Adam Bailey was not having a good evening.

The last few days had been great. Utterly exhausting, but great, amazing, awesome, and every other synonym for good he couldn’t currently think of.

Becoming a professor, gaining his own research team, getting to investigate the scientific mystery of the century, if not the millennium … all amazing. He’d even written a paper in what felt like record time, a paper that would almost certainly become very impactful when it came to making plans surrounding summoning in the future.

He’d been tired, but it had been the good kind of tired, the kind that let you know you’d been working hard and achieved something. At least that was how it had been right up until this moment.

Now, however … blech. He hadn’t become a member of academia because he liked fielding late night emergency calls.

But some utter dumbass had decided to summon a powerful monster right next to campus, in the middle of a frat party no less, and both the police and university higher ups had decided that the situation needed the attention of the closest thing to an expert the world had produced thus far. Hence, he was driving towards a frat house at three in the morning, a stomachache forming from downing the monster energy drink he always kept in his fridge for emergencies such as this.

It would have been rather obvious where the problem had occurred even if he hadn’t had the address. The blue lights were flashing atop police cars while barriers and tape were blocking off a large area surrounding the frat house. A large fire engine was also present for some reason, making Bailey wince. Had there been a fire too, or had the summoned monster been some kind of fire spirit? He certainly didn’t know, he hadn’t been told anything beyond ‘get your ass over there right this instant’.

There were also a pair of ambulances there, their own lights not flashing. Given that they weren’t driving off, there clearly weren’t any emergencies still happening.

“Excuse me, Sir, this is an active crime scene.” someone stepped up to Bailey’s car window and rapped on it.

He just rolled it down carefully, not making any hurried motions, stuck his head out.

“I’m Professor Adam Bailey from the local university, I was asked to come here.”

Instead of answering him, the cop just reached up for his radio and asked for confirmation, then finally turned to Bailey “Can I see some ID?”

“Here you go.” Bailey handed over his basic ID card.

“This just has your name on it, can I see something official from the university?” the cop asked.

“I don’t carry my letter of accreditation in my wallet, sorry. But you could always just look me up on the university website?” Bailey suggested, sighing internally. Yes, being cautious and bureaucracy were both important, but that didn’t mean he liked having either shoved in his face.

“… checks out. I’ll just call someone over real quick.” the officer told him, voice a little smaller than it had been.

As the young man scampered off, Bailey shut off his car and got out, looking around. A faint scent of smoke and burnt steak. Something had clearly happened to require the fire brigade, though it didn’t seem like whatever had caught fire had been a person. At least that’s what decades of hearing burning human flesh described as ‘burning pork’ led him to believe. God, he hoped that no one had gotten burned.

“Professor Bailey?” an older woman was walking towards him, wearing a wrinkled uniform that spoke of something being put on in a hurry “Polizeirätin Eisenberg, currently in charge of this … situation.”

“Yes, nice to meet you, though I wish it had been under better circumstances.” Bailey nodded, then shook her hand. He wasn’t entirely sure just how highly ranked she was, but given that her title roughly translated to ‘police council member’, he guessed pretty high.

“Likewise. How much do you know of the current situation?” she asked.

“Not much. All anyone told me was that a monster had gotten summoned during a frat party and that I was wanted there, then the university called me like two minutes later and told me basically the same thing.” he explained.

“Alright, that is basically correct, but we’ve actually found out some more information. The summoner appears to have been a highly inebriated individual who overheard one of the more influential members of the fraternity talking about how stupid summoning drunk was and decided to take that as a personal challenge. When he actually saw the circle glow after he finished charging it, he got scared and decided to pretend nothing had happened, but then someone else noticed and warned everyone. He was, according to his statement, willing to just let it lie there until it went away but then one of the people who showed up looked like he knew what he was doing, so the summoner decided to go through with things.” she explained.

“Wait, you caught the guy? That’s great! How?” Bailey exclaimed. Getting someone this criminally stupid off away from anywhere he might inflict significant damage could only be a good thing.

“It was pointed out to us that monsters are able to locate their summoner, always. Apparently, that was also announced before the monster actually appeared so people had already thought about that by the time we asked about it. This being said, a bunch of drunk university students aren’t the best source of information and there were a lot of false accusations, but one of my patrol officers has a [Skill] to check mana levels and there was only one person with basically no mana who hadn’t also been involved in the fighting.” she explained.

“And you’re sure those people aren’t the ones responsible?” Bailey asked.

“Pretty sure. The man confessed practically immediately and of the two who fought, one has an alibi and the other ended up in the hospital with some pretty serious injuries. He still could have been responsible, but it’s unlikely, especially given how much he seemed to know about monsters and how bad of an idea this was.” Eisenberg told him “And here we are, one dead monster.”

“Just for the record, summoning circles do not go away over time. They remain active until used and if the summoner gets too far away, they trigger automatically. If someone charges a circle, you need to keep them close enough to not trigger the automatic activation and get as much heavy ordinance as is needed to deal with the monster. If a circle gets charged, you need to deal with it the hard way.” Bailey said grimly, looking over the charred corpse “Do you know what Tier the circle is?”

“Tier 4.” Eisenberg replied.

“In that case, I’m really glad you caught the guy. How did you hear about the paper about how monsters can track their summoner?” Bailley asked.

“The young man who went to the hospital told us. How about you, I hear it was released only a few hours ago?” Eisenberg asked.

“I wrote it.” Bailey grinned despite the situation, then went pale as he put two and two together.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“A friend of mine said he was going to go to a frat party tonight and he helped me write that paper. His name wouldn’t happen to have been Isaac Thoma, would it?” Bailey asked.

“Er, …” she pulled out a sketchpad from a pocket “Yes.”

“If you’ll excuse me, I have a phone call to make. I’ll get to the monster in a second.” Bailey said, pulling out his cellphone and dialing Isaac’s number.

It rang once, twice and he was starting to get worried, even though it was entirely possible Isaac was just asleep.

“What’s wrong?” came a serious voice from the other end, though it indisputably belonged to Isaac.

“Nothing. There was a monster summoned to a frat party and someone ended up in the hospital. I was afraid it was you from the description.” Bailey sighed in relief. It didn’t sound like Isaac was hu- …

“Oh, it was. I have a Regeneration [Skill]. I’m fine.” Isaac told him.

“You got sent to the hospital, though.” Bailey cautioned him.

“I got sent in here by a pushy cop who thought I’d drop dead otherwise and anything that got me out of going to the hospital would have probably landed me in jail instead. Right now, I’m being held overnight for observation, which seems to really mean ‘You’re physically fine, but I don’t trust this [System] malarky’. I’ve been told I can leave in a few hours and if they decide to change their minds on that, I’ll just walk out through the wall, it’s that simple.” Isaac grumped.

“Why don’t you just sign one of those ‘against medical advice’ forms they have, or whatever the German equivalent is?” Bailey asked him.

“Apparently, someone who charges a monster, takes possibly lethal internal injuries and then decides to literally escape the hospital would be considered a suicide risk. I’ve gotten threatened with a psychological hold, so I’ve decided to just sleep here in lieu of getting into a fight, either verbal or physical, then go back to work tomorrow. Unless this happens again, it’s just not worth it.” Isaac sounded pretty tired and cranky.

“You know, you don’t have to come in tomorrow, right?” Take the day off, relax, recuperate.” Bailey said.

“Knowing that the circle had a good chance of triggering on its own because the numbskull who created it got too far away saved lives today, Professor. I’m fine, physically healthy and unless you order me to stay home, I’m coming in.” Isaac insisted.

“That sounds great. In that case, don’t bother coming in till noon, I still have to deal with this entire mess and I’ll have to sleep a little to be of any use.” Bailey told him.

“Unless something’s changed, I’d like to do the experiment you authorized me to do yesterday, vis a vie summoning one of every monster up to Tier 2. Also, what’s it looking like over there?” Isaac asked.

“Messy. There’s firetrucks, police, ambulances and … er, German SWAT?” Bailey told him.

“SEK, the Sonder Einsatz Komando. But did anything else happen?” Isaac asked.

“Nope. And feel free to come in tomorrow morning, but only if you want to. Also, be really fucking careful.” Bailey implored.

“Will do, Professor. Aye aye. Have a good night and see you tomorrow. Bye.” Isaac said.

Bailey bade him goodbye in turn and hung up.

“I’m sorry about that, a friend of mine ended up in the hospital.” Bailey apologized to Eisenberg.

“It’s fine, no one could ever fault you for being worried after a mess like that.” she told him.

“Thank yo-“ Bailey’s phone rang “Sorry about that. Professor Bailey here.”

“Hey Professor Bailey, its Professor Bishop. I heard about the incident and I’d like to assist with the necropsy, do you need any help?” the familiar voice of his colleague greeted him.

“I’d like that. I’ll call you once I know when and where.” Bailey said.

“Actually, I’m at the incident, outside the police tape. Can you see me waving?”

Only a couple of minutes later, the other professor met him at the body. It lay there like a block of charcoal, stinking fluids dripping from cracks in its surface.

“So, either of you know what that is?” Eisenberg asked.

“No, but I doubt many people do. This was a Tier 4 creature, something well beyond the power level of most people to handle. Anyone who’s summoned one in the last couple of days probably didn’t survive.” Bailey said “And the sheer damage the fire inflicted makes telling anything from its looks pretty difficult. If possible, I’d like to do a necropsy as soon as possible, for several reasons. We can find out how tough these things are and the internal organs might help identify just what this is.”

“Necropsy?” Eisenberg asked.

“Autopsy for animals.”

“Actually, that’s part of why I asked for your help. We’ll have this body transported to the nearest police morgue in a few minutes.” Eisenberg told him.

“Excellent. I’ll need a few things. A monster that came from a Tier 4 circle is likely to be quite tough, so I might need a lot of cutting power to get through, well, anything. Someone with [Piercing Strike] or an equivalent [Skill] would be great. I’d also like a proper circular saw and a bunch of extra scalpel blades wouldn’t go amiss. Lastly, I’d like Professor Bishop to assist. Is any of that going to be a problem?” Bailey asked.

“No.” Eisenberg said, then called over a younger police officer “Wachtmeister Klebs will help you get everything you need.”

Then she hurried off to yell at two people who were currently arguing about … something, Bailey wasn’t entirely sure what.

“So, this is what happens when a monster gets summoned by someone who can’t handle it?” Bishop commented, looking everything over “By the way, do those dents in the concrete steps look fresh to you?”

Bailey stepped over to them and frowned, seeing there was still concrete dust in the small impressions.

“If those were old, they‘d be clean, washed out, not filled with dust. These are clearly fresh.“ he said, casting a look back at the charred body.

“Well, shit.”

“Well shit indeed.”