The screams of the other individuals grew quieter and quieter until Ali couldn’t hear anything. He waited patiently for his turn but the seconds turned to minutes. After what felt like hours, he breathed again. Once he calmed his beating heart, the teenager stared down the nearby grate. By adjusting his position, the teenager eventually got a clear line of sight to the jewel itself. Unable to hear anything below, Ali had to rely solely on his eyes as a group of individuals in black robes gathered around the jewel, one of them being Kasym. One of the individuals he didn’t recognize touched the jewel, resulting in it glowing gently.

What the?

Ali reached into his pocket to pull out the relic that was getting hot to the touch. To his surprise, the relic he pulled out was the one given to him by Dhad.

What is going on? Why is it glowing?

<

Reanalyzing relic….

Still analyzing….

Error! Error! Error!

>

Even the system doesn’t know?

Moments later, the relic stopped glowing. When he looked down, the jewel was glowing so bright he couldn’t keep his eyes open. Spooked by the relic, Ali chose to withdraw back to his room. He suspected that he didn’t want to find out the consequences of being caught sneaking in the air ducts. Once he returned to the hallway, the teenager moved as quietly and swiftly as he could. He soon entered the sleeping quarters compartment where thankfully no one stood guard. As he made his way to his room, he stopped outside the room next to his.

Why is the door open?

Ali poked his head through the doorway only to find the room completely clean. It was in the same state as when he first got his. There was no sign the original owner ever stayed there. Tiptoeing around, he checked the three other rooms that also had their doors open, only to find the same thing.

Guess they aren’t coming back. They are either exiled or killed off.

Not wanting to push his luck further, Ali entered his room and made sure the door was shut behind him. He laid on his bed but sleep was elusive. He couldn’t get the image of the jewel out of his head nor could he forget about the relic. Atop his bed, he thought about the burning sensation he felt when he touched the relic. He initially thought it was getting hotter but there were no burn marks on his fingers after he returned the relic to his pocket.

I should check my stats then.

<

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Name: Ali Cissoko

Level: 1 ( 20 / 26 XP to Level Up)

HP: 23/23

MP: 5/5

Strength: 2

Constitution: 6

Intelligence: 4

Survival: 6

Wisdom: 5

>

Ali was surprised to see all of his stats increased by 1 except for his Survival which increased by 3. This couldn’t have been a coincidence following the odd behavior of the relic but the system still couldn’t identify the item. The teenager did wonder if he could have unlocked more bonuses by staying longer in the air ducts but his thoughts immediately recalled his next door neighbor. Curiosity got the better of them and they were caught. He didn’t want to share their fate. Ali tried again to sleep but the events from earlier swirled in his mind. Several deep breaths and countless toss and turns later, he succeeded in suppressing those thoughts and sleep finally came.

“Ali, wake up!”

Ali turned to ignore the voice, wanting to sleep longer.

“Wake up!”

Moments later, he felt a stabbing pain to his arm and sat up.

“Are you trying to ki-”

The teenager stopped mid sentence when he found himself floating in the air. He looked down to find his bed was no longer there and instead it looked like the ocean was far below him. In the distance, he could make out some pillar formations and they only added to his confusion. He stopped looking around when a creature appeared before him. At a glance, he recognized it to be an air serpent. The creature danced around before him.

“About time you wake up! I am your air serpent. My name is Tianteng. You may refer to me as Tian!”

Ali pinched himself and felt pain. He then cursed his stupidity as the stabbing pain was the reason he woke up. He studied the creature but he still couldn’t believe it was speaking to him.

“I know you are skeptical but I will be fighting alongside you!”

Is it normal to speak to summoned creatures?

Ali patiently waited but the prompt failed to answer. He tried it a few more times but the prompt seemed dead. Seeing how he couldn’t get anything from his prompt, he opened his mouth to talk to the air serpent.

“Why didn’t you speak to me earlier in my duel with Belen?”

“Mmm….I recall being told that communication between the summoner and summonee is unlocked once the summon ability reaches level 50.”

“And yet my ability is still stuck at level 1.”

“Something changed when your relic glowed earlier. It might be responsible.”

“Maybe….why did you bring me here?”

“I got excited upon learning we can talk so I brought you here.”

“Am I still sleeping? This feels like a different world altogether.”

“Yes, we are in the summoner realm that’s reserved for a summoner and his or her summonee. We can spend a lot of time here due to time moving faster here than in the real realm.”

The talk of different realms made Ali’s head hurt so he didn’t delve too much into that.

“What can we do together?”

Tian immediately listed a number of things they could do in the summoner realm. His emphasis was on coordination in combat and devising strategies. The air serpent mentioned the flaws between their teamwork in the bout with Belen, claiming that they could do much better. Before they began their training, the air serpent suggested that they explored their summoner realm. With Tian in the lead, the two of them flew through the sky over many pillar formations.

“Let’s head to the summoner temple first!”