1 Summoning
"Char, Have you prepared for your summoning ritual?" a man asked his son.
"Yes, Dad. I will be going, I don't want to be late, Today is an important day for me," the boy said his good bye.
This is the world of magic, Magoja. Humans were weak, they could not use complicated magic while monsters and creatures were born with magic, they evolved and their magic grew stronger as they evolved.
Life was hard, the humans hardly had any place to live as danger and monsters filled the world, they maintained only a meager size of territory where monsters rarely live.
Three hundred years ago, humanity's strongest magician created the very first soul container, it allows people to bound monsters and creatures to themselves.
Soul containers were created so that the bound creature could not go against the owner's will like some sort of slave contract.
In exchange, the creature would gain immortality, as long as the soul container and its owner were alive, the creature would be reborn from the mana in the environment.
Three hundred years later, children from five years old would go to a magic academy to prepare for their first bond.
Char had studied in the academy for five years and the event that he had been waiting for ten years finally came, today was the day of bonding.
"I will summon the best creature and make everyone proud, those noblemen who looked down on my dad as he is only a city guard will need to beg him for my help," Char thought.
"I won't disappoint them!" he told himself with resolution.
Char did not want to disappoint them, he always ranks first in his grade, and the teacher had high hope in him.
At the age of 15, Char could create his own summoning circle, people in the nobility wanted to take him as their retainer.
"I will show them that my summoning circle is better than the academy's magic circle, people will come and pay me to help them make summoning circles!" he fantasized his success.
At this era, children start to bond at 15 years old, they would summon a creature from another realm and bond with them with the help of a soul container.
There were a few types of container, some use their weapon as a container, others use accessories as a container while most use their body as a container.
For summoning purposes, a catalyst could be used to summon a certain type of creature or monster, it was known that as long as the person's talent was not trash, they would be able to get a strong creature with a strong catalyst.
The school had provided Char with a high-level dragon bone in hope that he would be able to live up to his talent.
"Robert Smalting, it's your turn please proceed to summon your creature and bond with it," an instructor announced.
The summoning was watched by the academy's principal and teachers so they could intervene if some accident happened.
The teacher would also choose their students for the rest of the year after the summoning, they would like to watch how the students fare in the summoning.
The order of the summoning was decided by rank, those in the highest rank of nobility come first then the commoner come last.
Of course, their performance in school also matters but it would only matter for the same rank, Char as a commoner could only go after every Noble finished their summoning.
He could know who are Nobles just by their name, commoner did not have last name, only a surname.
Everyone wanted to laugh when they heard Robert's last name but they held it in because he was the son of a count and they didn't want to offend his father.
Nobility rank was divided into 8, those higher than level 20 were granted the rank of knight, higher than 30 were granted the rank of baronet, higher than 40 granted the rank of baron, like that every ten levels the rank increased into viscount, count, marquis, duke, and arch-duke.
Robert used a dragon eye as a catalyst, it was known that the eye of a dragon was the next best catalyst other than a dragon core to summon a dragon.
His dragon eye was even higher level than Char's dragon bone, that was how Nobles kept hold of their power even when their descendants took the role.
With a flash of light, a small red-winged dragon appeared in the summoning circle after he read his chant.
It was confused, but when it saw the summoner, it went toward him in murder. but the man was not deterred, he pulled out the red crystal rapier.
Before the dragon could reach him, the soul container was activated, chains made of light were formed from the magic circle to bound the rampaging dragon.
The dragon started to wither away, leaving a speck of light that the first summoner called the soul, it was absorbed into the rapier and the ritual was done.
Soon mana started to gather toward the rapier at a rapid pace, it formed the same small dragon beside the man, it seemed confused like before and started to attack again but this time no chain came to stop it.
"Stop, don't move," the count's son commanded, and the dragon could not move an inch.
People around the summoning arena clapped at his performance, even though he was not the best student as Char was, to be able to summon a dragon and bond with it was something that demands appreciation.
"Robert Smalting, congratulations on bonding a lesser baby dragon," the instructor announced as part of the ritual.
The next hour similar things happened, but none of them summoned a creature more impressive than the baby dragon.
The only exceptional one was Aya Angelwing, a daughter of a viscount who summons a lesser baby cherub, a humanoid type creature.
Her family was known to summon all kinds of holy element creatures, her grandfather was the first Nobel in her family.
She had created her own summoning circle to summon her bonded creature, as the second-best student in the academy, she was on par with Char.
The teachers were fighting for the right to take her and Robert to their class, they wanted the best student to be their student to increase their credibility.
In the end, the teacher from the elite class took them both, he came from the capital and is known to be the second strongest person in the academy next to the principal.
Seeing his rival could summon such a rare creature, Char was motivated to do his best, he was optimistic that he could at least summon a dragon type creature, if he could summon a humanoid dragon creature then it would be better.
It was his turn after all the wait, he started to make his own summoning circle to increase his chance to summon a rare creature.
The other student used a general summoning circle provided by the academy but he was not satisfied with it.
The teachers looked at him with acknowledgement, they had high hopes for Char, he could be the strongest person in their city with his potential.
They started to fight upon themselves even before Char finished his magic circle, they wanted to have him in their class.
"Mr. Longnos, you should let us have him, you already took the two promising students so you should leave us this one student," they said to the elite class teacher, Adam Longnos.
His name describes him pretty well as he had a long nose, but no one wanted to make fun of his name as he was known to keep a grudge.
"Of course, I don't need a commoner, even if he is a genius there is no use in him if he has no talent," the man said arrogantly.
Char finished his summoning circle and put his dragon bone in it, he was ready to summon his bonded creature.
Oh the viewing platform the principal could only shake his head in regret, "What a mistake, well let him be, this should be a good example to others that, they need not be too arrogant."
Char started his chanting, once he finished his chant, the summoning circle shone, and the catalyst exploded in a flash of light.
People could see a humanoid silhouette from the center of the light, they were astonished at the thought of another humanoid creature.
They were sure that Char was able to summon something really rare, only the elite class teacher and the principal knew that Char had made a mistake.
Rare creatures usually were summoned as a baby, but the silhouette was as tall as a grown man.
The light fades out and a Skeleton was standing in the middle of the summoning circle, it directly went after Char without any confusion, it did so instinctually.
Char had his eyes and mouth opened wide, "What? I failed?" he questioned himself.
