"Huff"
"Huff"
Slow breaths left the chapped lips of a young man.
His deep black eyes looked around as he finally straightened up from his crouching position.
"I made it just in time," he spoke to no one in particular.
Taking a few steps with his chin raised and eyes focused, he finally entered a poorly constructed building.
The slanted two storey building paled in comparison to his former life, where there were skyscrapers and towers that kissed 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 it.
"Mehn… this shit is actually real," the sharp voice rang in his head.
He had arrived here only three days back. After going through the most pathetic death he could imagine.
He sighed. 'Even the final destination producers would reject the script'
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. It was as tragic as it was annoying.
'ohhh Ash.. we have a lot to talk about if I ever get back, you naughty dog'
He shook his head and walked towards the waiting area of the building.
This building was where the summoning ceremony for all high schoolers who hadn't fully summoned yet, was being held.
He looked around and it all made sense at first glance.
Keeping up with a new world should have been harder than this. Probably would have been, if the previous owner 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, even in another world, was something he would have to say a prayer of gratitude for.
<><><>
The moment he stepped into the main hall from the waiting area, the walls felt moist and yet the air smelt like he had walked into the Sahara desert.
From left to right, gasps and screams filled the room.
Hundreds of young adults and some older veterans circled around something or was it someone?
It was a fiasco of sorts, and the origin seemed to be a kid with blonde hair and piercing blue eyes.
He came down from a platform with his shoulders high and a pleased smile on his face.
"Leonard Dryren," a dry and coarse voice called out to silence the fiasco.
Dean's eyes followed the voice to its origin at a podium.
There stood a bald and stern looking man with the expression of an over-worked civil servant.
The platform above the podium glowed purple from the illumination of gems on its floor, while massive voodoo like circles hovered over and below the hanging platform.
'Yeah, that is some dark magic shit and it was exactly what killed me '
Dean shook his head.
'i mean him..'
The previous owner of this body 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 tough from what his memories suggested but being stubborn for this seventeen year old was more literal than anyone would believe.
Swoosh..
A pressing 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 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.
The red shells of the crab glistened in the purplish glow giving it an ethereal feel.
"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 thoughts.
"Still useless," a male voice countered with obvious contempt.
The ability to summon something good in this world was basically the testament of your worth.
Epic was the baseline. Below that was Common Class, which was exactly where his first two familiars had landed.
Familiars at Common class meant you were basically just a means to keep population stable and nothing else.
With Epic, at least you can do the bare minimum and be useful in one way or another.
Above Epic came Ascended, then Sovereign, then Mythic and the rarest of familiars was Calamity.
Basically, you go from manageable to being god in that order.
Roughly speaking. The body he was in, had died trying to skip several steps at once.
But Dean couldn't entirely blame him. It was all about having potential and then having a decent familiar to back it up in this world.
Dean was about to wallow in the body's misfortune further when a trailing voice slapped him back to reality.
"Gray…"
"Dean…Gray,"
"Thats me," his eyes snapped up even as his heart trained a new path to hypertension.
"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.
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 or something.
"Place your hand on the Lamina and open your mind to the 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 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 Lamina, but nothing else followed.
'Yeah, you're indeed broken goods,' he cursed inwardly.
The silence settled as expectation slowly drained from the room until nothing was left.
The mumbling began behind him, but every time he seemed to move or attempt to turn, the mumbling stopped.
"It seems I don't have a third familiar," Dean spoke flatly while his hand squeezed hard on the lamina.
He resigned to his fate even as the bald man nodded slightly with a look that Dean couldn't just place yet.
'Is he happy I failed?'
Dean was about to take his hand off the Lamina when he felt his entire body jerk and then pinned in place.
"What the?" He grimaced, but before he dove further into confusion, the air crackled like lightning tip-toed into the room.
A surge of red energy emerged out of nowhere, causing a shockwave that pushed his medium-length hair aside.
The lamina suddenly sucked back the release of red energy after about twenty seconds of hyperventilating the room, causing a rainbow-like glow that shot upwards with immense force.
Dean's eyes followed the trail as something emerged from behind the light, descending slowly.
"What is that?"
Dean himself had no answer. He watched as the rainbow slime-like familiar landed on the pedestal beside the lamina.
He stared blankly at the slime.
It wobbled.
Dean waited for it to roar. Or transform. Or at least look threatening.
It wobbled again.
'Great,' he thought.
"I got jelly."
A/N
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