Things on campus were beginning to settle down for the night by the time I arrived back at my room. I was on one of the floors that housed faculty and workers, so we didn’t have to deal with excited and noisy students wandering around that often. Once again, I was surprised at how comfortable my room was, despite the lack of technology.
The next morning, after checking in with Melody, I headed up the tower to the headmaster’s office. Despite not having an appointment, Glorine welcomed me into the office a few minutes after I arrived. I still hadn’t figured out what species Glorine was, as he was the only person I’d encountered that naturally glowed.
“Rico, I don’t have much time with classes starting tomorrow, is there something I can answer for you quickly?” Glorine asked as soon as I entered the office.
“Yes, hopefully this will be quick, one way or the other. I just found out last night that my class can accept supplementary contracts while still working on yours. It would only be on my off hours, and your contract would be primary,” I said, fumbling over myself a bit in a rush to get it out there.
“Hmm, I’m not inclined to have you accept additional work when you’ve really just started your work for us. What guarantees do I have that you’ll perform to our satisfaction if your attention is diverted elsewhere?” Headmaster Glorine said sternly. His glowing face revealed no details or expression, but his tone told me that the headmaster wasn’t inclined to cut me loose after hours to work for someone else.
“You have my word, of course, and the system has some safeguards in place that would prevent me from being summoned away from here when I’m actively working for you. I’m sorry, if my needs weren’t dire, I wouldn’t ask,” I said.
“Is there some financial trouble you’re in? I could see about an advance on your stipend,” Headmaster Glorine offered.
“No, it’s not a financial obligation, and you’re paying me more than a fair wage. It’s about growing stronger. I need to increase my tier and rank for a coming conflict that I can’t avoid, and that I’m woefully unprepared for at present,” I said.
“Interesting, give me some more details,” Glorine said.
I launched into an abbreviated version of my interactions with Gary. There were some details I omitted, like Tzes’zod being a lich and that my personal space was up for grabs. When I explained about the limited amount of experience that I’d been awarded by the local dungeon, he perked up.
“The experience was not satisfactory? Tell me, Rico, how many experience points did you get out of a first run in the tier two, rank zero dungeons that you cleared on your own,” Glorine asked.
“It was only around seven points,” I explained.
“And you didn’t consider that sufficient? How many points were you expecting the system to reward you with?” Glorine asked. I thought back to my last summoning before hitting tier three. It was the contract with the Yon’s.
“My last summoning as a summoned being had an excellent rating, and I received 39 experience points for it,” I explained.
“Astounding, I believe your expectations on the amount of experience a system integrated person receives is skewed. For some reason, the system was accelerating your experience gain while you were a summoned being. The reward you received for the last dungeon run would be considered excellent by most people. If it had not been a first clear for you, the dungeon would have probably only granted around three or four points at most, even clearing it solo,” Glorine explained.
“I hadn’t considered our experience gain might be different as a summoned being. It might be because we were being used to seed mana into a new world the system wants to integrate. If a few experience points for a complete dungeon clear is all I can expect, I’m in trouble. There’s no hard date set for my confrontation with Gary, but I doubt that my attorney will buy me enough time to even get close if three or four experience is all I can expect on a dungeon run,” I bemoaned.
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“Yes, I can see you’re in a bit of a bind. Unfortunately, your personal problems are not the problem of the academy. That being said, we are not without understanding and empathy for someone in your position. I’ll tell you what, Rico, I’ll provisionally allow additional contracts to be sought out by you.
“Should I, or any of my colleagues, feel that your work is being negatively impacted by your side contracts, I will revoke my permission. Additionally, if you find that these secondary contracts net the same or less experience than a dungeon run here, you’ll give up the extra work and focus entirely on the academy,” Headmaster Glorine offered.
“That’s fair, and I thank you for your help,” I said as a system prompt appeared.
The being known as Headmaster Glorine has provisionally granted you permission to seek additional summoning contract options. Please be advised that this permission can be revoked at any time, and at the sole discretion of the being known as Headmaster Glorine.
“Then it’s decided. For now, I need you to focus on the first days of school. Our students deserve our complete attention, and someone with your experiences has a lot to teach them. In fact, I believe I now have some updates to our texts on summoned beings to make. With you recollecting exact numbers for your last summoning, we can likely extrapolate a more accurate estimate of how much experience a summoned receives compared to others,” Headmaster Glorine said, waving me out of the office while he searched the bookshelves near his desk for the text he wanted to update.
I had felt that there was a solid chance the headmaster was going to be flexible with me, but having it confirmed lifted my spirits. Sadly, it appeared that even contracted summonings might yield fewer experience rewards than I was used to, but I wouldn’t know for sure until I completed a few. While I wanted to head right into town and visit Ingrid in Somhagen Exports, I needed to focus on my job for the day.
It turned out that Melody had quite a bit of work for me today. Apparently, there were several last-minute enrollments, which necessitated moving desks around, and gathering supplies to accommodate the extra students. It was mostly grunt work, but I found myself enjoying the simple tasks, which continued throughout the day as Melody lent me out to help several other professors to help with their classroom setup.
Work continued again after dinner, and into the late evening. After talking with the staff, it turned out that a rush of last-minute enrollments was fairly common. Many students had tried to get into some of the more elite and prestigious schools, but as they filled up, many ended up applying to our academy as a backup plan. I wondered if that meant we were going to have some behavior problems with the new students, since we weren’t their first choice.
When I was done for the day at the academy, I took the time for a quick bath before I planned to head into town and see if I could snag some contracts with Ingrid at the Somhagen Exports shop. Melvin, who had been rather quiet while I worked during the day, was also sending me images of the various food vendors in town. He’d eaten well at dinner, but the gelatinous cube, even in his armor form, was always hungry.
“Fine, Melvin, we’ll stop for a snack on our way back. For now, let’s get moving,” I told him, which stopped the food images from coming at me. I knew he’d resume his barrage of food images if I neglected to stop at one of the food carts before we returned to the room. Just as I was about to leave, a system prompt surprised me.
A summoning contract has been activated.
You are Summoned!
With that, a blue portal opened next to the door, and it took me a moment to remember that I had a contract outstanding with Earth still. It was the one that I’d left with Agent Lopez for him to use it as he saw fit. Excited, I stepped into the portal, wondering if the integration had finally started. I’d only been here at the academy for a week or so, but I was well aware that time didn’t always flow in the same manner in different worlds.
I stepped out of the portal and into the chaos of battle. A fireball landed just a few yards away and the blast knocked me off my feet. Melvin let out a squeal of pain as the edge of the flames licked against my armor. I rolled up against the ruins of a wall and tried to get my bearings.
“Stay down, the barrage will be over soon, they don’t have the mana reserves to keep this up,” A gruff voice called out. My summoner link led directly to an old man crouched behind the ruined wall. A huge dog sat next to him, growling at my sudden appearance before the old man shushed him.
“Quiet Buster, he’s on our side. I take it you’re this Rico character I’ve heard Agent Lopez talk about. He said that if I summoned you, you’d help turn the tide of battle in my favor,” the old man said.
“Yeah, I’m Rico and I’ll do what I can. Let me summon my minions while you tell me what’s going on here,” I said.
“We should have a few minutes before my next attack goes in. What minions are you going to summon?” the old man asked as a system prompt appeared.
As this is a separate summoning from your current, primary contract, you may adjust the minion loadout. In addition, you have a chance to select a new Summoner’s Copy minion from a limited selection of options.
Summoner’s Copy options:
- Chixtani Infestor.
- Town Guard Sergeant.
- Apprentice Mage.
I had a few decisions to make and not much time to make them. There was no respawn if I made the wrong minion choices for the coming fight.