Devotion slowly stood up as his name was called. His heart was racing, and he had to try hard not to sweat. He wasn't sure where this nervousness had come from. After all, he had successfully summoned earlier, and had just watched Victor succeed with the same technique. It should be a simple process.
Horatio beckoned to Devotion, pointing out a marked area for Devotion to stand within.
"Alright, Devotion. I'm eager to see how you do. Whenever you're ready." Horatio said, crossing his arms and watching expectantly.
Devotion slowly made his way to the marked spot of the ground. This specific area was contained with a magic barrier, in order to contain any wayward spell attempts that might go wrong. After all, these were all amateur magicians! Someone was bound to blow something up on accident at some point.
Devotion resolved himself, clenching his fists in the middle of the circle. He had to pass this examination. It was the culmination of everything he'd been working for so far!
Devotion summoned Ghostwhisper's staff form, performing a hand seal and speaking the words of power.
"Summon, come to my aid!" He shouted.
And nothing happened. There was no bright white sigil, no strange monkey-like creature, nothing. Devotion cursed inside, calling himself and Ghostwhisper a scam and every other vulgar name he could think of.
Devotion tried again.
"Summon, come to my aid!" He shouted once more, channeling his anger once more. Devotion was especially pissed off, considering what was at stake. He was too blinded by anger to notice that even though the summon failed, a crimson sigil appeared in the air behind him.
"Devotion, stop for one second! Your intent is out of control!" Horatio yelled, but Devotion ignored him.
He was enraged after failing twice.
"Summon, COME TO MY AID!" He screamed, using all of his rage in one go. The crimson sigil appeared in front of him, and an immense figure appeared. It was similar to the crimson ape he had hunted during Ghostwhisper's Hardcore Training Regiment, only larger in size. It reeked of the stench of blood.
"He actually summoned a Blood Crimson Ape. Unreal." Horatio murmured to himself, before raising his own hands.
"Begone from this world, demon!" Horatio shouted, performing hand seals. The crimson ape roared, slamming its fists on the magical barrier. It was incredibly hostile, and cracks started to appear on the barrier. Every student's face went pale, save for one cocky young man who had already succeeded.
Just as it seemed the crimson ape was going to break through, it was bathed in blue light, then banished from the material plane by Horatio.
Devotion suddenly felt weak. He hadn't realized it, but summoning that creature had drained all of his Qi he had condensed. He nearly collapsed from fatigue, but held himself up by leaning his weight on Ghostwhisper. The old spirit within that staff would have been humiliated, had it not still been in seclusion to recover.
"That is a pass, Devotion, and one with flying colors, at that. Welcome to the Summoner's Guild." Horatio said. It was obvious he wanted to say more, but held his tongue in front of the large audience.
Devotion stumbled over to Victor, whose jaw was still dropped from that immense summon.
"Why didn't you tell me you could do that?" Victor demanded, shoving Devotion's shoulder. That light blow almost knocked him off his feet. Devotion stumbled a bit, and Victor caught him. "Sorry. Didn't realize you were that exhausted."
"I'm going to be completely honest, Vic, I have no idea how I did that. I just remembered what we were practicing, got really pissed off, and it worked? You really are onto something with that adrenaline theory of yours." Devotion murmured out.
The two of them watched the rest of the examinations go by. By the end of it, a total of eight hundred and fifty three disciples passed. Over half had failed the examinations, and were immediately expelled from the sect. Horatio turned and addressed the disciples that were still there.
"Congratulations, all of you. You have firmly cemented your positions as outer sect disciples. From now on, your new daily routine will be a bit different. Instead of just coming to my lectures, you will be able to branch out and learn what you want. However, in order to keep your position in the sect, you will have to complete at least one mission every three months. If you fail to do this, you will be expelled. Missions vary in difficulty and length, and harder, more dangerous missions will give you greater rewards. Work hard to improve. There's an exciting opportunity coming to all of you in the future, but I can't talk about it just yet. Just improve as quickly as you can! Good luck, and welcome fully into the Summoner's Guild!" Horatio explained. At that last sentence, the disciples all cheered. From here out, their lives were changed.
As all of the disciples headed out, one purposely slammed into Devotion from the back, knocking him off his feet and to the ground.
"Don't think because you used some trick to summon a beast that you're hot shit. I'm the top of this class, you hear? Stay out of my way." The same disciple said. He was unimpressed by Devotion's work. With that, the arrogant disciple turned around and left.
Victor helped Devotion get to his feet.
"What a dick. Don't listen to him, I doubt he could ever summon something like you did." Victor attempted to comfort.
"Ah, don't worry about it. There's always one in every crowd. To be honest, I don't think I could even summon something like I did earlier. That was a total accident. I'm gonna head to the dorm and get some rest before I pass out from exhaustion." Devotion explained, limping to his room. Victor watched him leave. "Thank god I recorded that with a photographic jade. Maybe I can learn how he did that and replicate it myself." Victor said to himself.
Devotion closed the door to his room and nearly immediately passed out when he remembered something. "That letter!"
Devotion opened his drawer and grabbed it. It had appeared there earlier that day, and he had almost forgotten about it. Devotion examined it. There was no return address anywhere on it, just a simple wax seal depicting a hammer and anvil.
Curious, Devotion opened the letter.