I jolted awake sitting up, panting. I looked around, it was early morning. I was sitting in the middle of a field and to my left and right all I saw were fields.
"What the hell?!"
There was a ding and I looked up to see a notification panel.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Welcome to the Summoner class change tutorial
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Then I saw a man with long hair tied neatly, dressed in fancy robes floating next to the message, massaging his temples. His ears were pointed like an elf’s but his eyes were similar to that of a dragon’s. His skin was spotted with what looked like dark blue scales. They lined the edge of his hairline and ran down the back of his neck into his clothes.
"What's with my limited access, setting this up as a tutorial? This weakling needs training before a single summon could possibly want him."
I jumped up landing on my feet confused.
What the hell was this?
I watched the man sit in the air as if in a chair and wave his hand.
There was another ding and a second banner appeared.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A monarch of the tower sends a request for you to challenge the tower.
Due to your low level, they have awarded you a hidden class of Summoner.
You cannot refuse this change.
You must challenge the tower
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Who the hell are you?"
I cringed at the shakiness of my own voice.
"Haven't you read the notification?"
"Just because I've read it doesn't mean it makes any sense. It doesn't say anything about you. And what the hell is a Monarch?"
A pig squealed and I turned to see a child perched atop a pig, beaming.
His hair was a long glistening white, his teeth a little frighteningly pointy, and his eyes were wide and round. The more I looked at him the only word I could think of was fluffy. Aside from his teeth.
"Ahhh welcome back you-"
The man coughed and then continued.
"You may call me Alcoroth, and this is Mezu. You were chosen as his food source thanks to your ability to grow your limbs back."
I looked down finally realizing, not only was I standing on both of my legs, but my arm was there.
"Wait, my limbs are back, what happened?"
I looked back up at Alcoroth to see him cleaning his glasses, then look at me confused.
"Are you unaware of the fact that you can grow your limbs back?"
"When would I have had the time to test if I had that ability?"
I watched him swipe his hand in the air as if reading through something.
"With how weak you are I assumed you had lost limbs before is all"
Then he tapped midair, and a blue panel in a style I’d never seen before, appeared in front of me. Off of it, I read,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rank: E
Class: Summoner
Race: Half High Elf
Unique Skills: Blessing of Regeneration, Monarch's Avatar, Contract holder
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I fell to the ground in disbelief. Me, a high elf? And what was with that blank, a system error?
"Besides that, your parents should have told you, it appears you inherited this ability."
"It's not my fault I have no memories before I was at the orphanage. Also, I resent your comment. Losing a limb isn't such an easy thing to do."
Alcoroth sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Fine, I shall do my best to explain."
He waved his arm and a chalkboard appeared floating next to him. Some crude drawings appeared. He points to a drawing of the tower.
"As you know, the tower appeared and this world's inhabitants were tasked with clearing it. Along with the tower, across the world, various portals appeared called dungeons. There are some for growing or mining resources, and some that are meant to be conquered before they break, releasing their inhabitants into the world to wreak havoc. However, so many years have passed, and they have not gone past the 40th floor. These weak mortals either appear unwilling or unable to climb the last ten. Much to the annoyance of the monarchs.”
He then pointed to what I could only assume was either a very lazy drawing of me or a purposefully bad one. I would like to bet on the latter considering the tower was oddly detailed.
"You were chosen by Mezu, since you taste good and are a replenishable food source.”
Describing my healing ability as a replenishable food source was a bit harsh.
“Thus, you were granted the favor of one of the monarchs. To work the system and have Mezu assigned as your Summon you were given the class of Summoner. Though I would prefer to have it the other way, it seems a walking food source shouldn’t be the master in the relationship dynamic"
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
A walking food source? How about I’m the adult and this is an adorable fluffy, yet absolutely frightening child, who apparently likes the taste of my flesh, is obviously more of the summoned beast.
He aggressively closed the pointer stick and looked down his nose at me.
"This dungeon was created to train you so that you will grow from your pathetic Rank E state."
He straightened his glasses and grinned, an evil glint in his eyes.
"Let's get started shall we."
I couldn't take this, what did he expect me to do, just swallow all this new information so suddenly? I held my face in my hands staring at the ground trying to process this.
I lost both of my limbs, and maybe my party in a dungeon, thought I died in said dungeon (In hindsight it really did take a while for me to lose my consciousness. Maybe I was just really tired or they put me to sleep).
Now I woke up (surrounded by very pleasant scenery I might add) to learn that not only can I regrow my limbs, but I seem to have a future set out for me where I must cut my own limbs off to feed a fluffy child named Mezu. On top of me now being a replenishable food source, apparently, there are monarchs that are in charge of the tower and for some reason, they have decided to force me to climb the tower.
"You want me to just accept all of this information so easily? Even if you dumbed it down it's still a lot to take in!"
I had a feeling that if I said no, Alcoroth would simply carry me around and chop off my limbs to feed that fluff ball any way. It didn’t seem like they would just get rid of someone Fluffy found tasty.
Ughhhhh will I ever be mentally capable of cutting my own limbs off, let alone watch this fluff ball eat them?
I guess while he was eating me I shouldn’t call him a fluff ball.
Well, I also shouldn’t watch. But I mean I am kind of curious to see if he’s actually enjoying his meal.
…
…
What the hell? Was my brain just already accepting the fact that I’m a fluff ball’s food source?
I heard another ding and looked up to see a quest panel.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Beginners Training
Description:
You’re A bit too weak, let’s start training.
Completion Requirements:
Running 0/10km
sit-ups 0/100
Pushups 0/100
100 squats completion 0/100
Continuous striking of the test dummy 0/2hrs
Reward:
Dinner
Failure:
A sparring session with Alcoroth and feeding any lost limbs to Mezu
You are unable to refuse this quest.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I leaned my face into the ground in defeat.
What the hell? What the hell? This is fucking ridiculous.
"You better get started"
I yelled into the ground before jumping up, only to hear a giggle come from the fluff ball sitting on the pig.
Ohh look at him, he’s so cute.
“Get your ass moving!”
I sighed and started running. How could such an adorable face come with that violent butler?
One month later
I looked up exhausted, hearing a chime.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Congratulations, you have finished all of the Beginner's level tests.
You will now be rewarded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I cheered, raising my arm and nub into the air and falling back into the soft grass.
Finally, I'm out of this place.
Over the past month, I didn’t know if it was due to the sheer number of times I lost my limbs individually, but I grew to become quite numb to the pain of it all. It did take a week to get over the mental shock of watching the fluffy being munch happily on said limbs.
That fluff ball jumped on me happily, my arm in his mouth.
“Oi don’t drip my own blood on me!”
I sat up pushing him off, wiping off the blood. Mezu looked up at me, his lips pouting and trembling around my arm.
I was really becoming a twisted person. How could he make a puppy dog look while he eats me?
I smiled down at him and petted his head.
“You should eat your food properly. If you run with food in your mouth you could choke.”
He sat down properly and nodded.
Another chime rang out, taking my attention.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Calculating results
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I heard the now normal sounds of Mezu eating my arm next to me as a circle pulsed under the message.
Another chime rings out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rewards:
Escape from the Beginner's Dungeon, .5 points of respect from Alcoroth
Items:
Sacrificial blade, Tamer's Gauntlets, Generic cloak,
Generic boots, Generic shirt, Generic pants
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's it?
I looked over at Alcoroth who seemed to be smiling smugly.
"What the hell is this? Why did you train me with a wooden rapier and all I get as a reward is a dagger to cut my arm off for Mezu?"
Alcoroth scoffed as if I'd somehow offended him, I was the one that's offended with these useless rewards!
"Do you really expect a sword to get handed to you? You can now conquer any D rank dungeon so go get one yourself."
I sat up and let out a heavy sigh. Not much had changed in the past month. Alcoroth still acted like it's a chore to be around me; it's not like I asked him to be here.
I looked over at Mezu to see him beaming in what I would normally say was an innocent manner, but with my blood all around his mouth, I don't think most people would come to that conclusion. But to me, he seemed especially cute today. Maybe it was simply me being in a good mood now that I would be leaving this training center from hell.
I took my destroyed shirt and cleaned off his face before standing and stretching.
My rewards appeared in a stack in front of me, so I stood, got dressed, and then we exited the dungeon through the portal.
We stepped out into an unfamiliar space. In front of me was a large city that frighteningly looked very similar to what I always assumed was the elven capital.
“Huh?”
I rubbed my eyes for about the third time, still not believing where we were.
"Why did we come out here? I went into the first dungeon in Azmar."
I looked over only to see Alcoroth shrug.
"I told you. I only have minimal administrative powers. I can't decide what dungeons do."
I put my hood up after letting my hair down so I could hide my ears and eyes.
"This is the worst place for me to come out."
"You wouldn't be scared of meeting high elves, would you?"
Despite the seemingly evil grin on Alcoroth's face, I knew he wasn't allowed to kill me. The worst thing he could do to me was fully using me as a portable food source for Mezu. But since my monarch seemed intent on watching me challenge the tower, I don’t think he would be allowed to do that just yet.
Which, in itself, isn't necessarily a relaxing thought. But jokes aside this really was not a safe space for me to be. Especially now that I knew I'm a half-high elf, I did not need to or necessarily want to learn anything more about that.
"Those bastards hate halfers, let's just get out of here."
I grabbed Mezu's hand and headed off in the opposite direction. Even though I didn't want to run I thought it was best to get away as fast as possible.
Despite all my training and the daily work out quests I still had, my stamina wasn't the greatest. It certainly improved. Running the ten kilometer a day had gotten so easy that the system upped it to twenty, but once twenty was possible I didn't get much better. So, I couldn't do it for too long.
Alcoroth was quite frustrated with the level up restrictions in place in the training domain. But apparently, once I make it to the tower that won’t be a problem anymore. Whether that meant we would continue and then up the training requirements once inside I didn’t know. But I couldn’t lie, it would be nice to see and I had gotten used to the morning workouts.
When I finally decided to stop, having gotten tired, I looked up at the quest banner to see I had done 30. I looked again then it hit me, what the hell? Why am I seeing this not in a dungeon?
I looked over at Alcoroth to see an annoyed look on his face as if he already knew what I was thinking.
"You have Mezu, he is a connection to the system so you will see banners wherever you are."
I looked at Mezu as he grinned up at me, only to be distracted by a butterfly. Just what the hell was this kid? Over the past month, I had heard Alcoroth slip up a few times almost calling him the young master, but the connotations of that always had me worried.
I wasn’t that dumb not to connect the fact that a monarch had chosen me, an utter weakling that just happened to be able to grow my limbs back, at the same time that I had met Mezu and his Babysitter? Attendant? Butler? Nanny? Whatever their relationship is.
Aside from that initial message I hadn’t heard anything from that monarch. And who knows maybe they were a sadist and wanted to watch someone struggle to climb. I didn’t want to spend too much time thinking about the monarch and why he had chosen me. I didn’t care too much, Mezu was a pretty great company.
I ruffled his hair; it was as fluffy as always. I mean besides the fact that he looked so happy while literally eating my arm or limb or whatever Alcoroth managed to cut off that day. And the fact that I was concerned about how powerful he actually was, he just had this air about him. He was fluffy and needed to be looked after. Maybe that’s why I had gotten so attached to him.
I shook my head trying to get myself to focus. I started walking again and noticed the woods were thinning. Before we got to the edge, I stood behind one of the trees and looked out.