Shalem woke up in his comfortable bed with a disgruntled and a restless face. This was the usual for him since he had been training to expand his mana pool under his father's guidance for over 14 years now and had to pour his mana to keep 4 different candles lit everynight during this last 7 months, even while he was asleep.
His father had chosen this orthodox method to train mana since Shalem had shown little to no success in advanced magic studies, it was not as if one needed talent to learn magic but it was simply that Shalem had no interest in studying any school of thought within the field of magic, other than that of summoning, past the most basic degree. This meant that the entire catalogue of spells within Shalem's arsenal were: [Ignition] from the school of flames, [Drought] and [Humify] from the school of water, [Faster Recovery] from the school of healing, [Detoxify] from the school of poison, [Gust] and [Clean Air] the school of air, {Illuminate] from the school of light and [Minute Summon] from the school of summoning. Although a matter to note was tht unlike the other spells he had studied every single modification possible for the spell [Minute Summon].
Today would also start with him joining his mother and father for breakfast, as with any other day. He, however had different plans in mind, he would finally declare his intenions and future plans to his family.
After he was done eating Shalem stood up to face his father in a dignified manner and doned his mage cloak to show that what he was about to say was of utmost importantance and that he would treat his father as the Vice Court Magician of the Left Tower and not as his parent during this speech. Understanding the intentions of Shalem his father, Raksem, stood up and doned his cloak in turn. His mother was out of this conversation despite her position at the state being far higher than Raksem as she was the Chairman of Court of Papers, the sole court responsible for the entire beurocracy of the Republic of Daimulus. The sole reason that she no longer held any right to intersect in this conversation was because she had never been a part of any Mage Court, as such she was not considered a Mage legally or socially despite knowing magic. 2 mages that were signed under Mage Courts were legally of a seperate class than normal civillians, they were considred millitary entities bound collectively to the High General of Daimulus.
Shalem took a deep breath and greeted his father with a bow of his head before starting to speak ''Father, I wish to first thank you for bringing me up in the best manner you thought was most fitting. I know that you had sacrificed a great many things for me to come of age as healthy and as well educated as I could possibly be.''
Raksem simply nodded, fully aware from his many years of duty that praise and nice words often ended with ill timed words that he did not wish to hear. This time would prove no different.
Shalem made his shoulders firm as he uttered the words he held back since he was 8 years of age ''I do not wish to join the court and fulfill duties similar to you or my grandfather. I wish to become a summoner and see whether or not sustained summonned monster could show signs of intelligence and memory.''
Raksem, a usually calm and collected man with a stonecold face, was furious and it showed on every single fiber of muscle that rested underneath the skin of his face. His expression was not that of calculated intimidation but pure twitching rage. His wife sitting beside him even gasped unintentionally before she stopped herself and closed her mouth.
Why was Raksem so furious? Was it because what his son just said made 14 years of his effort null and void? Was it because that in a country without surnames like Daimulus he would have no way left to assure the prolonged existence of his bloodline if not for the position that they have been holding in the Mage Courts for generations through their repeated merit and proper upbringing as briliant mages? No, none of such trival things could have made him angry, he would certainly have more than a decade to brace himself for the impact of such a shock. The reason was a simpler one. A simple thought in his mind yelling at him ''What the fuck is this lunatic rambling about?''. How could a summon, a monster tamed and brought forth with the use of a substantial amount of mana for their momentary utility for the mage, a tool simply to be discarded and sent back to where it came from once it has outstayed its welcome, a mere waste of mana unless one were to get lucky and summon the right one, a futile to sustain spell that drained far too much mana for how little use the summon actually provided in a non-nieche case could be worth throwing away all this grand future that Raksem had laid down through painstaking effort and sleepless nights over the course of 20 long years?
Shalem, having braced himself for such a reaction for the last 12 years, kept talking with a confident tone ''I intend to live my life as an adventurer and use the different experiences I witness as further oppurtunities to understand summoned monsters and then to eventually write a book detailing all of my findings to further aid in our understanding of this barely developed field of magic that we have known since time immemorial as humanity. I do not ask for your compliance or your farewells father, I simply ask that you forgive me for being so stubborn as to want to research something that may eventually prove to be of little merit, if any at all.''. After having said his piece Shalem simply left the home he had been born and raised in without waiting for a response from his utterly dumbfounded parents. Perhaps needless to say, no amount of bracing could have made this any less emotional for him as his tears washed the dusty pavements of the capital.
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After Shalem spent the night on the not so welcoming bed of grass in a public park, he headed to the outskirts of the large capital city of Daimulus and left the inner urban portions behind him while longingly looking at the sole landmark he could still recognize from this far out, the Left Tower within which his father worked. He walked past many people but few even interacted with him as he was still doning the mage cloak. A mage was still a part of the millitary and they were secluded from the general populus to make sure that no favoritism existed since mages were also the police force of the state once a crime contained more than 5 criminals, otherwise the Gray Shoulders that were trained as magic and blade wielding units of the millitary, which are far more numerous than proper mages who are bound to Mage Courts, would handle the policing of civillians.
Such interrupted travel allowed Shalem to reach his destination, the Adventurer Registry and Directory Office, after only 26 hours of walking. Once inside, Shalem rested and ate his fill, he could not perform anything but his absolute best during the Registry examination. After 15 minutes of Shalem checking himself up and fixing his attire he found the courage to step in, he did not wait for a line or for his name to be called since few people would enter this hall every year, the hall named Summoning Ability Examination Hall. Perhaps becuase of that, even the officer running this hall was busy eating his lunch when Shalem walked in and had to spare a few moments to clean himself up and swallow his food before speaking ''Ah, welcome. Please walk into the middle of the magic circle that we have at the ready and pour your mana into it, if you know the incantation the mana required should be significantly lower.''. Shalem could not help but giggle as all his pent up anxiety was washed away by the sloppy officer repeating the lines that he had memorized.
Shalem enetered the magic circle prepared for [Minute Summon], just the same as the one that he had drawn countless times in his practice attempts it was a circle precisely 6 meters in diameter and was divided into 60 equal portions with inscriptions describing the charateristics of each summon in every single one of the 60 equal slices of this circle. However, he had not come here just to summon with the normal incantation and with no gurantees, no. He had enough mana after 14 years of non-stop mana exercises everyday, since the mana pool of a person was slow in growth and would require one to expend incredible amounts of mana over the course of several years. He was confident that his mana pool was large enough to increase the inital mana cost of the [Minute Summon] and that he also had enough mana regeneration to sustain the summoned monster while still being at a, although miniscule, surplus.
So, after half a minute of standing there with bated breath and a palpating heart, Shalem finally started the incantation ''Oh, I am one with enough will to sustain my wits. I am one with enough blood to sustain my heart. I am one with enough fame to have a name. Thus, in my name I speak to you. I, Shalem, demand that you speak to me in your name as well! Do not make me wait! Oh, the one among the sixty who can talk! I have longed for your arrival long enough. Thus, I summon you!''.
The officer was shocked as the incantation was one that he had never heard, he had only read that by nearly doubling the mana cost of the spell [Minute Summon] and by uttering an incantation that one had to write by oneself and without guidance or aid that one could narrow down the 60 random summoned monsters down to a specific category, or if one was truly an extraordinary mage, even down to a single one.
Was the incantation that Shalem performed extraordinary? No. One could even say that he had chosen the widest possible category. The category was ''the summoned monsters that can talk'''. This category included 25 of the 60 summoned monsters present in the [Minute Summon]. The cost increase that it inflicted was minimal compared to the more specific categories that were avaliable. Yet, the officer was impressed none the less, it was rare for a 20 year old youth to be able to have enough mana to even trigger this circle to cast this spell, even rarer was a youth that was only 20 yet had used the incantation required for [Minute Summon], and it was the first time in his 37 years of life that this officer ever saw someone actually use a self-made incantation to narrow down the possibilites of what would be summoned. He had given the first ''ready to perform on demand'' rating of his life to the documents of this young mage before even seeing what he had menaged to summon, surely with the amount of mana had and with how deep he was in the study of magic this man would perform far better than an 18 year old newbie mage that enrolled as an advanturer, surely this man would know enough combat related spells to take care of himself if he were to encounter any monster that a beginner level quest could throw at him. Surely, he had not greatly misjudged the stuation.
Now in the middle of the [Minute Summon] magic circle stood a truimphant yet exhausted Shalem with a small yellow mouth attached to a wrinkly yellow body and wide bat wings to make it fly, not much different from a parrot in function other than its ability to fly while wet and its serrated shark like teeth, was a Mouth of Sulfur. A relatively useful summon among the [Minute Summon]'s possibilites, if you were in need of a slight addition to your combat potential or a messenger that could repeat your words and mimic your voice.