While their bodies were too small to form proper magic stones, their blood was the most mana-enriched out of the three monsters that Ashton had taken out so far. He used the pen to draw one of the most simple magic circles ever onto a piece of spare paper he ripped out of his notebook. This wasn't a summoning circle, but something that would draw mana out of some of the magic stones and infuse them into a specific one he needed.
He placed some of the bloodied magic stones onto the three cornerstone circles around the outer edge of the pattern, and then took the most well-formed one and placed it carefully onto the sigil in the middle.
Since mana had only just appeared in this world, Ashton's body hadn't collected enough of it yet for him to use it properly enough, nor was the air saturated to the degree he needed to manipulate ambient mana. So, instead, he crushed one of the rice grain-sized magic stones into a fine dust and rubbed it between his fingertips. The mana that escaped from the crystal was quickly grasped by Ashton and pushed to activate this weak magic circle that he had learned from one of the other summons back in the day.
The mana in the kobold blood reacted to the activation, and the crystals in the circle's cornerstones fell apart into pure mana, which became infused with one of the weakest magical enchantments imaginable. But it was strong enough for Ashton's purposes.
Once the magic receded, some more messages appeared in front of him.
[Congratulations! You have fulfilled the requirements of acquiring the [Enchanter] Class!]
[Successfully place any enchantment onto an object of your choice]
[Do you wish to acquire the [Enchanter] Class? [Yes]|[No]]
Rolling his eyes, Ashton selected 'no' and moved on. Production classes were valuable and all, but enchanting is something he could do much more effectively with the right summons anyway. But these messages were useful for another reason. They confirmed that the 'seeking' enchantment he put onto the stone was attached properly.
Without further ado, Ashton focused his attention on the cheap plastic compass next to him. He cracked open the case and pulled off the small metallic needle. It was thin enough for Ashton to just be able to twist it with his fingertips, wrapping it around the small magic stone, and then put it back into place. It was tilted downward a little bit due to the uneven weight, but it was still turning without issue, albeit no longer into the direction of 'north'. It was just spinning around aimlessly due to being moved around.
Ashton put the translucent plastic cap back on, and looked at the item with a smile, as a new notification appeared in front of him.
[Congratulations! You have fulfilled the requirements of acquiring the [Magic Craftsman] Class!]
[Successfully craft any Magic Item]
[Do you wish to acquire the [Magic Craftsman] Class? [Yes]|[No]]
Once again, for similar reasons as for the enchanter class, Ashton refused the magic craftsman class. Sadly, he couldn't check the information of the item, but he should be able to confirm it by the end of the day, if he was lucky.
If he was right, then this compass should be able to point at the strongest magic well within a radius of about quarter of a mile. It wasn't far by any means, but already better than searching for it completely blind. But with as little mana as there was in the area right now, nothing was enough to pull the magic stone whatsoever. Basically, as soon as the needle began moving on its own, Ashton could find the spot he needed.
Since the plastic compass came with a lanyard, he just put it around his neck for the time being, and then decided to look around the convenience store a bit more. Once things settled down, this place would be ransacked by survivors, so he stocked up on a few things.
Instant ramen packs, some salt, and whatever else small he could still fit into his backpack was around here, together with three jars of honey. They were a tight fit, but it was worth it long-term. His bag was getting pretty heavy, but Ashton would have to deal with that until he could summon something to carry it for him. It wouldn't be too long until then anyway.
And lastly, he stepped into the back of the store, trying to see if there was something he could replace his broken staff with. Perfectly, there was a broom and a mop, though both were metal. You could just screw the heads off, though, so it was easy enough to grab two new weapons for himself.
The shop's owner was squatting here in the corner, dead after being stabbed by a goblin. It seemed that he managed to at least crawl back here in his last moments.
Ashton remembered him as a pretty nice guy. An older Pakistani man with a pretty thick accent. He was grumpy a lot of the time, but he always gave Ashton some free stuff that was leftover and about to expire. It felt like years since the last time he had seen this man, but... seeing him dead still didn't feel good.
"... I'm sorry that this happened to you," Ashton whispered. He felt like this was his own fault.
Of course, barely a few hours after Ashton came back, the tutorial just coincidentally started here? It definitely didn't feel right. The main questline 'failed' over in the other world, where Ashton was stuck for so long, so the council must have been searching for other compatible worlds. And then, through Ashton, they must have found out about earth, "Could've at least given me a bit of a break. I didn't even get to sleep in my bed again."
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
With everything that he needed now stuffed into his bag, and one of the spare new 'staffs' tied to it as well, Ashton was ready to leave.
By now, that initial wave of chaos was over. Most people that were still alive were in the middle of vacating, and the first proto-camps were soon going to form through people trying to hide out in big buildings, malls, or subway stations.
It was roughly 5pm right now, and the tutorial quest would be over around 3am, so Ashton still had 10 hours. There was no reason he had to, but he wanted to get as far as possible as he could this early on.
While periodically checking the compass hanging around his neck, Ashton continued on. He had a specific place in mind. Mana had the tendency to stick to places with more nature, so being in a large city, it was easy to guess where he could find a mana well. It was another mile or two out from here, but Ashton was aiming for a park.
There were, of course, more and more monsters standing in his way as he ran down the main road. However, as most people had by now vacated this area, leaving behind their cars in the process, it was easy to find places to hide behind, killing the goblins, ratmen, or groups of kobolds before they even knew what was going on, and collecting even more coins as time went on.
It took Ashton about an hour to get far enough down the road that the compass started to react. It was just a slight pull, but it was pointing right at the direction of the park that he was trying to get to. Luckily, the enchantment and the final item were working together perfectly.
He could already see the park a bit further down the road as well, but at least the compass confirmed he was right.
Luckily, nobody was stupid enough to actively attempt hiding out in a park, so there was barely anyone around. Ashton could see a few people peeking out of their windows, trying to see what was going on. The monsters had already stormed all of these buildings, of course, but it seemed like some people were smart enough to block at least their own front doors to buy some time. It wouldn't help them in the coming quests, though.
Every once in a while, Ashton could see a small group in the distance, working together to take down monsters and protect themselves. That was a good sign. People that could adjust so quickly within a few hours were the prime candidates to survive in later quests.
Ashton soon reached the entrance to the park. Corpses were just strewn about all over the place. Torn or crushed limbs, bodies that bent in unnatural ways... things that went far beyond the capability of something at the level of a goblin.
Was this... a boss? In the tutorial? It was possible, of course, Ashton and his Summoner just didn't run into any back then, but Ashton had always thought that they might have already appeared so early in places with particularly high amounts of mana.
That complicated things. Ashton needed a little bit of time for his first summon and to make sure that he could make use of it properly already. But once he did, he should be able to kill the boss. It wouldn't be all that strong at this point in time, though still too much for Ashton to take on right this second.
Plus, it would be a waste to kill it before getting his class, anyway.
Ashton silently moved along, hiding behind bushes and benches, going right into the direction that his compass was pointing. There were a few monsters he had to take care of on the way. Them all being goblins did give Ashton a pretty good idea of what the boss monster would be like.
Before long, he reached the place with the most concentrated mana in this park, the 'mana well', the middle of the open plaza at the centre of the park. He had to be within the mana well to be able to form the contract right now. But there was something else already within it. An orc.
Ridiculously tall, at around eight feet, stronger than even professional strongmen with arms and legs that looked like trunks. It was like it was guarding the mana well, with it at the center and multiple goblins scattered around.
"Fuck," Ashton clicked his tongue. He just had to somehow get this thing to move for maybe a minute or two. That was all the time he needed. Literally all the other preparations were already done.
"... It would be a bit of a waste, but..." he muttered and pulled something out of his backpack. His phone that he had turned off earlier.
It came back on, and in the top right corner, he could see the small 'no signal' symbol. But that was fine. What was more worrying was the slight glitching that was happening, caused by all the mana in this area. While trying to move away a little further, he opened a music app that should have some songs downloaded. He quickly picked out some random heavy metal song, put it on loop, and then without hesitation threw the phone into some nearby bushes before immediately hiding out.
Before he knew it, goblins were rushing in the direction of the song, and even the orc had gotten up and was trotting over there. Orcs had pretty good senses, but this one would be heavily weakened because it was still just the tutorial. And just like Ashton hoped, the monster just walked past him when he was hiding in the bushes, giving him the opportunity to step into the mana well.
Standing in there, the world suddenly felt more... comfortable. Not because that was an effect of mana itself, of course, but because Ashton had lived decades in a world where everything was saturated with more mana than you could fathom. It made him feel weirdly nostalgic.
But of course, Ashton couldn't just keep reminiscing. He had to hurry up. He immediately grabbed a number of items from his bag. His old notebook and fountain pen, the bottle of kobold blood, the baggie with magic stones, and at last, the probably most important part - a sandwich.
Ashton took a deep breath, pulling in the ambient magic from the mana well, directing it into the pen as he dipped it into the kobold blood. With it, he immediately began to draw a summoning circle on the white paper in front of him.
The base pattern was simple. It was the elemental summoning system, which actually had a lot of similarities to enchanting magic since those roots were very similar. For a 'lesser' elemental, the circle didn't need to be all too large or complex, and just needed four cornerstones. Each of those cornerstones held a separate aspect of the elemental that he wanted to summon.
'Aether', 'Effort', 'Will', and 'Mind'. The inner section of the magic circle was filled with numerous sigils and runes that were required to connect these four aspects together, and of course to reach out to the elemental in the first place. And within this process, Ashton had to make a decision that he had been deliberating for a while.
He himself was summoned on a contract of 'submission'. He was forced into the position of what was essentially a slave, where the Summoner only had to provide the bare minimum of resources to keep a being alive. Of course, the summoner needed to be vastly more powerful than the being forced into this contract, but that wasn't the issue. And with the contract he was under, Ashton wasn't even allowed to die... he was fully 'owned' by his summoner, so his soul was pulled back and a new body was formed for him whenever he passed on in that world, which happened plenty of times. Usually when a summon died, it itself could choose whether it would be summoned back again, but not in the contract Ashton was forced into.
If he did it like this, maybe Ashton would be able to grow stronger faster. He could take control of everything and anything he needed to, and didn't have to waste as many resources. But it was a level he refused to stoop down to.
Ashton could already tell that his humanity had suffered, but this aspect of his morality was something he would never, ever abandon. So instead, this contract would be one of equal terms. A contract of familiarity and respect, like the relationship that he had formed with some of the other summons back then.
Ashton filled out the contract, being the magic circle, and placed the sandwich on top of it. It was the offering that he would need to start out this contract.
"Oh child of the aether, of magic and the soul. Heed my call, and join my side. Come to me, oh Lesser Wisp."