"W-What!?"
A stunned voice echoed through the entire Summoning Ceremony, shattering the pin drop silence instantly.
"H-How is this even possible!?"
"This is… this is truly extraordinary!"
"Forget talent, I don't think anyone in the history of this continent has ever done something so transcendent!"
"It's even an avian-type summon! Only 20 percent of summoners summon avian type monsters!"
The crowd were visibly stunned and speechless.
On the glowing summoning platform, the brilliant pillar of light slowly faded revealing a magnificent creature.
It stood on two thick, scaly legs with its extremely sharp talons scratching deep into the mable floor
The creatures eyes were half-opened as its pupil looked around with an indifferent expression on its face as though the crowd were beneath it.
It's sharp beak opened up smugly and then a sound came out.
"Kukuru—Cooooooo!!!"
The entire stadium exploded.
Students, teachers, invited parents, every single person present lost their composure in an instant, erupting into deep laughter.
Some doubled over, slapping their thighs, tears streamed down some faces while some clenched their belly as they laughed violently, unable to stop.
It's a chicken!! Its actually a chicken! Hahahaha!"
"A 3-star talent and he summoned a chicken?! Thirty percent of nothing is literally nothing!!"
"Not only is his father a traitor, turns out the son is just as worthless!!"
"The heavens truly have eyes. They didn't let this traitorous guy to summon something good."
"His father summoned a dragon while this youth actually summoned a chicken instead!"
The roaring laughter crashed down like waves as students mocked in laughter.
On the platform, the chicken bobbed its head and blinked, totally unbothered by their mockery.
And behind the summoned chicken was Levi.
Levi Maxwell's face had gone completely pale.
His mouth hung open and his eyes were blank.
This was the moment his fate was supposed to change.
He had endured hard for this moment.Worked for. Endured years of mockery and poverty and whispered insults all for.
And he had summoned a chicken.
Ten years ago, his world had already crumbled once.
His father — a renowned summoner who had once ridden a dragon into battle during the Dimensional War — had been branded a traitor. Overnight, the Maxwell name became a curse word. Levi and his mother were driven out of the main family, chased out of the city like dogs, stripped of status, wealth, and dignity in a single night.
They had ended up here. Gorge Village. A forgotten backwater at the edge of civilization, far enough from the city that the hatred couldn't reach them with lethal intent. People gossiped. People sneered. But at least no one here had tried to kill them as punishment for sins they didn't commit.
Mother and son scraped together a life as farmers. They sold chicken eggs, corn, and vegetables to neighbors. They ate what they grew. They survived.
Growing up, Levi had been bullied nearly every day — spat on, shoved, called traitor's spawn until the words stopped stinging and just became background noise.
But then everything changed.
When he was ten years old, his Monster Seed was tested at school.
6.1.
Three-star talent. Low grade.
The teacher had gone silent for a full ten seconds before reading the number aloud. In the past one hundred years, Gorge Village had never produced a single three-star talent. Not one. The village elder had made them retest it three times just to be sure.
Even in the major cities where talented individuals were as numerous as clouds, a three-star talent was rare enough to be nurtured personally by institutions.
Everyone understood what the numbers meant. A 1-star Beast Seed granted ten percent of the summoned beast's strength. Levi's 3-star Seed granted thirty percent — meaning in a physical confrontation, he could overpower opponents well above his level.
And then there was the lineage factor.
His father's summon had been a dragon. Based on bloodline compatibility, scholars and fortunetellers alike had practically guaranteed that Levi's summon would also be a dragon — perhaps not as powerful, but a dragon nonetheless. A future powerhouse in the making.
The village's attitude toward the Maxwell family shifted, however slightly. Doors that had been shut began to crack open. His mother, for the first time in years, earned enough to enroll him in school properly.
They had hope.
That single, fragile, precious hope.
And now that hope lay in pieces at his feet, pulverized beyond recognition — because he had just summoned a chicken.
Crack.
Something broke inside him.
The sneering. The mocking. The laughter raining down from every direction. It all converged at once, and something in Levi's chest — some last, tightly wound thread that had been holding everything together — simply snapped.
His head tilted back.
And he laughed.
"HAHAHAHA—!!"
His laughter rang out over the entire field, mournful and cracked and completely unhinged. The students who had been pointing and jeering froze one by one, their smiles fading as they stared at the boy on the platform — laughing alone, tears running openly down his face.
"…He's lost it."
"Can you blame him? If I were him — traitor's son, chicken summon — I'd go insane too."
Whispers rippled through the crowd, uneasy now.
Levi stopped laughing just as suddenly as he'd started.
He wiped his face with his sleeve, turned, and walked down the steps of the summoning platform.
He didn't look at the university envoys seated at the sides of the hall. He didn't look at anyone. He just walked, staring at the ground, one step after another, until the doors of the school were behind him and the sky was above him and the laughter was — mercifully — distant.
"Levi! Levi!!"
A girl's voice cut through the noise. He didn't look back.
She was fourteen, with golden eyes and dark hair and rosy lips that were trembling as she watched him go. She bit down on her worry because her own summon hadn't come yet and she couldn't leave her spot in line — but her heart chased after the figure disappearing through the gates.
The ceremony continued without him.
"Malcolm Treant — please approach the platform."
The robotic announcement echoed into the empty space where Levi had stood.
Back at the high table, Principal Henry turned to his honored guest with a fawning, slightly sweaty smile.
"I sincerely apologize for that unsightly display, Grant. We had fully expected the traitor's son to at least summon something decent — a dragon, even, following his father's bloodline. We never imagined it would turn out to be so… embarrassing."
Grant Stonewood, seated with one leg crossed over the other and an expression of casual contempt carved permanently into his face, looked like he had already forgotten Levi existed.
He was eighteen in appearance — tall, broad-shouldered, and dressed in the crisp uniform of Golden Storm Monster Training University. By all rights, he should have been an unremarkable alumnus of this very village: the son of the village head, accepted into university through a combination of bribes and connections, possessing only a high-grade 1-star talent — the kind of result that typically led to a perfectly mediocre career.
But roughly one year ago, something had shifted.
In less than two months, Grant had broken through from the Verdant Realm's Ember Stage all the way to the Lifebound Realm's Inferno Stage. A complete major realm breakthrough in under sixty days.
Not even a 4-star talent could manage that. The cultivation world had rules, and Grant had apparently rewritten them overnight.
Golden Storm University had taken notice. Rapidly. His name had gone from an administrative footnote to a rising star the faculty discussed in hushed, impressed tones.
Principal Henry had called in every favor he was owed just to get this meeting. He'd promised a Mid-Grade Sunflower Herb. The village head had personally pleaded. All of it — just for an hour of Grant's time, on the off-chance he might refer a student or two to the university.
Grant snorted coldly, not even turning his head.
"What could a traitor's son ever amount to? We should have put down him and his filthy mother years ago while I was still here."
The principal chuckled nervously and bobbed his head like — well, like a chicken. "Yes, yes, their deaths would certainly close that shameful chapter. But we must be cautious. The Federation investigates unexplained deaths, and the Maxwell family, disgraced as they are, still has roots. We cannot afford to move recklessly."
"Disgusting traitorous bloodline." Grant spat on the floor. "Tch."
The principal quickly redirected. "In any case — the next summoner is Lara, a high-grade 2-star talent! And after her, my own son Gerald. I can assure you both will put on an impressive show."
Grant leaned back in his chair, utterly unmoved.
"I hope so. I'm not interested in wasting any more of my time today."