He quickly channelled the fire elemental and snuffed out the campfire, making sure to draw out all the heat from the rest of the wood and ashes left on the shield, and then put as much as he could into a plastic trash bag that he labelled with the date and the base material.
Obviously, ashes from magical flames were a great ingredient when it came to basically anything attuned with fire, whether it was ink or potions. The salamander wasn't the only fire-aligned summon that Ashton could make a contract with, so this would be great for then.
Ashton stretched lightly and then said goodnight to the contracted elementals, before unsummoning them all for the night. Since it was getting pretty late, it was time to sleep.
"Time to head in already, huh?" Sam asked, also yawning alongside his friend.
He hadn't even been out here for all too long, so Ashton felt bad about already wanting to go. "You guys can stay here and keep chatting if you want, but yeah, I'm feeling pretty tired."
"No, we all feel basically the same, I think," Jacky pointed out with an awkward smile. "It's actually going to be really nice to get to sleep without having to worry about being stabbed by a monster."
Sam laughed a bit, "I get that, that makes sense. There's a room you guys can use, it was an office before but we used the furniture in there to fortify the barricade downstairs. It's might also be cramped for five people, but-"
"No worries, we'll take it!" John said immediately, clearly speaking for the entire group. As everyone got up and grabbed their things, Ashton walked over to Oliver in particular and held out his hand.
"Give me the magic stone for a second."
Oliver raised his brows nervously and groaned, "Fine. I've been trying, but I don't think anything happened. This stuff is hard..."
Of course it was hard. It wasn't that easy to learn how to manipulate mana just because you wanted to. Or at least... that's what Ashton thought.
When Oliver actually dropped the magic stone into his hand, he was completely taken aback. The mana inside of the stone was completely re-arranged. It wasn't that wild pattern from before, it was actually slowly being built into something else. This was clearly the pattern of Oliver's mana. And Ashton wasn't sure, but he could swear that some of the harsher edges on the surface of the stone were slightly smoothed out.
"... Good job, keep at it. I think you've actually got decent talent," Ashton said, giving Oliver the stone back.
He stared back at him confused, "Wait, what? Are you serious?"
"Mhm. Just whenever you can, spend time trying to shape that. When you think you've got the hang of that, and you can really 'feel' your mana, try to manipulate it outside of your body. If you keep at it long enough, you could unlock at least a beginner magic user class," Ashton explained, and Oliver's eyes widened with excitement.
"Really?!"
"Possibly. But that doesn't mean the promise you made earlier doesn't count anymore," Ashton said, trying to make that last part very clear. And really, he had no idea if Oliver could get a magic class like that. He seemed to have some magical talent, that much was obvious at this point, but whether that was enough wasn't certain.
But Ashton also didn't know every single condition for awakening every single class. He had spoken to some people in Lumia and heard about conditions like that from them, but this was a whole other matter. There were also surely going to be new classes that didn't exist over there, as well as classes from over there that wouldn't exist here.
"Oh, and before I forget," Ashton said, looking at everyone that was standing around him, not just Oliver, "Classes aren't just a static thing. They can change and evolve over time, depending on exactly what you do. You can get new skills that fit your class, or you can fulfil extra conditions for special sub-classes. Whichever it is, use your classes and skills the way that feels right, rather than the way you think they should be used."
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
With that last bit of knowledge that he gave to them all, and seeing their curiosity written completely on their faces, Ashton finally decided to head to Sam's office to get some sleep.
Ashton could feel his body be restrained. Unable to move freely, stuck in place like he was buried in concrete from head to toe. Though he tried to open his eyes, he could see nothing but darkness. There wasn't anything to hear either, not even the slight whistle of the slight tinnitus he's had since he was a kid.
As time went on, Ashton realised that he was starting to choke. He couldn't breathe either, after all, and it started to feel suffocating and painful. His lungs were practically screaming in pain. But it wasn't a real pain. It wasn't something he was feeling in his body, it was something that he felt in his soul.
This sensation was undeniable. Ashton knew where he was. What he was going through. He was stuck in a far corner of the Summoner's vessel.
When Ashton brought his summons into his vessel, he made sure the environment was comfortable for them. It basically was like they each got their own little cubby that just felt perfect for them. Those cubbies didn't exactly have a physical form, but he knew they were comfortable there, Ashton could feel it.
Usually, the Summoner's vessel was at least somewhat 'liveable'. Or, at the very least, it was better than being stuck in nothingness like he was right now. It was like... being stuck in a small, cold room. Uncomfortable and maddening, but he didn't starve and he didn't feel the need to breathe.
But right was different. It was a special place within the Summoner's vessel, one that the Summoner created as a prison. A place where any misbehaving summons would be forced into. It was a place of complete isolation. Of suffering, where it felt like you were constantly dying. You never got used to it, either.
Ashton wasn't sure how long he spent in here back then. Weeks or months at a time, probably. It was a bit unclear. He actually skipped straight past a quest in the second phase once.
The fact he was back in here was... infuriating. Terrifying. Ashton tried to get out, he tried to tear his way through this.
He knew for a fact that he wasn't stuck in that hell anymore.
Ashton knew what it felt like to be forced into a dream, and that definitely wasn't it! There was no way his return to earth was a dream!
He refused to go back to being that thing's toy!
Ashton was never going to-
Gasping for air, Ashton shot up from the couch he fell asleep on. He was covered in sweat, and his lungs were burning. No matter what just happened, it was clear that it wasn't a dream, either.
Ashton reached out to the small table next to him, grabbing his watch. It was already two in the afternoon. How the fuck did he sleep like twelve hours again?
"Something's wrong," Ashton frowned, trying to rub the rest of the sleep out of his eyes. He looked at the small pillow on the table, where Poppy was also still asleep. Well, that was normal for flower pixies, at least. They slept most of the day, almost like cats.
But Ashton, before he was summoned, barely needed six hours of sleep. It wasn't even that he forced himself to wake up, he just naturally woke up after six hours of sleep. Sam had actually always been jealous about that, since he was the opposite. And this body should be the same as it was before he was summoned, definitely.
Plus, the dreams that he had. In the first night, he dreamt that he was back with the Summoner.
The second night was... nothing. Rather, thinking back on it, Ashton literally experienced nothing at all that night. He closed his eyes, opened them, and was back after oversleeping past the nap that he meant to take. It felt like no time had passed at all, and it eerily felt like Ashton didn't dream. He knew that wasn't possible, because everybody dreamt. Ashton used to dream all the time.
But that was nothing.
And now, he found himself in the prison of the Summoner's vessel.
It could be nightmares or his trauma catching up to him. Or it could be a severe side-effect of having his soul trapped by an otherworldly abomination for more than a century, just to suddenly return when that Summoner was killed.
While the former was certainly possible, Ashton felt like the latter was more likely. Rather, in a weird, twisted way, he wanted it to be the second one because it, for whatever reason, sounded easier to fix.
If it was that, the more Ashton's spirit stat increased, the more he was going to be able to control his own soul, and the more he would understand what was happening to him.
Right now, his spirit stat was at 22 points. It was decent for now, though not even close to enough to fix himself. It might be enough for him to figure out if he was right, though.
Ashton closed his eyes and looked inward into himself. He could feel his mana flow through his body, and the small bumps of his pattern. Ashton could also see his vessel, and the space where his contracts were stored. His capacity really increased a good bit by now, and this would hopefully just keep on going.
There wasn't anything wrong with his vessel. It seemed perfectly intact and in peak condition.
But as Ashton looked beyond his vessel, at the outline of his soul that adhered to his physical body, he noticed something weird. There were parts of his body where his soul was... thin. Like a wound that had barely healed over.
It was all over the outsides of his soul. And immediately, Ashton could tell what the matter was.
They were scars. Right there, where the chains that tied down his body to that world once dug into his soul, all that was left behind were scars that hadn't been able to heal properly.
Ashton opened his eyes, leaning back. As he looked at the ceiling, he couldn't help but sigh.
"Fuck.""
[Currently Available Milestones]
[+3 Chapters | 35 Reviews | 26/35]
[+3 Chapters | 300 Ratings | 237/300]
[+3 Chapters | 400 Favourites | 386/400]
[+2 Chapters | 2000 Followers | 1840/2000]
[Current [Bonus Chapters] in queue... [9 Chapters]]
! There, you will find 15 Chapters ahead of Schedule!