'Grade 1???!' Leon thought it so loudly it might as well have been said aloud. The pale shock that moved through him was the kind that started in the chest and worked its way outward.
He stopped mid-step as he descended back toward the crowd, and for a brief, desperate moment, he entertained the possibility. There were worlds, in the novels he had read, where strength was measured in descending order rather than ascending. Where Grade 1 sat at the top of the scale and everything below it was lesser. Where being called Grade 1 was the highest compliment the system could offer.
He really wanted that to be the case here!
He looked at the faces around him.
No. He could tell immediately. The shock on every face was specific in a way that couldn't be misread. It wasn't the shock of witnessing something extraordinary. It was the shock of watching something fall short in a way nobody had prepared for, especially after everything that had preceded it. The sky going dark, the lightning, the aura that had brought grown adults to their knees… All of that, and then a Grade 1.
There was no mistaking what kind of surprise that was.
Which meant his memories were correct.
In this world, the grade of a summon, being monsters themselves, was measured in the same way the grade of monsters and beasts was measured.
It was like this, from weakest to strongest.
Grade 1
Grade 2
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5
Grade 6
Every grade was further divided into three sub-classifications—entry, intermediate, peak.
The difference between a Grade 1 entry and a Grade 6 peak was not a gap so much as an entirely different category of existence.
Of course, there were other factors that determined the overall strength of a summoner apart from the summon's grade. This was majorly tied to mastery and the bond between the summon and their summoner. Once the bond was strong enough and the summoner had good mastery over their craft, they could join with their summons to unlock a new, most atimes more powerful form.
Apart from that, summons grew stronger over time, and in very few minute cases, even evolve into more powerful forms of the species. These things had been studied and were still being studied, but as far as the general public knew, no major head way had been made in controlled evolution.
As for summons that had been recorded in the past, their potential could be determined, but of course, whether or not they reached that potential was still reliant on the summoner.
There were rare cases where some summoners could bond to more than one summon, in that case, the rank of the summoner would be higher.
'Oh fuck, the summoner has a different ranking system than the summons and dungeon beasts.' He recalled. 'What does this mean? Can I ever surpass Rank 3 with a Grade 1 summon?'
The ranking system of the Summoners themselves was like this:
Rank 1
Rank 2
Rank 3
Rank 4
Rank 5
Rank 6
Summoners themselves were ranked according to the grade of monster or beast they could kill alone without help from another summoner.
The rank of a summoner was mostly similar to their summon, but in cases where fusion with the summon increased the summoner's strength greatly, it was possible for them to surpass the cap and measure a greater rank.
'But can I even reach Rank 3 with a Grade 1 summon?' The question sat in him without a comfortable answer.
He was still turning it over when he heard caught something pass by his ears that he just couldn't ignore.
Though they spoke in hushed voices, probably given the phenomenon that had preceded his awakening, nobody was quite willing to be openly loud about it yet. The atmosphere hadn't fully released that particular tension… But the restraint only went so far.
Comments such as these flew about in people's mouths as they spoke about him.
Trash.
The waste of the Carter family.
The failure.
Failed genius.
That last one landed differently. Failed genius implied there had once been an expectation, that at some point someone had looked at Leon Carter and believed he would become someone great. The distance between that expectation and a Grade 1 summon was apparently the source of considerable entertainment for the people currently keeping their voices just below a normal speaking volume.
Nevertheless, Leon heard all of it.
He resumed walking, kept his face arranged in something neutral, and heard every word anyway. It settled into him the way cold water did, gradually and then completely, and with it came something else, something that had been sitting at the edge of his awareness since the memories arrived and was only now making itself fully known.
He understood now, why the original Leon had done what he had done, taking his own life.
It was this, specifically this, the particular texture of being known as a failure by everyone, of carrying a family name that had once meant something and feeling the weight of that expectation as though it were blame rather than inheritance. Of being referred to with a specific kind of contempt that suggested the people using it had been using it for long enough that it required no thought anymore.
To make things worse, he was the direct descendant of the very legend who brought that name to the lips and hearts of all.
The former Leon had lived inside this for however long it had been going on. Long enough that it had become the shape of his daily life. Long enough that he had decided, at some point, that he had no more room left to absorb it.
'What kind of shitty life did I reincarnate into?' Leon thought to himself, his expression unsuppressed and carrying the fullness of the pain he felt in his hearts of heart. 'What did I ever do to deserve such karma?' He almost shed a single tear in pity for himself.
While most mocked Leon under their breath and speculated his failure, not all took it at surface value.
Away from the students entirely, in the office room above, the headmaster had not moved from the window.
"This is unprecedented. First, the phenomenon, then that door, and then a weak Grade 1 monster…" He pondered aloud.
The other man wearing glasses nodded in agreement. "You are right, sir. It doesn't make any sense at all. For several centuries, I don't think such a phenomenon has ever been recorded, and yet this is the product of such an event? Impossible."
"Joseph," the head master called.
"Yes, sir." Joseph answered.
"I want eyes on him at all times, there's something more to this." The headmaster said.
"Yes, sir."
"Also, get me all information you can find on that door that appeared. This is truly turning out to be something." The headmaster said as he looked over at the awakening ground.
Just then two blue ethereal horns materialized on the headmaster's forehead, pale and luminous and there for only a fraction of a second before the air around him seemed to spark at the edges. In the same breath, he was gone from the room entirely, and in that same moment, he was standing on the stage below beside the instructor, facing the students.
The collective flinch that moved through the crowd was immediate and involuntary. Several students stepped back half a step before catching themselves. Even those who had been expecting some kind of official address hadn't expected the arrival to look quite like that.
The headmaster waited a moment for the reaction to settle, then spoke.
His address was measured and unhurried. On its surface, it was for everyone, a general acknowledgment of the awakening, a reminder that the grade of a summon was not the full story of a summoner's potential, that mastery, dedication, and the depth of the bond formed over years of partnership had produced results in this world that raw grade alone could never have predicted, that every summon, from the most dominating to the most modest, carried within it the possibility of something greater depending on the hands it was partnered with. He gestured, briefly and without cruelty, toward some of the lower-grade results from earlier in the ceremony. The boy whose summon had been a small lizard, compact and golden-eyed, received a particular mention delivered with genuine warmth. Even that, the headmaster noted, had potential that would reveal itself in time.
It was a reasonable speech, generous, even, well-intentioned by every available measure.
Despite all that, somewhere within himself, a minute part of Leon still felt the sting of it.
It was not because anything said was directed at him specifically, but because he was aware, with a certainty that required no confirmation, that most of the people standing within earshot were applying the kind and measured words about modest summons primarily to him.
The headmaster had not said his name, but somehow, it had been made about him.
'Everything feels like mockery at this point,' Leon thought to himself with an internal sigh.
With that, the awakening ceremony was formally concluded. The students were directed toward the registration area, where they would complete the process by submitting information about their summons. Forms to fill, details to record, the administrative end of a day that had been, by any reasonable measure, a great deal more eventful than most.
Leon walked with the rest of them, hands in his pockets, expression composed into something that gave nothing away to anyone who didn't know what to look for.
Inside, however, he was already contemplating life.