"Huff"

"Huff"

A young man panted slowly.

His deep black eyes looked around as he finally straightened up from a crouching position.

"I made it just in time," he said between short breaths and to no one in particular.

While he tried straightening, something suddenly bumped him from behind, nearly pushing him off his feet.

He staggered forward and gritted his teeth but before he could torch the bastard with his slur words.

The individual responsible was already in the building and all he caught was their back and the grey shirt they wore.

"Bastard." He cursed before taking a slow breath to calm himself.

Adjusting himself, he took a few steps forward with his chin raised and eyes focused, he finally entered the poorly constructed building.

The slanted two storey building paled in comparison to his former life, where there were skyscrapers and towers that reached the sky.

But in a world that had survived one apocalypse. This building was an antique. A proof that the worst had passed. A proof that life was still worth living, even in the worse times.

"Mehn... this shit is actually real," he spoke while still in disbelief.

He had arrived here only three days back. After going through the most pathetic death he could imagine.

He sighed and shook his head.

’Even the final destination producers would reject that script.’

And it seemed even fate rejected such a demise as well.

To think he was only getting some beer to watch the super bowl when he slipped off Ash’s pee, hit his head on a counter and boom...another life.

As tragic as it was, it was even more annoying when he thought about it.

People died to truck kun, zombie kun or at least getting shot but slipping off pee?

He rubbed his face with both hands.

’ohhh Ash.. we have a lot to talk about if I ever get back, you naughty dog.’

He shook his head again and made his way into the waiting area of the building.

This building was where the summoning ceremony for all middle schoolers who hadn’t fully summoned yet, was being held.

He looked around and it all made sense at first glance.

Usually, keeping up with a new world should have been harder than this. Probably would have been. If the previous owner of this body hadn’t left his memories behind like a starter pack in a game.

Dying left little to be thankful for, but not being confused about being called Dean again, even in another world, was something he would have to say a prayer of gratitude for.

<><><>

The moment he walked from the waiting area into the main hall, the walls went from moist to dry as the air felt like he had walked into the Sahara desert.

This contradiction was another of the many things he had noticed in this new world. It was as if each area was peculiar and not connected to one another.

Gasps and screams filled the room.

They came from hundreds of young adults and some older veterans circling around something or was it someone?

It was a fiasco of sorts, and the origin seemed to be a kid with short blonde hair and piercing blue eyes.

He came down from a platform with his shoulders high and a pleased smile on his face.

He didn’t get a chance to enjoy the attention too much when a dry and coarse voice called out to silence the fiasco. "Leonard Dryren."

Dean’s eyes followed the voice to its origin at the podium.

A bald and stern looking man with the expression of an over-worked civil servant stood at the podium.

Above the podium was a platform that glowed purple from the illumination of gems on its floor, while massive voodoo like circles hovered over and below the hanging platform.

There was also a transparent monolith at the centre of the platform.

’Yeah, that is some dark magic shit and it was exactly what killed me.’

Dean shook his head. Pointing a finger to himself.

’i mean him..’

He was talking about the previous owner of this body. The boy had forgotten the warning. Do not try this at home or at school and lost his life while forcibly attempting to awaken a third summoning alone.

He might have been a tough lad from what his memories suggested. But being stubborn for this seventeen year old was more literal than anyone would believe.

Swoosh..

A cold chill suddenly drifted through the room causing the hairs of everyone present to stand at attention as Leonard stood above what seemed like a crab on steroids.

Powerful clicking sounds that came from its pinchers swept the room, as the crab moved in and around the platform with the 5’6 tall Leonard perched on its large head. He wore a grey shirt. A shirt that Dean recognized.

"Hmmm," Dean muttered under his breath as the shells of the crab gleamed in the purple light of the gems.

Even as the Monolith began to glow purple as well.

"An Epic class, desert crab..," the bald man read out from a device that looked like a glowing crystal compass.

"Epic Class?" Dean repeated. ’That means-’

"I’m so jealous..," a female voice cut through his forming thoughts.

"Still useless," a male voice countered with obvious contempt.

It wasn’t new news that the ability to summon something good in this world was basically the receipt of your worth.

A familiar at Epic was the baseline of reasonable and useful. Below that was Common Class, which was exactly where this body’s first two familiars had landed.

Familiars at Common class meant you were just a way to keep population stable and nothing else.

With Epic, at least you can do the bare minimum and be useful to society in one way or another.

Above Epic, was Ascended class, then Sovereign, and Mythic, with the rarest and most powerful of familiars been called Calamities.

Basically, you go from manageable to being god in that order.

Most summoners that join academies or fight to prevent extinction were usually from High -Epic to High -Ascended.

Anything above Ascended was considered spectacular.

Roughly speaking. The body he was in, had died trying to skip several of these steps.

But Dean couldn’t entirely blame him. Imagine not just summoning one but two common class familiars.

Dean was about to wallow in this body’s misfortune even more, when a trailing voice pulled him back to reality.

"Gray..."

"Dean...Gray,"

"Thats me," his eyes snapped up even as his heart began pounding for no reason.

"Get up here!" the bald man ordered.

Approaching the platform, Dean finally got a good look at the man.

’Yeah, that’s Mr Cruff for sure...’ His memories bled out, even as his jaw tightened.

The man was a teacher in his middle school and was probably hired to do this event.

He passed through the crowd that naturally opened up, as he approached and climbed up the stairs while eyes followed him like he was a celebrity.

"Place your hand on the Monolith and open your mind to the flow of verge,"

Mr Cruff spoke more softly now. Almost like he wasn’t going to get paid if Dean or any other student somehow messes this up.

"Alright.." Dean responded.

Closing his eyes. He tried to get accustomed to the feeling. This wasn’t a new sensation, at least to this body.

’Open up to the verge,’ he quietly chorused in his mind but after thirty seconds nothing happened.

Dean opened his eyes, his left hand still on the monolith, but nothing else was happening.

’Yeah, you’re indeed broken goods,’ he cursed inwardly while looking at his body.

The silence that followed after a minute, settled as expectation slowly drained from the room until nothing was left.

The murmuring began behind him, but every time he seemed to move or attempt to turn, they stopped.

"It seems I don’t have a third familiar," Dean spoke flatly, while his hand squeezed hard on the monolith.

He resigned to his fate even as cruff nodded with that hairless head, he had a look that Dean couldn’t just place yet.

’Is he happy I failed?’ Dean wondered.

He was trying to take his hand off the transparent monolith when he felt his entire body jerk and then pinned in place.

"What the?" He grimaced, but before he fell further into confusion, the air crackled like lightning had tip-toed into the room.

A surge of red energy emerged out of nowhere, causing a shockwave that pushed his medium-length hair aside, spreading to cover the whole building.

The Monolith suddenly sucked back the red energy after about twenty seconds, causing a rainbow-like glow that shot upwards with immense force that would’ve pushed Dean away if he wasn’t pinned in place.

Dean’s eyes followed the trail of light as something emerged from behind it, descending slowly.

"What is that?" A voice asked from the back.

Dean himself had no answer. And just watched as a slime-like familiar landed on the top of the monolith beside his hand.

He stared blankly at the slime.

It wobbled.

Dean waited for it to roar. Or transform. Or at least look threatening.

It just wobbled again.

’Great,’ he thought.

"I got jelly."

A/N: if you are enjoying the story, please add to Library.