National High School Summoners League.
It was an annual competition held nationwide.
The league was divided into individual and team sections.
The results of both sections were counted towards the academic points for college entrance exams, each weighting 25 percent.
The entire league accounted for 70 percent of the academic points for the exams.
This meant that not participating in the high school league or performing poorly in the competition was essentially a pipe dream for anyone hoping to get into Summoner University.
For Lu Wu at this moment, this was a deadly situation.
The reason lay with Little Skeleton.
The legacy Little Skeleton left by Lu Wu's predecessor was recognized as one of the weakest initial summoned beasts.
Lu Wu himself witnessed it, as it couldn't even walk properly.
Using such a summoned beast to compete, wasn't that just giving away a win?
What's worse, even if Lu Wu was willing to give away a win, someone had to be willing to let him do so.
The high school league required combined registration for individuals and teams.
It was not possible to register individually; one had to have a team to register.
A team had to have at least three official members.
In other words, if Lu Wu couldn't gather three people, there was no chance for registration, meaning there was no chance for the league.
It sounded easy to gather three people, just pulling two random people would do it.
But could such a thing be that easy?
This was a matter of the college entrance exam, a matter of the future—who would take it lightly?
No wonder, when Lu Wu summoned Little Skeleton, his close friend who promised to lead them in the league directly ditched them.
If a close friend of over a decade behaved like this, how could anyone else be willing to take him with a Little Skeleton?
Think about it, if Lu Wu were to take Pang Dudu to the league, he couldn't guarantee he'd agree either.
There was no way around it, the high school league was too important for them!
Therefore, Lu Wu's current situation could be said to be quite difficult.
However, unlike his predecessor, he didn't feel desperate to the extent of ending it all. It wasn't that his mental endurance was stronger.
Instead, it was because he had an extra Golden Finger compared to his predecessor.
"Hope this thing can bring me some help!"
Watching the scenery outside the window, Lu Wu whispered softly, an expectant look naturally appearing on his face.
The journey was silent.
Relying on the memory left by his predecessor and constantly absorbed by him, Lu Wu smoothly returned home.
A bit regretfully,
his predecessor didn't unlock the certain orphanage achievement, so Lu Wu lacked a protagonist's trait but had a four-member family instead.
Besides the parents, there was also a three-year-old sister.
There was also a two-tailed cat, which was Lu Wu's mother's summoned beast.
As for his father's summoned beast, Lu Wu had vague memories of it, seemingly it had died. For what reason, Lu Wu didn't know and wasn't interested.
Because of the time travel, although having his predecessor's memory, Lu Wu still felt a bit awkward facing his family.
So, after coming home, having dinner, and pushing away his constantly clinging sister, Lu Wu took Little Skeleton and hid in his room to study the Golden Finger that had accompanied his time travel.
Lu Wu's parents didn't find his reaction strange.
They thought it was because Lu Wu was feeling down after summoning Little Skeleton.
...…
Lu Wu, entering his room, closed the door and placed his hand on Little Skeleton's head.
As his hand touched, a line of information appeared before him, showing Little Skeleton's attribute panel.
…
Name: Little Skeleton
Power: 0 Star (Ordinary)
Quality: Ordinary (Inferior) (Upgrade)
Attribute: Undead
State: Trembling (Be careful, don't touch it too hard, or it might fall apart)
Skill: None
Weakness: Light, Fire, Thunder
Description: Hmm, congratulations, you're very lucky. There's no initial summoned beast worse than this.
…
This was Lu Wu's Golden Finger, awakened alongside his time travel.
As long as he touched a summoned beast, he could see its attributes.
Lu Wu had studied this Golden Finger all the way home but hadn't figured out its use.
Although there was an upgrade button after quality, Lu Wu found that the button was completely greyed out and unusable.
"It seems the quality upgrade of a summoned beast requires fulfilling certain conditions.
But the problem is, what are these conditions?
Killing monsters? Or experience points?"
Lu Wu's head ached.
After messing around for a long time without figuring it out, he felt irritated and impatient instead.
"Damn it, since it's a Golden Finger, can't it be a bit simpler and more straightforward?
Making it so mysterious, do you believe I'll file a complaint?"
Lu Wu didn't notice his emotion control ability had declined significantly after time traveling. He frequently lost his temper, influenced a bit by his predecessor.
This was quite normal, after all, Lu Wu had fully received the others' memories. A dozen years' worth rushing over, it was normal to be influenced somewhat.
Fortunately, Lu Wu could still hold on, remain himself, and manage his emotions fairly well.
Quickly, he dispelled his irritation and tried to stay calm to study the Golden Finger in front of him.
"Since it has an upgrade function, there must be triggering conditions.
If not specified, I'll explore it myself.
Current guesses include killing monsters, gaining experience, charging energy, or something else.
Raging here won't help, better test the approaches I could try first."
Saying this, Lu Wu began pondering and researching the methods he could experiment with now.
Listing all possible methods he could think of.
Firstly, killing monsters had to be ruled out temporarily. Neither he nor Little Skeleton had the ability to kill monsters.
Secondly, the energy charging enhancement method.
Lu Wu looked into this but had to give up.
Given his current financial situation, he could only handle electric energy. Was he supposed to use electricity on Little Skeleton or himself?
Thinking it over, Lu Wu decided against it. It wouldn't be good for either of them, might get them killed accidentally.
If he died, it would be game over. If Little Skeleton died, he'd be finished too.
At least the summoner path would end.
This initial summoned beast was contracted with him.
If Little Skeleton died, he would suffer mental trauma. Without proper medical conditions, this trauma would be enough to end his beginner summoner path.
So electrocution for him and for Little Skeleton was out of the question.
Under such circumstances, Lu Wu squinted: "In that case, I can only try this method first!"