A Dual Crest Summoner In Infinite Summoning World

Auren had written down over 180 names. Some had used up their chi, some were not comfortable showing their summon even after Dante and Hanzo convinced them, and some were not present in their house.

A wooden toy, sickle, straw basket, clay pot, wool blanket, rope, whetstone, piece of charcoal, leather pouch, bone needle — truly the most random things possible. When Sable and Granny had told him stories about how the summons were a mirror of one's soul and that the desires and wishes of one often became their summon — not literally, more like a symbol of their true self and such — he knew it was crap when he heard it. Still, some part of him was doubtful, but today it was clear. It was indeed crap. No one had desires and wishes of an old underwear with four holes in it! And that of a man's! That was an abomination of a summon!

Yet the guy who could do it had shown it to them with quite a bit of pride — clothes items, even if such an abomination, were nothing to scoff at. They were always in demand, and traders bought the whole bag full of them from villagers who summoned a few every day and stocked them up. Seventy percent of people in the village earned a little with such a method. Very rarely was there a thing that was of no value. Many were of very low value, but still — in a large amount — anything could be sold.

And then there were some, like Kenzo's mother with her brass pitcher, who could really get enough money from their stocked-up items that they could eat for months without worry. With all people in the world able to stock something or other, traders and dealers were everywhere. Even their village, which barely had anything of value, was often visited by such wanderers every couple of months.

Mercenaries were always with them when a wagon arrived in the village. Animal summoners were mostly either soldiers in some lord's service or did such mercenary work. Some even ended up becoming rogue elements of society — like bandits, thieves, and violent rebels. Not all animal summoners were strong, and not all object summoners were weak. The majority of animal summoners, however, were useful in some jobs required for the army, but weapon-type object summoners were the only ones who could hope to do well in a fight.

Technically, any object could be used as a weapon, but a summoner could not upgrade to the next stage like that — only the natural usage of one's summoned object could help one upgrade. But even that was just a thing people said, not a confirmed fact. Many people used their everyday summoned items for years and were still black crest summoners. And then there were some who could become a blue crest object summoner by the age of 13 or 14.

Only blue crest summoners could hope to earn any money as soldiers and mercenaries. Black crest summoners were treated like the mediocre people they were.

Still, looking at the list, Auren already had a few ideas he could try that could make his life here much more comfortable to live.

"What do you think about today?" Dante asked, as they were walking home.

Hanzo had placed Kenjo on his shoulder, and the kid was quite happy with his high position to look down on Auren — he was too busy reading and re-reading the list to pay any attention to him.

"Good," Auren answered. "There were quite a lot of interesting things."

"Everything we saw was normal, low-value things," Hanzo said from the side.

"On their own, yes — not much useful. But when you have something in high quantity, there are ways to use it in unexpected ways," he replied, not paying much attention to the two men looking down at his head, focused on the single piece of paper full of neat handwriting.

He had been quite careful with his writing — there was no room for error with ink and just one paper.

"Anything about the summoning process?" Dante asked.

Auren thought for a while about how to answer and ended up saying,

"Too many black crest summoners; even though their objects are everyday useful things. Is there any way to tell how close a person is to the next stage?"

When no answer came for a few seconds, Auren looked up and found the two men looking down at him with a weird look in their eyes. Just how many times were they going to be surprised by his unusual nature? But this one didn't look like those times — maybe he said something he shouldn't have.

"Auren, did you hear someone say that?" Dante asked.

"No," he replied honestly.

"Your son makes me feel like I was the dumbest kid alive growing up," Hanzo said from the side.

"Trust me, you are not alone in that," Dante murmured as they continued walking. Then, looking at him, Dante added, "Even some grown-ups don't recognize that fact — they think theirs is just taking longer to master fully. The belief that using the summoned object for the job it was made for upgrades it, is not really a proven theory."

"Oh," Auren said and looked away.

He was always someone who believed his own observations more than some commonly believed information or rumor. After reaching home, Auren spent the whole day staring at the list while thinking of what he could do with it all. Village people were not really busy folks; other than the farmers and a few people with busy jobs, most people had lots of free time on hand. If he could convince Dante and Sable to take him seriously and follow some of his advice — their simple home could become a much better place.

First, he needed to gain their trust and make them see him as someone who could think up good ideas. So Auren started with Sable. He used her clay lamps and repurposed the clay to make a rocket-style clay stove. Well, it was more like him constantly asking her to do it, and she finally listened one day and played along with his antics.