Liam had not expected his parents surprising him with a small celebration. Afterall, they didn’t know if he would have been selected or not.
“What’s this?!”
A fragrant scent of roasted boar escaped from their small home. A couple of side dishes laid around the center meal.
“Of course it’s for you Liam! Congratulations!”
“That’s right, future climber of the tower!”
“But what if I didn’t get chosen?”
“This is a celebration for you honey, it doesn’t matter if you did or you didn't.”
“That’s right son. This is for you. You will always be our kiddo.”
Liam felt warm inside by his caring parents. “Mom! Dad!…I don’t know what to say!… Thank you! You guys are the best!”
“Kiddo, we feel the same about you! Alright! Let’s chow down! You have an exciting day tomorrow!”
The family of three laughed and enjoyed their celebration together. They shared stories late into the night of their adventures outside the walls. They went to bed with full bellies and warm hearts.
Liam got up early the next day and bid his parents farewell as they went on their foraging expedition outside the kingdom walls. His mother had prepared him some toast and eggs for breakfast, and Liam gobbled them down before leaving and locking the house.
Walking down the cobblestone path, the buildings of the area became better spaced out and more refined. The rich and powerful lived near the tower.
However, the elaborate buildings stopped in the distance. The destruction from the forbidden summon was still fresh. Broken buildings were still being removed by the guilds, busy restoring the area.
Liam shuddered at the rows of dead bodies slowly being taken away. Frozen faces horrified children like himself made him realize how close to death he was.
The Lazar Institute was nearby. Any closer, and it too would have been obliterated.
The area was the best kept in comparison to the other places of the kingdom, however, now it lay in ruins.
The poor had survived yesterday’s catastrophe due to them living closer to the walls, or at least their shabby buildings did anyway.
Liam walked up to the ornate fencing, marking the expansive boundaries of the Lazar Institute. Making his way to the open entrance, there were already busy movements of luxurious carriages, and lines of children and their parents moving in and out of the academy.
Walking through the gates, Liam was met with the scornful looks of the privileged class. A disaster destroyed the buildings, but the foundations and ingrained beliefs of society were still unshakable. The adults simply ignored his existence, while some of the entitled kids pointed and laughed at his clean but old and patched clothing.
Liam grew accustomed to the mocking and belittling of the higher classes. He ignored them and continued through the gates onto the long ornate slabs of stone. The path led to a series of enormous elaborately designed stone buildings off in the distance.
Straddling through the path, Liam was annoyed by the manicured green fields of grass and barren trees surrounding the buildings. Space was already limited within the walls of the kingdom. The slums especially so.
He thought that the land was better used for farming or creating housing. However, Liam’s thoughts or beliefs did not matter, the institute was impartial, and cared not about the plights of non-summoners.
Getting closer, Liam was directed to an open coliseum where the orientation took place. The introduction was fast and the students were quickly split into their new classes.
Everyone followed their new teachers through the stone structures to their large new classrooms for the next 6 years.
Standing on the bottom floor, a young woman looked around at the separated mix of poor and rich kids in her class. The poor and the rich congregated closer to those alike themselves amongst the gradual elevated seatings around the room.
The stern young woman, who was Liam’s new teacher, wasted no time and started right into lecturing.
“I am Gladia Maribell. You will call me Ms. Maribell. And only Ms. Meribell. We do not have time to tolerate any foolery, and punishment will be given immediately. 6 years may seem long for you all, however, I will tell you it will be over in a blink of an eye. Study hard, and enjoy the quiet and peaceful life you have now. You will miss it once you start climbing the tower.”
If Liam’s new teacher smiled she would have been rather beautiful. Her dirty blonde hair was tied into a tight bun, and her black clothes showed none of her womanly curves. The strict demeanor hid all her charm with a cold and ruthless aura.
“I will not do introductions. You will all find that 6 years is not enough to prepare you for the dangers of the tower and the outside world. You have all just experienced the destruction of the Dungeon Heathens. Need I say more?”
A cold silence further froze the room.
“You can introduce yourselves to each other during your lunch period.”
The students whispered around at the abrupt introduction and down-to-the-point mentality of their new teacher.
Clearing her throat, she ignored their small talk and kept her students focused on her lecture. She passed around blank notebooks and writing utensils.
“It would do you all well to take notes. You will find them saving your lives. I will not be enforcing anything in classes. You are responsible for your own learning.”
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She straightened her already vertical back as she prepared to get deeper into the core of her lecture. Some of the diligent students readied themselves to take down notes. The more privileged students lazed back, bored as they were hammered with the information long since they were younger.
Liam readied himself along with the other poorer students, not wanting to miss a single detail.
“As you all have experienced, the tower has shown you your soul palace’s capacity based on the color reaction when you touched the tower. These are the ratings:”
The teacher wrote the information on the board.
Low: red - yellow - orange :
Medium: bronze - green - blue :
High: purple - silver - gold :
A malnourished skinny boy raised his hand. “Teacher, can we increase our soul palace’s capacity?”
Ms. Maribell glared at the student. “I said only Ms. Maribell. Nothing else. I will forgive your first infraction, however, the next time you will be sent to clean the toilets.”
The poor student looked down and didn’t dare continue asking questions. Liam looked at the skinny boy in pity. He knew the boy, Luke, who lived close by his parent’s house.
Ms. Maribell somewhat consoled Luke.
“Regardless, your question was a good question. Each summoner is born with a predetermined capacity in their soul palace. You cannot change the capacity of your soul palace. Do not believe in lies and deceit of those selling you magical potions that will increase your soul palace’s capacities. You may die if you mess incorrectly with that which you don’t understand.”
Many students swallowed down their thoughts of increasing their soul palaces’ capacities.
“Some lucky individuals are endowed with larger soul palaces, while others are smaller. Such is the nature of the world.”
The boys and girls didn’t want to accept their reality, but they couldn’t do anything about it.
“Soul energy is circulated around your body and retained in your third eye. Your third eye connects to your soul palace. Within the soul palaces, soul houses are formed through the accumulation of origin energy. Soul palaces hold soul houses. Soul houses hold your summons that you contract.
Both the soul houses and soul palaces are very important. They determine the strength and power of a summoner.
The amount of soul houses able to be created inside a soul palace is determined by their innate capacities and how large they grow each soul house.
For example, on average, if a person with a medium capacity soul palace built average sized soul houses, they would be able to hold 10 soul houses inside their soul palaces. Thus they could contract 10 summons that fit within the 10 average soul houses. However, if they created larger soul houses, the other soul houses would be limited by the capacity left in the soul palace.
I can tell you now if you build average soul houses of equal sizes, this is how much you can have in total for the correlating capacity.”
The teacher wrote the information on the board.
Red - 6
Yellow - 7
Orange - 8
Bronze - 9
Green - 10
Blue - 11
Purple - 12
Silver - 13
Gold - 14
“Most individuals prefer to build a mix of large and medium soul houses able to hold a variety of summons. It would be rare to see a summoner with soul houses of all the same sizes.”
A finely dressed blonde hair girl raised her hand, she looked stunning but her blue eyes looked down on the patched clothes of her poorer peers. “Ms. Maribell,” an angelic voice fluttered in the air drawing everyone’s attention, “wouldn’t that mean those of us with high capacities would have more powerful summons?”
The teacher looked at the girl and made no facial reactions. She seemed to be neutral but she had faced her fair share of those who saw themselves as elites.
“Your logic is not wrong. However, there are infinite creatures and beings in the many expanses of creation. Some may surprise you or do better in certain situations. It is hard to say for each case, but in general, that is the accepted analogy.”
The girl puffed up her chest. The little confirmation was all she needed for her ego to inflate. Ms. Maribell ignored the pompous girl and continued.
“At the age of 16, when you all become adults, you will all take on the trial of the first floor of the Ivory Tower to obtain your primal summon. Every summoner has one soul house already created in the soul palace, which is called the primal. This soul house is unmodifiable, and therefore if your primal summon dies, you will be unable to re-summon another creature or being to fill that soul house. You can re-summon for your other soul houses should your summon die, but there are deep consequences.
The first trail of the tower will create a resonance with the infinite amount of supreme entities of all creation. With the entities you resonate with, you will be able to form contracts to summon their underlings, items, unique beings, or, in theory, even the entities themselves, but at a price.
The higher the prices paid, the stronger the summon you will get. However, in order to keep a strong summon you will need a larger soul house capable of holding them.”
Ms. Maribell looked around. “Any questions so far.”
A boy with a robust body in poor clothing raised his hand. “Ms. Maribell, how would we build a larger soul house?”
“Good question! What is your name, student?”
“I’m Reld Winters, Ms. Maribell!”
“Good! I will remember you, Reld!
Your question leads to the next part.
To build a soul house. You need to accumulate or use origin energy to make a basic copy of the soul house that came along with your soul place. You can keep adding origin energy to increase its size. However, be aware the size of your soul house will affect the others.
Origin energy is part of all creation. There are two main ways to accumulate origin energy.
1, taking the origin energy core through killing of other creatures, or 2, by pulling the ambient origin energy available in the atmosphere and all around using a breathing technique.”
A rare smile that looked more like a smirk filled Ms. Maribell’s face. “You’re all in luck, as the Lazar institute will provide you with a basic breathing technique!”
There was excitement and mumbling from the poorer kids, while the privileged kids were mocking them with scorn.
“Quiet down everyone! This next part is important!
You need origin energy to do many things!
First as we just discussed! In order to obtain more summons, you need to increase your soul houses.
Second! To increase the strength and abilities of your summons! You can also evolve them with the right conditions!
Even if you start with a low level summon, you can help them get stronger! Even to the point where they become just as intelligent and speak like us! There are drawbacks, but they can do much more and serve you better!
Remember there are many paths you can take. There are endless combinations you can form, but they all need origin energy and meet certain requirements to grow stronger!”