Arcane Academy: The Divine Extraction Legacy

"That's easy… Just hold this stone while performing the ritual. You should've learned of this in your class with Professor Shirley… It's called Oardic Prayer Stone and as you can guess, it can only activate if you're using Oardic in your chant. You don't have to use your voice and simply speak in your mind to complete the ritual… I've also prepared a few things in the other box to help you with your ritual." Professor Stella explained as she showed a gray stone that seems to be an unpolished silver in front of the class.

She prepared 30 of them so everyone can try and summon one all at the same time.

On the other hand, Vale was actually feeling worried.

If one of his classmates summoned a dangerous spirit because of inexperience, mistake, or deliberate action, they might find themselves in a precarious situation.

He felt that Professor Stella was taking this test too lightly.

Luckily, Vale's concern was resolved by the student assistants.

"These two assistants I've brought are seventh-year students of Rituals Branch. They're Stacy Hunter and Cliff Enright. With their presence, all the Spirit that you've summoned will be under their special Dark Spell. They're the ones who will judge whether what you've summoned is a friendly foreign spirit or not…"

Vale finally accepted this explanation.

He may not know what Dark Spell they'll use but since they were both studying under the Rituals Branch, then it can be said that they're "experts" in this matter.

Soon, Neil was called out to start his attempt.

Although the Prayer Stones were handed to everyone in the class, they didn't make any attempts and watched Neil's performance.

Neil stood proud as he felt that this is his chance to gain more fame. Perhaps, he can tell Jody to write it in the next publication.

He stepped in front of the class and turned to the boxes that the assistants had brought.

There were plenty of materials here which they also studied in the Elementary Spirit Law class. These items were meant to be used in rituals that had a strong attraction to various types of Spirits.

Neil found some praying oils, paper talismans, incense, candles, prayer beads, and other items that can be used to perform a Spirit Summoning Ritual.

After some thought, he decided to light incense sticks instead. He then took three incense sticks, a matchbox, and a small pot of sand that was included in the box.

He then returned to his seat to start his ritual on his table.

Without any hesitation, Neil lit up the incense sticks…

As soon as he saw the calming smoke coming out of it, he held his Prayer Stone and closed his eyes…

He started praying under everyone's watchful eyes.

Vale looked curiously at Neil's performance.

He was curious about what kind of living spirit will Neil summon. After all, this isn't just a simple spirit. It is a Foreign Spirit!

It means that this spirit isn't from humans like them but from the Spirit World! Any living spirit that originates in that place is relatively strong once summoned.

None of them are considered weak by their standards…

Whooshh~

Suddenly, the room's temperature started going down as Neil's eyes turned to the smoke coming out of the incense sticks. It feels as if Neil had succeeded to summon a spirit…

Everyone entered their Phantasm State to ensure that they didn't miss anything.

Although they should be able to see the Spirit with their eyes in this matter, entering the Phantasm State would allow them to have a better assessment of the situation.

Unfortunately, after waiting for over a minute the temperature started returning to normal and nothing happened.

Neil was speechless as he can't believe that he just failed! No, he should've succeeded, he was sure that the gates of the Spirit World were opened. There should've been a Spirit that came out of it!

'Did someone stop my summoned spirit from coming out?' Neil frowned as he thought of this idea.

He glanced at the two Student Assistants if they were the perpetrator.

Stacy wryly smiled at him and answered while leaning on the wall close to the door.

"You seem confused about what happened. I won't comment a lot about this or point out your mistakes since this is part of your assessment. All I can say is that you terribly failed. You can try once more after assessing yourself. We don't have unlimited materials here."

Cliff also found this opportunity to warn the others.

"Stacy is right… We don't have unlimited materials. However, this should be enough for you to do 5 or 6 attempts each. We're hoping that you'll think carefully about your mistakes every time you failed. This is not a race. Everyone only needed to pass and you should all have the ability to pass since you're just applying what you've learned."

'That's easy for you to say…' Neil retorted in his mind as he pinched the incense sticks to stop the smoke from coming out.

On the other hand, Vale was also thinking about Neil's mistake.

He seem to have really summoned the Spirit World's gate since the temperature suddenly turned low for a few moments. Unfortunately, it failed because of unknown reasons.

'If he made a mistake in his prayer, the gate of the Spirit World wouldn't react at all… Is there something missing?' Vale mused.

As Professor Stella allowed the class the take any materials they needed from the boxes, Vale remained seated and started formulating his Oardic Ritual Prayer first.

After 10 minutes of preparation, Vale noticed that his classmates have started their ritual on their tables. Some of them were already scratching their heads as they realized that it wasn't as easy as they thought.

'I hope my theory is right…' Vale prayed in his mind as he looked at the two boxes brought by Professor Harwin.

He was the only one left who hadn't taken any ritual materials yet but there are still plenty of things here.

He found a bottle containing bone powder. Its origin wasn't indicated but Vale knows that it's from a human bone.

He didn't take anything else and returned to his seat.

All of this happened under Professor Stella Harwin's curious gaze.