Rise of the

  Weakest Summoner

  Volume 1

  J. R. Saileri

  Disclaimer

  Copyright © 2021 by Saileri / J. R. Saileri

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form possible without permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover character by BenzBT.

  Background image by Batorasama.

  Typography by MikeWe.

  Edition: 24.09.2021

  Acknowledgements

  First of all, to my lovely supporters from Patreon, who decided, for whatever reason, to honor me with their presence, often sharing kind words, comments and feedback, besides the obvious financial support. I love you all guys and girls! Even if I started writing just for fun, you are now partially my reason to keep improving further and further!

  And from that incredible, supporting family, I want to specifically mention my S-rank backers—Magiwarrior, Chicken Adobo, Kevin Y., Soen Kigi, Fandley and Skyell. Especially you, Magiwarrior. You’ve been with me since pretty much the first month of my Patreon, silently watching over my stories basically from their first chapters. Godspeed to you man. Over twelve months and counting. Insane.

  Of course, I can’t forget another patron of mine—Termac. Since the day you’ve joined, you keep relentlessly pointing out mistakes in my chapters, release after release. I appreciate that so, so much. I hope this little mention will show at least a little bit of my gratitude.

  Moving off this long Patreon-train, I can’t not bring up my best friend—Peres. Even though I’m sure it’s annoying at times, I can always count on you when a random word that I need suddenly decides to run away from my chaotic mind. Your help in catching it is very much appreciated.

  Last but not least, to all the readers that follow my works, and to You, who reached for this book. I can never fathom how thousands of people are following me on these various fantasy journeys. Thank You for giving this story a chance. Many of you might not be aware of how anxious an author can get about their own writing. But, just the thought of making someone enjoy a good time even for a brief moment is something incredible. I hope you all will never run out of good books to read!

  CONTENTS

  Foreword

  Chapter 1 The Weakest One

  Chapter 2 Practical Exam

  Chapter 3 The Mysterious Stranger

  Chapter 4 Werepanther

  Chapter 5 Memorial and Contract

  Chapter 6 Fast as the Wind

  Chapter 7 Rank Evaluation

  Chapter 8 Meeting with the Guildmaster

  Chapter 9 Betrayed By Her Own Mind

  Chapter 10 Nothing Ever Goes As Planned

  Chapter 11 A Wager

  Chapter 12 Infinite Storage

  Chapter 13 Into the Den

  Chapter 14 Bloodfang

  Chapter 15 Out of Time

  Chapter 16 The Source

  Chapter 17 A Moonlit Bath

  Chapter 18 Return

  Chapter 19 The Trial

  Chapter 20 Getting Better Together

  Chapter 21 Controversial Theory

  Chapter 22 Mother’s Quest

  Chapter 23 Goblin Crossing

  Chapter 24 A Dinner For Two

  Chapter 25 Love and Dungeons

  Chapter 26 Collar Up

  Chapter 27 Into the Dungeon

  Chapter 28 Strong Convictions

  Chapter 29 Learning From Mistakes

  Chapter 30 Two Sides of the Same Coin ♥

  Chapter 31 Towards a Better Future

  Afterword

  What’s next?

  Where to find me?

  More stories like this

  Foreword

  Yo! Saileri here! Just wanted to throw in a few words before we dive into the book. Also, a huge thank you for deciding to give my novels a try!

  This story was written in the form of a web novel published on the Internet, which sometimes slightly differs in reading experience from what the usual books offer. Such stories are often long-going, with hundreds of relatively short chapters, and a similar situation takes place here. While containing a lot of events and character development, this first volume barely scratches the tip of the iceberg, serving as an introduction to the characters, world, and its rules. There’s a lot of fun stuff coming. You can be sure about that.

  This book features a single chapter containing adult-themed content and it’s marked with a heart symbol in its title. Its second half can potentially be skipped without losing too much, besides some more insight into the characters.

  Also, as no one in the world, I’m not perfect, so if you happen to stumble on any mistakes, feel free to bash me on the head about them in my Discord server. There’s a dedicated channel for that there. I don’t have a professional editor but I do get my writing checked by a few friends, and myself, of course, so there shouldn’t be many.

  Without further ado, enjoy!

  Chapter 1

  The Weakest One

  No! Get away! a young man thought to himself while running for his life from a gigantic shadowy creature.

  It resembled a bear fused with a Griffon and was intent on catching the human squirming in front of its eyes. No matter how fast the man ran, the vast forest he was making his escape through seemed like an endless maze, without any light of hope shining through the dense upper branches of the spooky trees.

  As he dashed desperately, he stumbled over tree roots many times, giving his pursuer more and more chances to catch up to him. Almost completely exhausted, he didn’t want to just give up.

  He had never ever gave up in his life. Not even once had he wavered on his path to become a great Summoner, even though he wasn’t able to call upon anything stronger than a Dashing Rabbit. Not even once had his heart been feeling down with all the bullying and abuse from his fellow Summoner colleagues in the academy.

  No. He had sworn to dedicate his whole existence to researching Summoning Magic so that he could surround himself with legendary magical beasts and live while taking care of those majestic creatures, possibly also gaining strength to save people from unfortunate events, like the raiding of his own village.

  While recalling his whole life of meticulous studying and experiments, the man’s leg got caught in a vine bush, making him fall to the dirty ground. The bear-like monstrosity quickly arrived at his side and rose on its hind legs threateningly, releasing a ferocious squeal from its Griffon-like beak.

  Shit, shit, shit! Why?! Why doesn’t any strong beast ever answer my callings?!

  Envisioning his peril under the claws of the giant monster, he gathered his mana, bit on his thumb, and while recollecting everything he had learned up to this day, pressed it to the ground, screaming every chant ever known to the humanity’s Summoners in his mind.

  A green summoning circle appeared under his hand and started releasing smoke of the same color. Seconds passed and passed, the man begged and prayed in his mind, offering even his own soul as the summoning catalyst, but nothing was answering his calls. The circle broke into hundreds of particles, leaving the poor Summoner at the mercy of the shadowy predator.

  Completely spent, he raised his head to watch his final moments, filled with pride. He did everything he could. He had done much more research, training, studying, experimenting, theorizing than even some professors at his renowned academy. His knowledge about summoning was boundless, but his affinity for it was finite. And it was the lowest ever recorded in the history of the institution, earning him the title of the Weakest Summoner.

  Why was fate so cruel? Why did people who yearned only for money and fame contract powerful beasts, often using them in abusive ways without any affection or care, but those who sacrificed their whole life to understand them better and dreamed of nothing else than just spending their life happily surrounded by entities they would rather die than even offend ended up without any capability to do so?

  He would never know the answer. The unyielding claw of death began descending onto the kneeling man. He gave it a last look with a proud smile and opened his arms to welcome death, which failed to claim his body and soul those long eighteen years ago. The monstrosity slashed straight at him from above and—

  “Asti! How long do you plan on sleeping? Don’t you have an exam today?”

  The assailant disappeared into the darkness, alongside the whole forest and world, as a kind voice of a woman arrived at the man’s ears. Only the loud thumping of his panicked heart could still be heard. The man calmed his mind and began to slowly analyze the situation. Realizing that it wasn’t the darkness enveloping his eyes but eyelids, he raised them and got hit by mischievous sunrays aimed straight at his face. He took a look around and noticed that he was sitting by his desk.

  A dream? Did I fall asleep over my notes again?

  Moving his gaze down, he spotted tens of pages, recognizing his own scribbles. The evidence was clear as a day. He stretched his arms while yawning loudly and trying to remember every part of this weird dream. They often carried a lot of meaning and were a great source of inspiration for magical studies.

  “Asterios! You will be late!” the woman shouted again.

&nb
sp; He finally woke up completely and recalled her previous statement. It truly was the day of another examination period. Asterios hastily glanced at the clock hanging on the wall of his room and his heart, which had barely settled down, began racing again.

  “Oh fuck me! I am going to be late!” he screamed in terror.

  “Language!”

  “Sorry, Mom!”

  “Dress up and come down. I’ve prepared you a light breakfast that you can eat on the way to the academy.”

  Without any hint of hesitation, Asterios promptly switched his clothing. He already was dressed but he couldn’t just rush for an exam with a set of clothes he had on himself for two days. Asterios took a quick glance at his reflection in the mirror, confirming that his good-looking face wasn’t dirty anywhere, and combed through his short black hair with his fingers a few times to fix them.

  He dashed out of his room and jumped over the stairs, landing in the dining room connected to the kitchen. A figure of a woman with shoulder-long brown hair and a braid lying on her shoulder entered his vision.

  “Ah! Can you not use stairs like a normal human?” she said, a little spooked by his sudden appearance.

  “Sorry! Every second counts!”

  He grabbed the package from his mother’s hands, left a gentle kiss on her cheek, and darted through the entrance of their home.

  “Do your best!” she shouted after him, but it did not reach his ears as Asterios was already fully focused on making it on time to the academy’s grounds. “Gosh, he really needs to take more breaks. He’ll never find a girl while sitting in books all day and night. What kind of a man doesn’t have a girlfriend by the age of nineteen?” His mom shook her head with a smile forming on her lips.

  Rosewind was a medium-sized merchant town, thriving off the many trade routes that passed through it. Being placed near some of the most used trails was one of its blessings. The most crucial one was the most renowned Summoning Academy in the whole Human Continent, which was currently the target of Asterios’ mad dash. The town was bustling with people and the roads were crowded to the extreme, making it much harder for him to push through.

  While he mustered all his strength and energy to move his legs, many of his colleagues passed by his side with ease. Or even above his head. The fact was, Asterios didn’t exactly oversleep. Just the route to the institution's premises took him much longer than other students, who were currently dashing around while mounted on the backs of their summoned beasts. Many tigers and wolves pounced between buildings’ walls while smaller Drakes and even some Pegasi darted through the air. An everyday sight for the residents of Rosewind as everyone who came to live here already knew what they were getting into.

  Unfortunately, Asterios never managed to summon and contract any beasts big enough for him to ask for a ride. All he could do was to employ the help of those that were considered critters by others, like his current partner, Mii the Dashing Rabbit.

  He had never blamed the magical beasts for this, only himself for lacking the ability to attract their attention. Intense studies and research were his escape and hope at the same time. He never planned on abandoning his dream.

  Feeling a slight mental nudge, filled to the brim with cheering intention and a lot of affection, he smiled and increased his speed.

  Thanks, Mii. I promise we’ll make it on time!

  Fifteen minutes later, the external walls of the academy’s premises appeared in his sight. It was located on the edge of the town, so the last part of the journey was much easier without having to struggle in narrow passageways.

  Everyone knew who he was so the guards at the gate didn’t even bother checking his ID, letting him pass through the entrance like the wind. Asterios glanced at one of the Master’s towers which featured a big clock and smiled. He shouldn’t have any more issues with the amount of time he had left until the first written exam would take place.

  Stopping the rushed pace, he switched into a quick walk and took a stroll to the main building while gazing around. This enormous castle-like structure always took his breath away, no matter how many times he marveled over it. Each building was made of a pure white marble which emanated an aura of wealth, power, and calmness due to the beautiful, grassy hill on which the whole complex was set up.

  And it was huge. School buildings, arenas, dormitories, laboratories, giant library, research and development department, and many more additional facilities, including those for recreational purposes. Asterios always loved spending time in the R&D building or the vast garden while reading new books.

  He checked the schedule on the notice board and headed for the correct classroom, arriving shortly before the start of the exam.

  “Look, the Weakest Summoner is finally here!” Some girl pointed out his entrance and everyone turned their heads towards him.

  “I call dibs on the seat behind him!” a boy quickly exclaimed.

  “No fair! I’m getting the side one then!” another one whined sarcastically while standing up, readying himself to steal the spot next to Asterios.

  He, used to this atmosphere for a long time, didn’t even pay attention to other students’ rude remarks or jabs aimed at him. Why was everyone so eager to sit close to the supposedly weakest one? Because while his practical grades were all the lowest, no one surpassed him in any theory subjects or exams. Asterios almost always scored perfect marks, that’s how dedicated to his passion he was. And naturally, there was nothing better during a written test than sitting behind the smartest kid.

  Mere seconds passed after he chose his place and all adjacent spots were already taken. He rolled his eyes knowing that no amount of cheating would help them. This was one of the end-semester exams and the chances of getting the same questions were incredibly low. The examiner arrived just moments after he sat down and the papers were handed out.

  Asterios scanned through the questions to estimate the time it would take him to finish all of them. It looked like this year’s test was easy, at least for him. A few simple questions to choose a single correct answer from a list, a few to explain some terms, two to write a formula and draw a summoning circle related to a specific element, another bunch to talk in detail about various magical beasts, some other types of questions, and naturally, the last and the biggest one, full of theorycrafting task to make the summoning work with given information, which could be intentionally altered to be incorrect. He loved these types of questions.

  Among the examiners, there was a certain teacher who always invited Asterios to discuss his answers and they spent long hours exchanging pointers and knowledge. His life at the academy was miserable, but it wasn’t completely devoid of entertaining aspects. There existed a few people who actually broke from the crowd mentality and didn’t completely ostracize him.

  After promptly dealing with the first batch of questions, Asterios dived fully into filling the last one to the brim, as much as the white space over the whole piece of paper allowed.

  The time given for the test passed in a flash and the bell signaling its end rang mercilessly. Many students groaned, unsatisfied with their work, and so did he, but not because he didn’t finish all of the tasks. No, he still wanted to write more. There still was a little bit of white on the edge of the page left, uncovered by his scribbles.

  Next was the practical exam. This year, same as the previous one, it was held in the form of a one-on-one arena fight between the Summoners from the same class. It wasn’t so harsh to instantly fail those who lost in it, which was good for Asterios, and also the reason why he was still holding on somehow.

  In that little competition, a jury of examiners would watch the two opponents showcase their skill and base the score on their performance. So, even if one side was being defensive the whole time, it still could be judged as a fine representation of it, taking into consideration the fact that they withstood ferocious attacks of the other examinee for a long time.

  Before the second phase began, Asterios took a stroll to the garden area to relax a bit. He always felt extremely nervous when it came to any practical exam. No matter how hard he trained his body, mind, and techniques, his progress was almost non-existent.