8 - It's dangerous being a summon

After a silent walk we arrived at another building, this one looked like an apartment complex.

"Is this where you live Master?" I ask

"What about it? Not fancy like you wanted?" he lashes

"Not at all Master, i have no complaints even if i slept outside" I reply with my hands up in defense. I was slightly surprised he lived at an apartment, considering the way he acted i had started to think he might be royalty. He turned to look at me like an idea had just occurred

"Maybe you should sleep outside?" he suggests.

"If that is what you want Master. I'd just like to request approval for hunting" I respond simply. 'Didn't the humans have a phrase for my disposition? what was it? your wish is my command? yes, that sounds right' i think 'perhaps i should start using that phrase' i chuckle inwardly at how cheesy it would probably sound if spoken aloud. He sighs

"It was a joke, you can sleep inside" he says a little annoyed. 'oh, it's my first time hearing him joke. Has he warmed up to me a little?' i wonder surprised. I follow him inside the dwelling as he unlocks the door and we begin to make our way up the stairs.

"Master, you didn't answer my request" I prompt earning a sigh

"Yes, whatever, you can hunt, but no humans and no pets"

"Can i hunt in dungeons?" I ask unsure about this worlds rules

"No, two reasons. First, to enter a dungeon you need to pay an entry fee. Second, no summon is allowed to enter a dungeon without its owner" he says

"Could i take my name tag off? why do they need to think i'm a summon?" i ask a bit confused

"When you look like that?" Are you crazy? do you want me to go to jail??" he yells leaving the stairs as we come to floor 6 "Summoners fucked it for everyone, they use to send their summons in separate dungeons to themself to level up quicker, that part was fine but then there were summons given orders to kill other players or to steal their loot. Since the summon and master weren't in the same dungeon the blame couldn't be placed on any one individual summoner, especially since a lot of summons are the same type of monsters, so even if you identified the type of monster used, it could have been any number of people" he explains. We came to a door that he opened to show his apartment "It got so bad to a point where assassinations and theft happened with summons outside of dungeons. So now, summons can only enter very few public places" he flops onto his bed looking up at the ceiling "Any summon caught in those other places without a master present get killed quickly if there wasn't prior warning"

"They get killed?" i ask surprised yet again

"a summon doesn't permanently die, so it's fine legally. Instead when a summon dies the owner has a cooldown before being able to re-summon it. The higher level and stronger the summon, the longer the cooldown is"

"I see, a heavy penalty" i mumble to myself

"A lot of people stopped choosing the summoner class because of that, so now there's very few summons around unless they were from artifacts"

"You can choose your class?" i ask, this world was full of surprises one after the other. i had assumed 'classes' would be inherent.

"yes, about 50% of humans existing in the world are players, a player awakens their system at the age 10, at that point everything but the stats are locked for another 5 years. Stats can still be increased during this time through physical training but after that it becomes entirely dependent on xp. At age 15 a class can be chosen. There are 5 main classes that everyone is categorized into; support, warrior, ranged combat, summoner and special. Nobody bothers to ask about specifics unless you are in the special or support" there was a pause "Or if they need a certain elemental mage. Has that satisfied your curiosity?" he ask abruptly.

"Ah, yes. For now" I say

"I'm going to sleep, don't cause trouble and hunt quietly. Just go out the window since you can fly anyway. When you're done you can sleep beside my bed on the floor" he mumbles rolling onto his side.

"Yes Master" i say quietly. I open the window slowly, letting a gentle cool breeze in. I jump out unfolding my wings to catch myself and hover for a moment deciding on what to do. The sun hadn't gone down fully yet and i didn't know the area 'should i ask a local for directions?' i wonder. 'Summons are viewed very warily, but i can communicate so it should be alright if i just explain myself' i think 'even still, humans get stupidly fearful, maybe i shouldn't chance it'. Deciding it was in my best interest not to directly approach a local i began to just start searching for some locations that might have animals, perhaps a park or an alley, surely stray cats exist here. Despite being able to eat just about any type of blood there were also a lot of creatures not suitable like birds, most rodents, some reptiles, and even some fish, i could still get poisoned if i ate the wrong thing and i wasn't immune to getting sick on occasion, i was simply unable to die and so all diseases or illnesses would fade but that fact never made the experience any less terrible. I flew high in the sky to try and avoid being seen as i searched for my meal. First i flew in a radius around Master Victors apartment, the building only just in view still, i wasn't too bad with directions but if i wasn't careful it was possible to get lost still. After a while the sun had fully disappeared below the horizon and i still hadn't found any suitable animals aside from humans. A little while later i was scouting out an alley when a voice boomed above me

"PLEASE LAND FOR INVESTIGATION. IF YOU REFUSE, WE WILL OPEN FIRE!"

I flinched at the sound, looking up i saw about 3 people riding reptile mounts, 'dragons?' i wondered curious about their appearance. The reptiles were large, about the size of a small horse with four wings placed on the body in a way that somewhat reminded me of a dragonfly, the tail was short, the hind legs were muscular with large feet showing off menacing talons, the head had 2 sets of horns, the ones higher on the skull bent back and upward while the lower ones bent forwards and down as if framing the face. I landed in the alley and waited for them to land too. Now that i wasn't looking up at the belly of their dragons i could see that the people were all wearing some sort of red and black military uniform. Two of them pointed guns at me while the third demanded my ID. I lifted my hands slowly and went to pull my ID off but realized i couldn't, my hand wouldn't let me pull it off my neck 'ah i was ordered not to take it off in public' i remember

"I can't" i say apologetically

"ID NOW! WE WILL OPEN FIRE IF YOU REFUSE TO COOPERATE!" one of the ones holding a gun shouted.

i hold my hands up defensively "You misunderstand, i was ordered not to take it off, i can't physically do it" i explain still holding my hands up defensively. They pause for a moment.

"LOWER YOUR WINGS AS FAR AS THEY CAN GO AND HOLD YOUR HANDS EXTENDED IN FRONT OF YOU" the same guy demands. 'lower my wings?' i think confused. i unfold my wings slowly and stretch them out and down behind me, i also stretch my arms out in front of me as requested

"Like this?" i ask a little confused by the demand. Suddenly all three of them marched forward. One grabbed my wrists pulling me forward and off balance, another got behind me, he pinned my wings together and kicked my knees out from under me sending me forwards. With my wings held together and my wrists held up making me unable to catch myself i landed flat on my face. A foot was placed on my back between my wings as they held me tight. I didn't resist but i was taken aback by the sudden rough treatment. I felt my ID getting pulled from underneath me until it could be seen.

"It's a real ID, it's a legal summon" the person informs after checking. 'is this the typical treatment for summons?' i wonder intrigued.

"Aaron is it?" She asks

"Yes Ma'am" i reply half muffled by the ground.

"What are you doing out without your master?" She asks

"Looking for food Ma'am" i say

"Food? in an alley?" she asks eyebrow raised and unconvinced

"Yes ma'am. If i found a stray cat, i wanted to eat it" I say. There was a pause.

"You wanted to eat a stray cat?" she reconfirms

"Yes ma'am. If that's illegal, are there other animals around i can eat?" I ask. another pause.

"Does your Master not feed you?" she asks.

"He can't feed me" i reply thinking about his order to not harm him.

"Why can't he?" she asks. She still was clearly suspicious of me but was that a bit of pity i heard? There was a pause before i could answer. 'How should i approach this? What do summons usually eat? Maybe i should say my master is poor? no, then i might get offered a meal with human food'

"Answer" the person holding my wings demanded shoving me with their foot

"Well. That. I can't eat normal food" i reply blankly

"What do you mean?" the lady asks

"I eat blood Ma'am" There was a long silence.