He looked over at Ashton, who was still currently holding off the other goblins in this group, "I, uhm... I did it, I think. It's offering me the 'Unarmed Fighter' class."
Ashton smiled immediately, "Perfect, finally! That should be a great class for you. You don't stick to a single type of fighting, either, so a class that boosts your general unarmed fighting ability is an amazing match."
Sam nodded, though it was pretty obvious he wasn't really listening. He stared at the window and selected the 'yes' option.
From how Sam's eyes were darting around, it was obvious that he was getting quite a few messages right now. Ashton also had to deal with quite a flood of them.
For now, Ashton slammed his staff into the face of one of the goblins he had pushed down, crushing its skull. The other one quickly earned a broken sternum and a heart attack. As for the last, with a swift swing of the staff, its neck was broken.
Sam turned toward him, still startled by how swiftly Ashton took out those monsters, "I could tell you were bored, but have you really been holding back that much this entire time?"
Ashton shrugged, "Yeah, of course."
"... How long until you get that Staff Fighter class?"
With a raised brow, Ashton walked over to Sam, "I'm not choosing the staff fighter class. At least for the time being, I'm sticking to being a pure Summoner."
"Wait, why? You're already so strong with your staff, why wouldn't you choose a class that makes you even stronger?"
Ashton just smiled a bit. Before long, the things that he could do with a staff right now would seem like child's play to Sam, "Because I need to focus on the growth of the Summoner class. You get new skills every ten levels, and there are a few more that I would really like to get my hands on."
Though Sam had already gotten used to the vague way that Ashton spoke about these things by now, that didn't change that he was a bit nervous. Especially considering that Ashton was going to just run off alone after this.
"I'll be fine, don't worry," Ashton patted his friend's back, "Anyway, once you get back to Calibur, test out your skills. It should feel pretty natural to use them, almost like second nature."
"Yeah, I think I already feel it a bit. One of my skills is called 'Body Strengthening', and my whole body just feels so full of energy."
"It'll do that. Anyway, I'm glad. Now, you'll clear the next quest immediately once it comes, so just take the rewards and use that to help the others in your group get a class. Explain to them what I told you, and you'll be fine. It should be a one-week period, but if they put in the effort, it's going to take a day."
Sam slowly nodded, still looking over his new skills a bit as the two started walking, "Okay, so, how about the second class? What if we get one of those already?"
Ashton scoffed, "Yeah, no, good luck with that. Not gonna happen."
Sam raised a brow.
"Oh, sorry, that's not because of you. The saying is, 'first a day, then a fortnight, a year, a decade, and at last a lifetime'. That's how long it takes to get each consecutive class," Ashton explained, "If you were able to get your second class in a week, that would be great, but I doubt it. I also don't know if you'll get any more rewards for it. But it's possible. If anyone can do it, they should go for it, whatever."
"Okay. And you're going to head straight to the school?"
"Mhm, as fast as I can," Ashton replied, looking down at his watch, "The period between quests is used to flood the world with more magic faster than during the quests, so monsters will be strengthened a bit more now. I need to hurry up before it's too late. Oh, can you reply to the post for me and tell them that someone's on their way? I'll try to get my hands on phone myself or something."
"Yeah, sorry, I completely didn't think, otherwise I would have given you one from the office. We should have been able to find a spare one."
Ashton shook his head, "No, don't worry. Keep an eye on the botanical gardens. There's a boss monster in there, and it's going to grow pretty strong soon. I'll come back to take care of it after I clear out the school and bring them all somewhere safe."
"We'll do that. I was a bit worried about it, anyway. I heard that some people saw weird monsters in there, so I don't mind keeping an eye on it. And do you have a place in mind for the kids?" Sam asked, but Ashton immediately shook his head.
"No, not yet, but I've got some ideas. Again, a place like a primary school shouldn't be a massive target for monsters," Ashton explained, turning around, "Alright, man, see you later, man."
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But before he could walk away, Ashton felt a hand on his shoulder, "Mate, you don't think you're just leaving like that, right?"
Ashton stared at Sam and sighed a bit. He felt so uncomfortable with physical contact like this right now, but he knew that he couldn't escape from it. Sam pulled Ashton into a hug, "Be careful, yeah? I'm going to kill you if you die."
With a scoff, Ashton slightly pulled away, "That's what I want to say. Don't worry, I won't die anytime soon."
And with that, the pair split up again. Sam went on his way back to Calibur Games, which was just down the street anyway, while Ashton would head south to the primary school.
However, now that he was alone again, Ashton had a few things he had to do. For one, he had the Backpacker give him some of the food that he had made before. It wasn't perfectly fresh anymore, but the void in the spirit's bag seemed to extend the shelf life of things at least a little bit.
Ashton also grabbed one of the pre-made wisp summoning circles and placed it onto the ground in front of him.
"Come to me, lesser wisp," Ashton spoke, his words filled with a bit of magic, as the food inside of the container fell apart into glistening dust. That dust soon came together and formed the body of the lesser wisp. The container itself was perfectly clean as well, so Ashton would be able to reuse it soon.
The elemental immediately flew over to Ashton, nuzzling itself under his palm, as if trying to be pet, and the summoner quickly obliged, "Sorry, I meant to call on you last night, but the plan changed a bit. There are a few more things to take care of right now."
---
[[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] stares at the elemental in confusion]
[[Executor of the End] questions how you could have possibly formed such a contract]
[[Observer in the Veil] smugly tells the other constellations to back off]
---
Ashton sighed a bit. The constellations were annoying, but attention wasn't a bad thing. Plus, while the Summoner didn't garner too much attention from the Daughter and the Executor, Ashton had heard of them. While they weren't known to be exactly 'kind', they also weren't absolutely evil constellations. Though, basically every constellation had bad rumours surrounding them, and even a famously good constellation like the 'Guardian of the Innocent' was known to be ruthless when it came to anything beside children.
If Ashton played his cards right, this could actually come in pretty useful. But for now, they were really just a little annoying.
He looked over at the Backpacker to give back the food container, but the spirit was still standing next to him with the phone in their hand. They were playing around with something. And when he took a glance at the screen, Ashton was not just surprised, but confused.
"Wait, can you turn the screen to me for a second? Isn't that the community?"
The Backpacker looked up to Ashton, nodding their head. Their hood slipped over their face a bit more, and they held the phone forward while fixing it back up. Ashton slowly grabbed the item. It was irreversibly linked to the Backpacker now, so even if he tried to take it back, he couldn't. The phone would just disappear when the Backpacker went back into his vessel.
"Huh... Does the phone still register as 'mine' as far as this part of the system is concerned?" Ashton wondered, scrolling through the community for now. There were a few more posts in the 'region' tab now, mostly people asking for help, or making posts about safe spots they found. Actually, there were even some other categories now that you could sort the posts by, like 'tags' connected to each post.
'Seeking Help', 'Offering Help', 'Safe Haven', and 'Point of Interest', "Interesting. Hey, bud... can you read and write, perchance?"
The Backpacker looked up at Ashton, nodding their head. Right, of course. Most summons immediately knew all the languages that the user knew. That was good for Ashton, "Want to help me out here, and manage my community account?"
Of course, he could do it himself, but frankly, he was so totally not used to phones anymore. It took him forever to even find the song that he distracted the orc and goblins with at the park the other day. But the Backpacker seemed weirdly savvy with it.
Though, the spirit seemed a bit apprehensive, and the phone disappeared from Ashton's hands, reappearing in the Backpacker's.
"Of course, it's still yours! Just think of it as... an extra trade! I'm sure now that the phone is so important, there must be ways to charge it. The battery is at just 23 percent now, so it's going to turn off pretty soon. How about this - in exchange for me making sure that the phone is always charged and usable for you, you make posts and alert me of anything useful or interesting going on in the community. Alright?"
The backpacker seemed hesitant, so Ashton smiled a bit more, "And I'm also going to try and show you how to play those games you've been trying out."
And with that offer, the spirit seemed way more interested all of a sudden. It stretched out its hand, and Ashton shook it in turn.
"Let's get started with that when we take our next break, okay?" Ashton suggested, and the Backpacker agreed without hesitation. They gave Ashton some other things he asked for, and then disappeared back in the their summoner's vessel.
And with that, it was time for Ashton to get moving. He now had someone that could monitor the community for him, and he could stay out here and focus on the quests and his growth. If it was a situation tough enough to threaten group of children protected by such a powerful constellation, Ashton needed to be as strong as he possibly could be.
He placed a pre-made summoning circle and a coal briquette into the lantern, and put a bottle of water onto another circle next to that lantern.
"Oh Lesser Salamander, oh Lesser Undine, both of you, come to me."
The salamander's summoning circle lit up in a slight flame, and the paper itself was burnt. The flames soon enveloped the coal briquette, and the Salamander's body was formed within the fire.
As for the undine's summoning circle, the paper fell apart as though it was being washed away bit by bit, and the Undine soon swam out of the bottle.
This would be Ashton's first time trying to channel more than one summon at a time - just having the three elementals out here at the same time was straining enough. Keeping summons actively outside of his vessel drained mental strength pretty fast.
---
[Skill | Summoning - Level 3 -> Summoning - Level 4]
---
And this was why he had to do it - the more one struggled, the faster one grew. Again, the system was fair about things like this.
So, to grow enough to make sure he could ensure the children would be safe, Ashton made a very obvious choice.
It was time to power-level.
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