The Cursed Extra: Twin Souls Against the World

Xenor placed two books on the table and said, "Now it's time for you to decide what path of summoning you want to pursue."

Xane looked at the titles of both books. The one on the left was about total summoning, while the one on the right was about half summoning.

Xane did not choose to rush and instead asked, "Teacher, what is the difference between the two?"

Expecting such a question, Xenor explained, "At the base level, both these methods involve summoning creatures from the world you had left a mark on."

"It's just that, in the total summoning, your focus would be more about summoning one powerful creature. While in half-summoning, your focus is more on summoning multiple small creatures."

Xane tilted his head in confusion and asked, "Hex master, can't we do both?"

Xenor shook his head and picked out a paper from the side and drew a circle in the center. "Imagine this here is the mark. Now, there are two ways we could use this mark. First is we could convert this mark into a gate."

Xenor pointed to the book on the left. "This conversion of the mark into a gate is suitable for total summoning. The big advantage of the gate is that it allows massive energy transfer. Though the downside is that the pressure on this gate is too much. A hex master has to be very careful whenever they open the gate."

"Also, there is a possibility that sometimes the creature you summon from this gate would be beyond the hex master's control, and in that case, it could lead to the hex master's demise."

Xane rubbed his chin and asked, "In this method, does a hex master open the gate to summon their big summon?"

Xenor nodded with a smile. "Yup. For total summoning, a hex master's power is interlinked with their main summon. That is why they used this method to call out more powerful summoning."

Xane pointed to the right book. "What about the half-summoning?"

This time, the hex master moved to the bottom half of the paper and drew a long line with two different circles on both ends. "Imagine the small circle as the hex master, while the bigger one is the small world."

"What's in between them is a small path, or some hex masters even like to call it a link, from which energy could travel from the small world to the hex master."

Xenor pointed to the line and then at the big circle on the top half of the paper. "Unlike the total summoning, here we convert the mark into this small link. Now, unlike the gate, this small link won't allow you to pull out a massive amount of energy. But this link is much more stable and much easier to use."

Zayn said in realization. [Oh, so that's the reason. This link is the same as the one in Liam's case. Though the default state of the link is opposite here.]

Xane asked in confusion. <What do you mean by default state?>

[Xane, I read in the novel that the link between Liam and the other world always remained open. While in our case, this link will only be active when you use hex art.]

Xane suddenly asked in confusion. <Wait, did that mean all the creatures–> Xane paused halfway because he remembered Zayn had told him Liam was connected to the desolate, empty world.

It must be because of his protagonist's luck.

Xane then stared back at the drawing, and another question arose in his mind as he asked Xenor this time, "Teacher, can't we just slightly open the gate in total summoning? Won't that way we could control the rate at which energy comes to us?"

Xenor shook his head. "Nope, the pressure of the energy is just too much. The moment any crack appears on the gate, your mark would not be able to sustain it and might explode."

Xenor paused for a bit and scribbled before the big circle. "There were some hex masters that actually developed these suction hex arts that allowed them to pull more energy out of the gate slowly. Though that increased the risk, if successful, the reward was equally good."

Xane raised his eyebrow as he really found the way to summon interesting.

This was the first time he got to learn the hidden mechanisms of different hex arts. From what Xenor had told him so far, it was clear that hex art was more like a combination of magic and science that had its own set of rules.

It was not some jargon where you just read a spell, and it happened automatically.

Xane looked up and asked Xenor, "What about you, teacher? What's the specialty of your use of half-summoning?"

Xenor smiled at him. "So you are choosing the half-summoning right?"

Xane tilted his head up in confusion.

He knew from the very first day he had made clear to Xenor that he wanted to learn his method.

At first, he thought Xenor was just casually mentioning total summoning, but it looked like he truly could choose the other path if he wanted.

Zayn said in his mind. [It must be related to the academy. I believe hex masters have to provide all options to their students.]

Xane paused for a bit as he thought about the academy structure. Now that he thought about it, it was really bizarre that the academy provided both the combined class system and the one-on-one mentor system.

Zayn reminded him. [We have to choose half-summoning to replicate Liam.]

Xane mentally shook his head, stopped thinking too much, and nodded to Xenor. "Yes, hex master, I choose half summoning."

Xenor clapped his hands in excitement. "Good." With that, he just picked up the total summoning book and slid the half-summoning book toward Xane.

The moment Xane touched the book, he saw his metal ID that was still on the table start flashing a blue light.

Not only that, even the hex master Xenor's big metal plate also started flashing red as a mechanical voice came from it.

{Student Viyron Zenaris has selected the path of half-summoning under hex master Xenor.}

Xane just looked at the hex master ID with interest.