The next morning, sunlight filtered through the curtains, waking the sleeping Ghost Witch.
Tunzuo sat up in bed and stretched with a big yawn, her joints crackling.
After a night’s rest, her magical reserves had recovered significantly—not fully replenished, but enough to maintain a balance.
“Phew… I’m finally alive again.”
Tunzuo twisted her neck, feeling refreshed.
She rolled out of bed, quickly changed clothes, and pushed open the door with some eagerness.
Outside, sensing Tunzuo’s awakening, Yuge stood straight at the door like a loyal guard.
As Tunzuo stepped out, he bowed, the ghost fire in his eye sockets flickering.
“Good morning, Young Master. You seem to be in good spirits.”
“Yeah, I feel much better after a good night’s sleep. Let’s go, Yuge. Time for class.”
After a quick wash and saying goodbye to Sally, Huli, and that perverted Golden Dragon, Tunzuo tossed her bag to Yuge and walked out of the dorm with light steps.
Yuge caught the bag, held it in his hand, and followed silently behind her.
Some time later, Tunzuo arrived at the Spire housing the Summoning School’s special theory classroom.
She entered and gently pushed open the classroom door.
The classroom was as empty as last time, with no other witches in sight.
Tunzuo walked familiarly to the dark corner she had occupied before, sat cross-legged, while Yuge placed her bag gently on the floor, folded his hands in front of him, and stood silently beside her.
Tunzuo wrapped her arms around her knees, tilted her head up, and stared blankly at the clock on the wall.
As the hands moved, time ticked by.
Finally, when the minute hand and second hand aligned at the twelve o’clock position, and the hour hand reached exactly eight…
Ring ring ring!
With the crisp bell, the classroom door pushed open, and a green figure entered right on the dot.
Lei Ruiya was still dressed in light, easy-to-move clothes, strands of hair falling loose across her forehead.
Her white rose eye opened and closed slightly, while her right eye remained calm and indifferent.
“Teacher Lei Ruiya’s precise timing for showing up is truly a masterclass in slacking off—not early, not late, stepping in right as the bell rings, using time efficiently without being late. That perfect sense of proportion is the pinnacle of slacking off! Indeed, I still have a lot to learn on this path.”
Seeing Lei Ruiya enter at the bell, Tunzuo couldn’t help but feel impressed.
Tunzuo silently gave Lei Ruiya a thumbs-up in her mind, then quickly stood and walked forward to greet her.
“Good morning, Teacher Lei Ruiya!”
Tunzuo hurried to Lei Ruiya, a bright smile on her face.
Yuge silently followed behind Tunzuo, keeping a respectful distance to leave room for the two witches to talk.
Lei Ruiya first glanced at Tunzuo and gave a slight nod in response to her greeting.
Then her gaze passed over Tunzuo and landed on the quiet Yuge standing behind her.
Lei Ruiya’s scrutinizing eyes lingered on Yuge for a moment before returning to Tunzuo.
Though her face remained expressionless, her next words carried clear affirmation.
“If I’m not mistaken, this skeleton is the familiar you summoned, Classmate Tunzuo.”
“Yes, Teacher Lei Ruiya!”
Tunzuo nodded vigorously, then turned sideways and introduced with pride:
“His name is Yuge, the familiar I summoned! He’s amazing! So, Teacher Lei Ruiya, did I do well on the homework you assigned?”
Tunzuo raised her head triumphantly, like a student who’d aced an exam, eager for praise.
Lei Ruiya applauded lightly, congratulating Tunzuo on her successful first summoning.
“Most witches who attempt summoning for the first time fail. Their reasons vary: some are inaccurate in drawing the summoning circle, some use the wrong incantation format, and some can’t maintain stable mana output. You didn’t repeat their mistakes, Classmate Tunzuo.”
Lei Ruiya paused, her gaze sweeping over Tunzuo and Yuge before continuing:
“Your first attempt succeeded in summoning a familiar. And I can tell you put a lot of thought and effort into it. The combination of ghost and skeleton suits you well.”
Hearing Lei Ruiya’s praise, Tunzuo scratched her face shyly, a silly grin spreading across it.
It had been a long time since someone complimented her like that.
Seeing that Tunzuo and Lei Ruiya had finished talking, Yuge stepped forward to introduce himself.
“Pleased to meet you, Miss Lei Ruiya. You may call me Yuge. I am the Young Master’s familiar. It’s an honor.”
As Yuge finished, an awkward silence fell over the classroom.
Lei Ruiya’s perpetually expressionless face cracked for the first time.
Her right eye widened in shock, her white rose eye trembling slightly, indicating her agitation.
“You can communicate?!”
Lei Ruiya’s voice was filled with obvious astonishment as she stared intently at Yuge, as if searching for something unusual about this skeleton.
“Naturally.”
Yuge simply responded with two words to Lei Ruiya’s shock.
Lei Ruiya fell into a long silence.
Her gaze darted between Tunzuo and Yuge, filled with deep thought and confusion.
She frowned slightly, as if pondering some extremely complex issue.
Lei Ruiya’s reaction confused Tunzuo, so she asked, not understanding:
“What’s wrong, Teacher Lei Ruiya? Is there a problem with Yuge?”
Faced with Tunzuo’s question, Lei Ruiya did not hide her thoughts but spoke slowly with a heavy tone:
“Classmate Tunzuo, you may not know this, but familiars summoned through projection typically do not have the ability to communicate.”
“Huh? Why is that?”
Tunzuo blinked in confusion.
Lei Ruiya explained:
“The essence of projection summoning is to call forth a shadow of a familiar from the Spirit World. Although these shadows possess the abilities and consciousness of the original familiar, the dimensional barrier between the mortal world and the Spirit World makes complex linguistic communication difficult. The shadow can understand the summoner’s commands, but the summoner needs a long time of interaction and practice to understand the shadow’s intentions.”
Lei Ruiya pointed to her white rose eye.
“It’s like me and Xiao Qing. Even though we’ve been together for a long time, I still can’t always understand Xiao Qing’s intentions. That’s one reason summoners need to accompany and care for their familiars. Only after prolonged practice can the summoner truly achieve a heart-to-heart connection with their familiar.”
“Familiars that are naturally capable of communication are usually those summoned through the creation method. Because creation familiars are customized and integrated by the Spirit World, they are born with high spiritual power and can ignore the dimensional barrier between the mortal world and the Spirit World.”
With that, Lei Ruiya turned her head and stared deeply at Yuge.
Creation method?
But Yuge was summoned using the projection method!
I followed all the steps according to the parchment instructions.
How could it turn from projection summoning into creation summoning?
And I’m not that powerful!
Tunzuo felt dizzy from the confusion and asked Lei Ruiya hopefully:
“Um, Teacher Lei Ruiya, aren’t there any special cases? Like some projection-summoned familiars that can communicate naturally?”
Lei Ruiya was silent for a long time before slowly uttering a single word:
“Yes.”
Hearing Lei Ruiya’s answer, Tunzuo breathed a sigh of relief, the boulder in her heart finally dropping.
‘What! So Yuge is a special case. Scared me for a second. For a rare slacker like me, summoning a special familiar is pretty normal, right?’
However, Tunzuo didn’t know that Lei Ruiya had more to say.
Those so-called special cases referred to projecting a familiar created by another witch.
When a powerful witch summons a familiar through the creation method, and that familiar leaves a deep enough imprint in the Spirit World, other witches can then project that familiar.
Since creation familiars already have high spiritual power and self-awareness, their corresponding shadows naturally retain communication abilities.
But in essence, this is borrowing or inheritance, not normal projection summoning.
Lei Ruiya looked at Tunzuo, lost in thought.
A conjecture surfaced in her mind.
But she didn’t voice it.
Instead, she shook her head and decided to set these matters aside for now.
Some things required evidence.
“Alright, let’s start class.”
Lei Ruiya clapped her hands, pulling Tunzuo’s attention back to the lesson.
Seeing that class was starting, Tunzuo quickly settled down, sitting cross-legged with a studious expression.
“Today’s lesson is about how to bond with your familiar and increase your synergy.”
Lei Ruiya walked to the center of the classroom, raised her hand, and with a light tap of her fingertip, a floating projector flew before her, casting slides onto the wall.
“Bonding with your familiar is a skill every Summoning School witch must master. A familiar that is in tune with its summoner can exhibit combat or service capabilities far beyond its normal level. Conversely, a lack of synergy between summoner and familiar will significantly diminish the familiar’s abilities.”
As she explained, Lei Ruiya displayed images of interactions with various familiars on the slides.
“There are many ways to bond. The most common method is through daily interaction—feeding, grooming, playing, etc. Additionally, you can build trust through joint combat. Relying on each other in battle often quickly closes the distance between summoner and familiar.”
Lei Ruiya explained earnestly, and Tunzuo listened intently.
But when Lei Ruiya started having Tunzuo practice interaction exercises with Yuge, the atmosphere became a bit awkward.
“Classmate Tunzuo, try getting Yuge to fetch that book over there.”
Before Tunzuo could even speak, Yuge had already stood up, walked to the bookshelf, precisely pulled out the book Lei Ruiya pointed to, and handed it over with both hands.
“Your book, Young Master.”
“…Thank you.”
“Classmate Tunzuo, try having Yuge synchronize with your mana fluctuations.”
Tunzuo had just begun to act when Yuge had already adjusted his own mana fluctuation frequency to perfectly match Tunzuo’s, like two perfectly interlocking puzzle pieces.
“Young Master, your mana fluctuations are stable. Just keep it up.”
“…”
Lei Ruiya frowned at Yuge’s performance.
According to common sense, a newly summoned familiar and its summoner should have some unfamiliarity.
Time and effort are needed for the summoner to adapt to the familiar.
But the interaction between Tunzuo and Yuge didn’t look like they had just formed a contract.
Rather than interaction, it seemed more like Yuge was taking care of Tunzuo.
Lei Ruiya sighed inwardly.
‘As expected, a family heirloom familiar.’
In the history of witch society, some powerful witches passed down their familiars to their descendants through bloodlines or contracts.
These heirloom familiars often had extremely high loyalty toward the receiving witch, serving the new master directly without needing to rebuild synergy.
But such familiars were all famous in the Complete Guide to Spirit World Familiars, each with distinct traits and names recorded for witches to look up.
Yet Lei Ruiya searched her memory and could find no record of Yuge.
Helpless, she suppressed her doubts for now.
She glanced at the clock on the wall and saw there were still thirty minutes until class ended.
“Alright, Classmate Tunzuo. Our final topic for today’s class is how to dismiss a familiar.”
Lei Ruiya walked to the center of the room, traced a few runes in the air, and explained:
“Summoning School witches can use a compact summoning circle to summon and dismiss familiars. This circle only works for contracted familiars since they no longer consume mana when summoned from the Spirit World. The summoner can dismiss the familiar to the Spirit World when it’s idle and summon it again when needed, effectively saving mana.”
Lei Ruiya traced two patterns in the air with her fingertip.
“There are two ways to imprint a compact summoning circle. One is on the witch’s own body, and the other is on an object. Each has its pros and cons.”
She pointed to her white rose eye.
“A compact summoning circle imprinted on the body never deteriorates and grants the imprinted body part one of the familiar’s abilities. However, it causes some physical mutation in the witch. For example, this white rose eye gave me Xiao Qing’s perception ability but also cost me normal vision in my left eye.”
Hearing Lei Ruiya’s personal experience, Tunzuo nodded thoughtfully.
She looked at the blooming white rose on Lei Ruiya’s face and thought, ‘So that’s how Teacher Lei Ruiya got that unique eye.’
“Imprinting on an object is simpler. The advantages are that it’s easy to do and low-cost. The disadvantages are that it’s prone to damage and loss.”
Lei Ruiya explained.
After listening, Tunzuo bowed her head in thought, then decided to imprint the compact summoning circle on an object.
After all, she couldn’t accept physical mutation for now.
“I choose to imprint it on an object.”
As she spoke, Tunzuo took Huanye out of her storage ring.
This was her most precious and treasured item.
Lei Ruiya nodded and began guiding Tunzuo to draw a compact summoning circle on Huanye’s umbrella surface.
“Focus your mind. Gather mana at your fingertip. Trace the patterns I taught you. Yes, like that. Keep the gap between runes consistent…”
Tunzuo held her breath, carefully controlling the mana at her fingertip as she traced complex lines on Huanye’s black surface.
Shadow mana flowed across the dark fabric, emitting a faint glow.
With Tunzuo’s effort, a delicate compact summoning circle was finally imprinted on Huanye’s umbrella surface.
Tunzuo injected mana into the compact circle, established the link, and then mentally issued a dismissal command to Yuge.
Upon receiving the command, Yuge’s body gradually turned transparent, eventually dissolving into motes of light like fireflies, fading away and disappearing.
At the same time, an abstract rune composed of multiple concentric circles appeared on Huanye’s surface.
It looked like a door, the concentric rings contracting inward, symbolizing infinite pathways.
“It worked!”
Tunzuo raised Huanye excitedly, turning it this way and that, admiring the new rune on the umbrella surface, smiling like a child who’d gotten a new toy.
But Lei Ruiya, standing beside Tunzuo, stared intently at the abstract rune that had appeared on Huanye.
Her pupils contracted violently, and her white rose eye opened and closed frantically, as if subjected to intense stimulation.
Lei Ruiya recognized that rune.
Or rather, any witch who had studied the Summoning School would recognize it.
It was the rune engraved on the cover of the Complete Guide to Spirit World Familiars.
It was the mark of Men Zhishi—Yog-Sothoth.
And Men Zhishi was the familiar of His Eminence.
“Yog… Soth… oth…”
Lei Ruiya held her forehead, feeling a headache coming on.
She looked at Tunzuo, who was happily playing with Huanye, and a complex emotion surged within her.
Shadow mana, heirloom familiar, the mark of Men Zhishi…
It all adds up.
“I really have gotten myself mixed up with someone extraordinary…”
Lei Ruiya smiled wryly and muttered under her breath.
Seeing that Lei Ruiya seemed off, Tunzuo stopped what she was doing and looked at her nervously.
“Teacher Lei Ruiya? Did I make a mistake?”
Faced with Tunzuo’s question, Lei Ruiya straightened up, took a deep breath, and calmed her turbulent emotions.
She looked at Tunzuo with unprecedented seriousness.
“Classmate Tunzuo.”
“Huh? What is it, Teacher Lei Ruiya?”
“Do you know… the former Chief of the Witch Council, His Eminence H. P. Lovecraft?”