A Dual Crest Summoner In Infinite Summoning World

Auren had heard even slavery was common in all five regions — the lord who won the raid could ask for men, and the losing lord would have to provide them legally.

They were mostly prisoners and lower-class object summoners, but who was going to check each slave's individual history? Anyone who stood against the lord was simply considered a 'criminal.' The large number of bandits in the five regions was not without reason.

Auren changed from his swordsmanship practice to his daily shapeshifting practice after a few hours. He had practically mastered the changes in shapes he could make by now—there wasn't much left to do in that either. But with his new black particles summon being useless, Auren had shifted his focus to using the excess Chi to somehow lift his black particles from the ground.

It required a lot of Chi, but he could potentially do it for a few milliseconds. The trick he had learned for that was using pre-applied momentum—like, he couldn't lift a black particle-tipped arrow from the land, but if that arrow was in motion, shot by a bow—he could slightly manipulate the trajectory, giving one hell of a surprise to his opponent. Though he was still not used to aiming it properly. The force of Chi and direction, added with wind—it required practice for sure.

Also, losing the black particles that he had summoned and accumulated with so much difficulty was not something he wanted to risk in such a way. But it was one of the most important hidden moves he could make in a time of need. Auren loved the idea of fighting with ranged attacks, but his black particles were such that he could only go melee. Besides, archery was a skill, and it had proven quite difficult to master.

In the evening, Dante came back—Auren had prepared the whole day. They fought once again, and he lost again. Their practice matches that used to end in less than a minute now stretched to a whole three or four minutes, but still, nothing could touch Dante at all. He came very close at times, but Dante had a lot of time to react to his surprises with his enhanced body.

Auren was starting to believe he could not touch the guy without ranking up at all—but he could not give up. If he did so, there was no future for him. Unlike others, he had to rely on his own power and black particles to excel at becoming a warrior.

If the world was a normal one, Auren wouldn't try so hard. He would have loved to become a merchant or get some other job. But in a world that fought constantly—a world in which one could become a slave at any time—lack of strength was not acceptable at all. He had already made enough money to survive for a few years without a worry, or to start a new business going in the town, or stay here with his family—the only thing he had no control over was the authority of nobles. If y$o%u'$re not on M*V%LE*M*+PY%R,^ y!ou'r*e v#i^e!wi%ng a c-o!p-y.

The lord who had called Auren useless could very easily get interested in his unique object and could command Auren to do anything for him. If such a time came, Dante would protect him—there was no doubt in that—but Auren could not rely on him for his whole life.

He would never accept a life where he was the weakness of this family.

He could not keep his summoned object hidden all his life—so preparing for the day when protecting himself became necessary was his utmost priority.

The night of happiness, peace, and quiet arrived once again. After dinner, Theren ran behind Maru everywhere in the house as the four of them talked about this and that—things that had happened in the village. Dante had indeed been quite surprised hearing about Rhysar Black leaving the capital of Primarch Hold. Granny was right; Dante looked up to the guy a lot. And it wasn't just him—many young knights felt the same. Rhysar was an idol knight who had protected the emperor's family day and night many times. The guy was even named the High Captain of the Knight's Watch in the capital city of the Hold.

The next day, once again, Auren had a class. Unlike two days ago, Dante had been gone hunting since early morning. The guy barely took one day off in a week. More than hunting, Dante and Hanzo focused on keeping the dangerous animals away from the village—it was better than before, but still, sometimes villagers who went into the forest for this reason or that often got attacked by wild animals.

Another day in class, another story, and another fight that Auren had to stop before it got ugly. The girl—Katla was her name—sat at the very back of the class, and still, some kids never left her alone. Other than her home situation, her accent was also something they made fun of, along with her unusual blue eyes and white hair. Katla was not a Greenvale name—it was common in Redwilds, though, Dante had told him. Apparently, her aunt and cousin did not share her unusual traits. Redwilds was a region on the other side of the continent.

Auren had asked Dante to tell the villagers to go easy on the kid during the Sunday meetings, but it had not provided much results. No one could control what people did in their own homes. Besides, not everyone in the village had favorable thoughts toward Dante and his advice. The kids who learned all these wrong things belonged to those families.

Something else happened today, however, that made Auren feel uneasy. Along with the whole class of students and their old teacher, Auren too saw a horse rider—arriving in the village from the direction of the village entrance and asking people in the distance something, then guiding his horse towards the other side of the village where the forest gate was.

The white horse with a pricey saddle was not something very common in their village. An official of the lord, he had to be. The horse rider too was dressed in attire only wealthy people in the town usually wore. Something told Auren this was not good for them at all.

There was no way the horse rider was going into the forest—it had to be his own home the guy was going towards. Auren stood up and started walking, Kenzo joining him. But then he remembered where he was, and Auren looked back towards the old scribe, who, understanding the situation, nodded at him.

As Auren turned his face, his eyes suddenly caught the dark blue, slanted eyes of the new girl—she looked afraid? Another bad sign.