Focusing on his core he found the mist that represented his accumulated essence, past that in the middle of the core itself was the grimoire floating just like the first time he saw it. Concentrating on the cover page, he willed it to open and the first page revealed itself.
The page was full of runic letters, an unspoken language in the current world but studied by many through history. Each word resonating with his soul, describing their meaning at an instinctual level. He knew that the Headline meant something along the lines of Vital Sumon or Lifetime Esper, after that was a mental incantation he had to recite followed by a magical circle filled with more runes.
The meaning of the circle runes where much harder to sense. The distinguishable ones were a rune for Wind, Water, Heart or Core, Space and Time. With each level, he will gain more knowledge about it and would be able to distinguish more runes. After the Circle was a single short line that he did not recognize, but everything past that was blank as if the next part has not been written, at least not yet.
Following the word mentally, he completed the incantation and called his Vital Summon. A translucent circle appeared in front of Adrien, it shone slightly in a green and blue hue before disappearing, in place of the circle was a small chubby creature.
It was very small, with approximately 25 to 30 cm tall and 45 - 55 cm in length without counting the tail that had at least another 20cm. Each forelimb had five fingers and the hindlimbs four, the claws were soft and tiny, to the point of being unnoticeable unless you focused on them. Instead of fur, it had light blue scales running through all of his body with dark green vertical stripes on it's back and a whitish underside.
The slightly short snout and its wide-open eyes were a little too big, in comparison with such a small looking head. The eyes were Azure or Cyan colored, the mix of blue and green gave him a unique look filled with splendor and curiosity.
He instinctively felt a connection between himself and the summon as they both belonged together.
He stretched his hands a tried to pet it in the head, while the creature just stared at him with it clear eyes empty of fear. The scales were surprisingly soft at the touch.
It closed its eyes and made a very human gesture of enjoyment before walking closer to Adrien and rubbing himself on him.
While patting the head once again he noticed to small nubs on its forehead, they were small and slightly hard lumps that hid almost imperceptibly below the scales. looking at the little guy he could not help but feel a sense of accomplishment, it would surely become a great and powerful friend, and he will never be alone again.
"I think it's time for a name, don't you think you need a name?"
Tilting its head and one side the chubby summon just looked at him.
"How about Drake? what do you think?"
The little guy made a cute snort, clearly meaning: "Are you dumb or what?"
"Okay, that's a no, definitely… Your eyes have a very unique color, and you are mostly blue so, how about Ocean?" The little being shook his head a gave a small harrumph, clearly another no.
"Okay then, what do you want to be called then? huh?"
It is very rare for a summoner to ask such a thing, they usually name the summon without a second thought even if the name it's not to their liking. The creature just blinked and entered into deep thought before Adrien felt something in his mind, it was a small presence that felt harmless and familiar. Obviously, the little guy was looking for some clue or word that it liked for his name, if a summoner of high rank were to learn this it would be extremely shocked.
While both summoner and summon share a deep bond, it is very rare for them to be able to share memories and just the act of sharing a tough is considered a skill that only the most powerful and older summoners can achieve. It takes a great amount of willpower and trust just to feel one another, but to look into their minds that a completely different story.
Another thought came to mind, it felt like a small rash that he couldn't scratch and then a word came. Just as sudden as it started, it stopped and he knew what to call him.
"Zephyrus? what kind of name is that?" hearing the name the beast jumped up and down repeatedly and in his mind, another piece of information appeared, it was a rune that while similar to those in the grimoire he had never seen before. But he knew the meaning now, it was something like breeze or another similar word to wind.
"huh? I see… It has a very simple meaning but I like it, I'll just call you Zee for short" hearing this the little guy, Zee, rubbed affectionately with Adrien and then sat down on his hindquarters before yawning and laying on the floor. During the stage before 1st Level of the summoner, both Master and Summon had a very low combat ability and the latter one had very low energy so it spent most of its time sleeping. It was almost like a baby, as for food usually, the summoners gave them essence rich meals like monster meat or for those rich in money low-level monster cores.
"Tired huh? mee too, but I can't bear to dismiss you so fast so let's just sleep on the bed you and me" Picking him up he sat on the bed and placed Zee near the wall before lying down and covering both of them with the blanket, he didn't notice the cat-sized dragon opening his eyes and glancing at him with a gleam on its eyes.
The deep breathing sounds covered the room and after making sure that Adrien was asleep a small head came out of the blanket, the innocent look on its eyes has disappeared and instead was a very serious gaze that seemed to analyze everything on its way.
Zephyrus slowly made his way around the bed before jumping on the floor, a small thump was heard and he alertly looked back at Adrien before sighing after seeing no change on the boy.
Looking around the room it found nothing worth mentioning and proceeded to stretch his body, very much like a feline that had slept for too long. Walking around he found the booklet that Adrien was reading before, since it was on top of the desk he had to jump at the chair first, before reaching the desk with another jump.
Opening the book with his front paws and gave a look into it, appearing to be able to read and understand all the words in it. Page by page he finished all the book before closing it, if you paid attention to the look on his face it was obvious that Zee completely disregarded the rare technique as nothing of consequence.
After going back to the bed it crawled beneath the blanket and went back to sleep, or so it seemed. Any summoner close enough to the little being would be able to notice that instead of sleeping, he was actually doing a similar thing to training. Any and all magical creatures should, in theory, be able to absorb the essence in the air a transform it to fill their own affinity. It should be as natural to them as regular breathing is for humans, that is why monster could advance in power level just by aging, unlike other creatures.
Dragons, for example, could easily overcome the limits of any level just by eating and sleeping. For most magical beast, however, this process was incredibly slow and only after reaching the next stage of growth could they advance.
&
The next morning Adrien woke up and noticed that Zee was sleep, he decided to get ready first and then wake him up. After tidying everything up, he noticed Zee small stretchings on the bed.
"Well then, little guy can you be calm for the rest of the day? I don't want to unsummon you but I don't have many choices for now" he said to his summon, inwardly he was thinking 'if only I knew a technique to make him invisible, usually you need to stay as close as possible with your summons in order for them to learn since they have the intelligence of a newborn at this stage'
Zee just looked at him with a black stare, it seemed that he could not understand what he meant. 'no choice, I was hoping to give them a bigger surprise but this will be close enough'
"Hey Adrien, look at the time it is. Are you coming now or what?"
"Yes I'm coming, just finishing something here" then he turned to look at Zee before thinking 'i hope this is the right thing to do'
"Come on, just follow me"
Taking Zephyrus with him, he went down to the kitchen in order to start working. Imagine the surprise Jhon and Genna received when Adrien walked up to them with a weird lizard-cat beast hybrid in his arms.
"What the hell is that thins, quick!! throw him in the fireplace!!" - Genna
"Yes quickly, its better to take care of it now that it looks stunned" - Jhon
"Wait, what? no, I'm not throwing him in the fire. Are you insane!! this is my Vital Summon, I just got him yesterday."
Hearing that explanation they stood still, only when the surprise passed and they calmed down did they put down the knives they picked. Only then Adrien noticed the knives and realized that his little "surprise" had gone the wrong way he expected.
"I see, what a surprise you got there for us boy"
"Yes, you should not surprise an old lady like me. I nearly stabbed the little guy!!"
With an embarrassed expression he said "Sorry I just wanted to surprise you guys"
In the end, they all laughed much to the confusion of the little Zee. Placing him on the floor he continued to tell the rigged tale of how Zee came to be -of course leaving certain things like the blackout he had and the new affinity he got-, they both were happy for him since this meant Adrien would have a great future in hand.
After that, it was time to decide what to do with the new family member. As mentioned before: on the first few levels, a Vital Summon had low intellect, bordering that of a child. This meant that his curiosity and knowledge of things were on different levels, usually, the owner should teach them slowly and keep them by their side but Adrien had work to do.
"Despite your age, the fact that you got a Summon changes a lot of things. Maybe you can qualify for it"
"Jhon is right Adrien, we know you have been saving in case this happened. Maybe is time for you to try and take the test for the tower"
"Exactly, they have a lot of requirements but you are still less than 18 years old, your chances are better right now"
Thinking about this they were absolutely right, but a part of him didn't want to take the test. It meant that he had to leave the city and more importantly them, they helped him and gave him a home when he needed it the most. In comparison with other people, they were two of the most important persons in his life.
"You are right, tomorrow I will go to the central plaza and I will take a carriage to the capital and participate in the examination to enter one of the Towers" Hearing Adrien say those words, both Jhon and Genna were satisfied. they would miss him and his parting would make the inn a little empty for a long time.
~The whole ordeal defined a new chapter in the life of both Adrien and Zephyrus, his future would have a lot of rare and unexpected surprises, but he would always think back to those days he spent at their Inn and despite the hard work he had to do, these would be one of the fondest times he could think of~
&
Deep in the forest, a small camp was made and one of the students sat on the floor while the other cooked something in the campfire. Anyone looking at them would think that they were a homeless person, their clothes were tattered and pieces of armor were obviously broken beyond repair.
The fight with the Mantises took a great toll on them both, they looked a little pale and fresh new bandages covered a lot of wounds through all their bodies. If you looked carefully at the big tree behind them, you would notice a very long serpentine figure wrapped around it. Despite this presence, both of them seemed unfazed by it and talked freely without a single worry.
"This is surprising, the Mission Letter said it was only one 4th Ranked creature that was wrecking the ecosystem"
"I know, I read the letter just like you. If I had known they were going to be this many then I would have suggested for us to bring another person"7
"I'm not complaining, except maybe of this food. I hate eating this simple meals, when can you summon your Torel? with his help, maybe we can get to the city in almost no time"
"She is still recovering, those pesky bastards nearly killed us. At least we got 5 cores out of them, plus the materials. Insect type Magic Beast always have a lot of usable materials, those blade-like arms will make decent weapons"
"Food is ready, my Snal is keeping watch so we can rest for a few hours before leaving for the city."
"Yes, well rest for 2 hours. The sooner we get there, the sooner we will have real food and a good bath"