltria de Fontaine, read the reports that had been given to her this morning. She was surprised when she found a familiar name on the report once more.
"Yuca Meidill again?" Her beautiful sapphire colored eyes glance at the name in surprised, before she leaned closer.
On the reports she got, Yuca Meidill had been challenged by a noble to a duel. The noble was five stages higher than her own, so even if it's a duel between their summons and the elemental disparity between each of their summons, it should be obvious who should have won. Though against all odds, the fire elemental summon Yuca had completely burnt a water elemental girl.
"That fire elemental again..." Her eyes furrowed at that as she was reminded of yesterday. She reached out on her drawer and took something.
That something was a flask with a ball of flame contained within it. The flame shone brightly, which made the flask look like a lit lightbulb.
"It became purer than yesterday..." Emeltria muttered.
This flask was a magic item called the Flame Container. This type of items were made to specifically contain fire elements. There were other magic items like this who also dealt with other elements. As to why it was made, it was because even elements were useful when strengthening the summons themselves.
Even when a Summoner could become strong along with their Summons, sometimes a Summoner would find themselves in a bottleneck. It was because their limit was dependent on the summoned entity they were contracted with. So strengthening the Summoned Entity would obviously give them more potential to grow too, hence the strengthening of a Summon was as important as meditating for themselves.
"This mundane fire had turned into magical flames. Maybe sooner it might even turn into hellfire." She muttered under her breathe.
That was a big news. A monster capable of turning mundane fire into magical ones. It was unheard of. Monsters were known to be stuck on their power levels. Even a dragon, while strong, couldn't grow out of their strength. What they could do, that's the only thing they could do.
A fire elemental that could evolve flames willingly was unheard of.
"That child said it's called a Paraph... I don't recall having heard of a monster like that?" She closed her eyes. "Well, I already asked Martin to look for it on the School Archives. We might find something in t--"
"Excuse me, I got something urgent to report!"
She was startled when someone suddenly barged into her room. She looked at the person who just entered and quickly recognized it to be her secretary.
"Zeltria... it's already the evening, why are you being so loud?"
"Sorry Headmaster, but today I received this report today from the owner of Wyrm Forge himself!"
"Gornick!?" She exclaimed.
Gornick Wyrmer was a human who had achieved the highest Arcanesmith level on this country. He was also the one who own Wyrm Forge. To have a report personally given to them, she wondered what was happening.
"What is it?" Her full attention taken, she looked straight at her secretary.
"Right. This morning, a student of our school named Yuca Meidill did the impossible. Her summoned entity had managed to maximized the Hellfire Furnace's heat tolerance. Currently, it became impossible for Arcanesmiths of lower stages to enter there, so he decided to use it as his workshop!"
"Use it? He decided to finally make something again!?"
This was surprising. In recent years, Gornick had stopped forging anything as he stated that there was nothing in this country that could handle his skills anymore. The fire was always lukewarm to him, and the ores were so low quality that they always had to rely on imports from other countries.
To force that person to suddenly setup a workshop once more and start crafting, she was surprised. She also heard that the Hellfire Furnace was impossible to maximized it's heat tolerance. She knew, because she tried it with her Emerald Phoenix for twenty four hours without any success.
"Is this Yuca Meidill the same one who burned the west side of our building?"
"Ah... yes, that's the one Headmaster."
Emeltria contemplated for a moment. She was curious just what kind of entity she just summoned.
"... Maybe I should call her again and ask for the magic formula for it? I might be able to modify it to summon a female version of that fire elemental?"
The Headmaster was intrigued. She was stuck at the Third Arcane Expansion Stage for a few years now. Even with the Emerald Phoenix and Infernal Golem as Familiars, she couldn't advance with her bottleneck. She had reach the maximum potential that her familiars could give her. She needed something else.
"Zeltria. Call that little girl to my office. I have something important to tell her."
Sorry, short chapter for now.
Hope you have fun!~
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Yuca was surprised once more as she managed to consolidate enough magic power to breakthrough to the next stage. She was currently in her room after she was done with her assignment, and they payment she got was directly transferred to the school due to her debt.
She was unaware that the amount of money she got was a lot more than what was promised to her due to the impossible feat she achieved. She still thought she had to do a lot more assignments before she could pay off all of her debts.
Even with how unaware she was, she could somewhat noticed that her Familiar was odd. The potential it gave her after the contract was much more than normal monsters. Even orcs would simply limit her to the Third Magical Foundation Stage before she had to find other resources to increase that, or summon a stronger monster to compensate for the lacking potential.
"The book listed Paraph as part of the Level 0 Fire Realm. It can't be this strong right?" She muttered under her breathe.
Talking about the Paraph, she glanced at it and saw that it was simply hovering around her room. As if curious about everything. Through their bond, she could feel it's utmost curiosity and innocence as it moved around her room. It hadn't lost it's interest even at the simplest things despite being here for two days now.
"Uh... hey, Para." She waited until she got the attention of Para. "What's your ranking on the Fire Realm?"
She was wondering about that. Paraph was too strong for what the book listed it as. She wanted to know if this monster was amongst the top or something.
Her expectations was betrayed when she noticed it replying to her. She easily managed to understand what it tried to say through it's movements with their bond, and she frowned for a bit as she translated what it said as it being at the bottom rung of it's realm.
"Oh..."
That was unbelievable. The Paraph was a bottom tier entity from the Fire Realm. She wondered just what kind of monsters were in there that the Paraph who could spread fire everywhere was considered a low tier one.
"Do you ever sleep...?" Even as she asked that out of curiosity, she had put her attention to her book which she hid on the pillows of her bed.
She understood what it tried to convey with their bond as she opened the book and read the contents of it. Based on the Paraph, it wasn't aware of the concept of sleeping, so she could take that as a no.
"I see." She nodded at it's reply, before her attention was fully focused on the book.
She flipped the pages beyond the Paraph's depiction and read the other creatures from the Fire Realm. All of the creatures held fiery forms, though she couldn't really gauge whether they were strong or not as there was no description on the book. Only the magical formula and their names.
"These circles... that's a lot of patterns. I think even with the increase in my mana with my breakthroughs, I can't do these things!" She shook her head. Then she quickly flipped the pages until she was on the Water Realm category. "How about this one?"
Yuca doesn't want to specialized on a single element. She wanted to at least be capable of using the other elements. Professors warned them of spreading their specialties as it would make it harder for them to advance in stage, but since she became a Summoner, she always wanted to be the best. So she wanted to take that insurmountable feat of mastering every elements.
The very first thing that her eyes laid on was a simple depiction of a drop of water. This creature was called the Phalos. She tilted her head, wondering how a drop of water became a creature, but she still decided to take that as out of any creature on the Water Realm, it had the series of pattern that was more bearable to her.
Just like Paraph, it had the same two circles and one hundred twenty eight patterns on each of it. The patterns on the circle were a lot different, but was still doable to her as she memorized the circle on her mind.
After she was confident enough that she could form it with her magic, she closed the book and decided to summon her second familiar. She thought that, because the Paraph already had a decent potential it could give, that the Phalos might also be capable to do it too.
She was just starting on forming the magic circle when she heard a knock on her door. She perked up, confused.
"Who could it be?"
She walked to the door and opened it, only to be surprised to see the familiar red eyes looking down on her and that sharp features. It was the secretary of the Headmaster, Zeltria de Mauveille.
'... Why is she here?' Yuca tensed up. She felt a bit nervous, thinking she might have done something once more. Headmaster Emeltria de Fontaine watched the girl on the guest sofa, trembling with her lips pursed. She looked like a normal student, though she reminded herself that this was the girl who summoned a creature that could burn the west side of their building, which was filled with a lot of enchantments along with the structure itself being made of enchanted bricks.
It was also the same girl who had summoned a fire elemental that could make a weird mundane fire that turned into magical ones overtime.
"Yuca Meidill." She finally decided to speak after she watched the girl fidget for awhile now.
"Y-yes!?" The girl was flustered. It was obvious because it was the Headmaster who was talking to her.
She raised her hand. "There is no need to be tense. I only called you for something simple." She waited for the girl to calm down before she continued. "You called that monster Paraph, right?" With her nod, she continued. "Then, before anything else, can you tell me anything you learned about your familiar?"
"Uh... Sorry, I also have no idea what kind of species it is. All I know is that it came from the Fire Realm, and that it's at the lower part of it's hierarchy."
"I see." She was a bit surprised at that.
She heard of a secret world called the Fire Realm. It was a secret world owned by the Flame Empress, Efreet. There were many resources within it that was beneficial to mages and summoners who focused on fire elements only.
Though she heard that fire slimes were the most common monsters on that place. She hadn't heard of any creature called Paraph in there, so she thought this Fire Realm might be a different one than the one she knew.
"Hmm... well then, as for why I called you here, I wanted to know the magic formula for summoning the Paraph. As for the payment, I think waiving off your debts might be appropriate?"
Yuca's eyes became wide as she heard her claim, and she immediately stood up and bowed deeply at her.
"Please! I would gladly share the formula, Headmaster!"
Emeltria nodded before she recalled something. "Oh right, while we're at it, can you tell me where you learned the summoning method for the Paraph?"
"... It's from an untitled book that I bought on the Candice Street at a stall. If I recall correctly, it was being sold by a tall and beautiful wandering summoner with violet eyes and long purple hair." She said.
"... I see. I understand. Then please show me the formula, and then you can go back to your room."
The Headmaster didn't ask for the book itself. It was common courtesy between Summoners not to ask for their personal possessions. Unless they were incredibly close, they could simply ask for the other Summoner about the info on those book, not borrow it directly from them.
Yuca nodded and she quickly drew the summoning circle for Paraph. After that she left after a few more words were exchanged between them.
After making sure that the girl left, she took the paper where she drew the summoning circle, and narrowed her gaze when she looked at each of the patterns drawn on it.
"Wait... this is too complex. These symbols... aren't these--!?" She gasped when she realized some of the symbols written on it. "Phantasmal Language!?"
Phantasmal Language, or the Words of Fantasy. It was a series of magical symbols that was believed to be the predecessor of every magic in this world. It was impossible to actually remember every symbols of Phantasmal Language, as it was an ever-evolving symbol that held pure, and raw abstract laws and concepts.
It was an incredibly obscure, and lost magical language that could only be discovered from the most ancient ruins or secret worlds. She simply managed to discover that it was Phantasmal Language because her Master showed her three symbols that depicted Fire, Flame, and Heat. Those three were even incomplete, though she could see signs of those symbols being included on the circle.
Now she had a great urge to disregard courtesy between Summoners and just ask for Yuca's book, but she stopped and decided to look for the woman whom she bought it for.
As for summoning Paraph, she didn't bother. It was a circle filled with the symbols of a very obscure and ancient magical language. She wouldn't have enough Mana to summon one even if she was on the Third Arcane Expansion Stage. She would need to be at least on the Core Formation Stage before she tried it.
She stopped for a moment when she thought about it.
"Wait a minute... just how did that girl summon that Paraph? Isn't she just at the Magical Foundation Stage!?" She felt incredibly curious, but she shook her head. "If I recall correctly, she has an absolute affinity for monsters... but still, the amount of Mana needed is comparable to summoning a Grand Entity. Did she have enough magical power to do that?"
She frowned, before she closed her eyes and let out a sigh.
"It doesn't matter. I have to find that wandering summoner first and ask her about it!"
With that decided, she called for her trusted aides. Though her intrigued was hooked by Yuca Meidill. It was early in the morning when Yuca entered her classroom. When attending class, Familiars weren't allowed on the classroom so currently Para wasn't with her. She left the Paraph on her room with a promise that it shouldn't do anything troublesome like spreading it's fire.
Classes on this school were always open after an off day. This world had eight days on a week, which meant that classes were always done four times every week. This was done so students could study, and then applied anything they studied personally on the next day.
Classes wasn't that long. They only took two hours before they were given free time to explore more of the school or fight some people for their rankings.
She could feel the gaze of her classmates around her as she took her seat. She felt a bit fidgety as this was the first time she felt these kind of intrusive gazes. Most of the time, the gaze she got was always with a sneer or were insulting. Now it was probing and there were hints of nervousness on some of them.
"Hey... it's Yuca right?"
"The Fire Princess, Yuca Meidill?"
"Who would have thought that a monster summoner will have a strong fire affinity?"
"Is it really true? Did she really increase the temperature of the Hellfire Furnace?"
"She is the one who burned the west side of this school, so I think it's not an exaggeration!"
"She also defeated the Galvant Heiress. That's the Princess of Blue you know?"
"Really? Isn't that the one who had the Sea Empress!? Yuca is supposed to be no match to her with their element alone... how come?"
"We actually have a classmate like that? Just what kind of Familiar did she get?"
"You will be surprised. It's not even a beautiful entity, but just a floating sentient fire!"
"No way!"
Yuca just lowered her head. Though she felt someone poking her shoulder so she was obliged to look to her side and saw the familiar face of her only acquaintance on this room.
"Yuca, are you alright?" Those wide light brown eyes and that short bob cut hair gave this girl a refreshing and innocent vibe.
Yuca nodded. "Yes, I'm fine. Just felt a bit sleepy..." She lied. She just felt embarrassed at the people whispering to each other about her. "So, how is your day Mea?"
Mea Crocea, one of the bottom ranking Summoners of this school who was slightly better than her. She was the only person on this school who was on good terms with her, likely because she was a weak Summoner like her.
Though Yuca wasn't able to win against this girl when she was a goblin and orc summoner. Mea's talent was Golem Summoning, and even when she was incompatible with other summons, she managed to create a loophole and made a contract with a Stone Valkyrie, which was another type of golem but with a feminine figure.
"Ah, I'm still trying to breakthrough to the Third Magical Foundation Stage. I think I am getting closer to consolidating the Earth Essence within my body." She blinked her eyes. "Wait... how come you felt more powerful than me now!"
"Ah... right, I just broke through to the Third Magical Foundation Stage..." She felt a bit awkward when she said that.
She was surprised too. She knew Mea had been stuck to her stage for a few months now. She even had two Stone Valkyries on her contract, but she couldn't even advance to the third stage. She thought she might have to find another Book for a new type of golem summoning, as she only had the summoning circle for stone golems.
The girl gasped. "Whoa... is it really true that you got a high class entity as a Familiar!?"
"I don't know if it's a high class entity, but my Para took a lot of my mana when I'm summoning it!"
"Oh, it took a lot of Mana? Then it might be on the same level as a Superior Entity if someone like you, who can summon a thousand orcs at the same time, said it took a lot of Mana!"
"Yeah, you can say that." Yuca shrugged.
"That sounds amazing!" Mea clasped her hands in excitement. "Ah... I also want your incredible talent on summoning. You have a lot of Mana even though you are limited to summoning monsters. If I have something like that, I might be able to summon a stronger golem!"
"It's not that impressive. Even if I summon a dragon, they are incapable of growth at all. Even I envy you because you can summon monster girls at least..."
The two of them talked like that for a moment until their homeroom teacher arrived. After that the class started and they became quiet.
Their professor started their lecture for today.
"Today, we are going to talk about the tiers of summoned entities. I think some of you know about it as I saw some of you frequenting our School Archives." Yuca noticed their professor glancing at her for a moment before he resumed on his topic.
The topic involved was about the grades of summoned entities. He covered about what were these tiers, and how it related to their summoning.
Summoned Entities were separated from their tiers. Each tiers indicated just how strong these entities were. Tiers were separated on twelve categories. These categories were; Lower, Common, Middle, Higher, Peak, Superior, Grand, Supreme, Epic, Legendary, Mythic, and Divine.
Goblins were Lower Entities, and they could be simply summoned by a single point of their magical power with an incredibly simple circle with four linear patterns. While Orcs were Common Entities that could be summoned by a single circle with eight linear patterns.
Creatures that reached the Higher Entity Tier was considered top class on this country. The Headmaster's contracted entity Emerald Phoenix was a Peak Entity, which gave her greater potential for the fire affinity, and the power to control fire willingly. Many of the well-known figures of this city either had Peak or Superior Entities as their Familiars.
These type of people held a lot of opportunities in the future. If they weren't held back by the poor state of their country, they might have already achieved the Core Formation Stage, which was the next level after Arcane Expansion.
Yuca already knew about all of this. She had read about it on the school library a long time ago. She still recalled the contents of those books with her magic-aided photographic memory.
She knew that the complexity of the summoning circle and their grade also decided just how strong a summoned entity was. Her Paraph had the same difficulty as summoning a Superior Entity, so she thought the Paraph might had given her a lot of potential.
'It's just a pity that it's a monster. It can grow more if it is a monster girl...' She shook her head in regret.
The other students were taking notes about it. Unlike her who tried to learn more about summoning and anything related to it, most of her classmates only concentrated on fighting and raising their rankings on the school so they could become more stronger.
It took awhile until their professor was done with the topic.
"I hope some of you learned something about this topic, and you shouldn't just summon whatever you fancied with. You'll face a greater backlash if you try to summon something that your magical power can't handle!"
"""Yes, Sir!"""
Only a few answered sincerely, while others were nonchalant about it. The professor shook his head when as he quickly noticed those who didn't took his advice seriously.
As their professor left, the students quickly tidied up their stuff and left the classroom. Yuca was also leaving early when Mea suddenly called out to her.
"Wait, do you have any plans on this day Yuca?"
"Huh?" She turned to her and thought about it. "Hmm... oh right, I'm going to summon another monster. I am hoping it's as strong as Para." She simply said.
"Oh, You don't want to hang out somewhere?"
"Nah... Sorry, I'm a bit busy right now." She also wanted to have some time to meditate, so she couldn't spare the time right now.
"Hmm... then maybe next time? I want to see your summons too!" She said.
"Sure. I'll tell you when..."
With that promise, the two left on their way. Yuca quickly walked back to her room. She was glad when she saw that Para hadn't done anything else. She could feel it in their bond that Para was simply satisfied floating around the room, but she was still a bit nervous because Para was always like that even with it spreading it's fire.
The sentient fire quickly spun around her when she entered, and she nodded before it told her.
"Okay, I'll be summoning someone. I hope you are not allergic to water..." Para flickered for a bit, which she took as confirmation.
She doesn't have enough time last night as the Headmaster had called her to her office, so it took her this long before she could summon it. Now that she had free time, she decided that she wanted to summon the Phalos and find out whether it was as strong as Paraph.
She focused her mind and controlled the Mana within her body. Forming it into the pattern she got from the summoning circle based on the book. It took her a moment, but she got an easier time managing to form the bluish summoning circle with her magic. She thought it might be because of her advancement to her stage, so it became easier to her.
She poured her magic, activating the summoning circle and reaching out to the entity on the other dimension. In an instant, the circle shined brightly as a light silhouette occured in front of the circle. That silhouette slowly took the figure of an enlarged drop of water before it solidified it's existence.
After that, it was done. She opened her eyes and saw a crystal blue liquid that floated on the air. It's shape was literally like a drop of water. It wasn't a ball or any shape, but literally shaped like how someone would draw a rain drop. It's size was the same as her clenched fist, which meant it was near the size of the Paraph.
"... So you are a Phalos?" The sentient drop of water moved as if it was diving around like a fish. It's sharp tip moved like a tail fish as it swam on the air. "What can you do?" It swam on the air for a moment. "Uh... spreading water?" Yuca raised her eyebrow.
She could somewhat understand the Paraph about how it could spread fire. Fire spreads, so it was common sense that it would happen. Though spreading water?
She couldn't wrapped her mind about that.
"... Well, why don't you show me how you do it?" Half an hour later...
The whole field where students took their summons to try out their capabilities was completely flooded. There was fresh and crystal blue water that filled the whole courtyard up to their knees. It was still spreading, and if not for the timely intervention of the professors, it might have entered the interiors of the school, or even spread out of the walls of this academy.
Yuca's smile was tense as she watched this unfold, while the Paraph and the Phalos simply spun around each other in happiness, as if they found their long time friend.
"It really can spread water..." She felt a sense of deja vu, but simply dismissed that as she was more distracted at the ridiculous sight of a drop of water just simply producing water endlessly.
Fortunately, she wasn't called to the Headmaster's Office again.
Here is another chapter. Hope you have fun with this one too!~
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"Yes Headmaster. We tried to look for the woman that the young Yuca described, and anyone from Candice Street said they haven't met someone like that."
"Any traces of her?"
"There is none, Headmaster."
Emeltria furrowed her brows. She was troubled at that revelation. 'It seems like I am not fated to meet her. A shame...' She sighed, before she returned her gaze back at her aide.
"Martin, return to finding any info about the Paraph."
"Yes, Headmaster."
After that, the old man left her office. She was silent for a moment before she leaned over and took something from her drawer. It was the paper which Yuca drew the magic formula to summon a Paraph.
"... I think I'll have to do some research on these patterns..." Her eyes lit up at that, as she imagined the benefits she could get when she managed to translate an ancient language like this. It was the next day, and Yuca had free time, so she decided to stay at her room to meditate. There were plenty of Mana around the atmosphere within the school, so she could use her room as a place of meditation.
It was a bit harder to absorb Mana here as this place wasn't a dedicated leyline. There were a mixture of impure matter along with the mana around the air, so she had to filter that out as she absorbed it within her body.
It doesn't matter to her though as she discovered something with her Familiars. Her new Familiar, Palo, which was the Phalos she summoned yesterday, produced pure water essence around it's body. It was also the case with Para, who produced pure fire essence with each of it's flicker.
She needed water essence specifically to consolidate within her foundation. She had already perfected the fire essence within her body up to the Third Magical Foundation Stage. She wanted to do that with her Water Affinity too.
She distributed the pure water essence she absorbed around her body, solidifying them into a layer of foundation within her body and feeding the Water Affinity talent she got from the Phalos. She could feel that her talent with the water element was expanding, and along with it was the general boost on her physical and magical capabilities.
She was surprised how easy it was to absorb and consolidate these essences within her body. She heard from Mea that it was pretty hard, and it usually took them months before they could perfectly solidify their foundation on their stage.
It took her until afternoon before she was done. She could feel that both her water and fire elemental capabilities were equal now. If she tried learning water and fire magic, she could easily comprehend those and use it as easily as using her own summoning spells.
"Hmm... I still have time, so maybe I should go to the School Archives and find a spell book?"
Despite being a Summoner's School, they also had spell books on their library. Summoners were originally Mages who focused their craft on summoning. They could do what a Mage could do. Though they weren't that well-versed at the knowledge of magic itself, as Summoners used magic as a tool, unlike Mages who actually learned about the magic itself and the intricacies behind it's principle.
Having decided so, she took her Familiars along with her as left the room. Tomorrow, after the class Yuca quickly left Mea after a small talk before she goes to the training ground to test the spells she learned on the School Archive.
Yesterday, she spent her remaining free time on the School Archives reading spell books for fire and water elements. She discovered that only entry level books about those spells were the only ones available on their archives. She doesn't mind as she just wanted to try the spells on the book, and see the effects of the affinity that she got from her Familiars.
"Okay, first of all, let's try Fireball."
Fireball was a second tier spell of the fire element. The spell circle for it was simple enough for her. It only needed a single circle with four linear patterns and one runic pattern. She took a suitable spot far on the others using the wide, slightly damp grass field of their training ground, and pointed her palm on the wooden dummy setup on this since this morning.
"[Fireball]"
She forgoes incantation, and got straight to the declaration of spell. She could compensate with the formation of circle through her magic.
It was another difference between Mages and Summoners. Mages used incantations when casting spells, while Summoners didn't do so as it used precious time they had to make more moves against their foes. Using incantations would solidify their image of the spell, and give it more substance than instantly casting it, so it could be said that Mages had superior firepower than Summoners on spells alone.
Though Summoners had the aid of their Familiars. Their weak and crude way of spellcasting quickly became decent, surpassing Mages due to the help of the potential given by their Summons. It was another thing that made Mages resent Summoners. They used shortcuts to become stronger.
Yuca knew that so she wasn't surprised when she produced a fireball that was a meter large. It was several inches larger than the normal fireball a normal mage could produce. That fireball shot on a straight line, hitting the dummy directly and causing a large explosion to occur. The explosion was enough to cause the people around the stopped for a moment and glance at her direction.
When they realized it was Yuca, they returned back to what they were doing. Others were a bit nervous and stared at her for a moment, already prepared to leave as they recalled how she burned this whole section of this school.
The wooden dummy, and everywhere on the three meter radius of it's original position was burnt to crisp. The flames lingered on the ground, crackling as the strong scent of burnt wood tickled her nose, making her pinched her nose.
"Ugh... I'm immune to the heat of fire, but the smell still sucks!" She growled under her breathe. "Still, this shows that I have a strong fire affinity if I can make such a large fireball!"
She was happy with that. She thought she would had a hard time casting a second tier spell, as it was usually casted by mages at the Sixth Foundation Stage and higher. She was just testing if she could do it reliably.
"It barely used my mana pool at all. If my estimates are correct, I might be able to use that kind of fireball a thousand times more!" She exclaimed, a bit happy at that.
She was confident at her mana pool. It was one of the things she got with her summoning talent. It also expanded since she advanced two stages.
"Well then, I should use the next spell I learned!" She pointed her palm on the burning area she had made. Then she formed a new circle, this time it had the element of water. "[Water Bomb]"
Water Bomb was also a second tier spell. Just like Fireball, it explodes upon contact. It's size was dependent on the amount of Mana used and their affinity with the water element.
Once more, instead of a ball of water that was a few inches in size, she made a ball of water that was a meter in spherical size before she threw it on the fire. That water bursted after it made contact with the ground, and the hissed of steam resounded as the water took off the burnt remains of the wooden dummy and it's surroundings.
She nodded in satisfaction at that. She didn't felt tired at all. It was like she just stretched her arms. It was so easy for her.
She glanced at her two Familiars who were now hovering around together. It felt like the two were on a trip and making memorable trips everywhere despite them just floating around the place. She could feel that the two were joyous at just seeing the sights around them.
'Hmm... I wonder just how strong these two were? They gave me a lot of potential, and I think I haven't reached the limit of the potential I had inherited from them...' She was curious.
Though she shook her head and decided to think about that next time.
"Palo, Para, we're leaving now." She glanced at the broken dummy before she shrugged. It was always replaced by the servants of this school, so she didn't have to feel nervous at destroying it. It was put there to be broken by the students for testing.
Nothing special happened after that as she came back to her room and resumed her meditation.
I don't know what to say for now. This is still the start, so it's still setting up to the arc that will happen in the future.
So anyway, short chapter for now...
Hope you have fun!~
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