The Author's Draft

Chapter 94 - 13: A Classless Summoner

"Number Three."

Another failure.

The pattern continued. Numbers Four through Fifteen were called one by one. Most touched the stone and got no reaction whatsoever, walking away to register as ordinary. A few did awaken, the stone glowing faintly for E-rank and F-rank abilities. Minor fire manipulation that couldn’t even produce a proper flame. Enhanced hearing with no other combat applications. Weak telekinesis that might lift a book if you concentrated hard enough.

Nothing spectacular. Nothing that would make the Hunter Association or any guild take particular notice.

Then Examiner Willis looked at his tablet and called out, "Number Sixteen."

Callum stood up, his legs feeling weak beneath him. He forced himself to walk forward, hyperaware of every eye in the room tracking his movement. The platform steps seemed steeper than they’d looked from his seat. He grabbed the railing and climbed carefully, not trusting his balance right now.

The awakening stone loomed in front of him, its dark crystal surface covered in runes he didn’t understand. Up close, it was even more imposing, radiating a subtle spiritual pressure that made his skin prickle.

Examiner Willis gave him an encouraging nod, his expression softening slightly. "Place both hands on the stone. Close your eyes if it helps you focus inward. If you have a mana core, the stone will react to it and measure your awakening."

Callum pressed his palms against the crystal surface. It was cold, much colder than he’d expected, the temperature shocking against his skin. He closed his eyes and tried to focus inward like the examiner had said, though he had no idea what he was supposed to be focusing on.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then warmth spread from the stone into his hands.

It wasn’t painful or uncomfortable. More like warm water flowing into him, filling empty spaces inside his body that he’d never known existed. The sensation traveled up his arms in steady waves, moved into his chest, and pooled somewhere deep in his center.

His mana core.

Light burst from the awakening stone.

Callum’s eyes snapped open in shock. The runes covering the crystal’s surface were glowing brilliant white, pulsing in perfect rhythm with his heartbeat. Energy crackled around the stone like visible electricity, sending small sparks dancing across its surface.

He’d awakened.

Relief and excitement flooded through him in equal measure. He wasn’t going to be ordinary. He’d have powers, abilities, a chance to actually contribute when the war started instead of just hiding and hoping to survive.

Examiner Willis stepped forward, his bored expression replaced with professional interest. A holographic display materialized above the awakening stone, showing various readings and classifications in glowing text.

The examiner read the display aloud. "Class: Summoner."

Then he paused, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. He leaned closer to the hologram, squinting at it like the text might change if he looked hard enough.

"Rank: Unknown. No reading detected."

He looked at Callum, then back at the display, then at Callum again. "That’s... odd. The stone clearly detected your awakening and identified your class, but there’s no rank showing. Is the equipment malfunctioning?"

Callum stared at the holographic display, his excitement curdling into nervous confusion. The stone was still glowing, still showing him as awakened with Summoner class clearly identified in bright letters. But where the rank should have been displayed—F, E, D, C, whatever he’d gotten—there was just blank space. Or maybe question marks flickering in and out like the system couldn’t decide what to show.

Examiner Willis frowned and waved his hand through the hologram, dismissing it. "Touch the stone again. Let’s run a second reading, see if that clears up the error."

Callum placed his hands back on the crystal surface, his heart pounding for entirely different reasons now. Had something gone wrong with his awakening? Was his mana core defective somehow? Could you even have a defective awakening?

The stone glowed again, the same brilliant white light, the same pulsing rhythm matching his heartbeat.

The holographic display reappeared.

CLASS: SUMMONER

RANK: ???

Exactly the same result. The class was crystal clear, but the rank field showed nothing but question marks that flickered like a broken display.

Examiner Willis stared at the reading for a long moment, his expression cycling through confusion, frustration, and finally resigned acceptance. He’d clearly never encountered this before. Every awakening had a rank. Always. Even the weakest F-rank garbage abilities still registered as F-rank on the stone.

But this? This was unprecedented.

Finally, he made a decision and gestured for Callum to step back from the stone. "Alright, go ahead and proceed to registration. You’ve clearly awakened, the stone confirmed it and identified your class as Summoner. The rank reading must be some kind of technical issue with the equipment."

He tapped something on his tablet, making notes. "They’ll sort it out during the registration process. Probably need to run diagnostics on this stone after we finish the ceremony anyway."

Callum nodded, still confused and more than a little worried but relieved he wasn’t being failed or sent away. "Okay. Thank you."

He stepped down from the platform carefully, his legs still a bit unsteady. As he walked toward the registration area in the corner of the chamber, he could feel everyone’s eyes on him. The other teenagers were whispering to each other, pointing, clearly talking about what had just happened.

Behind him, Examiner Willis stood beside the awakening stone, staring at it with an expression somewhere between annoyance and complete bafflement, like the equipment had personally insulted him by refusing to work properly for the first time in his career.

Callum reached the registration desk where a woman in her thirties sat with a laptop and a stack of forms. She looked up as he approached, her professional smile already in place.

"Congratulations on awakening," she said warmly. "Name?"

"Callum Jus."

She typed it into her system, then glanced at a separate screen that presumably showed the results from the awakening stone. Her smile faltered slightly.

"Your class registered as Summoner, but there’s no rank showing in the system." She looked at him with the same confused expression the examiner had worn. "That’s unusual. Let me check if there’s an error code or—"

"The examiner said it might be a technical issue with the equipment," Callum offered, trying to be helpful.

The woman hummed thoughtfully and typed a few more things. "Well, I’ll file it as pending rank classification. You’ll still receive your hunter license and documentation."

She pulled out a form and started filling it in by hand, her pen scratching across the paper as she wrote. "Now, regarding training and preparation. All newly awakened hunters will be assigned to temporary guild facilities for the next two days before the barriers fall. The guilds will provide equipment, basic combat training, and orientation on dungeon procedures."

Callum’s eyes widened. "Two days? That’s all?"

"It’s an emergency situation," she said, her tone sympathetic but matter-of-fact. "Under normal circumstances, you’d have weeks or months of training before deployment. But with the invasion coming in sixty-one hours, we’re working with what we have."

She continued filling out the form. "You’ll be contacted within the next few hours with your assignment location. The guild will provide everything you need—weapons, armor, food, accommodation. Just bring yourself and any personal items you can’t live without for forty-eight hours."

"What guild will I be assigned to?" Callum asked.

"That depends on your class and rank. Since your rank is still pending classification, you’ll probably be assigned to whichever guild has capacity for Summoner-class hunters and is willing to work with your unique situation." She finished the form and slid it across the desk for him to sign. "Sign here, here, and here."

Callum signed where indicated, his hand shaking slightly.

The woman took the form back and filed it efficiently. "Your license will be ready in about five minutes. Wait over there." She pointed to a seating area near the wall. "Congratulations, Mr. Jus. Welcome to the awakened."

Callum nodded and moved aside to wait, finding a spot against the wall where he could watch the rest of the ceremony continue. Behind him, he could hear Examiner Willis calling Number Seventeen, the process moving forward like nothing unusual had just happened.

But Callum knew better. Something was different about his awakening. The stone had reacted strongly enough to confirm he’d awakened, had identified his class without any problem, but completely failed to measure his rank.

He looked down at his hands, wondering what exactly he’d just become.

[61:42:15... 61:42:14... 61:42:13...]

Less than sixty-two hours until the barriers fell.

And Callum had just awakened as a Summoner with an unknown rank.