"I don't think I need to tell you how important today is," said the teacher, his voice echoing across the training grounds.
"This is your final chance to complete your class awakening. From this point on, whether you're lucky enough to awaken a class or not, life will only get harder from here."
The students who were listening from the training ground below shifted nervously, unease written all over their faces.
Today was the long-awaited Class Awakening Ritual for the graduating students of Crestwood Public Middle School. For most of them, this day would decide their future.
In the world of Blue Star, things hadn't always been this way.
Hundreds of years ago, the first Dimensional rifts appeared, starting the Dimensional calamity, an event that tore through the very fabric of reality, unleashing chaos on a once peaceful world.
With the emergence of rifts arrived endless tides and twisted creatures and monsters who poured out in an unstoppable frenzy of only chaos and destruction.
The world's armies at the time were caught off guard and pushed back. At the start of the calamity, Regular firearms could still fight against these monsters, but as the power of the monsters continued to grow exponentially, humanity's fate soon became clear…
Extinction.
But in that time, at that moment when everything seemed lost and humanity nearly fell, theyappeared
Class Awakeners.
Class Awakeners were people who shortly after the arrival of the Dimensional Rifts, randomly began to manifest mysterious powers.
Some could heal with a touch, others could wield flame, shadow, or iron with supernatural ease.
They called it "Class Awakening." And it didn't just grant superpowers but something more than that. Awakening a class brought the ability to level up and to grow stronger by defeating the monsters that constantly spilt into their world. It was as if the world had become a real-life life deadly video game!
With Awakeners rising to meet the threat, humanity pushed back against the endless tide of beasts and averted the fate of extinction. But that was their limit. With the endless amounts of beasts that appeared, surviving was the best humanity could do, and the thought of reclaiming their world seemed completely impossible because the probability of class awakening happening amongst the general population was only within 5%.
Over decades, researchers and mages conducted frantic experimentation on the awakening method until they finally created the Awakening Circle.
It was a mystical, arcane formation that could help trigger a Class Awakening as long as the person was still 15. With the Awakening Circle, the chances of successful class awakening soared, reaching as high as 15%
Although most of these new awakeners would be of lower quality, it didn't change the fact that there were more people available to defend humanity. And for most people, the quality of their awakened class didn't matter. Becoming even the weakest of Awakener was a way to transform yourself and approach the top echelons of society
The students standing here today knew that. So it was no surprise that many were trembling, trying to mask their fear as they stood in the training field
But amidst the nervous crowd, one student stood apart.
Compared to the others, he was calm and composed. It wasn't surprising that he was the centre of everyone's attention.
A student near the back of the group muttered under his breath, just loud enough for his friend to hear.
"Man… we're about to do something that could decide the rest of our lives, and he's just standing there like it's nothing."
His friend glanced around.
"Who?"
In response to this, the other just nodded forward. "Who else could I be talking about? Of course it's Asher Vale."
The second student's eyes landed on Asher, who stood tall among the crowd and let out a low sigh.
"If I had his stats, I'd be calm too. He's Crestwood's golden boy. Didn't they say the higher your base stats before Awakening, the better chance you've got at pulling a rarer class?"
"Yeah. At the start of the year, he already had what, 7 Intelligence? I heard he might've even broken 10 by now."
"No way. That's insane. The top student before him didn't even hit 6!"
"Exactly, He's not normal..."
They both went quiet for a moment, looked at each other and then sighed just sighed
"He's a monster."
All around them, many similar conversations were happening, but Asher didn't react.
He just ignored the ever-increasing noises and just focused on himself, even as the weight of their stares became more bothersome.
Asher was showing the composure and confidence a regular middle schooler shouldn't have, and the reason for that was simple,
He wasn't a middle schooler!
Roughly three years ago, when he had just started his first day of middle school, he suddenly awakened a strange set of memories.
These were the memories of 24-year-old First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Asher Vale.
The last memory he had of that life was taking part in a large, coordinated live training exercise and seeing a grenade drop at his feet from out of nowhere. He didn't even have time to think about how such a crazy thing could happen. The last thing he remembered was pushing his platoon members out of the way and covering the grenade with his body before waking up here.
He still remembered the shock and surge of emotions he felt when he adjusted to the newfound memories. His first action, at the time he adjusted to the memories, wasn't to panic but instead to go down on his knees and pray that whatever all-powerful creator transmigrated him here would allow him back to Earth for one second so he could strangle to death the irresponsible bastard who even had a grenade in this area!
U.S. Army live-fire exercises, especially large coordinated joint operations, are extremely controlled, and fatalities are very rare. For a First Lieutenant like him to die from a grenade in such a setting would almost always involve a major protocol violation.
He'd warned the guys in his platoon around him multiple times until his throat went dry, but in the end, he had still died in an accident. What could he even do at that point?
To be honest, Asher didn't believe it was one of his guys. While rare, it was not uncommon for accidents to happen during live field training, so rather than believing his platoon members had made a mistake that cost him his life, he would rather believe that his luck was just that shit and his life was just an unlucky forfeit.
But that was enough about the past, back to the present.
Asher's strange situation and sudden new memories were also the real reason behind his abnormally high intelligence stat. He wasn't a genius like everyone had guessed, just a person, a mature adult in a middle schooler's body with two merged souls.
Although Asher had been reassured that his class awakening would go well with his uniquely high intelligence stat. After knowing his true situation, he couldn't help but suffer from some slight imposter syndrome
His homeroom teacher, Miss Ainsley, noticed and placed a gentle hand on his arm.
"Asher, relax and breathe. Don't tense up. Let the formation do its work just like we practised."
"It's okay, Teach," Asher said with a steady smile.
"I'm ready."
He stepped into the glowing Awakening Circle. A sigil lit beneath his feet as Miss Ainsley gave the signal to begin.
Getting the go ahead, Asher stepped into the awakening circle and the circle instantly burst into life with golden light curling up around the floor like living fire.
The instant his foot crossed the final line, the runes blazed to life in radiant arcs, whirling and spiralling upward in a dazzling, graceful dance.
Just as Asher felt like his mind was about to fly away, Asher felt something click inside his body, and a sudden booming voice echoed throughout the training ground
[Class Awakening Ritual Complete. Congratulations, Student Asher Vale has awakened to the hidden profession — Soulbound Summoner.]
At first, silence held the field as students stared at the mystical process in awe. But soon, the murmurs began.
"A summoner? Seriously?" Asked one person in disbelief
"Isn't that the class that practically burns money?"
"Yeah. Summoners need rare rituals, scrolls, and summoning stones just to call out some half-decent creatures. Forgot about being born with a golden spoon, a powerful summoner needs to be someone born with a diamond spoon!"
After saying this, the student just shook his head
"Hell, didn't one of our seniors who awakened as a summoner last year just declare bankruptcy for this same exact reason?"
Asher stepped out of the circle with the light fading behind him. He tried to keep his composure, but his face quickly turned into an ugly grimace.
Summoners were actually not the lowest-ranked common class but instead a higher, more powerful Elite Ranked class, the third tier. But despite this they had a reputation of being somehow worse than a common ranked class, and that's for one simple reason.
Resources.
Summoners, unlike any other class, relied on an almost extortionate amount of resources in the early game.
The reason for that was that all of a summoner's combat potential came entirely from their summons and contracts. A summoner was only as good as his contracted summoned creature.
Because of this, they needed to make sure that they used top-grade resources and materials to prepare a high-grade summoning ritual to stand a chance of contracting a decent creature.
But how many people could realistically do something so extravagant
This was only achievable for the rich and wealthy, but for the poor, the people who needed the class awakening the most? Awakening as a summoner was no different from a death sentence!
Asher stepped out of the awakening circle and heard the incessant whispers of nearby students and knew why the other students were talking so much.
His family situation wasn't exactly a secret after all.
He was poor. Piss fucking poor, actually.
His parents in this life were already long dead, and on top of that, he still had a gravely ill sister and an ageing grandmother to support.
He'd managed to get by so far despite his troubling family situation, because his outstanding talent and potential were so amazing that it had led to the school and many guilds offering up lucrative sponsorships. But this money didn't come for free out of the kindness of their hearts.
People invested in him because they believed he could return it a hundred or even a thousandfold when he awakened his class.
Everything he had and hoped for in the future for both him and his family rode on this awakening. And now… now he had done this?
Asher's throat tightened. He clenched his fists in frustration as he looked toward his home room teacher.
"Miss Ainsley…" he sighed
"I think I just fucked my life up."
Before Asher could say anything, Miss Ainsley's hand just ruffled his hair
"Silly Kid. What have I told you about just rushing to conclusions all the time? Didn't you pay attention to what the awakening circle just said? You didn't just awaken as a summoner. You awakened a hidden profession—Soulbound Summoner."
"Soulbound… Summoner?" Asher blinked, a faint spark of hope returning to his eyes.
Miss Ainsley nodded. "It may sound similar to a regular summoner, but Soulbound Summoners work completely differently. Soulbound summoners aren't simple classes, they're a bona fide Epic Ranked class!"
"Soulbound Summoning doesn't rely on materials or rituals. The power of the Soulbound Summon creature you contract depends solely on your strength, your intelligence, and your potential. Once you complete a successful contract, that summoned creature forms a permanent, unbreakable bond with you."
"It awakens skills and even gains part of the Awakeners system. It grows stronger alongside you."
"And with your talent of 10 points of intelligence, there's even a chance you could contract an extraordinarily powerful creature."
Asher heard this and felt his heartbeat quicken, and asked
"Miss Ainsley, just how powerful are we talking here?"
Miss Ainsley put a finger on her chin as she thought
"I can't say for certain. Soulbound Summoners were always rare throughout history. But there are records of a few who formed contracts with elder dragons and ancient elemental spirits."
Asher's eyes widened in shock
"I… I could summon a dragon?"
"Well," Miss Ainsley chuckled, "not a full-grown one, at least. But summoning a hatchling is possible. A creature like that would instantly catch the attention of the guilds. All Soulbound Summoned creatures are boss-level monsters, ones that usually take whole raid teams to take down."
"You shouldn't wait. Try to summon one now."
Asher heard this and hesitated.
He didn't like the idea of putting on a show for everyone, but he knew the rumours had already started.
If the guilds heard he awakened a summoner class and pulled their support based on that gossip, it'd be too late to cry about it then.
He had to show them and show them now!
Around him, every student went silent as all eyes locked onto Asher.
They'd heard what Miss Ainsley said, and now they wanted to see if the so-called "genius of Crestwood Middle School" could really pull off an impressive soulbound summon.
Taking a deep breath, Asher activated his innate 1 time use skill—[Soulbound Gate]—a one-time summoning rite that reached into the depths of the dimensional void.
Buzz!!!
All of a sudden, the mana in the air all around Asher began to tremble, becoming so wild and unruly even the high rank awakeners watching over the scene had to take a step back.
This wild storm continued with Asher at the centre as a massive dark summoning circle spread beneath his feet, glowing with unprecedented power.
As this was going Asher's consciousness felt like it was being drained away, tides of mental energy flowing into the dark unknown. His will reached deep into the abyss surrounding the world.
"Good! Concentrate!" Miss Ainsley called.
A pitch-black gateway tore open a hole in reality in front of Asher as something.
Something stirred inside. A shadow grew larger.
"Is that… a giant?" someone whispered.
All around the eyes of both students and Awakeners widened in horror
Even Miss Ainsley didn't speak, but her eyes gleamed with anticipation.
'If it's the Asher I know, this Soulbound Summon will be something the world won't forget.'
Miss Ainsley and the rest of the crowd were brimming with anticipation, but as Asher's summoning progressed, the large dark figure summoning circle flickered and glitched, suddenly spiralling out of control.
The summoning circles crackled with tendrils of lightning that smashed the earth around it like a beserk dragon!
'No, this isn't right!'
Panicked Asher looked at his system panel for some help, but even that was thoroughly fucked!
[Error! Error!]
[Summoning Error! Stand ready for correction!]
Asher heard the series of ominous glitchy notifications go off in his mind and knew he was in danger, but before he could even mutter a word for help, the raging summoning circle seemed to short-circuit before bursting out with a horrifying beam of black light that shot straight toward Asher's head!
Bang!
With the speed at which the beam shot out. Asher had no time to react and took the strike straight to the head. The moment the lights connected, Asher felt as if an apocalyptic explosion were happening in his mind, and his mind went blank
A sharp, burning pain tore through his thoughts.
He could hear the panicked screams of his teachers and students, but he could no longer move or think clearly.
The screams that should have been deafening now all felt faint and distant, like echoes from a world he was slipping away from. He couldn't move. He couldn't think. He could only fall deeper into this trapped silence.
And as he did so, a voice cold and clear rang out with a final message :
[Congratulations on completing your Soulbound Summon.]
[Your Summon (…...) has awakened the Innate Talent — Evolve Through Plunder (EX).]