Past Life Hero, ch 42

I'm a little late posting this.  Please forgive me.  

***

Max went to the front door, curious about who it could possibly be. He wasn’t even sure who would be aware that he had just purchased this dorm.  The uncertainty made him extra wary.  Golem guards outside were nice, but he still wasn’t sure exactly how powerful they were.

He opened the door and saw a man who looked very familiar, but it took him a second to jog his memory.  Finally, he realized who the professor standing before him was, right as he also heard Lavinia gasp. Max quickly dipped his head. "Hello, Headmaster, what brings you here?"

"Oh, don't worry about that sort of thing right now, young man," said Mong Hao Han, the Headmaster of Summoner Academy. "This is merely an unofficial social call."

"Oh, well... Please come in," Max said. Mentally, he asked Lavinia, This is really the headmaster, right? There's no way this could be somebody in disguise or something like that?

The ghost girl shook her head, her eyes wide. No, it's really him, she replied.

Max sat in one of the comfortable chairs in his sitting area and the Headmaster sat across from him. Mong Hao Han said, "I can imagine you're probably wondering why I came here to talk to you, especially since you just moved here to the alternative dorms. Meeting with Dean Dalton was likely less than pleasant." He made a complicated expression. "I apologize for that."

"Okay," said Max. He quickly adjusted his thinking, forcing his mind to move.  "Thank you for that, I appreciate it."

The Headmaster smiled.  "See, this is why I knew I was going to like you, Max, even before I met you like this. I've been reading a number of reports on you and I appreciate somebody with the courage to be straightforward. So I'll be straightforward with you too."

The Summoner Headmaster sighed and put both hands on top of one knee. He raised an elegantly groomed eyebrow.   "I am tired of Summoners being treated like the trash of all Challengers. Our reputation is terrible and as a Path we get no respect. It's completely shameful and it shouldn't be like this. Summoners should not be weak.  What we can do is versatile and difficult to counter by monsters and many other Paths.

“For instance, even though we have a range limit on how far our spirits can act away from us, it’s still something they can do.  A sneaky summoner has the ability to easily assassinate many monsters and even other Challengers.  Summoners can drive enemies mad, or even make them dead to the world, easy to kill.  A sufficiently powerful summoner can bring an entire group of enemies to their knees, and have other spirits dispatch them, killing without ever lifting a finger.  But…none of these skills translate well to tournament fights between Paths.

“And the gradual weakening of available spirits for new Summoners have not made matters better.”  He rubbed a hand over his face.  “Probably not something to burden you with right now.  But our Path will not grow to where I believe it could unless we get more resources.  Resources require recognition, and recognition requires action.

“So I want to tell you that not only am I actually proud of you for standing up to the Mystic Spear Path Academy, but I'm rooting for you and I wish I could support you.  Unfortunately, I can't do so openly."

Max was super surprised to hear what the Headmaster was saying, shocked to his toes, but he recovered quickly. Although part of his astonishment was how closely everything the Headmaster said aligned with Lavinia’s theories, it helped that he was not hearing these ideas for the first time.  Gathering himself, he said, “I just had to pay for this room out of pocket and now I have enough demerits to have to pay for everything as long as I’m here.  If I hadn’t done what I did, I probably would have been hunted down over and over with nobody doing anything to help me.  If you recognize that Summoners are weak and our Path is being suppressed, and you even think I was partially justified doing what I did, why can’t you support me openly?”

"Politics," said the Headmaster. "All politics." He sighed and moved his hands to his other knee, settling himself in the chair. "Where the money and supplies come from to run each academy in the Quartet is far more complex an issue than probably anybody other than academy Headmasters can truly understand. But suffice to say, there is an incredibly delicate balance at play."

Max said, "Okay, I get it. So politics is a pain. Not everybody loves me, probably most people actually hate me. But you believe that without somebody like me rocking the boat, Summoners are going to be treated like trash forever.  In fact, new Summoners might keep getting weaker, since it was likely Summoners were much stronger in the past.  But reading between the lines, you’re either not sure why, or you can’t say why."

"That's pretty much it.  It’s a strange thing to have some power but also feel so powerless to help my students," said the Headmaster. He shook his head and chuckled without humor.  "But I need you to do something for me." When he saw Max's expression, he smiled and held up a hand. "Of course, if you're doing something for me, I'm going to do something for you. Max, you are probably the only real chance our academy has this year to do well in the Quartet competition. If it's you, maybe you can even go farther than our Quartet. But in order to qualify, you need to have at least one class you are actively enrolled in. I am going to help waive one of your classes for each semester. Here," he handed a blue chip over to Max. "If you give this blue chip to a professor, it counts as tuition for one semester. But this has to be our secret. You can't tell anybody but the professor you give this to.”

He handed over a note, too. “This note has a list of professors I believe will understand what's happening once they see this chip, and we can trust to keep their silence.  Dispose of this list once you memorize the professors on it.  Do you understand?"

"I think so," said Max slowly. "But what do I get out of this?"

"Well, what do you want?"

"For starters, I want a better library pass," said Max. "I can't even go to most of the levels, much less read the books I’m actually looking for."

"Done," said Headmaster Mong Hao Han. He flourished one hand and a card appeared between his fingers. Then he said, "May I," pointing at Max's school badge. Max nodded and the professor touched the card to his badge. To Max, nothing seemed to change, but the professor nodded in satisfaction. He said, "There you go. Now you have a pass that should allow you to access about two-thirds of the library."

“Why not the full thing?”

“Because some levels are not open to students.  But those levels are records and such.  Trust me, what you have now is what you are seeking.”

"Okay, fine. Thank you," said Max. "The second thing I want is a pass to go to the dungeons whenever I want."

This time the Headmaster cocked an eyebrow and didn't immediately accept the demand. He said, "That's awfully dangerous, Max. If you get killed, you're not much use to me in the future competition."

"That's true. But I need to grow and get stronger if I'm going to win. Some of the Mystic Spear Path students are…formidable. I saw it firsthand. Not only that, it's not like I want to die, and there's always the possibility that I could be murdered by Mystic Spear Path students before a competition anyway. If you give me the ability to get stronger on my own, there's less chance that anyone will be able to take me out. Not only that, from the politics perspective,I highly doubt that all the instructors who hate me are going to have any problem with me going to dungeons since it might kill me for good."

The Headmaster tapped his chin thoughtfully and said, "Okay, I'm going to think about it for the next few seconds. Do you have anything else that you want?"

“I thought so.”  He paused.  Max knew that asking for much more might be pushing it, since the Headmaster had to know that there were other benefits for Max participating in the Quartet competition. So he said, “I don’t suppose you can help me by gifting me a really powerful spirit, can you?”

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.”

“I thought so.  Alright, then lastly, I just want you to owe me a favor. One that you can reject, of course."

"A favor," said the Headmaster. "We don't even know what a favor is going to be worth from me in another year or two."

Max grinned and said, "I have many faults, but lack of self-confidence is not one of them. If I fight for the Summoner Academy, I believe that I can improve its reputation.  Even though you’re being cagey about it, I'm assuming that wherever resources that the Academy receives come from, if Summoners do better in the Quartet competition, you will have more options.  So I will directly be helping you get a better position, more authority, more reach. Granted, this is all an assumption, if it’s true, I can help you a lot more than you can currently help me.  Hence, I want a favor I can call in later.”

The Headmaster belly laughed and said, "Well said. Okay, fine. I'll agree to all of it. As soon as I get back to my quarters, I will make sure that the central area authorities know that you have unlimited clearance for the dungeons." He pointed at Max and winked, "And I will owe you a favor."

"Sounds good," said Max. The two of them chatted for a couple more minutes without saying anything important. And eventually the Headmaster left. Max didn't know whether to salute or shake his hand when the older man was leaving. So instead he just gave a little wave.

Once the door was shut, he sighed and turned to see Lavinia standing there, her voice barely a whisper. "He could see me. He knew exactly where I was."

"Really?" asked Max.

The ghost girl nodded and then shook her head. "That man was the most powerful Summoner I have ever met in my life. He came to the academy about a hundred years ago and I’ve never been this close before."

Max sat in the chair he'd been in before and looked quizzically at Lavinia. "How could you tell he was so powerful?" he asked.

"It's hard to explain unless you're a spirit.  And of course, most spirits could not understand, much less articulate.  But I guess the best way to explain it is…your Headmaster had contracted spirits with him that were so strong I couldn't even see them. I could barely sense they were even there."

"Wow," said Max without conviction.  She’d been right, he didn’t understand.  He said,  "So, speaking of Summoners, are you going to teach me to be one now?"

"Actually, yes," said Lavinia. She gave Max a sharp look.  "You do understand that I am actually somewhat frightened right now, right? In all my hundreds of years, this is the first time I've actually met a Summoner who–" she stopped speaking for a second and then more quietly said, "--Actually makes me nervous."

"I don't get it. If he's powerful, doesn't that just mean he has more powerful spirits?"

Lavinia shook her head and said, "One of the things that I discovered in my research of Summoner history when I was alive is that some Summoners supposedly used to have unheard of abilities.  They were reportedly so powerful, they could actually rip the spirits from other Summoners or they could see and locate spirits anywhere in the world and force them into servitude. If the records I found were to be believed, ancient Summoners were powerhouses and some of the most powerful Challengers the universe had ever seen. Summoners nowadays and what they can do are nothing compared to what I read.  Imagine a Summoner with thousands, or even millions of spirits, all undying, difficult for others to stop or even interact with."

"So where did you find these books?" asked Max.

"Most of them I stole," said Lavinia without an ounce of embarrassment. "But I found a few as well. In fact, one I found in one of the dungeons."

"You found a book in a dungeon?" asked Max incredulously.

Lavinia nodded.  "That's right, you haven't been in any dungeons yet, so you have no idea what they're like. I suppose we'll eventually be going in together.  If you're lucky, you might even be able to continue some of my research. Speaking of research though, some of the things that I discovered while alive were ways that Summoners could find new spirits and actually search for spirits to contract with. One reason I told you that you should have a magic workroom is so I could teach you this technique.  Then maybe you could improve your fighting power quicker as well."

"That sounds good to me," said Max.

"So you really want to start now?"

"There's no time like the present. Let's go."

The two of them moved to Max's brand new magic workroom. Lavinia instructed him on the pattern to draw on the floor in chalk and how to align his energy. Then Max had to clear his mind and “call.” As he meditated, Max thought that he almost felt like he was back on earth, trying to find a random chat room with somebody he'd like to talk to. It was frustrating.  He could feel a light touch from a spirit or hear a word here or there, but nothing truly connected. It was like trying to grab somebody's hand from a moving car. While blindfolded.

After about an hour of this, Max stood up in frustration. He grumbled, "This is mentally exhausting. I think I'm at my limit."

"That's okay," said Lavinia. "Just the fact you were able to understand and grasp the technique is a good start. You should get better at it and more importantly, there's an element of luck here. It's like fishing. This technique is how I was able to meet and establish contracts with my summons."

Max sighed and ran a hand through his hair.  “Maybe I’ll get lucky late, then.  Thank you for teaching me.”  Then he went to his bedroom and before closing the door he said, "I'm going to check my closet to see my clothing situation.  Hopefully I have other clothes that came with this expensive dorm.  If so, I'm going to change. Then I'm going to work out. So stay out there, okay?"

As he closed the door, he barely heard Lavinia mutter, "Gosh, what a prude."

Max shook his head and went to his closet. He was delighted to find that instead of just Summoner Academy robes, there actually were a few tracksuits and other basic sets of clothing there. He looked around his massive bedroom with his stocked closet and allowed himself a smile.

Now he had direction.  He’d acquired some power. But most importantly, he was acquiring resources and contacts.