Numerous weapons lay scattered across the floor.
They were old and rusty, but they had once belonged to heroes of the past.
The Empress picked up one of the wands, her gaze shifting to a staff and a crown. A sad expression crossed her face as she pulled out the staff without hesitation.
“Eight—.”
She wrinkled her nose at the crown and tossed it aside.
Ian, who had been watching, looked slightly surprised and asked,
“…Wasn’t that precious?”
“Yes? The crown? It’s just a replica.”
“No—how do you know that?”
“Why would the real crown be here?”
A crown was a symbol of the monarch.
On this continent, only one person could be called the monarch—the strongest summoner of mankind, the Emperor.
Would the Emperor’s possessions really be left in a place like this? Impossible.
“Of course, none of these things are real, but… most of them seem to have been discarded.”
“Discarded? What—”
“In the end, a weapon only unleashes its full power in the hands of its master.”
As she spoke, the Empress raised the staff she had just picked up. It was made of millennial wood that had been struck by lightning.
The evil dragon’s heart, which had once adorned it, was nowhere to be seen, but even without it, the staff was far superior to the one she had been using.
“You must have wondered—how can humans, with their inferior physical and magical abilities, defeat demons?”
The demons had killed heroes and stolen their weapons, likely experimenting to see if they could wield the same power as humans.
The result? It must have been a failure. If they had succeeded, these weapons would be in the hands of demons, hunting humans—not abandoned in a place like this.
In other words, the weapons here were either useless to the demons or mere replicas created in imitation of mankind’s legendary armaments.
“My weapon… where did it go? It should have been here.”
With a soft hum, the Empress sheathed her wand and lifted the staff she had picked up. As her magic flowed through it, the thick layer of grime and blackened mud peeled away, revealing its true form—an elegant, ancient artifact.
“Summoner, what do you plan to do?”
“…What do you mean?”
“These weapons could certainly aid humanity, but… retrieving them will take time. The demons might realize we’re here before we can leave.”
“And if I don’t take them?”
“Then what else? We press on to the end of this tunnel.”
Strengthening humanity or weakening the demons—given these two choices, Ian hesitated.
Neither option was bad. If humanity grew stronger, they could buy more time. If they reached the end of the tunnel and struck the demons’ outpost, they could slow them down.
But Ian didn’t like having to choose just one.
“Why should I have to choose?”
He reached out toward the weapons. These were the relics of past heroes—the equipment left behind by summoners of old.
“Why should I give up on one?”
If that were the case, these weapons might as well be ceremonial relics. But Ian believed in himself—or at least, he convinced himself he did.
Even he could manipulate the system with his deceptive mental power.
“I’ll take both.”
The weapons buried in the grave and the replicas crafted by demons—every single one of them shot toward Ian’s outstretched hand.
Before Anna or Theresia, who had been startled by the sudden movement, could react, the weapons that touched Ian’s body vanished.
“Alright, let’s go.”
“…Summoner? What did you just do?”
“Magic.”
More precisely, the power bestowed upon him by the Creator of this world.
***
Woo woo woo…
The Empress’s magical sphere was highly effective—it crushed anything it came into contact with while shielding its wielder completely.
It was especially effective against the insect-like monsters that made up the majority of the enemy swarm. As they flew in from a distance, the sphere slammed into them with incredible speed, killing the weaker ones instantly.
For any that survived, the Empress swiftly followed up with a wave of flames, burning them to ash.
“…So there really was a monster outpost here.”
“Empress, where exactly are we?”
“The Far East… But this is still within humanity’s territory.”
Realizing that the entire land had fallen into the demons’ hands, Ian gazed at the scene in silent awe.
This was something he had never seen in the game. And at that moment, he understood why this tunnel existed.
‘The more I interact with this world… the more real it becomes.’
With each action he took, the boundary between reality and the game blurred.
After witnessing the demons’ invasion of the academy, Ian now understood how they had been able to advance this far undetected.
That knowledge itself took shape and materialized into reality, manifesting before his very eyes.
‘If this drags on, humanity will be at a disadvantage.’
The game’s story, to be honest, had never been very logical. Demons appearing out of nowhere inside fortified bases, academy cadets suddenly becoming possessed—it had always seemed too abrupt, too contrived.
The main story followed the protagonist, who, unable to stand idly by, embarked on an adventure to take the Demon King’s head.
“Summoner, I think this is the end for now,” Empress reported after wiping out all the monsters and searching the area. It seemed they had reached the end of the tunnel.
Perhaps there was a hidden passage leading to the demon realm from here… but Ian had no intention of going any further. If he ventured into the demon realm now, the generals guarding the front lines would strike him down immediately. The top-class demons would be too much to handle.
‘We need to gather more power.’
Unfortunately, summoning an infinite number of creatures and charging forward was not an option.
‘If only I could summon beasts with the same ingenuity I had in real life, things would be much easier‘—but that was impossible.
‘It’s fine, though.’
He had the ability to strengthen his summons. Without that power, he would have already perished—or worse, ended up trapped in this young and healthy body, at the mercy of the Demon King.
He had recently secured the materials needed for leveling up. Now, all that remained was gaining experience and…
‘A companion.’
He needed an ally with a summon as powerful as his own. Fortunately, there were many such individuals at the academy.
“Empress, if we break through here, we’ll reach the surface, right?”
“Most likely.”
“Then let’s do it.”
At Ian’s command, Empress smashed through the ceiling and climbed upward. As they emerged from the dirt and debris, sunlight flooded the group.
The moment they reached the surface, Ian was met with a loud battle cry.
“Uraa—!”
A knight with light green hair rode across the battlefield, her horse’s hooves thundering as she charged forward. She came to a halt in front of them, a long spear resting at her side. Aiming its tip at Ian, she spoke.
“Who are you?”
“… I think we may have wandered too far,” Ian muttered.
“Answer me!”
The knight brandished her spear, clearly ready to strike.
Theresia, unfazed, stepped forward. Without a word, she grabbed the weapon’s blade and crushed it in her grip.
Crack!
“… Summoner?”
“Nice to meet you,” Ian said, stepping forward and extending a hand.
“Ian Clark, a cadet of the Academy.”
***
Even a knight who had spent their entire life training their body and perfecting their weapon skills could not easily defeat a demon.
However, the Knights Templar were different. Even at their lowest rank, they were capable of slaying demons with relative ease.
In other words, leading the Knights Templar was akin to commanding a 1-star summon.
“This is Lancia Ariel,” the knight introduced herself.
“Ariel…?”
“Yes, the same Duke Ariel you’re thinking of.”
With that, she extended her hand toward Ian.
He hesitated for a moment before firmly shaking it.
“I apologize. My magic tool reacted, and I mistook you for a monster,” she admitted.
“It sounds like monsters appear frequently here,” Ian noted.
“Yes. They emerge endlessly, without a clear source.”
Ian recalled the tunnel they had just come from. As expected, demons and their minions almost always used underground passages.
“They’re likely coming from the tunnel I just passed through.”
“… A tunnel?”
“Yes, that one,” Ian said, pointing to the opening behind him.
Lancia’s expression remained unreadable, but she gave a small nod. It made sense. While she found it hard to believe that the wizards had failed to detect such a tunnel until now, she couldn’t exactly deny reality—not when Ian had just burst through the ground right before her eyes.
“What about you? What brings you here?” She asked.
“My hometown is nearby, and since it’s the academy’s vacation period, I decided to visit home after a long time,” Ian replied.
“Oh? Where is that?”
“Baron Clark’s territory.”
“… Baron?”
Hearing Ian’s surname, Lancia’s eyes widened slightly as she took another look at him.
Her reaction wasn’t due to prejudice against lower nobility—it was because Ian had a 3-star summon.
Fewer than a hundred summoners in recorded history had managed to obtain a 3-star summon entirely on their own. If Ian was one of them, he had beaten impossible odds.
But there was one more issue…
‘These two are summoners too, aren’t they?’
Ian had two additional summons. Judging by their presence, they were also 3-star or higher.
That should have been impossible.
A 3-star summon was typically inherited—and those who possessed one were at least of count status.
In other words, Ian’s very existence defied logic.
Become a My Summons Are Special ($5 per month) member at Patreon and get 6 Advance Chapters immediately, then stay 6 chapters ahead of the regular release for the month! Or, become a KR WN Bundle ($10 per month) member and have access to all the KR webnovel advance chapters on goblinslate. Get more chapters by sponsoring chapters at BuymeaCoffee. Rate and leave a review at NU.
Check out my other projects: Roughly an Isekai Hypnosis Story (er0-novel)
Rehabilitating the Villainess (complete)
Pushover Extra Trains the Villainesses (complete)
Transmigrated as the Villainess’s Childhood Friend
I Picked Up an Amnesiac Witch,
My Wife is the Devil (recommended)
Transmigrated as the Butler of a Defeated Heroine