Ashton could feel the ambient mana gather around the summoning circle he had just drawn. The sandwich, which acted as the offering in this particular case, quickly fell apart into small, glistening particles that continued to crumble and shrink until invisible to the bare eye.
The kobold blood, or rather the magic within that blood, began to glow similarly and lifted off the page it was placed on. That magic gathered together into a small ball of light the size of a fist. As the light faded slightly, Ashton could see what, at first glance, appeared like a smooth glass orb coated in a thin, luminescent mist. He stretched out his hand toward it and smiled lightly, watching as the lesser wisp nuzzled into his palm happily, as if thanking him for the food.
"It's nothing to thank me for, little one. Let's get along from now on, yeah?" he said, feeling subtle vibrations through the smooth surface of the wisp's body.
Wisps were the representation of the 'element of magic' itself, just as salamanders represented fire and sylphs represented air. In this case, this meant that what Ashton had offered to it was 'effort', specifically, the effort that was needed to make that sandwich in the first place. That was one of the most potent ways to summon a wisp, though it was always possible to circumvent offerings through pure mana. It didn't make them as happy as an actual offering though.
As Ashton glanced to the side, he saw a message appear in front of him. The fourth of this kind today, but the first that he wanted to see.
[You have formed a contract with a [Lesser Wisp]!]
[Congratulations! You have fulfilled the requirements of acquiring the [Summoner] Class!]
[Summon any one being of your choice]
[Do you wish to acquire the [Summoner] Class? [Yes]|[No]]
[You have selected to acquire the [Summoner] Class!]
[You have learned the [Aether Sensitivity] Skill]
[You have learned the [Channel] Skill]
[You have learned the [Summoning] Skill]
[[Elemental Summoning] Category is being created under the [Summoning] Skill]
[[Lesser Wisp] is being registered in the [Elemental Summoning] Category]
[Overflow Experience is being calculated...]
Ashton was filled with an energy that he couldn't quite describe. It was as if everything he had been feeling until now had just become far, far more intense. As if his existence within the world had just been confirmed by something.
While he squatted down and grabbed his things, Ashton decided to check out what his status looked like now.
[Ashton Garling] [Age - 23] [Coins - 50 -> 471]
[Stats] >
[Power - 7]
[Resilience - 7]
[Speed - 8]
[Spirit - 10]
[Classes]
+[Summoner - Level 1 (New!)]
He focused on the 'plus' symbol, unfolding the information of his class, and then selected the information of each skill to see if they were the same as what he knew about them.
-[Summoner - Level 1 (New!)]
-[Aether Sensitivity - Level 1 (New!)]
-[Channel - Level 1 (New!)]
-[Summoning - Level 1 (New!)]
-[Elemental Summoning (New!)]
[Lesser Wisp - Level 1 (New!)]
[Skill - Aether Sensitivity] [Level - 1]
[Description - A Summoner's senses need to be as sharp as possible to catch all matters of magics, mystics, and aether. Gives a 5% bonus to Aether Perception]
[Skill - Channel] [Level - 1]
[Description - Channel your Summon's powers into yourself and make use of them as though they are your own]
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
[Skill - Summoning] [Level - 1]
[Description - Using the power of the established contract, call your Summons to your side]
"I see. So everything is as I remember it. Still as uselessly vague as ever," Ashton clicked his tongue. He was glad that the 'Aether Sensitivity' was a bit more precise, at least. And a 5% bonus might not seem like a lot at first, but it could make a massive difference. As the skill levelled up, the bonus would go up as well.
Ashton's own Summoner, whose growth had been stagnating at the time the tutorial came about, was able to do numerous, wondrous things through that small, tiny boost. And even so, they died, and Ashton was released. Which meant that he himself had to do everything he could to make all of these skills grow faster and faster
The 'Summoning' skill was fairly straightforward, as vague as it was. As it levelled up, it would simply become easier to summon beings you have contracted, costing less mana or making the offerings last longer, and could even give a small strength boost to some contracts.
But the part that Ashton needed to focus on right now was the 'Channel' skill. The reason it was vague made the most sense, at least. After all, the 'power' that you could make use of was different for each contracted being. As for the lesser wisp, it presented itself in a pretty interesting, but straightforward way.
Ashton focused his attention on the small elemental, feeling their wills link up. With just a light, surface-level thought, Ashton could ask the wisp to move around. It was hard to get it to do exactly what he wanted to, though, and needed way too much concentration. Ashton wouldn't be able to act on his own like this, at least not yet.
However, as he tried, Ashton was reminded of his summoner. When they controlled their summons, they would use one of their many hands to direct them, as though they were conducting an orchestra.
And so, Ashton held forward his hand. The lesser wisp reacted immediately, moving forward a few feet. As Ashton held his hand out fully, the wisp seemed to reach some kind of 'limit' of around 15 feet away from him. That seemed to be the maximum range at which he could move it like this. It was likely still able to move beyond that, though, it was just the limited range of Ashton's 'Channel' skill at this moment.
As Ashton stretched out the fingers on his hand as wide as he could, the wisp's body seemed to expand a bit, pulling in that thin veil of mist around it to expand its size, though it moved considerably slower, and as he made a fist, the opposite happened - the wisp moved faster but shrank down considerably as the range of that mist grew larger.
He wanted to test out more of these basic, non-verbal commands. Frankly, it was pretty damn fun. But Ashton had company that he had to greet first.
The goblins and the orc had come back, having found Ashton's phone. It wasn't playing the music anymore, though. Seems like one of the goblins managed to figure out how to do that much, at least.
"Are goblins secretly just really tech-savvy?" Ashton sighed, looking over at the wisp, "You ready?"
It seemed to respond by letting off a slight glow for a moment, and Ashton instinctively knew what it meant.
He looked over at the monsters. There were a dozen goblins surrounding the orc. A few of them were already running at him, and as he held on tightly to his staff, aka one of them metal broomsticks from the convenience store, he used his left hand to direct the wisp. It moved fast toward the first goblin, and though it was trying to dodge the small orb, it was smacked right in the face. The goblin was thrown back as its skull was cracked and blood poured down its face. Though the lesser wisp looked almost cute, when it rammed into monsters like that, it was like throwing a light metal ball at someone. Wisps didn't mind it either; they were incredibly sturdy and versatile elementals, hence why Ashton chose to contract this one first.
There were other reasons, of course, but this was one of the big ones.
The usual, ‘intended’ method of using wisps was simple. You should imbue a spell into them, and then the wisp was able to act as a conduit for casting that spell, as long as it was provided the necessary mana. As for what Ashton was doing right now; it wasn’t technically a spell, but he was able to imbue his ‘will’ into the wisp anyway. And right now, his will was for it to be a strong, solid force, so its body was strengthened a lot more into this direction.
Of course, the way that Ashton was making use of the elemental wasn’t what you usually did, but not only were their bodies just ridiculously strong, to the point where it was almost impossible to destroy one through blunt force, but they simply didn’t mind taking part in acts like this. Sure, it maybe wasn’t what you would expect from a ‘magic elemental’, but for the time being, this was the only thing that Ashton could really do.
Ashton continued to control the wisp to move around, hitting all the weak goblins as they came running at him, learning a few more things.
While it moved a bit slower, when the wisp was bigger, it seemed to do more damage, and when it was faster and smaller, it did less damage. Though, right now, Ashton didn't exactly need it to do a ton of damage. He just had to take out the goblins.
Left, right, up, down, into the jaw, eye, skull, chest, shoulder - one by one, the goblins were hit the moment they entered Ashton's range, until only three monsters were left. Two goblins, and the orc. It was just standing there, as if trying to see what Ashton would do.
But he himself was momentarily focusing on something else. First, there were the ten messages alerting him that he was getting coins, but there was a new aspect mixed into it. The 'experience' from this battle, and from killing the monsters before he got a class, was finally flowing into him.
[The calculations to determine overflow experience have been completed]
[Class | Summoner - Level 1 -> Summoner - Level 3]
Ashton smiled lightly, feeling his body grow in strength. Not by a ton, of course, just a little, but enough to make him feel more comfortable in this current physical form. More importantly, though, he could feel his 'vessel' increase by quite a bit, making the sensation of the contract a bit more natural and less daunting for him. Maybe it was the peace of mind that came with that, that made it easier for Ashton to really connect with the wisp.
But while he was looking at the notifications and dismissing them, moving his focus for literally a second, the orc began to act. It picked up one of the goblins, as though it didn't weigh even a single pound, and hurled it over at Ashton. And right at him as well.
Taken aback, he tried to dodge out of the way, but it felt like his feet were as heavy as lead, unable to pull him away in time. He still wasn't fully used to having such a dull, useless body. In the end, the goblin's skull impacted on Ashton's shoulder, and he could feel something tear as pain coursed through him. Nothing he couldn't handle, but his body seemed to react on a biological instinct to the pain, stunning him for a moment.
Enough time for the orc to come running right at him. By the time it entered Ashton's 'channel' range, he managed to pull himself away at least. It was hard to move his left arm without deep stings of pain, but it was enough to at least take care of some of the other liabilities around him. For one, the goblin that the orc had thrown, which was trying to get back up to attack Ashton from behind. But, already being injured, it died almost immediately, and Ashton even confirmed it through the system message.
Right then, Ashton swung his staff with his right hand, managing to deflect the massive arm of the orc as it tried to strike at him. He jumped to the side to try and dodge any follow-up attacks, at which point the orc instead lifted its leg and kicked forward at him.
Before the impact, Ashton pulled his staff in front of him to at least block most of the damage, instead being thrown backward. But even so, he could feel his already injured left shoulder hurt even more, and the metal 'staff' was bent to the point where it wasn't usable as a weapon anymore.
As he was thrown through the air, Ashton dropped the staff and took control of the wisp with his right arm, making it move right behind him to not only slow him down but also help balance him and let him land on his feet.
With a click of his tongue, Ashton reached behind himself and pulled off the second metal broomstick, and held it forward, pointing one end right at the orc as the lesser wisp floated above his head.
The monster was laughing, showing its large, yellowed tusks. It was clearly enjoying this, thinking of it as 'playing' with Ashton.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, you stinking pig," Ashton sneered, but the orc didn't react, just continuing to grin. That was when a few words popped up in his mind.
Ashton laughed slightly "B'rak m'lavka-chri!"
Though he hadn't picked up a lot of words or phrases in the orcish language, there was one thing that he did know. It was nothing but a taunt, simple and juvenile.
Ashton had essentially called the orc a cowardly bitch. And it worked. The orc was furious.