Ritzy looked at the summoning circle on the floor and made some final adjustments with the chalk before dusting his robe and clapping his hands in satisfaction.

He had prepared, studied, and accumulated mana ever since he first heard about the Dark One. And now he had finally reached a level where he was confident he could summon the greatest first undead a necromancer could summon.

Although since he was still not even a novice, it wouldn’t be anything special. But even a sturdy skeleton or zombie would be better than a weak one.

Ritzy’s eyes shone as he thought about the de-armored death knight that the Dark One was rumored to have summoned on his first try. With that kind of undead under his control, Ritzy would no longer have to fear the rats that stole his food all the time.

Ritzy couldn’t wait any longer, and he closed his eyes and clasped his hands as he stood at the edge of the circle.

“Storage of Darkness, bestow upon your faithful servant an aide!”

Ritzy spoke and opened his hands to direct his meager mana toward the circle. The circle instantly accepted Ritzy’s mana, and the complicated mass of symbols and figures lit up. The first step was a success!

An experienced necromancer could relax by now since their part of drawing the summoning circle and infusing the mana was done. They would have to pick up the slack again if the summoning is successful, but it would be fine as long as they were ready.

However, Ritzy didn’t relax for even a second as he stared intently at the glowing magic circle.

It was his first attempt, and if it failed, he had to know why. But the ground where the circle was drawn grew blurry and indistinct as if the heat of a flame was twisting the air. Shortly after, the ground broke, and a shiny skull protruded. The skull rose through the summoning circle and gradually revealed a spotless skeletal frame.

Ritzy was a little disappointed since the skeleton didn’t seem to be much bigger than him. The Dark One’s first summon was rumored to have been more than two meters tall, and his first summon obviously couldn’t compare. But he quickly comforted himself with the fact that size wasn’t everything. It was how you used it!

The skeleton continued rising at a steady pace until it stood on the ground that had returned to its original state, and the circle stopped glowing.

“Heck yeah!”

Ritzy fist-pumped to celebrate his first summoning that succeeded on the first try. But he quickly refocused on the skeleton.

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It wouldn’t matter if he succeeded on his first try if the skeleton refused to obey him. Best case, it goes back. Worst case, Ritzy dies.

Ritzy controlled the remnant mana in the summoning circle to use it to subdue the skeleton and put it under his control. Since it was his first time doing it, he wasn’t sure how to do it. But he quickly figured it out, and the mana moved according to his will.

However, the ghastly blue eyes in the skeleton’s eye sockets flickered, and the skeleton’s body began drooping and melting like a wax candle thrown into a furnace before Ritzy could even begin to rein in the skeleton.

“No! What are you doing?!”

Ritzy was at a loss of what to do and could only try to hurry up and enslave the skeleton before it completely melted.

“NO!!”

But it was futile. The skeleton melted into a soppy grey-white sludge that began slowly seeping into the ground.

Ritzy kneeled and tried to scoop up the skeleton slurry and manually rebuild it. But the skeleton ran through his hands like butter before taking refuge in the ground.

“WHY?!”

Ritzy pounded the ground and roared to the sky in frustration. He had succeeded in summoning the skeleton. And the fact that the skeleton remained long enough for him to try and control it was proof enough that it didn’t return because the summoning circle failed or because it didn’t want to stick around.

And what the fuck was up with the way it had melted and seeped into the ground like that?!

Ritzy had never heard of anything like that happening. If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he would have never believed it. Even now, after seeing it, Ritzy was still in denial, and disbelief filled his mind.

But that denial helped him stand up.

“Yep. That must have been a hunger-induced hallucination. It probably just didn’t want to stick around. Yep. Let’s try again.”

Ritzy smacked his cheeks to clear his head as he stood up and walked over to the second circle he had prepared.

To begin with, he hadn’t expected to even succeed in summoning something on his first try, so Ritzy had prepared multiple summoning circles. And if he were more successful than expected, he would simply have an army of skeletons as soon as he was finished.

Ritzy looked at the summoning circle for a few moments before fixing some lines and edges he had probably brushed against when he made it. The previous failure also made him even more pedantic.

“Now this! This is a perfect summoning circle!”

Ritzy buried the experience of the molten skeleton in the depths of his mind. He briefly considered learning mind manipulation magic just to erase his memories, but it would be quicker just to forget the whole ordeal.

Ritzy focused on the summoning circle in front of him with an excited expression.

The Dark One had managed to summon a de-armored death knight on his first summoning attempt. Ritzy couldn’t wait to see what he would get.

“Storage of Darkness, bestow upon your faithful servant an aide!”

The same chant as before rang out after Ritzy closed his eyes and clasped his hands. It was the same chant all novices used during their first summoning. It was also a chant popular among higher-ranked necromancers. If anything went wrong, it couldn’t be because of the chant.