These Familiars Are Strange

"Number 56."

"9th Class Low Grade Familiar."

"Number 75."

"4th Class Medium Grade Familiar."

"Number 88."

"1st Class Medium Grade Familiar!"

"There's actually a 1st Class Medium Grade! I never thought that someone would have this kind of talent!"

"Right? Especially since this is the lowest of the low high school. We're not even in the top ten thousand ranking in the world and we're still able to get someone with a 1st Class Medium Grade Familiar!"

"She really must be talented! She must be destined for great things in the future!"

"I wonder if I could get her number…"

"Ha, stop dreaming! Someone like you who can't even summon a 9th Class Medium Grade Familiar? You won't even get the chance to talk to her."

"Someone can at least dream, right?"

As the chatter rang out all around me, I wasn't in any mood to hear it.

That was because at this moment, my heart was beating out of my chest…

It was going to be my turn soon to summon a familiar.

This was the moment that everyone had been waiting for, including me.

In this world, if one didn't get a powerful familiar, they wouldn't be able to reach any kind of powerful position. After all, this was a world where one's power determined what kind of treatment they received.

It all started when the first gates opened and the monsters invaded the world.

It was a disaster where more than half of the world's population had been killed.

With the way that the situation developed, it really seemed like it was only a matter of time before the monsters completely wiped out the human race. 

That was until the first summoners appeared.

They had awakened a power that allowed them to tap into the worlds that the monsters came from, allowing them to pull those monsters to Earth and taming them to become their familiars. 

No one knew where this power came from, but it was a power that allowed humans to fight back against the gates that appeared and the monsters that appeared in their world.

With the power of the familiars, humanity was able to push back the monsters and reclaim their lands.

Now, two hundred years after that, humans had built a society around summoners and those that were able to tame powerful familiars. That was because only those with powerful familiars were able to protect the human race.

When high schoolers reached the end of their education, they would have the chance to go through the summoning ceremony that would allow them to summon a familiar for themselves.

Though there were chances to summon other familiars in the future, this was the one chance that everyone had. Those other chances were hard to come by since it took a lot of resources to perform a summoning in the first place.

For most people, this was their only chance.

That included me, a person who came from a normal four person family that didn't have anything.

Both of my parents and my older brother only had normal familiars, so I was the last hope for our family to increase our status.

"Lin Fan."

I snapped out of my thoughts the moment that I heard my name being called and went forward towards the summoning platform.

As I moved forward, there were many people that turned in my direction.

"Is that him?"

"Right, that's the top scorer."

"I wonder what kind of familiar he will summon?"

I just acted like I ignored them all as I continued towards the summoning platform, but it was a lie that I was calm. I could feel my heart beating fast and I could feel the worry filling my stomach as I walked forward.

Even if I was the top student at school, that didn't mean that I would be able to summon a powerful familiar.

As I headed to the summoning platform, there was someone that called out my name.

I turned to look in that direction and found a bright smile pointed at me.

Seeing this smile erased some of the worry that filled me.

The one that was giving me this bright smile was Long Tang Tang, my childhood friend.

Our families were close since we had similar backgrounds, so the two of us had grown up together.

"I'm waiting to see what kind of powerful familiar you'll summon." She said with that bright smile on her face.

A trace of bitterness appeared on my face, but I still said, "Well, we'll see."

"You won't do badly, you're the top scorer in our entire grade. If you can't summon a good one, then no one can." She said with the same bright smile.

I didn't feel as optimistic as her, but with her cheering me on like this, I really couldn't keep feeling down about myself.

So I gave her a firm nod before heading towards the summoning platform.

But as I turned back to walk forward, I didn't miss the person who was glaring at me.

Wang Teng, he was someone from our class as well, but he wasn't a friend. In fact, he was the class bully who suppressed everyone else with his strong body.

It was only me that he wasn't able to suppress since I was just as strong as him. No, I was actually stronger than him since I took the training seriously and worked hard to achieve what I had.

He was someone who just relied on his natural physique…

Well, he was also someone who had a rich father that bought him supplements to increase his strength.

As for why he was glaring at me…everyone in class knew about his feelings for Long Tang Tang. It was just that she wasn't interested in someone who bullied others like Wang Teng did.

Once I reached the summoning platform, the instructor looked at me with a smile as he asked, "Are you ready?"

It wasn't just the instructor who looked at me favourably, the rest of the staff all looked at me like this.

They knew that I was the top scorer, so they were all expectant about my results. At the same time, they wanted to build a good relationship with me since they thought that I would be someone important in the future.

Otherwise, would they have allowed me to stop and talk to Long Tang Tang like that?

No one else got the same privilege.

Seeing the look on my face, the instructor said with the same smile, "Don't be so nervous, it's all just routine. You'll do fine."

The others all nodded in agreement to this.

I did feel a bit better seeing them like this, so I gave a simple nod in response before heading to the spot in the center of the summoning platform.

Taking a deep breath, I started up the summoning platform.

Thirty seconds later…

"How could this be? This is…"