The sound of a snap of fingers tore through the dark expanse, and once again Liam appeared in the massive hall of the first floor of the tower.

“Welcome back summoners! It is rare we have a 100% success rate amongst all candidates acquiring a summon. Congratulations!

You are all now official climbers!

You have finished the first floor and your first trial! We recommend you return and adjust to your new found powers and summons.”

Lady Gwendell looked around smiling, but she spent a bit too long at Liam and drew his attention.

He was surprised the beautiful woman focused on him. The last words he heard from the unknown entity made him think Lady Gwendell purposely cut their conversation short.

Noticing her actions, she refocused and concluded the annual event as she dismissed everyone.

Looking at the backs of the new climbers as they left. She whispered to herself, seeing Liam’s back as he exited the door of the tower.

“Why did that one find interest in that young man with low potential? It makes no sense. I’ll have to report this.”

Liam exited the Ivory Tower with his classmates, now all officially summoners and climbers of the tower. The large group separated as they went back to their respective teacher.

Seeing Liam, Luke enthusiastically ran up to him, patting his shoulder.

“Hey Liam! Guess what I got?!”

“A hairy bear?”

“What?! If I got a hairy bear then did you get a hairless monkey?”

Liam laughed and shrugged. “You said to guess.”

“You suck at guessing. Let me show you! Come forth! Sardonia!”

The space in front of Luke cracked, and white light glowed around the expanding tear. A large charging black-scaled rhino slammed its powerful feet on the ground, shaking the surroundings.

“She’s so cool right! Look at that thick dense black scale-armor. You see the sheen on those thick horns! They’d rip flesh and leave gaping holes! And she’s just a baby! Wait until I power her up. I’ll conquer this tower in the name of Lady Gwendell!”

Liam looked jealously at his friend's powerful-looking summon.

“What about you?! Show me what you got!”

Liam was kind of embarrassed, and looked away at the floor.

Ordinance’s voice popped into his mind.

“Master, I am unable to be manifested as such. Even if I did, only you could see the notification window. With the current capabilities of your fellow peers, they would not be able to see me.”

“Wait. No way. Really!!? Is that true!!?”

“Yes master. I do not have a physical form. I am not capable of combat.”

Liam was crestfallen. A summoner unable to summon out their contracted creature was looked down heavily upon.

“Can you talk to them then?”

“Master, I advise not to currently. From my undamaged memories, new summons are rarely sentient enough to speak. I advise it would be best to lay low.”

Liam was bummed and disappointed at his circumstances, but knowing the fact that other new summons couldn’t speak and that Ordinance could, made him feel a bit better.

“Master, I recommend using the system ability, “analyze,” to identify the creature. I am not sure if the creature’s information will show, seeing how some of the data has been damaged.

However, we can create new data and store it within the memory if we can find the correct information. Would you like to try to analyze the creature with the viable data currently working in memory?”

Liam was starting to be intrigued. Although Ordinance could not be summoned out, he started to wonder what more Ordinance was capable of doing.

“Yes. Let’s see what “analyze” can do.”

“Acknowledged.” A blue window screen appeared.

Ding!

System Ability: Analyze

Name: Sardonia

Stage: 1

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Species: Mammal - Rhino

Subspecies: Earth Dragon

Stats:

Strength: 10

Agility: 6

Dexterity: 8

Intelligence: 4

Willpower: 7

Aligned elements:

Earth: 4

Metal: 8

Darkness: 7

Skills:

Stone spires stage 1

Blitz charge stage 1

Earth barrier stage 1 (hidden)

Shadow bind (locked) requires stage 3

Metallic overlay (locked) requires stage 5

?

Evolution paths / Ratings:

Elephant Rhino / 3 star

Shadow Rhino / 4 star

Mutated Metallic Earth Dragon / 6 star

?

Liam stared unblinking at the blue popup window. To Luke, it looked like his friend was mesmerized by his powerful summon. He smirked at Liam.

“Hey. You better not fall in love with Sardonia too! You’ll be heartbroken because you can’t have her!”

“What! I’m not in love with your half Rhino summon!”

“Ha! Sure looked like it to me! And what do you mean half rhino?”

“Well isn’t she? She has those dark scales. She’s probably descended from something else.”

“Hahaha! You’re going to be really jealous now! I made a contract with a powerful dragon! Sardonia is part of its clan! She’s a dragon!”

“…YOU GOT A CONTRACT WITH A DRAGON? HOW?!” Liam got really excited. He ignored that Luke’s summon barely looked anything like a dragon. Luke puffed up his chest.

“See how awesome I am!? I’m already on my way to conquering this tower!”

“Yea, yea. But how? How’d you do it?”

“…Resonance? I’m not entirely sure. The dragon said I have destiny with it.”

“That’s it?” Liam sighed. He felt like had no luck or destiny. Noticing his friend’s downcast mood, Liam changed the subject.

“What about your summon? Show me!”

“Oh…well….I uh…it can’t be summoned out…”

“…no… are you sure!? But you had a mid level soul palace! You could have gotten at least an average summon! How could there be an average summon who can't be summoned out! That shouldn’t be!”

Everyone around heard Luke’s shouting. Unrestrained disdain and almost disgust was displayed on their faces.

Drawn in by the commotion, Ms. Maribell appeared.

“Put away your summon this instant, Luke! And though your friend there may have a middle level soul capacity, size does not determine anything. This should be a good lesson to all of you.”

After making Liam’s inabilities an example for everyone else, she continued to reprimand Liam. She detested failures, and to her, Liam was the worst, a failed summoner. She pointed accusingly at Liam.

“And you, you Dysfunctional! You need to try even harder! Your first summon is useless, but lucky for you, there are still some chances with your next summons.”

Liam felt horrible. He also felt wronged. He complained in his head, but didn’t dare say it out loud.

“But it wasn’t even my fault! Nothing else was willing to make a contract!”

Ordinance’s voice spoke in his head.

“Master. It is probably due to your affinities affected by your unique constitution. That is why you and I were compatible. Also probably why that being from the cosmos was also interested.”

“My unique constitution? How does it make me compatible with you but not the others?”

“All of creation is formed from 10 elements, and therefore all creations have an affinity with the elements. Some may have more or less, but they all have an affinity to at least one element. However, there are unique existences that don't have any, such as yourself. There are many theories, but I am not sure why master does not have an affinity.”

“Then why are you compatible with me?”

“Because master. I do not have any affinity.”

“So are you one of the unique existences you were talking about?”

“Not completely. I am not part of creation, so I suppose that makes me a unique existence. However, most unique beings are like yourself, made from creation. I was not made by creation.”

“What do you mean? What made you then?”

“I do not remember clearly, master. The data has been damaged, and some have been erased or corrupted. I require large amounts of origin energy and chaos energy to repair the damaged memory.”

A shriek broke Liam's and Ordinance’s telepathic conversation.

“Are you listening to me Liam! This is why you’re a failure! How can you learn if you can’t even listen?! How do you expect to grow if you can’t even do the basics!? Liam! You will be punished with cleaning the entire library! I want every book dusted! You will not graduate from the academy tomorrow until you finish!”

Fuming, she looked away towards the others.

“Let that be a lesson to all of you! You better listen well! Report for your graduation ceremony tomorrow at the coliseum grounds! We will see the special abilities you obtained from your contracts and summons! The guilds will be observing and recruiting new members. If you were not preselected, you have the option of applying for the other positions such as being a rotating guard.”

Ms. Maribell glared back at Liam.

“And you Liam! You will clean the library after your applications with the guilds! I will hold you back if you dare to skip! Class dismissed!”