Familiar summoning - be it the temporary arrangement for one job or lifelong partnership - needed not only a correct material but also the correct alignment. The most important part in familiar summoning preparation necessitated the summoner to align the parameter between the desired type of summoned creature and the area where the summoning happened. 

 

For the life-long partnership summoning, if it succeeded but they didn’t get the creature they need, there was no other choice but to accept the one they get. There wouldn’t be a retry, and the summoned creature would be stuck there, unable to go home.

 

Letting the creature go to summon a new one would be the height of irresponsibility. Someone caught doing something like that would have a miserable fate, penalized by the Summoner Association and targeted by the kindred of the creature they threw away.

 

That’s why there are only a few people who performed a summoning ceremony for the life-long partnership summoning outside the specialized place to do it.

 

As for the people who want to make a temporary arrangement summon, they would not care much. The creature they summon was just an astral projection inhabiting a newly made vessel instead of the creature’s original bodies. If they weren’t satisfied with the one summoned, they would just banish it back to where it came from.

 

And if they were satisfied, then they could make another arrangement to exchange special psychic marking. The mark would enable the summoner to summon the same creature another time with a much-simplified ritual.

 

But the summoning platform inside the Academy – and other places which housed the other Abyss Gates – was a specially made nexus where most of the usual rules of summoning didn’t apply. Because of its particular nature as a place nearest to the Abyss, the place acted as both spatial coordinate A where the summoning ritual happened and spatial coordinate B where the creature originated. If the Summoner and the creature could not reach an accord, the summoned creature would be able to go back to whence they came easily.

 

In this place, the requirement of place aligned to the summon was also waived, so there were a lot of idealistic students, thrillseekers, and risk-takers who chose the potentiality type of summoning to get the ‘best summon’ for themselves.

 

No one knows for sure how it worked beyond that the circle would choose by itself what kind of summon would be most compatible for the one activating it. It was also a kind of gamble, a roulette like summoning where the summoner wouldn’t be restricted from just one type of creature to summon.

 

The fact that the potentiality summon was a kind of hit and miss – because weak and talentless students would get a creature that was at their level – didn’t deter them from trying their luck, because there was only a minuscule chance that the return function would fail.

 

So if they get a disagreeable – or something that they thought aesthetically pleasing – creature, they could just cancel the summon and try again another time when their allotted chance comes again.

 

The summoning ceremony performed by the first-year students proceeded as usual. The students would be called by the order of placement, and they would make an attempt one by one, supervised by two overseeing teacher.

 

After the previous students cleaned up the platform from the remnant and traces of their summoning, the next one would walk through the pathway over the body of water to the center of the room. They would arrange the circle and the components needed for the type of summoning they wanted by themself after making a report on what kind of summoning they will perform.

 

Back when she started to teach in the Academy, Licia would have meticulously inspected the students’ attempts to make sure there wouldn’t be any serious mishap. But she has already overseen over a thousand students' summoning and there could only be so many variations of the circle before she had seen them all.

 

At the moment, she could quickly and correctly deduce what kind of circle the current student she supervised drew, and what was wrong with it only by a brief glance. So Licia only made a cursory check and write the summary on the pages of the student’s form before letting them continue.

 

Amethia, cute beast variant type magic circle... she’s drawing the core parts crookedly.

 

No need to bother helping her fix it.  It would double the drain but would still succeed if she can persevere.

 

...Netran domain’s Thunder Horn Rabbit, contracted... reluctantly.

 

Well, it’s scruffy and unclean. It doesn’t seem cute enough. Good job for going through with it. Point to her character, I guess.

 

Haynes, undead type magic circle... surprising contrast with his sunny and energetic countenance. Expert level theories and adept implementation. He must have been practicing seriously.

 

... Indefatigible Armor, Ivory steel black flesh bio armor variant from Eastern Valgrim domain.

 

Okay, energetic people would be perfectly compatible with a tireless familiar.

 

Inbetween commenting inwardly and recording the result of the students' attempt, she glanced at Old Luga. He only stood by crossing his arm relaxedly. His pad was floating near him, bobbing up and down along with the movement of the pen writing on it.

 

He made his spirit type familiar do his job.

 

Marleyas, potentiality type magic circle...

 

A low tier phenomenon. Canceled. it didn't seem like he would make another gamble in his next chance.

 

Lerda. potentiality type magic circle...

 

Licia had felt a tiny pang of envy seeing how Old Luga’s familiar diligently wrote what it sees. The fact that there was a period of rest in between the summoning – where the student cleaned off the platform and prepare their own circle – wasn’t going to make it less tiring for her.

 

Gertom. unknown creature type magic circle...

 

Type 24-A Multilite Sand Doll contracted.

 

Naia, majestic beast variant type magic circle...

 

Kinner,  potentiality type magic circle...

 

I wish there were chairs I could use around here...

 

Olivier, another potentiality type magic circle...

 

When the student named Olivier activated the magic circle, the fluctuation in the stabilizer was of higher amplitude. Licia inspected his works carefully and saw that there were no obvious errors on the circle he drew.

 

It was still the same conclusion from the cursory inspection she did before Olivier activated his circle, but she suddenly felt restless.

 

The circle is fine, with no crooked lines or subtle defects...

 

The line is of uniform width and thickness, with no unbroken part from lack of pressure when he drew it...

 

...What was that material he held? It broke into dust even before the summoning is done!

 

When the fluctuation was at its highest, there was a hole in space that opened suddenly, discharging a body and a bunch of detritus toward the circle. By the time there was a sound of collision between flesh and ground, the hole had shrunk and disappeared.

 

His potentiality magic circle dragged a human in?

 

Licia and Old Luga exchanged a look and shared an uncomfortable smile with each other, while Olivier froze briefly before decisively canceled the summoning.

 

How decisive. Even other people would deliberate for a couple of minutes, checking the characteristics of the one they summon for self-reflection before canceling...

 

There was no effect? Ah, for the minuscule chance of the Return function of nexus to fail, why wouldn’t it fail at the times where it was more problematic?

 

Licia inspected the prone body in the summoning circle. After twitching for a bit, the summoned person turned over and tried to sit, but it looked like he didn’t have much energy to even hold his body up. He settled back down, lying supine, motionless except for his eyeballs and chest.

 

She kept inspecting him, trying to find out which domain he probably came from while Old Luga and Olivier debated on what Olivier should do and what was his responsibility.

 

Where did this Olivier drag him from? His facial features are similar to the kids around here...

 

Burnt sienna hair, similar to most of the local citizens of Stavel Domain...

 

There was a humanoid type magic circle, but it was outlawed together with the magic circle which specialized in summoning human. But some people who used potentiality type magic circle would somehow still dragged a human in once in a while.

 

Rare though it might be, there was still a lot of humans who got summoned. Even if it was just inside Stavel Domain, there were already more than three hundred and eighty cases out of the millions of familiar summoning attempt in the last two hundred years.

 

There was one point in which potentiality type summoning that resulted in humans being summoned differed greatly from when it resulted in various non-human creatures. Even if the summon was canceled, it would still wind up with the summoner and the summoned having some kind of relationship. Whether it was friendship, rivalry, or enmity.

 

That was the illustration of how much compatibility between the human who got summoned through the potentiality magic circle with their summoner.

 

Two of the most prominent case in a hundred year was the one where a girl who summoned the son of her family’s mortal enemy. The subsequent outrage ended up when the two families with a relationship of enmity making up because their relationship changed into a relationship of matrimony.

 

And the other one was one hundred and fifty years ago when two people who have never encountered each other suddenly met because of the potentiality summoning. They both ended up dragging their respective families and domain they came from into a ten-year long war. The reluctant peace was brokered after the two were assassinated by the people affected by their decisions.

 

“...But I don’t want to contract with a human!”

 

“...No, it doesn’t work that way. You are responsible for him since he was stuck here after your summoning...”

 

It was something that might have made many romance chasers wanted to try their hand doing their own potentiality summoning to get the most perfect partner for marriage.

 

But no one would try to do a deliberate human summoning.

 

Because human summoning is problematic and troublesome. One should not mistreat or even needlessly antagonize the one they summon in the case where they didn’t want them and couldn’t send them back. One should also be responsible for the summoned human's well-being until they can stand for themselves - or walk away.

 

His clothing was a bit weird, but it looked like something that wouldn’t be out of place in Urddona domain...

 

He looked pale and weak. Staggering unstably... Could it be that he was drunk?

 

Sluggish body movement, and face drenched in sweat... was he sick with fever? Licia thought inwardly, noting how lethargic the young man moved when he sat up and how his pupil enlarged and shrunk without matching with the luminosity of the object he gazed at.

 

When the debate between Old Luga and Olivier ended, Licia and Old Luga walked around the perimeter of the circle, checking and examining the trace of the ritual to approximate the source of the one summoned by Olivier. Where he came from could lead to the difference in the treatment afforded to him.

 

Not about the living condition or food treatment, but whether it was possible to send him home.

 

It was a necessity because one of the most important reasons why no one ever tried deliberate human summoning - to make them into a familiar - was because there was someone who would frown upon human summoning. And he was not shy about showing his displeasure upon the people who caught his ire.

 

Even if he didn’t make a big move, the soldier he command were enough to devastate a domain in a day, effortlessly.

 

Licia exchanged a look with Old Luga, shaking her head in disappointment. Old Luga smiled mirthlessly in return, both feeling grim because they couldn’t find where the young man could possibly come from. There were many known domains of humanity that people could reach through Abyss of Eternity, but the young man didn’t carry any of those domain’s traces.

 

The place he came from might have been somewhere farther than the farthest place any adventurer had gone to since the dawn of the great adventure era.

 

It’s no use. I don’t think anyone can send him home.

 

If the return function of the nexus wasn’t malfunctioning...

 

A place far away from here, somewhere where no other people had ever gone to...

 

Was he actually came from some domain in the Abyss at all? Licia contemplated silently and made various half thought guesses, only dimly aware of things around her.

 

Meanwhile, after deliberating for another minute, Old Luga seemed like he had reached some kind of conclusion. He walked toward Olivier and commanded him to ask what would the young man wanted to do, and whether he wanted to have a partnership ritual with Olivier or not. He didn’t forget to counsel Olivier to not force the issue.

 

When Oliver kneeled down to face the young man, she briefly glanced at the young man's confused expression and lax body language.

 

I think he can hear us when we’re talking, but does he understand our language?

 

He looked addled and muddle-headed...

 

Why didn’t Old Luga waited until we examined whether he was healthy or not?

 

Can his agreement when he was looking this confused count?

 

Wait, why did Olivier use that kind of movement... is Olivier using a familiar contract toward him?

 

I should stop him from completing it!  Licia jolted in shock and run as hard as she could to stop Olivier.

 

Halfway there, a sudden crack in space occurred along with a loud sound of air displacement. There was a big crack in space, and she briefly glimpsed an object coming from a place beyond the gate, bypassing the barrier and overloading the dimensional stabilizer like it did not even exist.

 

It was a finger, poking through the spatial tunnel. When it moved slightly, the familiar contract between Olivier and the young man – which was nearly done – was effortlessly torn down and destroyed.

 

When the finger was pulled out, she briefly felt the gaze from the owner of the finger.

 

It was someone she and her line of descent were familiar with, the one whose existence made any deliberate human summoning a dangerous cataclysmic endeavor.

 

The Wanderer.

 

And he took the initiative by himself instead of sending his soldiers.