The morning sunlight streamed through the dormitory’s stained-glass window, landing on Camilla’s face, yet it couldn’t drive away the dark circles under her eyes.
Last night, fueled by her “sincere regards” for Elina and the Resonance Star Core, she had written furiously into the late hours, and unsurprisingly, ended up with a pair of panda eyes.
“Pukki?”
The blue slime—Rimuru—bounced lightly at her pillow, the cool, springy touch helping Camilla wake up a little.
That’s right, she’d thought up the name in just half a second, feeling that this slime had the makings of a Moe King.
Still, considering its hopelessly lackadaisical combat ability, maybe “Sanjikun” would’ve been a better fit?
She sighed, accepted her fate, and got up.
She tucked Rimuru into the specially prepared small satchel, grabbed a handful of the premium feed Kolova had given her, tossed it in, and dragged her heavy steps toward the Summoning Theory and Practice Class classroom.
The classroom was enormous, big enough for several giants to roll around in, and many students were already seated inside, each accompanied by a summon beast of various forms.
Majestic Flame Wolf Cubs, dazzlingly feathered Yunge Birds, and even a student with a cold, hazy Shadow Wraith floating at their side.
Compared to all that, the blue jelly in Camilla’s satchel, occasionally poking out its head and softly going “pukki”, seemed particularly… unremarkable.
Plenty of eyes fell on her, with curiosity, scrutiny, and after seeing the slime in her bag, undisguised contempt.
Camilla couldn’t have wished for more.
She kept her head down, found the most out-of-the-way seat, and did her best to minimize her presence.
Teaching today was a stern-faced, immaculately robed middle-aged mage—Ms. Victoria.
She was an old acquaintance from the game, her signature line being, “Useless thing.”
Her sharp gaze swept the room.
When her eyes landed on Camilla—or rather, on the slime in her satchel—her brow furrowed ever so slightly, but she said nothing.
“The way of a summoner lies in communication, contracts, and Resonance!”
Ms. Victoria’s voice was clear and piercing.
“Today, we will practice basic Resonance—trying to deepen your spiritual connection with your summon beasts, to understand their emotions and needs!”
The students obeyed, closing their eyes and trying to build a deeper bond with their summons.
“Resonance”—the core ability of a summoner.
Through forging a spiritual link with a summon beast, a summoner could grant it tremendous power.
Without a summoner, most summon beasts were just barely intelligent monsters; but a skilled summoner could draw out tenfold—no, ninefold—the strength of even the weakest summon beast.
Camilla closed her eyes as if taking the exercise seriously, but in her head she was just thinking about what to eat for lunch.
Establish a spiritual link with Rimuru?
Last night, while she wrote, the little guy had just played “pukki pukki” beside her, emotions simple as a blank page—other than hunger, it just wanted to wriggle.
No deep Resonance needed at all.
Yet just as her mind wandered off, a weak but startlingly clear intent, like a gentle trickle, flowed naturally into her mind.
[…Comfy…sunshine…like…]
[…Master…so warm…]
[…Hungry…that shiny thing…delicious…]
Camilla’s eyes flew open in disbelief, staring at Rimuru as it nuzzled her arm from inside the satchel.
This… this was a spiritual link?
That easy?
She hadn’t even tried to initiate it!
Surely it couldn’t be for… that reason, could it?
“It seems this student has already made some progress.”
At some point, Ms. Victoria had appeared beside Camilla, regarding her surprised face with a faint, barely-there look of approval on her stern face.
“To complete Resonance with your summon beast so quickly—your talent is even better than I expected.”
That’s not it!
I didn’t!
Don’t say that!
She just wanted to slack off!
“Too bad it’s a low-level summon beast.”
Ms. Victoria suddenly changed her tone, eyes sweeping over Rimuru.
“Slimes have very limited growth potential. If you can, I’d rather you not waste your efforts on something so useless. With your ability, you could easily choose a much stronger summon beast.”
“Pukki pukki!”
As if it understood Ms. Victoria’s words, Rimuru let out a protesting cry and suddenly leaped from the satchel, a blue rubber ball shooting straight at Ms. Victoria!
And then…
“Pukki~?”
Rimuru’s “charge” was stopped dead by Ms. Victoria’s, frankly, impressive forward armor, its squishy body bouncing back mercilessly and falling to the ground with a “pakki”, rolling helplessly twice.
It seemed a bit dazed from the crash, wobbled its round body, and then hurriedly crawled over to hug Camilla’s leg, raising its tiny “tentacle” and pitifully pointing at Ms. Victoria.
Immediately, an even clearer intent flooded into Camilla’s mind—accusing and spoiled in equal measure.
[…Bad…bad bad…Great Demon King…]
[…Master…someone…bullied me…]
[…Hit…hit her…]
“Pfft!”
A faint round of laughter rippled through the room, clearly amused by Rimuru’s antics.
Camilla looked at the blue blob at her feet, trying to “tattle”, then at Ms. Victoria, whose face seemed even frostier than before, feeling the veins at her temples throb.
Ms. Victoria expressionlessly straightened the front of her robe where she’d been hit, then spoke flatly.
“I suppose its emotions are richer than a typical slime, but that’s all.”
Ms. Victoria clapped her hands, drawing everyone’s attention back.
“That’s enough theory. Now, we’ll begin practical group training. Pair up—your goal is to let your summon beasts familiarize themselves with commands in a sparring match and hone their basic reactions. Remember, it’s for practice—maliciously injuring your opponent’s summon beast is strictly forbidden!”
A flurry of activity broke out in the classroom as students started pairing off, all eager to test themselves.
The summon beasts seemed to sense the shift too, growling or crying out in various ways.
Camilla’s assigned opponent was a red-haired girl, whose summon beast was a rare Flame Wolf—capable of controlling fire.
Even though it was only a cub, it was not to be underestimated.
“Rimuru, how about we just surrender right away?”
Camilla whispered to Rimuru as she fed it some premium kibble.
But the little guy shook its head resolutely, sending a wave of strong fighting spirit through their mental link.
[…We’ll win…]
Are you sane?
Camilla almost laughed aloud.
The difference in strength was like a caterpillar challenging Rayquaza to a wrestling match.
Well, whatever. In a sense, the little guy had just been born, and as the saying goes, “the newborn calf is not afraid of the tiger.”
At least this way it could experience the harshness of the world.
She always carried an excessive amount of recovery potions anyway, so even if it got hurt, it would be fine.
“Take your positions!”
Ms. Victoria’s voice rang out clearly.
The red-haired girl stood confidently at her end of the field, her Flame Wolf Cub crouched low, growling menacingly, sparks dancing at its claws.
Camilla, on the other hand, stood at the opposite end, utterly unmotivated, while Rimuru at her feet just wobbled leisurely like a blue jelly, a stark contrast to the tense atmosphere on the other side.
“Begin!”
At the word, the Flame Wolf Cub charged out at once, opening its jaws and firing a blazing fist-sized fireball straight at Rimuru, hot enough to scorch the air!
“Rimuru, dodge—”
Camilla hadn’t even finished the word when she saw a scene that left her stunned.
Instead of dodging, Rimuru went straight for the oncoming fireball, its pale blue, semi-transparent body opening up like a thin membrane and swallowing the fireball whole!
Pssh—
Rimuru’s body glowed faint red for a moment, then returned to normal, letting out a satisfied “pukki” as if savoring something delicious.
[…Warm…delicious…]