Limitless Summoner

Ethan decided to first start the experiment with simple commands.

"Go," he commanded softly, pointing to the corner of the carriage floor. The spiders scuttled over in perfect unison, their eerie coordination unsettling, though slightly impressive. The worm wiggled and arrived more slowly.

He tried a few more mental commands before giving it a rest. All of this was fine but testing these out on a bigger beast would be more efficient.

He then stared at the bug squad. What was he going to do with them? "Shoo." Ethan ended up chasing them away. "Go find something and kill."

He wanted to see if he would earn any experience points this way.

Unfortunately, it was a fool's errand. He watched the bug squad scuttle out of the carriage and disappear on the dirt road but even after several minutes, he didn't see a single notification appear in front of him.

Either they didn't kill anything or whatever they killed wasn't worth any experience points.

There was no point in going down this path. He needed something bigger. Something more substantial.

Just as he was wondering how to pull this off with his level 3 abilities, he suddenly noticed something from the back of the carriage.

"STOP!" Ethan shouted.

The driver startled at Ethan's sudden shout, pulling the reins sharply to halt the carriage. The horses neighed in protest, but eventually, the carriage came to a creaking stop on the dirt road.

"What is it, boy?" the grizzled driver asked, turning slightly in his seat but keeping his eyes on the path ahead, as if unwilling to fully engage.

Ethan quickly jumped out of the carriage before the guy could reprimand him. He rushed towards the last tree they had crossed and quickly looked behind it.

There it was.

A dead cat.

Well, an almost dead cat.

Ethan crouched down beside the almost-dead cat, his heart racing as he inspected it. The creature was barely breathing, its chest rising and falling in shallow gasps. Its fur was matted with blood and dirt, and it looked frail—like it had been through a battle for survival.

It was probably run over by another carriage like this? Otherwise, he doubted the beast would be left whole and alive in this kill or be killed world.

Either way, this was his chance.

Ethan swallowed the bitter pill and did the deed. He took a stone lying nearby and with a quick motion, he brought it down.

The cat let out one final, pitiful sound, and then its body went still. Silence filled the air as Ethan stared down at the lifeless form in front of him.

[Ding! You have killed a wild cat]

[Ding! You have gained experience points]

[Ding! The entity wild cat has been added to your summoning list]

"Summon," Ethan whispered.

The next second a brand new cat appeared in front of him without a single injury on its body. The beast literally popped out of thin air.

Ethan gulped. It was different when it was small spiders and worms. But when a whole beast appeared out of nowhere like magic, it felt weird to wrap his mind around it.

He stared in a daze at the newly summoned wild cat, its black sleek fur shimmering slightly under the dappled sunlight filtering through the trees. The creature's eyes, sharp and intelligent, locked onto his.

The wild cat stretched, almost nonchalantly, as if it had always existed and wasn't the product of his newly acquired powers. Right next to it, the dead body was still fresh.

The whole thing was bizarre.

"Aye! Lad, what are you doing? I haven't gotten all day!"

Ethan snapped out of his daze, the driver's gruff voice cutting through the surreal moment. He glanced back at the dead cat, then at its living, summoned counterpart.

"Uh, coming!" he called out, standing up and dusting his hands off as if that would clear his mind too.

He quickly kicked the dead body under a nearby shrubbery to hide it. He then gave the summoned cat a quick mental command to follow him, and without hesitation, the creature padded after him with silent grace.

Ethan climbed back into the carriage, the summoned wild cat jumping in after him. The driver shot him a glance but said nothing. He flicked the reins, and the horses started moving again, pulling the carriage down the dirt road.

Ethan finally let out a breath. Fuck! He had actually done it. He had killed something and summoned the damn thing.

He was now a motherfucking bug catcher and a cat owner! He was moving up in life!