Free Web NovelChapter 35: 35. First Lessons
Nathan arrived at the training facility with Mirko on one shoulder and Kuro on the other.
The party was mid-warmup. Garrett was stretching his hamstring, Red sprawled beside him like a crimson wool rug. Dillon was seated on a bench, polishing his katana with the same reverence a priest might afford a holy relic. Elise stood near the far wall, her Frost Golem a silent sentinel at her back.
Garrett noticed first. He squinted. Then his eyes bulged.
"Cross. Why are there two bunnies?"
Nathan set both summons down on the training floor. Mirko stood tall and proud, her green fur gleaming under the ward lights. Beside her, Kuro sat motionless... black as charcoal, white markings around her eyes like a mask, her dark gaze sweeping the room with quiet assessment.
"Everyone," Nathan said, "this is Kuro. My second summon."
Dead silence.
Dillon’s polishing cloth slipped from his fingers and fluttered to the floor. He didn’t pick it up. "Your what?"
Elise’s expression which was usually a fortress of composure, cracked. Just slightly. A fracture of genuine shock that she couldn’t quite suppress. Her gaze flicked between Mirko and Kuro as if trying to solve a puzzle that had just gained seventeen new pieces.
"A second summon," she said slowly. "You have a second summon."
"That’s what I said."
"You’re F-Grade aptitude." She spoke the words like she was reading from a legal document, citing evidence that made the conclusion impossible. "F-Grade. And you have two summons."
"The math isn’t mathing, Cross," Dillon added, finally retrieving his cloth. "Like, at all. It’s anti-math. Math is crying in a corner somewhere."
---
Garrett dropped onto a bench, running both hands through his hair in the universal gesture of a man whose worldview had just been forcibly rearranged.
"Okay. Okay. Let’s just... let’s process this." He held up one finger. "Do you know how people get multiple summons? Normal people? People who aren’t you?"
Nathan shrugged. "I’ve been busy climbing. Enlighten me."
"Option one." Garrett ticked off his fingers. "You’re stupidly rich. Not just rich... generational wealth, old money, the kind of family that owns guilds. You pay a Climber to sever their summon bond and transfer the summon to you. It costs a fortune... like, a literal fortune, the kind of money that could buy a small island. It’s painful for both parties. The summon usually hates you afterward because you’re not their original master, and the bond never fully stabilizes. Most people who do it regret it."
"Option two," Dillon picked up, his usual flippancy dialed back. He was watching Nathan with something between curiosity and disbelief. "You find a Summon Stone. An Ultra-rare drop from Tower bosses. The drop rate is... what, one in a thousand? And half of those are cracked or inert. A working Stone lets you perform another summoning ritual. The Stones themselves are so valuable that a single one can fund a mid-tier guild for a year. There’s a black market. People have died over them."
"Option three," Elise finished quietly. Her voice was calm, but her eyes hadn’t left Kuro. "You receive a summon as a special Tower reward. S-Rank clears under perfect conditions. The Tower itself recognizes your achievement and grants you an additional bond. I’ve read about it happening twice in the last decade. Both recipients are in the Top 100 now."
She paused. The silence stretched.
"How did you get yours?"
Nathan considered his options. Lying was pointless... they’d seen too much already. The truth, or a carefully edited version of it, was the only viable path forward.
"My summoning during graduation. The magical phenomenon everyone saw... the golden light, the pressure, all of it." He gestured at Mirko, then at Kuro. "The system... it gave me more than just Mirko. It gave me the potential for additional summons. I just had to meet certain... conditions."
"You make it sound like a checklist," Garrett said weakly.
"It wasn’t. It took weeks of grinding. I hit Level 25 last night. That unlocked the second summon."
"So what? Beside our normal system, You’ve got some personal system that gives you perks???," Dillon said slowly, "gave you an additional summon slot? For free? Because you hit Level 25? No money? No Stone? No Tower blessing? Just... leveling up? That don’t seem suspicious to you?"
"Nope. Pretty much."
Dillon stared at him for a long moment. Then he looked at the ceiling as if appealing to a higher power. "I hate you. Genuinely. I respect you immensely, but I also hate you. That’s not normal. You know that’s not normal, right? People would kill for that. People have killed for that."
Nathan glanced at Kuro. She hadn’t moved during the entire exchange... just sat there, black eyes tracking each speaker, absorbing everything. Filing it away. "I’m starting to figure that out." freewebnovel.cσ๓
---
Elise stepped closer, crouching to study Kuro at eye level. The black bunny met her gaze without flinching.
"What can she do?" Elise asked.
"Still figuring that out... Kuro!"
Kuro activated [Shadow Meld]. Her small body dissolved into the shadow beneath a nearby training dummy... not invisible, but part of the darkness, like ink spreading through water. A heartbeat later, she emerged from a different shadow ten feet away, behind Dillon, who yelped and nearly dropped his katana.
"She teleports?" Garrett demanded.
"Shadow movement. Not teleportation exactly... she merges with shadows and emerges elsewhere that’s connected." Nathan paused.
Dillon’s voice cracked. "That’s a starter skill!? What does she she levels up!? spontaneous existence erasure? Fuck."
Kuro then activated [Weak Point Sense]. Her black eyes swept the training dummy, and through the mental link, Nathan received a crisp pulse of information: structural flaws, stress fractures, the exact point where a single arrow would cause catastrophic failure. He relayed this to the party.
"She also identifies weaknesses," Nathan added. "Passively. She’s been doing it since the moment I summoned her."
Elise straightened slowly. Her expression had shifted.. not shock anymore, but something more calculating. "You’re literally building a small army."
"Yeah, it’s called a party."
"That’s not what this looks like. Mirko is a Knight. This one has assassin-like skills... shadow movement, weak point identification." She met Nathan’s eyes. "How many more can you summon?"
Nathan hesitated. That was a question he wasn’t ready to answer. "Right now? Two slots. That’s all I know for certain."
Elise held his gaze for a long moment, then nodded. She didn’t push further. But her expression said she would be watching very, very closely.
Dillon, meanwhile, had recovered from his scare and was now studying Kuro with renewed interest. A grin spread across his face... the kind of grin that made Nathan instinctively brace for impact.
"So..." Dillon said, "Mirko turns into a gorgeous Knight with a killer bodysuit. This one’s black and sneaky. When she hits evolution and goes humanoid..." He waggled his eyebrows. "I’m just saying, Cross. The aesthetic potential is significant. Dark hair? Probably. Mysterious vibe? Already locked in. That white mask pattern around her eyes? Is that going to translate into some kind of face marking?, I guarantee it might. She’s going to be—"
"Dillon." Elise’s voice could have flash-frozen a river.
"I’m making an observation! A purely aesthetic observation! It’s not a crime to appreciate—"
"It should be."
Kuro’s mental voice cut through the link, dry as dust: ’The noisy one is speculating about my hypothetical physical appearance. Should I be concerned?’
Nathan rubbed his temples. "Welcome to the party."
---
Later that night. Nathan attemtoed a power leveling inThe Tower of Verdant Rot, it rose at the industrial district’s edge, a vertical greenhouse gone feral. Vines as thick as arms strangled the outer walls. Through the entrance, bioluminescent fungi cast sickly green light across damp stone. The air was humid and cloying, thick with the scent of decay.
Nathan stepped through the portal with Mirko in humanoid form at his side and Kuro, small and silent on his shoulder.
"Same plan," Nathan said. "Mirko holds the line. I snipe. Kuro observes and marks targets. If you see an opening..."
’I will take it,’ Kuro finished. ’You said this already.’
"I’m reinforcing it."
’I understood the first time. My memory is functional.’
Nathan exchanged a look with Mirko. "She’s been here one day. One day. And she’s already arguing with me."
"They grow up so fast," Mirko said, not bothering to hide her smirk. "I’m so proud. As her senior."
’That word still means nothing.’
"It means everything."
The first three floors were plant-based monsters...Spore Crawlers scuttling on crab-like legs, Thorned Vines lashing from the walls, Rot Shamblers lumbering on legs of compressed vegetation. Nathan and Mirko cleared them with practiced efficiency. Mirko’s [Impenetrable Fortress] absorbed strikes that would have crippled lesser defenders. Nathan’s [Mana Arrows] punched through fungal cores and vine nodes. The Leyline Ring hummed, keeping his reserves steady.
Kuro watched. She learned. Occasionally, through the link, she would pulse a target... [Weak Point Sense] marking a structural flaw that Nathan’s [Hunter’s Insight] might have missed. A crack in a Crawler’s carapace. A soft spot beneath a Shambler’s arm. Each mark was precise, economical. No wasted information.
By Floor 3, she wasn’t just watching.
A Rot Shambler lumbered toward Nathan’s flank. Mirko was engaged with two others... couldn’t intercept in time. Nathan pivoted, drawing an arrow...
And Kuro moved.
[Shadow Meld] activated. Her small black form dissolved into the darkness beneath the Shambler’s own bulk, vanishing like ink into water. The creature paused, confused. Then Kuro emerged from a shadow behind it, her [Weak Point Sense] flaring... there, the base of the spine, where the fungal core was thinnest...and Nathan’s follow-up arrow punched through the mark with surgical precision.
The Shambler collapsed.
[Ding! XP Gained!]
[Ding! Level Up!]
[Kuro: Level 3 Reached!]
Mirko cleaved through her two opponents and glanced back. "She’s learning fast."
’I have good teachers,’ Kuro said.
Mirko’s ears perked up. "Was that...did you just compliment me? That was a compliment. You complimented me."
’I was referring to the Summoner.’
Nathan snorted. Mirko’s outrage echoed through the link in a torrent of indignation that lasted well into Floor 4.
---
Floor 4 introduced a Bloated Sporebeast...a floating sack of toxic gas, its membrane stretched thin and pulsating with sickly green light. One wrong shot would rupture it catastrophically, showering the entire chamber with poison.
Nathan drew and began charging [Focus Shot]. "I’ll aim for the center mass. Detonate it from a distance."
’Wait.’ Kuro’s voice was sharp. ’The membrane is thinnest at the base. A shot there will collapse it inward without dispersing the gas. The poison will be contained.’
Nathan paused. Adjusted his aim. "You’re sure?"
’I can see it. The structural weakness. Right there.’ Another pulse of [Weak Point Sense], marking a spot near the creature’s underside.
Nathan released. The arrow struck the marked point. The Sporebeast convulsed, its membrane folding inward like a deflating balloon, the toxic gas contained within its collapsing structure. It hit the ground with a wet thud and dissolved.
"Good call," Nathan said.
’I am learning.’
Floor 5 was standard enemies...more Shamblers, a few Crawlers. They cleared it without incident.
[Ding! Tower of Verdant Rot Cleared!]
[Time: 48 minutes 3 seconds.]
[Overall Clear Rank: B]
[Kuro: Level 4 Reached!]
Five levels to go. Eight days remaining.
Nathan extracted into the cool night air. The industrial district was silent around them, the Tower’s green glow fading behind the entrance portal. Mirko shifted back to bunny form and hopped onto his right shoulder. Kuro remained in his jacket, a small warm weight against his chest.
He walked toward home, the Leyline Ring humming on his finger, two bunnies warm against his shoulders, and the weight of what they were building pressing against his ribs like a held breath.
