More and more people poured into the training arena where the summoner test was taking place. Word had spread that a new top student had appeared that belonged to a lower noble house. This caused all of the black-uniformed students to be interested in seeing one of their own move up in social status. Also, the white uniforms were interesting in the new upstart.
Everyone murmured while they saw her walking out even more after they all realized that both the Vice Principal and the Principal were watching this test. This caused quite the uproar while also filling up the whole place with people. All eyes were on Beatrice, the young girl wasn’t taking the attention too well as she dropped her head so that others wouldn’t see her face.
‘This test is between summoned spirits, so just leave everything to me.’
There was more than summoning a battle spirit to a fight between Summoners. Each of these mages could also support their creature with attacking and buffing spells. They could lend more mana to the spirit that could then perform some specialized attacks. Also with time as a summoner’s mana capacity grew they could support more spirits.
Beatrice was facing a five-star summoner, this was someone at a quite advanced level. She on the other hand would be considered a one-star summoner after passing this test. So someone that wasn’t even a proper summoner was facing off against a master. Most instructors in this school were at the three-star level. Thus this was quite the event, it was obvious for the people in the stands that there had to be something special about this Beatrice Hohenberg.
‘Why is instructor Isilin here…’
Beatrice asked while her eyes went wide. She only now realized that the Principal and some high profile people from the academy were all here. Zhang Dong on the other hand knew that he was the reason that they were here. He had left a little shocking present in that Vice Principal’s soul that would be impossible to remove for anyone below the nascent soul level.
When that person invaded his realm he was able to exert the maximum of his cultivation realm on him. He expected the old fart to go to one of the powerful mages to remove this mark that he placed. He also was sure to make it jolt people with some lightning if it was prodded too much. It looked quite dangerous but the man wasn’t really in any danger of his soul being damaged. Zhang Dong just wasn’t that type of person but the people here didn’t know that. So this allowed him to play as an eccentric spirit.
‘They must be aware of my existence, probably just want to test the extent of my power.’
He replied while Beatrice bowed before the instructor. Zhang Dong was a bit worried about his summoner’s mana reserves but she should have enough for him to show himself and defeat a higher caliber of summon.
If he actually failed to defeat his opponent then Beatrice’s life could be in danger. Those people that were from the main house could get some stupid ideas. Which was also why he needed to make them at least think that he was more than even their strongest mage could handle.
“Begin.”
It was time to start, the Principal gave the okay for the bout to start and everyone looked into the ring. Instructor Isilin started to perform his summoning spell by reaching out with his hand forward. A large round magical circle appeared in front of him and after a moment a creature started rising from within it.
Beatrice noticed that this already looked a bit different from what she did when summoning her spirit. When she performed the summoning her hand only flashed slightly and then Leigong’s body parts appeared at a random location. There was no magic circle or anything he just popped out of nowhere instead.
Before she could think about it more, her gaze was drawn to the spirit that was emerging from the large magical circle. The first thing that she noticed was its face, it looked similar to what a toad or frog would look like. The toad-like mouth wasn’t without teeth, there were omnivore-like chompers stacked nicely together.
This creature was quite large, many times larger than a human. The body was prolonged and there were more than two sets of legs. It had three legs on each side, the feet had large claws that dug into the hard ground beneath. If Zhang Dong had to chime in, he would tell her that this creature looked like a cross between an alligator and a frog with a bonus set of legs to probably keep that large body moving.
“It’s Instructor Isilin’s Land Dragon! Didn’t think we'd get to see such a powerful summon spirit!”
“Isn’t that spirit a king class summon? Why would they use it on someone that isn’t even a one-star summoner?”
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People started chatting with each other while the large monster emerged. Its tail started wiggling about and smacking the ground that caused some tremors to go through this arena.
“Student Beatrice, please summon your spirit.”
It was finally time for the young girl to perform her summoning but with so many people watching her the only thing that she wanted to do was to run away. People started whispering some more after seeing her hesitate, some even started to laugh.
“Are you sure that girl can summon a spirit?”
“Maybe it's a tiny slime and she is ashamed to bring it out?”
The mocking voices filled the arena building while Beatrice started shrinking back, the only thing that brought her back into reality was the voice of her contracted spirit.
‘Beatrice, ignore those kids, they don’t know you. Just perform your summoning like you practiced and leave everything to me!’
The confident voice of Leigong made her finally snap back to reality. She soon moved her hand forward while concentrating. The mark on her hand started to glow in golden color while everyone quieted down.
People that were the most interested in the girl’s spirit were the Principal and the instructors. They all could already see that something was off, this spirit was unique. They could feel the mana energy around that summoning mark and it had a somewhat different quality than what a regular spirit should have.
This summoning was a bit different as Beatrice saw a golden ball of light appearing in front of her instead of the usual foot or hand. The audience started at the ball of light while narrowing their eyes while calling out loudly.
“Is that a Will-o'-Wisp? ...isn’t that at the same level as a slime?”
Before they could laugh out through something different happened, the ball of light exploded causing a massive burst of bright light to blind everyone in the vicinity. There was also a loud explosion-like sound akin to a thunderbolt connecting with a tree. Everyone covered their eyes and ears that were in a world of hurt.
“W-what happened...wait who is that there…”
The people started shouting in pain at first but after recovering everyone started pointing down to the arena. There before Beatrice stood a man. He was quite handsome with a chiseled jaw, rippling pecs, and shoulder long snow-white hair.
“W-why is he like that?”
“Cover your eyes!”
There he was, Zhang Dong in all of his glory and in a white loincloth. The people that were facking his backside could behold those stunning rear cheeks that were only partially hidden by a thin white material.
‘Mr. Leigong… where are your clothes…’
Beatrice blushed as she was the closest person to Zhang Dong. The only thing hiding that package was a tightly placed loincloth but the spirit that was summoned didn’t seem to mind, it was as if this was all going according to plan.
‘Well my little Beatrice, let me explain. You see, my godly clothes are made from very rare materials. When you summon me with them you use up too much mana, so if I want to appear fully I have to show up like this. But don’t worry, I don’t mind.”
Zhang Dong’s gear was all above the heavenly grade. When he tried to materialize in this world mana would be used up for those clothes to manifest. Thus the easiest way was to remove this problem and just use the smallest amount of fabric possible. He was mostly bare like this but with his enhanced body he didn’t really need armor.
This of course caused the young ladies in the audience to squeal. He was quite the handsome man and looked to be in his early twenties and in the prime of his life. The other people here could not contend with all this manliness before them.
“How did that girl summon such a vulgar looking spirit…”
“Yes… look at that jawline and all those muscles…”
“And look at that indecent appendage down there… it's grotesquely large!”
“Do you think I could form a contract with a similar spirit? Is it some kind of new summon creature?”
The men in the arena started looking at the women that were talking loudly. At first, it looked like they were angered by this human-looking spirit’s appearance but when continuing their true intentions shine through.
“Is that the spirit that put the mark on you?”
The dark elven woman asked the Vice Principal that was staring with eyes bulging at the half-naked man down in the arena.
“What? Ah yes, that was him… but he was wearing clothes… why is he almost naked?”
“I see...Instructor Isilin, please continue with the test!”
The Principal called out from the stands to the man performing the test. He was also stunned by the humanoid spirit that was before him as they were a rare breed. With a wave of his hand, he gave an order to his Land Dragon. The creature gave out a loud howl before charging towards this peculiar looking summon.
Zhang Dong squatted down while not really paying attention to the charging monster. He scooped up some sand from the ground and let it fall through his fingertips.
“Finally, I can interact with this world normally…”
After removing most of his clothes he was finally able to bring his entire body into this world. If he didn’t use up too much of his spiritual energy he would be even able to walk around without Beatrice’s mana running out too fast.
‘Great Spirit… t-the Land Dragon…’
Beatrice sent him a massage while he was spacing out. He looked forward and could see a huge alligator-frog bolting toward his position. The monster’s head was larger than his whole body, it could swallow him whole if it wanted to.
“Don’t need to worry, it’s but a tiny amphibian reptile.”
He replied while slamming his arms into the ground before him. Zhang Dong remained in place with both his hands stuck in the dirt. Before the creature could get into biting distance he made his move.
Zhang Dong stood up while pulling the ground in front of him upwards. It looked as if he was flipping a table but instead of a table, it was a big chunk of the arena that the creature was standing on.
The people in the audience went slack-jawed as they saw the smaller humanoid spirit flip half of the arena with the Land Dragon standing on that part. The creature was tossed back with the huge chunk of ground and rock falling on top of it, burying it in the process.
“See? Nothing to worry about!”
Zhang Dong laughed out loud while looking back at Beatrice that also had a strange expression of astonishment on her face.
“I… I see…”