Flickers of memory danced across Soo-woon's mind.
In the liminal space between sleep and waking, a quiet realization dawned on him.
"Looking back... I didn't really enjoyed my life. But since I have gotten another shot at it, I'll live this second life to the fullest."
A faint smile curled at his lips.
Just as he opens his eyes slowly, he witnessed: Big, Scary jaws drenched in blood coming towards him. He screamed from the sudden encounter in front of him.
"Aaaaaaaaa....h!!!"
His scream echoed within the small wooden cage. Fortunately, the beast's snapping jaws were halted just short of tearing into him, caught by the reinforced bars. He pressed his back against the corner, gasping, heart pounding.
The creature snarled but failed to breach the cage.
"So it can't reach me... good."
Taking a shaky breath, Soo-woon steadied himself. He scanned his surroundings—dark forest canopy overhead, remnants of a broken caravan, a dead horse nearby, and the angry, oversized wolf pacing around his cage.
He quickly pulled up his status window.
"Time to give that S-rank skill a shot. I spent a S-rank skill ticket on it, after all."
*** Summoning(S) ***
Call forth beings from other worlds to serve your command.
Requires a pact to issue commands.
Mana Required to Summon: 100
Cooldown: 1 month
Contracted Beasts: 0
S-Rank Privilege: Summons do not require mana to remain active. You may maintain up to 5 active summons. (0/5)
*** ***
"I need 100 mana, huh?"
He brought up his status.
*** Lee-soo-woon ***
Level: 1
HP: 4 | AGI: 3 | Stamina: 3
STR: 2 | DEF: 1 | Mana: 0 (+5)
INT: 20 | LUCK: 2
Points: 100
Skills: Item box(F), Translation(B), Summoning(S), Arcmage(B),
Online shopping(E)
Titles: Transmigrator(mana +5)
*** ***
After looking at his status window.
"Wow, there they are, the 100 stat points, I got from that transmigrator pack. Then let's put all these points into mana."
He put all his points into mana.
*** Lee-soo-woon ***
Level: 1
HP: 4 | AGI: 3 | Stamina: 3
STR: 2 | DEF: 1 | Mana: 100 (+5)
INT: 20 | LUCK: 2
Points: 0
Skills: Item box(F), Translation(B), Summoning(S), Arcmage(B),
Online shopping(E)
Titles: Transmigrator(mana +5)
*** ***
After allocating all his points into mana,
A warm, tingling sensation surged through his body as a faint golden glow surrounded him, lifting tiny motes of light into the air.
"Whoa… are these lights coming out of me?"
The glow faded quickly.
He glanced down at his hands, flexing them.
"Huh. That's it? I don't feel that different." A little disappointed.
"ROOOAAARR!!"
The wolf's bellow reminded him of the imminent danger. He looked up and muttered, "Oh right...! Totally forgot about you there. Well, first things first, let's deal with this wolf."
He raised his hands and used the summoning skill.
"Come forth, being from another world! Answer my summons. Kill this abomination that dares threaten me."
"Ugh, I sound like a total chuunibyou…" he thought.
A sudden gust of wind erupted with a thunderous boom. The atmosphere warped for a brief moment as a sharp horizontal blade of energy surged forward—ripping through the dense air like lightning.
It cleaved the wolf cleanly in half. The beast didn't even have time to yelp. The upper half of the wagon disintegrated into splinters. The bars of the cage twisted apart, fragments floating for an instant before clattering to the ground.
Soo-woon blinked. The world had gone silent.
He slowly stood, brushing debris off himself as he stepped from the shattered ruins.
Before him stood a towering figure clad in immaculate silver armor, polished to a mirror sheen. Ornate patterns were engraved into the plates, and a deep blue plume waved atop the knight's helm. His sword, longer than Soo-woon was tall, was planted firmly in the earth. From behind the visor, a faint ethereal glow radiated.
The knight stepped forward, voice deep and resonant.
"Are you the one who summoned me?" he questioned, as if he was looking down on him and trying to intimidate him.
Soo-woon narrowed his eyes. He thought to himself, "is he trying looking down on me, this bas****"(p)
Though the knight's presence was overwhelming, Soo-woon was no coward. Instead of responding, he calmly turned, climbed onto the remains of the wagon, and stood tall.
From his elevated position, now soo-woon was the one looking below and the knight had too look up a bit.
Witnessing soo-woons reaction to his little provocation, The knight tilted his head as if intrigued, then slowly smiled beneath his helm, and started laughing.
"Hahahahaha! Excellent!"
On the other hand, just before the knight started laughing, Soo-woon, in his mind:
"Take that, now I'm the one who's looking down on you."(p) Feeling all proud, he was taken aback when the knight suddenly burst into loud laughter.
Before he could figure out the cause of the sudden laughter, the knight knelt downs in front of him, while looking upward.
"Forgive me, for the late introductions," he said, his tone now solemn and full of reverence.
"Huuuuuuuh?"(p) A little surprised from the sudden shift in attitude.
"I am not that keen of long introductions, so I will cut to the chase. My name is 'Arth Pendragon the Third', and I'm here to answer your summons. Although it's a bit sudden and out of nowhere, but I would like to serve you as my liege from now on."
Soo-woon, still trying to catch up with the whirlwind of events, stared in disbelief.
"…Huh?"
To be continued....