Tracey stared at his current rankings in the summoner academy. He scored high for ingenuity and application of his ability. He came top for adaptability in unknown situations as well as theoretical and historical knowledge.
He had high rankings across the board and was the student representative for his year scoring top marks in almost all departments.
Still, no matter how hard he worked and despite his numerous achievements he was still considered a failure by most of his peers. Many felt the title should have gone to his closest competitor Jaime who possessed the legendary summon of Fenrir, king of the wolves as his personal spirit.
Or even Arthurian Albion, who had managed to summon the legendary weapon Caliburn. There amazing summons were of a high rank and allowed them to get the top spots as the joint two in the combat related classes. Although in the overall rankings Jaime came 10th whilst Arthurian came 2nd.
It wasn't that Tracey was a poor fighter. He was well trained and practiced harder than most. His combat scores placed him just above the mid percentile.
No Tracey’s problems stemmed from the fact that his summoning was rather average.
After his second year at the academy, during his ceremony when opening a path to the realm of summons he had formed a connection with a large pulsating object. Upon arrival back to the human realm, he had been shocked to discover his summon type was a group type summon.
However to his chagrin, his joy soon turned into disappointment upon discovering that the summon type was that of the Will O’ Wisps, a weak type that was limited in terms of gaining new forms as well as weak power wise.
Now he was currently allowed to enter the school treasury to pick an item that would allow him to gain some sort of power that could help him to advance in some way.
He learned many different skills in order to supplement for his lack of summoning ability. He sat down and began to operate his various ghouls through his mind. He used their ability to sense energy, in order to try and see which item contained the most power that would give him the potential to surpass others with better summons than him.
Soon he came up next to an item that looked quite familiar to him. It was known as the hero’s crown. Several centuries ago, his people had summoned a hero from another land in order to get him to defeat their enemies.
However, they had lied to him about being able to send him back home to his family. They also expected him to help them but when he refused, they cast him into the dungeons.
After a couple of years in prison he had escaped and using his fellow prisoners created an unorthodox style of summoning using the bodies of those he had defeated. He then began a reign of terror until he had taken over their lands completely. He had bound all the people there to his will and they became his loyal subjects.
Eventually he disappeared when it was revealed that he had found his own way back to his previous world. After that, those left banned such summons again, especially as after the people debated, they realised the error of their ways.
It was claimed that whoever possessed the crown he had forged for himself would be able to see through deception as well as would be able to gain a power above all others. But the crown had been claimed to have been lost for centuries.
If he had not seen the books depicting the man, he would have never recognised the crown for what it was. He was lucky people had not paid any attention to it. For if they had, many would have done their best to obtain it.
Not wasting any time Tracey placed the crown upon his head. Then he proceeded to wait for something to happen.
He waited as the minutes began to fade away. Eventually his time in the place ran out. To him disappointment the summoning finished and he was forcibly ejected from the room.
He left for his parent’s house wondering why his luck had been so terrible.
3 years later, Tracey was on the battlefield. He had graduated from the various academies h had entered after working harder than ever to advance. Despite his summoning’s abilities, he was well respected as a genius and eventually the academies had declared him to be far more advanced than what they could teach him.
Everyone had expected him to enter the king’s council. But he had declined as he professed a desire to protect their nation in the army. At first people were worried that he would fail there. After all, whilst he may have been physically fit for a boy of his age, he was still a boy none the less and was also younger than most recruits.
But he managed to impress the men and was promoted to a rank of a captain within his squad. His unit began to shine as one of the best, always the first into battle, yet always the last to leave.
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His stratagems and training enabled him to quickly rise in the ranks and within two years he became a general. The ministers eventually gave him the title of the genius hero. A tacky name to be sure, but it was one that inspired courage and determination in the hearts of his people. And that was all that really mattered.
There were those who did not like him and plotted to cause his downfall, but none could openly move against him out of fear of the problems it would cause their nation.
After a day of rest in the king’s quarters dallying with the king’s eldest daughter, he was back on the battle field. Today marked the 63rd battle he had taken part in. Today was going to be the day he reached his 1000th kill. As he customarily did, he put in his armour and finally the helmet that he had designed specially.
The helmet was composed from the crown, which he had reformed after learning the truth behind its secrets. Today was the day he would finally be able to obtain the necessary power.
He rode forward with Prince Trey, who was considered by many to be his best friend. They were ready to finish this battle once and for all. As they advanced down the mountainous slopes leading a charge, they rode into the thick of the battle where he attacked the various enemies whilst defending the back of the prince soon the two of them were caught in the thick of the battle and separated from their men. This had been the norm of late when the two fought so neither was really worried about it.
The prince had a summon known as the shift, which allowed him to traverse time and space in different ways through the help of an amulet he wore around his neck. Whilst the ability was useful, it was too similar to that of the previous hero who had devastated their nation. The scars of what he had done had caused the royal family consternation to no end, so the fact that he held a similar ability frightened his father.
There was even talk of him being put into a political alliance with another nation and having his younger brother being made into the new crown prince. The other nation would likely accidentally lose sight of him due to unregulated banditry or something along those lines. The political marriage was nothing but a sham for his father to have him killed off.
This had been the reason why when Tracey had visited him one night with a proposition, he had agreed. After all he had nothing to lose anymore.
As they attacked their perfect formation was unbroken by their enemies as their lances began to draw blood. Soon they reached the crux of the fighting just as they planned. The enemies they faced this time lacked any summons and were useless against them. They only started the war based on false accusations that their leader had been assassinated by them through the use of summons.
In truth they were correct as this was a ploy that had been devised by both young men in order to have them fight. Trey had placed symbols along the valley using his blood. These symbols were part of a warding that Tracey had developed using techniques developed by the hero. Now Trey placed his blood on the helmet that Tracey had handed over to him.
Soon a faint power began to envelop the two and everyone within the field. Many tried to flee but were trapped within some weird wards they could not escape. A massive summoning circle appeared as the men were slowly being displaced and instead were being replaced with other people from different worlds.
Soon all those who had fought that they had disappeared. They had been sacrificed as part of a scheme for the Prince and the new hero to cultivate the powers of those from other lands just like the previous Hero had done with their people. Unfortunately the ritual only worked with those from different worlds than you.
That was why the crown had been necessary, it actually contained the method for summoning others. They had the rituals that would enable them to put these new summoned people’s energies under their control.
As the circle began to retract in on itself trey suddenly shifted behind Tracey and placed his amulet on him as well as the crown. He had set the destination as unknown and the additional energy leftover form the crown would ensure that it had the energy to remove him from his presence.
He had no need of that now when he would have all these people soon to control. Tracey however instead of looking horrified smiled and simply stated
“See you in 20 years stupid,” as he disappeared.
Several years later when he became king after his father’s forced abdication, he discovered the tomes that had been kept privately hidden by his family detailing the abilities of the crown. When he found out he wept and resigned himself to the fate described in the tomes of those who betrayed the crown’s owner.