Spiritual Beast (4) - 32

As Mr. Oaken talked, explaining the basics of spiritual beast summoning, the atmosphere in the classroom was so thick that somebody could burst it with a needle.

Everybody was just really excited to finally get to learn, and summon their own spiritual beast.

Again, I didn't listen to the lesson because I already knew the detailed process by heart as it was in the auxiliary volume.

I was literally only here to get the free materials for the summoning, as I was poor after buying all those clothes after all.

Again, I started shuffling my cards in new ways, throwing some up in the air, passing some behind my back, sometimes with one hand, the combinations were endless.

I could see out of the corner of my eye that Primrose and the other girl in my row were getting distracted by the theatrics, so I increased it, after all, as a magician, I need to "perform" in front of an audience.

This went on until the last 15 minutes of class, in which Mr. Oaken finally passed out the free materials. Keyword, "free".

With the materials laid out in front of me, I immediately started working.

With the knife, I drew a cross on the leather, followed by a circle around the cross, and another circle that was one inch bigger than the other.

In the space between the two circles, I inscribed what was described in the auxiliary volume as the strongest incantation, something that almost guaranteed a mythical beast.

I used the monocle to make it perfect, making sure that it was all straight lines and almost perfect curves.

During this time, my mind wandered.

Because I wasn't listening to the lecture earlier, I didn't hear Mr. Oaken explain the ranking system for spiritual beasts, but I already knew it by heart.

It went like this: Common -> Rare -> Historic -> Legendary -> Mythical

Looking down, it seemed like I had finished the inscriptions while thinking about the ranking system with my split brain. I then placed the elder tree branch and a wallowing flower on the leather. I also took a sparrow feather that I had bought on Market Street, and placed it on top of the rest, trying to make it so that the spiritual beast I summoned would at least have wings.

Finishing, I didn't hesitate to take the knife and slice my palm, letting a lot of blood onto the leather, splattering it all over the inscriptions.

As I finished, I took a look around and noticed that everybody was looking at me in astonishment, including Mr. Oaken.

'Shit, was I maybe too excited?'

Noticing that they were also looking towards my side, I turned and saw that the girl next to me had almost finished her own inscriptions.

'Is that what I think it is?'

I looked between my inscription and hers, making sure that what I was seeing was correct.

'They're the exact same, well no, mine is better, but still...'

She finished with the inscription and placed the elder tree branch and the wallowing flower onto her leather.

She then took out a sparrow feather and put it on the top.

Like me, she didn't hesitate and sliced her hand, dripping the blood everywhere on her leather.

Again, like me, after she finished, she looked up.

She had the same reaction as me too, surprise, then a search to see if anyone had done the same thing as her.

Her gaze got darker and darker as she looked around the room, but when she saw my leather, her gaze lightened, before darkening a little bit too far.

'Why does that seem so familiar? Well anyways, it looks like she noticed too.'

You see, as the perfect inscription was only in the auxiliary volume, this meant that none of the characters in the novel knew about it, which meant that this was either just some strange coincidence, or the other person was a transmigrator.

Having both realized this, we somehow communicated with our eyes that there was going to be a talk later, just not now, as it'd look real sus and we really wanted to see what our leathers were going to summon.

Turning back to our own leathers, we placed our hands on them, mine already healed through rapid regen, and injected our spiritual energy into them.

The letters of the inscription started lighting up one by one, our two leathers almost in sync.

Once they all brightened up, we recited the incantation at the same time, "Spiritus sanctus qui vagatur terras. Animus dominans cum hoc attributo, contractum mihi subscri!"

As we finished, a column of light descended from the ceiling, enveloping our leathers.

The other students looked on in awe, their eyes sparkling in the bright illumination.

As the light died out, we both saw our new spirit beasts for the first time.

But, what I saw on my leather almost made me faint.

'Did I just get a random spirit raven?'

It truly just looked like a raven that had ghostly features to it. (A/N: Picture in the paragraph comment.)

I almost choked when I looked over at the other transmigrator's leather. First, I saw snow white feathers, almost as white as my hair. Then there was the noticeable halo around it and those big intelligent eyes.

'You've got to be kidding me! I get a random raven and she gets a caladrius?' (A/N: Again, image will be in the paragraph comment.)

'Life really isn't fair after all.' I thought dejectedly.

And it was the same across the room. The other students only looked at my raven for at most a second, they would then turn their gaze over to the caladrius and look at it longingly.

As a normal person could only have at most one spiritual beast, that meant that I was stuck with this raven for the rest of my life.

'Well, at least it has wings so my plans can still go on... it's just that, I wanted something a little bit stronger.'

But then, I noticed something off.

Writing down the summoning incantation on a special sheet of paper, I touched it to the raven's head, where it was absorbed.

I then quickly unsummoned the raven, before packing my bags and heading towards the door.

This was allowed, because the passing requirement for Class 1: Beginners Spiritual Beast Summoning was to summon a spiritual beast, which I had done, so I was finished here.

Usually, it would take at least 2 to 3 months for a student to be able to summon a spirit beast, as they needed to practice the inscription a lot until it was perfect.

As soon as I stepped out of the building, I transformed into a bird, well, a raven, and flew into my dorm through the open window.

Transforming back, I called my raven through the summon, which was an excerpt from a poem I loved back in my original world.

"Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the nightly shore tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"

The raven then appeared in front of me again.

"So, let's see what you're hiding."