Chapter 7: Funeral

Summoners usually made contact with demon beasts and then sought to conclude a contract. However, Cao Guang had broken this sequence to prove his talent.

Now he would have calm the Wolf down with benefits and punishments. In essence he would have to tame it. Since the contract was in place he would have the upper hand anyway. But he hoped to establish a relationship with the Wolf over time rather than use it as a expendable.

"Hahaha it seems that the heavens don't want me to stay here either. They have given me three geniuses in a week" 

"Three?" asked Gao Xuan in confusion.

"Couple of weeks ago a young Sound Maga joined us, she has an innate talent like you guys and a sharp mind"

Awakening dimensional magic at the primary level was the rarest among all elements, even rarer than the healing element. 

Cao Guang's curiosity was peaked instantly, he didn't recall a talented Sound Maga from Bo City. In some way or another every survivor of Bo City who were strong enough, went against Black Vatican in the future.

'So maybe she died before hitting her peak?' thought Cao Guang.

He had every intention of trying to recruit this woman now. A Sound Maga would be a good scout and from Zhan Kong's words she seemed really smart. In Cao Guang's opinion he should mould her into a great information collector and a tactical analyst like Lingling. He wasn't willing to give up on any talents he could recruit.

"Chief, what do we do now" asked Cao Guang interrupting Zhan Kong from his reverie.

" Yes, yes now the two of you need to withdraw or graduate from your highschool. Go deal with it and come back tommorow, we will start with your training then.

---

" So both of you want to graduate early to join the army" asked a stern eyed Principal Zhu to the duo.

" Yes" replied them both.

"Fine I'll allow it" said Principal Zhu in defeat realising he couldn't keep these two geniuses.

" Do you a summoning beast already?" asked the principal with a flicker in his eyes.

"Yes" said Cao Guang in reply.

"I have a proposition for you. You know about the annual Youth tournament of Bo City"

"Yes, the winner gets to cultivate for a week within the Underground Holy Spring" 

"More or less, however the competition is not open to the army. Only natives of Bo City are allowed. In the current format the High school and the clans of Bo City decide upon a representative for the competition. Would you like to represent us".

"Of course " said Cao Guang with a slight smile on his face as the conversation ha d progressed in the direction he'd hoped.

"Very well then. The competition for this year (2002) is December. So untill then you would need remain a student of the school" said the principal as if he had a reeled a fish with the bait "Of course I can grant you a special so that you can join the army" went on the principal with a grin on his face.

"Alright" acquiesced Cao Guang in defeat.

---

"Haha it's seems Principal Zhu is reluctant to let you leave". The principal's reluctance only increased Zhan Kong's joy " This is Song Xia, the sound mage I was talking about, all you will be a same class" said the commander pointing towards a young woman in military uniform with glasses.

She was quite beautiful and had deep eyes and wavy hair and seemingly awakened the passion in Gao Xuan as he went forward to introduce himself.

Cao Guang was well aware of his brother's character and chose to ignore the guy. While Song Xia looked at both of them with battle intent.

"You know the rules, no duels untill you completed your training. Atleast become third-tier primary mages first" said the commander defusing Song Xia's battle intent.

"You'll spend your time as trainees between cultivation, combat lectures , military formation and training and finally reading". 

A normal recruit could ignore a lot of these procedures and hassles, but since they chose the elite path the military would be giving them resources and in return needed hardwork and dedication from the three of them.

"Now collect your Star dust cultivation tools from me and Cao Guang someone will be arriving in the future to evaluate your talent in. the future".

Star dust cultivation tools were the lowest level of cultivation tools and were meant for Primary Mages.

Cao Guang already had the support of his Little Tora pendant and had reached could use both summoning and fire element spells already. He had been waiting to receive a Stardust cultivation tool. His Little Tora pendant could grow by digesting other cultivation tools and certain sources of energy. It would then be able provide him with more help with his cultivation.

A few weeks passed by like that and Cao Guang was almost at secon-tier of primary Summoning spell. He had also repaired his relationship with the Spirit Wolf, whom he named Fenrir playfully. 

He was planning on breaking through soon however he had received some sad news and returned to the city from the military base.

Old Man Ying had passed away. He knew the old man went away with happiness having fulfilled his family's life long mission, yet he could not tear up at funeral.

Funerals in this world were much more serious than his previous world. Corpses could not be left to be as they could become Undead. In larger city the dead would be buried by an Intermediate Light mage casting a purification spell and be then buried in a public cemetery. 

These public cemeteries were occasionally purified by an higher level Light or Psychic mage in order to placate the souls if any.

However, in a small city like the current Bo City this was not an option. The old man's was first placated and then incinerated. Only his ashes would be buried.

---

That night Cao Guang broke through the second-tier in his summoning element. He could vaguely feel a soul give him a nudge when he felt the break through would not happen today.