This Is What They Call an Academy

Given the nature of the incident, plenty of spaces stood empty. Still, I had no desire to draw attention outside, so I rented a private training room.

Just in case, I checked the Book of Summoning to see if the number of summons I could call had increased. My job level was still only 14, though, so the limit remained three.

It would be a lie to say I wasn’t disappointed, but this was something I could raise gradually. For now, I decided to resign myself to it.

Beyond that, two new entries had appeared in the summon list: Unspecified Spirit and Demon. The demon made rough sense, but a spirit?

A flicker of doubt crossed my mind, yet when I stacked it against the information I already had—plus the fact that I had delivered the final blow that completely killed the spirit German Jenimia had been using—the conditions must have been met.

More options were a gain for me, but a faint unease lingered. Ah, who told him to get mind-controlled in the first place? Why the hell did I have to be the one stewing over this?

I crushed the rising irritation and decided to look at Kallion’s evolution instead.

“Kallion.”

Snap.

A finger-flick charged with mana, a burst of light, and a massive lizard appeared. He flicked out his tongue, licked his eyeball, and looked at me with an expression that tried—and failed—to hide quiet anticipation.

“You happy about this too?”

“Grrrng~”

Well, who wouldn’t be pleased at the chance to get stronger? I immediately switched the status window and pressed hard on the [Evolution Available] mark sitting next to Kallion’s level.

A new window rose, and just like always, the paths Kallion could take appeared.

“Whew~”

A whistle slipped out on its own. One option immediately caught my eye, but I still needed to check the rest. If something else appealed, I could always pick another wyrmling for the next summon. Time was plentiful, so I decided to go down the list carefully.

“First, Spiritization.”

Salamander was a name that often appeared as a fire spirit in my previous life. The reason it leaned toward fire among the spirits was almost certainly the strong influence of having worn The Burner in the early days.

Becoming a spirit meant losing most ordinary physical power in exchange for turning the entire body into a mass of flame the moment combat began, gaining firepower far beyond the original. Because the body was made of fire, material attacks barely affected it, and as long as fire existed nearby it could devour the flames and recover without me spending extra mana. Naturally, it was immune to fire and burns.

Its true form only half-existed in the material world, so while opposite natural forces might still hurt it, something of the same attribute like magma would not leave a wound. The advantages of the spirit form were real, and it was not a bad evolution—yet it did not feel especially attractive. Maybe that was because I already had attack variety covered with Doteron’s Masterpiece – Black.

“Next.”

Maximization. Drake felt like a straight upgrade of a wyrmling. No special quirks, but the solid base stats more than made up for the lack of flash. Nothing worth lingering over, so I moved on.

“This one’s pretty novel.”

Corruption. An evolution tree I had never seen before. It had probably opened because I had gathered information while fighting chimeras, and Kallion had been there for the process.

The Chemical Hydra evolved as if melting flesh were replaced by poison and festering slime. True to the name, its body of mucus reduced physical damage and specialized in chemical attacks that inflicted corrosion, poison, and other status ailments. Powerful, sure—but biologically speaking it was less an evolution and more something bordering on undead.

“…Next for now.”

Mutation. Luminous Dino—literally, glowing dinosaur.

Whoa! You know the glowing dinosaur, right? I can’t resist this—

Yeah, right. This sealed the mutation path as pure comedy build. What possible benefit was there in evolving into a glowing dinosaur? Aggro from self-illumination? It might have ornamental value, but I was not about to waste a precious growth opportunity on something that shallow. Unless I truly had nothing better to do later, I would never pick this one.

“Next.”

Sacred Transcendence. [Saint Dragon].

The one I had been waiting for finally appeared. From the moment I first saw it, nothing else had really registered. Checking the others had mostly been for the sake of filling the encyclopedia and covering any remote possibility. That was how much weight I placed on this evolution.

As the word “transcendence” suggested, choosing it would let him break past the limits of the wyrmling race and become a true dragon. The sacred lean almost certainly came from the eggshell Kallion had devoured. If I had kept pouring mana into him while continuously wearing The Burner, it might have become a Red Dragon or Fire Dragon instead of a Saint Dragon.

Media differed, but dragons were a race that used magic as naturally as breathing. Even their hearts were structured to gather and store mana efficiently—that said everything. If an archmage was the strongest mage among humans, a dragon was a living being whose very existence was magic.

Of course, the “saint” in Saint Dragon meant the attribute itself would not differ much from that of priests. Put another way, every spell he used from now on would carry the holy attribute.

No matter how I look at it, this is the only real choice.

My mind was made up. Still, just as I had checked the ones before, I needed to look at the last option as well.

“This one’s kind of interesting too.”

Racial Change. Dragonnewt.

This also meant leaving the wyrmling race behind, but it was not a higher existence. The race simply changed; conceptually it remained on a lower tier. Dragonnewts were a common demi-human type in fantasy—literally dragonfolk. The setting usually cast them as offspring of dragon and human, like half-elves among elves or demigods among gods.

They did not receive a dragon’s blessing of mana, so they could not use magic. What they did have was physical ability that compensated for it, plus innate high mana that fueled body reinforcement, resulting in excellent physical performance. On top of that they could wield tools—something often called the exclusive domain of humanoids—so with proper training their combat power could climb into the upper ranks.

“…Shame.”

If the Saint Dragon option had never appeared, I would have chosen this without hesitation. The inability to cast magic aside, the base racial advantage in physicality would have been too strong to ignore. This path had probably opened because Kallion had felt the advantages of human combat behavior through fights against people. Choosing it would have been almost the same as permanently stationing one more front-line companion.

But that was only true if the dragon option had never shown up. Without a second thought I selected [Saint Dragon].

“…Huh.”

A caution message that never appeared under normal circumstances floated up. That alone told me how important this decision was. I still did not know what result the evolution would bring, but my course of action was already set.

“Confirm.”

Flash.

Light erupted from Kallion’s body. His form swelled as if being kneaded larger. In that instant a vision played before my eyes.

A colossal dragon soared through the sky. Pure white scales, golden horns—the classic Western dragon. Brilliant golden eyes flashed, and in a heartbeat the dead earth around him bloomed back to life. When he unleashed magic against a vast undead horde, the dead who had defied the natural order were purified in an instant, reduced to mere bone fragments. The moment the dragon’s golden eyes met mine, the vision ended.

“GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO——————!!!!!!!”

A roar that threatened to split my eardrums filled the training ground. The mana laced through the cry naturally shook the surrounding air. Strangely, it barely affected me. My ears rang a little, but that was all.

The dragon from the vision now stood before me in the flesh. He was so large I had to tilt my head back just to look at him—roughly the height of a four-story apartment building. With wings spread and body fully extended he would be even bigger. Overall he had grown massive, yet he had also become more slender.

Among all my summons, Kallion was now the largest. Even now he nearly filled the training hall; if he had grown any further it would have been a real headache.

The same pure-white scales and horns that shone like gold. Above all, the golden eyes that radiated deep intelligence carried a pressure that could only be described as the unique majesty of his race.

He coiled his body and lowered his head until his gaze met mine. Even though he had grown far stronger than me, he still recognized me as his master. If anything, the sharpened intelligence made him feel more mature.

Slurp.

Yet when he flicked out that thin, snake-like tongue and licked my cheek, the mischievous streak of a rascal was still very much alive.

Watching the status window readjust itself to the evolution, my jaw dropped. The stat redistribution was that drastic. I immediately pulled up Kallion’s new window.

“This is…”

Strength had dropped by ten, but dexterity and intelligence had risen even more. The stats had clearly been optimized for magic use. Hive and Growl had never undergone a race-transcending evolution, so nothing like this had happened with them. Next time they evolved, though, their stats would probably be adjusted the same way to match their new forms.

“Nice.”

Not bad at all. No—actually good. The old Kallion had been so strength-heavy that I had worried he might get too fond of physical work instead of casting. This kind of change was more than welcome.

“Grrrk?”

“…Still, you are pretty big.”

I stroked the head he offered and enjoyed the cool feel of the scales. Then it hit me: at this size, the places I could take him would be limited. Until I learned a shrinking spell, I would have to think carefully about which dungeons we entered.

I wanted nothing more than to dive into a dungeon right now and test his performance, but the chaos outside from today’s incident made that impossible.

“What else needs doing… Ah, this too.”

I pulled a black notebook from my coat. The hidden reward for clearing the Gladiator’s Arena: [Proof of Subjugation – Dark Room].

It had not been the result I originally aimed for, so I had hesitated to use it. But it was time to steel myself.

Chasing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only safety will never make me strong.

Replaying today’s events made it painfully clear how weak I still was. Watching the techniques Ban Taewung’s group had displayed drove the point home. Geniuses or not, risk was still risk. The absurd difficulty they had overcome and refined into those techniques was exactly what I had witnessed today.

Just thinking about it made my head throb again. I was exhausted. Looking back, I had been grinding all morning. Focusing so hard on combat that my brain felt like it was cramping—no wonder I was wiped.

Only half the day had passed, yet it felt as if I had burned through an entire day. The density of experience was on a completely different level from the time spent.

“Grrrng.”

Sensing my fatigue, Kallion settled down and created a place for me to sit. When I leaned against him, the sensation was different from burying myself in Growl’s fluff, yet it still brought a strange, comforting relief that let the tension drain from my body.

Shaaa…

At the same time a soft light drifted down like powder and sank into me. A mysterious power similar to mana yet distinctly different immediately poured vitality into my exhausted body.

“…Oh.”

For some reason a stat had gone up. The “first time” phrasing made it feel like a one-time achievement. Surprise gifts like this were always welcome.

“Right. Overthinking only hurts me.”

Acting first and worrying later was not always a bad approach. If this started a snowball, future me could deal with it somehow. Besides, Kallion’s evolution had already raised our combat power to the point where they could fight without me. I was tired of fretting over possible penalties.

I gripped the notebook and poured my will into it. Pitch-black light spilled out, and a system message appeared.

“Use it.”

Fsssh.

The notebook burned and vanished in an instant. The ashes did not scatter; they drifted through the air, merged with mana, and sank into my body.

In that instant something seared itself into my mind.

A nauseating stench of blood clung thickly, wrapping around my body and hindering every movement. Sharp pain stabbed repeatedly into my back, forcing bile up my throat. My head felt ready to split; when I looked down I saw hundreds of blades piercing my back, my chest, my stomach—my entire body.

Something black and maggot-like crawled endlessly over me, gnawing at the flesh. Figures walked through the blood that dripped from those wounds, their footsteps wet and heavy.

An army.

Shrouded in darkness so complete I could barely make out their forms, it was clearly a host of monsters. The only things visible in that gloom were their gleaming eyes. Every single one of them was looking up at me in reverence.

“Ugh…”

Those gazes were so revolting that I collapsed on the spot and emptied my stomach. Only after I had retched until even the yellow bile ran dry did the darkness finally recede.

Blink. Blink.

Bright light exploded before my eyes. For a moment the radiant pupils staring at me overlapped with the phantom image and made me frown again, but as more light sank into my body the gut that had felt ready to tear finally began to settle.

“…Ah.”

Not a monster. The one in front of me was Kallion. That realization, that relief, drained every last bit of strength from me and I toppled over as if collapsing.

“…Haa.”

I exhaled. Only a faint sour taste lingered in my mouth; the usual acrid stench of vomit was gone. Either a Clean spell had been mixed in, or the trait had judged what I expelled as foreign matter and purified it automatically. Either way, it worked in my favor.

I blinked several times and sorted through the information now burned into my head. The memory was so vivid it felt as if I had lived it myself, and my stomach twisted again, but I forced it down.

“What the hell do you even want from me…”

No answer came. It never did. The gods never spoke to me. They never handed over knowledge—only forced that damned fate upon me. I hated that fact more than anything.

This reward was the same. A skill that felt as if it had been crafted specifically for me.

The skill Subjugator specialized both in being subjugated and in subjugating others. Because of that dual meaning it carried two effects.

Kill them, knock them out—it did not matter. The moment you brought someone down and “subjugated” them, every one of your stats rose by one. The reverse was also true: if any ally was “subjugated,” every remaining ally’s stats rose by one to avenge the humiliation.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

In short, whether you died or killed, stats went up. A completely insane situation.

It suited me far too well. My summons were practically an immortal army that did not fear death. Even if they died, they only lost levels and could be brought back. The problem was that the concept of “subjugation” was so broad it even applied to a simple failed attack.

In other words, if I used Hive to send out a swarm of shadow crows and had them die, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that alone would raise my stats.

Of course the increases were not permanent, nor were they unlimited. The skill was brand-new, still level 1, so the maximum each stat could rise was capped at 100.

Put another way, sacrificing a mere hundred shadow crows would grant +100 to every stat—400 free points in total.

“…Haha.”

The number was so absurd that a hollow laugh escaped me. Even if I poured every Pain Token from Sadism on top of my current stats I could not break 100, yet this single skill could extract an efficiency of 400.

It was no different from instantly leveling up four hundred times. There was doping, and then there was this.

So what else could I do but laugh? Cry?

“Fuck.”

How the hell were they planning to work me if they were handing out a monster skill like this? What was even happening? Was some demon king about to be summoned? Had they decided that only a skill this broken would let me scrape by?

I was scared. Truly scared.

Why keep dumping this on me? The responsibility that had already been heavy now felt crushing enough to smother me. I clenched my chest hard against the stifling feeling inside.

…I really wish everything would just disappear.