Chapter 391: A Rude Breakthrough

Alex Roth broke through to third-tier summoning spells the very next day.

The day before had been a long, full one with revelations, feasting and new friendships formed.

When they got to the apartment that night, he and Theresa had unpacked their gear, cleaned up and collapsed into his bed, exhausted. Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, they’d laid awake even though they were dead tired, spooned together until finally falling asleep to the sound of the timekeeper in his room. Two hours later, Alex was well rested, while Theresa was still sound asleep, but both were up and heading to Selina’s friend, Abela’s house when daylight came.

On the way back to the apartment, Selina had been talking non-stop, peppering them with questions about Crymlyn swamp and the witches when Alex unlocked their apartment door and her eyes fell on Claygon. Her jaw had dropped and her anguished cry trailed her from the door, as she ran to the damaged golem and threw her arms around his neck sobbing. Her fingers gently touched the gouges on his chest.

Alex and Theresa had looked at each other, tears glistened in the huntress’ eyes, and he’d gone to his little sister and wrapped his arms around her. Brutus came up and licked everyone after being shocked from a deep sleep.

“What happened?” She’d asked.

And they’d told her about Zonon-In, and with each word, her grief had turned to anger. “I hate monsters.” her voice was low. “They hurt Claygon, they always hurt everyone, but look at what Mr. Hobb did to them, they can’t hurt people forever.” Her words were like a promise as she wiped her tears away.

Alex listened to her, trying to soothe her, and not knowing whether to be worried, to approve of her resolve, or both. In the end, she’d only calmed down when he said he’d be going to repair Claygon as soon as he saw her off to school—right after his early morning class.

On their way to the junior school, she tried convincing him to let her help him since he “might make strange design changes” to Claygon—like he’d do something like that—but he’d promised he wouldn’t do anything to embarrass Claygon or her, and that made the dark cloud hanging over her face lift. She’d remembered she had something to tell him when they got near the school entrance—something he’d actually forgotten about with all that had been going on lately.

“I’m just glad Claygon’s core wasn’t damaged, it’s like his heart... I wonder if you can honour golems at the Festival of Ghosts, but I hope we never have to find out.” She’d said.

The part about the Festival had caught Alex completely off guard.

“Wait, is that coming up soon?”

“Yeah, Abela’s family’s going to an event on Oreca’s Fall,” she’d said. “It’s with a bunch of other families. We probably got an invitation too. Did you check our mailbox?”

Alex, during the mind-melting morning where he’d been thinking about the very real possibility that he—and his entire kingdom—had been betrayed by their own god had not, in fact, checked their mail yet.

“N-no,” he said.

“Well, check it,” she’d said. “And talk to Thundar. He said he wanted to do something for it this year.”

“Yes, captain,” he’d saluted her.

For more times than he could count, she’d rolled her eyes and walked away.

And that was how he’d been reminded that the festival was coming soon. He would have talked to Theresa about it, but by the time he’d seen Selina off, the huntress had already left for sword practise with the Watchers.

He’d talk to her later, but he had to get to class then head into the city to repair Claygon.

On the way to Shale’s, Alex had seen mask sellers everywhere, displaying their wares on every street corner, and in every shop window. Decorations of all colours adorned front doors and townhouses, elaborate costumes crafted of everything from animal skins to gossamer, hung on rows of racks inside, and merchants called out to passersby, inviting them to come in and, “find something nice for the family.”Illusions of frightful spirits swooped high above a wooden wagon then dropped down at shoppers. The merchant grinning beside it abruptly stopped grinning when a frightened lad kicked at the illusion, his shoe landing on the merchant’s shin. Alex stifled a laugh. Banners emblazoned with grape vines and wreaths streamed above every door and on every lamp post. The sights had brought back memories of their first Festival of Ghosts last year with its warm nostalgic atmosphere. Friendships were being forged then. He’d looked across the street and noticed the only door free of decorations on the entire street was the bakery across the way from Shale’s. Lately, it hadn’t been open more than a few times a week, and cobwebs were a permanent fixture on the eaves.

As he opened the door to the Workshop, he’d wondered how much longer it would be before the little shop would have to shut its door for good. Inside Shale’s, Alex was greeted by a bit of a stir when his coworkers caught sight of Claygon.

Sim had nearly dropped his tools, gaping at the damage.

“What the hell did that?” he’d scurried up to the golem, taking in the cracks up close. “Jeez, it looks like some kinda blade did it but…even though I’m seeing it, I can’t believe it. When Shaleleath fought this big guy, I thought nothing would get through that hard shell, protective spells or not. You got lucky that the core’s not wrecked.”

“Ya, no kidding.” Alex had patted his golem’s side. “Just when you think you’ve seen all the nasty things out there, something worse comes along. Me and my friends were lucky Claygon was there to protect us, but now he’s the one who needs repairing. Is there a free bay I can use?”

“I think there’ll be one in about an hour.” Sim had shaken his head in amazement. “Feel free to use it, and any tools you need.”

“Thanks, Sim,” Alex had said, taking Claygon aside to wait.

The repairs went well, they were fairly simple to do, and in less than two hours, he was done. Apprenticing at Shale’s building golems and getting paid for it was a dream. In a little bit north of a year, he’d learned everything he needed to know to fix Claygon all on his own—except for some help few people would ever get. Using the Mark, he’d mixed clay, infused mana and bonded it with the golem’s body.

By the time he’d finished torch-drying the clay in place, Claygon looked just like he did before they’d ever laid eyes on Zonon-In and that war-spear. Alex smiled at him, ‘Selina’ll be happy,’ he thought.

Since his work had taken less time than he’d expected, that left him with a free afternoon to practice summoning magic.

On a lark, he’d gone to Professor Mangal and asked for permission to try third- tier summoning and she'd encouraged it.

“You have performed very well in class, Alex.” she’d said, walking to a shelf of old books containing both written and practical assignments. “You have a strong grasp on the aspects of relational summoning as well: your paper on it was most insightful.”

“Thanks.” He’d used some of his experiences with Gwyllain to write that paper and in it, he’d discussed certain concepts of reciprocity and how they applied to summoning. He’d found the concept inspired when he was researching the paper, and it seemed the professor had thought so too.

She’d brought out a spell-guide from her shelf. “This is a third-tier spell meant to summon a lantern celestial. They are beings of law, kindness and curiosity, so even if you make mistakes with the spell, you are not likely to face a terrible fate. The most a ‘rampaging’ lantern celestial might do if it breaks your circle, is to give you a lecture…which, considering that you’re a student, you might find an additional lecture to be a terrible fate.”

Alex had laughed as he’d taken the book and lowered his head. “Well, Professor, I’ll try to make sure I don’t get a lecture from it. And you.”

###

And that was how Alex Roth found himself staring at a floating orb of light in the middle of the Cells.

“Are…are you real?” he asked, checking the summoning circle on the floor.

“Greetings, mortal!” a voice like tinkling bells answered him. “How are you doing? Is it day? It’s dark. Are we in dungeon, mortal? Are mortal going enslave me mortal? Do not do that, mortal.”

“Wait, what? No!” Alex said quickly. “I’m not going to enslave you. This is a safe room. We’re in a summoning room at a magic school and…I just summoned you.”

“Good! This one likes being summoned. See lots new things!” The lantern celestial said cheerily.

“Yeah…I can…show you new things…it’s just…hold on one second—”

“What’s a ‘second’?”

“What?”

“What’s a ‘second’? This one no knows that word.”

“Second means second,” Alex translated it into a tongue of the celestials.

“This one no understand.”

He tried switching to a few different celestial dialects.

“This one understand those words!” it cried.

“Ah, good.”

“But what you mean ‘second’? You no say what is first! You not very smart for a mortal.”

Alex stared at the lantern celestial, wondering for a brief moment if he’d gone insane. “Okay…so let’s…okay. Just…a second is like a unit of time. Kinda like a heartbeat.”

“Oh, okay. What’s a ‘heartbeat’? Is that like when you beat a heart? And uh…if it is…what’s a heart?”

“…are you messing with me?” Alex demanded, wondering if Professor Mangal had somehow pranked him. He wouldn’t put it past her.

The lantern celestial bobbed back and forth in the circle, like it was looking around the room. “This one no see no mess. What to clean?”

“Okay, hold on, just…hold on on se—”

“Hold what? This one has no hands.”

“No!” Alex fought the urge to scream. “I…I mean wait for a moment while I look at this book!” He held up the spell-guide.

“Oh…” the lantern celestial’s voice hummed. “Why you no say so and keep saying stupid things instead?”

For the first time, Alex Roth considered strangling a monster he’d summoned. Instead, he squinted at the book, checking the diagram for the magic circuits.

‘Did I miss something?’ he thought, his finger tracing the diagram. The problem was that he wasn’t looking for what might have gone wrong…he was looking for what had gone right.

Third-tier spells were no joke.

Many of the most iconic spells in wizardry were third-tier: Fireball, Phantom Steed, Daylight and even one of Isolde’s favourite spells: lightning bolt. For many armies fortunate enough to count spellcasters among their ranks, third-tier spells were some of the greatest magics their wizards could wield.

Just one wizard possessing third-tier spells could change the direction of an entire battle, or the way of life of a whole village. They were also a major jump in complexity compared to second-tier spells: three magic circuits interlinked and firing at the same time. He’d expected that—even with the strange power he had inside lending him a hand with summoning spells—it should have taken him weeks of practice to reach third-tier.

His eyes slowly drifted to his notebook, focusing on the number of check marks he’d made, one for each time he’d cast Summon Lantern Celestial.

3.

It had taken him just three times to cast a third-tier summoning spell.

“Holy shit.”

“Language,” the celestial lantern chided him.

“Really?” he glared at it. “You don’t know most colloquialisms or mortal measurements of time, but you know that swearing is bad?”

“Of course!” the celestial flared, as though offended. “This one not stupid like you!”

Alex’s lip twitched.

He might have broken through to third-tier summoning spells, but at what cost? At what cost?

‘Seriously, what the hell?’ he wondered. ‘Why was it so easy? I know that power did a lot of the work and I’ve learned a lot about summoning spell arrays, but…damn, this is stunning news. But what do I do now?’

He pulled another notebook from his bag and flipped to Operation Grand Summoning Ascension. With mixed feelings, he put a checkmark beside the step:

Learn to Cast Third-Tier Summoning Spells.

“Well, congratulations to me, I guess,” he murmured, tapping his pen on the page beside the next steps:

Practice with Other Third-Tier Summoning Spells Until You Have Mastered Different Ones.Practice With Other Types of Spells Until You Have a Good Foundation of Third-Tier Magic.

‘Do I still want to do that, though?’ he wondered.

When he’d first thought of his plan, he’d expected to have to struggle to cast a third-tier summoning spell, and that’s why he’d decided on such a conservative strategy for his plan.

He’d thought that with time, he’d learn third-tier and would then have to spend time actually mastering a number of other spells to develop a solid grasp of it. But today, he’d cast a third-tier spell in only three tries which was making him consider moving up.

‘Maybe I should jump right into fourth-tier summoning,’ he thought. ‘Push hard now.’

Tempting.

It shouldn’t be a problem for his mana pool since it had grown so much from mastering Hsieku’s technique. The third-tier magic circuits had barely put a dent in his pool, so there’d be more than enough space to fit a fourth-tier magic circuit in there.

Maybe even a fifth-tier one.

It made sense, if he thought about it: he’d used Hsekiu’s technique and restful slumber to continually repeat his summoning spells. After he did it once, he’d repeat the process over and over, until it became natural to him in spite of, or maybe because of, the Mark. But, other students only practised their spells a handful of times because they had no need to practise them more.

He’d accumulated the equivalent of hundreds of hours of practice. And if he leapt ahead now…

Anticipation ran through him: at fourth-tier spells, he’d have access to the first spells that used Relational Contract and Binding Contract Summoning and with those, the types and numbers of creatures he could call from the outer planes would expand vastly both in power and in variety.

And if the situation with the Uldar mystery and more was going to be as dangerous as things were pointing to, he’d need all the power and variety he could get.

‘Should I do it?’ he thought. ‘Should I go for i—’

He stopped, remembering the traitor witches in Crymlyn Swamp.

They were so hellbent on ridding the Crymlyn of Uldar’s influence, they’d literally chosen to make a deal with demons. Zonon-In. And they’d paid for it. Hard.

He shook his head. ‘Just because learning a third-tier summoning spell was easier than I expected, doesn’t mean I should start trying to rush ahead. One mana reversal, and it’s all over. I should stick with the plan and explore third-tier spells first and know them like the back of my hand, then when I have a solid enough foundation, move up. Besides, there’s no way Professor Mangal would give me a fourth-tier spell guide. Maybe Baelin? Ah, forget it. Let’s not get greedy.’

“Mortal! You become so stupid you lose power of talking?” the elemental suddenly demanded. “This one surprised you live so long.”

“Alright, that’s it, I’m dismissing you now!” Alex whirled on the glowing creature.

“Wow, this one no know how stupid mortal is!” the lantern celestial’s voice rang out like a church bell. “You summon this one to not do anythi—”

Alex spoke a single word, sending the celestial back to its home plane.

“Okay, next time,” he said. “I’m summoning something with manners.”