Chapter 18: Welcome to the Summoner's Guild

Devotion groggily woke up the following morning. He yawned, taking a proper bath for the first time in ages and pulling on his new violet robes. He took a deep breath and headed over to the lecture hall Horatio had shown him the day before.

Stepping inside, Devotion found himself in an immense room, much larger than it appeared on the outside. Countless seats surrounded a center stage, where Horatio was currently standing. He nodded to Devotion, motioning for him to take a seat.

There were a total of two thousand seats within this hall, and every one of them was filled within a few minutes. Devotion never expected to see this many cultivators, all in one place. It was almost overwhelming. He really had been a frog at the bottom of a well. His eyes were now open to the world of Immortals.

"Welcome, all of you, to the Summoner's Guild: Wanchen Branch! While I've met quite a few of you, for those of you I haven't had the pleasure, my name is Horatio. I am one of the many professors present here, and I will be teaching you some of the basics of Conjuration. By the end of the week you should all be capable of a fodder summon, the most basic of them all. Any who fail to achieve this will be removed from the sect." Horatio paused as the entire building sucked in a cold breath. That was a truly brutal selection process. He continued: "Our sect works a little differently than most. We focus on instruction, but disciples must also pay back the sect to stay in. As such, there are missions you can partake in for the sect. Each of these missions will offer rewards, and can be done either in a group or alone. I highly recommend you complete some in your time here. They will give you field experience, as well as materials to improve your cultivation. Now, with that out of the way, let us begin our Conjuration basics..."

After explaining everything, Horatio immediately launched into his lecture. Devotion struggled to keep up at first. After all, magic was still very new to him. After a while, he was able to keep pace, but Devotion knew right away that he would have to work very hard at this to stay in the sect. This was not going to be nearly as easy as he thought.

The lecture went for about two hours. Devotion had learned a lot of new information that he would really have to think about when he returned to the dorm. He was just thinking about going to even rent a practice room when someone tapped his shoulder. Devotion quickly turned around, coming face to face with another outer rank disciple, roughly his age. The disciple was a slightly shorter man, with brown hair and a freckled face.

"Excuse me, I couldn't help but notice that you already have a summon. May I ask how you did that? I'm new to this." The disciple asked. He seemed to be especially timid. "Oh! My name is Victor, by the way."

"I'm Devotion. And to answer your question, I'm not exactly sure how I summoned Ysmir here. I was in a pinch, called for help, and it appeared. I owe it my life." Devotion explained. While he was leaving out details, he wasn't entirely lying. he still wasn't exactly sure how he had summoned Ysmir, only that he somehow had.

"Wow! You both have such cool names." Victor responded. This boy was way to excited, Devotion thought to himself. At least someone liked the names Devotion had chosen.

"Well, if you figure out how to actually summon something intentionally, could you let me know? I'd like to exchange notes with you sometime. I'm in Room 617." Victor explained, his blue eyes shining. It was almost comical, how bright his blue eyes were in contrast to his very dark hair color.

"Ah, we're neighbors! I'm in 618. I'd be happy to share notes, maybe we could go on missions once we're more experienced, too." Devotion responded. "For now, I'm going to head on over to rent a practice room. I have some stuff I want to try out. See you around." With that, Devotion turned around. It was nice to have at least one ally here. You never know what trouble you could get up to in a place like this.

Devotion watched Victor leave, then headed over to the practice rooms. He thought for a second about this Victor fellow. He was a nice guy, sure, but Devotion feared he was a little too nice and excited about everything. That blind trust and naivety could wind up disastrous for him if he wasn't careful. Devotion decided he'd have to help teach that lesson to Victor.

Making his way to the practice room, Devotion got there quickly and rented one out for an hour. He had a couple theories that he wanted to try after that lecture. Devotion spent the entire hour trying out different techniques, praying one of them would work for a fodder summon, as the professor, Horatio, had called it.

Unfortunately for Devotion, none of these worked. He needed more practice than he thought. Even with his high aptitude, he was unable to summon after an hour of attempting.

"Fuck! It really is this difficult. No wonder Ghostwhisper couldn't teach me anything about summoning. He probably knows less than I do about Conjuration at this point." As Devotion was ranting to himself, his time in the practice room ran out. He headed back to the dorm, ready to turn in for the day. He'd have to keep trying at it if he wanted to stay in this sect.

Little did Devotion know, someone was tailing him. An undercover member of the Mechanism Sect, disguised as an outer sect disciple, silently followed behind Devotion as he headed to his dorm. Seeing him close the door at number 618, this disciple cheered to himself. That promotion would be his! He quickly headed back to the Mechanism Sect, ready to report this finding to the sect leader.

"Ah, this is wondrous news indeed! Congratulations, my dear boy, you will be promoted at once! Room 618... I'll have to send him a letter myself!" The taller man, head of the Mechanism Sect said to himself.

comment 0 comment

Vote

SEND GIFT

Load failed, please RETRY