Rise of the Weakest Summoner

“A little more to the left now!” The voice of a nearby dwarf foreman elected from the group of masonry workers echoed through the area by the outer wall, or at least close to the segments that had been left behind.

Pairs of men and women of many races were working with sizable hammers, chisels, and specialized tools for brick extraction. They were stripping down the last bits of what had recently been the supposedly impenetrable protective formation around Glimmervale. Now, it was not much more than a circle full of empty spots with equal sizes and dimensions. From afar, it might look like the wall had seen better times and simply crumbled from age, but the locals knew better.

“I’m still amazed we can actually do something like that,” Asterios mused to himself, observing the operation. “Are you sure it’s possible? Not meaning to question your capabilities, of course.”

Althea showed him a reassuring smile. “Yes, it will be of no problem, just as we discussed the plan four weeks ago. Especially now that our bond has fully settled in and I became more accustomed to the feeling of your raw energies inside me.”

“Bet that’s not the only thing inside you that you got used to.” Grea snickered by their side.

Asterios just rolled his eyes, which landed on his mentor’s respectful visage. Noticing the warm glance the Dragon lady was giving him, and the tiniest trace of a blush on her smooth cheeks, he didn’t berate his frivolous mate this time. She might not have been entirely wrong. He and Althea certainly spent a lot of time together, both of them training something.

“This is still hard to imagine,” he continued instead. “I’ve seen Earth Mages complete quite amazing feats when banded together but what we are about to do is on another level. Moving the entire wall to another position without completely stripping it down? That sounds insane.”

“Then imagine going with your day and suddenly seeing the battlements that have always been protecting your little village suddenly disappear and move away while an enemy army charges straight at your place.” The demon woman snickered. “You are one scary bitch, Althea.”

“Thank you for the compliment,” Althea replied with a trace of a smirk on her plump lips. “But, I’m afraid it wouldn’t be as simple as you make it sound. At least with magical barriers and protective spells present. I can only achieve this thanks to the hard work of your kin at disabling all the formations and arrays that have been fused with this structure.”

“Maybe, but if it was just a stone or brick wall, you would sink that rock into the earth like nothing. That has to be a terrifying sight.” Grea shook her head. “Thank gods we decided to split all the magic into segments instead of creating a single long link through the entire ring. Who knew that trying to prevent the whole thing from getting disabled with just a small hole would come to be this useful?”

“Imadil, Cynthia, Radir, and you have all truly outdone yourselves with this.” Asterios nodded. “And with the idea of the new wall in the old one’s place. This will make Glimmervale so mystical and kind of unique. We won’t be a cheap copy of the Ring City anymore.”

A few weeks ago, after all the craftsmen had arrived to help out with all the projects, everyone considered the topic of the second wall behind the segment of the city meant solely for the academies and their facilities. Then, they would have needed to build another wall after each new section that was added further on, like the farming or housing district extension. With that, they either had to wait with the buildings until the new wall was finished, or put the buildings up without the wall being fully done and serving its purpose to protect the edge of the town from any lurking dangers.

Thankfully, with so many smart and creative minds around, they had come up with a new approach, which was currently underway.

Althea and Tia had reminded everyone of their terraforming prowess, enabling Tina to randomly spit out an outrageous idea to try moving the defensive wall. She had been laughed at before the two ladies announced that it was completely possible, shutting everyone up instantly.

And so, in the last month or so, the workers had been taking care of everything at once. The foundations for the three academies were almost finished. Many roads and locations for other facilities surrounding the schools were on a good track too. At the same time, Glimmervale’s fortifications had been disabled and stripped down at a few angles around the city, with those removed bits brought to the place of their new position.

The plan was to have the Dragon lady move the big segments to the same distance so everyone else could fairly quickly join everything together once more. Connecting person-sized gaps in the wall wouldn’t take more than a few days at most, effectively finishing forming a new defensive formation further out from the core of the town at an incredulous speed.

But, as Asterios had said, they weren’t going to leave the empty space from the wall simply vacant.

There had been suggestions to raise thinner and shorter walls for a more ornamental and symbolic purpose of separating the districts and parts of the city. And again, a clever proposal had come up. The masters of barriers and seals designed a runic path that would flow like a curving track over the vacant ring. Deactivated, it would function as nothing more than a visual treat. Activated, it would form a strong protective energy shield to serve as a backup obstruction for any intruders that made it past the first line of defense.

Considering the fact that one of those would circle before and after the academic section, and sometime in the future when the solid wall was going to be moved again also further out, all the people involved in decision-making had been thrilled about the prospect of something so magical. It would certainly add a lot of charm to the institutions and the very town.

“My Lord, we will be ready in fifteen minutes,” the foreman representative announced. “Would you please kindly send a message to our magical specialists in the Head so that they can start preparing the materials for their formations? We should be able to patch up a few segments of the wall today.”

Asterios sighed quietly and nodded at the man. The two ladies by his sides let out faint chuckles.

This was one of the changes that he wasn’t really sure about but the people had somehow picked up on it and the new naming spread like wildfire, even though he was partially sure that it had originated from some random public discussion in some inn. Nevertheless, day after day, the residents started calling the central part of the city the Dragon’s Head way before the Committee managed to introduce their suggestion of Old Town. The supposed Old Town was meant to span from the island castle to the first magical barrier, right before the academic ring.

Then, in quite natural order, the other sections had earned themselves the names of Dragon’s Body and Dragon’s Tail.

Currently, the first one would only cover the space between the two runic paths, meaning the academic ring. The second one would span over the area between the outer barrier and the solid wall at the very edge. But, in the future, the Body would expand with each transition of the defensive formations, making it so it encompassed the major part of the town while only the newest segment remained a Tail, which would be the one between the next position of the solid wall and the previous one, replaced by a barrier by that point.

Whoever had first come up with it definitely didn’t have the slightest idea it would turn into something this big and important. Asterios and the girls could already see the effect it had on Glimmervale. The Head was beginning to be considered the richest and most attractive area to live or spend time in, so the price of housing or mansions started growing. The stores noticed some boons too.

It would take him a moment to wrap his mind around it, though. With so many draconic hints, motifs, and innuendos, it was becoming rather comedic. Asterios wondered how long it would take for people to start believing that he might be a Dragon too even without knowing that he truly was, like a fake rumor or legend about their lord and his obsession with everything connected to those majestic creatures.

But, from another angle, wouldn’t that help hide his secret? With everyone being conditioned to so much draconic stuff, a person finding out the truth and trying to spread it around would most likely be met with a few cheerful chuckles and laughs from the residents, who would then pat them on the back and completely agree with them, taking it as that person’s willingness to participate in on the joke.

Nevertheless, Asterios had sent a word to his friends just as requested. They were currently verifying the accuracy of the runic pathways. It was a tremendously precise endeavor, and from what he knew, none of the races had yet developed such a way to protect their cities or capitals. It had only come forth thanks to all of them cooperating on his soil, sharing their ideas, masteries, techniques, and so on. Plus, Venuzathor turning Glimmervale into a spiritual hotspot and Tia slowly filling the land with her blessings certainly helped.

The mentioned fifteen minutes passed in a flash and all the workers retreated from both the old and new positions of the defensive walls. They admired their hard work while taking a short rest. The foremen from each race herded their subordinates further into the town, knowing the exact details of what was about to transpire. The others had guessed the goal, but they had no information on the means.

With one last nod from the representative, Asterios turned to his beloved mentor. “Are you ready?”

Althea took a deep breath. “Tia?”

~At your service.~ The Dryad giggled adorably. ~I’m looking forward to this.~

“Let’s hope we don’t disappoint.” The Dragon lady roamed her gaze over the landscape in front of them.

~You could create miracles even back then. Now, with our energies intertwined so tightly, you should be close to my level when I had a physical form,~ Tia complimented her friend. ~Though, if you are worried, why don’t you borrow some mana from our handsome Dragon Lord just to be perfectly safe?~

Althea’s cheeks colored a tad more as the cute, teasing giggles continued.

She cleared her throat and extended her soft palm towards Asterios. “Would you mind giving us a hand?”

“With pleasure.” He smiled at her cordially and took it gently.

Leaning forward, Asterios pulled his beautiful mentor into a tender, affectionate kiss. They held hands as their delicate mouths brushed together with unhurried pecks and tiny nibbles. It was pleasant and comfortable enough to forget the real reason behind the action but Asterios made sure he didn’t. They were making out right in front of most if not the entire town. He might be the local ruler, but he didn’t want to come out as too lecherous.

A few shuddering sighs left Althea’s throat as she absorbed the fierce energies he was sharing with her, hungrily chasing after his lips for more. Her scales started showing up at more places and he was glad her tail hadn’t popped up yet. During their lessons and practice sessions, Asterios noticed that Lesser Dragons seemed really captivated by his True Dragon mana and essence. His mentor definitely couldn’t stop her yearning for it each time they started the transfer.

But, they were both aware of the location and didn’t indulge in each other for too long. The time Ast’s subjects could believe he was simply reassuring and encouraging his lady wasn’t infinite. With one last peck, they separated and exchanged warm smiles.

Turning towards the outer edge of the town, Althea spread her arms wide and closed her eyes. Gradually, greenish mana gathered around her figure, growing stronger and thicker with every second. It expanded to the level that made many people whisper between themselves as an enchanting jade beacon of pure nature energy swirled atop one of the tallest buildings. It extended past the quite sizable roof, stunning everyone. They knew that the one their lord called his mentor had to be wise and possibly strong, but maybe not this mighty.

After a long and silent minute, the Dragon lady raised her arms a bit and the ground began shaking. The witnesses stared wide-eyed as the massive walls sank into the earth beneath their feet at a stable pace. In just a moment, they were gone, leaving behind a tall cloud of dust and nothing more.

The tremors didn’t cease but continued to make everything quake even stronger. Asterios summoned his greatsword and activated one of the crystal sigils. The weapon glowed with cerulean energy and he swung it strongly in a horizontal line. A gust of powerful wind rushed forward and cleared the obstruction before it drifted into the streets and made an unnecessary mess. The people cheered at the display and kept turning their heads to see what would happen next.

Five minutes later, the shaking hit a crescendo and many almost lost their balance. Then, someone shouted and pointed ahead. Blocky shapes started emerging on the horizon, coming out of the ground between the occasional much more narrow patches of the defensive walls. The new old pieces fit in between those perfectly well and some workers completely lost their minds.

Such a feat required insane control over the elements, not to mention the raw power required to push through earth and stone. The solid formations bore no marks of damage or wear even though they had made it past hundreds of meters inside mud, rocks, and so on. The land between the two positions seemed undisturbed too, with no evidence of its surface experiencing any issues.

The spectacle finished within a few more minutes and the whole structure settled down. The artisans and craftsmen began moving out, expecting it to be all done now, but as they were on their way, not only did the tremors not stop, but they still intensified. Plenty of people fell onto their butts and looked around in confusion.

Althea brought her palms together and exhaled heavily, still surrounded by the greenish energy. Parts of the land in front of her started bulging out. Bit by bit, the foundations for the academies were lifted without being affected and beautiful, spacious hills came into existence before everyone’s eyes. 

They could only see two of them from their positions, but there were three. One with a white marble base, one with a lush grass base, and one with a dark rock base. Each of the cliffs had long, wide stairways leading to the top, at least two per location. The steps and the railings were just rough blocks, but the finishing touches were in the hands of the handy masons who would decorate them according to the theme of each academy.

Besides those, Althea also made space for one or two cargo lifts almost fully hidden in the sides of the hills. Even the platforms were made of the same mineral as the small mountains so they blended in rather well. It all depended on the upcoming mechanical elements, but hardly anyone would know they were there.

For now, that was all. The regions between the academies would need lots of greenery, gardens, and perhaps more rock formations, but that would come after more than just the foundations were present. It was easier to decorate things with all the buildings finished first. The dormitories, workshops, training and practice fields, and the other elements would dictate where and how the paths moved through the massive, circular campus.

The Dragon lady exhaled softly and the green mist dispersed into the air. She didn’t show any signs of exhaustion but Asterios still wrapped his arm around her waist and supported her figure. She graced him with an appreciative smile as they turned to gaze upon the miracle she had brought upon their town. 

The first step of the grand development plan was completed.

Making sure that there were no more tremors, the workers warily took a few steps before laughing heartily amongst themselves and heading out back to work with their foreman shouting orders. Someone had to connect the gaps in the new wall before the magical experts could reactivate the protective spells and formations.

Speaking of formations, something flashed beneath Ast’s feet and he looked down alongside the ladies. Cynthia waved at them happily before refocusing on the runic path that had just awakened. It was a few meters wide and filled with person-sized runes carved in the Draconic script, giving them even more power.

The symbols started lighting up one by one with a pleasant tinkling sound. A mighty crimson glow accompanied it and they watched as the line unhurriedly ran all around Glimmervale, or its middle as of now, after all the new changes. Making a full circle, the runes flashed all at once and the light subsided, becoming a more bearable radiance that only slightly basked the nearby grounds and buildings in a scarlet shade.

“Looks like it’s working properly,” Grea commented from the duo’s side. “It will respond to any threat and to you. It can be used to stop invaders as well as trap people inside. This should be fun with more than two of them sometime in the future.”

“Let’s hope we don’t have to use them ever,” Asterios said.

“Fair point.” She nodded.

“If you don’t mind, I would like to return to my cottage and rest, perhaps meditate surrounded by nature,” Althea suggested. “I might not be drained, but terraforming this much terrain under the surface is quite straining. Please, have everyone make sure that there are no problems with the structural integrity of any parts.”

“Of course. Leave the rest to us,” he replied. “I’ll go and check on the others in the meantime.”

“Same. I’ll join my old man down there so we can inspect shit faster. I’m still not caught up on all the nights I missed when figuring out that seal of yours and I’m not missing any more for the foreseeable future.” Grea grinned impishly.

Asterios chuckled and presented each of his lovers with a soft peck, sneaking a sensual tail rub for the lively demon in his arms, making the crimson-skinned woman whimper with need. They parted ways and went in different directions. He chose to start with the Town Hall, where at least Tina and Silvia liked to spend their time.