Mike tried to concentrate on every aspect of the spell as it began to take shape. Once the mana stored in the scroll reached a certain point, it began humming in a vaguely lodic manner for about thirty seconds before the ink began to burn with a purplish fla. A small magic circle appeared on the ground in front of him, and a misty shape started to take form.
Madeline took a mont to explain the scroll as the creature appeared. "Since you are probably new to the magic world, let give you an introduction to scrolls. They are a type of one-use magic item that uses a specially crafted ink to encode both the chant and the mana required to cast a spell, only needing a small amount of mana to activate it. While this ans that almost anyone can use scrolls, there are a few downsides to them. They take a long ti to fully cast, are entirely limited to the amount of power incorporated into it at the ti of its creation, and are slightly expensive to make. The ink used for the Scrivening of scrolls is composed of monster cores collected from dungeons. Hm, it looks like your summon is about to appear."
The form eventually coalesced into a small reptilian shape that was vaguely reminiscent of Audra, but with several key differences. It had a mottled blue and yellow hide, with a chaotic pattern of spikes running along its spine. Instead of forelegs, it had two folded wings that it walked on, in a manner that reminded Mike of the vargulf. Once fully ford, it raised its head, stretched its wings and gave a high pitched cry. As it did so, there was a crackle of electricity along its body.
"Oh! A lightning drake! How fascinating." Madeline clapped excitedly. She pulled out a clear crystal disk and started looking through it at the drake. Seeing Mike's questioning glance, she explained. "This is a Summoner's Lens. It lets us evaluate the type, power, and affinity of things brought into existence by summoning magic. Looks like you have multiple affinities."
Mike waited for her to continue.
"You definitely have the dragon affinity, no question of that. Which ans you can summon a whole multitude of reptilian and draconic creatures. Congratulations. But it also looks like you have so elental affinity, as well. Fire and Air at the very least, judging from the drake's elental composition, but I suspect you might just happen to have a general elental affinity, which opens up a ton of options!"
Madeline was obviously very excited about this discovery, even Carol was looking a little jealous, as she concentrated on her own scroll. There was a repeat of the humming and the purple fla, and another magic circle appeared in front of her.
From it erged a grey colored rabbit the size of a large dog. A single straight horn grew from the center of its head. Madeline took a second to evaluate it with her lens.
"A Horned Rabbit! Very good, Carol. It looks like you the beast affinity, with a focus on mammalian creatures. With this you will be able to conjure a wealth of combat ready monsters with a fair amount of flexibility. Assuming you practice, you could beco a powerful adventurer or even knight. Congratulations as well."
Carol nodded happily, but there was a twinge of unease in her face.
There was a pop as the conjured drake vanished, evidently reaching the end of its ti. Mike took a few monts to examine his [Status] and seeing the new entry there, turned to the instructor. "Ma'am what should we do to practice once our skills are unlocked?"
"Summoning Magic is a lot like Arcane Magic in the sense that it cannot be free casted with any degree of reliability. There are simply too many variables that are dealt with through a chant. Ordinarily, new students wouldn't be allowed to use chants in class until they have been approved to do so, but we do have special dispensation to do so.." She looked at the pair of eager faces before sighing.
"I'll teach you two basic chants, on one condition. Promise you'll only practice them here, when I'm around."
They both nodded their agreent.
She started by repeating the chant she had used for conjuring the stools. Mike listened again, trying to burn it into his mory. Hopefully, he wouldn't forget it.
"You'll probably be a little more excited about this next one, Conjure Minor Creature. It will let you conjure a small and fairly weak monster, usually related to your affinity, but you can try to force a different result if you so choose. Now, listen carefully."
She cleared her throat and stood in what Mike had co to recognize as the orthodox 'chanting pose,' with back straight and chest thrown forward, "I call to thee from beyond the veil, take the shape of my desires and bring forth my will. [Conjure Minor Creature]"
A circle appeared in front of her, and a short humanoid figure appeared. A cruel looking, rat-like face with a mouthful of teeth grimaced at the three of them with undisguised hatred. It was dressed in ragged clothes, and holding a sharpened bit of tal in one hand, which it waved around aggressively.
With a slightly disappointed sigh, Madeline explained. "This is a Lesser Gremlin, one of the least powerful mbers of the Fae. When you get a little farther down the path of the summoner, there are higher level chants which will conjure more potent creatures. Nevertheless, it's a good place to start."
Excited to try it out for himself, Mike began mumbling the chant. Sothing about the words didn't feel quite right, so he subconsciously altered it a bit. "I call for thee from beyond veil of reality. Clothe thyself in the form of my desires and carry out my will. [Conjure Minor Creature]"
Mike had a second to regret his hasty decision, as he felt a massive amount of mana leave him, nearly driving him to his knees with fatigue. A huge circle of runes took shape, filling much of the space in the pavilion. The air humd and crackled with barely contained energy as a giant shape began to take form, pushing Killian and his small pile of stools out of the way.
[I might have been a bit too zealous.]
With an earsplitting roar, a draconic creature erged from the circle. It stood on four clawed legs, and stretched a pair of wide leathery wings, brushing the roof of the pavilion with their easily 40m spread. Crimson scales coated its flanks and back, turning into a softer, yellowish color along its underside. Two pairs of slightly curled horns rose from the crown of its head, just above its ruby-colored eyes which were fixed on Mike expectantly. With a slight rumble, it blew out a breath of air as hot as a blast furnace.
Mike heard a clatter behind him, and glanced back to see that Carol had collapsed, evidently fainting from the shock. Madeline, however, was absolutely thrilled, and started peppering him with all kinds of questions.
"Is that a Lesser Fla Dragon?! This is amazing! How did you summon one with that kind of chant? What is your secret?" She yelled while shaking him excitedly.
[That's only a LESSER Fla Dragon? How big are these things supposed to get?] Mike wondered absently if he needed to worry about Audra becoming too big to even fit into the city.
"Well, I think I mixed a few of the words up during the casting process. As soon as I finished I felt a massive drain on my mana reserves, and then it took form." He replied, still giving the dragon an eye. He wondered if he could...
-----------------------------
Unnad
Age: 0
Race: Lesser Fla Dragon
Class: Conjured Dragon
Title: None
------------------------------
[Well, I guess that answers that.]
"So, how do I get it to do sothing? Will it understand it if I just speak?"
Madeline took a break from her inquiries to answer his question, "Conjured creatures are essentially a manifestation of your mana. As such, you simply have to apply your will to get them to take action. Called creatures are an entirely different story, however. Anyway, you said you ssed up the chant? Do you rember what you changed? This could be a major discovery!"
Frowning slightly, Mike reached out with his mind and tried to control the dragon. There was a slight hesitation as the red-scaled monster blinked, then it turned its head towards an unoccupied section of the pavilion, took a deep breath, and launched a cone of intense fla.
"Aweso! It really did listen to ." He celebrated briefly, before realizing his mistake as the fire traveled past the edge of the stone floor and set alight a few of the trees nearby.
[Crap! Crap! Crap!] He quickly concentrated his will and, reaching out with one hand, extinguished the fire before it had a chance to spread too far.
He sighed in relief once the danger had passed, but noticed that silence had descended on the pavilion. Looking around he realized that both Madeline and Killian were staring at him. Carol was still unconscious.
"Mike? Did you just use Elental Magic?" Madeline asked hesitantly.
"Well.yeah. I'm primarily an Elental Mage. I only took this class because I was interested in it."
"Is that even possible?" Killian asked quietly to no one in particular.
"That..is....incredible! I haven't heard of anyone besides really powerful Tier 4 mages or Heroes being able to do that. You must have a really potent class." Madeline was gushing again.
Mike took a mont to glance through his [Status] and confirm the two skills he had gained.
- Basic Summoning Magic (Tier 1, Rank 2)
The most basic form of Summoning Magic. It allows users access magic skills for the three primary forms of Summoning Magic: Conjuration, Calling, and Binding. Higher levels of skill provide a bonus on mana efficiency and potency. This is a Prerequisite and Limiter skill for all other Summoning Magic skills.
- Basic Conjuration (Tier 1, Rank 2)
The most basic form of Conjuration Magic. Allows the user to conjure objects and creatures based on ntal images, summoning them into existence for a limited duration. Higher levels of skill improve mana efficiency.
[I guess that ans I need to work on Calling and Binding skills now. Although, I wonder if Bind Familiar counts for that.]
A hot breath on the back of his head reminded him that there was still a very large dragon sitting in the middle of the pavilion, crouching slightly to avoid damaging the roof.
Rather than answering Madeline's implied question, he asked one of his own. "So, how long are these conjured creatures supposed to stick around for?"
She puffed her cheeks out at him for his diversion, but answered nonetheless. "Normally they vanish within a few minutes depending on how much mana you invest into the spell when casting it. Now that you ntion it, this guy has been sticking around longer than I would expect for a summon of his size."
The dragon looked between the two of them before settling down on its haunches in an almost cat-like manner. It didn't seem to be going anywhere soon.
[This might be a problem.]
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