Chapter 277 (1/2)

”L-like this, great spirit?”

A confused Beatrice asked while juggling two balls. These balls were created by her own mana after a short explanation from her summoned spirit.

”Yes like that, concentrate and visualize. The more of them you can juggle the more your spirit will increase… also don't just stand there in one spot…”

Zhang Dong snapped his fingers and a wolf appeared out of nowhere. The creature howled before running towards Beatrice. It looked quite ferocious with its teeth bared at her. The way it was charging also looked very menacing which caused the poor girl to ask for help.

”G-great spirit?”

The girl tumbled forward and the balls that she was somehow managing to juggle hit the ground. The wolf jumped to bite her but before connecting with her it turned into cold water that splashed in her face.

”Concentrate Beatrice, mana is just the expression of your mind and your soul. If you can't manage such an easy task how can you think about advancing as a summoner. Now do five laps around the island with at least two balls.”

The girl was drenched in water but she stood up. The moment Zhang Dong mentioned her advancing as a summoner her eyes showed fire in them. He watched as the girl took off running while trying to balance the items that she produced from her own mana. This whole thing might have looked silly from the outside but the better she got at it, the more mana she would have in her when she woke up in the morning.

'This might take a while… but even without this training her soul is expanding.'

He noticed that the girl's soul was slowly adapting to his own. It was slowly absorbing his high grade energies and getting stronger. Even without the training, her mana pool would keep increasing. This could be increased even further by some training though. By pulling the sleeping girl's soul shard into his own soul world he could hasten the process.

This was already the second night that she was going through this drill. First, he needed her to visualize her soul into items. Only after being able to create one ball would the training continue. When this item was created it had to be maintained by concentrating. Thus by forcing her to move around the difficulty was increased, if she managed to get through this training her mana reserves would increase exponentially.

'Think it's time to go back to that school… this whole thing feels like one of those games for girls… there might be an otherworlder like me somewhere here…'

After thinking it through Zhang Dong came to the conclusion that this world was the same from which he came from. It was very possible for people from his original world to be here or them having been there. If such a person existed here he would need to ask them about the place they were summoned to. There he would probably find one of the cubes that was used as a teleportation beacon.

'I should probably go through some of the myths… maybe there were some old summoned heroes or powerful kings. Any of them could have come from another world like me…'

There wasn't much for him to do here. During the day he cultivated in his soul realm while during the night he helped his summoner progress. He also thought about certain ways of prolonging his stay in the outer world. For this, he told Beatrice to go to the yard and summon him when she woke up in the morning.

”I guess this is a tad better…”

Zhang Dong rubbed his chin while floating around, his upper body was fully visible but his legs didn't make it through to the outside world. He had dropped his cultivation level as much as he could which lowered the requirements for him to be summoned dramatically. The most he could lower himself to was the early stage of foundation establishment, even his body refining had to deteriorate for this.

”Continue with your training, remember to perform the breathing exercises that I taught you!”

Beatrice nodded while Zhang Dong's figure turned into many tiny blue particles. She was surprised by the progress she made. Even after only two days, she had already doubled her mana reserves and this wasn't the end. The strange tasks that her summoned spirit was making her perform seemed odd at first but they were working. She had already caught up to some of the summoners that were miles ahead of her not too long ago.

Soon the academy sent a message for her to return. The date of the next tests had been decided on and every young student that passed the ritual was to participate. She was now standing at the gate to the estate with everything already in the carriage. Her parents were here and she was just getting a big hug from her overprotective mother.

”Take care dear.”

”Yes and remember Beatrice, try not to stand out…”

She looked to her father who had a stern expression on his face. Beatrice knew that things could get troublesome if that main house realized that her summon was special. They had already done something to her grandfather, it was possible that they would see her as a threat. If she could keep a low profile still remained to be seen.

The doors closed behind the carriage and she was off. The next stop would be the teleportation gate through which she would be transported back into the academy.

”Your father is right, it would be best for you not to stand out before your abilities advance further.”

Zhang Dong spoke out while taking a small break from his own cultivation.

”When your mana advances I'll be able to teach you some spells…”

He commented as there was a certain special feature that summoners had with their spirits. Depending on the elemental affinity of that spirit the summoner would be able to learn spells from that school faster. This didn't stop with only elemental spells, if a spirit was good at illusion magic then the caster would also progress fast in that school of magic.

The two chatted for a bit before each one resumed their own training. Beatrice was taught a breathing method that was akin to cultivation but especially transformed to fit this magical world. With it, her mana reserves could be boosted even further.

Soon Zhang Dong and his summoner were greeted by a wide-open room. This was the teleportation chamber of the magical academy and she wasn't the only person that was nowhere. The students were required to go through the teleportation circle at the same time to save up on mana. Thus all of them ended up in this chamber, this meant that she would be bumping into the old bully trio again.

'Better not to start any fights, keep a low profile, and bring me to your library.'