Author's Rant:

Thank you all for bearing with me in this rewriting, it is almost done. I have about 50 more pages to work on and it should be done before the end of this week (unless my moustrap car needs some changes to be made to it). Just a little bit more guys and we can start learning new things that will happen to Zed.

I've also come to the conclusion of expanding the life of this story. It was actually made to end sometime after the Civil War Arc which was after the Tournament Arc and was made to be 50% of the actual story. Now it expanded a lot more and it has reached to become 5 books? volumes? Each one will feature one Realm and Zed's adventures there. Currently:

Book, Volume, Codex? 1 - Mortal or Sentient Realm?

Book, Volume, Codex? 2 - Realm of Summons

Book, Volume, Codex? 3 - Elemental Realm?

Book, Volume, Codex? 4 - Spirit, Demon Realm?

Book, Volume, Codex? 5 - Realm of Gods

The ones with question marks need decisions on what it can be called. Those are tentative names but if anyone has any suggestion please feel free to tell me.

Thank you for bearing with my rant, now on to the story!

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Waking up early the next day, I continued my training of changing my mana orb into all the affinities. Before heading to breakfast I was able to bring it down to half a minute.

Again, I ignored class and did my own training in hiding and was able to only get down to twenty seconds before lunch started.

We ate lunch with Sasha and she told us about a boy in her class who wanted to meet us. We said that we will meet him and then went separate ways to our next classes.

Alex and I continued strengthening our muscles while the others were doing what Ralph had them do. The day was very uneventful and Alex and I walked back to our mansion, took a bath and continued our training.

As we were eating dinner, I asked Alex, “Can you teach me how to use a sword?”

“I can’t but there’s an instructor who’s going to come and teach me how to next week. I’ve studied with him before and he will gladly teach you too.”

I nodded, looking forward to learning how to use a sword next week.

After dinner, we continued training and I was able to reduce the mana shifting time to five seconds.

Elated, I told Malakir and he told me to do the same with two orbs. Trying to manage the shifting sometimes ended with the magic almost going out of hand but Malakir stopped it just in time.

Alex still couldn’t feel the mana around him but he said that he felt something, he just wasn’t sure of what it was. I told him that it might have been the mana and told him to focus on it once he felt it again.

Alex stayed up till midnight like I did as he wanted to feel it once more but he wasn’t able to make much progress.

I, on the other hand, was able to progress a bit.

The shifting I was able to do with two orbs but it took me forty minutes to go through one set. Although if I concentrated only on the task it would’ve taken twenty minutes. I was also able to improve the number of orbs that I can disperse at a time. I went from twenty five to thirty.

I then went to sleep seeing as it was past midnight and needed to rest for the next day.

After going through the usual morning, Alex and I were at our summoning class again.

“You all did wonderful the past couple of days. Today will be the last one before I actually teach you anything. If you complete it, you will have received your rank of acolyte,” said Ralph as he came to us.

I was unable to realize it earlier but there was a significantly less number of us than usual. We started out with 100 but now there were only 7 of us left.

“Everyone come over here and we can begin,” he said standing next to the orb.

Everyone went closer to him and we all stood around the orb. I stood to the left of Ralph and Alex stood next to me while Nathaniel stood to the right of Ralph.

“We will now travel to the Realm of Summons. This place will allow you to meet your fated companion the easiest. This will be the easiest thing that I will give you so be thankful for that.”

We were all excited, Malakir never told me anything about the Realm of Summons so I was very excited to be able to go there.

“Place your hands on the orb and we will enter their realm.”

We did as we were told placing our hands on the orb and when Ralph placed his hands on top of ours it felt like I was being pulled into the orb and my surroundings dimmed.

After a while, our surroundings became brighter and no longer were we in the clearing.

We were now in a ruined building. The roof was collapsed and we could see a red sky above us. The stone walls around us looked like they were cleaved roughly, leaving large gaps that led to the outside.

“Go out and take a look around the place. There is no danger here but make sure that you all are separated, your summons are beings you should meet by yourselves,” said Ralph as he sat down on the collapsed roof.

Alex and the rest went to different directions leaving me with Ralph in the room. “Why aren’t you going outside?” he asked.“Because I already have mine, Malakir show yourself.”Malakir did and it surprised Ralph.

“A codex, you have a rare one Zed. Well even though you already have one it might be a good idea to go outside and see the realm. You won’t be able to come back here any time soon and you might see a creature you want to bind.”

I nodded and left the building.

Outside it was a strange place. The sky was red and there were two suns in this realm. The trees looked strange under the red sky. Their leaves were a bright red color and the branches and trunk were mahogany. There were no shadows in that realm which made things more eerie.

I started walking with no set destination thinking that I could just stroll around and come back when I’m done.

As I was walking, I noticed that there was no wind. It was as if the wind truly died. There were two suns but it was neither hot nor cold. The earth I walked on seemed to be crushed as I walked along it.

It’s as if everything was dead, I thought.

After walking a while I soon reached a lake. The lake was still and I couldn’t see anything inside it. Across the lake was a waterfall but surprisingly there was no sound and mist. The water looked like it was a part of the still lake as if frozen in time.

“Malakir what’s going on?”

“We are in the Woods of Time master. Here time is either still, slow, or quick. Nothing lives in still time yet everything also lives in here.”

“You’re confusing me.”

“Right now time is still for the woods. You can say that everything here is dead but you can also say everything is alive because this is merely a stop in their flow of life.”

“So we’re in a paradox right now, where everything is both alive and dead. Does that include us?”

“No, only the woods itself is affected by the changes.”

I nodded and continued walking. I climbed up the cliff next to the waterfall and saw a cave where the water was coming from.

I entered the cave and Malakir cast a lighting spell, illuminating the area in front of me. The water came from further in and I followed it. I felt drawn to whatever was in front of me.

There were stalactites and stalagmites all around me. Every now and then there was also a glint of a gem lodged within the walls of the cave but I ignored it and continued walking.

Soon enough the cave opened up and I was greeted by a giant sloping chamber. The chamber glowed blue with the light from Malakir’s spell. The stalagmites and stalactites in here glowed in a red color almost like blood. On the walls were green mushroom-looking plants with flowers above them.

The flowers ranged from tall to short and had many different colors. Each petal was different in color. One of them had enough petals that I thought every color in existence was on it.

The scene was breathtaking but what was even more breathtaking was what was in the middle. It was a small rocky plateau and on top of it was a giant white golem. The room sloped downwards so I was able to see every detail of the golem.

It looked like it could stand five meters tall if it stood up but as of now it was sitting down. Its head was semicircular in shape having no neck. There was only one eye and it was dim and no ears, mouth, or nose could be seen. Its body was armored and there was a watch on where the heart would be. Its arms laid down on the ground. They were also looked like they were armored and two swords were laying beside the hands. On his shoulders were small spikes that jutted outwards. Its legs were also armored while its feet looked more like boots instead.

“What is it?” I asked Malakir.

“A timekeeper. Master these creatures are also summons but they can only be subdued. Combat is not how you subdue them but rather the trick is to make them come to life. I will not tell you how as you yourself need to be able to find out how to do it in order to subdue it and make it one of your summons.”

I nodded and ran up to where the golem was. Looking at it from up close, I could tell that if it stood up it would be very intimidating.

I began searching for something that would activate the golem. Turning things that I thought would turn. Pressed things that looked like they were buttons. I even tried tapping the clock to see if it would do anything.

I worked looking for a way to make it move and I didn’t even realize how long I have been working. Probably no time at all since time was still but I wasn’t so sure since I was moving.

Right when I was about to give up I noticed a hole. I peered through it and thought that I saw something that looked like its core. It was hard to tell as the hole was only two inches in diameter but it looked like a blue octagonal crystal.

When I moved my head away, the hole wasn’t much of a hole because it was also shaped like an octagon. I searched for something that might fit it and I found it under a pile of rocks that I had made from searching earlier.

It was blue in the inside but it was white on the outside.

The blue part is most definitely inserted, I thought.

I was trying to figure out what would happen if I inserted this as couldn’t see any way of being able to remove it later if nothing happened. Suddenly, I remembered that when I summoned Malakir that I injected my own mana into him making him become something else entirely.

I injected a generous amount of my own mana onto what I found and inserted it onto its spot. Immediately, the area around it changed color into black and it spread outwards covering the golem in half a minute.

Thinking that it was the same as it was with Malakir I said, “I name you, timekeeper, Chronos , may you serve me well.”

“Yes... master...” said a voice that sounded like it hasn’t been used in ages.

The golem’s eye suddenly revealed a red light and it stood up holding its swords.

“I... Chronos... shall serve... this master... till... the end... of time... My... powers... are... at your... command...” said the golem bowing down as it slowly glowed a black light and became a small black orb that flew within me.

“Congratulations master, you are now an adept!” I was shocked at this and took a look at my stats.

Status

Name:Zed RigelRank:AdeptAge:5Race:HumanGender:MaleNationality:Rigel Kingdom

“So having another summon increases my rank?”

“Your powers are considered summoning so the only way for you to increase your rank is to have more summons at your disposal.”

“So an Acolyte ranked summoner can equal a God-ranked Fire mage?” I asked.

“Yes. The ranks are just a general way of understanding another mage’s power, it does not guarantee that person’s level of strength at all.”

“How do I summon Chronos?”“Just call out to him and he will come.”I nodded and asked, “Is there a way to see how many I can summon?”

“Simple, just say ‘summons’ and hold out your ring. It works the same way as status.” I did that and saw my summon screen.

Summons

Name:MalakirRace:Codex of MagicName:ChronosRace:Timekeeper

I was shocked that something like this existed. I should probably start investigating this, I keep on putting it off, I thought thinking of what other things I could see a screen of.

After seeing that I could see a screen of my summons, I exited the cave. Outside, it looked like time was back as I could hear the waterfall and see the mist. The wind was blowing again and it seemed less eerie as the sky was still red.

I walked back to the ruined building and I saw that I was the only one everyone was waiting for.

“Took you long enough,” said Nathaniel.“Alright now that Zed is here we can go back,” said Ralph.

“Place your hands on the orb everyone and when we get back you have to show us what your summon is if you got one.”

We did as he said and again the same feeling of being dragged into the orb was felt. Soon enough we were back at the clearing and Ralph said, “alright Alex you come up here and show us what you got.”

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