Verso walked back from the table carefully.
He made his way to the center of the large office. Although his legs felt heavy, the excitement of awakening was enough for him to push through it.
He stopped and looked back at Headmaster Alicia. She was still leaning against her desk, watching him with her icy blue eyes.
"How do I do that?" Verso asked.
He looked at his hands, then back at her. Even though he had the mana now, he did not have a clue on how to actually bring his summon out into the world.
Alicia didn't answer right away, instead giving him a long questioning look. She narrowed her eyes which made the temperature of the room drop.
"Do you really want me to guide you by the hand for everything?" She asked.
Verso felt a sudden sting of shame. He was supposed to be the top student of the school and yet he was standing here like a lost child.
He looked away, his face heating up despite the temperature of the room.
"Okay... give me a second." He replied quickly.
He took a deep breath and tried to focus. He tried to think about the new energy he felt inside of him and wondering how to pull it out.
Just then, a mechanical voice rang out clearly in his head.
[Beast Soul Identified!]
Verso's eyes widened. He had not even done anything yet. And before he could even think about what a beast soul was he voice in his head continued.
[System Initiating...]
Verso slightly narrowed his eyes confused but the situation.
None of the textbooks or anything he had studied had any mentioned of a mechanical voice talking inside of a summoner's head.
Suddenly, the space right beside Verso began to distort.
Then, without any warning, a pair of dull grey bones fell out of thin air and hit the marble floor with a dry clack.
More bones followed, tumbling out of the ripple in space like someone was emptying a bucket of trash.
[Beast Soul Acquired: Nameless Skeleton]
Another system message sounded in his head. Verso didn't even have time to read it properly before he turned to look at the pile of bones.
"What?" The word just came out of Verso's mouth.
He stared at the floor, half expecting something impressive to happen like a monster rising from the the pile of bones but instead all he saw was just a still pile of old bones.
Right after a second, the bones started to move.
Verso watched, frozen in place as he noticed the bones connecting with each other. It looked like an invisible person was putting together a very strange puzzle in front of him.
In a few seconds, the bones had fully taken form.
A humanoid skeleton stood in the middle of the room. Standing upright, there was something about it that stood out.
Verso looked at the summon and then looked down further.
"Well... that was quite underwhelming." Alicia said from across the room.
She was watching the whole thing unfold with a flat expression.
She looked at the size of the skeleton, which was no larger than an adult dog. As it stood barely higher than Verso's knees, looking more like a toy than a warrior.
Alicia slowly got up from her chair and walked across the room as she stopped right in front of the tiny summon.
"Well, humanoid creatures are pretty valuable," She said, her voice echoing.
"They can learn martial arts and use weapons but unfortunately..."
She paused for a second, looking down at the pile of small bones.
"Size matters." She said.
She kneeled down on the ground and placed a hand on the skeleton's shoulder.
The little skeleton didn't react as it just stood there with its jaw hanging slightly open as it looked completely blank.
"Uh, Headmaster Alicia?" Verso said out loud.
He was starting to feel his stomach twist. He didn't know if he should be happy or disappointed.
"Is it... is it a good thing?"
Alicia did not respond to his concern. She stayed quiet for a few long seconds, keeping her hand on the skeleton. She seemed to be inspecting it, but her face didn't show any emotion.
Silence took over the room.
Just then, Verso heard a sound coming from the corner. He looked behind Alicia's chair and saw the Two-Headed Ice Wolf.
Fenrir was no longer sleeping as both of its heads were up and their eyes were locked onto the tiny skeleton in the middle of the room.
Verso watched as one of the wolf's heads opened its mouth. Its long tongue came out and licked its lips. The wolf looked like it was staring at a very crunchy and small snack.
'OH HELL NO!' Verso thought to himself.
He felt a protective urge toward the little skeleton, even if it was small and weird. It was still his first summon and he didn't want it to be eaten by the Headmaster's pet within the first five minutes of being born.
He looked back at Alicia just as he heard her speak.
"Ah, that's a bummer." Alicia said.
Her voice sounded disappointed. "It's a primitive beast."
Hearing her remark Verso felt his heart sink.
He watched as she stood back up and started moving back toward her chair.
'That's the weakest type of summon...' He thought to himself.
He looked down at the skeleton, which had started to wander around the room.
It didn't seem to know where it was going as its little feet made a light clacking sound on the marble and just as he was looking at it, the skeleton walked straight toward the far wall.
It didn't stop, almost as if It didn't even seem to notice the wall was there in the first palce.
THUD.
The skeleton's forehead hit the stone wall with a hollow sound. The impact was so sudden that its head popped right off its neck.
The skull hit the floor and started rolling across the room like a bowling ball.
The rest of the body didn't stop moving as it tried to keep walking. But without a head, it lost its balance immediately and the skeleton tripped over its own feet.
Rattle!
The entire summon fell apart into a heap of disconnected bones the second it hit the ground.
Looking at this, a look of pure worry appeared on Verso's face. He felt like he had just watched his entire future collapse along with those bones.
"I guess I was never meant to be a summoner after all..." He slowly said out loud.
He felt defeated. He had worked so hard his entire life and this was the result. A tiny, headless skeleton that couldn't even walk in a straight line.
A sudden chuckle caught Verso's attention.
He looked toward Alicia and noticed she was covering her mouth with one hand and after seeing his worried, miserable face, she finally couldn't hold it in.
She started laughing out loud..
"Headmaster..." Verso muttered in a defeated voice.
Alicia tried her hardest to regain her composure. She wiped a small tear from her eye and took a deep breath, trying to stop smiling.
"I don't know about the strongest," She said, her voice still shaking a bit. "But you and your summon are the funniest at this school for sure."
Verso felt his face turn red as an embarrassing smile appeared on his face. He didn't want to laugh, but the sight of his headless summon was pretty ridiculous.
The Headmaster saw his expression and her smile stayed wide, but it became a bit more encouraging.
"This is just the beginning of your journey, Verso." She said.
"Did you really expect your first summon to be some legendary knight or something?"
Verso paused as turned and looked at the piles of bones that had disassembled after hitting the wall.
'She's right.'
The thought finally cleared the fog in his mind. He was so obsessed with awakening with a strong summon that he forgot that everyone has to start somewhere.
'This guy is just the start.'