Chapter 2: Set a Small Goal: First Summon Ten Thousand Spirit Pets to Work

An ordinary summoner could only gain one new summoning slot every ten levels; after reaching the first class change, even at level thirty or above, they could have no more than four summoned beasts simultaneously.

Even for some special-type summoner classes, the number of summoning slots was still limited—no one had ever heard of a summoner who could possess more than twenty main combat summoned beasts.

Yet Lu Zheng could gain ten summoning slots in a single day, a hundred in ten days, and after three years, he could hold over ten thousand spirit pets! When summoning new spirit pets, quality depended entirely on luck—an ordinary summoner, even if they could reach level one hundred, would only have eleven chances, while he could draw ten times a day.

If ten draws didn't yield a high-quality spirit pet, then a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand—eventually he'd obtain a top-tier divine pet! Moreover, after his spirit pets died, he could immediately summon again, refreshing with no limits, without needing to purchase summoning scrolls as a support.

This meant that given enough time, he would sooner or later refresh all of his summoned beasts into top-tier divine pets! An ordinary summoner, before reaching level ten, could only have one summoned beast, and the experience points gained from the summoned beast killing monsters could at most be split half to the summoner—this meant the summoner's leveling speed was at least half as slow as other classes! But Lu Zheng had ten summoned beasts on day one; just on the first day, calculating at half the experience points, he could gain five times the experience of an ordinary class user, meaning five times the leveling speed.

On the second day, twenty—that would be ten times, and so on.

As time passed, the speed at which he gained experience would also increase rapidly, far surpassing ordinary class users.

Lying flat for three years, with ten thousand spirit pets working for him, he wouldn't need to do anything at all—earning half the experience would still amount to five thousand times the leveling speed of an ordinary class user!

Of course, generally speaking, in the early stages, to increase a summoned beast's combat power and improve the efficiency of gaining experience, summoners would prioritize leveling up their summoned beasts, splitting experience between themselves and their summoned beasts at a one-to-four ratio.

After all, summoned beasts were the guarantee of combat power—without basic combat strength, they couldn't even kill monsters, and splitting experience evenly wouldn't amount to much anyway.

Lu Zheng would do the same.

Regardless, just looking at the first passive skill of his talent had plunged Lu Zheng into immense shock; he hadn't even had time to examine the other two passive skills he'd gained from his talent before being reminded by the appraiser and hurriedly stepping down from the platform.

And his behavior, in the eyes of those students and teachers who knew he was ranked first in the grade, was simply the bewilderment of someone unable to accept the awakening result of an ordinary summoner class.

Everyone cast sympathetic looks at him.

For three years, he had always been ranked first in the grade, his results steadily suppressing Mu Yunlan, who was second, by a head.

Yet he had only awakened an ordinary class, while Mu Yunlan, who ranked behind him, had awakened a rare class—in this most important ceremony, he had been overtaken, falling from the clouds into the dust!

Seeing Lu Zheng walk down as though his soul had left his body, Yang Dong, as a good brother, immediately went up to meet him and offered comforting words: "Brother Lu! Don't lose heart—this is only the first awakening. We can change classes in the future, and I believe in your ability. No matter what class it is, you can become the strongest man on earth!

Besides, summoner is a combat class too, so this works out perfectly—the two of us can hide in the back and let the summoned beasts tank the front. I'll be the mage dealing damage from behind, and with our combination, leveling up will be incredibly easy!"

Everyone knew very well that summoners in the early stages had no ability to level up solo—they were even more fragile than mages. After all, the summoner themself was just an ordinary person; once their summoned beast was tied up, the summoner could only wait to die.

That was why Yang Dong brought up forming a partnership—his goal was to help Lu Zheng dispel the worry about not being able to level up solo.

Hearing Yang Dong's words, quite a few people around laughed out loud and chimed in with mockery one after another.

"A squishy summoner who's not even as good as a mage, and he wants to be the strongest man on earth? He probably won't even be able to be a man anymore—only hiding behind others. Is that still a man?"

"And this person was ranked first in the soul potential test? It's just the trashiest combat class—can't compare to Mu Yunlan at all!"

"My favorite thing to watch is the fall of a genius, but this is reality—there's no heaven-defying protagonist here!" "Look at his soul-devastated state—he'll probably never recover from this. My mom always compared me to him, but I'm an elite combat class—what does he have to compare with me?"

Among the crowd, there were plenty of people gossiping. Yang Dong was about to furiously charge over and argue with them, but Lu Zheng, having come back to his senses, grabbed him and laughed:

"Just dogs barking—don't pay them any mind. You should go get awakened; don't waste time on them."

Yang Dong glared angrily at those people, then walked up onto the awakening platform.

Students could go home after completing their awakening, but Mu Yunlan hadn't left. She returned to below the platform and watched Lu Zheng's awakening—she still cared quite a bit about what kind of result this rival of three years would ultimately achieve.

She was actually looking forward to it—looking forward to Lu Zheng also obtaining a rare-quality class, so the two of them could continue competing. She didn't mind having a rival like him.

But Lu Zheng had only obtained an ordinary summoner class, which disappointed her somewhat.

And seeing Lu Zheng's appearance of seemingly being unable to accept reality, so "soul-devastated," she was even more disappointed.

"A truly outstanding opponent's greatest strength lies in their heart!"

Those were words Lu Zheng had once told her during the end-of-term exams in their first year of high school.

But she hadn't expected that the Lu Zheng before her would be crushed by obtaining an ordinary class—this made her feel disappointed and deeply regretful.

But she didn't say anything. At this point, anything she said would sound like gloating, and she disdained doing such a thing. She simply turned her head and left.

Lu Zheng, however, hadn't noticed Mu Yunlan's gaze at all—he was already fantasizing about the leisurely days ahead when tens of thousands of divine pets would work for him and earn experience while he lay flat at home leveling up.

In his previous life, he had been nothing but a wage beast of burden. In this life, transmigrating to such a dangerous world, he'd assumed it would still be a life of toil—never expecting that becoming a summoner with a top-tier talent would let him live the laid-back life of a landlord! Thinking of this, he couldn't help but laugh gleefully.

Yang Dong finished his awakening and came forward with an excited face, throwing his arm around Lu Zheng's neck, laughing joyfully:

"Brother Lu! Did you hear? I awakened the elite class Thunder Domain Mage, and my starting skill is Lightning Strike—pure burst damage! Now you just need to summon a tank-type summoned beast, and the two of us will be on the road to invincibility!"

Lu Zheng, shaken awake from his daydream by him, quickly steadied him and said:

"Alright, don't get so excited. Let's each head home first and share the good news with our families!"

Hearing this, Yang Dong snapped out of his joy and, realizing he might have upset Lu Zheng, who had a failed awakening, hastily separated from him.

Meanwhile, Lu Zheng returned home and told his parents the news that he had awakened the summoner class. Both of them showed expressions of joy.

They were both lifestyle-type class users—to them, as long as Lu Zheng could awaken a combat class, it would greatly improve their lives. No longer having to scratch a living from the soil would be a change of fate!

The family enjoyed a wonderful meal together. The next day, upon waking, Lu Zheng discovered he had gained ten summoning slots. Without a second word, he began drawing cards.

(End of this chapter)