Verso laid flat on his back, staring up at the stained ceiling of his dorm room. He had just finished a full day of theory classes and his brain felt like it had been put through a meat grinder. The same could be said for his body as well he had got beaten up by Kolden in the morning.
'I really can't think of a way to do this...'
He had been laying on his bed for the past ten minutes trying to think about the mission he had just received.
He let out a long, heavy sigh and turned his head toward the far corner of the room.
In the corner stood Lil' Bone who was facing the wall. The five foot tall marble skeleton stood perfectly still looking like a decorative statue in a time out.
"If I see you turn around, even a little bit. Believe me when I say this,"
"you'll be spending the entire night in that corner." Verso said, his voice cold as he threatened the skeleton.
Lil' Bone visibly shook in fear hearing his master's threat, its dark marble ribs rattling slightly.
Verso had not forgotten about the prank that the summon had pulled on him this morning and had given it a strong punishment for it.
"You know how long I got beat up for because of you?" Verso said as he sat up straight on the edge of the bed.
The skeleton tilted its head down in shame, its sleek jawbone pressing against its collarbone as if it was regretting the prank that it had pulled.
Verso rubbed his temples and looked back at the blue window floating in the center of the room.
'Back to the problem at hand.'
---
Mission: Defeat Xavier.
Reward: New Realm [Land of Atlantis]
Failure Penalty: None.
---
This was the second time the system had explicitly handed him a mission.
The last one had asked him to pass the Summoner Academy Exams which was something he had to wait to participate in, but this one was something he could complete this week.
His eyes were locked onto the reward as he could not believe that this was something that the system could grant him.
'So the system can give me access to entirely new realms!'
A wide smile broke across Verso's face. In the world of summoners, a every new realm meant an entirely new ecosystem of monsters, new summons and even better drops. It was literally a gold mine.
'But how do I actually defeat him?'
Verso's smile faded as he started thinking about how he could complete this mission. The only way that came to his mind without getting expelled was to get Xavier to agree to a formal duel.
'I don't think that guy has a shred of honor, though.'
Verso stood up and walked over to his desk.
A formal duel meant they would fight on fair ground with school officials watching to make sure no one ended up in a coffin.
Xavier, on the other hand, preferred the kind of bullying where the odds were stacked ten to one in his favor so expecting him to fight him fairly was impossible.
"Well, it's not like I could win a fair fight right now anyway." Verso mumbled as he sat down on his chair and picked up a stray piece of paper.
This was not him being pessimistic, instead he was actually was being very realistic.
Xavier was a top 5 student for a reason. On top of his own skill, his elite family background meant he had access to a large variety of high tier summons and expecting to win with a single Primitive rank skeleton was a pipe dream.
Whereas he had multiple Primitive summons he could bring out, Xavier had multiple Mutant summons just like his Ash Wolf that had lunged at Verso this morning.
When it came to ranks, the difference in strength was significant enough that one of his summon could easily take down three of Verso's.
"I need to get stronger summons."
He looked down at the paper. On it was a rough, hand drawn map of the crater from the Shattered Wilds.
Verso had spent every free second of his day in the library, cross referencing the school guides with his own memories of the simulation.
He had drawn a specific route that led away from the outskirts and deeper into the center of the crater. That was where the stronger golems gathered which were all of Mutant ranks.
'Also...'
He glanced back at Lil' Bone, who was still facing the wall with its head down.
The skeleton had hit 100% of the Primitive rank, but it had not evolved. Verso's best guess was that he needed a Mutant beast soul to trigger the next step.
It was just like how the Synthesis function had only appeared after he gained his second soul. So maybe the system needed a catalyst that allowed him to find out how to evolve his summon.
"I still need to memorize this though, there are no markings in the simulation." He said to himself as he looked at the route he had drawn.
He placed the paper down and picked up a notebook, beginning to copy the route over and over.
He needed to be able to navigate the crater in the dark by instinct alone as one wrong turn into a nest of high tier golems would be the end of his night and he had yet to find out what happened when he died in the simulation.
He scribbled the lines again and again, his eyes narrowing. Xavier still believed that Verso was a weakling and that was the biggest advantage Verso had.
He just needed a few more nights of hunting before he could take advantage of being underestimated.