By the end of the day, Leon found his time spent mostly meditating, sitting with the darkness and the door in his summoner's space than he had spent doing anything else. The thought of growing stronger this way was too alluring, who wouldn't become a shut-in to achieve greatness? Suddenly, those cultivation stories he used to read back in the day became relatable.
That night, he prepared and called forth the door once again, hopes high of what was going to emerge from it. Unironically, another Skirmisher stepped out of the door.
He looked at it for a moment, then stored it away without thinking too much of it. 'Two skirmishers aren't bad, both are peak Grade 2. Not bad at all.' He told himself as he went to sleep.
…
For the rest of the month, he settled into a particular predictable rhythm that had formed without effort being put to structure it exactly so.
He spent most of his mornings meditating, attempting to deepen his connection with the door. While Alyssa advised him it work like that, what did she know? His summon was not the undead monster she knew, but the door that produced it instead.
Following the near rigid morning routine, his afternoons were either spent meditating or raiding green dungeons. It was always puzzling whenever he would clear the dungeon but not take the monster cores. Such an unusual behavior for someone with "Grade 1" monster summon. Alyssa helped a lot in booking the dungeons for him, but once he learned how to do so himself, he took up the responsibility.
Slowly but steadily, his collection of undead summons grew, and he could slowly see it becoming an army. He really wondered how he would be able to control them at once if he had all of them out. The results of his dedication were very astonishing.
By the end of the month, he had built rather scary. This was certainly the kind of transformation that would break any sense of normalcy.
Using the same kind of summon Alyssa had seen, he sparred with her twice during the month. He lost both times, but lasted longer in the second spar. His step mother watched them both times, but didn't give any particular remark. It was more like watching her children play around in the garden. Leon had come to find out there were no ulterior motives hidden anywhere.
Alice spent more time during the evenings before his return to the academy, following him about as they talked on different things. She had a lot of questions about the academy, the upcoming tournament, and whether Leon had or had not made any friends. Her bright and warm aura never allowed Leon get tired of her.
Leon had learnt of the fact that Alice wouldn't be attending the adacemy. Even though it had escaped his memory, they were supposed to enroll together. The reason was tied to her unique summon and the whole drama surrounding it, as Leon would learn, her lack of control over the summon was just one of the problems.
Thinking about Kragsnok, the named flame dragon with its own agenda and its complete indifference to instruction, a school environment built around practical dungeon training was not obviously compatible with that kind of summon that operated as an independent agent.
On the day he was to leave, his things, which had added in volume now, were already packed and cars waited, ready to take him once he was done. His stepmother looked at him for a moment with the expression she occasionally wore when she was deciding how much to say. "Come home when you can. Not just when you're sent back."
"I will," Leon said, and meant it more than he had expected.
Alice cried, briefly and without apparent embarrassment about it. He patted her head once, told her he'd be back before the tournament results were announced, and got into the car before she could find a reason to extend the goodbye further.
The estate soon disappeared behind him through the rear window as a single blacked out luxury sedan drove him away. He had insisted just one car go with him.
…
Soon enough, he arrived at the academy. It was already evening when he arrived. He headed straight to his room.
Raul was at his desk when Leon came through the door, looked up, and registered his return with the measured warmth of someone who expressed things at a reasonable volume. "You're back. How's the leg?"
"Healed. Completely."
"Good." Raul gestured at the room broadly. "Welcome back."
Hearing the familiar voice, Dustin appeared from the bathroom with the energy of someone who had been waiting for an audience. "Leon! Finally! We thought you might actually not come back! Some people were saying you'd just recover at home and skip the rest of the year."
Leon could not think of a reason why'd that's be an option, but it turned out that the speculation came from the fact that Leon had practically proved himself by clearing a dungeon alone at this stage.
Dustin explained this all in one breath and then sat down on his bed. "Did you do anything interesting? Get stronger? You look the same. Better not be lagging behind."
"Little bit of this and that," Leon said, dropping his box on his bed and beginning a quick unpacking.
"Man, you won't believe what happened while you were away. We went into a dungeon as part of some exposure thing the academy organised for is fresh awakeners. Just a low tier green dungeon that was supposed to be controlled." He leaned back on his hands. "There were meant to only be Grade 1 monsters in the dungeon, but out of nowhere, oh man, we ended up running into a Grade 2 entry monster. It took us several minutes to handle it since there were so many of us, but still."
"Yeah, in times like that, you realize just how much gap is between everyone." Raul said with a dramatic sigh, but Leon could see he meant some part of that.
"Anyone get hurt?"
"Nah. Well, one guy's summon took some damage but nothing serious." Dustin shrugged. "It was good though. Real monsters feel different from training exercises. Even knowing it's a low tier dungeon, something in your body reacts differently when it's actually happening."
Raul turned from his desk. "The tournament preliminaries are next week."
The shift in tone was immediate. Even Dustin's energy adjusted, the easy recounting giving way to something with more weight underneath it.
"Inter-school?" Leon asked.
"Intra first. Preliminaries within the academy to select who represents us, then inter-school." Raul said. "This one doesn't discriminate by year. First years, second years, seniors, all competing in the same bracket. Strength is the only metric."
'Oh?'