Chapter 361. Department of Summoning Mages.

  It wasn’t hard to find the signup sheet in the cafeteria since there was quite a crowd around it. A small table had been set up to hold a magical text that tracked the participants. I suppose it was to be expected in a college of magic, but I was still struck by the fact this place had enough skilled mages on hand that they could create a magic book just to track this year’s faculty tournament.

  I chatted with a few others as we waited in the short queue. A lot of the professors had heard about me, and more than a few said they were interested in longer discussions about my experience as a summoned being. When I finally made it to the front of the line, I did what the others ahead of me had done and placed my hand on the text.

  A system prompt appeared, explaining the process for the tournament.

  You have been invited to join the annual faculty tournament for the Department of Summoning Mages. This year’s tournament will focus heavily on your minions, and only limited summoner involvement will be allowed. As always, there will be no danger to the participants, only to their summoned minions.

  The tournament will take place over the coming weekend and if you wish to join, you will be slotted into a group of participants with a similar Tier and Rank. This is a single elimination tournament, and if you lose a round, you are out of the competition. While there is no direct reward offered by the tournament though the system has taken your situation into consideration and will allocate a minor experience reward based on your placement in the tournament.

  You have qualified for the tournament bracket of mages between Tier 2, Rank 5, and Tier 3, Rank 5. Be ready at 9am on the day of the tournament and opponents will be assigned randomly for the initial pairings.

  Please be advised that there may be several twists and turns during the tournament, so be prepared for the unexpected. Do you wish to participate in the Department of Summoning Mages tournament? Y/N?

  There was a brief pause after I accepted before a new prompt appeared.

  The being known as Adjunct Professor Rico Kline has officially entered the tournament. There are currently 4 other participants in your tournament bracket.

  I found that I was rather looking forward to the tournament. There hadn’t been much opportunity to test myself against other summoners. Zerallia’s fight was a bit of an exception and at least the tournament wasn’t going to be a fight to the death. These were all faculty, and I had to assume that they also were skilled practitioners of our craft.

  Not only was I looking forward to the challenge, but I was also going to use it to get a peek at the other summoning styles in action. That might help me narrow down who I wanted to approach for further tips and training. There were only four others in my group, but I figured the number might climb a bit higher before the signups were done.

  Eating a quick lunch, I still had time for a break before I needed to return to Professor Conley’s next class. I wanted to sort out a few things that I had been too exhausted to deal with the night before. First off was the equipment bead I had received from my last contract. I’d decided to use it on the mana slayer drone and give him the Minion Amulet of Life.

  Extra instant healing for my tanky minion would just make him that much better at his job, and maybe free up a spell slot that Elida could use on other things. The whole process was easy enough, I just had to place the bead between the amulet and the drone. Pushing some mana into the bead, it seemed to liquify and become a metallic, glue-like substance that bound the amulet firmly to the chest of the drone.

  The amulet shifted its color to match the drone’s armor, and even if struck in combat, the amulet would be rebuilt when my minion was unsummoned and resummoned. Unfortunately, the amulet recharged its energy slowly, and summoning my minion didn’t instantly refill its power once used.

  It was a solid upgrade for the drone. The amulet’s power was supposed to improve as my minion’s tier and rank increased, making it an item that the drone wasn’t going to outgrow anytime soon. Maybe I’d find something more powerful in the future that would make me want to replace the amulet, but with how many minions I had to equip, it was going to be some time before I had to worry about replacing gear for them.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I also had three pages of Analora’s Response to complete. This was something I didn’t want to just fill up quickly. I needed to add only the most useful spells, abilities, or consumable items with it. One I was sure of right now was Duplicate. It was probably my most powerful spell, and according to the system description, the book would allow me to cast it a second time without the normal restrictions.

  Having three of my mana slayer drones on the battlefield, or even three Elida’s healing with every blow the struck, would give me an edge against Gary. That was going to be my true purpose with the book, to fill the pages with things I planned to use in my fight against Gary. Concern flared in the back of my mind. I’d been granted a powerful item with this book, but how many such items had Gary gathered over the decades or centuries that he’s been around?

  I was fairly certain the system would not only cap Gary’s tier and rank but also limit the number of items he could bring with him. That restriction would likely apply to both of us, so I’d need to prioritize what I wanted the most in the fight. The next time I spoke with Tzes’zod, I’d have to see if he had any additional details, but I had to keep in mind that while the system tried to keep up the veneer of fairness, I had found that it wasn’t truly concerned with making things equal.

  So far, I’d been dreading hearing from Tzes’zod, as his next contact would probably be when he knew the time and place of my fight against Gary. The longer it took for him to get in touch with me, the better as far as I was concerned. I was slowly gaining power, but I needed to pick up the pace if I wanted to survive.

  Returning to Professor Conley’s class, I endured another boring lecture. It was an exact copy of his earlier one, which I couldn’t fault him for since it was part of his curriculum. The students weren’t too keen on the lecture either, though most were diligent enough to jot down notes for the first exams of the semester.

  The second half of class had the professor getting me a bit more involved in the discussion. There weren’t any student conflicts this time around, and we had a good discussion on practical uses of spells and abilities to support our minions. The focus was as much on using the minions for general labor as it was for protection and combat.

  I was beginning to see that there could be a more peaceful future for me after the integration was over and Gary was dealt with. Would I accept a “normal” job again, or had I become addicted to the thrill of being summoned into potentially dangerous situations? There was going to be plenty of time to think about it, and I wasn’t going to have the option of using my minions to do normal work for some time.

  After class, I received a notice that I had reached the front of the queue for a dungeon run. It was the Grotto of the Shunned Emperor again, and if anything, the run was even easier than the first time I’d done it. As expected, the rewards weren’t anything to write home about. I only received five experience points, which brought me up to 9 out of 50 for my next rank.

  There were some monetary rewards, the equivalent of about two gold worth in copper and silver coins. A pair of sturdy leather boots enchanted with self-cleaning and repair was the only other reward. I’d hand them off to Clancey so he could sell them since they weren’t nearly as good as my current gear.

  Though there was a bit of walking to the dungeon and back to town, the run itself was rather fast, and I completed it in less than 15 minutes. That gave me a bit of time in town before I had to get some sleep and prepare for the next day of classes. I checked with a couple of shops that I hadn’t visited before, and didn’t find anything that was all that exciting.

  I did manage to find some consumables, a scroll of Acid Arrow, and a potion of Firebreath. The potion was interesting, as once imbibed, it would remain active for up to an hour. It could only unleash one blast of flame, but I could choose when to use it. I had been worried that I had to drink and use it immediately, which wasn’t going to be practical in a fight.

  Figurines were in short supply and tended to sell out quickly. With so many adventurers cycling through the town, and many of those being mages that could use the figurines, they were in high demand and their prices reflected that. My last stop before heading back to my room was at Somhagen Exports.

  As soon as I entered, Ingrid flagged me down from the main counter where she was selling a few items to a warrior in plate armor. I waited patiently for her to finish the transaction before I approached.

  “Rico, I’m glad you stopped by, it’ll save me the expense of sending a messenger to find you. I would, of course, add the expense to your tab, but I wanted to let you know that I’ll have a new contract for you in the next day or two. Apparently, you were asked for directly, and I suspect it’s someone from your home world,” Ingrid said.

  “That’s good news, should I just keep checking in to see when it’s ready?” I asked excitedly.

  “I’ll send word once it’s ready for you to examine. From what I understand, there are some system restrictions and guidelines that they’re having to work around,” Ingrid explained. It looked like Agent Lopez had got my message, and I would hopefully be able to help someone back on Earth again.

  I looked forward to hearing how things were going there and if the integration had happened yet. The contract should also give me more experience than the paltry four or five points I was getting from the occasional dungeon run here at the academy. Sadly, the shop didn’t have anything new in stock that interested me, so I returned to my room to rest up for the next day.

  My excitement about the contract was dimmed a bit when I realized that Gary could also be at work here. There was no doubt that he had contacts on Earth already, and I’d have to check things over carefully, so I wasn’t walking into another contracted ambush.