563 Chapter 563: The Summoning Departmen

"That's right, sir."

After the interview, Dean Xiao asked me to see him in his office. I obliged and he had me stand opposite his desk while he scanned through my personal profile in a huge holographic screen. I didn't know what his deal was. He could already do that during the interview, and I was sure he had read through my information along with the other invigilators earlier.

However, I patiently stood and waited for him to say whatever he had to say. He was stroking his beard as he studied my profile, smiling cheerfully.

"Jing Tian City has suffered numerous calamities, and the disaster in Saint Teresa Academy was unprecedented. For you to be involved in both the monster invasion and the vampire raid, and to have not only survived those events but also played a major role in stopping them…not bad."

He must have read the reports or seen the videos where I fought against both monsters and vampires in both cases. The bald dean looked suitably impressed and he nodded.

"To think we would actually receive a student from Jing Tian City…Director Porter must have gone all out to recruit you. I'm glad we can tell him that you passed the summoning department exam with flying colors."

Needless to say, if Henry Porter found out that I didn't make it, he would have flown into a rage and probably start firing people. But neither of us mentioned it out loud.

He regarded me again. "And you were in your school's representative team that finished fourth place in last year's tournament too."

"That was because of everyone," I told him. "It was a team effort, and truthfully, I didn't contribute much in the end."

"Not bad." Dean Xiao chuckled. "I see that your experiences through those disasters have helped you grown stronger and more courageous. And yet you still remain humble."

"Er…thanks?"

I wasn't sure how to respond to this. I knew that he wanted to formally admit me into Vermillion University, but I was growing uncomfortable with all this praise. That said, I did feel a bit of pride and delight at having somebody recognize my efforts, even though…frankly, I didn't even do anything during both incidents.

All I did was…look out for my friends and myself, and I wasn't even able to defeat the enemies in front of me or apprehend the masterminds. I did take revenge on Fan Le Lao and his clan, but if it weren't for Teresa Taylor, Fan Fu Qing would still be alive and running around to wreak havoc wherever he wanted. As for the monster invasion, I failed to save someone important to me.

"Congratulations, this is your acceptance letter." Dean Xiao beamed at me. "You are now officially a student of Vermillion University."

"Take care."

I nodded and then stepped out of the office. The first thing I needed to do was inform my dad that I had been accepted. Not just through the theoretical departments but also the practical combat magic department…that I was now officially a major in summoning magic. Not that I never was to begin with, but this fact was now officially rendered in black and white.

After all, nobody asked a high school student what they majored in.

*

With all that done, the student meeting for newly enrolled summoning students was held a few days later. They timed it early in the morning, and wanted us to show up for some sort of briefing. An entrance ceremony or "orientation" as they called it, where they told us all the miscellaneous details and handled our administrative matters.

I arrived a little early because I over-compensated and wasn't used to traveling just yet.

Even so, I began to feel a bit of concern while waiting. My eyes wandered to the clock on the wall and I felt nervous. It was almost nine in the morning, but why wasn't there anyone else here yet? Was I in the wrong classroom? Did I come on the wrong day? What was going on?

Consulting my smartphone, I checked that today was indeed the day, that the time was definitely nine in the morning, and that this was definitely the classroom. I even stepped outside to check the room number to double confirm. Yeah, it was definitely room 1401.

Wait, was I in the wrong building? Or maybe they cancelled the whole orientation and I was the only one who missed the email?

Relax, dude, I told myself sternly. It's only a minute. They will be here sooner or later. University students were always pretty chilled and not very punctual.

But then where was the professor who was supposed to brief us? Even if the students were late, the professor shouldn't be.

Forcing myself to calm down, I sat back down at the desk where I placed my bag and decided to wait a bit more. I stared at my smartphone, as if expecting an email to pop up and tell me the venue had changed, the orientation had been cancelled or postponed, or that the professor had fallen ill.

Then I heard loud steps outside, as if a group of people was running. I glanced up just in time to see the door swing open and a few guys stumbled inside.

"Everybody, hurry up and get inside!" one of the guys yelled, breathing heavily. One of them tumbled gratefully into the classroom and slumped over the nearest desk. He really had to be exaggerating…either that or he had sprinted until he was out of breath. Judging from how chubby he was, it probably was the latter.

"The earlier we begin, the sooner we can finish."

"Damn it, all your fault, eh. See lah, make us run. Today our first day, you know? If we late, how?"

"Fuck you, you understand? You late your own fault. Don't anyhow blame other people eh."

"Wah lao eh. Why you guys so wayang, huh?"

The six newcomers ignored me and staggered into the room, spreading out and bantering with each other. As they did so, a professor stepped into the classroom. He glanced around and smiled.

"Oh, good! Everyone is here. Please get seated so that we can begin immediately."

"Yes, sir!" the chubby guy frantically replied and hurriedly jumped into his seat.

What the hell?! Did he just say everyone was here? There were only seven new summoning students in the department?

I waited patiently while my classmates all took their seats. The professor went to the front, his manner casual and relaxed.

"Welcome to the summoning department! I am Professor Simon Simmons and I will be your advisor in summoning magic. As you can see, it's a very small department. Mostly because very few people choose to major in it. Honestly, summoning is actually a very rare type of magic. Since summoning is very dependent on your imagination, you will mostly be learning on your own because we don't want to restrict you. So the students in the summoning department is among the most independent. We'll give you the freedom to conceptualize your own unique theme for your Soul Beasts."

"Eh…"

"Really?"

The summoning students exchanged glances. Seemed like everyone here knew there was some sort of catch somewhere. Simmons noticed this and he nodded.

"Yes, it seems that you already realize that despite the flexibility, creativity and independence, summoning magic is extremely difficult. Even though we leave you to be mostly independent and creative, it's still not a very easy major. Earlier, I said that summoning is very dependent on your imagination, but that doesn't mean anything goes and that you can summon whatever you want. If your concept or theme is too broad, then you will be unable to materialize your summoned beasts. You need a very specific theme, with a solid set of rules and restrictions. In the past, there are many students who join the summoning department because they mistakenly thought they could summon whatever they want, because they are under the delusion that there are no limits to one's imagination. That's not true. For summoning magic, you must contain your imagination, make it very specific and vivid. It's not an omnipotent magic where you can summon whatever you imagine or you can summon whatever you want. If that's the reason why you joined the summoning major, please allow me to rid you of that misconception first."

Simmons smiled. For a moment, it looked like a wicked expression where he toyed with us.

"It's not too late to change your major if you feel like you've made a mistake."

"…"

Nobody said anything.

"Good. With that out of the way, let's move on to the main topic."

Simmons smiled affably, probably relieved that nobody was stupid enough to think summoning magic was some kind of omnipotent get out of jail card or overpowered magic with unlimited potential. I had seen readers rage about how I never summoned healing spirits, or that it was wasted potential and I was stupid for not summoning Lovecraftian monsters and more mythological stuff, and only limiting myself to constellation spirits.

Those readers were delusional. They had read way too many stories that featured overpowered protagonists with cheat skills. Reality was never that convenient. There would always be restrictions and limitations. Otherwise why wouldn't anyone learn summoning magic? Obviously because it wasn't as omnipotent or convenient as the readers made it out to be.

Putting them aside, I wondered what this main topic was.

"Our university has a certain program for new summoning students. It's probably the biggest challenge you will face. But the rewards are pretty good. The top two students in this program will receive spirit enhancement elixirs to strengthen their summoned beasts."

"What, really?!"

Spirit enhancement elixirs?!"

"That's awesome!"

The entire room erupted into an uproar, with the other students super-excited. As for me, I wasn't very enthusiastic. Again, I didn't trust all these drugs and elixirs. They seemed suspiciously like doping to me.

And I didn't like doping. Steroids always had drastic side effects.

"Professor Simmons, what is this program about?" the chubby fella asked.

"Oh, I was about to talk about it, Hai Da Pang." Simmons grinned knowingly. "Simply put, Vermillion University organizes a competition every year. On one side you have the summoning students – in other words, all of you. On the other side, all of the new students from the other departments are allowed to participate, so that they can demonstrate their magic and abilities."

"So in other words, it's the summoning department and our summoned beasts versus the rest of the school?" I asked.

Simmons nodded with a grin.

"Exactly."

"WHAT?!" the other students yelled, seemingly outraged.

"But that's not fair!"

"How can they do this to us?!"

"How do they expect us to fight against the whole school?!"

"Oh, simple." Simmons pointed toward the comment section. "You know how some people from beyond the fourth wall often bitch and complain about why summoners are not allowed to summon before the battles? They ridiculed the system and refused to accept the rules and whine about it like assholes in reviews and comments, and then call the author an idiot. So the university decided to show them what happens if summoners are allowed to summon before the battle."

"Eh? So we can summon our soul beasts right before the battle?" one of the students asked.

"Yes, that's the whole point of this program." Simmons nodded and then chuckled. "But as you can expect, now you have the mages of other elements and majors complaining about how it is unfair. They don't get to cast their ultimate spells before the battle and they end up getting destroyed by powerful soul beasts before they can do anything. So we decided to be fair."

"…be fair?"

"Yeah. In exchange for allowing you guys to summon your soul beasts before the match, the new students from the campus will be allowed to gang up on you. You have the advantage in summoning before the match, they wil be given the advantage in numbers. The seven of you will fight one by one against a hundred students. Of course, they won't all be challenging you at once, but you'll have to fight groups of three to five students at a time. Or if they are confident enough, they can attempt to take you and your soul beast on solo."

"EH!?"

The summoning students sounded dismayed, but Simmons was more amused than anything.

"Now…any questions?"

"Yeah." I raised my hand. Everyone turned to stare at me.

"Who is that guy?"

"Dunno. I think his name is Richard…Richard Huang."

"He's a summoner? I don't think I've heard of him before."

…seriously? I mean, I didn't mean to sound arrogant, but how had they not heard of me before? Well, whatever. If this allowed me to keep a low profile, then I was going to be thankful for it.

"What's your question?" Simmons prodded. I realized that I had left him hanging. Bowing my head apologetically, I then inquired.

"Where is Lilith Porter? I thought she's supposed to be in the summoning department."

"Ah…Lilith. No, she's in the fire element department. She chose to major in fire magic, not summoning."

While Simmons gave the answer, the rest of my classmates stirred somewhat excitedly. In contrast to me, Lilith was evidently very famous and popular. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that all seven summoners in the department were guys for some reason.

"Okay." I nodded and suppressed a sigh. Looked like I was going to be alone for much of my university life…