Chapter 19: Success!
In the blink of an eye, five days passed in the Summoner's Guild. Devotion had yet to successfully summon something, and he was starting to lose hope. He couldn't get expelled from the sect already! He had to successfully summon. He was about to head to the practice rooms again when a knock came on his door.
"Come in!" He called. The door opened, and Victor walked in, his blue eyes shining as usual. It wasn't uncommon that the two would work together and theorize, trying out new techniques. Victor was smarter than Devotion had given him credit for at first. Just wasn't the brightest when it came to street smarts.
"I've got it! Come, quickly, practice room, now!" Victor shouted, more excited than Devotion had ever seen him.
"How'd you do it?" Devotion asked as they both sprinted to the practice room.
"Well, I was thinking about the story you told me on how you summoned Ysmir, and realized that adrenaline fueled you, right? So, I figured, what if you got my adrenaline pumping, enough for me to call for a summon? So I went to the central fountain, and challenged another disciple to a duel. I waited for him to beat me up, then was able to summon! Now that I've done it once, I think I can do it at will!" Victor hastily explained. This kid was insane, Devotion thought to himself. It wasn't until that explanation that Devotion noticed he was covered in bruises and missing a few teeth.
They quickly rented a safe practice room, one capable of containing magic, and set up.
"Alright. This is where I need you to come in. Cast something on me." Victor panted, catching his breath from the sprint over.
"What?" Devotion could hardly believe it.
"I need the adrenaline to replicate it again. Record it with this photographic jade, then we can study it and try and replicate it at will!" Victor pushed a jade into Devotion's hand.
"Alright." Devotion said, pulling out the staff form of Ghostwhisper. He spoke the words of power, casting his signature fire bolt at Victor.
Victor seemed like he was about to let it hit him when he suddenly, almost on instinct, raised his hands and shouted words. Devotion recognized them as the summoning words they had learned in lectures. However, in his previous attempts, nothing would happen, but this time, a bright white sigil, similar to the one Ysmir came out of, appeared. A small, monkey like creature jumped out of it, slashing its arm across the attack and blocking it. With that, the summon vanished, its purpose served.
"You insane son of a bitch, it worked!" Devotion cheered. They had hope.
"Quickly! Check the jade, make sure you got it. Now we can study that footage! If we keep at it, we'll be able to summon at will in no time at all!" Victor was nearly leaping with excitement. This photographic jade was beyond valuable, it was their key to comprehension and staying within the sect!
The two of them spent several hours studying this footage, trying to replicate what had happened without the threat of death hanging over them. They almost lost hope once more, when Devotion finally succeeded!
On one of his attempts, he was especially angry. Having hope given to him and then taken away was aggravating, so his intent was especially fiery. Remembering Ghostwhisper's lessons on intent, Devotion decided to try and channel that anger into his intent.
"Summon, come to my aid!" He shouted, with an especially strong ferocity. The bright white sigil appeared, and a creature that resembled a monkey appeared. It followed Devotion's instructions, attacking the practice dummy, then vanishing.
"My god, you did it! How? What have we been doing wrong?" Victor exclaimed. His fiery conviction was restored once more.
"I channeled more emotions into my intent. I guess I was really pissed off that we couldn't get it, and it worked? I'm not really sure how I did that, to be honest. See if you can do it!" Devotion was still excited. Without even realizing it, he was pumping with adrenaline. He had figured out how to trigger that without danger!
Victor tried the same thing, succeeding after three tries! They had done it. Finally. The two of them made sure they could replicate it a few times before calling it a night, heading into their respective dorms to rest for the day. Tomorrow would be their examination to see if they could summon successfully, and therefore, stay in the sect. It was unimaginably important.
Both of them had relatively restful sleep that night, a huge weight now taken off their shoulders.
The next day came quickly. Devotion was surprised to see that a letter had been slipped under his door the previous night. He was about to open and read it when Victor knocked.
"Come on, it's time for examinations! We can't be late!"
Devotion quickly shoved the letter into his desk drawer. He'd read it later.
The two of them sprinted to the lecture hall, taking their seats just as it began.
"As you all know, today will be examination day, to see if you've made any progress. Those who fail to summon in three attempts will be immediately expelled from the sect. We must not waste our time on you. May I start with you?" Horatio explained, pointing at a student. Just like that, the examinations had begun.
This process took an excruciatingly long amount of time. After all, there were two thousand students needing to be tested, and each one took several minutes. At about the halfway point, only about four hundred students had passed, meaning over half were unable to continue. This really was a brutal selection process.
It wasn't too long before Victor's turn came. Devotion held his breath, hoping Victor would be able to replicate their experiment the night before. His stomach dropped when Victor failed the first attempt, then the second.
However, Devotion saw that spark in Victor's eyes, the one he had when he comprehended something. He nearly cheered when Victor successfully summoned that monkey-like creature once again, passing the examination.
After that came Devotion's turn. he wasn't sure why, but a part of him was very nervous.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone