Chapter 2: Skeleton Summoner

Skeleton was one of the weakest creatures to be summoned, their known potential was not high, unlike the other weak creature.

It was even weaker than slime and goblin, there were legends about slimes and goblins, they said that there were people who could bring them up to level 90 and beyond.

Although no one had reached that level these days, there were still those in the rank of a count who used slime and goblin.

Skeleton was different, the majority of people never made it to be a knight with a skeleton and the highest rank it could reach was a baron.

Skeleton's only merit was it won't die as long as it has one bone intact, it could use another's bone to replace its missing bone, but such an ability was useless in the eyes of others as the bonded creature was virtually immortal as long as the summoner was alive.

The skeleton was going after Char, with no other way to escape, he was hoping that other people would save him, but to his surprise, no one was prepared to do so.

He reluctantly uses his only way to survive, he activates the soul container engraved on the back of his hand to bond the skeleton.

Most commoners could only use their body as a soul container, they don't have the luxury of buying more extravagant soul containers.

With the container activated, chains emerged from the summoning circle and bound the skeleton right before it could reach him.

It tried to resist the chains but after a few seconds, it crumbled into dust, leaving its soul to be absorbed by Chars' soul container.

To his horror, the soul got pulled into the container even though he resisted, he did not want to have a skeleton as a summon.

"NO!!! I'm the best, how could I trash as my bonded creature!" he tried his best to resist to no avail, the container was designed to beat any resistance as it was not uncommon that the creature soul resists the bonding process.

Unfortunately for Char, this function designed to assist him was working against him instead, he could not stop the process.

Once the process finished, the skeleton reformed from the mana all around them, it stood beside him without moving.

Char only looked at it blankly, he was stricken by shock and disappointment.

"Char, Congratulations on bonding an undead skeleton," The instructor said according to protocol once he regains his composure.

His word pulled everyone else in there out of their shock, they started to mutter and gossips with each other, there was a lot of people who were bad-mouthing him and said that it was his karma for being arrogant, that he was a boast, as they secretly envy him for being outstanding.

When he was on the top no one said bad things about him, they tried to befriend him and always praise him wherever he goes, but once he fell to the bottom they started to show their true color.

"HAHAHA, to think you want to summon a dragon like I did, how laughable!" Robert said out loud to mock him.

Char's face turned bright red from all the mocking around him, he did not know how to reach, he felt betrayed by those who he called a friend but most of all he was disappointed at himself.

The teachers were having a heated discussion, they were throwing the responsibility to teach Char, just a minute ago they were fighting to have him but now they tried their best to ditch him, there was no glory in teaching someone with no future potential.

"See? Those commoners are nothing but trash, they had no talent, even his self created summoning circle had trouble in subduing a skeleton," Mr. Longnos said to the other teacher who thought highly of Char, "Your beloved top student was nothing but trash, his summoning circle was flawed, I bet it would break if he had summoned something stronger."

The other teacher could not refute him as it was known that even the worst summoning circle should be able to easily suppress a skeleton, if the news spread then no one would want to have Char to make them a summoning circle, what if it breaks or worse it summons skeleton for them?

The principal could only shake his head, "what a sudden turn of events," he muttered.

Char was set for life when he mastered how to create a summoning circle but this incident made a u-turn in his life, no one would hire him and he would not be able to reach a high level.

The bonding ritual continued, there were some of them who summon goblins and slimes but they would defend themselves by saying that they did better than Char, the academy's genius student.

People thought he would leave the academy in shame or lock himself in the dorm but he did not, Char gets to be who he was by his effort, he was not the type of person who would give up from set back.

"I refuse to believe that I would end up as nobody, I will build my own path forward even though there is no way forward," he told himself with resolve.

All this year he was planning on how to be stronger with his bonded creature but now that he got the weakest creature there is, Char could only find another way to be stronger.

The academy year would start in a few days, with the available time, he was training his swordsmanship and his body, "If I could not beat them with magic then I will surpass them in another aspect" he thought.

Of course, a few days of training his body and swordsmanship did not amount to much but every little bit matters.

He trained with the skeleton as his training partner, at first He was not able to beat it as its skeleton body was resistant to slashing and piercing weapons.

Skeleton also did not feel pain nor tired like any other undead creature, if not for its weak strength and lack of offensive ability, then it would be a menace on the battlefield.

In another word, Skeleton was the best work labor and cannon fodder, they could keep going without rest.

Char was able to keep up with it at first but as time went by he would be tired before he could beat it.

The summoner should be able to use their bonded creature's magic, but Char did not know-how, he would learn that in the class once the academy started.

From what he learned before, an undead skeleton had two magic abilities, the first one was physical resistance and the second one was bone regeneration.

If it was missing an ability then it would be a lesser version of the undead skeleton but there was no such a thing as a lesser undead skeleton as it was already the bottom-most creature.

It handles its own training sword clumsily but Char was a newbie as well so he could not beat it yet, he planned to be stronger than the skeleton as he could not depend on it.

There was only so much a skeleton can do and grow, he could not bet on being the first person to discover a way to make a skeleton become a high-level creature as the chance was slim.

Humans had levels as well, they could grow stronger with their bonded creature but there was also some rare case where the summoner was a stronger and higher level than the bonded creature, even though they won't be too far apart but at least he could try.

By the time academy started, Char felt he had grown a bit stronger although he was not able to kill the skeleton, not even once.

From what he knew, when the bonded creature died, it would reform stronger than before by absorbing more mana and adapting its body from the experience.

At that time, the summoner's body would also be enhanced by the mana coursing through their body.

A creature could also accumulate mana in their body by training their body, it would be used to strengthen their body once they were reborn.

This level of mana in their body indicates level, once a creature reaches level 20, 30, 40, and so on until level 90, they would face a bottleneck on how much mana their body could handle.

To level up they need to evolve, some creatures were not able to evolve after a certain level while others could do so easily.

The summoner could steer their evolution to a direction they want by planning the creature's training, behavior, or diet.

On a higher level, even a dragon needs a catalyst to be able to breakthrough, the item needed would also become harder to get, which was why the number of ark-dukes was limited.

"I will be stronger, no matter what, even if others fail, there is nothing impossible for a genius like me!" He told himself in the mirror and went to the school as it was the first day of the academy.