"Follow Me!" May walked out of the room as Mark waved farewell to the doctor who waved back in response, giving him a full-blown smile.
"See you around boy!" The doctor shouted as Mark left the storage room.
Mark then quickly followed her through the same hallways toward the elevator. He had to catch up to May who walked at a very fast pace forcing Mark to run from time to time. It didn't bother him that much, being used to frequent runs around his town, with the addition of his excitement on reuniting with his demon.
They finally arrived in front of the elevator. May pushed a button to call the elevator then stood for a few minutes till the door opened with Stephen inside.
"Hello there Mark! Nice to see you again! So are you going to your room now?" Stephen smiled as he came out. "And I see you've got your demon with you! That's good!"
Mark smiled back but quickly got back to his serious face when May started speaking.
"I'm going to teach him the basics so he can catch up in class." May did not stare at Stephen instead, she walked right inside the elevator, dragging Mark with him.
"Come on now, May, you're always in a hurry. Let the boy have some break!" Stephen winked at Mark who fought his urge to smile.
"Time is of the essence!" She pushed the button labeled B38 then the elevator door closed with Stephen waving at Mark.
"Be patient with her! She's just on menopause!" The door finally closed and the elevator started moving downwards.
May and Mark kept silent with May showing off an utterly vexed face and her grip tightening on Mark. Mark tried to ignore the pain hoping that she would lose her grip eventually. The elevator door opened again revealing an old large room with craters around the walls which looked like bullet marks.
"Let's go!" May left the elevator with haste, dragging Mark with her. "This place used to be the summoning room but the General decided to construct a more advanced facility within the military school premises on Basement 32. So now we use it as a place to train our skills."
"Uhmmm...are...you...really my Aunt?" Mark asked in hesitation with his head bowed down.
"There's no way a wimp like you could be my nephew!" May responded with arrogance.
"If you are asking about what happened on the Market earlier, that was all just a play. And mind you, your mother isn't aware of it." May walked to the center of the large room while dragging Mark with him.
"In case you want to ask why and how, I will never tell you. There are secrets you need not know of." May now faced Mark, got a digital watch-like device from her pants' pocket then gave it to Mark.
"Here, wear this!" Without delay, Mark quickly strapped the device on his left wrist.
"Good! Now press the center button on its right edge." May commanded, her voice as stern as usual, causing Mark to shake as he obeyed.
Upon pressing the button, his demon quickly dissolved as if suddenly consumed by fire and turned into ashes then its bits were consumed into the screen of the device causing Mark to be shocked in fear.
"Relax kid! The Summoning Assistance Tool, we usually call SAT, just infused the demon into you. While you were in the infirmary, the doctor studied your vitals and we made that watch to be compatible with your statistics. Until now, it continues to measure your demon-summoning capacity and works depending on your skills."
Mark then looked at the screen of the device. It displayed the time in a military format just like a common digital watch.
"As you can see, it looks just like a digital watch but functions as a summoner's tool. It simplifies everything, spell casting, demon infusion, demon recall and does a lot of helpful functions."
May then lifted his right hand in the level of her face with her forefinger held up. In just a split second, a blue, flame-like object appeared at the tip of May's forefinger.
"Now this here is a..."
"A wyrdlight!" Mark suddenly interjected, his voice mixed with excitement.
"That is correct kid! However, I would appreciate it if you could just listen first". May looked at Mark with a raised eyebrow making him bow down in embarrassment.
"So I assume you already know that it is the foundation of all spells. In the past, mana control needed a lot of practice; however, with that SAT on you, you just need to ask it to control your mana for you."
"Ok now, lift your hand as I did, then imagine an energy from your center being drawn to your finger" May again motioned her hand as before, when she summoned the wyrdlight.
Mark did as May told him and to his surprise, a wyrdlight appeared as quickly as May formed hers.
"The SAT reads your brain sensors and interprets them based on programmed instructions we put on the device. The one you just did gave it a command to create a wyrdlight for you. Now, extend your right hand forward with your palm open, then imagine that wyrdlight being formed into a round shield"
Mark did as May told him. To his surprise, the wyrdlight did form a round glass-like object in front of him.
"You can easily perform spells such as a mana shield, which you already did, a fire spell then a lightning spell. The quality of those spells would still depend on your natural ability to mold mana so even with the assistance of SAT, you still need to practice performing the spells"
"Now there's this fourth spell", May again held her hand up with her palm open and facing upward. A few seconds later, her gun rose up from her belt and into her hand. "That is telekinesis. It isn't that easy to master even with the help of the SAT but not that hard I believe, as when it was learned in the past. Now that spell is still not taught to the students so I don't need to teach that to you either in this session."
"Now about the two offensive spells, simply imagine fire or lightning escaping from your finger as if firing from a gun then you would have a flame or lightning blasted off from your finger like this." May pointed his finger on the wall opposite from where they entered the room and fired a lightning bolt causing a burnt mark on the wall.
"The walls within this room are made up of highly durable materials that's why it doesn't easily break when hit by spells or bullets. It makes this place perfectly suitable for training."
Mark extended his right hand as well then pointed his finger forward to try a fire spell but he was stopped by May.
"You can experiment more on the spells some other day. Now, to summon your demon. Make the screen of SAT face the direction where you want your demon to be summoned then imagine its form exiting that screen."
Mark raised his right hand holding a fist on the level of his face so that the screen of SAT faced opposite him. He then imagined the form of his demon exiting from the SAT's screen.
A few seconds later, a blue sphere shaped light bolted out from the screen, growing larger and larger until it formed his demon. Once formed, the demon safely landed a few meters in front of him.
It quickly ran towards him and again climbed to his chest which Mark reciprocated by hugging the creature.
"To control your demon, simply communicate it with your thoughts, however, not through words but by images. Now, ask your demon to run around the room then back to you."
The instruction wasn't that hard for him as Mark has gotten used to being imaginative. Through his thought, he sent an instruction to his demon to race around the room.
Quickly, the demon climbed down from him and ran towards the wall to his right. As Mark sent it an image of running, it did run forward, then turned to the edge of the wall in front of them, and then made several other turns.
Upon reaching the spot where the demon first ran to, Mark sent it a signal to come back. The demon hurriedly ran back to him but stayed on his feet as Mark instructed
"Very good! It looks like you've got a good connection with your demon. Well, that's a rare case but at least I wouldn't have a headache waiting for you to perform that task." May again reached for the pocket of his pants but this time, she got a key.
"Here, you may go to your room now at Basement 33. Find room 3314, put down your things then find the dining hall on the same floor. I'm sure you're already hungry but first, change your clothes. You will find a cabinet in your room, it has a set of military school uniforms for you as well as casual uniforms to be worn while not in class. The cook will recognize you as a student if you wear the provided casual uniform."
Mark accepted the key before May motioned him to go ahead to the elevator.
"Go now, I'll be staying here for my evening exercises." May then turned her back to Mark, summoning her felid.
Mark hesitated for a while, wanting to watch May's training but thought that the lady might get pissed if he stayed.
With that, he walked to the elevator door and pressed the button that he used to see Stephen and May press when calling the elevator.
"One last thing! It would be best for your demon to be infused when you are not in need of their service. Staying in this world is stressful for them, you wouldn't want your demon to be fatigued, won't you?" May shouted while starting to spar with her canid.
The elevator door opened in front of him the moment May was finished at her final reminder. Mark decided to step in with his demon following him. He commanded his demon to climb up his chest which the demon followed, then he pressed the button labeled B33 assuming that the labels on each button corresponded to each floor.
The door closed and an up arrow lit on the screen beside the buttons. The door again opened with the sight of students walking in the hallway to and from their rooms.
'Perhaps this is where May told me to go' Mark thought while hesitantly exiting the elevator, hoping that he pressed the correct button.
Upon exiting the elevator, he found himself in two intersecting hallways. One continuing in front of him then the other spreading on each of his sides, parallel to the elevator door. On both hallways are doors, placed at equal distances from each other with one door directly facing another door adjacent to it.
The presence of the students walking on the hallways gave him a bit of assurance that he's in the right place. He immediately noticed a sign on the wall just opposite the elevator's door. 3301-3310 was written on the upper end of the label along with the symbol of a left arrow beside it, then below that was written 3311-3320 followed by a right arrow symbol.
He followed the path to his right hoping to find his room ahead. After a few walks, he indeed found a door labeled 3314 on his left side.
He inserted the key, on the doorknob's keyhole and turned it counter-clockwise. The door did unlock allowing him to open it and enter the room.
Contrary to the cozy ambience of the infirmary, the sleeping rooms seemed to be made much simpler. The bed was made up of a thin foam supported by a metal bed frame.
He could see a wooden table and a wooden chair beside the bed. Facing the wall opposite the bed, he immediately noticed a small wardrobe. Perhaps, that was where May told him to get his clothes.
He opened the wardrobe, placed his bag on an empty compartment in it, then got some casual uniform, and changed into them.
'Well, this will be my home for now. Ah, should I infuse you?' Mark hesitated at first for he wanted to bond with his demon for a while but for the sake of heeding May's advice, he pressed the button May asked him to press earlier then the demon disappeared into the SAT.
As May told him, he looked for the dining hall first and asked for dinner from the cook, who upon recognizing his uniform served him with gladness and gave him a welcome greeting for being new to the place.
And so the day ended for him but his life as a summoner was just beginning.
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I would be busy job hunting tomorrow so the next post would probably come by Friday.
Thanks to the readers of my story! Enjoy!