Orion and Luna found themselves in a certain section of the Library, and took one of the empty seats.
The moment they did, a glowing orb suddenly approached them and both looked at it with confusion.
That is, until a voice came from within.
{What would you like to read?} The orb (?) asked.
Orion looked at it for a second, wondering if this was some sort of communication tool that the actual librarian used.
Still, that didn't matter right now, as he had more important things to do.
He tapped his finger lightly against the armrest before speaking.
"Summoning ranks. Detailed explanation. Growth limits, exceptions, and… anomalies."
There was a brief pause.
Before the orb glowed brighter.
{Request acknowledged.}
A soft hum filled the air and the next moment, several books lifted themselves from distant shelves, flying smoothly through the air before landing gently on the table in front of him.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
Luna's ears perked up as she watched the books land before them.
"Hehe… convenient."
Orion didn't respond, his attention was already on the books, reading through the titles.
— "Foundations of Summoning"
— "Rank Progression and Limitations"
— "On Irregular Contracts and Mythic Phenomena"
"Jackpot," he muttered.
Without wasting time, he opened the first book and pages started flipping rapidly under his fingers as he skimmed through, filtering out unnecessary information.
First was Basic ranks of summoners.
Iron → Bronze → Silver → Gold → Platinum → Diamond.
The problem was, unofficial ranks and thats where someone like Luna fell.
There were three of these ranks which included,
Elite → Legendary → Mythic rankings.
Summons in this rankings were considered anomalies, because, they showed abilities that didn't match the normal established ranking system.
An Elite rank summon wasn't necessarily stronger than a gold rank summon, but its value couldn't be measured the same way.
Orion's eyes narrowed slightly as he continued reading.
"An Elite-ranked summon isn't defined purely by raw strength," he muttered, skimming through the paragraph, "but by its deviation from the norm."
"Deviation?" Luna asked.
"It means you don't follow the rules," Orion replied simply, "Gold-ranked beast might overpower an Elite in direct combat, but an Elite can do things that shouldn't be possible at that level."
He tapped the page.
"Abnormal growth. Unpredictable abilities and more importantly, a vastly higher intelligence."
Luna smiled faintly.
"Hehe… so I'm special."
"Yes, but you're also troublesome," Orion corrected, though there was no real annoyance in his voice.
He flipped to the next page.
"Because of that," he continued, "Elite-ranked summons are considered variables difficult to classify… and even more difficult to control."
He turned to the next section which had information on Legendary summons.
This time, the explanation was far shorter, which, ironically, made it more telling.
"Legendary-ranked summons exist beyond the need for classification," Orion read.
His brows furrowed slightly as he muttered, "that's vague as hell."
He continued.
"Unlike Elite beings, which deviate from the system, Legendary entities define their own rules. Their abilities cannot be replicated, studied, or fully understood."
He opened the final section that had information on Mythic summons, or rather, was supposed to.
The moment he did, his expression changed into a frown as he looked at the text before him.
"Mythic summons, no information, possibly non-existent."
In other words, it had never been spotted before and the existence of such a rank was purely theoretical.
"Strange," Orion muttered as he looked up and summoned the system screen.
Did that mean that old bastard had planned to get him into more trouble by making him the first to summon a Mythic rank, in public?
"That old bastard," Orion muttered under his breath before sighing and skimming through the rankings page again.
There was nothing else in there that he didn't know already, so he just continued flipping through.
But then,
"Hmm?" his hand paused as he looked at the page before him, "there's… a ceiling?"
Luna leaned closer, her head resting lightly against his shoulder as she peeked at the page.
"What does it say, master?"
Right....she couldn't actually read, so Orion had to read aloud.
"'A summoner's initial contract determines their upper limit. In most cases, the rank of the first beast acts as a foundation, restricting future growth unless external intervention occurs.'"
"External intervention?" Luna repeated.
"Rare cases," Orion continued, flipping the page, "divine artifacts, or even..."
His voice trailed off slightly and he looked towards her.
"Contracting an unofficially ranked summon."
Silence fell between them for a moment.
Luna was silent for a while before she grinned and muttered, "hehe… that sounds important."
"Yeah," Orion muttered as he continued reading through the multiple books before him.
The moment he was done, he leaned back on the seat, at this point, Luna was back in her cat form, lying comfortably on his lap.
Orion had found out a lot of useful info about summoners and summons of this world, including the limit of what he should and should not show.
And they were all important information,
But still, none of these were showing him a way to personally get stronger. Well, that much was expected, since the summoner's of this world completely relied on their summons for battle.
But unlike them, Orion planned on being different and to do that, he needed ways to get stronger.
Ways, which the books were clearly not giving him unlike what he expected, but as if taking note of his frustration, the system screen suddenly popped up.
[Hidden Mission: Find out more about summoners of this world.]
[Status: Completed]
[Reward: Unlocking Sub-Skill — Contract Mastery (Derivative)]
Orion's eyes narrowed slightly as the screen lingered in front of him.
"…Derivative?" he muttered.
Luna, currently curled up in his lap in her cat form, lazily opened one eye.
"Master… something happened?"
"Yeah," Orion replied, as the reward tab gave a detailed explanation and a grin appeared on his face, "and it's something good."
[Contract Mastery — Sub Skill Unlocked]
[Skill Name: Copy]
[Description: The host may temporarily replicate one ability from a contracted summon.]
[Limitations:]
— Only one skill may be copied at a time
— Efficiency depends on compatibility
— Duration: 5 minutes
— Cooldown: 24 hours
— High mana consumption for skills not compatible with the host.
[Note: Skill strength scales with host growth]
"Oh?" Orion sat up slightly, his interest immediately piqued, "now we're talking."