Being a Summoner on our Evolved Earth

Rejected (14)

When Lucia awoke the next morning she noticed the copper scaled body next to her bed had grown to double its size while she was asleep. Vicki had started to grow a pair of horns on her head. Lucia rubbed her eyes thinking she was still sleepy. Vicki noticed her waking up and stood up to move away from the bed. Getting a better view, Lucia saw her originally golden retriever sized lizard had grown bigger than a saint bernard dog. Vicki wasn't used to her size so her long tail that swept the floor behind her would occasionally bump into something.

"Good morning Vicki, did you evolve?" Lucia asked to confirm her speculation.

"Yes, it seems the mana from the two fire crystals plus the previous accumulation were enough to help me evolve. They are on the floor by the way." Vicki seemed to be joyful about evolving. Lucia looked down and saw three crystals instead of two on the ground. She quickly picked them up to charge with mana.

"Thanks for making the third crystal, so are you hungry?" Lucia asked as she used her free hand to reach for her backpack.

"Yes, hungry." Vicki answered as she spun around and nearly knocked over the mirror in the corner.

Lucia chuckled, "We'll need to get you familiar with your body again it looks like." Vicki pouted while receiving food from Lucia and they spent the time eating in a relaxing quiet. 

While eating Lucia checked the contract with Aegis and found that its power had risen just like Vicki's, so it is possible that Aegis finished evolving as well. Once they finished eating Lucia found a bit of open space and summoned Aegis. Through the brilliant light of the magic circle a heavy suit of armor rose from the ground made of an iron dull grey. There were no bones to be seen in the joints or under the helmet, just eerie blue ghost flames. Aegis offered a standing salute upon being summoned this time instead of kneeling. Whether Aegis or Vicki, both of them were quite large compared to before and it was hard to walk beside them in the narrow hallways now. The rooms should still be fine though.

"You both look really cool after evolving!" Lucia complimented with a smile and a thumbs up. "Let's get you used to your new bodies by going to the second floor." Hearing her mention the second floor a softly glowing rune appeared above the exit to the room that said two. Lucia noticed that when the rune appeared, the hallway seemed to become dark, like there was no light source. Lucia furrowed her brows in thought as she peered into the dark hallway. "There doesn't seem to be any source of light on the second floor. Vicki, can you light a flame on your head only or maybe hold an orb of fire in front of us?"

Vicki tilted her head in thought, then tried to concentrate on attempting Lucia's request. Fire started sparking sporadically around Vicki's body. Lucia grabbed her backpack off the bed and hid behind Aegis. "Maybe try in the hallway so you don't destroy anything in the room?" Lucia suggested as she peeked out from behind Aegis at the scorch marks appearing on the floor. Vicki paused, and turned into the hallway to continue trying. It took Vicki many tries and even had to refill her mana once before she finally managed to control an orb of flame to float around under her control.

"Great job Vicki!" Lucia cheered and clapped softly. Aegis followed her example and also clapped softly, though its metal gauntlets were louder than it intended. Vicki raised her head proudly at performing something difficult. Lucia passed the refilled fire crystals to Vicki to rest and recharge before they headed out and she decided to ask the white fog some questions. "What elements exist in the floors of this dungeon?"

The white fog swirled into action, "The elements that appear here are death, darkness, plant, earth, and water. These elements will repeat for the most part, the only other element that will appear in this dungeon rarely is fire, due to a volcano that exists one hundred miles from here." 

"How was I able to meet another player when I went to the arena?"

"Because you failed to beat the first floor challenge room on your first attempt the dungeon allowed you to assist someone else as it deemed you were too weak to do it by yourself." Lucia felt wronged since the failure wasn't actually a failure in her eyes... The white fog changed to grey and continued forming words.

"Even when assisting another person, you exceeded the expected time limit for completing the task and even required a resting period. Therefore, you are deemed the weakest of the players and are hereby expelled from the dungeon."

Before Lucia could even react, she saw the shadowy passage to the second floor change to the exit leading outside. The seal cracked and collapsed to the ground followed by a gust of fresh air rushing into the chamber. The cool breeze caused Lucia to shiver as she reflexively wrapped her arms around herself. After a moment, reality sunk into Lucia, she felt a mix of despair and relief. 'I'm free, but does this freedom cause me to lose out on something important?' Lucia glanced back at the grey fog that started to gobble up the furniture so that Lucia couldn't take it with her. Lucia quickly grabbed the thin blanket off the bed and stuffed it into her backpack then decided to walk out of the exit.

 Only by moving forward on the path available could she progress now. Her familiars followed silently behind her while being confused by the sudden change. As Lucia exited the dungeon to gaze upon the large trees and fresh vegetation around her, a sudden force recalled her familiars and pulled her into the sky. Her surroundings were a blur as she was pulled to an unknown destination with all of her movement and magic sealed. She managed to shift her eyes to glance at her body only to see that she had become transparent like a ghost.