Rebirth Of The Bastard Spirit Summoner

"Little streams of water, slow, gentle but purposeful… they flow in jagged patterns, and although they seem aimless at first, they eventually converge."

"The little trickles form a river, and yet they do not stop at such meagre strength, they continue. Endlessly chasing their goal. It does not matter for how long they flow, what matters is their drive."

"Eventually, even the mighty rivers meet…"

The old man stroked his impressively long beard, his aged eyes overflowing with wisdom.

"And they form an ocean…"

He glanced to his left where two people were staring at him blankly. One, a boy with dark grey hair and eyes that resembled the clouds during a storm, and the second with brown skin and silver eyes overflowing with contempt.

"Join me on the path to cultivation, younglings. In a millio—err—uhum—in a thousand years, you would have reached the realm of demons and lords."

Stark glanced at the old man and sighed deeply. "Dude, all I'm asking for is directions…"

The old man frowned and pouted, crossing his ghostly arms and looking the other way.

Stark let out a tired sigh. It had been like this for the last few weeks…

They had left Sandhill a few weeks back and were now in a small town at the border between the southwest and the northeastern region of Crescentia—the region the imperial academy was built.

He had come to this city to grind essence points so that he could ascend to the next realm of strength, but any time he crossed the bridge, the old spirit would always invite him to be his student…

First, he started with an offer of a million years of discipleship; now he had dropped it to a thousand.

"Come on, dude, you must have seen the monster we are looking for," Stark said, lifting a poster to the man's face.

It was a guild request he had gotten from the adventurer's guild. Drawn on the yellowed paper was the image of a large creature with spiky fur, large eyes, and interlocking teeth.

And below the creature was the bounty—100 silver coins.

He was grinding levels, but that didn't mean he couldn't get richer in the process…

The old man's eyes were closed, but when he heard the sound of the paper, he slowly opened one eye and glanced at it.

"A Snow Mimic… I know how to find it."

Jade sighed from behind him as though she knew what he was going to say next.

"But it's not going to be free."

Stark rolled up the paper and kept it in his side pouch. "Is that so." He could already predict what the old man was going to ask…

"So what is your request?"

The man smiled cunningly and stroked his beard before turning to Stark. "Fight me."

"What?"

"We shall form a contract. Fight me in seven moons' time. If I win, you become my student, and if I lose, I will join your collection of spirits and help you track the beast."

Stark frowned. The way spirits could almost always tell he was a medium was beginning to get on his nerves.

Somehow, whenever they made a request, it always came up.

But apart from that, his eyes sparkled with greed. It was a tempting offer… one far too juicy to refuse.

Yet it was pure folly. What were the chances he could beat a possibly thousand-year-old sage?

The old man smirked before speaking. "You don't have to worry about beating me, just land one hit and you win. I'll even throw in an extra bonus. I will not teach you for a thousand years like earlier…"

"Just three months…"

With that being said, there was no other option but to accept. But as he shook the man's hand, sealing their contract, Stark heard a light chuckle from behind him.

Jade was laughing, her hands over her mouth to restrain herself.

"What is so funny?"

She looked to the side and laughed a little more. "It's just funny that you think you can land a hit on an Arcane spirit."

"Wait, what?!"

Stark quickly recalled the rankings of spirits Jade had told him a few days back, counting his fingers as he did.

"Basic, Advanced, Great, Tyrant…" Stark's eyes widened. "…Arcane and Legendary!"

"You knew this and allowed me to form a contract with such a beast?!"

Forget landing a hit, he could very well die in their fight.

"I thought it would be a fun match to see." She began walking forward and then glanced at him. "Let's get going, we aren't going to find the monster at this time."

Stark turned to look at the old man, but he had vanished into thin air.

'I have been scammed!'

•••

Stark sat opposite Jade in the adventurers' guild's restaurant, glaring at her as she glanced at the menu.

It was not like she was going to order anything different…

After leaving Sandhill, there was a certain food she started eating for the first time, a hard rocky fruit that almost no one ordered. Although she could not taste it, she said she liked the texture.

Without looking at him, she then said, "How long do you plan on glaring? You're going to have a wrinkly forehead."

Before Stark could respond, a woman walked up to them, smiling as she dropped two large mugs of juice on their table.

Her green hair was tucked neatly behind her ears, and her eyebrows rose slightly when she noticed Stark's mood.

As she slid into the chair beside him, her fox ears twitched, adjusting to the sound of the chattering adventurers.

She was their guild representative, the person responsible for handling all their paperwork and commissions for quests.

"Did something happen?"

Jade chuckled lightly, muttering something only she could hear. "Nothing serious, Diane, he's just grumpy because he lost a bet."

"I haven't lost yet."

"Heh? Is that so…" she snickered.

The woman scratched her hair, her eyebrows knitted together. "You two always confuse me. Have you found the monster yet?"

Stark finally stopped glaring at her and leaned back on his chair. "Not yet, but we found more traces today."

She nodded. "Then there might be someone here that might interest you. Apparently, he is an expert—a Crusader ranked knight from the academy."