That smirk of yours is creepy as hell.

And before I could even process it—before my brain could so much as register what was happening—it lunged.

Yeah. The beast. The six-limbed monstrosity.

Damn.

Those arms were long. Too long. They swung wide, carving through the air like scythes, smashing jagged rocks into dust. I barely had time to react. It was fast.

But Amaruq—my summon—was faster.

It had been right beside me just seconds ago, but when the attack hit? Gone. Evaded. No way it died that easily. Not at D-Rank. It had to be tougher than that.

Which left me with one question:

Should I run?

Just let my summon handle this?

My brain was fried, running in circles, grasping at half-formed plans. I had just survived one near-death experience, and now here I was, again, staring down something that could crush me like a bug.

And then—it moved again. Arms rising for another strike.

I spotted Amaruq, standing across from me now, still locked onto the beast. Still watching.

It was huge. Bigger than my summon by a long shot. And a part of me, the rational part, was screaming—telling me this was a bad idea. That this wasn’t a fight we could win.

But I didn’t have time for rational.

"HEY!" I called out.

Nothing. No response.

Amaruq didn’t even twitch.

Oh, great. Perfect. What a fantastic summon.

I tried again, louder this time—loud enough that even the beast turned its ugly head in my direction.

"HEYYY!" I shouted, voice raw, desperate.

Nothing.

Panic surged, chest tight, pulse hammering.

"FUCKING LOOK AT ME, DAMN IT!"

I was about to die, and my own summon wouldn’t even turn its damn head.

Finally, its name surfaced in my mind. Should I call it?

Absolutely.

"Amaruq!" I shouted.

Its head snapped toward me.

So it does listen when called by name. Good to know. Not exactly groundbreaking, but hey, my brain was running on fumes at this point.

GRDDDDDGHHH!

Shit.

The beast lunged again, its massive arms carving through the ground like it was butter. The sheer force sent debris flying, razor-sharp chunks of rock cutting through the air.

I barely dodged.

Barely.

A sharp sting tore across my side, and when I glanced down, I saw it—a gash from one of the damn rock shards.

Not fatal. Not yet.

"KNOCK HIM OUT!" I roared at Amaruq, still standing there, watching, like this was some damn spectator sport.

For a split second, I swore it hesitated.

Like it was thinking.

Or maybe just deciding whether or not to listen.

I sucked in a breath, trying to steady myself. My hands were shaking, my body screaming at me, but I wasn’t dead yet.

"What a goddamn hassle." I muttered, voice ragged.

But then it looked at me again. Not with fear.

With hesitation.

Not the should I run? kind of hesitation. More like should I even bother helping you?

A knot tightened in my gut.

"A summoner treating summons as a tool? Not new."

A voice.

Not spoken. Not heard.

It was inside my head.

I swore a second ago, I had just been staring into Amaruq’s eyes, locked in some silent standoff. And then—this.

I snapped my head around instinctively, scanning for someone else, but there was no one.

It was him.

Amaruq.

Speaking. Through my damn mind.

"What did you just say?" I muttered, barely audible.

No response.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Because in the next second, he moved.

Fast.

Too fast for my eyes to track, just a blur of red smoke tearing across the battlefield.

Even the beast struggled to react, its massive frame lagging behind as Amaruq closed the distance in an instant, weaving through its oversized arms like they were nothing.

I should have been watching. Should have been focused on the fight.

But my mind was stuck.

Using him like a tool?

Wasn’t that the whole point of summons? Weapons. Extensions of a summoner’s will. Power you controlled, not questioned.

So why the hell did it feel like I had just gotten checked?

I turned back to the fight. Or rather, to Amaruq tearing into that thing while it flailed like a blind idiot, trying to figure out where the hell he even was. It couldn’t see him. Neither could I.

One second, he was there. The next—gone. Vanished. Poof.

My hands shook. Shit. Did he just ditch me?

Before I could spiral, he reappeared—not where he’d been, but on top of the damn beast’s head, claws raised. And then he struck.

The sound was wet, brutal. He ripped into it, shredding flesh like it was nothing, red smoke curling out from that diamond lodged in its forehead. The thing let out this awful, guttural noise—a death rattle, really—before collapsing under its own weight.

THUD.

The ground shook. The impact sent a sharp crack through the air, so loud I had to clamp my hands over my ears.

And then there was silence. Just me. The corpse. And Amaruq, striding toward me like some kind of demon out of a nightmare, his claws dripping.

Holy shit.

[You have receive Binding points]

I swallowed hard, staring at him.

Did I just summon a monster?

"Let me rest now."

That damn voice again. Not out loud—just in my head, pressing into my thoughts like it belonged there.

"Rest?" I echoed, blinking. "How... how do I do that?" My voice came out uneven, which pissed me off. He was just standing there, silent, watching me, and somehow that was enough to make my nerves knot up. I couldn’t even meet his gaze.

"Just give a command. Tell me to rest. Hurry up."

I swallowed, nodded stiffly, then lifted a shaky hand like I was about to bless him or some shit. "Uh... Please rest. Because if you don’t, I might actually drop dead from stress."

Silence.

Then—"That's it?" His tone was so dry it could've started a drought. "That’s all you’ve got?"

I exhaled sharply, waving off the tension. "Yeah, yeah. Here I go."

"Hurry up, human."

Fine. Whatever. "You may now rest in peace." I muttered it under my breath, mostly just to get it over with.

He didn’t respond right away. Then, with a sigh that somehow managed to be both exhausted and deeply unimpressed, he said, "Are you serious?"

I winced. "Yeah, whatever, just—"

"No. Just say ‘rest,’ human. That’s it and we’re done for today."

Even he was embarrassed for me. And honestly? Fair. I’d botched the simplest command twice. Hell, maybe I just wasn’t cut out for this.

"REST."

Finally. Took me long enough. Amaruq had to all but spell it out for me, but hey, at least I wouldn’t be stuck here all day fumbling over basic commands.

The moment the word left my mouth, he was swallowed by a swirl of white smoke—soft, shifting, almost hypnotic. There were flecks of light in it, shimmering like distant stars. Magic. Pure and simple. And, yeah... I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t beautiful.

A message flickered into my vision:

[Summon Resting]

[Calling summon while resting will result in rebellion]

Huh. That’s good to know. So this “force domination” thing wasn’t exactly a full leash. If I pushed too hard, my summon could snap right back at me.

I thought about what Amaruq had said earlier—how I was treating him like a tool. Maybe summoning wasn’t just about barking orders. Maybe it needed... something else. Some kind of bond.

Not that I had a damn clue how to build one.

I exhaled sharply, shaking my head. Maybe I’d been an idiot to assume I could just rely on a skill like force domination and call it a day. Maybe this whole thing was way bigger than I thought.

But for now?

For now, I was still... somewhat alive.

image [https://static.vecteezy.com/system/resources/thumbnails/034/487/737/small_2x/gold-frame-page-divider-free-png.png]

A few days passed.

I stayed put. Not because I couldn’t leave, but because I wasn’t about to crawl out of here weak and half-baked. I had barely survived, and that did something to me—woke something up. If I walked back out there, I’d do it stronger.

So I trained. Experimented. Pushed my limits.

I started with my attributes. Strength was the first thing I tested, fighting off the weakest monsters in this dungeon—pathetic little red ants, barely above average. Turns out, at my current level, I wasn’t much stronger than a normal human. Probably weaker than some. My swings felt sluggish, my grip unsteady, and the sword I’d scavenged barely did any damage. Every fight reminded me how fragile I was.

Then there was Binding—the stat that mattered most for a summoner. The higher the points, the stronger the creatures I could summon. More points meant more control. Too low, and I’d be stuck with weaklings—or worse, my summons would resist me entirely. Binding was everything for someone like me.

I ran test after test, figuring out how to push my limits. And it paid off. Even if the gains were small, they were mine.

[Ethan Kael]

[F-Rank Cursed Summoner]

Attributes:

Strength (STR): 5 → 9

Agility (AGI): 4 → 8

Intelligence (INT): 5 → 6

Endurance (END): 3 → 7

Perception (PER): 3 → 5

Binding (BIND): 15

One last thing I learned—Binding doesn’t increase unless I use my summons.

Sitting around? Useless. If I wanted to grow, I had to keep summoning Amaruq, which was my only current summon, keep fighting, keep pushing. Maybe even build something close, like bond.

Summoning had limits. No surprise there. At my rank, I could only summon one. Just one. No clue how that would change as I leveled up, but I assumed it’d get better.

Which meant—for now—I had to make this work with Amaruq. The same summon I’d called a freaking chihuahua. Yeah, turns out he wasn’t some harmless little sidekick. In battle? He was a damn monster.

Now, I was sitting next to him after a grueling workout, sweat clinging to my skin, trying to catch my breath. I had only summoned him to talk, but from the way he slumped next to me, looking thoroughly unamused, I could tell he wasn’t thrilled about it.

I glanced at him. "Tell me something... do you even know why you all exist? Or why the world suddenly turned into this massive, chaotic mess?" It was a question that had been nagging at me for a while.

Amaruq shook his head, slow and deliberate. "No. I have no memories of that."

That threw me. Not the answer itself, but the way I heard it. The whole telepathy thing? It was actually kind of useful. No awkward language barriers. No miscommunication. Just thoughts, direct and clear.

"Not even a single one?" I pressed.

"No, human. Not even a tiny bit."

I waved him off. "Can you refrain from calling me ‘human’? Just call me Ethan, you know, that's my name and it’s not that hard to pronounce."

He nodded. At least he listened.

"Care to share anything useful about summoning?" I asked after a stretch of silence.

Amaruq let out a dry chuckle. "Heh. Doesn't figuring it out by yourself great idea to start?"

I exhaled sharply. "Yeah, no. I just want something useful—you know, actual knowledge. So quit dodging and spill."

He tilted his head slightly, like he was considering it. Or just messing with me. Probably the latter. "Where’s the fun in just telling you outright?"

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "Amaruq."

"Fine." He stretched lazily, like he had all the time in the world. "You probably don’t know this, but summons like me come from the Void—a place of nothing. Just darkness. No time, no space, just... existence. But higher-level summons? Different story. Some come from realms of their own. Creatures like me. Gods. Other things."

I frowned. "So summons don’t all originate from the same place?"

"That’s what I’m saying, huma—Ethan."

I nodded, filing that away. It was... decent information. But honestly? I’d expected more. Something about the summoner class itself, how it actually worked. Maybe even a trick or two.

Guess I’d have to figure that part out myself.

I stood up, exhaling. "Guess I better get moving."

"That would be wise. Now, let me rest."

I raised a hand. "You’ve been helpful. Thanks." Then, without hesitation—"REST."

Amaruq vanished in a swirl of smoke, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

Now what? I’d been stuck in this low-level dungeon for days. Staying here wasn’t going to get me anywhere. Growth meant risk, and this place was starting to feel like a dead end.

I ran a hand through my hair. "Screw it. Might as well push forward."

Oddly enough, I hadn’t seen a single adventurer in all the time I’d been here. The last group I spotted had bolted the second they saw that six-limbed freak of a beast. Since then? Nothing. Which meant, intentionally or not, I’d been soloing this place.

Well—not completely solo.

I glanced around. Right. Almost forgot about Amaruq for a second.

I started walking.

The first time I set foot in this dungeon, I was terrified. Now? I wouldn’t say I was fearless, but I’d grown. Enough to push through the suffocating silence, even as my brain kept whispering that something could jump out and kill me at any second.

But I walked anyway.

You’d think a dungeon would change after being raided—shift, reset, do something. But it didn’t. It stayed exactly the same. Monsters didn’t respawn. Once they were dead, they stayed that way. When a dungeon was cleared, a new one just showed up somewhere else. Like the world itself was spitting them out endlessly.

And you could see it. The evidence was everywhere.

Shattered weapons. Rusted armor. Broken staves. Bloodstains, long dried to a sickly crimson. Even bones, scattered and half-buried in the dirt—some from monsters, some probably from the people who weren’t fast or strong enough to make it out.

I exhaled sharply. "New Earth, huh? What a bad time to be alive."

I kept walking. Nowhere in particular—just forward.

The only sounds were my own footsteps and the occasional rustle of insects skittering through the darkness. But then—something changed. A different sound beneath my foot. Not stone. Not dirt. Something else.

I barely had time to register it before—

WOAH—!

The ground gave out.

It wasn’t slow. No warning. One second, I was standing—the next, I was falling. Like the earth had just decided to open up and swallow me whole.

FUCK. THIS. DUNGEON.

THUD.

The impact knocked the breath out of me. Pain flared up my side, but I was alive. My hands pressed against cold, flat stone—some kind of platform.

And then, the smell hit me.

Rot. Decay. The kind of stench that sticks to you, burrowing into your lungs, making your stomach churn. I gagged, clamping a hand over my mouth. Jesus.

I waved my hand in the dark, trying to feel for anything—walls, objects, a way out—but there was nothing. Just blackness.

And then—

KRRKK.

My foot crunched against something. Something brittle. I looked down.

A skull.

A human skull.

SHIT.

I damn near jumped out of my own skin. My heart was hammering, breath coming too fast, too sharp—but my body wasn’t listening. Instead of moving, I collapsed, legs giving out beneath me.

Not onto solid ground.

Onto bones.

Another sickening crunch beneath me, sharp edges digging into my palms as I caught myself. My ass hurt, but that wasn’t the problem.

The light from above—the faint glow seeping through the hole I fell from—finally gave me a better look at where the hell I had landed.

And I wished it hadn’t.

I went still. My throat dried up, my chest tightened, and my hands? Shaking. My legs refused to move. It was like my body had short-circuited.

Because right in front of me—stacked high like garbage waiting to be burned—

Human skeletons.

Piles of them.

Like a mass grave someone forgot to cover up.

I swallowed hard, forcing myself to breathe, forcing my brain to work. The walls—there were carvings on them. Deep, jagged marks. The ground had them too, like someone had scratched their last words into the stone itself.

I hesitated, then read the words aloud, barely above a whisper.

"They... sent us here... to die."

Fuck.

I stayed where I was. Sitting. Trying—and failing—to steady my breathing.

Then, slowly, I shifted to my knees, eyes locked on the pile of bones in front of me.

What the hell happened here?

A mass execution? Some kind of purge? My gut twisted. No—this wasn’t random. This had purpose. And if I had to bet?

This reeked of the Awakener Guild.

Like what they tried to do to me.

I clenched my jaw, my thoughts spiraling. Were these... summoners? Had they been like me? Had th

ey been sent here to die?

My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. No matter how hard I tried to ground myself, to think rationally, my body wasn’t cooperating.

"Stop. Just... stop." I gritted out, gripping my wrist, trying to force my fingers still.

It wasn’t working.

Then—movement.

My breath hitched.

From the pile of skeletons—something moved.

I wasn’t imagining it.

Something was in there.