Age of Summoner

“Well, do you now have a general idea of how the online system works?”

Rin’s cheerful voice chimed as she stood up stretching back inside the Online Center’s room 18 once again. Likewise, Jakkarin had also returned from the world of Arcadia with a look of uncontainable excitement on his face. This was because this adorable young lady also carried on teaching him a lot more about the world of AOS as they walked further away from the town to face several other monsters stronger than those blue slimes.

It felt rather satisfying to try out various kinds of cards.

Especially when everything could be kept under control in order to win against enemies; it felt almost—liberating. But of course, it was all but for the level of realisticness within the world of Arcadia.

“I understand that you wanted to be inside Arcadia for a bit longer. Every beginner summoner always got caught up in the moment when they summoned halves for a battle,” Rin inserted, knowing exactly what the other was thinking about. “But we have another mission we have to complete today. Apart from showing you the online section of the game, there’s also the duel section that you also have to try out.”

“Got it.”

Joke had to admit to himself that he felt kind of disappointed because being in Arcadia, which had both gorgeous scenery and fresh air, made him feel truly relaxed (even though his brain was basically tricked by the device); unlike his mundane life in Bangkok, which he had spent years studying and living here.

“Eh? It’s now eight in the evening?”

The young man groaned as he looked down at the watch on his wrist.

He had no idea that time was speeding up this fast because Arcadia’s in-game clock ran faster than the outside reality world’s. Even though he was inside the game for just over three hours, he witnessed both daybreak and nightfall inside of the game.

“Even though time in Arcadia felt like it was going by more quickly, both the time inside the game and the one in the outside reality are of the same pace. Due to this, we sometimes lose a sense of time when we’re inside the game. Don’t worry, every summoner all felt the same.”

She then laughed happily as Joke smiled in return before standing up from the seat.

“Thank you for going online. Please don’t forget to eject your ID slot from the machine.”

A warning went off from the device that he was just using a moment ago, causing Joke to realize that he completely forgot that his ID slot was still inserted inside. Upon that realization, he quickly went ahead and pressed a button for the machine to automatically eject out his ID slot.

“All new beginners experience this. You must never forget to do so as an ID slot is the heart of every summoner. It would be a big problem if you lose it because it would be as if a summoner’s life had been lost.”

“I understand.”

Joke answered meekly before holding onto his ID slot once again.

“You should check out those accessory stores, Joke. They will have leather cases and bags to hold your ID slot. It won’t be too expensive, but it will do a great job of providing protection for our devices. Some people use the kind of leather bags that can be hooked onto belts; those seem cool in tournaments.”

He nodded at her suggestions. Rin, with her ID slot in her hands, walked towards the door and pressed on the doorknob. The door opened easily as she pushed forward, causing Joke to raise his eyebrows.

“The door wasn’t locked?”

“Pardon?” Rin replied.

“That’s kind of dangerous when we’re going online. Won’t we be unaware if someone sneaks into the room to steal our stuff?”

“Oh…” The young lady beamed. “You don’t have to worry about that because as soon as the device operates, the door will automatically lock. Plus, Tae who you just met is also on the lookout outside.”

Joke nodded, trusting her. From what he saw, he did his job outstandingly. Furthermore, if the store looked over this matter, it would be difficult for them to be making this many customers.

“Shall we go down to the Duel Center on the second floor?”

“Alright.”

After she said that, the young lady led her way outside once again. She received a farewell from this young man named “Tae” before she led Joke down the stairs to the second floor. The “Duel Center” that he had just previously walked past appeared to be a bit different, perhaps because the store now had every light on as the sky had already turned completely dark.

There were loud chatter and shouting exchanged to and fro within the room, which was completely different from the Online Center room before.

Similarly, this room was also partitioned into smaller clear glass rooms positioned along a narrow walkway. There seemed to be around ten rooms. They appeared to be relatively larger than the ones inside the Online Center, a size in which around ten people could fit comfortably. Nevertheless, these were large empty rooms with nothing out of the ordinary. Joke then stopped in front of a room’s glass window, which now had approximately five people gathering in front of it and looking inside room number three through the clear glass excitedly.

Once he also had the chance to look past that window, his eyes went wide in amazement.

The inside of the room did not look vacant like all the other rooms. On the contrary, it was instead filled with a scenery of a vast grass field stretched faraway out into the horizon and figures of two males who probably should be called “summoners” as they were both standing face-to-face with two summons violently ramming into each other; this was the exact image that could be witnessed inside the world of Arcadia.

“It's exactly the same as what I just saw…”

Joke mumbled. He thought back to the international tournaments he had seen before, the ones where a sports arena was turned into a battle arena that could conjure up these summons to fight in real life. Even though it looked smaller than the ones he previously saw, it still looked realistic nevertheless.

“This is the Real VR Vision system,” Rin immediately explained once she saw Joke’s excitement. “There are special screens positioned all over the room, which produce VR images that the human eye can see and are then put together with a set; this makes all the movements look realistic. The room appears to be small from the outside, right? But once you’re inside, it will feel a lot larger. Furthermore, the surround sound system inside also makes the battle look more realistic. Even though it cannot be compared to the official AOS major tournaments, this is pretty good for a summoner’s arena, isn’t it?”

After that was said, the battle between two summoners inside VR room number three came to an end. The room went completely dark once again as the two men walked out of the room happily as if they had enjoyed battling with all their efforts….

...similar to the others who were also using other VR rooms, dueling.

These rooms seemed to rather be filled with excitement.

“As I told you before, Joke,” Rin said as she nudged Joke to follow her inside, “the Duel Center is popular among a group of players who prefer to fight with other summoners. These rooms are specially created for every summoner to use as a one-on-one battle arena or for summoners to test out their decks by battling against computer bots.”

“Are these battles similar to the ones in League Tournaments?”

Joke asked, which made the young lady in front of him smile amusingly at him.

“If you want to put it that way. And, by the way, you know about the World League Tournament?”