Chapter 362. Initial Pairing.

  It was getting late by the time I left Somhagen Exports, and I decided to call it a night. The tower, despite the hour, was still a bustle of activity as students got to know each other, studied in small groups, or went for a late snack at the student cafeteria. I chuckled to myself as I remembered my college days and doing whatever I could to avoid both studying and going to bed.

  The commotion dissipated when I took the portal to the faculty floors where my room was located. Supposedly older and wiser, the faculty and other school workers were too busy to stay out late on weekdays. As far as my next day’s duties were concerned, they had me assigned once more to Melody’s class.

  I found that I enjoyed working with the first-year students. They were, for the most part, excited at what they were learning. The few exceptions didn’t disrupt the class, but I could tell they weren’t giving the lessons more than the bare minimum of their attention. During a break between classes, I asked Melody about it.

  “What’s going on with some of the students? I thought attending an academy like this was supposed to be a big deal. A few of these students act like they don’t want to be here,” I asked.

  “I notice the same thing every year, and there can be several reasons for it. For the most part, those that you see putting in the minimum effort are here not because they want to be, but because their family, clan, or employers want them to. A common thread among those less than motivated students seem to be that they have a class geared toward more monotonous summoning work.

  “You really can’t blame them when they hear about all the adventures the other students and faculty have been on or will be experiencing in the future. All they have to look forward to is a rather mundane job where they use their minions like cogs in a machine. I do try to encourage them to get involved while they’re here, and maybe a few dungeon runs help to cheer them up, I’ve found,” Melody explained.

  I knew that a lot of the students had classes that were more suited to work than combat, but I hadn’t considered that some of them might not have chosen the class they currently possess. I’m sure there were also families pressuring their children to take safer types of options rather than becoming an adventurer or the like. I had a feeling that, in time, many of the reluctant students would find that a comfortable and safe life wasn’t all that bad a deal.

  All I could do to help was to use some of my previous experiences to urge them to focus not just on their studies, but to also take advantage of everything that the academy had to offer. For some of them, the academy could become a bright spot in their lives, a place where they could experience things they likely wouldn’t have the opportunity to once they returned home.

  Melody had several other classes throughout the day, and while I enjoyed helping her, I found that I was getting a bit bored myself as the rest of the week had me doing similar tasks. There was one bright spot when Melody had the students test themselves in the training fields.

  We were to judge and offer suggestions as they took their minions out for a test drive. This time, they were just working with the training aids that the fields provided, but Melody did promise that they’d get a chance to spar against each other later in the semester. The students had varying degrees of competence in using their minions, but by the end of the training session, I could see improvements happening with many of them.

  If only I had the opportunity for this kind of training when I had first become a summoned being, my life would have been a whole lot easier. As I thought about it more, I wondered if throwing me into the grease hadn’t been a better training tool. I couldn’t really die during the summonings at the time, and I had the chance to face what would normally be life or death situations without much of the risk.

  There was always the risk of pain, and the fact that my summoners were often in real danger. I had to conclude that I was a better summoner after all I had experienced, and I had learned much more than I would have in a single semester here. It was strange thinking that I’d only been a summoned being for less than a year. The academy would have been a lot less painful, but comfort wasn’t my main goal these days, survival was.

  It seemed like the week took longer than normal to pass, and I kept waiting for a message from Somhagen Exports about the new contract that I was expecting. Finally, the weekend arrived, and I headed out the training fields early for the faculty tournament. Breakfast that morning had been a bit more lively than usual. I was surprised there were even several professors trash talking each other.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Everything seemed to be on a friendly basis, and there didn’t seem to be any bitter rivalries among the staff. What surprised me was that there were over sixty faculty in the tournament. The department was much larger than I had originally though given the classes I’d seen. Professor Dalzrin was also at the field early, and I decided to ask.

  “Professor, are there really 67 summoning professors in our department?” I asked.

  “Hello, Rico, good luck out there today. I hear there is some stiff competition in your bracket this year. As for your question, no we don’t have that many professors. Many of the participants are other staff on campus that have a summoning class. They are free to join, and most do seem to enjoy the friendly competition,” Dalzrin said.

  “Good luck to you as well, Professor,” I offered. Before we could speak further, an announcement was made by an older gnomish woman, her voice magically amplified to sound over the entire area. Looking around, I realized that the area around the fields had filled up, it seemed everyone else had the same idea of getting here early that I did.

  “Can I have your attention everyone. Just like in previous years, the first pairings will be placed at each training field shortly. For those of you that are new to the academy, or this tournament, find the field that corresponds with your tier and rank,” the gnome explained.

  From my earlier training I knew the various training fields were broken down by tier and rank. My field had a wider tier and rank range, all the way to tier five, so it would host participants for several of the brackets. It seemed my field was going to be the busiest, with the entry level field the next most crowded. The field for those over tier five had only around ten or so participants milling around.

  “Professor Kline, I hope I’m not paired up against you today,” a vaguely familiar voice said behind me as I waited for the postings to appear. It was the young satyr woman Brielle that I’d met on my first day at the training field. We’d sparred and my minions had handily defeated her forest defender creatures.

  “I guess we’ll find out shortly. Wait, aren’t you a student? I thought that the tournament was for faculty only,” I said.

  “I’m faculty now, or close enough that they let me enter. I may only be in my third year, but I nabbed a teacher’s aide position with Professor Conley. It’ll help pay for tuition and getting to participate in the tournament is a just another perk of being employed by the Starveil Tower Academy,” Brielle said with a smile. She had that type of friendly personality that seemed to brighten everything around them.

  “Well, in that case, I wish much luck to my fellow co-worker and potential foe,” I joked.

  “We’ll see about foe. If I’m lucky you’ll get paired with someone more your speed,” Brielle said. Our conversation was cut short as the gnome woman who made the announcement earlier walked over and held a large parchment up above her head. To my surprise, she let go and the parchment stayed where it had been placed. Names began to appear as our pairings were decided.

  There was an inevitable rush to the parchment, but thankfully, a system prompt appeared when I got close, so I didn’t have to wait for the crowd to clear out before I found out who my first opponent was going to be.

  Summoning Faculty Tournament

  Bracket: Tier 2, Rank 5 to Tier 3, Rank 5.

  1. Kelsan Spindirx, Tier 3, Rank 4 vs. Rico Kline, Tier 3, Rank 3.

  2. Brielle Xoki, Tier 2, Rank 7 vs. Islis Direshorn Tier 2, rank 5.

  3. Abax Custinov, Teir 3, Rank 1 vs. Ikbla Barterman, Teir 2, Rank 9.

  4. Gullywallow, Tier 3, Rank 5 vs. Darmen Dale, Tier 2, Rank 8.

  My bracket had only been sitting at six contestants when I had signed up, so it looked like two more had joined since then. I was up first, and I didn’t recall ever meeting my opponent. Of the others, I only knew Brielle, and had met, but not talked to, Gullywallow, who was also an adjunct professor. Gullywallow was a frog-like humanoid species that I hadn’t encountered before.

  My match was one of the initial contests, so I wasn’t going to get an early look at any of the other contenders or see how their minions operated. While I was excited to go first, it would put me at a bit of a disadvantage since the other contestants would see my minions in action.

  “Hey, Rico, do you want to place a wager on one of the other brackets? You can’t bet on your own, but you can on the others,” The rather enterprising professor Izbix asked.

  “What kind of wager are we talking?” I asked, not quite sure I wanted to risk any coin on contestants I knew nothing about.

  “Nothing monetary, if that’s your concern, the loser agrees to handle a simple task for the winner like grading papers. It’s only for a week, so nobody is really hurt by the effort.

  “I don’t know that much about everyone’s class yet, so I’ll have to politely decline. Just out of curiosity, who’s favored to win my bracket?” I asked.

  “That would be Gullywallow. I’ve never seen him in action, but I hear his minions are rather potent,” Izbix replied.

  “Well, thanks for asking, I hope you do well in your bracket,” I offered. Izbix offered me the same and went to find another victim to wager with. I wondered about this Gullywallow, and I would hopefully get a chance to see him in action after my match was over.

  Despite being the highest tier and rank, I couldn’t worry about Gullywallow just yet, I had my first opponent to deal with, and according to the pairings, this Kelsan Spindrix was a rank higher than I was. It was time to see how my minions would do against their unknown foes.