Projection State

After sending her roommates away, Petty went alone to the academy's Training Ground. It had Meditation Rooms reserved for Mages, with a high degree of privacy. She would not have to worry about her Summoned Creature being exposed there, and the rooms were spacious enough.

They had been busy reporting on their expedition to the Illusion Demon Forest, so she had not had a chance to come here until now.

"Phew." Petty let out a soft breath and steadied her restless heart before she began summoning Zheng Yichen. For the past few days, she had felt her mana growing stronger—something she had never experienced before!

And the source of that growth was Zheng Yichen. A Summoner's strength did partly depend on her Summoned Creature. Once they formed a contract, some of the power the creature gained through cultivation would flow back to her, much as a Mage connected to a Magic Array Pattern.

Of course, most Magic Beasts grew stronger by instinct. They had no structured way to cultivate, and few possessed intelligence close to a human's, so it was difficult for them to cultivate Magic Array Patterns. Those that could were almost always super-powerful Magic Beasts.

Such creatures had nothing to do with her... But now, Zheng Yichen must have been practicing constantly. The mana that flowed back from him each day was enough to bring her to her daily cultivation limit without her doing a thing. All she had to do was keep strengthening her mind and absorb as much mana as she could.

Before this, the mana she accumulated each day through cultivation had never reached even half her limit. She was not alone; most students were the same. But things were different now!

Was this... the "golden finger" from those legendary tales of knights and Mages?

The day before, Petty had still felt as though she were floating through a dream. Her family was utterly ordinary. It was hard for a commoner to rise in the world, and she had already worked so hard just to enter Olin Academy.

Only today had she come down from that dreamy high. Nothing she had now was secure. It could vanish at any moment, sending her back to her old life.

I have to build a good relationship with that dragon! Petty stared at the three-dimensional Magic Array Pattern taking shape before her and made up her mind. She knew her own talent well. Without her contract with Zheng Yichen, she would probably never achieve more than barely entering the first rank.

Her instructor had told the class more than once not to think a little power made them strong. Before entering the first rank, every practitioner was a novice. Only after that did their professional path begin—and even then, they were just taking their first steps!

"Hm? What's this feeling?" In the castle, Zheng Yichen sat holding a large book when his attention shifted to the Personal Mark in his mind. Over the past three days, he had more or less figured it out.

It did more than link him to Petty through their contract. Whenever he practiced Magic Array Patterns, a small portion of the power flowing into his body was diverted into the Personal Mark and transferred to her.

That diversion made little difference to him. He could not absorb all the power flowing into his body anyway.

What intrigued him was how it reached her. Wireless transmission? Was this how Summoners cultivated?

As the Personal Mark's pulse grew stronger, Zheng Yichen felt his awareness split in two. One part remained far away, while the other was inside a private chamber, where a young girl was nervously studying... him?

Projection Summoning?

He felt a faint pull from the Personal Mark. The slightest resistance would cancel it out, and Petty's summoning would fail.

He had no reason to resist. Zheng Yichen let part of his awareness sink into the mark. He could also channel his mana into it to help Petty with the summoning, but that would probably pull his actual body over.

There was no need for that. A projection would do.

"Mm, I'm going to sleep for a while. You two can get on with your work," Zheng Yichen told the two Ghost Maids beside him. They handled all the castle's household chores, cleaning it thoroughly every day.

That cleaning included him. Every day, two Ghost Maids came to polish his scales, which made Zheng Yichen rather uncomfortable. Even when he refused, new Ghost Maids would turn up to do it the next day.

There were certainly plenty of them. Zheng Yichen had seen seven or eight different faces in the last three days. They seemed to work here in shifts, though he had no idea how Lolise had arranged it.

Did this world have a place that hired out Ghost Maids?

It worked!!

Petty stared at the solidified three-dimensional Magic Array Pattern, delight spilling across her face. Then her expression fell. Zheng Yichen had been more than three meters long, but the version she summoned had shrunk to a tenth of that size... and even so, it had consumed ninety percent of her mana.

That happened when the gap in strength between a Summoner and her Summoned Creature was too great. She could not summon a complete projection, so Zheng Yichen could only appear in this shrunken form.

"This feels strange." Zheng Yichen studied his smaller claws and wings, then twisted his neck to glance at the wings beating behind him. Though he had shrunk, his projected body was made of mana, and flying seemed easier now. A light flap of his wings took only a little mana.

"Lord Dragon... please don't use mana so freely. I can't take it anymore!" Petty cried urgently from where she sat slumped on the floor, watching Zheng Yichen perform one aerial maneuver after another. She was supplying all the mana he used to fly.

"I can supply my own mana. Will it be all right if I cut off the supply from your side?"

Petty hurriedly shook her head. "As long as I maintain the Summoning Array Pattern and keep supplying mana, there won't be a problem."

"Let's do that, then." Zheng Yichen waved a claw. Maintaining such a small body used almost none of his mana. What fascinated him was that his real body was quite far away, yet his mana could still be transmitted here without any loss... It truly was a wondrous power.

He tried reducing the mana supply. His body, already just over thirty centimeters long, shrank further to around ten centimeters, like a dragon-shaped toy.

Of course, if he increased the supply, his body would immediately swell like a balloon filling with air.

"Hmm. Now that the summoning worked, take me out for a look around." Zheng Yichen landed on Petty's shoulder, his eyes bright. At last, he could experience human society firsthand!