Wyrm Forge was the largest forge in Soleil City. Located near the Grandshire Academy, it was a forge where many crafters, both mundane and magical, gathered to create wondrous weapons and armors.

The only Arcanesmith who had achieved the Fifth Arcane Expansion Stage on this region owned this forge. Even the royal army came here to ask for artifacts to be personally made by him.

Due to this, many aspiring crafters came here in hopes of becoming his apprentice. Different mage and summoner's schools also wanted to be friendly with him. Which was why the school allocate some of their students to help the blacksmiths here.

So it was also obvious that Yuca wasn't the only one who entered the backdoor when she presented the assignment she took on the School Board. There were other students from Grandshire and even other schools like Zantark and Obscurite. There were other students from other mage schools, though mages and summoners were obviously separated as putting them together in a single room would make things messy.

Since the sudden surge of popularity of Summoners, the practice of magic itself had gone into a decline. It was easier to become stronger through summoning than learning magic itself. So those who pursue magic hated the people who chose the easy way.

So while she noticed some teenagers in magician's robes awhile ago, she was sure they were led to another place while they as a Summoner was put in another.

As they entered, Yuca immediately felt the sudden shift in temperature. Unlike outside which was a bit cold due to the approaching winter, the interior of this room was pleasantly warm. She felt rather refreshed as she felt it was too cold.

"Ugh... so hot."

"Get used to it. Forges with magical furnaces are always this hot!"

"I shouldn't have taken this assignment!"

She perked up when she heard that and glanced at the students along with her. She was surprised when she saw them already taking off some layers of their robes, and sweating up a lot. She also felt a few of them directing a glance her way with a raised eyebrow, though they didn't spoke to her and just simply followed the worker to the furnaces.

'Hot? I don't feel hot at all...?' Yuca was confused about that, before she quickly realized what was happening. 'Right, I have Fire Affinity now. Maybe I got resistance to heat too?'

Around them was the sound of hammer hitting metal. The sparks that flew on the air as burly men slammed their tools to their craft busily focused on their work while the students helping out to this shop for an assignment were led to a place much deeper than the workstations of these men.

Yuca could sense Mana being manipulated from each of their swings, which made her realize that they weren't just mundane blacksmiths but rather Arcanesmiths. She simply glanced around and doesn't pursue her curiosity, as she wasn't that interested.

'Well, we are going to the Hellfire Furnace. Normal blacksmiths can't use it...'

Passing another room, they finally arrived on a very large room where billowing fires were contained on enchanted brick metal furnaces. It's size almost taking half of this court-sized room, and the heat was intense that the others were already summoning their girls and creating heat protections around them.

Yuca was the only one who felt rather refreshed at the heat. It was like a gentle breeze of summer to her. It doesn't even irritate her skin.

"This is the Hellfire Furnace. Just pick a spot and do your thing." The man who led them here said in a noncommittal manner. It was an attitude that doesn't exude any confidence on them at all.

This was the first time Yuca took this kind of assignment. She normally summoned orcs and goblins so she took construction jobs or any jobs that included heavy stuffs whenever she goes for an assignment. It was why she doesn't know that blacksmiths on Wyrm Forge doesn't really expect anything to them, mostly if it came to heating up the Hellfire Furnace.

"Huh...?" That's why she was curious why the Summoners along her weren't angry after they heard those words from the blacksmith.

Summoners had a lot of pride. They were the symbols of the peak of this world, so most Summoners held a certain amount of arrogance in them. She frequently encountered Summoners who got angry at the most simple things, even going as far as throwing a tantrum just because the soles of their shoes stepped on a dusty floor.

She glanced around and saw that their heads were lowered as they quietly walked to their preferred spots on the furnace. The furnace had a lot of hatches that they could use to pour any types of flame they could use. These people simply started ordering their summons to pour flame on these hatches after it was pulled up.

She was unaware that these people frequently took this job as they had fire elemental summons. These students who frequently took this assignment repeatedly fail at even raising the temperature of this furnace by a single percent. It was because this Hellfire Furnace truly lived up to it's name. Mundane fire would simply be converted into little bits of pure flames that could burn even steel in an instant.

A high tier fire element could reliably raise it's temperature, though no students who had that kind of summon would come and take this assignment. This assignment was usually taken by students who had weak combat capabilities. Duels and combats were another way of acquiring points and resources to the school, so stronger Summoners would always find people to fight with.

Yuca followed along and then stood on one of the hatches. It automatically opened, causing a strong essence of fire element to brushed against her body. She took in a deep breathe, her eyes widened a bit in surprised at the rich fire essence that the hatch released with it's billows of heat.

"Wow, I think I can take inspirations here and meditate!" She exclaimed before she looked to the others.

She noticed that the others were truly meditating. Sitting on the ground with a magic circle beneath them, absorbing the fire essence that the hatches released.

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Meditation was the most common way of comprehending the laws of the universe. By emptying their mind of disruptive thoughts and simply focusing their senses on their surroundings would they acquire insights as to how things happened and advance on their comprehension, along with their magic level. By absorbing these elements that they have comprehended, they would make a breakthrough to the next stage, further making them stronger as a Summoner.

"Para, spread your fire inside this hatch. I'll meditate here until our time is out."

They had been given limited time to do this. Many students wanted to get inside and pour fire on the Hellfire Furnace, so they weren't given all day just to stay here.

With that decided, she erected a magical circle commonly used for meditation. This circle was made not just to absorb the elements around them easily, but also to tap into their bond from their Summoned Entity so their comprehension of the element became faster.

As she begun with her meditation, the Paraph bopped on the air for a bit before it hovered close to the hatch. Then without word, it hopped within the hatch, much to the worker's surprised who was near them.

"What the? Is that monster idiot? The flames of Hellfire Furnace purifies everything within it into pure fire!" He shook his head. "How stupid. This is why newbies are so..."

He stopped when he noticed something. The hatch where the Paraph entered suddenly flared with incredible heat. It was much hotter than awhile ago. Pure fire essence left the hatch, and as seconds passed, high quality fire essence was spouting out of the hatch. It even spreads on the other parts of the Hellfire Furnace.

The others had noticed when the heat became unbearable for them even with the protection of their fire aligned summons.

"What's happening, why is it so hot!?"

"What a high concentration of fire essence! But, I can't bear this heat!"

"Ouch! I quit! I don't want to be here anymore!"

Many stood up, their body became red and feverish due to the unbearable heat that quickly surrounded the whole room. They immediately leave with their body steaming hot, others practically running due to the feeling of searing pain that covered their body.

The workers who originally worked here could also feel it. Despite having been used to the heat made by the Hellfire Furnace, they were now sweating a lot. Their bodies that had been trained by the fire essence around was useless by this pure essence of fire.

"The Hellfire Furnace's temperature... it increased!?" The worker exclaimed in surprise. He watched the only remaining student who was still meditating near the flaring hatch in awe. "Who is this girl!?"

As the others were dumbfounded and panicking, Yuca was more immersed at her own meditation. She didn't managed to meditate with her summon yesterday because she wanted to do some work, but now that she did, she was surprised to find that she could easily absorbed the fire essence around her, and circulate them within her body. She also found it was easier for her to filter out unwanted elements from the essence and just take what she needed for her talent to bloom.

'Amazing! Is this what having a familiar do?' She wondered to herself, as this was the first time she meditated with a familiar.

She had already reached her peak when she didn't have a familiar yet. So she was stuck at the First Magical Foundation Stage. Now that she had a familiar, her potential expanded greatly. She quickly felt a sense of explosion within her consciousness, and then her whole body felt so light as she stabilized the essence and Mana she circulated on her body.

"Second Magical Foundation Stage..." She muttered as she opened her eyes.

She could feel it. Due to feeding her fire affinity with the fire essence around, she could feel her fire innate abilities became stronger. She also got the general boost when she made a breakthrough, like her mana capacity that was doubled, along with the general increase in capability to her physical and magical abilities.

She let out a hum. A smoke filled with the warmth of fire essence escaped her lips after that.

"Wow... I can use fire elemental magic with this amount of potential within my body!" She exclaimed.

She felt excited. This was the first time she focused on a single element, though she felt it was worth it. As she progressed on her path as a Summoner, she would soon get her dream of a luxurious life and being the greatest Summoner of all.

After she calmed down from her excitement did she finally noticed her surroundings. She just realized that her Para was still within the Hellfire Furnace. Despite the intense flame that bursted within the industrial artifact, her eyes could easily distinguished between what was normal fire and who was her familiar in there.

Then she looked at her side and saw that every students that was along with her was gone. The workers were also staring at her wide eyed shock.

"... Uh, what?" She tilted her head in wonder.

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Within the Headmaster's Office of the Grandshire Academy, the Headmaster herself, Emeltria de Fontaine, read the reports that had been given to her this morning. She was surprised when she found a familiar name on the report once more.

"Yuca Meidill again?" Her beautiful sapphire colored eyes glance at the name in surprised, before she leaned closer.

On the reports she got, Yuca Meidill had been challenged by a noble to a duel. The noble was five stages higher than her own, so even if it's a duel between their summons and the elemental disparity between each of their summons, it should be obvious who should have won. Though against all odds, the fire elemental summon Yuca had completely burnt a water elemental girl.

"That fire elemental again..." Her eyes furrowed at that as she was reminded of yesterday. She reached out on her drawer and took something.

That something was a flask with a ball of flame contained within it. The flame shone brightly, which made the flask look like a lit lightbulb.

"It became purer than yesterday..." Emeltria muttered.

This flask was a magic item called the Flame Container. This type of items were made to specifically contain fire elements. There were other magic items like this who also dealt with other elements. As to why it was made, it was because even elements were useful when strengthening the summons themselves.

Even when a Summoner could become strong along with their Summons, sometimes a Summoner would find themselves in a bottleneck. It was because their limit was dependent on the summoned entity they were contracted with. So strengthening the Summoned Entity would obviously give them more potential to grow too, hence the strengthening of a Summon was as important as meditating for themselves.

"This mundane fire had turned into magical flames. Maybe sooner it might even turn into hellfire." She muttered under her breathe.

That was a big news. A monster capable of turning mundane fire into magical ones. It was unheard of. Monsters were known to be stuck on their power levels. Even a dragon, while strong, couldn't grow out of their strength. What they could do, that's the only thing they could do.

A fire elemental that could evolve flames willingly was unheard of.

"That child said it's called a Paraph... I don't recall having heard of a monster like that?" She closed her eyes. "Well, I already asked Martin to look for it on the School Archives. We might find something in t--"

"Excuse me, I got something urgent to report!"

She was startled when someone suddenly barged into her room. She looked at the person who just entered and quickly recognized it to be her secretary.

"Zeltria... it's already the evening, why are you being so loud?"

"Sorry Headmaster, but today I received this report today from the owner of Wyrm Forge himself!"

"Gornick!?" She exclaimed.

Gornick Wyrmer was a human who had achieved the highest Arcanesmith level on this country. He was also the one who own Wyrm Forge. To have a report personally given to them, she wondered what was happening.

"What is it?" Her full attention taken, she looked straight at her secretary.

"Right. This morning, a student of our school named Yuca Meidill did the impossible. Her summoned entity had managed to maximized the Hellfire Furnace's heat tolerance. Currently, it became impossible for Arcanesmiths of lower stages to enter there, so he decided to use it as his workshop!"

"Use it? He decided to finally make something again!?"

This was surprising. In recent years, Gornick had stopped forging anything as he stated that there was nothing in this country that could handle his skills anymore. The fire was always lukewarm to him, and the ores were so low quality that they always had to rely on imports from other countries.

To force that person to suddenly setup a workshop once more and start crafting, she was surprised. She also heard that the Hellfire Furnace was impossible to maximized it's heat tolerance. She knew, because she tried it with her Emerald Phoenix for twenty four hours without any success.

"Is this Yuca Meidill the same one who burned the west side of our building?"

"Ah... yes, that's the one Headmaster."

Emeltria contemplated for a moment. She was curious just what kind of entity she just summoned.

"... Maybe I should call her again and ask for the magic formula for it? I might be able to modify it to summon a female version of that fire elemental?"

The Headmaster was intrigued. She was stuck at the Third Arcane Expansion Stage for a few years now. Even with the Emerald Phoenix and Infernal Golem as Familiars, she couldn't advance with her bottleneck. She had reach the maximum potential that her familiars could give her. She needed something else.

"Zeltria. Call that little girl to my office. I have something important to tell her."