The Old-Fashioned Method

The Old-Fashioned Method

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After idling in the classroom for a few minutes, the magical bell signaling the end of class rang out, spreading throughout the academy and reaching everyone's ears, long and profound.

All the students in the Summoning Class stood up, each carrying a one-handed short staff as they rushed out of the classroom. Before leaving, Gaia shot Diya a vicious glare. Diya pursed his lips, then stood and followed at the rear, heading with the Summoning Class students toward Training Ground No. 9.

Carlos Academy had ten training grounds in total. Nine of them were fifty meters long and fifty meters wide, while the remaining one was one hundred meters long and one hundred meters wide, making it the largest training ground in Carlos Academy.

The training grounds were meant for students to practice—whether Warrior Department students training their combat skills and sparring, Magic Department students testing magic, or Summoning Department students summoning magical beasts and so on.

This class was a practical lesson for the Summoning Class. It lasted one hour, and its content was to familiarize students with summoning and controlling magical beasts. No matter the profession, skill proficiency and control were extremely important. The more proficient one was, the faster and easier it became to cast skills, naturally giving one an advantage in battle.

When the thirty students arrived at Training Ground No. 9, a round figure had already been standing in the field for quite some time. One look at the gloom on Pig's face made it clear that his attempt to ask the headmaster to expel Diya had failed once again.

Glancing at Diya, who was trudging slowly behind the others, Pig's gloomy face gained another trace of disgust. If he could, he would have gotten rid of this fellow long ago and spared himself the irritation of seeing him.

"Listen up." Twenty-nine students lined up before Pig in three rows, while Diya stood off to the side. He was only there to watch others use summoning arts. Though he had watched it countless times by now, Diya still refused to give up, hoping to find some clue that could solve his inability to summon and change himself.

"What you will summon is an Earth Wolf," Pig said, deliberately ignoring Diya, or he might have been angered to death. "You must also be able to initially control the Earth Wolf's movements. All right, spread out and begin according to the usual formation."

As soon as Pig finished speaking, the first two rows, twenty students in total, retreated to one side of the training ground. The remaining nine students spread out in a gymnastics formation, each about four meters apart. Their expressions were solemn, their bodies straight, and their short staffs held in their hands and raised slightly to shoulder height. Then they closed their eyes, drew circles in the air before them with their staffs, and their lips began to move—

"By the ancient covenant, I, the most devout summoner, invoke the honor of the Lord of Purgatory and summon my battle companion..." This was followed by a strange string of unintelligible sounds, then: "Descend: Earth Wolf!"

Suddenly, as though something invisible had spread from the students' short staffs while they chanted, it projected into the air before them. Rings of ripples emerged and grew increasingly intense. In the end, that patch of space resembled violently churning seawater. The sound of rushing currents rang out as blurry figures appeared, gradually becoming solid. When the ripples dispersed and the space calmed, nine summoned beasts stood on the training ground.

Their entire bodies were an earthy yellowish-brown, and they had the form of wolves. These were Level One magical beasts, Earth Wolves. They possessed the earth element. Their speed was about the same as ordinary wolves, but because of the earth element, their strength and defense surpassed ordinary wolves by several times. Their combat ability was comparable to that of a Soldier Rank Swordsman.

The moment the nine Earth Wolves appeared, some began to roar while others clawed at the ground. The nine students still had their eyes tightly shut. Their eyelids trembled, and cold sweat unknowingly seeped from their foreheads. Earth Wolves were High-Tier Level One magical beasts, as powerful as Upper Soldier Rank Swordsmen. Most of these summoners were Middle or Upper Soldier Rank, so controlling the Earth Wolves' movements was still somewhat difficult.

After about a minute, the faces of the nine students turned pale, while the nine Earth Wolves gradually showed signs of being controlled.

"Enough. Send the Earth Wolves back." Pig had been watching the students closely. Seeing that it was about right, he spoke at once. Upon hearing him, the nine students immediately cut off their supply of spiritual power. Without spiritual power to sustain them, summoned beasts could not remain on Brahma Continent and could only be recalled to Purgatory.

Then another group of ten students took their turn summoning, and the overall situation was much the same. Purgatory was the name of a realm, just like Brahma Continent. It was said that Purgatory was inhabited by beings other than humans, such as magical beasts, undead, elemental spirits, demons, and so on.

In ancient times, powerful humans had once formed a contract with the Lord of Purgatory, allowing humans who cultivated summoning arts to call forth creatures from Purgatory to fight alongside them. This was the origin of summoners' summoned beasts. As for who the Lord of Purgatory was, no one knew—perhaps no one except the powerful human who had formed that contract with the Lord of Purgatory.

Therefore, the first line of a summoning incantation was the same, while before calling out the name of the summoned beast, one had to chant a strange passage. This passage had different tones and pronunciations depending on the summoned beast. That was the main part of a summoning art.

"Gaia, you summon one," Pig called after the ten students had finished.

"Yes, Instructor," Gaia said happily, beginning his incantation. Comparatively speaking, Gaia summoned much faster than the other students. Earlier, the others had needed a full two minutes to summon an Earth Wolf. In battle, they would have been cut down long before that. Gaia, however, summoned an Earth Wolf in about one minute.

Moreover, once the Earth Wolf appeared, it showed no signs of struggling or resisting. It did whatever Gaia told it to do, leaving the other students extremely envious.

"You have all seen it. Spiritual power is the foundation of us summoners. The stronger your spiritual power, the faster you can summon a summoned beast, and the easier it is to make it obey your commands. Of course, you also need a certain amount of magic power. Otherwise..." As he spoke, Pig cast a glance at Diya, who stood nearby, then snorted twice. "At low levels, we summoners generally do not fight independently. We need the cooperation of companions from the Warrior Department to unleash our greatest strength. Once a summoner reaches Spirit Grade, they can learn support magic unique to summoners. At that point, summoners themselves will possess a certain degree of offensive power and can coordinate with their summoned beasts to unleash even greater combat strength."

After speaking, Pig chanted another incantation. Earth-yellow light gathered on his short staff, and then he pointed it forward. A grayish-yellow sphere shot out, landing on the ground ten meters away and quickly sinking into it. Then the ground changed, becoming soft like mud.

"This is the earth-element summoner support spell—Mud Bind. It can restrict a target's movements, providing your summoned beast with a better opportunity to attack," Pig said as he withdrew his short staff, a hint of pride in his voice. He greatly enjoyed the students' envious and awed gazes.

"Instructor, you're amazing!" Gaia shouted. "As expected of the number one summoner in our academy!"

Hearing that, Diya suddenly laughed. The academy's number one summoner—yes, Pig truly was Carlos Academy's number one summoner. That was because Carlos Academy only had thirty students in the Summoning Class and only one instructor. It could be said that Pig was not only Carlos Academy's number one summoner, but also its only summoner.

Diya's quiet laugh reached Pig's ears, instantly turning his proud face red with rage. Diya, however, simply turned and walked out of the training ground. Pig did not dare act recklessly either. At least within the academy, an instructor attacking a student would be called beating up a student, and the consequences would be severe.

As Diya walked toward the academy exit, he recalled the summoning he had just witnessed. Although that dead fat man had not told him the incantation for summoning an Earth Wolf, Diya could still figure it out through observation. After all, the Earth Wolf summoning incantation was merely the lowest-level type among summoning spells.

Still, Diya was truly envious. He wanted to summon something himself too, even if it was the lowest-level, most useless summoned beast. Carrying complicated feelings, Diya rounded the corner of a building and headed toward the gate.

Bang!

A figure rushed toward him. Diya had no time to react. In truth, his mind sensed someone charging at him, but his body could not respond. He was knocked straight to the ground.

"It's you again. How can I run into trash like you everywhere?" Diya looked up to see Porter staring down at him with utter disgust. "I don't have time to play with you today. We'll settle this next time." With that, Porter turned and sprinted away. Diya took two deep breaths before bracing himself with one hand and struggling to his feet. The sharp pain from his palm against the ground told him that the skin had definitely been scraped open.

Without saying anything, Diya held out his hand and looked at it, unable to stop himself from shaking his head. This body—not only was its constitution poor, but even its ability to heal was many times weaker than that of an ordinary person. Blood was still seeping from his palm. Blood... A flash of inspiration suddenly struck Diya's mind, as if something had given him an idea. Delight flashed in his eyes. Ignoring the dust covering his old black robe, he quickly headed out of the academy.

At this time, school had not yet ended. Under normal circumstances, students were not allowed to leave the academy unless they had written permission from an instructor. But Diya was rather special. He came when he wanted and left when he wanted. This seemed to have become Diya's privilege within the academy. Thus, when the gatekeeper saw Diya approaching, he lazily opened the academy gates and let him leave.