Soleil City, one of the larger cities of Lumiere Kingdom, was known for it's wide variety of magical products and resources for Summoners. On the northern half of the city, there were different types of shops and stalls that sold anything that a Summoner was looking for.

The streets were busy with hustle and bustle. The barks of stall owners calling out for those passing by and people talking or whispering each other resounded in a cacophony of noises. It was a perfect picture of a busy commercial district.

Within one of the busy streets of this city, there was a young teenager with brown hair who walked on the streets with slumped shoulders. Her face was lowered and her expression dark as she trudged the streets with low energy.

"I'm really useless to this type of career..." She sighed. "Maybe I should really think of another profession to pursue?"

This young woman whose expression felt as if the world had fallen upon her was Yuca Meidill. She was an aspiring Summoner, who studied so much until she got to an age where she could finally summon.

In this kingdom, people became Summoners at the age of fifteen. It was because it was at this age that they had enough magical foundation to handle a contract with a single Summoned Entity.

A Summoned Entity, or the Summon, was a being that originated from different types of realms or legends. They could be created by the aether itself, or maybe they were an inhabitant of a world unlike this one. Regardless, Summoners were capable of calling upon this otherworldly beings to aid them.

This world thrives due to the Summoners. Through Summons, both the Summoned and the Summoner got stronger together through their bonds. This was a part of the contract as a Summoner.

The economy and industries of the world ran smoothly because of the great Summoners and their eminent Summoned Entities. Most of these Entities were top tier ones who could be considered Gods by the common men.

Each Summons had a variety of things they could do, and they had a certain sense of intelligence in them which made it possible for a Summoner to communicate with them.

Yuca was one of it, though she felt hopeless. It's been a few months now since she became a Summoner, though she felt ashamed of her own talents.

Each Summoners would have their talents revealed at the age of fifteen. It would be done on a ceremony called the Rite of Passage. The church, the school, or any of the lords that ruled their domain, depending on the specific rule of the country, would let people at the age of fifteen to touch an artifact that would unearthed the hidden potential within their body.

This magical artifact wasn't easily mass produced, and so only those who was on important positions possessed it. It's only purpose was to awaken the talent and affinity of a single person. It only worked on humans.

Every people have magical talents, though there were some who were incredibly attuned to Summoning. Surprisingly, Yuca was one of those blessed who had an affinity to summoning.

Sadly, her specific affinity was Summoning Creatures. It was a talent from the Summoning branch that made her incredibly attuned to Summoning monsters of any kind. Despite the incredible explanation behind it, it wasn't a good thing for the people of this world.

As stated, Summoned Entities grew along with their Summoner. The type of growth that was being told here was on the pure, raw strength and their potential itself. It wasn't about age at all.

People preferred summoning humanoid creatures, mostly those who had the form of a female human, as it was proven that they had the greatest potential out of every creatures that could be summoned. As for Yuca's case, she was incapable of summoning that type of entity. She was incompatible with them.

Even if she tried a loophole and contract a stray anthropomorphized creature, it would simply fail. That's how incompatible she was at humanoid creatures. Her talent specifically was looking for real, monstrous entities. The likes that could be considered real monsters.

She had compromised by summoning goblins and orcs, as she could easily summon those and make a contract with them, but they were easily defeated when she tried dueling the others who were on the same grade as her.

Combat between Summoners was a common thing, and there was a ranking on it. She was a student on a school that had a ranking system on it, and those who were on the higher ranks could acquire better resources that would gave them advantage to their own advancements.

Unsurprisingly, she was dead last.

That was because unlike anthropomorphized female entities, monsters were incapable of growth. Since birth, true monsters were stuck on their strength. Their power was dependent on what type of species they were, and they would need to evolve to even become stronger, which normally took thousands up to millions of years. Something impossible for a normal human like her.

There was also another reason why she was incapable of fighting those of the same grade as her. People who summoned these anthropomorphic monsters could share their abilities with their summoners. It was because their form could resonate with their bond through their contract that they could share abilities with each other, making the Summoner strong alongside their summons.

True monsters were incapable of it. Their traits were incompatible with a human. Trait sharing was only possible if the summoned entity was close in appearance to their Summoner. It was also the case for the Summoned Entities to their Summoner.

It was impossible for her to win regardless of how much she struggles.

"... Last time. I'll find another Book and try again. If nothing changes this month, I'll think of changing class into a Bookmaker!" She pumped her fist and hyped herself up.

Book of Summons, or shortened for Book was a magical tome Summoners used to summon entities from another realm. It was impossible for Summoners to summon an entity without knowing what kind of entity they were looking for, so the Book of Summons were indispensable for Summoners when it came to summoning new Summoned Entities.

The Book of Summons contained magical formulas that made it easier for Summoners to summon beings from another realm. Instead of aimlessly summoning beings through their own Mana, they could guide their Mana using these magical formulas to summon specific creatures indicated on the book.

Monster summoning books were incredibly cheap, so Yuca managed to buy at least three. These books were the common monster glossary, which included normal monster variants like goblins and orcs. Now she was looking for something else.

She walked through the streets popular for it's stalls that sold commodity for Summoners. The Candice District was a stall haven, and this particular street catered for Apprentice Summoners. Though being stalls, shops like these wasn't guaranteed to be at the same location everyday.

She got to the usual spot she bought her Book and frowned when she saw that the old Bookmaker's stall wasn't there anymore. The spot had been taken by a beautiful woman who sat behind her wooden stall. On the finely crafted wooden stall, there were different types of magical reagents, books, and other magical objects.

"Ugh... whatever. I just hope this woman sells Book cheaply!" With that she walked towards the purple haired woman who was just done handing over a herb to a hooded guy.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Thank you for your patronage!" So the woman said before she turned her gaze at the young summoner. "Hello. Are you interested in my products?"

"Yes..." She glanced at the books around. "Do you have any books for monster summoning?"

"What kind of Book are you looking for? I have many monster summoning books you can choose!"

She was a bit surprised at that. Bookmakers were incapable of making different types of Books. The old man she bought her book in the past was a Bookmaker who specialized on making summoning formulas for goblins and orcs. Most Bookmakers were like this, so asking for the type of Book they wanted wasn't suppose to happen.

"... Sorry, not trying to be rude but are you a Summoner?" So she got into her own conclusion as she asked that.

Only Summoners would have an array of Books for different types of entities. Though this was only done by apprentices, as they were still looking for their preference in the future. Based on the age appearance of this woman, Yuca thought she was selling old Books that she doesn't need.

The woman smiled mysteriously. "You can say it like that." She shrugged.

She discerned that she won't explain anymore than that so Yuca dropped it. She was just curious so she wasn't going to pursue it.

"... Okay. I'm not really looking for something specific, so I guess any monster is fine."

"... I see." The purple haired woman with beautiful amethyst eyes narrowed her gaze, and there was a sly intent behind the smile. "I think I might have the book just for you!"

She reached out to somewhere below her stall, and quickly handed a very thick book to her. Yuca looked at it, raising her eyebrows when she noticed that there wasn't any title or designs on the book. It was just a thick leather bound book.

She opened it and was quickly met with a realistic depiction of fire. Below was a word that she couldn't understand.

"Paraph?" She looked up, wanting any clarification.

The woman simply smiled. "It's a sentient fire from the Fire Realm. It's one of the entry level monsters on the Phantasmal Creatures."

"Phantasmal Creatures?" That was the first time she heard that term.

"Well, just think of them as a really cool variant of Summoned Entities." Without missing a beat, the stall owner simply explained.

"... Uh, then what can it do?"

"Anything a fire does." The woman shrugged.

"... Okay?" She was still confused, but the smile of that woman made her give up questioning. She felt the woman wouldn't give her straight answers. 'Well, it's not like I am picky. This is the last time, and if nothing changes on this month then I will seriously consider becoming a Bookmaker!' Having decided that she took the book. "How much for this?"

"It's free."

Her eyes became wide when she heard the woman answered casually.

"Uh... what?"

"It's free. That book is very suitable for you."

"Are you sure?" Now Yuca was a bit nervous.

"Yes."

"But, it's a Book of Summons. It's not so cheap as to be given away willy nilly, even if this is just a Book for monster summoning!"

"Of course not. Nothing in this world is enough to afford that book." She huffed. "But call it fate. I'm entrusting that book to you because I know you can use it to it's full potential."

She frowned at that. "... I lack enough money to afford my own spare clothes, but that doesn't mean I will just take things for free. It's a common rule among Summoners and Mages alike that not everything is for free. So I will pay for this book, whether you like it or not!" She took her pouch on her waist and opened it.

It only contained a few silver Pols, which was the currency of this kingdom. Though she doesn't want to be stingy, so she took ten silver Pols, which was almost all of her allowance for this month.

"I see, so that is your choice." The woman smirked. "Well, if you are going to do that anyway, I might as well add something to make your purchase worthwhile."

Yuca tilted her head in confusion. There was a sense of contradiction with what the woman said, like how invaluable this book was, though she decided not to think much about it. This was almost all of her allowance, so if the stall owner decided to add more stuff to her purchase she shouldn't be rejecting it. She was paying now instead of just taking something for free.

In addition with the book, the woman gave her a few normal ingredients for a mushroom stew, an apple pie, and a bottle of grape juice. She doesn't know what's the use of any of it, but she took it anyway as she was feeling hungry.

As Yuca left the shopped, the woman simply gazed at her receding back amongst the crowds with a certain glint in her eyes.

"Have fun with the book, Yuca Meidill."

----------------------------------------

After Yuca was done with a surprisingly delectable array of meals, thanks to the stall owner, she sat on the bed of her dorm and read the list of monsters from her book.

She was surprised how many pages the book had. She was already at the ten thousandth page, and it looked like she was still at the start of the book. She had an inkling that the book might have been enchanted or something, as otherwise it couldn't possibly contain this much pages even with how thick it looked.

The book was separated by many categories. Each categories were further separated in more categories. There was the main category, the Phantasmal Level, and then there were the sub categories, which were called Realms.

She barely got to the Phantasmal Level 5 before she closed the book and started on the first page. She was just skimming through and having decided that she wouldn't be able to see the last pages, she goes back to the first. She already tried turning to the last page and the book simply became stuck, as if it had a will of it's own.

The subcategories from Level 0 were incredibly vast. The subcategories were termed as either Fire Realm, Water Realm, Earth Realm, Wind Realm, and a lot of elemental realms like nature, dark, light, time, etc.

Each of these realms had different types of realistic monster depictions with their name on it. All of which were unfamiliar to her. So she goes back to the very first page, which listed all the Fire Realm creatures.

"Hmm... I'll try summoning this Paraph first and see if it will help me as a Summoner."

She looked at the artistic depiction of the monster, and then the magical formula beneath it's name.

Summoners and Mages were trained to memorize things. By training their magic on specific parts of their body, they could enhance the capabilities of those parts. The first thing they were required to do was to enhance their mind so they could memorize a lot of things.

"This formula looks so complicated. All of the patterns were different than the usual circles for summoning." She muttered under her breathe.

On a circle of summon, each patterns had a meaning. The pattern would either be for summoning, connecting, finding specific types of monsters, and the like. People would usually add a moderator to turn the summons into humanoid versions of them.

She closed her eyes and controlled the Mana within her body. Forming the circle of summons based on the magic formula written on it. It took her long, as the circle was too complicated but she managed to complete it.

'Two circles with one hundred twenty eight patterns on each of these circles. It's like I am summoning a Superior Entity!' She frowned. 'Well, it's just a monster. Regardless of it's rank, it can't surpass entities that can grow...'

The summoning circle she had formed with her magic was finally done, and she poured more of her Mana to activate the circle. She was surprised when it took more than what she was hoping for. She had an abundant amount of magic due to her universal talent of Summoning Creatures, so she could summon a lot of monsters. Though she was used to summoning goblins and orcs, and the amount of Mana it took her was negligible to the amount of Mana she had.

This one was different. It took her half the amount of Mana she had, which was a thousand times more than the goblins and orcs combined when she summoned those.

A bead of sweat fell on the side of her cheeks as she felt the circle responded. She slowly opened her eyes as the summoning took place, her opened eyes quickly narrowed as the light formed into an ambiguous form.

The form solidified, and then she saw the flickering form of a fire. A floating flame comparable in size to a torch flame.

She felt the bond between them through a telepathic link. She knew, deep within her heart, that this one was the creature she had summoned.

"... This is the Paraph?" She muttered in surprise.

It looked honestly underwhelming to her. Despite having taken the same amount of Mana as a thousand summons of both goblins and orcs, it's form doesn't inspire any confidence to her.

"... Ahem, can you understand me?"

First of all, she tried talking to it. Summoners had a link with their Summons. Regardless of their own language, they would still understand each other.

The flame flickered for a moment before suddenly it shined brightly. She gasped when it suddenly moved on the air excitedly. Creating trails of bright orange on the room as it did so.

"... Oh, so you can." With their bond, she managed to understand what it was trying to convey.

Along with being able to understand her, the Paraph looked incredibly excited about everything.

"What can you do?" She saw the flame flickered for a moment before it hovered close to the window. "Uh... you can spread fire?" She raised her eyebrow at that.

That was what she understood from it's intent. It only answered that it could spread fire. She doesn't know what kind of fire it was going to spread. The language comprehension between summoner and the summoned was not that perfect. It could only convey words and concepts that a person could understand.

She shook her head and looked outside.

"Hmm... it's still a bit early, so let's go out and test what you can do."

----------------------------------------

Half an hour later...

Screams resounded, and many professors with their beautiful summoned entities were running around and using their water-related magic and powers to put out fires.

In the middle of it all was Yuca Meidill and her summoned entity, the Paraph. The majority of the western part of this academy was being burnt to the ground, and all of it was because she was trying to test what the Paraph could do.

"... It truly spreads fire!" She exclaimed, surprised and nervous at the same time.

That was her first experience with a Phantasmal Creature.