"Welcome," he said. This pen took up a whopping 20% of his original capacity, but it was totally worth it. He could feel the pen slightly vibrate between his fingers.
The offering that was needed to form the contract for constructs was very straightforward: you had to provide a body they liked. For this one, the condition was that it needed to be a pen of importance to the summoner, with a nib that had a certain magical compatibility. The best part about them was that these bodies didn't exactly disappear like other summons. Instead, they just went 'dormant', basically sleeping. And then, you needed to provide offerings to wake them up and use their abilities. The offering needed for the pen was 'ink'.
"Holy shit, what did you just do? Did that just float- Did you use magic?!" the wide-eyed Oliver yelled out, staring at Ashton. He picked up the paper, making sure to hide the actual patterns on it, and then nodded his head.
"Something like that. I'm a Summoner."
"Wait, wait, wait, are you telling us that magic is real?" Jacky questioned immediately.
"Uh, I gave you a 'magic stone' earlier, what did you think that meant? Yes, magic is real. You guys see the 'Spirit' stat in your status screen? It's pretty nondescript so early on, but it's a good guideline to show your magical capabilities."
"So... you're saying we can become wizards?" a broad smile appeared on Oliver's face, but Ashton didn't quite know what to say. It was unlikely, though not impossible.
"Technically? You get classes by fulfilling requirements, usually related to already doing the things that class lets you do. So... you would need to use some kind of magic to unlock a magic class."
Not just Oliver seemed dejected, but the others as well. The idea that magic was real was probably the only thing lifting their mood at least a little right now. But Ashton just let out a long sigh, "Some people have innate talents that just happen to wake up once they come in contact with mana for the first time. I don't know the exact requirements for classes either. Just try to stay in contact with magic somehow, and if you want a magic class, you can get your hands on it if you've got the talent," he explained, "For the time being... collect magic stones, and see if you can sense the actual mana inside of them. And then go from there."
Out of everyone in the group, Oliver seemed the most excited. It was almost the opposite to what he was like before. He was weirdly giddy and puppy-like now.
Paul glanced down at Ashton curiously, "So is that how you got your class? Because you had some innate talent?"
Smiling a bit, Ashton shrugged a bit, "Something like that. Anyway, you guys look good to go. Seriously, I don't think you should stick around here. Once the tutorial is over, monsters will only get stronger and stronger."
Everyone in the party seemed a bit shocked at that revelation. If they got even stronger, how were they able to keep surviving?
"Are you... sure you don't want to join us?" Jacky asked, one last time before the five of them left. Ashton didn't hesitate to respond.
"I'm sure. But don't worry, I'll manage," he winked with a light smile on his face, watching as the five of them went on their way. Something about that interaction just felt... good to him.
It'd been a while since he just spoke to other people like that. Even that phone call with Sam earlier was pretty tense, and it wasn't even face-to-face. And after that, the dickhead trio put him even more on edge, but something about how earnest these five appeared to be just made Ashton feel like loosening up a little.
Both sides were suspicious at first, but toward the end, it almost felt pretty pleasant to have someone to talk to.
"Too bad you can't talk, huh?" Ashton laughed a bit, looking down at the pen in his hand. He figured he shouldn't waste this opportunity to just test it out.
Ashton flipped open his notebook and let go of the pen above it, and then grabbed the bottle that he had filled up with goblin blood. He focused on the pen and used his 'channel' skill. Here, instead of actively controlling it, Ashton found himself able to focus on a few other things. First, he had to select two things. The medium to write on, and the 'ink' that would act as the pen's offering.
That medium was the paper of course, and the ink was the blood. It wasn't great 'ink' though, so it would probably drain a lot more than actually necessary as price for using its ability. But the most important part was that the pen accepted it in the first place. Now that it had accepted everything, Ashton could focus on something else. Though it was a mundane item, it was good to know more about it.
The moment Ashton mentally confirmed which item the pen should inspect, it began to scribble on the paper, magically draining the blood out of the bottle of blood. Once it was done, Ashton looked at the piece of paper.
Steel-Capped Quarterstaff
Grade - Common
A mundane quarterstaff made of hickory wood with a steel cap on each end.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
"Neat," Ashton smiled, happily looking at his staff. Frankly... it wasn't particularly useful just yet. At level one, the 'Pen of Insight' barely gave more information than you were able to gauge with your eyes, but it would begin to show more important things as the contract strengthened. Which meant that Ashton had to continue inspecting objects, though that made another problem clear. He didn't have a steady source of either ink or paper. Continuing to use blood wasn't going to work. Just inspecting a basic, mundane item cost a third of the bottle of goblin blood. And since he needed higher-quality ink for higher-grade contracts anyway, finding a new source was a must. He needed better paper for similar reasons. Though there were about a hundred sheets of paper left in his notebook, these would run out fast through various means.
But that was an issue he could solve with just a bit of time. Hopefully, by the end of the tutorial, the air would be saturated with enough mana that he didn't need to stick to this mana well. Rather, it was most likely going to dissolve soon. These early mana wells tended to run dry pretty fast.
Which was also why he should hurry up and form his next contract with the Backpacker. Then again, for that, he needed to gather a few more materials first. Luckily, the party had left before collecting the magic stones from all the corpses. At least he managed to get his phone back from that goblin to use as part of his offering. Backpackers were greedy little fellows, but if you paid the price they asked for, you could store quite a lot. Plus, contracts with spirits could sometimes be much more long-lasting, but Ashton was getting ahead of himself.
He looked at his notebook, already sighing to himself. With the size this summoning circle needed to be, Ashton would have to use up around ten or eleven pages out of the hundred he had left.
"It's worth it, Ashton, calm down," he sighed as he got to work. First things first, he went and grabbed all the magic stones from the newest monsters corpses, and as he did, a few more magic stone-carriers came along, practically asking to be harvested.
When he was done, using the Pen of Insight, he started writing the magic circle. It had currently gone 'dormant', so it was usable just as a normal pen. Plus, by becoming a construct summon, the crystal nib had become affixed to the rest of the pen, and even smoothed out a bit. Either way, the writing experience was a lot nicer.
Spirit summoning circles were pretty damn annoying, though. For construct or elemental summoning, he just had to write the basic guidelines and it would call forth a consciousness or being that fit those guidelines, but each type of spirit had their own unique symbol. Backpackers were 'lower' spirits, so there were many of them so you could call on the word correlating to their 'species', but with greater spirits, you had to learn one's true name so that you can form a contract with them, and the summoning conditions were much more strenuous. Not that Ashton was anywhere close to a point where he could attempt summoning one of those. They were comparable to divine beings.
Luckily, the Backpacker was one of the spirits that Ashton's Summoner had around a lot, so he remembered the symbol for their species perfectly. For others, Ashton would have to 'buy' it from a particular vendor.
That symbol was placed into the centre of the summoning circle to act as a base with a large circle to act as a frame. There were five cornerstones used to build a connection with the spirit realm strong enough to call on a lower spirit, and around each cornerstone circle, he had to place a further written incantation to define each of them properly, such as which region of the spirit realm to reach out to.
Of course, within the confines of the larger circle, he also had to write the basic conditions of the contract, making him and the Backpacker equals in the transaction that was to follow.
And then, he grabbed his own backpack and completely emptied it out. Anything that was left in there would be destroyed, or rather 'stolen', by the Backpacker.
He placed it into the centre, right on top of the name of the species of the Backpacker, and then put a few different magic stones onto each of the circle's cornerstones.
Ashton stood up and stretched lightly. Having to write the circle onto paper laying on the ground was annoying, plus it left him open to attacks from outside. In the future, he would have to find a better way to draw these, especially the ones the had to mass-produce. Of course, circles for re-summoning already contracted beings were simplified, but you still had to use one each time.
He looked at the backpack laying on the paper, and smiled as he formed his third contract, "*I call on you, collector of curiosities, wanderer of the worlds, keeper of kingdoms. I ask of you, walk by my side and accompany me on this journey. I will pay the price you ask, so take the treasure of mine I lay out before you*."
The ambient magic gathered together as the crystals placed on the circle fell apart. For a moment, everything streaming out of the mana well was sucked up, and Ashton had to first wait and see if the spirit would like the 'tool' he had prepared.
Something began to move inside of the bag, as if filling the space inside until it once again looked like it was fully stuffed, and soon the bag sat upright on its own. The flap at the top slowly opened up a tiny bit, but the inside was just nothing but unnatural shadows. From inside the darkness, a thin, bony hand reached out. It was small and thin, almost sickly. The hand held its palm upright, slowly waving its fingers expectantly.
He was glad he didn't have to find another good offering, because he knew for sure this would buy him quite a bit. Ashton placed his phone on the spirit's hand, watching as it quickly pulled it inside. Though from his point of view, the shadows sucked up the phone's light, he knew that it was turned on, since he could hear the lock screen being opened.
"That's called a 'Smartphone'. It's a pretty interesting little gadget. Lets you communicate with others over long range. You can snap photos, play games, all that. I can show you how it works. You interested?" Ashton asked, but there was nothing but silence coming from inside the backpack, so he couldn't help himself but smile a little, "Don't be like that, now. I'm sure none of the other backpackers have one. It's a really special, rare item, you know?"
Slowly, the hand reached back out of the backpack, holding up three fingers.
"Seriously? Just three weeks? I should be able to get at least five if I call one of your brothers, you know?"
You could see the hand flinch slightly at the idea, and nervously raised one more finger.
"Hm... you know what? Sure. You seem like a good guy, so I'll give it to you in exchange for a four-week contract," Ashton smiled, shaking the spirit's hand.
Without hesitation, it pulled its arm back inside, and the backpack began to hop up and down for a few moments until it flipped around mid air and something jumped out of it. It was the Backpacker, now taking a much more energetic and healthy physical form, though only its hands were really visible. It was a roughly three-foot tall being covered head to toe in a dark green cloak. Even its face was completely hidden by that unnatural darkness that was in the backpack, too. The bag in question was, of course, being worn on the spirit's back now.
[[Spirit Summoning] Category is being created under the [Summoning] Skill]
[[Backpacker] is being registered in the [Spirit Summoning] Category]
[Milestone System Initialized]
[Readers may now receive [Bonus Chapters] once the story hits certain Milestones]
[Current Available Milestones]
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[+1 Chapter | 25 Ratings | 5/25]
[+1 Chapter | 25 Favourites | 6/25]
[+1 Chapter | 250 Followers | 48/250]
[Current [Bonus Chapters] in queue... [0 Chapters]]
Definitely didn't expect that!
specific rating or review, just the amount of reviews!! So please, if you do choose to help hit these milestones, rate/review the story honestly!
! There, you will find 15 Chapters ahead of Schedule!