Rise of the Weakest Summoner

To avoid any unnecessary incidents, Asterios transferred himself straight to the checkpoint in front of the dungeon area. He could just show up inside and no one would have minded, but it was a good idea to follow the procedures instead of making it look like he had no respect for the rules he had personally set. Therefore, he came up close to the sentry booth currently manned by a lady in the guild’s uniform.

A small queue had formed in front of her so he joined in and waited patiently for his turn while a few adventurers started whispering amongst themselves or their parties, clearly recognizing him. Some seemed surprised to see him there, some were just as shocked to see him stand with them like everyone else.

Since the checkpoint’s role was only to verify the group’s identities and log their entrance or exit, the line moved quickly and Ast’s turn arrived in a matter of ten minutes. The woman chatted him up briefly as he didn’t need to file any additional information and they talked about how the job felt, discussing possible changes or improvements. Listening to one’s employees was a crucial aspect of leading any business or organization and Kindra had stressed that plenty of times.

Passing through, Asterios crossed the remaining part of the sparse forest and caught a moving shadow on the grassy ground around the ominous portal lake. Glancing up, he noticed one of the flying tigers circling the area. He also must have been noticed because the rider brought their beast down until they landed safely. Both the person and the beast lowered their heads respectfully after dismounting.

“Greetings, My Lord.” The woman who turned out to be Kathy saluted properly.

“At ease.” He nodded in response. “On patrol?”

“Yes, sir. It’s currently my shift to keep an eye on the vicinity of the dungeon while one of my colleagues observes the encampment. It began about an hour ago. Nothing to report so far. It’s been calm and peaceful, without any attempts to sneak in or cause trouble. After the last perpetrator was taught a lesson publicly, barely anyone showed up,” she replied.

“Good work. I hope flying rounds above a peaceful camp isn’t too boring for the talented members of the great Royal Division.” Asterios chuckled.

“Former members, sir,” Kathy corrected him. “We are now prospective initiates for the upcoming Dragon Guard. It’s our pleasure to take care of all the necessary tasks to ensure everything is functioning without an issue, be it around the dungeon or the town. Besides, as a reserve unit, we were being delegated to minor jobs like these all the time.”

“Right. Your official inauguration is approaching fast. I bet the expectations and excitement must be great amongst your ranks.” He showed a knowing smile.

“I would be lying if I said that we aren’t looking forward to the day we can properly serve under your banner and display our affiliation, sir. To be the first elite unit of your newly created nation is a huge honor. I can assure you that we will not bring shame to your name and will represent it with the mandatory respect,” the soldier lady vowed.

“I know you will. Tina has a very high opinion of all of you, and thus so do I, by proxy and some of my own experiences. Thank you for your service. I believe you will make great Dragoons.” Asterios rested his hand on her shoulder.

A faint chuckle escaped Kathy’s lips as they looked each other in the eyes and she quickly lowered her gaze apologetically. “My apologies, My Lord. I didn’t mean to laugh.”

“No need for that. I get it. I truly do.” He snorted.

“I know that the name refers to mounted cavalry carrying crossbows but it’s just… way too close to a Dragon.” She didn’t fight the amused smile growing on her face. “At this point, it’s just too funny to be a coincidence, isn’t it?”

“You know it, I know it, everyone knows it.” Asterios shrugged. “I hope you guys don’t mind it. Otherwise, I’ll try to talk with the ladies again about the name. Even if it won’t be used as often as Dragon Guard, they can sometimes go overboard with these draconic themes. Especially Miria.”

They laughed together and fell into a somewhat tense silence. Asterios could tell that the woman still wanted to touch upon something but it took Kathy a while to consider the words and if she even should. He waited patiently to see if she succeeded, deciding to ask first if it would start getting awkward.

In the end, he beat her to it. “You can freely let me know what’s on your mind, you know? I don’t bite. Much.”

A faint trace of rosiness tinged Kathy’s freckled face as she smiled with some embarrassment. “Some intriguing rumors are circulating amongst our members, sir. I don’t know where it was heard first or from whom it originated, but the men seem to believe that we would be receiving some mythical creatures for our new beast companions you have mentioned in the past, trying to guess which ones. It… isn’t true, right?”

“No comment.” Asterios chuckled mirthfully, wondering which one of his mates had made a slip of the tongue around them. “It will ruin the surprise. But, you won’t be disappointed. That’s for certain.”

She didn’t complain but he could spot the tiniest hints of a pout before they disappeared. Kathy was fighting hard not to show her disappointment at his teasing answer.

“What about our winged tigers then, sir?” she asked instead.

“That mostly depends on King Welrond. Though, since they are more or less their symbol, he might request their return. Knowing that you definitely formed at least some kind of a friendly bond with them, would that be a considerable issue?” He scrunched his forehead while crossing his arms over his chest.

“We knew that our cooperation might not be permanent and tried our best to keep that in mind. It will be a sad parting, but it won’t cause problems. These magnificent beasts never really were ours, more like leased to us for the duration of our service. Even best friends sometimes walk different ways and that’s just how life goes,” Kathy replied and turned to her feline partner to scratch its big neck.

“I’m glad to hear that. And to see that you care for and respect your animal companions.” Asterios petted the tiger alongside her. “Keep being that way and you will quickly become close with your new friends. Especially since you will be able to communicate much more easily.”

This time, a small pout and a soft frown did appear on the woman’s face. “You are doing it on purpose, My Lord.”

Asterios chuckled and raised his hands in surrender. “Alright, I’ll make it up to you. As long as you can keep it a secret from the others. Would a sneak peek at your new armor be satisfactory?”

A twinkle of intrigue and curiosity flashed through her eyes and Kathy nodded slowly. “I swear upon my name that I won’t reveal a thing.”

“Let me share a few memories with you, then.” He winked and made a polite request to Umbra.

Kathy allowed the shadowy familiar to access her mind and her eyes widened to the brim at the sight of a bunch of images representing their new formal attire as the Dragon Guard, which was ready to be distributed at this very moment.

“It’s so fucking badass…” she whispered almost in a trance, with her eyes gazing far, far away.

Right after, she slapped a hand over her mouth and refocused on Asterios, realizing the words she had just used.

He just laughed and shook his head. “We are alone. It’s fine. And I have to agree with you. Still confident that you will be able to keep your word?”

Swallowing thickly, Kathy made an anxious nod.

It made him snicker again. “Good. I’ll save the weapons for later, then. Wouldn’t want you to faint on duty.”

Her mouth fell open as she clearly imagined what kind of exorbitant gear they would be receiving if the armor was a determining factor.

“Looks like the reason I’m here is going to arrive in just a moment. You have to excuse me as I’ll need to hide. I’m going undercover for this operation.” Asterios glanced over his shoulder and smirked playfully at the athletic woman.

Kathy snapped a respectful salute to her chest. “Yes, sir! I shall return to my duty at once! It was a pleasure speaking with you!”

With one last bow, she jumped back onto the back of her winged tiger and the duo soared into the sky. Asterios had a feeling that she’d wanted to escape as quickly as possible to freely release the hold on her reactions. He could imagine the respectful lady grinning to herself right now as she definitely had reasons to celebrate.

Nevertheless, before he was spotted, Asterios made use of all the training and lessons he’d been receiving from both Althea and Umbra, masking his presence the best he could while also calling forth his shadows. Certain uses of his black Dragon’s Heart allowed him to achieve some interesting things, like for example wreathing himself in a dark mist that fully obstructed his figure. If he was standing in a dimly-lit place or near an actual shadow, he was completely invisible.

Thankfully, the sun was slowly approaching the horizon, casting plenty of darkened spots from the tall trees around the swirling gate. About a minute after he finished hiding himself, a person he would always recognize no matter what entered his sight alongside a group of four. 

Miria talked with her usual, cheerful attitude while leading a male human and demon with two female elves. The human seemed to be a Ranger or something similar, the demon should fall into the Cleric archetype, the blonde elf looked like a Mage, and her ginger-haired friend was the main defender of the group, though from the evasive category relying on parrying with her double longswords.

They stopped in front of the dark pool and Miria went through some rules once more, judging by the party’s expressions. They weren’t exactly annoyed or condescending, but they had obviously heard the lecture at least once before. Nothing could deter the bubbly panthergirl from happily making sure they were up to speed, though.

Judging by their gear, the group wasn’t full of complete novices and they were all C-ranks, possibly adventuring together from the very beginning. As usual, he was curious to see other adventurers in action, even if it would be hard to compare them to his current party at this point in time. Just Miria was a force to be reckoned with, although it didn’t feel like the four were aware of it.

Finished with their preparations, all five of them joined hands and jumped into the gate. Asterios followed after them shortly and fell into the first floor of the dungeon. He remembered speaking with Umbra about Kori making alterations to it, so he wasn’t surprised to see himself in a slightly smaller chamber containing the Antrunners’ village rather than in the entire cavern. 

The group was nowhere to be seen so they had to be teleported into a similar spot somewhere else. Locking onto Miria’s presence through their bond, he traveled through the shadows and reappeared in their chamber before the monsters from his challenge made their move. No one noticed him behind one of the rough mud huts and he watched them with intrigue.

Monsters slowly skittered around the place as the quartet entered their formation. Miria put some distance between her and the party, keeping an eye on them from far enough not to influence the encounter. Any creature that tried sneaking up on her received a warning growl before backing off to rejoin its kin in targeting the adventurers.

As for the four, they had apparently been briefed about the enemy type but maybe not about all the details. From their verbal exchange, they delegated roles to various things, one of which was finding out how to clear the floor. Perhaps this was what a guided run was meant to be, having someone watch over your back while you tried to go in somewhat blind. A good practice for those who wandered into unexplored floors.

This might be a lucrative service. The ladies had come up with something wonderful.

Miria’s proteges didn’t struggle much against the ant-like creatures, which were equipped with primitive-looking weapons produced by the dungeon. A piece or two were certainly of a better quality and had to qualify as the better loot. Some armor and other gear made an appearance too, mostly worn and damaged, fitting the theme of a barely sentient species of barbaric monsters.

The Ranger used his abilities to traverse the spacious chamber containing the village to figure out the way to proceed further. Enemies seemed endless, just like before. Miria said nothing about it, only roaming her keen gaze over each person and their close vicinity. Minute after minute, corpses piled up between the shabby buildings and not much was changing.

When the final Antrunner fell to a Lightning Bolt, a pillar of violet darkness shot into the air at one end of the chamber and sent out a pulse throughout the whole place. Miria jumped down to rejoin the adventurers and explained that it was the signal of a completed floor and the beacon sometimes showed the entrance to the next one, but it wasn’t always guaranteed, depending on the challenge.

Asterios caught some surprised comments from the quartet as they couldn’t believe that it had been all, just slaying everything being the key to solving the situation. His lovely mate cautioned them that overthinking things and coming in with pre-set expectations could be dangerous and the simplest solutions sometimes were the correct ones.

With some grumbling, the party healed up their minor wounds, mostly of the Ranger, who had caught a few blows and attacks throughout his solo journey, and they marched towards the swirling pond. The transfer repeated, and this time, Asterios ended up fairly close to the group, quickly recognizing his surroundings.

It was the floor with the Eidolons.

Once more, Miria let the adventurers go at their own pace, keeping herself a bit closer this time, most likely not to attract the attention of the monsters and reveal the key to defeating them by accident. They started a fight fairly quickly, engaging with two of the undead creatures.

Also quickly, they realized that most of their attacks had pretty much no effect on the statue-like entities. The Cleric and the Swordsmaster suffered a few heavy blows in the fray. Thankfully, the Ranger’s arrow hit the gem in one of the monster’s eye sockets and it made the creature freeze briefly. They picked up on that and threw everything they had at their opponents’ weak spots. The Cleric’s condensed healing techniques seemed to have the greatest effect on them, somehow lowering their resistances considerably, perhaps due to the crystals being the product of necromancy.

He was also the person who spotted the repeating carvings in the walls, figuring out what they needed to do with the broken gems. With much less struggle, they reached the ritual site and were caught off guard by the activation of all the empty Eidolons in the chamber. Miria smirked to herself, reminiscing about their first attempt, but then shook her head at how uncoordinated the adventurers became due to being spread out as the last gem had been put in place, ending up split and surrounded by strengthened enemies. 

They also didn’t notice the forming portal until the last moment, needlessly fighting back on all fronts instead of defending, and received some heavy blunt hits. The Cleric led to the exit and Asterios dove in after them, finding himself in the belly of the beast. Literally.

In the also familiar section, Miria gave the adventurers some feedback on their first two floors. She kindly but firmly pointed out some of their mistakes and how she would go about fixing them. The panthergirl also proved that she hadn’t been idling this whole time as she offered advice for each person, which was highly customized to them, showing that she had been paying extremely close attention to their every move. She won a lot of respect from the girls and even the men, who only slightly grumbled about being schooled so hard by her.

The only thing she told them about the third floor was the fact that they were on a timer due to the toxic air.

Asterios was surprised to see the Cleric understand their situation first again, especially since the guy was getting more and more confident and perhaps a tiny bit cocky after their earlier challenges. He was also the person who had received the least corrective tips and hints so it might have bumped his ego a tiny bit. But, still, he noticed the changing complexion of the fleshy tunnel and they luckily decided to follow the brightening path.

On their way forward, the healer seemed to walk closer to Miria than before, bringing up more questions and casual conversations. The other three exchanged knowing glances and the girls rolled their eyes at each other with small smirks, which made Asterios raise a brow at the party. He did feel like their relations were rather complex, but the Cleric couldn’t really be trying to achieve what Asterios thought the fairly handsome man was attempting, could he?

Unfortunately, with the added boost of confidence due to his decent performance, it looked like he could.

Miria humored him throughout his serenade, not losing her charming and joyous smile or agile, feline step with an alluringly swaying tail for the entire time, even as he sang praises of himself and the lovely group he had started, which extended further than just adventuring. Some topics even touched on how much fun they had together and how he knew a bunch of spells and techniques to enhance either a man’s or woman’s body, perhaps taking her lack of direct dismissal as interest in his arrangement.

But, it all abruptly stopped the millisecond his arm wandered a bit too close to Miria’s waist, clearly aiming to wrap itself around her figure. She snatched his wrist with unbelievable speed and twisted him around with a faint growl, which she quickly tamed down, and an immediate frown on her forehead. The happy and jovial expression was gone in a blink as some cracking of bones echoed through the tunnel.

“Ow, ow, ow! It hurts! Stop!” the man whimpered in her grasp as the others stared at the scene with wide eyes.

She kept his arm locked behind his back for a second longer before releasing him with a light push. He immediately started rejuvenating his injured wrist with a scowl.

“Crazy bitch. What was that for? No need to go all bone snapping, sheesh,” he complained.

“A word of advice for the future. You should always be respectful to your instructors. Improper behavior might result in your whole group ending up banished from the dungeon and prohibited from entering ever again. Since this is your first offense, I will let it slide. Do keep in mind that every person has their own circumstances. I have a mate and you are not allowed to touch me without my explicit consent as only he has the right to my body,” Miria explained coldly but somewhat respectfully, fighting down her instincts to lash out at the foolish demon.

She was showing admirable constraint by acting so mannerly in her current role even while being clearly mistreated.

“You never mentioned anything about that!” the Cleric argued.

“You never asked,” she responded.

“We’ve been talking and laughing together about relationships for the past half an hour!” he continued.

“I was simply happy to listen to your story and the situation you are in. My people often form big families like yours too. It was fun exchanging words about it until you tried to invade my personal space. It matters not if someone is laughing with you or not, you never make a move like that without permission or them initiating it,” she too further expanded her point.

The man scoffed to the side. “That’s stupid. Girls like a man who can confidently come on to them. You undoubtedly gave off signs of being into me.”

Miria’s ear twitched but she managed to keep her calm. “For your information, in my culture, for the offense I have suffered, you would be obliged to partake in a duel to the death, granted that I exercised my right to request it as the means of clearing up my name in front of my mate.”

That shocked them greatly as the other three exchanged glances. Even the Cleric seemed a bit disturbed but still acted in his earlier confidence, perhaps afraid of losing face from backing off without the last word.

“Sure. Let’s agree that’s true. Even so, you know, feelings change from time to time. If you would ever be interested, you know who to look for. One day, we are going to be at the top of the top. We’ve risen to C-rank in just a few months, all thanks to my magic and knowledge.” He spread his arms boastingly. “Who even is your mate? Most likely not the guildmaster since she’s a woman. Some clerk? A guy from the town? Another adventurer? Even if he is currently higher-ranked right now, I assure you he can’t compare to me. To us.”

Asterios could see the immense tension of Miria’s fingers squeezing themselves into fists and really pitied the man. But, she held herself back even through that and let out a soft exhale.

“I belong to Lord Asterios Hestizo if you really wish to know,” she answered with a trace of a proud smirk. “Now, are we going to continue the delve or this silly conversation until I stop hesitating if I should omit reporting this instance to him after my return?”

All four turned pale as snow in a flash and no one had anything else to say. Asterios snickered under his nose as his beloved mate turned around with a flair and began strolling forward, only him being capable of seeing the big grin on her face, clearly happy about how she had handled the situation and even bit back.

He almost wanted to interact with her without getting noticed to convey how impressed he was, but decided against it until the group finished their run.

If they even would instead of quitting after the recent blunder.